tlie Egyplian^

Inew if ages ago/

What strange powers did the ancients possess ? Where was the source "The Wisdom of the Sages,”
of knowledge that made it possible for them to perform miracles? which explains how you may
receive the secret teachings of
Thinking men and women of today are seeking the answer in their the Rosicrucians in the priva¬
search for health, happiness and self-mastery. cy of your own home. Knowi-
This wisdom is not lost—it is withheld from the mass. YOU may edge that in ages past was
revealed only to an initiated
have it if you will lay aside your biases, doubt and hesitancy and
few in secret temples, grottos
determine to learn the truth. Your greatest desires may be made and hidden places. It is now
concrete realities through the STUDY and application of certain released for man’s enlighten¬
fundamental laws. ment. If you are sincere, you
may have this free book.
These laws operate as unfailingly as the laws governing the sun,
Address a letter (not a post¬
moon and stars. They were discovered centuries ago by the sages of card) to:
Egypt. Preserved through the ages for you and other thinkers by the
Rosicrucians, a world-wide brotherhood of advanced learning. Scribe H. A. U.
Time has long since crumbled Egypt’s walls, but it could not de¬
stroy this formula of life control which is the very essence of
R05KRIKIAN BROTHERHOOD
life itself. In your hands this knowledge could alter the entire
course of your affairs. It is the most powerful force ever known
to the mind of man. ioSEV^C^UFoWRlA
PERPETUATING THE ORIGINAL ROSICRUCIAN TEACHINGS
W. T.—1 1
 [continued from preceding page]

.Wings in the Night_Robert E. Howard 33

A star# of Darkest Akira and nightmare realities with slavering fangs and
talons steeped m shreddersome evil

The Planet of Peace-Arlcon Eadie 33

The amazing story of a mart from Barth- on a planet that was inhabited solely
bp beautiful women

The City of Crawling Death_Hugh B. Cave 72

Atrfs—drover of them—as big as panthers—ants that made slaver of men
and threatened civilization with destruction

The Thought-Devil_A. W. Calder 86

^reudfud^/imror “"'‘^'the woc^d** ^ u^°ie villainous creation loosed a

Night Specters_Kirke Mecfeem 95

Verse

The Devil’s Bride (Conclusion)_Seabury Quinn 96

A novel of devil-worship, that contains horror, thrills, shudders, suspense,
breath-taking interest, and 'vivid action

The little Gods Wait-Donald Wandref 116

Verse

The Splendid lie__S. R H. Hurst 117

A brief weird story of the World War, and two old men who sought to
bring comfort to grieving humanity

Dust_Edna Goit Brincnall 119

A short weird tale about a girl tuba fay in bed and experienced real rest
far the first time m her troubled life

House of the Lizard-Harold Ward 122

The story of a newspaper reporters ghastly experience he that strange home
built on the quicksands of a mump

Weird Story Reprint:

Frankenstein (Part 3)_Mary WoBstooecraft Shelley 127
A famous, novel that for more than one hundred years has been acclaimed
a masterpiece of weird horror

WEIRD TALES
Western Advertising Offie CatAdvertising Office:
NORMAN C. NOUHSK HAREEY b WARD, 1X6.
«KX S. Rroad'way MO JT. KBehigan Ave.
Ins Angeles, CaHI. Chicago, Ill,
Rhone, Central 9269

9
A WIDE diversity of opinion among you, the readers, as to whether we should
continue to print serials in our Weird Story Reprint department, is shown
■ in the letters that have poured in to the Eyrie in response to our question as
to whether we should offer Dracula and other weird novels to you after Franken¬
stein is completed. We shall not offer Dracula in this magazine, as a large propor¬
tion of our readers have already read Bram Stoker’s famous vampire novel, as evi¬
denced from your letters; but the question is still open as to whether we shall re¬
print other weird novels that are less widely known. We shall follow your wishes in
this matter.
N. J. O’Neail, of Toronto, Canada, v/rites to the Eyrie: "May I register a vote
against serial reprints? I have no complaints as to the quality of your reprints; my
point is that probably all your readers have already read Dracula, Frankenstein and
Sax Rohmer’s Brood of the Witch Queen—the latter, to my mind, one of the most
gripping stories ever written. Those who have not read these stories can obtain them
from almost any library. My plea is that at least fifty per cent if not one hundred per
cent of the reprints should be from the back files of your own magazine—a store¬
house of epic fiction, the bulk of which is not available from any other source. I
should like to see everything of Lovecraft’s and Quinn’s republished; also The Were¬
wolf of Ponkert and innumerable others. Why not publish a list of early stories,
and let the readers vote on the order in which they should be reprinted? I should
willingly vote for Merritt’s Woman of the Wood and Arnold’s Night Wire, even
though I have read them and still have in my possession the issues in which they ap¬
pear. As the best stories in the May issue I would pick The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis,
The Last Magician, and The Broken Thread. The Earth-Brain in the April number
was one of Edmond Hamilton’s best. It carries a great deal farther a theme on which
Conan Doyle touched in one of his last stories, When the Earth Screamed.”
"For originality, variety and cleverness, Weird Tales is supreme in its field,’’
writes Harold Huffaker, of Visalia, California. "Each issue is as full of surprizes
as a grab bag. The only thing we can be sure of is the fine quality of the stories it
will contain, and the general excellence of the magazine as a whole. Your plan to
include Frankenstein, Dracula and other weird serials in your reprint department is
commendable. I also like the idea of reprinting some of the best of the short stories
that appeared in earlier issues of W. T. These could be sandwiched in between the
serials and would add to the general interest of your magazine. Your wish to let
(Please turn to page 6)
4
Every Lover of Mystery Stories
Is Entitled to These Twelve Masterpieces
of Detective Fiction

FREE

WE WANT YOU TO HAVE THIS GIFT

6 WEIRD TALES

(Continued from page 4)

your readers decide what your future policy shall be in regard to reprints, plainly
shows your sincere desire to give them the very best that is in your power to give.”
A letter from Miriam Allen Weeks, of Boise, Idaho, says: "I have often read and
liked Weird Tales. Your magazine really lives up to its title, as the stories are
indeed weird and unusual. I like the fantastic bits of poetry printed in the magazine
too.”
"Every issue of your most fascinating magazine is eagerly read by me,” writes Helen
Sontag, of Norwood, Ohio. "I can hardly wait until the next issue appears. Kirk
Mashburn is my favorite writer. He simply is perfect I am very pleased with the
magazine and very seldom find a story I do not enjoy.”
J. C. Koekler, of Annandale, Minnesota, writes to the Eyrie: "I just finished
reading the May Weird Tales and my vote goes without hesitation to The Brother*
hood of Blood by Hugh B. Cave. The story was the finest vampire tale I have come
across since Dracula. For several years now I have bought your magazine regularly,
and I enjoy it more than any other publication on the stands.”
A letter from Harold Dunbar, of Chatham, Massachusetts, says: “This is my first
visit to the Eyrie, and might never have occurred except for the super-excellence of
your May issue. The Brotherhood of Blood by Hugh B. Cave is the most gripping-
ly human story you have printed in many a month. Every word of it is real and
vivid. I have read it three times, and each time found something new and subtle.
Second place goes to The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis by Clark Ashton Smith, which,
though criminally padded with amateurish introspection and handicapped by a severe
case of adjectivitis, was truly horrible, cruel, shuddery, original. The Horror Prom the
Mound was the single poor effort in the issue, containing as it did no less than four
flagrant breaches of accepted vampire tradition. Are we to believe, simply because
Mr. Howard so informs us, that vampires can now remain alive for years, under¬
ground, without their customary nightly feast of human blood? Or that they can be
confined to their graves by a mere slab of rock? Or that they now find it necessary
to engage in rough-house wrestling bouts with their prospective victims? Improve¬
ments are always in order, but Mr. Howard’s new type of vampire is certainly no
improvement.'”
August W. Derleth, himself an author of note, writes to the editor: "I like The
Vaults of Yoh-Vombis in the May issue, with The Last Magician pressing close up
to it for first honors. Doctor Keller did a fine piece of work, despite some careless
writing. He creates a great atmosphere, and his story gave me a lot of genuine pleas¬
ure. Can you persuade him to give us more stories of the Brotherhood—let us have
one about those in Gobi now? Howard’s Horror From the Mound was also first rate,
though I didn’t care too much for the fight between the vampire and the narrator;
nevertheless Howard did a good job on it and made me swallow it and like it.”
Guy Detrick, of Big Prairie, Ohio, writes to the Eyrie: “I have been reading Weird
Tales since 1925, because I was attracted by one of Quinn’s stories. I have con¬
tinued to be attracted, since. I have one suggestion to make. It is a fact, with regard
to these weird story reprints, that if they were submitted in an editorial office today
(Please turn to page 139)
 WEIRD TALES 7

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 Vhe
C/
ohantom Hand
1
By VICTOR ROUSSEAU
An astounding novel of Black Magic, eery murders,
and weird occult happenings

D ON WENTWORTH had no re¬

membrance of what preceded the
fall seemed to have begun centuries be¬
fore, and it was still going on. Time had
strange state in which he found become suspended, in order that he might
himself. He knew that, unless he came taste that moment of bitter retribution to
quickly back to consciousness, he would the utmost. But what was his crime?
be a dead man; for something like a rope Murder? Whom had he killed, and
was about his throat, tightening inexo¬ when, and why?
rably and choking out his life. And he He could see in a dim way, as if he had
was clawing impotently at it, and vainly somehow become exteriorized to his body.
seeking to free himself. He could see the drab jail yard, with the
If he could get his fingers upon it be¬ shaft of pale sunshine that gilded one
fore his throat quite closed, he could tear wall, the high steps of the gallows, and
it away, he knew, for it was soft—and the little knot of spectators—the prison
the more deadly because of that. But his governor or sheriff, whichever he might
arms and hands seemed paralyzed, and the be, the doctor, stethoscope already in
same creeping paralysis was in his brain. hand, and the brutal face of the hangman
He couldn’t think, couldn’t remember; he at his side.
didn’t know where he was, or who he was. Then the open door of the trap and his
The vision of Lorna West flashed body plunging downward, but so slowly!
through his mind. He didn’t think of her Like die movements in a slowed-up film.
by name, only as some one infinitely dear And then of a sudden the realization came
and precious to him, for whose sake he home to Don that that human form, the
had to live, to kill this thing. He put features twisted in anticipatory agony, was
forth every effort. But what was happen¬ not his own!
ing to him? Shadows all about him were
Not his own! It was another who was
taking form, springing into horrible re¬
suffering, a portly, elderly man, with gray¬
ality.
ing hair and white mustache, a face that
God! he was standing on a scaffold,
he had seen somewhere and forgotten.
and those were figures of men, seen in
blurred silhouette through the material of Then, of an instant, a shadow seemed
the cap or mask that covered his face! He to hover in air beside the victim. A
was in the act—infinitely prolonged—of youngish man with a dark but pleasing
dropping through a trap-door. The noose face—an Arab or Persian, for he wore a
was tightening, and at the end of the frac¬ turban about his head. Don knew that
tion of a second he would be dead, killed he was invisible to the little group as¬
by the dislocation of the vertebras as his sembled in the jail yard. In his hand was
body checked the fall! a knife, and he was slashing at the rope.
A moment infinitely prolonged, for the But the knife made no impression, and
.8
 THE PHANTOM HAND

from the dark man’s lips there broke the and the dream had no more substance.
wailing cry, "Too late!” He was on his feet in his stateroom aboard
Then of a sudden came the end. Eton the President Harrison, gasping, his fore¬
sensed it with relief, though it meant head bathed with sweat, his hand fumbling
physical extinction. The awful jerk as desperately for the electric light button.
the body tautened against the rope, the
shock of riven bone and rending tissue.
The cloud of black unconsciousness that
H e snapped it on at last, and found
himself in his pajamas and bare
fogged the brain even before the pain feet, with the berth disordered, and the
could reach it. bedclothes lying in a heap upon the floor.
Don felt himself plunging downward. With that, the disorder of the nightmare
Then, somehow, he had forced himself began to give place to recollection. He
free of the dream. He was himself again. knew who he was now, and where he was.
10 WEIRD TALES

In the mirror a white face was staring about it, he would go mad. That second
into his. For an instant Don hardly vision must have been a mere prolonga¬
recognized it as his own reflection. The tion of the nightmare. He had not been
terror of death was still in those protrud¬ fully awake. Don had hardly tasted li¬
ing eyes—bulging as if in very truth the quor for months, but now he opened his
rope had been about his neck. And now, steamer trunk and drew out a bottle of
to Don’s horror, he saw that on either side whisky, nearly full. He placed it to his
of the throat there was a faint but unmis¬ lips and took a deep draft. It ran through
takable livid bruise! his veins like fire. He was feeling better
He glanced about the stateroom, looked now. God, what a dream!
under the bed; no one was hiding there. But now Don could trace its genesis.
It certainly could have been nothing but a It went back to Lorna’s cryptic communi¬
nightmare, yet he had neither eaten nor cation of a year before, and his anxiety
drunk anything that ought to have dis¬ throughout the voyage because she had
agreed with him. The very force of his failed to answer a single one of his urgent
imagination must have imprinted those radiograms. He must have been subcon¬
livid marks upon his throat. sciously more worried than he had known.
The light was dissipating Don’s fears, Don put on his clothes and went up on
though that horrid memory was still very deck. The fresh air was rapidly restoring
real to him. He glanced at the dock upon him.
the shelf, and saw that it was seven "Up early, Mr. Wentworth!” The
o’clock. The dawn was already stealing night radio man was just coming off duty.
through the porthole. In his hand he held a bunch of radio mes¬
Merciful heavens, there was the face sages for posting on the bulletin board.
again, the face of the man who had been "Anything forme?” asked Don.
hanged! There, in the center of the port¬ "No, I’m sorry. Don’t seem to get any
hole, looking in at him, the eyes closed in answer to those messages of yours. I'm
death, the skin livid! Don leaped for¬ sure everything will be all right, though.
ward, and in a new access of fear drove People change their address-”
his fist hard against the glass. "Yes, I guess they never reached her,”
The face vanished. Blood oozed from answered Don. "Any important news
Don’s broken knuckles. He stood there, come through?”
glaring wildly out at the gray, heaving "No, nothing much here,” replied the
sea. He knew the face now. It was that operator. He nodded and passed on,
of State Senator West, Lorna’s father, while Don stood at the rail, in mind span¬
whom he had seen twice in his life, more ning the long knots that still separated
than a year before. him from his destination, Cannonville,
State Senator West, a power in the where Lorna lived.
beautiful city on the Gulf of Mexico! Not
a good power. A self-made man, a pol¬ I T was a year since Don had received his
itician of a certain school. Don had often last communication from Lorna West.
wondered how Loma could be his daugh¬ A week before that there had been one
ter. But a power nevertheless, and a of her usual bright, affectionate letters,
leader of the community. How could telling him all the news. Her father was
Senator West have paid the supreme pen¬ not going to run for office again. He
alty? was talking of retiring from poltics, and
Preposterous! If he thought any more she was glad of it. She was looking for-
 THE PHANTOM HAND 11

ward to the expiration of Don’s two-years’ Abner Wells, and the sinister millionaire,
contract with the mining company, and traction magnate and society flaneur, God¬
then—well, she hadn't changed! frey Moore, who had contributed fifty
A week later there came the cable thousand dollars to the new Bab temple
dispatch, telling of trouble, begging him that had been built in Cannonville.
to return at once, but explaining nothing. (THe Bab Temple! That, of course,
It had been brought to him in a cleft stick had explained Don’s dream of the Persian
by a native over a hundred miles of moun¬ with the knife!)
tain passes, for the cinnabar mine, be¬ Easy-going rather than vicious, a pleas¬
lieved to be the richest in the world, was
ant host, Don had found him easy to get
in the interior of the province of Chinese
along with. Lorna worshipped her father,
Yunnan.
and refused to listen to anything against
Don had sent a reply, which had prob¬
him. Only to Don had she intimated that
ably never reached its destination; for,
she was aware of his associations.
while he was waiting a more detailed ex¬
Eight bells, the call for early break¬
planation, the little group of Americans
fast! Don ceased his pacing of the deck
were carried off for ransom by raiding
and turned to descend the stairway. The
brigands.
sun had just appeared on the horizon,
It was a year before the American em¬
turning the heaving sea to molten gold.
bassy was able to get the ransom to their
The vision of the night was now definitely
captors. That had been a terrible year
a thing of the past.
for Don, imprisoned in the interior of
China, with no possible way of getting "She’s moved to another address,” he

news from Lorna. told himself, almost with conviction. "I’ll

During his captivity he had made three be seeing her in eight days now—eight

fruitless efforts to escape, only to be re¬ days if I trice the fast overland-” And
captured. Then unexpectedly he had been he fell to planning and calculating, forc¬

set free, and he had made his way to the ing himself to the conviction that all was
coast and taken the first boat home. well with Lorna.

He had wirelessed Lorna every day, and A few of the passengers were entering
had received no answer to his messages. the saloon, stopping to look at the radio
He had been growing frantic. Aboard bulletins that had been posted outside the
the English ship, he had obtained no ac¬ door. Don made his way into their midst,
cess to an American newspaper. For the and his eyes took in a single item:
first part of the voyage he had lived on
SENATOR LEMUEL WEST PAID THE SU¬
hope, but now that hope had become shot PREME PENALTY BY THE ROPE AT MID¬
through with despair. NIGHT FOR MURDER OF POLICE CAPTAIN
MORSE.
Lorna’s message had made an obscure
reference to her father. Lemuel West And that was what the radio operator
was reputed to hold his state in the hollow had called "nothing much!” Staggered,
of his hand, though it was said he was the dumb, reading and re-reading the brief
tool of certain predatory interests who item in utter ignorance of what it had
had made and could unmake him. He reference to, Don suddenly realized that
had never had any higher idea of politics midnight at Cannonville would have been
than "to the victors the spoils.” He had just about seven in the morning on board
had for his associates such men as "Mike” the President Harrison—the hour at which
Moroni, the bootleg king, Gus Walstein, he had seen that awful vision!
12 WEIRD TALES

D on's first act on arriving at San Fran¬ silence; he had wired her from San Fran¬
cisco was to go to a newspaper office cisco, and there had been no answer. He
and read the year-old newspapers that had took the overland train to Cannonville.
reference to the affair. It appeared that One rather singular item of news ran in
a political scandal of the first magnitude Don’s mind during the journey. It stated
had broken out in Cannonville. that Lemuel West had been attended dur¬
The murdered police captain had got ing his last days by Sudh Hafiz, "pastor”
the goods on the gang that had been plun¬ of the Bab Temple, which it was stated,
dering the public treasury. They included had a growing adherence among the fa¬
State Senator West, Mike Moroni, Gus shionable in Cannonville. Two days and
Walstein, Abner Wells, and the million¬ a night, and about noon Don got off the
aire Godfrey Moore. These saw long train at his destination. He took a taxi
terms of imprisonment confronting them, to the apartment house where Lorna and
according to the press. Morse could not her father had lived. His heart was beat¬
be squared. ing madly as he made his inquiries of the
At this juncture, Lemuel West had gone telephone-girl.
to a dinner at Godfrey Moore’s magnif¬ "No, sir, Miss West left here it must
icent country place outside Cannonville. have been nearly a year ago, after the
According to the statement he made at his trouble began,” she answered.
trial, he had been drugged and lost con¬ "Where did she go? Is she in the city?
sciousness, coming to his senses in his own Have you any idea?”
apartment, to find himself under the The girl shook her head. "There’s a
guard of detectives. stack of mail was held here for a month
His hands and clothing were blood¬ and then sent to the dead letter office. I
stained, he had in his possession some of saw in the papers that she was a good deal
the murdered man’s papers, his finger¬ at the state penitentiary at Hornell. I
prints had been found on Captain Morse’s guess you could get her address from the
desk in his home. Moreover, concealed warden there—at least, he’s the most like¬
in West’s apartment was a blood-stained ly person to know.”
shirt, wrapped around a gavel, a present to “Thanks,” answered Don dully. He
the senator from a fraternal organization, picked up his suitcase and prepared to re¬
with which Morse’s skull had been beaten sume his journey. Hornell was two hun¬
in. dred miles away, but a train ought to land
It was circumstantial evidence of the him there that night.
most damning character. The senator As he pushed out through the entrance
had been tried with the dispatch demand¬ door, however, a hand fell on his shoul¬
ed by an aroused public opinion, but he der. Don found himself looking into the
had apparently succeeded in burning the face of a good-looking but dark-featured
evidence against his conferedates in crime man. He gave a violent start. For it was
in Morse’s furnace. The jury had brought the man whom he had seen in his vision,
in a conviction after an absence of twenty trying to cut the rope, except that the tur¬
minutes. The Court of Appeals had con¬ ban had been replaced by a smart hat of
firmed the verdict and sentence. So West gray felt.
was hanged! "I see we know each other, Mr. Went¬
There was not one word in reference to worth,” said the other, in perfect English.
Lorna that Don could find. Don had "Will you do me the honor of lunching
wirelessed her every day, in spite of her with me at my house? I believe I have
 THE PHANTOM HAND 13

information of value to impart to you, in¬ healthy-minded American, he would have

cluding the present whereabouts of Miss derided the possibility of the Persian’s
West. My name is Sudh Hafiz, and I am having access to the contents of his own
in charge of the Bab Temple here.” mind; he looked at him suspiciously, half
believing that he was tricking him.
“\?r ou assure me positively that Lorna "Had they succeeded in substituting
JL West is the guest of Godfrey you for poor West,” said Sudh Hafiz,
Moore, that she is unharmed, and that she "you would have been found dead in your
is free to depart at will?” asked Don. bunk, of so-called apoplexy, and he would
"I assure you of all those things, upon have died of heart failure, before he
my honor,” replied the other. "Also, that slipped into the trap.”
you must on no account alarm her by your "They? Who?” Don demanded.
premature appearance; at least, not until "I shall come to that later. They had
we have talked certain matters over.” already marked you down as one who
Don looked about him, at the pleasant, would be their inveterate enemy. For the
comfortably furnished room in the house Akashic Records, the books in which
adjoining the temple, of white stone, everything is writ, are open to the vision
which stood on a fashionable residential of the initiated a little way in front of the
street. The house, however, was so shad¬ present; in other words, they can see for a
ed by big trees and ornamental plants that, short distance into the future.
with its long lawn, it might have been in "It was I who saved you, Mr. Went¬
the heart of the country. worth, because I knew the part you were
The meal had been simple, ample, and to play. And I have seen you every mo¬
perfectly cooked, served by a Persian boy. ment since that morning, and, I may say,
In the large living-room, where Don sat protected you.”
smoking a cigar, there was an atmosphere "You know,” said Don, "I’m a hard-
of profound peace. headed sort of fellow. I don’t deny all—
"Lemuel West was not guilty!” said the sort of thing you’re saying, but my life
Sudh Hafiz. "He was not a good man, has been—well, different.”
rather a spiritually undeveloped one, but "An attitude I can thoroughly respect,”
he was very far from being a murderer. said Sudh Hafiz. "But, since it is decreed
He was the victim of a diabolical conspir¬ that we are to work together, I shall ask
acy on the part of men who wished to only one thing of you, that you accept my
cover up their records, and they, in turn, statements, however incredible they may
were the tools of dark forces which only seem, as a working hypothesis, and let the
Godfrey Moore understands.” events justify them.”
"He was the leader of the conspiracy, "I’ll take you up on that,” answered
then?” Don. There was something convincing
"He—and others of whom you have in the young Persian’s sincerity, despite
not heard. My friend, I know that you the preposterous nature of his beliefs.
have already resolved to pursue all means "Now, who are 'They’?”
to bring the conspirators to justice, for
Miss West’s sake.
nary means will suffice.
I assure you, no ordi¬
Did they not
S udh hafiz answered indirectly: "Peo¬
ple have wondered why the Bab
nearly kill you on board the President Temple was built in this city of the South,
Harrison?” where public opinion is much less tolerant
Don was dumfounded. A normal, of strange faiths than in, let us say, New
14 WEIRD TALES

York or Chicago. It was at the behest of "Then-” cried Don, starting from
the Master, the living embodiment of the his seat and flinging down the cigar into
Babist faith today, who directs all our the ash-tray.
activities from the monastery in my native "You will find her changed when we
laird. call upon Godfrey Moore tonight.”
"He knew that in this region of your "She no longer loves me?’
Southern states tremendous forces of evil "You will find her changed,” repeated
were gathering for an assault upon hu¬ Sudh Hafiz gravely. "Ask me no more
manity, utilizing such men as Godfrey now. But have faith that everything will
Moore and Lemuel West—the former a be well in the end.”
conscious agent of the dark forces, the "We call upon Godfrey Mooie?”
latter merely a tool. "We visit him on the most amiable
"Therefore he sent me here, to promul¬ terms. Remember, he contributed largely
gate the doctrines of universal brother¬ toward the construction of the temple.
hood, and to fight for Ormuzd, the divine We have no illusions about each other.
Right, against Ahriman, the devilish Evil. We do not need to beat about the bush.
But I need hardly say that this purpose has Also, he will understand your own posi¬
not been revealed to the amiable society tion perfectly. Mr. Wentworth, when the
ladies who honor us by attending our tem¬ time comes for battle, there will be no
ple services occasionally.” mercy shown.”
"Yet you reveal it to me?” "What is he trying to do?” asked Don
"You are appointed to help us. It is incredulously.
not the illuminated who are chosen.” "As an agent of the dark forces, he
"What is to be done? What are we aims to bring about evil in place of good;
working at? To clear West’s name?” concretely, to so debauch the minds of men
"Incidentally that will be done. But that there will no longer be any resistance
Godfrey Moore is the arch-enemy. He to his power. And just now he is using
learned the secrets of the Black Art in Lemuel West as his prime agent.”
Paris in his youth. He applied them to "A dead man?”
make his power supreme in this state. He "A very live man, burning with hate
aims much higher. Do not be deceived in and resentment against those who robbed
him.” him of his earthly existence, hardly aware
"I must tell you, Mr. Hafiz-” that he has passed over. A wild bull in
"Sudh Hafiz merely, to you,” mur¬ my china shop, who needs to be lassoed,
mured the Persian. Mr. Wentworth.”
"My first object is to see Lorna West. He stood up. "I’m afraid you think I
We are engaged to be married. I last have been talking the wildest nonsense,”
heard from her a year ago-” he said. "However, tonight we shall call
"Just before you were kidnapped by upon Godfrey Moore, who, in fact, is ex¬
Chinese brigands,” smiled the other. pecting us, and you shall see Miss West.
"That, too, was arranged. It was I who Have patience till then, and pray consider
negotiated your release. But pray take yourself my guest.”
that as one of the statements that have to He touched a bell, and the Persian boy
be accepted only as a working hypo¬ appeared. "Show Mr. Wentworth to the
thesis,” he continued blandly. "She guest-room,” he said in English.
failed to answer your messages. Never¬ Don followed him upstairs into a well-
theless, she received them all.” furnished bedroom, from whose windows
 THE PHANTOM HAND 15

Ik could see the big temple next door. fear that the visit might result in a tra¬
When he was alone he pulled himself to¬ gedy.
gether. The Persian’s story had been ri¬ Sudh Hafiz smiled and shook his head.
diculous, of course—but any way he "We have no use for such primitive meth¬
would see Lorna that evening. ods,” he answered. "You can not destroy
evil by violence. But”—here he leaned
D on spent the afternoon strolling in forward in his chair and spoke so impres¬
capacious grounds. He entered the sively that Don was for the moment al¬
temple and admired the interior, which most startled into believing in what he
was carved with arabesques, a great vault¬ had told him—"it is essential that you
ed roof supported on columns of exquis¬ keep your head, Wentworth, whatever
ite slenderness. Seats were set all around happens. Godfrey Moore will be meas¬
it, in many rows, and there appeared to uring you, endeavoring to discover
be no altar—only a platform in the cen¬ whether you are an enemy to be reckoned
ter, with a reading-desk or low pulpit. _ with seriously. Do not let yourself be
Sudh Hafiz did not appear again until appalled by anything—anything at all.
dinner time, when the two sat down to¬ You understand?”
gether to another meal. "You can rely on me,” answered Don,
"You have spent an anxious afternoon, smiling. "But I wish you would answer
I’m afraid,” said the Persian. "However, a question I asked you earlier in the day.
after your long wait, one afternoon is at You said Lorna had changed. Won’t
least tolerable.” you explain just what you meant? You
"If it hadn’t been for you,” said Don, didn’t mean — mentally affected, did
"I’d have gone off on a wild-goose chase you?”
to Hornell. You told me that Godfrey Sudh Hafiz regarded him gravely and
Moore is expecting me. How did he compassionately. “I wish I could answer
know that I would be here?” you as you want me to,” he said. "She is
Sudh Hafiz merely smiled at the ques¬ —yes, she is to some extent unbalanced
tion, and did not answer it. Instead, he as the result of what she has gone through.
said: But, my friend, do not ask me to commit
"Tonight is to be, in a sense, a confer¬ myself to words and phrases. Soon you
ence, a test, an armistice—call it what you shall see her, and then you will be able to
will. We have reached the point where j-udge for yourself.”
Godfrey Moore no longer underestimates
the strength of our leader, who is actively S udh Hafiz was modern enough to pos¬
directing the campaign against him. sess a smooth-running eight-cylinder
Probably Moore will attempt to frighten car, which ate up the twenty miles or
us by some magician’s tricks, but he can so between Cannonville and Godfrey
not harm us. His power is only over Moore’s home. A few miles outside the
those who have voluntarily subjected town began the extensive pine forests that
themselves to him. Each of us has much still cover most of the southern portion of
to learn from this meeting—but don’t let the state.
yourself be perturbed.” Here and there were turpentine camps,
"I’m not likely to,” answered Don, convict and otherwise, and here and there
smiling. He was sure the Persian was a were the cabins of negroes, set beside the
trifle cracked. "You’re not going to carry road, primitive, single-room structures
firearms, are you?” he asked, with a vague housing parents and a numerous progeny,
16 WEIRD TALES

who came to the door to see the car speed¬ building, apparently of considerable age,
ing past. And presently the sea came into set back some distance from the fore¬
view. shore, against the foot of a low bluflf.
The road, though paved, ran through a About it rose gigantic live-oaks, and as the
swampy region that seemed untrodden of car drew near it could be seen that they
man. Not even a negro cabin appeared were covered with long streamers of Span¬
anywhere under the light of Ae full ish moss. A single light was burning in
moon, riding high in the heavens. The a window on one side.
sea, hardly distinguishable from the So desolate was the scene, the mud
swamps that bordered it, looked inky flats on three sides and the bluff behind,
black. There was not the least sound of so sinister was the impression that Don
the waves as they lapped at the mud shore. received from the lonely place, that he
“This is a strange district for a million¬ shuddered involuntarily.
aire like Godfrey Moore to choose for his “You get the atmosphere?” asked Sudh
home,” said Don. Hafiz. “The impressions that you derive
“Apparently — though actually Mr. are due to the fact that this was formerly
Moore has a town apartment where he a center of Obeah worship, which is still
sees his friends and conducts a good part believed to be carried on by the negraes
of his business. He retires here to pur¬ in the depths of the forest. That is one
sue his investigations in psychic matters. reason why Godfrey Moore selected it for
All this land is his, and nobody is allowed his residence. It belonged to an old Co¬
on it. Even the negroes give it a wide lonial family whose men were killed off in
berth. For the past eight miles we have the Civil War. Ah!” he ejaculated.
been driving on Moore’s private road.” For of a sudden, as if Moore was aware
"Does he live here alone?” of their advent, the whole building be¬
came ablaze with lights. So swift was the
“I believe he has two or three servants
transition that Don cried out too. They
who live in mortal terror of him, but are
transformed the dark, desolate place.
afraid to leave him on account of some
power he has over them. Yes, you think
it is not the sort of place for Lorna West
T he car passed two wide-open gates
and began to sweep up the curved
to have come to. But I know that she is
driveway between markers of white stone.
under no constraint, and, as a matter of
The ancient live-oaks trailed their long
fact, it is not to be regretted that she came
festoons, which brushed against the sides
here. We shall see the house in a min¬
of the car. There was nothing like a
ute,” Sudh Hafiz added.
lawn, and everywhere was the smell of
The road swept round in a wide curve,
decaying vegetation.
running up one side of a wide, shallow
estuary. Now the sound of the sea could Then, as the car purred to a stop in
be heard. It was sucking, sucking at the front of the house, the door flew wide
mud of the flats ceaselessly. Here and open, and a man in evening clothes stood
there were pools of dark water that the re¬ revealed in the blaze of light from with¬
ceding tide had left behind it. In this des¬ in. He came slowly down the steps, and
olate spot not a tree was visible; nothing Sudh Hafiz got out and went up to take
grew except the rank sea-grass. his outstretched hand.
Then of a sudden the house came into Don caught a good sight of Godfrey
view, Don saw a long, low, two-story Moore’s face as he prepared to get out
W. T.—1
 THE PHANTOM HAND *7

likewise. It was that of a man of about on Don’s shoulder. Godfrey Moore a

fifty-five to sixty years of age. But there monster of wickedness? Don was sure
was nothing in the least repellent about now that Sudh Hafiz was mentally de¬
it, nothing that tallied with the Persian’s ranged. He rejected everything that he
lurid description of Moore’s character. had told him.
On the contrary, it was handsome, cul¬
tured, and combined power with benev¬ T he interior of the house was sump¬
tuous, almost regal. Oriental rugs
olence. The thick hair was only slightly
graying, but the slight mustache was near¬ of rare quality covered the floors. Old
ly white. masters hung upon the walls. Suits of
Godfrey Moore, even at his age, was antique armor hung in the wide hall.
certainly a very handsome man, and if he Godfrey Moore led the way into a Louis
was indeed the monster of evil that Sudh Quinze drawing-room, beyond which
Hafiz claimed him to be, it had left no could be seen several other rooms, shut
traces on his kindly and aristocratic fea¬ off by curtains.
tures. Moore’s hand still rested cm Don’s
“Mr. Moore, permit me to introduce shoulder, detaining him.
my friend, Mr. Wentworth,” said the "Miss West has not been quite herself
Persian. » for some time past,” he said. "I’m sure
Godfrey Moore extended his hand and you’ll understand. I’m going to be per¬
shook Don’s cordially. "I'm delighted to fectly frank with you, my dear fellpw.
meet you, sir,” he said. “In fact. I’ve Toward the end of her long and distress¬
been expecting you ever since we had ing experience she—well, broke down.
news that you had sailed from China.” In fact, the doctors were considering re¬
moving her to a—a home. A public in¬
Don looked at him in blank astonish¬
stitution, I mean. You see, there was
ment. "But I sent no word-” he be¬
practically no money left after the heavy
gan. Then, "You must be referring to
expenses of the trial.
the messages I radioed to Miss West.
How is she?” "I’d known West well, and so I had
her brought here rather than let her—but
Godfrey Moore laid a hand on Don’s
you’ll know what I mean. Happily she is
shoulder. "Much better than she has
making a very good recovery. You will,
been, though she was in no condition to
of course, make no allusion—well, I hard¬
answer your radios,” he replied. "Most
ly need to tell you that. I’m sure she'll
eager to meet you again, although very
know you. Fortunately, she seems to re¬
much overwrought by the sad events of
call little of what has happened, and the
the past year, culminating in the distress¬
doctors think that is a good sign.”
ing tragedy—but I don’t need to dwell on
that. Come in! My butler is away at He pointed to some blue velvet por¬
present. May I not take your hat and tieres that shut off the room from the one
coat?” beyond. "You’ll find her in there, Went¬
He ushered them into an anteroom. worth,” he said.
"A cocktail, gentlemen?” he asked. Then, Don felt his heart beating almost un¬
as Sudh Hafiz declined, and Don hes¬ controllably as he advanced toward the
itated, "A little later, then,” he said. curtains. Reaching them, he stopped for
"You will be eager to meet Miss West.” a moment to pull himself together, than
Again his hand fell in kindly fashion raised them and passed through.
W. T.—2
18 WEIRD TALES

He was only conscious of Lorna, lovely "But I’m getting much better now,”
as ever, and unchanged. She was wear¬ said Lorna, "thanks to Mr. Moore. He
ing a superb evening gown, and she sat in has done so much for me, and really I
an armchair, one arm hanging over the don’t deserve it at all. He and poor
side, looking at nothing in particular. father were not particularly intimate. It
She turned her head as Don approached. was a terrible end for him,” she added,
"Lorna!” he whispered. "You know dropping her voice to a whisper. "They
me, Lorna?” think I have forgotten about it, but I

She inclined her head and smiled. haven’t. Only we never speak about it.

"Why, of course I know you, Don,” she And, after all, he deserved his fate, didn’t

answered, "and I feel very guilty not to he?”

have answered your radios. I’m so negli¬ Don looked at the girl in horror. This
gent about things like that nowadays, rus¬ wasn’t Lorna! No, this wasn’t she! An
ticating here in such a lazy way. How automaton, voicing things that had been
have you been, my dear boy?” put into her mind. Why, Lorna was the
very incarnation of loyally itself!
She waved him to a chair beside her.
Her glance was friendly, almost affection¬ He couldn’t help the reply that burst
ate, but Don’s worst fears were con¬ from his lips. "No, Lorna, your father
firmed. This was not Lorna—not the didn’t deserve his fate,” he answered,
Lorna he had known and loved. Some¬ "because he wasn’t guilty.”
thing was gone from her! She looked full at him, and, as a bird’s
Swallowing the lump in his throat, and eyes grow clear after filming, so her eyes
forcing a smile to his face, Don seated seemed to clear. For the first time Don
himself beside her. knew that he was looking at the old Lorna,

"I’m so glad you managed to get free the girl he loved.

from those horrid brigands,” she said. "Don!” she whispered. "Don, help
"You must tell me all about your expe¬ me, Don! Where am I? Don, save me!”
riences when you were their prisoner. In the room behind him, Don could
Not now, but when I’m a little stronger." hear the sudden arrest of Moore’s move¬
"I certainly will,” answered Don. He ments. He knew that he had heard the
took the little hand that was hanging over change in the girl’s tone, had stopped to
the chair. "I’m so glad to see you, dear,” listen. Lorna seemed conscious of it. A
he said. "I’ve been so anxious about you, strangled cry broke from her lips. Terror
especially when I didn’t get any answer was in her eyes.
to my radiograms. But of course I didn’t Then suddenly her whole body shud¬
know how ill you had been.” dered, and she fell back in her chair.
"Yes, I was too ill to answer you, Next moment Godfrey Moore had come
Don,” said Lorna, raising her eyes and quickly into the room, with Sudh Hafiz at
looking at him for the first time in a puz¬ his heels. He bent over the recumbent
zled way. Suddenly Don had a curious girl and passed his hand three or four
feeling as if everything that she said to times over her face.
him had been learned by rote, and had not "There, there,” he said soothingly. "It
the smallest significance for her. That was too much of a shock for you, meeting
look of puzzlement was the first sign of Mr. Wentworth after all this long absence,
something breaking through the outward wasn’t it?”
mask. Loma’s eyes opened. But they were not
 THE PHANTOM HAND 19

the eyes of the old Lorna now; the film "Be on your guard! Remember my
was over them again. warnings!” he said curtly.
"Yes, yes,” the girl answered con¬ Next moment they heard the rumbling,
fusedly. "I overtaxed my strength.” She Dass tones of an Italian voice in the hall,
laughed vacantly, and she looked at Dor( and Moore reappeared, accompanied by a
as if he had been a stranger. flashily dressed man in a loud check suit,
Godfrey Moore looked at Don and with a diamond tie-pin and two enormous
Sudh Hafiz. "Our little patient has been stones on his little finger. The face was a
recovering marvelously, but she is still far blend of power and cunning. Altogether,
from strong,” he said. "We must show the man looked as unpleasant a customer
our guests the new television outfit that as one might find in many a moon.
arrived yesterday, mustn’t we, Lorna?”
"Gentlemen,” said Godfrey Moore
Lorna sprang up and clapped her hands suavely, "permit me to make you acquaint¬
like a delighted child. "Oh, yes, Mr. ed with my friend, Mr. Moroni. Moroni
Wentworth will enjoy that,” she answered. —Mr. Sudh Hafiz, the minister at the
She ran through the curtains to the ra¬ temple. And Mr. Don Wentworth.”
dio cabinet in the corner. "We’ve been
"Wentworth?” asked Moroni, with
having the greatest time with it,” she
something between a laugh and -a snarl.
said. "You know, Uhcle Godfrey is an
"Ain’t I heard of you? Friend of our late
inventor himself, and he’s been working
departed senator, wasn’t you? Engaged to
independently on television.”
his daughter? Oh, yeah! Well, I guess
"But I confess that I’ve been left very that’s over, ain’t it?”
far behind,” said Godfrey Moore, "since
"Miss West is in the next room,” said
this instrument was put on the market.
Don coldly.
'What’s that?” he added sharply, as the
sound of a motor-car was heard without. Moroni stared at him belligerently, and
“Excuse me a few moments, gentlemen. Moore intervened. "Now about that
Please make yourselves at home. Fll be order-” he began.
with you in a moment.” 'Yeah, just whatever you want to make

W ith his departure, Lorna seemed to

fall back into the same state of
it, Mr. Moore,’’replied the Italian, a sort
of unwilling deference m his tone.

"Suppose we make it a dozen cases of

apathy as before. She went back into the
Martell’s, and a dozen of champagne,
second drawing-room and reseated herself
Veuve Clicquot, brut,” said Moore. ''It Is
in the chair. Sudh Hafiz laid his fingers
no secret, gentlemen,” he added, "that
on Don’s arm.
Mr. Moroni is one of our great public
'You see, Wentworth,” he said, "she
benefactors—that is to say, his business is
is in no condition to understand very
ministering to one of the great primary
much.”
needs of man.”
Don looked at him resentfully. At the
moment he saw Sudh Hafiz only as an in¬ "And you said a mouthful, Mr. Moore,”
sane man, and Godfrey Moore as the man replied Moroni. "I got the bootleg racket
who had taken Lorna into his home, to in this state sewed up in a bundle. I do
save her from the madhouse. The Per¬ all the business, and when I say all, I mean
sian seemed to read what was passing in all.”
his mind. "Mr. Moroni has been so kind as to
20 WEIRD TALES

pay me a personal visit-began to operate it. This set is not yet on the
Moore. market. It’s going over like wildfire as
"Just so you won’t git stuck with no soon as it gets into the public’s hands.”
gooseberry or bum cider,” said Moroni.
“I know how a gentleman feels when he’s T hey appeared to be just in time, for
as soon as Lorna had tuned in, the
paid for something he didn’t git. Yeah,
I’d go a good ways to oblige a good cus¬ voice of the announcer was heard, inform¬
tomer like you, Mr. Moore. A dozen ing them that La Sonnambula was about
brandy and a dozen champagne goes. I to begin. Moore rose and pressed the
got the stuff lying handy up one of the button that controlled the lights, throw¬
creeks, and I can shoot it in some time ing the room into darkness, save for the
before morning, if you’ll leave your barn moonlight streaming through the win¬
door open.” dow. Instantly the sheet of polished

"Going back to town, Moroni?” asked metal on the front of the cabinet became
aglow, and the stage of the Metropolitan
Moore.
Opera House came into view, with the fig¬
"Yeah, why?” replied the other sus¬
ures of the actors.
piciously.
Moroni uttered an exclamation of de¬
"If you’re in no hurry, why don’t you
light. "Why, it’s as real as being there!”
stay a while and join us here. They’re
he exclaimed.
broadcasting La Sonnambula in a few
"Yes, it’s a pretty good set,” answered
minutes. Lily Pons is singing. I guess I
Moore.
know your tastes pretty well, Moroni.
Wouldn’t you like to see her?” Don sat watching and listening with a
"See her? Hear her, you mean,” said good deal of pleasure. He was fond of
Moroni. music, and he was quite convinced by
"I said 'See her’,” replied Moore im¬ now that Sudh Hafiz was a harmless mad¬
perturbably. "This is the latest thing in man; at which stage of his thoughts
a television outfit.” Moore, who was seated next to him,
He turned toward the radio cabinet that leaned toward him.
stood in one corner. At that moment "Our Persian friend Is a good fellow,
Lorna came into the room, walking like but touched,” he whispered, tapping his
one in a trance. forehead. "Harmless, though. We’re
"Lorna, my dear, you know Mr. Moro¬ making arrangements with his consul to
ni,” said Godfrey. "One of your father’s have him sent back home. It’s rather sad
friends. We’re going to show him the —a love affair with an American girl, and
new television set.” her parents took her abroad to break it
Moroni executed an awkward bow, his off.”
eyes flashing in momentary surprize and Don nodded. He felt very close to
appraisal to Moore’s. Lorna, with an Godfrey Moore at that moment. "Do
exclamation of delight, went to the cab¬ they think Lorna-” He hesitated.
inet, opened it, and disclosed the dials, "I have every hope for her,” replied
the wave-length register, and what looked Moore in a low whisper. "I am trying to
like a sheet of polished silver along the divert her mind. She is rather bitter
front. against her father, you see, she believed in
"Come, gentlemen, let’s draw up our him till the last, when he confessed to
diairs,’’ suggested Moore. "Lorna loves her. That was what unhinged her.”
 THE PHANTOM HAND 21

"Sh-sh-sh!” came Mike Moroni’s voice Lorna slowly turned her head. Her
indignantly. Bootlegger though he was, eyes met Don’s, but there was no recogni¬
he had all the Italian’s love of music, and tion in them. Again that was the face of
was following the performance with close Senator West. A strangled gasp broke
attention. Godfrey Moore leaned back in from Don’s lips. It was the white face he
his chair and relapsed into silence. Don had seen in the porthole that day aboard
could not see Sudh Hafiz, on the other side ship, the terror of death in the protruding
of him. eyes, but more than terror—hate incarnate!
Lily Pons’ clear, sweet voice rang out. Slowly the film of vision began to
The figures were astonishingly life-like, blur. Slowly the actors faded out, though
though they were only silhouettes. Don, the music went on without a pause. Even
while listening to the music, let his mind the brightness of that metal strip had van¬
stray to ponder over the situation. He felt ished. Don could see nothing, and Lorna
a certain sense of relief. At least the had drawn back a little into die shadows.
worst had not happened, for Lorna was "Is it not marvelously clear?” said Sudh
still alive. And Moore had held out the Hafiz suddenly.
hope of her complete recovery. "I couldn’t have believed it,” answered
He would have liked to take her away, Moroni. "Why, you can see her ear¬
marry her, care for her until she had re¬ rings! I bet there’s a fortune in them
covered. It was hard to see the girl he stones!”
loved in that mental state. The most ter¬ "It’s pretty good, isn’t it, Wentworth?”
rible part of it was that something in her said Godfrey Moore.
was missing. That she no longer seemed
Don turned toward the three in amaze¬
to care for him was bearable, but he did
ment. Were they amusing themselves at
not like the cold dislike with which she
his expense? Hadn’t the film faded for
had spoken of her father, whom she had
them as well as for him? In Sudh Hafiz’s
almost worshipped, despite his associa¬
voice there had been a subtle intonation
tions.
that had somehow, he knew not how, put
The moonlight was slowly shifting. Don on guard. He had felt that an affirm¬
Don could now see Lorna’s hair, the gold ative answer was expected of him, that the
turned to silver. And slowly her features Persian wanted him to pretend he still
came into profile. saw.
Suddenly he gripped the arms of his In Moore’s voice, on the other hand,
chair hard. That profile, the firm out¬ there had been a sort of challenge, as if
lines—it was only a trick of imagination, the millionaire wanted Don to say he no
of course, due to his wrought-up state, but longer saw the film.
for a moment it had looked exactly like But Mike Moroni—surely the bootleg¬
that of Senator West! ger no longer saw the picture on the
Now he could see the whole of Lorna’s metal?
face. No, it was Lorna’s. But Lorna "It’s wonderful,” Don answered, and
seemed transformed. Her face had be¬ felt Moore’s eyes searching his own in the
come a mask of diabolical energy, of hate. darkness.
There was something fearful in the inten¬ On and on went the voices, with Lily
sity of that hatred. Cold fear began to Pons’ raised in exquisite song, while Mo¬
grip Don as he watched her, invisible as roni interposed excited comments, though
yet to the three others. for Don the metal plate was quite dark.
22 WEIRD TALES

And then suddenly it began to glow for It was growing brighter yet. It showed
him again. a little group of men standing together on
Slowly a shadowy picture began to be one corner of it. It showed a man ascend¬
imprinted on it once again. Anofher ing some steps beneath a mistily outlined
scene? What were those many figures structure, and taking his place there. It
doing, grouped together in one corner of showed—merciful God!—it showed the
die picture, when Lily Pons was singing execution of Senator West in the yard of
solo, and should have occupied the stage the state penitentiary at Hornell, exactly as
alone? Don had seen it in his vision aboard the
But was that Lily Pons, occupying the President Harrison!
center of the strip? It looked more like a
man, standing in a constrained position. A ppallbd, paralyzed, Don watched the
- awful scene from beginning to end.
Don strained his eyes, trying to figure
He saw the clergyman beside the con¬
out what the picture showed, but he could
demned man, reading from a book, and
see little, for it flickered and grew lighter
West responding with his lips. He saw
and darker alternately, and his eyes ached
the hangman adjust the cap over West’s
with the effort. But now again Lorna’s
head. A moment’s interval, and he saw
face had come into view in the moonlight,
him press the lever that released the trap.
and the look of hate that had been stamped
He saw the body shoot down into the
upon it before was as nothing in compar¬
hole and disappear, the rope above k
ison with the intensity of hatred now.
quivering convulsively.
Why, it was the face of a devil!
And all the while Lily Pons’ sweet song
"This is the famous scene, Went¬ went on and on. Mike Moroni was
worth,” Don heard Moore say in his ear, clapping his hands vigorously.
"where la Sonnambula walks in her sleep, "Wonderful! Wonderful!” he cried.
carrying a lighted candle. Is it not won¬ "This sure is an evening’s genuine pleas¬
derful? What an actress Lily is, as well as ure you give me, Mr. Moore!”
singer!”
Don, gripping the arms of his chair,
"Bcco! Superb!” cried Mike Moroni. with hands white at the knuckles, saw the
"See the grace with which she holds the grisly picture apparently fixed on the
candle. Each moment it looks as if she metal. Was he going insane? Was he
would let it fall, and yet one knows she actually the only person who had seen that
will not let it fall!” sight? Was it nothing but a projection
Don bent forward, trying in vain to see from his own brain?
the bootlegger’s face in the darkness. But Don was not the type of man who
Was it credible that he saw all that, when is easily thrown off his balance. Whether
Don saw nothing but flickers on the strip he was mad or sane, he realized the need
of metal? Or were his eyes simply tired? of infinite caution. Neither the horror of
Then, slowly but steadily, the picture the picture nor the fearful look on Loma’s
began to grow bright again. For a whole face elicited a word from him, though his
minute Don was unable to make out what heart was hammering wildly, and the
ft depicted. But it certainly did not show sweat stood out in beads on his forehead.
Lily Pons in the Sonnambula scene. It He was trying to remember Sudh Ha¬
showed a yard, a large yard surrounded by fiz’s warning to him earlier in the day.
a high wall, on which a man was pacing. "Magician’s tricks”—yes, that was what
 THE PHANTOM HAND 23

he had said about Moore. And "Don’t Her face? No, his face, West’s hate-dis¬
let yourself be perturbed.” torted face, leaning against the face be¬
He wouldn’t. He sat there, watching. neath the cap.
For an instant there flashed through his But the picture was growing larger!
mind the idea that it might all be a ghast¬ Slowly it changed until it covered the
ly jest of Moore’s, with Moroni in the whole front of the radio cabinet. Larger
secret. But the Italian’s exclamations of yet, until the figures stood out life-size on
delight were too unfeigned for that. the wall. Was the music still going on?
Again he felt that Moore’s eyes were Don did not know; he never knew; it was
searching his, but he betrayed himself by more than terror gripped him now, it was
neither sound nor movement. With eyes a palsy like that in a nightmare—like that
pinned on the awful picture, he just in his cabin aboard the ship. He was no
waited. Something must happen soon, longer conscious of the presence of the
something to break that spell, for Lorna’s others. He only saw the girl he loved,
face was terrible. with her face against the cap, and the
dangling thing, and tire motionless forms
If hate could kill, the hatred in her eyes
was murder. And she was bending closer of the spectators.

to the filmy picture. Now the moonlight Then in an instant the thing happened
illumined the whole of her face. for which he had subconsciously waited.

It was no longer Lorna. It was Senator The cap was gone. And Lorna’s face was
no longer that of her father. Don saw
West, alive! Alive in death! A living
her collapse in her chair with a sigh and
dead man, reborn in his daughter’s face.
lie there apparently unconscious, her
It couldn’t go on! Don gripped the arms
of his chair more tightly. He was on the white face, sweet as it had always been
within Don’s memory, upturned to the
verge of rushing forward, seizing Lorna
in his arms, and carrying her away. And moonlight. And the Thing no longer

then he saw that the picture had ceased to dangled from the rope. It was gone!

be static. Something was happening. The As a light fades when the button is
rope that held West’s body was beginning snapped, so the picture faded. All was
to vibrate. blank; and Don sat there, gripping the
It moved. It began to quiver upward, arms of his chair, trying to force his mus¬
as if it was being drawn back upon a pul¬ cles to obey his will, to run to Lorna’s
ley. Only the rope was moving, neither side.
priest nor hangman nor prison governor, He could not stir. And something evil
nor any of the group motionless in the was in the room, something that had
yard. The very sentry on the wall had emerged from the picture. He knew what
ceased to pace to and fro. it was—who it was! The dead man, gal¬
But the rope was moving upward, and vanized into life by the mighty power of
now there appeared the head of the his hatred and longing for revenge!
hanged man, still confined in the cap, loll¬ He saw it! A stealthy, moving shadow,
ing grotesquely upon the neck, then the vanishing as it crossed the moonlight in¬
body, and then the legs. Once more he stead of growing clearer, reappearing as it
hung, suspended high in air over the open reached the darkness. Something barely
trap. perceptible, and yet darker than the dark;
Lorna was bending forward so that her moving, bent half-double, with neck that
face was almost against the strip of metal. lolled crookedly upon its shoulders.
24 WEIRD TALES

A cry from Mike Moroni broke the si¬ was a fleck of foam upon his lip, and on
lence, a strangled cry deep in his throat. either side of his throat were faint traces
The spell that held Don fast was gone. of bruising.
He leaped to his feet. Moore raised a limp hand and felt for
"The lights!” he cried. "The lights!” the pulse; he opened Moroni’s shirt and
And as he spoke he heard something fall laid his ear against his heart. He looked
heavily. up at Don and Sudh Hafiz.
Next moment a blaze of electric light
"He’s gone,” he said in agitated tones.
filled the room, disclosing Loma uncon¬
"It was the excitement. His heart must
scious in her chair beside the radio, and
have snapped—like that!”
Mike Moroni slumped down on the floor
in front of his chair. How could death cone to Mike Moroni at the hands
of the phantom from the television outfit? What is
Don ran to his side, but Godfrey Moore the relationship between Lorna West and her dead
father? she the minister of his vengeance? And
was already bending over him. The dead
of the^fugrust WEIRD TaIeS from your dtttfcr now.
man’s face was set in a convulsion, there On sale at ell n

Echidna
By MARY ELIZABETH COUNSELMAN

Who has seen Echidna

Where the swamp ooze dries,
Where the swamp things slither
hi the wan moonrise?
Who has seen Echidna’s
Byes?

Who has heard Echidna,

In the scaly guise
Of a black swamp serpent,
Hiss her wind-soft sighs?
•Who has heard Echi'dna
Flies!

Who has seen Echidna

With her bright blade eyes,
As her serpent body
In the swamp mud lies?
Who has seen Echidna
Dies!
Who Never Came Back
By PEARL NORTON SWET
A shuddery story of a weird horror in the heart of the
Black Continent

W E WALKED, prosaically enough,

in a city park zoo, Bannister and
Passing the leopard cages, Bannister
looked quickly away from the sleek and
1. It was autumn, golden, opu- yawning cats and swore emphatically in
lent. We were content in friendship, and a voice that shook with a surprizing emo-
London seemed a good and peaceful place, tion.
25
26 WEIRD TALES

"-their spotted hides! I hate some business connections that finally

the damned beasts! Come, let’s get away landed him in the five-room frame bun¬
from the sight of them.” galow at Pambia that was the West Coast
"Why?” I asked curiously and some¬ Products Company’s stronghold on the
what surprized at this show of feeling in Guinea coast. And he thought Pambia
the suavely handsome Bannister. Ban¬ must be colorful and virile.
nister was, and is, the vice-president of There were living-quarters and offices
the British West Coast Products Com¬ and two men besides Bannister—Vier-
pany; learned the business "from the ling and the red-headed Irishman, O’Don-
ground up,” as the saying is. He was nel. The three who greeted Herbie at
too valuable a man to waste in equatorial Pambia had slightly different views about
Africa. The company has him in London, Pambia, having been there a bit longer
where he has become a sedate husband than they cared to be.
and father, living in an equally sedate And then along came Herbie Tillson
suburb. with his deprecatory manner and pale
What had he to do with leopards? So blond appearance—Herbie Tillson who
I asked again, "Why? What have you thought that Pambia on the West Coast of
against leopards, anyway?” Africa would give him color and glamor
We found a green bench far from the to dress up his life of drabness. So
leopards’ cages and Bannister told me, Bannister and the two others thought
through that golden afternoon, the story perhaps they had better tell Herbie right
of Herbie Tillson. Flirtatious nursemaids away that there was no such thing as col¬
trundled their infant charges past our orful glamor in Pambia.
bench; a beggar stopped and whined for They thought they had better tell him
money; a gray squirrel, pertly curious and that there were, though, plenty of dirty,
unafraid, came to squat beside us, hope¬ sneaking Bendjabis, so steeped in super¬
ful of food. stition as to be afraid of their own shad¬
These things went on about us, but ows; that Pambia had tremendous, de¬
while Bannister talked, I scarcely realized luging rains that later, under terrific sun,
that we sat in a park with evidences of made the land steam and give off a nau¬
civilization thick about us. And there seating odor of decay. They would have
was sometimes sadness and sometimes liked to tell Herbie Tillson that the re¬
bitterness in Bannister’s voice as he told lentless ocean that was the foreground of
me about Herbie Tillson. this picture could, on an unusually hot
day, take on a brassy look that made men
W hen Herbie Tillson arrived on a
cargo-boat at Pambia on the West
dizzy and that the background of the
Great Swabi forest harbored fearful beasts
Coast of equatorial Africa, he looked ex¬ and still more fearful men in the eternal
actly what he was—a colorless, little, twilight of its swollen jungle.
twenty-four-year-old London cleric who But not one of the three could find it
had been seasick all the way out from in his heart to tell Herbie any of these
England. things. They reasoned that he’d learn it
Herbie Tillson was in that region so soon enough. The West Coast Products
aptly called "the white man's graveyard,” Company paid well, but there always
because, like a good many other clerks in came a time in the life of every English¬
musty London offices, he wanted a color¬ man who had ever come to Pambia, when
ful and virile life. He happened to have he would quite willingly have given an
 THE MAN WHO NEVER GAME BACK 27

arm or a leg or even an eye for the op¬ "Oh, quite.” Herbie bent over his
portunity of whiffing the damp, cool air ledger, and as far as he was concerned
of a London street, say on an autumn the conversation was dosed.
evening with the lights of the Yorkshire
Evening Post glimmering down
Street and the busses trundling by and
Fleet T he
long
three at Pambia had
without stimulus,
been so
comic or
the electric signs flashing. otherwise, that the coming of Herbie TiH-
That was the state to which they all Son gave them something to talk about.
had been reduced after a year or so in "I’m beginning to think the spalpeen’s
Pambia, that lay along a little river bank a walkin' curiosity shop,” said O'Donnel
against which the jungle pushed. Ban¬ one morning, pausing in his work. "I
nister and Vierling and O'Donnel could got something to tdl you, and since he’s
see no reason why HerbieTillson wouldn’t, not here right now, I’ll tell it.”
in time, be drooling about the lovely fime-
He leaned forward in his chair toward
jtaice signs in Picadilly and yearning for
Bannister’s desk, and his face was comic¬
a sight of the Old Lady of Threadnfcedle
ally mysterious. "The lad’s not content
Street.
with cat’s eyes—he must Have six toes on
Herbie Tillson put on a pair of horn¬
the foot of him—the left foot I saw k
rimmed spectacles and went to work with
with my own eyes when we swam two
an apparent zest that made the other three
mornings ago.”
stick their tongues in their cheeks know¬
As time went on and it became au¬
ingly. They thought Herbie looked a
tumn, Pambia daily expected the rains and
good deal like a thin, serious insect in
dragged to cover its few possessions. And
those big spectacles; razzed him a bit
at about that time Herbie Tillson began
about diem in a good-natured way.
to take his solitary walks after dinner.
"Well, you see, I have to wear glasses
He would leave the others playing a
—in the daytime,” explained Herbie. "In
three-handed card game, or reading
the dark I don’t need ’em.”
month-old copies of the London Past,
‘D’ye mean to say you can see in the
and Herbie would go for a solitary walk,
dark better than m the light?” asked
always toward the green, miasmic twi¬
O’Donnel.
light that was the jungle.
"Just that,” replied Herbie. "You
know, my eyes are a bit queer.” They warned him. He smiled at them

He took off his spectacles and turned a shade pityingly. "Why, I have no fear

to O’Donnel, and it was then that O’Don- of the jungle. I can’t just explain, but

nei noticed for the first time that the I feel often that I should be very much

pupils of Herbie Tillson’s eyes were not at home in the jungle. But there’s some¬

round. They were elliptical, nampwing thing— I don’t know — no doubt you
think me a bit dotty.”
to slits in the daylight and giving out a
hint of phosphorescence that was all but They assured him with admirable can¬
dimmed at that afternoon hour. dor that they' did think so. But he didn't
"So,” said Herbie, putting on his spec¬ mind. He took his walks just the same.
tacles again, "you see I really need the And then the rains came, and there
glasses, funny as they are, if I am to see were no more walks for Herbie Tillson.
well in the daylight.” Instead, while the rain fell monotonously
"But you can see well at night, eh?” and drummed on the roof like a giant
persisted the Irishman, curiously. bumble-bee, Herbie spent his evenings
28 WEIRD TALES

hunched over books, which it soon became out to find him. But as they talked of it,
dear he wasn’t reading. Herbie returned. He came into the hall
When the Bendjabis, wet and misera¬ noiselessly out of the dark and stepped
ble and coughing, came to beg quinine just inside the room where the others sat.
from Bannister, Herbie Tillson aston¬ Herbie stood blinking at them, and
ished them by trying to make friends. they noted that he was not wearing his
He persisted till a pot-bellied youth spectacles. His clothes were soiled with
named Molu, but lately made house-boy soft earth; his fair hair was wildly tousled.
at the bungalow, was won to a shy, ani¬ He was breathing hard, his mouth slightly
mal-like friendship. One other, also, opened, showing his strong, white teeth.
Herbie came to know—a black, lowering "Heavens, man! Where have you
fellow, not of the Bendjabis, but said to been?” They all three rose from their
come from the dread M’Banos who lived chairs and stared at Herbie.
in the Great Swabi forest. For answer he turned those strange eyes
The M’Bano was in exile from his of his full upon them in a sort of unseeing
own people and tolerated by the Bend¬ glare and brushed his chin sidewise in a
jabis only through fear and superstitious queer manner against his left shoulder.
dread of a M’Bano’s gri-gri, or spell. His teeth bared themselves still more in
The sign language and jabberings of something that was not quite a laugh and
Herbie and the M’Bano filled Vierling not quite a snarl. And abruptly turning,
and O’Donnel with a comical disgust. he re-entered the little hall and strode
"What does he want to chum up with into his room, slamming the door.
a dirty, black M’Bano for? Why doesn’t "Whew!” exclaimed O’Donnel.
he spend the wet season readin’ Punch or “Just that,” said Vierling and raised
improvin’ his mind some way?” his eyebrows. "You don’t think our little
But Bannister saw more than they. He Herbie has been drinking from the Bend-
thought he saw in Herbie Tillson a lone¬ jabi gourds?”
liness so infinite that mere civilized talk "No,” said Bannister, shortly. "No.
with his own kind could not satisfy it. It’s not drink. I—I’ve seen something
He felt, in a strange, repelling flash of like this once before. What a damned
knowledge, that Herbie Tillson was not country this West Coast is, anyway!”
one of them; that his puny personality The other two were reticent for once;
held something which would be difficult seemed to sense that Bannister would
for them to understand. So Bannister did tolerate no curious questions. He stood
not ridicule Herbie, but he watched him at the door, looking into the hallway, and
silently, as Herbie drank in the tales that then he said without turning, "Don’t say
Molu and the black M’Bano so laborious¬ anything to Herbie, will you? I think it
ly told him. best not to speak of it. Good-night.”

A s soon as the rains were over and

. the land lay lushly green and pant¬
Bannister’s room was next to Herbie’s,
and before he entered his own room,
Bannister paused a second, as if listen¬
ing under hot suns, Herbie began his jun¬ ing. Then he went into his own room
gle prowlings again. He went sometimes and softly closed the door.
alone, and twice he went with the exiled
M’Bano. H erbie tillson was up early the
next morning and in the office long
He was gone one night till after ten, so
that the others were on the point of setting before the others had begun work. He
 THE MAN WHO NEVER CAME BACK 29

had not come in for breakfast. Bannis¬ as if bound for a walk in Hyde Park.
ter entered the office quietly and went up He had gone straight across the river ford
to Herbie as he stood before a large cal¬ and at the steamy edge of greenness on
endar on the wall. With a thick blue the other side, Vierling had thought
pencil Herbie was marking a circle about Herbie was joined by the M’Bano. He
a date. was not sure, but a shadow had stood at
He did not notice Bannister, till Ban¬ the water’s edge and Herbie had joined
nister laid a hand on his thin shoulder. it and had gone on with it.
"Sorry you don’t feel so good, old fellow. "That black devil of a M’Bano has
Better go in now and let Molu bring you been hanging around here too much late¬
a bite of breakfast.” ly,” said O’Donnel. "Pretends he needs
But Herbie shook his head. "No,, medicines, but he’s strong as an ox. D’ye
thanks. I’m quite all right.” It was ap¬ know, some say his father was a leopard-
parent that he wanted to be let alone. man in the Swabi? Anyway the M’Banos
Bannister’s sharp eyes found opportu- are all rotten. Herbie’s a fool to listen
nity to glance at the marked date on the to his yarns.”
big calendar. It was the twenty-fourth,
"Yes. And he and Molu always jab¬
the date of the full moon. When Bannis¬
bering—all that witch-doctor stuff.
ter saw that, he looked at Herbie very
Herbie dotes on it. I think the rains have
hard and shut his mouth tightly to a
made him dotty.” Vierling looked at
thin line. For Bannister had been in the
Bannister, questioningly. "Don’t you
West Coast country for some time, and
think so?”
he knew a thing or two about it. But he
"No, the wet season has nothing to do
kept his thoughts to himself.
with the way Herbie’s acting,” said Ban¬
Things went along in a sort of strained
nister, a bit diffidently, as if he hated to
way at the offices of the West Coast Prod¬
talk about Herbie. "But—well, it's a
ucts Company, what with Herbie going
case of the usual Swabi forest stuff—
about like a half-sick, little shadow and
damnable place it is.”
Bannister watching him with eyes that
"Oh, sure,” replied O’Donnel. "That
seemed to brood.
rot they tell you would drive anybody out
Vierling and O’Donnel were inclined
of his head. Herbie ought to have more
to think that the long, dreary season of
sense than-”
rains had brought an acute melancholy
to Herbie Tillson. They knew, well At that moment they heard some one
enough, that was the usual reaction of come into the hall. Soft footsteps, then
the Britisher to Pambia’s rains. a shuffling noise, and outside the door
One evening they said as much to Ban¬ heavy, rasping breathing. Then louder
nister. It was terribly, suffocatingly hot. footsteps past their door and the slam of
The day had been a trying one; the eve¬ Herbie’s door followed by the grate of
ning was buzzing with myriad insects. the lock.
The three men sat indoors behind the The three men sat absolutely silent.
protecting screens and smoked and talked, Then Bannister got up and went outside.
while each wondered how Herbie Tillson They heard him exclaim under his breath,
could endure the pest-ridden heat and and then he came back to the room and
stench of a jungle night. motioned for them to join him.
For Herbie had disappeared, soon after On the vine-shadowed veranda, Ban¬
dinner, hatless, shirtless, as nonchalant nister turned his flashlight downward.
30 WEIRD TALES

"Look,” he said, in a low tone, and You probably know what I mean, both
they Saw dark tracks dearly marked on of you.”
the dry boards. They were wet tracks,
Almost under his breath Vierling said
streaked with soft earth. A leaf lay near
the word, said it fearfully, unbelievingly.
the door, no doubt brought in with the
“Lycanthropy! . . . You mean to say
freshly made tracks.
it can happen? Men can change into—
O’Donnel bent over the imprints on
into animal form? Surely, Bannister,
the veranda. He straightened suddenly,
you’re wrought up; you’re just a bundle
as if struck, and as he always did in ex¬
of nerves over this thing. You can’t be¬
citement, lapsed into the phrases of his
lieve any such rot.”
religion.
"Run along!” scoffed O’Donnel. "Leave
“Mother Mary and the saints preserve
that to the natives. Perhaps a dirty M’ Bano
as! It’s—it’s leopard spoors!”
could change his black body into a beast
"They’re here—and here—and here,” —but Herbie Tillson is an Englishman,
said Bannister, still in that guarded tone.
even if he is a deuced queer one.”
‘They go from the veranda into the hall.
And VierKng had more to say. “Come
That fool Molu left this screen-door ajar
now, old fellow. Don’t be silly. You’re
tonight. And, look,” he stooped to pick
giving us a bit of Africanized Kipling,
np the leaf that lay on the floor. "This
aren’-t you?”
fa a leaf from a baobab tree. . . . The
baobab tree grows only far in the jungle, "No, I'm not,” Bannister almost
in leopard country.” snapped at him. "Mr. Kipling never
dreamed of anything as horrible as these
He motioned silently and they followed
leopard-men out in the Swabi. I’ve been
him into the hall. The flashlight showed
in this hole three years. It’s an evil place,
plainly the progress of a leopard’s padded
feet to about the middle of the hall. At
I tell you. There are leopard-men out
there in the Swabi, and the M’Banos
that point there was a blur of damp
swear that their leaders are humans turned
earth stains, and from there on to Herbie
beast by a devilish alchemy which only
Tillson’s door the board floor showed
one man in a thousand may possess.”
the print of a man’s wet and muddy
shoes—small, neatly fashioned shoes— He strode to the window and raised
Herbie Tillson’s shoes. the blind to the top. He faced the others
O’Donnel was looking very wild, in¬ seriously. "Oik there on that vine-shaded
deed, as the three went back to the room veranda we didn’t notice, but, you see—
where they had sat while Herbie went it’s the full of the moon . . . leopard
down the hall to his room. time and the only time this hideous thing
"You can’t mean that the beast ran can take place, fully, completely, so that
him right here into the middle of his the man is lost and only the beast re¬
own hall?” he stuttered, lighting a cig¬ mains. Believe me, I'm older at this West
arette. Coast game than you are. ... I know.”
"No, I don’t think anything of the "I wonder,” said Vierling, slowly. "I
sort,” replied Bannister, calmly. "After wonder just why Herbie Tillson came out
all I know of this West Coast country here.”
and all I know of the Swabi forest and "Because he couldn’t help himself,
those devilish M’Banos, what I’m think¬ Vierling. He came Out here to this hell
ing can be expressed in one word. . , , because he had to come—it was in his
 THE MAN WHO NEVER CAME BACK 31

soul.” Bannister paused a second and natives claimed, an odor of death at the
then said, softly, "He has the eyes of a full of the moon.
cat.” But the young wife of Molu had
"Cats! Leopards! You make me posi¬ laughed and had ventured to go for
tively sick,” said O’Donnel, with a wry water, because the white brilliance of the
face. moon made things light as day and she
had thought to fill her jug and return
Bannister rubbed his forehead with his
quickly. But she had not returned. The
left palm and looked all at once very
jug of trickling water lay overturned be¬
tired. "You know, I’ve had this thing
side her torn body when they found her.
on my mind, night and day, ever since
Examining the small dark body the
I saw Herbie marking the calendar at the
next morning, Bannister said to O’Don¬
date of the full moon. And—when he
nel. "As I thought. The carotid artery
turned about and looked at me that morn¬
is severed. It’s a leopard killing.”
ing, I’m sure his eyes had changed and
The whimpering Molu stood near by.
were the eyes of a leopard—not cat’s eyes,
He caught at the English words which
but leopard eyes.”
he understood, and he ceased his whim¬
"Next boat is the Astoria with Cap¬ pering. He straightened, stood tense and
tain Hines in command,” said Vierling. listening for a moment, his eyes strain¬
Vierling was a very good man at the West
ing and focussed on the damp, green jun¬
Coast Products Company. He knew his
gle across the little river. Molu raised
work. A bit stolid, perhaps, but all the one arm high and sailed his necklace of
better for that particular place and job.
leopard teeth—teeth of his enemy—as far
"All right,” Bannister said, thought¬ as it would go across the water toward
fully. "When the Astoria sails from the jungle. It was his gesture of ven¬
Pambia, Herbie Tillson will be on board.” geance. Then he turned and went back
to his work in the bungalow.
'We’ll shanghai the young fool,” said
O’Donnel, emphatically.
"Well, Herbie Tillson will be on
W hen Bannister and men went back
to their work that morning, there
board,” repeated Bannister. And later
was no Herbie perched on his high stool
Bannister was to remember those words
checking cargo-lists.
and feel a sadness over them.
"He wasn’t in to breakfast, was he?”

I F vierling and O’Donnel had been

Bannister asked the question quite me¬
chanically. They knew Herbie hadn’t been
still skeptical of Bannister’s wild sur¬
in to breakfast. They hadn’t seen him
mises, they admitted the next morning
since six o’clock of the evening before.
that something sinister was at work about
As one man, the three went down the
Pambia.
hall toward Herbie’s door and Bannister
The young wife of the house-boy, Molu, rapped. There was no response, and so
was found dead, horribly mutilated, at they opened the door and entered.
the river’s edge. Molu admitted that she The bare little room was in prim order.
had gone to the edge of the green forest On a wall hung a picture cut from a
to fetch water. She had gone there at magazine—a picture of the English royal
night, too, and ordinarily no one would family. On a table beside the bed was a
have thought of venturing near the edge book and a cheap easel photograph of a
of that noisome place, that had, so the girl. Bannister picked it up and looked
32 WEIRD TALES

at it a long time. The girl was calm-eyed, to go, they were thinking of Herbie Till¬
smooth-haired, and across the picture’s son as a little London clerk who had
base was scrawled, "Lovingly, Rosemary.” come to know the jungle too well. They
"Fancy him with a girl named Rose¬ did not think of him as a monster, a
mary,” murmured O’Donnel. "And he biological freak, a creature of horror.
never once told us about her.” They were remembering the picture of
And then O’Donnel looked at the the royal family which Herbie had put
book’s title. It was The Lays of Ancient upon his wall. They were remembering
Rome. He laid it down and shook his the girl named Rosemary, and all the de¬
head. "You must be all wrong, Bannis¬ cent things that Herbie Tillson stood for
ter. Herbie’s not—not a case for a witch¬ came to his aid in their thoughts of him.
doctor.”
But Bannister, standing beside the bed
which had not been slept in, was gazing
T hey went in darkness some of the
time, a darkness that was damply
out of Herbie’s window. The window pungent and swarming with insects, shut
faced the river and the forest and Bannis¬ in by the curtain of the forest. And part
ter seemed to be trying to see far into its of the time they cut their path through
steamy greenness. jungle ways that were fretted with moon-
A feeling of oppression lay over the fight.
three men as they tried to go on with After an hour’s going they came to the
their work that day—an oppression edge of a moonlit clearing where the lush
amounting almost to a physical weight grass was bent low. The place was still,
which bore down upon them in waves of and there lay over it a smell, as of hot
vertigo. animal bodies—the smell of the jungle.
Twenty-four hours later Herbie Till- The staring moon bla2ed down on
son had not returned, and Bannister said them in such a mad, white fury of light
after dinner, "This can’t go on. We’ll all that Bannister fleetingly and irrelevantly
be dotty in no time at all. What’s the wondered why the western world thought
matter with us, anyway? Are Ive afraid moonlight romantically lovely. There
of theSwabi, too? Let’s go—now—while was nothing lovely and nothing romantic
there is bright moonlight to help us— about this moonlight in the odorous jun¬
Jet's go and find Herbie Tillson.” gle. This moonlight did not move men
’We’ll go, of course,” they told him. to amorous thoughts; rather it chilled
And Vierling said, "Better leave a letter their marrows in the way that any insane
here—explaining where we’ve gone—in thing might do.
"Well, it’s been a long pull and we’ve
"Yes—in case,” said Bannister, grimly. seen nothing but a lot of bugs,” said Vier¬
They took rifles and sharp knives. The ling, mopping his brow under the mesh
knives would help them cut through the of protecting netting.
tangle of vegetation, and no white man "And are we to stop here for long? I
goes without a rifle in the West Coast don’t like the looks—nor the smell—of
country. this particular spot.” O’Donnel was a
They put certain drugs and lotions in bit peevish.
their kit, with food and drink. And the Bannister spoke in a low voice. "Keep
three set out across the river, under a quiet. That’s leopard smell. I know it.
brilliant moon, to look for Herbie Tillson Come, but don’t speak.”
in the Great Swabi. As they prepared (Piease turn to page 142)
W. T.—2
 By ROBERT E. HOWARD
A Solomon Kane story of Darkest Africa and nightmare beings
with slavering fangs and talons steeped in
shaddersome evH

"Holding those keen fangs at bay, Kane managed to draw his dirk and
plunge it deep into the monster’t body."

1. The Horror on the Stake

S OLOMON KANE leaned on his

strangely carved staff and gazed in were no Arab slave-raiders in this name¬
scowling perplexity at the mystery less land—it must have been a tribal war
which spread silently before him. Many that devastated the village, Kane decided,
a deserted village Kane had seen in the as he gazed somberly at the scattered
months that had passed since he turned bones and grinning skulls that littered the
his face east from the Slave Coast and lost space among the rank weeds and grasses.
himself in the mazes of jungle and river, These bones were shattered and splin¬
but never one like this. It was not famine tered and Kane saw jackals and a hyena
that had driven away the inhabitants, for furtively slinking among the ruined huts.
yonder the wild rice still grew rank and But why had the slayers left the spoils?
unkempt in the untilled fields. There There lay war spears, their shafts crum-
W. T.—3 33
34 WEIRD TALES

bling before the attacks of the white ants. of that strange dark pallor which gave
There lay shields, moldering in the rains him an almost corpse-like appearance, be¬
and sun. There lay the cooking-pots, and lied only by his cold, light eyes.
about the neck-bones of a shattered skel¬ And now Kane, sweeping the village
eton glistened a necklace of gaudily paint¬ once more with his searching gaze, pulled
ed pebbles and shells—surely rare loot for his belt into a more comfortable position,
any savage conqueror. shifted to his left hand the cat-headed
He gazed at the huts, wondering why stave N’Longa had given him, and took
the thatch roofs of so many were tom and up his way again.
rent, as if by taloned things seeking en¬ To the west lay a strip of thin forest,
trance. Then something made his cold sloping downward to a broad belt of sa¬
eyes narrow in startled unbelief. Just out¬ vannas, a waving sea of grass waist-deep
side the moldering mound that was once and deeper. Beyond that rose another
the village wall towered a gigantic bao¬ narrow strip of woodlands, deepening
bab tree, branchless for sixty feet, its rapidly into dense jungle. Out of that
mighty bole too large to be gripped and jungle Kane had fled like a hunted wolf
scaled. Yet in the topmost brandies dan¬ with pointed-toothed men hot on his trail.
gled a skeleton, apparently impaled on a Even now a vagrant breeze brought faint¬
broken limb. The cold hand of mystery ly the throb of a savage drum which whis¬
touched the shoulder of Solomon Kane. pered its obscene tale of hate and blood-
How came those pitiful remains in that hunger and belly-lust across miles of jun¬
tree? Had some monstrous ogre’s inhu¬ gle and grassland.
man hand flung them there? The memory of his flight and narrow
Kane shrugged his broad shoulders and escape was vivid in Kane's mind, for only
his hand unconsciously touched the black the day before had he realized too late that
butts of his heavy pistols, the hilt of his he was in cannibal country, and all that
long rapier, and the dirk in his belt. Kane afternoon in the reeking stench of the
felt no fear as an ordinary man would thick jungle, he had crept and run and
feel, confronted with the Unknown and hidden and doubled and twisted on his
Nameless. Years of wandering in strange track with the fierce hunters ever close be¬
lands and warring with strange creatures hind him, .until night fell and he gained
had melted away from brain, soul and and crossed the grasslands under cover of
body all that was not steel and whalebone. darkness. Now in the late morning he
He was tall and spare, almost gaunt, built had seen nothing, heard nothing of his
with the savage economy of the wolf. pursuers, yet he had no reason to believe
Broad-shouldered, long-armed, with that they had abandoned the chase. They
nerves of ice and thews of spring steel, he had been close on his heels when he took
was no less the natural killer than the bom to the savannas.
swordsman. So Kane surveyed the land in front of
The brambles and thorns of the jungle him. To the east, curving from north to
had dealt hardly with him; his garments south ran a straggling range of hills, for
hung in tatters, his featherless slouch hat the most part djy and barren, rising in
was tom and his boots of Cordovan leath¬ the south to a jagged black skyline that
er were scratched and worn. The sun had reminded Kane of the black hills of Ne-
baked his chest and limbs to a deep bronze gari. Between him and these hills stretched
but his ascetically lean face was impervi¬ a broad expanse of gently rolling country,
ous to its rays. His complexion was still thickly treed, but nowhere approaching
 WINGS IN THE NIGHT 35

(fee density of a jungle. Kane got the im¬ tossed from side to side, spattering blood
pression of a vast upland plateau, bound¬ from the stumps of ears, while a bestial,
ed by the curving hills to the east and by rattling whimper drooled from the shred¬
the savannas to the west. ded lips.
Kane set out for the hills with his long, Kane spoke to the ghastly thing and it
swinging, tireless stride. Surely some¬ screamed unbearably, writhing in incred¬
where behind him the black demons were ible contortions, while its head jerked up
stealing after him, and he had no desire and down with the jerking of mangled
to be driven to bay. A shot might send nerves, and the empty, gaping eye-sockets
them flying in sudden terror, but on the seemed striving to see from their empti¬
other hand, so low they were in die scale ness. And moaning low and brain-shat-
of humanity, it might transmit no super¬ teringly it huddled its outraged seif
natural fear to their dull brains. And not against the stake where it was bound and
even Solomon Kane, whom Sir Francis lifted its head in a grisly attitude of listen¬
Drake had called Devon's king of swords, ing, as if it expected something out of the
could win in a pitched battle with a whole skies.
tribe. "Listen,” said Kane, in the dialect of
The silent village with its burden of the river-tribes. "Do not fear me—I will
death and mystery faded out behind him. not harm you and nothing else shall harm
Utter silence reigned among these myste¬ you any more. I am going to loose you.”
rious uplands where no birds sang and Even as he spoke Kane was bitterly
only a silent macaw flitted among the aware of the emptiness of his words. But
great trees. The only sounds were Kane’s his voice had filtered dimly into die crum¬
cat-like tread, and the whisper of the bling, agony-shot brain of the black man.
drum-haunted breeze. From between splintered teeth fell words,
And then Kane caught a glimpse faltering and uncertain, mixed and min¬
among the trees that made his heart leap gled with the slavering droolings of imbe¬
with a sudden, nameless horror, and a cility. He spcke a language akin to the
few moments later he stood before Hor¬ dialects Kane had learned from friendly
ror itself, stark and grisly. In a wide river-folk on his wanderings, and Kane
clearing, on a rather bold incline stood a gathered that he had been bound to the
grim stake, and to this stake was bound a stake for a long time—many moons, he
thing that had once been a black man. whimpered in the delirium of approach¬
Kane had rowed, chained to the bench of ing death; and all this time, inhuman, evil
a Turkish galley, and he had toiled in things had worked their monstrous will
Barbary vineyards; he had battled red upon him. These things he mentioned by
Indians in the New Lands and had lan¬ name, but Kane could make nothing of it
guished in the dungeons of Spain’s Inqui¬ for he used an unfamiliar term that sound¬
sition. He knew much of the fiendish¬ ed like akaana. But these things had not
ness of man’s inhumanity, but now he bound him to the stake, for the torn wretch
shuddered and grew sick. Yet it was not slavered the name of Goru, who was a
so much the ghastliness of the mutilations, priest and who had drawn a cord too tight
horrible as they were, that shook Kane’s about his legs—and Kane wondered that
soul, but the knowledge that the wretch the memory of this small pain should lin¬
still lived. ger through the red mazes of agony that
For as he drew near, the gory head that the dying man should whimper over it.
lolled on the butchered breast lifted and And to Kane’s horror, the black spoke of
36 WEIRD TALES

his brother who had aided in the binding of of it fell across the soul of Solomon, Kane.
him, and he wept with infantile sobs, and Tenderly he lifted the red ruin that had
moisture formed in the empty sockets and once pulsed with life and youth and vital¬
made tears of blood. And he muttered of ity, and carried it to the edge of the glade,
a spear broken long ago in some dim where arranging the cold limbs as best he
hunt, and while he muttered in his deli¬ might, and shuddering once again at the
rium, Kane gently cut his bonds and eased unnamable mutilations, he piled stones
his broken body to the grass. But even at above it till even a prowling jackal would
the Englishman’s careful touch, the poor find it hard to get at the flesh below.
wretch writhed and howled like a dying And he had scarcely finished when
dog, while blood started anew from a something jerked him back out of his
score of ghastly gashes, which, Kane somber broodings to a realization of his
noted, were more like the wounds made own position. A slight sound—or his own
by fang and talon than by knife or spear. wolf-like instinct—made him whirl. On
But at last it was done and the bloody, the other side of the glade he caught a
tom thing lay on the soft grass with movement among the tall grasses—the
Kane’s old slouch hat beneath its death’s- glimpse of a hideous black face, with an
head, breathing in great, rattling gasps. ivory ring in the flat nose, thick lips parted
Kane poured water from his canteen be¬ to reveal teeth whose filed points were ap¬
tween the mangled lips, and bending parent even at that distance, beady eyes
close, said: "Tell me more of these dev¬ and a low slanting forehead topped by a
ils, for by the God of my people, this deed mop of frizzly hair. Even as the face faded
shall not go unavenged, though Satan him¬ from view Kane leaped back into the shel¬
self bar my way.” ter of the ring of trees which circled the
It is doubtful if the dying man heard. glade, and ran like a deer-hound, flitting
But he heard something else. The macaw, from tree to tree and expecting each mo¬
with the curiosity of its breed, swept from ment to hear the exultant clamor of the
a near-by grove and passed so dose its braves and to see them break cover at his
great wings fanned Kane’s hair. And at back.
the sound of those wings, the butchered But soon he decided that they were con¬
black man heaved upright and screamed tent to hunt him down as certain beasts
in a voice that haunted Kane’s dreams to track their prey, slowly and inevitably. He
the day of his death: "The wings! The hastened through the upland forest, tak¬
wings! They come again! Ahhhb, mercy, ing advantage of every bit of cover, and he
the wings!” saw no more of his pursuers; yet he knew,
And the blood burst in a torrent from as a hunted wolf knows, that they hovered
his lips and so he died. close behind him, waiting their moment
to strike him down without risk to their
K ane rose and wiped the cold sweat own hides. Kane smiled bleakly and with¬
out mirth. If it was to be a test of endur¬
. from his forehead. The upland for¬
est shimmered in the noonday heat. Si¬ ance, he would see how savage thews com¬
lence lay over the land like an enchant¬ pared with his own spring-steel resilience.
ment of dreams. Kane’s brooding eyes Let night come and he might yet give
ranged to the black, malevolent hills them the slip. If not—Kane knew in his
crouching in the distance and back to the heart that the savage essence of the Anglo-
far-away savannas. An ancient curse lay Saxon which chafed at his flight, would
over that mysterious land and the shadow make him soon turn at bay, though his
 WINGS IN THE NIGHT 37,
pursuers outnumbered him a hundred to the stars on the weapon, felt his assailant
one. duck into close quarters and meet him
The sun sank westward. Kane was chest to chest. Lean wiry arms locked
hungry, for he had not eaten since early about him, pointed teeth gnashed at him
morning when he wolfed down the last of as Kane returned the fierce grapple. His
his dried meat. An occasional spring had tattered shirt ripped beneath a jagged
given him water, and once he thought he edge, and by blind chance Kane found
glimpsed the roof of a large hut far away and pinioned the hand that held the iron
through the trees. But he gave it a wide knife, and drew his own dirk, flesh crawl¬
berth. It was hard to believe that this si¬ ing in anticipation of a spear in the back.
lent plateau was inhabited, but if it were, But even as the Englishman wondered
the natives were doubtless as ferocious as why the others did not come to their com¬
those hunting him. Ahead of him the rade’s aid, he threw all of his iron muscles
land grew rougher, with broken boulders into the single combat. Close-clinched they
and steep slopes as he neared the lower swayed and writhed in the darkness, each
reaches of the brooding hills. And still no striving to drive his blade into the other’s
sight of his hunters except for faint flesh, and as the superior strength of the
glimpses caught by wary backward white man began to assert itself, the can¬
glances—a drifting shadow, the bending nibal howled like a rabid dog, tore and
of the grass, the sudden straightening of bit. A convulsive spin-wheel of effort
a trodden twig, a rustle of leaves. Why pivoted them out into the starlit glade
should they be so cautious? Why did they where Kane saw the ivory nose-ring and
not close in and have it over? the pointed teeth that snapped beast-like
Night fell and Kane reached the first at his throat. And simultaneously he
long slopes which led upward to the foot forced back and down the hand that
of the hills which now brooded black gripped his knife-wrist, and drove the
and menacing above him. They were his dirk deep into the black ribs. The war¬
goal, where he hoped to shake off his per¬ rior screamed and the raw acrid scent of
sistent foes at last, yet a nameless aversion blood flooded the night air. And in that
warned him away from them. They were instant Kane was stunned by a sudden sav¬
pregnant with hidden evil, repellent as age rush and beat of mighty wings that
the coil of a great sleeping serpent, dashed him to earth, and the black man
glimpsed in the tall grass. was tom from his grip and vanished with
a scream of mortal agony. Kane leaped to
D arkness fell heavily. The stars his feet, shaken to his foundation. The
winked redly in the thick heat of the dwindling scream of the wretched black
tropic night. And Kane, halting for a mo¬ sounded faintly and from above him.
ment in an unusually dense grove, beyond Straining his eyes into the skies he
which the trees thinned out on the slopes, thought he caught a glimpse of a shapeless
heard a stealthy movement that was not and horrific Thing crossing the dim stars
the night wind—for no breath of air —in which the writhing limbs of a human
stirred the heavy leaves. And even as he mingled namelessly with great wings and
turned, there was a rush in the dark, un¬ a shadowy shape—but so quickly it was
der the trees. A shadow that merged with gone, he could not be sure.
the shadows flung itself on Kane with a And now he wondered if it were not
bestial mouthing and a rattle of iron, and all a nightmare. But groping in the grove
the Englishman, parrying by the gleam of he found the ju-ju stave with which he
38 WEIRD TALES
had parried the short stabbing spear which reaching for a weapon was his natural re¬
lay beside it And here, if more proof action upon waking suddenly. And his
was needed, was his long dirk, still stained dream was that a strange, shadowy thing
with blood. had perched upon a great branch dose by
Wings! Wings in die night! The skele¬ and gazed at him with greedy, luminous
ton in the yillage of tom roofs—the muti¬ yellow eyes that seared into his brain. The
lated black man whose wounds were not dream-thing was tall and lean and strange¬
made with knife or spear and who died ly misshapen, so blended with the shad¬
shrieking of wings. Surely those hills were ows that it seemed a shadow itself, tangi¬
the haunt of gigantic birds who made hu¬ ble only in the narrow yellow eyes. And
manity their prey. Yet if birds, why had Kane dreamed he waited, spdlbcuad,
they not wholly devoured the black man while uncertainty came into those eyes and
on the stake? And Kane knew in his heart then the creature walked out on the limb
that no true bird ever cast such a shadow as a man would walk, raised great shad¬
as he had seen flit across the stars. owy wings, sprang into space and van¬
He shrugged his shoulders, bewildered. ished. Then Kane jerked upright, the
The night was silent Where were the mists of sleep fading.
rest of the cannibals who had followed In the dim starlight, under the arching
him from their distant jungle? Had the Gothic-like branches, the tree was empty
fate of their comrade frightened them into save for himself. Then it bad been a
flight? Kane looked to his pistols. Canni¬ dream, after all—yet it bad been so vivid,
bals or no, he went not up into those dark so fraught with inhuman foulness—even
hills that night. now a faint scent like that exuded by birds
Now he must sleep, if all the devils of of prey seemed to linger in the air. Kane
the Elder World were on his track. A deep strained his ears. He heard the sighing of
roaring to the westward warned him that the night-wind, the whisper of the leaves,
beasts of prey were a-roam, and he walked the far-away roaring of a lion, but naught
rapidly down the rolling slopes until he else. Again Solomon slept—while high
came to a dense grove some distance from above him a shadow wheeled against the
that ia which he had fought the canni¬ stars, circling again and again as a vulture
bal. He climbed high among the great circles a dying wolf.
branches until he found a thick crotch that
2. The Battle in the Sky
would accommodate even his tall frame.
The branches above would guard him
from a sudden swoop of any winged thing,
D awn was spreading whitely over the
eastern hills when Kane woke. The
and if savages were lurking near, their thought of his nightmare came to him and
clamber into the tree would warn him, he wondered again at its vividness as he
for he slept lightly as a cat. As for ser¬ climbed down out of the tree. A near-by
pents and leopards, they were chances he spring slaked his thirst and some fruit,
had taken a thousand times. tare in these highlands, eased his hunger.
Solomon Kane slept and his dreams Then he turned his face again to the
were vague, chaotic, haunted with a sug¬ hills. A finish fighter was Solomon Kane.
gestion of pre-human evil and which at Along that grim skyline dwelt some eyil
last merged into a vision vivid as a scene foe to the sons of men, and that mere fact
in waking life. Solomon dreamed he woke was as much a challenge to the Puritan as
with a start, drawing a pistol—for so long had ever been a glove thrown in his face
had his life been that of the wolf, that by some hot-headed gallant of Devon.
 WINGS IN THE NIGHT 39
Refreshed by his night’s sleep, he set flecked with foam, disclosed wolfish
out with his long easy stride, passing the fangs.
grove that had witnessed the battle in the The creature, which was naked and
night, and coming into the region where hairless, was not unlike a human being in
the trees thinned at the foot of the slopes. other ways. The shoulders were broad
Up these slopes he went, halting for a mo¬ and powerful, the neck long and lean. The
ment to gaze back over the way he had arms were long and muscular, the thumb
come. Now that he was above the plateau, being set beside the fingers after the man¬
he could easily make out a village in the ner of the great apes. Fingers and thumbs
distance—a cluster of mud-and-bamboo were armed with heavy hooked talons. The
huts with one unusually large hut a short chest was curiously misshapen, the breast¬
distance from the rest on a sort of low bone jutting out like the keel of a ship,
knoll. the ribs curving back from it. The legs
And while he gazed, with a sudden rush were long and wiry with huge, hand-like,
of grisly wings the terror was upon him! prehensile feet, the great toe set opposite
Kane whirled, galvanized. All signs had the rest like a man’s thumb. The claws on
pointed to the theory of a winged thing the toes were merely long nails.
that hunted by night. He had not expected But the most curious feature of this cu¬
attack in broad daylight—but here a bat¬ rious creature was on its back. A pair of
like monster was swooping at him out of great wings, shaped much like the wings
the very eye of the rising sun. Kane saw of a moth but with a bony frame and of
a spread of mighty wings, from which leathery substance, grew from its shoul¬
glared a horribly human face; then he ders, beginning at a point just back and
drew and fired with unerring aim and the above where the arms joined the shoul¬
monster veered wildly in midair and came ders, and extending half-way to the nar¬
whirling and tumbling out of the sky to row hips. These wings, Kane reckoned,
crash at his feet. would measure some eighteen feet from
tip to tip.
Kane leaned forward, pistol smoking in He laid hold on the creature, involun¬
his hand, and gazed wide-eyed. Surely tarily shuddering at the slick, hard leather¬
this thing was a demon out of the black like feel of the skin, and half lifted it.
pits of hell, said the somber mind of the The weight was little more than half as
Puritan; yet a leaden ball had slain it. much as it would have been in a man the
Kane shrugged his shoulders, baffled; he same height—some six and a half feet.
had never seen aught to approach this, Evidently the bones were of a peculiar
though all his life had fallen in strange bird-like structure and the flesh consisted
ways. almost entirely of stringy muscles.
The thing was like a man, inhumanly Kane stepped back, surveying the thing
tall and inhumanly thin; the head was again. Then his dream had been no dream
long, narrow and hairless—the head of a after all—that foul thing or another like
predatory creature. The ears were small, it had in grisly reality lighted in the tree
close-set and queerly pointed. The eyes, beside him—a whir of mighty wings! A
set in death, were narrow, oblique and of sudden rush through the sky! Even as
a strange yellowish color. The nose was Kane whirled he realized he had commit¬
thin and hooked, like the beak of a bird of ted the jungle-farer’s unpardonable crime
prey, the mouth a wide cruel gash, whose —he had allowed his astonishment and
thin lips, writhed in a death snarl and curiosity to throw him off guard. Already
49 WEIRD TALES
a winged fiend was at his throat and there man barely supported their weight. They
was no time to draw and fire his other were sinking earthward swiftly, but Kane,
pistol. Kane saw, in a maze of thrashing Winded with Wood and battle-fury, knew
wings, a devilish, semi-human face—he nothing of this. With a great piece of his
felt those wings battering at him—he felt scalp hanging loose, his chest and shoul¬
cruel talons sink deep into his breast; then ders cut and ripped, the world bad become
he was dragged off his feet and felt empty a blind, red thing in which he was aware
space beneath him. of but one sensation—the bulldog urge to
The winged man had wrapped his limbs kill his foe. Now the feeble and spas¬
about the Englishman’s legs, and the tal¬ modic beating of the dying monster s
ons he had driven into Kane’s breast mus¬ wings held them hovering for an instant
cles held like fanged vises. The wolf-like above a thick grove of gigantic trees, while
fangs drove at Kane’s throat but the Puri¬ Kane felt the grip of claws and twining
tan gripped the bony throat and thrust limbs grow weaker and the slashing of the
back the grisly head, while with his right talons become a futile Sailing.
hand he strove to draw his dirk. The bird- With a last burst of power he drove the
man was mounting slowly and a fleeting reddened dirk straight through the breast¬
glance showed Kane that they were al¬ bone and felt a convulsive tremor run
ready high above the trees. The English¬ through the creature’s frame. The great
man did not hope to survive this battle in wings fell limp—and victor and van¬
the sky, for even if he slew his foe, he quished dropped headlong and plummet¬
would be dashed to death in the fall. But like earthward.
with the innate ferocity of die fighting Through a red wave Kane saw the wav¬
Anglo-Saxon he set himself grimly to take ing branches rushing up to meet them—
his captor with him. he felt them flail his face and tear at his
Holding those keen fangs at bay, Kane clothing, as still locked in that death-
managed to draw bis dirk and he plunged clinch he rushed downward through
it deep into the body of the monster. The leaves which eluded his vainly grasping
bat-man veered wildly and a rasping, rau¬ hand; then his head crashed against a
cous screech burst from his half-throttled great limb and an endless abyss of bladk-
throat. He floundered wildly, beating ness engulfed him.
frantically with bis great wings, bowing
his back and twisting his head fiercely in 3. The People in the Shadow
a vain effort to free it and sink home his
deadly fangs. He sank the talons of one T hrough colossal, black basaltic corri¬
dors of night, Solomon Kane fled for
hand agonizingly deeper and deeper into
Kane’s breast muscles, while with the a thousand years. Gigantic winged de¬
other he tore at his foe’s head and body. mons, horrific in the utter darkness, swept
But the Englishman, gashed and bleeding, over him with a rush of great bat-like pin¬
with the silent and tenacious savagery of a ions and in the blackness he fought with
bulldog sank his fingers deeper into the them as a cornered rat fights a vampire-
lean neck and drove his dirk home again bat, while fleshless jaws drooled fearful
and again, while far below awed eyes blasphemies and horrid secrets in his ears,
watched the fiendish battle that was rag¬ and the skulls of men rolled under his
ing at that dizzy height. groping feet
They had drifted out over the plateau, Solomon Kane came back suddenly
and the fast-weakening wings of the bat¬ from the land of delirium and his first 1
 WINGS IN THE NIGHT 41
sight of sanity was that of a fat, kindly asked questions which she answered shy¬
blade face bending over him. Kane saw he ly but intelligently. This was Bogonda,
was in a roomy, clean and well-ventilated ruled by Kuroba the chief and Goru the
hut, while from a. cooking-pot bubbling priest. None in Bogonda had ever seen
outside wafted savory scents. Kane real¬ or heard of a white man before. She
ized he was ravenously hungry. And he counted die days Kane had lain helpless,
was strangely weak, and the hand he and he was amazed. But such a battle as
lifted to his bandaged head shook and its he had been through was enough to kill
bronze was dimmed. an ordinary man. He wondered that no
The fat man and another, a tall, gaunt, bones had been broken, but the girl said
grim-faced warrior, bent over him, and the branches had broken his fall and he
the fat man said: "He is awake, Kuroba, had landed on the body of the akaana.
and of sound mind.” The gaunt man nod¬ He asked for Goru, and die fat priest came
ded and called something which was an¬ to him, bringing Kane's weapons.
swered from without. "Some we found with you where you
"What is this place?” asked Kane, in a lay,” said Goru, "some by the body of the
language he had learned, akin to the dia¬ akaana you slew with the weapon which
lect the black had used. “How long have speaks in fire and smoke. You must be a
I lain here?” god—yet the gods bleed not and you have
"This is the last village of Bogonda.” j ust all but died. Who are you?”
The fat black pressed him back with hands "I am no god,” Kane answered, "but
gentle as a woman’s. "We found you a man like yourself, albeit my skin be
lying beneath the trees on the slopes, bad¬ white. I come from a far land amid the
ly wounded and senseless. You have sea, which land, mind ye, is the fairest
raved in delirium for many days. Now and noblest of all lands. My name is
eat.” Solomon Kane and I am a landless wan¬
A lithe young warrior entered with a derer. From the lips of a dying man I
wooden bowl full of steaming food and first heard your name. Yet your face
Kane ate ravenously. seemeth kindly.”
"He is like a leopard, Kuroba,” said A shadow crossed the eyes of the sha¬
the fat man admiringly. "Not one in a man and he hung his head.
thousand would have lived with his "Rest and grow strong, oh man, or god
wounds.” or whatever you be,” said he, "and in time
"Aye,” returned the other. “And he you will learn of the ancient curse that
slew the akaana that rent him, Goru.” rests upon this ancient land.”
Kane struggled to his elbows. "Goru?” And in the days that followed, while
he cried fiercely. "The priest who binds Kane recovered and grew strong with the
men to stakes for devils to eat?” wild beast vitality that was his, Goru and
And he strove to rise so that he could Kuroba sat and spoke to him at length,
strangle the fat man, but his weakness telling him many curious things.
swept over him like a wave, the hut swam Their tribe was not aboriginal here, but
dizzily to his eyes and he sank back pant¬ had come upon the plateau a hundred and
ing, where he soon fell into a sound, nat¬ fifty years before, giving it the name of
ural sleep. their former home. They had once been
Later he awoke and found a slim young a powerful tribe in Old Bogonda, on a
girl, named Nayela, watching him. She great river far to the south. But tribal
fed him, and feeling much stronger, Kane wars broke their power, and at last before
42 WEIRD TALES

a concerted uprising, the whole tribe gave the village street and a whisper of ogreish
way, and Goru repeated legends of that laughter from high above froze the horri¬
great flight of a thousand miles through fied onlookers. Then a little later the full
jungle and swampland harried at every horror of their position burst upon the
step by cruel foes. Bogondi.
At last, hacking their way through a At first the winged men were afraid of
country of ferocious cannibals, they found the black people. They hid themselves
themselves safe from man’s attack—but and ventured from their caverns only at
prisoners in a trap from which neither night. Then they grew bolder. In the full
they nor their descendants could ever es¬ daylight, a warrior shot one with an ar¬
cape. They were in the horror-country of row, but the fiends had learned they could
Akaana, and Goru said his ancestors came slay a human and its death scream brought
to understand the jeering laughter of the a score of the devils dropping from the
man-eaters who had hounded them to the skies, who tore the slayer to pieces in full
very borders of the plateau. sight of the tribe.
The Bogondi found a fertile country The Bogondi then prepared to leave that
with good water and plenty of game. devil’s country and a hundred warriors
There were numbers of goats and a spe¬ went up into the hills to find a pass. They
cies of wild pig that throve here in great found steep walls, up which a man must
abundance. At first the black people ate climb laboriously, and they found the cliffs
these pigs, but later they spared them for honeycombed with caves where the
a very good reason. The grasslands be¬ winged men dwelt.
tween plateau and jungle swarmed with Then was fought the first pitched bat¬
antelopes, buffaloes and the like, and there tle between men and bat-men and it re¬
were many lions. Lions also roamed the sulted in a crushing victory for the mon¬
plateau, but Bogonda meant "Lion-slay¬ sters. The bows and spears of the black
er” in their tongue and it was not many people proved futile before the swoops of
moons before the remnants of the great the taloned fiends, and of all that hundred
cats took to the lower levels. But it was that went up into the hills, not one sur¬
not lions they had to fear, as Goru’s an¬ vived; for the akaanas hunted down those
cestors soon learned. that fled and dragged down the last one
Finding that the cannibals would not within bowshot of the upper village.
come past the savannas, they rested from Then it was that the Bogondi, seeing
their long trek and built two villages— they could not hope to win through the
Upper and Lower Bogonda. Kane was in hills, sought to fight their way out again
Upper Bogonda; he had seen the ruins of the way they had come. But a great horde
the lower village. But soon they found of cannibals met them in the grasslands
that they had strayed into a country of and in a great battle that lasted nearly all
nightmares with dripping fangs and tal¬ day, hurled them back, broken and de¬
ons. They heard the beat of mighty wings feated. And Goru said while the battle
at night, and saw horrific shadows cross raged, the skies were thronged with hid¬
the stars and loom against the moon. eous shapes, circling above and laughing
Children began to disappear and at last a their fearful mirth to see men die whole¬
young hunter strayed off into the hills, sale.
where night overtook him. And in the So the survivors of those two battles,
gray light of dawn a mangled, half- licking their wounds, bowed to the inevi¬
devoured corpse fell from the skies into table with the fatalistic philosophy of the *
 WINGS IN THE NIGHT 43
black man. Some fifteen hundred mm, Bogondi learned not to resist their mas¬
women and children remained, and they ters, the akaanas were content to snatch up
built their huts, tilled the soil and lived a baby from time to time, or-devour a
stolidly in the shadow of the nightmans. young girl strayed from the village or a
In those days there were many of the youth whom night caught outside the
bird-people, and they might have wiped walls. The bat-folk distrusted the village;
out the Bogondi utterly, had they wished. they circled high above it but did not ven¬
No one warrior could cope with an akaa- ture within. There the Bogondi were safe
na, for he was stronger than a human, he until late years.
strode as a hawk strikes, and if he missed, Goru said that the akaanas were fast
his wings carried him out of reach of a dying out; once there had been hope that
counter-blow. Here Kane interrupted to the remnants of his race would outlast
ask why the blacks did not make war on them—in which event, he said fatalistic¬
the demons with arrows. But Goru an¬ ally, the cannibals would undoubtedly
swered that it took a quick and accurate come up from the jungle and put the sur¬
archer to strike an akaana in midair at all vivors in the cooking-pots. Now he doubt¬
and so tough were their hides that unless ed if there were more than a hundred and
the arrow struck squarely it would not fifty akaanas altogether. Kane asked him
penetrate. Kane knew that the blacks were why did not the warriors then sally forth
very indifferent bowmen and that they on a great hunt and destroy the devils ut¬
pointed their shafts with dripped stone, terly, and Goru smiled a bitter smile and
bone or hammered iron almost as soft as repeated his remarks about the prowess of
copper; he thought of Poitiers and Agin- the bat-people in battle. Moreover, said
epurt and wished grimly for a file of stout he, the whole tribe of Bogonda numbered
English archers—or a rank of musketeers. only about four hundred souls now, and
But Goru said the akaanas did not seem the bat-people were their only protection
to wish to destroy the Bogondi utterly. against the cannibals to the west.
Their chief food consisted of the little Goru said the tribe had thinned more in
pigs which then swarmed the plateau, and the past thirty years than in all the years
young goats. Sometimes they went out on previous. As the numbers of the akaanas
the savannas for antelope, but they dis¬ dwindled, their hellish savagery increased.
trusted the open country and feared the They seized more and more of the Bo¬
lions. Nor did they haunt the jungles be¬ gondi to torture and devour in their grim
yond, for the trees grew too dose for the black caves high up in the hills, and Goru
spread of their wings. They kept to the spoke of sudden raids on hunting-parties
hills and the plateau—and what lay be¬ and toilers in the plantain fields and
yond those hills none in Bogonda knew. of the nights made ghastly by horrible
the akaanas allowed the blade folk to screams and gibberings from the dark
inhabit the plateau much as men allow hills, and blood-freezing laughter that was
wild animals to thrive, or stock lakes with half human; of dismembered limbs and
fish—for their own pleasure. The bat- gory grinning heads flung from the skies
people, said Goru, had a strange and grisly to fall in the shuddering village, and of
sense of humor which was tickled by the grisly feasts among the stats.
sufferings of a howling human. Those Then came drouth, Goru said, and a
grim hills had echoed to cries that turned great famine. Many of the springs dried
men’s hearts to ice. up and the crops of rice and yams and
But for many years, Goru said, once the plantains failed. The gnus, deer and buf-
44 WEIRD TALES

faloes which had formed the main part of dared to steal down to the accursed village,
Bogonda’s meat diet withdrew to the jun¬ and what they found there sent them
gle in quest of water, and the lions, their shrieking away; and to' that day, Goru
hunger overcoming their fear of man, said, no man passed within three bow¬
ranged into the uplands. Many of the shots of that silent horror. And Kane
tribe died and the rest were driven by hun¬ nodded in understanding, his cold eyes
ger to eat the pigs which were the natural more somber than ever.
prey of the bat-people. This angered the
akaanas and thinned the pigs. Famine,
Bogondi and the lions destroyed all the
F or many days after that, Goru said,
the people waited in quaking fear,
goats and half the pigs. and finally in desperation of fear, which
At last the famine was past, but the breeds unspeakable cruelty, the tribe cast
damage was done. Of all the great droves lots and the loser was bound to a stake
which once swarmed the plateau, only a between the two villages, in hopes the
remnant was left and these were wary and akaanas would recognize this as a token
hard to catch. The Bogondi had eaten the of submission so that the people of Bo¬
pigs, so the akaanas ate the Bogondi. Life gonda might escape the fate of their kins¬
became a hell for the black people, and men. This custom, said Goru, had been
the lower village, numbering now only borrowed from the cannibals who in old
some hundred and fifty souls, rose in re¬ times worshipped the akaanas and offered
volt. Driven to frenzy by repeated out¬ a human sacrifice at each moon. But
rages, they turned on their masters. An chance had shown them that the akaana
akaana lighting in the very streets to steal could be killed, so they ceased to worship
a child was set on and shot to death with him—at least that was Goru’s deduction,
arrows. And the people of Lower Bogon- and he explained at much length that no
da drew into their huts and waited for mortal thing is worthy of real adoration,
their doom. however evil or powerful it may be.
And in the night, said Goru, it came. His own ancestors had made occasional
The akaanas had overcome their distrust sacrifices to placate the winged devils, but
of the huts. The full flock of them until lately it had not been a regular cus¬
swarmed down from the hills, and Upper tom. Now it was necessary; the akaanas
Bogonda awoke to hear the fearful cata¬ expected it, and each moon they chose
clysm of screams and blasphemies that from their waning numbers a strong
marked the end of the other village. All young man or a girl whom they bound to
night Goru’s people had lain sweating in the stake. Kane watched Goru’s face
terror, not daring to move, harkening to closely as he spoke of his sorrow for this
the howling and gibbering that rent the unspeakable necessity, and the English¬
night; at last these sounds ceased, Goru man realized the priest was sincere. Kane
said, wiping the cold sweat from his shuddered at the thought of a tribe of hu¬
brow, but sounds of grisly and obscene man beings thus passing slowly but surely
feasting still haunted the night with de¬ into the maws of a race of monsters.
mon’s mockery. Kane spoke of the wretch he had seen,
In the early dawn Goru’s people saw and Goru nodded, pain in his soft eyes.
the hell-flock winging back to their hills, For a day and a night he had been hang¬
like demons flying back to hell through the ing there, while the akaanas glutted their
dawn, and they flew slowly and heavily, vile torture-lust on his quivering, agon¬
like gorged vultures. Later the people ized flesh. Thus far the sacrifices had kept
 WINGS IN THE NIGHT 45
doom from the village. The remaining they had a language of a sort and ac¬
pigs furnished sustenance for the dwin¬ knowledged a king among them. Many
dling akaanas, together with an occasional died in the great famine when the strong¬
baby snatched up, and they were content er ate the weaker. They were vanishing
to have their nameless sport with the sin¬ swiftly; of late years no females or young
gle victim each moon. had been observed among them. When
A thought came to Kane. these males died at last, there would be no
"The cannibals never come up into the more akaanas; but Bogonda, observed
plateau?” Goru, was doomed already, unless—he
Goru shook his head; safe in their jun¬ looked strangely and wistfully at Kane,
gle, they never raided past the savannas. But the Puritan was deep in thought.
"But they hunted me to the very foot Among the swarm of native legends he
of the hills.” had heard on his wanderings, one now
Again Goru shook his head. There was stood out. Long, long ago, an old, old
only one cannibal; they had found his ju-ju man had told him, winged devils
footprints. Evidently a single warrior, came flying out of the north and passed
bolder than the rest, had allowed his pas¬ over his country, vanishing in the maze of
sion for the chase to overcome his fear of the jungle-haunted south. And the ju-ju
the grisly plateau and had paid the pen¬ man related an old, old legend concerning
alty. Kane’s teeth came together with a these creatures—that once they had abode
vicious snap which ordinarily took the in myriad numbers far on a great lake of
place of profanity with him. He was bitter water many moons to the north,
stung by the thought of fleeing so long and ages and ages ago a chieftain and his
from a single enemy. No wonder that warriors fought them with bows and ar¬
enemy had followed so cautiously, waiting rows and slew many, driving the rest into
until dark to attack. But, asked Kane, why the south. The name of the chief was
had the akaana seized the black man in¬ N’Yasunna and he owned a great war ca¬
stead of himself—and why had he not noe with many oars driving it swiftly
been attacked by the bat-man who alight¬ through the bitter water.
ed in his tree that night? And now a cold wind blew suddenly
The cannibal was bleeding, Goru an¬ on Solomon Kane, as if from a Door
swered; the scent called the bat-fiend to opened suddenly on Outer gulfs of Time
attack, for they scented raw blood as far and Space. For now he realized the truth
as vultures. And they were very wary. of that garbled myth, and the truth of an
They had never seen a man like Kane, older, grimmer legend. For what was the
who showed no fear. Surely they had de¬ great bitter lake but the Mediterranean
cided to spy on him, take him off guard Ocean and who was the chief N’Yasunna
before they struck. but the hero Jason, who conquered the
Who were these creatures? Kane asked. harpies and drove them—not alone into
Goru shrugged his shoulders. They were the Strophades Isles but into Africa as
there when his ancestors came, who had well? The old pagan tale was true then,
never heard of them before they saw Kane thought dizzily, shrinking aghast
them. There was no intercourse with the from the strange realm of grisly possibili¬
cannibals, so they could learn nothing ties this opened up. For if this myth of
from them. The akaanas lived in caves, the harpies were a reality, what of the
naked like beasts; they knew nothing of other legends—the Hydra, the centaurs,
fire and ate only fresh raw meat. But the chimera, Medusa, Pan and the satyrs?
46 WEIRD TALES

All those myths of antiquity—behind "Yet will I stay here in Bogonda all
them did there lie and lurk nightmare re¬ the rest of my life if ye think I be protec¬
alities with slavering fangs and talons tion to the people."
steeped in shuddersome evil? Africa, the So Solomon Kane stayed at the village
Dark Continent, land of shadows and hor¬ of. Bogonda of the Shadow. The people
ror, of bewitchment and sorcery, into were a kindly folk, whose natural spright¬
which all evil things had been banished liness and fun-loving spirits were subdued
before the growing light of the western and saddened by long dwelling in (he
world! Shadow. But now they had taken new
Kane came out of his reveries with a heart by the white man’s coming and it
start. Goru was tugging gently and tim¬ wrenched Kane’s heart to note the pathetic
idly at his sleeve. trust they placed in him. Now they sang
"Save us from the akaanas!” said Goru. in the plantain fields and danced about the
"If you be not a god, there is the power fires, and gazed at him with adoring faith
of a god in you! You bear in your hand in their eyes. But Kane, cursing his own
the mighty ju-ju stave which has in times helplessness, knew how futile would be
gone by been the scepter of fallen em¬ his fancied protection if the winged
pires and the staff of mighty priests. And fiends swept suddenly out of the skies.
you have weapons which speak death in
fire and smoke—for our young men But he stayed in Bogonda. In his
watched and saw you slay two akaanas. dreams the gulls wheeled above the cliffs
We will make you king—god—what you of old Devon carved in the clean, blue,
will! More than a moon has passed since wind-whipped skies, and in the day the
you came into Bogonda and the time for call of the unknown lands beyond Bogon¬
the sacrifice is gone by, but the bloody da clawed at his heart with fierce yearn¬
stake stands bare. The akaanas shun the ing. But he abode in Bogonda and
village where you lie; they steal no more racked his brains for a plan. He sat and
babes from us. We have thrown off their gazed for hours at the ju-ju stave, hoping
yoke because our trust is in you!" in desperation that black magic would aid
Kane clasped his temples with his him, where the white man’s mind failed.
hands. "You know not what you ask!" But N’Longa’s ancient gift gave him no
he cried. "God knoweth it is in my deep¬ aid. Once he had summoned the Slave
est heart to rid the land of this evil, but Coast shaman to him across leagues of in¬
I am no god. With my pistols I can slay tervening space—but it was only when
a few of the fiends, but I have but a little confronted with supernatural manifesta¬
powder left. Had I great store of powder tions that N’Longa could come to him,
and ball, and the musket I shattered in and these harpies were not supernatural.
die vampire-haunted Hills of the Dead, The germ of an idea began to grow at
then indeed would there be a rare hunt¬ the back of Kane’s mind, but he discarded
ing. But even if I slew all these fiends, it. It had to do with a great trap—and
what of the cannibals?” how could the akaanas be trapped? The
"They too will fear you!” cried old Ku- roaring of lions played a grirn accompani¬
roba, while the girl Nayela and the lad, ment to his brooding meditations. As man
Loga, who was to have been the next dwindled on the plateau, the hunting
sacrifice, gazed at him with their souls in beasts who feared only the spears of the
their eyes. Kane dropped his chin on his hunters were beginning to gather. Kane
fist and sighed. laughed bitterly. It was not lions, that
 WINGS IN THE NIGHT 47

might be hunted down and slain singly, woke from his trance of horror, drew and
that he had to deal with. fired at a darting flame-eyed shadow which
At some little distance from the village fell at his feet with a shattered skull. And
stood the great hut of Goru, once a coun¬ Kane gave tongue to one deep, fierce roar
cil hall. This hut was full of many strange and bounded into the melee, all the ber¬
fetishes, which Goru said with a helpless serk fury of his heathen Saxon ancestors
wave of his fat hands, were strong magic bursting into terrible being.
against evil spirits but scant protection Dazed and bewildered by the sudden
against winged hellions of gristle and attack, cowed by long years of submission,
bone and flesh. the Bogondi were incapable of combined
resistance and for the most part died like
4. The Madness of Solomon
sheep. Some, maddened by desperation,
Kane woke suddenly from a dreamless fought back, but their arrows went wild
• sleep. A hideous medley of screams or glanced from the tough wings while
burst horrific in his ears. Outside his hut, the devilish agility of the creatures made
people were dying in the night, horribly, spear-thrust and ax-stroke uncertain. Leap¬
as cattle die in the shambles. He had slept, ing from the ground they avoided the
as always, with his weapons buckled on blows of their victims and sweeping down
him. Now he bounded to the door, and upon their shoulders dashed them to
something fell mouthing and slavering at earth, where fang and talon did their
his feet to grasp his knees in a convulsive crimson work.
grip and gibber incoherent pleas. In the Kane saw old Kuroba, gaunt and blood¬
faint light of a smoldering fire near by, stained, at bay against a hut wall with his
Kane in horror recognized the face of the foot on the neck of a monster who had
youth Loga, now frightfully tom and not been quick enough. The grim-faced
drenched in blood, already freezing into old chief wielded a two-handed ax in
a death mask. The night was full of fear¬ great sweeping blows that for the moment
ful sounds, inhuman howlings mingled held back the screeching onset of half a
with the whisper of mighty wings, the dozen of the devils. Kane was leaping to
tearing of thatch and a ghastly demon¬ his aid when a low, pitiful whimper
laughter. Kane freed himself from the checked him. The girl Nayela writhed
locked dead arms and sprang to the dying weakly, prone in the bloody dust, while
fire. He could make out only a confused on her back a vulture-like thing crouched
and vague maze of fleeing forms, and and tore. Her dulling eyes sought the
darting shapes, the shift and blur of dark face of the Englishman in anguished ap¬
wings against the stars. peal. Kane ripped out a bitter oath and
He snatched up a brand and thrust it fired point-blank. The winged devil
against the thatch of his hut—and as the pitched backward with an abhorrent
flame leaped up and showed him the screeching and a wild flutter of dying
scene he stood frozen and aghast. Red, wings and Kane bent to the dying girl,
howling doom had fallen on Bogon- who whimpered and kissed his hands
da. Winged monsters raced screaming with uncertain lips as he cradled her head
through her streets, wheeled above the in his arms. Her eyes set.
heads of the fleeing people, or tore apart Kane laid the body gently down, look¬
the hut thatches to get at the gibbering ing for Kuroba. He saw only a huddled
victims within. cluster of grisly shapes that sucked and
With a choked cry the Englishman tore at something between them. And
48 WEIRD TALES

Kane went mad. With a scream that cut brain of the harpy. He did not fight to
through the inferno he bounded up, slay¬ hold and slay; he wished only to be rid of
ing even as he rose. Even in the act of this silent, clinging thing that stabbed so
lunging up from bent knee he drew and savagely for his life. He floundered wild¬
thrust, transfixing a vulture-like throat. ly, screaming abhorrently and thrashing
Then whipping out his rapier as the thing with his wings, then as Kane’s dirk bit
floundered and twitched in its death strug¬ deeper, dipped suddenly sidewise and fell
gles, the raging Puritan charged forward headlong.
seeking new victims. The thatch of a hut broke their fall,
On all sides of him the people of Bo- and Kane and the dying harpy crashed
gonda were dying hideously. They through to land on a writhing mass on
fought futilely or they fled and the de¬ the hut floor. In the lurid flickering of
mons coursed them down as a hawk the burning hut outside, that vaguely
courses a hare. They ran into the huts lighted the hut into which he had fallen,
and the fiends rent the thatch or burst the Kane saw a deed of brain-shaking horror
door, and -/hat took place in those huts being enacted—red dripping fangs in a
was mercifully hidden from Kane’s eyes. yawning gash of a mouth, and a crimson
And to the frantic white man's horror- travesty of a human form that still
distorted brain it seemed that he alone writhed with agonized life. Then in the
was responsible. The black folk had maze of madness that held him, his steel
trusted him to save them. They had with¬ fingers closed on the fiend’s throat in a grip
held the sacrifice and defied their grim that no tearing of talons or hammering of
masters and now they were paying the wings could loosen, until he felt the hor¬
horrible penalty and he was unable to rid life flow out from under his fingers
save them. In the agony-dimmed eyes and the bony neck hung broken.
turned toward him Kane quaffed the black And still outside the red madness of
dregs of the bitter cup. It was not anger slaughter continued. Kane bounded up,
or the vindictiveness of fear. It was hurt his hand closing blindly on the haft of
and a stunned reproach. He was their some weapon, and as he leaped from the
god and he had failed them. hut a harpy soared from under his very
Now he ravened through the massacre feet. It was an ax that Kane had snatched
and the fiends avoided him, turning to up, and he dealt a stroke that spattered
the easy blade victims. But Kane was not the demon’s brains like water. He sprang
to be denied. In a red haze that was not forward, stumbling over bodies and parts
of the burning hut, he saw a culminating of bodies, blood streaming from a dozen
horror; a harpy gripped a writhing naked wounds, and then halted baffled and
thing that had been a woman and the screaming with rage.
wolfish fangs gorged deep. As Kane The bat-people were taking to the air.
sprang, thrusting, the bat-man dropped No longer would they face this white¬
his yammering, mowing prey and soared skinned madman who in his insanity was
aloft. But Kane dropped his rapier and more terrible than they. But they went
with the bound of a blood-mad panther not alone into the upper regions. In their
caught the demon’s throat and locked his lustful talons they bore writhing, scream¬
iron legs about its lower body. ing forms, and Kane, raging to and fro
Again he found himself battling in with his dripping ax, found himself alone
midair, but this time only above the roofs in a corpse-choked village.
of the huts. Terror had entered the cold He threw back his head to shriek his
W. T.—3
 WINGS IN THE NIGHT 49

hate at the fiends above him and he felt And the harpies were gone—back to their
warm, thick drops fall into his face, while caves in the black hills, gorged to reple¬
the shadowy skies were filled with screams tion.
of agony and the laughter of monsters.
With slow, mechanical steps Kane went
And Kane’s last vestige of reason snapped
about gathering up his weapons. He
as the sounds of that ghastly feast in the
found his sword, dirk, pistols and the ju¬
skies filled the night and the blood that
ju stave. He left the main village and
rained from the stars fell into his face.
went up the slope to the great hut of
He gibbered to and fro, screaming cha¬
Goru. And there he halted, stung by a
otic blasphemies.
new horror. The ghastly humor of the
And was he not a symbol of Man, harpies had prompted a delicious jest.
staggering among the tooth-marked bones Above the hut door stared die severed
and severed grinning heads of humans, head of Goru. The fat cheeks were
brandishing a futile ax, and screaming in¬ shrunken, the lips lolled in an aspect of
coherent hate at the grisly, winged shapes horrified idiocy, and the eyes stared like
of Night that make him their prey, chuck¬ a hurt child. And in those dead eyes
ling in demoniac triumph above him and Kane saw wonder and reproach.
dripping into his mad eyes the pitiful
Kane looked at the shambles that had
blood of their human victims?
been Bogonda, and he looked at the death
mask of Goru. And he lifted his clenched
5. The Wbite-skinned Conqueror

A shuddering, white-faced dawn crept

. over the black hills to shiver above
fists above his head, and with glaring eyes
raised and writhing lips flecked with
froth, he cursed the sky and the earth and
the red shambles that had been the village the spheres above and below. He cursed
of Bogonda. The huts stood intact, ex¬ the cold stars, the blazing sun, the mock¬
cept for the one which had sunk to smol¬ ing moon and the whisper of the wind.
dering coals, but the thatches of many He cursed all fates and destinies, all that
were tom. Dismembered bones, half or he had loved or hated, the silent cities be¬
wholly stripped of flesh, lay in the streets, neath the seas, the past ages and the
and some were splintered as though they future eons. In one soul-shaking burst of
had been dropped from a great height. blasphemy he cursed the gods and devils
It was a realm of the dead where was who make mankind their sport, and he
but one sign of life. Solomon Kane leaned cursed Man who lives blindly on and
on his blood-dotted ax and gazed upon blindly offers his back to the iron-hoofed
the scene with dull, mad eyes. He was feet of his gods.
grimed and clotted with half-dried blood Then as breath failed he halted, pant¬
from long gashes on chest, face and shoul¬ ing. From the lower reaches sounded the
ders, but he paid no heed to his hurts. deep roaring of a lion and into the eyes of
The people of Bogonda had not died Solomon Kane came a crafty gleam. He
alone. Seventeen harpies lay among the stood long, as one frozen, and out of his
bones. Six of these Kane had slain. The madness grew a desperate plan. And he
rest had fallen before the frantic dying silently recanted his blasphemy, for if the
desperation of the black people. But it brazen-hoofed gods made Man for their
was poor toll to take in return. Of the sport and plaything, they also gave him a
four hundred odd people of Upper Bo¬ brain that holds craft and cruelty greater
gonda, not one had lived to see the dawn. than any other living thing.
50 WEIRD TALES

"There you shall bide,” said Solomon his stints he talked to the shriveled, mum¬
Kane to the head of Goru. "The sun will mied head of Goru, whose eyes, strangely
wither you and the cold dews of night enough, did not change in the blaze of
will shrivel you. But I will keep the the sun or the haunt of the moon, but re¬
kites from you and your eyes shall see the tained their life-like expression. When
fall of your slayers. Aye, I could not the memory of those lunacy-haunted days
save the people of Bogonda, but by the had become only a vague nightmare, Kane
God of my race, I can avenge them. Man wondered if, as it had seemed to him,
is the sport and sustenance of titanic be¬ Goru’s dried lips had moved in answer,
ings of Night and Horror whose giant speaking strange and mysterious things.
wings hover ever above him. But even Kane saw the akaanas wheeling against
evil things may come to an end—and the sky at a distance, but they did not come
watch ye, Goru.” near, even when he slept in the great hut,
In the days that followed Kane labored pistols at hand. They feared his power
mightily, beginning with the first gray to deal death with smoke and thunder.
light of dawn and toiling on past sunset, At first he noted that they flew sluggish-
into the white moonlight till he fell and ly, gorged with the flesh they had eaten
slept the sleep of utter exhaustion. He on that red night, and the bodies they had
snatched food as he worked and he gave borne to their caves. But as the weeks
his wounds absolutely no heed, scarcely passed they appeared leaner and leaner
being aware that they healed of them¬ and ranged far afield in search of food.
selves. He went down into the lower And Kane laughed, deeply and madly.
levels and cut bamboo, great stacks of This plan of his would never have worked
long, tough stalks. He cut thick branches before, but now there were no humans to
of trees, and tough vines to serve as ropes. fill the bellies of the harpy-folk. And
And with this material he reinforced the there were no more pigs. In all the pla¬
walk and roof of Goru’s hut. He set the teau there were no creatures for the bat-
bamboos deep in the earth, hard against people to eat. Why they did not range
the wall, and interwove and twined them, east of the hilk, Kane thought he knew.
binding them fast with the vines that That must be a region of thick jungle like
were pliant and tough as cords. The long the country to the west. He saw them
branches he made fast along the thatch, fly into the grassland for antelopes and he
binding them close together. When he saw the lions take toll of them. After
had finished, an elephant could scarcely all, the akaanas were weak beings among
have burst through the walls. the hunters, strong enough only to slay
The lions had come into the plateau in pigs and deer—and humans.
great quantities and the herds of little pigs At last they began to soar close to him
dwindled fast. Those the lions spared, at night and he saw their greedy eyes glar¬
Kane slew, and tossed to the jackals. This ing at him through the gloom. He judged
racked Kane’s heart, for he was a kindly the time was ripe. Huge buffaloes, too
man and this wholesale slaughter, even of big and ferocious for the bat-people to
pigs who would fall prey to hunting slay, had strayed up into the plateau to
beasts anyhow, grieved him. But it was ravage the deserted fields of the dead
part of his plan of vengeance and he black people. Kane cut one of these out
steeled his heart1. of the herd and drove him, with shouts
The days stretched into weeks. Kane and volleys of stones, to the hut of Goru.
toiled by day and by night, and between It was a tedious, dangerous task, and time
 WINGS IN THE NIGHT 51

and again Kane barely escaped the surly foe sight of the flesh within, one of them
bull's sudden charges, but persevered and ventured inside. In an instant all were
at last shot the beast before the hut. crowded into foe great hut, tearing rav¬
A strong west wind was blowing and enously at foe meat, and when the last one
Kane flung handfuls of blood into the air was within, Kane reached out a hand
for the scent to waft to foe harpies in the and jerked a long vine which tripped foe
hills. He cut the bull to pieces and car¬ catch that held the door he had built. It
ried its quarters into the hut, then man¬ fell with a crash and foe bar he had fash¬
aged to drag the huge trunk itself inside. ioned dropped into place. That door
Then he retired into the thick trees near would hold against foe charge of a wild
by and waited. bull.
He had not long to wait. The morning Kane came from his covert and scanned
air filled suddenly with the beat of many the dry. Some hundred and forty harp¬
wings and a hideous flock alighted before ies had entered foe hut. He saw no more
the hut of Goru. All of the beasts—or winging through foe skies, and believed
men—seemed to be there, and Kane gazed it safe to suppose he had the whole flock
in wonder at the tall, strange creatures, so trapped. Then with a cruel, brooding
like to humanity and yet so unlike—the smile, Kane struck flint and steel to a pile
veritable demons of priestly legend. They of dead leaves next the wall. Within
folded their wings like cloaks about them sounded an uneasy mumbling as the crea¬
as they walked upright and they talked to tures realized that they were prisoners. A
one another in a strident crackling voice thin wisp of smoke curled upward and a
that had nothing of the human in it. No, flicker of red followed it; foe whole heap
these things were not men, Kane decided. burst into flame and the dry bamboo
They were the materialization of some caught.
ghastly jest of Nature—some travesty of A few moments later the whole side of
the world's infancy when Creation was an foe wall was ablaze. The fiends inside
experiment. Perhaps they were the off¬ scented foe smoke and grew restless.
spring of a forbidden and obscene mating Kane heard them cackling wildly and
of man and beast; more likely they were clawing at foe walls. He grinned savage¬
a freakish offshoot on the branch of evo¬ ly, bleakly and without mirth. Now a
lution—for Kane had long ago dimly veer of foe wind drove the flames around
sensed a trufo in foe heretical theories of foe wall and up over foe thatch—with a
foe ancient philosophers, that Man is but roar the whole hut caught and leaped into
a higfier beast. And if Nature made many flame. From within sounded a fearful
strange beasts in the past ages, why should pandemonium. Kane heard bodies crash
she not have experimented with monstrous against foe walls, which shook to foe im¬
forms of mankind? Surely Man as Kane pact but held. The horrid screams were
knew him was not foe first of his breed to music to his soul, and brandishing his
walk foe earth, nor yet to be foe last. arms, he answered them with screams of
Now foe harpies hesitated, with their fearful, soul-shaking laughter. The ca¬
natural distrust for a building, and some taclysm of horror rose unbearably, paling
soared to foe roof and tore at foe thatch. foe tumult of foe flames. Then it dwin¬
But Kane had builded well. They re¬ dled to a medley of strangled gibbering
turned to earth and at last, driven beyond and gasps as foe flames ate in and foe
endurance by foe smell of raw blood and smoke thickened. An intolerable scent of
52 WEIRD TALES

burning flesh pervaded the atmosphere, bear in his hand battle-ax or rapier—
and had there been room in Kane’s brain whether he be called Dorian, Saxon or
for aught else than insane triumph, he Englishman—whether his name be Jason,
would have shuddered to realize that the Hengist or Solomon Kane.
scent was of that nauseating and inde¬ Kane stood and the smoke curled up¬
scribable odor that only human flesh emits ward into the morning sky, the roaring of
when burning. foraging lions shook the plateau, and
From the thick cloud of smoke Kane slowly, like light breaking through mists,
saw a mowing, gibbering thing emerge sanity returned to him.
through the shredding roof and flap slow¬
"The light of God’s morning enters
ly and agonizingly upward on fearfully
even into dark and lonesome lands,” said
burned wings. Calmly he aimed and
Solomon Kane somberly. "Evil rules in
fired, and the scorched and blinded thing
the waste lands of the earth, but even evil
tumbled back into the flaming mass just as
may come to an end. Dawn follows mid¬
the walls crashed in. To Kane it seemed
night and even in this lost land the shad¬
that Goru’s crumbling face, vanishing in
ows shrink. Strange are Thy ways, oh
the smoke, split suddenly in a wide grin
God of my people, and who am I to ques¬
and a sudden shout of exultant human
tion Thy wisdom? My feet have fallen in
laughter mingled eerily in the roar of the
evil ways but Thou hast brought me forth
flames. But the smoke and an insane brain
scatheless and hast made me a scourge for
plays queer tricks.
the Powers of Evil. Over the souls .of

K ane stood with the ju-ju stave in one

hand and the smoking pistol in the
men spread the condor wings of colossal
monsters and all manner of evil things
prey upon the heart and soul and body of
other, above the smoldering ruins that hid
Man. Yet it may be in some far day the
forever from the sight of man the last of
shadows shall fade and the Prince of
those terrible, semi-human monsters
Darkness be chained forever in his hell.
whom another white-skinned hero had
And till then mankind can but stand up
banished from Europe in an unknown
stoutly to the monsters in his own heart
age. Kane stood, an unconscious statue
and without, and with the aid of God he
of triumph—the ancient empires fall, the
may yet triumph.”
dark-skinned peoples fade and even the
demons of antiquity gasp their last, but And Solomon Kane looked up into the
over all stands the Aryan barbarian, white¬ silent hills and felt the silent call of the
skinned, cold-eyed, dominant, the su¬ hills and the unguessed distances beyond;
preme fighting man of the earth, whether and Solomon Kane shifted his belt, took
he be clad in wolf-hide and horned hel¬ his staff firmly in his hand and turned his
met, or boots and doublet—whether he face eastward.
 Vhe
C/ianet of Peace
By ARLTON EADIE
The strange story of a man from Earth on a planet which
was inhabited solely by women

T ELL a man that there is a region,

a bare fifty miles from London’s
your hearer refuses to credit the statement
you may be sure that he doesn’t know the
teeming millions, where it is pos¬ great Chalk Downs of Sussex.
sible to tramp from dawn to dusk of a From Petersfield on the west to Beachy
long summer day without coming face to Head on the east, a distance of more than
face with a single human being, and if seventy miles, the skyline of these vast
53
 54 WEIRD TALES

rolling uplands is unbroken by human and the tip of the church spire, the village
habitation of any kind; for even the lay as if it were shrinking coyly out of
smallest farmhouse requires a supply of sight behind a fold in the lower slopes.
water, and this huge escarpment, reared When the first novelty of my Crusoe-
like a rampart between the lower lands like existence had worn off I began to take
bordering the sea, and the plain of the a great interest in that little bungalow.
Weald, has been carved by nature’s chisel I had a pair of very excellent field-glasses
from one massive block of chalk as dry as that had once formed part of the equip¬
the proverbial bone. There are no springs; ment of a German infantry officer (now
wells would need to be sunk fully eight deceased), and by their aid I was able to
hundred feet before they reached even the get a mild form of diversion by observing
surface of the plain below. Such villages the activities of a man who sat for the
and scattered farmsteads as exist nestle greater part of the day at a kind of work¬
amid the foothills, near the streams, leav¬ table set in the bay window.
ing the summits to the gulls and curlews, His appearance was such as might have
and—in the case of one lofty crest—to attracted notice even in a crowd. His fig¬
me. ure was short and inclined to stoutness—
I had taken up my residence in a house decidedly not the type of figure that is seen
that had evidently been built by some op¬ to its best advantage when attired in a pair
timist who was a stranger to the district. of very baggy "plus-fours” and a woolen
Situated but a score of yards below the "pull-over” bearing a startling thunder-
windswept ridge, its windows com¬ and-lightning pattern in red and green on
manded a view that was superb. a cinnamon-brown ground. Yet that was
But the water supply was, in sober, lit¬ the fashion of his raiment, and never sub¬
eral truth, prehistoric. It consisted of a sequently did I see him dressed otherwise.
"dew-pond” or "dew-pan” such as the His features were more difficult to
ancient Britons used to slake their thirsts make out at that distance; but I could see
ages before Gesar’s legions first sighted that he was clean-shaven, with a large,
the white cliffs of Albion. It was simply pale face surmounted by the shining dome
a large, shallow, circular depression of a head entirely bald except for a fringe
scooped in the chalk. In theory it was sup¬ of black hair which began and ended
posed to collect all the rain, dew and about level with his ears.
other moisture that might be in the air. The windows of the bungalow were
In actual practise it collected other things destitute of curtains, and from my post of
as well. Any naturalist interested in pond- vantage I could see a segment of the room
life would have been delighted with a in which he was accustomed to work. It
glassful of that water before it had been appeared to be a kind of compromise be¬
boiled and filtered. tween a chemical laboratory and an optical
I had come to the Downs in search of instrument-maker’s workshop. Ranged on
solitude and inspiration for a novel that I shelves against the one wall visible to me
contemplated writing. I got the solitude were enough bottles to stock a chemist’s
all right. It was five miles by the shortest shop; a lathe stood near the center of the
practicable path to the nearest village, room; a large vise was clamped to the
though only about three as the crow flies; bench in the window; and the bench itself
and, save for an obviously new bungalow was usually littered with a bewildering as¬
at the end of the straggling High Street sortment of brass tubes, wheels, levers and
 THE PLANET OF PEACE 55

other pieces of mechanism. But, try as I ting at the window of the distant bunga¬
might, I could not divine the nature of the low!
machine that he was constructing. But I There could be not the slightest doubt
was soon enlightened on that point in a as to his identity. He wore the same baggy
startlingly dramatic manner. plus-fours, the same outrageous pull-over

T oward sundown one evening, while

waiting for the "inspiration” that
with the red-and-green design; he had the
same high, bald head; the same fat, pallid
features—which, I noticed, now bore an
stubbornly refused to materialize, I idly expression of mingled bewilderment and
took up the glasses and focused them on annoyance. Yet, even as my eyes noted
my unknown distant friend. At the first these details, my reason was telling me
glance it was apparent that he was as in¬ that it could not be the same man. Even
terested in me as I was in him. But his with the aid of an airplane it would have
curiosity had gone to greater lengths— been smart work for him to take off, fly
literally as well as figuratively—for he three miles, land, and enter my house un¬
had his eyes glued to what looked like a seen all within five minutes.
large brass telescope pointing straight in
"How on earth-” I began, and at
my direction.
the sound of my voice he stopped rubbing
For a moment I felt rather rattled at his shin, which had evidently come into
being caught snooping; but, realizing that forcible contact with the overturned chair,
he could probably see me better than I and glanced round, as if for the first time
could see him, I did not lower the field- aware of my presence.
glasses until I had carelessly swept my
"Oh,” he said in a tone of apology.
gaze round the landscape and stared for
"Sorry ... I didn’t know . . . had no idea
a good minute at the faint, blue-gray rim
... a little miscalculation on my part..
of the distant sea. Having, I hoped, thus
And forthwith his figure became hazy
given the impression that I was merely
and indistinct, shimmered unsteadily for
engaged in admiring the beauties of na¬
an instant like an object viewed through
ture, I laid down the glasses, lighted a
heated air—then vanished completely!
cigarette with as detached an air as I
could assume, and again waited for my
"inspiration.”
I T is useless for me to try to record my
sensations at that moment. Fully
Something else came instead.
awake, dead sober, and in complete pos¬
Into my thoughts there obtruded the session of my faculties, I had witnessed
sound of a faint, deep-toned humming the impossible. A living man, substantial
note; a chair behind me was suddenly and enough to talk and to bark his shins
violently overturned, and a voice, appar¬ against a chair, had dissolved like a puff
ently charged with the explosive force of of smoke before my eyes.
intense exasperation, uttered one low but The appearance and behavior of the
unmistakable word: man had been so commonplace, not to say
"Damn!” absurd, that it never even occurred to me
I started to my feet and swung round. to set him down as being a ghostly ap¬
With a shock of stupefied amazement I parition. If I regarded his arrival and de¬
saw, standing less than a yard from me, parture as supernatural, it was only in the
the figure of the little bald-headed man sense that it was something entirely out¬
whom I had seen five minutes since sit¬ side the usual course of natural happen-
56 WEIRD TALES

ings. I simply could not imagine a ghost village were in darkness, but I noted with
wearing tweed plus-fours and red-and- satisfaction that a light burned in the win¬
green pull-over, and my common sense dow of the bungalow, and as I drew
jibbed at the idea of a wandering disem¬ nearer I could see the shadow of my mys¬
bodied spirit barging into a piece of furni¬ terious visitor pass and repass as he busied
ture and afterward murmuring apologies himself at some task.
after the manner of a too-festive reveller The absence of bell or knocker on the
who had strayed into the wrong house by front door seemed to hint that callers
mistake. Dimly, and without any logical were not encouraged, but without hesita¬
sequence of thought, the words "fourth tion I raised my stick and tapped sharply
dimension” intruded themselves into my on the panel. For a few minutes there
bewildered brain. It was by no means was no response, and I was just on the
clear to me how a fourth dimension—or point of repeating the summons more vio¬
even a fifth—could explain the transpor¬ lently, when the door suddenly opened.
tation of a living man over three miles of My attitude, with upraised stick, must
hilly country at a speed of something like have appeared threatening, for the little
a mile a minute; but the words had a sane, bald-headed man shrank back and raised
scientific ring about them that was rather his hands as though to ward off a blow.
comforting to my then state of mind. No
"I know what you’ve come for,” he
man likes to admit, even to himself, that
cried, without giving me time to put in a
he has been "seeing things.”
word. "My unwarrantable intrusion this
Moved by a sudden impulse, I caught afternoon ... all a mistake ... I can ex¬
up the field-glasses and focused them on plain everything. I never intended to
the window of the distant bungalow. By frighten you.”
the faint light of the dying sun I saw the "You didn’t frighten me,” I answered,
little bald-headed man fiddling about "but you made me mighty curious to
with his brass telescope as unconcernedly know how the trick was done.”
as ever, apparently in no way affected by
"Trick?” he blinked his little round
his rapid double transit through space.
eyes as he repeated the word. "You think
"I flatter myself that I am not unduly that what you witnessed was just a conjur¬
inquisitive,” I muttered aloud as I laid ing trick?”
down the glasses and caught up my hat "What else could it have been?” I
and walking-stick, "but I think I am justi¬ shrugged.
fied in looking into this matter a little For a moment he continued to blink at
deeper.” me in silence.
Five minutes later I was picking my "Come inside,” he said suddenly, and
way through the gathering dusk down the almost dragged me into the room that I
steep hillside path which led to the vil¬ had already partly examined by the aid of
lage. my field-glasses.
I immediately saw that the object I had
I T was quite dark long before I reached thought to be a telescope was in reality
my destination. The night was clear something much more complicated. In¬
and moonless, with myraid stars twink¬ stead of the usual single eyepiece, it had
ling with steely brightness against the vel¬ no less than three smaller brass tubes con¬
vety sky above the wide sweep of die verging into the main focal cylinder. Two
roiling hills. Most of the houses in the were fitted with lenses, but the third
 THE PLANET OF PEACE 57

terminated in a narrow adjustable metal to transport yourself bodily through

band which, by its size and position, space?” I cried, my voice jerky with ex¬
seemed intended to be fastened to the citement.
forehead of the observer. From various
"Bodily?” he emphasized the word as
points of this strange instrument numer¬
he repeated it, shaking his head dubiously
ous insulated wires ran to an intricate and
the while. "Ah, there you place me in a
elaborate machine situated immediately
difficulty. You must understand that I live
behind the observer’s chair. It was evi¬
and work entirely alone, and I have no
dent that this machine had but recently
one to observe what takes place in this
emerged from the experimental stage, for
room when I project my conscious ego
some of its component parts were held in
elsewhere. Tell me, did I seem to be a
position merely by huge blobs of red seal¬
solid, physical body when I appeared to
ing-wax and others by common tin-tacks
you?”
driven into the top of the table on which
it stood. The only details that my non- "You were solid enough to knock over
scientific mind could recognize were sev¬ a chair and swear when you barked your
eral powerful storage batteries and what shin.” I laughed as an idea occurred to
appeared to be an ordinary "magic lan¬ me. "You had better let me test that point
tern” of oxidized metal. for you. Waft me into the strongroom of
the nearest bank, and I’ll see if my fingers
"You see, my little 'conjuring trick,’ as
you call it, requires quite a lot of appara¬ are material enough to grab a few souve¬
nirs!”
tus,” smiled the bald-headed man as he
waved his hand toward the maze of He shook his head quite seriously at my
gleaming brass. "I may as well confess joking suggestion.
that when I constructed all this I had a
"Quite apart from the questionable
very different object in view from emula¬
honesty of such an experiment, I fear it
ting the exploits of a stage magician. My
would be foredoomed to failure. My
—er—little intrusion into your privacy
Ego-Projector has its limits. The rays of
was quite accidental, I assure you. I was
energy which emanate from it are power¬
aiming for the hilltop above your house;
less to penetrate any solid obstacle which
but the tube must have shifted slightly,
lies between the point of departure and
and I was as much surprized as you were
the point desired to be attained. If you
to find myself in your study. But it might
have happened worse,” he went on, will take your mind back, you will remem¬

thoughtfully stroking his plump chin. "It ber that the large French window of your
would have been distinctly embarrassing, room was wide open when I arrived this
for instance, if I had found myself in the afternoon. If I could find means of en¬
presence of a highly-strung, nervous fe¬ dowing my Ray with the same penetrative
male.” power as the ordinary wireless waves, my
His casual, almost apologetic manner invention would be perfect.”
robbed his explanation of much of its im¬ "It’s marvellous enough as it is,” I cried
pressiveness; it was only by marshaling with enthusiasm. "Imagine our country at
the facts in my own mind that I co; a war—with one of your machines in the
grasp the staggering significance of what front line, every detail at the bade of the
I had heard and seen. enemy’s positions could be reported by
"Do you mean to say that you are able ghostly spies!”
58 WEIRD TALES

T o my disappointment this eccentric

inventor appeared to be annoyed at
presence! What reasoning man doubts
that the whole of our solar system had a
this suggestion. common origin? And, having a common
"I have no intention of devoting my in¬ origin, it naturally follows that all the
vention to the purposes of war,” he re¬ planets must be composed of the same
turned curtly. elements, and this conclusion is supported
"No, no, of course not,” I hastened to by the evidence of the spectroscope. Now,
add. "But think of its possibilities in it may surprize you to know that living
times of peace. Think of how it will protoplasm, the basic molecule of all life,
cheapen and speed up travelling. With a is made up of six simple elements—
few relays of your machines a party of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, phos¬
hustling tourists could be wafted round phorus and sulfur. If Mars has these ele¬
Europe in less time than it takes to cross ments, it has all the fundamentals that on
the Channel. And you need not confine Earth resulted in the generation of what
your scope to this old world of ours. we call life.”
Think of the sensation that would be "But intelligent life is another matter,”
caused by an advertisement something like I objected. "Your hypothetical Martians
this: "Five Minutes on the Moon—heat¬ are scarcely likely to be highly developed
ing apparatus and supply of oxygen pro¬ creatures like ourselves.”
vided." "On the contrary, my dogmatic young
"Doubtless it would greatly interest the friend, the dominant type there may be
Lunacy Commissioners!” he returned dry¬ higher than it is here. On Earth the low¬
ly. "But why pick on a dead, sterile satel¬ est forms of living organisms are found
lite like the Moon? Why not the planet in the ocean; the highest, culminating in
Mars, which possesses water, an atmos¬ man, on land. Mars is nearly all land. It
phere, and—if the astronomers have is an older planet, too, inasmuch as, being
rightly interpreted its periodic change of smaller, it has cooled much more rapidly.
color—a vegetation that flourishes and de¬ Probably it was habitable when our own
cays at the Martian seasons corresponding planet was yet a molten mass, as giant
to our earthly spring and autumn?” Jupiter is at the present time, and thus
"You think that there is life on Mars?” the Martians may be millions of years
I queried. ahead of us in the evolutionary race.”

"It would indeed be surprizing if there "But surely they would not be of a hu¬
were not,” he answered emphatically. man type?” I cried.
"When you consider the abundance of vi¬ "Why not, pray?” he returned, with a
tality which exists on our own planet, and smiling shrug. "Have you ever paused to
realize that there is scarcely a single consider how nature is content to keep to
square yard, from the parched deserts of broad generic lines when fashioning the
the Saharas to the eternal ice of the poles most diverse animals? Disregarding the
—including the abysmal depths of the highly specialized order of reptiles com¬
ocean, where the pressure reaches the monly called 'snakes,’ can you name a
enormous total of three and three-quarters s: <gle air-breathing vertebrate that pos-
tons to the square inch—that is not with¬ s ;es more or less limbs than four? more
out some form of life, however lowly, it or less eyes than two? more nostrils than
would be more logical to doubt the ab¬ a single pair? more mouths than one?
sence of life on our sister-planet than its From the smallest lizard to the largest ele-
 THE PLANET OF PEACE 39

phant, the vital processes of life are iden¬ which it passes, nor is it easy to conceive
tical. If creatures of such widely different pipes large enough to supply the needs of
habitat have so many points in common, a parched hemisphere. Nothing but the
why should not the dominant creature of construction of canals would meet the sit¬
another planet have developed along simi¬ uation. Broad, straight, lined on either
lar lines to the dominant creature on bank with a belt of cultivated land, and
Earth? Judging by the evidences of their spread like a network over the whole sur¬
handiwork, we can at least be sure that face of the planet—only thus could the
their mental processes are the same as problem of continued existence under
ours.” Martian conditions be solved. And when
"How?” I demanded incredulously. this gigantic irrigation scheme had been

I nstead of answering immediately, my

perfected, how would its operation appear
to an observer on the Earth? At the ap¬
self-appointed mentor sat down at the proach of the Martian spring he would
desk and drew a rough circle on the blot¬ see the polar caps gradually shrink in size
ting-pad. as the frozen water melted. Then a nar¬
"Let this represent the planet Mars, and row band of faint blue would appear at
let us assume that the more progressive the edges of the dwindling patch of white
and intelligent nations of the human race —a visible result of the thaw. Then,
had been transported there en masse and, after a pause long enough to allow for
in order to survive, were forced to contend sprouting, he would see, starting from the
with the conditions which prevail. They border of the polar cap and slowly creep¬
would find themselves on a globe very ing down toward the equator, a network
different from the one they had quitted. of faint dark lines—the vegetation of the
On Earth, deep oceans cover nearly three- field-bordered canals, which has been
quarters of the surface; on Mars the only quickened into life by the released water.
water is found at the north and south And that is precisely what our astron¬
poles, the remainder of the surface being omers see every year. They can not see
a flat, waterless desert. Throughout the the inhabitants of Mars, it is true, but
Martian winter, which lasts twice as long they can, and do, observe the results of
as ours, this water is useless as an irri¬ their intelligent handiwork.”
gating agent, for it is frozen into a solid
I could not help smiling at the deadly
mass of ice which is plainly visible through
earnestness with which he aired his theory.
our telescopes. But in the spring this
"As you’re so keen on the matter,” I said
water melts, and the problem which
flippantly, "why don’t you take a trip to
would confront our hypothetical human
Mars and have a look round?”
pioneers would be to conduct this life-
"Such is my intention,” came his an¬
giving fluid to the more temperate zones,
swer, swift as an echo. "Unfortunately,
where it could be used to water the crops
however, I have no one capable of con¬
necessary for the support of animal life.
trolling my Ego-Projector and thus en¬
If you were in their place, how would you
suring my safe return.”
solve that problem?”
"By a system of pipes and pumping- "Can I be of any assistance?” I asked,

machinery,” I answered promptly. and to my surprize he nodded eagerly.

He shook his head almost sadly. "You can, by undertaking the journey
"Allow me to remind you that a water- for me.”
pipe does not irrigate the soil through I’ve often wondered since what my face
60 [WEIRD TALES

must have looked like when he made this His suggestion made me pause and
cool proposal, but if my thoughts were glance back at him. At that moment he
reflected on my features I must have worn appeared eminently sane and normal.
a pretty complicated expression. For a "All right,” I said, little suspecting the
moment or two my mind was in a whirl. treachery that lay behind his hospitable
I did not know whether to laugh or be offer. "Mix me a Martian cocktail.”
angry. He took me at my word. The instant
"Thanks,” I said, finally deciding to I had swallowed the stuff I knew that
fall in with the humor of what must be a something was wrong. A deadly mist
joke on his part. "But I didn’t intend seemed to swirl up and envelop my brain,
taking quite such a long stroll when I set rendering it dazed and numb.
out this evening. A matter of thirty or "You perfidious devil!” I tried to shout.
forty millions of miles, is it not?” "You’ve drugged me!”
"At the present time Mars is about 40,- Rallying my failing strength, I stag¬
500,000 miles distant from the Earth.” gered to my feet and lurched toward him.
But the floor of the room seemed to reel
"Is that so?” I queried with a laugh.
and sway like the deck of a storm-tossed
"Well, a few hundreds of thousands of
ship. I stumbled—fell—and as I touched
miles don’t matter much one way or the
the floor the last vestiges of consciousness
other in a little jump like that!”
slipped from me.
But my satire was entirely wasted on
him.
"Of course not,” he agreed quite seri¬
O ut of an oblivion that might have
lasted seconds or centuries, dawning
ously. "If my theory is correct you will consciousness stole back to my brain. I
arrive at your objective almost instantly.”
was seated in a chair which I instinctively
"But if your theory does not happen to
knew to be the seat connected with the
be correct, I suppose I shall spend the next Ego-Projector, although the main portion
few centuries wandering about in the inky
of the machinery of the devilish contriv¬
black nowheres of outer space!” I cried
ance was out of sight behind me. My
with some show of indignation. "Life is
arms were firmly lashed to the side-rests
too short for trial trips into the ether.”
of the chair; my ankles were similarly
He looked quite disappointed at my re¬
fastened to the chair-legs; around my neck
fusal to avail myself of his highly scien¬
was a metal band which, while loose
tific mode of suicide. enough to allow me to breathe freely, was
“Sure you wouldn’t care for a little trip yet sufficiently tight to prevent my moving
to the moon?” he asked coaxingly. "It’s
my head more than a fraction of an inch
a mere hop by comparison, only 240,000
on either side. Before me, poised at an
miles or so-”
angle on its heavy iron tripod, was the
I shook my head firmly and reached for gleaming tube of the huge telescope.
my hat, more than half convinced that I With a heart-chilling sense of helplessness
was in the presence of a lunatic. I realized I was a passive plaything in the
"The only hop that I am going to do hands of a man who could not be other¬
tonight will be in the direction of home,” wise than insane.
I said hastily, and began to edge toward "I am sorry I had to resort to drastic
the door. measures,” said a smooth voice at my el¬
"What about a little drink before you bow, "but I can assure you that the unique
go?” experience you are about to undergo will
 THE PLANET OF PEACE 61

amply compensate you for any little tem¬ about politics. What is your candid opin¬
porary inconvenience.” ion of the present government?”
Ninety-nine men out of a hundred
Slewing my eyes round, I saw the pallid
would have forgotten all about glands
face of my captor creased in a satisfied
when invited to air their views on how a
smile. But what interested me most at
country should be run, but this lunatic re¬
that moment was the fact that he held an
fused to be side-tracked.
open razor in his hand. He must have
"Don’t be foolish," he said indulgent¬
seen my expression of horror, for his
ly. "The Pineal Gland is a small and
smile broadened and he patted me reassur¬
obscure organ imbedded deep in the hu¬
ingly on the shoulder.
man brain. In many respects it resem¬
"Have no fear, my young friend. I bles a primitive, undeveloped eye, and its
have not inveigled you here in order to position and general characteristics closely
obtain a human subject for dissection. I correspond with the so-called 'third eye’
have already done all I intend to do with of a few living—and of many extinct—
this razor.” He wiped it carefully and species of lizards. Now it is a curious
slipped it into its case as he continued fact that, in spite of the progress of mod¬
coolly. "The trifling and bloodless capil¬ ern science, no pathologist has succeeded
lary amputation that I have just per¬ in determining the exact function of this
formed on you will leave no traces after a Pineal Gland.”
week or two has elapsed. I have merely "Then why worry about it?” I mur¬
taken the liberty of shaving the top of mured soothingly, for I feared that his
your head.” next announcement would be to the effect
I had been vaguely conscious of an un¬ that he intended to gain the desired
usual sensation of draftiness about the knowledge by an immediate experiment.
region of my occiput, but I had thought "Perhaps the wretched thing hasn’t got a
it due to my excited imagination. Now function.”
I realized that the crown of my head was “On the contrary, my young friend, I
as bare as his own. have already proved it to be capable of
exercising a most wonderful influence
"Perhaps it was not absolutely neces¬
over the brain of which it forms a part.
sary to remove the hair,” he went on
Although destined never to see the light
thoughtfully. "In my own case nature has
of day, this primitive eye, when stim¬
done that very effectively for me already;
ulated by a certain type of invisible yet
but now that you are about to test my in¬
penetrating ray, becomes endowed with
vention, I did not wish to leave the slight¬
the power of transporting the mental ego
est obstacle that might mar the successful
—the 'soul,’ in the strictly non-religious
working of my Ray, for it is just possible
sense of the word—to the point where that
that the experiment may not be repeated.
ray is directed. If you will glance through
You have, of course, heard of the Pineal
that telescope while I adjust the focus, you
Gland?”
will see the sphere to which you are about
"Yes,” I answered promptly, hoping to to be transported.”
switch the conversation into something
less personal than my own anatomy. "But I T was not wholly because I knew that
I had mine removed seven years ago, so resistance would be futile that Tal¬
it’s no earthly use your trying to interfere lowed him to adjust the metal band round
with something that isn’t there. Let’s talk my forehead. I was filled with an ex-
62 WEIRD TALES

pedant curiosity that mastered my fear. the necessities and luxuries of life within
If the man was crazed, he had at least easy reach? No, my impractical young
some glimmering of method in his mad¬ theorist, man became what he is because
ness; if he was sane, I was about to under¬ he had to fight! He fought for the food
go an experience such as had fallen to the he ate, for the cave that sheltered him, for
lot of no man before. possession of his mate; in short, he fought
Eagerly I gazed through the double for his very existence. Those who were
eyepiece of the telescope, but for some too mild or too weak to fight died very
seconds I could see only a confused blur young, leaving it to their fiercer and more
of light. Soon, under the influence of the combative brothers to carry on the race
adjusted focus, this resolved itself into a and transmit their war-like instincts to the
tiny globe glowing with soft radiance as it next generation. And men still fight one
hung poised amid the unfathomable blue against the other, though now the battle¬
of space. Its general color was pale yel¬ field has been transferred from the jun¬
low, slightly tinged with rose, but there gle to the town or city, and he uses his
were irregular darker areas where the tint wits instead of a spear or ax of flint. And
approached the delicate blue of a bird’s until recently the man who could not or
egg; at top and bottom were the dazzling would not fight (or ’work,’ as we now
white segments of the polar ice-caps. call it) was exterminated as surely, though
not as swiftly, as in ancient times. But
"That is the planet which the ancients
during the last few years I have noted a
named after the God of War, but you
growing tendency among the citizens of
may find it to be the Planet of Peace.”
one powerful nation to prevent this nat¬
He chuckled softly as he went on. "You
ural process of elimination by protecting
may even find it to be the Planet of Too
and succoring its individual members who
Much Peace!”
either can not or will not take part in the
"How can a world have too much
modern struggle for existence. Forgetful
peace?” I asked. "Is war such a desirable
of, or maybe ignorant of the prehistoric
thing that you should speak slightingly
development of their own race, these ten¬
of peace?”
der-hearted dreamers seek to promote
Again he chuckled softly, and this time universal brotherhood and equality by
there was an underlying note of grimness. doing away with the competition that is
"War played its part—and no minor the mainspring of human progress. They
part, either—in shaping both the mental proclaim an artificial peace where peace
outlook and the bodily frame of the an¬ has never reigned since this Earth became
imal that we call man,” he answered with habitable. If such a doctrine became uni¬
quiet conviction. "I do not mean the versal it would be interesting to note its
war of modern trained armies, nor even effect on the human race. You and I will
the war of nation against nation, or of be dust long before such a state of things
tribe against tribe. I mean the war of in¬ can come into operation on this Earth of
dividual against individual, such as was ours; but possibly you may see the ulti¬
once waged by primitive man and is even mate result of such a system in the place
now being waged by the beasts of the jun¬ you are going to.”
gle. Do you imagine that mankind would "On Mars?” I cried, vastly interested in
have developed along the lines it actually the strange and bizarre theory that had just
has if each individual man had but to lie been expounded. "You think that uni¬
on his back all day with an abundance of versal peace reigns on Mars?”
 THE PLANET OF PEACE 65

He nodded his head slowly. sage of time. Indeed, I feel inclined to

"Probably every species of dangerous doubt if my journey through space did
animals has been exterminated there ages actually take any measurable amount of
ago, and the mere existence of its world¬ time at all. A ray of light, which travels
wide system of water-bearing canals im¬ at a velocity of 186,000 miles a second,
plies a united effort on the part of its in¬ could leap the intervening distance in
habitants in which all racial and national something like five minutes, and at the
differences would need to be sunk for the most modest estimate I can not conceive
common good. I am convinced that the the Projector-ray travelling more slowly.
present state of Mars is closely analogous I might have settled the point definitely if
to the state of our Earth in ages yet to I had thought to glance at my watch on
come, and it is your proud privilege to my arrival, but when I next became con¬
witness the dying phase of a once-power- scious of my surroundings I found my at¬
ful race before its final extinction.” tention fully occupied with the strange
scene which greeted my eyes.
He paused and laid his hand on a small
vulcanite lever connected with the mech¬ Forgetful of the fact that my flight had

anism of the Projector. been directed toward the portion of the

Martian disk that was reflecting the rays
"Are you ready?” he asked.
of the sun, and remembering only that I
"Rather!” I exclaimed, moved by an
had departed from the Earth at night¬
enthusiasm that has since surprized me.
time, I was for a moment astounded to
"You have interested me to such an ex¬
find myself in broad daylight, with bril¬
tent that I would go, even if I were not
liant sunshine streaming from a point so
compelled.”
high in the heavens that it could not have
He leaned over and patted my hand. been far from its noonday zenith.
"Good lad,” he said in a tone that at I was lying on the slope of a hillside of
any rate sounded sincere. “I will give you bare, yellowish rock which, had I encoun¬
six hours before I reverse this lever and tered it on the Earth, I should have
bring your conscious Ego back to Earth. judged to be sandstone. Below me, and
And I would give much to behold what separated from my point of observation by
you will behold during that space of time. a series of fantastic, swelling curves ut¬
But that is impossible, so it only remains terly destitute of trees or shrubs, or even
for me to wish you a pleasant journey— the humblest form of vegetation, was a
and a safe return. For six hours, au flat desert of what appeared to be sand,
revoir!” stretching unbroken to the furthermost
There was a sharp click as the lever slid horizon. The sun appeared smaller than
home—a faint humming noise—then when we view it from the Earth, but its
darkness came like the shutting of an eye. rays, undimmed by even the faintest film
of cloud in the crystal-dear sky, illumi¬
I have often tried to analyze my sensa¬ nated every detail of the desolate scene
tions during the time which followed with merciless distinctness.
immediately after the pressing of the Keyed up as I was with the expectation
lever that sent my subjective Ego hurtling of beholding prodigies, I felt my heart
through space, but on every occasion I sink as I gazed round that stark, forbid¬
have failed. Physically I must have been ding waste of sand. My feelings were
as inert as if I had inhaled a dose of something like those of an earthly aviator
chloroform, and as oblivious of the pas¬ who, heading for London or Paris, sud*
64 WEIRD TALES

denly finds himself stranded in the midst Martian city—and one of some impor¬
of the Sahara. tance, judging by its size and the splendor
"The Sahara!” My voice sounded thin of its buildings. Its general shape was
and weak in the rarefied atmosphere as I that of a flattened pyramid, but such a
repeated the words aloud. "The Earth has bald geometrical comparison conveys no
its deserts, but it has also its populous adequate idea of its actual aspect; for the
cities. May not Mars have its cities, too?” severe outline was broken and diversified

Catching hope at the rebound, I turned by swelling domes, lofty towers, and in¬

and began to clamber up toward the rocky tricately beautiful lace-like structures
crest of the hill. The going was rough, which soared into the sky like symmetrical

but I seemed to make remarkably good cascades of water suddenly frozen into
progress. Leaping to clear a fissure about stone. Viewed from my pinnacle of sun-

a yard wide, I found that I had overshot scorched barren rock, it seemed more like
the farther edge by a good three yards. It the fairy city of a dream than a structure

was only then that I remembered that the planned and reared by material beings.
pull that held me to the ground was much "If that is the dwelling-place of those
less than the terrestrial gravity to which I who live in perpetual peace,” I found my¬

had been hitherto subject. But I soon ac¬ self murmuring, "what an object-lesson

customed my muscles to this novel state that beautiful city would be to the rival

of affairs, and presently I was performing nations of the Earth!”

feats of agility that would turn an earthly

champion high-jumper green with envy.
P ausing only long enough to take my
bearings by the position of the sun, I
In an incredibly short time I reached set off down the hillside in a series of
the summit, and how different was the nightmare leaps and bounds. There may
scene that burst on my view as I cleared be an excess of oxygen in the Martian
the last rocky ridge! The desert was still atmosphere, or perhaps it was due merely
there, it is true, but on this side it was re¬ to the diminished force of gravity, but I
duced to a mere strip of barrenness three seemed like a man suddenly endowed
miles, at the most, in width. Beyond that with superhuman strength and energy.
were orderly fields of luxuriant crops, in¬ Nor was the change confined to my physi¬
terlaced with narrow silver streams of cal sensations. A sense of wild elation
water whose straightness and symmetry filled my brain. I have a dim memory of
proclaimed their artificial origin. Beyond laughing aloud and singing senseless
this belt of vegetation two broader bands songs. Had I encountered any one at that
of silver converged as they neared the moment I fear I should have conveyed to
farther horizon. They were twin canals, his mind a very sorry estimate of the men¬
spanned at intervals by mighty bridges tal equilibrium of the inhabitants of the
and lined on either bank with wide roads Earth. It is fortunate that I let myself go
of gleaming white on which strangely just when I did, for my first outburst of
shaped vehicles passed and repassed with exuberance had exhausted itself by the
amazing swiftness. time I had crossed the stretch of sand and
But for me all these evidences of intel¬ reached the cultivated fields.
ligent handiwork paled into insignificance I call them "fields” only because of
before the mass of building which rose their vast extent. "Gardens” would be a
tier on tier at a spot where a third, single more fitting term, for they seemed to pro¬
canal intersected the other two. It was a duce nothing but attractive-looking though
W. T.—4
 THE PLANET OF PEACE 65

unfamiliar fruit trees, arranged in a man¬ good-looking boy in his teens. The single,
ner similar to our ornamental flower-beds. very abbreviated garment left legs and
Paved walks, with stone seats set at reg¬ arms completely bare, and its general ef¬
ular intervals, completed its resemblance fect made me wonder if I had encoun¬
to a great public park. tered a Martian swimming enthusiast on
At first I thought it had been raining, the way to an afternoon dip.
for the air felt delightfully cool and moist For a moment we stared at each other
after the parched heat of the desert; but in silence. I put up my hand to raise my
presently I saw a thin jet of water spring hat, but finding that I had come away
from the ornamental border of one of the bareheaded, I executed what was intended
"fruit-beds,” rising high in the air and for a graceful bow.
falling on the trees in a thin artificial rain.
"Good afternoon,” I said politely.
Slight as the detail was in itself, it gave
Of course I didn’t expect to be under¬
me my first real insight into the Martian
stood, but I trusted to my tone of voice
mind. I could not help admiring the in¬
and facial expression to convey that my
genious manner in which they had con¬
intentions were peaceable. I must have
verted an apparently insurmountable cli¬
appeared harmless enough, for the Mar¬
matic drawback into a positive advantage.
tian smiled bade at me and said some¬
By applying a regulated amount of mois¬
thing which sounded like a friendly
ture just when and where it was needed,
greeting.
they had placed themselves in a far better
condition than that of depending on the "I am a messenger from the planet
erratic movements of wind-driven rain- Earth,” I went on impressively.

clouds which discharge their contents on I didn’t expect that to be understood,

field and dty indiscriminately. I thought either, but to my amazement the pretty
of the devastating droughts and the floods creature seemed to catch my drift.
that bring death and destruction to whole "Earth—world,” it said in very toler¬
regions of our earth, and I decided that able English, and pointed to the sky with
the Martians were to be envied, rather much the same gesture that we should use
than pitied, for the physical conditions in drawing attention to a familiar star.
which prevail on their planet. To say that I was puzzled would be to
Meditating thus, I turned a sharp angle describe my actual feelings very faintly. I
of the path and found myself face to face knew that in uttering the word "Earth”
with one of the inhabitants of Mars. the Martian might have merely repeated

I N spite of the professor’s words, I had

parrot-like the word I had just used. But
I had certainly not mentioned "world,”
fully expected to find the Martians
yet the two words had been correlated as
strange creatures of fearsome aspect. But
naturally as if the fellow had been famil¬
the individual before me was very human¬
iar with the English language all his life.
looking indeed, and not an uncomely
"Do you understand English?” I asked
specimen, either.
hopefully, and my bewilderment in¬
Of medium height, with a smooth, deli¬
creased when I got a string of friendly but
cately tinted face and a slender figure ele¬
totally incomprehensible words in reply.
gantly draped in a saffron-colored gar¬
ment cut on lines strongly reminiscent of "Earth,” I prompted, pointing to the
the costume of the ancient Greeks, it sky.
might equally well have been a girl or a "Earth—world—globe,” said the Mar-
W. T.—5
66 tWEIRD TALES

tian, with an air of a child proudly dis¬ —on the planet I had recently quitted.
playing its knowledge. The shaven patch on the top of my head

Here was another English word that I came in for its share of attention, though

had not imported into Mars. Evidently my it did not appear to excite the same degree

young friend was well acquainted with of wonder as my beard. I began to feel
like a pet poodle at a dog show, and when
the usual synonyms for “Earth” and at
another dozen or so Martian maidens
the same time quite ignorant of colloquial
English. This was interesting, but it did came running up, evidently no less eager

not seem likely to prove very instructive. with curiosity, I thought it was time I
made a move.
I felt as a tourist in Paris would feel if he
asked a Frenchman the way to the railway Frowning a dignified and majestic dis¬
station and was treated to a quotation approval of further investigations into my
from Shakespeare instead. I gave up the physical aspect, I pointed to the distant
problem with a shrug and turned with the city and intimated by signs that it was my
intention of proceeding on my way to the intention to make my way there without
city. It was then that I discovered we delay. I must have made my meaning
were not alone. plain, for the girl in saffron, who seemed

Five Martians, dressed in garments of to have assumed a proprietary interest in

various colors but in every other respect me on the childrens’ principle "I found it

similar to that worn by the one with first,” now took me by the hand and con¬
whom I was conversing, had silently ap¬ ducted me in the desired direction.
proached and were regarding me with I have since gained considerable amuse¬
much the same excited wonder as a group ment by trying to picture what I must
of village children exhibit at the sight of have looked like stalking at the head of
a dancing bear or a monkey on an organ. that procession of near-Greek damsels. My
My doubts as to the sex of the first Mar¬ solitary mode of life on the Sussex Downs
tian were set at rest by the appearance of had made me rather careless in the matter
these newcomers, for their style of dress of attire. If I had known what was in
was the same and they were undoubtedly store for me I would have come arrayed in
women. I began to wonder if I had wan¬ the most regal vestment that a theatrical
dered into the grounds of a young ladies’ costumer could supply. As it was, I wore
finishing-school which specialized in a pair of flannel trousers, picturesquely
physical culture on classical lines. bagged at the knees and fringed at the
bottoms, and a tweed sports coat that had
The girl in the saffron-hued robe said
seen better days—a good many better
something to the others in which I dis¬
tinctly caught the word "Earth,” where¬ days—to say the honest truth. Alto¬
gether I must have presented a spectacle
upon they crowded round me, subjecting
my clothes, and finally myself, to a scru¬ far more curious than beautiful.

tiny that was distinctly embarrassing to a But the Martian populace were easily
bashful man. I had neglected to shave pleased. They flocked toward me from
that morning, and my stubbly beard was every side, and by the time I had reached
the star turn of the show. One after the one of the broader thoroughfares my ad¬
other, and sometimes two at the same vance had become a sort of triumphal
time, they insisted on stroking my cheeks progress along the center of the way, with
and chin with their hands in a manner not a densely packed mass of people on either
usually indulged in—at least not in public side.
 THE PLANET OF PEACE 67

There were several points about that entry she was engaged in listening atten¬
crowd which struck me as being curious. tively to a stream of words in the Martian
There were no police or other officials to language that issued from a trumpet-
keep order; no one Martian seemed to mouth which formed part of the desk. As
have any more authority than the others; we came forward she stretched out her
and, though I scanned their faces and fig¬ hand to a lever and the voice abruptly
ures as narrowly as I could, I could not ceased. I strongly suspect that the voice
detect a single member of that immense had been informing her of my advent, for
throng that belonged to the male sex. she showed no surprize when she turned
Slowly but surely the staggering convic¬ and looked at me. I on my part was busy
tion was forced on my mind. Mars was a taking in every detail of her dress and
planet inhabited solely by women. appearance.
Judged by earthly standards her age ap¬
M y arrival at what for want of a bet¬ peared to be about thirty, but maybe it
was the tranquil majesty of her expres¬
ter name 1 must call the Headquar¬
ters of the City was marked with much ex¬ sion, rather than any actual indications of
citement but with a total absence of cer¬ the passage of time, that made her seem
emony. Led by the saffron-robed girl, I so old. During my progress through the
mounted the steps and entered the open city I had been struck by the fact that the
door of the immense central building standard of personal beauty among the
with as little ceremony as 1 should have Martians was unusually high, but the
entered a public library on earth. loveliness of this regal creature easily sur¬
I caught a fleeting glimpse of a large passed any I had hitherto seen. Her
hall, well proportioned and imposing, height was a little above the medium, and
though not oppressively so; then my guide her figure, lightly draped in a robe of
steered me along a corridor and up a shimmering wine-color that deepened to
staircase, and presently we passed beneath a rich purple in its folds, was slender and
a low arch and entered a smaller room. I exquisitely molded. The only indication
may here place on record the fact that of her rank was the narrow fillet of gold
never once during my stay did I see a door which encircled her short, dark hair. But
that was capable of being closed. she needed no diadem to proclaim her
queenly status, for her carriage and ex¬
The room was very sparsely furnished,
pression betokened one born to command.
yet it was so well-proportioned and taste¬
fully decorated that it appeared far from For perhaps a minute she stood eyeing
bare. At first I was much puzzled by the me in silence, a slight smile playing about
fact that, although it had no windows, the the curves of her full, red lips. Then
light with which it was flooded was al¬ came a thing so incredible that I hesitate
most as strong as in the open air. Pres¬ to set it down lest it should impugn the
ently, however, I perceived that the veracity of this plain statement of facts.
gleaming white stone of which it was con¬ "Good afternoon, everybody,” she said
structed was in itself semi-transparent, so in the carefully enunciated Oxford accent
that the sunlight actually penetrated the of a radio announcer. "The Queen of
walls and ceiling. Mars calling the Messenger from Earth.
At the farther end of the room a Are you from 2LO or 5XX? I should be
woman was seated at a bronze desk-like glad to hear your News Bulletin-copy¬
arrangement of fantastic design. On our right - by - Reuter - Press - Association -
68 WEIRD TALES

and-Central News.” She pronounced the few pertinent questions, and found her by
final ten words as though they were one. no means unwilling to talk. Bidding me
Now, I’ve met with a few knockdown be seated, she told me many surprizing
surprizes in my life, but never have I ex¬ tilings. Taken on the whole, her English
perienced such a shock as when I heard was very clear and concise, but now and
that radiant, queenly creature begin to again I had to help her out with a word
talk after the manner of a two-valve re¬ or suggestion, especially toward the end
ceiving-set. of her explanation.
"You understand our Earthly lan¬ The recorded history of Mars, I learnt,
guage?” I cried in amazement. covered a period of nearly two million
The Martian queen nodded her shapely years. In some of its earlier phases it
head and laughed. formed a striking parallel to the history of
"I’ll say I do. We’ve been trying to our own planet. There were the same
communicate with your planet for years alternate periods of warfare and peaceful
and years, but either your instruments are progress; the same succession of nations
not sensitive enough to receive our sig¬ dominant for a while, then decaying and
nals, or else you have set them down to sinking into oblivion as each in turn was
some amateur wireless joker trying to pull conquered. At first they fought merely
your leg. But we have listened to your for the sake of plunder; then for aggran¬
radio broadcasts all the time, and by de¬ dizement and love of power; but in the
grees we have compiled a vocabulary and end their wars were waged for possession
grammar of your language.” of the dwindling water supply as the shal¬
My heart sank and I felt myself going low Martian seas had shrunk and finally
red all over. If this divine creature had disappeared. Gradually the nature of the
based her estimate of earthly intelligence warfare changed with die changing condi¬
on some wireless programs that I had tions. Hitherto it had been a struggle of
heard put over, she must inevitably look nation against nation, but when the only
upon me as belonging to a race of mor¬ remaining bodies of water were those
ibund half-wits. locked up for the greater part of the year
Gently but firmly I explained to her in the polar ice-fields, it became a life-
that the apex of human aspirations was and-death struggle of the whole popula¬
not represented by the mentality of the tion against drought.
British Broadcasting Company. She ap¬
peared to grasp my point with surprizing Long before the dawn of our own his¬
quickness. tory—maybe long before the first terres¬
"I understand,” she said, nodding and trial man had chipped his first rude im¬
regarding me more kindly. "The stuff we plement of flint—the Martian engineers
have been listening to is merely intended had planned and constructed the gigantic
for those of your race who are not suffi¬ system of canals capable of tapping the
ciently intelligent to read a book.” polar ice-caps as they melted every year,
and conveying the precious fluid to the
I was in no mood for long, involved ex¬ more temperate regions where, directly
planations, so I did not attempt to con¬ and indirectly, it could be turned to ac¬
tradict her. I was more anxious to learn count to render the otherwise arid deserts
about the conditions of life on Mars than capable of supporting life. This war
to waste time in trying to gage the mental against natural forces was the greatest,
make-up of the average radio fan. I put a the most prolonged, and the most desper-
 THE PLANET OF PEACE <59

ate war that the Martians ever waged. for him is greatest, and dwindle when the
They were fighting for their very existence community no longer needs his protecting
as a race, and they knew it. It was in¬ presence. On Earth the birth statistics
deed "a war to end war” in a much truer during the recent Great War led to this
sense than was the empty slogan with fact being dimly recognized, though not
which our earthly ears have been tickled completely understood. And the law of
within recent years. And when in the end gravitation is not more universal or far-
they had triumphed, they found to their reaching than the law of utility. An or¬
surprize that the last Martian war had ganism, be it mammoth or microbe, that
been fought. no longer fulfills its intended purpose is
The more backward races of the planet no longer perpetuated or even tolerated in
had been exterminated in the struggle for the economy of nature. Fallen from his
continued existence; the more enlightened high estate, man had disappeared from
had co-operated and fused during their Mars as completely as the mammoth and
exertions for the common good. They dinosaur had disappeared from the sur¬
had conquered their bitterest, their most face of the Earth.
implacable enemy, Death; and henceforth
they were at peace. I t was perhaps inevitable that there
should occur several baffling and irrita¬
And for untold ages peace reigned on
ting gaps at this stage of the narrative.
that happy planet. Generation after gen¬
The stock of words at the disposal of my
eration saw the light and passed away not
informant consisted only of those which
knowing the meaning of the word "strug¬
had been gleaned from radio programs,
gle,” for in that artificial Utopia they had
and the vocabulary thus acquired, though
not even to struggle to live. Brain power
sufficiently varied and flexible for the dis¬
took the place of brute strength as a de¬
cussion of ordinary subjects, proved but a
ciding factor in the march of progress; the
poor vehicle in which to convey the ex¬
female no longer needed the combative
planation of the several vital points that
male to provide her with the necessities of
puzzled me. I was, for instance, very
life. From a servile slave or a pampered
curious to know how the continuity of the
plaything, woman became to all intents
Martian race had been effected after the
and purposes the effective equal of man.
last man had become extinct. But here
Then indeed did it seem as if the acme my informant’s vocabulary became tanta-
of Martian bliss had been reached. The lizingly meager and limited—which was
desert blossomed like a rose in literal not to be wondered at, considering that
truth, and there was enough for all with a human biology is a subject not usually re¬
minimum of effort. The fortunate people garded with favor by the directors of
of these ages revelled in a paradise of radio programs. I hesitate to place on rec¬
plenty. ord a theory that may be due to misunder¬
But nature, ever patient, ever watchful, standing on my part, but I gained the im¬
was but biding her time for a great crush¬ pression that on Mars synthetic chemistry
ing revenge on those who flouted her im¬ has reached heights as yet only dimly
mutable laws. Not for mere caprice had glimpsed by the most daring of our own
the fighting male been called into exist¬ scientists.
ence; not by mere chance is it decreed that But, quite apart from details that
his numbers shall increase in proportion would be of interest only to professional
to the female population when the need biologists, the great fact remained that
70 WEIRD TALES

Mars had paid dearly for her state of per¬ a thing as remote as were the circling orbs
petual peace. Woman had grasped sov¬ of space. Yet she did not even pretend to
ereignty only to find her prize turn to misunderstand my meaning.
ashes in her hands. Undisputed queen like the first flush of dawn in a sky
though she was, her kingdom was piti¬ that has been shrouded in eternal night, a
fully barren of all save the material needs wave of deep crimson crept up the ivory
of life. The Planet of Peace had become of her shapely throat until it dyed her
a world devoid of human love.... cheeks with its glowing color. Like a

A ll this the queen of Mars told me,

. and maybe much more; for in the
proud lily bowing before the gale it was
not fitted to withstand, her supple body
swayed toward me. I felt her arms about
end my thoughts wandered and I found me; her warm lips, trembling with an
myself paying more attention to the speak¬ emotion that was not fear, on mine. . . .
er than to the halting phrases which fell Then, like a faulty cinema film which
from her lips. breaks off at the most engrossing part of
Was it merely my conceited fancy, or the drama, the whole scene vanished into
was there really a subtle undertone of dense, impenetrable blackness.
tenderness in her voice as she spoke of the
starved affections, the thwarted yearnings
of her loveless people? Hitherto I had
W hbn next I opened my eyes I did
not commit the usual solecism by
been so engrossed in the purely scientific asking "Where am I?” I knew the answer
side of her epitome of Martian history to that question only too well!
that I had quite lost sight of its personal I was in the untidy workshop of the
aspect. Now, with a thrill of keenest ex¬ little bungalow at the end of the Sussex
citement, I realized for the first time the village street. The bungalow idiot with
stupendous possibilities that lay within the bald head was just in the act of re¬
my grasp. However insignificant a mem¬ turning his watch to his pocket.
ber I might be of the community I had "Your six hours are up, my young
recently quitted, here the crown of an em¬ friend,” he said cheerfully. "I took care
pire—nay, of the whole planet!—was to switch you back to Earth right on the
mine for the taking. And as I looked exact minute. Did you have an interest¬
into the beautiful face of the Martian ing experience?”
queen, never did kingship seem so desir¬ I fear my immediate reply was not
able a thing. much to the point. Presently I grew
I spoke no word of love, but some¬ calmer. "I want to go back to Mars,” I
thing of my emotion must have communi¬ told him bluntly. "And I want to stay
cated itself to her; for gradually she fell there for good.”
silent, and sat, her rounded bosom lifting "Do you?” He eyed me strangely as
and falling rapidly, her frank eyes mutely he stroked his chin. "May I be permitted
questioning mine. to ask why you are so eager to take up
"I came here to seek knowledge of an¬ your permanent abode there?”
other world,” I said, lamely enough, "but Like a simpleton, I related everything
I have found something more.” And I that had happened, down to the smallest
raised her unresisting hand to my lips. detail that I could remember.
The poet who extolled the external "You strike me as being a remarkably
power of love wrote truer than he knew. quick worker, young man,” he observed
To her the tender passion must have been dryly when I had finished. "In six hours
 THE PLANET OF PEACE 71

you had won—or were on the point of Galvanized into action, I crossed the
winning—a kingdom and a beautiful room at a single lunge.
bride. It is a destiny that any one might "You cur!” I yelled in futile rage.
well envy you. King of a planet!—un¬ At my first sign of movement he had
disputed lord of an entire world!” slid the starting-lever over to its fullest
For a while he paced the room, softly extent. The sound of a mocking laugh
muttering the last words to himself over mingled with the now familiar humming
and over again. If I had guessed what
note of the machine. One instant I
was in his mind I should have choked the caught a fleeting glimpse of his faint,
life out of him there and then. But I was ghost-like figure crouching in the chair.
too much engrossed in my own rosy The next, my hands were vainly clutching
dreams to attempt to gage the possible ef¬ at empty air.
fect that my revelation might have on
Enraged almost to madness, I flung my¬
another man. Even when he at length
self recklessly on the still faintly droning
came to a halt and seated himself in the
machine and tore at random at the intri¬
chair of the Ego-Projector, I had no sus¬
cate array of levers and switches, con¬
picion of his intended treachery. Blind,
scious only of a fixed desire to drag the
doubly blind fool that I was!
traitor back to Earth and deal with him
"It would certainly seem, my young
as he deserved. A voice, which I dimly
friend, that between us you and I have
recognized as my own, was uttering
stumbled on a great thing,” he said,
threats and curses.
thoughtfully fingering the levers of the
machine. "It has always been my idea "Once let me get to grips with him—
that the greatest drawback of this world man to man-”
of ours is the lack of scope it offers to a A flash of vivid purple flame leapt from
man of real original genius. Yes, my the mechanism at which I was blindly
friend, lack of scope,” he repeated the fumbling. The thud of a mighty concus¬
phrase, with a kind of savage gusto. sion smote my ears. Impelled by what
"Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Napoleon, felt like a blow administered by the fist of
Tamerlane—in fact, every talented super¬ a giant, I staggered back and fell head¬
man—had to win his way slowly and with long across the chaotic mass of twisted
infinite toil, through opposing armies be¬ brass and fused and tangled wires which
fore he made himself master of some in¬ was all that remained of the Ego-Pro¬
significant part of the earth. Unlike jector.
them, the next man who visits Mars will, Slowly I rose to my feet and, steadying
without striking a single blow, be master myself by grasping a leg of the overturned
of a whole planet! Pray accept my sin¬ table, I looked out through the shattered
cere thanks for having demonstrated that window and groaned aloud in the bitter¬
fact so clearly, my young friend. And to ness of my hopeless disappointment.
those thanks it only remains for me to add Poised high in the heavens, aloof, ma¬
one single word-” He paused, a grin jestic, and as yet undimmed by the blanch¬
of sardonic triumph creasing his pallid ing of the coming dawn, but glowing
features; then shouted loudly, "Farewell!” with the soft radiance of a rose-tinted
Then only did I sense his foul purpose. jewel for ever beyond my reach, the Plan¬
He was about to project himself to Mars et of Peace rode serenely on its appointed
and claim the prize that rightly should path, seeming to mock my misery across
be mine. the now unpassable void of space.
 Vhef7 r
C/ity of
Crawling Death
By HUGH B. CAVE
Ants—droves of them—as big as panthers—ants that made slaves
of men and threatened civilization with destruction

| "I HERE axe two things,” the "And the ants,” urged Trench, "do
I Portygee said, "that we don’t try they always leave?”
to fight against—not in this rot¬ "Always. They come and go.”
ten country. One of them is fever.” The Portygee lifted his hands descrip¬
Raould Trench dropped into a chair tively, portraying in his native fashion the
beside him on the veranda of the frame entrance and exit of droves of ants. As
hotel. It was hot, even for the Amazon he did so, a figure moved quietly from the
region. Too hot to do anything but sit shadows of the hotel door and came
around in the shade and stare at the river. across the veranda—a tall, rangy chap—
The town of Alemquer, six days slow Englishman, presumably—who leaned on
travel up-river, was a smoldering fur¬ the flimsy railing and faced the two men
nace. stolidly.
"And the other?” Trench said indif¬ "Always?” he said, and there was a
ferently. suggestive smile on his thin lips. "No.
The Portygee lifted his shoulders in a Not always.”
slight shrug. Even conversation was dif¬ The Portygee shrugged his shoulders
ficult. again. Trench, sensing further relief
"Ants,” he said. Then, after a pause: from the monotony of the expedition—an
"They come, they go. That is an old say¬ expedition which, moreover, had been fos¬
ing in this region. When they come, the tered by the Museum of Natural History,
natives move out of the house. When and so was doubly monotonous—looked
they go, the natives move in again and the quietly at the stranger and said:
house is stripped clean of everything eat¬ "You mean they sometimes take pos¬
able. No bugs, no jiggers or cockroaches. session for a good length of time?”
Just—clean.” "I mean they take possession for ever.
Trench moved his chair closer. Since Not all kinds of ants, of course, but the
he had started on this expedition to the one particular horde I’m speaking of.
Guaramadema River, along with Professor There are ants and ants, my friend. Did
Heinrich Murgusson, he had heard noth¬ you ever hear of the Manuel Reja?”
ing but scientific prattle. True, that sort Trench had not. For the past six days
of thing was to be expected from the pro¬ Trench had heard nothing but science and
fessor, but six days of it had proved to be bugs, and the possibility that somewhere
frightfully nerve-racking. Here was a in this region of fever and slow death
chance to get into more interesting conver¬ Doctor Richard Lord might be discovered.
sation. Lord had come down this way some two
72
 THE CITY OF CRAWLING DEATH [73

years ago on research work for the muse¬ orders, and those orders were the stran¬
um. He had never returned. Somewhere gest ever given. Upon the Batemo branch
on the Amazon or on the Rio Negro, or of the Guaramadema there was a little col¬
possibly on the Guaramadema, he had ony called Badama. A white man’s col¬
vanished utterly. And there was a chance ony. The place had been infested with
—or at least Murgusson said there was— ants, and the Manuel Reja was ordered
that he might be found. Murgusson had up there to clean them out. Maybe you
never faced the impenetrable jungles of heard about that trip. It’s history around
the Amazon! these parts.”
But Trench had never heard of the Trench nodded. Now that the stranger
Manuel Reja. The name carried a faint had mentioned some of the details, he did
trace of familiarity, but he could not remember the story. Something about a
place it, plague of big ants. And this fellow, then,
"She was a Brazilian gunboat,” the would be the Englishman, Carstairs, who
stranger went on. "Steamed up here had come back from that adventure.
about three years ago under Captain Riel- "You’re Henry Carstairs, then?” he
la, a Creole. We went up-river under asked casually.
74 WEIRD TALES

"I’m Carstairs. Yes, I’m the fool who different kind of ants this time. Drivers.
went with Riella on that mad expedition, When the drivers make for your house,
to wipe out a handful of ants. I can see you get out. If you stayed you’d be
him now, the way he raved when he got dragged down by a million tiny insects
the orders. 'Ants!’ he yelled. "Damn and completely eaten.”
dem all to eternidy! What can one man Trench got out of his chair and stood
do against dem? Dey come, dey go, dey facing his companion very quietly for an
stop for no man!’ ” instant.
Carstairs chuckled at the memory. The "And these gigantic ants in Badama,”
chuckle died, then, as the recollection be¬ he questioned, "are they still there?”
came more acute and began to include Carstairs laughed. The laugh itself
more sinister things. was suggestive.
"The short of it is,” he said abruptly, "I haven’t been back. Once was enough
"the Manuel Reja never carried out those for me. If you’re down here in the inter¬
orders. Oh, we got to the settlement all ests of science, you ought to investigate.
right. No trouble about that. But we When you come back—if you do—let me
found the place completely wiped out, in know about it, will you? I’m rather in¬
possession of an army of ants as big as terested in how far those damned things
your fist. There was a battle and the ants have progressed in three years!”
won—that’s about all. When we came
back we left half of our native crew dead Raould trench went into the hotel
behind us.” . shack alone. As he strolled through
Trench recognized the story as the one the empty lower hall, the Englishman’s
he had heard. Even now, however, he words persisted in coming back to him.
was slow to believe. His half-smile re¬ He could think of only one thing. Could
vealed his doubts and caused Carstairs to there be any connection between this re¬
lean suddenly toward him. The English¬ ported tribe of gigantic ants and the dis¬
man’s face was not pleasant. appearance of Doctor Richard Lord?
"You don’t know anything about ants, Could it be that Lord, too, had heard the
do you, my friend?” he said curtly. story of the ant-city and had fought his
"Very little,” Trench admitted. way into their captured settlement of Ba¬
"Ants are like men,” said Carstairs. dama?
"Organized devils with armies and lead¬ That night, in his room, Trench leaned
ers. There’s a certain species prominent over the table and told the story to Pro¬
in this region that can build nests more fessor Murgusson. He told it from start
than a hundred yards wide. We call to finish, just as the Englishman, Car¬
them the leaf-cutters. They fight on the stairs, had narrated it. When he had fin¬
slightest pretext, and when they fight, ished, he said quietly:
their leaders urge them on. Those lead¬ "You think, professor, that the yam
ers don’t bite a man in the lower part of may have something to do with Doctor
his body; they climb to the neck and draw Lord’s failure to return? Do you?”
blood.” Murgusson’s eyes—dark, penetrating
Carstairs drew back the sleeve of his eyes sunk in a thick-jowled bearded face
shirt with a significant gesture. His arm, —came up slowly and stared without
bronzed almost to native hue, was a mass blinking.
of ancient scars. "I should go to Badama anyway.
"Ants did that,” he said quietly. "A Trench,” he said deliberately, "even if
 THE CITY OF CRAWLING DEATH 75
Doctor Lord had never existed. Perhaps Trench’s questions with the same mum¬
we shall find a trace of him. Perhaps we bled words: “It will be needed, Trench,
shall find only ants. Are you prepared to before we are back again in Alemquer!”
leave?” Trench turned back to the shore. Gay-
Trench nodded. The stagnant heat of colored birds were darting in and out of
Alemquer was driving him mad, along the semi-gloom. A huge black and white
with its interminable flies and leeches and winged creature, vaguely related to the
crawling things. He would have been hombilt, flopped from the bank and vol¬
glad to go anywhere. planed over the cuberta, eyeing the boat
with ghoulish, dissipated orbs. Some¬
A nd so, three days later, an oversized
i. native cuberta, fitted in the waist
thing heavy and cumbersome splashed in
the near-by reeds.
with a tiny thatch cabin, moved between The boat snaked on, now beneath a
the close shores of the upper Batemo. The blur of open sky, now under a drooling
little, deserted monastery-building at canopy of violent green aroideae, obscene¬
jMoju, overgrown by the in-creeping jun¬ ly shaped and hideous. And presently,
gle, had appeared and vanished; and the noticing something more, Trench stared
cuberta crawled sluggishly on into unbro¬ intently.
ken jungle blackness. For a long while he stared, and for a
Here the white man had not penetrated long while he said nothing. Then, after
except to be driven back with relentless peering at a certain distant point for
regularity. Here was a noisy, sinister pit nearly five minutes, he called softly to the
of gloom. And beyond—some thirty- Portygee.
odd kilometers up-stream, according to "Manuelo, come here a minute.
Carstairs—lay the domain of the ants. Quickly!”
"We are nearly there,” the Portygee The Portygee scrambled over the floor
said indifferently. "If the Englishman of the boat like a startled monkey. With
was speaking the truth, Badama is not far both hands he took the glasses that Trench
ahead.” held out to him. He turned eagerly in the
Trench turned from his study of the direction of Trench’s outstretched hand
shore. He could see the Portygee squat¬ and adjusted the "far-away-eyes” to his
ting in the bow, and somehow the sight sight. For a while he too said nothing.
of him brought a sense of quiet relief. Then:
The fellow was big and stolid, with a "Ants,” he said simply.
careless lade of interest that was reassur¬ “I thought so,” Trench nodded.
ing. Trench was gladder than ever that “Ants. Waiting for us.”
he had picked the man up in Alemquer They were waiting. A few moments
and brought him along as guide. He had later, when the cuberta had groped a
already proved his worth in leading the quarter of the remaining distance. Trench
expedition without error in its tortuous could see without the aid of the glasses.
route up-river. The jungle broke apart there on the op¬
Professor Murgusson had been little posite bank, and a little clearing lined
help. Even now he was in the cabin, the shore. An ancient landing-place,
working over the infernal gun-like instru¬ long decayed, jutted into the black water.
ment which he had insisted on bringing Without a doubt the desolate little amphi¬
along. For the entire three days he had theater marked all that was left of the
puttered over it, answering every one of former settlement of Badama.
76 WEIRD TALES

But was it desolate? The landing- knows what they will do. Rush us, prob¬
place—in fact the entire waterfront—was ably. We shall have to plan an organ¬
lined with breastworks as high as a tall ized attack.”
man’s shoulders. And the breastworks The clumsy boat became motionless.
were alive with watching eyes—eyes that Now, from where he stood, Trench could
were glaring with murderous malignity in see the ant-things distinctly. They were
the direction of the approaching cuberta! ants, surely, but those glittering eyes and
deliberate movements belonged to no spe¬
The craft snaked slowly toward them,
cies he had ever before heard of. The
creating hardly a murmur in the murky
twin antennae were like flexible swords,
water. In another moment Trench had
risen to his feet and was gazing with wide more than six feet long. Their heads
were triangular in shape, and fitted with
eyes at the outer fortress. The words of
fanged jaws—jaws that seemed to be
the Englishman, Carstairs, recurred to him
continually half open, as if waiting to
with their full significance: "I’m inter¬
crunch shut.
ested in how far those damned things
They moved along the breastworks with
have progressed in three years!”
military watchfulness. Every head—and

C arstairs had described the ants as

there were dozens of them—was turned
toward the cuberta. Every eye was fixed
gigantic, big as a man’s fist. But
balefully. And they kept guard with a
these things, these creatures waiting be¬
quiet stolidity, a quiet indifference, that
hind the breastworks, were as massive and
revealed their absolute confidence in their
as savage as pumas! Trench could see
ability to turn back the two-legged things
them pacing back and forth, back and
that approached them.
forth, with machine-like regularity as they
And then, with a sudden trembling
crossed the occasional open spaces. They
jerk, Trench’s arm flung out, pointing to
did not move with the continuous scurry¬
the clearing beyond the barricade.
ing eagerness of ordinary ants; their every
"Good God, look!” he cried hoarsely.
action was deliberate and premeditated.
"Look! A white man!”
"They are ready to resist us,” said a
Murgusson stepped forward abruptly,
quiet voice. "I’ve seen ants before.
gasping. With tense, drawn face he
Trench, and big ones, but never this kind.
stared past the row of tiger-ants and fixed
In addition to being monstrous in size,
his gaze on the settlement beyond. Half
they seem to be endowed with brains!”
a dozen native huts were still standing in
Trench turned abruptly. Behind him, silent evidence of the tragedy that had
staring intently at the shore, stood Pro¬ emptied them. Between them ran well-
fessor Murgusson. The professor had beaten paths, curiously trampled by the
evidently left his machine for an instant feet of the ant dwellers. And there, stand¬
to come silently on deck, and now he too ing at the end of one of the paths, framed
was studying the captured village of Ba- in the doorway of the farthest hut of all,
dama. The cuberta, moving inshore was a dishevelled white man. His arm
under the slow impetus of the Portygee’s was half lifted in a feeble salute.
paddle, drew nearer and nearer to the For a single instant he stood there, star¬
bank, until hardly ten feet of open water ing at the boat. Then, as he stumbled
lay before it. forward with a harsh, jangling outcry, a
"Stop!” Murgusson said curtly. "We writhing tentacle curled out of the dark¬
can’t go on. If we touch the shore, God ness behind him and twisted about his
 THE CITY OF CRAWLING DEATH 177,

throat, jerking him back out of sight. ver was thrust into his fingers. He heard
From the interior of the hut came a six¬ the lurid scream of warning that spewed
legged devil, jerking the heavy door shut from the Portygee’s lips. And then,
with one of its powerful antennae. across the narrow stretch of shore between
Trench had stepped back in horror. landing and breastworks, came the maca¬
The very sight of what had just happened bre defenders of Badama.
—the sight of a white slave in the clutches They came in close formation, half a
of these ant-men—had sent a sickening hundred of the uncanny monsters. Mur-
dread through him. And Murgusson’s gusson dropped to his knees in the bot¬
shrill words, coming almost immediately tom of the boat, firing into them as they
afterward, did not lessen his nausea. advanced with uncanny swiftness. Trench
"Trench—that—that poor fellow was stood upright, the professor’s revolver in
Doctor Lord! God help him—in the one hand and his own in the other, both
clutches of these frightful insects!" guns belching flame. And as ne fired, a
Trench could not answer. He was sharp command burst from his lips.
barely conscious of what was going on "Away from the shore. Quids! Man¬
about him. He knew, as though from a uelo!’’
great distance, that Manuelo had drawn a The Portygee, stumbling forward in the
knife from his belt and was crouching in bow, attempted to comply. His hands
the bow of the boat. And the cuberta, closed over the paddle and he pressed it
released from the restraining hold of the frantically against the wooden landing
Portygee’s rigid paddle, had drifted with with a mighty heave. His move was
a dull impact against the wooden landing. swift, quick enough to send the cuberta
But all this was a background for the swirling out again into the semi-stagnant
sickly fear that gripped him. Doctor water. But it was too slow to save the un¬
Richard Lord—lost in the jungle for two fortunate man from the first of his charg¬
awful years—a slave in the domain of the ing assailants.
ants! Good God! he had heard of ants that Even as the boat shot back to safety, a
made slaves of other, smaller ants; but to huge insect sprang into the bow, a mon¬
come upon a tribe of hideous insects that ster, three feet in height, with coiled six-
had captured a human being and made a foot body. A pair of whip-like tentades
helpless prisoner of him- lashed about the middle of the Portygee’s
Trench shuddered. More and more he defenseless body. With an abject moan
was beginning to feel, to know, that these of terror the fellow was jerked into the
gigantic ants were no longer insects. air, clear of the careening deck, and hurled
True, they were fashioned like their tiny back upon the landing.
brethren, with six crooked legs and the Trench whirled about. As the mad¬
customary head, thorax, and belly. But dened creature sprang toward him, a bul¬
by some ghastly trick of evolution they let from his revolver streaked into the
had developed minds! They had become snarling jaws. A second bullet, released
human creatures with the shapes of in¬ as he fell backward out of reach of the
sects! They were horribles! flailing antannae, buried itself in the ant's
head between those glittering orbs. The
T he heavy jolt of the boat, as it struck
the landing, brought Trench back to
thing stopped abruptly and doubled up
with a sharp hiss, and began to claw at
the danger of the movement. He felt the itself with its six great legs. And then a
professor’s hand touch his, and a revol¬ third bullet, this time from the professor’s
78 WEIRD TALES

gnu, caused it to lurch sideways on the But Murgusson had already begun his
deck and tie still. scheme of action. When Trench turned
And the cuberta was safe. More than to face him, bewildered by the professor’s
twenty feet of black water, sinister and failure to answer, the deck was aban¬
opaque, lay between it and die shore; and doned. In the little cabin in the waist,
the breach was slowly widening as the Murgusson was bending intently over a
boat drifted sluggishly down-stream. camp-stool, fumbling with a tiny bit of
Trench and the professor stood rigid, mechanism.
staring. Neither spoke. Neither had any Outside, the cuberta had drifted against
desire to stop the craft’s progress. On the an outjutting arm of jungle. Some few
bank of the settlement crouched a military thousand yards below the clearing of hor¬
line of silent horrors, waiting. ror, it hung silently against the shore,
And the Portygee—he had fallen heav¬ swaying lazily in the slow current.
ily upon the landing, full in die path of
die onrushing ants. Blindly he bad A n hour later Trench had cleared the
struggled to his knees, only to have a i- deck. With the aid of a heavy piece
whirling antenna whip him backward. of wood from the bank, he had dislodged
Savage, spider-like legs had coiled about the dead contorted body of the ant-mon¬
his body. Like a fly, helpless and squirm¬ ster and pushed it over the side into the
ing in terror, he had been dragged swiftly sluggish water, where the current sucked
through the breastworks and into the set¬ it from sight. Now, as he stood on the
tlement. With great speed he had been narrow deck looking down at the resultant
carried along the beaten paths directly swirl below him, the professor called soft¬
to the prison hut which harbored that ly from the cabin.
ether terrified victim. And strangely "There is just one plan open to us,”
enough, from the moment of his capture Murgusson said abruptly, when Trench
—from the moment that first tentacle had had reached his side. "It depends entire¬
touched his body and jerked him back— ly on the instrument I’ve been laboring to
he had uttered no outcry* perfect. Lode here.”
In the cuberta, now many hundreds of Trench glanced down at the canvas-
feet distant, Raould Trench mowed cau¬ topped stool. Upon it lay a heavy wood¬
tiously toward the contorted body of the en box—a square thing of greenish metal,
dead monster. He bent over it to turn it sealed on all sides, with a narrow lens¬
with his foot, and the professor’s warning like aperture in front
words came sharply across the deck be¬ “Know anything about light waves?”
hind him. Murgusson demanded.
"Careful, Trench! The thing may be “Not much,” Trench shrugged.
shamming. It may possess some frightful "You know the colors of the visible
poison. Let it alone!” spectrum.” The professor looked up with
Trench’s foot, groping forward, was a show of impatience. "You know the
drawn bade suddenly. Staring at the range of colors from red to violet, don’t
thing on the deck, he spoke without look¬ you? Of course you do, man!”
ing up. "Well—I probably-”
"What are we to do? The Portygee— "Colors are caused by vibrations of
Doctor Lord—we can’t leave them in this ether waves, Trench. But we don’t know
awful village. We can’t go back and the extent of those waves, you see? And
leave them—slaves—in a city of—ants.” because we don’t, it’s natural to suppose
 THE CITY OF CRAWLING DEATH 79

that an invisible spectrum exists, contain¬ chine, Trench. A machine! You don’t
ing shorter and longer waves than the understand. You wouldn’t. Haven’t
ones we’re familiar with.” studied enough. But the barrel of the
Trench nodded. It seemed foolish— Maxim is lined with more prisms. Re¬
utterly ridiculous—to stand here and lis¬ flectors. Death, Trench!”
ten to Murgusson’s habitual scientific prat¬ The professor half turned in his seat.
tle, when so much had to be done. There His eyes were afire with a fanatical glint.
was danger at hand. Awful danger. And He peered up at his companion and
Doctor Richard Lord, in the fiendish laughed harshly; and as he did so, Trench
clutches of- saw the outline of a blue metallic thing
"Not all waves are light waves, under the table. A dismantled machine-
Trench.” Murgusson tapped a finger on gun. He felt a sudden sense of relief, of
the wooden box. "At one end of the confidence in the man beside him. Yet
great scale are the long Hertzian waves. even with that relief came a sense of help¬
Then waves of radiant heat, which we can lessness. Murgusson was a scientist, im¬
measure with certain delicate instruments. practical, queer-minded. In an emerg¬
Then, even shorter, are the light waves, ency—
which have a mighty range within them¬ But Murgusson was on his feet, with
selves. You see-” his fingers locked in Trench’s shoulders.
But Trench was not listening. He was He was saying curtly:
staring at a metal cylinder which leaned "We must find a way into the settle¬
against the wall, in the corner. An open ment and get Doctor Lord and the Porty-
packing-case lay beside it on the floor. gee away. If we go back the way we
Evidently the professor had only just came, the monsters will be awaiting us.
opened it. Our only course is to creep into Badama
"The longest is the red,” Murgusson through the jungle and find an entrance
declared. "The shortest is the ultra-violet. to the prison hut. Then—we must face
So we used to think. But the X-ray is whatever comes. Are you brave, Trench?”
even shorter. For a long time we weren’t Trench nodded. Without further words
sure that it vibrated at all. It was the final the professor stepped out of the cabin.
achievement, destructive to sight, and to Methodically he made the cuberta fast to
some forms of bacteria. You know that, the shore, to prevent its drifting farther
don’t you?” down-stream. Then, glancing about him,
"Yes—I know.” he said simply:
"Then look here.” Murgusson pointed "Come.”
to the cylinder. "This is mercury vapor. Climbing to the bow, he swung him¬
Mercury vapor, Trench. You don’t know self over the side and dropped on hands
what that means. And in the box”—he and knees to a huge root of red man¬
jerked about again and indicated the grove. He did not turn, then, but
wooden box before him—"is a combina¬ crawled slowly to shore and vanished in
tion of glass prisms. Took me years to the deep reeds. There he waited until
arrange them. Three right-angles at Trench reached his side. Together, in
right-angles to each other. Dimensions, silence, they crept into the dense jungle.
Trench! Third, fourth, fifth—no telling!
Separate any ray I put through. When I I eading the way, the professor bore
connect the lens with that forty-pound straight inland, away from the river,
Maxim of ours, the machine-gun is a ma¬ into a stretch of black morass that had a
80 WEIRD TALES

moment before seemed impenetrable. the two white men crouched at the rim of
Here the ground underfoot was soft and the jungle. He touched the professor’s
sucking, filled with tiny green and black arm and pointed to it grimly.
vipers that wriggled through it with "Doctor Lord and Manuelo are there,”
amazing speed. Murgusson strode delib¬ he said. "We shall have to double back
erately on for perhaps three hundred through the jungle. The hut is almost
yards. Then, turning at right angles to in the shadow of the trees.”
the trail, he waited again for Trench to Murgusson agreed silently. Together
reach his side. the two men moved back into the gloom
and crept toward the hut. In the cap¬
’’From now on," he said quietly, ’’we’ll
tured village not one of the fiendish in¬
have to be as noiseless as ghosts. God
knows what faculties for hearing those habitants knew of their presence. The

devils have. If they find us here in the monsters continued to pace slowly back
and forth, without any sign of excitement.
jungle we shall be helpless. Come—
softly." An instant later Trench stepped softly
into the open, in the very shadow of the
This time the professor led the way
prison hut. Behind him came the pro¬
slowly and with infinite care. For two
fessor, with drawn gun. Together they
minutes he kept on, as silent as a prowl¬
crept mutely forward. . . .
ing cat. Then he stopped abruptly,
Was it an uncanny sense of hearing or
turned to the left, and pushed into a tan¬
of smell? Trench did not know. But be¬
gled labyrinth of creeping underbrush.
fore he had taken half a dozen steps for¬
And presently, through a network of huge
ward—before he had covered half the dis¬
reeds before him, lay the village of the
tance to the heavy door—a sudden growl¬
ants.
ing sound, almost inaudible, filled the
For the first time Trench and his com¬
clearing. Not one, but every one of the
panion saw the interior of that domain.
hideous creatures whirled abruptly about,
At the front, guarding the river shore,
facing the two intruders. Then, with
were the breastworks. A trench-like path
awful speed, they charged across the open
followed their entire length—a path that
space.
was filled now with slow-moving, watch¬
Ten feet separated Trench and $lurgus-
ing figures. Behind lay the open square
son from the door of the hut. What lay
of the village, with its few remaining huts.
beyond that door neither of them knew,
A maze of narrow paths crossed and re¬
but there was no other way of escape. It
crossed it.
was the prison hut or the jungle; and the
"They have progressed to a frightful jungle meant death—sudden, horrible
stage,” Murgusson whispered. "See— death in the grip of those writhing, hun¬
there are no signs of subterranean pas¬ gry tentacles.
sages. Their minds have developed far As he ran, Trench jerked the revolver
enough to permit them to live above from his pocket. He used it only once,
ground. They are no longer ants; they as he reached the door—to hurl a bullet
are animals. Animals with the brains of into the frothing mouth of the first of the
men.” pack. Then, whirling about, he wrenched
But Trench was staring at something open the barrier and stumbled inside.
else. His searching eyes had located the Behind him, staggering backward over
prison hut at the end of the clearing, the sill and firing frantically as he came,
hardly a dozen yards distant from where followed Professor Murgusson.
W. T.—5
 THE CITY OF CRAWLING DEATH 81

IT was over then, for the moment at "Good God,” Trench muttered. "Pro¬
least. Trench slammed the door shut fessor! Something’s wrong. Look
and threw his weight against it, just as die
hurtling body of one of the ant-monsters But it was not that. There was noth¬
struck it from the outside. The wooden ing wrong with the Portygee’s mind. He
barrier quivered under the shock, but shook his head feverishly. His lips
Trench’s feet were braced against the opened soundlessly, as if he were striving
uneven flooring. The creature outside to cry out. Weakly, helplessly, he glared
thudded to the ground. first at the silky web that enshrouded him,
Turning abruptly, Trench took in his then into Trench’s wide eyes.
surroundings. Side, dizzy, very much "Poisonous?” Trench rasped suddenly.
afraid, he clung to the door and stared; The fellow hesitated, then nodded
and the entire room whirled before him eagerly. Trench, with a quick move, tore
with its weird contents. There was Mur- a handkerchief from his shirt pocket and
gusson, standing in the middle of the leaned forward again. This time he
floor, facing the door. And beyond him, wrapped his hands before extending
in the shadow of the wall, lay two silent them; and this time Manuelo offered no
figures, both gazing with pitiful entreaty protest.
into Trench’s face. Manuelo, the Porty- The web was strong—stronger than the
gee, and Doctor Richard Lord. stoutest cord. Worse than that, it had no
opening, no knot, no beginning or end.
They were bound, but not with rope.
It was a single continuous thread wound
A thin, web-like substance extended over
around and around the unlucky fellow's
them and around them, and they lay on
body.
the floor, completely enmeshed in its
Trench groped for his knife. Without
awful coils. Like flies they were, in a
a word he slashed and hacked with his
spider’s den, stored away until their cap-
blade, relentlessly, taking infinite care that
tors should be hungry. And the sight
no part of the stuff should touch his fin¬
brought a feeling of intense nausea to
gers. And when he had finished at last,
the man who looked at them. He closed
the deadly web lay on die floor beside him,
his eyes with a violent shudder. Before
a sickly, sinuous mass, and the Portygee,
he could open them again. Professor Mur-
rubbing his body gingerly, stood upright.
gusson stood at his side, clutching his
And then Trench discovered the secret
arm.
of the man’s silence. With both hands
"We’ve got to get them out of here.
Manuelo was tearing at a fine silky thread
Trench. That stuff—holding them. If
that encircled his throat and lips. A single
we touch it, it may prove poisonous.
strand it was, wound so cunningly about
They’re not hurt. Merely bound up for
the man’s neck and mouth that he could
safe-keeping. Slaves!”
not utter a word. He tugged at it savage¬
Trench understood. Releasing the door ly, and a strange thing happened. His
suddenly, he went across the floor to the fingers, struggling with the cord, became
motionless form of the Portygee. There fixed to it, rigid and immovable, much the
he dropped to his knees, only to have the way a man’s tongue becomes frozen to
man writhe away from him. cold iron.
Trench stiffened, staring. He reached Once again Trench used his knife, this
out again, and again the man wriggled time to sever the torturing thread that en¬
frantically away. circled the Portygee’s windpipe. Again
W. T.—6
82 WEIRD TALES

he was careful not to touch his own fin¬ Trench and Murgusson stared in si¬
gers to it. When he had removed the lence. The Portygee muttered under his
web-like substance, the Portygee gasped breath. Doctor Lord clutched heavily at
heavily and extended his hands. The his throat, as if unable to realize the
hands, still attached to the thread, were power of speech. Leaning for support
helpless until Trench’s blade had freed against the wall, he said huskily:
them. "When you first came this morning,
There were tears in the man’s eyes then. they were leading me out to labor. I
He muttered a flow of incoherent words shouted to you. God knows how I found
in his own tongue. He stared about him the voice, but the effort nearly strangled
wildly. Seeing the mass of sinister web me. I rushed forward. Then they
on the floor, he pointed to it and seized dragged me back again; and I’ve been
Trench’s arm. here, wrapped like a mummy, ever since.
"It is horrible!” he cried. "No, no, Each day they bring me some carrion from
no—it is not poison. It sticks! If you the jungle—some carcass half eaten by
had touched it with your naked hands, worms and crawling things. They release
you would be like a butterfly in the web me while I eat it. They leave me alone
of a spider. It comes from their awful here then, and—and-”
bodies, and they spin it out with their
He stumbled to the center of the room.
legs-”
"Look!”
Trench looked down and shuddered.
Doctor Lord dropped to his knees and
Then quickly he turned to the professor,
tugged at a section of the rotten board
to find Murgusson assisting the second
floor. It came up slowly under the pull
victim to his feet. And that second un¬
of his fingers. Came up and away, re¬
fortunate, Doctor Lord, was struggling
vealing a black aperture that led down into
weakly to speak.
—nothing.
"Seventeen—months—Murgusson. Sev¬
enteen months I’ve been here. I came "Every day while I was free I worked

upon the place by accident. They seized on it,” he sobbed. "It was agony. I

me. I—I haven’t spoken a word—in all feared every moment they would come in

that time. They bound my throat with and discover me. Then, God knows what

their terrible gossamer and made me fiendish torture they would have inflicted.
dumb. Each night they wrap my body It—it is almost finished—now.”

up like a dead fly and leave me here. "A tunnel!” Trench, too, was sudden¬
Each morning they release me and lead me ly down on his knees, peering into the
into the village to slave for them.” gaping hole.
Doctor Lord lifted both clenched fists "Yes, a tunnel. It leads into the thickest
in a sudden surge of rage. part of the jungle where they will not dis¬
"It was I who built that damned barri¬ cover us. In another day or two I should
cade on the river front! It was I who have completed it and made my escape.
made the paths of this infernal place. It Then I should have fought my way
was I who did everything! Everything!” through the jungle on foot, keeping close
He lapsed into sudden silence. Then, to the river, until I reached some human
helplessly: "Twice I’ve had the fever and habitation. I should have-”
lived through it—worked it out of my "Have died in the attempt,” Murgus¬
system because they wouldn’t let me die. son finished simply.
God, it has been horrible!” Trench was still on his knees, feeling
 THE CITY OF CRAWLING DEATH 85

with his ami deep in the opening. Pro¬ mentalities are nearly as far advanced as
fessor Murgusson had stepped quietly to our own. If they found loose soil on the
the door of the hut, beside Manuek), and floor of the hut, or guessed what I was
was peering intently through a crack in doing, they would have-”
the boards. When he turned again to face He shuddered and stepped back abrupt¬
his companions, his lips were set in a thin, ly. Manuelo, at the door, said softly:
anxious line. "They are still waiting.”
"Waiting for us,” he said. "The whole
murderous tribe of them, pacing bade and
forth in the clearing, all watching this
A n hour must have passed after that.
- Twice Trench emerged from the tun¬
place as if it might suddenly jump and run nel and whispered words of encourage¬
away from them. Insects, with terrible ment. Murgusson stood impatiently at
bodies and cunning brains. What an un¬ the opening, talking to himself. M<hueio
holy combination!” kept watch. Doctor Lord paced back and
"They are swift as light with their six forth, back and forth, occasionally burst¬
legs,” Doctor Lord mumbled. "I have ing into incoherent speech.
seen them. Some of them, the workers, And then Trench appeared for the last
can jump nearly thirty feet. They have a time, caked with brown earth and crawl¬
queen who commands them, and soldiers ing wearily.
and workers, like—like the white ants of "It is through,” he said with an effort.
Africa. If they are not destroyed, they "I’ve finished it. The farther end opens
will eventually work their terrible way in the jungle floor, thirty feet from the
down the Amazon, over the whole of clearing. Come!”
South America. Then perhaps over the And at the same moment, with the fate
whole civilized world. They multiply at of four men in the balance, Manuelo gave
the rate of five hundred a year. When I the alarm. Even as Doctor Lord disap¬
came here, the entire tribe numbered peared into the passage with Trench grop¬
about three hundred. Now there are ing behind him, the Portygee, who had
more than a thousand of the dread things. been standing strangely silent at the bar¬
And there would be more—many more— rier, sprang suddenly back into the room.
but they fight among themselves to the "Quickly!” he cried. "They are com¬
death.” ing—in a rush!”
Murgusson left his place at the door Only Professor Murgusson was left in
and came slowly forward. Already Trench the hut with him. The others had van¬
had dropped on his stomach and wormed ished in the bowels of the earth, crawling
into the narrow tunnel. His voice came to safety. In a flash Murgusson tore a
faintly back from the inside, calling out loose board from the floor and ran to the
that he had reached the end of the passage door. Savagely he wedged the board
and was digging an outlet. against it—wedged it so solidly that only a
"It is narrow,” Doctor Lord said quiet¬ heavy shock from without could have dis¬
ly. "Each day, after I had scraped another lodged it. Already the Portygee had scur¬
foot of it, I had to carry the loose earth ried into the tunnel. And now, with a
back here and pack it under the floor swift glance at the onrushing horde out¬
where they would not discover it. At one side, Murgusson followed him.
time the hut stood on gnarled stilts above Only for an instant did the professor
the ground. Now I have packed all that hesitate. Only long enough to pull the
space in. They are uncanny, and their loose section of the floor back into place
84 WEIRD TALES

above him, hiding the mouth of the pas¬ death. What was more important, the
sage. Then, crawling quickly along the race was a short one, and the great
subterranean corridor, he left the prison strength of the pursuers gave them less
shack behind him. The last sound he advantage. They gained, but they gained
heard, as he struggled through the pas¬ slowly. Murgusson, the first to reach the
sage, was the crash of timbers as the an¬ side of the moored cuberta, was twenty
cient door of the hut hurtled inward. feet ahead of the first monster. And Doc¬
tor Lord, stumbling along on the support
T he darkness was impenetrable. Only
the sounds of the fugitives ahead of
of Trench’s shoulder, was less than five
feet from the groping tentacles that twist¬
him kept the professor from crawling ed savagely forward to seize him.
head foremost into a wall of earth. There Murgusson did not look back. Like a
was no sign of light—only silence behind cat, in spite of his bulk, he was across the
him and the scraping of human bodies deck and into the narrow cabin. There,
ahead. And then, after many minutes of in a single movement, he jerked the little
groping, Murgusson found himself at the wooden box into position and dragged
other end. Groping to his knees, then to forth the machine-gun. His fingers fum¬
his feet, he stood erect in the midst of a bled with the attachment.
tangle of underbrush. The village of the At the same moment the Portygee
ant horde lay some thirty feet distant, as reached his side. Behind him, clamber¬
Trench had said. At his side stood the ing awkwardly into the swaying boat,
three men who had preceded him. came Trench and the doctor.
But there was something else—some¬ "Quick! Help me!” The professor’s
thing far more important than the men cry was little more than a gasp as he
who stood near him. For in the narrow pulled the heavy machine into place,
thirty-foot space between village and tun¬ pointing the muzzle of the Maxim straight
nel came the entire horrible population of out over the side of the craft. He strained
Badama! at it frantically. Wrenched at it, tugging
Murgusson did not wait to study them. and swearing hideously. Then his sensi¬
He whipped about abruptly, seizing the tive finger leaped down at last to press the
arm of the man nearest him. control. And then-
"Run for it!” he screamed. "The The leader of the unearthly pack—
boat! If we can make it-” evidently the queen of them all, judging
And then he was racing through the from its enormous size and viciousness—
jungle, leading the way. This time he gained the deck in a single mighty bound.
did not notice the sucking morass under¬ Its writhing antenna: shot out, just as
foot; he heard only the thrashing sound Murgusson’s finger pressed home—shot
of many hundreds of savage bodies fol¬ out and hovered for a fraction of an in¬
lowing him. And yet it was the very stant over Trench’s throat. The roar of
swamp, with its sucking mud, that gave Trench’s revolver, fired straight ihto the
him a chance for life. The six-legged snarling jaws, came simultaneously with
fiends behind him could not race through the blinding streamer of silver light from
it. Their flailing legs, with narrow, the professor’s instrument.
pointed feet, sank deep into the mire and The gigantic ant, poised over the un¬
found no footing. lucky Trench, stiffened suddenly as if an
After that it was an even race with electric shock had passed through it. A
 THE CITY OF CRAWLING DEATH 85

single hiss of agony whined from its gap¬ T hree

the
days later,
hotel in
on the veranda
Alemquer, Raould
of
ing mouth. Then, like a grotesque, un¬
finished photograph left in the sun, it Trench came face to face with the English¬
faded. man, Carstairs.
"It seems a shame," the Englishman
Trench and the others, safely out of the
said thoughtfully, "that you were forced
radius of the professor’s infernal instru¬
to exterminate the ant-men. I’m wonder¬
ment, fell back in horror at the sight. On
ing just how far they might have pro¬
the deck, where the monster had crouched,
gressed in the next ten years or so. Think
lay a thin spray of greenish slime—noth¬ of it! Savage insects with bodies like dy¬
ing more. And on shore, where the great namos and minds to control them! In an¬
horde of demons had surged forward to other few years they might have begun a
follow their queen, a silver sheen covered concerted campaign to conquer the civi¬
every living thing. For hundreds of yards lized world, making slaves of every hu¬
in each direction it was the only visible man who resisted them! I wonder.”
thing—and from the center of it, as from Trench walked away, saying nothing.
the pits of an inferno, came the death There was nothing he could say. He alone
cries of the monster horde. knew that Carstairs’ casual prophecy
might come true. He alone, of the four
The professor stretched slowly to his
men who had returned, knew that the
feet and stumbled forward. As he stood
ant-horde would be heard from again.
on the deck, watching the glare of silver,
For when the cuberta had snaked into
the sheen slowly faded. It turned jet-
the river, three days ago, to begin the long
black, then grayish green, and then, like a
journey down-stream, Trench had stared
thick milky fog it broke and became noth¬
back with sudden premonition at the
ing. A huge empty area lay spread out
abandoned settlement of Badama. And
on the shore, extending back as far as the there, barely visible behind the grim
eye could follow. Mud, slime—nothing breastworks, a silent line of squat figures
else. No trees, no underbrush, no animal had been pacing mechanically back and
life. Nothing but empty morass, tainted forth, back and forth, on guard.
by the nauseating slimy substance that The ant-men, rushing to the attack, had
marked the remains of the ant invaders. left some of their number behind to de¬
fend their domain. In time those few
Murgusson laughed, very softly. Enter¬
would multiply. Their development would
ing the cabin again, he methodically dis¬
go on—and on—and on.
connected the machine-gun and pushed it
Trench, thinking suddenly of the fu¬
under the table. As he set the little wood¬
ture—the distant future—shuddered vio¬
en box back in its place, he said evenly:
lently and muttered under his breath:
"If you are ready, all of you, we can be "There will come a time—a time of
starting back. It is finished. Utterly fin- horror—when-”
nished.” But he could not finish.
 Vhe
^Thought'Devil
By A. W. CALDER
The story of a writer of gangster tales whose villainous creation
threatened to loose a dreadful horror upon
the world

“TT DON’T dare go insane!” Ronald thrill-creator, and it had been written a
I Ganly almost shouted at me. Truly day before the crime.
enough, Iiis eyes, though shining, Nothing can shock the city editor of a
were alight with a fighting gleam. His metropolitan daily. Taking only time to
face was shockingly gaunt, but there see that the main details in Ganly's story
seemed no sign of the madman about him. fitted the crime, the boss had ordered a
special lead for the feature and a front¬
"Because your boss knows that we have
page send-off. Six hours after the crime,
been friends since we believed in ghosts,
our paper was on the street with an ex¬
he sends you up here to get the story.”
clusive description of the deed written by
Ron calmed slightly as he talked. "But he
America’s greatest detective-story writer.
won’t get any story from me that he can
I watched this prolific writer, wonder¬
print.”
ing what supernatural foresight had given
"How the devil did you do it, though?” him the details of the horrible story before
I tried to drag my friend back to the amaz¬ it was enacted in bloody reality. And the
ing thing which had spurred the city vicious sadism of the bandit who had
editor into chasing me hotfoot to inter¬
killed in blood-lust abandon had remind¬
view the famous author, Ronald Ganly. ed me of the perverted genius of murder
Last night a terrible raid had taken a who was the sinister center of Ronald
daring bandit into the strongroom of one Ganly’s recent stories. We newspapermen
of the city’s greatest department stores. could never hope to make our reports of
The invader had shot his way out, heed¬ last night’s wholesale butchery ring as
lessly killing even bystanders on the street, true as this author’s tales.
and had escaped with over $50,000 in Ronald Ganly was the product that only
bills. our age of universal demand for thrilling
That was big news, worthy of the literature and our instant facilities for
largest type the foundry could supply, but supplying it could create. He wrote at
a second shock had trembled our news¬ least one short story a day, specializing in
paper office. Even as the special writers blood-curdling, super-criminal and super¬
were rattling out their leads, it was dis¬ gangster themes. Even more hair-raising
covered that the day’s short-story feature than his fast-acting plots was his uncanny
gave the exact details of the bloody at¬ ability to make his characters live. A
tack on the department store. That story company which had been broadcasting
had been in type hours before the crime dramatized versions of his stories had been
occurred; it had been in our office fifteen petitioned in thousands of letters to
hours before the outrage. It had been change its hour, as the plays kept the lis¬
written by Ronald Ganly, the master teners in a waking nightmare if they were
86
 THE THOUGHT-DEVIL 87

heard too close to bedtime. Yet to see dred of your stories, I suppose, and prac¬
Ganly’s fine-featured face and his large, tically a national figure, but there is really
imaginative eyes, one could hardly believe no such person.”
that he produced such terrific stories. "Are you sure there is no such person?
"Oh, I’ll tell you all I can,” Ganly an¬ There never was, I know. I created Vipra
swered my last question. 'You may think out of all the loathsome things I abhor.
I am crazy and God knows I won’t blame He’s all the bestial, blood-lusting, mad
you. Anybody who hadn’t known me for essence that I distilled from a thousand
as long as you would want to see me in pirates and gunmen, scum of the gutter,
Bellevue for observation. Your editor adding superhuman intelligence to make
won’t be able to print a word I say.” him thrilling to readers. He was merely
"For the love of Pete, say it!” My im¬ a character for my stories, but now,” Ron
patience sharpened my curiosity. paused to lean over me, "I’m very much
"Do you know who committed that out¬ afraid Vipra has come alive!”
rage last night?” Ron paused in his nerv¬ "Come alive!” Something in the tre¬
ous pacing of the room. "Vipra Honelli!” mendously sane gravity of Ron’s eyes
"Oh, come, Ron! That’s the villain in made me consider such an impossibility.
your story, yes. He’s the villain in a hun¬ "It’s not so impossible as you think,”
88 WEIRD TALES

Ganly read my thoughts, which must have audience throughout the country at the
been obvious. "All the written history of same second. In addition to that, Vipra has
mankind, and the unwritten legends of been the central figure of a series of sto¬
voodoism or stranger beliefs, give hints of ries. Think of the millions who have had
similar things. this fiend visualized in their minds at
"Look.” Ron waved his hand toward once! Admitting only the smallest divi¬
his bookshelves. "There are over a hun¬ sion of energy thrown out by one brain,
dred bound collections of my short stories. figure the tremendous total of force those
God knows why they have been so pop¬ millions of generators would create!”
ular! Today they appear daily in hun¬ "How can you know that last night
dreds of newspapers throughout the coun¬ was not just a coincidence?”
try. They are in the movies and millions "Because I have been waiting and fear¬
see them nightly. They're on the radio ing just this thing. I tried in my last
and nobody can count the listeners. And half-dozen stories to write ‘Finis’ to Vip-
today the big majority of them feature my ra’s career, but I simply couldn’t do it.
villain, Vipra Honelli! Plot the story as I might, it fell flat unless
"Do you know much about the power the unholy villain was left triumphant at
of mass suggestion? History is full of the last. This outside influence has been
instances when the power of a number of growing stronger lately and Vipra has
minds concentrated on one thought has been forcing me to let him wallow in
produced a very tangible result. Christo¬ more and more blood. Of course, it has
pher Columbus himself may have discov¬ not been as definite as all that, or in sheer
ered this country purely through the terror I would have thrown my typewriter
energy created by thousands of Europeans out of the window long ago, but I have
wishing for easier commerce with Asia. been made surer each day that the charac¬
The thought was vivid in the minds of ter was getting stronger than the author.
many people. It produced a compass from See the trouble Conan Doyle had finishing
one inventor and a gracious softness in his Sherlock Holmes hero.”
Isabella.
"Now go a little further afield.
dooism it is possible to kill a man by do¬
In voo- V ividly in my mind I saw Ron’s infa¬
mous character as I had so often seen
ing nothing more than concentrating him in theaters or visualized him from
thought on his death. Usually this is magazine, newspaper or radio stories.
accompanied by tricks to attack the Even as I pictured that heartless madman
thoughts of all believers to the pending and thought of his satirical, yellowed
death of the victim. I tell you, it is im¬ eyes, I had the shock of feeling a low,
possible to say what can be accomplished cruel laugh inside my head. I shuddered
by focusing the minds of the multitude on at the unearthly sensation. Was this hor¬
one object. Even in the Christian religion ror actually being unloosed on the world?
we find congregations praying for rain.” "Good Lord, Ron!” I cried; "you’ve got
"But Vipra!” I expostulated. "How me going, too!”
could he come alive? And why haven’t "Then you believe me?”
such widely-read authors as Dickens mate¬ "Yes, forgive me, but I do!”
rialized their characters, if it is possible?” "Right!” Ron’s haggard face seemed
"Because only in the modern age have to brighten as though he had dropped at
we the means of creating a tremendous least half of his load. "You’ll keep me
 THE THOUGHT-DEVIL 89

from going crazy, if you can understand with my brain and whose energy comes
it, too. Do you realize what this means? from the suggestion of ten million read¬
This appalling piling-up of mental force ers—who has no use for the money he has
from millions of readers has given life to taken, because his fiendish delight is in tor¬
the dreadful, unrestrained creature I fash¬ ture and bloodshed alone.”
ioned in my own mind. So far, I be¬
lieve, he can work only through my mind,
having no brain of his own. I don’t dare
T he
ther
shrilling of a doorbell ended fur¬
conversation. I heard Ron’s
write or think consecutively of him again. man speaking to somebody in the hall.
If I go insane, he will do whatsoever my Without ceremony, a figure swung open
wild brain may suggest. He might even the library door and entered.
take control if my mind gets disordered. “Good morning. Bill,” the newcomer
You and I have to think up some way of said to me. "Might have expected to find
throwing him back into the limbo from you here. Surprized at seeing me?”
which I and my readers brought him.” "Not so very,” I admitted, "but you’re
“But Ron,” I objected, “how can this not going to get what you want.”
Vipra achieve physical effects? The ban¬ I turned to Ron, who had been looking
dit last night was seen. He carried a very from one to the other of us in puzzlement.
material pistol that dealt death, and he “This is Detective Smart, Ronald Ganly,”
escaped with bank-notes. Your creation I introduced. "He never bothers with
is nothing but an intangible intelligence.” such formalities as being announced.”
“That’s the most easily explained part "Good morning, sir,” acknowledged
of it all,” Ronald said wearily. “Vipra is Ron. "I have a couple of things to do if
a purely mental and emotional force, but you want to talk with Bill here.”
what prevents him taking charge of a con¬ "Thanks, Mr. Ganly,” replied the detec¬
venient body? tive, “but my business is with you. If
“Think of the times during the day that you can spare the time, the Chief would
you practically drop all conscious control like to ask you a few questions.”
of yourself, while your habits and subcon¬ "Ask me? What about?”
scious mind attend to your physical reac¬ "He’ll tell you if you will come down
tions. You roll out of bed automatically to his office with me. He thinks you can
in the morning when the alarm rings, and help him clear up a couple of points about
you dress yourself with your mind either that affair last night.”
fogged with sleep or a million miles away "Why me?” Ron eyed the detective
on the day’s problems. If some other narrowly.
force could grasp control of your body for "Because you seem to know more about
half an hour while you were day-dream¬ it than any one else. You had details in
ing, you might even not know what you your story that we didn’t discover until
were doing.” after the newspapers were on the street.
"But that means some actual person did And Bill’s boss,” nodding to me, "tells
the shooting last night?” us that your story was written before the
"Exactly. No doubt the police will affair happened. The Chief recognizes
eventually discover a very much bewil¬ that your time is valuable, Mr. Ganly, but
dered man whose finger pulled the trig¬ he must insist on an immediate inter¬
ger. It was Vipra who did the killing, view.”
though—Vipra, whose plans were made "And if I refuse, you’ll take me!” Ron
90 WEIRD TALES

finished bitterly. "In that case we might I halted in confusion as Ron turned his
as well start.” Ringing for his man, he face to me. His haggard cheeks seemed
added, "Coming along, Bill?” cut away from the eyesockets, and in those
"Sorry, this interview will be private,” large, troubled eyes I read the agony of a
Smart put in. soul tortured by the terrible certainty *of
"Then I’ll see you later. We have to its Frankenstein monster.
plan some offensive campaign. Al¬ "We’ve got to end it!” he cried, jump¬
though,” Ron concluded thoughtfully, tak¬ ing past my half-formed question.
ing his hat, "it may be as well if the police "Don’t you see it’s driving me mad?
keep me with them for a few days.” Once in possession, hell itself will break
loose!”
Ron left with Detective Smart, and it With an effort he dragged himself back
. wasn’t until evening that I learned into control. "I have had my lawyer send
that the police had held a similar view. notices to all newspapers, magazines and
"Ronald Ganly was being held for further radio stations prohibiting the production
questioning.” No doubt but that he had of any of my stories,” he continued more
told them the truth as he saw it, but in¬ calmly. "If I can shut off the source of
tangible horrors can’t be handcuffed. this monster’s energy, he’ll cease to exist.
Naturally, I hotfooted down to the sta¬ And, of course, I’ll never write another
tion just as quickly as I could. There was line about him.”
the usual reluctance to let a reporter get The warden interfered at that moment
at so important a prisoner before the po¬ and I had to leave Ganly alone in his bat¬
lice themselves were finished with him, tle with the impalpable demon his very
but Ron was one of the most notable per¬ popularity had created.
sonages this station had ever held. His
lawyer had already been at work and had
created enough uneasiness among the offi¬
Back at the office I came in for another
stormy session with the editor, who
cials to gain me an unwilling entrance. had just received his notice from Ron’s
"They can’t hold you here!” I told Ron. lawyer. Our newspaper had a contract
"There are a dozen loopholes that your for three Ganly stories a week and our cir¬
lawyer can open in their argument. It culation department knew how valuable
might have been a coincidence. Or your they were. I explained to the editor that
story might have inspired any one of the even my friendship with Ron could in no
people who read it on the way to printing. way influence him, that he would prefer
The typesetter or proof-reader in our own to pay for a broken contract rather than
office could have gone out and acted your write another Vipra Honelli story. All
story after he had read it.” other publications were cancelled in the
”1 know,” Ron smiled sadly, "but I same way, I pointed out.
think I’m better off here where I can’t be That last reflection helped soothe the
tempted to write. As long as Vipra can’t boss, although he finished with the dis¬
get my brain working for him, he is im¬ turbing remark that one of the more dar¬
potent.” ing papers would put on a ghost-writer to
"Are you sure about him, Ron? They’ve continue the series and damn the conse¬
arrested and tentatively identified as the quences.
murderer a man who was found running We published both morning and even¬
the streets a hopeless madman. Isn’t it ing editions, which kept me too busy all
possible that-” the next day to see Ron. Then the fol-
 THE THOUGHT-DEVIL 91

lowing evening brought another of those returned. "You look as though you had
grisly wholesale murders which seem in¬ been through hell.”
evitable to our civilization and are the "It has been hell! But tell me quick¬
sensational newspaper’s blood. Though ly, man! What happened during the
details seemed to be lacking, it developed night?”
that one of the guards in an armored truck I couldn’t believe that Ron was going
had suddenly run amuck. He had shot insane. Had his terrible, invisible enemy
his companion in cold blood as they rode already broken down the resistance of that
within their steel car and then forced the keen mind? I tried to laugh him into a
driver to carry him into the country. De¬ better humor.
scription of the callous murder came chief¬ "Nothing unusual for me,” I told him
ly from the driver, who was sure he had with a grin. "Just covering our great and
escaped with his own life only by jumping good city’s latest murdering.”
from the moving car the minute he had "What was it?” Ron's words hissed
been commanded to slow down. The fact from tight lips and his eyes narrowed be¬
that there was no money in the armored fore some overwhelming horror.
truck at the time pointed to insanity. "It had nothing to do with you, Ron.
I finished with my end of the report For the love of Pete, buck up! Because a
about dawn. Not knowing what brain guard in an armored car wants to run
storms the city editor might get during amuck, why should you-”
the day, I decided to grab something to "Oh, my God!” Ron cried in such an¬
eat and shoot up for a quick visit with guish that the prison guard jumped to
Ron. It was an ungodly hour to be pay¬ watch him. "That devil!”
ing calls even at a police station. I fig¬ "You don’t even know the man!” I
ured that Ron’s lawyer would have dis¬ grabbed his arm. "Don’t go off your
turbed the officers of the law sufficiently head, old boy. You’ve had too much of
by this time to make them dispense with a this prison. We’ll get you out and away
few regulations as amends for their hold¬ on a trip.”
ing such an important man. The burden Ron wheeled on me so fiercely that his
that was held from the world only by the arm almost threw me off balance. For a
walls of Ganly’s sanity had weighed on second his eyes glared into mine; then
my mind all night. they dulled to their former apathetic hor¬

W HEN I finally won through the bar¬

riers to Ron, his appearance hit me
ror.
"Look!” he cried. With the prison
guard watching his movement in surprize,
like a blow. Before he had looked hag¬ Ron dug into his inner pocket. His hand
gard; now he looked demoralized. His came out clenching a sheaf of prison cor¬
whole frame drooped, his hands clenched respondence paper. "Look at that!”
and opened unceasingly, his face muscles if took up the note-paper and saw that it
twitched. His eyes, with great, blade cir- was covered with fine writing.
des under them, had lost their fire and
"No need to read it,” Ron told me,
were dull with resignation to horror.
sinking into his hopeless monotone. "It's
"Tell me!” he cried without wasting a the complete story of last night’s massacre
second for greeting, "what has hap¬ of an armored truck’s crew. Oh, there
pened?” may be differences! It’s written around
"I’m the one to ask you that, Ron,” I the idea of a man plotting for years to
92 WEIRD TALES

become a guard solely in order that he up? You’ve forbidden publishers and
could rob the truck. Needless to say, the broadcasters to use your stuff.”
man is Vipra and he took control of what¬
"And my lawyer tells me that some of
ever body did the shooting last night.”
them are going ahead in spite of it. Of
"But my Lord, Ron, you told me you course, he’s getting out an injunction, but
wouldn’t write another line about Vipra!” the law moves slowly. Vipra,” he fin¬
Had the man gone mad? ished grimly, "moves fast. I must move
"Wouldn't write another line!” Ron faster.”
laughed bitterly. "That was written in
"There must be some other way,” I in¬
my sleep on some paper left here by the
sisted desperately.
prison officials. Written in my sleep!
Now I can’t even sleep any more! There "Wish I knew it! No, there’s only one
is only one way to get at Vipra before he sure cure, and I’ll take it the minute I’m
finally takes over my mind completely.” free. Imagine that horrible thing taking
The words dropped so deeply into despair control of my mind! Who knows what
that his sentence ended in almost a groan. he might do? He has absolutely no fear,
"Ron!” I cried suddenly, hope spring¬ no moral scruples; nothing but a devilish
ing with a new idea, "don’t you see that delight in cruelty and a greed for blood.
your writing this story while you were in Nobody will be immune. He will start a
prison, before it happened in fact, frees reign of hell on earth. No doubt they
you from the suspicion of the other?” will eventually corner my body and kill it,
Ron hardly lifted his head to answer. but by then he may have gathered strength
"Frees me? What of it? Even if we enough to live without it. To settle in
could persuade the police that this writing some other convenient brain and work
was done before you came here, hot from through another body. Perhaps even to
the scene of action, and then persuade live as disembodied Evil. To spread hor¬
them that I didn’t help plot the crime be¬ ror, terror and destruction for all eternity.
fore I was imprisoned, what then? They No, I must answer for what I loosed on
would free me, yes. They will today or the earth.”
tomorrow anyway. "Couldn’t you continue writing about
"I tell you,” here his voice sank to a him, modifying his character slowly?”
whisper that the guard could barely over¬
"I tried that the minute I suspected his
hear, "there’s only one way out of this
presence. When I tried to give him a be¬
mess. My mind must be kept from my
lated spark of kindliness, the words fell
terrible creation. If we can’t keep it from
absolutely flat. They simply wouldn’t
my brain, we can make that brain useless.”
carry conviction to my readers, and with¬
"No, Ron, never that! We’ll find some out mass suggestion we can’t touch him.
way out.” I was determined that I’d see There’s only one way out.”
Vipra ruling the world before I’d see this
The guard came forward at that mo¬
friend of mine in a suicide’s grave.
ment. I made a sudden last plea.
"There’s no other way, I’m afraid. And
it has to be before the demon saps my "Ron, promise you’ll do nothing until

will-power.” I have seen you again!”

"But Ron, isn’t he starving this very "If I dare wait that long,” he nodded,
minute? Didn’t you tell me that cutting but no ray of hope lightened those horror-
off his source of energy would dry him filled eyes.
 THE THOUGHT-DEVIL 93

I had to leave him that way, a man self- succeed. Nor would he lose a single min¬
doomed, the creator of a Franken¬ ute, now that he was free, for fear that
stein monster, but one ready to give him¬ his mind would go first. I prayed for at
self in sacrifice for his unwitting blunder. least time to try my only weapon.
Ron’s public had idolized its writer of Ron was shaking like a dope-addict
blood-curdling tales. Never had he de¬ when I was admitted to his apartment.
served their devotion so much as today The lines and hollows had eaten deeper
when he prepared to die for them. He into his face since morning. His hand
would blow out his brains before he trembled as I took it. However, the dull
would yield them to his terrible offspring. fixity with which his eyes had looked upon
Back to the office I hurried. Ron’s horror had vanished. Now they were
words had given me an idea. It was the calm with the resolve of the purpose be¬
wildest kind of an outside chance, but I hind them. The unimaginable contrast
had to act on it. I nearly got on my knees between the terror-engraved face and the
to the city editor before I could make him quiet eyes told of the terrible, silent bat¬
see it my way. What finally clinched the tle Ron had been fighting.
argument, I think, was the fact that "It’s good-bye,” Ron told me, even his
another paper had put on a ghost-writer voice shaking. "I’m leaving the apart¬
to continue its Ganly story series and the ment in half an hour.”
boss welcomed a slap back at it. "No, no!” I cried. "I’ve got some¬
That gave me a point to the story I told thing to beat down Vipra. To knock him
later to the city editor of another news¬ back into nothingness. But, Ron, I’ve got
paper, another man who envied the circu¬ to have time! Give me five hours!”
lation being built up by a competitor’s "Nothing is any use now. I’m afraid.
flagrant defiance of Ron’s veto. He, too, Thanks for your efforts, but only one thing
finally agreed, making me promise him will do any good.”
some unusual feature concessions on Ron "Not yet, Ron! Look at this!” I
Ganly’s part. I spent the rest of the spread out before him the newspapers that
morning in news syndicate offices. I had gathered that afternoon. The boss,
It was nearly noon when I returned to thanks to his grudge against the faking
my own shop, just in time to get a tel¬ sheets, had spread my story on the front
ephone call from Ronald Ganly. He was page with a double-column head. In fat,
out of prison and prepared to sacrifice black type half a million people would
himself. see:
"I’d like to see you before I go away,” VIPRA HONELLI DIES
Ron told me over the wire. and would read that the arch-criminal of
"Wait at your apartment for me,” I Ronald Ganly’s stories was in fact a real
besought him. "I’ll be there at three.” man whose death had just been reported.
So Ganly’s lawyer had pried him from "You see, Ron,” I pleaded, "we’ll cut
prison! With Ron’s hopeless threat of off his source of strength and turn his own
the morning still ringing in my ears, I energy against him. There are more re¬
knew what that would mean. He was de¬ ports, too. One other front-page story in
termined to cheat this gruesome concen¬ the city and I got it on the syndicate wires.
tration of evil that he had conjured from There’ll be paragraphs all over the coun¬
his own writing, and he had decided that try in this evening’s paper.”
only through destroying himself could he "My God, possibly it will work! The
94 WEIRD TALES

only thing that could teach Vipra is such devil into a frenzy that made him daw
a concentration of suggestion. But such a desperately at Rem’s brain.
terrible risk to wait!” Ganly ramped around the apartment,
"Five million people will think of his tearing at his clothes and his head. As
death tonight,” I encouraged Ron. "Five his torture mounted, he rolled his head
million blows at his energy. Give me against the wall, biting his under-lip un¬
until eight o’clock!” til his jaw was smeared with Wood, scrap¬
Ron bowed his head for a moment. I ing until his fingernails were red. His
saw sweat gather in the deep Ikies of his eyes screwed tight shut one second and
face. A low moan bespoke his mental an¬ bulged from their sockets the next. Even
guish. Finally, "Until eight, then, but you during the brief respites when Vipra with¬
must promise one thing. I don’t dare go drew for another chargp, Ron moaned
insane! If I go mad, you must shoot me in agony.
dead immediately. There’s a pistoL in that It was after seven when I realized sick-
drawer. You promise?’' emngly that each of Ron’s attacks lasted
I took one deep breath. If my plan longer and left him weaker. The rush of
failed, Ron must die. If the demon Vipra newspaper selling on the streets of our
battered down Ron’s mind in less than dty had passed. Now we had no defense
four hours, I must be the executioner. but the belated readers and those in other
Then I, too, would be captured and killed cities, where our story would be published
by the police. Two lives in a desperate in smaller form and miss the notice of
gamble against such a horror as the world many.
had never seen. Ron was standing in the middle of the
"I promise!” I told Ron. room. His whole body shook as though
A flicker of relief shone from his eyes; he were a hanged man in his last con¬
then suddenly Ron jumped to his feet and vulsions. His eyes were dosed and his
strode around the room. head rolled in agony around his shoul¬
"My God, he’s driving me crazy!” he ders.
screamed. His fingers clawed at his skull, Suddenly he straightened enough to
digging through his hair until the blood walk. I heard his moan, ‘It’s the end?”
flowed from the scalp. It took him nearly and he staggered toward the drawer that
five minutes to control himself; then he held the pistol.
moaned, "Your newspapers are stirring "No, Ron!” I shouted, springing to
him up. He’s making a desperate bid to grab him by the shoulder. He pushed
break down my reason.” me back as though he had already a mad¬
man’s strength and pulled at the drawer.
1 soothed Ron as best I could until the I leaped on his back and curved my
next paroxysm shook him and sent arm around his neck, thrusting my elbow
him screaming around the room. I can’t under his chin in a strangle hold. Help¬
describe the terrible hours as attack after lessly, he clawed bade at me.
attack drove Ron to terrible fruitless at¬ "Give me five minutes more, Ron!
tempts to dodge the battering in his brain. Steady, bey! I have an idea for the knock¬
As evening darkened and millions of peo¬ out blow.”
ple opened newspapers to glance idly at With my free hand I reached for the
the news that Vipra was dead, though telephone. It seemed an eternity before
they must have puzzled over the item, I could get through to the broadcasting
their thought waves sent the disembodied studio. A world-famous orchestra was
 THE THOUGHT-DEVIL 95

on the air tonight over a national hook-up Then it came. From the loud speaker
and I knew the leader. There would be streamed the tones of the announcer, ur¬
millions listening in, millions of new banely and consciously amusing, joking
thought waves to crash down on Vipra. with millions of listeners while Ron strug¬
It took me an age to reach the orches¬ gled against his mightiest onslaught.
tra leader. He was just going on, he ex¬ "You’ve read about the death of Vipra
plained. Hurriedly I begged him as a Honelli, no doubt,” the voice remarked
friend of a newspaper man who had done in the careful articulation of a radio an¬
him many good turns to speak one line nouncer. "Since the villain Vipra is dead,
for me tonight. He agreed and I dropped we will next play our gayest tune to cele¬
the phone to carry Ron to a chair, switch¬ brate his death.”
ing on the radio as we passed it.
Three times he had said "Death.”
Ron eyed me dully. "You promised,”
While the famous orchestra poured
he mumbled.
out its gay notes, Ron suddenly relaxed
"And I’ll do it!” I swore. "But wait
in my arms.
five minutes. We’re winning, Ron. Fight
"It’s gone!” he breathed. "Oh, thank
back like the devil himself this time!
Hold out for five minutes!” God, it’s gone!”

Music flooded from the radio. As a He slid unconscious against me. He

popular dance number ended, I felt Ron had fainted, but he would awaken sane.
stiffen in another convulsion. "Fight!” Millions of radio listeners had reflected
I whispered. "Fight!” the thought. Vipra was dead.

Specters
By KIRKE MECHEM

The wind awakes me and I grow aware

Of muffled croakings where the crow’s nest swings,
Of hoarse and sullen midnight murmurings
Among the shadowy branches swaying there.
I hear the great-eyed owl upon the air
Sweeping the affrighted earth on phantom wings;
Far down the field his eery hooting rings;
Fear-struck below the moon crouch mouse and hare.
Unmortal shapes ride restless through the night:
Specters of human passions, that awake
Their apprehensive keepers, pallid, white:
Gaunt-pinioned forms to haunt the soul’s dark brake.
Croaking like crows perched in the ghostly light,
Floating like owls where fear-tossed branches shake.
 “^Z)evirs Bride
By SEABURY QUINN
An amazing tale of murder, human sacrifice, and the infamous
Black Mass—an eldritch story of devil-worship

The Story Thus Far and her daughter’s disappearance. But

that very night Mrs. Hume was found
EAUTIFUL Alice Hume vanished
murdered by a strangling-cord in her own
during the rehearsal for her wed¬
boudoir.
ding, in the presence of her fiance
De Grandin, aided by Inspector Ren-
and a group of friends including her
ouard of the French Surete and Baron In¬
mother, her family physician, Doctor
graham, known as "Hiji,” of the British
Samuel Trowbridge, and Trowbridge’s
secret service, raided the devil-worship¬
eccentric associate, the French physician-
pers during aperformance of the infamous
detective, Doctor Jules de Grandin. The
Black Mass, rescued Alice Hume, killed
little Frenchman discovered traces of a
one of the priests of the cult and captured
yellow powder which, he explained to
another.
Trowbridge, was bulala-gwai, the "little
The priest of the cult was electrocuted
death” used by natives of the Congo to
after conviction on a charge of murder;
produce temporary paralysis. Alice, he
but several days after the execution Alice
declared, had been abducted while the
was stolen from her fiance, John Davis¬
wedding party was rendered unconscious
son, by a man who called a pack of wolves
by bulala-gwai.
to his aid. Davisson identified the kid¬
De Grandin also believed that the dis¬ napper as the Red Priest—the same man
appearance was connected with a girdle they had seen put to death in prison a few
of tanned human skin that Alice had worn. days before!
The girl told him that the belt was known
Led by clues left by Alice, de Grandin
as "the luck of the Humes” and had been
and his friends attacked the stronghold of
in the family a long time.
devil-worshippers, but while they were
He found a concealed document in the killing off the wolves that guarded the
family Bible, written by Alice’s ancestor, place, the abductors made their escape by
David Hume, and relating how he had airplane, taking Alice with them, and
been sold as a slave to the devil-worship¬ eventually making their way to Africa.
ping Yezidees, had rescued the daughter De Grandin and his friends prepared to
of their chief from becoming the "bride follow them.
of Satan,” had married her, and later
brought her to America.
23. Pursuit
Despite a sentence in the old man¬
uscript warning Hume’s descendants that
an attempt might some time be made to
T here was no scarcity of offered labor
when we debarked at Monrovia. A
“bring home” one of the daughters of his shouting, sweating, jostling throng of
line, Alice’s mother refused to admit any black boys crowded round us, each mem¬
connection between the Yezidee legend ber of the crowd urging his own peculiar
This story began in WEIRD TALKS for February
96 W. T.—6
excellence as a baggage-carrier in no un¬ shuffling jog-trot up the winding street to¬
certain terms. Foremost—and most vocal ward the apology for a hotel.
—was a young man in long and much
Evidently Ingraham was familiar with
soiled nightgown, red slippers and very
conventions, for when we had arrived at
greasy tarboosh. "Carry luggage, sar?
our hotel he made no effort to distribute
Carry him good; not trust dam’ bush nig¬
largess among the porters, but beckoned
ger!" he asseverated, worming with ser¬
to the head man to remain in our room
pentine agility through the pressing crowd
while the remainder of the gang dispersed
of volunteers and plucking Ingraham's
themselves in such shade as offered in the
sleeve solicitously.
"Right; carry on, young feller," the street outside, awaiting the emergence of

Englishman returned, kicking his kit bag their leader.

toward the candidate for portership. The moment the door closed a startling
"Hi-yar, nigger, this way—grab mars- transformation came over our chief por¬
ter’s duffle!” the favored one called out, ter. The stooping, careless bearing which
and from the crowd some half-dozen marked his every movement fell from him
nondescript individuals sprang forward, like a cloak, his shoulders straightened
shouldered our gear and, led by the man back, his chin went up, and, heels clicked
Ingraham had engaged, preceded us at a together, he stood erectly at attention be-
W. T.—7
 WEIRD TALES

fore Ingraham. "Sergeant Bendigo re¬ dig and chop. Clear off the jungle, dig
porting, sar,” he announced. up old stones where ghosts are buried. I
"At ease,” commanded Ingraham. think there will be trouble there.”
Then: "Did you go out there?” "No doubt of it,” the Englishman con¬
"Yes, O Hiji, even as you ordered, so curred. Then: "Tell me, O sergeant
I did. Up to the place where all of the man, was there among these strangers
great waters break in little streams I went, some one woman of uncommon beauty
and there at the old camp where ghosts whom they guarded carefully, as though a
and djinn and devils haunt the night I prisoner, yet with reverence, as though a
found the tribesmen making poro. Also, queen?”
O Hiji, I think the little leopards are at "Allah!” exclaimed the sergeant, roll¬
large again, for in the night I heard their ing up his eyes ecstatically.
drums, and once I saw them dancing "Never mind the religious exercises.
round a fire while something—wah, an Did you see the woman?”
unclean thing, I think!—stewed within "Wah, a woman, truly, Hiji, but a
their pots. Also, I heard the leopard woman surely such as never was before.
scream, but when I looked I saw no beast, Her face is like the moon at evening, her
only three black feller walking through a walk like that of the gazelle, and from
jungle path.” her lips drips almond-honey. Her voice
”U’m? Any white men there?” de¬ is like the dripping of the rain in thirsty
manded Ingraham. places, and her eyes—bismillah, when she
"Plenty lot, sar. No jolly end. Plenty weeps the tears are sapphires. She has
much white feller, also other feller with the first-bloom of the lotus on her cheek,
dark skin, not white like Englishman or and-”
French, not black like bush boy or brown "Give over, you’ve been reading Hafiz
like Leoni, but funny-lookin’ feller, some or Elinor Glyn, young feller. Who’s the
yeller, some brown, some white, but dark leader of this mob?”
and big-nosed, like Jewish trading man. "Wallah’’—Sergeant Bendigo passed
Some, I think, are Hindoos, like I see his fingers vertically across his lips and
sometime in Freetown. They come trek¬ spat upon the floor—"he is called Bazarri,
king long time through the jungle from Hiji, and verily he is the twin of Satan,
Monrovia, ten, twenty, maybe thirty at the stoned and the rejected. A face of
once, with Liberian bush boys for guide, which the old and wrinkled monkey well
and-” might be ashamed is his, with great, sad
"All right, get on with it,” Ingraham eyes that never change their look, what¬
prompted sharply. ever they behold. Wah, in Allah’s glor¬
"Then make killing palaver, Hiji,” the ious name I take refuge from the rejected
young man told him earnestly. "Those one-”
bush boys come as guides; but they not "All right; all right, take refuge all you
return. They start for home, but some¬ please, but get on with your report,” In¬
thing happen—I saw one speared from graham cut in testily. "You say he has
ambush. I think those white men put the natives organized?”
bad thoughts in bush men’s heads. Very, "Like the little blades of grass that come
very bad palaver, sar.” forth in the early rains, O Hiji. Their
"What’s doing up at MacAndrews’?” spears are numerous as the great trees of
"Hou! Bush nigger from all parts of the forest, and everywhere they range the
the forest work like slaves; all time they woods lest strangers come upon them.
 THE DEVIL'S BRIDE 99

They killed two members of the Mendi military courtesy. "You think we yet
who came upon them unawares, and I was shall come to grips with them?”
forced to sleep in trees like any of the Bendigo’s eyes shone with anticipation
monkey people; for to be caught near and delight, his white teeth flashed be¬
MacAndrews’ is to enter into Paradise— tween his bade-drawn lips. "May Allah
and the cooking-pot.” spare me till that day!” he answered. It
"Eh? The devil! They’re practising was a bom killer speaking, a man who
cannibalism?” took as aptly to the deadly risks of police
"Thou sayest.” work as ever duckling took to water.
"Who-” "Very well, Sergeant,” Ingraham or¬
"The white man of the evil, wrinkled dered; "take the squad and hook it for
face; he whom they call Bazarri; he has Freetown as fast as you can; we’ll be along
appointed it. Also he gives them much in a few days.”
trade gin. I think there will be shooting Bendigo saluted again, executed a per¬
before long; spears will fly as thick as fect about-face and marched to the door.
gnats about the carcass—hoi, and bullets, Once in the hotel corridor he dropped his
too. The little guns which stutter will military bearing and slouched into the
laugh the laugh of death, and the bayonets sunshine where his confreres waited.
will go bung! as we drive them home to "Stout feller, that,” Ingraham re¬
make those dam’ bush feller know our marked. "I sent him a wire to go native
lord the Emperor-King is master still." and pop up to MacAndrews’ and nose
"Right you are,” the Englishman re¬ round, then follow the trail overland to
turned, and there was something far from Monrovia, pickin' up what information he
pleasant at the corners of his mouth as he could en route. It’s a holy certainty noth¬
smiled at Sergeant Bendigo. ing happened on the way he didn’t see,
"Gentlemen”—he turned to us—"this too.”
is my sergeant and my right-hand man. "But isn’t there a chance some of that
We can accept all that he tells us as the gang he called to help him with our lug¬
truth. gage may give the show away?” I asked.
"Sergeant, these men come from far 'They didn't seem any too choice a crowd
away to help us hunt this evil man of to me.”
whom you tell me.” Ingraham smiled, a trifle bleakly. "I

T he sergeant drew himself erect again

and tendered us a grave salute. His
hardly think so,” he replied. "You see,
they’re all members of Bendigo’s platoon.
He brought ’em here to help him carry
slightly flaring nostrils and smooth, brown on.”
skin announced his negroid heritage, but
the thin-lipped mouth, the straight, sleek
hair and finely modeled hands and feet
De grandin and Renouard went on to
Dakar, while Ingraham, John Davis¬
were pure Arab, while the gleaming, son and I took packet north to Freetown.
piercing eyes and quick, cruel smile were Our expedition quickly formed. A
equally pure devil. De Grandin knew hundred frontier policemen with guns
him for a kindred spirit instantly. and bayonets, five Lewis guns in charge of
"Tiens, mon brave, it is a fine thing expert operators, with Ingraham and
you have done, this discovering of their Bendigo in command, set out in a small,
devil's nest," he complimented as he wood-burning steamer toward Falaba.
raised his hand in answer to the sergeant’s We halted overnight at the old fortress
100 WEIRD TALES

town, camping underneath the loopholed He reached inside his open tunic for
walls, then struck out overland toward the tobacco pouch and pipe, but stiffened sud¬
French border. denly, like a pointer coming on a covey
The rains had not commenced, nor of quail. Next instant he was on his feet,
would they for a month or so, and the the Browning flashing from the holster
Narmattan, the ceaseless northwest wind strapped against his leg, and a savage
blowing up from the Sahara, swept across spurt of flame stabbed through the dark¬
the land like a steady draft from a boiler ness.
room. The heat was bad, the humidity Like a prolongation of the pistol’s roar
worse; it was like walking through a su¬ there came a high-pitched, screaming cry,
perheated hothouse as we beat our way and something big and black and bulky
along the jungle trails, now marching crashed through die palm-tree’s fronds,
through comparatively clear forest, now hurtling to the earth right in Davisson’s
hacking at the trailing undergrowth, or path.
pausing at the mud-bank of some slug¬ We raced across the clearing, and In¬
gish stream to force a passage while our graham stooped and struck a match.
native porters beat the turbid water with "Nerves, eh?” he asked sarcastically, as
sticks to keep the crocodiles at a respectful the little spot of orange flame disclosed a
distance. giant native, smeared with oil and naked
"We’re almost there,” Ingraham an¬ save for a narrow belt of leopard hide
nounced one evening as we sat before his bound round his waste and another band
tent, imbibing whisky mixed with tepid of spotted fur wound round his temples.
water, "and I don’t like the look of things On each hand he wore a glove of leopard
a bit.” skin, and fixed to every finger was a long,
"How’s that?” I asked. "It seems ex¬ hooked claw of sharpened iron. One blow
tremely quiet to me; we’ve scarcely from those spiked gloves and any one
seen-” sustaining it would have had the flesh
"That’s it! We haven’t seen a bloomin’ ripped from his bones.
thing, or heard one, either. Normally "Nerves, eh?” the Englishman repeat¬
these woods are crawlin’ with natives— ed. "Jolly good thing for you I had ’em,
Timni or Sulima, even if the beastly Men- young feller me lad, and that I saw this
di don’t show up. This trip we’ve scarce¬ beggar crouchin’ in the tree-
ly seen a one. Not only that, they should "The devil! You would, eh?” The
be gossipin’ on the lokali—the jungle inert native, bleeding from a bullet in his
telegraph-drum, you know—tellin' the thigh, had regained the breath the tumble
neighbors miles away that we're headin’ from the tree knocked from him, raised on
north by east, but—damn it; I don’t like his elbow and struck a slashing blow at
it!” Ingraham’s legs. The Englishman swung
"Oh, you’re getting nerves,” Davisson his pistol barrel with crushing force upon
told him with a laugh. "I’m going to the native’s head; then, as Bendigo and
turn in. Good-night.” half a dozen Houssas hurried up:
Ingraham watched him moodily as he "O Sergeant Man, prepare a harness for
walked across the little clearing to his tent this beast and keep him safely till his spir¬
beneath an oil-palm tree. "Silly ass,” he it has returned.”
muttered. "If he knew this country as I The sergeant saluted, and in a moment
do he’d be singin’ a different sort o’ the prisoner was securely trussed with
chanty. Nerves—good Lord!” cords.
 THE DEVIL S BRIDE 101

S ome twenty minutes later Bendigo No-Man-Thinks-Him-Near. They told us

stood at Ingraham’s tent, a light of you were gone away across the mighty
pleased anticipation shining in his eyes. water.”
"Prisoner’s spirit has come back, O Hiji,” "Who told you this great lie, O fool?”
he reported. "Bazarri. He came with other white
"Good, bring him here. men through the woods and told us you
"I see you, Leopard Man,” he opened
were fled and that the soldiers of the Em¬
the examination when they brought the
peror-King would trouble us no more.
fettered captive to us.
They said the Leopard Men should rule
The prisoner eyed him sullenly, but
the land again, and no one bid us stop.”
volunteered no answer.
"What were you doing here, son of a
"Who sent you through the woods to fish?”
do this evil thing?” Ingraham pursued.
"Last moon Bazarri sent us forth in
"The leopard hates and kills; he does
search of slaves. Much help is needed
not talk,” the man replied.
for the digging which he makes, for he
"Oko!” the Englishman returned grim¬
prepares a mighty pit where, in a night
ly. "I think this leopard will talk, and be
and a night, they celebrate the marriage of
jolly glad to. Sergeant, build a fire!”
a mortal woman to the King of all the
Sergeant Bendigo had evidently antic¬
Devils. My brethren took the prisoners
ipated this, for dry sticks and kindling
back, but I and as many others as a man
were produced with a celerity nothing
has eyes remained behind to-”
short of marvelous.
”1 hate to do this, Trowbridge,” Ingra¬ "To stage a little private cannibalism,
ham told me, "but I’ve got to get the truth eh?”
out of this blighter, and get it in a hurry. "They told us that the soldiers would
Go to your tent if you think you can’t not come this way again,” the prisoner
stand it.” answered in excuse.
The captive howled and beat his head Ingraham smiled, but not pleasantly.
against the earth and writhed as though "That’s the explanation, eh?” he mur¬
he were an eel upon the barbs when they mured to himself. "No wonder we
thrust his bare soles into the glowing em¬ haven’t seen or heard anything of the vil¬
bers; but not until the stench of burning lagers. These damned slavers have taken
flesh rose sickeningly upon the still night most of ’em up to MacAndrews’ and those
air did he shake his head from side to they didn’t kill or capture are hidin’ in the
side in token of surrender. bush.” To the prisoner:
"Now, then, who sent you?” Ingra¬ "Is this Bizarri a white man with the
ham demanded when the prisoner’s blis¬ body of a youth and the wrinkled face of
tered feet were thrust into a canvas bucket an old monkey?”
full of water. "Speak up, and speak the "Lord, who can say how you should
truth, or-” he nodded toward the fire know this thing?”
which smoldered menacingly as a Houssa "Does he know that I am coming with
policeman fed it little bits of broken my soldiers to send him to the land of
sticks to keep it ready for fresh service. ghosts?”
"You are Hiji,” said the prisoner, as "Lord, he does not know. He thinks
though announcing that the sun had that you have gone across the great water.
ceased to shine and the rivers ceased to If he knew you were here he would have
flow. "You are He-Who-Comes-When- gone against you with his guns, and with
102 WEIRD TALES

the Leopard Men to kill you while you trades for MacAndrews’—and we want
slept." to get there first.”
"The Emperor-King’s men never
sleep,” retorted Ingraham. To Bendigo: W e broke camp in half an hour,
pushed onward through the night
"A firing-party for this one, Sergeant.
The palaver is over. and marched until our legs were merely
so much aching muscles the next day. Six
"We must break camp at once,” he add¬
hours’ rest, then again the endless, hurry¬
ed as eight tarbooshed policemen marched
ing march.
smartly past, their rides at slant arms.
Twice we saw evidence of the Leopards’
"You heard what he said; they’re all set
visits, deserted villages where blackened
to celebrate that girl’s marriage to the
rings marked the site of burned huts, red
Devil in two more nights. We can just
stains upon the earth, vultures disputing
make it to MacAndrews’ by a forced
over ghastly scraps of flesh and bone.
march.”
As we passed through the second vil¬
"Can’t you spare this poor fellow’s lage the scouts brought back a woman, a
life?” I pleaded. "You’ve gotten what slender, frightened girl of fifteen or so,
you want from him, and-” with a face which might have been a Gor¬
"No chance,” he told me shortly. "The gon’s and a figure fit to make a Broadway
penalty for membership in these Leopard entrepreneur discharge his entire chorus
Societies is death; so is the punishment in disgust.
for slaving and cannibalism. If it ever "Thou art my father and my mother,”
got about that we’d caught one of the she greeted Ingraham conventionally.
'Little Leopards’ red-handed and let him "Where are thy people?” he demanded.
off, government authority would get an "In the land of ghosts, lord,” she re¬
awful black eye.” plied. "A day and a day ago there came
He buttoned his blouse, put on his hel¬ to us the servants of Bazarri, men of the
met and marched across the clearing. Little Leopards, with iron claws upon their
"Detail, halt; front rank, kneel; ready; hands and white men’s guns. They said
take aim—fire!” his orders rang in sharp to us: The Emperor-King is overthrown;
staccato, and the prisoner toppled over, no longer shall his soldiers bring the law
eight rifle bullets in his breast. to you. Come with us and serve Bazarri,
Calmly as though it were a bit of every¬ who is the servant of the Great King of
day routine, Sergeant Bendigo advanced, All Devils, and we shall make you rich.’
drew his pistol and fired a bullet in the " 'This is bad palaver, and when Hiji
prone man’s ear. The head, still bound comes he will hang you to a tree,’ my
in its fillet of leopard skin, bounced up¬ father told them.
ward with the impact of the shot, then fell " 'Hiji is gone across the great water,
bade flaccidly. The job was done. and will never come here more,’ they told
"Dig a grave and pile some rocks on it, my father. Then they killed many of my
then cover it with ashes from the fire,” In¬ people, and some they took as slaves to
graham ordered. To me he added: serve Bazarri where the King of Devils
"Can’t afford to have hyenas unearthin’ makes a marriage with a mortal woman.
him or vultures wheelin’ round, you Lord, hadst thou been here three days ago
know. It would give the show away. If my father had not died.”
any of his little playmates found him and "Maiden,” Ingraham answered, "go tell
saw the bullet marks they might make thy people to come again into their vil-
 THE DEVIL’S BRIDE 103

lage and build the huts the evil men ing till I give the word. Quick step,
burned down. Behold, I and my soldiers march!”
travel swiftly to give punishment to these We passed across the intervening clear¬
evil men. Some I shall hang and some my ing, mounted the steep slope of grassy
men will shoot; but surely I shall slay bank, and halted at the ridge. Before us,
them all. Those who defy the Emperor- like a stage, was such a sight as I had
King’s commands have not long lives.” never dreamed of, even in my wildest

T he sudden tropic dark had long since

fallen, and it was almost midnight
flights of fancy.

24. The Devil’s Bride

by the hands on Ingraham’s luminous
watch dial when we reached the edge of reat guns!” Ingraham exclaimed
a large clearing with a sharply rising hill vJ as we threw ourselves upon our
upon its farther side. From behind this stomachs and wriggled to the crown of
elevation shone a ruddy light, as though the hill, "old MacAndrews knew a thing
a dozen wooden houses burned at once. or two, dotty as he was! Look at that
masonry—perfect as it was when Augus¬
"Quiet, thirty lashes for the one who
tus Caesar ruled the world! The old Scots¬
makes a sound,” said Ingraham as we
man would have had the laugh on all of
halted at the forest edge. "Get those
’em, if he’d only lived.”
Lewis guns ready; fix bayonets.
What I had thought a long, steep-sided
"Sergeant, take two men and go for¬
natural hill was really the nearer of two
ward. If any one accosts you, shoot him
parallel earthen ramparts, and between
down immediately. We’ll charge the mo¬
these, roughly oval in form, a deep exca¬
ment we hear a shot.”
vation had been made, disclosing tier on
Twenty minutes, half an hour, three- tier of ancient stone benches rising ter¬
quarters, passed. Still no warning shot, race-like about an amphitheater. Behind
no sign of Sergeant Bendigo or his asso¬ these were retaining walls of mortised
ciates. stone—obviously the well-preserved re¬
"By the Lord Harry, I’m half a mind mains of a Roman circus.
to chance it!” Ingraham muttered. "They The arena between the curving ranks
may have done Bendigo in, and-” of benches was paved with shining sand,
"No, sar, Bendigo is here,” a whisper washed and rewashed until it shone with
answered him, and a form rose suddenly almost dazzling whiteness, and the whole
before us. "Bendigo has drunk the broth enclosure was aglow with ruddy light, for
of serpent’s flesh, he can move through the stretching in an oval round the sanded
dark and not be seen.” floor was set a line of oil-palms, each
"I’ll say he can,” the Englishman blazing furiously, throwing tongues of
agreed. "What’s doing?” orange flame high in the air and making
"No end dam’ swanky palaver over every object in the excavation visible as
there,” returned the sergeant. "Many though illumined by the midday sun.
people sit around like elders at the coun¬ The leaping, crackling flames disclosed
cil and watch while others make some the tenants of the benches, row after row
show before them. I think we better go of red-robed figures, hoods drawn well
there pretty soon.” forward on their faces, hands hidden in
"So do I,” returned his officer. the loose sleeves of their gowns, but every
"Attention, charge bayonets; no shoot¬ one intent upon the spectacle below,
 104 WEIRD TALES

heads bent, each line of their voluminously gor Bazarov, the Red Priest who officiated
robed bodies instinct with eagerness and at the Mass of St. Secaire!
gloating, half-restrained anticipation. Beside him, to his right and left, and
The circus proper was some hundred slightly to the rear, marched the men who
yards in length by half as many wide. acted as deacon and sub-deacon when he
Almost beneath us crouched a group of served the altar of the Devil, but now
black musicians who, even as we looked, they were arrayed in costumes almost as
began a thumping monody on their gorgeous as their chief’s, turbans of mixed
double-headed drums, beating a sort of red and black upon their heads, brooches
slow adagio with one hand, a fierce, stac¬ of red stones adorning them, curved
cato syncopation with the other. The swords flashing in jeweled scabbards at
double-timed insistence of it mounted to their waists.
my head like some accursed drug. De¬ Attended by his satellites die Red Priest
spite myself I felt my hands and feet made the circuit of the colosseum, and as
twitching to the rhythm of those drums, a he passed, the red-robed figures on the
sort of tingling racing up my spine. The benches arose and did him reverence.
red-robed figures on the benches were re¬ Now he and his attendants took station
sponding, too, heads swaying, hands no before the squatting drummers, and as he
longer hidden in their sleeves, but strik¬ raised his hand in signal the curtains at
ing together softly, as if in acclamation of the arena’s farther end were parted once
the drummers’ skill. again and from them came a woman, tall,
fair-haired, purple-eyed, enveloped in a
At the arena’s farther end, where the loose-draped cloak of gleaming cloth of
double line of benches broke, was hung a gold. A moment she paused breathlessly
long red curtain blazoned with the silver upon the margin of the shining sand, and
image of the strutting peacock, and from as she waited two tall black women, stark
behind the folds of the thick drapery we naked save for gold bands about their
saw that some activity was toward, for wrists and ankles, stepped quickly for¬
the carmine doth would swing in rippling ward from the curtain’s shrouding folds,
folds from time to time as though invis¬ grasped the golden cloak which clothed
ible hands were dutching it. her and lifted it away, so that she stood
"Now, I wonder what the deuce-” revealed, nude as her two serving-maids,
Ingraham began, but stopped abruptly as her white and lissom body gleaming in
the curtain slowly parted and into the fire¬ sharp contrast to their blade forms as an
light marched a figure. From neck to ivory figurine might shine beside two
heels he was enveloped in a robe of shim¬ statuettes of ebony.
mering scarlet silk, thick-sewn with glis¬ A single quick glance told us she was
tening gems worked in the image of a crazed with aphrodisiacs and the never-
peacock. Upon his head he wore a bee¬ pausing rhythm of the drums. With a
hive-shaped turban of red silk set off with wild, abandoned gesture she threw back
a great medallion of emeralds. her mop of yellow hair, tossed her arms
One look identified him. Though we above her head and, bending nearly dou¬
had seen him suffer death in the electric ble, raced across the sands until she paused
chair and later looked upon him lying in a moment by the drummers, her body
his casket, there was no doubt in either of stretched as though upon a rack as she
our minds. The Oriental potentate who rose on tiptoe and reached her hands up
paced the shining sands before us was Gri- to the moonless sky.
 THE DEVIL S BRIDE fTOS

Then the dance. As thin as nearly knew what happened till the act was done.
fleshless bones could make her, her figure The wildly whirling blade reversed its
still was slight, rather than emaciated, course, struck inward suddenly and passed
and as she bent and twisted, writhed and across her slender throat, its superfine edge
whirled, then stood stock-still and rolled propelled so fiercely by her maddened
her narrow hips and straight, flat abdo¬ hand that she was virtually decapitated.
men, I felt the hot blood mounting in my The rhythm of the drums increased, the
cheeks and the pulses beating in my tem¬ flying fingers of the drummers beating a
ples in time with the insistent throbbing continuous roar which filled die sultry
of the drums. Pose after pose instinct night like thunder, and the red-robed con¬
with lecherous promise melted into still gregation rose like one individual, bellow¬
more lustful postures as patterns change ing wild approval at the suicide. The
their forms upon the lens of a kaleid¬ dancer tripped and stumbled in her cory-
oscope. bantic measure, a spate of ruby lifeblood
Now a vocal chorus seconded the music cataracting down her snowy bosom;
of the tom-toms: wheeled round upon her toes a turn or
"Ho, hoi, hold,
two, then toppled to the sand, her hands
Ho, hoi, hola; and feet and body twitching with a tremor
"Tom bonia berhe Azid!" like the jerking of a victim of St. Vitos
The Red Priest and the congregation dance. She raised herself upon her el¬
repeated the lines endlessly, striking their bows and tried to call aloud, but the gush¬
hands together at the ending of each ing blood drowned out her voice. Then
stanza. die fell forward on her face and lay pros¬
"Good God!” Ingraham muttered in trate in the sand, her dying heart still
my ear. "D'ye get it, Trowbridge?” pumping spurts of blood from her severed
"No,” I whispered back. "What is it?” veins and arteries.
" Ton bonia berbe Azid' means 'thou The sharp, involuntary twitching of
hast become a lamb of the Devil!’ It’s the the victim ceased, and with it stopped the
invocation which precedes a human sacri¬ gleeful rumble of the drums. The Red
fice!” Priest raised his hand as if in invocation.
"B—but-’’ I faltered, only to have "That the Bride of Lucifer may tread
the words die upon my tongue, for the across warm blood!” he told the congrega¬
Red Priest stepped forward, unsheathing tion in a booming voice, then pointed to
the simitar from the jeweled scabbard at the crimson pool which dyed the snowy
his waist. He tendered it to her, blade sand before the trailing scarlet curtain.
foremost, and I winced involuntarily as I The two black women who had taken
saw her take the steel in her bare hand and off her cloak approached the quivering
saw the blood spurt like a ruby dye be¬ body of the self-slain girl, lifted it—one
tween her fingers as the razor-edge bit by the shoulders, the other by the feet—
through the soft flesh to the bone. and bore it bade behind the scarlet cur¬
But in her wild delirium she was insen¬ tain, their progress followed by a trail of
sible to pain. The curved sword whirled ruddy drops which trickled from the dead
like darting lightning round her head, girl’s severed throat at every step they took.
circling and flashing in the burning palm-
trees’ light till it made a silver halo for her
golden hair. Then-
M ajestically the Red Priest drew
his scarlet mantle round him,
It all occurred so quickly that I scarcely waved to the drummers to precede him,
106 WEIRD TALES

then, followed by his acolytes, passed beneath its down-turned head stretched
through the long red curtains in the wake the scarlet mattress which I knew would
of the victim and the bearers of the dead. later hold a human altar-cloth. To right
A whispering buzz, a sort of oestrus of and left were small side altars, like sanctu¬
anticipation, ran through the red-robed aries raised to saints in Christian churches.
congregation as the archpriest vanished, That to the right bore the hideous figure
but the clanging, brazen booming of a of a man in ancient costume with the head
bell cut the sibilation short. of a rhinoceros. I had seen its counter¬
Clang! part in a museum; it was the figure of the
A file of naked blacks marched out in Evil One of Olden Egypt, Set, the slayer
the arena, each carrying a sort of tray of Osiris. Upon the left was raised an
slung from a strap about his shoulders, altar to an obscene idol carved of some
odd, gourd-like pendants hanging from black stone, a female figure, gnarled and
the board. Each held a short stave with a knotted and articulated in a manner sug¬
leather-padded head in either hand, and gesting horrible deformity. From the
with a start of horror I recognized the shoulder-sockets three arms sprang out to
things—trust a physician of forty years’ right and left, a sort of pointed cap
experience to know a human thigh-bone adorned the head, and about the pendu¬
when he sees it! lous breasts serpents twined and writhed,
Clang! while a girdle of gleaming skulls, carved
The black men squatted on the glitter¬ of white bone, encircled the waist. Other¬
ing, firelit sand, and without a signal of wise it was nude, with a nakedness which
any sort that we could see, began to ham¬ seemed obscene even to me, a medical
mer on the little tables resting on their practitioner for whom the human body
knees. The things were crude marimbas, held no secrets. Kali, "the Six-Armed One
primitive xylophones with hollow gourds of Horrid Form,” goddess of the murder¬
hung under them for resonators, and, in¬ ous Thugs of India, I knew the thing
credible as it seemed, produced a music to be.
strangely like the reeding of an organ. A Clang!
long, resounding chord, so cleverly sus¬ The bell beat out its twelfth and final
tained that it simulated the great swelling stroke, and from an opening in the wall
of a bank of pipes; then, slowly, majesti¬ directly under us a slow procession came.
cally, there boomed forth within that an¬ First walked the crucifer, the corpus of
cient Roman amphitheater the Bridal his cross head-downward, a peacock’s ef-
Chorus from Lohengrin. figy perched atop the rood; then, two by
Clang! two, ten acolytes with swinging censers,
Unseen hands put back the scarlet cur¬ the fumes of which swirled slowly through
tain which had screened the Red Priest’s the air in writhing clouds of heady, mad¬
exit. There, reared against the amphi¬ dening perfume. Next marched a robed
theater’s granite wall, was a cathedral and surpliced man who swung a tinkling
altar, ablaze with glittering candles. Ar¬ sacring bell, and then, beneath a canopy
ranged behind the altar like a reredos was of scarlet silk embossed with gold, the
a giant figure, an archangelic figure with Red Priest came, arrayed in full ecclesi¬
great, outspread wings, but with the long, astical regalia. Close in his footsteps
bearded face of a leering demon, goat’s marched his servers, vested as deacon and
horns protruding from its brow. The subdeacon, and after them a double file
crucifix upon the altar was reversed, and of women votaries arrayed in red, long
 THE DEVIL S BRIDE 107

veils of crimson net upon their heads, sanctuary. A red nun tore away her habit,
hands crossed demurely on their bosoms. rending scarlet silk and cloth as though in
very ecstasy of haste, and, nude and gleam¬
lowly the procession passed between ing-white, climbed quickly up and laid
the rows of blazing palm-trees, de¬ herself upon the scarlet cushion. They
ployed before the altar and formed in set the chalice and the paten on her brand¬
crescent shape, the Red Priest and his aco¬ ed breast and the Red Priest genuflected
lytes in the center. low before the living altar, then turned
A moment’s pause in the marimba mu¬ and, kneeling with his back presented to
sic; then the Red Priest raised his hand, the sanctuary, crossed himself in reverse
palm forward, as if in salutation, and with his left hand and, rising once again,
chanted solemnly: his left hand raised, bestowed a mimic
blessing on the congregation.
"To the Gods of Egypt who are Devils,
To the Gods of Babylon in Nether Darkness, A long and death-still silence followed,
To all the Goas of all Forgotten Peoples,
-
Who rest not, but lust eternally
Hail!"
a silence so intense that we could hear the
hissing of the resin as the palm-trees
burned, and when a soldier moved uneas¬
Turning to the rhinoceros-headed mon¬
ily beside me in the grass the rasping of
ster on the right he bowed respectfully and
his tunic buttons on the earth came shrilly
called:
to my ears.
"Hail Thee who art Doubly Evil, "Now, what the deuce-” Ingraham
Who contest forth from Ati,
Who proceedest from the Lake of Nefer, began, but checked himself and craned
Who comest from the Courts of Secbet
Hailr
- his neck to catch a glimpse of what was
toward in the arena under us; for, as one
To the left he turned and invoked the man, the red-robed congregation had
female horror: turned to face the tunnel entrance leading
"Hail, Kali, Daughter of Himavat,
to the amphitheater opposite the altar, and
Hail, Thou about whose waist hang human a sign that sounded like the rustling of the
skulls, autumn wind among the leaves made the
Hail, Devi of Horrid Form,
Malign Image of Destructiveness, circuit of the benches.
Eater-up of all that is good,
-
Disseminates of all which is wicked
Hail!"
I could not see the entrance, for the
steep sides of the excavation hid it from
my view, but in a moment I descried a
Finally, looking straight before him, he
double row of iridescent peacocks strut¬
raised both hands above his head and fair¬
ting forward, their shining tails erected,
ly screamed:
their glistening wings lowered till the
"And Thou, Great Barran-Sathanas, quills cut little furrows in the sand.
Azid, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Asmodeum,
Or whatever name Thou wishest to be known Slowly, pridefully, as though they were
by, aware of their magnificence, the jeweled
Lucifer, Mighty Lord of Earth,
Prince of the Powers of the Air; birds marched across the hippodrome, and
We give Thee praise and adoration in their wake-
Now and ever, Mighty Master.
Hail, all hail, Great Lucifer. ’’For God’s sake!” exclaimed Ingraham.
Hail, all hail!"
’’Good heavens!” I ejaculated.
"All hail!” responded the red congre¬ "Alice!” John Davisson’s low cry was
gation. freighted with stark horror and despair¬
Slowly the Red Priest mounted to the ing recognition.
108 WEIRD TALES

I T WAS Alice; unquestionably it was she; beckoning, alluring glance which looked
but how completely metamorphosed! out from between her kohl-stained eye¬
A diadem of beaten gold, thick-set with lids, the whole provocative expression of
flashing jewels, was clasped about her her countenance was strange to Alice
head. Above the circlet, where dark hair Hume. This was no woman we had ever
and white skin met at the temples, there known, this homed, barbaric figure from
grew a pair of horns! They grew, there the painted halls of Asur; it was some
was no doubt of it, for even at that dis¬ wanton, cruel she-devil who held posses¬
tance I could see the skin fold forward sion of the body we had known as hers.
round the bony base of the protuberances; And so she trod across the shining sand
no skilful make-up artist could have glued on naked, milk-white feet, the serpent-
them to her flesh in such a way. Incred¬ track left by her trailing gown winding
ible—impossible—as I knew it was, it behind her like an accusation. And as
could not be denied. A pair of curving she walked she waved her jewel-encrusted
goat-horns grew from the girl’s head and hands before her, weaving fantastic ara¬
reared upward exactly like the horns on besques in empty air as Eastern fakirs do
carved or painted figures of the Devil! when they would lay a charm on the be¬
A collar of gold workmanship, so wide holder.
its outer edges rested on her shoulders,
was round her neck, and below the gleam- "Hail, Bride of Night,
Hail, horned Bride of Mighty Lucifer;
ing gorget her white flesh shone like Hail, thou who contest from the depths of
ivory; for back, abdomen and bosom were far Abaddon;
Hail and thrice hail to her who passes over
unclothed and the nipples of her high- blood and fire
set, virgin breasts were stained a brilliant That she may greet her Bridegroom!
Hail, all hail!'’
red with henna. About her waist was
locked the silver marriage girdle of the cried the Red Priest, and as he finished
Yezidees, the girdle she had worn so speaking, from each side the altar rushed
laughingly that winter evening long ago a line of red-veiled women, each bearing
when we assembled at St. Chrysostom’s to in her hands a pair of wooden pincers
rehearse her wedding to John Davisson. between the prongs of which there glowed
Below the girdle—possibly supported by and smoldered a small square of super¬
it—hung a skirt of iridescent sequins, so heated stone. That the rocks were red-
long that it barely cleared her ankles, so hot could not be denied, for we could see
tight that it gave her only four or five the curling smoke and even little licking
scant inches for each pace, so that she tongues of flame as the wooden tongs took
walked with slow, painstaking care lest fire from them.
the fetter of the garment’s hem should The women laid their fiery burdens
trip her as she stepped. The skirt trailed down upon the sand, making an incandes¬
backward in a point a foot or so behind cent path of glowing stepping-stones some
her, leaving a little track in the soft sand, ten feet long, leading directly to the al¬
as though a serpent had crawled there tar’s lowest step.
and, curiously, giving an oddly serpen¬ And now the strange, barbaric figure
tine appearance from the rear. with its horn-crowned bead had reached
Bizarre and sinister as her costume was, the ruddy stain upon the sand where the
the transformation of her face was more dancing suicide had bled her life away,
so. The slow, half-scornful, half-mock¬ and now her snowy feet were stained a
ing smile upon her painted mouth, the horrid scarlet, but never did she pause in
 THE DEVIL S BRIDE 109

her slithering step. Now she reached the beneath his left elbow one might have
path of burning stones, and now her ten¬ thought that he was ready for a prom¬
der feet were pressed against them, but enade instead of risking almost sure and
she neither hastened nor retreated in her dreadful death.
march—to blood and fire alike she seemed "Pardonnez - mot, Messieurs — Mes-
indifferent. dames”—he bowed politely to the com¬
Now she reached the altar’s bottom step pany of priests and women at the altar—
and paused a moment, not in doubt or "but this wedding, he can not go on. No,
fear, but rather seeming to debate the he must be stopped — right away; at
easiest way to mount the step’s low lift once.”
and yet not trip against the binding hob¬ The look upon the Red Priest’s face
ble of her skirt’s tight hem. was almost comical. His big, sad eyes
At length, when one or two false trials were opened till it seemed that they were
had been made, she managed to get up lidless, and a corpse-gray pallor over¬
the step by turning sidewise and raising spread his wrinkled countenance.
her nearer foot with slow care, transfer¬ "Who dares forbid the banns?” he
ring her weight to it, then mounting with asked, recovering his aplomb with diffi¬
a sudden hopping jump. culty.
Three steps she had negotiated in this "Parbleu," the little Frenchman an¬
slow, awkward fashion, when: swered with a smile, "the British Empire
"For God’s sake, aren’t you going to and the French Republic for two formid¬
do anything?” John Davisson hissed in able objectors; and last, although by no
Ingraham’s ear. "She’s almost up—are means least, Monsieur, no less a one than
you going to let ’em go through with-” Jules de Grandin.”
"Sergeant,” Ingraham turned to Ben¬ "Audacious fool!” the Red Priest al¬
digo, ignoring John completely, "are the most howled.
guns in place?” "But certainly,” de Grandin bowed, as
"Yas, sar, everything dam’ top-hole,” though acknowledging a compliment,
the sergeant answered with a grin. "I’audace, encore de I’audace, toujours de
"Very well, then, a hundred yards will I’audace; it is I.”
be about the proper range. Ready-” The Devil’s Bride had reached the top¬
The order died upon his lips, and he most step while this colloquy was toward.
and I and all of us sat forward, staring in Absorbed in working herself up to the
hang-jawed amazement. altar, she had not realized the visitor’s
From the tunnel leading to the ancient identity. Now, standing at the altar, she
dungeons at the back of the arena, a slen¬ recognized de Grandin, and her pose of
der figure came, paused a moment at the evil provocation dropped from her as if it
altar steps, then mounted them in three were a cast-off garment.
<juick strides. "Doctor—Doctor de Grandin!” she
It was Jules de Grandin. gasped unbelievingly, and with a futile,
piteous gesture she clasped her hands
He was in spotless khaki, immaculate across her naked bosom as though to draw
from linen-covered sun-hat to fresh¬ a cloak around herself.
ly polished boots; his canvas jacket and "Precisement, ma pauvre, and I am
abbreviated cotton shorts might just have here to take you home,” the little French¬
left the laundress’ hands, and from the man answered, and though he looked at
way he bore his slender silver-headed cane her and smiled, his little sharp blue eyes
110 WEIRD TALES

were alert to note the smallest movement Indeed, it seemed miraculous. Two
of the men about the altar. men had died—from gunshot wounds, by
The Red Priest’s voice broke in on all appearances — yet we had heard no
them. “Wretched meddler, do you shot. But:
imagine that your God can save you now?” "Nice work, Frendiy!” Ingraham
he asked. whispered approvingly. "They have some
"He has been known to work much sharpshooters with silencers on their guns
greater miracles,” de Grandin answered up there,” he told me. "I saw the flashes
mildly. "Meantime, if you will kindly when those two coves got it in the neck.
stand aside-” Slick work, eh, what? He’ll have those
The Red Priest interrupted in a low- fellers groggy in a minute, and-”
pitched, deadly voice: "Before tomor¬ The Red Priest launched himself direct¬
row’s sun has risen we’ll crucify you on ly at de Grandin with a roar of bestial
that altar, as-” fury. The little Frenchman sidestepped
"As you did crucify the poor young neatly, grasped the silver handle of his
woman in America?” de Grandin broke in cane where it projected from his left el¬
coldly. "I do not think you will, my bow, and drew the gleaming sword blade
friend.” from the stick.
"No? Dmitri, Kasimir—seize this "Ah-ha?” he chuckled. "Ah-ha-ha,
cursed dog!” Monsieur Diablotin, you did not bargain
The deacon and subdeacon, who had for this, hein?” He swung the needle¬
been edging closer all the while, leaped like rapier before him in a flashing circle,
forward at their master’s bidding, but the then, swiftly as a cobra strikes, thrust for¬
deacon halted suddenly, as though collid¬ ward. "That one for the poor girl whom
ing with an unseen barrier, and the sav¬ you crucified!” he cried, and the Red
age snarl upon his gipsy features gave way Priest staggered back a step, his hand
to a puzzled look—a look of almost comic raised to his face. The Frenchman’s blade
pained surprize. Then we saw spreading had pierced his left eyeball.
on his face a widening smear of red— "And take this for the poor one whom
red blood which ran into his eyes and you blinded!” de Grandin told him as he
dripped down on his parted lips before thrust a second time, driving the rapier
he tumbled headlong to the crimson car¬ point full in the other eye.
pet spread before the altar. The Red Priest tottered drunkenly, his
The other man had raised his hands, hands before his blinded eyes, but de
intent on bringing them down on de Grandin knew no mercy. "And you may
Grandin’s shoulders with a crushing blow. have this for the honest gendarme whom
Now, suddenly, the raised hands shook you shot,” he added, lashing the blind
and quivered in the air, then clutched man’s wrinkled cheeks with the flat of his
spasmodically at nothing, while a look of blade, "and last of all, take this for those
agony spread across his face. He hic¬ so helpless little lads who died upon your
cupped once and toppled forward, a spate cursed altar!” He sank backward on one
of ruby blood pouring from his mouth foot, then straightened suddenly forward,
and drowning out his death cry. stiffening his sword-arm and plunging his
"And still you would deny me one poor point directly in the Red Priest’s opened
miracle, Monsieur?” de Grandin asked the mouth.
Red Priest in a level, almost toneless A scream of agonizing pain rang out
voice. with almost deafening shrillness, and the
 THE DEVIL S BRIDE 111

blind man partly turned, as though upon and the crashing detonation of a rifle vol¬
an unseen pivot, clawed with horrid impo¬ ley echoed through the night, and after
tence at the wire-fine blade of the little it came the deadly clack-clack-clatter of
Frenchman’s rapier, then sank slowly to the Lewis guns.
the altar, his death-scream stifled to a And from the farther side of the arena
sickening gurgle as his throat filled up the French troops opened fire, their rifles
with blood. blazing death, their Maxims spraying
"Fini!” de Grandin cried, then: steady streams of bullets at the massed
"If you are ready, Mademoiselle, we forms on the benches.
shall depart,” he bowed to Alice, and:
Suddenly there came a fearful detona¬
"Hole—la corde!” he cried abruptly,
tion, accompanied by a blinding flare of
raising his hand in signal to some one flame. From somewhere on the French
overhead. side a boinbe de main—a hand grenade—
Like a great serpent, a thick hemp haw¬ was thrown, and like a bolt of lightning
ser twisted down against the amphithea¬ it burst against the stone wall shoring up
ter’s wall, and in the fading light shed the terraced seats about the Colosseum.
from the burning trees we saw the gleam
of blue coats and red fezzes where the na¬ The result was cataclysmic. The Ro¬
tive gendarmes stood above the excava¬ man architects who designed the place had
tion, their rifles at the "ready.” built for permanency, but close upon two
De Grandin flung an arm around thousand years had passed since they had
Alice, took a quick turn of the rope around laid those stones, and centuries of pressing
earth and trickling subsoil waters had
his other arm, and nodded vigorously.
Like the flying fairies in a pantomime they crumbled the cement. When the Satan-
rose up in the air, past the high altar, past ists turned back the earth they had not
stopped to reinforce the masonry or shore
the horned and pinioned image of the
up the raw edges of their cutting. Ac¬
Devil, past the stone wall of the Colos¬
cordingly, the fierce explosion of the burst¬
seum, upward to the excavation’s lip,
where ready hands stretched out to drag ing bomb precipitated broken stone and
them back to safety. sand and rubble into the ancient hippo¬
Now the red congregation was in tu¬ drome, and instantly a landslide followed.
mult. While de Grandin parleyed with Like sand that trickles in an open pit the
the Red Priest, even while he slew him broken stone and earth rushed down, en¬
gulfing the arena.
with his sword, they had sat fixed in stu¬
por, but as they saw the Frenchman and "Back—give back!” Ingraham cried,
the girl hauled up to safety, a howl like and we raced to safety with the earth fall¬
the war-cry of the gathered demons of the ing from beneath our very feet.
pit rose from their throats—a cry of burn¬
ing rage and thwarted lust and bitter, I T was over in a moment. Only a thin,
mordant disappointment. "Kill him!— expiring wisp of smoke emerging
after him!—crucify him!—burn him!” through a cleft in the slowly settling earth
came the shouted admonition, and more told where the palm-trees had been blaz¬
than one cowled member of the mob drew ing furiously a few minutes before. Be¬
out a pistol and fired it at the light patch neath a hundred thousand tons of sand
which de Grandin’s spotless costume and crumbling clay and broken stone was
made against the shadow. buried once again the ancient Roman
"Fire!” roared Ingraham to his soldiers, ruin, and with it every one of those who
1X2 .WEIRD TALES

traveled round the world to see a mortal lowed by the shrilling of a whistle from
woman wedded to the Devil. the right, and half a hundred blue-dothed
"By gosh, I think that little Frog was Senegalese gendarmes hurled themselves
right when he said 'fini,’ ” Ingraham ex¬ upon the left flank of our enemies, while
claimed as he lined his Houssas up. as many more crashed upon the foemen
"Hamdullab, trouble comes, O Hiji!” from the right, bayonets flashing in the
Sergeant Bendigo announced. "Leopard gun-fire, black faces mad with killing-lust
fellers heard our shooting and come to see and shining with the sweat of fierce exer¬
about it, Allah curse their noseless fa¬ tion.
thers!” Now there was a different timbre in the
"By Jove, you’re right!” Ingraham Human Leopards’ cries. Turned from
cried. "Form square—machine-guns to hunters into quarry, like their bestial pro¬
the front. At two hundred yards—fire!” totypes they stood at bay; but the lean, im¬
The volley blazed and crackled from the placable Senegalese were at their backs,
line of leveled rifles and the shrewish their eighteen-inch bayonets stabbing mer¬
chatter of the Lewis guns mingled with cilessly, and Ingraham’s Houssas barred
the wild, inhuman screams of the at¬ their path in front.
tackers. At last a Leopard Man threw down his
On they came, their naked, ebon bodies spear, and in a moment all were empty-
one shade darker than the moonless tropic handed. "Faire halte!” Renouard com¬
night, their belts and caps of leopard skin manded, jamming his pistol bade into its
showing golden in the gloom. Man after holster and shouldering his way between
man went down before the hail of lead, the ranks of cringing captives.
but on they came; closer, closer, doser!
"Monsieur le Capitaine,” he saluted In¬
Now something whistled through the
graham with due formality, "I greatly de¬
air with a wicked, whirring sound, and
precate the circumstances which have
the man beside me stumbled back, a five-
forced us to invade your territory, and
foot killing spear protruding from his
herewith tender our apologies, but-”
breast. "All things are with Allah, the
"Apology’s accepted, sweet old soul!”
Merciful. the Compassionate!” he choked,
the Englishman cut in, clapping an arm
and the blood from his punctured lung
about the Frenchman’s shoulders and
made a horrid, gurgling noise, like water
shaking him affectionately. "But I’d like
running down a partly occluded drain.
to have your counsel in an important mat¬
Now they were upon us, and we could
ter.”
see the camwood stains upon their faces
"Mais certainement,” Renouard re¬
and the markings on their wicker shields
turned politely. “The matter for discus¬
and the gleaming strings of human toe
sion is-” he paused expectantly.
and finger bones which hung about their
"Do we hang or dioot these blighters?”
necks. We were outnumbered ten to one,
Ingraham rejoined, nodding toward the
and though the Houssas held their line
group of prisoners.
with perfect discipline, we knew that it
was but a matter of a quarter-hour at most
25. The Brothers Bazarov
before the last of us went down beneath
the avalanche of pressing bodies and stab¬ Renouard and Ingraham stayed behind
bing spears. . to gather up loose ends—the "loose
"Baionette au cannon—Chargez!” the ends” being such members of the Leopard
order rang out sharply on our left, fol¬ Men as had escaped the wholesale execu-
W. T.—7
 THE DEVIL’S BRIDE 113
tion—for they were determined to exter¬ nest hair-line of red showed where he
minate the frightful cult. De Grandin worked.
and I, accompanied by a dozen Senegalese "Voild,” he announced. This fellow
gendarmes, took Alice overland to Dakar, Jules de Grandin puzzles me, my friend.
and Renouard dispatched a messenger When he acts the physician I am sure he
before us to advise the hospital that we is a better doctor than policeman, but
would need a private room for several when he is pursuing evil-doers I think he
days. is a better gendarme than physician. The
Since the night de Grandin rescued her devil take the fellow; I shall never make
the girl had lain in a half-stupor, and him out!”
when she showed signs of returning con¬
sciousness the little Frenchman promptly
gave her opiates. "It is better that she
T he little freighter wallowed in the ris¬
ing swells, her twin propellers churn¬
wake when all is finished and regard the ing the blue water into buttermilk. Far
whole occurrence as a naughty dream,” he astern the coast of Africa lay like the
told me. faintest wisp of smoke against the sky.
"But how the deuce did they graft those Ahead lay France. De Grandin Ut
devilish horns on her?” I wondered. another cigarette and turned his quick,
"There is no doubt about it; the things bird-like look from Renouard to me, then
are growing, but-” to the deck chairs where Davisson and
"All in good time,” he soothed. "When Alice lay side by side, their fingers clasped,
we arrive at Dakar we shall see, my the light that never was on land or sea
friend.” within their eyes.
We did. The morning after our arrival "Non, my friends,” he told us, "it is
we took her to the operating-room, and most simple when you understand it.
while she lay in anesthesia, de Grandin How could the evil fellow leave his cell
deftly laid the temporal skin aside, mak¬ at the poste de police, ftivade Frierfd
ing a perfect star-shaped incision. Trowbridge’s house and all but murder
"Name of a little blue man, behold, Mademoiselle? How could he bte lodged
my friend!” he ordered, bending across all safely in his ceil, yet be abroad to kill
thie operating-table and pointing at the poor Hornsby and all but kill the good
open wound with his scalpel tip. “They Costello? How could he die in the elec¬
were clever, those ones, riest-ce-pas?” tric chair, and lie all dead within his cof¬
The lower ends of the small horn6 had fin, yet send his wolves to kidnap Made¬
been skilfully riveted to thin disks of gold, moiselle Alice? You ask me?
and these had been inserted underneath "Ah-ha, the answer is he did not!
the skin, which had then been sewed in "What do you think from that, hein?”
place, so that the golden disks, held firmly "Oh, for heaven’s sake, stop talking rot
between skin and tissue, had acted as and tell us how it was—if you really
anchors for the horns, which thus ap¬ know,” I shot back crossly.
peared to grow upon the young girl's head. He grinned delightedly. "Perfectly,
"Clever?” I echoed. "It’s diabolical.” my friend. Ecoutez-moi, s’U vous plait;
"Eh bien, they are frequently the same, When these so trying questions first began
my friend.” to puzzle me I drew my bow at venture.
He sewed the slit skin daintily with an ’If Ut Surete can not tell me of him I am
invisible subcutaneous stitch, matching the shipwrecked—no, how do you call him?
cut edges so perfectly that only the thin- sunk?’:—I tell me. But I have great faith.
W. T.—8
 114 WEIRD TALES

A man so wicked as Bazarov, and a Euro¬ they pounced upon the members, and
pean as well, has surely run afoul of the though there was not evidence enough to
law in France, I think, and if he has done convict a weasel of chicken-killing, the
so the Surete most certainly has his dossier. poor wretches were found guilty, just the
And so I get his photograph and finger¬ same, and sentenced to Siberia. The two
prints from the governor of the prison and young priests were caught in the police
forward them to Paris. My answer wait¬ net, too, and charged with treasonably
ed for me at police headquarters at Dakar. withholding information—because it was
It is this: assumed they must have heard some trea¬
"Some five and forty years ago there . sonable news when they sat to hear confes¬
lived in Mohilef a family named Bazarov. sions! Enfin, they were confined within
They had twin sons, Grigor and Vladimir. the fortress-prison of St. Peter and St.
They were Roman Catholics. Paul.
"To be a Roman Catholic in Imperial "They were immured in dungeons far
Russia was much like being a Negro in below the level of the river, dungeons into
the least enlightened of your Southern which the water poured in time of inunda¬
states today, my friends. Their political tion, so that the rats crawled on their
disabilities were burdensome, even in that shoulders to save themselves from drown¬
land of dreadful despotism, and they ing. What horrid tortures they were sub¬
walked in daily fear of molestation by the ject to within that earthly hell we can not
police, as well, since by the very fact of surely say; but this we know: When they
their adherence to the Church of Rome emerged from four years’ suffering inside
they were more than suspected of sym¬ those prison walls, they came forth old
pathy with Poland’s aspirations for inde¬ and wrinkled men; moreover, they, who
pendence. The Poles, you will recall, are had received the rites of holy ordination,
predominantly Roman Catholic in religion. were atheists, haters of God and all his
"Very well. The brothers Bazarov works, and sworn to sow the seed of athe¬
grew up, and in accordance with their par¬ ism wherever they might go.
ents’ fondest wish, were sent to Italy to "We find them, then, as members of a
study for the church. In time they came group of anarchists in Paris, and there
back to their native land, duly ordained they were arrested, and mu<~h of their sad
as fathers in the Roman Church, and sent story written in the archives of the Surete.
to minister to their co-religionists in Rus¬ "Another thing: As not infrequently
sia. The good God knows there was a happens among Russians, these brethren
need of fathers in that land of orphans. were possessed of an uncanny power over
"Now in Russia they had a law which animals. Wild, savage dogs would fawn on
made the person having knowledge—even them, the very lions and tigers in the zoo
indirect—of a conspiracy to change the would follow them as far as the limits of
form of government, with or without vi¬ their cages would permit, and seemed to
olence, punishable by penal sentence for greet them with all signs of friendship.
six years if he failed to transmit informa¬ "You comprehend?”
tion to the police. A harmless literary "Why—you mean that while Grigor
club was formed in Mohilef and the was under arrest his brother Vladimir im¬
brothers Bazarov attended several meet¬ personated him and broke into my house,
ings, as a number of the members were of then went out gunning for Costello-”
the Roman faith. I began, but he interrupted with a laugh.
"When the police learned of this club, "Oh, Trowbridge, great philosopher,
 THE DEVIL S BRIDE 115

how readily you see (he light when some with most deplorably bad manners! I
one sets the lamp aglow!” he cried. "Yes, shall say it is well. Do not you know that
you are right It was no supernatural ability masters of ships on the high seas are em¬
which enabled him to leave his prison cell powered by the law to solemnize the rite
at will—even to make a mock of Death’s of marriage?”
imprisonment. Grigor was locked in pris¬ Something of the old Alice we had
on—executed—but Vladimir, his twin and known in other days looked from the
double, remained at large to carry on their tired and careworn face above the collar
work. But now he, too, is dead. I killed of her traveling-coat as she replied: "I’m
him when we rescued Mademoiselle game;” then, eyes dropped demurely, and
Alice.” a slight flush in her dieeks, she added soft¬
“One other thing, my Jules,” Renouard ly: “if John still wants me.”
demanded. "When they prepared to wed
Mademoiselle to Satan, they made her “T\ early beloved, we are gathered to-
walk all barefoot upon those burning -L/ gether here in the sight of God,
stones. Was not that magic of a sort?” and in the face of this company, to join
De Grandin tweaked She needle-points together this man and this woman in holy
of his mustache. "A juggler’s trick,” he matrimony,” read the captain from the
answered. "That fire-walking, he is wide¬ Book of Common Prayer. . . . “If any
ly practised in some places, and always man can show just cause why they may not
most successfully. The stones they use lawfully be joined together, let him now
are porous as a sponge. They heat to in¬ speak, or else forever after hold his peace.”
candescence quickly, but just as quickly
" Yes, pardieu, let him speak—and meet
they give off their heat. When they were
his death at Jules de Grandin’s hands!”
laid upon (he moistened sand these stones
the little Frenchman murmured, thrusting
were cool enough to hold within your un¬
one hand beneath his jacket where his au¬
gloved hand in thirty seconds. Some time
tomatic pistol rested in its shoulder holster.
was spent in mummery before they bade
Mademoiselle to walk on them. By the
time she stepped upon them they were “And now, with due solemnity, let us
cold as any money-lender’s heart.” fa consign this sacri thing unto the
ocean, and may the sea never give up its
T he ship’s bell beat out eight quick
strokes. De Grandin dropped down
dead!” de Grandin announced when John
and Alice Davisson, Renouard and I came
from his seat upon the rail and tweaked from the captain’s sanctum, the tang of
the waxed tips of his mustache until they champagne still upon our lips. He raised
stood out like twin needles each side his his hand and a silvery object glittered in
small and thin-lipped mouth. "Come, if the last rays of the setting sun, flashed
you please,” he ordered us. briefly through the air, then sank without
"Where?” asked Alice. a trace beneath the blue sea water. It was
"To die chart room, of course. The the marriage girdle of the Yezidees.
land has disappeared”—he waved his "Oh,” Alice cried, "you’ve thrown away
hand toward the horizon where rolling 'the luck of the Humes’!”
blue water met a calm blue sky—"and we “Precisely so, cherie,” he answered with
are now upon the high sea.” a smile. "There are no longer any Humes,
"Well?” demanded John. only Davissons. Le bon Dieu grant there
"Well? Name of a little green pig may be many of them.”
116 WEIRD TALES

W E have just returned from the

christening of Alice’s twin boys,
youngsters are big enough to hold their
milk for years to come.
Renouard de Grandin and Trowbridge
As I write this, Renouard, de Grandin
Ingraham Davisson. The little villains
and Costello are very drunk in my con¬
howled right lustily when Doctor Bentley
sulting-room. I can hear Costello and
put the water on their heads, and:
Renouard laugh with that high-pitched
"Grand Dieu des pores, the Evil One
cachinnation which only those far gone in
dies hard in those small sinners!” said
Jules de Grandin. liquor use at some droll anecdote which
Ingraham, engrossed with ministerial Jules de Grandin tells.
duties in West Africa, was unable to be I think that I shall join them. Surely,
present, but the silver mugs he sent the there is one more drink left in the bottle.

[THE END]

Vhe
^/Stle Gods Wait
By DONALD WANDREI

The little gods wait in the heart of the mountains.

The little gods dream an apocalyptic dream;
The little gods sleep by faery’s phantom fountains,
The little gods hide where the fen-fires gleam.

Their elders have promised them a day of returning,

When post-historic revels will unfetter them.
When skies turn to flame in a universe burning,
And ashes consume what the elders condemn.

The little gods then will tremble and waken

And rub out the granules of sleep from their eyes;
When death has been captured and time overtaken,
The little gods will answer their elders and rise.

The little gods will walk from hill and from highlands,
And four-dimension vaults revolve and open wide;
They will spew from the sea and climb from sunken islands,
From time-gulfs and planes of space they will glide.

The little gods wait in the heart of the mountains.

The little gods dream their apocalyptic dream;
They sleep a long sleep by faery’s phantom fountains,
And they hide in eery lands where the fen-fires gleam.
 ^o/plendid Lie
By S. B. H. HURST

A brief story of the World War, and two old men who sought to
comfort grieving humanity

A QUIET night in a valley of the Cots- Lord Daywater opened a drawer and
rA wold Hills in England, in Decem- took out a typewritten document.
"*■ ^ ber, 1917. A night like a Christ¬ "It’s only fair to the boy,” he said.
mas card. Stars, snow on the ground "You can’t blame him for wishing to
and an old brick house that had seen a have proof of his father’s sanity. He will
hundred thousand nights. have children some day. So he begged
In the library of the house two elderly us to sign this. This admission that we
men sat at a desk. One was a famous lied to bring comfort to broken hearts! It
classical scholar, professor in a university, will not be published until after we are
the other, the owner of the house, Lord dead. But, Dick, we did mean well.
Daywater, a member of the War Cabinet. Couple of liars, but we have given com¬
"The guns in Flanders seem very far fort to thousands. Because all men crave
from this peaceful place,” said the pro¬ knowledge of life beyond the grave—if
fessor. "It’s good to know that your boy there is any. You and I do not believe
will be home on leave in a few days!” there is. It’s just a harmless superstition.
Lord Daywater smiled. Then he said, Yet all the world thinks we are ardent
somewhat dryly, "Yes! And that reminds spiritualists, and thousands of poor
me! Two old fools—you and I—had women, wives, mothers and sweethearts
better attend to a small matter of signing have taken comfort because we have ap¬
our names to a certain document! My boy peared in public and said that we know
insists upon it, and you can’t blame him. men live after death, because we have
Shall we do it now?” proof of spirit communication! Don’t
The professor smiled. blame my level-headed boy for asking us
"We have been a couple of fools,” he to sign this admission. After our deaths
answered. "To be brutally frank, we he will publish it, in the interest of truth,
have been a couple of liars. We meant in an effort to curb the superstition we
well, of course, but, all the same—liars! have publicly endorsed. We were fools,
It did not matter so much about me. My and liars, too, but we have brought happi¬
folly did not seem so far out of place. I ness to thousands! And I don’t regret
am only a university professor. But you! having lied. If I have helped to dry a tear
Only your unusual ability saved you from I am rewarded!”
being asked to resign from the govern¬ The professor nodded.
ment. The opposition papers even said "Your boy was always such a logical
you ought to. I remember certain remarks little chap. Playful always, but sternly
about 'a ghost-hunter is hardly a man to matter of faa under the playfulness—
expea sensible work from, especially in even when quite a little chap and I used
time of war!’ . . . Yes, get out that docu¬ to carry him around on my back. Do you
ment, and let’s sign it!” remember how he loved to climb up to
118 WEIRD TALES

the high wifldow there—and knock on "Did you see him?” shouted the father,
the pane and grin at us when we were in "No!” puffed the classical scholar. 'Tie
here playing chess? That window over dodged us, as he always did! Bet he's
there. . . . Great Scott!” sitting in the library laughing at us. Come
Tapping on the pane and smiling at the on back, Dayf”
two old men was a young man in a tom The two old men plowed through the
and muddy uniform. snow, back to the front door. They heard
"He startled me,” shouted the profes¬ the telephone in die library ringing
sor. violently.
“He always loved to startle us!” the "Damn that phone!” panted Daywater
father shouted joyfully. as they rushed in. "But where’s the
They rushed to the library door, into boy?”
the hall, to the front door of the house. "Hiding some place;” laughed the
Lord Daywater flung it open, shouting. professor. "Answer that phone, old man.”
"He must have got earlier leave than Lord Daywater lifted the receiver.
he expected. And he wanted to surprize "Yes!” he said. "Oh, a telegram far
us as he did when he was little—tapping me. Yes, read it!”
on the window! Bet you a quid he is hid¬ He turned to the professor.
ing from us, in his old way!” "A wire for me down at the village, f
He shouted into the night. told the operator to read it to me. While
"Bob! Bob! Come in, you young ras¬ he is doing it—it may be important, you
cal!” know—go and find that boy of mine,
The light wind of a winter night mur¬ will you? Tell him he’ll get spanked for
mured over the snow. playing tricks on two staid and distin¬
"Come on!” shouted Daywater joyfully guished gentlemen!”
to the professor. "We ll catch him and The operator in the village began to
roll him in the snow as we used to do! read the message. Lord Daywater lis¬
The young tease. You run around the tened.
house that way, and I will run this—just "We regret to report that your son.
as we used to do! Playful young rascal, Captain the Honorable Robert Daywater,
but we two old men will catch him and was killed in action three days ago. We
roil him in the snow!” would have advised you earlier, but the
The professor ran one way, Daywater heavy bombardment made communication
panted the other. They met at the back of difficult. The war council extends its
die house. sympathy.”
 By EDNA GOIT BRINTNALL
A brief story of a girl who lay in bed and rested for the
first time in her life

A T FIRST, Nellie thought it was all at night and Wilbur held her hand and
only a dream. There had been kissed her (she skipped over the thought
^ no stinging summons from the hurriedly), but she had never before lain
rusty little alarm dock, no petulant call quietly on its spongy softness. Mother
from her mother’s room down the long spoke of the alcove as the cozy comer.
flight of stairs. Yet she could hear her It was nice.
mother moving about in the kitchen and Even the sheet was over her face, just
her father’s low answers. Miraculously as she always put it (even in her own
enough, they were not quarreling. hard little bed up under the roof) to keep
She lay very still and tried to readjust off the wind that sucked down through
herself. She was very tired and it was the flue in the chimney.
pleasant, unbelievably pleasant, to just lie She liked her room, though it- had
quietly and pretend she was asleep. nothing in it besides a very old marble-
It was high time she was getting fath¬ top dresser shabbily painted white, and
er’s breakfast, and a rather pathetic break¬ an old mirror of her grandmother’s, that
fast it would be. Just the two of them once had been resplendent with shining
always. Mother usually had a headache gold leaf. It was nothing much to look
and Nellie took breakfast up to her on at now, after she had painted the clus¬
a tray. Not a tray with a rose clinging ters of grapes along the sides. Blobs of
lovingly to the curl of a long crystal vase, paint made pimples on the sides of the
but roses were expensive and not to be grapes, unpleasant even to think about.
thought of even in midsummer. Mother The bed was thin and white and iron.
usually ate her breakfast and turned over It was cold in winter—like the rest of the
discontentedly and went back to sleep. room, and hot in summer.
Then Nellie hurried downstairs and dust¬ In the winter there was no heat. The
ed the living-room. Mother was most tiny sheet-iron stove in the comer was
particular about the living-room. Beyond not good to look at, but no one bothered
the living-room nothing much mattered. to take it down. It was painfully inade¬
Nellie sensed that she was lying on quate against the winter winds that threw
the couch in the alcove off the living- themselves off the lake and beat frantic¬
room. It was stuffy; she could smell the ally against the eight tiny windows.
dust on the "porteers” and the heavy Only half of the woodwork was white.
odor of the afghan couch cover. There Nellie had intended it all to be white,
were six strips to the couch cover, two but one can hardly judge the limits of a
tan, two rust-red and two faded blue, al¬ quart of paint. Even the white part was
ternating and strung together loosely not all white—just a muddy gray where
with coarse tan twine. the deep brown of the old woodwork
Sometimes die and Wilbur sat there showed through—and now only two of
119
120 WEIRD TALES

the windows would open. The paint held under the sheet, just to have seen him,
them quite securely, making the room but it was all too delicious.
like a furnace during the hot summer Mother getting breakfast! Father dust¬
nights. ing?
Even at that Nellie liked the room. Too delicious just to lie all warm and
There were eight more of such rooms comfortable and let some one else do
strung along the row toward the street something.
comer. Nellie often wondered what Her mother came through the dining¬
they looked like—if they were as warm room and stood in the doorway.
and as cold as hers, and if the wallpapers "We can put those roses in the green
were as pretty as hers. Nellie loved the vase/’ she was saying to her father, "two
wallpaper. She had selected it herself. whole dozen roses—from the Goodmansf
It was pale green with broad silver trel¬ around the comer!”
lises fairly bursting with pink roses, roses Two dozen roses—it was beyond com¬
that, hung over her bed in joyous profu¬ prehension!
sion. So low was the ceding that she could Soon she would stir herself and get up
fancy herself lying in bed and merely and wash the vase—’way down at the
reaching out one slim arm and gathering bottom so that no brown line would show
handfuls to her thin young breasts. —but not now—no, not now!
Looking at the flowers, she forgot the She thought about the house—stiff with
paint, and the lack of curtains at the win¬ red, dark red brick and a jutting porch
dows didn’t bother her any more. She that went up stiffly as if making a long
had wanted Swiss curtains with pink dots nose at the shabby cellar beneath. It had
and frilled tie-backs, but as her mother cutwork and balls and scrolls all painted
convinced her—curtains were not neces¬ red, dark red like the brick.
sary up so high from the street. No one
The living-room was nice. Mother al¬
saw.
ways spoke of it that way. There was
the onyx table with a bronze statue on it,
by the front window—the bronze lamp
with the big red shade on the glass-top
little longer. table by the morris chair. There were
She wondered why her father hadn't green over-curtains—scant, very scant, it
gone to work, wrenching himself into was true, and not quite covering the
his coat, pulling his hat down viciously coarse lace edgings of the scrim curtains
over his bespectacled eyes and slamming underneath,, but Mother had made than
the door until the colored glass fairly in a hurry and her sense of measurement
rattled in its casing. was not always accurate. Still they looked
From the kitchen she could hear the nice.
mother’s voice as a general directing his The piano was rosewood. Even Father
army. was proud of the piano, though there
"Be careful now, with that dust-rag. had been weeks of wrangling and bitter
Wipe off the window-sills and the top of biting argument over it, but Mother won.
the piano and the rungs of the chairs!’’ Mother always did.
So Father was dusting! Just as she had about the house. Fath¬
She would have loved to peek out from er had wanted a house in the country. A
 DUST 121

house that stood by itself and didn’t have real nice against-” her mother con¬
to be propped up by seven others, all tinued.
alike in a row like alphabet blocks. A "She has real pretty hair.” Her father
house that had sides to it that one could seemed very dose to her. He was praising
see and not only just one stern high front. her. Tears flooded to her eyes, but die
Windows that looked wide to the sun and kept her lips closed tight. She wanted to
not into a gray court that grew darker hear more—just a very little more.
and darker as it neared the dining-room
windows. "I had real pretty hair, too, once—you
used to say so yoursdf—but what with
Perhaps that was why the dining-room
scrimping and washing and ironing and
was rarely dusted. No one could see dust
standing over a hot stove and raising
in the dining-room, even in midday—
a-” Her mother hesitated.
that is, no one but Father. Father could
see and sometimes he wrote the word "She wasn’t exactly thankless,” her
Dust in a big scrawling hand across the father said, slowly, as if supplying the
shelf of the high golden-oak sideboard. word. "Maybe we shouldn’t have said
It always made Mother angry—which he she had to marry Wilbur. Wilbur is a
knew it would. Often Nellie saw it be¬ nice fellow, but maybe she didn’t just
fore Mother did, though she was not so fancy him—girls are sometimes that way.
tall; and that saved a row. Maybe, if we hadn’t just forced her too
Nellie hated rows, but Father and far, she woulda got used to the idea slow-
Mother seemed to enjoy them. Father llke and not run out into the street like
always telling about his mother’s house¬ a wild thing and get runned over by a
keeping and Mother flinging back about fire engine.”
aever having a dime to call her own. Nellie felt her mother’s breath freeae
against her lips.
Often Nellie could hear them below
her—tense bitter voices snarling at each "Don’t you ever let me hear you say
other in the darkness. those words again—not to anybody, any
time,” she said firmly. "After all, she was
But when callers came Mother and
running out to see where the fire was and
Father took on, in some mysterious fash¬
that’s how it all happened."
ion, the niceness of the living-room.
Mother was proud of the Oriental rugs "I guess you’re right,” said the father.
and Father even praised the piano. "Well, I’ve got all the food ready and
Nellie didn’t stir. She heard Mother’s most, of the flowers set up and you bettter
steps close beside her—very close beside go up and get a fresh collar on and your
her. She was speaking. black gloves ready. The man ought to
"I think the roses look nicest here, don’t be here now any minute and you can help
you? We can put the rest of the flowers lift her.”
here—but the roses are lovely!’’ Her mother came close to her and
"She liked roses,” said the father. lifted the sheet. Nellie kept her eyes
"I like roses too, but with never a tightly closed and waited.
dime-” She stopped, suddenly; her "She looks real nice,” she said almost
father said nothing. defiantly, "just like she was sleeping.”
"Her graduating-dress was a bit too "Yes,” said her father, "just like she
small, but I split it down the bade. Lodes was sleeping.”
122 WEIRD TALES

Her mother laid the sheet back over It was nice of the Goodmans to send
her face. They tiptoed away. roses to her mother. They were nice peo¬
ple—even her mother and father were
T he heavy scent of roses came back
to Nellie pleasantly. She wished the
nice. A nice living-room it was. A nice
couch, comfortable, restful. ... ^
"porteers” didn’t smell like dust. Even Wilbur was nice. . . .
So close the roses seemed, as if she
could reach out one slender arm and gath¬ She gave a thin, peaceful litttle sigh—
er them to her thin young bosom. the room was dusted—somewhere Fath¬
She was very tired. She wondered er was putting on a clean collar and
about the alarm dock. Perhaps there some black gloves—somewhere Mother,
had never been any alarm clock. Perhaps well—it was just all—too—nice. . . .
she had only been dreaming. Nellie slept.

use of the Lizard

By HAROLD WARD
The newspaper reporter underwent a ghastly experience in that house
built on the quicksands of a swamp

T HE place was little more than a

dugout set in the brow of the hill.
I stated my mission. The old man, his
huge head cocked to one side, chuckled
The exposed portion was of lime¬ throatily. Short, pot-bellied, bandy¬
stone, stained and yellowed with age. A legged and fat, his eyes droopy and heavy-
creeping vine, tangled and untrimmed, lidded, his lipless mouth a great slit ex¬
clung tenaciously to the fissures in the tending, it seemed, almost from ear to ear,
rocky wall alongside and flung its rebel¬ he reminded me, somehow, of a big frog
lious tendrils across the bit of roof in a that had escaped from the near-by muck
riotous mass. The afternoon’s rain had and assumed the form of a man. Now,
covered everything with moisture; above as he spoke for the first time, his voice
the swamp rose a foggy, stinking vapor. added to the illusion, for it was deep
Located at the end of a prolongation of and rumbling.
the mainland, the miserable habitation "Newspaper man, eh?” he gurgled in
reminded one of the abiding-place of some his hoarse bass. "Sent down to get a fea¬
poisonous denizen of the swampy morass ture story for your Sunday paper, eh?”
which surrounded it on three sides. The He chuckled again. "Maybe I-”
gathering darkness was dropping down He stopped in the middle of the sen¬
over everything like a black mantle; yet tence as if struck by a sudden thought.
there was still light enough for me to get "Come in,” he commanded, throwing
a good view of the old man who stood in the door open a trifle wider. "Maybe
the doorway and blinked at me drowsily there has been some queer goings-on
as if just awakened from a sound sleep. around here—things that seem odd to
 HOUSE OF THE LIZARD 123

other people. But me—I’m used to ’em.” with a vacuum pump. For a moment it
He led the way iato the single, tiny puzzled me.
room. It was gloomy as a tomb. Feel¬ "It’s the swamp,” the old man whis¬
ing his way, he scratched a match and pered tremulously. "Nights like this you
lighted a candle, which he stuck in a can hear it plainer than when there’s a
sconce above the huge, stone fireplace. moon. It’s getting closer an’ closer—just
Its feeble glare threw the interior into a eatin’ an’ suckin' away at the ground the
sort of semi-darkness. As I took the seat way a cancer works on human flesh. It
he indicated, I glanced about. Two used to be mpre’n a quarter of a mile
chairs, a rude table and a pallet of straw away. Now it’s almost here.”
in the corner were all the furniture the
room contained.
were a number
On the farther wall
of box-like shelves;
For a moment I smoked in silence.
There was something about the odd
strangely enough, they reminded me of fellow—something sinister, foreboding;
crypts. yet I was forced to admit to myself that
For a single instant the old man stood he had been courteous enough. I glanced
gazing at me. Then, with a word of apol¬ across the table at him. His face, half in
ogy, he lighted a second candle from the the shadow, was more frog-like and re¬
flame of the first and, pulling up a trap¬ pulsive than ever. He made a peculiar
door in the floor, descended into the cel¬ ducking noise. A small lizard darted out
lar. He returned almost immediately from a crack in the floor and, running up
with a platter of cold meat, half a loaf of the old man’s trousers leg, perched itself
bread and a bottle of wine. upon his breast. He ducked again. The
" ’Tain’t likely you’ve et, seein’s you creature’s head raised; it seemed to bal¬
said your car broke down a ways bade,” ance itself upon the end of its tail and its
he rumbled, placing the frugal meal cm hind legs. The yellow and light green of
the table before me. its belly writhed aid twisted snakishly as
the old man stroked the top of its head
To tell the truth, I was hungry; for, as
with his stubby forefinger.
he had said, I had hurried On account of
"This one’s the tamest of the bunch,”
the breakdown. And, too, I wanted to
he went on as if breaking into his own
get bade to the city to keep an appoint¬
chain of thought. "See her little collar?”
ment.
He sat in silence until I had completed He set the reptile atop the table, where
my repast. Then, my pipe filled and it lay blinking its tiny eyes at me content¬
lighted, I turned to him. edly. Lizards and snakes and spiders and
"I- the like have always been especially repug¬
nant to me. To touch one of the creatures
He stopped me with a gesture.
invariably sends a chill down my spine.
"Hear it?” he whispered. "It’s at it
Yet for the sake of the coming story, I
again.”
held a crumb of meat between my thumb
I listened. With the coming of night and forefinger and allowed the green-
the noises of the day had died out. Now coated horror to nibble at it daintily,
there was silence—silence unbroken save then, conquering my nerves a bit more, I
for a peculiar d-u-u-u-unk . . . d-u-u-u- made shift to examine the thin circlet of
unk . . . d-u-u-u-unk. It sounded like metal about the tiny neck. Corroded,
the efforts of a plumber to force a sink covered with greenish mold, there were
124 WEIRD TALES

yet traces of engraving upon it. Inter¬ the old man’s lap and thence to the floor.
ested in spite of myself, I bent my head An instant later she joined her companion
for a better view of it. in the corner.
It was a woman’s wedding ring, with¬ "I have to put up with ’em,” the old
out a doubt. man ruminated. "And maybe they’re as
The old man, noting my interest, human as you and me.”
blinked his froggish eyes excitedly. He pushed the wine-bottle across the
"It was a woman’s finger ring, all table to me. As an act of courtesy I
right,” he explained, sensing my un¬ drank.
spoken question. "I found it layin’ out¬ "This was his house—the house of
side one day-” Pierre Laspard,” he said suddenly. "That
He dropped his voice to a rumbling is, all that’s left of it. A storm took the
whisper. rest years ago.”

" ’Twas on a bit of bone washed up by He hesitated an instant. Then, as I

the swamp,” he went on. "Maybe it was made no response: "It was here—right
Laura’s in the beginning—I always call here in thisveryroom—that he killed ’em:
her Laura — the lizard, I mean. She Laura, his wife, and John Davis, her lover.
knows her name and answers to it. That They were sitting in that very chair you’re
was the name of Laspard’s wife. Maybe sittin’ in, she on his lap, her arms about
Laura, here, is her.” him, kissing and loving, when Pierre Las¬
He scratched the lizard’s head again pard came in suddenly and caught them.
with his stubby forefinger. He shot them.”
"She was a little thing, then, and the I stirred uneasily. The old man
ring slipped down over her little head chuckled mirthlessly.
fine. It’s a tight fit, now, but she doesn’t "Their blood was on the floor where
seem to mind it.” your feet are. I scrubbed most of it up,
The lizard cocked her head sideways as but it sunk into the stone. You can see
if listening. The old man stopped sud¬ it when the light’s good.”
denly, and he, too, listened for an instant. The candle guttered, almost went out
"She hears the swamp calling,” he said from some faint draft. I felt a chill pass
in a low tone. "It’s suckin’ an’ eatin’ all over me. The dancing light threw gro¬
the time—gettin’ closer an’ closer.” tesque shadows upon the walls. The old
The atmosphere, the darkened interior man, hunched over the table, looked more
—everything—was beginning to get on frog-like than ever. His voice, dropping
my nerves. I shuddered in spite of my¬ to a rumbling whisper, took on the deep
self. bass of a bullfrog.
"The story they tell about this bit of "He killed himself here in this room,
swamp land?” I reminded him gently. too,” he said suddenly. "They say that
He shrugged his pudgy shoulders. he comes back—that he returns to the
"I was just coming to that,” he an¬ scene of his crime every night—that he is
swered. "You see, Laura sort of fits in.” tied to this bit of old stone house until the
Again he stopped. From a distant cor¬ swamp swallows it up and releases him.”
ner came a rasping squeak. I turned my I filled and lighted my pipe nervously.
head in time to see another lizard dart The old man’s head dropped to his breast.
across the stone floor and disappear in the His eyes closed as if he slept.
darkness. Laura slid from the table onto "Cl-u-u-u-unk . . . cl-u-u-u-unk ...”
 HOUSE OF THE LIZARD 12$

It was the swamp. The lizards squeaked "Cl-u-u-u-nk ... cl-u-u-u-unk .

in the darkness. The old man stirred "Hear it?” he whispered. "It’s getting
from his revery. closer all the time—just gnawing away at
"Hear it?” he questioned. "Laura the ground in order to get at old Pierre.”
hears it.” He held up his finger for si¬ Again I had a feeling of coldness. In¬
lence. "It’s gettin’ closer an’ closer—near¬ voluntarily I shuddered. The old man
er and nearer to old Pierre Laspard. It leaned closer.
won’t be long now.
"Old Pierre couldn’t stand it,” he went
on. "One day they found him sittin’ in
“tte was an old man, Pierre Laspard that chair you’re sittin’ in. His throat was
il was,” he said, changing the sub¬ cut from ear to ear. He had committed
ject suddenly. "Much too old for a girl suicide.
like Laura La Rue. But he loved her and "On the table, here, he’d left a confes¬
with his money he always got what he sion telling how he had killed them.”
wanted. She was a beautiful girl—the
He rose to his feet and stood leaning
belle of the countryside. All of the young
over the table, his fat, pasty face gray
fellows were after her, but she’d have
with terror. Great beads of perspiration
nothing to do with them, loving only one
stood out upon his forehead.
—a gay young blade named John Davis.
"She wasn’t dead when he threw her
She and Davis were secretly engaged.
into the swamp!” he said in an awed
But in those days the word of the parents
whisper. "Think of it, she wasn’t dead!
was law. They forced her to marry old
"She recovered consciousness just be¬
Pierre Laspard and his money. And she
fore the mud and ooze sucked her down.
—she obeyed in spite of her love for John
There she lay, just her face and breast
Davis.
above the water, the blood flowing from
"You can’t keep young love apart. One the gaping wound in her white breast and
day Pierre Laspard went away expecting coloring the wet, soggy sand around her,
to be gone for a day or two. He returned and cursed him—cursed Pierre Laspard,
unexpectedly. He found his wife sitting
the man who had killed her.
on her lover’s lap. He had his gun with
" 'It’ll get you!’ she shrieked with her
him. You can imagine the rest, for Pierre
dying breath. 'It will get you just as it’s
Laspard was a hot-tempered man in spite
getting me! You can’t get away from it,
of his years.”
Pierre Laspard! Try as you will, you can’t
Again he bowed his head in thought. escape it! It will get you. I’m coming
Then: back—John and I—to see that my curse
"He carried the bodies across the fields comes true! It will get you . . . suck
and threw them into the swamp. It was you in ... in ... in .. .’
the same then as it is now, always sucking "Then the swamp gave a heave and a
and dragging and pulling like a live thing. gurgle and she was gone. But the curse
It’s the quicksand as does it. It swal¬ still remains.”
lowed ’em up. Laspard gave it out that The old man dropped back into his
they had run away together. People chair again, trembling like a leaf in the
wagged their heads and said nothing, wind. Then, for the first time, I saw it.
knowing as they did, how Laura and her There was a white scar across his throat
lover had been carrying on behind old —a scar extending amongst the folds of
Pierre’s back.” fat from ear to ear!
126 WEIRD TALES

Suddenly die full horror of the thing her hand. My fingers grasped hers. She
swept over me! This man—this fat, gave a pull. The man gave a mighty
paunchy, frog-like thing with the handy heaye. The sticky flood groaned and
legs—was the shade of Pierre Laspardt sighed. Then I felt myself being dragged
to safety.
I attempted to leap to my feet. I was Proto the swamp came a shriek. It was
chained to the floor as by invisible bass and throaty and rumbling. It sound¬
bands. I tried to shriek. My mouth was ed like the thunder of a bullfrog that has
dry and parched. I could make no sound. been frightened. Yet, too, it had the tone
"Cl-l-u-u-u-unk . . . cl-u-u-u-unk . . .” of a man who has just escaped from heU.
The sound was closer now. It was "Laura! Laura! I come! I come! The
almost at the door. The floor was writh¬ swamp has taken me at last!”
ing and twisting and squirming as the The woman squeaked like a lizard. The
water undermined it. In the corner the soft hand was jerked from my grasp. Then
lizards squeaked excitedly. The old man came oblivion again.
was on his feet now, his arms extended to¬
ward the swamp in an attitude of devo¬ I T was daylight when I awoke. The saa
tion. was shining brightly through the foli¬
"Hear it? Hear it?” he croaked exult- age atop the hill. For a moment I lay
ingly. "It comes—it comes for me. The there. Then recollection swept over me
curse will soon be ended.” and I leaped to my feet.
Stone was grinding upon stone. The Of the old stone house there was not a
front of the place fell with a terrific crash. trace. The swamp swept along the rocky
I looked out through the opening upon a base of the hill.
starless, moonless night. Another grind¬
ing! A smashing crash! Mote stone fell. “TX/-hat sort of story are you trying
And still I sat there, unable to move. ▼V to feed me?” the Sunday editor
A portion of the hillside fell as the demanded angrily, glaring at me over his
water undermined it. Then the swamp glasses. "Have you been on another bend¬
was upon me. The sticky, oozy flood er? You promised me that the last one
closed about my legs. I was drawn would be-”
down . . . down . . . down. . . . I interrupted him with a gesture. Tak¬
Then consciousness left me. ing something from my pocket, I handed
it to him.
I was awakened by the feel of arms be¬ "I found this in my hand when I woke
neath my shoulders. I opened my up," I answered. "I must have jerked it
eyes. A man was standing, waist-deep, in from the girl's finger when she pulled her
the mud. Naked, his muscular arms were hand from my grasp.”
about me and he was straining to drag me The Sunday editor swore fluently as he
out of the vortex that was suddng me in. examined the thing that I had handed to
I heard a woman's voice. Mm.
"Hurry!” she seemed to say. "The "She had to leave me when the curse
time is almost up!” was fulfilled,” I went on.
I managed to turn my head. Tall, slen¬ The thing I had handed him was a
der, her white skin showing plainly woman’s wedding ring. Green and cor¬
against the darkness of die night, she roded though it was, inside one could still
stood close beside me and stretched forth see the engraved initials, "L. L.”
 By MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY

R The Story Thus Far

OBERT WALTON, captain of a
ship seeking a passage through the
materials from graveyards,
houses and dissecting-rooms.
slaughter¬
The mon¬
ster was so terrible to look upon that
Frankenstein fled from it, and the mon¬
Arctic Ocean, saw a low carriage,
ster escaped.
fixed on a sledge and drawn by dogs, pass
Abandoned by its creator, the monster
over the ice field to the north. In it sat
made its way to the vicinity of Franken¬
a being which had the shape of a man,
stein’s home, where he murdered Frank¬
but apparently of gigantic stature.
enstein’s younger brother, William, mak¬
The next morning, after the ice had
ing it appear that Justine Moritz, a friend
broken, he rescued from an ice-floe
of the family, had committed the murder.
another man, greatly emaciated. Only one
Justine was convicted and sentenced to
of his dogs remained alive, for he had
death, while Frankenstein, knowing that
been marooned for some time.
if he told the truth he would be consid¬
The man was Victor Frankenstein, a ered a lunatic, was forced to keep silence.
young scientist, who related to Captain
Walton the incredible story of his life and
CHAPTER 9
how he came to be on the ice-floe.
Frankenstein had lived in Geneva with
his father and his adopted sister, Eliza¬
N othing is more painful to the hu¬
man mind than, after the feelings
beth, to whom he was betrothed. His have been worked up by a quick succes¬
father sent him to school at Ingolstadt sion of events, the dead calmness of in¬
with his chum, Henry Clerval. There he action and certainty which follows, and
progressed in his studies of natural sci¬ deprives the soul both of hope and fear.
ence to such a point that he learned to Justine died; she rested; and I was alive.
create life. The blood flowed freely in my veins, but
Without taking Clerval into his secret, a weight of despair and remorse pressed
Frankenstein created a monster, eight feet on my heart, which nothing could remove.
tall and human in appearance, taking his Sleep fled from my eyes; I wandered like
This story began in WEIRD TAXES for May
127
128 .WEIRD TALES

an evil spirit, for I had committed deeds gled its bitterness, and terror its alarm
of mischief beyond description horrible, with my other sensations. Now I could
and more, much more (I persuaded my¬ only answer my father with a look of de¬
self) , was yet behind. Yet my heart over¬ spair, and endeavor to hide myself from
flowed with kindness, and the love of vir¬ his view.
tue. I had begun life with benevolent About this time we retired to our house
intentions, and thirsted for the moment at Belrive. This change was particularly
when I should put them in practise, and agreeable to me. The shutting of the
make myself useful to my fellow-beings. gates regularly at ten o’clock, and the im¬
Now all was blasted: instead of that seren¬ possibility Of remaining on the lake after
ity of conscience, which allowed me to that hour, had rendered our residence
look bade upon the past with seif-satis¬ within the walls of Geneva very irksome
faction, and from thence to gather promise to me. I was not free. Often, after the
of new hopes, I was seized by remorse rest of the family had retired for the
and the sense of guilt, which hurried me night, I took the boat, and passed many
away to a hell of intense tortures, such as hours upon the water. Sometimes, with
no language can describe. my sails set, I was carried by the wind;
This state of mind preyed upon my and sometimes, after rowing into the mid¬
health, which had perhaps never entirely dle of the lake, I left the boat to pursue
recovered from the first shock it had its own course, and gave way to my own
sustained. I shunned the face of man; ail miserable reflections. I was often temp¬
sound of joy or complacency was torture ted, when all was at peace around me, and
to me; solitude was my only consolation— I die only unquiet thing that wandered
deep, dark, death-like solitude. restless in a scene so beautiful and heaven¬
My father observed with pain the alter¬ ly—if I except some bat, or the frogs,
ation perceptible in my disposition and whose harsh and interrupted croaking
habits, and endeavored by arguments de¬ was heard only when I approached die
duced from the feelings of his serene con¬ shore—often, I say, I was tempted to
science and guiltless life, to inspire me plunge into the silent lake, that the waters
with fortitude, and awaken in me the might close over me and my calamities for
courage to dispel the dark cloud which ever. But I was restrained, when I
brooded over me. "Do you think, Vic¬ thought of the heroic and suffering Eliz¬
tor,” said he, "that I do not suffer also? abeth, whom I tenderly loved, and whose
No ohe could love a child more than I existence was bound up in mine. I
loved your brother” (tears came into his thought also of my father and surviving
eyes as he spoke); "but is it not a duty to brother: should I by my base desertion
the survivors, that we should refrain from leave them exposed and unprotected to
augmenting their unhappiness by an ap¬ the malice of the fiend whom I had let
pearance of immoderate grief? It is also loose among them?
a duty owed to yourself; for excessive sor¬ At these moments I wept bitterly, and
row prevents improvement or enjoyment, wished that peace would revisit my mind
or even the discharge of daily usefulness, only that I might afford them consolation
without which no man is fit for society.” and happiness. But that could not be.
This advice, although good, was totally Remorse extinguished every hope. I had
inapplicable to my case; I should have been the author of unalterable evils; and
been the first to hide my grief, and con¬ I lived in daily fear lest the monster whom
sole my friends, if remorse had net min¬ I had created should perpetrate some new
W. T.—8
 FRANKENSTEIN 129

wickedness. I had an obscure feeling days, or imaginary evils; at least they were
that all was not over, and that he would remote, and more familiar to reason than
still commit some signal crime, which by to the imagination; but now misery has
its enormity should almost efface the come home, and men appear to me as
recollection of the past. There was always monsters thirsting for each other’s blood.
scope for fear, so long as anything I Yet I am certainly unjust. Everybody
loved remained behind. believed that poor girl to be guilty; and if
My abhorrence of this fiend can not be she could have committed the crime for
conceived. When I thought of him, I which she suffered, assuredly she would
gnashed my teeth, my eyes became in¬ have been the most depraved of human
flamed, and I ardently wished to extin¬ creatures. For the sake of a few jewels,
guish that life which I had so thoughtless¬ to have murdered the son of her bene¬
ly bestowed. When I reflected on his factor and friend, a child whom she had
crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge nursed from its birth, and appeared to
burst all bounds of moderation. I would love as if it had been her own! I could
have made a pilgrimage to the highest not consent to the death of any human
peak of the Andes, could I, when there, being; but certainly I should have thought
have precipitated him to their base. -I such a creature unfit to remain in the so¬
wished to see him again, that I might ciety of men. But she was innocent. I
wreak the utmost extent of abhorrence on know, I feel she was innocent; you are of
his head, and avenge the deaths of Wil¬ the same opinion, and that confirms me.
liam and Justine. Alas! Victor, when falsehood can look
so like the truth, who can assure them¬
O UR house was the house of mourn¬ selves of certain happiness? I feel as if
ing. My father’s health was deeply I were walking on the edge of a precipice,
shaken by the horror of the recent events. towards which thousands are crowding,
Elizabeth was sad and desponding; she no and endeavoring to plunge me into the
longer took delight in her ordinary occu¬ abyss. William and Justine were assassi¬
pations; all pleasure seemed to her sacri¬ nated, and the murderer escapes; he walks
lege toward the dead; eternal wo and about the world free, and perhaps respect¬
tears she then thought was the just trib¬ ed. But even if I were condemned to
ute she should pay to innocence so blasted suffer on the scaffold for the same crimes,
and destroyed. She was no longer that I would not change places with such a
happy creature, who in earlier youth wretch.”
wandered with me on the banks of the I listened to this discourse with the
lake, and talked with ecstasy of our future extremest agony. I, not in deed, but in
prospects. The first of those sorrows effect, was the true murderer.
which are sent to wean us from the earth, Elizabeth read my anguish in my Coun¬
had visited her, and its dimming influence tenance, and kindly taking my hand, said,
quenched her dearest smiles. "My dearest friend, you must calm your¬
"When I reflect, my dearest cousin,” self. These events have affected me, God
said she, "on the miserable death of Jus¬ knows how deeply; but I am not so
tine Moritz, I no longer see the world and wretched as you are. There is an expres¬
its works as they before appeared to me. sion of despair, and sometimes of re¬
Before, I looked upon the accounts of venge, in your countenance, that makes
vice and injustice, that I read in books or me tremble. Dear Victor, banish these
heard from others, as tales of ancient dark passions. Remember the friends
W. T.—9
130 WEIRD TALES

around you, who center all their hopes in roads. The weather was fine: it was about
you. Have we lost the power of render¬ the middle of August, nearly two months
ing you happy? Ah! while we love— after the death of Justine; that miserable
while we are true to each other, here in epoch from which I dated all my wo.
this land of peace and beauty, your native The weight upon my spirit was sensibly
country, we may reap every tranquil bless¬ lightened as I plunged yet deeper in the
ing—what can disturb our peace?” ravine of Arve. The immense mountains
And could not such words from her and precipices that overhung me on every
whom I fondly prized before every other side—the sound of the river raging among
gift of fortune, suffice to chase away the the rocks, and the dashing of the water¬
fiend that lurked in my heart? Even as falls around, spoke of a power mighty as
she spoke I drew near to her, as if in ter¬ Omnipotence—and I ceased to fear, or to
ror; lest at that very moment the destroy¬ bend before any being less almighty than
er had been near to rob me of her. that which had created and ruled the el¬
Thus not the tenderness of friendship, ements, here displayed in their most ter¬
nor the beauty of earth, nor of heaven, rific guise. Still, as I ascended higher,
could redeem my soul from wo: the very the valley assumed a more magnificent
accents of love were ineffectual. I was and astonishing character. Ruined castles
encompassed by a cloud which no ben¬ hanging on the precipices of piny moun¬
eficial influence could penetrate. The tains; the impetuous Arve, and cottages
wounded deer dragging its fainting limbs every here and there peeping forth from
to some untrodden brake, there to gaze among the trees, formed a scene of singu¬
upon the arrow which had pierced it, and lar beauty. But it was augmented and
to die—was but a type of me. rendered sublime by the mighty Alps,
Sometimes I could cope with the sullen whose white and shining pyramids and
despair that overwhelmed me: but some¬ domes towered above all, as belonging to
times the whirlwind passions of my soul another earth, the habitations of another
drove me to seek, by bodily exercise and race of beings.
by change of place, some relief from my I passed the bridge of Pelissier, where
intolerable sensations. It was during an the ravine, which the river forms, opened
access of this kind that I suddenly left before me, and I began to ascend the
my home, and bending my steps towards mountain that overhangs it. Soon after,
the near Alpine valleys, sought in the I entered the valley of Chamounix. This
magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, valley is more wonderful and sublime, but
to forget myself and my ephemeral, be¬ not so beautiful and picturesque as that
cause human, sorrows. My wanderings of Servox, through which I had just
were directed towards the valley of Cha- passed. The high and snowy mountains
mounix. I had visited it frequently dur¬ were its immediate boundaries; but I saw
ing my boyhood. Six years had passed no more ruined castles and fertile fields.
since then: 1 was a wreck—but nought Immense glaciers approached the road; I
had changed in those savage and endur¬ heard the rumbling thunder of the falling
ing scenes. avalanche, and marked the smoke of its
passage. Mont Blanc, the supreme and
I performed the first part of my jour¬ magnificent Mont Blanc, raised itself from
aiguilles,
ney on horseback. I afterwards hired the surrounding and its tremen¬
a mule, as the more sure-footed, and least dous dome overlooked the valley.
liable to receive injury on these rugged At length I arrived at the village of
 FRANKENSTEIN 131

Chamounix. Exhaustion succeeded to the me; the unstained snowy mountain-top,

extreme fatigue both of body and of mind the glittering pinnacle, the pine woods,
which I had endured. For a short space and ragged bare ravine; the eagle, soaring
of time I remained at the window, watch¬ amidst the clouds—they all gathered
ing the pallid lightnings that played above round me, and bade me be at peace.
Mont Blanc, and listening to the rushing
Where had they fled when the next
of the Arve, which pursued its noisy way
morning I awoke? Dark melancholy cloud¬
beneath. The same lulling sounds acted
ed my every thought. The rain was
as a lullaby to my too keen sensations :
pouring in torrents, and thick mists hid
when I placed my head upon my pillow,
the summits of the mountains, so that I
sleep crept over me; I felt it as it came,
even saw not the faces of those mighty
and blest the giver of oblivion.
friends. Still I would penetrate their
CHAPTER 10 misty veil, and seek them in their doudy

I spent the following day roaming retreats.

me?
What were rain and storm to
My mule was brought to the door,
through the valley. I stood beside the
sources of the Arveiron, which take their and I resolved to ascend to the summit
rise in a glacier that with slow pace is ad¬ of Montan vert. I remembered the effect
vancing down from the summit of the that the view of the tremendous and ever-
hills to barricade die valley. The abrupt moving glacier had produced upon my
sides of vast mountains were before me; mind when I first saw it. It had then
the icy wall of the glacier overhung me; filled me with a sublime ecstasy that gave
a few shattered pines were scattered wings to the soul, and allowed it to soar
around; and the solemn silence of this from the obscure world to light and joy.
glorious presence-chamber of imperial The sight of the awful and majestic in
Nature was broken only by the brawling nature had indeed always the effect of sol¬
waves, or the fall of some vast fragment, emnizing my mind, and causing me to
the thunder sound of the avalanche, or forget the passing cares of life. I deter¬
the cracking reverberated along the moun¬ mined to go without a guide, for I was
tains of the accumulated ice, which, well acquainted with the path, and the
through the silent working of immutable presence of another would destroy the
laws, was ever and anon rent and torn, as solitary grandeur of the scene.
if it had been but a plaything in their The ascent is precipitous, but the path
hands. is cut into continual and short windings,
These sublime and magnificent scenes which enable you to surmount the per¬
afforded me the greatest consolation that pendicularity of the mountain. It is a
I was capable of receiving. They elevated scene terrifically desolate. In a thousand
me from all littleness of feeling; and al¬ spots the traces of the winter avalanche
though they did not remove my grief, they may be perceived, where trees lie broken
subdued and tranquillized it. In some and strewed on the ground; some en¬
degree, also, they diverted my mind from tirely destroyed, others bent, leaning upon
the thoughts over which it had brooded the jutting rocks of the mountain, or
for the last month. I retired to rest at transversely upon other trees. The path,
night; my slumbers, as it were, waited on as you ascend higher, is intersected by ra¬
and ministered to by the assemblance of vines of snow, down which stones con¬
grand shapes which I had contemplated tinually roll from above; one of them is
during the day. They congregated round particularly dangerous, as (he slightest
132 WEIRD TALES

sound, such as even speaking in a loud heart, which was before sorrowful, now
voice, produces a concussion of air suf¬ swelled with something like joy; I ex¬
ficient to draw destruction upon the head claimed—"Wandering spirits, if indeed
of the speaker. The pines are not tall or ye wander, and do not rest in your nar¬
luxuriant, but they are somber, and add row beds, allow me this faint happiness,
an air of severity to the scene. or take me, as your companion, away from
I looked on the valley beneath; vast the joys of life.”
mists were rising from the rivers which As I said this, I suddenly beheld the
ran through it, and curling in thick figure of a man, at some distance, advanc¬
wreaths around the opposite mountains, ing towards me with superhuman speed.
whose summits were hid in the uniform He bounded over the crevices in the ice,
clouds, while rain poured from the dark among which I had walked with caution;
sky, and added to the melancholy impres¬ his stature, also, as he approached, seemed
sion I received from the objects around to exceed that of man. I was troubled:
me. Alas! why does man boast of sensi¬ a mist came over my eyes, and I felt a
bilities superior to those apparent in the faintness seize me; but I was quickly re¬
brute; it only renders them more necessary stored by the cold gale of the mountains.
beings. If our impulses were confined to I perceived, as the shape came nearer
hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be (sight tremendous and abhorred!) that it
nearly free; but now we are moved by was the wretch whom I had created. I
every wind that blows, and a chance word trembled with rage and horror, resolving
or scene that that word may convey to us. to wait his approach, and then close with
him in mortal combat. He approached;
It was nearly noon when I arrived at his countenance bespoke bitter anguish,
the top of the ascent. For some time combined with disdain and malignity,
I sat upon the rode that overlooks the sea while its unearthly ugliness rendered it
of ice. A mist covered both that and the almost too horrible for human eyes. But
surrounding mountains. Presently a I scarcely observed this; rage and hatred
breeze dissipated the cloud, and I descend¬ had at first deprived me of utterance, and
ed upon the glacier. The surface is very I recovered only to overwhelm him with
uneven, rising like the waves of a trou¬ words expressive of furious detestation
bled sea, descending low, and interspersed and contempt.
by rifts that sink deep. The field of ice "Devil,” I exclaimed, "do you dare ap¬
is almost a league in width, but I spent proach me? and do not you fear the fierce
nearly two hours in crossing it. The op¬ vengeance of my arm wreaked on your
posite mountain is a bare perpendicular miserable head? Begone, vile insect! or
rock. From the side where I now stood rather, stay, that I may trample you to
Montanvert was exactly opposite, at the dust! and, oh! that I could, with the ex¬
distance of a league; and above it rose tinction of your miserable existence, re¬
Mont Blanc, in awful majesty. store those victims whom you have so
I remained in a recess of the rock, gaz¬ diabolically murdered!”
ing on this wonderful and stupendous "I expected this reception,” said the
scene. The sea, or rather the vast river of demon. "All men hate the wretched;
ice, wound among its dependent moun¬ how, then, must I be hated, who am mis¬
tains, whose aerial summits hung over its erable beyond all living things! Yet you,
recesses. Their icy and glittering peaks my creator, detest and spurn me, thy crea¬
shone in the sunlight over the clouds. My ture, to whom thou art bound by ties only
 FRANKENSTEIN 133

dissoluble by the annihilation of one of "Begone! I will not hear you. There
us. You purpose to kill me. How dare can be no community between you and
you sport thus with life? Do your duty me; we are enemies. Begone, or let us
towards me, and I will do mine towards try our strength in a fight, in which one
you and the rest of mankind. If you will must fall.”
comply with my conditions, I will leave "How can I move thee? Will no en¬
them and you at peace; but if you refuse, treaties cause thee to turn a favorable eye
I will glut the maw of death, until it be upon thy creature, who implores thy good¬
satiated with the blood of your remaining ness and compassion? Believe me, Frank¬
friends.” enstein: I was benevolent; my soul glowed
"Abhorred monster! fiend that thou with love and humanity: but am I not
art! the tortures of hell are too mild a ven¬ alone, miserably alone? You, my creator,
geance for thy crimes. Wretched devil! abhor me; what hope can I gather from
you reproach me with your creation; come your fellow-creatures, who owe me noth¬
on, then, that I may extinguish the spark ing? they spurn and hate me. The desert
which I so negligently bestowed.” mountains and dreary glaciers are my ref¬
My rage was without bounds-; I sprang uge. I have wandered here many days;
on him, impelled by all the feelings which the caves of ice, which I only do not fear,
can arm one being against the existence of are a dwelling to me, and the only one
another. which man does not grudge. These bleak
He easily eluded me, and said— skies I hail, for they are kinder to me than
"Be calm! I entreat you to hear me, your fellow-beings. If the multitude of
before you give vent to your hatred on my mankind knew of my existence, they
devoted head. Have I not suffered would do as you do, and arm themselves
enough, that you seek to increase my mis¬ for my destruction. Shall I not then hate
ery? Life, although it may only be an them who abhor me? I will keep no
accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, terms with my enemies. I am miserable,
and I will defend it. Remember, thou and they shall share my wretchedness.
hast made me more powerful than thy¬ Yet it is in your power to recompense me,
self; my height is superior to thine; my and deliver them from an evil which it
joints more supple. But I will not be only remains for you to make so great that
tempted to set myself in opposition to not only you and your family, but thou¬
thee. I am thy creature, and I will be even sands of others, shall be swallowed up in
mild and docile to my natural lord and the whirlwinds of its rage. Let your com¬
king, if thou wilt also perform thy part, passion be moved, and do not disdain me.
the which thou owest me. Oh, Franken¬ Listen to my tale: when you have heard
stein, be not equitable to every other, and that, abandon or commiserate me, as you
trample upon me alone, to whom thy jus¬ shall judge that I deserve. But hear me.
tice, and even thy clemency and affection, The guilty are allowed, by human laws,
is most due. Remember, that I am thy bloody as they are, to speak in their own
creature; I ought to be thy Adam; but I defense before they are condemned. Lis¬
am rather the fallen angel, whom thou ten to me, Frankenstein. You accuse me
drivest from joy for no misdeed. Every¬ of murder; and yet you would, with a sat¬
where I see bliss, from which I alone am isfied conscience, destroy your own crea¬
irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent ture. Oh, praise the eternal justice of
and good; misery made me a fiend. Make man! Yet I ask you not to spare me:
me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.” listen to me; and then, if you can, and if
154 LWEIRD TALES

you will, destroy the work of your hands/' plained of his wickedness. These motives
"Why do you call to my remembrance,” urged me to comply with his demand.
I rejoined, "circumstances of which I We crossed the ice, therefore, and
shudder to reflect that I have been the mis¬ ascended the opposite rock. The air was
erable origin and author? Cursed be the cold, and the rain again began to descend:
day, abhorred devil, in which you first saw we entered the hut, the fiend with an air
light! Cursed (although I curse myself) of exultation, I with a heavy heart and de¬
be the hands that formed you! You have pressed spirits. But I consented to listen;
made me wretched beyond expression. and, seating myself by the fire which my
You have left me no power to consider odious companion had lighted, he thus
whether I am just to you or not. Begone! began his tale.
relieve me from the sight of your detested
CHAPTER 11
form.”
“Thus I relieve thee, my creator,” he “Tt is with considerable difficulty that
said, and placed his hated hands before A I remember the original era of my be¬
my eyes, which I flung from me with vi¬ ing: all the events of that period appear
olence; “thus I take from thee a sight confused and indistinct. A strange mul¬
which you abhor. Still thou canst listen to tiplicity of sensations seized me, and I
me, and grant me thy compassion. By the saw, felt, heard, and smelt, at the same
virtues that I once possessed, I demand time; and it was, indeed, a long time be¬
this from you. Hear my tale; it is long fore I learned to distinguish between the
and strange, and the temperature of this operations of my various senses. By de¬
place is not fitting to your fine sensations; grees, I remembered, a stronger light
come to the hut upon the mountain. The pressed upon my nerves, so that I was
sun is yet high in the heavens; before it obliged to shut my eyes. Darkness then
descends to hide itself behind yon snowy came over me, and troubled me; but hard¬
precipices, and illuminate another world, ly had I felt this, when, by opening my
you will have heard my story, and can de¬ eyes, as I now suppose, the light poured in
cide. On you it rests whether I quit for upon me again. I walked, and, I believe,
ever the neighborhood of man, and lead descended; but I presently found a great
a harmless life, or become the scourge of alteration in my sensations. Before, dark
your fellow-creatures, and the author of and opaque bodies had surrounded me,
your own speedy ruin.” impervious to my touch or sight; but I
As he said this, he led the way across now found that I could wander on at lib¬
the ice: I followed. My heart was full, erty, with no obstacles which I could not
and I did not answer him; but, as I pro¬ either surmount or avoid.
ceeded, I weighed the various arguments "The light became more and more op¬
that he had used, and determined at least pressive to me; and, the heat wearying me
to listen to his tale. I was partly urged as I walked, I sought a place where I
by curiosity, and compassion confirmed could receive shade. This was the forest
my resolution. I had hitherto supposed near Ingolstadt; and here I lay by the side
him to be the murderer of my brother, of a brook resting from my fatigue, until
and I eagerly sought a confirmation or de¬ I felt tormented by hunger and thirst.
nial of this opinion. For the first time, This roused me from my nearly dormant
also, I felt what the duties of a creator state, and I ate some berries which I found
towards his creature were, and that I hanging on the trees, or lying on the
ought to render him happy before I com¬ ground. I slaked my thirst at the brook;
 FRANKENSTEIN 135.

and then lying down, was overcome by was unable. Sometimes I wished to ex¬
sleep. press my sensations in my own mode, but
"It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which
also, and half frightened, as it were in¬ broke from me frightened me into silence
stinctively, finding myself so desolate. again.
Before I had quitted your apartment, on a "The moon had disappeared from the
sensation of cold, I had covered myself night, and again, with a lessened form,
with some clothes; but these were insuf¬ showed itself, while I still remained in the
ficient to secure me from the dews of forest. My sensations had, by this time,
night. I was a poor, helpless, miserable become distinct, and my mind received
wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, every day additional ideas. My eyes be¬
nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all came accustomed to the light, and to per¬
sides, I sat down and wept. ceive objects in their right forms; I dis¬
"Soon a gentle light stole over the tinguished the insect from the herb, and,
heavens, and gave me a sensation of pleas¬ by degrees, one herb from another. I
ure. I started up, and beheld a radiant found that the sparrow uttered none but
form rise from among the trees. I gazed harsh notes, whilst those of the blackbird
with a kind of wonder. It moved slowly, and thrush were sweet and enticing.
but it enlightened my path; and I again "One day, when I was oppressed by
went out in search of berries. I was still cold, I found a fire which had been left
cold, when under one of the trees I found by some wandering beggars, and was
a huge cloak, with which I covered myself, overcome with delight at the warmth I ex¬
and sat down upon the ground. No dis¬ perienced from it. In my joy I thrust my
tinct ideas occupied my mind; all was con¬ hand into the live embers, but quickly
fused. I felt light, and hunger, and drew it out again with a cry of pain. How
thirst, and darkness; innumerable sounds strange, I thought, that the same cause
rang in my ears, and on all sides various should produce such opposite effects! I
scents saluted me: the only object that I examined the materials of the fire, and to
could distinguish was the bright moon, my joy found it to be composed of wood.
and I fixed my eyes on that with pleasure. I quickly collected some branches; but
"Several changes of day and night they were wet, and would not bum. I
passed, and the orb of night had greatly was pained at this, and sat still watching
lessened, when I began to distinguish my the operation of the fire. The wet wood
sensations from each other. I gradually which I had placed near the heat dried,
saw plainly the clear stream that supplied and itself became inflamed. I reflected
me with drink, and the trees that shaded on this; and, by touching the various
me with their foliage. I was delighted branches, I discovered the cause, and
when I first discovered that a pleasant busied myself in collecting a great quan¬
sound, which often saluted my ears, pro¬ tity of wood, that I might dry it, and have
ceeded from the throats of the little a plentiful supply of fire. When night
winged animals who had often inter¬ came on, and brought sleep with it, I was
cepted the light from my eyes. I began in the greatest fear lest my fire should be
also to observe, with greater accuracy, the extinguished. I covered it carefully with
forms that surrounded me, and to perceive dry wood and leaves, and placed wet
the boundaries of the radiant roof of light branches upon it; and then, spreading my
which canopied me. Sometimes I tried to cloak, I lay on the ground, and sunk into
imitate the pleasant songs of the birds, but sleep.
136 WEIRD TALES

«tt was morning when I awoke, and built for the convenience of some shep¬
A my first care was to visit the fire. I herd. This was a new sight to me; and I
uncovered it, and a gentle breeze quickly examined the structure with great curios¬
fanned it into a flame. I observed this ity. Finding the door open, I entered.
also, and contrived a fan of brandies, An old man sat in it, near a fire, over
which roused the embers when they were which he was preparing his breakfast. He
nearly extinguished. When night came turned on hearing a noise; and, perceiving
again, I found, with pleasure, that the me, shrieked loudly, and, quitting the
fire gave light as well as heat; and that the hut, ran across the fields with a speed of
discovery of this element was useful to which his debilitated form hardly ap¬
me in my food; for I found some of the peared capable. His appearance, differ¬
offal that the travellers had left had been ent from any I had ever before seen, and
roasted, and tasted much mote savory than his flight, somewhat surprized me. But I
the berries I gathered from the trees. I was enchanted by the appearance of the
tried, therefore, to dress my food in the hut: here the snow and rain could not
same manner, placing it on the live em¬ penetrate; the ground was dry; and it
bers. I found that the berries were spoiled presented to me then as exquisite and di¬
by this operation, and the nuts and roots vine a retreat as Pandemonium appeared
much improved. to the demons of hell after their sufferings
"Food, however, became scarce; and I in the Idee of fire. I greedily devoured
often spent the whole day searching in the remnants of the shepherd’s breakfast,
vain for a few acorns to assuage the pangs which consisted of bread, cheese, milk,
of hunger. When I found this, I resolved and wine; the latter, however, I did not
to quit the place that I had hitherto in¬ like. Then, overcome by fatigue, I lay
habited, to seek for one where the few down among some straw, and fell asleep.
wants I experienced would be more easily “It was noon when I awoke; and, al¬
satisfied. In this emigration, I exceeding¬ lured by the warmth of the sun, which
ly lamented the loss of the fire which I shone brightly on the white ground, I
had obtained through accident, and knew determined to recommence my travels;
not how to reproduce it. I gave several and, depositing the remains of the peas¬
hours to the serious consideration of this ant’s breakfast in a wallet I found, I pro¬
difficulty; but I was obliged to relinquish ceeded across the fields for several hours,
all attempt to supply it; and, wrapping until at sunset I arrived at a village. How
myself up in my cloak, I struck across the miraculous did this appear! the huts, the
wood towards the setting sun. neater cottages, and stately houses, en¬
"I passed three days in these rambles, gaged my admiration by turns. The vege¬
and at length discovered the open country. tables in the gardens, the milk and cheese
A great fall of snow had taken place the that I saw placed at the windows of some
night before, and the fields were of one of the cottages, allured my appetite. One
uniform white; the appearance was dis¬ of the best of these I entered; but I had
consolate, and I found my feet chilled by hardly placed my foot within the door,
the cold damp substance that covered the before the children shrieked, and one of
ground. the women fainted.
"It was about seven in the morning, "The whole village was roused; some
and I longed to obtain food and shelter; fled, some attacked me, until, grievously
at length I perceived a small hut, on a ris¬ bruised by stones and many other kinds of
ing ground, which had doubtless been missile weapons, I escaped to the open
 FRANKENSTEIN 137

country, and fearfully took refuge in a The floor was a little raised, so that it was
low hovel, quite bare, and making a kept perfectly dry, and by its vicinity to
wretched appearance after the palaces I the chimney of the cottage it was tolerably
had beheld in the village. This hovel, warm.
however, joined a cottage of a neat and "Being thus provided, I resolved to re¬
pleasant appearance; but, after my late side in this hovel until something should
dearly bought experience, I dared not occur which might alter my determina¬
enter it. My place of refuge was con¬ tion. It was indeed a paradise compared
structed. of wood, but so low that I could to the bleak forest, my former residence,
with difficulty sit upright in it. No wood, the rain-dropping branches, and dank
however, was placed on the earth, which earth. I ate my breakfast with pleasure,
formed the floor, but it was dry; and al¬ and was about to remove a plank to pro¬
though the wind entered it by innumer¬ cure myself a little water, when I heard a
able chinks, I found it an agreeable asylum step, and looking through a small chink,
from the snow and rain. I beheld a young creature, with a pail on
"Here then I retreated, and lay down her head, passing before my hovel. The
happy to have found a shelter, however girl was young, and of gentle demeanor,
miserable, from the inclemency of the sea¬ unlike what I have since found cottagers
son, and still more from the barbarity of and farmhouse servants to be. Yet she
man. was meanly dressed, a coarse blue petti¬
"As soon as morning dawned, I crept coat and a linen jacket being her only
from my kennel, that I might view the garb; her fair hair was plaited, but not
adjacent cottage, and discover if I could adorned: she looked patient, yet sad.
remain in the habitation I had found. It "I lost sight of her; and in about a
was situated against the back of the cot¬ quarter of an hour she returned, bearing
tage, and surrounded on the sides which the pail, which was now partly filled with
were exposed by a pig-sty and a clear milk. As she walked along, seemingly
pool of water. One part was open, and incommoded by the burden, a young man
by that I had crept in; but now I covered met her, whose countenance expressed a
every crevice by which I might be per¬ deeper despondence. Uttering a few
ceived with stones and wood, yet in such a sounds with an air of melancholy, he took
manner that I might move them on occa¬ the pail from her head, and bore it to the
sion to pass out: all the light I enjoyed cottage himself. She followed, and they
came through the sty, and that was suf¬ disappeared. Presently I saw the young
ficient for me. man again, with some tools in his hand,
cross the field behind the cottage; and the
“XTaving thus arranged my dwelling girl was also busied, sometimes in the
AJ. and carpeted it with clean straw, I house, and sometimes in the yard.
retired; for I saw the figure of a man at a "On examining my dwelling, I found
distance, and I remembered too well my that one of the windows of the cottage
treatment the night before to trust myself had formerly occupied a part of it, but
in his power. I had first, however, pro¬ the panes had been filled up with wood.
vided for my sustenance for that day, by a In one of these was a small and almost
loaf of coarse bread, which I purloined, imperceptible chink, through which the
and a cup with which I could drink, more eye could just penetrate. Through this
conveniently than' from my hand, of the crevice a small room was visible, white¬
pure water which flowed by my retreat. washed and clean, but very bare of furni-
138 WEIRD TALES

ture. In one corner, near a small fire, sat an hour, the young woman joined him,
an old man, leaning his head on his hands and they entered the cottage together.
in a disconsolate attitude. The young "The old man had, in the meantime,
girl was occupied in arranging the cottage; been pensive; but, on the appearance of
but presently she took something out of a his companions, he assumed a more cheer¬
drawer, which employed her hands, and ful air, and they sat down to eat. The
she sat down beside the old man, who, meal was quickly despatched. The young
taking up an instrument, began to play, woman was again occupied in arranging
and to produce sounds sweeter than the the cottage; the old man walked before the
voice of the thrush or the nightingale. cottage in the sun for a few minutes, lean-
on the arm of the youth. Nothing could
"It was a lovely sight, even to me, poor
exceed in beauty the contrast between
wretch! who had never beheld aught beau¬
these two excellent creatures. One was
tiful before. The silver hair and benevo¬
old, with silver hairs and a countenance
lent countenance of the aged cottager
beaming with benevolence and love: the
won my reverence, while the gentle man¬
younger was slight and graceful in his fig¬
ners of the girl enticed my love. He
ure,. and his features were molded with the
played a sweet mournful air, which I per¬
finest symmetry; yet his eyes and attitude
ceived drew tears from the eyes of his
expressed the utmost sadness and despond¬
amiable companion, of which the old man
ency. The old man returned to the cot¬
took no notice, until she sobbed audibly;
tage; and the youth, with tools different
he then pronounced a few sounds, and the
from those he had used in the morning,
fair creature, leaving her work, knelt at
directed his steps across the fields.
his feet. He raised her, and smiled with
"Night quickly shut in; but, to my ex¬
such kindness and affection that I felt sen¬
treme wonder, I found that the cottagers
sations of a peculiar and overpowering
had a means of prolonging light by the
nature: they were a mixture of pain and
use of tapers, and was delighted to find
pleasure, such as I had never before expe¬
that the setting of the sun did not put an
rienced, either from hunger or cold,
end to the pleasure I experienced in watch¬
warmth or food; and I withdrew from the
ing my human neighbors. In the evening,
window, unable to bear these emotions.
the young girl and her companion were
"Soon after this the young man re¬ employed in various occupations which I
turned, bearing on his shoulders a load of did not understand; and the old man again
wood. The girl met him at the door, took up the instrument which produced
helped to relieve him of his burden, and, the divine sounds that had enchanted me
taking some of the fuel into the cottage, in the morning. So soon as he had fin¬
placed it on the fire; then she and the ished, the youth began, not to play, but to
youth went apart into a nook of the cot¬ utter sounds that were monotonous, and
tage and he showed her a large loaf and neither resembling the harmony of fhe old
a piece of cheese. She seemed pleased, man’s instrument nor the songs of the
and went into the garden for some roots birds: I since found that he read aloud,
and plants, which she placed in water, and but at that time I knew nothing of the
then upon the fire. She afterwards con¬ science of words or letters.
tinued her work, whilst the young man "The family, after having been thus
went into the garden, and appeared busily occupied for a short time, extinguished
employed in digging and pulling up roots. their lights, and retired to rest.”
After he had been employed thus about (To be continued next month)
 WEIRD TALES 139

The Eyrie
(Continued, from page 6)

by an unknown writer they would be returned immediately. They often begin in a

slow, dull manner, which would warn any editor that they were amateurish, and he
would not read beyond the first page because he knows that his readers would not do
so. Yet the readers are expected to wade through a lot of philosophy, weather re¬
ports, and what not before the real story begins. I began Frankenstein in the last
quarter of the installment, and know more what it is about than if I had waded
through all the unnecessary and bothersome introduction. Many of these reprints
are good stories. But why don’t you have them rehashed in modern form so they
will be less dull reading? I like The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis and The Brotherhood of
Blood, though the latter was far from being as weird as some you have published.
I like vampire stories, because they make me think of things that might happen but
don’t. I especially like Seabury Quinn’s work. The peppery little Frenchman, Jules
de Grandin, is quite a likable characterization. I believe Quinn is your best author.”
Carl J. Smith, of Port Felix, Nova Scotia, writes to the Eyrie: "As to your reprints,
serials will take so long to get printed that we won't get as many short stories. We
can get the serial reprints in the library or the bookstore, but where can we get the
earlier stories that have appeared in W. T.? The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis in the
May issue was a great story, but all of that author’s stories are good. The little story
by August W. Derleth was fine; although no one has mentioned his stories, they are
all good, though short.”
Writes Jack Williamson, of Elida, New Mexico: '"Hie last issue of Weird Tales
was fine, as usual—or rather, as is unusual in the flood of stereotyped fiction. The
Last Magician I liked especially; it is an original conception convincingly done.”
Writes Julius Nelson, of Indiana, Pennsylvania: "The Last Magician, written by
Keller, my favorite author, seems to me to be the outstanding story in the May issue.
For ingenuity of plot contrivance, it is a masterpiece. However, Lovecraft’s story,
The Dunwich Horror, which appeared in W. T. some time ago, is the best I have
ever read.”
"I have just finished reading Hugh B. Cave’s The Brotherhood of Blood,” writes
James N. Mooney, of Mount Kisco, New York. "What a story! Thrills, chills, and
romance! I suggest that you continue to run serial reprints.”
A letter from Mrs. Ravella Beatty, of Chicago, says: "My family and I have read
your fine magazine every month for three years, and would not miss it for anything.
I like your reprints very much. We read every installment of The Wolf-Leader, and
it certainly was exciting. Your new reprint, Frankenstein, is surely odd and novel.
Please print Dracula, as we have heard so much about it. Your vampire stories are
superb.”
Frank R. Moore, of Detroit, writes to the Eyrie: "Off and on, I have read Wejrd
Tales for five or six years—which must mean something or other. First of all, I
read the Eyrie, so I can agree or disagree with the likes and dislikes of others. My
favorite authors are Seabury Quinn, Robert E. Howard, Edmond Hamilton—well,
confound it, I like ’em all! Weird Tales is so popular in our home that I have to
140 WEIRD TALES

hide it until I’ve read it. My favorite stories are tales of the grave, vampirism (The
Brotherhood of Blood by Hugh B. Cave was excellent), reincarnation and such.
I’m not so hot about interplanetary stories.”
"Eight years of Weird Tales, with but one fault to find, that there is not enough
weird poetry,” writes A. E. Shaffer, of Verona, Pennsylvania. "Why not follow the
reprinting of Frankenstein with two shorter reprints from the earlier Weird Tales,
then give us Dracula followed by two more shorts, thus satisfying all except those
who are against reprints, and I think they have dwindled down to comparatively
few? It has been a long time since we have had a horror story with spiders as the
chief theme. I’ll never forget Spider-Bite, which appeared some time back.”
"Not having written you for several years,” writes Mrs. G. W. Fisher, of Vine-
land, New Jersey, "I must voice my indignation, as after reading the May Eyrie, I
find not one word of praise for the best story in the May issue, Clark Ashton Smith’s
The Planet of the Dead. Don’t your readers appreciate him? Although his The Gor¬
gon in the April issue was fine and his Vaults of Yoh-Vomb'ts in the current issue
even better, being a real blood-chiller and actually (is this treason?) surpassing
Lovecraft in horror, The Planet of the Dead seems to me to be one of his very best
because of its remarkable vocabulary and beautifully colorful descriptions. I strongly
object to your reprints of long novels, which we can read in any free library. I buy
the magazine for something different. I endured through Dumas, and will suffer
through Frankenstein again; but if you reprint Dracula I am through with you, as I
know that book by heart.”
Readers, what is your favorite story in this issue of Weird Tales? The fourth in¬
stallment of Seabury Quinn’s serial, The Devil’s Bride, and Clark Ashton Smith’s
tour de force, The Vaults of Yoh-Vomb'ts, were the most popular stories in the May
issue, as shown by your votes and letters.

MY FAVORITE STORIES IN THE JULY 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
Reader's name and address:
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.
 Coming Next Month
I TRIED to cry aloud, to warn de Grandin of the visitant’s approach, but only a
dull, croaking sound, scarce louder than a sigh, escaped my palsied lips.
Low as the utterance was, it seemed to carry to the creeping horror. With a
wild, demoniac laugh it launched itself upon the bed where my friend lay sleeping,
and in an instant I heard the sickening impact of a blow—another blow—and then a
high, cracked voice crying: "Accursed of God, go now and tell your master who
keeps watch and ward upon the earth!”
Weapon I had none, but at the bedside stood a table with a chromium carafe of
chilled spring water, and this I hurled with all my might straight at the awful face.
A second marrow-freezing cry went up, and then a flash of blinding light—bright
as a summer storm’s forked lightning on a dark night—flared in my eyes, and I choked
and gasped as strangling fumes of burning sulfur filled my mouth and nostrils.
"De Grandin, oh, de Grandin!” I wailed, leaping from the bed and blundering
against furniture as I sought the light. Too well I knew that Jules de Grandin could
not hear my voice; already I had seen the effects of such flailing blows as I had heard:!
the little Frenchman lay upon his bed, his head crushed in, his gallant spirit gone for
ever from his slender, gallant body. . . .
Don’t fail to read in next month’s Weird Tales this powerful story of mysterious
deaths, in which the victims are found with their skulls crushed in, and in every case
the mark of a gigantic goat’s hoof upon their brows. The story will be printed com¬
plete in the August issue:

THE DARK ANGEL

By SEABURY QUINN
—ALSO—
THE BRIDE OF THE PEACOCK THE MAKER OF GARGOYLES
By E. Hoffmann Price By Clark Ashton Smith
A powerful weird novelette of devil-worship, and The story of a mad horror loosed upon a me«
the attempt of Abdul Malaak and his ghastly crew diaeval village by Blaise Reynard the stone-cutter
to use a dazzlingly beautiful woman to control the
destinies of a nation. THE LAIR OF THE STAR-SPAWN
By August W. Derlbth and Mark Schorer
A MIDNIGHT CONFESSION The story of a dread menace to mankind on thtj
By J. Paul Suter long-lost Plateau of Sung.

From the death cell in the big prison came a weird Also, another thrilling installment of Franken¬
summons to right a wrong—an utterly different stein, and Victor Rousseau's exciting story, The
ghost story. Phantom Hand.

Ausust WEIRD TALES Out July 1

141
142 LWEIRD TALES

The Man Who Never Came Back

(Continued from page 32)

He motioned and they followed him shot from behind the very bushes where
to a tall clump of bushes and at his di¬ Bannister and his men lay hidden.
rection huddled down behind them. Three things happened then, at the
It seemed an hour that they lay un¬ same time. The leopard-men ran scream¬
comfortably hunched behind the bushes, ing shrilly from the clearing, leaping
fearful of reptiles when the grass behind and tearing at one another in their haste,
them rustled; dreading the animal eyes as they disappeared into the jungle. The
that must stare at them from hidden king-leopard leaped high into the air,
places. Yet it was but a few moments spun about twitching and lashing his tail,
actually, before there came to their strain¬ then fell heavily to the ground, where
ing ears the sound or a stealthy approach he lay sprawled and still. At the same
from the jungle across the clearing. time, directly behind Bannister, there
A baobab tree cast deep shadow on a sprang a lithe, black figure, brandishing a
strip of flattened, wiry grass and across rifle.
this shadow there slowly moved into their It was Molu. He bent over the dead
vision a grotesquely inhuman group. leopard and pointed to a crimson hole
Men? Leopards? They were both—the behind the left ear.
terror-inspiring leopard-men of which the "Him gone now. No more catch wife
Bendjabis and the exiled M’Bano had of Bendjabi.” His voice was triumphant;
told Herbie Tillson so many tales of hor¬ his white teeth shone in a smile of satis¬
ror. The creatures groveled, bellies to fied revenge.
the grass. They went on all fours with Bannister spoke to him sternly. "You
a rippling leopard gait. They snarled followed us, Molu, to kill the leopard?”
among themselves. Subhuman, revolting, "Oh, yes. I kill him,” repeated Molu,
the lowest thing in the horror-ridden only half understanding in his excite¬
country of the jungle. ment. He peered at Bannister sidewise
The three men in the shadows felt a in a cunning, intent way. "Him no leop¬
dizzy nausea as they watched breathlessly. ard for sure; him man; him lead leopard-
As the pack milled about, beating the men.”
long grass still flatter to the ground, "My God! What is he saying?” ex¬
there came a sudden, throaty snarl and claimed Vierling.
into the clearing glided a huge leopard, "You heard him,” said Bannister,
flat head thrust forward, eyes gleaming, quietly. "Let me talk with him.”
fangs showing. His powerful tail lashed To Molu he said, "You’re talking
slowly back and forth as he surveyed the crazy, Molu. Your talk—no good. You
groveling leopard-men who lay whim¬ don’t know.”
pering, bellies to the ground. "Yes, I know,” was Molu’s stubborn
The leopard lifted its tawny head and reply. "I show you.” He bent and
gave out the eery, blood-thirsty cry of lifted the left foot of the leopard and
the hunting-leopard. The leopard-men, with a blade finger he counted the toes
in their hideous obsession, threw back of the animal. "One-two-three-four-five-
their heads to answer, but on the cry of six.” Molu had been taught to count
the king-leopard there came a resounding soon after he had come to the bungalow
 TALES 143

to work, and he was very proud of the

accomplishment. He counted the leop¬
ard’s toes again.
Dropping the heavy foot, he said, as
though closing the incident: "You see.
Him white man—from Pambia—white
man with six toes, too. Molu give him
breakfast one time and he wear no shoes.
I know.”
The childish mind of the black man
had brought horror to the three who
listened to his explanation. It was child¬
ish, they tried to reason. It was an im¬
possible and hideous thing Molu was
telling them.
"My God, let’s go—let’s get away
from this place,” cried O’Donnel, with
a long, shuddering breath. He crossed
himself, muttering a prayer.
"Yes,” said Vierling. "Let’s get out
of this cursed forest.” LOOK!! LEARN! "PRACTICAL HYPNOTISM,”
10c. DeSala, 2618 Portland, Louisville, Ky.
"Leopard-men come, take him away
all right,” said Molu with cheerful non¬ BACK ISSUES
chalance, indicating the sprawled beast. For complete list and prices write to Weird Tales,
840 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill.
Bannister could not find words that he
could speak. His thoughts were formless
ones; chaotic; vague. He felt, too, a
Coming Soon
growing desire to hurry back to Pambia
and see—he scarcely admitted to himself
what he expected to see.
So with Molu trotting along beside
Buccaneers
them, they went back in a silence that
was heavy with dread thoughts.
hurried, stumbling, breathing
They
hard
of Venus
through the odorous jungle, fighting By
swarms of insects.
OTIS ADELBERT KLINE
And they came to Pambia across the
river at an hour when the mad moon’s
brilliance was at its height, the sands, the
sea, the buildings of the West Coast
Products Company all white and shining Watch for this startling
in its unreal light.
weird-scientific novel
They bade Molu to keep silence and
they all went into the hall of the bunga¬ in WEIRD TALES
low and stood at Herbie Tillson’s door.
144 .WEIRD TALES

NEXT MONTH
B annister was the one who quietly
opened the door and looked into the
little room. He put a hand to his eyes,

The Bride of then, in a dizzy way, as he spoke.

"It is as Molu said and—Herbie has
the Peacock come back."

By E. HOFFMANN PRICE Very quietly with throats that con¬

O ne of the most unusual stories

ever written. A tale of devil-
tracted painfully and with eyes that were
filled with pity, they came and stood be¬
side the bed. Herbie Tillson lay there,
worship, of an emir from Kurdistan very white and very still. He was dead;
who is mysteriously murdered, and the they saw that at once—a crimson hole
frightful subterranean crypt where neatly drilled .behind the left ear. He did
Abdul Malaak sits like a withered not look at peace, for in the widely open
mummy on the peacock throne, only eyes was something so unspeakably hor¬
Ills smoldering eyes betraying the fact rible that they could not look upon his
that he is alive. face.

N ight after night a superbly beau¬

tiful woman wandered in her
Molu, alone, was not moved to pity.
Molu looked at the body of Herbie Till-

trance, clawing, clawing at a moldered son with hard, brilliant, black eyes.
"No, him no come back,” he stated,
tomb, seeking to open the grave of her
baldly.
beloved in response to his thoughts
sent to her from beyond the Border, The three men turned to turn frown-
ingly. Molu enjoyed the attention.
and night after night she retired ex¬
hausted, defeated, while the ghastly “No,” he explained, complacently. “Him
no come bade. White man think so, but
rhythms with which Abdul Malaak and
black man know different.” He pointed
his hellish crew sought to dominate an
dramatically to the bare feet of Herbie
entire nation throbbed in endless caco¬
Tillson, feet wet and stained with jungle
phony from the underground fastness
earth, and shudderingly Bannister saw the
of the devil-worshippers. This power¬
foot with the six toes.
ful weird novelette will be printed
Molu went on in his soft voice, "Bend-
complete in the
jabi know. Him in the great Swabi for
August issue of
always. He never come 'back.”
WEIRD TALES
On sale July 1st T he Astoria came to Pambia.
took on the bales and barrels
She
i
To avoid missing your copy, clip and mail this
coupon today for SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION boxes of the West Coast Products Com¬
OFFER.
pany and left more bales and barrels and
boxes when she sailed. And when the
Enolosed And |1.00 for which send me the next Astoria sailed, she took Herbie Tillson
Are Issues of WEIRD TALES to begin with the
August issue ($1.75 in Canada). Special offer Told back to England, just as Bannister had
unless remittance Is accompanied by coupon. said she would. For in the captain’s vault
was a small um, chaste in shape and color,
and containing all that remained of the
City. .State. man who never came back.
W. T— 9
A Weird Whisper from the Ether
Threatened the Lives
of all Mankind
CY-«-n

T he first warning of the stupen¬

dous cataclysm that befell the
earth in the fourth decade of the
Twentieth Century was recorded
simultaneously in several parts of
America. At twelve minutes past 3
o’clock a. m., during a lull in the
night’s aerial business, several of
the larger stations of the Western
hemisphere began picking up
strange signals out of the ether.
They were faint and ghostly, as if
coming from a vast distance. As
far as anyone could learn, the sig¬
nals originated nowhere upon the
earth. It was as if some phantom
were whispering through the ether
in the language of another planet.

Who Was This Dictator of Destiny?

Y OU will want to know the answer to this months and this book is sent to you free
of charge.
question. Read "The Moon Terror,” the
Limited Supply
most enthralling fantastic-mystery story of the
This offer may be withdrawn at any tide,
age. And you can get this splendid book
so we advise you to order now. Remember,
FREE. the supply of books is limited. Send today!

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