BY

ROBERT E. HOWARD BLACK COLOSSUS HUGH B. CAVE-CLARK ASHTON SMITH- WEIRD TALES Do You Read The MAGIC CARPET Magazine?

THE BRIDE OF GOD By SEABURY QUINN

The current issue of the Magic Carpet contains another thrilling episode in the life of Carlos de la Muerte, that swashbuckling soldier of fortune. This is the sec¬ ond story in "The Vagabond-at-Arms” series and it is crarnmed to the brim with action—the bite of sharp sword-blades and the tang of exciting adventures in the valiant days of yore. Each story in this series is complete in itself.

Book your passage now aboard the Magic Carpet and fly with us to Spain to share in the exploits of this swaggering grandee—see him in action as an amazing fighter and a rescuer of the downtrodden and oppressed. In Carlos de la Muerte, Seabury Quinn has created a fictional character that looms as a close rival to his lova¬ ble little Frenchman, the ever popular Jules de Grandin, whose exploits have thrilled you in Weird Tales. —ALSO— ROBERT E. HOWARD H. BEDFORD-JONES E. HOFFMANN PRICE WARREN HASTINGS MILLER GEOFFREY VACE JAMES W. BENNETT CLARK ASHTON SMITH AFPLING- MYSTERY TORIES

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MAGIC CARPET MAGAZINE A MAGAZINE OF THE BIZARRE AND UNUSUAL

1 Volume 21 CONTENTS FOR JUNE, 1933 Number 6 |

Cover Design _ -_M. Brundage Illustrating a scene in "Black Colossus" Black Colossus_Robert E. Howard 675 A mighty story of a barbarian mercenary who saved a nation from shuddery evil Golden Blood (part 3)_Jack Williamson 700 A powerful novel of weird adventures in the hidden golden land of Arabia The Iron Man_Paul Ernst 719 A powerful weird-scientific story of a robot that ran amuck in the city streets The Crawling Curse_Hugh B. Cave 733 A tale of the East Indies, and the ghastly retribution that drove a murderer to his doom Genius Loci_Clark Ashton Smith 747 The story of a deathly horror that lurked in the scummy pool where old Chapman was found

The Dwellers in the House-Sophie Wenzel Ellis 759 A sensational tale of an evil Arab who changed bodies at will to perpetuate himself through the ages A Sprig of Rosemary-H. Warner Munn 773 A tender story about a skinflint whose stony heart was softened after his death The Last Drive-Carl Jacobi 778 A brief story of a grisly ride through a blizstard with a corpse Nellie Foster-August W. Detleth 782 A ten-minute tale about a woman who would not stay quiet in her grave The Eyrie_ 786 A chat with the readers Weird Story Reprint: The Floor Above_M. L. Humphreys 789 One of the most popular stories from WEIRD TALES often years ago

674 Z3lack "Conan sprang clear as the hofte fell, and toilh Colossus a roar Kutamun was By ROBERT E HOWARD

A mighty story of the wizard Natohk, and red battle, and stupendous deeds—a tale of a barbarian mercenary who was called upon to Save a nation from shuddery evil

"The Night of Power, when Fate stalked throu^ decay. Not even a vulture hung like a the corridors of the world like a colossus just risen ftom an age-old throne of granite--” black dot in the vast blue vault of the sky E. Hoffmann Price: The Girl From Semarcand. that the sun glazed with its heat.'On every ONLY the age-old silence brooded hand rose the grim relics of another, fo^ over the mysterious ruins of Kuth- gotten age: huge broken pillars, thrust¬ diem^, but Fear was there; Fear ing up their jagged pinnacles into the sky; quivered in the mind of Shevatas, the long wavering lines of crumbling walls; thief, driving his breath quick and sharp fallen cyclopean blocks of stone; shat¬ against his clenched teeth. tered images, whose horrific features the He stood, the one atom of life amidst corroding winds and dust-storms had half Ihe colossal monuments of desolation and erased. From horizon to horizon no sign 675 K76 5^EIRD TALES

of life: only the sheer breath-taking sweep Bel, and who lived in songs and myths for of the naked desert, bisected by the wan¬ a thousand years. Yet fear ate at the dering line of a long-dry river-course; in heart of Shevatas as he stood before the the midst of that vastness the glimmering ivory dome of Kuthchemes. Any fool could fangs of the ruins, the columns standing see there was something unnatural about up like broken masts of sunken ships— the structure; the winds and suns of three all dominated by the towering ivory dome thousand years had lashed it, yet its gold before which Shevatas stood trembling. and ivory rose bright and glistening as the The base of this dome was a gigantic day it was reared by nameless hands on pedestal of marble rising from what had the bank of the nameless river. once been a terraced eminence on the This unnaturalness was in keeping with banks of the ancient river. Broad steps led the general aura of these devil-haunted up to a great bronze door in the dome, ruins. This desert was the mysterious ex¬ which rested on its base like the half of panse lying soutlieast of the lands of some titanic egg. The dome itself was of Shem. A few days' ride on camel-back to pure ivory, which shone as if unknown tlie southwest, as Shevatas knew, would hands kept it polished. Likewise shone bring the traveller within sight of the the spired gold cap of the pinnacle, and great river Styx at the point where it the inscription which sprawled about the turned at right angles with its former curve of the dome in golden hieroglyphics course, and flowed westward to empty at prds long. No man on earth could read last into the distant sea. At the point of those characters, but Shevatas shuddered its bend began the land of Stygia, the at the dim conjectures they raised. For he dark-bosomed mistress of the south, whose came of a very old race, whose myths ran domains, watered by the great river, rose back to shapes xmdreamed of bv contem¬ sheer out of the surrounding desert. porary tribes. Eastward, Shevatas knew, the desert Shevatas was wiry and lithe, as became shaded into steppes stretching to the a master-thief of Zamora. His small Hyrcanian kingdom of Turan, rising in round head was shaven, his only garment barbaric splendor on the shores of the a loin-cloth of scarlet silk. Like all his great inland sea. A week’s ride north¬ race, he was very dark, his narrow vulture¬ ward the desert ran into a tangle of barren like face set off by his keen black eyes. hills, beyond which lay the fertile uplands His long, slender and tapering fingers of Koth, the southernmost realm of the were quick and nervous as the wings of Hyborian races. Westward the desert a moth. From a gold-scaled girdle hung merged into the meadowlands of Shem, a short, narrow, jewel-hilted sword in a which stretched away to the ocean. sheath of ornamented leather. Shevatas All this Shevatas knew without being handled the weapon with apparently ex¬ particularly conscious of the knowledge, aggerated care. He even seemed to flinch as a man knows the streets of his town. away from the contact of the sheath with He was a far traveller and had looted the his naked thigh. Nor was his care with¬ treasures of many kingdoms. But now he out reason. hesitated and shuddered before the high¬ This was Shevatas, a thief among est adventure and the mightiest treasure thieves, whose name was spoken with awe of all. in the dives of the Maul and the dim In that ivory dome lay the bones of shadowy recesses beneath the temples of Thugra Khotan, the dark sorcerer who BLACK COLOSSUS (677 had reigned in Kuthchemes three thou¬ to guard the sorcerer's bones. Over all sand years ago, when the kingdoms of myths of Thugra Khotan hung horror and Stygia stretched far northward of the great death like a pall. From where the thief river, over the meadows of Shem, and into stood he could see the ruins of the great the uplands. Then the great drift of the hall wherein chained captives had knelt Hyborians swept southward from the by the hundreds during festivals to have cradle-land of their race near the north¬ their heads hacked off by the priest-king ern pole. It was a titanic drift, extending in honor of Set, the Serpent-god of Stygia. over centuries and ages. But in the reign Somewhere near by had been the pit, dark of Thugra Khotan, the last magician of and awful, wherein screaming victims Kuthchemes, gray-eyed, tawny-haired bar¬ were fed to a nameless amorphic mon¬ barians in wolfskins and scale-mail had strosity which came up out of a deeper, ridden from the north into the rich up¬ more hellish cavern. Legend made Thugra lands to carve out the kingdom of Koth Khotan more than human; his worship with their iron swords. They had stormed yet lingered in a mongrel degraded cult, over Kuthchemes like a tidal wave, wash¬ whose votaries stamped his likeness on ing the marble towers in blood, and the coins to pay the way of their dead over the northern Stygian kingdom had gone down great river of darkness of which the Styx in fire and ruin. was but the material shadow. Shevatas But while they were shattering the had seen this likeness, on coins stolen streets of his city and cutting down his from under the tongues of the dead, and archers like ripe corn, Thugra Khotan had its image was etched indelibly in his brain. swallowed a strange terrible poison, and But he put aside his fears and mounted his masked priests had locked him into to the bronze door, whose smooth surface the tomb he himself had prepared. His offered no bolt or catch. Not for naught devotees died about that tomb in a crim¬ had he gained access into darksome cults, son holocaust, but the barbarians could not had harkened to the grisly whispers of the burst the door, nor even mar the structure votaries of Skelos under midnight trees, by maul or fire. So they rode away, leav¬ and read the forbidden iron-bound books ing the great city in ruins, and in his ivory- of Vathelos the Blind. domed sepulcher great Thugra Khotan slept unmolested, while the lizards of Kneeling before the portal, he searched desolation gnawed at the crumbling pil¬ -the sill with nimble fingers; their lars, and the very river that watered his sensitive tips found projections too small land in old times sank into the sands and for the eye to detect, or for less-skilled ran dry. fingers to discover. These he pressed care¬ Many a thief sought to gain the treas¬ fully and according to a peculiar system, ure which fables said lay heaped about the muttering a long-forgotten incantation as moldering bones inside the dome. And he did so. As he pressed the last projec¬ many a thief died at the door of the tomb, tion, he sprang up with frantic haste and and many another was harried by mon¬ struck the exact center of the door a quick strous dreams to die at last with the froth sharp blow with his open hand. of madness on his lips. There was no rasp of spring or hinge, So Shevatas shuddered as he faced the but the door retreated inward, and the tomb, nor was his shudder altogether oc¬ breath hissed explosively from Shevatas' casioned by the legend of the serpent said clenched teetli. A short narrow corridor en WfilRB TALES

was disclosed. Down this the dOor bad ing coils, as the poison on the blade struck slid, and was riOW iti place at the othef home. ertd. The floof, ceilitig and sides df the Gingerly stepping over it, the thief ttiiifiel-like apertuce wefe of ivoty, and thrust against &e doOr, which this time now from an opening on one side catne a slid aside, revealing the interior of the silent writhing horror that reared up and dome. Shevatas cried out; instead of glared on the intruder with awful luttii- utter darkness he had come into a crimson ndus eyes; a serpent twenty feet long, with light that throbbed and pulsed almost shirtirnering, iridescent scales. beyond the endurance of mortal eyes. It The thief did not waste tllne in conjec¬ came from a gigantic red jewel high up in turing what night-black pits lying beloW the vaulted arch of the dome. Shevatas the dome had given sustenance to the gaped, inured though he was to the sight monster. Gingerly he drew the sword, of riches. The treasure was there, heaped and from it dripped a greenish liquid in staggering profusion—spiles of di¬ exactly like that which slavered from the amonds, sapphires, rubies, turquoises, simitar-faugS of the reptile. The blade opals, emeralds; zlkkurats of jade, jet and was steeped in the poison of the snake’s lapis-lazuli; pyramids of gold wedges; own kind, and the obtaining of that teocallis of silver ingots; jewel-hilted venom from the fiend-haunted sWamps Of swords in cloth-of-gold sheaths; golden Zingara would have made a saga in Itself. helmets with colored horsehair crests, or Shevatas advanced warily on the balls black and scarlet plumes; silver-scaled of his feet, knees bent slightly, ready to corselets; gem-crusted harness worn by spring either way like a flash of light. warrior-kings three thousand years in And he needed all his co-ordinate speed their tombs; goblets carven of single when the snake arched its neck and jewels; skulls plated with gold. With struck, shooting out its full length like a moonstones for eyes; necklaces of human stroke of lightning. For all his quickness teeth set with jewels. The ivory floor was of nerve and eye, Shevatas had died then covered inches deep with gold dust that but for chance. His welHaid plans of sparkled artd shimmered under the crim¬ leaping aside and striking down on the son glow with a million scintillant lights. outstretched neck were put at naught by The thief stood in a wonderland of magic the blinding speed of the reptile’s attack. and splendor, treading stars under hiS The thief had but time to extend the sandalled feet. sword in front of him, involuntarily clos^ But his eyes were focussed on the dais ing his eyes and ciying out. Then the of crystal which rose in the midst of the sword was wrenched from his hand and shimmering array, directly under the red the corridor was filled with a horrible jewel, and on which should be lying the thrashing and lashing. moldering bones, turning to dust with the Opening his eyes, amazed to find him¬ crawling of the centuries. And as Sheva¬ self still alive, Shevatas saW the monster tas looked, the blood drained from his heaving and twisting its slimy form in dark features; his marrow turned to ice, fantastic contortions, the sword transfix¬ and the skin of his back crawled and ing its giant jaws. Sheer chance had wrinkled with horror, while his lips hurled it full against the point he had held worked soundlessly. But suddenly he out blindly. A few moments later the found his Voice in one awful scream that serpent sank into shining, scarcely quiver¬ rang hideously under the arching dome. BLACK COLOSSUS 679

Then again the silence of the ages lay Hyborians were the goal of Natohk and among the ruins of mysterious Kuth- his chanting votaries. chemes. Raids from the desert were not uncom¬ mon, but this latest movement seemed to 2 promise more than a raid. Rumor said Natohk had welded thirty nomadic tribes umors drifted up through the mead- R and fifteen cities into his following, and . owlands, into the cities of the Hy- that a rebellious Stygian prince had joined borians. The word ran along the caravans, him. This latter lent the affair an aspect the long camel-trains plodding through of real war. the sands, herded by lean hawk-eyed men Qiaracteristically most of the Hyborian in white kaftans. It was passed on by the nations were prone to ignore the growing hook-nosed herdsmen of the grasslands, menace. But in Klioraja, carved out of from the dwellers in tents to the dwellers Shemite lands by the swords of Kothic ad¬ in the squat stone cities where kings with venturers, heed was given. Lying south¬ curled blue-black beards worshipped east of Koth, it would bear the brunt ot round-bellied gods with curious rites. The the invasion. And its young king was word passed up through the fringe of captive to the treacherous king of Ophir, hills where gaunt tribesmen took toll of who hesitated between restoring him for the caravans. The rumors came into the a huge ransom, or handing him over to fertile uplands where stately cities rose his enemy, the penurious king of Koth, above blue lakes and rivers: the rumors who offered no gold, but an advantageous marched along the broad white roads treaty. Meanwhile, the rule of the strug¬ thronged with ox-wains, with lowing gling kingdom was in the white hands of herds, with ridi merchants, knights in young princess Yasmela, the king’s sister. steel, archers and priests. Minstrels sang her beauty throughout They were rumors from the desert that the western world, and the pride of a lies east of Stygia, far south of the Kothian kingly dynasty was hers. But on that hills. A new prophet had risen among the night her pride was dropped from her nomads. Men spoke of tribal war, of a like a cloak. In her chamber whose ceil¬ gathering of vultures in the southeast, and ing was a lapis lazuli dome, whose mar¬ a terrible leader who led his swiftly in¬ ble floor was littered with rare furs, and creasing hordes to victory. The Stygians, whose walls were lavish with golden ever a menace to the northern nations, frieze-work, ten girls, daughters of nobles, were apparently not connected with this their slender limbs weighted with gem- movement; for they were massing armies crusted armlets and anklets, slumbered on their eastern borders and their priests on velvet couches about the royal bed with were making magic to fight that of the its golden dais and silken canopy. But desert sorcerer, whom men called Natohk, princess Yasmela lolled not on that silken the Veiled One; for his features were bed. She lay naked on her supple belly always masked. upon the bare marble like the most abased But the tide swept northwestward, and suppliant, her dark hair streaming over the blue-bearded kings died before the her white shoulders, her slender fingers altars of their pot-bellied gods, and their intertwined. She lay and writhed in pure squat-walled cities were drenched in horror that froze the blood in her lithe blood. Men said that the uplands of the limbs and dilated her beautiful eyes, that WEIRD TALES

pficked the roots of het dark hair and beneath the moon, where blossom the fires made goose-flesh rise along her supple of a hundred thousand warriors. As an spine. avalanche sweeps onward, gathering bulk Above her, in the darkest corner Of the and momentum, I will sweep into the marble chamber^ lurked a vast shapeless lands of mine ancient enemies. Their shadow. It was no living thing of kings shall furnish me skulls for goblets, form or flesh and blood. It was a clot of theif women and children shall be slave* darkness, a blur in the sight, a monstrous of my slaves’ slaves. 1 have grown strong dight^born incubus that might have been in the long years of dreaming. . . . deemed a figment of a sleep-drugged "But thOu shalt be my queen, oh prin¬ brain, but for the points of blaming yel¬ cess! I will teach thee the ancient forgot¬ low fire that glimmered like two eyes ten ways of pleasure. We-” Before from the blackn^s. the stream of cosmic obscenity which Moreover a voice issued from it—a low poured from the shadowy colossus, Yas¬ subtle inhuman sibilartce that was more mela cringed and writhed as if from a like the soft abominable hiSsihg of a ser¬ whip that flayed her dainty bare flesh. pent than anything else, and that appar¬ "Remember!” whispered the horror. ently could nbt emanate from anything "The days will not be many before I With human lips. Its sound as well as its come to claim mine own!” import filled Yasfflela With a shuddering horror so intolerable that she writhed and Yasmela, pressing her face against the twisted her slender body as if beneath a tiles and Stopping her pink ears with her lash, as though to rid her mind of its in¬ dainty fingers, yet seemed to hear a strange sinuating vileness by physical contortion. sweeping noise, like the beat Of bat- "You are marfced for mine, princess,” wings. 'Then, looking fearfully upi she came the gloating whisper. "Before I saw only the moon that shone through the wakened from the long sleep I had window W'ith a beam that rested like a marked you, and yearned for you, but I silver sword across the spot where the was held fast by the ancient spell by phantom had lurked. Trembling in every which I escaped mine enemies. I am the limb, she rose and staggered to a satin soul of Natohk, the Veiled One! Look couch, where she threw herself down, well upon me, princess! Soon you shall weeping hysterically. The girls slept on, behold me in my bodily guise, and shall but one, who roused, yawned, stretched love me!” her slender figure and blinked about. In¬ stantly she was on her knees beside the The ghostly hissing dwindled off in couch, her arms about Yasmela’s supple lustful titterings, and Yasmela moaned waist. and beat the marble tiles with her small fists in her ecstasy of terror. "Was it—^was it-?” her dark eyes "I sleep in the palace chamber of were wide with fright. Yasmela caught Akbatana,” the sibilances continued. her in a convulsive grasp. "There my body lies in its frame of bones "Oh, Vateesa, It came again! I saw It and flesh. But it is but an empty shell —heard It speak! It spoke Its name— from which the spirit has flown for a brief Natohk! It is Natohk! It is not a night¬ space. Could you gaze from that palace mare—it towered over me while the girls casement you would realize the futility of slept like drugged ones. What—oh, what raistance. The desert is a rose-garden shall I do?” BLACK COLOSSUS 681

Vateesa twisftfd a goldfen bi'acelet about shift, over which wits slipped a silk«i her rounded arm, in meditation. tunic, bound at the waist by a wide vel¬ "Oh, priiicess,” she said, "it is evident vet girdle'. Satin slippers were put upon that no mortal power can deal with It, her slender feet, and a few deft touches and the charm is useless that the priests of Vateesa’s pink fingers arranged her of Ishtar gave you. Therefore seek yoii dark wavy tresses. Then the princess fol¬ the forgotten oracle of Mitra.” lowed the girl, who drew aside a heavy gilt-worked tapestry and threw the golden IN SPITE of her recent fright, Yasmela bolt of the door it concealed. This let shuddered. The gods of yesterday into a narrow winding cOrridOr, and down become the devils of tomorrow. The this the two girls went swiftly, through Kothians had long since abandoned the another door and into a broad hallway. worship of Mitra, forgetting the attributes Here stood a guardsman in crested gilt of the universal Hyborian god. Yasmela helmet, silvered cuirass and gold-chaSed had a vague idea that, being very ancient, greaves, with a long-shafted battle-ax in it followed that the deity was very ter¬ his hands. rible. Ishtar was much to be feared, and A motion from Yasmela checked his all the gods of Koth. Kothian culture and exclamation, and saluting, he took hiS religion had sufiFered from a subtle ad¬ stand again beside the doorway, motion¬ mixture of Shemite and Stygian strains. less as a brazen image. ITie girls traversed The simple ways of the Hyborians had the hallway, which seemed immense and become modified to a large extent by the eery in the light of the cressets along the sensual, luxurious, yet despotic habits of lofty walls, and went down a stairway the East. where Yasmela shivered at the blots of "Will Mitra aid me?” Yasmela caught shadows which hung in the angles of the Vateesa’s wrist in her eagerness. "We walls. 'Three levels down they halted at have worshipped Ishtar so long-” last in a narrow corridor whose arched "To be sure he will!” Vateesa Was the ceiling was crusted with jewels, whose daughter of an Ophirean priest who had floor was set with blocks of crystal, and brought his customs with him when he whose walls were decorated with golden fled from political enemies to Khotaja. frieze-work. Down this shining way they "Seek the shrine! I will go with you.” stole, holding each other’s hands, to a "I will!” Yasmela rose, but objected wide portal of gilt. when Vateesa prepared to dfess het. "It Vateesa thrust open the door, revealing is not fitting that I come before the shrine a shrine long forgotten except by a faith¬ clad in silk. I will go naked, on my knees, ful few, and royal visitors to fthoraja's as befits a suppliant, lest Mitra deem I court, mainly for whose benefit the fane lack humility.” was maintained. Yasttlela had never "Nonsense!” Vateesa had scant respect entered it before, thoogh she was born in for the ways of what she deemed a false the palace. Plain and unadorned in com¬ cult. "Mitra would have folks stand Up¬ parison to the lavish display of Ishtar’s right before him—not crawling on their shrines, there was about it a simplicity of bellies like worms, or spilling blood of dignity and beauty characteristic of the animals all over his altats.” Mitran religion. Thus objurgated, Yasmela allowed the 'The ceiling was lofty, but it was ndt girl to garb her in the light sleeveless silk domed, and was of plain white marble, as 682 !WEIRD TALES

were the walls and floor, the former with speaking to her, bat this time it was not a narrow gold frieze running about them. from horror or repulsion. Behind an altar of clear green jade, im- "Speak not, my daughter, for I know stained with sacrifice, stood the pedestal your need,” came the intonations like whereon sat the material manifestation of deep musical waves beating rhythmically the deity. Yasmela looked in awe at the along a golden beach. "In one manner sweep of the magnificent shoulders, the may you save your kingdom, and saving clear-cut features—the wide straight eyes, it, save all the world from the fangs of the the patriarchal beard, the thick curls of serpent which has crawled up out of the the hair, confined by a simple band about darkness of the ages. Go forth upon the the temples. This, though she did not streets alone, and place your kingdom in know it, was art in its highest form—the the hands of the first man you meet free, uncramped artistic expression of a there.” highly esthetic race, luihampered by con¬ The unechoing tones ceased, and the ventional symbolism. girls stared at each other. 'Then, rising, they stole forth, nor did they speak imtil SHE fell on her knees and thence pros¬ they stood once more in Yasmela’s cham¬ trate, regardless of Vateesa’s admoni¬ ber. The princess stared out of the gold- tion, and Vateesa, to be on the safe side, barred windows. The moon had set. It followed her example; for after all, she was long past midnight. Sounds of revel¬ was only a girl, and it was very awesome ry had died away in the gardens and on in Mitra’s shrine. But even so she could the roofs of the city. Khoraja slumbered not refrain from whispering in Yasmela’s beneath the stars, which seemed to be re¬ ear. flected in the cressets that twinkled among the gardens and along the streets and on "This is but the emblem of the god. the flat roofs of houses where folk slept. None pretends to know what Mitra looks "What will you do?” whispered Va¬ like. 'This but represents him in idealized human form, as near perfection as the teesa, all a-tremble. "Give me my cloak,” answered Yas¬ human mind can conceive. He does not mela, setting her teeth. inhabit this cold stone, as your priests tell "But alone, in the streets, at this hour!’' you Ishtar does. He is everywhere—above expostulated Vateesa. us, and about us, and he dreams betimes "Mitra has spoken,” replied the prin¬ in the high places among the stars. But cess. "It might have been the voice of the here his being focusses. Therefore call god, or a trick of a priest. No matter. I upon him.” will go!” "What shall I say?” whispered Yas¬ Wrapping a voluminous silken cloak mela in stammering terror. about her lithe figure and donning a vel¬ "Before you can speak, Mitra knows vet cap from which depended a filmy veil, the contents of your mind-” began she passed hurriedly through the corridors Vateesa. Then both girls started violently and approached a bronze door where a as a voice began in the air above them. dozen spearmen gaped at her as she passed The deep, calm, bell-like tones emanated through. This was in a wing of the no more from the image than from any¬ palace which let directly onto the street; where else in the chamber. Again Yas¬ on all other sides it was surrounded by mela trembled before a bodiless voice broad gardens, bordered by a high wall. BLACK COLOSSUS 683

She emefged iftto the street, lighted by baleful fire glittered bluely ifl his eyes. cressets plated at regular intervals. At first glance she saw he was no Koth- She hesitated; theii, before her resolu- ian; when he spoke she knew he was no tidii could falter, she closed the door Hyborian. He was clad like a captain of behind her. A slight shudder shook her the mercenaries, and in that desperate as she glanced up and down the street, command there were men of many lands, which lay silent and bare. This daughter barbarians as well as civilized foreigners. of aristocrats had never before ventured There Was a wolfishness about this war¬ unattended outside her ancestral palace. rior that marked the barbarian. The eyes Then, steeling herself, she went swiftly of no civilized man, however wild or up the street. Her satin-slippered feet fell criminal, ever blaZed with such a fire. lightly on the pave, but their soft sound Wine scented his breath, but he neither brought her heart into her throat. She staggered nor stammered. imagined their fall echoing thunderously "Have they shut you into the street?” through the cavernous city, rousing ragged he asked in barbarous Kothic, reaching rat-eyed figures in hidden lairs among the for her. His fingers closed lightly about sewers. Every shadow seemed to hide a her rounded wrist, but she felt that he lurking assassin, every blank doorway to could splinter its bones without effort. mask the slinking hounds of darkness. "I’ve but come from the last wine-shop Then she started violently. Ahead of open—Ishtar’s curse on these white her a figure appeared on the eery street. livered reformers who dose the grog- She drew quidkly into a clump of shad¬ houses! 'Let men sleep rather than guz¬ ows, which now seemed like a haven of zle,’ they say—aye, so they can work and refuge, her pulse pounding. The ap¬ fight better for their masters! Soft-gutted proaching figure went not furtively, like eunuchs, I call them. When I served with a thief, or timidly, like a fearful traveller. the mercenaries of Corinthia we swilled He strode down the nighted street as one and wenched all night and fought all day who has no need or desire to walk softly. —aye, blood ran down the channels of An unconscious swagger was in his stride, our swords. But what of you, my girl? and his footfalls resounded on the pave. Take off that cursed mask-” As he passed near a cresset she saw him She avoided his clutch with a lithe twist plainly—a tall man, in the diain-mail of her body, trying not to appear to re¬ hauberk of a mercenary. She braced her¬ pulse him. She realized her danger, alone self, then darted from the shadow, hold¬ with a drunken barbarian. If she revealed ing her cloak close about her. her identity, he might laugh at her, or "Sa-ha!” his sword flashed half out of take himself off. She was not sure he his sheath. It halted when he saw it was would not cut her throat. Barbaric men only a woman that stood before him, but did strange inexplicable things. She his quick glance went over her head, seek¬ fought a rising fear. ing the shadows for possible confederates. "Not here,” she laughed. "Come with He stood facing her, his hand on the me-” long hilt that jutted forward from beneath the Scarlet cloak which flowed carelessly "Where?” His wild blood was up, but from his mailed shoulders. The torch¬ he was wary as a wolf. "Are you taking light glinted dully on the polished blue me to some den of robbers?” steel of his greaves and basinet. A more "No, no, I swear it!” She was hard pul WEIRD TALES

to avoid the hand which v/as again fum¬ Here was one she felt had never knelt bling at her veil. before any one. Her sensations were those "Devil bite you, hussy!” he growled of one leading an unchained tiger; she disgustedly. "You’re as bad as a Hyrca- was frightened, and fascinated by her nian woman, with your damnable veil. fright. Here—let me look at your figure, any¬ She halted at the palace door and thrust way!” lightly against it. Furtively watching her Before she could prevent it, he companion, she saw no suspicion in his wrenched the cloak from her, and she eyes. heard his breath hiss between his teeth. "Palace, eh?” he rumbled. "So you’re He stood holding the cloak, eyeing her as a maid-in-waiting?” if the sight of her rich garments had She found herself wondering, with a somewhat sobered him. She saw suspicion strange jealousy, if any of her maids had flicker sullenly in his eyes. ever led this war-eagle into her palace. "Who the devil are you?” he muttered. The guards made no sign as she led him "You’re no street-waif — unless your between them, but he eyed them as a fierce leman robbed the king’s seraglio for your dog might eye a strange pack. She led clothes.” him through a curtained doorway into an "Never mind.” She dared to lay her inner chamber, where he stood, naively white hand on his massive iron-clad arm. scanning the tapestries, until he saw a “Come with me off the street.” crystal jar of wine on an ebony table. This he took up with a gratified sigh, tilting it e hesitated, then shrugged his H toward his lips. Vateesa ran from an in¬ mighty shoulders. She saw that he ner room, crying breathlessly, "Oh, my half believed her to be some noble lady, princess-” who, weary of polite lovers, was taking "Princess!" this means of amusing herself. He allowed her to don the cloak again, and The wine-jar crashed to the floor. With followed her. From the corner of her eye a motion too quick for sight to follow, she watched him as they went down the the mercenary snatched off Yasmela’s veil, street together. His mail could not glaring. He recoiled with a curse, his conceal his hard lines of tigerish strength. sword leaping into his hand with a broad Everything about him was tigerish, ele¬ shimmer of blue steel. His eyes blazed mental, untamed. He was alien as the like a trapped tiger’s. The air was super¬ jungle to her in his difference from the charged with tension that was lilce the debonair courtiers to whom she was ac¬ pause before the bursting of a storm. customed. She feared him, told herself Vateesa sank to the floor, speechless with she loathed his raw brute strength and un¬ terror, but Yasmela faced the infuriated ashamed barbarism; yet something breath¬ barbarian without flinching. She realized less and perilous inside her leaned toward her very life hung in the balance: mad¬ him; the hidden primitive chord that dened with suspicion and unreasoning lurks in every woman’s soul was sounded panic, he was ready to deal death at the and responded. She had felt his hardened slightest provocation. But she experienced hand on her arm, and something deep in a certain breathless exhilaration in the her tingled to the memory of that contact. crisis. Many men had knelt before Yasmela. "Do not be afraid,” she said. "I am BLACK COLOSSUS 685

Yasmela, but there is no reason to fear by depravity, or definitely evil, there was me." more than a suggestion of the sinister "Why did you lead me here?” he about his features, set off by his smolder¬ snarled, his blazing eyes darting all about ing blue eyes. A low broad forehead was the chamber. "What manner of trap is topped by a square-cut tousled mane as this?” black as a raven’s wing. "There is no trickery,” she answered. "Who are you?” she asked abruptly. "I brought you here because you can aid "Conan, a captain of the mercenary me. I called on the gods—on Mitra—and spearmen,” he answered, emptying die he bade me go into the streets and ask wine-cup at a gulp and holding it out for aid of the first man I met.” more. "I was bom in Cimmeria.” This was something he could under¬ The name meant little to her. She stand. The barbarians had their oracles. only knew vaguely that it was a wild grim He lowered his sword, though he did not hill-country whidi lay far to the north, sheathe it. beyond the last outposts of the Hyborian "Well, if you’re Yasmela, you need nations, and was peopled by a fierce aid,” he grunted. "Your kingdom’s in a moody race. She had never before seen devil of a mess. But how can I aid you? one of them. If you want a throat cut, of course-” "Sit down,” she requested. "Vateesa, Resting her chin on her hands, she bring him wine.” - gazed at him with the deep dark eyes He complied, taking care, she noticed, that had enslaved many a heart. to sit with his back against a solid wall, "Conan of Cimmeria,” she said, "you where he could watch the whole chamber. said I heeded aid. Why?” He laid his naked sword across his mail- "Well,” he answered, "any man can sheathed knees. She glanced at it in fas¬ see that. Here is the king your brother in cination. Its dull blue glimmer seemed to an Ophirean prison; here is Koth plotting reflect tales of bloodshed and rapine; she to enslave you; here is this sorcerer scream¬ doubted her ability to lift it, yet she knew ing hell-fire and destmetion down in that the mercenary could wield it with one Shem—and what’s worse, here are your hand as lightly as she could wield a rid¬ soldiers deserting every day.” ing-whip. She noted the breadth and She did not at once reply; it was a new power of his hands; they were not the experience for a man to speak so forth¬ stubby undeveloped paws of a troglodyte. rightly to her, his words not couched in With a guilty start she found herself courtier phrases. imagining those strong fingers locked in "Why are my soldiers deserting, her dark hair. Conan?” she asked. He seemed reassured when she de¬ "Some are being hired away by Koth,” posited herself on a satin divan opposite he replied, pulling at the wine-jar with him. He lifted off his basinet and laid it relish. "Many think Khoraja is doomed on the table, and drew back his coif, let¬ .as an independent state. Many are fright¬ ting the mail folds fall upon his massive ened by tales of this dog Natohk.” shoulders. She saw more fully now his "Will the mercenaries stand?” she unlikeness to the Hyborian races. In his asked anxiously. dark, scarred face there was a suggestion "As long as you pay us well,” he of moodiness; and without being marked answered frankly. "Your politics are 686 WEIRD TALES

nothing to uS. You tfth tfuSt Aftialtic, Out "Well, I can try,” he returned imper¬ g€oetaI, but the rest of us are only com* turbably. "It’s no more than sword-play mofi men who love loot. If you p>ay the on a larger scale. You draw his guard, raliSohi Of>hir asks; nSeH sfty you’ll be un¬ then—stabj slash! And either his head is able to pay us. In that case we niight go off, or yours.” over to the king of Koth, though that The slave entered again, announcing cursed miser is no friend of mine. Or we the arrival of the men sent for, and Yas- might loot this city. In a civil war the mela went into the outer chamber, draw¬ plunder is always plentiful.” ing the velvet curtains behind her. The "Why would you not go over to Na- nobles bent the knee, in evident surprize tohk?” she inquired. at her summons at such an hour. "What could he pay us?” he snorted. "I have summoned you to tell you Of "With fat-bellied brass idols he looted my decision,” said Yasmela. ‘"The king¬ from the Shemite cities? As long as you’re dom is in peril--” fighting Natohk, you may trust us.” "Right enough, my princess.” It was "Would your comrades follow )mu?” Count Thespides who spoke—a tall man, she asked abruptly. whose black locks were curled and Scent¬ "What do you mean?” ed. With one white hand he smoothed "I mean,” she answered deliberately, his pointed mustache, and with the other "that I am going to make you commander he held a velvet chaperon with a scarlet of the armies of Khoraja!” feather fastened by a golden clasp. His He stopped short, the goblet at his lips, pointed shoes were satin, his cote-hardie which curved in a broad grin. His tyes of gold-broidered velvet. His manner was blazed with a new light. slightly affected, but the thews under his "Commander? Crom! But what will silks were steely. "It were well to Offer your perfumed nobles say?” Ophir more gold for yOur royal brother’s '"Ihey will obey me!” She clapped her release.” hands to summon a slave, who entered, "I strongly disagree,” broke in Taurus bowing deeply. "Have Count 'Thespides the chancellor, an elderly man in an er¬ come to me at once, and the chancellor mine-fringed robe, whose features were Taurus, lord Amalric, and the Agha Shu- lined with the cares of his long service. pfas. "We have already offered what will beg¬ "I place my trust in Mitra,” she said, gar the kingdom to pay. To offer more bending her gaze on Conan, who was now would further excite Ophir’s cupidity. devouring the food placed before him by My princess, I say as I have said before: the trembling Vateesa. "You have seen Ophir will not move until we have met much war?” this invading horde. If we lose, he will "I was born in the midst of a battle,” give king Khossus to Koth; if we win, he he answered, tearing a chtink of meat will doubtless restore his majesty to us on from a huge joint with his strong teeth. payment of the ransom.” '"The first sound my ears heard was the "And in the meantime,” broke in clang of swords and the yells of the slay¬ Amalric, "the soldiers desert daily, and ing. I have fought in bloOd-feuds, tribal the mercenaries are restless to know why wars, and imperial campaigns.” we dally.” He was a Nemedian, a large "But can you lead men and arrange man with a lion-like yellow mane. "We battle-lines?” must move swiftly, if at all-” BLACK COLOSSUS 687

"Tomorrow we march southward,” she Throat-slitter in command, life is likely answered. "And there is the man who to be both merry and short. Mitra! If shall lead you!” the dog ever commanded more than a Jerking aside the velvet curtains she company of cutthroats before. I’ll eat him, dramatically indicated the Cimmerian. It harness and all!” was perhaps not an entirely happy mo¬ "And you, my Agha?” She turned to ment for the disclosure. Conan was Shupras. sprawled in his chair, his feet propped on He shrugged his shoulders resignedly. the ebony table, busily engaged in gnaw¬ He was typical of the race evolved along ing a beef-bone which he gripped firmly Koth’s southern borders—^tall and gaunt, in both hands. He glanced casually at with features leaner and more hawk-like the astounded nobles, grinned faintly at than his purer-blooded desert kin. Amalric, and went on mimching with un¬ "Ishtar gives, princess.” 'The fatalism disguised relish. of his ancestors spoke for him. "Mitra protect us!” exploded Amal¬ "Wait here,” she commanded, and ric. "That’s Conan the northron, the while Thespides fumed and gnawed his most turbulent of all my rogues! I’d have velvet cap, Taurus muttered wearily under hanged him long ago, were he not the his breath, and Amalric strode back and best swordsman that ever donned hau¬ forth, tugging at his yellow beard and berk-” grinnihg like a hungry lion, Yasmela dis¬ "Your highness is pleased to jest!” appeared again through the curtains and cried Thespides, his aristocratic features clapped her hands for her slaves. darkening. "This man is a savage—a fel¬ At her command they brought harness low of no culture or breeding! It is an to replace Conan’s chain-mail—gorget, insult to ask gentlemen to serve imder sollerets, cuirass, pauldrons, jambes, cuis- him! I-” ses, and sallet. When Yasmela again "Count Thespides,” saidYasmela, "you drew the curtains, a Conan in burnished have my glove under your baldric. Please steel stood before his audience. Clad in give it to me, and then go.” the plate-armor, vizor lifted and daric "Go?” he cried, starting. "Go where?” face shadowed by the black plumes that "To Koth or to Hades!” she answered. nodded above his helmet, there was a "If you will not serve me as I wish, you grim impressiveness about him that even shall not serve me at all.” Thespides grudgingly noted. A jest died "You wrong me, princess,” he an¬ suddenly on Amalric’s lips. swered, bowing low, deeply hurt. "I "By Mitra,” said he slowly, "I never would not forsake you. For your sake I expected to see you cased in coat-armor, will even put my sword at the disposal but you do not put it to shame. By my of this savage.” finger-bones, Conan, I have seen kings "And you, my lord Amalric?” who wore their harness less regally than Amalric swore beneath his breath, then you!” grinned. True soldier of fortune, no Conan was silent. A vague shadow shift of fortune, however outrageous, sur¬ crossed his mind like a prophecy. In prized him much. years to come he was to remember Amal¬ "I’ll serve vmder him. A short life and ric’s words, when the dream became tfie a merry one, say I—and with Conan the reality. iWEIRD TALES

3 they made no curVets or gambades. TTiere was a grimly business-like aspect to these IN THE early hate of dawn the streets of professional killers, veterans of bloody Khoraja were thronged by crowds of campaigns. Clad from head to foot in people who watched the hosts riding from chain-mail, they wore their vizorleSs head- the southern gate. The army was on pieces over linked coifs. Their shields the rhove at last. Hiere were the knights, were unadorned, their long lances with¬ gleaming in richly wrought plate-armor, out guidons. At their saddle-bows hung colored plumes waving above their bur¬ battle-axeS or steel maces, and each mah nished sallets. Their steeds, caparisoned wore at his hip a long broadsword. The with silk, lacquered leather and gold spearmen were armed in mUch the same buckles, caracoled and curvetted their as manner, though they bore pikes instead riders put them through their paces. The of cavalry lances. early light struck glints from lance-points They were men of many races and that rose like a forest above the array, their pennons flowing in the breeze. Each many crimes. There were tall Hyperbo¬ knight wore a lady’s token, a glove, scarf reans, gaunt, big-boned, of slow speech or rose, bound to his helmet or fastened and violent natures; tawny-haired Gun- to his sword-belt. They were the chivalry dermen from the hills of the northwest; of Khoraja, five hundred strong, led by swaggering Corinthian renegades; swarthy Count Thespides, who, men said, aspired Zingarians, with bristling black mus¬ to the hand of Yasmela herself. taches and fiery tempers; Aquilonians from the distant west. But all, except the They were followed by the light cav¬ Zingarians, were Hyborians. alry on rangy steeds. The riders were typical hillmen, lean and hawk-faced; Behind all came a camel in rich hous¬ peaked steel caps were on their heads and ings, led by a knight on a great war- chain-mail glinted under their flowing horse, and surrounded by a clump of kaftans. Their main weapon was the ter¬ picked fighters from the royal house- rible Shemitish bow, which could send a troops. Its rider, under the silken canopy shaft five hundred paces. There were five of the seat, was a slim, silk-clad figure, thousand of these, and Shupras rode at at the sight of which the populace, always their head, his lean face moodv beneath mindful of royalty, threw up its leather his spired helmet. cap and cheered wildly. Close on their heels marched the Kho¬ Conan the Cimmerian, restless in his raja spearmen, always comparatively few plate-armor, stared at the bedecked camel in any Hyborian state, where men thought with no great approval, and spoke to cavalry the only honorable branch of ser¬ Amalric, who rode beside him, resplend¬ vice. These, like the knights, were of an¬ ent in chain-mail threaded with gold, cient Kothic blood—sons of ruined fam¬ golden breastplate and helmet with a flow¬ ilies, broken men, penniless youths, who ing horsehair aest. could not afford horses and plate-armor; "The princess would go with us. She’s five hundred of them. supple, but too soft for this work. Any¬ The mercenaries brought up the rear, a way, she’ll have to get out of these robes.’’ thousand horsemen, two thousand spear¬ Amalric twisted his yellow mustache to men. The tall horses of the cavalry hide a grin. Evidently Conan supposed seemed hard and savage as their riders; Yasmela intended to strap on a sword W. T.—1 BLACK COLOSSUS

and take part in the actual fighting, as the Through their tales ran the name of Na- barbarian women often fought. tohk like a crawling serpent. At his bid¬ "The women of the Hyborians do not ding the demons of the air brought thun¬ fight like your Cimmerian women, Co¬ der and wind and fog, the fiends of the nan,” he said. "Yasmela rides with us underworld shook the earth with awful to watch the battle. Anyway,” he shifted roaring. He brought fire out of the air in his saddle and lowered his voice, "be¬ and consumed the gates of walled cities, tween you and me, I have an idea that the and burnt armored men to bits of charred princess dares not remain behind. She bone. His warriors covered the desert fears something-” with their numbers, and he had five thou¬ "An uprising? Maybe we’d better sand Stygian troops in war-chariots under hang a few citizens before we start-” the rebel prince Kutamun. "No. One of her maids talked—bab¬ Conan listened unperturbed. War was bled about Something that came into the his trade. Life was a continual battle, palace by night and frightened Yasmela or series of battles; since his birth Death half out of her wits. It’s some of Na- had been a constant companion. It tohk’s deviltry, I doubt not. Conan, it’s stalked horrifically at his side; stood at more than flesh and blood we fight!” his shoulder beside the gaming-tables; its "Well,” grunted the Cimmerian, "it’s bony fingers rattled the wine-cups. It better to go meet an enemy than to wait loomed above him, a hooded and mon¬ for him.” strous shadow, when he lay down to He glanced at the long line of wagons sleep. He minded its presence no more and camp-followers, gathered the reins than a king minds the presence of his in his mailed hand, and spoke from habit cup-bearer. Some day its bony grasp the phrase of the marching mercenaries, would close; that was all. It was enough "Hell or plunder, comrades—^march!” that he lived through the present. Behind the long train the ponderous gates of Khoraja closed. Eager heads However, others were less careless of lined the battlements. The citizens well fear than he. Striding back from knew they were watching life or death go the sentry lines, Conan halted as a slender forth. If the host was overthrown, the cloaked figure stayed him with an out¬ future of Khoraja would be written in stretched hand. blood. In the hordes swarming up from "Princess! You should be in your the savage south, mercy was a quality tent.” unknown. "I could not sleep.” Her dark eyes All day the columns marched, through were haunted in the shadow. "Conan, I grassy rolling meadowlands, cut by small am afraid!” rivers, the terrain gradually beginning to "Are there men in the host you fear?” slope upward. Ahead of them lay a His hand locked on his hilt. range of low hills, sweeping in an unbro¬ "No man,” she shuddered. "Conan, ken rampart from east to west. They is there anything you fear?” camped that night on the northern slopes He considered, tugging at his chin. of those hills^ and hook-nosed, fiery-eyed "Aye,” he admitted at last, "the curse of men of the hill tribes came in scores to the gods.” squat about the fires and repeat news that Again she shuddered. "I am cursed. bad come up out of the mysterious desert. A fiend from the abysses has set his mark W.T.—2 690 IWEIRD TALES upon me. Night after night he lurks in brooding depdis of the northern ni^t; the shadows, whispering awful secrets to his heart throbbed with the fire of blazing me. He will drag me down to be his forests. queen in hell. I dare not sleep—he will So, half meditating, half dreaming, come to me in my pavilion as he came in Yasmela dropped off to sleep, wrapped in the palace. Gjnan, you are strong—keep a sense of delicious security. Somehow me with you! I am afraid!” she knew that no flame-eyed shadow She was no longer a princess, but only would bend over her in the darkness, with a terrified girl. Her pride had fallen this grim figure from the outlands stand¬ from her, leaving her imashamed in her ing guard above her. Yet once again she nakedness. In her frantic fear she had weened, to shudder in cosmic fear, come to him who seemed strongest. The though not because of anything she saw. ruthless power that had repelled her, drew her now. IT WAS a low mutter of voices that roused For answer he drew oflF his scarlet cloak her. Opening her eyes, she saw that and wrapped it about her, roughly, as if the fire was burning low. A feeling of tenderness of any kind were impossible dawn was in the air. She could dimly to him. His iron hand rested for an in¬ see that Conan still sat on the boulder; stant on her slender shoulder, and she she glimpsed the long blue glimmer of shivered again, but not with fear. Like his blade. Close beside him croudied an electric shock a surge of animal vital¬ another figure, on which the dying fire ity swept over her at his mere touch, as if cast a faint glow. Yasmela drowsily made some of his superabundant strength had out a hooked beak of a nose, a glittering been imparted to her. bead of an eye, under a white turban. "Lie here.” He indicated a clean-swept The man was speaking rapidly in a Shem- space close to a small flickering fire. He ite dialect she found hard to understand. saw no incongruity in a princess lying “Let Bel wither my arm! I speak down on the naked ground beside a camp¬ truth! By Derketo, Conan, 1 am a prince fire, wrapped in a warrior’s doak. But of liars, but I do not lie to an old com¬ she obeyed without question. rade. I swear by the days when we were He seated himself near her on a boul¬ thieves together in the land of Zamora, der, his broadsword across his knees. before you donned hauberk! With the firelight glinting from his blue "I saw Natohk; with the others I knelt steel armor, he seemed like an image of before him when he made incantations to steel—dynamic power for the moment Set. But I did not thrust my nose in the quiescent; not resting, but motionless for sand as the rest did. I am thief of Shu- the instant, awaiting the signal to plunge mir, and my sight is keener than a again into terrific action. The firelight weasel’s. I squinted up and saw his veil played on his features, making them seem blowing in the wind. It blew aside, and as if carved out of substance shadowy yet I saw—I saw—Bel aid me, Conan, I say hard as steel. They were immobile, but I saw! My blood froze in my veins and his eyes smoldered with fierce life. He my hair stood up. What I had seen was not merely a wild man; he was part burned my soul like a red-hot iron. I of the wild, one with the untamable could not rest until I had made sure. elements of life; in his veins ran the blood "I journeyed to the ruins of Kuth- of the wolf-pack; in his brain luriced the chemes. The door of the ivory dome BLACK COLOSSUS «91

stood open; in the doorway lay a great Shemite’s hand, as the men bent closely serpent, transfixed by a sword. Within over something. She heard Conan grimt; the dome lay the body of a man, so shriv¬ and suddenly blackness rolled over her. elled and distorted I could scarce make For the first time in her life, princess it out at first—it was Shevatas, the Zamo- Yasmela had fainted. rian, the only thief in the world I acknowl¬ edged as my superior. The treasure was 4 untouched; it lay in shimmering heaps Dawn was still a hint of whiteness in about the corpse. That was all.” the east when the army was again "There were no bones-” began Co¬ on the march. Tribesmen had raced into nan. camp, their steeds reeling from the long "There was nothing!” broke in the ride, to report the desert horde encamped Shemite passionately. "Nothing! Only at the Well of Altaku. So through the the one corpse!” hills the soldiers pushed hastily, leaving Silence reigned an instant, and Yas- the wagon trains to follow. Yasmela mela shrank with a crawling nameless rode with them; her eyes were haunted. horror. The nameless horror had been taking "Whence came Natohk?” rose the even more awful shape, since she had Shemite’s vibrant whisper. "Out of the recognized the coin in the Shemite’s hand desert on a night when the world was the night before—one of those seaetly blind and wild with mad clouds driven molded by the degraded Zugite cult, bear¬ in frenzied flight across the shuddering ing the features of a man dead three stars, and the howling of the wind was thousand years. mingled with the shrieking of the spirits The way wound between ragged cliffs of the wastes. Vampires were abroad and gaunt crags towering over narrow that night, witches rode naked on the valleys. Here and there villages perched, wind, and werewolves howled across huddles of stone huts, plastered with the wilderness. On a blade camel he mud. The tribesmen swarmed out to join came, riding like the wind, and an unholy their kin, so that before they had traversed fire played about him, the cloven tracks of the hills, the host had been swelled by the camel glowed in the darkness. When some three thousand wild archers. Natohk dismounted before Set’s shrine by Abruptly they came out of the hills the oasis of Aphaka, the beast swept into and caught their breath at the vast expanse the night and vanished. And I have that swept away to the south. On the talked with tribesmen who swore that it southern side the hills fell away sheerly, suddenly spread gigantic wings and marking a distinct geographical division rushed upward into the clouds, leaving a between the Kothian uplands and the trail of fire behind it. No man has seen southern desert. The hills were the rim that camel since that night, but a black of the uplands, stretching in an almost brutish man-like shape shambles to Na¬ unbroken wall. Here they were bare and tohk’s tent and gibbers to him in the desolate, inhabited only by the Zaheemi blackness before dawn. I will tell you, clan, whose duty it was to guard the cara¬ Conan, Natohk is—look, I will show you van road. Beyond the hills the desert an image of what I saw that day by Shu- stretched bare, dusty, lifeless. Yet beyond shan when the wind blew aside his veil!” its horizon lay the Well of Altaku, and Yasmela saw the glint of gold in the the horde of Natohk. 692 WEIRD TALES

The army looked down on the Pass of goes hard for them to take orders from Shamla, through which flowed the wealth me. Tell the dog-brothers to ease their of the north and the south, and through harness and rest. We've marched hard which had marched the armies of Koth, and fast. Water the horses and let the Khoraja, Shem, Turan and Stygia. Here men munch.” the sheer wall of the rampart was broken. No need to send out scouts. The des¬ Promontories ran out into the desert, form¬ ert lay bare to the gaze, though just now ing barren valleys, all but one of which this view was limited by low-lying clouds were closed on the northern extremity by which rested in whitish masses on the rugged cliffs. This one was the Pass. It southern horizon. The monotony was was much like a great hand extended from broken only by a jutting tangle of stone the hills; two fingers, parted, formed a ruins, some miles out on the desert, re¬ fan-shaped valley. The fingers were rep¬ putedly the remnants of an ancient Stygian resented by a broad ridge on either hand, temple. Conan dismounted the archers the outer sides sheer, the inner, steep and ranged them along the ridges, with slopes. The vale pitched upward as it the wild tribesmen. He stationed the narrowed, to come out on a plateau, mercenaries and the Khoraji spearmen on flanked by gully-torn slopes. A well was the plateau about the well. Farther back, there, and a cluster of stone towers, occu¬ in the angle where the hill road de¬ pied by the Zaheemis. bouched on the plateau, was pitched Yas- There Conan halted, swinging off his mela’s pavilion. horse. He had discarded the plate-armor With no enemy in sight, the warriors for the more familiar chain-mail. Thespi- relaxed. Basinets were doffed, coifs des reined in and demanded, "Why do thrown back on mailed shoulders, belts you halt?” let out. Rude jests flew back and forth "We'll await them here,” answered as the fighting-men gnawed beef and Conan. thrust their muzzles deep into ale-jugs. " 'T were more knightly to ride out and Along the slopes the hillmen made them¬ meet them,” snapped the count. selves at ease, nibbling dates and olives. "They’d smother us with numbers,” Amalric strode up to where Conan sat answered the Cimmerian. "Besides, bareheaded on a boulder. there’s no water out there. We’ll camp "Conan, have you heard what the on the plateau-” tribesmen say about Natohk? They say— "My knights and I camp in the valley,” Mitra, it’s too mad even to repeat. What retorted Thespides angrily. "We are the do you think?” vanguard, and we, at least, do not fear a "Seeds rest in the ground for centuries ragged desert swarm.” without rotting, sometimes,” answered Conan shrugged his shoulders and the Conan. "But surely Natohk is a man.” angry nobleman rode away. Amalric "I am not sure,” grunted Amalric. "At halted in his bellowing order, to watch any rate, you’ve arranged your lines as the glittering company riding down the well as a seasoned general could have slope into the valley. done. It’s certain Natohk’s devils can’t "The fools! Their canteens will soon fall on us unawares. Mitra, what a fog!” be empty, and they’ll have to ride back up "I thought it was clouds at first,” an¬ ito the well to water their horses,” swered Conan. "See how it rolls!” "Let them be,” replied Conan. "It What had seemed clouds was a thick BLACK COLOSSUS 695:

mist moving northward like a great un¬ by the great fierce horses of Stygia, with stable ocean, rapidly hiding the desert plumes on their heads—snorting and from view. Soon it engulfed the Stygian rearing as each naked driver leaned back, ruins, and still it rolled onward. The bracing his powerful legs, his dusky arms army watched in amazement. It was a knotted with muscles. The fighting-men thing unprecedented—unnatural and in¬ in the chariots were tall figures, their explicable. hawk-like faces set off by bronze helmets "No use sending out scouts,” said crested with a crescent supporting a gold¬ Amalric disgustedly. "They couldn’t see en ball. Heavy bows were in their hands. anything. Its edges are near the outer No common archers, these, but nobles of flanges of the ridges. Soon the whole the South, bred to war and the hunt, who Pass and these hills will be masked-” were accustomed to bringing down lions Conan, who had been watching the with their arrows. rolling mist with growing nervousness, Behind these came a motley array of bent suddenly and laid his ear to the wild men on half-wild horses—the war¬ earth. He sprang up with frantic haste, riors of Kush, the first of the great black swearing. kingdoms of the grasslands south of "Horses and chariots, thousands of Stygia. They were shining ebony, supple them! The ground vibrates to their tread! and lithe, riding stark naked and without Ho, there!” his voice thundered out across saddle or bridle. the valley to electrify the lounging men. After these rolled a horde that seemed "Burganets and pikes, you dogs! Stand to encompass all the desert. Thousands to your ranks!” on thousands of the war-like Sons of At that, as the warriors scrambled into Shem: ranks of horsemen in scale-mail their lines, hastily donning head-pieces corselets and cylindrical helmets — the and thrusting arms through shield-straps, asshuri of Nippr, Shumir, and Eruk and the mist rolled away, as something no their sister cities; wild white-rcjbed longer useful. It did not slowly lift and hordes—the nomad clans. fade like a natural fog; it simply van¬ Now the ranks began to mill and eddy. ished, like a blown-out flame. One mo¬ The chariots drew off to one side while ment the whole desert was hidden with the main host came uncertainly onward. the rolling fleecy billows, piled mountain- Down in the valley the knights had ously, stratum above stratum; the next, mounted, and now Count Thespides gal¬ the sun shone from a cloudless sky on a loped up the slope to where Conan stood. naked desert—no longer empty, but He did not deign to dismount but spoke thronged with the living pageantry of war. abruptly from ^e saddle. A great shout shook the hills. '"The lifting of the mist has confused them! Now is the time to charge! The At first glance the amazed watchers Kushites have no bows and they mask the ^ seemed to be looking down upon a whole advance. A charge of my knights glittering sparkling sea of bronze and gold, will crush them back into the ranks of where steel points twinkled like a myriad the Shemites, disrupting their formation. stars. With the lifting of the fog the in¬ Follow me! We will win this battle with vaders had halted as if frozen, in long one stroke!” serried lines, flaming in the sun. Conan shook his head. "Were we First was a long line of chariots, drawn fighting a natural foe, I would agree. But 694 WEIRD TALES

this confusion is more feigned than real, wheels was left, like the wake behind a as if to draw us into a charge. I fear a ship, a long thin powdery line that glit¬ trap.” tered in the sands like the phosphorescent "Then you refuse to move?” cried track of a serpent. Thespides, his face dark with passion. "That’s Natohk!” swore Amalric. "Be reasonable," expostulated Conan. "What hellish seed is he sowing?” "We have the advantage of position-” The charging knights had not checked With a furious oath Thespides wheeled their headlong pace. Another fifty paces and galloped back down the valley where and they would crash into the uneven his knights waited impatiently. Kushite ranks, which stood motionless, Amalric shook his head. "You should spears lifted. Now the foremost knights not have let him return, Conan. I—look had reached the thin line that glittered there!” across the sands. They did not heed that Conan sprang up with a curse. Thes¬ crawling menace. But as the steel-shod pides had swept in beside his men. They hoofs of the horses struck it, it was as could hear his impassioned voice faintly, when steel strikes flint—but with more but his gesture toward the approaching terrible result. A terrific explosion rocked horde was significant enough. In another the desert, which seemed to split apart instant five hundred lances dipped and along the strewn line with an awful burst the steel-clad company was thundering of white flame. down the valley. In that instant the whole foremost line A young page came running from Yas- of the knights was seen enveloped in that mela’s pavilion, crying to Conan in a flame, horses and steel-clad riders wither¬ shrill, eager voice, "My lord, the princess ing in the glare like insects in an open asks why you do not follow and support blaze. The next instant the rear ranks Count TTiespides?” were piling up on their charred bodies. "Because I am not so great a fool as Unable to check their headlong velocity, he,” grunted Conan, reseating himself on rank after rank crashed into the ruins. the boulder and beginning to gnaw a huge With appalling suddenness the charge beef-bone. had turned into a shambles where armored "You grow sober with authority,” figures died amid screaming mangled quoth Amalric. "Such madness as that horses. was always your particnluar joy.” Now the illusion of confusion vanished "Aye, when I had only my own life to as the horde settled into orderly lines. consider,” answered Conan. "Now— The wild Kushites rushed into the sham¬ what in hell--” bles, spearing the wounded, bursting the The horde had halted. From the ex¬ helmets of the knights with stones and treme wing rushed a chariot, the naked iron hammers. It was all over so quickly charioteer lashing the steeds like a mad¬ that the watchers on the slopes stood man; the other occupant was a tall figure dazed; and again the horde moved for¬ whose robe floated spectrally on the wind. ward, splitting to avoid the charred waste He held in his arms a great vessel of gold of corpses. From the hills went up a and from it poured a thin stream that cry: "We fight not men but devils!” sparkled in the sunlight. Across the On either ridge the hillmen wavered. whole front of the desert horde the char¬ One rushed toward the plateau, froth iot swept, and behind its thundering dripping from his beard. BLACK COLOSSUS 695

"Flee! flee!” he slobbered. "Who can behind them a tall figure in a motionless fight Natohk’s magic.^” chariot lifted wide-robed arms in grisly in¬ With a snarl Conan bounded from his vocation. boulder and smote him with the beef-bone; As the horde entered the wide valley he dropped, blood starting from nose and mouth the hillmen loosed their shafts. mouth. Conan drew his sword, his eyes In spite of the protective formation, men slits of blue bale-fire. dropped by dozens. The Stygians had "Back to your posts!” he yelled. "Let discarded their bows; helmeted heads another take a backward step and I’ll bent to the blast, dark eyes glaring over shear off his head! Fight, damn you!” the rims of their shields, they came on in an inexorable surge, striding over their The rout halted as quickly as it had fallen comrades. But the Shemites gave begun. Conan’s fierce personality back the fire, and the clouds of arrows was like a dash of ice-water in their whirl¬ darkened the skies. Conan gazed over the ing blaze of terror. billowing waves of spears and wondered "Take your places,” he directed quick¬ what new horror the sorcerer would in¬ ly. "And stand to it! Neither man nor voke. Somehow he felt that Natohk, like devil comes up Shamla Pass this day!” all his kind, was more terrible in defense Where the plateau rim broke to the than in attack; to take the offensive against valley slope the mercenaries braced their him invited disaster. belts and gripped their spears. Behind But surely it was magic that drove the them the lancers sat their steeds, and to horde on in the teeth of death. Conan one side were stationed the Khoraja caught his breath at the havoc wrought spearmen as reserves. To Yasmela, in the onsweeping ranks. The edges of standing white and speechless at the door the wedge seemed melting away, and al¬ of her tent, the host seemed a pitiful ready the valley was strewn with dead handful in comparison to the thronging men. Yet the survivors came on like desert horde. madmen unaware of death. By the very Conan stood among the spearmen. He numbers of their bows, they began to knew the invaders would not try to drive swamp the archers on the cliffs. Clouds a chariot charge up the Pass in the teeth of shafts sped upward, driving the hill- of the archers, but he grunted with sur¬ men to cover. Panic struck at their hearts prize to see the riders dismounting. These at that unwavering advance, and they wild men had no supply trains. Canteens plied their bows madly, eyes glaring like and pouches hung at their saddle-peaks. trapped wolves. Now they drank the last of their water As the horde neared the narrower neck and threw the canteens away. of the Pass, boulders thundered down, "This is the death-grip,” he muttered crushing men by the scores, but the charge as the lines formed on foot. "I’d rather did not waver. Conan’s wolves braced have had a cavalry charge; wounded themselves for the inevitable concussion. horses bolt and ruin formations.” In their close formation and superior The horde had formed into a huge armor, they took little hurt from the ar¬ wedge, of which the tip was the Stygians rows. It was the impact of the charge and the body, the mailed asshuri, flanked Conan feared, when the huge wedge by the nomads. In close formation, should crash against his thin ranks. And shields lifted, they rolled onward, while he realized now there was no breaking of 696 WEIRD TALES

that onslaught. He gripped the shoulder ing mad with fanaticism and ancient of a Zaheemi who stood near. feuds, the tribesmen rent and slew and "Is there any way by which nnounted died. Wild hair flying, the naked Kush- men can get down into the blind valley ites ran howling into the fray. beyond that western ridge?” It seemed to Conan that his sweat- "Aye, a steep, perilous path, secret blinded eyes looked down into a rising and eternally guarded. But-” ocean of steel that seethed and eddied, Conan was dragging him along to filling the valley from ridge to ridge. where Amalric sat his great war-horse. 'The fight was at a bloody deadlock. 'The "Amalric!” he snapped. "Follow this hillmen held the ridges, and the mer¬ man! He’ll lead you into yon outer val¬ cenaries, gripping their dripping pikes, ley. Ride down it, circle the end of the bracing their feet in the bloody earth, ridge, and strike the horde from the rear. held the Pass. Superior position and Speak not, but go! I know it’s madness, armor for a space balanced the advantage but we’re doomed anyway; we’ll do all of overwhelming numbers. But it could the damage we can before we die! Haste!” not endure. Wave after wave of glar¬ Amalric’s mustache bristled in a fierce ing faces and flashing spears surged grin, and a few moments later his lancers up the slope, the asshuri filling the gaps were following the guide into a tangle of in the Stygian ranks. gorges leading off from the plateau. Co¬ Conan looked to see Amalric’s lances nan ran back to the pikemen, sword in rounding the western ridge, but they did hand. not come, and the pikemen began to reel He was not too soon. On either ridge back under the shocks. And Conan aban¬ Shupras’ hillmen, mad with anticipaticm doned all hope of victory and of life. of defeat, rained down their shafts des¬ Yelling a command to his gasping cap¬ perately. Men died like flies in the val¬ tains, he broke away and raced across the ley and along the slopes—and with a roar plateau to the Khoraja reserves who stood and an irresistible upward surge the Styg- trembling with eagerness. He did not ians crashed against the mercenaries. glance toward Yasmela’s pavilion. He In a hurricane of thundering steel, the had forgotten the princess; his one lines twisted and swayed. It was war- thought was tiie wild beast instinct to slay bred noble against professional soldier. before he died. Shields crashed against shields, and be¬ "This day you become knights!” he tween them spears drove in and blood laughed fiercely, pointing with his drip¬ spurted. ping sword toward the hillmen horses, Conan saw the mighty form of prince herded near by. "Mount and follow me Kutamun across the sea of swords, but to hell!” the press held him hard, breast to breast with dark shapes that gasped and slashed. The hill steeds reared wildly under Behind the Stygians the asshuri were surg¬ the unfamiliar clash of the Kothic ing and yelling. armor, and Conan’s gusty laugh rose On either hand the nomads climbed above the din as he led them to where the cliffs and came to hand-grips with the eastern ridge branched away from the their mountain kin. All along the crests plateau. Five hundred footmen—^pauper of the ridges the combat raged in blind, patricians, younger sons, blade sheep—on gasping ferocity. Tooth and nail, froth¬ half-wild Shemite horses, charging an BLACK COLOSSUS 697

army, down a slope where no cavalry had Pass mouth drove forward, crushing ever dared charge before! strongly against the milling ranks before Past the battle-choked mouth of the them. The Stygians held, but behind Pass they thundered, out onto the corpse- them the press of the asshuri melted; and littered ridge. Down the steep slope they over the bodies of the nobles of the south rushed, and a score lost their footing and who died in their tracks to a man, the rolled under the hoofs of their comrades. mercenaries rolled, to split and crumple Below them men screamed and threw up the wavering mass behind. their armsr—and the thundering charge Up on the cliffs old Shupras lay with ripped through them as an avalanche cuts an arrow through his heart; Amalric was through a forest of saplings. On through down, swearing like a pirate, a spear the close-packed throngs the Khorajis through his mailed thigh. Of Conan’s hurtled, leaving a aushed-down carpet of mounted infantry, scarce a hundred and dead. fifty remained in the saddle. But the And then, as the horde writhed and horde was shattered. Nomads and mailed coiled upon itself, Amalric’s lancers, hav¬ spearmen broke away, fleeing to their ing cut through a cordon of horsemen en¬ camp where their horses were, and the countered in the outer valley, swept hillmen swarmed down the slopes, stab¬ around the extremity of the western ridge bing the fugitives in the back, cutting the and smote the host in a steel-tipped throats of the wounded. wedge, splitting it asunder. His attack In the swirling red chaos a terrible ap¬ carried all the dazing demoralization of a parition suddenly appeared before Conan’s surprize on the rear. Thinking them¬ rearing steed. It was prince Kutamun, selves flanked by a superior force and naked but for a loin-clout, his harness frenzied at the fear of being cut off from hacked away, his crested helmet dented, the desert, swarms of nomads broke and his limbs splashed with blood. With a stampeded, working havoc in the ranks terrible shout he hiorled his broken hilt of their more stedfast comrades. These full into Conan’s face, and leaping, seized staggered and the horsemen rode through the stallion’s bridle. The Cimmerian them. Up on the ridges th^ desert fight¬ reeled in his saddle, half stunned, and ers wavered, and the hillmen fell on them with awful strength the dark-skinned with renewed fury, driving them down giant forced the screaming steed upward the slopes. and backward, until it lost its footing and Stunned by surprize, the horde broke crashed into the muck of bloody sand and before they had time to see it was but a writhing bodies. handful which assailed them. And once Conan sprang clear as the horse fell, broken, not even a magician could weld and with a roar Kutamun was on him. In such a horde again. Across the sea of that mad nightmare of battle, the bar¬ heads and spears Conan’s madmen saw barian never exactly knew how he killed Amalric’s riders forging steadily through his man. He only knew that a stone in the the rout, to the rise and fall of axes and Stygian’s hand crashed again and again maces, and a mad joy of victory exalted on his basinet, filling his sight with flash¬ each man’s heart and made his arm steel. ing sparks, as Conan drove his dagger Bracing their feet in the wallowing sea again and again into his foe’s body, with¬ of blood whose crimson waves lapped out apparent effect on the prince’s terrible about their ankles, the pikemen in the vitality. The world was swimming to 698 J57EIRD TALES

G)nan’s sight, when with a convulsive hauntingly to his stunned ears as the shudder the frame that strained against his chariot roared by. stiffened and then went limp. A yell that had nothing of the human Reeling up, blood streaming down his in its timbre rang from his lips as Conan face from under his dented helmet, G)nan rebounded from the bloody earth and glared dizzily at the profusion of destruc¬ seized the rein of a riderless horse that tion which spread before him. From crest raced past him, throwing himself into the to crest the dead lay strewn, a red carpet saddle without bringing the charger to a that choked the valley. It was like a red halt. With mad abandon he raced after sea, with each wave a straggling line of the rapidly receding chariot. He struck corpses. They choked the neck of the Pass, the levels flying, and passed like a whirl¬ they littered the slopes. And down in the wind through the Shemite camp. Into desert the slaughter continued, where the the desert he fled, passing clumps of his survivors of the horde had reached their own riders, and hard-spurring desert horses and streamed out across the waste, horsemen. pursued by the weary victors—and Conan On flew the chariot, and on raced stood appalled as he noted how few of Conan, though his horse began to reel these were left to pursue. beneath him. Now the open desert lay all Then an awful scream rent the clamor. about them, bathed in the lurid desolate Up the valley a chariot came flying, mak¬ splendor of sunset. Before him rose up ing nothing of the heaped corpses. No the ancient ruins, and with a shriek that horses drew it, but a great black creature froze the blood in Conan’s veins, the un¬ that was like a camel. In the chariot stood human charioteer cast Natohk and the Natohk, his robes flying; and gripping the girl from him. They rolled on the sand, reins and lashing like mad, crouched a and to Conan’s dazed gaze, the chariot black anthropomorphic being that might and its steed altered awfully. Great wings have been a monster ape. spread from a black horror that in no way With a rush of burning wind the resembled a camel, and it rushed upward chariot swept up the corpse-littered slope, into the sky, bearing in its wake a shape straight toward the pavilion where Yasme- of blinding flame, in which a black man¬ la stood alone, deserted by her guards in like shape gibbered in ghastly triumph. the frenzy of pursuit. Conan, standing So quickly it passed, that it was like the frozen, heard her frenzied scream as rush of a nightmare through a horror- Natohk’s long arm swept her up into the haunted dream. chariot. Then the grisly steed wheeled and came racing back down the valley, Natohk sprang up, cast a swift look and no man dared speed arrow or spear at his grim pursuer, who had not lest he strike Yasmela, who writhed in halted but came riding hard, with sword ' Natohk’s arms. swinging low and spattering red drops; With an inhuman cry Conan caught up and the sorcerer caught up the fainting his fallen sword and leaped into the path girl and ran with her into the ruins. of the hurtling horror. But even as his Conan leaped from his horse and sword went up, the forefeet of the black plunged after them. He came into a room beast smote him like a thunderbolt and that glowed with unholy radiance, sent him hurtling a score of feet away, though outside dusk was falling swiftly. dazed and bruised. Yasmela’s cry came On a black jade altar lay Yasmela, hecj BLACK COLOSSUS 699

naked body gleaming like ivofy in the ows this time. In his n^ed hand Thugra weird light. Her garments lay strewn on Khotan gripped a black scorpion, more the floor, as if ripped from her in brutal than a foot in length, the deadliest crea¬ haste. Natohk faced the Cimmerian—in¬ ture of the desert, the stroke of whose humanly tall and lean, clad in shimmer¬ spiked tail was instant death. Thu¬ ing green silk. He tossed back his veil, gra Khotan’s skull-like countenance split and Conan looked into the features he had in a mummy-like grin. Conan hesitated; seen depicted on the Zugite coin. then without warning he threw his sword. "Aye, blench, dog!” the voice was like Caught off guard, Thugra Khotan had the hiss of a giant serpent. "I am Thugra no time to avoid the cast. The point Khotan! Long I lay in my tomb, await¬ struck beneath his heart and stood out a ing the day of awakening and release. foot behind his shoulders. He went The arts which saved me from the bar¬ down, crushing the poisonous monster in barians long ago likewise imprisoned me, his grasp as he fell. but I knew one would come in time—and Conan strode to the altar, lifting Yas- he came, to fulfill his destiny, and to die mela in his blood-stained arms. She threw as no man has died in three thousand her white arms convulsively about his years! mailed neck, sobbing hysterically, and "Fool, do you think you have con¬ would not let him go. quered because my people are scattered? "Crom’s devils, girl!” he grunted. Because I have been betrayed and desert¬ "Loose me! Fifty thousand men have per¬ ed by the demon I enslaved? I am Thugra ished today, and ffiere is work for me to Khotan, who shall rule the world despite your paltry gods! The desert is filled with "No!” she gasped, clinging with con¬ my people; the demons of the earth shall vulsive strength, as barbaric for the in¬ do my bidding, as the reptiles of the earth stant as he in her fear and passion. "I obey me. Lust for a woman weakened my will not let, you go! I am yours, by fire sorcery. Now the woman is mine, and and steel and blood! You are mine! Back feasting on her soul, I shall be unconquer¬ there, I belong to others—here I am mine able! Back, fool! You have not con¬ —and yours! You shall not go!” quered Thugra Khotan!” He hesitated, his own brain reeling He cast his staflF and it fell at the feet with the fierce upsurging of his violent of Conan, who recoiled with an invol¬ passions. The lurid unearthly glow still untary cry. For as it fell it altered hor¬ hovered in the shadowy chamber, lighting ribly; its outline melted and writhed, and ghostlily the dead face of Thugra Kho¬ a hooded cobra reared up hissing before tan, which seemed to grin mirthlessly the horrified Cimmerian. With a furious and cavernously at them. Out on the des¬ oath Conan struck, and his sword sheared ert, in the hills among the oceans of dead, the horrid shape in half. And there at his men were dying, were howling with feet lay only the two pieces of a severed wounds and thirst and madness, and ebon staff. Thugra Khotan laughed awful¬ kingdoms were staggering. Then all was ly, and wheeling, caught up something swept away by the crimson tide that rode that crawled loathsomely in the dust of madly in Conan’s soul, as he crushed the floor. fiercely in his iron arms the slim white In his extended hand something alive body that shimmered like a witch-fire of writhed and slavered. No tricks of shad¬ madness before him. By JACK WILLIAMSON

A tale of weird adventures in the hidden land beyond the cruel Rub’ Al Khali desert, and a golden folk that ride on a golden-yellow tiger and worship a golden snake

The Story Thus Far as steel. The age-old ax-helve broke, and Price was defeated. Malikar carried oflf YNAMITING their schooner the girl, and left him sealed in the tomb, behind them on the south coast with the bones and the weapons of the of Arabia, a little band of desper¬ barbarian king of whom Aysa believes ate adventurers struck out inland, plung¬ him to be the reincarnation. ing into the hostile mystery of the Rub’ Al Khali, the world’s cruelest and least- known desert. Their leaders were Price 11. The TigeFs Trail Durand, wealthy American soldier of for¬ tune, Jacob Garth, enigmatic Englishman, After a time Price gave up his frantic and Joao de Castro, unsavory Macanese. ^ attempts to force the vault’s locked Equipped with an army tank, machine- door, and sank back exhausted on the chiU guns, and mountain artillery, and accom¬ stone floor of the ancient tomb. panied by the sheikh Fouad el Akmet and Panic was near, the red, blind insanity his renegade Bedouins, they ate raiding of terror. His body was a-tremble, clam¬ the forbidden "golden land,” which is my with sudden sweat. He found himself guarded by the uncanny scientific powers beating with his hands on the polished of its weird rulers, the "golden folk”—a cold stone, and the vault was full of his man, an exotic woman, a huge, domesti¬ hoarse, useless shouts. cated tiger, and a gigantic snake, all four A quiet voice in his brain bade him sit of which appear amazingly to be of eter¬ down, and conserve his strength, and nal yellow metal, and yet immortally alive. think. His situation was extreme, almost Aysa, a strange, lovely fugitive from melodramatic—locked in a tomb, in the Malikar, the golden man, was captured catacombs beneath Anz, beneath a sand- and ill-used by de Castro; and Price whelmed city centuries lost. Fear-nerved Durand, unable to save her in any other struggles would get him nowhere. He way, left the party with her. The two must collect his scattered senses, think. reached Anz, an ancient, sand-buried city, He dared not hope for outside aid. where they discovered the tomb of Iru, Malikar and his acolytes, departing with an ancient king who was the enemy of the the captive Aysa, had obviously left him deathless "golden folk.” here to die. The vault must be opened by Malikar came riding on the golden his own efforts. And he had not long for tiger in quest of Aysa. Price fought him the task; the air was already vitiated. His in the catacombs under Anz, with the lungs were gasping in the musty stuff with golden ax of Iru, which is tempered hard great gulps; his head rang and roared. 700 This Btarr begsa ia WBIBD TAI.BS for April GOLDEN BLOOD 701

Already half suffocated, he was still dazed square chamber. Among scattered human from Malikar’s final blow. bones he saw the broken helve of the ax, Pressing his hands to his throbbing then the shining golden head of it, at the head. Price tried to think. He must take door. The oval shield was near, the heavy stock of his prison. If he could find some yellow mail still upon his body, tool . . . Abruptly giddy from the splitting pain Anxiously he fumbled for his matches, in his head, he leaned on the cold wall, felt the little box. With a sigh of relief and lighted a cigarette with the dying he struck a light, peered about the tiny match. The smoke cleared his brain a ,702 WEIRD TALES

little; it hid the musty charnel odor of the Holding a match in one hand, he manipu¬ vault. But still his head throbbed, still his lated the bronze levers and tumblers of mouth was bitter and dry. the ancient lock. When the cigarette was gone he lit Staggering and blind with fatigue and another match, and examined the door, a asphyxiation, he slid back the great bolt, massive slab of hewn and polished gran¬ swung the door inward, and pitched ite, cleverly hung, so that metal lock and through the opening into the cleaner air hinges were concealed. On the outside of the open catacombs. there was a golden knob. But its smooth In delirious joy he sudced in the air that black inner surface was unbroken. had once seemed musty and stale, until Forcing himself to deliberate and un¬ he was able to light one of the torches he hurried movement, he picked up the head and Aysa had brought into the crypts. of the golden ax. Wrapping his hand¬ Then, taking up the ax and the oval kerchief about the blade to protect his fin¬ shield, he found the stair, and climbed gers, he attacked the door with the pick¬ wearily back to the surface. like point opposite the cutting edge. The hidden mechanism of the lock, he PRICE laughed weakly and uncertainly, reasoned, must be contained in a cavity in for pure joy, when he came into the the stone, at the level of the golden knob. hot, white noonday light of the hidden The shell of granite covering it would be garden. He stood a while in the sun, half relatively thin; it might be possible to blind, drinking up the blazing radiance, break it away. the warm fresh air. The stone was obdurate, his tool Presently he stumbled to the fountain clumsy. His head drummed with pain, and washed his mouth and drank. G)l- and the air was rapidly becoming un- lapsing upon the grass beside the pool, he breathable. Gasping for breath, he reeled dropped into the sleep of complete ex¬ as he worked, occasionally striking a haustion. match to estimate his progress. Upon the dawn of a clear, still day, he For a time that seemed hours he toiled, woke, ravenously hungry. His head was when another man might have cursed and clear again, the bruise of Malikar’s mace dropped his tool and flung himself down subsiding. As he found food from the to die. The idea of defeat, of failure, was slender remaining store, and ate, his mind not in Price Durand’s nature. He had a was busy with the problem of Aysa’s vast confidence that the Durand luck— rescue. though it had so recently betrayed him— It is characteristic of Price that he did would come to his rescue, if he just kept not pause to wonder whether he could fighting. liberate the girl. His only problem was Thought of Aysa, as much as his own how. safety, spurred him on. He knew that he It was in the soft earth where water loved the brown-haired, gayly brave fugi¬ had overflowed from the pool that he tive. She was his, by some immutable law foimd the tiger’s tracks, after he had of life. Her captivity filled him with eaten. At first he could not think what savage resentment. had made them, they were so amazingly Ringing hollow beneath the ax-point, huge. Though shaped like those of any the shell of rock cracked at last. Rapidly, cat, they were large as an elephant’s. then, it crumbled beneath his blows. Eagerly he followed the deep prints GOLDEN BLOOD t705 along the side of the garden, out of the The camels were weary. They had not walled court, and off among the sand- been completely recovered from the ter¬ heaped ruins of Anz. The wind had not rible journey to Anz. And Price, in his yet moved sufficient sand to efface them. desperate haste, had urged them on un¬ At once he determined to follow the sparingly. He fed them the green forage, tiger’s trail. That, surely, would be the ate and drank meagerly, and rolled him¬ shortest path to Aysa. He did not pause self in his blanket, praying that the wind to reflect upon the dangers and difficulties would stop. that might lie before him, except in order It blew harder, instead. All night dry to prepare to meet them. He did not con¬ sands whispered with the desert’s ghostly sider his probable failure; procrastination voice, mockingly, as if they taunted Price was not in his nature, for Price \vas a man with Aysa’s fate at the hands of the gold¬ of action. en Malikar. Long before dawn the trail Delay would mean disaster. The loose was swept out completely. red sand, flowing almost like a liquid beneath the wind, would soon obliterate Before sunrise Price saddled the he jins the prints. But he had to make a few again, and rode on in the same direc¬ preparations before taking the trail. tion that the trail had led him, driving First he searched the oasis for a stick the jaded animals to the limit of their en¬ of hardwood, carved out a new helve and durance. fitted it to the golden ax, whicli was now That afternoon his own mount fell his only weapon. down upon the hot sand and died. He Then he saddled the two camels, which gave most of the remaining water to had regained much of their lost strength Aysa’s dromedary, and rode on, into the upon the lush vegetation of the oasis, and unknown north. From the next dune he packed the full water-skins, and a bundle looked back at the white shape sprawled of green forage, upon Aysa’s beast. in the sun . , . a hardy beast; it had served Mounting his own he]in and leading him well and he regretted to leave so , . . the other, he rode out of the hidden oasis and he rode on over the crest. where he had found the zenith of happi¬ Some time on the next day—the shad¬ ness and the nadir of despair, rode ow of the desert’s madness was already through the shattered piles of sand- descending upon him; he never remem¬ leaguered Anz, and over a yellow-red bered whether it was morning or after¬ dune that had conquered the black walls. noon—he came out of the dunes, upon a All day he followed the gigantic tracks. vast flat plain of yellow clay. Straight northward they led him, across a Upon that, he reasoned with the dull billowing sea of crescent hills. The trail, effort that precedes delirium, the giant at first, was easy enough to follow. But tracks would not have been obliterated by in the blazing afternoon a breath of wind the wind. After an hour’s riding bock and arose, furnace-hot, and the obliterating forth, he found the enormous prints drift-sand crept rustling before it. again, and followed them doggedly across By sunset the trail was hardly distin¬ the clay-pan. guishable. A dozen times Price lost it on The water was all gone that night. He the upward slope of a dune, only to pick lay down near the camel, in a dry wadi. it up again in the hollow beyond. At dusk His mouth was swollen and dry; he was he had to stop. too thirsty to sleep. But even if he could 704 WEIRD TALES

not sleep, he dreamed. Dreamed that he 12. "The Rock of Heir was back with Aysa at the lost oasis, RICE woke in the dawn, chilled and drinking from the stone-rimmed pools P shivering beneath his blanket. The and plucking fresh fruit. The dreams emaciated hejin sprawled beside him. He verged oddly into reality. He caught him¬ staggered to his feet, trying in vain to re¬ self speaking to Aysa, and woke again call when he had stopped, and saw the with a start to his desolate surroundings. mountain. Day came, and he rode on. The fevered In the cold, motionless desert air, it dreams did not stop. He was bade in Anz, looked very near, only a few miles across with the lovely Aysa. He was with her in the barren, black volcanic plain, a moun¬ the deep tomb of Iru, fighting Malikar. tain shaped like a truncated cone, rugged, He was back in the camp on the road of steep-walled. On its summit was a bright skulls freeing her from the clutches of coronal, a golden crest that exploded into Joao de Castro. scintillant splendor when the first sun¬ light touched it. But through all the visions of his half¬ Price feared at first that it was mirage delirium, a single idea reigned in his spin¬ or delirium; but complete sanity had come ning brain. A fiaced purpose dominated back to him for a little while, with the him. And he urged the flagging camel chill of the dawn, and he knew the moun¬ northward, along the trail of a gigantic tain was no dream. And it was too early tiger. for mirage; the mountain was too motion¬ Again the trail become more difficult lessly real. to follow. The clay was flinty, harder; the He remembered the old Arab’s story of great feet had left but slight impressions. a black mountain, Hajar fehannum, or In the afternoon the hard yellow pan gave "Rock of Hell”, upon which golden dpnti way to bare black lava, to a flat, volcanic dwelt in a palace of yellow metal. plateau whose sharp-edged, fire-twisted The parchment of Quadra y Vargas, the rocks were hard going for the foot-sore old Spanish soldier of fortune, came back camel, and upon which the golden tiger to his mind, with its fantastic account of had left no mark. golden folk—"idols of gold that live and move”—dwelling upon a mountain in la There the tracks were hopelessly lost. casa dorada, and worshipped like gods by Price abandoned any attempt to find traces the people of the oasis below. of the huge pads, and rode straight on It had all seemed impossible. But he over the rocky terrain, into the north. had seen the golden tiger, and its yellow Night came, and moonless darkness. And riders, had fought with Malikar, and fol¬ still he urged the half-dead dromedary lowed the tiger’s trail for grim long days. on, toward the pole-star, glittering pale Now here was the mountain, with its above the desert horizon. crown of gold. Impossible. But was it, Polaris danced and beckoned and taunt¬ like so many impossible things, true.^ ed. Strange pageantries of madness ap¬ He goaded the staggering, grumbling peared and dissolved upon the star-lit hejin to its feet, climbed into the saddle, desert. And Price rode on. Sometimes he and rode on, toward the mountain. Aysa forgot the reason, and wondered what he had been taken there, he knew, upon the would find beneath the star. But still he golden tiger, by her yellow captor. And rode on. there he was going after her. It might W. T.—2 GOLDEN BLOOD 705 not be easy to find her and set her free, implacable sun rose once more, on bis but he was going to do it. If he himself right, and flooded the lava plain with failed, there was yet the Durand luck. cruel light. The brief sanity of die dawn All day he went on toward the moun* deserted, and madness of thirst rode back tain. Sometimes the camel reeled and upon stinging barbs of radiation. staggered. Then he dismounted and It was some time later in the day that stumbled along on foot, driving it for a the lifted its white, snake-like neck, distance, until it could rest. and looked eastward, with more of life The grim lava tableland sewned to than it had displayed for days. Thereafter stretch out as he advanced. But at sunset it tried continually to turn aside. But he could distinguish the towers and spires Price, with merciless mas’hah stick, drove of the glittering castle, shimmering, splen¬ it on toward the mountain. did, drawing him with resistless fascina¬ After a time he could make out men tion. standing upon the high black walls. Tiny Once more he toiled on, far into the dolls in blue. Little more than moving night. At dawn the black rock seemed no blue specks. But he thought thq? were nearer, but merely larger. Its black walls, jeering at him, taunting him with Aysa's of columnar basalt, frowned precipitously captivity, with their walled security upon grim. They seemed unscalable. Price, In the cliffs. He found himself cursing them, file more lucid periods of his brain-fevered in a voice that was a whispering croak. advance, wondered how the castle could Then, again, when he was nearer the be reached. mountain, men rode to meet him. Men A crenelated wall of black stone skirted in hooded robes of blue, upon white rac¬ the top of the cliffs—a wall apparently ing-camels. Nine of them, armed with useless, for half a mile of sheer precipice long, yellow-bladed pikes, and golden hung below it. Within rose the piles of yataghans. the unattainable castle. The blazing fub Price drove his staggering hepn on gor of gold, and the brilliant white of toward them, whispering insane curses. alabaster. Twisted domes and turrets. He knew that they were branded with the Slim towers. Balconied minarets. Broad mark of the golden snake, that they were roofs and pointed spires. Yellow gold, the human slaves of the golden man, of and white marble. Malikar, who had stolen Aysa. The high castle was not all of gold. But They stopped on the bare lava before even so, the value of the yellow metal him, and awaited his coming. blazing from it was incalculable. Price With a thin arm he lifted the golden knew. The treasure before his eyes might ax that was slung to the pommel of his rival in value the monetary gold in the saddle. Trying in vain to goad his drom¬ vaults of all the world. edary to a trot, he advanced, croaking out But gold meant nothing, now, to Price the syllables of the ax-song of Iru. Durand. He was fighting back the mists And abruptly the nine whirled, as if in of madness, battling vision and delirium, consternation, before this gaunt, golden- ignoring the tortures of exhaustion, of armored warrior upon a reeling skeleton Uiirst that parched his whole body. He of a camel, and fled back toward the was seeking a girl. A girl with gay violet mountain, and around it. eyes, whose name was Aysa. Price’s mount was still trying to turn Again he was riding on. The bloody, off toward the right, but be followed on W. T.—3 1706 WEIRD TALES after the nine. They left him far behind, this Price Durand.^ This thin, stem fig¬ but at last he rounded the sheer shoulder ure, with staring, sunken, glassy eyes. of crystalline basalt, that leapt up in colos¬ With black, swollen lips. With madness sal hexagonal columns toward the bright and death upon a wild and haggard face. castle, and came to the east side of the Was Price Durand this gaunt specter in mountain. golden mail, carrying the arms of a king centuries dust? The men were again in view, sitting 'The wonder at himself came and fled, still upon their camels and looking like any idea of his desert-maddened apprehensively back, when Price came brain—like any idea save the one that around the mountain. They delayed a lit¬ did not change, the single idea that he tle longer, and then retreated again. They must find Aysa. rode directly into the mountain. Then his croaking voice was demand¬ Again Price followed. At the top of ing in Arabic that the golden doors be a short slope he saw a square black tun¬ opened. He heard a subdued stirring be¬ nel in the cliff, the opening of a horizon¬ yond the xanthic panels, but they did not tal shaft driven straight into the basalt. move. He started up the lava slope. The he jin He whispered the ax-song of Im, and fell weakly to its knees, and refused to hammered upon the mocking golden get up again. Price got out of the sad¬ valves with the battle-ax. And yet they dle, took the golden ax and the yellow did not open. oval shield, and started on afoot. Still he beat upon the gates, and A heavy clang of metal reached his shrilled dry-voiced curses, and croaked ears, and he saw that the mouth of the Aysa’s name. And shining silence taunt¬ timnel had vanished. In its place was a ed him. square of bright gold, inlaid in the black Then the dominating purpose that had mountain wall. driven him through terrible days was It was madness. He knew that he had broken. His reason found sanctity in driven himself harder than a man, by madness from suffering in a land too rights, can go. He knew that he could cmel for life. And Price was left the not longer trust his senses. Perhaps, after creature of delirium. all, there had been no tunnel. The men 13. The Golden Land who fled might have been figments of delirium. Through several days Price drifted But he reeled on up the slope, in the lazily back from temporary insanity bright mail of Iru, with the ax and the into slow awareness. He was among bu^er of the old king of Anz. Arabs. Arabs who dressed oddly, and He came to the yellow square in the spoke a curious archaic dialect. They basaltic mountain’s flank. His eyes had were his friends, or rather, awe-stmdc not deceived him; there had been a tun¬ worshippers. They called him Im. nel. Golden gates had closed it. He saw He recalled vaguely that somewhere the seam down the middle, the massive he had heard this strange dialect before. hinges on either side. Broad panels of He had even heard the name Im. But it yellow gold, twenty feet high, smooth, was several days before he remembered polished so that he could see his reflec¬ the circumstances of his hearing either. tion in them. He lay upon mgs and cushions in a He paused an instant, wondering. Was long room, dark and cool, with smoothly GOLDEN BLOOD 707 plastered mud walls. A guard of the He knew, then, that this must be the strange Arabs was always near him. And town of El Yerim, from which Aysa had a man who seemed their leader had come fled. These people thought him the leg¬ many times to see him. endary king of Anz, awakened to free Yarmud was his name. A typical Arab, them from bondage to the golden beings. tall, thin-lipped, hawk-nosed. Price No great wonder that, since he had rid¬ liked him. His dark eyes were straight den out of the desert with the weapons' and piercing. He carried himself with a of the ancient ruler, looking more dead simple, reserved dignity. Upon his lean, than alive. brown face was fierce, stem pride, almost "The mountain where Malikar lives,” regal. he asked, "is it near.?” Yarmud plainly was the ruler of these Yarmud gestured with a lean arm. Arabs; yet he appeared to defer to Price "Northwest. The journey of half a day.” as if to a greater potentate. Price realized then that his hepn, when Price slept most of the time. He made it tried to turn aside on the last day of no exertion save to drink the water and the ride to the mountain, had been trying camel’s milk, to eat the simple fare, that to come to the oasis here. He supposed bis hosts offered him where he lay. He that, after abandoning his insane ham¬ did not try to question them, or even to mering upon the golden gate, he had re¬ think. The hardships of his terrible tained consciousness enough to mount march upon the tiger’s trail had brou^t the dromedary and tie himself to the sad¬ him near death, indeed. Tortured b^y dle, though he recalled nothing of it. and fevered mind recovered but slowly. And the loyal animal had brought him Then one afternoon, when Yarmud here. entered the room, a stately, august figure "Aysa.?” he asked Yarmud, eagerly. in bis long, oddly fashioned black abba, "Know you where she is?” Price awoke. His mind was suddenly "No. She was chosen by Malikar to sane and clear again. He rose to meet go to the mountain with the snake’s trib¬ the old Arab, though his limbs felt yet ute. She escaped, none knew how,” the weak. old Arab glanced at Price, with the sug¬ Old Yarmud smiled flashingly in pleas¬ gestion of a wink, "and went in search ure, to see him rise. of Anz, the lost city, to waken you. You "Salaam aleikum, Lord Im,” he called. know not where she is?” And, to Price’s astonishment, he dropped Price’s heart went out to Yarmud, with to his knees on the floor. the certainty that he had connived at Price returned the immemorial desert Aysa’s escape. formula, and Yarmud rose, anxiously in¬ "No. Malikar came, and carried her quiring about his health. off. He left me locked in the old cata¬ "Oh, I’m coming round all right,” he combs. I got out, and followed the tracks assured the Arab. "How long have I been of his tiger. They led to the mountain.” here.?” "We shall free her,” said Yarmud, "Five days ago your camel—or the "when we destroy the golden folk.” camel of the maiden Aysa, who went to Noticing Price’s weakness, the old wake you—came to the l^e. You, Iru, ruler soon departed, leaving him to de¬ were fastened upon the beast, with a hal¬ cide one problem that had risen. These ter-rope around your body and the pom¬ Arabs obviously considered Price the mels of the saddle." miraculous resurrection of their ancient 708 WEIRD TALES king. As such, they were no doubt ready that he was the reincarnation of a bar¬ to follow him in a war against the golden barian king. Price could find no effective beings. argument against it. Since he had the old king’s arms— "Promise me that you will say no more mail, ax and shield were beside his bed that you are not Iru,” at last Yarmud de¬ —and since he knew the ax-song, it might manded, shrewdly, "for my warriors are be easy enough for him to play the part. eager to follow you against the golden But Price was naturally frank, straight¬ folk.” forward. Everything in him revolted at And Price, for Aysa’s sake, was glad assuming false colors. enough to promise. After all, there Next morning he was feeling stronger. might be something in Yarmud’s conten¬ And he had made his decision. tion. He did not intend to trouble him¬ self further about it. The problems of HEN Yarmud entered again, and W one life were proving quite enough for was about to kneel. Price stopped him, without any gratuitous assumption him. of the burdens of another. "Wait. You call me by the name of Aysa, Price found, was the daughter the king of lost Anz. But I am not Iru. of Yarmud’s brother, who had been My name is Price Durand.” sheikh of the Beni Anz, until Malikar Yarmud gaped at him. had done away with him two harvest- "I was born in another land,” Price seasons before, for refusal to send the explained. "I came here across the sea annual tribute to the snake. Yarmud, and the mountains.” then, his successor, was Aysa’s uncle— The Arab recovered, remonstrated ex¬ which fact further inaeased Price’s liking citedly: for the sternly proud old ruler. "But you must be Iru! You are tall: you have the blue eyes, the flaming hair! Late that afternoon Price, for the first time, left the long room in which he Aysa went to seek you, found you. You yourself say that you broke from the had wakened. tomb. You come from Anz with the ax "When Aysa escaped, Malikar de¬ of Iru, and whispering his ax-song.” manded more tribute to the snake,” Yar¬ Price began an explanation of his life, mud told him. "A camel laden with and the expedition into the desert, of how dates and grain, and another maiden. he had come to meet Aysa. The snake-men have come today to take "Yes, those strangers are here,” Yar¬ them.” mud agreed. "They camp across the lake. Price expressed desire to watch the de¬ They take our food, and turn their camels parture of the sacrifice. on our pasture, and give us no pay. They "You may,” Yarmud agreed. "But wish my warriors to march with them you should dress as one of my warriors. against the golden folk. But none of It would not be well for Malikar to know them is, like you, the image of Iru.” you are here, before we strike.” In the end. Price was unable to con¬ He arrayed Price in a long, flowing vince Yarmud that he was not the ancient gumbaz, or inner garment, a brown abba, king, returned. Like Aysa, the old man and a vivid green kafiyeh, which con¬ cheerfully admitted his story, but insisted cealed his red hair; armed him with a that he was Iru, born again. And though long, two-edged bronze sword and a he was unwilling to accept any theory. broad-bladed spear with a wooden shaft. GOLDEN BLOOD 709

Mingling with a score of men simi¬ them a young girl whose hands were larly dressed. Price went out into lashed behind her. Behind followed a El Yerim. haggard woman, screaming and beating He found himself upon the dusty, ir¬ her flat breasts. regular streets of a town half concealed 'The girl seemed submissive, paralyzed in groves of date-palms. The clustered with fear. She made no struggle as she mud buildings, low and squat, were of was lifted to one of the mounted men, the simple, massive adobe architecture who laid her inert body across the saddle old as Babylon. The streets were desert¬ before him. The other men leapt upon ed save for groups of Arab warriors; an their camels, and wheeled them, almost air of silent dread hung over them. running down the grief-stricken woman. Hastening northward along the brown Price ran forward impulsively as the adobe walls, they came out of Ae town, eleven started around the lake, one of upon the gravel shore of a tiny lake. Its them leading the laden camel. Yarmud crystal water was boiling up in the center, gripped his arm, stopped him. from the uprush of the great springs that "Wait, Iru,” he whispered. "You are fed it—and made possible this desert not yet strong from your ride. Nor are garden that Quadra y Vargas had called we ready for battle. If we interfere, "the golden land.” Malikar will come and bathe El Yerim Green-tufted palms lined the opposite in blood. And Vekyra—she will hunt shore, and under them Price saw the camp the human game! Wait, imtil we are of the expedition with which he had ready.” come into the desert. The trim khaki Price stopped, realizing the wisdom of drill tents of Jacob Garth and the other the sheikh’s words. But hot rage filled whites. The black camel’s hair hejras of him, the burning resentment he always the sheikh Fouad el Akmet and his Bed¬ felt when he saw the weak abused by the ouins. The gray silent bulk of the army strong. And cold determination filled tank. Little groups of men were standing him to destroy utterly the golden beings beneath the palms, watching; he recog¬ —be they human or living metal—that nized bulky Jacob Garth, and his enemy, had subjected this race to such base slav¬ Joao de Castro. ery. Before, he might have been satis¬ Then Price’s eyes went to what the fied with the rescue of Aysa. Now he others were watching. was filled with a stern and passionless re¬ Two hundred yards from where Price solve to obliterate the beings who had and the Arab warriors stood, along the taken her from him. broad bare strip of gravel between the adobe town and the little lake, stood a 14. The Menace in the Mirage dozen white camels. Blue-robed men, armed with shimmering yellow yata¬ The Price Durand who rode around ghans, sat upon five of them, holding the the little lake, five days later, and into halter-ropes of the others. One was the farengi camp, with Yarmud and two- loaded with wicker hampers; that, he score warriors of the Beni Anz, was not supposed, was part of the tribute. the same restless wanderer who had set A thin, wailing shriek of agonized out with the expedition from the Arabian grief rose among the low mud houses. Sea, so many weary weeks before. And the remaining six snake-men came He felt completely recovered, now,, into view, two of them dragging between from tlie sufiering of his last cruel Jour- 710 WEIRD TALES ney, and filled with a burning impatience sonorous, in casual greeting, free from to test his strength with Malikar that hint of surprize: would brook no longer delay. "Hullo, Durand.” The desert sun had burned him to the "Good morning. Garth.” brown of an Arab, had drawn every super¬ Price looked down from his hejin— fluous drop of moisture from his body. Yarmud’s gift—at the gross, bovinely He was hard, lean, wiry. A new iron calm man in faded, dusty khaki. He felt strength was in him, bred of the desert the cold eyes taking in his gleaming chain he had fought and mastered, a tireless en¬ mail, his bright shield, the yellow ax. durance. "Where’ve you been, Durand?” Garth boomed suddenly. His spirit was hardened as much as his Price met his searching, unreadable supple body. He had joined Jacob Garth, gaze. "We’ve a good deal to talk over. not in quest of gold, but a restless mal¬ Garth. Suppose we adjourn somewhere content, a weary sportsman in search of a out of the sun?” new game, a world-rover driven by vague "Will you come in my tent, over here and obscure longings, by indefinable de¬ under the palms?” sire for strange vistas. Price nodded. He dismounted and In the Rub’ A1 Khali he had found gave the halter-rope of his camel to one Aysa, strange, lovely girl, fugitive from of Yarmud’s men. With a word to the weird peril. He had fled with her across old sheikh, he followed Jacob Garth to the shifting sands . . . loved her in the the tent, entered before him. Garth mo¬ hidden garden of a lost city , . . lost her tioned to a blanket spread on the gravel to a power that he did not yet understand. floor; they squatted on it. Now he was determined to find and The big man stared at him, silently, free the girl, to blot out the beings that rather grimly, then spoke suddenly: had taken her. It was as if the desert "You understand, Durand, that you life had crystallized all his restless energy aren’t returning to your old place as lead¬ into a single driving power that would er of this expedition. I don’t know just yield to no opposition, admit no failure. how the men will want to dispose of you, He knew that very real and immediate since your—desertion.” danger faced the attempt. The powers "That affair was revolt against my au¬ of the golden beings, as he had glimpsed thority!” cried Price. "And against every them, were vast and ominous, appalling. law of human decency. I’m no desert¬ But it was not in Price to consider the con- er!” He caught himself. "But we needn’t sequences of defeat, save as challenge to go into that. And your men won’t be another battle. called upon to dispose of me.” Jacob Garth came out of his tent, to "You appear to be in cahoots with the meet Price and his bodyguard. Always natives,” Garth observed. an enigma, the huge man was unchanged. "They have accepted me as a leader. His puffy, tallow-white face was blandly We are planning an attack on the moun¬ placid, mask-like, as ever; pale, cold blue tain of the golden folk. I came to see if eyes still peered blankly and unfeelingly you would care to join the expedition.” from above his tangle of curly red beard. Jacob Garth seemed more interested. He stopped, and surveyed Price for a '"Iliey will actually follow you?” he de¬ time, and then his voice rang out, richly manded. "Against their golden gods?” GOLDEN BLOOD 711

"I think so.” pack animals laden with machine-guns, "Then perhaps we can come to some the mountain artillery, Stokes mortars, agreement.” The deep voice was suave and high explosives. as ever, colorless. "We’ve been here for The sheikh Fouad el Akmet riding be¬ weeks. The men are rested, ready for fore his two-score nakhawilah or ren¬ action. We’ve been drilling. And scout¬ egades, who were proudly girt with glit¬ ing over the country. tering cartridge belts and carrying new 'We’d have moved on the mountain Lebel rifles. already, but the natives refused to join Price Durand, resplendent in the gold¬ me. And it appeared bad strategy to ad¬ en mail of Iru, riding beside Yarmud at vance and leave them in control of the the head of nearly five hundred eager water. We didn’t trust them.” warriors of the Beni Anz. "I’m sure,” Price said, "of the entire As the interminable line of fighting- loyalty of the Beni Anz—or at least of men crept out of the green palm groves Yarmud, the sheikh—to me. I propose of the fertile valley, to the desolate, fire- that we join forces—until the golden peo¬ born plateau, they came in view of Hajar ple are smashed.” Jehannum, or Verl, as the Beni Anz "And then?” named the mountain—a steep-walled, ba¬ "You and the men can help yourselves saltic butte, the core of an ancient volca¬ to the golden palace. All I want is Aysa’s no, crowned with a towered palace ablaze safety.” with myriad splintering gleams of white "You mean the woman you took away and gold. from de Castro?” An exultant cheer rolled back along the Price nodded. columns, as each successive group came "Well, Joao is going to have something within view of the mountain, with the to say about her. I promised him his bright promise of its coronal of marble choice of any women we take. But, for and yellow metal. my part, I accept your terms.” Price’s heart lifted. Involuntarily he "We’re allies, then?” urged his hejin to a faster gait, fondled "Until we have broken the power of the oaken helve of Korlu, the great ax. the golden folk.” Aysa must be a prisoner within that scin¬ Jacob Garth extended his white, puffy tillating castle. Aysa, the fair, brave hand. Price took it, and was amazed girl of the desert. again at the crushing strength beneath the "Great is the day!” Yarmud shouted smooth soft skin. beside him, kicking his own camel to make it keep pace. "Before sunset the At sunrise the next morning a ver- castle of Verl is ours. At last the golden itable army was winding through folk shall die-” the palm groves of El Yerim, from the Fear stilled his voice. Silently, pale- camp and the town beside the tiny lake. faced, he pointed at the bleak mountain The clattering tank led the van. Behind still fifteen miles away. The whole long rode men on camels, in a close, double column had abruptly halted; a dry whis¬ column. per of terror raced along it. Jacob Garth and swart, sloe-eyed Joao "The shadow of the golden folk!” de Castro, at the head of the jarengi, a came Yarmud’s fear-roughened voice. score of hard-bitten adventurers, their A brilliant fan of light was lifting into 712 WEIRD TALES

the indigo sky ahead. Narrow rays of of her projection. She stared down at rose and topaz mingled in an inverted, him, boldly. In her gaze was a curious splendid pyramid of flame. The apex of intimacy. the pyramid touched the highest golden Then puzzlement and vague alarm tower. The colored rays were up-flung came into the tawny eyes, as they ab¬ from the castle. sorbed the golden mail, the oval buckler, Above the fan of saffron and rosy glory the yellow ax. But still they held a taunt¬ a picture appeared. Vague at first, loom- ing challenge, an enigmatic promise, too, ing gigantic as if projected on the dome oddly disturbing. The slim yellow body of the blue heavens, it swiftly took form, relaxed against the thick, heaped golden color, reality. coils of the snake. Reddened fingers A gigantic snake, vast as a cloud, coiled shook out tlie ruddy-golden hair until it in the air above the mountain. A heap rippled in shimmering cascades. of yellow coils, the evil head uplifted Price was swept with a surge of fierce upon a slender gleaming aureate column. desire for that full-curved, sinuous body. A serpent of gold. Each brilliant scale He felt swift will to meet the taunting glinted like polished metal. The head mockery in the greenish, slanted eyes. dropped upon the upmost coil, and the Lust, not love. Nothing of the spirit, snake’s eyes, glittering black, insidious, nothing reverent. looked down upon the halted, fearful col¬ He laughed at the woman, derisively. umns. She flung back the silken-gold net of hair, Beside the serpent was a woman—the abruptly, and anger flashed in the tawny same woman. Price knew, that he had eyes. No doubt that she saw him. seen upon the tiger, in the mirage above He looked away from her, at the snake. the mountain pass. A yellow coil, thick Even by comparison with the looming as her body, was looped about her feet, shadow of the woman it was large, its and she half reclined against tlie next, an golden-scaled body thicker than her own. arm caressingly over it. Like an ominous cloud, it hung in the The woman’s body was yellow as the sky above the black mountain, above the snake, and it had something of the ser¬ outspread fan of arrowed rays. Flat, tri¬ pent’s slender, sinuous grace. A short, angular, ugly, its great head watched. tight-fitting tunic of green encased it, hid¬ Its glittering eyes were terrible; black ing no undulating line. Red-golden, with a hint of purple, unwinking, aflame flowing loose and abundant, her hair fell with cold light. Price’s pulse slowed over her yellow shoulders. with instinctive fear as he met them, icy The woman looked down from the sky, needles danced along his spine. The eyes a mockingly malefic smile upon her oval, of the snake were wells of cold evil, exotic face. Her full lips, crimsoned, agleam with sinister wisdom older than were voluptuous and cruel; the lids of her mankind. They were hypnotic. piquantly slanted eyes dark-edged; the Price had wondered how a' rabbit feels, shadowed orbs themselves tawny-green. frozen in fascinated trance, as the stalk¬ Price watched those greenish, oblique ing snake writhes near. In that moment eyes rove the columns, questingly, and he knew. He felt the cold, deadly shodc fasten suddenly upon himself. The of resistless, malign power, intangible, in¬ woman, apparently, saw him as plainly as explicable, yet terrifyingly real. he did her, whatever the strange agency With an effort he dragged his gaze GOIDEN BLOOD 713 away fiom those motionless, hypnotic The bypaiotic or paralytic effect of the orbs. His body, to his surprize, was tense, snake s eyes was even more puzzling. He covered with chill sweat. supposed that the golden reptile merely Looking bade along the columns, he possessed the slight power of fascination saw that a strange quietness had fallen, of the ordinary snake, increased in pro¬ a silence almost of death. Every man portion to its size, and perhaps intensified was gazing fascinated into the mirage. or amplified in the same manner as its Clatter of voices was stilled. No outcry body was magnified in the mirage. rose, even of wonder or fear. ’The men remained subdued and fright¬ "Attention!" he shouted. Then, in ened. The courage of Fouad and his Bed¬ Arabic: "Don’t look at the snake. Turn ouins was maintained only by their con¬ away. Look back toward the oasis. The fidence in the tank and the other invin¬ snake has no power unless you watch it.” cible weapons of the jarengi band. The A deep sigh beside him. And Yar- Beni Anz were similarly sustained by a mud’s low voice: faith in Price as a supernatural deliverer. '"rhe snake threatens. We will win no Many times the column lagged. Price easy victory. Its eyes can destroy us.” and Jacob Garth and Yarmud rode con¬ "Let’s go on.” Price urged his camel tinually back and forth, encouraging the forward. men, warning them not to look into the "Then sing the ax-song. The men are maddening mirage hanging ahead, where afraid.” the snake’s eyes gleamed with the cold Price lifted his voice in the battle-song and deadly fascination of ancient and sin¬ of the ancient barbarian king whose armor ister wisdom. he wore. A wave of cheering rolled back As they drew near the mountain, Price along the column, at first feeble and im- sent out scouts. certain, but rising in volume. And the long line crept forward again. Five miles from the black, basaltic mass, the head of the column reached 13. Mirrors &f Peril the edge of a shallow wadi, a valley a As THE hours went by and the camd- thousand yards across. 'Three scouts, upo« . mounted columns wound onward, fleet he jins, were half across its level floor, the weird mirage hung ominously in the when the low black lava-crowned hills sky aliead, tawny-green eyes of the golden above the opposite slope burst into men¬ woman and purple-black orbs of the acing life. snake gazing down. At times the phe¬ Scores of blue-clad men appeared from nomenon appeared curiously near. It nowhere, dragging to the hill-crest great, seemed to draw steadily away, as the expe¬ silvery, ellipsoid mirrors that flickered in dition advanced, keeping a uniform dis¬ the sun; mirrors supported upon metal tance. frames, like the one that had slain the Price speculated upon possible sdentif- Arab Hamed with an invisible ray of ic explanations of it, without arriving at cold, in the mountain pass. any satisfactory condusion. The mirage, Broad bright ellipsoids wavered and he knew, must he simply the colossal re¬ shimmered in the sun. Queer flashes of flection of real beings, produced by the violet darted from them, strangely pain¬ application of optied laws unknown to ful to the eye. tte outside world. At first appearance of the enemy, tihe 714 [WEIRD TALES

three scouts turned and dashed madly of the mirrors. They were dragged back back, but not swiftly enough to escape the beyond the lava ridge, out of view again. mirrors. The camel in the lead stumbled Price and Jacob Garth, near the guns, and fell. Rider and mount shattered, scanned the opposite side of the wadi splintered, when they struck the ground, through binoculars. A dozen still blue bodies suddenly chilled to the point of forms were sprawled there, victims of bul¬ brittleness. The fragments quickly were lets and shrapnel splinters. But the liv¬ silvered with frost. ing had vanished. An instant later the second man went "Our move,” Garth observed, serenely down, in a swirl of snow-flakes. Then bland as ever. "Can't afford to leave the the third, with a crash like breaking glass. initiative up to them. And the ammuni¬ Fear swept the column on the low lava tion for the Krupps won't hold out all hills above the wadi. The brooding men¬ day.” ace of the mirage had been endurable He turned to boom orders. because it was distant, half unreal. These The gray-armored tank lumbered over mirrors of cold were as terrifyingly the crest of the hill. At top speed it rum¬ strange, and they were immediately dan¬ bled down the slope and clanked across gerous. Bedouins and Beni Anz stirred the wadi’s stony floor, machine-guns ham¬ imeasily, but at sight of Price and Jacob mering. Behind it raced Fouad’s Bedou¬ Garth unmoved ahead of them, held their ins, with their new Lebel rifles. ground. In undisciplined but splendid charge Defense was swiftly organized. Garth the Arabs dashed after the tank, throw¬ boomed rapid orders. The Krupp moun¬ ing up their rifles to fire in headlong tain guns, the four Hotchkiss machine- career. They were half-way across the guns, the two Stokes mortars, were quick¬ valley when the mirrors of cold were ly unpacked, mounted in covered positions pushed back to the hill before them, from along the hilltop. concealed trenches. The sheikh Fouad El Akmet’s men One Arab fell with his camel into a were gathered behind the tank to follow frosty heap of shattered fragments. it in the first charge. The four hundred Another, then two more, went down in and eighty warriors of the Beni Anz, clouds of glittering ice. Then the tank armed, save for a hundred archers, only was abruptly white, gleaming argent. with long swords and spears, were held A few seconds it lumbered on. Price for the moment in reserve, in the rear. hoped that its armor had been proof The two little cannons were soon thud¬ against the ray; remembered how nearly ding regularly, sweeping the opposite he had been frozen in it, back in the Jebel slope of the wadi with screaming shrap¬ Harb. The roaring motor faltered, died. nel. The Hotchkiss guns broke into rat¬ The tank veered, turned broadside to the tling music, and snipers, flung prone, enemy, stood silent and motionless, a sil¬ nursed barking rifles. very ghost of itself. He felt quick regret A few minutes longer the mirrors for old Sam Sorrows. flashed with eye-searing violet. Little Though the Krupps and machine-guns swirls of frost appeared in the air about were still raining death upon the blue- the gimners, and several men fell, shiver¬ clad crews of the mirrors, the tank’s fail¬ ing, temporarily paralyzed. But the range ure shattered the morale of the Arabs. was apparently too great for effective use Wheeling their racing dromedaries, they GOLDEN BLOOD 715 plunged back in mad retreat And two splintering crashes, like the shattering of more fell as they fled. myriad panes of glass—the sound of fro¬ Disaster was unpleasantly near, Price zen men and camels, smashing to frag¬ realized. The proudest weapon of the ments on the rocks. farengi had fallen a quick victim to the A blast of icy air struck his face, misty mirrors of cold. Another such reverse with floating ice-crystals — breath-taking. would set the Arabs in panic flight. A freezing ray had come perilously near. "Want to try a charge with your na¬ He rode on. The wild drumming of tives, Durand?” asked Garth. "That’s feet behind did not falter. about the only chance. We’ll be helpless At last Price’s dromedary was leaping when the ammunition’s gone.” up the hill, toward the nearest mirror. Price looked across the wadi with nar¬ The broad, shimmering ellipsoid swung rowed eyes. It would cost many lives to toward him—a six-foot sheet of silvery gain the opposite hill; but, if they retreat¬ metal, mounted upon a delicate, elaborate ed now, the Beni Anz would never find mechanism. courage to advance again. Two blue-robes were behind it, the glit¬ "All right,” he told Garth. tering brand of the snake upon their fore¬ "Good luck. I’ll keep up the fire.” heads. As one turned the mirror, another The big man took his hand in that puffy manipulated a little knob. paw that was so surprizingly strong. Price saw a violet glow flush the argent Five minutes later Price rode down metal. into the wadi, swinging the golden ax 'Then he had leapt his camel upon the and raising his voice in the barbaric chant machine. It collapsed, with a rending of Iru. Behind his racing hejin came the and crashing of metal. The hejin fell Beni Anz warriors, in long, irregular sprawling. Price sprang clear of the sad¬ lines and scattered groups, scattered pur¬ dle, plunged for the two blue-robes with posely. the great ax. It all took place with the disordered Half a mile ahead was the low, lava- swiftness of a dream. crowned hill, glittering with half a One moment, a dozen blue-clad snake- score of huge, spinning mirrors. Blue- men were surrounding Price, with wicked, robed men crowded about them, many double-curved yellow yataghans. The falling beneath Garth’s fire, but others next, the charging Beni Anz were roiling springing from the hidden trenches to re¬ about him like a resistless wave. place them. Fire from Krupps and machine-guns Camels’ feet beat upon the stony ground had ceased as they neared the ridge. And with a vast, hollow thunder. Eager, ex¬ the mirrors of cold ceased to function as ultant cries rang out, repeated phrases of their crews were ridden down by camel- the ax-song: "Kill . . . Korlu the red mounted warriors. doom . . . Drinker of life-blood . . . Savage battle raged for a few minutes Keeper of death-gate.’’ along the hilltop, with no quarter given. Ellipsoid mirrors swayed and spim, Two hundred of the Beni Anz had fallen flashed painfully violet. upon the wadi floor, but those who sur¬ Price did not look back. Shouting the vived to reach the hill exacted a terrible ax-song, he charged straight on; but he price for their fallen comrades. heard the screams of terror, and sharp, A little time of utter confusion. Blue 716 iWEIRD TALES snake-men rallying about their mirrors. sudden terror. "Malikar comes! On the Camels crashing through them, kicking, golden tiger!” slashing with yellow tusks. Men and Dropping his eyes from the mirage. camels falling, before arrow and fata- Price saw the yellow tiger running across ghan and spear. the lava plain from the mountain. A Price, on foot, held his own. The great gigantic beast, fully the size of an ordi¬ ax drank blood, and the barbaric song of nary elephant, it carried the ebon how- Iru still rang out. dah, with Malikar, the golden man, seated Then, abruptly, amazingly, the battle in it. was won. Still several miles away, the giant cat Along the crest of the hill stood the was covering distance at a surprizing rate. great mirrors, twisted, wrecked. Around Obviously terrified, the Beni Anz warriors them, and in the shallow, lava-walled frantically loaded the last of their plun¬ trenches behind them, lay motionless, der, and began leading their camels back gory blue-clad bodies — the snake-men into the wadi. were down, to the last man. Here and 16. The Strange Eyes of the Snake there were camels, dead or dying. The survivors of the Beni Anz, no more than IT WAS now high noon. Merciless white half the number that had begun the sun-flame drove down upon the lifeless charge, were swiftly stripping the dead, volcanic plain beyond the ridge, across loading camels with their loot. which the yellow tiger was running, and Behind lay the grim black wadi floor, beat upon the rugged lava slopes below scattered with white, shattered heaps that the towering, basaltic cone of Hajar fe- had been men and camels, the silvery, hannum. No wind stirred; the air trem¬ silent tank among them. bled with stinging heat. Price looked toward the mountain. After a few moments’ thought. Price Five miles away across the bleak, dark decided to retire into the wadi he had just desolation of the lava fields rose its for¬ crossed at such expense in human lives, bidding basaltic masses; cyclopean black to await Malikar’s coming. He did not pillars and columns, soaring up two thou¬ like to retreat before a single man. But sand feet, to the glittering splendor of he was not sure that Malikar was a man; snowy marble and burnished gold that he wanted to get beneath the cover of was the palace of the yellow people. Jacob Garth’s guns. From the dome of the highest gorgeous Midway across the stony floor, where tower yet spread the fan of lanced rays of the grisly piles of white were now turning rose and topaz light. Above the rays, the red, he stopped the Arabs, waited, dis¬ weird mirage still hung. Braving the ser¬ patching a note to Jacob Garth to inform pent’s hypnotic eyes. Price ventured him of the victory on the hill and warn another glance at it. him of Malikar’s coming. The yellow woman, still beside the Very soon the yellow tiger appeared giant snake, still caressing it, met his upon the hill, among the wrecked mir¬ glance with a mocking, derisive smile, rors of cold and the bodies of the blue- and shrugged her slim yellow shoulders, robed dead. For a time the gigantic beast as much as to say: "Perhaps you have stood there, Malikar sitting in the how- won, but what of it?” dah, robed in red, staring about him. "Malikar!" wailed one of the Arabs in 'Then the Krupp gims began to fire GOLDEN BLOOD 717 again. Price heard tiie whine of shrapnel a mirage of madness. A matter of wills. above his head. And he saw white smoke He would not be mastered! burst up near the motionless tiger, where His head was turning, involuntarily, to high explosive shells were falling. follow the swaying serpent’s orbs. He Then a strange thing happened. tensed the muscles of his neck, struggled Malikar stood up in the howdah, turned to keep his head motionless, to turn his back to face the mirage still hanging in eyes downward. the sky above the black mountain. He 'Then his whole body tensed. He had flung out his arms in a gesture of com¬ the incredible sensation that the snake mand. realized his resistance, was increasing the The yellow woman turned, and ap¬ hypnotic power that chained him. Price peared to speak to the snake. set his jaw, jerked his head down. Gigantic, incredible, bright scales glit¬ All his will went into the effort. And tering metallic, xanthic yellow, the great a cord of evil seemed to snap. He was serpent moved in the sky. The broad free. Weak, trembling, with a feeling of flat wedge of its head was lifted high, nausea in the pit of his stomach, but free! upon the slender, shining gold column of He dared himself to look back at the its neck. To and fro it swayed, slowly, snake’s eyes. And the dread paralysis regularly, purple-black eyes hypnotically did not return. He had proved his a-glitter. mastery. Price tried to draw his eyes away from Price turned, reeling uncertainly. He the snake—and could not! Strange and saw a sickening thing. coldly evil, those swaying, hypnotic orbs Standing about him were two-score riveted him with baleful fascination. His Beni Anz warriors, afoot, as he was. All whole body was paralyzed. He could were frozen in rigid paralysis, staring up scarcely breathe. A throbbing oppression into the mirage. Mute, helpless terror was in his head; his throat was dry, con¬ was on their white, sweat-beaded faces. stricted; his limbs were cold. Their eyes were glazed, they breathed Sounds of firing ceased, from the guns slowly, gaspingly. And Malikar was across the wadi; Price knew that the others murdering them. had also been seized by this incredible pa¬ The gold giant had dismounted from ralysis. the yellow tiger, which stood two-score Brilliant purple-black, the serpent’s yards away. Swiftly he was passing from eyes shone with cold force of utter evil. one to another of the motionless, para¬ Dark wisdom filled them—^wisdom older lyzed men, methodically stabbing each in than the race of man. Overwhelming, the breast with a long, two-edged sword. resistless will. The men stood in tense paralysis, star¬ Price began a battle to move. Deadly ing at the fatal mirage, heads turning a paralysis claimed him. A dull weight little to follow the swaying, hypnotic rested on his brain; his head swam. Suf¬ eyes of the snake. Helpless, naked hor¬ focation choked him. Coldness crept up ror was on their faces; they were unaware his limbs, prickling deadness. of Malikar, so near. But he was not going to surrender. He The yellow man worked swiftly, driv¬ wasn’t going to let himself be hypnotized ing his blade with dexterous skill into un¬ by a sn^e. Not even a golden snake, in guarded breasts, withdrawing it with a 718 WEIRD TALES

jerk as he pushed his victims backward, to was gone, with the tiger. And the Beni sprawl with red blood welling out. Anz, and Fouad’s men, and Jacob Garth’s. Outraged, half sick with the brutal hor¬ But the little tank still stood there, where ror of it, Price shouted something, sprang the ray of cold had stopped it, in the mid¬ toward him. dle of the wadi. Malikar turned suddenly, his red robe With a dull and heavy sense of despair, dripping with new blood. A moment he Price realized that once again Malikar had was startled, motionless, with fear unmis¬ defeated him. Bitterly he recalled the takable in his shallow, tawny eyes. Then stone that had turned under his foot. The he leapt to meet Price, brandishing his Durand luck had failed again. reeking blade. His allies must have retreated in mad Price met the sword-thrust with the haste; perhaps they had broken the spell golden buckler, and swung the ax. The of the mirage, even as he had done, and yellow man sprang back; but the ax-blade fled. The abandonment of the tank, of grazed his shoulder, the bloody sword himself and the possessions of the men clattered from his fingers. about him, was proof enough of flight. Price ran forward over the rocky Not again, after this reverse, would the ground, to follow up his advantage. Luck Beni Anz follow him, he knew. "Iru” was against him. A loose stone turned would be discredited. And Aysa—lovely under his foot; he stumbled, went heavily Aysa of the many moods, serious and to his knees. smiling, demure and gay, strange, daring As he staggered back to his feet, Mali- fugitive of the sand-waste—was still kar leapt away, picked up a heavy block locked in the mountain fortress ahead, of lava, flung it at him. Price tried in more than ever hopelessly lost. vain to dodge. He felt the impact of the missile against his head; aimson flame A missile flicked past Price’s head and seemed to burst from it, flaring through clattered startlingly on the bare lava. He all his brain, heard the clatter of running feet, a hoarse shout of rage and hate. Still dazed, stiff WHEN Price groaned and sat up it of movement. Price staggered to his feet, was just past sunset. The cool turned to face the assailant who had wind that had roused him was blowing crept up behind him in the twilight. down from the black mass of the moun¬ Wicked yellow yataghan upraised, the tain across the bleak lava flows north¬ man was charging at him in the dusk, a ward. In the fading, rosy light the gold- dozen yards away. A tall Arab in a and-white palace above the frowning queerly hooded robe of blue. He must, walls was a splendorous coronal. And the like Price, be a survivor of the battle. He mirage was gone. limped as he ran, or hopped grotesquely. Price woke where Malikar had felled And one side of his face was red horror, him. The wadi’s stony floor was red with from which a wild eye, miraculously un¬ piles of thawed flesh and shattered bone. harmed, glared with fana*^ic hate. On his Near him were the score of men Malikar high forehead was the gleaming yellow had stabbed as they were helpless in that brand of a coiled serpent. dread fascination of the snake, dark ahbas What Price Durand found In the golden city and white kafiyehs scarlet-stained. naahes an amazing tale that wtu hold your hreatb- lees Intereat. You can not afford to mias thie eensa- He was alone with the dead. Malikar tional narrative, in the July WEIRD TALES. ironT ^.AMan By PAUL ERNST

A huge mechanical man, twenty feet in height, runs amuck in the city streets, leaving panic terror and dreadful death in its wake

"The gigantic pincers opened wide like the jaws of a steam shovel. Thef closed—”

My emotions as I stepped into Amos Klegg’s laboratory that night were half of awe and half of amusement. Which was not an un¬ natural mixture: Klegg is half to be re¬ spected for his really colossal scientific achievements and half to be grinned at for his vanity. Vain? I have never known any one more vain! With a harmless sort of van- 719! 720 WEIRD TALES ity, I’ll admit. Perpetually the showmao, I got a third of the way down the long he must stage-set every deoouement, pre¬ room toward it when I stopped with a sent it always in the most spectacular queer sensation of being watched. You light. know how it is. You are in a place alone, For the past eight months he had ap¬ windows shuttered and locked (Klegg parently forgotten my existence, though always kept his that way because his lab¬ I was his closest friend. Then, that morn¬ oratory was on the ground level), no one ing, he had telephoned and demanded there but yourself—and yet you feel as if that I come that very evening to "Oh!” unseen eyes were on you. and “Ah!” over his latest brain-child. So strong was the feeling that I called Demanded! That was the word. Klegg aloud: "Klegg, are you here?” never invited; like royalty he took one’s There was no answer. The door presence for granted. through which Klegg’s servant had ad¬ Now here I was, waiting in his labora¬ mitted me was closed. Klegg was cer¬ tory for him to come and parade his lat¬ tainly not in that laboratory; nor was any est scientific marvel before my properly one else save myself. Yet I was being startled eyes. watched. I'd have sworn to it. I strolled through the great work¬ Forgetting for the moment the myste¬ room. I was not impatient for him to rious, canvas-shrouded figure, I started come. Few had the privilege of being slowly to tour the place. I looked under admitted to that enormous room; and tables, behind any equipment big enough there were plenty of weird and interest¬ to offer cover for a marauder. I went ing things to lock at. The room itself into the alcove containing the wash- was weird-looking—two stories high, stand. I darted out again, thinking to lighted by hanging electric bulbs that il¬ surprize some one in the act of running luminated apparatus and work-benches for the door. well enough but left the high ceiling to No one. I was utterly alone. soar dimly into shadow like the roof of The inexplicable feeling began to give a cave. A naagidan’s cave, in a way; me the creeps. I remember wishing with some of Klegg’s performances certainly alnvjst childish panic that Klegg would smacked of magic. hurry up and join me. I think I would I noticed a great dim shape at the far¬ have left the place had I not hated to ther end of the laboratory. It was veiled di^Iay such weakness even to myself. under canvas, for all the world like a I did start for the switchboard over gigantic statue hidden from common eyes by the door, however. I was going to in a sculptor’s workshop. Had Klegg turn on more lights—all the lights—to gone in for art? get rid of ffiat nasty, creepy feeling that 1 started toward it, remarking as I eyes were following my every move. went on the odd proportions of whatever And then I did get a jolt. A paralyz¬ figure it was beneath the canvas. The ing one! For I located the eyes. proportions were vaguely human. Heroic Beside the switchboard was a plate- in size—-the top of the cascading canvas glass case about a foot square and two scraped the roof twenty feet above the feet high. It was standing on a table. floor—whatever was beneath stuck out And in it, just under the top, were the here and there as if possessed of such eyes. things as shoulders and head and torso. Two eyes, undeniably human, glared at W. T.—3 THE IRON MAN 721 me unblinkingly from the case. Unblink- ing above on the glass shelf. The brain ingly? They could not have glared in any itself pulsed faintly in unison; till the other way, for they had no eyelids to whole affair gave one a conviction that blink with. Nor were they set in eye- here was actual, though incredible, life. sockets, or surrounded by a skull. Just A locomotive without its train. A two naked eyeballs perched there behind power-house without its factory. A human glass and staring with dilated pupils into heart and brain without a body; but cer¬ my own eyes—as though piercing clear tainly appearing to be alive and in fit to my soul. shape to guide a body should one be pre¬ sented. ELL, I got over the jolt a bit, and W Meanwhile, the staring, almost hyp¬ began to investigate. I started by notic eyes on their antennae of optic switching on a bulb that hung over the nerves. . . . table for the special purpose of illuminat¬ "What do you think of it. Cleave?” ing the case. I jumped a foot, and only half suc¬ Tlie case, I saw then, was full of a col¬ ceeded in repressing a yell. Klegg had orless fluid. And there was more, soaking come in behind me, unheard, and had placidly in the fluid, than a pair of eye¬ spoken without warning. balls. "You might cough, or something, just There was a brain behind the eyeballs, to let a man know you’re around,” I said for one thing. A naked human brain, look¬ reproachfully. ing like the specimens you see pickled in He smiled. "I see it has impressed glass jars at a medical school. The brain you, at least.” rested on a glass shelf near the top of the "It certainly has," I replied. "Tell me case. The eyes projected from the fore¬ —is the thing alive, or isn’t it?” part of the wrinkled, grayish lump on "It is not, of course. You ought to two stalks that resembled antennas. The know that. It’s dead as mutton. But it stalks, I recognized, were the optic nerves. has provided me with a lot of entertain¬ Leading down from the brain, like ment and a great deal of new knowledge small trailing power cables, were a score concerning automatic reflex nerve-action. or more of grayish-white, elastic-looking For instance, look.” tubes. These, as they descended, branched He lit a match and held the flame close into four main tubes. And these main to the naked, appalling eyes. ' Watch the tubes were finally rooted in—a human pupils.” heart! I watched them—black, dilated holes Yes, there was no mistaking it. Lying in twin rings of dark brown. And as I on the floor of the case, like a pallid mush¬ watched, they contracted from the bright¬ room growth tinged with red, was a ness of the match flame. It was uncanny. human heart. And what was more—it "Yet you say it’s dead,” I exclaimed. was beating. "Certainly. 'That is, as brain and heart Steadily, effortlessly, seventy or so to it is dead. 'The individual cells are alive, the minute, it pulsated before my gaze. and they are still governed by the myste¬ Beat, beat, beat. And with every beat a rious automatic influence we call reflex perceptible impulse traveled along the action.” elastic tubes on the right (why, they He dropped the match stub to the were human arteries!) to the brain rest- floor and stepped on it. W. T.—4 722 WEIRD TALES

"Looks impossible, doesn’t it?” he duced to getting our cadavers mainly commented. "Yet it is quite simple, real¬ from the state. More often than not the ly. Any kind of heart can be kept beat¬ corpse stretched on the surgical slab is ing indefinitely if immersed in a neutral that of some criminal. But come away, salt solution—sodium, calcium and potas¬ and let me show you the real work I sium salts—and nourished with a little called you in to see.” sugar. It’s a common experiment. But "I thought that was it,” I said, point¬ I don’t think any one has ever before ing to the heart and the brain from which taken both heart and brain from a newly sprouted the glaring eyeballs. killed human being, connected the two "Oh, no. That’s quite an achieve¬ organs with fresh veins and arteries, and ment, if I do say so myself. But the real kept them functioning as one system.” achievement stands under that canvas I stared down at him—a little man, he shroud.” And he started toward the gi¬ was—dark as a Spaniard, with bristly gantic, veiled figure I had noticed when black hair and eyebrows, and burning I first was shown into the laboratory. black eyes. "But why the eyeballs?” I demanded, I FOLLOWED him, but I could still feel glancing again with a shudder at the sin¬ those exposed eyeballs boring into my ister, staring orbs poised on their nerve- back. They had no muscles to turn them, stalks like marbles. so their gaze could not follow my path. "To observe more effectively the way But I was sure that, with no sockets to the organs react to artificial nerve stim¬ restrict their vision, they could see me uli,” Klegg said, with a carelessness that out of their “corners” wherever I went. didn’t fool me for a minute: he was It was devilish, that feeling. And I didn’t pleased as a child at the way his experi¬ lose it for a second in the laboratory that ment worked. night. "By the way,” he went on, "apart "Here,” said Klegg, his voice lower¬ from its scientific interest, that brain is ing, "is something really unique. But a most arresting lump of meat. It’s the before I show it to you, let me explain brain of Tuzloff. You’ve heard of him?” some of the principles behind it. My eyes opened at that. Heard of "For years I have worked on the theory him? Who has not! Bomber, murderer, that the human brain gives off energy in outlaw, he had left a grim trail of death rays as measurable and discoverable as behind him for two years, until an out¬ any other rays. Thought-rays, you might raged state had finally captured and exe¬ call them. Recently I solved my problem. cuted him. He had died screaming hate I discovered the pure thought-ray and to at the world. No one knew where he had some extent analyzed its secret and meas¬ come from, but every one knew his mad ured its wave-length. I’ve found brain history. Tuzloff! My word! emanations to be a hitherto unknown "What a gruesome idea!” I exclaimed. form of electrical energy somewhat akin "Imagine preserving that brain, of all to magnetism. 'This energy is capable of others, and keeping it at your elbow day being harnessed by the use of proper mag¬ and night!” netic receptors. You imderstand?” Klegg smiled. "A dead brain is a "After a fashion,” I said. dead brain. Cleave. It doesn’t matter "All right then”—^his voice rang with who owned it in life. Besides, we’re re¬ triumph—"look!” THE IRON MAN i723

Dramatically he jerked the cord that former place, two strides in reverse. The swept away the canvas from the twenty- floor, though of solid cement poured on foot-high thing it had hidden. And as I the ground itself, quivered with its mass. saw what the canvas had concealed, I Tons, it weighed. gasped and started back a pace. "It looks impressive, doesn’t it?” said It was a colossal man, of iron. Or, I Klegg. He almost crowed it. "Yet it’s should say, it was a grim metal travesty all a simple arrangement of weights, of a man. levers and steel cables, set in motion by Two stories up, brushing the roof of the comparatively small pull of magnets the lofty laboratory, was the thing’s which are acted upon by my thought— "head”—a steel cylinder two feet in di¬ after being ’stepped-up’ a good many mil¬ ameter and a yard high. In this, to carry lion times. I can control the thing as out human resemblance, were cut eye¬ though it were my own body.” holes. "It’s—it’s heavy, isn’t it?" was the best The cylinder was set, like a hat-box I could say. atop a hogshead, on a larger cylinder that "Twenty tons. You see, for every made up the torso of the monstrous thing. weight moved, I had to provide a counter¬ Through the top of the larger cylinder weight. When I got through I foimd I ran a heavy casting, a beam which pro¬ had a regular steam-roller on my hands." truded a yard on either side. These pro¬ "What keeps it from falling over on trusions were the "shoulders” and from its face?” I asked. them hung cylindrical arms, jointed, and "A gyroscope, run by storage batteries ending in two-clawed pincers that took in its diest.” Klegg was beaming like a the place of hands. lad who shows off a home-made radio set The whole rested on two ponderous with which he can get Australia. "The steel columns of legs, and the legs ended officials of the Easton Electric Company in "feet” which were solid metal pyra¬ are coming to see me a week from to¬ mids with pivot joints at the apices for morrow. They’ll certainly see a demon¬ ankles. stration!” "Watch it," said Klegg proudly. "They certainly will,” I said weakly. He stared at it fixedly, his forehead 'Why in heaven’s name did you build the wrinkling as if in terrific mental concen¬ thing so big?” tration. (I found out later that this was "To make the demonstration more spec¬ sheer theatrics; thought no more pro¬ tacular.” Ah, there spoke his vanity again. found than a wish for pancakes for break¬ "Tons of metal, so delicately balanced and fast was enough to work the mechanism.) counterbalanced that it can be moved In an instant the monstrous robot was solely by the power of thought! The idea set in ponderous motion. The iron man was irresistibly alluring. And now that slowly lifted its ri^t leg, slowly extended the thing is done, I can make it follow it in a forward step, and as slowly set it me about like a dog, if I wish.” down. The left leg followed suit. In two "I wouldn’t,” I said, visioning little strides the enormous thing was almost on Klegg walking down Main Street with the top of us. towering colossus thundering meekly With a cry I leaped aside to avoid being behind him. crushed. But it stopped there, obedient to He made the robot do more tricks for Klegg’s will. Then it backed into its me. One was to pidc up a telephone book 724 WEIRD TALES

from a bench in its mighty pincers of ond or two I had collected my wits. I tore hands. Hiere wasn’t much left of the out into the warm summer night, hatless book when it finished, but it picked it up, and collarless and in my shirt sleeves, and all right. jumped a taxi for Klegg’s laboratory. 'Then I left — side-stepping widely The front part of his house was all in around the glass case in which were the darkness. I pounded at the door, rang the brain and heart, and the horrible, alive- bell furiously. No one answered. I re¬ looking eyeballs which seemed to note our membered then that it was the night off movements with devilish concentration. for Klegg’s servants. Klegg alone—no I went home, to wonder at the amazing one to help or admit help—and he in combination of scientific genius and vain¬ some terrible trouble. . , . glorious little boy that was Klegg. But what could the trouble be? Bur¬ I had nightmares about the contents of glars? No. Klegg had said it was after that glass case. If ever anything looked him. It was loose. alive, those glaring eyeballs did. Yet With knuckles bleeding from the fruit¬ Klegg had assured me, as did my own less pounding at the door, I raced around common sense, that brain and heart and to the rear of the house. Here, a separate eyes were dead, though the individual brick building connected with the house cells composing them lived on in the salt by a short, covered runway, was the solution. laboratory. "Klegg!” I shouted as I came. "It’s I— Five days were destined to pass before Cleave. Can you open the back door, or a I heard from Klegg again. And then window-” he was to get in touch with me under cir¬ I stopped, then, and stared, stupefied, cumstances so fantastic and terrible. . . . at the wall of the laboratory. But I’d better stick to some sort of order From ground level to roof there was a in my accoimt. yawning hole in the solid wall. And Eleven o’clock in the evening of that scattered over the lawn and sidewalk were fifth day. I had just come home and, the bricks that had filled that space, some minus collar and coat, was smoking a broken to chips and some crushed to dust. good-night pipe before turning in, when A charge of dynamite could have done no my telephone rang. more damage. "Hello-’’ I began. But my voice Then I saw, in the strip of lawn between was cut off by a wild rush of words ava¬ sidewalk and laboratory, a single hole, lanching over the wire. like a footprint save that it was a yard "Cleave! Is that you? Cleave—this is square and ten inches deep. And I knew, Klegg. Cleave—for God’s sake come of course, what it was that had got loose. over here at once! To my laboratory! You "Klegg!” I cried again, leaping in hear? 'The thing’s got loose! Come at through the gaping hole in tlie wall. once—oh, my God! It’s after me-’’ "Klegg!” There was a crash, a sound like distant 'The laboratory was in ruins. Every bit thimder over the telephone, then silence. of apparatus, every work-bench and in¬ "Klegg!” I called, stupidly shaking the strument was crushed as flat as if a steam¬ telephone as if it were his shoulder I had roller had been methodically driven from hold of. "Klegg! What’s wrong?” side to side and end to end of the place. But there was no answer; and in a sec¬ The electric globes blazed down on a THE IRON MAN 725 min more complete than an earthquake mured. "For I’m afraid mankind never could have produced. will.” "Klegg, where are you?” Yet it wasn’t his fault, really. 'That I heard a low moan from near the malevolent brain—which had been alive door. after all, as my every instinct had warned —shut up alone with him week after I jumped in that direction, saw a figure week, working on his unsuspecting mind, lying on the cracked cement near it—and slowly dominating it, sapping into it, im¬ stopped in horror. posing its own will on Klegg’s—till final¬ It was Klegg, or, rather, what was left ly the scientist’s will had snapped and he of him. How he had managed to live had mesmerically obeyed its command and during the minutes of my coming is more given it a new lx)dy of steel. than ni ever be able to figure out. Pure "Yes, yes,” I mumbled in the wrecked will-power, I guess. laboratory, "easy to see how it happened. From the waist down he was a ghastly But what in God’s name can be done to pulp. His chest . . . well, I won’t go stop it?” into details. That naked heart would beat in its salt His eyes were glazing even as I looked solution till the containing case was into them; plainly he had only a few sec¬ smashed; and while it pulsed the brain onds left. would live to guide its fantastic engine of "The iron man,” he whispered. "Broke destruction. The engine itself would con¬ away, stalking the city . . . loose . . . tinue upright as long as the storage bat¬ twenty tons of death. ...” teries retained energy to drive the gyro¬ "But how could it break away?” I de¬ scopic controls in its iron breast. Left to manded. "It has no will of its own; it’s itself, the thing might function for days. just a mass of steel.” Meanwhile, gory death as it tramped ". . . brain,” whispered Klegg, "brain the city under the control of a criminally in glass case. It was alive . . . alive! And insane brain! I . . . put case and all in iron man’s head. Something made me . . . like hypno¬ “Tt’s got to be stopped!” I babbled, tism. . . .” J- starting to run through the yawning "Yes,” I urged. "Yes. . . .” hole in the brick wall. "It must be But Klegg was past urging. He was stopped! But how?” dead. On the sidewalk, I turned instinctively I stared down at the pitiably twisted to the right. To the right lay the main thing that had once been a human being. avenue of the city, a car-line street leading So small, so inconsequential-looking. But straight toward the downtown section. what a monstrous thing it had done! That would be TuzlofiF’s destination. 'The iron man, twenty tons of invul¬ No sooner had I turned into the bright¬ nerable metal, stalking through the ly lighted main avenue than I saw I would crowded city—directed by the maniacal, have no diflaculty trailing the iron man. revengeful brain of the mad Tuzloff! What a wake it had left! Twenty tons of steel, guided by a soft At this section of the street, not a liv¬ gray lump of pure hate in a salt solution! ing soul moved on sidewalk or pavement. What horrible possibilities were there! Yet excitement and horror seethed in the "May God forgive you, Klegg,” I mur¬ very air. Moans and screams were coming 726 WEIRD TALES

from every window above the second floor fringe of the downtown section, I heard level. And from every window people a din that grew louder as I hurried toward peered fearfully. it. Shouts, yells, screams, a lurid red I stood in the center of the street and flare as a fire started some place near, and gazed around. over it all the thunderous crashing of At the curb on one side were the re¬ some great weight pounding along the mains of a touring-car. It was smashed pavement. flat. The steering-wheel was crushed on In a moment or two I got within half its twisted column, and embedded in a a block of the thing. And there I paused, gory ruin. A small sedan that had been rigid at the spectacle. parked in front of it had also been Glinting dully in the reflected light of squeezed flat; but this car, as far as I street lamps and electric signs was the could see, luckily had been empty. iron man, stalking down the street ahead On the rails of the car track was a of me. ghastly mound of wreckage. A street-car, Two stories up swayed the cylindrical or what was left of it. It had been pushed head in which were the artificially pre¬ over on its side and painstakingly de¬ served heart and the mad brain. "Two molished. Roof and sides were splintered stories tall the figure teetered down the to nothing. Only the solid undercarriage street, like a reeling tower. A three-yard was left fairly intact. And around the step. Five seconds while the counterbal¬ shattered car were at least a score of anced weights slid in accordance to the bodies—great, shapeless smears on the magnetic controls, lifting the other leg pavement. high and lowering it in advance. Another "Look out!” I remember hearing some step. Five seconds. Another step. And woman shriek. "Look out! It’ll get you, with every step a crashing boom of too!” twenty tons of metal banging down on I only half heard the warning. Trem¬ stone paving—or on an automobile or bling, white-faced, I began to hurry down human body. tlie avenue in the monstrous trail of the Slowly the tower of the body leaned iron man. forward like a falling cliff with each ad¬ Wrecked automobiles littered the pave¬ vancing step, straightened as the stride ment every few feet. Some were at the was taken, leaned backward as the next curb, some in the middle of the street. was begun. Its giant arms, ending in the The latter in every case were spattered mighty pincers, clanged against its metal with crimson. The iron man had evident¬ sides as it moved. Back and forth, back ly caught them as they rolled toward him and forth, with each forward lunge carry¬ —drivers no doubt petrified with horror ing it farther toward the heart of the —stamped them flat with a single stride, downtown district—and the theater and and gone on. supper crowds teeming there. Street-cars knocked over and demol¬ In spite of the thickening of the crowds, ished, trolley poles broken off like celery however, the occasional red smears on the stalks to trail live wires on the pavement, pavement grew no more numerous. The horrible red blotches evet5rwhere on the iron man moved too slowly to overtake slippery street—a tornado could not have many victims. Thus, though people were left a plainer path. pouring toward the source of the commo¬ And now, from far ahead, on the tion with mob curiosity from every direc- THE IRON MAN i727 tion, the metal monster had its appetite crazily as I racked my brain for a way to glutted but seldom. People who fell in its stop diis awful destruction. path in their mad scramble to get away once they had seen what manner of thing The shriek of a police siren soimded was making the noise; people who chanced far off to the right. Then another, to dash out of building entrances squarely and another. A general riot call had evi¬ in its road; people who tried crazily to dently been turned in at last. hide under cars or in too shallow door¬ I ran down the side street toward the ways—these were the only ones caught wailing police cars, leaving for the mo¬ under the huge descending pyramids of ment the main street on which the iron iron. man was sowing broadcast the seed of And so the thing moved forward with ruin. Of all the crowd, I was the only the steady, inexorable advance of a glacier, one who knew the true nature of the making every five-second stride demolish colossus. It was up to me to put my something — property, and more rarely, knowledge at the disposal of the blue- but still only too often, life; something— coated fighters about to do battle with it. on its de\'astating way. Down the street toward me came a line A gray-haired man, erect of carriage, of cars filled with blue-uniformed figures. blazing-eyed, with a military appearance, I stopped the first by the simple method rushed out of a restaurant and toward me. of standing squarely in its path and wav¬ "Gad, sir!” he spluttered. "Gad, sir! Is ing my arms, meanwhile refusing to it war? Is this some new kind of tank budge from its charge. I thought at first directed by radio.?” the car meant to run me down, heedless of He rushed off without waiting for an one life by reason of the emergency of the answer. I saw him blaze away with an call ahead. But at the last minute it skid¬ automatic at the back of the iron man. ded to a halt. I jumped onto the running- The bullets glanced oflf the rounded steel board. body like peas from a child’s bean-blower. A big man with a grizzled mustache, There were others shooting at it, also. whose star shone gold instead of silver, Half a dozen police were there, pumping glared at me. futile bullets at it. "Who the hell are you,” he snapped, At one minute I saw the half-dozen "and why the hell are you holding us up?” police and the military-looking man in a "Who I am doesn’t matter,” I said. "I close group at the monster’s heels—at the stopped you because I know all about the next I saw the iron man, w'ith fiendish thing up ahead you’re out to fight.” suddenness, reverse its stride and step There was a hubbub from the other six backward instead of forward. men in the car. It got two of the group as they fell over each other trying to get out of the "You do?” way. "What is it, then?” "The soul of Tuzloff, mad murderer, "Where is it?” must have rejoiced in its niche in hell. The man with the gold star held up Unless Tuzloff’s soul, with TuzlofiF’s con¬ his hand for silence. scious intelligence, was in the glass case "We were told that some lunatic had with his heart and brain. . . . Could souls got hold of an army tank and was running be kept in salt solutions, too? I wondered wild in it. Is that true? If it is, we’d bet- 728 WEIRD TALES

ter phone the Fort for soldiers and field ing at the monstrous moving tower, red¬ artillery.” dened half-way up its columnar legs, that "It’s not a tank,” I said rapidly. "It’s was steadily working forward along the an iron man, twenty feet high and proof shambles of a street. against rifle or revolver bullets.” Even as we stared, the iron man reaped “An iron man!” repeated the chief, a ghastly windfall. A score of people, in¬ staring. stead of trying to run, had stupidly "Aw, throw him off the nmning-board crammed into the body of a big closed and let’s get going,” some one growled truck parked at the curb, to hide from savagely. the nightmare thing of metal that was “I’m not crazy,” I said. “For God’s trampling toward them. sake, listen to me! This thing is a big The iron man stopped. One great leg machine, in the shape of a man, twenty went out, to push against the truck. 'The feet high. It’s made of iron and it travels truck rocked half off its wheels but stayed on two legs.” upright. Yells and shrieks came from “How is it run?” was the skeptical within it. A few—all too few—^managed question. to leap out and get away. The rest . . . The words of the military-looking gen¬ The iron man pushed again. The truck tleman—now a smear on the pavement— leaned farther, balanced an instant, then occurred to me. I reconsidered my idea smashed onto its side. of telling the fantastic truth about the A great iron pyramid of a foot lifted— iron giant. Better to say something that descended—lifted again. sounded credible than try, in this crowded With a groan the chief whirled to his moment, to aam the true facts down their men. throats. “Into the buildings ahead of it,” he “It’s run by radio,” I said. “But listen: snapped. “Second-story windows—level the radio-control mechanism is in the with the damned thing’s head. Concen¬ thing’s head, a two-foot steel cylinder on trate fire on the eye-holes. Sub-machine top of the rest of the machine. This cylin¬ guns. Quick!” der has two holes in it, like eye-holes. The thing to do is sharpshoot through one of The men jumped out of the car, five those holes and smash the radio-control. of them, one a strapping blond young Once that’s done, the machine stops work¬ fellow hardly more than a lad. I noticed ing. Get me?” him then because he seemed so young—■ “Got you,” he said. “But first we ll he couldn’t have been more than twenty- draw a cordon around this section to keep two. And later . . . well, the whole city these fools from rushing in and risking united in placing him on a hero’s pedestal. their lives. Steve, flag the rest and tell ’em The five rushed forward, skirting to block off the streets four blocks each around the iron man, fighting their way way from here. And you”—^he stabbed by main force through the screaming mob, his blunt forefinger at me—"ride the run¬ till they were fifty yards ahead. Then they ning-board till we get to this thing ahead.” burst in the doors of the department stores The police driver jammed into gear flanking the street at that section and ran and we sped forward. Half a block to the up to the second-floor windows. There main avenue. A block to the right. they stationed themselves, two on one side “Good God!” muttered the chief, star¬ of the street, three on the other, guns THE IRON MAN 729 ready to belch lead at the two-foot cylin¬ steel. Slight dents appeared in the cylin¬ der housing the "radio-control median- der in swift succession, like dents in the ism.” surface of a puddle of water in a rain¬ The chief stayed behind with me. As storm. fast as he crnuld load his revolver, he fired "They’ve got it! They’ve got it!” at the turret of a head. But no result was shouted the chief. apparent. Hundreds of bullets had been But they hadn’t got it. My simple idea fired at the iron man by now—from the of firing into the eye-holes to break the guns of police and a few civilians—^with glass case and spill its contents—heart, the same lack of result. No armored tank brain, salt solution and all — was not could have been more impervious to gun¬ going to work. And the next instant the fire. chief saw it too. "Tons of metal, moved solely by the There is no doubt that TuzloflPs brain power of thought!” Kiegg had built his could "hear” the bullets that beat against man so heavy "to make the demonstra¬ the monstrous iron body. The shock tion more spectacular.” of these impacts must certainly have Well, the demonstration was proving sent vibrations to the sound areas of the spectacular enough! cortex, in its fluid solution. 'The "sound” "The boys’ll get it through the eye¬ may have been slight; it may have battered holes,” said the chief, stopping his vain terribly against the raw, exposed brain firing at last. "Every mother’s son of ’em surface; at any rate it was certainly sensed. is a marksman. You wait.” With the first indication that here at By now the iron man was within thirty last was a really efficient and well-directed yards of the windows where the men wait¬ fire, the iron man stopped in its tracks. It ed for it. We held our breaths. couldn’t lower its head to present the Thud. A five-second interlude, agon¬ blank top of the cylinder to the hail of izingly long, while one great leg lifted bullets; there was no neck to bend. It ponderously to be set down before the couldn’t incline its whole body, save for other, the tower of a body swaying slow¬ the slight leaning backward and forward ly back and then inclining forward. Thud. of walking, because of the gyroscopic Five seconds again. Thud. controls. Smash! Bang! A glittering limousine But it could—and did—turn around so reduced to a tangled mass of wreckage. that its cartoon of a "face” was no longer Crash! A trolley pole snapped off at its in danger from the bullets of the men in base. the windows ahead of it. How Tuzloff must have been laughing, Back it came, over the red road it had had he lips to laugh with! Never in life traveled. Back directly toward the chief could his distorted mind have compassed and myself. And now the chief began a hundredth of the damage a scientist’s firing again, slowly, taking careful aim. mistake was granting him in death. But the eye-holes were small; the two-foot A stabbing flame burst at last from the cylinder was moving in a difficult arc; and second-story window on the iron man’s the only light was that from electric signs left. Another came from the right, con¬ and the few street lamps the giant had verging toward the ghastly, cylindrical left unbroken. No bullet hit near the head. mark. There was a wild clanging of bullets on Both ponderous arms extended slowly 730 WEIRD TALES

toward us. The clanking pincers stretched realized that I knew of its existence, and wide, then lunged in our direction. decided that I must be crushed before We ran. the other work of destruction could be resumed? It was more than possible. Fifty feet away we stopped and looked back. The iron terror, we saw, was still At any rate the iron man appeared just stubbornly following us. But—we saw then to have no target in mind but us. something else. And we let it be so. Our backward prog¬ Behind the iron man, keeping pace ress was deliberately kept slow enough with it and so near it would have crushed so that the clanging pincers were con¬ him had it fallen over backward, was a stantly within a few yards of us. For, as blue-clad figure. And this figure was the chief said; "Looks like our play now swinging a coil of rope picked up in one is to keep it occupied till Doyle can do— of the department stores. whatever it is he’s trying to do.” It was the blond youngster who had Again the blond youngster, Doyle, ridden in the chief’s car. made an awkward cast with his loop. ’This "Doyle!” muttered the chief. "But time the noose settled clumsily around what’s he up to? Does he think he can the head. Doyle drew it tight. trip that thing with rope? It would snap "And now what?” I breathed, staring rope like thread!” wide-eyed at the man in the monster’s But it seemed that was not the blond tracks. young giant’s idea. "Back!” roared the chief. Deliberately he drew still closer to the I barely made it. I’d been almost fatal¬ crashing iron monster. He started whirl¬ ly interested in the maneuvers of Doyle. ing his noose, awkwardly, inexpertly, but And while I was watching them, the iron managing to keep the loop fairly wide¬ man had got almost too close. I’ll swear spread. He cast it—and cast it upward. the pincers fanned my face as they swept The cast failed, but the chief and I gasped downward. as we noted his target. He was trying to lasso the cylindrical From our next halting-place we turned head. to look again. And then our hearts "But what will he do if he succeeds, seemed to stop in our breasts. At least eh?” snapped the chief. "That is, if it’s mine did; and the open mouth and ster¬ possible for him to succeed—and not be torous breathing of the chief, as he stared smashed like a potato-bug in the trying.” at his man, indicated that he was as ap¬ I shook my head. It was beyond me. palled and fascinated as I was. Then both of us hopped back a few hasty For Doyle was starting to climb his steps. The iron man was pursuing us like rope, hand over hand, toward the iron a slow-moving avalanche, relentlessly, man’s head. steadily, everything else but our destruc¬ Foot by foot he progressed, scaling the tion seeming for the moment to be for¬ sheer cliff of the metal giant’s back. gotten by it. With each forward sway, he stopped. Or was it my destruction the thing Evidently in those seconds it was all he wanted? Had the naked, diabolical eye¬ could do to hang on. In each backward balls, glaring through one or other of the leaning he hauled himself up a bit more. head-holes, recognized me as a friend of He got to within four feet of the base of Klegg’s? Had the brain behind the eyes the head, within which he innocently sup- THE IRON MAN 731 posed was a soulless bit of radio mechan¬ The picture will be etched on my brain ism. Three feet. And still we couldn’t till I die. divine what purpose was behind his A street lamp gleamed from a pole daring. near by. It flared into the vacant eye-holes And then the vast iron thing stopped, on a level with them and only a few feet as though at last aware of the clinging, away. It showed in every detail the clang¬ puny creature on its back. But it couldn’t ing metal monster backing toward the be aware of it! No nerves to feel. No ears building wall to crush the man on its to hear. Unless the scraping of Doyle’s back, meanwhile throwing that gallant fig¬ heavy shoes had carried through the metal ure, struggling to keep its hold on the to the brain in the case.** But that was jerking rope, into deep shadow. utterly improbable. But Doyle was doing more than mere¬ Nevertheless, the thing did know, sud¬ ly struggle to keep his grip. He was still denly, that something was on its back. inching higher. And I believe I know now how that A pendulum swing of the rope brought could be. him a little to one side, and we saw that The eyes of the chief and myself, and only a foot separated him now from the of every soul within range, were focussed shallow flat terrace formed by the top of on Doyle. In every face must have been the body-cylinder around the smaller cyl¬ stamped the same agonizing tensity I felt inder of the head. on my own as I watched his perilous Doyle’s fingers caught the edge of the ascent up the moving metal cliff, with the shallow terrace. He let go of the rope- ponderous arms swinging within inches of Crash! brushing him off at every step the monster The mountainous bulk had smashed took. The glaring eyeballs in the head, I against the wall. Stone chips flew from think, noted that uniformity of gaze. The the grinding surface where Doyle had Satanic intelligence behind them must clung. have divined its cause. And Doyle? He was on the terrace of Anyhow, the iron man paused, half the "shoulders”, clinging at last to the turned, then began to back with regular, goal he had set himself. But his left foot machine-like steps up over the broad was dangling at a sickening angle. sidewalk and straight toward the stone wall of the nearest building. For an instant we saw him cling mo¬ "Drop!” bellowed the chief, his face tionless. His face in the light of the death-white. "Doyle—drop!” street lamp was green. But he stuck, But Doyle, it seemed, had no intention hugging the two-foot cylinder of a head as of dropping. He clung all the tighter, like a lineman hugs a telegraph pole. And at a climber on a tree trunk in a gale of wind, last he began to move, inch by inch, to while the iron man backed nearer and conclude the task he had so heroically nearer to the fatal wall. begun. "Jump!” commanded the chief. Inch by inch he started to swarm But again Doyle disobeyed; perhaps he around the cylinder toward the front of it. could not hear. And deathly silence fell Again the great hulk of iron beneath him on those of us who watched—a silence banged against the stone wall. The shock broken only by the crash of the iron feet was terrific, but Doyle stayed. as they thudded on the sidewalk. His legs clamped more firmly around 732 WEIRD TALES the head, he drew himself squarely in gantic pincers opened wide like the jaws front of the "face"—and thus at last had of a steam shovel. They closed. . . . the bull’s-eye so close that it couldn’t pos¬ There was a single shot as Doyle’s mus¬ sibly be missed. cles finally obeyed his frantic brain. He jerked his gun from its holster, Simultaneously with the shot a terrible leveled it into an eye-hole. . . . scream came from his lips. A half-yell, such as even the agony of The ponderous arm straightened jerk¬ his crushed foot had not sufficed to wring ily; stopped; moved convulsively again, from him, came from his pallid lips. And for all the world like the limb of a then he seemed to turn to stone. Of all wounded living creature. Then it hung the mob, I alone knew the reason. still, as hangs the arm of a leaning der¬ What must have been his horror when rick. And suspended in midair, writhing his eyes, sighting into the cavernous head, feebly in the clasp of the murderous pin¬ saw the fiendish eyeballs glaring out of cers, was Doyle. the glass case, returning stare for stare? For a moment we could only stand No radio mechanism, but disembodied and gape at the struggling figure hang¬ human eyes! For of course he must have ing high over our heads. Then a dozen of seen them. The street-light the monster us began fighting for the privilege of was facing surely shone in enough to re¬ being the first to climb the trailing rope veal them. and rescue him. Turned to stone! It is a hackneyed We eased him out of the awful clutch description, but it is the most exact I can —a thing made possible only by the fact think of to apply to the way he continued ■ inactive, paralyzed in mid-course. And that his shot had smashed tire case and the brain a bare instant before the claws while he clung there, revolver leveled at could clamp with their full force—and the glass case in the iron man’s head but lowered him gently to the street. with his nerveless finger refusing to pull the trigger, one of the great arms started "He’ll live,” said a doctor who had to sweep slowly up toward him. fought his way through the crowd to "Doyle . . . Doyle . . . Doyle,” whis¬ bend over the badly crushed man. "He’ll pered the chief by my side. I believe he spend the next few months in a plaster thought he was shouting it. "Doyle . . . cast. But he’ll live.” look out . . . Doyle. . . .” "And he’ll get some nice, shiny medals Not more than five seconds could have for this, too,” said the chief gruffly. been required for the balanced weights in Doyle grinned weakly up at us. His the iron torso to draw up that grim, claw- lips moved. We bent to hear what he had tipped arm. But it seemed like five hours. to say. Some heroic statement that would And throughout that time, when the night ring down the years? "I only did my itself seemed to be holding its breath, duty?” Something like that? Doyle hung still. "Trade somebody the medals ... fora Tlie arm curved in on itself. The gi¬ cigarette,” was what he whispered. Vhe G^rawling Curse By HUGH B. CAVE

A shivery tale of an East In¬ dian murder and the ghastly fate that hounded the mur¬ derer to his doom

"He fired twice blindly and mtssed; then be fired jour times methodically." yESKER, the Dutchman, paced made him a half-caste in the eyes of cer¬ metliodically down the second-floor tain white men and a king invincible in corridor and entered the room num¬ the eyes of certain up-river natives. Gov¬ bered 213. It was the room of the man ernment ofiicials had thought enough of he meant to murder; and without emotion him to overlook the fact that he was the or nervousness or any feeling whatever, illegitimate son of a Saputan sorceress, he hid himself there to await his victim’s and remember that he was also the son of arrival. a distinguished French ofiicer. Conse¬ The hour was eleven o’clock at night, quently he held a position of high impor¬ and Vesker’s victim would return at tance in Bandjermasin. eleven-fifteen. His name was Tenegai At present he was playing bridge with LaRoque, and he was a good man. He his wife and his wife’s friends. It was was part French and part Saputan, which his wife’s arrangement. His wife was 733. 734 WEIRD TALES

twenty-four and unforgivably lovely, and crunch of bone, and a thin wheezing, and passionately French. then the thump of a falling body. It was for her sake, as well as his own, Vesker stood over his victim and smiled that Vesker was hiding in Tenegai La- thoughtfully. He put the weapon back Roque’s room. She and Vesker had into his pocket. Then he moved to the planned the details together. Neither of door, stepped out, listened intently, and them loved the man who was to be mur¬ came back again. He went to his knees dered. and adjusted the limp body over his The room was shadow-ridden and shoulder. murky, and a very good place for Vesker’s He closed the door of Tenegai La- purpose. It was one of the best rooms in Roque’s room after him and carried Ten¬ Bandjermasin’s best hotel, which meant egai LaRoque to his own room, on the that it possessed two narrow windows and third floor. There he dropped his victim smelled a little and seldom saw light on the bed, and grinned, and breathed enough to dispel the lurking gloom. To¬ deeply with satisfaction. night, as Vesker stood at the east win¬ No one would know. dow, the gloom was thick enough to be alive, and the view outside was one of IaRoque was dead. Vesker bent over black house-tops, twisted street-alleys, and J him and listened for the sound pf a occasional furtive eyes of ocher light. beating heart, and heard nothing. He Vesker stood and listened, and heard fumbled with the man’s wrist and felt no nothing; so he paced the room twice and pulse. So he went to a cupboard and then leaned against the wall with a cig¬ took out four empty burlap bags, and arette dangling from his mouth. He was dropped them on the floor. Then, from a not afraid of what he was going to do. It bureau drawer, he took a large sheet of would be quite simple and silent, and no waterproof canvas and spread that over one would know. No one but God, Ves¬ the carpet. He put the dead man on it. ker thought; and God was too busy with While he was doing this, Tenegai La- big affairs to worry about mere details. Roque’s wife came into the room. There would be questions, afterward, She was undoubtedly beautiful, this and perhaps an official investigation. But woman. Her hair was black and her eyes that meant nothing. Bandjermasin was were black, and a tropical sun had dark¬ full of officious persons who had nothing ened her skin so that it stood out in star¬ to do but investigate this and that, with¬ tling contrast to the off-white of her eve¬ out learning anything. ning gown. She was slender and not too It was eleven-fifteen. Vesker dropped tall, and the lines of her body were dar¬ his cigarette and stepped on it, and flat¬ ingly revealed by the fit of her dress. She tened his body against the wall behind the came and stood beside Vesker and looked door. From his pocket he took a short down into the dead face of her husband. length of lead piping, which was heavy "You are a brave man, Corlu,’’ she and very solid. And he waited. smiled. Presently he heard some one coming. Vesker looked at her. He wanted this The door opened, and a tall, stoop-shoul¬ woman. From the very first night of dered shape stepped over the threshold. their friendship, when he had met her at Vesker lifted the lead piping and brought an exclusive social affair, he had wanted it down again mightily. There was a her. THE CRAWLING CURSE 735

"Any man can be brave,” he said, "for at the first stroke of the knife the body sufficient reason.” twitched convulsively and the victim’s lips "And I am sufficient?” parted to release a groaning monotone. He took her in his arms and buried his Vesker stiffened and stared into the man’s lips in her black hair, and there was no countenance. Then he listened again at need to answer. the man’s breast, and scowled. After that "I love you, Renee,” he said. But he he worked very quickly. did not love her; he wanted her. And He worked for an hour before he felt he knew the diflFerence. He held her that he was not alone. The feeling grew against him until the perspiration of his upon him and annoyed him, so that he arms left wet lines in her dress. Then ceased his labor and rocked back on his he released her and said quietly: knees. He had already removed both of "This will not be pretty. You had bet¬ his victim’s legs and placed them to one ter go.” side. The severed head and left arm lay "You will come to me later?” with them on the canvas. Only the right "As soon as it is finished.” arm remained, and it lay limp with its She kissed him and touched the body fingers slightly curled. of her husband with her foot. Then she Vesker stared at it uneasily and told laughed softly, and went out, and Vesker himself that the slow opening of the fin¬ locked the door after her. gers was due to natural causes, and not He knelt beside the dead man, then, to anything else. But a mist was form¬ and undressed him, leaving him stark na¬ ing over the fingers, or seemed to be, and ked on the canvas sheet. Looking at what it frightened him. The mist was like cig¬ he had done, he smiled and said almost arette smoke, thin and gray and tenuous, inaudibly: and in motion. Was it taking form? No, "Yes, it will not be pretty. But it will of course it was not. That was only his soon be over, my friend.” silly imagination, and the lateness of the He went to the bed and raised the mat¬ hour, and the unpleasantness of his task. tress, and took out a leather case which And yet surely- contained instruments. Then he went to The mist was taking form. Vesker the door again and made sure that it was watched it and shrank away from it. It locked. After tliat he loosened one of the was a hand, now, like the hand of the bulbs in the chandelier above him, because dead man on the floor, except that these the bright light seemed to threaten his smoky fingers were malformed and ex¬ solitude. And finally, with the case of in¬ ceedingly long. And they w'ere descend¬ struments on the canvas beside him, he ing slowly into the real hand. They were knelt again beside the dead man. becoming a part of it. The fingers of the dead man’s hand IT WOULD have been an all-night job opened, then, while Vesker watched them. had he not known how; but among The index finger pointed into his face otiier things he had studied medicine and accusingly, as if that other hand had given knew the use of scalpel and hadc-saw. it the power of life. But of course it was And he had no personal feelings about the not that; it was merely a mechanical re¬ task. It was mechanical and did not flex action caused by the severing of cer¬ frighten him. tain cords. Vesker laughed throatily. He began with the dead man’s leg, and He stopped laughing and held his 736 WEIRD TALES breath. Over the victim’s torso a second the door after him. He carried the bags mist was forming, and the mist was be¬ down the back stairs, and a car was stand¬ coming a face. Yes, it was a face, a ing in the side street. The street was de¬ woman’s face. How could there be a serted, and the car was his own. He woman’s face like that? Was it his placed the bags in the rear compartment. imagination? No, because he was think¬ He returned to his room, then, and ing of LaRoque’s wife, and this woman made sure that every trace of evidence had was not LaRoque’s wife. been removed before he took the other It was almost no face at all, but what two bags down to the car. Then he sat there was of it was vicious and sinister. behind the wheel and drove. The eyes were slanted and the cheek¬ He drove to the east end of the water¬ bones were high and the lips were full. front and dropped one of the four bags The woman was a native, and very old. into the sea, after weighting it with heavy She was- stones. He drove farther and dropped But that was foolish! There was no the second bag from the end of an aban¬ woman here at all. He was making her doned dock. The third bag and the up in his mind and his inner consciousness fourth he took with him in a rowboat and was projecting an image of her. ’That transported far out into the bay. was idiocy. Then he returned to the hotel and went "There is nothing here,’’ Vesker said straight to Renee LaRoque’s room and let aloud. himself in with his own key. And the 'The woman’s lips parted in a smile and dead man’s wife was waiting for him. seemed to form words to answer him. Vesker cursed and leaned forward and 2 swept his arm through her. And then he laughed, because she was not there. Four days later, when he first saw it, She had never been there. he was living in a private home in the 'The hand of the dead man had shifted European quarter with Tenegai LaRoque’s position on the canvas, and the index fin¬ wife. And he laughed, because he ger was still pointing at him. But that thought that the favorite cat of his mis¬ was only reflex action. tress had eaten too much and was having "I would make a poor professional,” cramps. Vesker said, smiling. "My nerves are He had forgotten about Tenegai La- whisky-soaked.” Roque. Four days had passed and there He finished his task and put his instru¬ had been an investigation. Government ments back into the case. ’Then he filled oSicials had questioned the hotel author¬ three of the burlap bags with portions of ities aimlessly and foolishly, because the dead man’s body, and into the fourth LaRoque had disappeared. Where had bag he thrust the bloody canvas and the LaRoque gone? No one knew. Perhaps leather case. He wiped his hands on a he had tired of the heat and monotony towel and put the towel in his pocket. of Bandjermasin and taken silent leave of 'Then he unlocked the door and looked absence to Singapore. Other men had out. done that. He would come back. The lights had been turned oflF in the So they had stopped asking questions corridor. Vesker took two of the burlap and they were now wondering what La¬ bags with him and went out, and locked Roque would say when he returned and W. T.—4 THE CRAWLING CURSE 737

found his wife living witfi Corlu Vesker. reared like a swaying snake, with its five Presently they would find something else fingers opening and closing in the air. It to wonder about, and they would forget fell backward with the impact of the last the whole affair. There would be a native bullet. Then it wriggled away with in¬ uprising, or a Chinese merchant found credible speed, while Vesker clung to the stabbed, or something else to take its door and gaped at it. place. In a moment Renee LaRoque came and So Vesker laughed when he first saw stared at Vesker and said shrilly: it, because he had nothing to worry about. "What is it? What were you shooting He was alone on the veranda, in the at?” mosquito room. It was night, and a lamp Vesker looked down at the revolver in burned on the table, and the wire netting his hand, and looked at the veranda floor, was alive with droning insects. The glow and shook his head heavily. of the lamp reached feebly out over the "I must be drunk,” he said. lawn and illuminated the veranda steps. But he knew better. Vesker saw the thing on the steps. Then he saw what it was, and he recoiled so abruptly that he knocked the swizzle- 3 stick out of the tall glass on the table be¬ ESKER wrote a letter. side him. For the thing was not a cat, It was the evening of the seventh but a human arm with a hand and five day, and the lamp on the table threw his fingers, and it was sliding across the big shadow grotesquely over the paper. veranda floor toward him. He was alone in the room and he was He stood up and drew a deep breath afraid, and his letter was both a confes¬ and walked toward it, because he did not sion and a lie. believe what he saw. But he did not open "I killed him, and there was a good the door of the mosquito room. He stood reason for doing so. You knew him, with his face pressed against the screen, Fournier, so you will understand.” staring silently. Then he shouted wildly: Fournier—Captain Jason Fournier— "Renee! In the name of God, come was in charge of the native police squad quick!” which patrolled the evil quarter of Band- The thing was ten feet away and ap¬ jermasin’s waterfront. proaching like a large caterpillar, hump¬ "He was a half-caste and a rotter, and ing itself in the center and clawing for¬ he deserved to die, but I should not have ward with its five groping fingers. Ves¬ interfered except that he was dragging his ker stood quite still and watched it. His wife’s good name in the dust. He was eyes were wide and his face pale, and he playing with another woman and the au¬ was afraid. thorities suspected it. For Renee’s sake I "Renee!” he shouted. "Renee! Come had to stop it. out here!” "That night I went to his room at the Then he took a small pearl-handled hotel and argued with him. He was revolver from the bulging pocket of his drunk, Fournier. You have seen him linen coat, and flung the screen door drunk, and you know how utterly uncon¬ open. He fired twice blindly and missed, trollable he can become. He attacked and then he fired four times methodically. me and I struck him, and when I bent The thing ceased its forward motion and over him he was dead. W. T.—5 738 WEIRD TALES

"Why am I telling you this? Because studied these things and know more than I know it will go no further. We are I. What shall I do?’’ friends. And I need your help. A ter¬ Vesker read what he had written. It rible thing has happened, and I am going did not give him courage; it frightened mad thinking of it. Four days after I had him more. Putting his beliefs on paper hidden his body, a horrible beast tried to made him sure of them. He heard foot¬ get into the mosquito room to kill me. It steps in the corridor outside his door, and was his hand, Fournier. As God is my he turned in his chair like a scared animal. witness, it was his hand and arm. His! "Who is there?’’ he said harshly. I shot it, and it went away, but last night The knob turned and the door opened, it came again and tried to get into my win¬ and Renee LaRoque stood there. She dow. wore yellow pajamas which were deep or¬ “That was about two o’clock in the ange in the lamplight, and she had let her morning. I heard a scratching sound, hair down so that it covered her shoulders like rats, and I sat up in bed and switched and accentuated the white smoothness of on a flashlight. The window was shut, her breasts. Vesker pushed his letter aside Fournier. I always sleep with my win¬ and stood up to meet her. dows shut, thank God. And the thing "Are you coming to me tonight?’’ she was coiled on the sill, with its five fingers said softly. flattened against the glass. It had forced "Yes.” the screen up, but the window was locked. "I’m tired of waiting, Corlu.” It was awful! You will laugh at me, He held her passionately and kissed her thinking I am drunk, but I am not drunk until her eyes were wide with anticipa¬ and I was not drimk last night when the tion. Then he walked with her to the thing came. What I saw was real. door. "I screamed, Fournier, and rushed to "I will come in a moment,” he prom¬ the bureau for my revolver. But the ised. "I must finish a letter.” thing has a brain, because when I turned "To a woman?” she said quickly. again to shoot it, it was not there. Renee "There is no other woman. You know came running into the room—she is my that.” guest, you know, for the time being, until She leaned in the doorway and pushed she gets over the shock of her husband’s her hair back with smooth, slender fin¬ infidelity—and she asked me what was gers. Vesker lifted his hands and stepped wrong. I told her. She said I was mad. close to her, and then stepped back again, But I am not mad, Fournier. I was laughing softly. never more sane or sober in my life. And "As soon as I have finished the letter,” it was LaRoque’s hand, his arm and fin¬ he promised. And he closed the door gers, trying to kill me. after her. "You must help me. I can not go to He went to the table and began to read the police. The police would not know the letter over again, but it frightened what to do, anyway. This is a terrible him. He sealed it quickly, addressed the thing and driving me crazy. I am afraid, envelope, then turned the lamp low. because LaRoque was not a white man but a half-caste, and part Saputan. They The corridor was dark, and Renee La¬ say his mother was a sorceress. Roque’s room was at the other end. "What shall I do, Fournier? You have He tiptoed along, smiling and rubbing his THE CRAWLING CURSE 739 hands togdher softly. He was quite con¬ Vesker stiffened and lodced about (be tented. Desire was greater now than fear, room fearfully. He said: "Where is it?” and in a moment he would forget about "Him come ’cross floor! Him try dimb Tenegai LaRoque and about the creeping on bed! Me yell, Tuan!” beast with five fingers. "Wfliere is it, I asked you!” He removed his necktie and carried it The Malay gazed about, too, and shook in his hand, and began to unbutton his his head from side to side. shirt, because he was impatient. He was "Me—me not know, Tuan.” fumbling with the fourth button when he And there was no snake. Vesker heard the scream. looked; Melgani looked. Holding the He stopped abruptly. The scream was lamp, Vesker went to his knees and human, and came from the rear of the searched the floor, the corners, the bed- house where the servants’ quarters were shadows. Rising, he searched the win¬ located. It was a vibrant shriek, full of dow-ledge, the wash-stand, the cupboard. terror. There was no snake. Vesker stood quite still, waiting for it "Did you leave your window open?” to come again, and after the scream he Vesker demanded. heard some one talking in a loud, fright¬ "No, no, Tuan! No!” ened voice. Then he hurried down the "Well, it’s not here. It’s gone again. corridor, and he was running when he Go back to bed.” reached the source of the sound. Then he went out and walked slowly It was the room of the Malay house- down the corridor to Renee LaRoque’s boy, Melgani. There was a light burning room. But he was afraid again and he on the wash-stand, and the little brown¬ struck four matches, one after another, to skinned native was kneeling foolishly on light the way. And his hand trembled the carpet, with his bare arms uplifted when he opened the door. and his face turned to the ceiling. From his lips poured a torrent of incoherent syl¬ He thought at first that Renee La¬ lables which were prayers. Roque was lying that way for his Vesker stood over him and frowned benefit, because she was lovely and pas¬ and shook him. The boy flung both arms sionate and because she wanted him. She around him and sobbed. lay across the bed, limp and relaxed and "What is it?” Vesker said sullenly. nearly naked, with her hair dangling and The Malay muttered in his own tongue, her white throat exposed. pointing to the window. The window But when he had shut the door and tip¬ was half-way open and_ the screen was toed toward her, he saw something else. up. The white cotton curtains were mov¬ She was not lying there for him. She ing indolently in the breeze. had been flung there. Her lips were blue "WTiat is it?” Vesker said again. and parted, and her tongue protruded. "Talk English, damn you!” Her throat was blotched with crimson. "Dem snake, Tuan!” the Malay whined. Her yellow pajamas were not open be¬ "Dem snake him come t’rough window cause she had opened them, but because affer me!” they had been tom open! "What snake?” Vesker could not believe it. He still "Dem big white-color snake him hab expected something else. So he sat be¬ twitchy head!” side her and caressed her body with his .740 WEIRD TALES big hands, and not until she failed to And fear. The fear was a living thing respond to his caresses did he realize that that seeped into Vesker’s brain, under¬ she was dead. mining his reason. He rushed to the bed Then he moved away from her and and glared into the space where the stared at her, and licked his lips. He woman’s face had hung. He beat at the could not understand it. He still wanted space with his fists. He muttered, and her. She was limp and exquisite and said meaningless things aloud. He warm, and yet she was dead. How could screamed hysterically. that be? Then he sank to his knees and buried his face in Renee LaRoque’s breast, and He leaned forward again to touch her, sobbed with terror. but terror took hold of him instead. He leaped to his feet and paced the room, 4 turning always to look at her. The lamp was burning on the dressing-table, and its He did not mail the letter to Captain pink silk shade made a bloody glow of Jason Fournier. When he left the light. Beyond that the window was Renee LaRoque and returned to his own open. Renee had never slept with her room, the letter was not where he had window open! put it. He found it on the floor, tom The hand had killed her! The hand into very small pieces. which had gone to the Malay’s room, He looked at the pieces a long time be¬ first, by mistake! God in heaven! fore he could find courage enough to pick Vesker stared at her and felt cold blood them up. And then he burned them. He climbing through his legs into his body. was afraid of them. He could not take his eyes from her, but "It is a good thing,” he said. "If I had he did not want her now; he was afraid mailed the letter, there would have been of her. She was no longer lovely; she trouble. If they ever learn that Tenegai was something dead and cold and hor¬ LaRoque’s wife is dead, they will hang rible. But he was afraid to leave her. He stood and stared, until he saw He would have to hide the body. Pac¬ another face in the room. It was the ing his room, back and forth for an hour, same face he had seen on the night of the he thought of possible hiding-places. It murder. It was the old native woman, was a quarter after three o’clock, his nameless and strange, hovering over the watch said. He would have to complete body of Tenegai LaRoque’s wife, and the task before daylight, or the native smiling—smiling triumphantly, as if she servants would know. were proud of something. He went back to Renee LaRoque’s Vesker said thickly: "Who—who are room and rolled the body in the top blan¬ you?” ket of the bed. That was considerate, he The woman looked at him. She was thought. 'The blanket was soft and only the face of a woman. She did not woolly and would not irritate. Then he answer. put the bundle over his shoulder and car¬ "What do you want?” Vesker moaned. ried it upstairs to the top floor of the But she was not there any more. There house, and up a final flight of wooden was only the strangled body of Renee La- steps to the attic. It was very dark up Roque, and the lamp with the red silk here, and the only light was the probing shade, and the open window. eye of his flashlight. THE CRAWLING CURSE 741

He carried the body to the very end of taken the customary "silent leave.” Most the attic floor and laid it there. Then he of Vesker’s women had done that eventu¬ held the flashlight in his hand and ally. pointed its circular glare above him, to "I suppose you’ll be moving back to the where three large cross-beams supported shack, Vesker.” the sloping roof. One of those cross¬ The "shack” was the small residential beams was not a beam at all, but a hollow hotel exclusively reserved for government long-box containing seven thin water- bachelors. pipes. He had opened it the first day, to "Temporarily,” Vesker smiled. repair one of the pipes, because the Malay "Until romance wings through the win¬ servants did not know how. dow again, eh?” He found a ladder and adjusted it care¬ '"There are many fish in the water,” fully, and carried the blanket-wrapped Vesker shrugged. "Of course”—and he body to the top of it. Resting his burden raised his eyebrows suggestively — "I on the first and second beams, he sat loved her.” a-straddle the third and pried the boards Ordinarily he would have been angry loose with his fingers. The seven pipes at their persistence, but tonight he did not were of lead, and he bent them to enlarge mind. If they thought she had left him the space. Then he stood on the beams of her own accord, let them think so! and lowered the dead woman into the He spoke of it whenever the opportu¬ opening, and replaced the boards. nity occurred. 'That was the best Aing to "They will never know,” he said. do—make light of it. Left him? Of And he returned to his own room. course, of course! Perhaps she had re¬ ceived a message from her husband, and 5 had skipped off to him. These women! "You’ve had pretty good luck with Two evenings later he had dinner at them, Vesker. More than most of us.” the Karnery Club, and one of his "Ye-e-es.” friends said slyly: "Ever really been in love?” "So you’re keeping bachelor quarters "Always,” Vesker grinned. again, Vesker. Eh?” He wanted to ask certain questions. Vesker said: "They never stay long, Captain Jason Fournier was here, and, as these lovely ladies.” a pleasant surprize. Lord Willoughby of It was a very special occasion. A bril¬ the British North. Willoughby knew liant young government chap was being Borneo forward and backward. He had married tomorrow and having his last made a special study of Dyak lore, and fling tonight. Exclusively stag. Im¬ knew every inch of the Merasi, the Upper ported whisky, wine for those who pre¬ Barito, the black-water country, the in¬ ferred it, and sufiicient of both to make a land—everywhere. Willoughby had spent regiment drunk. The doors of the Kar¬ years among the Ibans, the Penihings, the nery Club were closed and locked to Long-Glits, the Saputans. strangers. Every man of importance was But Willoughby was a hard man to talk present. td. You had to lead the conversation to Vesker had come by invitation. They him. And how could you switch it from were sorry for him. They thought Renee women to natives? LaRoque had walked out on him and "I have one rival,” Vesker said, feeling 742 WEIRD TALES

his way along. "Heard recently about an hind Willoughby’s chair, and Willoughby up-river kapala who married fourteen was leaning slightly forward with his face women at the same time.” in the amber glare of it. The rest of the ‘W’ room was in shadow, made furtive and restless and sinister by Vesker’s words. "Probably a huge lie. The Dyaks don’t do that, do they, Willoughby.!*” "One nigfit a horrible snake-like thing Willoughby sudced the end of his pipe crawled into the murderer’s room, for and uncrossed his legs. "It’s possible,” vengeance. It was the murdered man’s he said. "What tribe was it?” arm, with five twisted fingers on the end "Damned if I know. The fellow was of it!” a Saputan, I think.” "And did it kill him?” Willoughby "Hard to believe, then, unless the chap asked quietly. was a blian." "I don’t-” Vesker hesitated. He One of the younger men frowned and was going to say "I don’t know,” but then said: "What?” he would have to answer questions. And "A blian. Witch-doctor. Sorcerer. They he wanted some one else to answer the have things pretty much their own way. questions. So he said bluntly: "Yes, it If one of them wanted fourteen women, killed him.” he’d take ’em." Willoughby nodded, and the others "It’s a queer thing, that,” Vesker said. watched him, waiting for his comment. "The power they’re supposed to have over He looked at them indifferently and said; the people, I mean. Absolute tommyrot, "Well, what of it?” of course.” "But such a thing isn't possible!” Ves¬ "Is it?” ker said. "Eh?” "Why isn't it?” "You’re a white man,” Willoughby shrugged. "Being a white man, you can’t "Why isn’t it? Great Scott, man, a see beyond the end of your all-important dead man’s arm can’t crawl out of its nose.” grave and-” "You mean to say it’s not tommyrot?” "Why not?” "I do, emphatically!” "Well, how can it?” "I heard a tall yarn once,” Vesker said Willoughby reached out and scratched hesitantly, "about a chap who murdered a match on the cover of a book which lay one of those fellows. Rather, a relative on the table. He held the flame to the of one.” Now he would have an answer bowl of his pipe and stared at Vesker to his questions! Willoughby would know while he sucked the pipe-stem. and tell the honest truth. But how to ask "With white men,” he said, "it might him? How to put the case clearly, with¬ be rare. Few whites know the secrets of out overstepping the bounds of discre¬ necromancy. But you say the murdered tion? man came of a sorcerer’s family. A "After murdering the native,” he said brother, was he?” slowly, "this chap cut the body up and "I—I believe it was father and son,” buried it. And then, one night-” Vesker faltered. "Or mother and son.” One of the listeners rose, with a dry "Well then, the father knew of his smile, and turned out two of the three son’s death, and the whys of it. So he electric lamps. The third lamp was be¬ raised the dead. You say the body was THE CRAWLING CURSE 743 dismembered. He raised enough of it to aw’ay in the jungle, to rot. As the corpse retwn the murderer’s compliment.” decays, so does the victim. I’ve known "You absolutely believe in necromancy, men to go stark mad looking for the Hid¬ Willoughby?” a listener protested. ing-place, to avoid such a death.” "Absolutely.” Vesker’s fingers were white and bony "Seen it work?” on the arm of his chair. 'The shape be¬ "A hundred times, in Saputan kam- hind Willoughby’s head was fully mate¬ pongs.” rialized now, and hideously clear. It was "You should have some good stories, the same shape, the same face—the same old chap.” sinister old woman! Great God, was he Willoughby smiled. He had a reputa¬ the only one who could see it? Were the tion for his good stories. 'They were not others all blind? bedtime tales, either. They filled his lis¬ "Merningi, the blian,” Willoughby said, teners with nocturnal dread and very real "obtained the body of an old woman who shudders. But men like that sort of had died of beri-beri, and dressed it in the thing. clothes of his intended victim. Then he "I’ll tell you one,” Willoughby said. toted it into the jungle and secreted it "It’s not pleasant.” there.” Creaking rockers filled the room with But Willoughby was not saying that! suggestive sound as the men drew closer. Willoughby was no longer there! His A door opened and closed, and a new¬ face was the woman’s face, with boring comer said: "What the devil!” Jason black eyes and withered lips. And his Pbumier silenced him with a curt word body was the body of a nearly naked Sa¬ and made r(X)m for him. There was no putan woman, clad in dirty gray sarong other sound after that, except the breath¬ and grass sandals! In God’s name, could ing of many men and the bubbling noise the others not see it? of Willoughby’s pipe. The lamplight "The next day the victim took sick. was yellow and feeble. There was no reason for it; he simply became ill. He didn’t know what Mer¬ “JT HAPPENED in Ola-Baong, on the ningi had done, you see; so he couldn’t -I Upper Barito,” Willoughby said. help himself. Had he known, he might "The village blian was a wicked old Sa¬ have found the body and ripped his putan named Merningi. He had a partic¬ clothes off it in time to break the connec¬ ular grudge against a chap who had run tion. But he became violently ill the sec¬ ofiF with his favorite woman.” ond day, and on the fourth day he began Vesker stared. Behind Willoughby’s to rot.” chair a mist was forming. It was ciga¬ Vesker was unable to cry out. He rette smoke, of course—or pipe smoke. cursed himself for being an idiot. There But why was it taking that particular was no woman there! How under heaven shape? Why, in the name of God, was could any woman be sitting there when it becoming a woman’s face? Willoughby was occupying the chair? He "The Saputans, you know,” Willougnby closed his eyes and opened them again, said, "have a particularly gruesome form and the woman was looking straight at of necromancy which leads a man to hor¬ him, smiling significantly. rible death. 'They dress a corpse in the "The fellow died. He simply rotted cl«thes of the intended victim and hide it away until the life was gone out of bis 744 WEIRD TALES

body. I was with him when he gave up the door was open, and the key was lying the ghost.” on the carpet! There was silence. Vesker leaped to Vesker screamed. his feet and cried harshly: "Stop it! Good "I didn’t mean to do it!” he shrieked. God, stop it!” "I didn’t mean to!” Then one of the younger men turned The hideous thing paid no attention to on the lights and Willoughby, sitting in him. It continued to crawl backward, the chair, said with a dry smile: pulling the clothes after it. How in the "You asked for it, old man. Have a name of God had it gained admission? drink.” Had it clawed its way up the door and And the native woman was not there. turned the lock with its fiendish fingers, after poking the key loose? Was there 6 nothing it could not do? But it was taking his clothes. What ESKER sat up in bed and stared fear¬ V for? What good were his clothes? Did fully at the thing on the floor. it think to imprison him in his room? He had come home late from the club, Was it as foolish as that? and he had been drinking heavily. His lips were thick and sour. His sight was Vesker watched it. It slithered back¬ blurred. His stomach ached. ward over the threshold, into the corri¬ But before going to bed, he had packed dor. It turned to the right. Then it was gone. all of his clothes and possessions into two big suit-cases, and this was his last night Vesker leaped from the bed and in the accursed house which harbored slammed the door shut. He had other Renee La Roque’s dead body. A tramp clothes; they were in one of the two suit¬ freighter, leaving Bandjermasin in the cases! At the club he could find a room morning, would take him to Kuching. for the rest of the night, and in the morn¬ Climbing into bed, he had removed ing he would be far away from dead his clothes and tossed them on a chair. bodies and crawling hands, and faces that And now they were on the floor. came from nowhere to leer at him. They were on the floor, and something Faces! He was on his knees, fumbling was dragging them! with the suit-case, and he remembered. Vesker sat and stared. He was dream¬ He stood up, pawing his naked chest, ing, of course. The whole horrible affair, stood with his eyes wide and his legs stiff from beginning to end, had been the as wood, huge and grotesque in loose- product of his own imagination. How fitting pajamas. From his lips came a could a dead man’s arm have life? How thick, bubbling sound. could it crawl along, like a snake, and He turned and ran to the door, and drag a handful of clothes in its curled opened it. There he stopped, because the fingers? That was madness. He was darkness of the corridor terrified him. He drunk. groped back again and sat on the bed, Besides, he had locked his door careful¬ clawing with his fingers until the bed¬ ly and turned the latch on the window. clothes were wrinkled and sweat-stained, He looked at the window now, and it was "Had he known, he might have found shut tight. Faint moonlight glowed the body and ripped his clothes off it irt through it, illuminating the room. But time to break the connection,. But he be* x THE CRAWLING CURSE 745 came violently ill the second day, and on hammering of his heart was even louder. the fourth day he began to rot." He could hear his breath whine in and Willoughby had said that. No, no, the out, and at the top of the seven steps he woman had said it! Almighty God, the stopped to push the wet hair out of his thing had taken his clothes! If he did eyes. The flashlight made a ghastly yel¬ not get them back- low-ringed glare over the floor. Then he began the march of torment to the far end He rushed to the open suit-case and of the chamber. pushed his hands deep into it, searching for a flashlight. Gaining his feet, he And then the face came. stood swaying. Where had the horrible It was the woman’s face, and it hung creature taken his clothes? What dead before him in the light, like a shadow. body- Its eyes drilled into him, and a trium¬ "Oh God, no!” he sobbed. "Not her! phant leer curled its thin lips. But it Not up there!” made no attempt to stop him; it hung But there was no other dead body. The always before him as he stumbled for¬ thing had to have a dead body. Up there ward. in the attic, in awful darkness, she was With one hand he lifted the ladder into lying. Up there where he had put her, in place, because he feared to put down the the wooden casing which covered the flashlight. Above him hung the three water-pipes. black cross-beams. And the face sat on He ran to the door, and the glaring eye every rung, always before him, as he of the flashlight preceded him crazily as ascended. he groped into the corridor. The long He stood swaying on the beams, high corridor was full of moving shapes and above the floor. The ceiling sloped over suggestive sounds. It loomed over him his head. Once, when he lost his balance and under him, clutching at him as he and clutched wildly to steady himself, the paced down it. He stopped twice and flashlight threw a crazy figure 8 over looked behind him. Merciful God, why ceiling, floor, and wall. And the face had he hidden the body up there? was always within it. He gripped the railing with his left Trembling in every muscle, he lowered hand and held the flashlight rigid before himself slowly and straddled the coflin him as he climbed the staircase. The which contained Renee LaRoque’s body. light only made the surrounding dark¬ He placed the flashlight between his legs, ness more hideous. Below him, when he so that his hands were leprously white in was half-way up, a well of frightful gloom the gleam of it as he leaned forward to lay waiting. Above him was the sing¬ loosen the boards. And on the other end song of the wind outside the house, and of the beam, where the glare was pale, the creak of wooden floors inside. the face sat and watched him. On the upper landing he found one of The boards came loose in his fingers. his socks. The hand had dropped it. He dropped them and shuddered violent¬ ly as they clattered to the floor beneath his He climbed the final flight of wooden perched body. One after another he let steps, counting them subconsciously them fall. Then he stared at the thing in as he went. Seven of them. Seven ter¬ the coffin. rible ascents into a vault of horror. His The face of Tenegai LaRoque’s wife slippers thumped thunderously. The stared back at him, silent in death. His i746 WEIRD TALES own clothes covered her body. Her yel¬ the black end of the third beam, some¬ low pajamas and the soft blanket lay neat¬ thing stirred. Vesker’s lips writhed open ly folded under her feet. And on the to release a scream of terror. He flung other end of the beam, the old woman himself backward. was still watching him. He fell, and the flashlight clattered He clawed madly, raking his fingers in from his hand. His scream died to a dead flesh and tearing his clothes loose whimpering moan. On hands and knees from it. His own breathing was louder he clawed for the light, blindly, with his than the sound of his exertions. The horrified gaze riveted on the thing above flashlight made his task hideous and ter¬ him. Then his twisted body became rible, until the dead woman lay naked rigid, and he screeched wildly. under his outstretched hands. "No! No! Don’ttouchme! Don’t-” Then he leaned back, with madness in Above him, on the cross-beam, the his eyes. He held the clothes in the crook thing slowly coiled. of his arm and stood erect on the beam, rocking from side to side. He glared at "Don’t touch me!” Vesker gibbered. the face of the native woman and laughed "Don’t—oh God, don’t!” at it, and the laugh was a jangling cackle. ’The thing shot out and down with the "You won’t kill me!” he screamed. "I speed of a leaping snake. It struck with know who you are! You’re LaRoque’s vicious strength. A white, cold arm en¬ mother! You’re the sorceress! But you circled Vesker’s neck. Five twisted fin¬ won’t kill me! I’m too strong for you!” gers buried themselves in the flesh of his 'The face sat on the end of the beam throat. and smiled triumphantly. It did not Vesker’s screech died to a gurgle. answer him. When he turned the flash¬ Wildly he staggered to his feet, clawing light and walked along the beam to the with both hands at the living-dead fin¬ top of the ladder, it did not follow him. gers which strangled him. Cold sweat He put one foot on the ladder and stood out on his forehead. His eyes started down. His left hand pressed the opened to hideous bigness and became crumpled death-clothes against his body. white, glaring crescents. His breath His right hand held the light and climg choked in his throat. His face purpled. to the wooden rungs as he descended. He stumbled toward the exit, blindly. He reached the floor and stood sway¬ But he did not reach it. His legs went ing, and looked up triumphantly, limp beneath him and he sagged to the "You won’t get me!” he shouted. floor And the five living-dead fingers And then he stiffened. Above him, on finished their task v-^enius Loci

By CLARK ASHTON SMITH

'7 saw the emergence of three human faces that partook of the same nebulous matter, neither

The story of a deathly horror that lurked in the scummy pond in the meadow where old Chapman had been found dead

“TT IS a very strange place,” said slowly and more slowly, forms a stag¬ I Amberville, "but I scarcely know nant pool of sorne extent, from which how to convey the impression it several sickly-looking alders seem to fling made upon me. It will all sound so sim¬ themselves backward, as if unwilling to ple and ordinary. There is nothing but approach it. A dead willow leans above a sedgy meadow, surrounded on three the pool, tangling its wan, skeleton-like sides by slopes of yellow pine. A dreary reflection with the green scum that mot¬ little stream flows in from the open end, tles the water. There are no blackbirds, to lose itself in a cul-de-sac of cat-tails no kildees, no dragon-flies even, such as and boggy ground. The stream, running one usually finds in a place of tiiat sort, 747 P'48 WEIRD TALES

It is all silent and desolate. The spot is to the spirit of his work. The elements evil—it is unholy in a way that I simply of the scene were those he had described. can’t describe. I was compelled to make In one picture, the pool was half hidden a drawing of it, almost against my will, by a fringe of mace-reeds, and the dead since anything so macabre is hardly in my willow was leaning across it at a prone, line. In fact, I made two drawings. I’ll despondent angle, as if mysteriously ar¬ show them to you, if you like.” rested in its fall toward the stagnant Since I had a high opinion of Amber- waters. Beyond, the alders seemed to ville’s artistic abilities, and had long con¬ strain away from the pool, exposing their sidered him one of the foremost land¬ knotted roots as if in eternal effort. In scape painters of his generation, I was the other drawing, the pool formed the naturally eager to see the drawings. He, main portion of the foreground, with the however, did not even pause to await skeleton tree looming drearily at one side. my avowal of interest, but began at once At the water’s farther end, the cat-tails to open his portfolio. His facial expres¬ seemed to wave and whisper among them¬ sion, the very movements of his hands, selves in a dying wind; and the steeply were somehow eloquent of a strange mix¬ barring slope of pine at the meadow’s ture of compulsion and repugnance as he terminus was indicated as a wall of brought out and displayed the two water- gloomy green that closed in the picture, color sketches he had mentioned. leaving only a pale margin of autumnal I could not recognize the scene de¬ sky at the top. picted from either of them. Plainly it All this, as the painter had said, was was one that I had missed in my desultory ordinary enough. But I was impressed rambling about the foot-hill environs of immediately by a profound horror that the tiny hamlet of Bowman, where, two lurked in Aese simple elements and was years before, I had purchased an unculti¬ expressed by them as if by the balefully vated ranch and had retired for the pri¬ contorted features of some demoniac vacy so essential to prolonged literary ef¬ face. In both drawings, this sinister fort. Francis Amberville, in the one character was equally evident, as if the fortnight of his visit, through his flair same face had been shown in profile and for the pictorial potentialities of land¬ front view. I could not trace the sepa¬ scape, had doubtless grown more familiar rate details that composed the impres¬ with the neighborhood than I. It had sion; but ever, as I looked, the abomina¬ been his habit to roam about in the fore¬ tion of a strange evil, a spirit of despair, noon, armed with sketching-materials; malignity, desolation, leered from the and in this way he had already foimd drawing more openly and hatefully. ’The the theme of more tlian one lovely paint¬ spot seemed to wear a macabre and Satan¬ ing. 'The arrangement was mutually con¬ ic grimace. One felt that it might speak venient, since I, in his absence, was wont aloud, might utter the imprecations of to apply myself assiduously to an antique some gigantic devil, or the raucous deri¬ Remington typewriter. sion of a thousand birds of ill omen. 'The I examined the drawings attentively. evil conveyed was something wholly out¬ Both, though of hurried execution, were side of humanity—^more ancient than highly meritorious, and showed the char¬ man. Somehow—fantastic as this will acteristic grace and vigor of Amberville’s seem—the meadow had the air of a vam¬ style. And yet, even at first glance, I pire, grown old and hideous with unut¬ found a quality that was more than alien terable infamies. Subtly, indefinably, it GENIUS LOCI 749 thirsted for other things than the slug¬ "I’m not mudi of a believer in spooks,” gish trickle of water by which it was fed. observed Amberville, who seemed to have taken my suggestion of haunting in a HERE is the place?” I asked, after literal sense. "Whatever the influence VV a minute or two of silent inspec¬ is, it’s hardly of human origin. Come to tion. It was inaedible that anything of think of it, though, I received a very silly the sort could really exist—and equally impression once or twice—the idea that incredible that a nature so robust as Am- some one was watching me while I did berville should have been sensitive to its those drawings. Queer—I had almost quality. forgotten that, till you brought up the pos¬ sibility of haunting. I seemed to see him "It’s in the bottom of that abandoned out of the tail of my eye, just beyond the ranch, a mile or less down the little road radius that I was putting into the pic¬ toward Bear River,” he replied. "You ture: a dilapidated old scoundrel with must know it. There’s a small orchard dirty gray whiskers and an evil scowl about the house, on the upper hillside; It’s odd, too, that I should have gotten but the lower portion, ending in that such a definite conception of him, with¬ meadow, is all wild land.” out ever seeing him squarely. I thought I began to visualize the vicinity in it was a tramp who had strayed into the question. "Guess it must be the old meadow bottom. But when I turned to Chapman place,” I decided. "No other give him a level glance, he simply wasn’t ranch along that road would answer there. It was as if he melted into the your specifications.” miry ground, the cat-tails, the sedges.” "Well, whoever it belongs to, that "'That isn’t a bad description of Chap¬ meadow is the most horrible spot I have man,” I said. "I remember his whiskers ever encountered. I’ve known other land¬ —they were almost white, except for the scapes that had something wrong with tobacco juice. A battered antique, if them, but never anything like this.” there ever was one—and very unamiable; "Maybe it’s haunted,” I said, half in too. He had a poisonous glare toward jest. "From your description, it must be the end, which no doubt helped along the very meadow where old Chapman the legend of his insanity. Some of the was found dead one morning by his tales about him come back to me now. youngest daughter. It happened a few People said that he neglected the care of months after I moved here. He was sup¬ his orchard more and more. Visitors posed to have died of heart failure. His used to find him in that lower meadow, body was quite cold, and he had proba¬ standing idly about and staring vacantly bly been lying there all night, since the at the trees and water. Probably that family had missed him at supper-time. was one reason they thought he was los¬ I don’t remember him very clearly, but ing his mind. But I’m sure I never heard I remember that he had a reputation for that there was anything unusual or queer eccentricity. For some time before his about the meadow, either at the time of death, people thought he was going mad. Chapman’s death, or since. It’s a lonely I forget the details. Anyway, his wife spot, and I don’t imagine that any one and children left, not long after he died, ever goes there now.” and no one has occupied the house or "I stumbled on it quite by accident,” cultivated the orchard since. It was a said Amberville. '"The place isn’t visible commonplace rural tragedy.” from the toad, on account of the thick 750 WEIRD TALES

pines. . . . But there’s another odd thing: absent and perfunctory manner the ac- I went out this morning with a very coimt he had given me following his dis¬ strong and clear intuition that I might covery of the place. In some mysterious find something of uncommon interest. I way that I could not define, his attitude made a bee-line for that meadow, so to seemed to have changed. speak; and I’ll have to admit that the There were other changes, too. He intuition justified itself. The place repels seemed to have lost his usual blitheness. me—but it fascinates me, too. I’ve sim¬ Often I caught him frowning intently, ply got to solve the mystery, if it has a and surprized the lurking of some equiv¬ solution,” he added, with a slightly de¬ ocal shadow in his frank eyes. There fensive air. "I’m going back early to¬ was a moodiness, a morbidity, which, as morrow, with my oils, to start a real far as our five years’ friendship enabled painting of it.” me to observe, was a new aspect of his I was surprized, knowing that predi¬ temperament. Perhaps, if I had not been lection of Amberville for scenic brilliance so preoccupied with my own difficulties, I and gayety which had caused him to be might have wondered more as to the likened to Sorolla. "The painting will causation of his gloom, which I attrib¬ be a novelty for you,” I commented. "I’ll uted readily enough at first to some tech¬ have to come and take a look at the place nical dilemma that was baffling him. myself, before long. It should really be He was less and less the Amberville that more in my line than yours. There ought I knew; and on the fourth day, when he to be a weird story in it somewhere, if came back at twilight, I perceived an it lives up to your drawings and de¬ actual surliness that was quite foreign to scription.” his nature. "What’s wrong?” I ventured to in¬ SEVERAL days passed. I was deeply quire. "Have you struck a snag? Or is preoccupied, at the time, with the old Chapman's meadow getting on your toilsome and intricate problems offered nerves with its ghostly influences?” by the concluding chapters of a new novel; and I put off my proposed visit He seemed, for once, to make an effort to the meadow discovered by Amberville. to throw off his gloom, his taciturnity and My friend, on his part, was evidently en¬ ill humor. grossed by his new theme. He sallied "It’s the infernal mystery of the thing,” forth each morning with his easel and he declared. "I’ve simply got to solve it, oil-colors, and returned later each day, in one way or another, 'the place has an forgetful of the luncheon-hour that had entity of its own—an indwelling person¬ formerly brought him back from such ality. It’s there, like the soul in a human expeditions. On the third day, he did not body, but I can’t pin it down or touch it. reappear till sunset. Contrary to his cus¬ You know that I’m not superstitious— tom, he did not show me what he had but, on the other hand, I’m not a bigoted done, and his answers to my queries re¬ materialist, either; and I’ve run across garding the progress of the picture were some odd phenomena in my time. That somewhat vague and evasive. For some meadow, perhaps, is inhabited by what reason, he was unwilling to talk about the ancients called a Genius Loci More it. Also, he was apparently loth to dis¬ than once, before this, I have suspected cuss the meadow itself, and in answer to that such things might exist—might re¬ direct questions, merely reiterated in an side, inherent, in some particular spot. GENIUS LOCI 751

But this is the first time that I’ve had rea¬ when I try to scrutinize them closely, they son to suspect anything of an actively ma¬ melt like films of vapor into the sur¬ lignant or inimical nature. The other rounding scene. But the old scoundrel, influences, whose presence I have felt, whoever or whatever he may be, is a sort were benign in some large, vague, im¬ of fixture. He is no less vile than every¬ personal way—or were else wholly indif¬ thing else about the place, though I feel ferent to human welfare—perhaps obliv¬ that he isn’t the main element of the vile¬ ious of human existence. This thing, ness.” however, is hatefully aware and watchful: "Good Lord!” I exclaimed. "You cer¬ I feel that the meadow itself — or the tainly have been seeing things. If you force embodied in the meadow—is scruti¬ don’t mind. I’ll come down and join you nizing me all the time. The place has for a while, tomorrow afternoon. The the air of a thirsty vampire, waiting to mystery begins to inveigle me.” drink me in somehow, if it can. It is a "Of course I don’t mind. Come cul-de-sac of everything evil, in which an ahead.” His manner, all at once, for no unwary soul might well be caught and tangible reason, had resumed the unnat¬ absorbed. But I tell you, Murray, I can’t ural taciturnity of the past four days. He keep away from it.” gave me a furtive look that was sullen "It looks as if the place were getting and almost unfriendly. It was as if an you,” I said, thoroughly astonished by his obscure barrier, temporarily laid aside, extraordinary declaration, and by the air had again risen between us. The shad¬ of fearful and morbid conviction with ows of his strange mood returned upon which he uttered it. him visibly; and my efforts to continue Apparently he had not heard me, for the conversation were rewarded only he made no reply to my observation. by half-surly, half-absent monosyllables. '"There’s another angle,” he went on, Feeling an aroused concern, rather than with a feverish tensity in his voice. "You any offense, I began to note, for the first remember my impression of an old man time, the unwonted pallor of his face, and lurking in the background and watching the bright, febrile luster of his eyes. He me, on my first visit. Well, I have seen looked vaguely unwell, I thought, as if him again, many times, out of the corner something of his exuberant vitality had of my eye; and during the last two days, gone out of him, and had left in its place he has appeared more directly, though in an alien energy of doubtful and less a queer, partial way. Sometimes, when I healthy nature. Tacitly, I gave up any am studying the dead willow very intent¬ attempt to bring him back from the ly, I see his scowling filthy-bearded face secretive twilight into which he had with¬ as a part of the bole. TTien, again, it drawn. For the rest of the evening, I will float among the leafless twigs, as if pretended to read a novel, while Amber- it had been caught there. Sometimes a ville maintained his singular abstraction. knotty hand, a tattered coat-sleeve, will Somewhat inconclusively, I puzzled over emerge through the mantling algas in the the matter till bed-time. I made up my pool, as if a drowned body were rising to mind, however, that I would visit Chap¬ the surface. Then, a moment later—or man’s meadow. I did not believe in the simultaneously—there will be something supernatural, but it seemed apparent that of him among the alders or the cat-tails. the place was exerting a deleterious influ¬ These apparitions are always brief, and ence upon Amberville. 752 WEIRD TALES

The next morning, when I arose, my With much curiosity, I peered over his Qiinese servant informed me that shoulder at the large canvas on which he the painter had already breakfasted and had been engaged. As far as I could tell, had gone out with his easel and colors. the picture had already been carried to a This further proof of his obsession consummate degree of technical perfec¬ troubled me; but I applied myself rigor¬ tion. It was an almost photographic ren¬ ously to a forenoon of writing. dering of the scummy water, the whitish Immediately after luncheon, I drove skeleton of the leaning willow, the un¬ down the highway, followed the narrow healthy, half-disrooted alders, and the dirt road that branched off toward Bear cluster of nodding mace-reeds. But in it River, and left my car on the pine-thick I found the macabre and demoniac spirit bill above the old Chapman place. of the sketches: the meadow seemed to Though I had never visited the meadow, wait and watch like an evilly distorted I had a pretty clear idea of its location. face. It was a deadfall of malignity and Disregarding the grassy, half-obliterated despair, lying apart from the autumn road into the upper portion of the prop¬ world around it; a plague-spot of nature, erty, I struck down through the woods for ever accursed and alone. into the little blind valley, seeing more Again I looked at the landscape itself than once, on the opposite slope, the —^and saw that the spot was indeed as dying orchard of pear and apple trees, AmberviUe had depicted it. It wore the and the tumbledown shanty that had be¬ grimace of a mad vampire, hateful and longed to the Chapmans. alert! At the same time, I became dis¬ It was a warm October day; and the agreeably conscious of the unnatural si¬ serene solitude of the forest, the autumnal lence. There were no birds, no insects, softness of light and air, made the idea as the painter had said; and it seemed of anything malign or sinister seem im¬ that only spent and dying winds could possible. When I came to the meadow ever enter that depressed vaUey-bottom. bottom, I was ready to laugh at Amber- The thin stream that lost itself in the ville’s notions; and the place itself, at boggy ground was like a soul that went first sight, merely impressed me as being down to perdition. It was part of the rather dreary and dismal. The features mystery, too; for I could not remember of the scene were those that he had de¬ any stream on the lower side of the bar¬ scribed so clearly, but I could not find the ring hill that would indicate a subterra¬ open evil that had leered from the pool, nean outlet the willow, the alders and the cat-tails in Amberville’s intentness, and the very his drawings. posture of his head and shoulders, were AmberviUe, with his back toward me, like those of a man who has been mes¬ was seated on a folding stool before his merized. I was about to make my pres¬ easel, which he had placed among the ence known to him; but at that instant plots of dark green wire-grass in the open there came to me the apperception that ground above the pool. He did not seem we were not alone in the meadow. Just to be working, however, but was staring beyond the focus of my vision, a figure intently at the scene beyond him, while a seemed to stand in a furtive attitude, as loaded brush drooped idly in his fingers. if watching us both. I whirled about— The sedges deadened my footfalls; and he and there was no one. Then I heard a did not hear me as I drew near. startled ay from AmberviUe, and turned GENIUS LOCI 753

to find him staring at me. His features gible way, it seemed as if the place had wore a wild look of terror and surprize, taken something from his very soul—and which had not wholly erased a hypnotic had given something of itself in exchange. absorption. He wore the air of one who participates "My God!” he said. "I thought you in some unholy secret, who has become were the old man!" the acolyte of an unhuman knowledge. In a flash of horrible definitude, I saw the I can not be sure whether anything place as an actual vampire, and Amber¬ more was said by either of us. I have, ville as its willing victim. however, the impression of a blank silence. After his single exclamation of How long I remained there, I can not surprize, Amberville seemed to retreat say. Finally I stepped over to him and into an impenetrable abstraction, as if he shook him roughly by the shoulder. were no longer conscious of my presence; "You’re working too hard,” I said. as if, having identified me, he had forgot¬ "Take my advice, and lay off for a day or ten me at once. On my part, I felt a two.” weird and overpowering constraint. That He turned to me with the dazed look infamous, eery scene depressed me be¬ of one who is lost in some narcotic dream. yond measure. It seemed that the boggy This, very slowly, gave place to a sullen, bottom was trying to drag me down in evil anger. some intangible way. The boughs of the "Oh, go to hell!” he snarled. "Can’t sick alders beckoned. The pool, over you see that I’m busy?” which the bony willows pr«ided like an I left him then, for there seemed noth¬ arboreal Death, was wooing me foully ing else to do under the circumstances. with its stagnant waters. The mad and spectral nature of the whole Moreover, apart from the ominous at¬ affair was enough to make me doubt my mosphere of the scene itself, I was pain¬ own reason. My impressions of the mead¬ fully aware of a further change in Am¬ ow— and of Amberville—were tainted berville—a change that was an actual with a delirious horror such as I had never alienation. His recent mood, whatever it before felt in any moment of waking life was, had strengthened upon him enor¬ and normal consciousness. mously: he had gone deeper into its mor¬ At the bottom of the slope of yellow bid twilight, and was lost to the blithe pine, I turned back with repugnant curi¬ and sanguine personality I had known. osity for a parting glance. The painter It was as if an incipient madness had had not moved, he was still confronting seized him; and the possibility of this ter¬ the malignant scene like a charmed bird rified me. that faces a lethal serpent. Whether or In a slow, somnambulistic manner, not the impression was a double optic without giving me a second glance, he be¬ image, I have never been sure: but at that gan to work at his painting, and I watched instant I seemed to discern a faint, unholy him for a while, hardly knowing what to aura, neither light nor mist, that flowed do or say. For long intervals he would and wavered about the meadow, preserv¬ stop and peer with dreamy intentness at ing the outlines of the willow, the alders, some feature of the landscape. I con¬ the reeds, the pool. Stealthily it appeared ceived the bizarre idea of a growing kin¬ to lengthen, reaching toward Amberville ship, a mysterious rapport between Am¬ like ghostly arms. The whole image was berville and the meadow. In some intan¬ extremely tenuous, and may well have 754 WEIRD TALES been an illusion; but it sent me shudder¬ me in such meditations as these; but Am¬ ing into the shelter of the tall, benignant berville did not return. Horrible premoni¬ pines. tions, without coherent shape or name, began to torment me as I waited for him. The remainder of that day, and the The night darkened; and dinner grew evening that followed, were tinged cold on the table. At last, about nine with the shadowy horror I had found in o’clock, when I was nerving myself to go Chapman’s meadow. I believe that I out and hunt for him, he came in hur¬ spent most of the time in arguing vainly riedly. He was pale, dishevelled, out of with myself, in trying to convince the breaA; and his eyes held a painful glare, rational part of my mind that all I had as if something had frightened him be¬ seen and felt was utterly preposterous. I yond endurance. could arrive at no conclusion, other than He did not apologize for his lateness; a conviction that Amberville’S' mental nor did he refer to my own visit to the health was endangered by the damnable meadow-bottom. Apparently he had for¬ thing, whatever it was, that inhered in gotten the whole episode—had forgotten the meadow. The malign personality of his rudeness to me. the place, the impalpable terror, mystery "I’m through!’’ he cried. "I’ll never and lure, were like webs that had been go back again — never take another woven upon my brain, and which I could chance. 'That place is more hellish at not dissipate by any amount of conscious night than in the daytime. I can’t tell effort. you what I’ve seen and felt—I must for¬ I made two resolves, however: one was, get it, if I can. There’s an emanation— that I should write immediately to Am- something that comes out openly in the berville’s fiancee. Miss Avis Olcott, and absence of the sun, but is latent by day. invite her to visit me as a fellow-guest of It lured me, it tempted me to remain this the artist during the remainder of his stay evening — and it nearly got me. . . . at Bowman. Her influence, I thought, God! I didn’t believe that such things might help to counteract whatever was af¬ were possible—that abhorrent compound fecting him so perniciously. Since I knew of-’’ He broke off, and did not fin¬ her fairly well, the invitation would not ish the sentence. His eyes dilated, as if seem out of the way. I decided to say with the memory of something too awful nothing about it to Amberville: the el¬ to be described. At that moment, I re¬ ement of surprize, I hoped, would be called the poisonously haunted eyes of especially beneficial. old Qiapman, whom I had sometimes My second resolve was, that I should met about the hamlet. He had not inter¬ not again visit the meadow myself, if I ested me particularly, since I had deemed could avoid it. Indirectly—for I knew him a common type of rural character, the folly of trying to combat a mental ob¬ with a tendency to some obscure and im- session openly—I should also try to dis¬ pleasant aberration. Now, when I saw courage the painter’s interest in the place, the same look in the eyes of a sensitive and divert his attention to other themes. artist, I began to wonder, with a shiver¬ Trips and entertainments, too, could be ing speculation, whether Giapman too devised, at the minor cost of delaying my had been aware of the weird evil that own work. dwelt in his meadow. Perhaps, in some The smoky autumn twilight overtook way that was beyond human comprehen- GENIUS LOCI 755 sion, he had been its victim. . . He despair, I finally decided to do, pending had died there; and his death had not the arrival of Miss Olcott. He went out seemed at all mysterious. But perhaps, early each morning, as usual, with his in the light of all that Amberville and I paints and easel, and returned about sun¬ had perceived, there was more in the mat¬ set or a little later. He did not tell me ter than any one had suspected. where he had been; and I refrained from "Tell me what you saw,” I ventured to asking. suggest. Miss Olcott came on the third day fol¬ At the question, a veil seemed to fall lowing my letter, in the afternoon. She between us, impalpable but tenebrific. was young, lissome, ultra-feminine, and He shook his head morosely and made was altogether devoted to Amberville. In no reply. The human terror, which per¬ fact, I think she was a little in awe of him. haps had driven him back toward his I told her as much as I dared, and warned normal self, and had made him almost her of the morbid change in her fiance, communicative for the nonce, fell away which I attributed to nervousness and from Amberville. A shadow that was overwork. I simply could not bring my¬ darker than fear, an impenetrable alien self to mention Chapman’s meadow and umbrage, again submerged him. I felt its baleful influence: the whole thing was a sudden chill, of the spirit rather than too unbelievable, too fantasmagoric, to be the flesh; and once more there came to me offered as an explanation to a modem the outr^ thought of his growing kinship girl. When I saw the somewhat help¬ with the ghoulish meadow. Beside me, less alarm and bewilderment with which in the lamplit room, behind the mask of she listened to my story, I began to wish his humanity, a thing that was not wholly that she were of a more wilful and de¬ human seemed to sit and wait. termined type, and were less submissive toward Amberville than I surmised her OF THE nightmarish days that fol¬ to be. A stronger woman might have lowed, I shall offer only a summary. saved him; but even then I began to doubt It would be impossible to convey the whether Avis could do anything to com¬ eventless, fantasmal horror in which we bat the imponderable evil that was en¬ dwelt and moved. gulfing him. I wrote immediately to Miss Olcott, A heavy crescent moon was hanging pressing her to pay me a visit during Am- like a blood-dipped horn in the twilight berville’s stay, and, in order to insure when he returned. To my immense re¬ acceptance, I hinted obscurely at my con¬ lief, the presence of Avis appeared to have cern for his health and my need of her a highly salutary effect. The very moment coadjutation. In the meanwhile, waiting that he saw her, Amberville came out of her answer, I tried to divert the artist by the singular eclipse that had claimed him, suggesting trips to sundry points of scenic as I feared, beyond redemption, and was interest in the neighborhood. Tliese sug¬ almost his former affable self. Perhaps gestions he declined, with an aloof curt¬ it was all make-believe, for an ulterior ness, an air that was stony and cryptic purpose; but this, at the time, I could not rather than deliberately rude. Virtually, suspect. I began to congratulate myself he ignored my existence, and made it on having applied a sovereign remedy. more than plain that he wished me to The girl, on her part, was plainly relieved; leave him to his own devices. This, in thou^ I saw her q^eing him iil a slightly [756 WEIRD TALES hurt and puzzled way, when he some¬ meadow; but I was far from sure whether times fell for a short interval into moody Avis had been personally conscious of abstraction, as if he had temporarily for¬ the weird and baneful entity of the place, gotten her. On the whole, however, or had merely been frightened by the there was a transformation that appeared unwholesome change in her lover beneath no less than magical, in view of his recent its influence. In either case, it was obvi¬ gloom and remoteness. After a decent ous that she was wholly subservient to interim, I left the pair together, and re¬ him. I began to damn myself for a fool tired. in having invited her to Bowman — I rose very late the next morning, hav¬ though the true bitterness of my regret ing overslept. Avis and Amberville, I was still to come. learned, had gone out together, carrying a lunch which my Chinese cook had pro¬ A WEEK went by, with the same daily vided. Plainly he was taking her along excursions of the painter and on one of his artistic expeditions; and I his fiancfe—the same baffling, sinister augured well for his recovery from this. estrangement and secrecy in Amberville Somehow, it never occurred to me that —the same terror, helplessness, constraint he had taken her to Chapman’s meadow. and submissiveness in the girl. How it The tenuous, malignant shadow of the would all end, I could not imagine; but I whole affair had begim to lift from my feared, from the ominous alteration of his mind; I rejoiced in a lightened sense of character, that Amberville was heading responsibility; and, for the first time in a for some form of mental alienation, if week, was able to concentrate clearly on nothing worse. My offers of entertain¬ the ending of my novel. ments and scenic journeys were rejected The two returned at dusk, and I saw by the pair; and several blunt efforts to immediately that I had been mistaken on question Avis were met by a wall of more points than one. Amberville had almost hostile evasion which convinced again retired into a sinister, saturnine re¬ me that Amberville had enjoined her to serve. The girl, beside his looming height secrecy — and had perhaps, in some and massive shoulders, looked very small, sleightful manner, misrepresented my own attitude toward him. forlorn — and pitifully bewildered and frightened. It was as if she had encoun¬ "You don’t understand him,’’ she said, tered something altogether beyond her repeatedly. "He is very temperamental.” comprehension, something with which The whole affair was a maddening she was humanly powerless to cope. mystery, but it seemed more and more Very little was said by either of them. that the girl herself was being drawn, They did not tell me where they had either directly or indirectly, into the same been; but, for that matter, it was unneces¬ fantasmal, evil web that had enmeshed sary to inquire. Amberville’s taciturnity, the artist. as usual, seemed due to an absorption in I surmised that Amberville had done some dark mood or sullen revery. But several new pictures of the meadow; but Avis gave me the impression of a dual he did not show them to me, nor even constraint—as if, apart from some en¬ mention them. My own impressions of thralling terror, she had been forbidden to the place, as time went on, assumed an speak of the day’s events and experiences. unaccountable vividness that was almost I knew that they had gone to that accursed hallucinatory. 'The incredible idea of GENIUS LOCI 757 some inherent force or personality, ma¬ first experience, whatever it had been. levolent and even vampirish, became an Avis, knowing where he was, and perhaps unavowed conviction against my will. fearful of his sanity — or safety — had The place haunted me like a fantasm, gone out to find him. More and more, I horrible but seductive. I felt an impel¬ felt an imperative conviction of some peril ling morbid curiosity, an unwholesome that threatened them both—some hideous desire to visit it again, and fathom, if and innominable thing to whose power, possible, its enigma. Often I thought of perhaps, they had already yielded. Amberville’s notion about a Genius Loci Whatever my previous folly and remiss¬ that dwelt in the meadow, and the hints ness in the matter, I did not delay now. of a human apparition that was somehow A few minutes of driving at precipitate associated with the spot. Also, I won¬ speed through the mellow moonlight dered what it was that the artist had seen brought me to the piny edge of the Chap¬ on the one occasion when he had lin¬ man property. There, as on my former gered in the meadow after nightfall, and visit, I left the car, and plunged headlong had returned to my house in driven ter¬ through the shadowy forest. Far down, ror. It seemed that he had not ventured in the hollow, as I went, I heard a single to repeat the experiment, in spite of his scream, shrill with terror, and abruptly obvious subjection to the unknown lure. terminated. I felt sure that the voice was The end came, abruptly and without that of Avis; but I did not hear it again. premonition. Business had taken me to Running desperately, I emerged in the the county seat, one afternoon, and I did meadow-bottom. Neither Avis nor Am¬ not return till late in the evening. A full berville was in sight; and it seemed to moon was high above the pine-dark hills. me, in my hasty scrutiny, that the place I expected to find Avis and the painter was full of mysteriously coiling and mov¬ in my drawing-room; but they were not ing vapors that permitted only a partial there. Li Sing, my factotum, told me that view of the dead willow and the other they had returned at dinner-time. An vegetation. I ran on toward the scummy hour later, Amberville had gone out pool, and nearing it, was arrested by a quietly while the girl was in her room. sudden and twofold horror. Coming down a few minutes later. Avis had shown excessive perturbation when Avis and Amberville were floating to¬ she found him absent, and had also left gether in the shallow pool, with their the house, as if to follow him, without bodies half hidden by the mantling telling Li Sing where she was going or masses of algae. The girl was clasped when she might return. All this had tightly in the painter’s arms, as if he had occurred three hours previously; and carried her with him, against her will, to neither of the pair had yet reappeared. that noisome death. Her face was cov¬ ered by the evil, greenish scum; and I A BLACK and subtly chilling intuition could not see the face of Amberville, of evil seized me as I listened to Li which was averted against her shoulder. Sing’s account. All too well I surmised It seemed that there had been a struggle; that Amberville had yielded to the temp¬ but both were quiet now, and had yielded supinely to their doom. tation of a second nocturnal visit to that unholy meadow. An occult attraction, It was not this spectacle alone, how¬ somehow, had overcome the horror of his ever, that drove me in mad and shudder- 758 WEIRD TALES

ing flight from the meadow, without of its trees, witli the spectral faces it had m^ing even the most tentative attempt to spewed forth from its lethal deadfall. retrieve the drowned bodies. The true Even terror was frozen within me for horror lay in the thing, which, from a a moment. I stood watching, while the little distance, I had taken for the coils of pale, unhallowed exhalation rose higher a slowly moving and rising mist. It was above the meadow. The three human not vapor, nor anything else that could faces, through a further agitation of the conceivably exist—that malign, luminous, curdling mass, began to approach each pallid Emanation that enfolded the entire other. Slowly, inexpressibly, they merged scene before me like a restless and hungri¬ in one, becoming an androgynous face, ly wavering extension of its outlines—a neither young nor old, that melted finally phantom projection of the pale and into the lengthening phantom boughs of death-like willow, the dying alders, the the willow—the hands of the arboreal reeds, the stagnant pool and its suicidal Death, that were reaching out to enfold victims. The landscape was visible me. Then, unable to bear the spectacle through it, as through a film; but it any longer, I started to run. seemed to curdle and thicken gradually in places, with some unholy, terrifying activ¬ There is little more that need be told, ity. Out of these curdlings, as if dis¬ for nothing that I could add to this gorged by the ambient exhalation, I saw narrative would lessen the abominable the emergence of three human faces that mystery of it all in any degree. The mead¬ partook of the same nebulous matter, ow—or the thing that dwells in the neither mist nor plasm. One of these meadow—has already claimed three vic¬ faces seemed to detach itself from the bole tims . . . and I sometimes wonder if it of the ghostly willow; the second and will have a fourth. I alone, it would third swirled upward from the seething seem, among the living, have guessed the of the phantom pool, with their bodies secret of Chapman’s death, and the death trailing formlessly among the tenuous of Avis and Amberville; and no one else, boughs. The faces were those of old apparently, has felt the malign genius of Chapman, of Francis Amberville, and the meadow. I have not returned there, Avis Olcott. since the morning when the bodies of the Behind this eery, wraith-like projection artist and his fiancee were removed from of itself, the actual landscape leered with the pool . . . nor have I summoned up the same infernal and vampirish air the resolution to destroy or otherwise dis¬ which it had worn by day. But it seemed pose of the four oil paintings and two now that the place was no longer still— water-color drawings of the spot that were that it seethed with a malignant secret made by Amberville. Perhaps ... in life—that it reached out toward me with spite of all that deters me ... I shall its scummy waters, with the bony fingers visit it again. Vhe ^^wellers in the House By SOPHIE WENZEL ELLIS

tale of Ahmad Yaztj, the evil Arabian who changed bodies at will and perpetuated his ego throughout the ages.

"One blow caused the crushing hands to relax from Ariel's throat."

“ A ND may God have mercy on your The sudden quiet in the crowded court¬ soul.” room was more dramatic than any outcry The closing words of the of horror could have been; every one death sentence rolled out solemnly in knew that the Arabian spoke with the Judge Farrington’s cavernous voice. venom of a sorcerer pronouncing a "And may Allah have mercy on yours!” curse. Ahmad Yazij, the convicted murderer, Judge Farrington, white and visibly who throughout the trial had sat in an disturbed, pounded his gavel. indifferent heap, leaped up and pointed "Remove the prisoner!” a shriveled brown finger at the judge. Two ofiicers seized Yazij roughly and 759 760 WEIRD TALES

hurried him away. The strange man’s "He’s only a very dirty old man, a shoulders shook with laughter, as though little mad, perhaps-” he enjoyed a gruesome joke. At the "Do you know anything of Eastern door he turned his brown, wizened face occultism? No, you don’t You didn’t and shot a parting look of hate at the see what I saw in him, a aeature whose judge. least crime would be the killing of the "We shall meet again, yah abu 7 jood!” man whose mutilated body was found buried in that pestQential yard behind Throughout the trial it had been thus, Yazij’s den. You remember the strange hate flashing between the benevolent evidence of the coroner, that Vaynce’s judge beloved for his mercy and the body, although little decayed, weighed prisoner at the bar who had not cared only forty-five pounds. Think of it! A whether or not he was convicted of mur¬ man fairly well-fleshed weighing so lit¬ dering the young man who had assisted tle! Is that natural?” him in the evil hideout Yazij had called "But the coroner said he might have his laboratory. Frequently, to the thwart¬ had some unknown disease which wasted ed curiosity of the audience, the judge the tissues mysteriously.” and Yazij had exchanged heated Arabic. The judge laughed. "Of course, you Judge Farrington was a rather profound had to have some kind of defense for scholar. your client. Rod.” From the first, it seemed that the judge At that moment a deputy approached had wanted to convict Yazij, who had and told Rod that Yazij wished to see not employed an attorney to defend him¬ him immediately, before being taken to self. The judge had appointed young the penitentiary. Rodney Sterrick as attorney for the de¬ fense, who was so deeply in love with A FEW minutes later Rod went to the beautiful Ariel Farrington that he dared jail, where the prisoner was tem¬ not risk his prospects by objecting to the porarily confined. Now, as always, he impassioned vituperation that her learned squirmed as he approached Yazij’s cell, father had hurled at Yazij, and to some for about it hung a foul stench. He had of the damning questions he had asked thought it resulted from the Arab’s un¬ in his judicial aoss-examination. That washed flesh and clothes, but his talk was the whisper that often went around with the judge made him shiver with the courtroom. dread. Now, after the prisoner had been taken "Yazij!” he called to the heap on the away, Rod said to the judge, "Why were cot beyond the bars. you so hard on the poor devil.^’’ The Arab lifted his head, revealing a face the color of rotten leather. As he Healthy color flamed angrily in the came forward, his over-large clothes other’s broad face. seemed to bring the foul odor closer. "Poor devil! Leave off the poor. Ex¬ Through the bars he poked a shrunken ecution is too good for him. My God, hand holding a folded paper. Rod!’’ He mopped at his brow with a "Meester lawyer, you have ask for no moist handkerchief. "Didn’t you feel it, fee—Allah hadik! But I give you fee, too—the damnable excreta of—of in¬ eh? Here, take.” humanness that fouls the very atmosphere Rod took the paper, odorous with the he breathes?” stench. In good English, written evi- THE DWELLERS IN THE HOUSE 761

dently by the jailer for Yazij’s signature, at the Farrington home and an hour of he read; delight with lovely Ariel Farrington, Rod and the judge drove to the semi-slum I, Ahmad Yaaij, do give to Rodney Sterrick all my possessions and belongings, including my section where Ahmad Yazij had made his most precious books, my furniture, and my equip¬ home above a questionable second-hand ment, all contained in my rooms at number 4 St. Louis Court. May he select a worthy buyer who shop. will continue where I have ceased, i would sug¬ Up dark, creaking steps that hugged gest showing the lot to the honorable Judge Far¬ rington, who has knowledge of things forgotten. the building’s moldy side they mounted Ahmad Yazij. to the door that gave on a landing. Rod unlocked the door and plunged his hand A wave of pity for the condemned cautiously into the darkness to reach for man swept over Rod. the light switch. The stale air seemed ■'Thanks, Yazij,” he said. "But I did thick and slimy against his flesh. not ask for a fee.” "No. I give you fee. The honorable The room came alive suddenly under judge, learning about Ahmad Yazij's the dim light; a room hung with books—and secrets—will want to buy. archaic maps, strewn with braziers, Aywah!” bunches of dried herbs, pieces of metal, Rod looked uncomfortable. "I did and broken furniture. Dangling from my best for you, Yazij.” the ceiling and laced thickly in corners, "Your best. Death, it is not bad; only black cobwebs seemed trying to hide the a moving from an old house fallen to time-festered books that made crooked ruins. I move from old house before. rows against the walls. I move again.” "My God, Rod! What books!” His matted eyebrows lifted enough to Judge Farrington went to one of the let Rod see his rheiuny old eyes; old, old disordered shelves and removed a vol¬ eyes that looked too ancient to be quite ume, a thick, misshapen mass of crum¬ human. bling leaves between yellowed parchment **Allah yeseeliml” covers. As he read here and there, all The leathery face sank among the the healthy color faded from his face; clothes that bundled him from neck to but still he continued to turn the pages feet. Without sound he turned and moved with avid eagerness. back to the cot. Rod was dismissed. Rod looked over his shoulder. It was He sought Judge Farrington again im¬ written in Arabic. mediately, who read Yazij’s note. "Can you really read it. Judge?” "Hmmm! Have you seen the stuff yet. Judge Farrington gulped hard, as Rod?” though something stuck in his throat. "Only casually, when I went to his "It is an ancient work on Eastern oc¬ rooms while I was getting up the de¬ cultism. But the strangest thing about it fense. It is a damp, musty, unpleasant is the name of the author. Ahmad Yazij, place, full of terribly old books.” Rod!” "The books—ah!” The judge’s eyes "An ancestor of the Yazij we know?” leaped. "You know what a bookworm "I hope so. Listen.” I am. Rod, especially over old Eastern He paused to read a certain passage, books. Have dinner with us tonight, and and then translated it slowly: then you and I shall inspect Yazij’s stuff.” Each time I do move into a new House I And so it was arranged. After dinner grow stronger and more able to conquer the other 762 WEIRD TALES dwellers in the House, who make war with each The other’s smile was sickly. "You’d other and disturb the flesh. For a thousand—nay, ten thousand years—^will I work to acquire a have to say that—for your sanity’s sake. House to my liking, and then will I have the And now, you’ll sell me the stuff, won’t power to cast out the other dwellers and have eternal life with the one Self. you?” And thus Judge Farrington came into "What a lot of gibberish!” Rod possession of all the effects of Ahmad scoffed. Yazij. He had them moved to his home "Nothing that these ancient Arabs the next day, where he established an wrote is gibberish, Rod. Until I have attic den which he always kept locked. studied the entire book, of course, I can not understand what he means, although From the moment that he became a I have an idea.” He shivered visibly. confessed disciple of the seer, or the While the judge continued to examine long line of seers who had written the the crumbling books. Rod puzzled him¬ books he had bought, a subtle change self over the only modem-looking thing came over Judge Farrington. Rod and in the room, an appliance that slightly every one else who came in contact with resembled a spectroscope, yet much larger him in the courtroom saw his kindness than the common prism spectroscope. In¬ and joviality change into harshness and stead of being fitted with a flint prism, ill-temper, until, before a month had it carried in its middle a giant vacuum passed, there was talk among the lawyers tube. of trying to get him impeached. "Look here. Judge! What an anach¬ Some even whispered that his great ronism! This modem instrument placed mind was decaying, for his favorite topic among objects of incalculable age!” of conversation was Ahmad Yazij. He Judge Farrington left the books and seemed to take an unhealthy interest in came toward the colossal spectroscope. the execution, which the governor had But it was not the strange appliance that set for an unusually early date after the claimed his attention; he paused over a conviction. Ariel Farrington complained recently written manuscript lying on a to Rod that every moment of her father’s table close by. As he read, his face seemed spare time was spent in his den, where,. to grow thinner. far into the night, his light burned, and where muttering and mumbling could "Rod!” he exclaimed. "I am not sure be heard, as though her father were hold¬ that I ought to dare do this, for I may ing conversation with some one who was be courting destruction. But I’m going certainly not in the room with him. to buy the whole lot from you, just as Yazij suggested. There’s a strange mys¬ And now came the day for Ahmad tery here, and I’m going to discover it.” Yazij to die. At dawn he went indiffer¬ "What do you suspect?” ently to the electric chair. Rod, sleeping "Nothing. My mind refuses to accept after an uneasy night, was awakened be¬ the evidence. Rod! What would you fore six o’clock by the ringing of his tele¬ think if you knew that half of this li¬ phone. Ariel was on the line. brary is written by Ahmad Yazij, and "Can you run over immediately. Rod? that some of the books bearing his name Some kind of attack has seized Father. are hundreds of years older than others?” Just at daybreak I heard a terrible scream "Why, I’d say that there was a long from the attic. When we got the door line of Ahmad Yaziis.” broken in, we found Father lying on the THE DWELLERS IN THE HOUSE 763 floor unconscious, with a frightful look is being held until the body of the murdered man has been exhumed. on his face. I’ve called a doctor, but can’t you come over and be with me un¬ Rod did not finish reading, but took til he comes? Father is still unconscious.” . the paper to Judge Farrington, who "Coming!” Rod assured her. But as almost snatched it from his hands. he turned from the telephone, his face "Ah!” the completely recovered man was pasty-white. Why had Judge Far¬ said a few minutes later. "Then I was rington received his stroke at the very not wrong in what I thought I knew. moment when Ahmad Yazij had gone What a mystery for them to crack their to his death? brains over!” At the Farrington home he found the 'The chuckle he gave was so unlike the judge still unconscious, jabbering almost kind, dignified man he had been a few constantly in broken Arabic. weeks ago that each one in the room Ariel, her beautiful face showing sought the others’ eyes uncomfortably. traces of tears, seemed reluctant to be It was plain that Judge Farrington did alone a moment with the father she not seem to regret even now that he had adored. "I’m afraid of him. Rod!” she con¬ helped to bring Ahmad Yazij to his death. fessed. "He almost doesn’t seem like Father.” Suddenly Rod stiffened and put a hor¬ "The doctor will bring him around rified hand to his nose. A foul odor, when he gets here,” Rod said cheerfully. more horrible because of its subtle vague¬ But the doctor’s efforts did not seem ness, began to grow in the room. It rapidly successful. The judge still re¬ seemed to have had immediate concep¬ mained unconscious. He remained thus tion and to gain strength with each pass¬ until the sudden tense excitement of ing second. Instantly he recognized that newsboys screaming "Extry!” broke in ancient putrescence, which brought terri¬ the street below. ble recollection of a leathery-faced Arab “Extry paper! Stowall Vaynce alive! waiting stoically for death. Judge Far¬ Stowall Vaynce-” rington swung himself out of bed, and "Vaynce!” shrieked Judge Farrington. the odor stirred with him, filling the He sat up in bed and looked around him room with horror. almost calmly. "That was the man "I’m going to my den,” he annoxmced Ahmad Yazij killed. Get me a paper.” calmly. "I’m all right now.” Rod, feeling the nearness of some hid¬ Even the doctor could not detain him, den horror, rushed out for a paper. The and as he brushed by Rod, the young headlines glared at him. man gasped over the cloud of stench that seemed to flow from the very pores of STOWALL VAYNCE his body. RETURNS ALIVE In passing, Judge Farrington gave Rod a long, deep glance, with a whisper that HIS ALLEGED SLAYER EXECUTED THIS MORNING caused his scalp to stir. "Don’t be alarmed, my lawyer. Mek- A few minutes after Ahmad Yazij had died toob!” early this morning in the electric chair for the ffluider of Stowall Vaynce, a man calling himself Accent for accent, it was as though Vaynce appeared at police headquarters, saying he had just returned from a western trip. Vaynce Ahmad Yazij had spoken. 764 J57EIRD TALES

Ariel cried out in consternation : "What had been in a better state of preservation is it. Rod? You are pale as a ghost!” he could probably have proved his opin¬ And then it was plain to Rod that only ion that almost two-thirds of its mass he had caught that hellish stench, and was made up of air cells instead of solid that he alone was aware of a beginning protoplasmic cells, a condition rare but horror that hovered beyond the border¬ not completely unknown in a less exag¬ land of sanity. gerated degree. He let Ariel bring him the drink he And thus the strange matter remained needed badly, cautioned her to keep close a mystery, soon forgotten. For hadn’t watch on her father, and then he went Ahmad Yazij been punished for whom¬ to police headquarters to wait for the ever he had killed? first information on the Stowall Vaynce case. SCARCELY a week after the newspapers He was present at the grave when the had stopped carrying Stowall Vaynce body was exhumed. The living Stowall news. Judge Farrington astounded the Vaynce was also present. That young bench and bar by resigning. He issued man, with frightened levity, declared he a statement to the press that he wished wanted to make sure that he was really to retire for study and rest. Even Rod, alive. Vaynce said that he had been who called at the Farrington home almost the only employee of Yazij, who had daily, could not learn his real reason for hired him as a subject for experiment forsaking the career he loved. But a few with an instrument which Yazij had days after the resignation, Ariel told Rod called a "soul spectroscope.” Vaynce, a that her father had bought a secluded dull-witted fellow, could throw no light estate in an undeveloped part of the state, on what the experiments were. He only where he would go into retirement with knew that he sometimes suffered pain in his library. Yazij’s laboratory, which had led him "I’ll have to go with him Rod,” she to run away from his master and hide in said, with a touch of unhappiness. "You another city. know. I’ve been daughter, mother and The mystery assumed new terror at wife to him since Mother died. I can’t the second examination of the body. forsake him now that this queer hobby Mark for mark, it was exactly like the is consuming his life,” live Vaynce. Scars; hair; Bertillon meas¬ Rod looked down hungrily into her urements; finger prints; all were perfect exquisite face; sweet little Ariel, the sort mates. The only difference between tlie of girl every young man dreams of know¬ two was weight. The body weighed only ing and loving. But it would be several forty-five pounds, which was surprizing, years before he had built a practise to while Vaynce weighed a little over one support a wife comfortably. hundred, which also was surprizing, be¬ Now, when he longed to take her into cause he seemed rather well-fleshed. his arms and tell her that he loved her, Puzzled medical men claimed the body he only seized her hands and said mis¬ for a complete autopsy. Newspapers re¬ erably: porting their findings stated, in the lan¬ "I wish you did not have to go, Ariel. guage of the layman, that nothing abnor¬ But will you promise to write to me mal had been discovered, although one every day and let me know everything scientist had declared that if the body that happens—everything?” THE DWELLERS IN THE HOUSE 765

Ariel promised, and her blue eyes They followed Rod’s car constantly, un¬ shyly promised something else, something nerving him with their sad hunger call. that he had no right to accept now. But It was a lonely, desolate country for a from the moment he saw her climb into young girl to live in with a father who her father’s car to begin the journey to might be a little mad. their new home, terror began to shadow him. For this restless-eyed John Farring¬ WHEN he passed through the last ton was certainly not the wholesome settlement, the long summer after¬ Judge Farrington he had known with noon was waning. For several miles he respect and admiration. He did not even saw no houses, not even the time-rotted look the same. He had lost flesh and shacks that pocked the countryside be¬ grown hollow of eye and jaw. Rod had hind. Soon he began to go down—down to force himself not to think that his into a valley that cupped a broad, shal¬ old friend looked a very little like the low lake. The water had a black, un¬ filthy Arab whose body now lay in a wholesome look, except where a stinking criminal’s grave. green scum laid a gangrenous carpet Ariel kept her promise to write every along the edges. day. Her letters seemed cheerful enough; So close to the brink of this lake that for she spoke of a beautiful countryside, it must have received flood waters was of the comfort of the picturesque old the Farrington house, a rambling stmc- pioneer homestead they occupied, and of ture of thick, ancient logs backed by her father’s deep content with their new giant evergreen trees. He no sooner saw life. But through it all Rod thought he the house than he saw Ariel, too. She detected a subtle undertone of loneliness was standing knee-deep in the water, and uneasiness. snatching at something that darted be¬ Several troublesome cases kept Rod so tween the lily pads. She did not seem busy that three weeks passed before he aware of him until he called to her. could break away to see Ariel. His going "Rod!” she cried out gladly, and then was not of his own choosing. A leaped toward the car. note from Ariel, written in nervous In the instant before she threw herself fright, urged him to come immediately. into his arms, he saw that her dress was An hour later, he was driving to the re¬ torn and soiled. That was completely un¬ mote hills which hid the Farrington re¬ like dainty Ariel. He was surprized, too, treat. at the offer of her pouting red lips. He Long before he approached the little kissed them hungrily, his first kiss. Often mountain town where the Farringtons he had dreamed of that kiss, but now, in received their mail, modem roads swept a subtle way, it was disappointing. away into more densely settled regions "So glad to see you, Roddy!” she said and left only deeply rutted clay roads lightly. whose very impassability seemed a warn¬ Rod held her off and looked hard at ing to strangers to keep away. Elemental her, the pointed, cleft-chinned face, the nature was here, sullen, defiant, stupen¬ blue eyes behind long curling brown dously old in bare rock cliffs and narrow lashes. He sensed a change in her, yet streams that had eaten deep into the hills. could not understand what it was. Life other than human was here in abun¬ "You don’t seem so worried,” he told dance. Crows especially were numerous.i her. "By your note asking me to hurry; 766 WEIRD TALES here, I thou^t you were frightened about "Isn’t it lonesome for you, Ariel?” he something.” asked. "My note? Foolish!” She rubbed her "Not a bit. I’m helping Daddy in some dieek against his. It felt diilly and moist mighty interesting work. And then I against his skin. "I didn’t write you a have the lake and the woods to play note telling you to come.” about in.” She turned to look back at him, and he "You did. What’s the matter, Ariel?” saw that the green things about had re¬ She laughed impishly, ignoring his flected their own forest tint in the eyes question. "Look what I caught in the that should be blue. lake. Rod.” With an effort he pulled himself to¬ Reaching into the torn bosom of her gether. He was imagining things. That dress, she drew forth a tiny green water- would never do. He needed all his com¬ snake, languidly alive. mon sense now. Again Rod felt vague horror, as though As they entered the house, he saw that an unnatural effluvium of evil had laid it was even older and cruder than it had a spell upon this whole strange country. seemed from the road. In an enormous "What’s the matter with you, Ariel? living - room, furnished comfortably You’d put that thing in your bosom, you enough with many of the appointments who used to be afraid of a worm? You' re that had been in the old city home, he —^you’re a different girl.” waited while she went for her father. "Silly! I’m not. I’m the same girl T WAS many minutes before John Far¬ that topped your root beer with soap-suds I rington appeared, and then he stood last April Fool’s day. 'The same one who in the door and called out rudely and stuck a pin in a rose and had you smell sullenly: ’Well?” it.” 'The change in the man was shocking. Rod nodded, remembering. He also He had grown so thin he was almost lost remembered her sudden remorse over in the clothes of former days. both childish pranks. Dear little Ariel "How are you. Judge?” Rod cried of a doaen moods! There was a streak heartily, coming toward his old friend of earth across one pink clieek, and a bit with outstretched hand, which the other of water-weed was caught between her ignored. bare, perfect toes. Looking, Rod again "I’m well enough, especially when I’m felt that prickling of his scalp. Never not interrupted. I’m busy now. Rod. I had he seen this strange mood in her. can’t give you any time until after sup¬ It was as though all that was elfin and per.” He gestured to Ariel. "Get him prankish in her were concentrated in the something to eat, and then hurry and ragged little urchin laughing up at him, join me. I need you for an hour or two.” laughing from shallow, soulless eyes and Turning, he left the room abruptly, lips that were not quite warm enough while Ariel danced away with a promise for a creature of warm human blood. of supper in a few minutes. She was leading him to the house, her Rod felt a moment of anger. He was bare feet flying over the ground in happy, half tempted to leave immediately, but skipping steps. Her skirt was so torn again his consciousness of latent mystery that he could see her round white thigh enveloped him. He would have to re¬ as she moved. main, for Ariel’s sake. THE DWELLERS IN THE HOUSE 767

In a few minutes the girl was back Was he facing another Stowall Vaynce again, wheeling a tea-wagon bearing a mystery? cold supper. She had not changed her "Ariel!” he aied, putting her down ragged clothes, and in this disheveled hastily. "Tell me what your father does condition joined Rod in the meal. to you in his laboratory. Tell me!” Rod could not shake off his overpow¬ "Not now, old curiosity!” she teased, ering sense of unreality. He felt almost patting his cheek. "You’ll find out, as though he were wandering in a dream. though. He’s already told me that your The pixy-faced ragamuffin facing him turn was next. Now, run and play on over the table could not be the Ariel he the lake for an hour or two until he is had wanted to marry. She scarcely stirred through with me for the day.” his pulses now, this pretty child-girl with She skipped away. the soulless eyes. The house was suddenly repellent to Rod. He went outside, to walk along "What is your father doing now, the lake edge. There was enough moon¬ Ariel.?” he asked her. "Still poring over light to make the going easy, and in a Ahmad Yazij’s books, I suppose?” few minutes he was enjoying the scent "That—and other things." of the water-lilies. "For instance?” Gradually another odor began to im¬ "Mind your business, Roddy. If you pinge itself upon his sensibilities, a stench stay here long enough, you’ll find out.” so unpleasant that his nostrils quivered. She laughed teasingly, cocking her head Closer to the brink he crept, to determine birdwise and looking at him. "I suspect whether the smell came from the night- he’d like to work on you, at that—gen¬ blade waters which slapped among the tleman, cave-man, warm-hearted boy, lily pads. cold-hearted lawyer. Oh! you’d be a And then, as the odor gained strength, case.” terrific understanding came to him. His Rod found the meal singularly un¬ horrified nostrils drank in great breaths pleasant. Each moment he was more con¬ of the putrescence, for he had to be sure. vinced that Ariel was changed in a way He could not be mistaken. Aloud he that made him vaguely frantic with ap¬ groaned the name of the one being who prehension. Something he had loved in could produce that evil stench. her, some primary characteristic which "Ahmad Yazij!” used to reach out to him and claim his God! Could he ever forget that stench very soul, seemed to have disappeared. that reeked of disease and unspeakable It was almost as though the Ariel he had corruption which sullied everything the loved were dead, and this girl before Arab had touched? Mad fear almost sent him was only a laughing shadow that him shrieking back to the house, but he mocked him. controlled himself and forced his lagging His final bewilderment came when steps onward. He had to go on. He felt Ariel threw herself on his knee. It was that he was trailing something which he not her conduct that surprized him, but must see and know. her lack of weight. He scarcely felt the pressure of her body. Suddenly he He left the trail along the bank’s swooped her into his arms and lifted her, edge and went down to the slimy and the experiment brought a cry from mud, to stumble over sprawling cypress him. She seemed no heavier than a baby. knees and step into cray&h holes. i768 WEIRD TALES

As he progressed, the foul odor be¬ find his courage again, for he babbled came an effluvium so violently repellent foolishly. that it seemed to well up from the can¬ "Ariel alive, Ariel dead! Stowall cerous depths of an elder world. In his Vaynce alive, Stowall Vaynce dead! hunger for more light, he used his ciga¬ Ahmad Yazij dead, Ahmad Yazij-” rette-lighter. The feeble flame at least His voice caught in his throat. Was guided his footsteps in the immediate Ahmad Yazij alive? Ahmad Yazij, who vicinity. A minute later, he was hys¬ had been writing books for hundreds ot terically glad that he had this tiny spot years? of light, which saved his feet from abom¬ With such insane thoughts upsetting ination. For directly in his path, half his reason, he could not feel real grief buried in mud and water, was a human over the girl’s body at his feet. He was body. not viewing dead Ariel, but some sinister For a moment. Rod paused, revolted. mystery which had no place on the earth. Here lay a woman. Her white dress and He tried to bring himself to touch the arms were coated so thickly with dried body to ascertain whether or not it was lake silt and scum that she seemed, in only visionary, but his shrinking hand the moonlight, almost like a figure of was not capable of the revolting act. clay. He swept his light over the still Drawing off his coat, he laid it over the form. When it reached the face, his muddy form, and was relieved to see scream echoed through the giant cedar that the coat really lay over something. trees. Then he ran back to the house. Dark¬ The woman was Ariel. ness and stillness lay over the ancient There could be no mistake, for only wooden pile. Rod entered, passed through her face and her golden hair were un¬ the great living-room, and on to the lean- defiled by the mud. From the discolored to in the rear, where he saw a crack of hue of the flesh, the body must have been light coming from under the door. This here several days. It must have been here was John Farrington’s study. when he had talked to Artel today! It He was about to knock on the door probably had been here when the note when he heard a sound that sent quiver¬ summoning him had been written. ing terror through him. He did not rush away immediately, It was Ariel’s voice, raised in a wild a human revolted against a loved thing protest. "I won’t! I won’t!’’ because it had ceased to be human; he "Come now!’’ shouted her father, "I’ll stood there half paralyzed with the real¬ have no stubbornness. Get over there ization that he faced evil blacker than under the focus.” the down-pressing night. Now that he "For God’s sake. Daddy, don’t you was close to the poor, lifeless shell to see—can’t you see that you’ve destroyed which that compelling odor had led him, the last one? It is I now. Don’t make he was conscious that the odor was gone. me-” Only the natural smell of the lake ooze Her words ended in a scream of de¬ tainted the air, which after the foulness spair. of the other, seemed cleaner than the Rod turned the door-knob frantically; breath of flowers. the door was locked. With Ariel’s voice Rod must have turned a little mad in begging for mercy spurring him to des¬ that shocking moment before he could peration, he flung himself against the an- W. T.—6 THE DWELLERS IN THE HOUSE 769 cient wood, and almost instantly a panel "Will you lift him. Rod, to that high broke in. chair in front of the soul spectroscope?” Father and daughter were struggling, She was white-faced and so excited and just as Rod fell into the room, the that her blue eyes were nearly black. father won. His hands found the white Working under her directions. Rod placed throat that strained away from him. the inert body in the chair, and rolled But Rod, instead of rushing in to the the chair into the exact center of a pen- assistance of the girl he loved, stood par¬ tacle marked upon the floor with a red¬ alyzed, every sense revolted against the dish-brown substance suspiciously like insane sight that abominated his eyes. dried blood. There was one Ariel struggling with her "Don’t step into the symbol,” she father, and another stretched out on a warned, her voice high-pitched with ill- table, apparently lifeless. The body on concealed dread. the table was the tattered ragamufi&n he As Rod observed her, he discovered had met earlier in the evening, the stran¬ that something in her voice, some half- ger in Ariel's form who had puzzled and perceived expression in her blue eyes, distressed him. The other Ariel, fighting were proof that here was the old Ariel for her life with the shrunken-faced crea¬ and not the soulless girl of the after¬ ture who shrieked Arabic curses, was the noon, who apparently lay lifeless in this well-groomed girl he hoped to marry. very room. In that dreadful moment of revelation. At last everything was in readiness to Rod knew that he did not face the real Ariel’s liking. She walked over to Rod John Farrington, but the withered shell and slipped her hand into his with al¬ of his body housing a fiend. He seized most child-like trust and simplicity. the first object that his hands touched, a "I’m sorry I had to force you to view heavy metal tube. One blow from this what you’re going to see, Rod. I asked caused the crushing hands to relax in¬ you to come only because I need you so.” stantly from Ariel’s throat. With a gentle And this was the girl in the image of sigli, the man who looked like a strange her who that afternoon had denied writ¬ blending of John Farrington and Ahmad ing him to come! Yazij fell to the floor. Rod gave all his attention to Ariel. Rod pressed the hand in his. "I’m with She was not seriously injured, and after . you to the last drop of my blood, a thirsty draft of water which tortured Ariel. And I’m ready for anything that her bruised throat, she was able to speak. is to take place, for I know that we’re "Is he unconscious. Rod? Really un¬ both experiencing what was never in¬ conscious?’’ tended for normal human beings to see.” "Yes.” "You’ll not be harmed,” she prom¬ "Then hurry! I have a dreadful tadc ised, "if you keep hold of your nerves to perform, and you must help.” and your reason.” Without stopping to explain, she bus¬ She swung into place the long tube ied herself with the giant spectroscope¬ which somewhat resembled the collimator like appliance that Rod recognized as be¬ on the ordinary spectroscope. Instead of ing the one which had come from Ahmad the usual lens in the end, the tube was Yazij. After Ariel had made certain ad¬ fitted with an arrangement of silvery justments, she called to Rod. wires twisted into a geometrical pattern W. T.—7 i770 WEffiD TALES so singular that Rod felt a creeping of reached out a finger and touched the his scalp when he looked at it. Only a living shadow. Instantly it detached moment of gazing gave him the sensation itself from John Farrington’s mouth, that those insanely angled wires were cut¬ floated up for another foot or two, and ting through his flesh, through his very burst like a bubble. mind, until, tearing his eyes away, he Ariel fainted, and the two men rushed realized that he had had a glimpse of to her aid. forms stolen from some elder world, per¬ "Ariel! Daughter!” groaned John haps from another dimension of space Farrington, completely recovered. "My and time, brave little girl.” He gathered her into "Go to the other end of the room. his arms. Rod, and watch.” Ariel did not remain unconscious more Rod obeyed, his eyes again seeking the than a moment. Strength returned to her silver-wired tube that was focused on almost immediately. She sat up and John Farrington’s body, which now was gasped. animated with returning consciousness. "Quick, Father! Let’s burn the room Ariel did something to the soul spec¬ and everything in it.” troscope which caused a blinding white Leaping to her feet, she began tum¬ light to pour from the silver wires. 'The bling the books from the shelves, tearing radiance, in long pale beams, was inter¬ out leaves and scattering them in heaps. laced in the same dreadful pattern that "Wait, Daughter.” John Farrington the wires made. Reaching out to the hesitated, and his worn face paled to a convulsed body of John Farrington, the ghastlier hue. "There is something not rays seemed to slash through him like in this room which—^must be destroyed. knives of steel. Rod?” Suddenly from the man’s open mouth The eyes of the two men met and poured a stream of black smoke so foul clung in horrible, unspoken understand¬ that both Rod and Ariel clapped their ing. hands to their mouths. 'The stench of "Get me some sheets, Ariel,” the older Ahmad Yazij; instantly Rod recognized man went on. it, sensing it issuing from a foul source In a few moments, bearing a broad rotten with age and corruption. 'The board taken from the broken door, the smoke began to shape itself into a form, two men were plunging into the night, a man; a black wraith with features and following the lake path that led to the eyes that were readily recognizable. Rod thing in the mud. and Ariel clung together, for Ahmad John Farrington would not let Rod Yazij’s shade hovered before them, still touch the poor, befouled body. attached to John Farrington’r mouth. The "I’ll take my just share of punishment. features grew plainer, until the hate they Rod. Hand me the sheets—and don’t revealed seemed to have deadly force. look.” With an enormous effort, Ariel re¬ Rod turned his head and tried to close covered herself. Close to the pentacle his ears to the sucking sounds made by marked on the floor she went, Wanting a body leaving its muddy bed. His nos¬ in bad Arabic. As she approached, the trils quivered with the odor of death; hate on the wraith’s face changed to fear. the odor that hung between the two men With one last burst of courage, Ariel throughout that dreadful return walk. THE DWELLERS IN THE HOUSE 771

Not once did the young man glance at selves, make ourselves think, act, and the sheeted thing bound to the board. live decently.” Even after they had entered the house "But are you sure we are fighting our¬ and deposited their burden on the labora¬ selves? Has it ever occurred to you that tory floor, he refused to look. Near the your body might be like a house shelter¬ brc^en door he stood while John Far¬ ing a large, quarrelsome family?” rington and Ariel broke bottles of chem- Rod laughed. 'Tve felt like that at icab and scattered their contents. He times.” heard the scratch of a match. "And that’s what I—^what Ahmad "Get out—quick!” shouted John Far¬ Yazij proved. He started his work nearly rington. two thousand years ago, and could never have completed it had he not possessed hey were no sooner outside than T enough occult power to pass himself on explosions began shaking the house. to younger, stronger bodies, which he At a safe distance they watched the flames forced to carry on the work of his will. lick the sky, roaring higjier after each explosion. "The human body is only a house. Rod, equipped with various natural de¬ "Thank God for fire!” John Farring¬ vices called senses which give the dweller ton said grimly. "Those half-real bodies or the dwellers contacts with conscious¬ will be consumed like paper, and there ness. There is one master of the house, will not be a trace left to tell the world which is your true self, but there are that I tampered with what should have many interlopers, tramps that come from remained secret.” outside; wandering, bodiless souls seek¬ Not until the three had entered Rod’s ing a home. Sometimes one, sometimes car parked far from the house did John the other, takes ascendency over all the Farrington allay Rod’s curiosity. While rest, and we call the phenomenon 'chang¬ the house burned, the high-reaching ing mood.’ flames painting the night with quivering "At least three hundred years ago, red, the two men talked. Ahmad Yazij started out to find a way "I am prepared to understand anything to cast out all the other dwellers of a you tell me, Judge. I saw the two Stowall body except himself, but not until mod¬ Vaynces. I saw three Ariels. They were ern science began to be developed did he as real as my own flesh. And, God help make much headway.” me. Judge! I—I saw Ahmad Yazij look Rod broke in nervously. "Terrible out of your eyes.” thought, that: his coming up to the pres¬ The other placed a comforting hand on ent time through all the other ages of his knee. ignorance and dawning knowledge.” "It’s all right now, boy. I’m your "I think it rather sublime. Rod; that is, old friend again.” After a pause, he went if he hadn’t misused his power. But he on, in a brisker tone of voice. "Rod, have was inherently evil. To go on, though: you ever been surprized at your own he did not discover the soul spectroscope actions and decisions, which made you until he was in the incarnation that we feel almost as though a stranger inside knew, the shriveled, hideous Arab.” He you were directing your mind.?” paused and breathed audibly for several "We’re all like that. Judge, aren’t we? moments. "'The soul spectroscope. Rod. We’ve got to fight ourselves, beat our¬ It’s a devilish mongrel, spawned from ,772 WEIRD TALES

modern science wedded to occultism, for killed both. It was all tqo dreadful; separating souls as the prism spec¬ please comprehend. To retaliate, he tried troscope separates the different radiations to kill the real Ariel. Many times. You from a luminous source. It shows up the saw one occasion. But it’s all right now; tramps that have stolen into a body, and, he’s gone.” at the operator’s will, casts them out.” Rod looked back at the burning house "But, Judge,” Rod interrupted, "I and shuddered. "Gone? Are you sure?” can’t forget that the—the extra bodies I "I am sure. Ariel cast him out without saw were of flesh and blood. 'There was giving him flesh; cast him unfleshed from Stowall Vaynce and—and Ariel-” a living body. Had he passed out of a "Yes, they were real, half-real; crea¬ dead body, as he did when he was exe¬ tures made up of matter of a sort. But cuted, he could seize another home. But do we know so very much about matter, now he is a homeless wanderer in space after all? Matter and energy are the same and time.” in the last analysis. Ahmad Yazij, in the "But have you any assurance that he form of the Arab we knew, having ac¬ can never come back—that he can never quired a knowledge of modern science seize another home, as you call it?” to add to his ancient lore of occultism John Farrington paused long before and magic, discovered that it was possi¬ answering. ble, when separating souls, to split off "I can’t be sure—too sure,” he said. material atoms from the living body to "I only know that he can never take my clothe the tramp with flesh. Don’t be body again. I know how to guard against too shocked. Your own living body is him now.” doing that constantly, casting off its own atoms, renewing itself at least every seven long silence fell, for the three of years. What Ahmid Yazij did was to A them were now watching the final steal only enough living atoms to make spectacle of the burning house, nearly a second body of similar mass, but of consumed by the flames. 'The old build¬ less density.” ing had crashed in, half smothering the "And that is why the dead thing called fire, so that black smoke belched up in Stowall Vaynce weighed only forty-five vast clouds. pounds?” "Look!” saeamed Ariel. "Look!” "Yes; and it was the reason why he was dead. For he was the original Vaynce, Her pointing finger picked out the top¬ you know, who had been forced to give most peak of the smoke cloud, swaying up too much of his living substance. 'The against the red-lighted sky. It had formed one that came back was one of the poor a colossal man, his feet planted in the devil’s harmless body interlopers. Not fire, his head high above the tree tops. The features were plainly visible, sculp¬ until Yazij got into my body, younger tured from fire-painted smoke. and more vigorous than his, and with a mind perhaps more carefully educated, "Is it smoke?” Ariel quavered. "No, did he discover hew to materialize souls no! Daddy, it’s looking at us, look¬ without destroying the parent-body. Using ing-” me, he separated two interlopers from But John Farrington, not heeding her, Ariel. And when I succeeded in beating got out of the car quietly, holding his him back and getting ascendency, I arms wide, while he chanted in Arabic, THE DWELLERS IN THE HOUSE 773

Suddenly the black form writhed high caught it, tore it to fragments, and sent into the air and sailed out over the lake, the fragments scattering, to be swallowed still intact, until a sudden gust of wind by the black night.

cJ P (2/prig of Rosemary By H. WARNER MUNN

A tender story about a skinflint whose heart had turned to ice, and how it was softened after his death WHEN I was a boy in the little vil¬ He came home, hurt body and soul, lage of Pequoig, which is hidden eager for sympathy, limping straight to away in a fold of northwestern the door of the girl who had promised Massachusetts' hilly country, I remember to be his bride when the war was over. distinctly an old man with a long white For would he not be covered with glory beard seen often on the streets and side and resplendent with glittering buttons lanes, always alone. and braid? Stump, stump, stump, would go his She took one long horrified look at him, peg-leg on the plank sidewalks as he standing there on her stoop, haggard, strode along, with occasionally a sharp worn and crippled, leaning on his crutch¬ rattle of his cane along the pickets of the es, and she threw up her hands in dismay. bordering fences. "Oh, Moses!” she cried, "I’d rather see We boys would cry to each other, you dead than coming home this way!” "Watch out, here comes old Uncle and slammed the door in his face. Moses!” as he came in sight; then it was Hurt and bewildered, his heart became "Good day to you, Mr. Crockett!” to his like ice. From that day on, he had a kind face. word for no one; scowling, friendless, "Humph!” was his invariable reply, solitary, he stumped the streets of Pequoig while his beard twitched as though about and grew old alone. to throw off sparks and the gnarled hand The avuncular appellation came not clenched on his stout stick. Crack! Down from any kin of his, for he had no rel¬ it would come on the boards and off he atives. People called him Uncle because would march, as though mightily insulted of his pawnbroker habits, and the name by our greeting. Stump, stump, stump, stuck. He loaned money at exorbitant in¬ down the street; the hollow sound from terest and only upon excellent security. the boarding coming back long after he No tale of hard times could induce him was out of sight. to part with a penny due him, and many There was a tale in the village, that old a curse was heaped upon his head from Uncle Moses had not always been so some poor soul thrust out into the wide morose, but his leg and his temper left world, sans house, property or hope. him together, shot away by a cannon ball Little by little, his fingers poked into during the War of 1812. every pie in Pequoig. Hardly an individ- .774 WEIRD TALES

ual but was somehow in his debt, and one This spread through the village on in¬ in debt to Uncle Moses rarely threw off dignant tongues, and feeling ran high, so his bonds. that there was talk of hooded men and The Civil War came and found many tar and feathers. Nothing probably that took advantage of his pocketbook. would have come of it in the end, for the Was the man with a family drafted? To fear of his power was too great, but there old Uncle Moses then, for the hundred was no time given to decide the question. dollars to pay some single man to take his place. The very next morning, a debtor call¬ ing to pay money due, found old Long after the war was over, some Uncle Moses dead in his chair, with his found their paid interest had totalled jaw dropped down and with his stick many times the principal, but the original clutched firmly in his hand. sum loaned had not been abated a penny and they still owed old Uncle Moses one All over town there was silent rejoicing hundred dollars. and if ever there was talk of a judgment sent straight from heaven, it was then, Mortgages, civic funds, rents, all came with Moses Crockett as a horrible exam¬ eventually to his eager clutching hands ple. and there was a specter behind every man’s bed as he tossed sleepless at night; He had made no will, so even before his for there was no pity in old Uncle Moses’ burial, a special town meeting was called stony heart for any living being. to settle the question of his money. Al¬ By some he was looked upon with dis¬ most unanimously it was voted to cancel gust and rq>ulsion, by others with scorn, all debts owing to his estate, bring back but underneath there was fear and hatred. and settle again all townspeople who had And so time wore on. been evicted through him, and use the re¬ As he grew older, the familiar stump¬ mainder of his wealth in civic improve¬ ing was heard less frequently, but the vil¬ ments. lage dogs avoided him still, for there was It might be thought that this would power in his arm and a bite in his stick have caused old Uncle Moses to turn over even in these late days when I came to in his coflan, but calm and peaceful he lay, know him. and was lowered into the grave. The At that time the pleasant custom of ground leveled, a simple headstone placed decorating graves on Memorial Day had and the sexton went away and left him recently come into fashion and was re¬ alone as he would have chosen to be. ceived with great enthusiasm and inter¬ And while the town was glad, in a fur¬ est in Pequoig. tive diamefaced way, to see tlie last of How well I remember seeing old him, a family living near the river were Uncle Moses, standing with his weight made happy for another reason. on his peg-leg, looking on at the exercises Almost at the very instant that the in Highland Cemetery, mentally reckon¬ spades patted down the last heap of loose ing up the cost in good hard cash of all earth in the Crockett lot, a girl baby was the flowers and wreaths laid out for the born to the Keltons. rains to destroy! She did not cry at first, like most babies, "Humph!” he grunted loudly. "Pagan quickly afterward to fall asleep, but the superstition! Criminal waste of money!” beginning of her life was one of smiles. and stumped away home. "What shall we call her, Patience?” A SPRIG OF ROSEMARY 775 said Abner, stroking his wife’s hair with Again on Memorial Day, the family a horny, work-gnarled hand. went to Highland Cemetery to lay tributes "We will call her Rosemary, dear,” she upon ancestral resting-places. answered weakly. "Rosemary. Rose¬ Here in Pequoig, it has always been a mary Kelton. Isn’t it lovely, Abner.? She custom that a thing worth doing at all is likes it, see how she smiles! Rosemary— worth doing well, and the graves were that’s for remembrance.” loaded with flowers. This made it all the Then mother and daughter fell fast more noticeable, when they passed, as asleep and the great day was over. they were obliged to do, old Moses Croc¬ kett’s grave. The Keltons were one of the expatri¬ ated families brought back to better times It was bare and luitended. The grass by the death of old Uncle Moses. Soon grew upon it uncut and in stiff clumps. they left the little shack by the river and 'The headstone had tipped drunkenly returned into the village again to their askew. The whole effect was that of deso¬ old home. lation and neglect. One day Abner, his wife, and Rose¬ Rosemary looked at this depressing mary, still in arms, went through the sight and hung back on her mother’s cemetery. They paused beside the grave hand. of Moses Crockett for a moment. There "Mama! Why hasn’t he got some flow¬ were none of the usual eulogies of the ers, too? Everybody else has got lots. dead upon his stone, merely a record of Couldn’t they g've him a few?” the dates of birth and death and his Mrs. Kelton looked at the grave and at name; that was ail. her earnest-faced little girl. It did seem "Poor old man!” said Mrs. Kelton. petty and spiteful to neglect this hard, "I’m sorry for him. Nobody ever had a unloved man, now that he was dead and good word for him.” gone. "Why should they.?” flared up Abner. "Give him this if you like, little daugh¬ "He never did anything decent for any¬ ter,” she smiled, and broke off a little body while he lived. In fact, the only sweet-smelling sprig of blue flowers from good thing he ever did was die and get the bouquet she carried. "It’s rosemary, out of the way. Why, in a few more the pretty little shrub that we named you years, nobody in Pequoig would have after. Put it there, dear. Now come, we been able to breathe unless they asked old will be late for the exercises.” Crockett’s permission! Why, what’s the "Why didn’t he have any flowers. matter with the child?” Mama?” For little Rosemary, whether fright¬ "Nobody loved him, darling. He ened by her father’s violent and angry didn’t have any little girl like you to think tone, or for another reason, had com¬ about him and bring him flowers. He menced to cry bitterly and would not be was all alone, you see.” comforted. Nor did she ever after that "Poor old man! I’ll be his little girl. show such a liking for her father as had Mama. I’ll love him too and bring him been her wont. flowers. Can’t I be your little girl and his Another year crept by. Little Rosemary too. Mama?” became "free, goin’ on four,” as she Tears sprang to her mother’s eyes. She would proudly announce to all who knelt and hugged her baby. begged to be informed. "Mother's thoughtful little daughter! 776 WEIRD TALES

Of course you can. We will come here good with his peg-leg and his cane with together, whenever you wish.” the silver on the handle.” And there the matter ended for a Over the child’s head, the parents ex¬ while. changed an awed look. She had described On Sundays Mrs. Kelton and Rose¬ his garb to the life, and there was not a mary came to be regular visitors to the picture of Moses Crcx:kett in the entire grave. It took on a different aspect. village of Pequoig! The headstone was straightened, the "You have seen him before, then?” grass neatly clipped, with seed sown to queried Abner. fill in the bare spots. Flowers were "Course. Lots of times. We talk to¬ brought, fresh every week, whatever was gether every time I go up there.” in season at the time. A little bush had "What aibout?” sprung up of itself upon the grave and "Oh, things,” she replied, evasively. one day Mrs. Kelton noticed that the spot "He talks like he’s glad to have me for a it occupied must be directly over the old little girl.” man’s heart. It was rosemary. Home again, the parents held a long colloquy, and arrived at the opinion that The year wore away to early fall. for the sake of her future sanity she must Goldenrod and fringed gentians ap¬ be kept away from the grave. peared upon the grave and the little girl So, for a month. Highland Cemetery had formed the habit of going to the went unvisited by any Kelton, and grass cemetery alone. grew up in clumps upon the grave and At first, she had wandered off and had turned brown and sere in the chill nights been sought anxiously and with much of autumn. concern, only to be found coming home Rosemary wept, but parental orders with the calm explanation that having were stern. Then one day she was miss¬ nothing else to do she had gone to the ing again and was found this time in the cemetery with flowers for old Uncle cemetery itself, radiant and happy. She Moses. was sitting by the headstone, talking rap¬ Entering into the spirit of the play, idly, and appeared to be enjoying herself Abner asked teasingly, "How did be like so much that Mrs. Kelton had not the ’em? Did he thank ye for ’em, now?” heart to drag her away, but withdrew un¬ *' ’Deed he did, Papa. He walked all observed. the way here with me, too, but when he She came home in wild excitement. Old saw you he went back.” Uncle Moses, it appeared, had hit a big Abner’s eyes almost popped from his dog with his cane, when it jumped out head. He looked at his wife. She paled. at her as she was passing by Asa Higgins’ "Are you sure it was him, dear? How house. was he dressed?” "Course ’twas him. He wore the same Abner kelton put on his hat and c^at clothes he always wears. A black suit, big - and went out without saying a word. wide floppy hat, and his shoes are square In front of the Higgins house lay a dog. at the toe. He did not remember ever having seen it "Poor man,” she interrupted herself. about the village. Its back had been "I mean 'shoe,’ of course, because he’s broken by a heavy blow and it was dead. only got one foot. But he gets along real He went to Highland Cemetery in the A SPRIG OF ROSEMARY 777 gathering dark. Standing before the by a stick dragged along the white-painted grave he took off his hat. pickets of a fence. "I’m much obliged, Mr. Crockett,’’ he Abner Kelton hurried home. said, in a steady voice. "We think the Stump, stump, stump, on the other side world of that little girl.” of the street. Off in the depths of the wooded ceme¬ Abner Kelton raised the latch of his tery a whippoorwill sounded its plaintive, gate and went into his house. half-human cry. It came like a distant, Lying on her bed, Rosemary smiled at sardonic laugh. him. "You sent him, didn’t you. Papa? Abner started and put on his hat. "You He loves you too now. Papa, because you poor, dumb fool!” he said to himself and came for him. He said he came before, strode home. but your hearts were against him and he There is little more to tell. couldn’t get in. How good his cool hands Scarlet fever came to Pequoig before feel on my forehead!” the first snow fell, and among the early She fell off into easy slumber, and that victims was Rosemary Kelton. Parched night the fever broke. and hot, she threw herself about upon her The parents spoke little of what had little bed in the agonies of delirium and happened, but lying awake, they heard in nothing the anguished parents could do the nights of sickness that followed, little would bring her ease. noises that sounded like the slight tapping "I want Uncle Moses. Why don’t of a wooden leg set softly as might be in Uncle Moses come to me?” she kept con¬ the taking of steps. And there was talking tinually calling, and in desperation Abner from below stairs. Sometimes they could Kelton went to Highland Cemetery with swear they heard another voice besides grief in his heart. that of their daughter, but so often as He knelt beside the grave. they went down to see, the other voice "God,” he said, very simply, "I ain’t stopped and they found Rosemary mut¬ much on praying, but if you can let Moses tering in her sleep. Crockett come home with me for a spell. So they gave up and left her with her I’ll be much obliged.” unseen companion, for that she was in He paused; he felt there should be loving care could not be doubted. something more, but nothing would come But, although the fever was gone, Rose¬ to his mind. There was no sound to be mary did not get well. Day by day she heard but the wind dolefully whining became more thin and pale, daily more through the leafless branches of the weep¬ feeble, until in spite of all their efforts ing willows, and soughing in the pines. she whispered one evening with a tired "Amen,” he said, and stood up. little sigh: "I love my Mama and Papa, He walked out of the cemetery on the and my Uncle Moses,” and closed her gravel path. He stopped and looked back; eyes for ever, with the setting of the sun. there was nothing to be seen, but he thought that he heard an irregular step That was a night of sleepless sorrow. on the gravel behind him. The grief-stricken mother sat by the He went on, down into the village. Far beside of her first-born and mourned, behind came a hollow stump, stump, dry-eyed and heartbroken. stump, on the board walk, and faint but Along toward morning, outraged na¬ clear, a long rattle such as might be made ture had her way, and she dropped off to ,778 WEIRD TALES sleep in her rocker. People afterward journey, you know. So! There we are. thought she dreamed what followed, but Now, put this on the bed, then when your she always swore that a sudden noise mother wakes up, she will know that brought her eyes open. everything is all right, and you will be Rosemary was sitting up in the bed, waiting for her to follow us by and by.” holding out her arms to some one behind The first Rosemary ran back to the bed her mother. She was unable to turn, but and tucked something into the clasped she heard a deep, hearty, happy laugh, no fingers of the second. more like the surly tones that she remem¬ "Now then, here we go. Come on. Up! bered from Moses Crockett than anything You shall have a ride.” in the world. The door opened and closed again. At "I knew you would come back for me. once Mrs. Kelton sprang up. She darted Uncle Moses,” crowed the little girl, with to the bed and took a tiny twig from be¬ a lovely smile. "I waited for you. I just tween the fingers of the little girl who lay couldn’t go by myself. It was so far and smiling there. so dark.” At last, tears blinded her eyes, but she The person behind Mrs. Kelton heard a sound in the room and dashed laughed again. them away. Abner stood at the foot of "Come,” said the hearty, good- the stairs, looking sadly at her. She humored tones. "Come, darling, we will walked toward him. go together. Did you think I would let "Oh, Abner,” she began and paused, the only one in the whole wide world who listening. ever loved old Uncle Moses go alone?” Stump, stump, stump, far away on the 'Then she saw that there were two board sidewalk, and faint but clear, the Rosemarys, for one jumped out of bed sharp rattle of a stick on a picket fence. and left the other lying there. The first She held up the sweet-smelling sprig Rosemary ran past the rocker. before his face. "Here,” said the happy voice, "put on "Rosemary,” she said unsteadily. your shoes. We are going to have a long "Rosemary. That’s for remembrance.”

Drive

By CARL JACOBI A short story of a grisly ride through a blizzard with a corpse

IT WAS a cold wind that whipped sheepskin higher about the throat. All across the hills that November eve¬ day endless masses of white cumulus ning. There was snow in the air, cloud had raced across a cheerless sky. and Jeb Waters in the cab of his jolting They were gray now, those clouds, leaden van shivered and drew the collar of his gray, and so low-hanging they seemed to THE LAST DRIVE 779 lie like a pall on. the aest. of each distant was die body of Philip Carr, Marchester's hillock. Off to the right, stem and ma¬ iiHTSt promising son. Philip Carr—Race jestic, like a great parade of H. G. Wells’ Carr they had called him because he was Martian creatures, marched the towers of such a driving fool—was the only man the Eastern States Power lines, the only v.'ho could have brought the town to fame. evidence here of present-day civilization. With his queer-looking Speed Empress, A low humming whine rose from the taut the racing-car which was a product of his wires now as the mounting wind twanged own invention and three years’ work, he them in defiance. had hoped to lower the automobile speed Through the windshield Jeb Waters record on the sand track of Daytona scanned the sky anxiously. Beach, Florida. He had clocked an unof¬ ficial 300 miles an hour in a practise "It’s going to be a cold trip back,’’ he muttered to himself. "Looks mighty like attempt, and the world had sat up and taken notice. a blizzard startin’.” He gave the engine a bit more gas and On the fatal day, however, a tire had tightened his grasp on the wheel as a failed to stand the centrifugal force, and sharper curve loomed up suddenly before in a trice the car had twisted itself into a him. For a time he drove in silence, his lump of steel. Philip Carr had been in¬ mind fixed only on the barrenness of the stantly killed. There was talk of burying hills on all sides. Mardiester lay thirty him in Florida, but Marchester, his home miles ahead, thirty long, rolling miles. town, had absolutely refused. And so the Littleton was just behind. If there were body had been shipped back to Littleton, going to be a storm, perhaps it would be the nearest point on rails, and Jeb Waters wise to return and wait until morning had been sent to bring it from there to before making the trip. It would be bad Marchester. to get stuck out here tonight, especially with the kind of load he was delivering. JEB hadn’t liked the idea. There was Enough to give one the creeps even in the nothing to be afraid of, he knew, but daytime. somehow when he was alone in these Marchester with its few hundred souls, Rentharpian Hills, even though he had hopelessly lost in the hills, too small or known no other home since a child, he perhaps too lazy to incorporate itself, always felt depressed and anxious for had been passed by without a glance when companionship. A coffin would hardly serve to ease his mind. the railroad officials distributed spurs lead¬ ing from the main line. As a result all The wind was mounting steadily, and freight had to be trucked thirty miles now the first swirls of snow began to ap¬ across the country from Littleton, the pear. The cab of the van was anything nearest town on trackage. But there but warm. A corner of the windshield wasn’t much freight, as the officials had was broken out, and the rags Jeb had suspected, and although Jeb Waters drove stuffed in the hole failed to keep out tlie the distance only twice a week, he rarely cold. returned with more than a single package. Premature darkness had swooped down Today, however, the load had stunned under the lowering clouds, and Jd? turned him with its importance. In the van, back on the lights. The van was a veiy old of him, separated by only the wooden wall one, and the lights worked on the mag¬ of the cab, lay a coffin, and in tfiat coffin neto. As the snow became thicker and 780 WEIRD TALES thicker Jeb was forced to reduce his speed, drive back to town. . . . But that was and the lights, deprived of most of their tomorrow. Tonight there was the storm current, dimmed to only a low dismal —and the corpse. glow, illuminating but little of the road He set the spark, got out, and cranked ahead. the engine. But he did it half-heartedly. Yet the miles rolled slowly by. The He knew by the tone of the engine when snow was piling in drifts now. It rolled it had stopped that it would be a long across the hills, a great sweeping blanket time before it would resume revolutions. of white, and swirled like powder through At length he resigned himself to his the crevices of the cab. And it was grow¬ plight, returned to the cab and tried to ing colder. keep warm. But the cab was old and bad¬ ly built. The wind blew through chinks Frome’s Hill, the steepest rise on the and holes in great drafts, and snow sifted road, loomed up abruptly, and Jeb roared down his neck. It suddenly occurred to the rickety motor into a running start. The him that the back part of the van, which van lurched up the ascent, back wheels had been repaired recently, would give spinning in the soft snow, seeking trac¬ better protection against the blizzard than tion. The engine hammered its protest. the cab. There were robes back there too, The transmission groaned as if in pain. robes used to keep packages from being Up, up climbed the truck until at length it broken. If only tlie coffin weren’t there! reached the very top. One couldn’t sleep next to a coffin. "Now it’s clear sailing,” said Jeb aloud. Another thought followed. Why not But he had spoken too soon. With a put the coffin in the cab.^ There was sigh as if the feat had been too great, the nothing else in the van, and he would motor lapsed into sudden silence. The then have the back of it to himself. He lights blinked out, and there was only the could lie down too and with the robes gray darkness of the hills and the swish¬ manage to keep w'arm somehow. ing of the snow on the sides of the cab. In a moment his mind was made up, For a full moment Jeb sat there motion¬ and he set about to accomplish his task. less as the horror of the situation fell upon It was hard, slow work. 'The coffin was him. Snowbound with a corpse! Twenty heavy, the cab small and the steering-post miles from the nearest habitation and in the way. Finally by shoving it in end alone with a coffin! A cold sweat burst up he managed it successfully, and then out on his forehead at the realization of going to the back of the van, he went in, the predicament. closed the door, tolled up like a ball in the But he was acting like a child. It was robes and lay down to sleep. ridiculous to let his ner\’es run away with him like that. If he could only keep from SLEEP proved elusive. He stirred rest¬ freezing there would be no danger. In lessly, listening to the sounds of the the morning when it was found he hadn’t storm. Occasionally the truck trembled as reached Marchester the people would send a stronger gust of wind struck it. Occa¬ help. Probably Ethan would come. Old sionally he could hear the mournful Ethan. He would come in that funny Eolian whine of the power lines. Pow¬ sleigh of his. And he would say: dery snow rustled along the roof of the "Well Jeb, howdja like spending the van. And the iron exhaust pipe cracked night with a dead ’un?” loudly as the heat left it. Minutes And then they would both laugh and dragged by, slowly, interminably. THE LAST DRIVE 781'

And then suddenly Jeb Waters sat bolt dead. You’re dead, do you hear? You upright. Whether or not he had dozed can’t drive any more.” off into a fitful sleep he did not know, A horrible gurgling laugh came from but at any rate he was wide awake now. the man at the wheel. The figure bent The van was moving! He could hear lower as if to urge the van to a greater the tires crunching in the snow, could feel speed. And the van answered as if to a the slight swaying as the car gained mo¬ magic touch. On it raced into the storm, mentum. He leaped to his feet and rocking and swaying like a thing accursed. pressed his eyes against the little window Snow swirled past in great white clouds. that connected the back of the van with The wind howled in fanatical accom¬ the cab. paniment. Jeb plunged his arm through the bro¬ For a moment he saw nothing. A strip ken window and clawed for the throat of of black velvet seemed pasted before the the driver. glass. Then the darkness softened. A "Stop!” he screamed. And then he soft glow seemed to form in the cab, and gurgled in horror as his hands touched the vaguely he seemed to see the figure of a ice-cold skin. man hunched over the wheel in the driv¬ Suddenly with a lurch the van left the er’s position. road and leaped toward the blacker shad¬ The van was going faster now. It ows of a gully. A giant tree, its branches creaked and swayed, and the wheels rum¬ gesticulating wildly in the wind, reared up bled hollowly. Yet strangely enough just ahead. there was no sound of the engine. Jeb 'There came a crash! hammered on the little pane of glass. "Hey!” he cried. "Get away from that wheel! Stop!” “Tt’s odd,” said the coroner, and The figure seemed not to hear. With X frowned. his hands grasping the wheel tightly, el¬ Old Ethan scratched his chin. bows far out, shoulders hunched low, he "It ’pears,” he said, "as if that danged appeared aware of nothing but the dark van engine went and stopped right on the road ahead of him. Faster and faster sped top of that hill. Then Jeb, he musta gone the van. into the back of the van to keep warm, Frantically Jeb rammed his clenched fist and durin’ the night the wind started the through the window. The glass broke thing a-rollin’. It come tearin’ down the into a thousand fragments. hill, jumped into this here gully and ran "Do you hear?” he cried. "Stop, blast smash agin the tree. That’s the way I you! Stop!” figure it. Poor old Jeb!” The man turned and leered at him. "Yes,” replied the coroner, "but there Even in the half-glow Jeb recognized the doesn’t seem to be the slightest injury on features — that deathly white face, the Jeb’s body. Apparently he died of heart- black, glassy eyes. failure. And the corpse of Philip "Oh, my God,” he screamed. "It’s Carr! . . . The crash might have ripped Philip Carr!” His voice rose to a hysterical open the coffin. But that doesn’t explain laughing sob. His hands trembled as he why the body although set in rigor mortis clutched the careening walls, striving to is in a sitting position. 'The way his arms keep his balance. are extended, it looks almost as though he "Philip Carr,” he shouted. "You’re were driving once more.” 9\5ellie: Foster By AUGUST W. DERLETH

A brief tale of a woman who would not stay quiet in her grave

Mrs. KRAFT came hurriedly from naturally wide. "How do you know, the house, closed the white gate Mrs. Kraft?” behind her, and half ran across Her visitor opened her hand jerkily. the dusty street. With one hand she held "It was my niece this time. She saw the her long skirts clear of the walk; with woman, too. I didn’t want Andrew to the other she pressed a white handker¬ let the child go out last night, but she chief tightly to her lips. Her dark eyes would have her way. She wanted to go were fixed on the green and white house to her Aunt Emmy’s.” at the end of the block, almost hidden "Beyond the cemetery,” breathed Mrs. in the shade of overhanging elms of great Perkins. "But she came back before age. dark, surely?” The gate stood open, and Mrs. Kraft Mrs. Kraft shook her head. "No. At stepped quickly on to the lawn, forget¬ dusk, just before the street lights went ting to close the gate behind her. She on. The woman was there, standing in avoided the low veranda, going around the road. The child was afraid, even the side of the house, and entered the when the woman took her hand and kitchen through the open door at the walked along with her.” back. "What did she do? Oh, I hope nothing Mrs. Perkins was leafing through her serious happened!” recipe book when the shadow of Mrs. "The same as before. The woman Kraft momentarily darkened her door. kissed the child, and the little one went She looked up and said, "How do, Mrs. to sleep. This morning she is so weak, Kraft? You’re out early this morning.” she couldn’t get up. Loss of blood, the She smiled. doctor said.” Mrs. Kraft did not smile. She stood Mrs. Perkins clasped her hands help¬ quite still, her handkerchief still pressed lessly in her lap. "What can we do, Mrs. tightly against her mouth, nodding curtly Kraft? Nobody would believe us if we to acknowledge her neighbor’s greeting. said what this must be.” Mrs. Perkins looked at her oddly. Mrs. Kraft made an impatient move¬ "What is it, Mrs. Kraft?” she asked a ment with her head. Then she leaned for¬ little nervously. ward, her dark eyes shining, speaking in Mrs. Kraft took the handkerchief away a low voice. "The child knew the from her mouth, clenching it tightly in woman.” her hand, and said, "It happened again Mrs. Perkins started. "It wasn’t . . . last night.” wasn’t- Mrs. Perkins put her recipe book aside Mrs. Kraft nodded. "Nellie Foster— suddenly. "How do you know?” she not yet a month dead!” asked breathlessly. Her eyes were un- Mrs. Perkins wove her fingers together 782 NELLIE FOSTER 783 nervously. She had gone pale, and her said Mrs. Kraft scornfully. "It will be uneasiness was more pronounced than left for some one else to do.” her visitor’s. "I wish I could help,” said Mrs. Per¬ "My niece is the third child, Mrs. kins. Perkins. We must do something, or it Mrs. Kraft looked at her reflectively, will continue—and the children may die.’’ her eyes hardening. "You can, if you Mrs. Perkins said nothing. Her visitor want.” went on. Mrs. Perkins nodded eagerly. "I’m going to do something, if you "If I’m to go to the cemetery. I’ve won’t,” she said. "Tonight I’m going to got to be protected.” watch at the cemetery. There won’t be The other woman nodded. Mrs. Kraft another child to be taken like that.” pursed her lips firmly. "I need some¬ "I don’t know what I can do,” mur¬ thing,” she went on, "and I’d like to use mured Mrs. Perkins quietly. "I get so that blessed crucifix your son brought nervous. If I saw Nellie Foster, I’d from Belgium, the one Cardinal Mercier probably scream.” gave him, a very old one, he said it was.” Mrs. Kraft shook her head firmly. For a moment Mrs. Perkins wavered. "That would never do,” she admitted. Her lips faltered a little. Then, quail¬ "Did you go to the minister?” asked ing before the stern eyes of Mrs. Kraft, Mrs. Perkins. she moved noiselessly to get the crucifix. Mrs. Kraft attached it to a black rib¬ Mrs. Kraft pressed her lips tightly to¬ bon around her neck, and tucked it out gether before she spoke. 'Then she said, of sight in the bosom of her black dress. "He said there were no such things. He 'Then she rose to go. said only ignorant people believed in "I’ll tell you what happened in the vampires.” morning, Mrs. Perkins. And if I don’t Mrs. Perkins shook her head in disap¬ come”—Mrs. Kraft faltered—"then proval. something’s wrong. And if I’m not here "He asked me how Nellie Foster could before noon, you’d best go to the cem¬ have become one, and I told him about etery, perhaps, and look around a bit.” the cat jumping over her cofiin. He Mrs. Perkins quavered, "You don’t smiled, and wouldn’t believe me.” Mrs. think she’d go for you, Mrs. Kraft?” Kraft stood up, nodding her head. "And "They don’t only go for children, Mrs. I know it’s Nellie Foster, because I was Perkins. I’ve read about them. If they out to the cemetery this morning, and can’t die, they have to have blood—and there were three little holes in the grave we’ve blood, too.” —like finger holes, going ’way down Nodding her head sagely, Mrs. Kraft deep.” went from the house, her lips still pursed, "What are you going to do?” her hand still tightly clenching her hand¬ "I don’t know yet. But I’ll watch, and kerchief. I won’t let her get out of the cemetery.” "Maybe the men could do something,” Mrs. KRAFT sat on the back porch suggested Mrs. Perkins hopefully. with Mrs. Perkins a little after "It would be worse than telling the sunrise the next morning. 'The dew was minister, to go to them. They’d laugh. not yet gone; it hung heavy on the holly¬ If he wouldn’t believe it, they wouldn’t,” hocks and delphinium. 'Hie early sun- 784 WEIRD TALES light threw long shadows across the gar¬ was gone, her black-clothed figure walk¬ den. ing quickly across the road. Mrs. Perkins Mrs. Kraft was talking. "I got there watched her go, wondering about Nellie just after sunset and hid behind the oak Foster, hoping that soon something might tree near old Mr. Prince’s grave, and be done to stop her coming from her watched for Nellie Foster. When the grave. There was her own little Flory to moon came up, I saw something on her think about. What if some day Nellie grave, something gray. It was like a part Foster should see her, and then they of some one lying there, and it was mov¬ would find little Flory Perkins like that? ing. It was misty, and I couldn’t see it Mrs. Perkins shuddered. "Oh Lord, give well. Then I saw a hand, and then an¬ me power to do something,” she thought. other, and after that a face.” Mrs. Kraft "Let me help.” Then she thought, "And coughed a little; Mrs. Perkins shuddered. Nellie Foster was always such a nice girl! It’s hard to believe.” She went into the "And then?” prompted Mrs. Perkins. house, shaking her head. She leaned forward, fascinated. She had intended to go over to see "It was Nellie Foster,” Mrs. Kraft Mrs. Kraft just after dinner, to talk about went on in a low voice. "She was crawl¬ doing something, but a sudden storm ing out of her grave. I could see her struck the town, and for six hours it plainly then in the moonlight. It was raged, pouring rain, darkening the town. Nellie, all right. I’d know her anywhere. For six hours only lightning flashes She pulled herself out—it was like mist brightened the darkness. Then, at seven coming out of those holes in the grave, o’clock, the sky cleared abruptly, and the those little holes.” setting sun came out to finish the July "What did you do?” day in a blaze of rainbow glory. "I think I was scared. I didn’t move. When the mist stopped coming there was rs. PERKINS finished washing the Nellie standing on the grave. Then I M supper dishes, saw her Flory go ran toward her, holding the cross in my out to play until dark, and finally started hand. Before I could reach her, she was for Mrs. Kraft’s. Going out to the side¬ gone.” walk, she saw an elderly man coming Mrs. Kraft’s face twisted suddenly in quickly down the street. Mr. Shurz, she pain. "This morning they found the lit¬ thought. Seems in a hurry, too. She pon¬ tle Walters girl, like the others. I should dered this. Something on his mind, like¬ have watched beside the grave. I should ly. She purposely slowed her pace. have stopped Nellie. I shouldn’t have let At the gate she met him. He would her get out. It’s my fault that the little have gone past had he not spied her sud¬ Walters girl was attacked. My fault. I denly. 'Then he stopped breathlessly. could have stopped Nellie. I could have "Miz’ Perkins, have y’ heard the news?” watched there all night. I should have gone forward before she got out of the Mrs. Perkins shook her head. "Light¬ grave.” ning strike somewhere?” she asked. She rose suddenly, disturbed. "I’m "If only ’twere that, Miz’ Perkins, going now, Mrs. Perkins. Let me keep ma’am.” The old man shook his head the cross a little longer. I think I’ll need dolefully. "The like of this we’ve never it tonight.” had in this town before, ’slong as I can Mrs. Perkins nodded, and her visitor remember. This afternoon during the W. T.—7 NELLIE FOSTER 785 storm, some one got into the cemetery Perkins could hardly bring herself to say, and dug open Nellie Foster's grave!” "How do, Mrs. Kraft?” Mrs. Perkins leaned over the gate, her Then, as Mr. Shurz was repeating his hands tightly clenched on the pointed story to Mrs. Kraft, Mrs. Perkins’ eyes staves. "What?” she whispered hoarsely. fell on the stain of red clay on Mrs. "What’s that you say, Mr. Shurz.?” Kraft’s hands, a stain at first difficult to wash away. She wanted to look away " 'Tis just as I say, Miz’ Perkins. Some from Mrs. Kraft’s rough hands, but she one dug into Nellie Foster’s grave, in all that storm, too, and opened the coffin, could not. Then she noticed that Mr. Shurz had seen the stain, too. Miz’ Perkins, ma’am, and druv a stake clean through her body!” "Been digging in red clay, have you, Miz’ Kraft?” He laughed hollowly. "A stake . . . through her body!” She "Looks mighty like that clay they dug shook her head. "Just what Mrs. Kraft away off Nellie Foster’s coffin, now.” He said should be done,” she murmured to wagged his head. herself. Mrs. Perkins felt faint. She heard him Mr. Shurz did not hear her. He nod¬ talking, rambling on. Deep down in her ded vehemently. "Qean through, Miz’ she wanted to say something, anything, Perkins, ma’am. And a poyverful lot of to change the subject, but she could not. blood there were, too; ’twas a surprize to Then she heard Mrs. Kraft speaking. Doctor Bames. A strange, unnatural thing, the doctor said.” "I’ve been digging in the garden, Mr. Shurz,” she smiled politely, despite her "But surely the coffin was covered white, drawn face. '"This stain is mighty again?” hard to get off your hands.” "Partly, only partly, Miz’ Perkins. Mrs. Perkins heard herself saying, Seems the man got scared away.” "That’s right. I warned Mrs. Kraft not "Oh ... it was a man, then?” to touch the red clay when we were dig¬ Mr. Shurz looked at her, smiling vac¬ ging up her sweet william right after the uously. " ’Course ’twas a man, Miz’ storm, but she wouldn’t listen.” She was Perkins.” thinking, "Oh Lord, don’t let him look "He was seen, then?” into the garden; don’t let him see how Mr. Shurz shook his head. "Oh, no, black the ground is there.” he wasn’t seen. No, ma’am, he wasn’t Mr. Shurz grinned broadly and shrugged seen. Too slick for that, he was.” his shoulders. " ’Tis a good time to dig Mrs. Perkins felt her heart pounding garden, after rain. Well, I must be off. in her breast. She felt suddenly that she We’ll be catching him who meddled with was stifling. She opened the gate and Nellie Foster.” stepped onto the sidewalk at Mr. Shurz’s The women, standing one on each side, walking along with him. She did side of the fence, watched the old man go not hear what he was saying. down the street. Mrs. Perkins was afraid Mrs. Kraft was out on her lawn. She to look at Mrs. Kraft. Then she heard was pale, dishevelled. Mrs. Perkins was her neighbor cough lightly, and turned. thinking, I hope he won’t notice anything, Mrs. Kraft was holding out the crucifix. I hope he won’t notice anything. Mr. "I don’t think I’ll need it any more, Mrs, Shurz stopped with Mrs. Perkins. Mrs, Perkins,” she was saying. SC'^ORD of explanation is due our readers as to the change in dating of Weird Tales. Heretofore, like many other magazines, Weird Tales has been dated one month later than its actual sale date. For instance, our March issue went on sale February 1, and went oflf sale on the news stands March 1, to make way for our April issue. We have intended for a long time to change Weird Tales to a rational dating, and we are doing this with the current (June) issue. To effect this change in dating, the April issue was kept on the stands forty-five days. The May issue went on sale, therefore, on April 15 instead of April 1; and this issue (June) goes on sale June 1. Hereafter Weird Tales will go on sale each month on tlie first day of the month it bears date of. There is no advantage, to either the maga¬ zine or the readers, in pre-dating a magazine of fiction. From the new Asiatic state of Manchukuo comes a letter from Mrs. Dakotawin E. Hayakawa of the Manchuria Medical University at Mukden: "Your magazine is superb and I shall say at once and without a moment’s hesitation that your best writ¬ ers are Seabury Quinn and Otis Adelbert Kline. I have never enjoyed any story as much as I am enjoying Buccaneers of Venus. Give us many more serials of this type. I have never written to the Eyrie before, and I am only writing today because I feel that I must add my few words of praise for Mr. Kline’s thoroughly fascinating serial.” From New Brighton, New Zealand, comes this letter from G. W. Hockley: "Just a few lines to congratulate you on the continued high quality of the good old mag. Even though adverse exchange rates, sales taxes and what not, make the price here equivalent to 60 cents a copy, I manage to procure it somehow—it’s my one solace in these times of depression. Congratulations on changing your reprint policy. No more dreary drivel like Frankenstein, please! I was tickled to death to be able to read The Night Wire and The Cats of Ulthar. Keep up the good work—only reprints from back issues of Weird Tales. What has happened to H. P. Lovecraft? Surely the master of the weird tale has not deserted your pages for keeps! His stories are all the more appreciated, maybe, because of their scarcity, but don’t make us wait too long. Robert E. Howard has excelled himself in The Scarlet Citadel. I have never read a poor, or even medium, R. E. H. story yet; and this one certainly rang the bell. Howard has that rare quality of transporting the reader completely away from this mundane old earth and opening up imaginative vistas utterly strange and alien.” "I am thrilled at the news of the Weird Tales broadcasts and send best wishes for their magnificent success,” writes Frank Harrison Cunningham from Roanoke, 786 THE EYRIE 787

Virginia. “I hope some of the stories will be filmed. Karloff would have beai a wow in Howard’s Skull-face.” Miss E. Myers, of Brooklyn, writes to the Eyrie: "For a good many years I have been a very willing addict and devoted reader of Weird Tales. It is my urgent plea to you not to publish any more so-called weird-scientific stories. Truly, they are not weird, and consequently they have no place in your unique magazine. Please print more stories of the kind that give us goose-flesh up and down our spines, make us afraid of the dark and of going to bed. Make us wonder fearful¬ ly whether our next-door neighbor is not a vampire—after all his ears are long and tapering and his teeth long and pointed, and his lips are unnaturally red. And what are those strange sounds emanating from his room? Is he in the midst of some dreadful Black Mass? Please heed this lengthy plea.” Writes E. M. Barnett, of Plymouth, Massachusetts: "Not in many moons have I read a story as unusual and gripping as Carl Jacobi’s masterpiece in the April issue of Weird Tales.' Revelations in Black. I am not an old-time reader of your magazine, since only about a year ago was I fortunate enough to discover it on the news stand. Since then I have bought the magazine regularly and enjoyed it tre¬ mendously. Now I must write to say how much I liked the story. Revelations in Black. I hope there will be many more by Mr. Jacobi in the future.” "Is this a private fight, or can an interested bystander take off his coat and get in?” asks S. G. Gurwit, of Chicago. "I am referring to the differences of opinion regarding interplanetary yarns. Otis A. Kline certainly knows how to write this type of story and I am for having them. Everything out of the everyday routine of ordinary life is weird—and these stories can be classed as weird. They certainly hold the interest. When I start reading one, I forget this entire world we live in and go adventuring. By all means, keep them in Weird Tales. As for Hamilton, I’ve gotten many a thrill out of his stories. They’re pretty nearly perfect examples of their kind. Robert E. Howard, too, is one of my favorites. What a smash he packs! All told, I like Weird Tales as it is. It’s one of the magazines I really wait for each month with a sense of anticipation, knowing I’m going to get something different, new; something that will stir me up. Keep up the good work.” From River Falls, Wisconsin, comes a letter from Edward Walden: "I have never taken it upon myself to write to your reader’s department before, but the April issue has without question more good stories in it than any month it has been my privilege to read. Revelations in Black was all that you labeled it to be, an utter¬ ly strange story and very good.” "Your April Weird Tales was undoubtedly the finest issue you have given us in months,” writes B. M. Reynolds, of North Adams, Massachusetts. "I wish especially to congratulate you on Golden Blood by Jack Williamson. This starts out as tlie finest serial you have ever published. I have always considered A. Mer¬ ritt the greatest creator of fantastic stories, but if the remainder of Golden Blood is on a par with the first part, I shall have to admit that Williamson is a close second to Merritt. By all means keep him writing for you. Carl Jacobi found a new and unique angle to vampire stories in his Revelations in Black. This story was utterly different from the usual run of vampire stuff, and the finest of its kind I have ever seen anywhere. ’Then there was Price’s Return of Balkis, which though not 788 WEIRD TALES equal to his Girl from Samarcand, still rang the bell; and Bassett Morgan’s Tiger Dust, his best since Bimini." Otto J. Precht, of Bellmore, Long Island, writes to the Eyrie: "Mr. Price’s story, The Return of Balkis, merits a letter of commendation. The red-blooded character, Nureddin, warms the heart. But I regret very much that Mr. Price had to kill him. Why didn’t he let him live so that he could rob more caravans?’’ Jack Poltec, of Denver, writes to the Eyrie: "How do you do it? Not satis¬ fied with publishing the only magazine of weird fiction that is interesting enough to survive the depression which has killed off so many magazines, here you go and land smack in the middle of the adventure magazine field with the Magic Carpet Magazine, which lays it over every magazine of its kind in pep, fascination, and power. Robert E. Howard’s historical tales in the Magic Carpet are the equal of any stories ever published in the English language. Seabury Quinn’s series about the swashbuckling vagabond-at-arms are even better than his de Grandin tales, and Bedford-Jones’ stories are models of action and dash, with a thrill on every page. Of your two magazines. Weird Tales and the Magic Carpet Magazine, I prefer the latter. I regard it as the best fiction magazine on the stands today—and that’s going some!” By the time our next issue goes on sale, July 1, we hope to give you full details regarding the Weird Tales broadcasts. In the next twelve months, radio dramatiza¬ tions of fifty-two stories from this magazine will be broadcast nationally, with your favorite motion picture actors and actresses in the casts. Watch your local papers for announcements of this thrilling series. Readers, let us know what stories you like best in this issue of Weird Tales. Carl Jacobi’s unusual vampire story. Revelations in Black, won first place in your affections among all the stories in our April issue. A close second in popularity was the first part of Jack Williamson’s strange novel. Golden Blood.

My favorite stories in the June WEIRD TALES are:

Story Remarks (1)- -

(2)---

(3)- -

I do not like the following stories:

(1)- Why?.

(2).

It will help us to know what kind of stories you want in Weird Tales if you will fill out this coupon and mail it to The Eyrie, Weird Tales, 840 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. By M. HUMPHREYS

SEPTEMBER 17, 1922.—I sat down ished without leaving a trace behind him. to breakfast this morning with a It seemed to me, too, that with him van¬ good appetite. The heat seemed ished the last shreds of my youth. For over, and a cool wind blew in from my Arthur was my dearest friend in that garden, where chrysanthemums were al¬ happy time. We were boon companions, ready budding. The sunshine streamed and many a mad prank we played to¬ into the room and fell pleasantly on Mrs. gether. O’Brien’s broad face as she brought in And now, after ten years of silence, the eggs and coffee. For a supposedly Arthur was writing to me! lonely old bachelor the world seemed to The envelope was postmarked Balti¬ me a pretty good place. I was buttering more. Almost reluctantly—for I feared my third set of waffles when the house¬ what it might contain—I passed my fin¬ keeper again appeared, this time with the ger under the flap and opened it. It held mail. a single sheet of paper torn from a pad. I glanced carelessly at the three or four But it was Arthur’s writing; letters beside my plate. One of them Bore a strangely familiar handwriting. I gazed "Dear Tom: at it a minute, then seized it with a beat¬ "Old man, can you run down to see ing heart. Tears almost came into my me for a few days? I’m afraid I’m in a eyes. There was no doubt about it—it bad way. was Arthur Barker’s handwriting! Shaky "Arthur.” and changed, to be sure, but ten years Scrawled across the bottom was the have passed since I have seen Arthur, or, address, 536 N. Marathon Street. rather, since his mysterious disappearance. For ten years I have not had a word I have often visited Baltimore, but I from him. His people know no more can not recall a street of that name. than I what has become of him, and long Of course I shall go. . . . But what a ago we gave him up for dead. He van- strange letter after ten years! There is • Fr«m weird tales tor May, 1923, something almost uncanny about it. 782 790 THE FLOOR ABOVE

I shall go tomorrow evening. I can the street I gave him, and we rolled off not possibly get off before then. aaoss the bridge. As I drew near my destination, I be¬ SEPTEMBER 18—I am leaving tonight. gan to feel anxious and afraid. But the Mrs. O’Brien has packed my two ride lasted longer than I expected—Mara¬ suitcases, and everything is in readiness thon Street seemed to be located in the for my departure. Ten minutes ago I suburbs of the city. At last we turned handed her the keys and she went off into a dusty street, paved only in patches tearfully. She had been snifHing all day and lined with linden and aspen trees. and I have been perplexed, for a curious The fallen leaves crunched beneath the thing occurred this morning. tires. The September sun beat down with a white intensity. The taxi drew up be¬ It was about Arthur’s letter. Yesterday, fore a house in the middle of a block when I had finished reading it, I took it that boasted not more than six dwellings. to my desk and placed it in a small com¬ On each side of the house was a vacant partment together with other personal lot, and it was set far back at the end of papers. I remember distinctly that it was a'long narrow yard crowded with trees. on top, with a lavender card from my I paid the driver, opened the gate and sister directly underneath. This morn¬ went in. The trees were so thick that not ing I went to get it. It was gone. until I was half-way up the path did I There was the lavender card exactly get a good view of the house. It was where I had seen it, but Arthur’s letter three stories high, built of brick, in fairly had completely disappeared. I turned good repair, but lonely and deserted-look¬ everything upside down, then called Mrs. ing. The blinds were closed in all of the O’Brien and we both searched, but in windows with the exception of two, one vain. Mrs. O’Brien, in spite of all I could on the first, one on the second floor. Not say, took it upon herself to feel that I a sign of life anywhere, not a cat nor a suspected her. . . . But what could have milk-bottle to break the monotony of the become of it? Fortunately I remember leaves that carpeted the porch. the address. But, overcoming my feeling of un¬ easiness, I resolutely set my suitcases on SEPTEMBER 19—I have arrived. I the porch, caught at the old-fashioned have seen Arthur. Even now he is bell, and gave an energetic jerk. A star¬ in the next room and I am supposed to tling peal jangled through the silence. I be preparing for bed. But something waited, but there was no answer. tells me I shall not sleep a wink this After a minute I rang again. Then night. I am strangely wrought up, though from the interior I heard a queer dragging there is not the shadow of an excuse for sound, as if some one was coming slowly my excitement. I should be rejoicing to down the hall. The knob was turned and have found my friend again. And the door opened. I saw before me an old yet- woman, wrinkled, withered, and filmy- I reached Baltimore this morning at eyed, who leaned on a crutch. eleven o’clock. The day was warm and "Does Mr. Barker live here?” I asked. beautiful, and I loitered outside the sta¬ She nodded, staring at me in a curious tion a few minutes before calling a taxi. way, but made no move to invite me in, The driver seemed well acquainted with "Well, I’ve come to see him,” I said. WEIRD TALES 791

"I’m a friend of his. He sent for me.” open, the room was almost darkened by At that she drew slightly aside. the branches of the trees that pressed "He’s upstairs,” she said in a cracked against the window. Arthur had not given voice that was little more than a whisper. me hisi hand, had seemed troubled to "I can’t show you up. Hain’t been up a know how to make me welcome. Yet of stair now in ten years.” one thing I was certain: He needed me "'That’s all right,” I replied, and, seiz¬ and he wanted me to know he needed ing my suitcases, I strode down the long me. hall. As I took a chair I glanced about the "At the head of the steps,” came the room. It was a typical lodging-house whispering voice behind me. "The door room, medium-sized, with flower^ wall¬ at the end of the hall.” paper, worn matting, nondescript rugs, a wash-stand in one corner, a chiffonier I climbed the cold dark stairway, in another, a table in the center, two or passed along the short hall at the top, three chairs, and the couch which evi¬ and stood before a closed door. I knocked. dently served Arthur as a bed. But it "Come in.” It was Arthur’s voice, and was cold, strangely cold for such a warm yet—not his. day. I OPENED the door and saw Arthur sit¬ Arthur’s eyes had wandered uneasily ting on a couch, his shoulders hunched to my suitcases. He made an effort to over, his eyes raised to mine. drag himself to his feet. After all, ten years had not changed "Your room is back here,” he said, him so much. As I remembered him, with a motion of his thumb. he was of medium height, inclined to be "No, wait,” I protested. "Let’s talk stout, and ruddy-faced, with keen gray about yourself first. What’s wrong?” eyes. He was still stout, but had lost his "I’ve been sick.” color and his eyes had dulled. "Haven’t you a doctor? If not, I’ll get "And where have you been all this one.” time.?” I demanded, when the first greet¬ At this he started up with the first ings were over. sign of animation he had shown. "Here,” he answered. "No, Tom, don’t do it. Doctors can’t "In this house?” help me now. Besides, I hate them. I’m "Yes.” afraid of them.” "But why didn’t you let us hear from His voice trailed away, and I took pity you?” on his agitation. I decided to let the He seemed to be making an effort to question of doctors drop for the moment. speak. "As you say,” I assented carelessly. "What did it matter? I didn’t suppose Witliout more ado, I followed him any one cared.” into my room, which adjoined his and Perhaps it was my imagination, but I was furnished in much the same fashion. could not get rid of the thought that But there were two windows, one on Arthur’s pale eyes, fixed tenaciously upon each side, looking out on the vacant lots. my face, were trying to tell me something, Consequently there was more light, for something quite different from what his which I was thankful. In a far corner I lips said. noticed a door, heavily bolted. - 1 felt chilled. Although the blinds were "There’s one more room, ” said Arthur, 792 THE FLOOR ABOVE as I deposited mjr belongings, "one that length on the couch, and asked me to turn you’ll like. But we’ll have to go through out the gas. When I had complied with the bathroom.’’ his request, I again heard his weak voice Groping our way through the musty asking if I had everything I needed. bathroom, in which a tiny jet of gas was "Everything,” I assured him, and then flickering, we stepped into a large, al¬ there was unbroken silence. most luxurious chamber. It was a library, I went to my room, finally, closed the well-furnished, carpeted, and surrounded door, and here I am sitting restlessly be¬ by shelves fairly bulging with books. But tween the two back windows that look for the chillness and bad light, it was out on the vacant lots. perfect. As I moved about, Arthur fol¬ I have unpacked my clothes and turned lowed me with his eyes. down the bed, but I can not make up my "There are some rare works on bot¬ mind to retire. If the truth be told, I any-’’ hate to put out the light. . . . There is I had already discovered them, a set something disturbing in the way the dry of books that I would have given much leaves tap on the panes. And my heart to own. I could not contain my joy. is sad when I think of Arthur. "You won’t be so bored browsing I have found my old friend, but he is around in here-’’ no longer my old friend. Why does he In spite of my preoccupation, I pricked fix his pale eyes so strangely on my face? up my ears. In that monotonous voice What does he wish to tell me? j-bere was no sympathy with my joy. It But these are morbid thoughts. I will was cold and tired. put them out of my head. I will go to When I had satisfied my curiosity we bed and get a good night’s rest. And returned to the front room, and Arthur tomorrow I will wake up finding every¬ flung himself, or rather fell, upon the thing right and as it should be. couch. It was nearly five o’clock and quite dark. As I light^ the gas, I heard a SEPTEMBER 26—I have been here a sound below as of somebody thumping week today, and have settled down on the wall. to this queer existence as if I had never "'That’s the old woman,’’ Arthur ex¬ known another. The day after my arrival plained. "She cooks my meals, but she’s I discovered that the third volume of the too lame to bring them up.’’ botanical series was done in Latin, which He made a feeble attempt at rising, I have set myself the task of translating. but I saw he was worn out. It is absorbing work, and when I have "Don’t stir,” I warned him. "I’ll bring buried myself in one of the deep chairs up your food tonight.” by the library table, the hours fly fast. To my surprize, I found the dinner ap¬ For health’s sake I force myself to walk petizing and well-cooked, and, in spite a few miles every day. I have tried to of the fact that I did not like the looks prevail on Arthur to do likewise, but he, of the old woman, I ate with relish. who used to be so active, now refuses to Arthur barely touched a few spoonfuls budge from the house. No wonder he is of soup to his lips and absently crumbled literally blue! For it is a fact that his some bread in his plate. complexion, and the shadows about his Directly I had carried off the dishes, eyes and temples, are decidedly blue. he wrapped his reddish-brown dressing- What does he do with himself all day? gown about him, stretched out at full Whenever I enter his room, he is lying WEIRD TALES 793 on the couch, a book beside him, which he never reads. He does not seem to suf¬ fer pain, for he never complains. After several ineffectual attempts to get med¬ ical aid for him, I have given up mention¬ ing the subject of a doctor. I feel that his trouble is more mental than physical.

SEPTEMBER 28—A rainy day. It has been coming down in floods since dawn. And I got a queer turn this after¬ noon. As I could not get out for my walk, I spent the morning staging a general house-cleaning. It was time! Dust and Just a bloc^ or two from dirt everywhere. The bathroom, which every where—one and one- has no window and is lifted by gas, half blocks from Union was fairly overnm with water-bugs and Station and two blocks roaches. Of course I did not penetrate from Traction Terminal to Arthur’s room, but I heard no sound from him as I swept and dusted. I made a good dinner and settled down in the library, feeling quite cozy. The All Outside Rooms rain came down steadily and it had and each with bath grown so cold that I decided to make a fire later on. But once I had gathered my tablets and notebooks about me I forgot RADIO the cold. IN EVERY ROOM I remember I was on the subject of the Aster trijolium, a rare variety seldom found in this country. Turning a page,' Sinsle I came upon a specimen of this very variety, dried, pressed flat, and pasted $2-00 $2-50 to the margin. Above it, in Arthur’s handwriting, I read: September 27, 1912. Double I was bending close to examine it, when I felt a vague fear. It seemed to S3.00 $3.50 me that some one was in the room and was watching me. Yet I had rtot heard the door open, nor seen any one enter. FREE GARAGE I turned sharply and saw Arthur, wrapped ARTHUR ZINK, ManagingDirector in his reddish-brown dressing-gown, standing at my very elbow. 121 SOUTH ILLINOIS STREET He was smiling—smiling for the first time since my arrival, and his dull eyes were bright. But I did not like that smile. (Please turn to page 794X [794 WEmD TALES

(Continued from preceding page) three hours ago? And what has hap¬ In spite of myself I jerked away from pened? . . . him. He pointed at the aster. I had a splendid walk, and was strid¬ "It grew in the front yard under a ing homeward in a fine glow. But as I linden tree. I found it yesterday.” turned the corner and came in sight of "Yesterday!” I shouted, my nerves on the house, it was as if I looked at death edge. "Good Lord, man! Look! It was itself. I could hardly drag myself up the ten years ago!” stairs, and when I peered into the shadowy The smile faded from his face. chamber, and saw the man hunched up "Ten years ago,” he repeated thickly. on the couch, with his eyes fixed intently "Ten years ago?” on my face, I could have screamed like a And with his hand pressed against woman. I wanted to fly, to rush out into his forehead, he went out of the room the clear cold air and run—to run and still muttering, "Ten years ago!” never come back! But I controlled my¬ As for me, this foolish incident has self, forced my feet to carry me to my preyed upon my mind and kept me from room. doing any satisfactory work. . . . Septem¬ There is a weight of hopelessness at ber 27, ... It is true, that was also yes¬ my heart. The darkness is advancing, terday—ten years ago. swallowing up everything, but I have not the will to light the gas. . . . October 1—One o’clock. A cheer¬ Now there is a flicker in the front ful morning this has been, the sun room. I am a fool; I must pull myself shining brightly, and a touch of frost in together. Arthur is lighting up, and the air. I put in an excellent day’s work downstairs I can hear the thumping that in the library yesterday, and on the first announces dinner. . . . mail this morning came a letter from It is a queer thought that comes to me Mrs. O’Brien. She says the scarab chrys¬ now, but it is odd I have not noticed it anthemums are in full bloom. I must before. We are about to sit down to our positively run up for a day before they evening meal. Arthur will eat practically are gone. nothing, for he has no appetite. Yet he As I lighted a cigar after breakfast, I remains stout. It can not be healthy fat, happened to glance over at Arthur and but even at that it seems to me that a man was struck by a change in him. For he who eats as little as he does would be¬ has changed. I ask myself if my pres¬ come a living skeleton. ence has not done him good. On my arrival he seemed without energy, almost October 5—Positively, I must see a torpid, but now he is becoming restless. doctor about myself, or soon I shall He wanders about the room continually be a nervous wreck. I am acting like a and sometimes shows a disposition to talk. child. Last night I lost all control and Yes, I am sure he is better. I am going played the coward. for my walk now, and I feel convinced I had gone to bed early, tired out from that in a week’s time I shall have him a hard day’s work. It was raining again, accompanying me. and as I lay in bed I watched the little rivulets trickling down the panes. Lulled Five o’clock. Dusk is falling. O God! by the sighing of the wind among the What has come over me? Am I the leaves, I fell asleep. same man that went out of this house (Please turn to page 796) Coming Next Month Even as he spoke, the fire-beasts, with deep, bellowing roars that reverberated loudh', were charging through the flames toward the two heat-armored humans! Jerry had no time to think, but aaed instinctively. One of the fire-beasts wa; in advance of the rest, and Jerry brought up his long pointed steel staff and held it level until the monster’s glassy eyes and gaping jaws were directly before him. Then he thrust the steel fiercely between the creature’s jaws. The steel staff drove through its open mouth into its body. The thing fell and thrashe 1 wildly in the fires, while Jerry jerked his weapon out of it. As he faced the other charging fire-beasts the thought hammered in his brain that even though they were impervious to fire these creatures were not unkillable. He thrust at the nearest of the onrushing fire-beasts, and as it fell too, the other crea¬ tures drew back, bellowing in rage. Jerry, eyeing them tensely with Helen still behind him, hoped that they would give over the attack, but they came on again. He felt his steel tear into another of the things, but this fire-beast was only wounded, and as it shied away with a terrific bellow, it tore the steel from Jerry’s grasp. The other fire-beasts were upon him and Helen—^he heard the girl scream behind him —when they stopped and turned. Two of the beasts had suddenly fallen in mid-charge. And now Jerry and Helen saw beyond them other and different black shapes approaching through the fires. The newcomers were a dozen or more dark, man-like shapes! ’They did not wear heat- armor, yet did not seem more affeaed by the terrible fires than the fire-beasts. Like the fire-beasts, their bodies seemed of dark, stony flesh impervious to heat and flame. ’They were of human height and had human features, but their eyes were covered by a glassy pro¬ tective film. They were clad in red harnesses of woven mineral-fibers and carried gun-like weapons of metal, which they were aiming at the fire-beasts. As another fire-beast fell beneath the gun-weapon of these newly arrived fire-men, the other monsters lumbered off in flight. Jerry and Helen stared at the human-shaped fire-men. Jerry had recovered his steel staff. "Fire people!” Jerry Holt exclaimed. "People able to walk and live in these fires with¬ out armor or protection! Men and beasts living and fighting down in these fiery spaces of the volcano. Helen, it’s-” 'This breath-taking story by the author of Crashing Suns tells of a strange descent into the aaive crater of Mauna Loa, and thrilling adventures among weird beings in the heart of the volcano. It will be printed complete in next month’s Weird Tales: THE FIRE CREATURES By EDMOND HAMILTON —ALSO— THE DREAMS IN THE WITCH-HOUSE THE HAND OF GLORY By H. P. Lovecraft By Seabury Quinn A story of mathematics, witchcraft and Wal- A stirring tale about an Orientalist who was purgis Night, in which the horror creeps and willing to sacrifice his own daughter to gain oc¬ grows—a new tale by the author of "The Rats cult power—a story of the little French scien¬ in the Walls,” tist, Jules de Grandin. THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM THE THING FROM THE GRAVE By Hazel Heald By Harold Ward A shuddery tale of the elder gods, and the A goose-flesh story of the hideous fate that blasphemous monstrosity that slithered through befell a judge who had sentenced a murderer the corridors of the waxworks museum. to death. July WEIRD TALES Out July 1 795 796 WEIRD TALES

(Continued from page 794) worn, and frayed around the edges as if I awoke (how long afterward I can they had been gnawed by rats. I can not not say) to feel a cold hand laid on my imagine why he does not get a new pair. arm. For a moment I lay paralyzed witli "Say, old man,” I began abruptly, "do terror. I would have cried aloud, but I you own this house?” had no voice. At last I managed to sit He nodded. up, to shake the hand off. I reached for "Don’t you rent any of it?” the matches and lighted the gas. It was Arthur who stood by my bed— "Downstairs—to Mrs. Harlan.” Arthur wrapped in his eternal reddish- "But upstairs?” brown dressing-gown. He was excited. He hesitated, then shook his head. His blue face had a yellow tinge, and "No, it’s inconvenient. 'There’s only his eyes gleamed in the light. a peculiar way to get upstairs.” "Listen!” he whispered. I was struck by this. I listened but I heard nothing. "By Jove! you’re right. Where’s the "Don’t you hear it?” he^ gasped, and staircase?” he pointed upward. He looked me full in the eyes. "Upstairs?” I stammered. "Is there "Don’t you remember seeing a bolted somebody upstairs?” door in a comer of your room? The stair¬ I strained my ears, and at last I fan¬ case mns from that door.” cied I could hear a fugitive sound like I did remember it, and somehow the the light tapping of footsteps. memory made me uncomfortable. I said "It must be somebody walking about no more and decided not to refer to what up there,” I suggested. had happened that night. It occurred to But at these words Arthur seemed to me that Arthur might have been walking stiffen. The excitement died out of his in his sleep. face. "No!” he cried in a sharp rasping voice. October 8—^When I went for my "No! It is nobody walking about up walk on Tuesday I dropped in and there!” saw Doctor Lorraine, who is an old friend. And he fled into his room. He expressed some surprize at my run¬ For a long time I lay trembling, afraid down condition and wrote me a prescrip¬ to move. But at last, fearing for Arthur, tion. I got up and crept to his door. He was I am planning to go home next week. lying on the couch, with his face in the How pleasant it will be to walk in my moonlight, apparently asleep. garden and listen to Mrs. O’Brien singing in the kitchen! October 6—I had a talk with Arthur today. Yesterday I could not bring October 9—Perhaps I had better myself to speak of the previous night’s postpone my trip. I casually men¬ happening, but all of this nonsense must tioned it to Arthur this morning. be cleared away. He was lying relaxed on the sofa, but We were in the library. A fire was when I spoke of leaving he sat up as burning in the grate, and Arthur had his straight as a bolt. His eyes fairly blazed. feet on the fender. The slippers he wears "No, Tom, don’t go!” There was ter¬ are as objectionable to me as his dressing- ror in his voice, and such pleading that it gown. They are felt slippers, old and wrung mv heart. WEIRD TALES 797

"You’ve stood it alone here ten years,” I protested. "And now-” "It’s not that,” he said. "But if you go, you will never come back.” "Is that all the faith you have in me?” "I’ve got faith, Tom. But if you go, you’ll never come back.” I decided that I must humor the vaga¬ ries of a sick man. "All right,” I agreed. "I’ll not go. Anyway, not for some time.”

October 12—What is it that hangs over this house like a cloud? For THE PRINCE OF PERIL By OTIS ADBLBERT KI.INE: I can no longer deny that there is some¬ (Limited Autographed First Edition) thing—something indescribably oppres¬ Price $2.00 sive. It seems to pervade the whole WBmD TALES BOOK DEPAKTSB^T, neighborhood. Are all the houses on this block va¬ cant? If not, why do I never see children playing in the street? Why are passers-by Don't Miss... so rare? And why, when from the front window I do catch a glimpse of one, is he hastening away as fast as possible? The I am feeling blue again. I know that I need a change, and this morning I told Lion of Tiberias Arthur definitely that I was going. To my surprize, he made no objection. By ROBERT E. HOWARD In fact, he murmured a word of assent The author of "Black Colossus” in this and smiled. He smiled as he smiled in issue, pilots the Magic Carpet back to the the library that morning when he pointed stirring days of the Crusades, when Zen- at the Aster trifolium. And I don’t like ghi. Lord of Mosul and precursor of Saladin, rode up the glittering stairs of that smile. Anyway, it is settled. I shall empire to his doom. You will be thrilled go next week, Thursday, the 19th. wiA the sweep of Mr. Howard’s style in this story, for he has caught all die October 13—I had a strange dream glamor and flavor of a colorful age. last night. Or was it a dream? It was so vivid. . . . All day long I have been seeing it over and over again. In my dream I thought that I was lying there in my bed. The moon was shining brightly into the room, so that each piece of furniture stood out distinctly. The bureau is so placed that when I am lying (Please turn to page 798) 798 WEIRD TALES

(Continued from preceding page) "That may not be very long, sir," she on my back, with my head high on the said, and smiled again. pillow, I can see full into the mirror. Her words were simple enough, but I thought I was lying in this manner the way she looked at me when she ut¬ and staring into the mirror. In this way tered them seemed to give them a double I saw the bolted door in the far corner meaning. She hobbled away, and I went of the room. I tried to keep my mind o£E upstairs and wrote Mrs. O’Brien to ex¬ it, to think of something else, but it drew pect me early on the morning of the 19th. my eyes like a magnet. It seemed to me that some one was in October 18—Ten a. m.—Am catch¬ the room, a vague figure that I could not ing the twelve o’clock train tonight. recognize. It approached the door and Thank God, I had the resolution to get caught at the bolts. It dragged at them away! I believe another week of this life and struggled, but in vain—they would would drive me mad. And perhaps not give way. Arthur is right—perhaps I shall never Then it turned and showed me its come back. agonized face. It was Arthur! I recog¬ I ask myself if I have become such a nized his reddish-brown dressing-gown. weakling as that, to desert him when he I sat up in bed and cried to him, but needs me most. I don’t know. I don t he was gone. I ran to his room, and recognize myself any longer. . . . there he was, stretched out in the moon¬ But of course I will be back. There is light asleep. It must have been a dream. the translation, for one thing, which is coming along famously. I could never ctober 13—We are having Indian O forgive myself for dropping it at the most Summer weather now—almost op¬ vital point. pressively warm. I have been wandering about all day, unable to settle down to As for Arthur, when I return I intend anything. This morning I felt so lone¬ to give in to him no longer. I will make some that when I took the breakfast myself master here and cure him against his will. Fresh air, change of scene, a dishes down, I tried to strike up a conver¬ sation with Mrs. Harlan. good doctor, these are the things he needs. But what is his malady? Is it the in¬ Hitherto I have found her as solemn and uncommunicative as the Sphinx, but fluence of this house that has fallen on as she took the tray from my hands, her him like a bli^t? One might imagine wrinkles broke into the semblance of a so, since it is having the same effect on smile. Positively at that moment it seemed me. to me that she resembled Arthur. Was Yes, I have reached that point where I it her smile, or the expression of her eyes? no longer sleep. At night I lie awake Has she, also, something to tell me? and try to keep my eyes off the mirror "Don’t you get lonesome here?” I across the room. But in the end I always asked her sympathetically. find myself staring into it—watching the She shook her head. "No, sir. I’m used door with the heavy bolts. I long to rise to it now. I couldn’t stand it anywhere from the bed and draw back the bolts, else.” but I’m afraid. "And do you expect to go on living How slowly the day goes by! The here the rest of your life?” night will never come! WEIRD TALES l79S

Nine p. m.—Have packed my suit¬ cases and put the room in order. Arthur must be asleep. . . . I’m afraid the parting from him will be painful. I KHOWLEDGE shall leave here at eleven o’clock in order OF.THE to give myself plenty of time. ... It is TVhat strange Dowers, did the ancients possess? beginning to rain. . . . Where was the source of . knowledge that made it pos- / sibie for them to perform, M miracles? Were these profound ctober 19—At last! It has come! 1/ secrets burned with ancient O / libraries or are they buried be- I am mad! I knew it! I felt it wmeath crumbling Xempie walls?' J Those wise men of the past, creeping on me all the time! Have I not J knew the mysteries of life and' I personal power. This wisdom 1 lived in this house a month.^ Have I not I not lost,—it Is withheld from th„ seen.? ... To have seen what I have J mass. It is offered TO YOU ifj." I with an open mind, you wish to/ . seen, to have lived for a month as I have I step out of the rut of monoto- I nous existence and MABTERA lived, one must be mad. , . . [ ^YOUR LIFE. It was ten o’clock. I was waiting im¬ THIS FREE BOOK^ Man’s Intolerance has at timesil patiently for the last hour to pass. I had swept his achievements from the I face of the earth, yet secret broth.<'l seated myself in a rocking-chair by the erhoods have preserved this sacredM .wisdom of the ages. The Roslcru-{i bed, my suitcases beside me, my back to clans, one of these ancient brother- M hoods, INVITE YOU to write and I the mirror. The rain no longer fell. I secure free copy of “The Wisdomi I of the Sages." It will point out I must have dozed off. how you may receive age-old I truths for study in the privacy' | But all at once I was wide awake, my of your home. You can learn tof I MAKE YOUR LIFE ANEW—'/ heart beating furiously. Something had I the fulfillment of your idsaUi I '} awaits you. Address.: ' touched me. I leapt to my feet, and, as Scribe O. D. O. I turned sharply, my eyes fell upon the ' ROSrCRVCIAN BBOTHERHOtflU 1 “mJese (AMQRC) Californiai^. * mirror. In it I saw the door just as I had ..

(Continued from preceding page) NEXT MONTH I could no longer hesitate. Striking another match, I climbed the back stair- v/ay. The When I reached the top I found myself in total darkness, for the blinds were tightly closed. Realizing that the room Hand of Glory was probably a duplicate of the one be¬ low, I felt along the wall until I came to By SEABURY QUINN the gas jet. For a moment the flame flick¬ ered, then burned bright and clear. A STIRRING tale about an Orientalist O God! what was it I saw? A table, v/ho was willing to sacrifice his thick with dust, and something wrapped own daughter to gain occult power. A in a reddish-brown dressing-gown, that story of the ingenious little French sat with its elbows propped upon it. How long had it been sitting there, scientist-detective, Jules de Grandin, in that it had grown more dry than the dust a spectacular exploit. upon the table! For how many thousands of days and nights had the flesh rotted T F YOU have not made the acquaint- from that grinning skull! ance of this most unusual detective In its bony fingers it still clutched a in all fiction, you can not afford to miss pencil. In front of it lay a sheet of reading this fascinating tale—a tale of scratched paper, yellow widi age. With trembling fingers I brushed away the dust. weird rites in an old church, through It was dated October 19, 1912. It read: which, like a cold wind from the tomb, "Dear Tom: blows a breath of shuddery horror. It "Old man, can you run down to see will be printed complete ma for a few days? I’m afraid I’m in a bad way-’’ in the July issue of

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C LEGHORN turned into the passage, passed the door of the girl’s cabin, shoved open his own door, and reached for the light. His figure was illuminated by the light in the passage; the cabin was pitch-black. As he put out his arm, something moved before him. Every sense alert, he ducked, and swerved quickly to one side. A furious blow glanced from his head—had he not ducked, it would have brained him. Half stunned, he hurled himself to one side, and collided full with an unseen figure. His hands shot out. A grim and furious satisfaction seized Cleghorn as his fingers sank into the throat of a man, sank in with a terrible grip. Another smash over the head, and another. Blinded, he sank in his fingers the deeper. The two struggling figures hit against the door, and it slammed shut. Now there was perfect darkness. In his ears, Cleghorn heard the hoarse, frenzied pant¬ ing of a man, felt the smashing blows of the other’s fists and of some blunt weapon. He had not the slightest idea who it could be, and cared not. This fellow had been waiting here to get him, and had come within an ace of it. That man, gripped about the throat by those fingers of iron, gasped terribly, struggled with blind and frantic desperation to loose the grip, and could not. His strength began to fail. Again Cleghorn caught a terrific smash over the head, and this fourth blow all but knocked him out. He lost balance, but did not lose his grip. He dragged down the other with him; they fell heavily, rolled against the closed door, and lay there sprawling. Flashes of fire beat before Cleg- horn’s eyes. He tried to rise, and could not. He felt his senses slipping away. With an effort, he held himself motionless, let all his strength, all his will-power, flow into his hard-gripped fingers. Even when everything went black before him, there was no slackening of his frightful hold. . . . Don’t miss this vivid thrill-tale of a desperate voyage on the China sea, with murder striking from the shadows again and again, and a beautiful girl on board—all bound for a coral reef off the Manchurian coast, where a treasure-ship lay wrecked. This stirring novelette is published complete in the current issue of the Magic Carpet Magazine.—Adv.