JAN.

25c

BLACK
BAGHEELA
A thrill-tale of dark
horror

By BASSETT MORGAN

ARLTON EADIE
SEABURY QUINN
CLARK ASHTON SMITH

RULERS OF THE
FUTURE
a powerful weird-
scientific novel

By PAUL ERNST
"
PSY CHI AN A
The Ne w Psychological Religion
A new and revolutionaryreligious teaching based entirely on the
misunderstood sayings of the Galilean Carpenter and designed to
show how to find and use the same identical power that He used.

"PSYCH I ANA"
Believes and Teaches as Follows:
FIRST — That there no such thing as a “subconscious mind.”
is

SECOND —That there in this universe, a FAR MORE POTENT and DYNAMIC
is,
POWER, the manifestations of which have been erroneously credited to some
other supposed power called the “subconscious mind.”
THIRD—That INVISIBLE DYNAMIC power is THE VERY SAME POWER
this
that JESUS USED when He staggered the nations by His so-called “miracles,”
and by raising the dead.
FOURTH—That Jesus had NO MONOPOLY on this Power.
FIFTH—That it is possible for EVERY NORMAL human being understanding

spirituallaw as He understood it TO DUPLICATE EVERY WORK THAT

THIS CARPENTER OF GALILEE EVER DID. When He said “the things
that I do shall YE DO ALSO”— He meant EXACTLY WHAT HE SAID.
SIXTH—That this dynamic Power is NOT TO BE FOUND “within,” hut has its
source in a far different direction. Dr. Frank B. Robinson
Founder of “Psychiana.”
SEVENTH—THAT THE WORDS OF THIS GALILEAN CARPENTER WENT A Author of “America
THOUSAND MILES OVER THE HEADS OF HIS HEARERS 2,000 YEARS Awakening — “The God
AGO, AND ARE. STILL A THOUSAND MILES OVER THE HEADS OF Nobody Knows,” etc.
THOSE WHO PROFESS TO FOLLOW HIM TODAY.
EIGHTH—That this same MIGHTY, INVISIBLE, PULSATING, THROBBING
POWER can be used by anyone—AT ANY HOUR OF THE DAY OR NIGHT.
NINTH—That when once understood and correctly used, this mighty Power is
ABUNDANTLY ABLE, AND NEVER FAILS TO GIVE HEALTH, HAPPI- FREE I

NESS, and OVERWHELMING SUCCESS in whatever proper line it may be

desired.
free!
DR. FRANK B. ROBINSON
one of the keenest psychological minds this country has ever produced,
and one of the most earnest intense searchers into the spiritual realm,
believes, after years of experimentation and research, that there is in
Name.
this world today, an UNSEEN power or force, so dynamic in itself, that
all other powers or forces FADE INTO INSIGNIFICANCE BESIDE IT.
He believes that this power or force is THE VERY SAME POWER
THAT JESUS USED. He believes further that the entire world, includ- Street and Number
ing the present church structure, MISSED IN ITS ENTIRETY the
message that He came to bring. He believes that

The world on the verge of the most stupen-

is City.
dous spiritual upheaval it has ever experienced.
Every reader of this magazine is cordially invited to write State
“PSYCHIANA” for more details of this revolutionary teaching which
might very easily be discussed the ENTIRE WORLD ROUND. Dr.
Robinson will tell you something of his years of search for the truth
as he KNEW it must exist, and will give you a few facts connected
with the founding of “PSYCHIANA.” NO OBLIGATIONS WHATSO-
SEND THIS TODAY
EVER. Sign your name and address here. to Dept. WT - 1 “Psychiana,” Moscow, Idaho

Copyright, 1933. Dr. Frank Robinson.

 A MAGAZINE OF THE BIZARRE AND UNUSUAL

t. REGISTERED IN U.S. PATENT OFFICE

Volume 25 CONTENTS FOR JANUARY, 1935 Number 1

Cover Design M. Brundage

Illustrating a scena in "Black Bagheela”
Rulers of the Future Paul Ernst 2
A weird-scientific story of the monsters that rule the human race in the distant future

Charon Laurence J. Cahill 25

—
A different and unusual story icy the author of "They Called Him Ghost"
Hands of the Dead Seabury Quinn 36
A tale of weird surgery and dual personality—a startling story of Jules de Grandin
Black Bagheela Bassett Morgan 57
A story of brain-transplantation, and huge apes that spoke with the voices of men
Color A. Leslie 72
Verse
The Trail of the Cloven Hoof (end) Arlton Eadie 73
An astounding weird mystery novel by a British master of thrilling fiction

The Dark Eidolon Clark Ashton Smith 93

An eery tale of the tremendous doom that was loosed by a vengeful sorcerer

The Feast in the Abbey Robert Bloch 111

The story of a grisly horror encountered in a weird monastery in the forest
The Shattered Timbrel
A
............. Wallace
strange tale about the ghastly results of a weird surgical operation
J.
Knapp 116

Wharf Watchman . . Edgar Daniel Kramer 120

Verse
Death in Twenty Minutes Charles Henry Mackintosh 121
A goose-flesh story about a death’s-head spider and an Egyptian mummy
Weird Story Reprint:
The Supreme Witch G. Appleby Terrill 123
A gripping story of witchcraft—from WEIRD TALES of eight years ago
The Eyrie 140
An informal chat with the readers

Published monthly by the Popular Fiction Publishing Company, 2457 E. Washington Street, Indianapolis, Ind. En-
tered as second-class matter March 2.0, 1923, at the post office at Indianapolis, Ind., under the act of March 3, 1879.
Single copies, 25 cents. Subscription, $3.00 a year in the United States, $4.00 a year in Canada. English office:
Charles Lavell, 13, Serjeants* inn, Fleet Street, E. C. 4, London. The publishers are not responsible for the loss
of unsolicited manuscripts, although every care will be taken of such material while in their possession. The con-
tents of this magazine are fully protected by copyright and must not be reproduced either wholly or in part
Without permission from the publishers.
—
NOTE All manuscripts and communications should be addressed to the publishers* Chicago office at 840
North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 111. FARNSWORTH
WRIGHT, Editor.
Copyright, 1935, by the Popular Fiction Publishing Company.
COPYRIGHTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

WEIRD TALES ISSUED 1st OF EACH MONTH

W. T.-l a
 The story of a trip through the universe with the speed of light,
and incredible monsters that rule the human race
hundreds of millions of years from now

T HE beginning, for me, of the fan-

tastic story I am about to relate,

took place in the most prosaic sort

of surroundings.
He was mild-mannered, this man be-
hind the desk. He had on a sober, dark
blue business suit. He was a bit below
average height, and inclined to rotundity.
Itwas a spring morning of the year Only in his eyes and forehead could be
1990. I was in a large room outfitted as read hints of his true greatness. His eyes,
an office.It was quite an ordinary-looking deep-set under heavy gray eyebrows, were
office; and the man behind the big walnut a sort of translucent gray-green. And his
desk looked like any average business- forehead was wide and high, with the
man. smooth outward bulge of the dreamer.
x
 —
—

RULERS OF THE FUTURE 3

This was George P. Ticknor, colossus of credible plans, while the striding giant,
science. Brock, grunted from time to time as some
Striding up and down the office as if particularly salient point was touched
impatient of the restraint of any four upon.
walls, was another man. A distinctly "We are starting on a journey into
different type, this one. Six feet three, space,” began Ticknor, as calmly as
heavily muscled and vast-shouldered, with though speaking of a projected trip to
a small blond spade beard and heavy Europe. "We are going to Alpha Cen-
blond hair, he was a man of action. His tauri.”
face was immobile and his light blue eyes Alpha Centauri. I wrinkled my fore-
almost secretive in their expressionless- head over that one. Then classroom
ness; but the quick, restless movements of memories came back to me, and I guess
his great body told of a spirit that longed my mouth hung open for a moment.
for things to combat. He was Wayland Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to
Brock, wealthy adventurer, with the heart earth —but so distant, even in its com-
of a pioneer and explorer —born years too parative nearness, that it took light, our
fate into a tamed world. fastest traveler, more than four years to
And seated there beside the desk to come from there to here!
interview these two famous men was "We shall go in a space-projectile
myself, one of the youngest and least im- which I have invented and perfected, and
portant of reporters on the Capetoum which Mr. Brock has financed in building
Globe, a self-conscious youngster with and equipping. Out into the heav-
”
reddish hair, and hands and feet that ens
seemed always getting in the way. Ray- His eyes kindled; and Brock stopped
mond Woodward. That’s me. his pacing a moment.
"Your paper doesn’t think very highly " out into space, to see what stuff
of our modest plans, does it?” Brock had the stars are made of. Till now we have
said when I introduced myself. But his known them only through telescopes. But
smile took the sting from the words, —
we my friend and I will find out at—
which had to do with the fact that I had first hand what they are. Are they blaz-

been sent instead of some veteran report- ing suns, or cold, luminous bodies? Are
er who signed his name to his w'ork. they solid, fluid, or vaporous? How were
"It doesn’t matter,” Professor Ticknor they born, and what will be their future?
said quickly, laying his hand on my shoul- All these things we will find out by per-
der for an instant. "The younger the sonal observation with the aid of instru-
man, the more elastic his imagination ments that are at least as wonderful — if
and the more chance he has of assimilat- not more so — as the space-ship itself
ing the facts we have to give him.” which will bear us forward.”
Two fine, kindly men, these; with the
simplicity of true greatness. I warmed to managed to make my pencil work in
them. 1 recording these impossible things.
And then, there in that commonplace- But I was not at all sure that Professor
looking room, with the spring sunshine Ticknor and Wayland Brock weren’t try-
coming in the windows to gild the home- ing to play a joke on somebody.
fy-looking old-fashioned furniture, Pro- "But the speed you will have to attain,”
fessor Ticknor began to outline his in- I objected. "How on earth can you man-
4 WEIRD TALES
age to get there and back in one lifetime?” have developed it, would be too ghastly
*'We shall go with the speed of light,” an engine of war, if some one got hold
replied Ticknor. "Indeed, we shall travel of its secret and abused it. By training it
on a beam of light. But I’ll explain. on a body of men we could rip them to
"It has long been known that a beam pieces, smash them to bits! And now that

of light strikes an object in its path with radium has become one of our commoner
a definite impact. That impact, till now, metals, there would be nothing to stop

has been so slight as to be almost im- some nation from building hundreds of
measurable. But now
have a method of
I the lights and setting out to conquer the
producing a light so powerful, and exert- world.”
ing so much force on an object in its I apologized for my indiscreet ques-
path, that it propels that object as a can- tion. "To get back to your marvelous
non propels a projectile. My space-ship, trip,” I said,"how do you propose to get
in a word, will be shot from Earth to back from Alpha Centauri? Are you
Alpha Centauri by a super-searchlight.” carrying one of these super-searchlights

He seized pencil and paper and began with you?”

to draw. "In a sense, yes.” He pointed to his
"This is the projectile,” he said, sketch- drawing. "This bulge at the lower end
ing in a thing that looked not unlike an of the projectile is a false bottom. It is

old-style rifle cartridge. "And this is the really another which goes along
’gun’
*gun’ from which it is fired.” He drew with the on the trip out. Whea
'bullet’

an object that looked like a shallow we wish to come home, I shall point the
trench-mortar. projectile toward Earth, throw the switch
"In the bottom of the 'gun’, or, rather, that disintegrates the charge of radium in
searchlight, is placed a mass of radium. the false bottom, and we shoot Earthward
The projectile is lowered into the mouth with the same speed and in the same man-
of the gun as a bullet is rammed into the ner as we shot heavenward.”
barrel of an old-time muzzle-loader. The "How will you manage to equip a
radium is instantly broken down when I projectile for so long a trip?”was my next
throw a switch from inside the shell. A question. "Even riding on a beam of
beam of light of almost incalculable light, you will need four years each way.
power is produced. The projectile is shot Eight years en route . Your space-ship
forth with the velocity of light, traveling must be tremendous to carry provisions
in the straight line of light toward its for eight years.”
objective. And in the bowl of the search- Ticknor smiled; and again, for an in-
light is left nothing but a little lump of stant,Brock stopped his pacing.
lead. You see?” "That brings up one of the most inter-
"I think so,” I said. "How do you esting points of the trip,” said the great
manage to break down your radium so scientist, "and one on which, if we have
instantaneously?” guessed wrong, we shall lose our lives.

"That’s nobody’s business but ours,” "It has long been my theory that speed
saidBrock bluntly. and time are closely related factors, or
Professor Ticknor shrugged. "That is dimensions, if you want to call them
one of the few things about our plans I that. When one travels at great speed, he
do not wish to make public,” he put it begins to catch up with time. Man has
less gruffly. 'The super-searchlight, as I so far been unable to reach a speed great
 RULERS OF THE FUTURE 5

enough to measure its effect on time. But ing at that speed, and with only two or
I believe that in our space-shell, rocketing three minutes in which to act, you won’t
forth into the heavens with the speed of have much time to work at the controls.”

light, we will not only catch up with time "We won’t aim at the star,” replied
partially — but will equal and cancel it. In Ticknor. "We will aim very carefully a
other words, there will be no such thing degree or so to one side of the star.
as time at 186,000 miles a second. In When we have reached that point, our
that event, we will take four
though speed will be decelerated for us: we shall
years of time as we know it to reach be caught by the net of gravity of the
Alpha Centauri, as far as we ourselves great globe, and whirled off our course
shall be conscious of time we will get round and round it as a satellite. Then
there in about three minutes, which will we can proceed to cruise about as we
be the time taken to accelerate to that please by means of an ordinary rocket
speed.” motor with which the shell is equipped.”
"Then you’ll be asleep for four years?” “The purpose of your trip?” I prepared
"Not at all,” said Ticknor a little im- to conclude this strange interview.
patiently. "We shall step into our pro- “It’s purely for the purpose of scientific
jectile, throw the switch, and two or research,” said Ticknor; "that is, on my
three minutes later shall see the great disk part,” he added, with a glance at Brock.
of Alpha Centauri out the bow porthole.” "On my part,” said Brock, towering
"Two or three minutes to you four — before me, “it is for adventure alone. I’m
years to us,” I puzzled. Then I let it go sick of civilization, sick of modern exist-

—and began to despair of ever getting

I ence. I am glad to leave Earth, if only for
this story seriously accepted by my paper. a short time and at the risk of my neck.”
I believed in Professor Ticknor and his “I don’t think our young friend will be
theories. Almost instinctively, I knew he much interested in such an opinion,” mur-
and they were right. But making a city mured Ticknor.
editor, and a reading public, believe it But I was if not — for my paper, then
was another matter. personally. The giant had put into words
"Suppose your guess about the speed a feeling I had had many a time myself.
of light canceling time is wrong?” The boredom of life as lived in the dawn
"Then we’ll starve to death,” said Tick- of the Twenty-first Century!
nor. “We have only two weeks’ pro- "When do you start?” I asked, shut-
visions in the shell.” ting my notebook.
"In about four hours,” said Ticknor,

T WO
splendid madness,
weeks’ provisions for an eight-
year trip! Madness? Perhaps. But a
I thought, as I sat
surprizingly.
"So soon! I had no idea
"I didn’t give permission for this inter-
”

there gazing in growing admiration at view until the last moment,” he said,
these two men who were about to risk “because I didn’t want anything to hap-
their lives. How prosaic, how deadly dull, pen to stop us. So by the time your words
did such sublime adventuring make my are in print, before any misguided imbe-
own job seem! ciles can get here to prevent our going,
“How will you be able to stop before we’ll be on our way.”
you have crashed into the star you’re aim- "How could your trip be prevented?”
ing at?” was my next question, “Txayel- Ticknor shrugged. “Pressure could be
6 WEIRD TALES
brought to bear by some absurd humane the birth and growth of the star. I shall
society bent on stopping what they might set the machine for, say a billion years in
look on as sheer suicide. Also a rival of the past while we hang over Alpha Cen-
mine, a certain scientist ” He stopped, tauri. When it has gone back that far, a

and would not go on. counteracting spring will be set in motion

and it through the eons, bear-
will return
2 ing visible records of the star’s beginning
and career. Ah, this trip will go down
“/Os ould I see the ship?” I asked, wist-
through the ages! It marks the start of
fully.
man’s solution of vast problems of in-
After an instant of hesitation, Ticknor
and creation.”
finity
nodded. The three of us left the office
I was now beyond shock; my sensibili-
and went to the rear where a great con-
ties of comprehension were numbed. The
crete shed housed the laboratory. Ticknor
wonders of the cabin around me; the
pointed to a gigantic mass of mechanism
crate in which was the time-machine, that
in the center of the place.
dream never before realized; the fact that
The pointed nose of the space-shell
Ticknor had harnessed light itself to be
muzzle of the "gun” or
stuck out of the
super-searchlight about twelve feet;
his driving force —
all these things were

too much for my mind to grasp.

enough show heavy windows, and a
to
trap- door up to which a ladder led. The
Never mind, I knew I’d give my eye-
teeth to go along.
whole was set on a movable standard, so
"If only I could go with you!” I burst
that the muzzle could be raised or
out impulsively.
lowered, or swung from side to side to
point the shell.
Ticknor merely smiled. But Brock
laughed shortly, and his big hand clapped
Ticknor showed me how the standard
me on the back in a way that nearly
was moved, then motioned for me to
knocked the wind out of me.
climb into the shell itself.
"It will be a trip, eh?” he said. "But
I got a glimpse of a tiny cabin, the of course it’s impossible, even if you real-
walls of which were lined with metal
ly wanted to go.”
drawers containing heaven knew what "I do really want to go,” I said, again
weird apparatus; and I saw a rocket motor
speaking almost before I knew what I
that was too old a story to me to call for was saying.
investigation. Then, in a comer, I saw a
"You’re just dazzled by the thought,”
carefully packed crate.
said Brock. "Anyway, it’s impossible, of
"What’s in that?” I asked. "Pro- course. Utterly impossible.”
visions?” And it was, naturally. This was none
"No,” said Ticknor. He stared doubt- of my affair. I hardly knew the two; cer-
fully at me, as wondering whether to
if tainly there was no reason why they
answer my question. Then he went on: should take me along.
"That crate contains, in thick packing, We went back to Ticknor’s office,
one of the bits of equipment I mentioned where I bade them a reluctant good-bye,
as being as wonderful as the space-ship and started out to the street to my giro.
itself. It’s a little time-machine. In it is But as I was leaving the office, Tick-
a camera with several million feet of film. nor’s servant hurried in. His face was
With this we shall be able to photograph pale and agitated.
 RULERS OF THE FUTURE 7

"The police, sir,” he announced. '"They getting there just as the police, led by
are at the front door. They demand ad- —
Gorse who smelled a rat in the delay to

mittance. With them is Professor Gorse, open the house to the Law — started bat-
and some other gentlemen.” tering against the panels to break them in.

Brock and Ticknor looked at each

other. Brock swore. Ticknor’s face went
as white as his servant’s.
T he door and I
crashed in at
caught a glimpse of many men, some
in police uniform, and some evidently —
last;

"Gorse!” he said. "Gorse!”

the Humanitarian League representatives-
wrong?” I
"What’s asked, sensing
news. Gorse’s name was almost as potent
— in civilian clothes.

in science as Ticknor’s. Leading them was an undersized man

—
"Gorse my deadliest rival,” explained with thick glasses behind which were eyes
Ticknor rapidly. "He’s found out about that glowed fairly green with rage and

my projected flight before I meant him jealousy. This was Gorse, Ticknor’s

to. Now he’s come to prevent me taking rival.

it, and rob me of the glory.” Gorse darted toward the hallway lead-
"How could he do that? By what au- ing back to the laboratory. Without com-
”
thority ment, Brock plucked him up by the coat
"Through the Humanitarian League. collar and flung him back.
The sort of well-intentioned fools who "Let me in to Ticknor!” screeched
mle that a man may not risk his own life Gorse. "Admit me to the laboratory! We
if he chooses. The kind that insist on —
have warrants full authority to make —
'taking care of you in spite of yourself.’ sure you and he do not take your trip.
I was afraid of this. If Gorse ever gets You are not to be allowed to throw your
”
in that laboratory, he’ll fix my space-shell lives away
so it’ll be weeks before I can get it in "Bah,” snapped Brock. "A lot you
order again.” care about our lives! It’s the prestige
The servant tugged at his arm. Ticknor may get that’s bothering you.”
"Shall I admit the police, sir, and the I saw him glance at the watch on his
officers of the Humanitarian League?” wrist. About a minute of the five Tick-
Ticknor gazed helplessly at Brock. nor needed for his calculations had
"What shall we do?” passed.
Brock’s big fist smashed down on the But now one of the policemen strode
desk. up.
"Do? Do? Leave on our trip at once! "Sorry, sir,” he said, "but we must be
That’s what we’ll do! Or try to, anyhow. admitted to the laboratory, while Profes-
Ticknor, you go back to the lab and point sor Gorse officially seals your airplane, or
the space-shell. I’ll hold the crowd off till whatever it is, to stop you from killing
it’s done. Then I’ll join you —and we’ll yourselves.”
shoot out into the heavens. Quick, man! "Suppose I refuse to let you pass?” said
How long will you need for your calcula- Brock, his big bulk filling the doorway
tions?” into the hall.
"Five minutes,” said Ticknor, his eyes "Than we’ll place you under arrest,
”
shining. "But can you, all alone and force our way in,” replied the officer.
"I’ll help,” I snapped. And Brock and I thought I saw sympathy in his eyes —
I ran down the hall to the front door* the sympathy of the man of action for
 I

8 WEIRD TALES
another man of action who is being ham- off till Ticknor should have the shell
pered by some of the officious busybodies pointed.
our civilization always has with it. The second brace of our assailants went
A minute and a half had elapsed now —
down my man with a left punch knock-
since Ticknor had left for the laboratory, ing the wind from him, and a right cross
to prepare the shell for its launching. to the jaw sending him to the land of

"Act quickly,” pleaded Gorse, his Nod; Brock’s man under a whirlwind of
sparse hair awry. "They’re stalling for blows that I thought must tear his head
time. Arrest them.” And in his anxiety from his shoulders.

he crowded toward Brock again. "You’ll catch it . . . for this . . .

This time the big man picked him up Woodward,” panted Brock. "They’ll jail

and threw hint bodily into the press of you . . . for life.”
men still crowded by the street door. And "Oh, no, they won’t!” I said. For even
that started it! then I had a plan in mind. . . .

The officer who had parleyed with

We retreated again, with the crowd
Brock sprang toward him with his stick
after us. By now the affair had passed
raised to bring it down on the adventur-
from a matter of forcing an official way
er's head. But Brock had been expecting into Ticknor’s laboratory, and had set-
the move. There was a crack as his big tled down to one of placing under arrest
fist smashed into the policeman’s jaw.
two apparently dangerous criminals.
The officer sagged limply to the floor.
I saw two of the police pull their riot
"Get him!” another uniformed man
spoke. And four men rushed Brock.
—
guns squat barrels with revolving cylin-
ders containing the new glass-cased para-
Here, I joined in. Side by side, Brock
lyzing bullets. Once Brock or
I had one
and met the four. Their numbers had
I
of those bullets in us we’d be out of the
little to do with the outcome of the strug-
world for twenty-four hours!
gle — for the first few seconds. The two
"Watch— —
gasped in warning,
of us, retreating a few feet into the hall,
leaping back to avoid a crashing sweep of
filled the corridor so that only two of
a hardwood stick. But Brock had seen
them could get at us. And we more than
the guns drawn. Promptly he seized his
held our own.
Again I saw Brock down a man with a
nearest assailant by the throat and held
him, half throttled, as a living shield
single blow. I couldn’t do quite that
before his body.
well myself. It took me three smashing
punches to get my man; and in the mean- No such protection was before toe,
time I got a bad crack on the shoulder however. Out of the corner of my eye I
with the fellow’s stick. But in about ten saw a paralyzing gun leveled at me. I
seconds the first two were out of the fray fell to the floor, and heard a ping of

and the second two were on us. glass down the hall where one of the
fragile bullets had hit. Then Brock, jerk-

A few more steps we gave way down ing the stick from the lax hand of the
There were at least
the corridor. man he was throttling, threw it at the
twenty men crowd that pressed to
in the gunman. It caught him in the throat. He
get at us. Hopeless, of course, if we were did no more shooting!
fighting to beat the lot of them. But we "The Run for it!” snapped
laboratory!
weren’t. All we wanted was to stand them Brock to me. "Can’t face those guns.”
 —

RULERS OF THE FUTURE 9

We had retreated half down the long space-ship. Brock ran after him. And I

hallway by now. Some thirty feet behind — I followed Brock!

us was the heavy laboratory-door. I tumbled into the door so close behind
I

whirled and ran for it, with Brock pound- him that he hadn’t a chance of shutting
ing at my heels and the police roaring for me out, even if he’d been prepared for
us to halt. the move.
"What ” he began.
door open and leaped into
I jerked the
the great room behind it. Brock fol- "I’m going along,” I said, fumbling
lowed, slammed the door shut again, and for the lever that swung the trap-door
shot the ponderous bolts Ticknor had shut and hermetically sealed it.

with to make ”
equipped it his scientific
"You can’t! We won’t permit
secrets safe from marauders.
"Forty seconds rapped out Tick-
left,”
Instantly there was a clamor from the nor, who was gazing through a cabin win-
hall. Fists and sticks beat against the dow at a chronometer on the laboratory
door. "Open it!” bellowed a voice I
wall. Glancing through the same win-
recognized as belonging to the officer who dow, I could see the laboratory door
had first felt the weight of Brock’s fist.
buckle in the middle as it was charged
Brock turned toward the great shell- from the hall. We could hear no sound
mechanism. I turned, too, and saw Tick- in the shell; but it was obvious that the
nor, eyes blazing with concentration, panels wouldn’t stand much more such
bending over a calculating-chart. treatment.
"One more minute,” Ticknor said. 'Tm "Get out, I say!” roared Brock. "It’s
almost done.” your last chance. I don’t want to have to
He left the board, and sprang to the throw you out.”
mechanism. He spun a wheel, and I saw "I you I’m going along,” I said.
tell

the whole thing, shell and "gun” and all, I’d got thedoor shut by now, and was
slowly turn and elevate its muzzle. it as Ticknor
striving amateurishly to lock
had showed me how.

T icknor glanced

finitesimally small
at his chart, raised

the snout of the space-ship an in-

distance. Then he
"You young fool!” But acceptance
and something like friendship—gleamed
in Brock’s cool blue eyes. "Come, then,
pressed a button in a column close by. if you want to risk your neck.”
The roof overhead silently parted in the
"Seal that door!”
middle and slid bade to reveal the clear
Like a buglecall Ticknor’ s voice rang
sky above us.
out. His hand was on the heavy copper
Behind us, the door was resounding to switch set in the control board. Beads of
the blows battering against it. The sweat were on his forehead.
panels were heavy, and the bolts were Through the window we saw the lab-
strong; but the barrier could not hold oratory door strain inward once more.
long under that strain. And then Ticknor’s hand slammed the
"It’s set to be fired in eighty seconds,” big switch home.
Ticknor rapped out. "Get in, Brock. T‘i ere was a flood of light that was
Hurry!” dazzling clear through the double walls
He example by darting up the
set the of the shell. heard a soft puff of sound.
I

ladder and in through the door of the Then I knew no more.

10 WEIRD TALES
3 Ticknor reached into one of the com-
partments lining the walls, and got out
T seemed only a fraction of a second
heavilysmoked squares of glass. He
I that consciousness was clicked off. If
handed us each one, and we stepped to
it was clicked off: I wasn’t sure whether
the window to look out at the blazing
I had been unconscious or simply in a
globe we had so miraculously reached.
complete mental turmoil for an instant.
was conscious now; and
How can I tell adequately of the next
At any rate I
picked myself up off the floor, gazing
few moments? How can I describe our
I
emotions as we slowly realized what had
dazedly about me.
"Hel lo,” said Brock, shaking himself
happened — the fantastic, unbelievable
thing that had occurred?
like a big dog. "You all right, Wood-
ward? Professor?”
We pressed close to the port window,
gazing with all our eyes at the flaming
"All right,” said Ticknor, blinking.
mass some scores of millions of miles
And I nodded.
away.
The three of us gazed, still rather It looked the size of a dinner plate
densely, at each other. from the distance where the net of its

Ticknor and I were in the direct path gravityhad slowed our light-speed. It

of light beating fiercely in at the port was golden yellow. We could almost see
window. Brock was half in and half out its surface seethe with the immense in-

of the beam. From the waist up he was ternal heat of its mass. There were queer
In intense daylight; the legs of him were spots on it, evidently cooler places; and
in deep night. altogether it resembled
was the queerest sunlight I ever saw
It "Strange,” I heard Ticknor mutter.
— like a straight beam from a searchlight "Strange. This yellow color —
that is not
it poured in the window; and the shadow the color had expected to find.”
I

next to the sharp outline of its path was He looked yet more intently.
utterly unrelieved, solid black. Then Brock spoke up. "It looks exact-
But then remembered. This wasn’t
I ly like our own sun, doesn’t it?”
sunlight —
was Alpha Centauri-light!
it "It does,” said Ticknor, still with that
Our trip, then, was over. In that little baffled note in his voice. "Sun spots and
click of time, four years had passed. Even all. . .
.”

as Ticknor had said it would be, our jour- I could only stare at the great golden
ney had been completed almost before we plateand try to remember where we were.
knew it had started. Out in the heavens. , . .

"Well,” said Ticknor, shakily, "we’re "Are all the stars exact duplicates of
here.” our own sun, save for difference in size?”
Commonplace words; but there were mused Ticknor aloud. "But that can’t be.
no words big enough to describe what The colors. Some are white, some blue-
’’
had happened. An instant ago, to our white, and some orange
consciousness at any rate, we had been oa At that moment he was interrupted by
earth, annoyed by police and the Humani- Brock’s excited cry.
tarian League. Now we were out in the "Professor! Look below! A satellite!

immensity of space, circling about in a And the damned thing looks exactly like
thin metal shell. No language is de- Earth!”
signed to express such things. At that we all pressed our cheeks to
 RULERS OF THE FUTURE 11

the glass to look down at as sharp an domitability that makes the human race
angle as possible. And the next instant what it is.

we all stared dumfoundedly at each other "Gentlemen,” he said, "let us not de-
— to press close to the glass again and ceive ourselves any longer. You know, I
peer down at that amazing satellite. think, what I am about to tell you.”
Even I, as a layman utterly unversed in
things scientific or astronomic, could get believe we did know —only the con-
the astounding resemblance. I scious mind always strives to stave off

There below us swam in space an ice- admitting as fact a truth that is repulsive.

white ball mottled with occasional green But we waited to hear him put it into

spots that looked remarkably like Earth. words.

Slightly different, it was, but not much, "The blazing ball off yonder not only
from the atlas I had studied in classroom looks like our own Sun, it is the Sun.
days. And the satellite below us is our own
There was a long stretch of land, Earth.”
sheathed in white, spreading toward the I felt my heart constrict as though a

upper pole, that was the continents of fisthad clutched it, for I felt I knew — —
Africa and Eurasia to the life. And across that some fearful revelation was yet to

a huge stretch of plain that must be a sea, come from the awed-looking little scien-
were two continents —
also sheathed in tist who stood so straight before us. And
white for the most part, that certainly I saw Brock tense his powerful body as if

seemed to be North and South America. to receive a blow.

"But the Atlantic Ocean has grown,” I

"My when I aimed the
calculations,

mumbled, involuntarily speaking in

shell atAlpha Centauri, were made too
hastily,”Ticknor went on. "Thanks to
Earth-terms of this odd satellite. "That
means the Pacific, if we could see it
Gcrse and his meddling, we missed our
around the bend of the globe, must be
target—how narrowly I don’t know, but
cut in half.”
enough. As a result, we have traveled

"Continental drift,” replied Ticknor;

clear around the universe — to return to
our starting-point! Einstein was right. A
and as I gazed at him in astonishment for
beam of light, traveling in a straight line
an instant, I could see the pulse in his
as we know it, eventually circumnavigates
throat pounding heavily.
the entire universe and comes back to the
"The white coating,” spoke up Brock, point of its beginning.”
heavy voice vibrating. "What
his

"Ice,” said Ticknor.

is it?”

"Glaciers, spread-
"But —good heaven,” half whispered
Brock, "if it is four light-years from
ing from pole to pole, and leaving oases Earth to Alpha Centauri ” He could
of green, fruitful land here and there.” not finish the sentence.
"So much like Earth, except for that Ticknor nodded. "How long it takes
too-wide Atlantic, and the glaciers,” a ray of light to go clear around the uni-
whispered Brock. verse,no one can even guess. A hundred
And then Ticknor straightened up from million years? Two hundred million? I
the window and stood before us, a little don’t know. But whatever the ftme re-
man with mild gray-green eyes, inclined quired — that is the time that has elapsed
to rotundity, commonplace-looking and since we left my laboratory in Capetown
yet somehow stamped with all the in- bound for Alpha Centauri.”
12 WEIRD TALES
And there we had it—the news we had haps strange monsters roam the world
partly guessed already and refused to ad- again, as they did in our own prehistoric
mit to ourselves —news so momentous times.”
that it took days for the full realization There was silence then, while our stag-
of it to be grasped by our minds. gered brains tried to comprehend it all.

In that little click of elapsed time that "God, I can’t believe it,” said Brock
had occurred immediately after our start, finally. "Two hundred million years or
hundreds of millions of Earth-years had
reeled by!
so—Asgone me, wink of an eye!”
in the
for I was speechless. I could

And we —we were back where we had only stare now and then at that weird
started from, our own planet — but planet beneath us that was Earth, but
separated from our own true world by a which, with its glacial sheets and strange-
gulf of uncountable eons. Exiled in the ly altered oceans, did not seem like Earth.
Future. Two hundred million years away Then the man of action took command.
from Earth as we knew it! Brock’s heavy jaw set, and his great
I moistened my lips. "How are we shoulders went back.
going to get back?’' I said at last. And "We’ll accomplish nothing up here in
Brock hung on the professor’s reply as the heavens,” he said crisply. "I move
desperately as I did. we descend at once, and set about our
"We aren’t,” said
”
Ticknor slowly, "un- only chance of salvation — the building of
less another time-machine.”
He swung around to gaze into the cor- So Ticknor went to the controls, while
ner of the cabin at the crate in which Brock and I remained at the window.
was packed that marvel — the little time-
machine.

crude
"In that
little
lies our only salvation.
thing, and I
It is a

have no way of
T
shell
he
professor switched on the auxil-
rocket-motor with which the
iary
was equipped, and we began to
checking its accuracy. But, using it as a streak downward —
at a snail’s pace com-
model, I may be able to build a machine pared to our interstellar speed, but still

large enough to carry the three of us back at a distance-devouring clip.

over the years to 1990 again.” We wanted to land in some spot where
"Then we’re saved,” began Brock. But morning was in swing. It might be sui-
Ticknor held up his hand. cidal to come to rest in the darkness of
"To build such a machine, Imust have night, not having the faintest notion what
all the laboratory facilities I had in my kind of inhabitants now ruled Earth.
own shop. That presupposes that there Such a spot chanced to be in North
are now on Earth people as intelligent and Africa, where the Sahara Desert had
as scientifically advanced as only a few been in the dim far past from which we
were in our own time. We do not know had traveled.
that we will find such people when we There, as we got to within a few thou-
descend to Earth. We don’t know what sand miles of the ground, we saw two
we’ll find —what forms of life have green dots in the vast expanse of solid
evolved in the unguessable millions of glacial ice that seemed to have coated
years that have passed since we left here. nearly all the world. The larger of the
Perhaps there is no life at all; the glaciers two dots was probably five hundred miles
may have killed every living thing. Per- across, the smaller about two hundred;
 RULERS OF THE FUTURE 13

biltfrom our distance they looked like a We got close enough to see that the
green dime set down on a rounded sur- entire region was thickly wooded, with
face beside a green quarter. only here and there pasture-like spaces
We made for the larger circle, once heavily carpeted with what must be grass.

desert, now one of the few fruitful spots And still we saw no sign of any living

still left unconquered by the great ice thing, and no sign of a human habitation.
sheets. "The last man on Earth!” How often
morning sun, one jokingly uses that phrase. Was that
In the glare of the early
to be our fate? Were we going to die
we settled down. And now Ticknor set
slowly, through weeks of starvation on an
die controls so that he could join us in
ice-coated planet, the last men on Earth?
watching the unfolding details of this
new Earth of ours. "But it’s warm here,” Brock muttered.
The circle spread and spread as we "The trees and grass show that. The sun
overcomes the chill of the surrounding
neared it. Just before the surrounding
ice, or not even vegetation could live.
glacial sheets had faded from sight on
every side, we saw tiny ridges at their
We’ll find food of some sort.”
edges that were in reality great hilis,
"The vegetation may be of a sort that
can stand immense cold,” said Ticknor.
debris of earth and rock dropped by die
glaciers —
which indicated that we had "It may be of a type we knew nothing of,
millions of years ago.”
come toward the end of this latest glacial
age.
But the trees, as we hovered over them,
certainly looked much like our own.
"Thirty or forty thousand years from
There was more branch and trunk and
now, there may be no more ice on Earth
less leaf; the leaves themselves were larg-
than the normal amount at the poles,”
er and thicker; but otherwise they were
said Ticknor.
trees of our own time and of our own
"But we can’t wait that long,” said
Brock, with a mirthless grin. "And if
temperate zone. We took hope from that.
there aren’t remnants of a superior civili-
And then Ticknor stepped to the con-

zation left in this oasis, or in another like

trols and, with a little jar, we landed
” beside a small lake.
it somewhere
"There’ll be no time-machine built,
and we'll live and die several hundred 4
own
million years out of our
nor finished for him.
signs of a city,
era,” Tick-
Then: "I see no
or even a village.”
E ach of us drew a long
stared around the close confines of
the tiny cabin. We
breath,

had landed; but we

and

Nor was there one. In the center of the were reluctant to leave the space-shell. In
five-hundred-mile circle was a big area it, at least, was a measure of security.
dotted with odd green mounds, like moss- Outside, in the thickly wooded oasis in
grown shells of enormous turtles; but the glacial sheet, anything might happen.
these, of course, must be only oddly "We’ll each load ourselves with weap-
shaped, natural hills. ons,” said Brock. "A rifle and an auto-
Now we saw that the whole region matic apiece. . . . Why, what’s wrong.
was threaded with rivers and creeks; and Professor?”
that every few miles a small lake sat like With his words, x whirled to look at
a jewel in the greenery, surplus water the stocky little scientist

from the glaciers as they slowly melted. Ticknor had gone pale.
14 WEIRD TALES
—
“We we have no arms,” he faltered He nodded. "Probably. Tve handled
at last. 'We left so suddenly ... I had guns all my life. Well, let’s get out and
meant to fill the racks, but there was no stretch our legs.”
”
time Ticknor eased open the heavy door of
"No guns?” exclaimed Brock, running the space-shell. For an instant we hesi-
his big fingers through his shock of yel- tated, wondering if the air would be
low hair. "Good heaven!” breathable to our ancient form of lungs,
Ticknor caught his arm. "But, Brock wondering if the temperature was as tem-
—you must have an automatic. I’ve neve* perate as the look of the trees indicated,
known you be without one.”
to or far below zero.
Brock shook his head. "This is the ex- We all sighed with relief as both ques-
ception to the rule. I have no gun with tions were satisfactorily answered.
rne.” The air was warm; about like the air
Here I reached into my pocket. I with- of a late spring day in old New York.
drew my own automatic, a weapon 1 And it was breathable. It was a little thin
usually carried as protection against the — Earth had lost some of its atmosphere
giro bandits that infested the air over the through the eons —but it was perfectly
outskirts of every large city. life-sustaining.
The
gleamed
"Thank God!”
one gun,”
at least
eyes of
as they fell
Brock

said Brock.
and
on the weapon.
"We
Ticknos

have W E
it soft
jumped to the ground, finding
and spongy to the feet.
Moisture from the surrounding glaciers
"We have a gun,” I said, "but we have evidently underlay the entire five-hun-
nothing to put in it” dred-mile oasis, making the earth almost
”
"You mean bog-like and rich as delta-land.
"I mean that in this gun there is one "Now where?” I asked, instinctively
bullet. Just one. When that’s gone, we’re looking to Brock. Ticknor was the man
through. I cleaned it day before yesterday of brains; but Brock was by nature the
— I mean a couple of hundred million leader in anything concerning practical
years ago — and neglected to put the clip action.
back in.” The big man nodded toward a tongue
Brock swore, in a disappointment no of woods that stretched out from the mala
more bitter than my own. It was seldom forest toward us.
I carried that gun without its clip of four- "If there are any humans here, they'll
teen shots In the grip. And fate had probably be in the thickets, perhaps hid-
selected this time, with diabolical pre- ing from us in fear. But we must be
cision, as one of those few occasions. ready to run for the ship at a moment’s
One bullet! True, the automatic was a notice. That's our fortress now.”
late model, shooting the new trinitele ex- We followed him toward the thicket
plosive bullet. One of them could blow of trees, leaving the silver sheet of the
an elephant to bits. little lake behind us. Strange figures we
—
But one bullet! If anything attacked must have been, moving through that
us in numbers. . . . wild and deserted-seeming landscape,
“You'd better carry it,” I said to Brock. dressed in the sober garb of the Twenty-
“You’re no doubt a better marksman than first Century.
lam.” On the edge of the forest we soon saw
 RULERS OF THE FUTURE 15

one lone tree that was from any

different And just at that instant the arboreal
of the others; and, since we had no defi- trap was sprung.
nite destination, almost unconsciously we "Run!” I choked, leaping away from
walked toward that. the sinister, purplish bole.
Thetree was not as large as some of —
But I was too late as were the others.
the more familiar-looking forest giants Down around us like a purple web
nearit; but what it lacked in size it made drooped the lower tree brandies. Like
up in color. It was aflame with purple hungry, purple mouths, the budding
blossoms — great, cup-shaped flowers flowers yawned toward us. Whip-like
almost like tulip blooms. And trunk and tendrils caught and dung at our legs, our
branches were deep, dark, almost sinister- arms, our bodies.
looking purple. "Help ” I choked.
w
Odd-looking thing,” muttered Brock, But Brock and Ticknor were in peril
as we walked toward it. But the remark as deadly as my own. It w as every man T

was abstracted; all of us were too busy to take care of himself.

looking for signs of animate life to waste The purple tree was rocking as though
much thought on trees. a gale of wind tossed it now. The ten-
We reached the tree without having drils crawled like of flesh over our
tilings

seen a moving thing. And we paused bodies, to be followed by thicker, more

under the purple branches beneath them — powerful branches.

there was no imderbrush to impede the I heard Brock panting and shouting as

feet—to talk over what we would do he sought with his great hands to tear
next. loosefrom the clutching branches. I felt
one of the horrible purple blooms press
"Shall we go. farther into this dark
forest, in the hope of finding people?” avidly to my throat.
Brock put the question. "Or shall we
Whatever those blooms looked like,
try to cruise low in the space-shell over the
they were not flowers.They were tough
area —what’s the matter, Woodward?” as leather,
rubber suction
hardy
disk
as rubber.
the
And
flower at
like a
my
had been
I

"Let’s get
sniffing the air sharply.

away from this tree,” I said.

throat flattened against my flesh —and
held there.
"Those purple flowers look handsome, I caught a whirling jumble of blue sky
but they smell like death itself.”
through a purple web of tossing branches
"We’ll go along in a moment. The as I was whipped off my feet. Then a
question is, which way shall we travel?” branch as thick as my thumb coiled
"If we take to the shell,” argued Tick- around my throat, and the world went
nor, "we might soar the country for a black. . . .

week and never see a soul because, if — Painfully, long later, I struggled back
there are humans here, they may well be to consciousness. And for a dreamy in-
frightened by the ship.” stant, in a half-world of fancy, I thought
"Unless they’re enlightened beings,” I was back in my own age. For I thought
said Brock hopefully. Then he glanced I heard human voices.
curiously up at the tree branches above But that, of course, was fantastic. I

us. "Say — that’s queer. These branches realized it a moment later as fuller con-

are moving, and there isn’t a breath of air sciousness returned. I opened my eyes
to stir them!” with an effort, and sat up. And then a
*
 1

16 WEIRD TALES
cry of wonder burst from my lacerated Yet they could not be a cowardly race,
throat. since they had somehow, by sheer press
I had heard human speech! For all of numbers, managed to rob the purple
around me —and around the still motion- tree of our lives.

less bodies of Brock and Ticknor —was Such were some of the thoughts that
a ring of creatures that were undeniably passed confusedly through my mind as
human beings! the woods people chattered about us in
an alien tongue. Then Brock and Tick-

T here were about two hundred of

them, as human as
knew, and seemingly as intelligent. Their
the races we
nor stirred and
pressed nearer to us.
I
sat

could see mirrored in

up; and the humans

my comrades’
eyes were clear and contemplative, and faces all the thoughts that had been mine.
they had good, broad foreheads. They Then Brock said impulsively in English:
were a shade less than our average "Hello.”
height; about five feet six, I should say. An instant later we all smiled ruefully.
Their color was very light, lighter even English! How many
hundreds of mil-
than the fairness of Brock’s skin, and he lions of years ago had the English lan-
is pure blond. guage been forgotten?
"Not very advanced in civili2ation, Now our gentle, shyly inquisitive res-
though,” I mused, thinking of Ticknor’s cuers came nearer, glancing first at us and
hope that we would find a race advanced then back at our space-shell, which could
scientifically. barely be seen through the intervening
They were dressed in some simple gar- pattern of trees.
ment of coarse fabric that left arms bare, One of them, a girl, seemed either
and came down to the knee. Decidedly a bolder or more trusting than the rest. She
primitive costume. On the other hand, came up to within a few yards of us,
their bare heads were neatly trimmed as smiled, and said something in a fluid,
to hair; and the women, who were as tall beautiful voice. Words, of course, that
as the men and in most cases slightly bet- were no more intelligible to us than so
ter muscled, even wore simple but taste- many syllables in old Phenician would
ful ornaments of colored bark in their have been.
tresses. '
We got up from the ground, then, all
They were a gentle-looking folk, these of us abit shaky but otherwise none the
people that had rescued us from the tree worse for our experience with the car-
of death. They had wide, soft eyes in nivorous tree.

—
which no ferocity lay but in the depths I can shut my eyes and see the picture
of which there seemed to rest, in every that girl made now, with the green for-
case, an abiding terror est making a background for her light
Of what? We were later to find out! beauty as she stood in tire little clearing,
They looked cowed, spirit-broken. A only a few yards from the purple tree,

fine people in bondage to something trying to make us understand what she

loathsome and horrible, crushed down was talking about.
through generations until they had be- She was lovely, as exquisitely shaped as
come gentle, almost spiritless creatures in a wood sprite, with ash-blond hair in
whose liquid eyes blended docility and which was a dark blue wood-flower braid-
awful fear. ed over her left ear; and dark, rich brown
W.T.—
 RULERS OF THE FUTURE 17

eyes in almost shocking contrast to her our faces to the fore and plodded on to
white skin and silky, nearly white hair. —
where our hosts or captors, as their
My eyes must have revealed my numbers would make them if they wished
thoughts, for she colored a little, and her —had their dwelling-place.

clear accents faltered. The next instant, A bizarre tribe, living in bizarre sur-

though, she edged ever so little nearer to roundings, in an age millions of centuries
me than to the others. Then, with won- beyond our own. What would be our lot

der in her lovely, dark eyes, she reached with them?

out a slim hand to feel curiously of the
5
brown tweed of my coat.
or a month we lived with these sim-
At this the rest
in in a dense circle
of the crowd packed us
and commenced their
F ple, kindly people in the wilderness
village they led us to.
strange talking again.
"The devil!” growled Brock. "This is It was not much of a village; and their
getting us nowhere. We’ve got to find existence was extremely uncomplicated;
some way of communicating with them.” but what little they had they seemed glad

Here my little beauty with the blue to share with us.

wood-flower in her hair solved the prob- During that month we learned many
lem. She had been pressed closer to me things about the strange new Earth to
in the crowding of the others; and now which we had come after circling the
she tugged at my arm. universe. We learned these things by
As I looked at her, she pointed first to first learning the language of the people.
us, then back at the space-shell, and then When your life hangs on it, you can
up into the clear blue heavens. learn a lot in a short time! In three
I didn’t get it at first; so she repeated weeks we had picked up more than the
the gesture. Then I understood. rudiments of their tongue. were We
"She wants to know what we’d like to helped in this by the fact that their lan-
do — if we intend to fly away as we came,” guage was simple, clear, and composed of
1 said. "What will we tell her?” only a few thousand words. It seemed,
"That we want
to go with them,” said indeed, like the clarified, simplified dregs
Ticknor eagerly. "These people couldn’t of a language that once must have been
possibly have the equipment I need to voluminous and intricate.
build a time-machine. But we mustn’t — At the end of the third week the girl
overlook any chances.” with the blue flower and I walked alone
I turned to the girl. I pointed to our- in the forest. Since she had been the first
selves, to the multitude of gentle little to approach us, and perhaps because she
folk standing around, and then toward was considered unusually intelligent, she
the heart of the forest. had been assigned us as teacher. But
Her eyes lit up. She cried something in after every "class” she and I were ac-
her soft voice. The forest dwellers smiled customed to strolling off together through
hospitably, and waved their bare arms. the woods.
The girl took my hand and the four of I was getting on pretty well with the

us started toward the denser woods, with language, for a thick-headed ex-news-
the rest straggling out into single files as paper reporter, well enough to under-
we left the small clearing. One look we stand, at last, a fractional part of the warn-
sent behind to the space-shell; then we set ing that I have no doubt she’d been try-
W. T.—
 —

18 WEIRD TALES
ing to give us since first we mastered a most light-hearted moment, she would
few words of their tongue. stop laughing at some blunder of lan-

In the weeks before that walk in the guage I —

had made and suddenly into
woods, we had noticed many things. One her eyes would spring a very frenzy of
was the contrast between the undoubted terror.

brain capacity of these people,and the As the fourth week slipped along, the
almost primitive way they lived. people had begun to act like a demented
Their only shelters were thatched bark race. The tension in the air became a
huts, in which whole families huddled in thing almost to be felt physically. And
a single small enclosure. Their only gar- the girl — Gayta, I found, was her name
ments were the coarse, knee-length tunics, started and trembled every time she heard
which were woven of strands pounded a twig snap in the forest.

out of a certain bark. And on that day, toward the end of the
They lived on a few vegetables that fourth week, I got some slight hint as to
were unknown to us, and were only the reason for all this nervous tension.
crudely cultivated; and on fish, which ''Gayta,” I started by saying, "is it very
swarmed in the countless brooks and in cold here part of the time?”
the lake beside which we had left the When she had grasped the meaning of
shell. They hadn’t any tools not even — my broken, ungrammatical attempt at her
stone axes —
which accounted for the fact language, she shook her head.
that they did not chop down the deadly "No. Why?”
purple trees. "I asked because I see your people
Yet they certainly seemed competent stocking up big stores of fish from the
enough to build a better civilization for lake —more than they could ever eat. I

themselves, if left alone. If left alone! It thought perhaps it was because the lakes
soon became evident to us that they did and became as the great white
rivers
not build better or try to live more com- hardness around us, so that the fish
fortably because of the fear —
of some might not be caught.”
mysterious thing — that showed always in "It is always the same here,” she re-
their soft, dark eyes. plied. "Not warmer, not colder.”
More and more plainly, as day slipped "Then why are the fish stored up?”
after day in this seeming Eden in the ice She avoided my eye. I saw, of a sud-
fields, we came to realize that the keynote den, that she was trembling.
of their lives was that fear. And we "Why?” I persisted.
noticed, too, that the fear seemed to be "It is for them,” she whispered at

growing with each passing day. The peo- last. "Every thirty-five times the Bohga
ple of the woods began to slink about, [sun] swings across the skies, they come
gazing now and then over their shoulders to collect the stores of fish.”
as though they feared pursuit. And
always they gazed in the same direction — or the of the afternoon wrestled
to the north, toward the center of the F rest
with the language problem as Gayta
I

circle that made up their universe. tried to tell me precisely what was wrong.
Even the girl with the blue flower (I And at the conclusion of our talk. I hur-
never saw her without a fresh bloom Ticknor and Brock.
ried to seek out
twined in her silky, light hair) reacted in They were in the hut that had been as-
the same general way. In the midst of the signed to them, trying their hand at a
 ) -

RULERS OF THE FUTURE 19

new way of broiling the fish that was the what kind of dwelling-places they are;

main staple of diet.Ticknor had burned but that’s beside the point.
his fingers, and Brock was grinning at "The masters collect this food every
him thirty-five days regularly. I got the idea
(As I look bade now I see how re- that they sometimes collect other food,
markably contented we were becoming too —of But I can’t
a cannibalistic sort!
with this simple life among these likable be sure of Anyway, they take the
that.

people. To we had admitted

ourselves, stock home with them, and there follows
after the first few days that it would be —
a five-days’ feast a sort of festival. They
impossible to build a time-machine with gorge themselves on fish and perhaps —
any materials or equipment we could con- on the flesh of a few slaves and they —
trive among these beings. But less and worship and make sacrifices to their god.
less did the thought bother us. Then there follows a period of thirty days

I burst into the hut, full of the things during which, as far as I could get from
Ihad learned —vaguely but alarmingly— Gayta’s talk, they do nothing at all. They
from Gayta. hibernate, perhaps; or go into some state
”
"Woodward!” said Ticknor, dropping of lethargy
his fish into the fire at my expression. "Impossible!” Brock interrupted again.
"What the devil!” said Brock, rising "What kind of people could it be that fed
and filling the hut with his bulk. "You’re only once a month, and that slept or went
white as a ghost. What’s up?” into a coma for the following four
So I told them what I had learned weeks?”
from Gayta. "I don’t know that they are ’people’,”
"I’ve found out what it is that hangs I answered. And I think my face got a
over the heads of these people,” I began, little whiter: Gayta’s horror of the situa-
"the thing that keeps them from trying tion she was trying about had
to tell me
to climb out of this primitive way of liv- been very contagious. "Gayta's word to
ing —the thing that fills their eyes, and describe them was the one she has been
unholy fear.
their lives, with that using to denote ’things.’ She just kept
"They’re an enslaved race, even as we saying: 'The things are coming. They
have guessed. And they are enslaved by will take the food we have gathered—
something powerful and terrible. It is for and one of our number, perhaps, for sac-
their masters that they live. It is for them rifice to their god. That we never know.

that they fish the streams and lakes so Sometimes long, long seasons pass and
continually, and lay up these great sur- they take no one for sacrifice sometimes —
plus stores of cured fish we have noticed. they take one from us two times in suc-
”
"Once every thirty-five days the mas- cession.’
ters send some of their number to collect "And they come here about once a
the food. This is taken back to their own month,” repeated Ticknor.
”
city "Yes. We happened to land here just
"Gty?” interrupted Brock swiftly. a few days after their last visit.”
"What city? We saw no city when we "But, I say!” protested Brock. "There
dropped into this place.” aren’t more than two hundred and fifty
"Their ’city’ is the big collection of people here. If these ’masters’ sacrifice
greenish mounds we saw in the center of them to their gods, or eat them now and
the oasis,” I told him. "I can’t imagine then, the slaves wouldn’t last very long!”
20 WEIRD TALES
"It seems there are thousands of other tried precise descriptions I got lost in a
humans in the oasis,” I told him. "Gayta fog of strange words.”
made me understand that there are many "Their next visit here is soon?” said
other such villages in the woods as this. Brock.
But they are kept scattered, and forbid- "Damn soon! In the next few days!”
den to communicate with one another.”
Brock nodded. "I suppose that’s to
keep down rebellion. The ruling powers
seem to have no mean order of intelli-
gence. But —
if they’re as tyrannical as
W ell,
time.
we talked that over for
Should
the things during the days of their ac-
we try to hide from
some

tivity? But, as Brock pointed out, we

Gayta says, why hasn’t there been revolt couldn’t hide the space-shell. And be-
anyhow? Are the masters so numerous?” sides, if we didn’t get caught this time,
"There are less than three hundred of we would the next time or the one after
them.” that.
”
"Then why Should we get into the space-ship and
"It’s because of their god,” I told him. use the rocket motor to find some other
"This god of theirs appears to be a island in the ice where conditions might
strange and powerful creation. It is sup- be less doubtful? Brock and I rather
posed to be able to read minds. When thought this was the thing to do. But
any man gets desperate and starts plan- Ticknor was dead set against it.
ning rebellion, the god reads that man’s "You’re forgetting our main purpose
thoughts —-and he is promptly put to in life just now: to build a machine that
death in the temple. So for some decades will carry us back to our own century.
no revolt has flourished.” These people here are in no position to
"You couldn’t make out just what the help us. Thej' haven’t even steel — let
masters are like?” persisted Brock. alone the more complicated alloys I need.
"I could not. They are an alien race But their rulers are obviously a superior
— that much at least I could pick up.
”
race. If we can make friends with them,
They came here ages ago we might find that they have at least
"Across the ice fields?” some of the equipment and materials we
"No. The glaciers are impassable. As need.”
near as I could make out from Gayta’s "And if we can’t make friends with
words and gestures, some upheaval of them?” said Brock.
nature —
perhaps an earthquake split a — "Let’s take that chance when it comes,”
ragged path in the ice from here to the said Ticknor with a shrug. "I can’t be-
smaller oasis near by —
the one we noticed lieve they’re as ruthless as these folk
as we came down. This race lived in that make out. The woods people are nice,
other oasis. They had fished out the but they’re not long on reckless courage.”
waters, and hunted out the woods, and "But I wouldn’t call them cowards,
they came here en masse. They found either,” said Brock. "And man, woman
Gayta’s ancestors and fat hunting and and child, they are petrified with fear of
fishing. So they enslaved the people, and the beings they slave for. That doesn’t
have been living here ever since.” sound as though there were much chance
"But what are they?” burst in Ticknor. of 'making friends’ with them.”
"I tell you I don’t know. Gayta didn’t But Ticknor’s argument that we might
speak of them as people. And when she somehow find opportunity with them to
 RULERS OF THE FUTURE 21

build a machine that would carry us back of Gayta’s people looked like before
across the thousands of centuries to our trusting ourselves to their mercies.
own era, prevailed over our objections. The hours crawled past, however, and
With mingled hope and misgivings we there was no sign of any visitors. We
waited for the "things,” as Gayta called began to get restless in the narrow con-
them, to come for their monthly rations. fines of the cabin, breathing our artificial

We made our way through the dark for- air, when the sun beckoned outside.
est to the space-shell on the side of the "We can’t stay in here for ever,”
lake, however. We would sleep in it that growled Brock at last. "And we don’t
night,and stay close to it until the rulers —
even know if the the things are com- —
came. Then, if we didn’t like their looks, ing today. They might not get here till
we could soar away from them to some tomorrow. Let’s get outside and wait. We
other place. can stay near the shell.”
"They can’t be so inhuman as they’re Ticknor and I were ready enough to

made out to be,” said Ticknor, as we agree. So we opened tire hermetically

climbed into the shell for our night’s rest. sealed door, after a cautious look around,
"Our woods friends are too easily fright- and stepped outside.
ened,” he added for the dozenth time. The day was even finer than it had

But I wasn’t so sure of that myself. The seemed to us from the inside looking out.
look of frozen horror in Gayta’s eyes. . .
It was like a day in late spring; warm

and bland, but with a faint undercurrent

The "things” came next day.
of chill from the unbroken expanses of
glacial ice stretching away on every side.
6
We could imagine that if any winds
N ext day dawned mild and
as every day had since we’d come.
Earth, in the hundreds of millions of
clear blew, the green oasis in the ice would be
miserably cold. But not once in the time
we’d been there had there been even a
years,seemed to have gotten a better cli- breeze; so we could only guess about it.
mate instead of a worse. The sun, if any Immediately behind us was the tiny
cooler at all, was not perceptibly so. It lake, blue as sapphire under the radiant
hung in the clear blue heavens as brilliant sun. Before, and to either side of us,
and warm as it had over our world back stretched the emerald green forest lands.
in 1990. By first-hand observation we "Not a bad place,” Brock rumbled,
were able to give the lie to those scien- arching his great chest in the thin, pure
tists who insisted that the sun was rapidly air. "Come on, let’s stretch our legs.”
dying. (The ice fields, as I have said, "We ought to keep near the shell,”
were melting; they were but one of the said Ticknor.
recurrent glacial epochs which, for no rea- "We can go toward the woods. There’s
son that any one knows, came and went nothing but the lake behind us; and no-
on Earth even before our own day.) body can approach from that direction.”
For some time on that fateful morning, So we strolled a few yards away from
we kept to the shell. Indeed, we kept the the little ship, toward the forests. And
door sealed, too, ready to ascend instantly as we went we kept an alert lookout for
if need be, while the three of us stood movement from the woods, ready to race
watch at the windows looking onto the back to the shell with the first appearance
forest. We
wanted to see what the rulers of anything strange.
22 WEIRD TALES

W
back, when
E
and
had gone perhaps
were about ready to walk
I had a peculiar premonition
fifty yards, pulsive heads with great long jaws, pits
for nostrils, and neither ears nor trace of
foreheads. Crocodilian heads, they were.
that all was not well. Crocodilian! It is the exact word to
There had been no movement either describe them. Imagine, if you can, a
ahead of us or to right or left; but just short-tailed, blunt-nosed crocodile walk-
the same I had a "hunch,” as my grand- ing on its hind legs and using its fore-
father used to call it. legs — elongated, super-developed, and
I turned about to look back at the prehensile — as arms, and you have a fair

shell. . . .
picture of the things that stared un-
With my heart sinking in my chest I blinkingly at us as they towered in a line
blinked to be sure I was really seeing cor- between us and the metal hull that was
rectlyand not suffering from some hid- our only haven.
eous optical illusion. Then I caught at The reptilian impression was increased
Brock and Ticknor, and wordlessly point- when we stared into those cold, unblink-
ed toward the shell. ing eyes. Lizard eyes they were, without
"Good heaven!” whispered Brock, all a doubt. And yet in them were glints of
color draining from under the tan of his ample intelligence. Cold-blooded life

face. had crawled up the scale of evolution in

Ticknor said nothing just stared with — the countless ages of our circuit of the
wide and unbelieving eyes. But I saw universe. What had resulted was neither
him moisten his lips with his tongue; I lizard nor —
man but lizard-men!
even thought to hear that tongue’s dry "Good heaven!” Brock breathed again.
rasp in the frozen silence that bound us. Then: "How . . . how did the things
Drawn up in line before the space- manage to cut us off? I’ll swear they
shell, cutting us off from the open metal didn’t come from the forests. .” . .

door, were a dozen of the "things” Gayta The question answered itself. The
had tried to describe to me—the enslavers silent, glaring monsters were still drip-
of her people, and the "superior beings” ping; they had come on us from behind,
Ticknor had tentatively thought we might over —or possibly under —the waters of
"make friends” with! I can still laugh, the lake.
mirthlessly, when I think of that phrase. Impulsively hand whipped
Brock’s
They were monstrous — in appearance as down for the gun that was our sole
well as in size. weapon. But reluctantly it moved away
Ten feet high, they were; with cylin- again. Just one bullet in its barrel —and
drical bodies two feet through and vary- twelve or fourteen of the ten-foot lizard-
ing in size hardly from their thickat all men ranged against us. In addition, their
necks to their blunt tails which almost unclad bodies were covered with homy-
dragged on the ground between the short, looking scales: a shot would have to hit
massive legs on which they stood erect its target squarely not to glance off the
Their arms had plainly, not many mil- cylindrical, scale-armored bodies.
lions of years back, been forelegs. They "Got to save that bullet,” muttered
were now long, powerful, triple-jointed Brock. "But what in heaven’s name are
limbs with four-fingered hands tipped we going to do?”
with long claws. Neither Ticknor nor I tried to answer
Set atop the columnar necks were re- the question. Anyhow, it seemed to me
 RULERS OF THE FUTURE 23

just then that a more important question them shot out to bar us from the open
was —what were they going to do? door of the space-ship.
The lizard-men must know we were Brock hunched his great shoulders and
not of their slaves: we were taller than plunged against the barrier of their arms.
the gentle forest folk —Brock by nearly They gave a little, stiffened, then tossed
a foot —and our ridiculous-looking 1990 him back as if he had been a child. Simi-
garments stamped us as of an alien race. larly they caught and thrust back Ticknor
But for a few seconds longer they did and me.
—
nothing simply stood there slowly mov- Brock picked up a tree-branch his hand
ing their crocodile jaws and glaring at us fell on as he rolled on the soft turf. With
out of their pale, cold, crocodile eyes; a bellow he charged again, swinging his
while we stood rigid and stared back, ponderous club as though it had weighed
feeling the very hair on our scalps crawl no more than a straw.
with loathing and horror. It crashed with a loud crack against
Thenthe line of lizard-men moved. the upflung arm of the nearest lizard-
One of them, the tallest of the lot, began man. The arm went limp. Into the pale,
to stump on his short tree-trunks of legs cold eyes came an opalescent greenish fire.
— toward the open shell door! The uninjured arm shot out. The four-
"Charge them!’’ roared Brock, his face fingered hand caught Brock by the shoul-
chalk-white. "We can’t let them get in der, plucked him up and threw him
there.” bodily twenty feet away.
Stung from our paralysis of fright, we Hopeless! Hopeless! But we battered
raced toward the shell —
and toward the insanely at the ten-foot things with fists

menacing lizard-men. Mad? Of course and feet and stones. As well die in action
we were. Stark mad for a moment as we as more slowly at a later hour.
visioned the damage the things might do
to our shell. Our space-shell! The only
avenue of escape we had!
And so we charged those towering hor-
M y flesh
the contact of
cold and armored hide
still creeps as
my
—
fists
I remember
with that
and the mount-
rors that outnumbered us six to one; and, ing glare of wrath in their green-flaming
seeming stupefied by our rashness, they eyes.
waited motionless while we covered the And yet they didn’t kill us. Incredible
few yards intervening between us. — except that the near future was to tell

But we were not entirely insane. We us horribly why.

raced toward the lizard-men in a V, with Finally the lizard-men themselves
Brock at the point. If we could manage charged; and, two to each of us, caught us
to rip through their line and get into the in those great long arms and held us
shell powerless in strands of cold, living
Again I have to laugh, mirthlessly, as gristle. And powerless, with death in our
I think of that absurd hope. The lizard- hearts, we stood and watched the rest of
men looked slow and clumsy. But I have them move about their course of meth-
never seen anything move so swiftly as odicaland devilishly intelligent destruc-
they moved then. tion.
Till we had almost reached them, they The towering leader of the lizard-men
stayed motionless. Then, like darting entered the shell as he had started to do
tongues of light, the long arms of two of when we charged. We heard him croak
24 WEIRD TALES
something —saw two of the others stump to fit new windows into the hull with the
in to join him gas-tight precision necessary for inter-
''They even talk!” gasped Ticknor. stellar travel.

They did. It was impossible not to The windows, of the latest and best
admit that the croaking utterances we unbreakable glass known to late Twen-
heard among the three in the shell were tieth Century science, resisted their ef-
ordered sentences. forts; whereupon, as though enraged by
Then we heard saw
crash after crash, this enormous strength,
failure of their
through the near window the immense three of them stumped to the forest, came
forms of the lizard-men, bent almost dou- back with a rough log, and, using it as a
ble in the cramped cabin, as they pulled battering-ram, knocked one window clear
out drawer after drawer and demolished out of its metal frame to fall with a clang

the instruments and equipment they con- on the cabin floor within.
tained. That fixed it. Never again would the
"The time-machine!” whispered Tick- shell leave the ground.
nor, his lips a white streak in his pallid Coldly the lizard-men released us and
face. "The time-machine!” prodded us toward the forest. Brock’s
That carefully padded crate! Would great muscles tensed, but in a moment
they find that and smash it? It was not his shoulders drooped. The
was no
shell
in a position for us to see it through the longer a thing worth fighting for; and it
window; but seemed impossible that
it was obvious that preservation of life
the lizard-men would miss the big box. could now be best attained by obeying
They wrecked the rocket-motor; we our hideous captors.
could see that; and they utterly demol- Would they merely add us to the num-
ished the instrument and control board. ber of their slaves? Or would they rea-
And then they attacked the windows — as son that we were not sufficiently docile,
though they had brains enough to know and execute us before we could stir up
that it would take a whole machine-shop rebellion?Only the future could tell us.

The frightful encounter with the

"god” of the lizard-men will be
told in next month’s thrill-

ing chapters of this story.

Don’t miss it.
 "From among the tombstones he
lifted in his arms a limp,, lifeless
thing which he threw in the boat
before him."

haron
By LAURENCE J.
CAHILL
An unusual story, about a gray man who came back from the grave to
comfort the dying and terrify the living

Y OU still

something

Express.
hear it said that there
and ghoulish
bloody
about that newspaper T he Daily
It likes news that is heart-
is chilling.

is
And
Nobody
there is
will deny
the reason
supposed to be turning
not yet thirty-one years old.
that, surely,
why my hair
white when I’m
Does being
25
26 WEIRD TALES
a reporter for The Daily Express shock tion to keep quiet, and that distant voice
the brown out of my scalp? Or are the sizzling and frying in the receiver.
roots of my hair doing something on The message ended, and down on his
their own account? I’d like to know as desk McKenna set the telephone, and his
well as you. Meanwhile I keep well fed hand was hard to see. Shaking. Into the
on this job, just as the peasants of Lower pockets of his vest dived McKenna’s ten
Austria eat arsenic to gain a healthy color. fingers, and they routed out a monster
And no other job would suit me. cigar blacker than the shades around us.

Reminds me a great deal of some of Trying to be cool and easy. Trying, and
the things The Gray One himself said. vainly this time, to show the whole round
One of them was, "If you don’t get world that his nerves were in fine fettle.

scared — it’s as easy— as that.” Such "Bill.” McKenna cleared his throat
words you wouldn’t be liable to forget in with a quick and raw sound. "Go out
a hurry; for twenty people who saw The and grab this story. And so help you the
Gray One will swear on their coffins that God that made you, don’t let anyone else

he came from death, returned from the get it.”

dead that sleep for ever, to fulfill five There were three other reporters in the
very strange errands before he died again. room dealing rummy next to the ice-
That scoop made the greatest head- water tank, but McKenna’s order was for
lines in the history of the state. News- me. And there was something in his face

paper stories that are red and sticky and that said to me I’d better not argue.

coarse are made to order for The Daily "Okay,” I retorted.

Express. The ax-slayer two years ago who "Do me right on this, Bill,” he said,
lopped off the left hands of his victims. very unusually. He was pleading.
S. S. Mistral floating into port with a "You’re as smart a leg-man as there is in
question mark painted on its foredeck the trade. Get everything there is on this
and no soul on board. A band of little thing, and get it quick. Stay in the West
children, all less than eight years old, End. Now listen. Today someone was
teaching a Great Dane dog to attack a dying out there on Larchmont Avenue
truant officer and jump for his throat. where that epidemic has been cutting
Escaped convicts trapped in an aban- them off like flies, and somehow this
doned mine beyond Hill City, their voices stranger slipped into the house. He was
wandering far underground and never dressed in gray, and he was tall. He went
heard again. to the bedside and introduced himself as
"Bring in the story that’s queer and the advance agent of Death. Told the
cold and spotted with goose-flesh, and sick man he came from the other
that
we’ll slam it on page one every time,” de- world to help him die, and for him not to
clares McKenna. be frightened. Dying, he said, was easy
He’s the squarest- jawed and squarest- if you knew how. The members of the

shooting editor in the game, and I’m family at the bedside were paralyzed and
right now thinking of that occasion when didn’t know what to do. They didn’t
the telephone rang while he was begin- want to start a rough-house. The stranger
ning the six o’clock shift. talked like a man with brains. The sick
"What is it about, Chief?” I ques- man was glad the stranger came, and he
tioned. passed away happy. The stranger took
The stillness of night, McKenna’s mo- his leave by slipping out as he came in.
 CHARON 27

and nobody had strength to follow him.” vised me, and I knew I’d better find it

In my opinion it was ail a nut act, with was good. "If I can smell news myself,”
extra frills. There was a tickling under said McKenna, "this is the genuine Mc-
my collar, however, proving that the hair Coy. A valet on Larchmont Avenue called
on my neck was stiffening just a little. in the tip and sold it for five dollars.”

"There’s good evidence that once be- Impatience now seethed between Mc-
fore this week that guy’s gained his way Kenna’s tongue and his teeth as often as
to the side of the dying. At other places he breathed.
and addresses he’s made an effort to get "Go and get it. And don’t fail.”
in —
and doors were slammed in his face. "I won’t, Chief,” I promised.
Folks are afraid of him. He’s at large.”
McKenna’s oily cigar spluttered and
showered sparks. "This is the first paper
that’s been notified. Police are on the job
O UT on Larchmont Avenue,
my telephone base the drug store
on the corner of A Street. was about
It
I made

to catch him, but the other papers think six-thirty o’clock. I bought some razor
they’re heading off burglaries.” blades and interviewed the clerk.
You’d get the idea McKenna wrote "Who’s this death-watch that’s annoy-
headlines with his jaw, to see it hunch ing the neighborhood?” I asked.
while he talked. He looked at me with a fishy, cold eye.
"You can follow this guy into houses "Oh, you heard, did you? Reporter?”
if you want to,” said McKenna, oat "Yes. Who is it?”

don’t let yourself get into trouble. Don’t The drug clerk hesitated, peered at the
offend the people out that way. It’s that door and shivered. The place apparently
guy we want to find out about. He says had been empty of customers for several
he was dead once, says he? Find out minutes before I happened along. He
what that means.” must have been glad of a homely chance
McKenna reached into his desk and to talk to anyone, even me.
took out a gun, which he laid in my hand. "How should I know? And I don’t
"You won’t need this. Maybe. But that wanna.”
stranger in gray has a brainy technique. "Why not?”
Ifyou have to use weapons of any kind, "Am I crazy?” He mixed himself a
make it plain enough that it’s self- soda-and-lime and then absently threw it

defense. Collar and corner all the story "The cops

in the sink. are on the job.
you can.” Thank Gawd.”
He sat back with a sigh. "Wait a min- "They’ll handle it all right. I hear the
ute, Bill.” neighborhood’s nervous.”
Aminute or two went by while he "All but the dead.”
pondered every curious feature of it. "What do you mean?”
"Two or three times,” he admitted, He put down the empty soda-and-lime
"we’ve looked foolish running wild glass and licked his lips.
stories that were built on nothing but hot "Them that died weren’t nervous.”
air. If this isn’t the real goods, don’t The hair on my neck stirred again, but
bother to bring it back.” there was a draft pouring down my col-
That nearly bowled me over. Mc- larfrom the transom over the door.
Kenna so excited he was cautious! "Can you say how you account for
"But you can tell if it’s good,” he ad- what you just told me?”
28 WEIRD TALES
"I ain’t you nothin’,” he said
tellin’ ing along the street, I could see three
with a dash of shrewdness. "I’m just more patrolmen, silently posted to catch
sayin’ what’s been said by everybody in him called The Gray One. Windows for
this block.” the most part all along the way were bril-
"That stranger must have a way with liantly lit, although a few homes had no

them,” I suggested. lights in their windows.

"With them about to depart this life, None of the bereaved families wanted
he does,” admitted the clerk, soberly. their sick members comforted by The
"The Gray One has a way with ’em.” Gray One. I had never known anything

"What?” I questioned. like it in all my life.

"He’s known as 'The Gray One’,” re- I walked along the block, and tried to
peated the man behind the counter, his wonder what headlines McKenna could
smooth face a little red and foolish. "He’s make out of this matter. I wondered
successful with ’em, because he knows again if it was true that I was the only
something.” reporter hunting "game”.
"Good enough. Where is he seen?” Within a minute I came to the nearest
"In the rooms of the dyin’.” cop and attempted to get a statement of
"But —before and after, where is he what opinion the police had on the case.
seen?” "Seen him?” I hailed.
"Nowhere.” "Shut up.”
I started to reach for my pencil, but Now, for all kinds of reasons the po-
put it away again. lice are apt to be friendly with the news-
"This looks like something that’s too paper craft. When they are not friendly,
elaborate for ordinary inspection. Come something is rotten —and it isn’t neces-

on, this stranger’s human. He was sary to go to Denmark to find what

turned away from different places.” that is.

"Yes,” the clerk conceded, laughing "What’s the matter?” I parried.

cynically. "Ya know what? They He eyed me with Irish honesty. "No,
wouldn’t let ’im in up the street here last I ain’t seen —
him that one and I defy —
night. That was at old Baxter’s. Baxter any man to know what to do if he did.”
was sick for three days with this epidemic I grinned. "What’s your orders?”
and suffered horrible stuff. And he died "Just orders. You know the kind.” He
screaming for The Gray One and took a breath. "Bring him in alive.”
stretched out his arms and fell outa the I put one question to see what the ef-
bed.” fect would be. "Expect to get him—
I was waiting for a crumb of real in- alive?”
formation. "Where is Baxter’s?” "You wouldn’t be kidding me, would
The clerk gave me the address with you?” He eyed me with an owlish glance.
reluctance. I shook my head. "This isn’t the place
"Thanks.” for a joke, officer.”
Still more steadily, he eyed me. "Well,

D
the
arkness had come when
drug store, street lights

West End was

I left

were on and
settled for the night.
the damn
my
it, I agree with yuh.
exams for nothin’ like this.”
"What’s the latest about him tonight?”
I didn’t take

One block away a policeman was sta- "Nothin’ yet, glory to the saints.”
tioned, well out upon the crossing. Look- "Where would he show up next?”
 CHARON 29

"It’d be a bad guess. Where them are walk dead-alive among the living. What
that’s sickest.” cemetery did he come from? Or was he
"But how can he tell when these peo- a hoax? There was no knowing what
ple are dying?” such a freak was capable of. I was armed,
but imagined I would never use that guru
The cop shrugged. "He knows what
Better it would be, I figured, to take my
none of the rest know. This a handy
district for gossip.
is

Everybody’s checkin’
chances, for I had no desire nor have I—
up everybody else about the epidemic
ever had —
to shoot a man down. I turned
into the boulevard called Riverbank
every five minutes. When the symptoms
Drive.
are fatal the whole town hears the ver-
dict twelve hours in advance.” A shrill police whistle racketed and re-

"What would you call him?” bounded. I spun on one heel, and saw
"I’d say somethin’ like a banshee.” the door of an address — it must have
"Who is pretty sick —you know— right been four blocks away — burst open, and
now?” people tumble from the house.
"None near me,” was the very grateful I got there with fast sprinting. But
reply. confusion made it hard to profit by that
"I’ll be moving along, officer. Good- moment. Another death had occurred in
night.” the West End, and he had been there.
His dead-serious face was calm, but his He had come and gone.
mouth sagged. With all his stout heart Police arrived with great speed. A
he didn’t like being left alone. police lieutenant cursed violently, barked
hasty orders, and led a posse half

Away l trees
from the lighted
made
crossing, the
a tunnel of the street and
strengthened by frightened citizens into
the lawns between the houses. It was no
dense black shadows over-edged one an- use. The Gray One had dissolved like
other. The epidemic was all around me. fog.
The little red cards dotted houses by the The hair on the nape of my neck
clusterful,and I walked among them, quieted again.
hoping that I didn’t walk too safely. For The Gray One had come and gone.
I wanted to meet that death-watch. With —
His clammy hands were they clammy,
every instant I calculated how far I was coming from the grave? —had touched
from the telephone at the corner of A the fingers of the dying once more, while
Street and Larchmont Avenue, the wire those about him had gazed at him nearly
that would connect with McKenna at his mad with horror. Who was The Gray
desk, in case I ran into this one who One?
paralyzed the living and soothed the I remembered the information con-
dying. cerning the Baxter house. A few min-
Iknew I would not lack a story if I saw utes of walking took me end
to the other
even as much as the color of his coat. of Larchmont Avenue, and went to the I

The Gray One. What kind of insane number given me by the drug clerk. I
genius was this extraordinary person who rang the bell and saw lights flash on all
feasted ghoul-like on the last moments over the front of the house. After an ex-
of others and yet played on their thoughts tremely long interval a man came to the
so cleverly that they died grateful? From door in his shirt-sleeves, gripping an iron
some casket or tomb he had risen, to poker in his hand.
30 WEIRD TALES
"I am a representative of the press also. For a moment we fought like sav-
working with the police in capturing this ages. The swinging light of a street lamp
man who is alarming the section,” I said, almost blinded me. He backed off sud-
turning out my press badge. "Can you denly and spoke. "You damned fool!”
”
help by The voice gave it away. "Double or
"I don’t know who you are,” he said nothing,” I answered. "And I suppose
harshly, balancing the poker. you’re here because you can only sleep in
"A reporter for the Star,” I explained. the daytime.”
"Get away,” he ordered. "You look "Same as you,” grinned Ted Corbett,
like him.” reporter for the Herald-Telegram. "What
That hit me right between the eyes. have you made out of it so far?”
"The Gray One?” I asked, and my own "Just wasted time. And your score?”
surprize made me sound stupid. "It’s early yet. He’s in the neighbor-

The poker lifted in his hand. hood, they tell me.”

"You’re mistaken,” I replied. "Here Corbett lit a cigarette.
”
is my identification "You’d better douse that light,” I sug-
The door shut heavily in the midst of gested. "He’ll spot you. And you say
my remark, in my face. The earnest voice you haven’t seen him?”
of the one in shirt-sleeves continued. ’I’ve A baffled, puzzled discontent was in
got a revolver and I'm loading it.” Corbett’s face. "One burglar busy at
I let it go at that. work, and a platoon of police moved out
here to get him. Does McKenna think

T
all
ramping these streets alone and be-
ginning to question whether
sweating after some shape
we were
made out
that’s good for a spread-head?”
Headlines. Banners.
Streamers screaming across the width of
Spread-heads.

of fog or vapor, I stepped over a curb the paper. Big news. Strange. Ugly.
and stopped short. The rustling of shrub- But news — for the breakfast- table stom-
bery convinced me as the movement of ach, the brain, the nerves. Jar ’em.
someone skulking not far away. Scare ’em.
I gathered myself together and stepped I pictured McKenna waiting at his
off the sidewalk onto the lawn. I could desk, grim as time itself and cold as ice
see nothing at all; ten feet back from the now that the first excitement of the case
street all was black as the sky overhead, was over. He
and his voracious appetite
but I knew that in my position I myself for headlines. The thunder of Doomsday
couldn’t be seen. In a few moments wouldn’t tear him from that desk or
bushes parted and out into the blue-yellow mean any more to him than new head-
light of the street lamps stepped a man lines. Give him another smash story to

in gray. build up the circulation. "And don’t

Keeping quiet, I went toward him, ad- failme, Bill.”
vancing on grass which acted like a cush- Licking his fangs, and tasting his drops,
ion. His hearing was acute or he smelled McKenna. Scratching for news in differ-
danger. At first he was facing in the other ent boneyards like a hound with a belly
direction. Then he turned and lunged of cast-iron. An X-ray of his vital organs
straight at my head. I dodged and lost would probably show he had a heart the
my footing, but in the slack of his collar shape of a stick of type and just as thin.

I wound my fingers and pulled him down But it was all right with me since Cof-
 CHARON 31

bett thought this night prowler called experience in the reporter’s game telling
The Gray One was a burglar, for it bore me that there were few things worth
out McKenna’s claim that none of the being afraid of, I nevertheless paused.
other newspapers were on to The Gray When one hesitates, there is a sickness
One’s real character. that grips him. I was sick.

Corbett and I parted with a wary ex- I saw deathroom scene again
that
change of glances. with a glance at that open window, and

W hile convinced that Corbett had

never heard of The Gray One, I
intended to take no chances but to tele-
I had the will to jump with decision

toward the porch. The thing then heard

me, turned and stopped as I pounded on,
and silently leaping away over the front
phone McKenna what scraps of hearsay I of the porch, after another second or two
could. It would be no story, but it would whisked shadow-like across the street in
be a teaser worth headlines. I was walk- the tricky light. I ran headlong after it,
ing rapidly to get to the drug store tele- as if my own life and my own escape
phone, and was in the course of crossing from death depended on stamping out
a wide lawn that ran diagonally back of that form or fog or vapor when I caught
a corner house and came out on the next it.

street. The corner house was a California- I chased its trail until I realized that I
type bungalow. But for a false attic all was only chasing the shadows of harmless
the rooms were on the first floor, and things. Where did it go? Where did
brilliantly lighted. As I passed these tv bat go?
lighted rooms I saw a sight that held me. Confused and exhausted, I staggered
A bedroom window was flung open to out of a driveway into A Street. On the
the breeze, the curtains flopped idly, and crossing a patrolman braced himself and
I saw a sickroom scene a death-bed — tugged at his holster.But first his left
scene. The unfortunate one I could not hand raised and he swiftly crossed him-
see but for his restless hand on the self. The buttons and insignia on his
covers. Three people were in attitudes of uniform sparkled, for rain was beginning
expectancy and anguish about that room, to fall.

three that I could count. A fourth person, The copper recognized me and I passed
male, rugged and fierce of appearance, him, breath spent, without saying a word.
stood almost wholly blocking a hall door Reaching the drug store, I entered the
and staring out into the darkness beyond. phone booth without speaking to the
He waited. I figured he must be block- clerk. He was startled when I came in,
ing the door against the coming of The and he dropped a soda-shaker.
Gray One, when I saw something that "It’s Bill,” I called McKenna, "and I
made my case-hardened reporter’s heart can’t tell you much except that I saw that
leap in my throat. freak for one second and then he disap-
The broad porch of this house circled peared. I guess if I hang around out
”
half-way around one side, to where there here he might show
was a front door. Even as I looked, a "Get it, Bill,” cut in McKenna with
form in gray pressed closely against the the voice of command. "Don’t come back
door, tried it with his fingers and softly empty-handed and don’t fail.”
pushed it in. I said yessir and hung up.

The starch suddenly left me. With my Out into the rain I stepped again it —
32 WEIRD TALES
was pouring briskly by this time and I — Was this too far away for The Gray
remember I felt more stubborn than dis- One to operate? Would he dare to visit
couraged. The riddle of The Gray One Boss Dolan?
had twisted its fog tightly around my "I’d like to go in, for a minute, sort
heart and I swore with myself to solve it. of,” I said.

The short collar of my suit didn’t keep A few shrugged their shoulders. "Why
the rain out of my neck. I looked left not wait?” said one with the ghastliest
and right and stood on the curb a mo- candor I can remember.
ment.
"That’s foolish,” another said. "Even
A police squad car came out of Larch- a smile now might help. I think I’ll go
mont Avenue and headed due north, in. If you will,” he inquired of me.
away from the West End, with its radio "Sure,” I replied.
crackling as I could tell by the attitude of "With all his faults he was generally
its two-man crew. I hailed it. good to the rank and file of his ward,”
"What’s up? Leaving this beat?” I my companion whispered.
hollered. "He was,” I subscribed truthfully.
The driver slowed down at the rain- saw Boss Dolan, and saw something
I
slippery corner. "Goin’ across town,” he of sad interest to his admirers. That
answered. "Boss Dolan's sick.” meant something that held delight for
I knew immediately whom he meant. his enemies. He was slipping away and
One of those exceedingly thin hunches he was afraid. A reporter of an opposi-
came to me, coupled with an unpraise- tion paper could make much of this; but
worthy wish to get out of the rain. not I.

Thunder was beginning to rattle. A from the

cluck of sympathy sounded
"Give me a lift,” I appealed. tongue of the man I had accompanied in.
"Jump in, reporter.” "Tough,” I murmured.
Pretty soft for Boss Dolan, I reflected, Boss Dolan was afraid.
having such strong political ties that he The doctor toyed glumly with his watch
could have an owl-car at his service to run fob as he stared at an assortment of uten-
errands whether he was well or ill. And sils on a small table. Seizing a powder
Dolan had already been an invalid for box, a vial and a small pestle and mortar
several months. that were on the table, he left the room
for some final experiment. Some instants

O N HUMBOLDT STREET Was

modest home, his front door was
open, and a number of ward workers
Dolan’s later I heard a clinking and tapping in
the kitchen sink. It was mixed with the
cadence of thunder somewhere over the
were gathered there as we came up the house.
street. "Poor devil,” whispered the one at my
"What’s the word about the Boss?” I side, and he went forward to the place
asked those I knew personally. vacated by the doctor.
A wreath of pale, set faces seemed to "Dolan,” he uttered smoothly, and
arise around me. touched the sick man’s hands.
"He’s dyin’.” A strange feeling dragged within me,
A young district doctor ran out of the and I breathed heavily.
house and clattered down to the ambu- "Don’t let it get your goat, Dolan,”
lance that rested at the curb. Spoke this ready sympathizer. "You can
W. 2 T—
 3

CHARON 33

take it easy —
you want. You’re all
if "Got him. At last!”
slated, but you're not in any pain, and A captain of police and two regulars
you’re only a little nervous. It’s the soft- surrounded The Gray One neatly, catch-
est thing you ever saw. I know, and I’m ing him as he began his last escape. As
here to tell you. See? If you don’t get he wrenched and twisted in their grasp
scared — easy—as that.
it’s as It’s in my he hissed in that indescribable voice of
eye, Dolan. Y’know I’m not lyin’. Any- his: "Let me alone, damn you! I’m here
body who has been in the last hour knows —
on my business the special agent of
that I know —look at my eyes, if you Death. You can’t hold me, that was at
”
don’t believe it.enough Ah! Well one time Kaye Ronn
y’know I’m right, Dolan. It’s the same Flash! as Walter Winchell had
says. I
for you as for all the rest. It was the
the whole astounding story in the twink-
same for me when I died. That was six ling of an eye. But in the next breath
months ago. For the first time I think The Gray One summoned all his strength.
they let somebody come back. Anyway, I
Ten men couldn’t have held him, and
did. To help you. It’s a certain cinch. was out there in the hall by then trying
Lean on
”
me, Dolan — it’s a short
I

to help the cops. All I got for my

road
trouble was a beautiful black eye. I want-
I’m not going to describe the shock ed to save our mysterious prisoner for
and the stupor this caused. The Daily Express and nothing else, for
had when he
That’s the effect this one an exclusive interview and photographs
worked. That’s why people were para- and quotations and signed statements.
lyzed by confusion and later harried out That was a hope entirely in Vain be-
of their wits. The way of it all was a cause The Gray One had other ideas. He
certain thing, and the thing crept in so fought like a beast, his mouth champing
slowly and softly that it was there and froth and his teeth making ribbons of his
established before one could hark to it. own lips.

As much as I was fully forewarned, I "The telephone! Where’s the tele-

was caught in the spell of amazement all phone?” I yelled, thinking only of Editor
too soon before I was ready. McKenna.
It was natural that no one paid any

slowly gathered myself out of that attention to me. For at that point The
I Yet before I stirred a foot, there
daze. Gray One broke loose and flew from the
was the slightest and the most harmless house. He flew, or so you would have
sound from some distance as far as the said if you’d seen him. Landed on the
front door of the house. But at that dis- sidewalk, anyway, without touching the
turbance The Gray One whipped about steps, and away across the street and
away from the bed, and poised on his through an empty field.

toes. I then saw that his face was white, The rain was coming down in vats,
sickly, and unchangeable of expression. kicking up mud that splashed the tops of
There was another sound beyond the fence palings and even automobile hoods.
room, perhaps a scraping in the hall. The You couldn’t see very well, but the police
Gray One leaped with a great spring away were after The Gray One in three jumps.
from the bed and was through the door. When I had crossed the street and
I gazed numbly where he had been and gone five yards farther, joining in the
saw that Dolan had peacefully died. chase, I was plastered with mud. Accord-
W. T.—
34 WEIRD TALES
ing to the weather records that was a know a thing like that would drive any-
cloudburst, and I could have told you as body crazy. And Ronn had a head start.

much while it fell. Did you ever choke He seems to figure he was dead as a door-
in rain until you could hardly breathe? nail before he woke up in that casket. He
Beyond the field was a graveyard and thinks he’s returned to life. So you see
on the far border of it was a hopping, why he’s tipping off other people who
traveling shape that might have been are dying— he figures it’s his business to

The Gray One or gray streaks of rain. guide them along, and lend ’em a hand.

Kaye Ronn! You get it all now? He’s elected himself

as assistant to the Angel of Death, with
The police started firing at that very
uncertain target.
errands to do at as many death-beds as he
can get to. He’s got away with five of
"Don’t hit him,” I shouted. "He
those errands, anyway.”
hasn’t done any harm. He’s committed
no crime.” This case was so colossal that it was a
It was unthinkable that The Daily Ex- weight upon the imagination, and I knew
press should miss the chance to interview it would be well to unload the whole
that strange figure while I was still so affair on McKenna as soon as possible.
near him. Was there a telephone in this no-man’s-

The name had been spoken only once, land away from Humboldt Street?
but once was enough.Kaye Ronn. Continued gun-fire. The captain of
"There’s no need to kill him,” I pro- police, who I thought had lowered his re-
tested to the police captain plunging volver aftermy explanation, had instead
through the field beside me. “You know dropped the muzzle so he could the better
how he got into the news six months ago. feed more bullets into the chambers. He
He was that fellow named Ronn who hadn’t heard a word I had said, or any-
made a living taking supplies up the thing else but the lashing of the rain. To
river, in a boat of his, to that lumber him Ronn was a dangerous maniac.
He

W
camp beyond Hill City. took passen-
gers across the river too, and he used to here the field ended and the
preach to them about death and damna- graveyard began I don’t know, and
tion. But the way he got into the news I learned the difference chiefly by barking
six months ago was by belonging to one my shins on tombstones. In those few
of those queer cult burial societies. They minutes of the cloudburst, wind and rain
didn’t believe in embalming. And when had washed most of the grave hummocks
Ronn ’died’ they just clapped him in a flat, so that where tombstones were blown

box and drove him to this graveyard here. down there was no longer anything to
But he wasn’t dead. He’d just had a fit identify one grave from another.
or something. And he wakes up and Snatches of voices. The storm drove
raps on the box and howls until they let words and parts of words against my ear.
him out.” "River . . . sticks . . . sticks.”
The captain of police lowered his gun Lightning as tangled as a spider’s web
at thatmoment and I shouted in his ear. flashed down and showed the fugitive
"You see now why this Kaye Ronn Kaye Ronn in a scene that could be com-
was acting like he was in the West End, pared to a nightmare. He was on the
and at Dolan’s. When he got out of that farther edge of the graveyard and had
casket he was practically cuckoo. You gained several yards on us. The "river”
 CHARON 35

ran by, known simply as the Creek, but had raised on the edge of the graveyard.
in that localitymore often called "Sticks Was The Gray One abandoning the
River” from the fact that waste wood dying to clutch at the dead themselves
from the lumber mill frequently drifted and take them with him?
on its current. That was what I had got McKenna
To telephone at the first
in those storm-driven voices, the police
chance was a determination of mine near-
directing one another by hollering "Sticks
ly buried under by a horror never felt by
River.”
any man but myself.
And on the swollen brim of the river
I was afraid of Kaye Ronn, and not
was Kaye Ronn drenched from head to
because he had waked up in a casket
feet like a symbolic figure in weedy gar-
before he died. was afraid of the
I
ments. Upon the brink he could be seen, "river” we were crossing, and not because
and not even the lightning could kill his it was a deep creek in a canyon of clay.
grayness. He stooped over a boat, his Afraid, and I say it today and I am not
own boat, tethered to the earth. And ashamed.
from among the grisly monuments and
Of course, the soaked and bedraggled
tombstones he lifted in his arms a limp,
thing in the waste of The Gray One’s
lifeless thing which he threw in the boat
boat may have been only a strip of tar-
before him.
paulin pelted away by the wind and re-
Then I knew that to know too much is
covered again on the graveyard’s edge.
sometimes perilous! For I shivered and
This was the Twentieth Century, after
my stomach remembered
revolted. I
all. Kaye Ronn was probably only Kaye
ancient legends Kaye Ronn
that fitted
Ronn, an eccentric riverman. And that
perfectly, everlasting tales brewed five
night of fury and supernatural storm
thousand years ago, and I was scared stiff.
might not have changed the river a bit
The police with bulldog efficiency had
from the common stream it had always
their minds on practical matters. By the
been.
same stake where Ronn had tethered his
boat they found other craft, rowboats
Wonder always runs, like a river, deep-
and sculls, riding on the flooded surface. er than common sense. For in my dis-
mayed brain I was thinking how, when
This must have been a favored landing
the world was young and Creation was
for boatmen who kept up a traffic between
just finished, and a lot of things were
the Humboldt Street end of town and
Hill City on the other bank.
known that have been forgotten since,
wise men said that everybody who died
"Sticks” River!
A disagreeable mixture of those ancient
was carried away to Hell by Charon.

tales ran through my head, but I was in Charon was the immortal boatman who
the first boat the police shoved off to crossed the waters between Earth and
overtake The Gray One. Hell, constantly, taking away the dying
And one more —only one more— sight with their last breath and removing them
of that peculiar character was given us to the hereafter. And the term for the
when lightning slanted again. Crooked hereafter in those times, whether a pleas-
into a design like fiery fingers, the light- ant hereafter or an evil hereafter, was
ning leaped and showed Ronn standing Hell.
tall and arrogant at the wheel of his ves- Oh, McKenna —waiting at the end of
sel — at his knees that huddled thing he a busy line for news!
 —

36 WEIRD TALES
And the ancient boatman’s name was sized, or disappeared with all his pos-
Charon —which name happened to be sessions. In the expanded river stood a
said the same as had been Kaye
.if it sign-post on which had once been printed
Ronn. And the waters between Earth and "HILL CITY”. The word "CITY” was
Hell, over which Charon ferried the dead, split off and gone. The other half of the
v/ere the waters of a river called the sign bearing the capitals "HILL”, ending
"Styx.” Styx, the river. "Sticks” River. in a splintered arm, pointing down into
Kaye Ronn. the water. White splashes of clay drib-
The burst of thunder that tailed the bled from the letter I, making it an E.
storm didn’t originate in my mind, but One word pointing toward the bottom of
there seemed to be a closely related con- the river.
nection. My chin came up as I shuddered, and
The rain stopped. Lightning rippled I gazed overhead.
almost playfully across the earth. "What you looking for,” yelled a
are
We had grounded on the farther bank. cop, "the soul of The Gray One?”
The fugitive was not to be seen and yet "No,” I lied. "I’m wondering where
it was plain that he had foundered, cap- those telephone wires go.”

ands of the Dead

By SEABURY QUINN
A gripping story of weird surgery and dual personality
—
a tale of fules de Grandin

“T F THERE were such a thing as a "Oh, I don’t think he’s interested in

platinum blond tom-cat, I’m sure it her face, pretty as it is,” Miss Travers
would look like Doctor de Gran- laughed. "He’s watching her hands.
din.” My dinner partner, a long-eyed, Everybody does.”
sleek-haired brunette in a black-cr£pe I looked along the candle-lighted table

gown cut to the base of her throat in with its ornate Georgian silver and lace-
front and slashed in a V
below the waist and-linen cloth until my eye came to rest
behind, gestured with her oddly oblique upon Virginia Bushrod. Latest of the
eyes across the table toward Jules de arrivals at the Merridews’ house party,
Grandin. "He’s a funny little fellow she was also probably the most interest-
rather a darling, though,” Miss Travers ing. You could not judge her casually. A
added. "Just see how he looks at Virginia pale, white skin, lightly tanned on beach
Bushrod; wouldn’t you think she was a and tennis court, amber eyes, shading to
particularly luscious specimen of sparrow, brown, hair waved and parted in dull-
”
and he gold ringlets, curled closely on the back-
"Why should he watch Miss Bushrod, curve of her small and shapely head. The
particularly?” I countered. "She’s very dead-white gown she wore set off her
”
lovely, but bright, blond beauty, and a pair of heavy
 ”

HANDS OF THE DEAD 37

gold bracelets, tight-clasped about her body, but something allied with, though
wrists, drew notice to her long and slen- not subservient to it.

der hands. "Her hands are rarely beautiful,” I

They were extraordinary hands. Not commented. "What an actress? A

——
is she,
large, not small, their shapeliness was dancer, perhaps
statuesque, their form as perfect as a "No,” saidMiss Travers, and her voice
and supple
sculptor’s dream, with straight sank to a confidential whisper, "but a
fingers and a marvelous grace of move- year ago we thought she’d be a hopeless
ment expressive as a spoken word. cripple all her life. Both hands were
Almost, it seemed to me as she raised the mangled in a motor accident.”
spun-glass Venetian goblet of Madeira, "But that’s impossible,” I scoffed,
her hands possessed an independent being watching Miss Bushrod’s graceful ges-
of their own; a consciousness of volition tures with renewed interest. "I’ve been
which made them not a mere part of her in medicine almost forty years; no hands
38 WEIRD TALES
which suffered even minor injuries could grass and winding flagstone paths; there
be as flexible as hers.” were rustic benches underneath the
"They did, just the same,” Miss Tra- ginkgo trees; a drinking-fountain fash-
vers answered stubbornly. "The doctors ioned like a lion’s head with water flush-
gave up hope, and said they’d have to ing in an arc between its gaping jaws
amputate them at the wrist; her father sent a musically mellow tinkle through

told me so. Virginia gave Phil Connor the still night air. I sighed regretfully as
back his ring and was ready to resign her- I followed the men into the billiard room.
” The mid-Victorian custom of enforced
self to a life of helplessness when
"Yes?” I smiled as she came to a halt.
separation of men and women for a
period after dinner had always seemed to
Lay versions of medical miracles are
always interesting to the doctor, and I
me a relic of the past we might well stuff

was anxious to learn how the "hopeless and donate to a museum.

cripple” had been restored to perfect "Anybody want to play?” Ralph Chap-
manual health. man took a cue down from the rack and
"Doctor Augensburg came over here, rubbed its felt-tipped end with chalk,
” “Spot you a dollar a shot, Phil; are you
and they went to him as a last resort
"I should think they would,” I inter- on?”
jected. Augensburg, half charlatan, a "Not I,” the youth addressed respond-
quarter quack, perhaps a quarter genius, ed with a grin. "You took me into camp
was a fair example of the army of medi- last time. Go get another victim.”
cal marvels which periodically invades Young Chapman set the balls out on
America. He was clever as a workman, the table, surveyed them critically a mo-
we all admitted that, and in some opera- ment, then, taking careful aim, made a
tions of glandular transplanting had three-cushion shot, and followed it with
achieved remarkable results, but when he another bunched the gleaming
which
came out with the statement that he had spheres together in one corner.
discovered how to make synthetic flesh De Grandin raised a slender, well-
for surgical repair work the medical so- manicured hand and patted back a yawn.
cieties demanded that he prove his claims "Mon Dieu,” he moaned to me, "it is
or stop the grand triumphal tour that he sad! Outside there is the beauty of the
was making of his clinics. He failed to night and of the ladies, and we, pardieu,
satisfy his critics and returned to Austria we and swelter here like a pack of
sit

several thousand dollars richer, but com- sacre fools while he knocks about the
pletely discredited in medical circles. relics of departed elephants. Me, I have
”
"Well, they went to him,” Miss Tra- enough. I go to join the ladies, if
vers answered shortly, "and you see what "May I try, Ralph?” Glowing in de-
”
he accomplished. He fiant gayety, lips wine-moist, eyes bright
Her argument was stilled as Jane Mer- and wandering, Virginia Bushrod poised
ridew, who acted as her brother’s hostess, upon the threshold of the wide French
gave the signal for the ladies to retire. window which let out on the terrace.
"I’ve never played,” she added, "but to-

C hinese lanterns, orange, red, pale

jade, blossomed in the darkness of
the garden. Farther off the vine-draped
night I feel
got a yen to knock the
if
an urge for

you know what I mean.”

billiards;
little balls
I’ve
around,

wall cast its shadow over close-clipped "Never too late to learn,” young Chap-
 HANDS OF THE DEAD 39

man grinned "I’m game; I’ll pay

at her. difficult shots with the sure precision be-
you five for every kiss you make.” tokening long mastery of the game.
"Kiss?” she echoed, puzzled. Fever-eyed, white-faced, oblivious to all

"Kiss is right, infant. A purely tech-

about her, she made shot follow shot
until a hundred marks had been run off,
nical term. See, here’s a kiss.” Deftly he
and it seemed to me that she was sating
brought the balls together in light con-
some fierce craving as she bent above the
tact, paused a moment, then with a quick
table, cue in hand.
flick of his cue repeated the maneuver
twice, thrice, four times. Phil Connor, her young fiance, was as

"O-oh, Her eyes were bright

I see.” puzzled as the rest, watching her inimita-
with something more than mere anticipa- ble skill first with wonder, then with
tion. It seemed to me they shone like something like stark fear. At last: "Vir-

those of a drunkard long deprived of ginia!” he cried, seizing her by the elbow

drink when liquor is at last accessible. and fairly dragging her away. "Virginia,
"See here, you take the stick like this,” honey, you’ve played enough.”
began young Chapman, but the girl "Oh?” An oddly puzzled look gath-
brushed past him, took a cue down from ered between her slim brows, and she
the rack and deftly rubbed the cube of shook her head from side to side, like a

chalk against its tip. waking sleeper who would clear his brain
She leant across the table, her smooth of dreams. "Did I do well?”
brow furrowed in a frown of concentra- "Very well. Very well, indeed, for one
tion, thrust the cue back and forth across who never played the game before,”
her fingers tentatively; then swiftly as a Ralph Chapman told her coldly.
striking snake the smooth wood darted "But, Ralph, I never did,” she
forward. Around the table went the cue answered. "Honestly, I never had a bil-

ball, taking the cushions at a perfect liard cue in my

hands before tonight!”
angle. Click — click, the ivory spheres "No?” his tone was icy. "If this is
”
kissed each other softly, then settled down your idea of being sporting
a little way apart, their polished surfaces "See here, Chapman,” young Connor’s
reflecting the bright lamplight. Irish blood was quick to take the implica-
"Bravo, Virginia!” cried Ralph Chap- tion up. "Ginnie’s telling you the truth.
man. "I couldn’t have made a better shot There isn’t a billiard table in her father’s
myself. Talk about beginner’s luck!” house or mine, there wasn’t any in her
The girl, apparently, was deaf. Eyes sorority house; she’s never had a chance
shining, lips compressed, she leant across to play. Don’t you think I’d know it if
the table, darted forth her cue and made she liked the game? I tell you it was luck;
an expert draw shot, gathering the balls sheer luck —”
together as though they had been mag- "At five dollars per lucky point?”
netized. Then followed a quick volley "Word of honor, Ralph,” Miss Bush-
”
shot, the cue ball circled round the table, rod told him, "I
spun sharply in reverse English and "You’ll find my honor good as yours,”
kissed the other balls with so light an im- he broke in frigidly. "I’ll hand you my
pact that the click was hardly audible. check for five hundred dollars in the
”
Again and again she shot, driving her morning, Miss
cue ball relentlessly home against the "Why, you dam’ rotten swine, I’ll

others, never missing, making the most break your neck!” Phil Connor leaped
40 WEIRD 1'ALES

across the room, eyes flashing, face him with a laugh. "You wanted a drink,
aflame; but: didn’t you?”

"Gentlemen, this has gone quite far "A drink, but not a bath, cordieu.
enough,” Colonel Merridew’s cold voice Come, species of an elephant, arise and
cut through the quarrel. "Chapman, follow me.”
apologize to Virginia. Connor, put your "Where?” I demanded.
hands down!” Then, as the apology was "To find a drink; where else?” he
grudgingly given answered with a grin. "There is a tray
"Shall we join the ladies, gentlemen?” with glasses on the sideboard of the din-
asked Colonel Merridew. ing-room.”
The big old house was silent as a tomb
“Tt was a rather shoddy trick that Bush- as we crept down the stairs, slipped silent-
A rod girl played on young Chapman, ly along the central hall and headed for
wasn’t it?” I asked de Grandin as we pre- the dining-room. De Grandin paused
pared for bed. "He’s a conceited pup, I abruptly, hand upraised, and, obedient to
and all
grant, vain of his skill at billiards, his signal, I, too, halted.
that; but for her to play the wide-eyed In the music room which opened from
innocent and let him offer her five dollars the hallway on the right, someone was
a point, when she’s really in the cham- playing the piano, very softly, with a
pionship class — well, it didn’t seem quite beautiful harpsichord touch. The lovely,
sporting.” haunting sadness of the Londonderry Air
The little Frenchman eyed the glowing came to us as we listened, the gently-
tip of his cigar in thoughtful silence for struck notes falling, one upon another,
a moment; then: "I am not quite per- like water dripping from a lichened rock
suaded,” he "Mademoiselle
replied. into a quiet woodland pool.
Bushrod —mon Dieu, what
a name!
”
ap- — "Exquisite!” I began, but the French-
peared as much surprized as any man’s hand raised to his lips cut short my
"But, man, did you notice her dexter- commendation as he motioned me to
ity?” I cut in petulantly. "That manual follow.
”
skill Virginia Bushrod sat before the in-
"Lrecisement," he nodded, "that man- strument, her long, slim fingers flitting
ual skill, my friend. Did it not seem to fitfully across the ivory keys, the wide
you her hands betrayed a how do you — gold bracelets on her wrists agleam.
say him? —
a knowledge which she herself Black-lace pajamas, less concealing than a
did not possess?” whorl of smoke, revealed the gracious
I shook my head in sheer exaspera- curves of her young body, with a subtle
tion. "You’re raving,” I assured him. glow, as wisps of banking storm-clouds
”
"How the deuce dim, but do not hide, the moon.
" Tiens the devil knows, perhaps, not As we paused beside the door the
I,” he broke in with a shrug. "Come, let sweet melody she played gave way to
us take a drink and go to bed.” something else, a lecherous, macabre
He raised the chromium carafe from theme in C sharp minor, seductive and
the bedside table, and: "Name of a compelling, but revolting as a painted
devil!” he exclaimed in disappointment. corpse already touched with putrefaction.
"The thing holds water!” Swaying gently to the rhythm of the
"Of course it does, idiot,” I assured music, she turned her face toward us, and
 HANDS OF THE DEAD 41

in the wavering candlelight I saw her food, poured himself a cup of coffee and
eyes were closed, long lashes sweeping set to work upon the viands. “Tell me,

against pale-gold cheeks, smooth, fine- good Friend Trowbridge,” he command-

veined eyelids gently lowered. ed as he returned from the sideboard with
I turned to Jules de Grandin with a a second generous helping of steamed

soundless question, and he nodded sole, "what did you note, if anything,

affirmation. "But yes, she sleeps, my when we caught Mademoiselle Bushrod

friend,” he whispered. "Do not waken at her midnight music?”
her.” I eyed him speculatively. When Jules

The music slowly sank to a thin echo, de Grandin asked me questions such as

and Miss Bushrod rose with lowered lids that they were not based on idle curiosity.

and gently parted lips, swayed uncertain- "You’re on the trail of something?” I

ly a moment, then passed us with a slow evaded.

and gliding step, her slim, bare feet He spread his hands before him, imi-
soundless as a draft of air upon the rug- tating someone groping in the dark. "I
strewn floor. Slowly she climbed the think am,” he answered slowly, "but I
I

stairs,one shapely hand upon the carven can not say of what. Come, tell me what

balustrade, the dim night-light which you noticed, if you please.”

burned up in the gallery picking little "Well,” I bent my brows in concentra-
points of brightness from her golden tion, "first of all, I’d say that she was

wristlets. sleep-walking; that she had no more idea

"Probably neurotic,” I murmured as I what she was doing than I have what she’s
watched her turn left and disappear doing now.”
around the pillar at the stairhead. "They He nodded acquiescence. "Precisely,”
”
say she underwent an operation on her he agreed. "And
”
hands last year, and "Then, I was struck by the fact that
De Grandin motioned me to silence as though she had apparently risen from bed,
he teased the needle-points of his mus- she had those thick, barbaric bracelets on
tache between his thumb and finger. her wrists.”
"Quite so,” he said at length. "Precise- "Hold, touche,” he cried delightedly,
ly, exactly. One wonders.” "you have put the finger on it. It was un-
“Wonders what?” I asked. usual, was it not?”
"How long we have to wait until we "I’d say so,” I agreed. "Then why, —
get that drink,” he answered with a grin. bless my soul!” I paused in something
"Come, let us get it quickly, or we need like dismay as sudden recollection came
not go to bed at all.” to me.
He watched me narrowly, eyebrows
reakfast was no formal
B ridew’s. A long buffet, ready-set
rite at

with food and gay with raffia-bound Ital-

Mer- raised.
"She turned the wrong way
head,” I exclaimed.
at the stair-
"The women’s rooms
ian glassware, Mexican pottery and are to the right of the stairs, the men’s to
bowls, daisies, chickory and Queen Anne’s the left. Don’t you remember, Colonel
”
lace, stood upon the terrace, while little Merridew said
tables, spread with bright-checked peasant "I remember perfectly,” he cut in. "I
linen, dotted the brick paving. also saw her turn that way, but preferred
”
De Grandin piled a platter high with to have corroboration
 —

42 WEIRD TALES

T he clatter of hoofs on the driveway

cut short his remarks,
later Virginia
and a moment
Bushrod joined us on the
you.
although
hear it.
Music

Your
I
is one of
play but poorly,
talent
my
”
passions,
I enjoy to
and

terrace. She looked younger and much "Then you’ve mistaken me for someone
smaller in her riding-clothes. White else,” the girl cut in, a quick flush mount-
breeches, obviously of London cut, were ing to her face. "I’m one of those unfor-
topped by a white-linen peasant blouse, ”
tunates who’s utterly tone-deaf; I
gay with wool embroidery, open at the
"That’s right,” Christine Travers, vir-
throat, but with sleeves which came down tuallynaked in a sun-back tennis blouse
to the gauntlets of her doeskin gloves.
and shorts, emerged through the French
For belt she wore a brilliant knit-silk
windows and dropped down beside Miss
Roman scarf, and another like it knotted Bushrod. "Ginnie’s tone-deaf as an
turbanwise around her head, its glowing oyster. Couldn’t carry a tune in a market
reds and greens and yellows bringing out
basket.”
the charming colors of her vivid, laugh-
"But, my dear young lady,” I began,
ing face. Black boots, reaching to the
when a vicious kick upon my shin cut my
knee, encased her high-arched, narrow
protest short.
feet and slender legs.
"Yes?” Miss Travers smiled her slow,
"Hello, sleepy-heads,” she greeted as
somewhat malicious smile. "Were you
she sat down at our table, " where’ ve you
going to tell Ginnie you’ve a remedy for
been allmorning? Making up for night
tone-deafness, Doctor? Something nice
calls and such things? I’ve been up for
and mild, like arsenic, or corrosive sub-
hours — and I’m famished.” limate? If you’ll just tell her how to take
"What ?” ”
be, Mademoiselle
will it de it, I’ll see
Grandin asked he leaped up nimbly to
as
"Doctar Trowbridge, Doctar de Gran-
serve her; "a little toast, perhaps— a bowl
nun, suh, come quick, fo’ de Lawd’s
of cereal?”
sake!” Noah Blackstone, Merri dew’s stout
"Not for me,” she denied, laughing. upon the terrace, his
colored butler, burst
"I want a man’s-sized breakfast. I’ve rid- usual serene aplomb torn to shreds by
den fifteen miles this morning.” sudden terror. "Come runnin’, gen’le-
As she peeled off her white-chamois mens, sumpin awful’s happened!”
gloves I caught the glint of golden brace- "Eh, what is it you say?” de Grandin
lets on her wrists. ”
asked. "Something awful
"We enjoyed your playing, Mademoi- "Yas, suh; sumpin dreadful.Mistu
selle,” the little Frenchman told her smil- Mistu Chapman’s done been kilt. Sum-
ingly as, obedient to her orders, he de- buddy’s murdered ’im. He’s daid!”
posited a "man’s-sized” plate of food
"Dead? Ralph Chapman?” Horror
before her. "The Londonderry Air is
mounted in Virginia Bushrod’s amber
beautiful, but that other composition
eyes as she seemed to look past us at some
which you played with such verve, such "Ralph Chapman
” scene of stark tragedy.
feeling, it was
— dead!”
- Unthinkingly, mechanically as
"Is this a joke?”Miss Bushrod looked another woman might have wrung her
at him through narrowed eyes. "If it is, handkerchief in similar circumstances, she
I can’t quite see the humor.” took the heavy silver fork with which she
"Mass non, it is no jest, I do assure had been eating and bent it in a spiral.
 HANDS OF THE DEAD 43

PRAWLED supinely across the bed, pro- plied. Then, irrelevantly: "They were
S truding eyes staring sightlessly at the strong hands that did this thing, my
ceiling, Ralph Chapman lay, mouth friend; the muscles of our necks are tough,
tongue thrust forward. It
slightly agape, our vertebrae are hard; yet this one’s neck
needed no second glance to confirm the is snapped as though it were a reed.”

butler’s diagnosis, and it required only a

second glance to confirm his suspicion of
"You —you’ve a suspicion?” I faltered.

"I think so,” he returned, sweeping

murder, for in those bulging eyes and the room with a quick, stock-taking
that protruding tongue, no less than in glance.
the area of bruise upon the throat, we "Ah, what is this?” He strode across
read the autograph of homicide. the rug, coming to pause before the bu-
"So!” de Grandin gazed upon the body reau. On the hanging mirror of the cabi-
speculatively, then crossed the room, took net, outlined plainly as an heraldic device
the dead boy’s face between his hands blazoned on a coat of arms, was a hand-
and raised the head. It was as if the head print, long slender fingers, the mounts of
and body joined by a cord rather than a the palm and the delicately sweeping
column of bone and muscle, for there was curve of the heel etched on the gleaming
no resistance to the little Frenchman’s surface, as though a hand, dank with per-
slender hands as the young man’s chin spiration, had been pressed upon it.
—
nodded upward. "Ah so-o-o!” de Gran- "Now,” his slim black brows rose in
din murmured. "He used unnecessary saracenic arches as he regarded me quizzi-
violence, this one; see, my friend” he — cally, "for why should a midnight visit-
turned the body half-way over and point- ant, especially if bent on murder, take
ed to a purpling bruise upon the rear of
the neck
—
"two hands were used. In
pains to leave an autograph upon the mir-
ror, good Friend Trowbridge?” he de-
front we have the murderer’s thumb and manded.
finger marks; behind is ecchymosis due to "B-but that’s a woman’s hand,” I stam-
counter-pressure. And so great a force mered. "Whoever broke Ralph Chap-
was used that not only was this poor one man’s neck was strong as a gorilla, you
”
strangled, but his neck was broken, as just said so. A woman
well.” "Tell me, my friend,” he interrupted,
He passed his fingers tentatively along fixing me with that level, disconcerting
the outline of young Chapman’s jaw; stare of his, "do you not wish to see that
then: "How long has he been dead, my justice triumphs?”
”
friend?” he asked. "Why, yes, of course, but
Following his example, I felt the dead "And is it your opinion — I ask you as
boy’s jaw, then his chest and lower throat. a man of medicine — that a man’s neck
"H’m,” I glanced at my watch, "my guess offers more resistance than, by example, a
is six or seven hours. There’s still some silver table-fork?”
stiffening of the jaw, but not much in the I stared at him dumfounded. Ralph
chest, and the forearms are definitely hard Chapman had publicly denounced Vir-
— yes. I’d say six hours at the least, eight ginia Bushrod as a cheat; we had seen her
at the most, judging by the advance of going toward his room about the time of
rigor mortis. That would place the time the murder; within five minutes we had
”
of death seen her give a demonstration of manual
"Somewhere near midnight,” he sup- strength scarcely to be equaled by a pro-
44 WEIRD TALES
fessional athlete. The evidence was "And how was the spinal fracture
damning, but caused?”
"You’re going to turn her over to the
police?” I asked.
"By manual pressure, sir
—
with the hands. The bruises on the dead
pressure

For answer he drew the green-silk man’s neck show the murderer grasped
handkerchief peeping from the pocket of him by the throat at first, probably to
his brown sports coat, wadded it into a any outcry, then placed one hand
stifle

mop and erased the handprint from the behind his head and with the other forced
mirror."Come, my friend,” he ordered, the chin violently upward, thereby simu-
"we must write out our report before the lating the quick pressure given the neck
coroner arrives.” in cases of judicial hanging.”

"It would have required a man of more

T he mortician to whom Coroner Lor-

don had entrusted Chapman’s body
obligingly lent his funeral chapel for the
than usual strength to commit this mur-
der in the manner you have described it?”
I drew a deep breath of relief. "Yes,
inquest. The jury, picked at random from sir, it would have had to be such a man,”
the villagers, occupied the space custom- I answered, emphasizing the final word,
arily assigned to the remains. The coro- unconsciously, perhaps.
ner himself sat in the clergyman’s en- "Thank you. Doctor,” said the coroner,
closure. Witnesses were made comfort- and called de Grandin to corroborate my
able in the family room, being called out testimony.
one by one to testify. Through the cur- As the inquisition lengthened it be-
tained doorway leading to the chapel — in- came apparent Coroner Lordon had a
geniously arranged to permit the mourn- theory of his own, which he was in-
ing family to see and hear the funeral geniously weaving into evidence. Rather
ceremonies without being seen by those subtly he brought out the fact that the
assembled in the auditorium —we saw the household had retired by eleven-thirty,
butler testify to finding the body and and not till then did he call for testimony
heard him say he summoned de Grandin of the quarrel which had flared up in the
and me immediately. billiard room. The painful scene was re-
"You give it as your medical opinion enacted in minute detail; six men were
that death had taken place some six or forced to swear they heard young Connor
seven hours earlier?” the coroner asked threaten to breakChapman’s neck.
me. "Mr. Connor,” asked the coroner, "you
"Yes, sir,” I replied. rowed stroke oar at Norwood, I believe?”
"And what, in your opinion, was the Phil Connor nodded, and in his eyes
cause of death?” was growing terror.
"Without the confirmation of an au- “Day before yesterday you won a
topsy I can only hazard an opinion,” I re- twenty-dollar bet with Colonel Merridew
turned, "but from superficial examination by tearing a telephone directory in quar-
I should say it was due to respiratory fail- ters, did you not?”
ure caused by a dislocation of the spinal A murmur ran along the jury as the
column and rupture of the cord. The dis- question stabbed young Connor like a
location, as nearly as I could judge from rapier-thrust.
feeling of the neck, took place between saw Virginia Bushrod blanch beneath
I

the second and third cervical vertebras.” her tan, saw her long, slim hand go out
 HANDS OF THE DEAD 45

to clutch her lover’s, but my interest in "Monsieur Chapman would have none
the by-play ceased as the final question of it. Perhaps he was one of those un-
hurtled like a crossbow bolt: fortunates who have no love for brandy;
"Mr. Connor, where were you between it might have been he did not choose to

the hours of twelve and two last night?” drink with Monsieur Connor. At any
rate, he went into his room and closed
The tortured youth’s face flushed, then
the door, while Monsieur Connor joined
went white as tallow as the frightened
blood drained back. The trap had me in the dining-room.
,”
sprung. He rose, grasping at the chair in " Messieurs he bent another quick
front of him till lines of white showed on smile at the jurymen, "have you ever seen
his hands as the flexor muscles stood out a man unused to liquor making the at-

pallidly against his sun-tanned skin. tempt to seem to like it? It is laughable,
"I — I must refuse to answer ” he is it not? So it was last night. This one”

began, and I could see his throat working — he laid a patronizing hand upon young
—
convulsively he fought for breath.
as Connor’s shoulder "he tipped his glass
” and poured the brandy down, then made
"What I was doing then is no affair
"Pardonnez-moi, Monsieur le Coro- a face as though it had been castor oil.
ner,” de Grandin rose and bowed re- Ah, but he had the gameness, as you say
spectfully, "I do not wonder that the so quaintly over here. When I essayed a
young man is embarrassed. He was with second drink he held his glass for more,
—
me, and believe me, I am grieved to and when I took a third, he still desired
mention it, and would not, if it were not to keep me company; but then he scarce
necessary —
he was drunk!” knew what he did. Three glasses of
"Drunk?” a slow flush stained the coro- ——
good cognac” he fairly smacked his lips
ner’s face as he saw his cherished case upon the word "are not for one who
evaporating. does not give his serious thought to drink-
"Drunk?” the little Frenchman echoed, ing. No, certainly.

casting a grin toward the responsive jury. "Before you could pronounce the name
"But yes, Monsieur. Drunk like a pig; so of that Monsieur Jacques Robinson our
drunk he could not mount the stairs un- young friend here was drunk. Mordieu,
aided.” it was superb! Not in more than twenty
Before he could be interrupted he pro- years have I been able to achieve such
ceeded: drunkenness, Messieurs. He staggered,
"Me, I am fond of liquor. I like it in his head hung low between his shoulders,
the morning, I delight in it at noon; at and rolled from side to side; he smiled
night I utterly adore it. Last night, when like a pussy-cat who has lately dined on
I had gone I felt the need of
to bed, cream; he toppled from his chair and lay
stimulant. and went downstairs,
I rose upon the floor!

and as I reached the bottom flight I turned "I raised him up. 'Come, Monsieur,’ I

and saw Messieurs Connor and Chapman told him, 'this is no way to do. You are
on the balcony above. They were in argu- naughty boy who creeps into
like a little,
ment, and seemed quite angry. 'Hold, his father’s cellar and gets drunk on
mes enjants,’ I called to them, 'cease your stolen wine. Be a man, Monsieur. Come
dispute and join me in a drink. It will to bed!’
dissolve your troubles as a cup of coffee "Ah, but he could not. He could not
melts a lump of sugar.’ walk, he could not talk, except to beg me
46 WEIRD TALES
that I would not tell his fiancee about his ticeand law are not always cousins ger-
indiscretion. And so I dragged him up man, my friend. Justly, neither of those
”
the stairs. Yes, I, who am not half his young folks was responsible for
size, must carry him upstairs, strip off his "Beg pardon, sor, there’s a lady an’
clothes, and leave him snoring in a drunk- gentleman askin’ fer Doctor de Grandin,”
”
en stupor. He interrupted Nora McGinnis from the
"Then you think he couldn’t ’a’ broke doorway. "A Misther Connor an’ Miss
th’ other feller’s neck?” a juryman de- Bushrod. Will I be showin’ ’em in, I

manded with a grin. dunno?”

De Grandin left his place, walked "By all means!” cried de Grandin,
across the chapel till he faced his ques- swallowing his brandy at a gulp. "Come,
tioner and leant above him, speaking in a Friend Trowbridge, the angels whom we
confidential whisper which he neverthe- spoke of have appeared!”
less managed to make audible throughout

"My friend,” he answered connor

the room.
solemnly, "he could not break the bow of P hil
darkling,
looked embarrassed; a
haunted fear was in Vir-
his cravat. I saw him try it several times; ginia Bushrod’s eyes as we joined them in
at last I had to do it for him.” the drawing-room.
The verdict of the jury was that Ralph The young man drew a deep, long
Chapman came to his death at the hands breath, like a swimmer about to dive into
of some person or persons to them un- icy water, then blurted: "You saved my
known. life, sir, when they had me on the spot

last month. Now we’ve come to you

D e
old
sniffer, rotated
grandin poured
Courvoisier
a thimbleful of
into
the glass a moment, then
his brandy
again for help.
ling us ever since Ralph
Something’s been troub-

and we believe that you’re the only one to

Chapman died,

held it to his nose, sighing ecstatically. clear it up.”

"You know, my friend,” he told me as he "But I am honored!” said de Grandin
sipped the cognac slowly, "I often won- with a bow. "What is the nature of your
der what became of them. It was a case worriment, my friends? Whatever I can
with possibilities, that one. I can not rid do you may be sure I’ll do if you will take
”
my mind of the suspicion me in your confidence.”
"Whatever are you vaporing about?” I Young Connor rose, a faint flush on
cut in testily. "What case, and what sus- his face, and shifted from one foot to the
”
picion other, like a schoolboy ill at ease before
"Why, that of Mademoiselle Bushrod his teacher. "It’s more a matter of your
and her fiance, the young Monsieur Con- taking us into your confidence, he sir,”
”
nor. I said at length. "What
really happened on
"You certainly lied Phil Connor out of the night RalphChapman’s neck was
the electric chair,” I told him with a broken? Of course, that story which you
smile. "If ever I saw a death-trap closing told was pure invention even though it—
in on anyone, it was the snare the coroner saved me from a trial for murder but —
had laid for him. Whatever made you do both Virginia and I have been haunted by
it, man? Didn’t you want to see justice the fear that something which we do not
”
triumph?” know about happened, and
"I did,” he answered calmly, "but jus- "How do you say, you fear that some-
 HANDS OF THE DEAD 47

thing which you do not know about •”

gers at me, making fun of me because I’d
he began, but Virginia Bushrod cut in been insulted by Ralph Chapman and
with a question didn’t dare resent it.

"Is there anything to the Freudian "I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard of

theory that dreams are really wish-fulfil- the Canadian poet Service, Doctor, but

ments, Doctor? I’ve tried to tell myself somewhere in one of his poems he tells
” of the effect of music on a crowd of min-
there is, for that way lies escape, but
ers gathered in a saloon:
"Yes, Mademoiselle?” de Grandin
"The thought came back of an ancient wrong,
prompted as she paused.
And it stung like a frozen lash,
"Well, in a misty, hazy sort of way I —
And the lust arose to kill to kill . . .

recollect I dreamt that Ralph was dead "That’s how that dream-tune seemed
that night —
and that oh, I might as well to me. The darkness round me seemed to
tell everything! I dreamt I killed him! change to dusky red, as though I looked
"It seemed to me I got up out of bed out through a film of blood, and a single
and walked a long, long way along a dark thought possessed me: 'Kill Ralph Chap-
and winding road. I came to a high man; kill Ralph Chapman! He called you
mountain, but oddly, I was on its sum- a low cheat before your friends tonight;
mit, without having climbed it. I de- kill him for it —
wring his neck!’
scended to the valley, and everything was "Then I was climbing up the mountain-
dark; then I sat down to rest, and far side again, clambering over rocks and
away I heard a strain of music. It was boulders, and always round me was that
soft, and sweet and restful, and I thought, angry, bloody glow, like the red reflection
'How good it is to be here listen- of a fire at At last
night against the sky.
’ ”
ing I weak and out of
reached the summit,
"Pardon, Mademoiselle, can you recall breath, and there before me, sleeping on
the tune you heard?’’ de Grandin asked, the rocks, was Ralph Chapman. I looked
his small mustache aquiver like the whis- at him, and as I looked the hot resent-
kers of an alert tom-cat, his little, round ment which I felt came flooding up until
blue eyes intent on her in an unwinking it nearly strangled me. I bent over him,
stare. took his throat between my hands and
"Why, yes, I think I can. I’m totally squeezed, pressed till his face grew bluish-
tone-deaf, you know, utterly unable to re- gray and his eyes and tongue were start-

produce a single note of music accurately, ing forward. Oh, he knew who it was,
but there are certain tunes I recognize. all right! Beforegave his neck the final
I

This was one of them, the Londonderry vicious twist and felt it break beneath my
Air.” fingers like a brittle stick that’s bent too
"Ah?” the little Frenchman flashed a far, Isaw the recognition in his eyes
warning look at me; then: "And what and the deadly fear in them.
else did you dream?” he asked. "I wasn’t sorry for the thing I’d done.
"The tune I listened to so gladly I was deliriously happy. I’d killed my
seemed to change. I couldn’t tell you enemy, avenged the slight he’d put on
what the new air was, but it was some- me, and was nearly wild with fierce, ex-
thing dreadful — was
terrible. It the like ultant joy. I wanted to call everybody

shrieking and laughing of thousand a and show them what I’d done; how those
fiends together —and they were laughing who called Virginia Bushrod thief and
at me! They seemed to point derisive fin- cheat were dealt with.”
 ” 3

48 WEIRD TALES

H er breath was coming fast, and in

her eyes there shone a bright and
gleaming light, as though the mere recital
est instincts,
me out of myself."
De Grandin tweaked
who—who’s trying to

the needle-points
push

of the dream brought her savage exalta- of his mustache, leant forward in his
tion. "The woman’s mad,” I told my- chair and faced her with a level, almost
self, "a homicidal maniac, if ever I saw hypnotic stare. "Explain yourself— in the
one.” smallest detail —
if you will be so good,”

"And then, Mademoiselle?" I heard de he ordered.

Grandin ask soothingly. "I’m afraid I can’t explain, sir, it’s

"Then I awoke. My hands and brow almost impossible; but — well, take the
and cheeks were bathed in perspiration, episode in the billiard room at Colonel
and I trembled with a sort of chilled re- Merridew’s the night that Ralph was
vulsion. 'Girl, you’ve certainly been on a killed. I gave him my word then, and I
wish-fulfilment spree in Shut-eye Town,’ give you my solemn pledge now that
I told myself as I got out of bed. never before in all my life had I held a

"It was early, not quite five o’clock, billiard cue in my hand. I don’t know
but I knew there was no chance of fur- what made me do it, but I happened to
ther sleep, so I took a cold shower, got be standing on the terrace near the win-
into my riding-clothes, and went for a dows of the billiard room, and when I

long gallop. I argued with myself while heard the balls click I felt a sudden over-
riding, and had almost convinced myself mastering urge, like the craving of a drug
that it was all a ghastly dream when I met fiend for his dope, to go inside and play.
you and Doctor Trowbridge having It was silly, I knew I couldn’t even hit a
breakfast. ball, much less make one ball hit another,
"When you mentioned hearing the me seemed to
but something deep inside
Londonderry Air the night before, I went force —
me on no, that’s not it, it was as
almost sick. The thought crashed through though my hands were urging me.” She
my brain: 'Music at midnight music at — wrinkled her brow in an effort to secure
—
midnight music luring me to murder!’ a precisely descriptive phrase; then:
"Then, when the butler ran out on the
terrace and told you Ralph was dead—
— ly
"It seemed as though
independent of me, were leading
my hands, entire-
— no,
"Precisely, Mademoiselle, one under- pulling me
toward that billiard table.
stands,” de Grandin supplied softly. Then, when I had picked up the cue I had
"I don’t believeyou do,” she contra- a sudden feeling, amounting almost to
dicted with a wan and rather frightened positive conviction: 'You’ve done this
smile. "For a long time almost ever — before; you know this game, no one
since my accident —
I’ve had an odd, op- knows it better.’ But I was in a sort of
pressive feeling every now and then that da2e as I shot the balls around; I didn’t
I was not myself.” realize how long I’d been playing, or
"Eh, that you were someone else?” he even whether I’d done well or not, till
asked her sharply. Ralph accused me of pretending ignorance
"Yes, that’s it, that I was someone of the game in order to win five hundred
”
different from myself dollars from him.
"Who, by example, Mademoiselle?" "That -isn’t all: been out of
I’d hardly
"Oh, I don’t know. Someone low and the hospital a month when one day I
vile and dreadful, someone with the bas- found myself in Rodeo berg’s department
W. T.—
 4 ,

HANDS OF THE DEAD 49

store in the act of shoving a piece of back to keep a date with Phil when my
Chantilly lace under the jumper of my car blew out a Bre. At least, I think that’s
dress. I can’t explain it. I didn’t realize what happened. I remember a sharp,
I was doing it — truly I didn’t! — till all crackling pop, like Bie discharge of a
of a sudden I seemed to wake up and small rifle, and next instant the roadster
catch myself in tire act of shoplifting. fairly somersaulted from the road.
I saw

'Virginia Bushrod, what are you doing?’ the earth up at me; then” she
rush —
I asked myself, then held the lace out to spread her shapely hands in a gesture of
the sales girl and told her would take it.
I finality— "there I was, pinned beneath
I didn’t really want it, had no earthly use the wreckage, with both hands crushed to
for it; but I knew instinctively that if I jelly.”

didn’t buy it I would steal it.” "Yet you recovered wholly, thanks to
Abruptly she demanded: "Do you ap- Doctor Augensburg, I understand?”
prove of brightly-colored nails?” "Yes, it wasn’t till every surgeon we
"Tenez, Mademoiselle, that depends had seen had said he’d have to amputate
upon the time and place and personality that Father called in Doctor Augensburg,
of tire wearer,” he responded with a smile. and he proved they all were wrong. I
"That’s it, the personality,” she an- was in the hospital two months, most of
swered. "Bright carmine nails may be the time completely or partly uncon-
all right becoming
for some; they’re not scious from drugs, but” —her delicate,
my had an urge, almost
Yet I’ve long-fingered hands spread once again
to type.
an irresistible desire, from time to time to with graceful
— "here
I am,
eloquence
have my nails dyed scarlet. Last week I and I’m not the helpless cripple they all
stopped in Madame Toussaint’s for a said I’d be.”
manicure and pedicure. When I got home "Not physically, at any rate,” de Gran-
I found the nails of both my hands and din murmured softly; then, aloud:
feet were varnished brilliant red. I never "Mademoiselle take off your brace-
use a deeper shade than rose, and was lets!” he commanded sharply.
horrified to find my nails all daubed that Had he hurled an insult in her face,
way; yet, somehow, there was a feeling of the girl could not have looked more
secret elation, too. I called the salon and shocked. Surprize, anger, sudden fear
asked for Heloise, who’d done my nails, showed in her countenance as she repeat-
and she said, 'I Brought it strange when ed: "Take off —
”

you insisted on Brat vivid shade of red, "Precisement,” the little Frenchman
Miss Bushrod. I didn’t like to put it on, answered almost harshly. "Take them off,
but you declared you wanted it.’ tout promptement. I have the intuition;
"Perhaps I did; but I don’t remember what you call the hunch.”
anything about it.” Slowly, reluctantly, as though she were
De Grandin eyed her thoughtfully a disrobing in the presence of a stranger,
moment; then: Miss Bushrod snapped the clasps of the
"You have spoken of an accident you wide bands of gold which spanned her
had, Mademoiselle. Tell me of it, if you slender wrists. A line of untanned skin,
please.” standing out in contrast to her sun-kissed
"It was a little more than a year ago,” arms, encircled each slim wrist, testifying
she answered. "I’d been over to the coun- fliat the bracelets had been worn on beach
try club by Morristown, and was hurrying and tennis court, as well as in her leisure
W. T.—
50 WEIRD TALES
moments, but whiter still, livid, eldritch usual —
anything at all, no matter how
as the mocking grin of broken teeth trivial,which occurred to Mademoiselle
within tire gaping mouth-hole of a skull, Bushrod a month —
two months before —
there ran around each wrist a ring of cica- the accident which crushed her hands?”
trice an inch or so above the styloid pro- The young man knit his brow in con-
cess’ protuberance. Running up and down centration. "No-o,” he replied at length.
a half an inch or so from the encircling "I can’t remember anything.”
band of white were vertical scar-lines, in- "No altercation, no unpleasantness
terweaving, overlapping, as though the which might have led to vengeful
flesh had once been cut apart, then sewn thoughts, perhaps?” the Frenchman
together in a dove-tailed jointure. prompted.
Involuntarily I shrank from looking on "Why, now you speak of it,” young
the girl’s deformity, but de Grandin scru- Connor answered with a grin, "I did have
tinized it closely. At length: a run-in with a chap at Coney Island.”
"Mademoiselle, please believe I do not "Ah? Describe it, if you please.”
act from idle curiosity,” he begged, "but "It really wasn’t anything. Ginnie and
I must use the fluoroscope in my examina- I had gone down to the Island for a spree.
tion. Will you come with me?” We think the summer’s not complete
He led her to the surgery, and a mo- without at least one day at Coney — shoot-
ment later we could hear the crackling of ing the chutes, riding the steeplechase and
the Crookes’ tube as he turned the X-ray roller coasters, then taking in the side
on. shows. This afternoon we’d just about
completed the rounds when we noticed a

M iss bushrod’s were re-

bracelets
placed when they returned some fif-
teen minutes later, and de Grandin wore
new side show with
terioso or Mefisto, or
sort, listed as
a Professor
something of the
the chief attraction.
Mys-

He
a strangely puzzled look. His lips were was a hypnotist.”
pursed, as though he were about to whis- "Ah?” de Grandin murmured softly,
”
tle, and his eyes were blazing with the "and
hard, cold light they showed when he "The professor was just beginning his
was on a man-hunt. act when we went in. He was extraor-
"Now, my friends,” he told the lovers dinarily good, too. Uncannily good, I
as he glanced at them in turn, "I have thought. All dressed in red tights, like
seen enough to make me think that what Mefistofeles, he was, and his partner
this lady says is no mere idle vagary. 'subject’ you call it, don’t you? —was a
These strange influences she feels, these girl dressed in a white gown with a blond
surprizing lapses from normal, they do wig, simulating Marguerite, you know.
not mean she suffers from a dual person- He did the darndest things with her —
ality, at least as the term is generally used. put her in a trance and made her lie

But unless I am more mistaken than I stretched between two chairs, with her
think, we are confronted by a situation so neck on one and heels on the other, with
bizarre that just to outline it would cast a no support beneath her body, while six
doubt upon our sanity. Alors, we must men stood on her; told her to rise, and she
build our case up from the ground. rose up three feet in the air, as though
"Tell me,” he shot the question at drawn by invisible wires; finally, he took
young Connor, "was there anything un- half a dozen long, sharp knitting-needles
 HANDS OF THE DEAD 51

and thrust them through her hands, her your injured hands. Mademoiselle?” he
forearms, even through her cheeks. Then asked.
he withdrew them and invited us to "At the out by Hack-
Ellis Sanitarium,
search her for signs of scars. It was mor- ensack,” she answered. was in Mercy "I
bid, I suppose, but we looked, and there Hospital at first, but the staff and Doctor
wasn’t the faintest trace of wounds where Augensburg had some misunderstanding,
he had pierced her with the needles, nor so he took me out to Ellis Clinic for the
any sign of blood. operation.”
"Then he come
called for volunteers to The little Frenchman smiled benignly
up and be hypnotized, and when no one on the visitors. "I can understand your
answered, he came down among the self-concern, Mademoiselle,” he told Miss
audience. 'You, Madame?’ he asked Bushrod. "This feeling of otherhood, this
Ginnie, stopping in front of her and impression that a trespasser-in-possession
grinning in her face. is inside of you, displacing your person-
"When she refused he persisted; told ality, making you do things you do not
her that it wouldn’t hurt, and all that sort wish to do, is disconcerting, but it is not
of thing; finally began glaring into her cause for great alarm. You were greatly
eyesand making passes before her. hurt,you underwent a trying operation.
"That was a little bit too much. I let Those things shock the nervous system. I
him have it.” have seen other instances of it. In the
"Bravo!” de Grandin murmured soft- war I saw men make what seemed com-
ly. "And then?” plete recovery, only to give way to strange
"I expected he’d come back at me, for irregularities months afterward. Eventu-
he picked himself up and came across the ally they regained normality; so should
floor with his shoulders hunched in a sort you, within, let us say”he paused as —
of boxer’s crouch, but when he almost though to make a mental calculation —
reached me he stopped short, raised his "within a month or so.”
hands above his head and muttered some- "You really think so, Doctor?” she
thing indistinctly. He wasn’t swearing, asked, pathos looking from her amber
at least not in English, but I felt that he eyes.
was calling down a curse on us. I got "But yes, I am all confident of it.”

Virginia out before we had more trouble

with him.” “^T ame of a most unpleasant small
"And that was all?” de Grandin asked. blue devil!” he swore as our visi-

“That was all.” tors’ footstep* faded on the cement walk

"Parbleu, my friend, I think it is outside. "I must make good my promise
enough to be significant.” Then, abrupt- to her, but how —death of a dyspeptic
ly: "This feminine assistant. Did you hippopotamus !
—how ?”

notice her?” "What?” I demanded.

"Not particularly. She had a pretty, "You know how dreams relict the out-
rather common sort of face, and long, side world in symbolic images. By ex-
slim, graceful hands with very brightly ample, you have kicked the covers off the
painted aails.” bed, you are cold. But you are still asleep.
De Grandin pinched his pointed chin How does the dream convert the true
between a thoughtful thumb and finger. facts into images? By making you to
"Where did Doctor Augensburg repair think that you are in the Arctic and a
52 SVEIRD TALES

polar storm is raging, or, perhaps, that friend! I have been busy as a flea upon a
you have fallen in the and are river, dog, but what I have accomplished! Par-

chilled by the cold water. was with So it bleu, he is a clever fellow, this de Gran-
Mademoiselle Bushrod. She dreams she din!
stands upon a mountain top, that is when "I took down copious mental notes
she leaves her chamber. She dreams that while Mademoiselle Bushrod talked last
she descends the mountain; that is when night, and so morning I set out for
this
she walks downstairs. She hears a tune, Coney Island, Grand Dieu des rats, what
of course she does, her hands, those hands a place!
which can not play a single note when she "From one small show-place to another
is waking, produce it. She dreams she
progressed, and in between times I en-
reascends the mountain climbs the — I

gaged in conversation with the hangers-

stairs. Ha, then she sees before her her
on. At last I found a prize, a jewel, a
traducer, sleeping, helpless. She reaches
paragon. He rejoices in the name of
forth her hands, and Snead — Snead,
Bill to give him his full
'What then, myAre we to
friend? title —and when he is not occupied with
trust the symbolism of the dream still drinking he proclaims the virtues of a
farther?” small display of freaks. Eh bten, by the
"But,” I began, and expenditure of a small amount of money
"
'But’ be damned and stewed in hell for food, and something more for drink,
eternally!”he cut in. ” Altendez-moi: I learned from him enough to put me on
Those hands, those lovely, graceful hands the trail I sought.
of hers, are not her own!” "Professor Mysterioso de Diablo was a
"Eh?” I shot back. "Not good Lord, — hypnotist of no mean parts, I learned. He
man, you’re raving! What d’ye mean?” had ‘played big time’ for years, but by a
"Precisely what I say,” he answered in most unfortunate combination of events
a level, toneless voice. "Those hands he was sent to prison in the State of Mich-
were grafted on her wrists, as the rose is igan. The lady’s husband secured a
grafted on the dogwood tree. Her radii divorce, Monsieur le Professeur a rigidly
and have been sawn across trans-
unlae enforced vacation from the stage.
versely; then other bones, processing with "After that his popularity declined un-
the wrist- joints of a pair of hands, were til finally he was forced to show his art
firmly fastened on by silver plates and at Coney Island side shows. He was a
rivets, the flexor muscles spliced with sil- most unpleasant person, I was told, prin-
ver wire, the arteries and veins and nerves cipally noted for the way he let his fan-
attached with an uncanny skill. It is cies for the fair sex wander. This caused

bizarre, incredible, impossible; but it is so. his partner much annoyance, and she
I saw it with my own two eyes when I often reproached him bitterly and pub-
examined her beneath the fluoroscope.” licly.

"Now, attend me carefully. It is of

H e left the house

breakfast the next morning,
not reappear till
directly

dinner had been waiting

after
and did
would speak particularly.
this partner I
Her name was Agnes Fagan. She was
born to the theatrical profession, for her
half an hour. father, Michael Fagan, had been a
"Sacre nom,” he greeted me across his thrower-out of undesired patrons in a
cocktail glass, "what a day I had, my burlescjue theater when he was not ap-
 HANDS OF THE DEAD 53

pearing as a strong man on the stage or "Now listen carefully, my friend:

lying deplorably drunk in bed. The About a year ago she had a quarrel with
daughter was 'educated something ele- her partner, the professor. I recite the

gant’, my She was

informant told me. facts as Monsieur Snead related them to

especially adept at the piano, and for a me. It seems that the professor let his er-

time entertained ambitions to perform in rant fancies wander, and was wont to in-
concert work. However, she inherited one vite ladies from the audience to join him
talent, if no other, from her estimable in his acts. Usually he succeeded, for he

parent: she was astonishingly strong. had a way with women, Monsieur Snead
Monsieur Snead had often seen her amuse assured me. But eventually he met re-
her intimates by bending tableware in buff. He also met the fist of the young

knots, to the great annoyance of the lady’s escort. He was, to use your quaint
restaurant proprietor where she happened American expression, 'knocked for a row
to perform. She could, he told me sol- of ash-cans’ by the gentleman.
emnly, take a heavy table fork and twist "La Fagan chided him in no uncertain
it in a corkscrew. terms. They had a fearful fight in which
"Eh bien, the lure of the footlights was she would have been the victor, had he
stronger than her love of music, it ap- not resorted to hypnotism for defense.
pears, for we next behold her as the 'She wuz about to tear him into little bits,
strong woman an acrobatic troupe.
in when he put ’is hand up and said,
Perhaps it was another heritage from her "Rigid”,’ Monsieur Snead related. 'An’
many-sided sire, perhaps it was her own there she was, stiff as a frozen statoo, wid
idea; at any rate, one day while playing in ’er hand up in th’ air, an’ her fist all

the city of Detroit, she appropriated cer- doubled up, not able to so much as bat
tain merchandise without the formality of a eye. She stood that way about a hour,
paying for it. Two police officers were I expect; then suddenly she fell down flat,

seriously injured in the subsequent pro- and slept like nobody’s business. I reckon
ceedings, but eventually she went to th’ professor gave her th’ sleepin’ order
prison, was released at the same time that from wherever he had beat it to. He had
the professor received liberty, and became got so used to orderin’ her about that he
his partner, the subject of his hypnotism could control her at a distance ’most as
during his performances, and, according well as when he looked into her eyes.’
to the evil-minded Monsieur Snead, his “Thereafter he was often absent from
mistress, as well. the show where he performed. Eventual-
"She possessed four major vanities: ly he quit it altogether, and within a
her musical ability, her skill at billiards, month his strong and pretty-handed part-
her strong, white, even teeth and the ner vanished. Like pouf! she was sudden-
really unusual beauty of her hands. She ly nowhere at all.
was wont to show her strength on all oc-
casions. Her dental vanity led her to “"O y the time the estimable Monsieur
suffer the discomfort of having a sound A-J Snead had finished telling me these
tooth drilled, gold-filled and set with a things he could impart no further in-
small diamond. She spent hours in the formation. He was, as I have heard it de-
care of her extremities,and often bought scribed, 'stewed like a dish of prunes’, for
a manicure when
it was a choice of pam- all the while he talked I kept his tongue
pering her vanity or going without food. well oiled with whisky. Accordingly I
54 WEIRD TALES
bid him farewell and pushed my research "This strange young woman with the
elsewhere. I searched the files of the pretty hands drops down upon the road-
journals diligently, endeavoring to find way almost coincidentally with Mademoi-
some clue vanishment of Mademoi-
to the selle Virginia’s advent at the clinic. Do
selle I think I found it!
Fagan. Cordieu, you not begin to sniff the odor of the
Read you will be so good.”
this, if rodent?”
Adjusting my pince-nez I scanned the "I don’t think so,” I replied.
dipping tvhich he handed me: "Very well, then, listen: The mysteri-
GIRL FALLS UNCONSCIOUS WITH ous young woman was undoubtlessly the
STRANGE MALADY Fagan girl, whose disappearance oc-
Collapses on Roadway Near Hackensack—
Absence of Disease Symptoms
curred about this time.What was the so
Puzzles Doctors mysterious malady which struck her
—
Hackensack, N. J., Sept. 17 Police and doctors down, which had no symptoms, other
today are endeavoring to solve the mystery of the
identity and an attractive young woman
illness of than unconsciousness? It was merely that
who collapsed on the roadway near here shortly she had been once again put under the
after noon today, and has lain unconscious rn the
Ellis Clinic ever since.
hypnotic influence, my friend. You will
She is described as about 30 years old, five feet recall that the professor could control her
two inches tall, and with fair complexion and red
hair. Her hands and feet showed evidences of un-
almost as well when at a distance as when
usual care, and both finger- and toe-nails were dyed he stared into her eyes? Certainly. As-
a brilliant scarlet. In her upper left eye-tooth was
suredly, She had become so used to his
a small diamond set in a gold inlay.
She wore a ring with an oval setting of green hypnosis that his slightest word or wish
stone, gold earrings in her pierced ears, and an
was law to her; she was his slave, his
imitation pearl necklace. Her costume consisted of
a blue and white polka-dot dress, white fabric tiling, his chattel, to do with as he
gloves, a black sailor hat with a small feather, and
pleased. Unquestionably he commanded
black patent leather pumps. She wore no stockings.
Alec Carter and James Heilmann, proprietors her to walk along that road that day, to
of an antique shop facing on the road, saw the
fall unconscious near the Ellis Clinic; to
young woman walking slowly toward Hackensack,
staggering slightly from side to side. She fell in lie unconscious afterward, eventually to
the roadway across from their store, and when
die. Impossible? Mais non. If one can
they reached her she was unconscious. Failing to
revive her by ordinary first aid methods, they tell the human heart to beatmore slowly,
placed her in an automobile and took her to the and make do so, under power of hypno-
it
Ellis Clinic, which was the nearest point where
medical aid could be secured. sis, why may one not command it to cease
Physicians at the clinic declared they could find beating altogether, still under hypnotic
no cause for her prolonged unconsciousness, as she
was evidently neither intoxicated nor under the influence? So far as the young Fagan per-
influence of drugs, and exhibited no symptoms of son was concerned, she had no thought,
any known disease.
Nothing found upon her offered any due to her no will, no power, either mentally or
identity. physically, which the professor could not
"Well?” I demanded as I put the clip- take from her by a single word of com-
ping down. mand. No, certainly.
"I do not think it was,” he answered. "We were told Mademoiselle Bush-
"By no means; not at all. Consider, if rod’s accident came from a tire blow-out,
you please: n'est-ce-pas? I do not think it did. I in-

"Mademoiselle Bushrod’s accident had —

quired most discreetly, I assure you at —
occurred two weeks before, she had been and near the Ellis Clinic, and discovered
given up by local surgeons; Augensburg, that Monsieur the hypnotist visited that
v, no was at the Ellis Clinic at the time, institution the very day that she was hurt,
had just accepted her case. had a long conference with Doctor Au-
 HANDS OF THE DEAD 55

gensburg in strictest privacy and when — over, fifteen minutes after her death, her
he came he bore a small, high-powered hands were, histologically speaking, still

rifle. He said he had been snake-hunting. alive. What easier than to make the
Me, I think the serpent which he shot transplantation of her sound, live hands,
was the tire of Mademoiselle Bushrod’s to Mademoiselle Bushrod’s wrists, then
car. That was the blow-out which caused chop and maim her body in the autopsy
her car to leave the road and crush her room in such a way that none would be
hands, my friend! the wiser?
"Now, again: This Professor of the "And what of these transplanted
Devil, as he called himself appropriately, hands? They were part and parcel of a
visited Doctor Augensburg at several hypnotic subject, were they not, accus-
times. He in the room where jthe
was tomed to obey commands of the hypnotist
unknown woman lay on more than one immediately, even to have steel knitting-
occasion. He
was at the clinic on the day needles run through them, yet feel no
when Augensburg operated on Mademoi- pain? Yes, certainly.
selle Bushrod’s hands —
and on that day, "Very well. Are it not entirely pos-
not fifteen minutes before the operation sible that these hands which the profes-
was performed, the unknown woman sor have commanded so many times when
died. She had been sinking slowly for they were attached to one body, will con-
some days; her death occurred while or- tinue to obey his whim when they are
derlies w'ere wheeling our poor Mademoi- rooted to another? I think so.
selle Virginia to the operating-room. "In his fine story, your magnificent
"You will recall she was unknown; Monsieur Poe tells of a man who really
that she was given shelter in an institu- died, yet was kept alive through hypno-
tion which maintains no beds for charity sis. These hands of Mademoiselle Fagan
or emergency patients? But did you know never really died, they were still tech-
that Augensburg paid her bill, and de- nically alive when they were taken off
manded in return that he be given her un- who knows what orders this professor
claimed body for anatomical research, that gave his dupe before he ordered her to
he might seek the cause of her ’strange’ die? Those hands had been a major van-
death? No, you did not know it, nor did ity of hers, they were skilled hands, strong

I; but now I do, and I damn think that in hands, beautiful hands helas, dishonest
that information lies the answer to our hands, as well —
but they formed a large
puzzle. part of their owner’s personality. Might
do not have to tell you that the
"I he not have ordered that they carry on
period between somatic death the mere — that personality after transplantation to
ceasing to live— and molecular, or true the end that they might eventually lead
death, when the tissue-cells begin to die, the poor Mademoiselle Bushrod to entire
is often as long as three or four hours. ruin? I think so. Yes.
During this period the individual body- "Consider the evidence: Mademoiselle
cells remain alive, the muscles react to Bushrod is tone-deaf, yet we heard her
electrical stimuli, even the pupils of the play exquisitely. She had no and no
skill
eye can be expanded with atropin. She experience in billiards, yet we saw her
had suffered no disease-infection, this shoot a brilliant game. For why should
unknown one, her body was healthy, but she, whose very nature is so foreign to the
run down, like an unwound clock. More- act, steal merchandise from a shopkeeper?
56 WEIRD TALES
Yet she tells us that she caught herself in placed the long, deadly, stiletto-like nee-
such a crime. Whence comes this odd dle in his instrument case. "Do not wait
desire on her part to have her nails so up for me, my friend, I may be very late.”
brightly painted, a thing which she ab-
hors? Last of all, how comes it that she,
who is in nowise noted for her strength,
can twist a silver table fork into a cork-
H
my mind
orrified suspicion, growing rapidly
to dreadful certainty,
as I
mounted
scanned the evening paper
in

screw? while de Grandin and I sipped our coffee

"You see,” he finished, "the case is and liqueurs in the study three nights

perfect. I know it can not possibly be so; later."Read this,” I ordered, pointing to

yet so it is. We can not face down facts, an obscure item on the second page:
my friend.” St. George, S. I., September 30 —
The body of
George Lothrop, known professionally on the
"It’s preposterous,” I replied, but my stage as Prof. Mysterioso, hypnotist, missing from
his rooming-house at Bull’s Head, S. I., since Tues-
denial lacked conviction.
day night, was found floating in New
York bay
He read capitulation in my tone, and near the St. George ferry slip by harbor police
this afternoon.
smiled with satisfaction. Representatives of the Medical Examiners' office
wt break this said he was not drowned, as a stab wound, prob-
"But can’t spell?” I
ably from a stiletto, had pierced his left breast
asked. "Surely, we can make this Pro- and reached his heart.
” Employees at the side show at Coney Island,
fessor What’s-his-Name
where Lothrop formerly gave exhibitions as a
"Not by any legal process,” he cut in. hypnotist, said he was of a sullen and quarrelsome
disposition and given to annoying women. From
"No court on earth would listen to our
the nature of the wound which caused his death
story, no jury give it even momentary police believe the husband or admirer of some

credence. Yet”
— —
he smiled a trifle grimly woman he accosted resented his attentions and
stabbed him, afterward throwing his body into
"there is a way, my friend.” the bay.

"What?” I asked. De Grandin read the item through with

"Have you by any chance a trocar in elevated brows. "A fortunate occurrence,
your instruments?” he asked irrelevantly. is it he asked. "Mademoiselle
not?”
"A trocar? You mean one of those Bushrod is now freed from any spell he
long, sharp-pointed hollow needles used —
might have cast on her or on her hands.
in paracentesis operations?” Hypnotic suggestion can not last, once the
"Precisement. Tu paries, mon vieux.” hypnotist is dead.”
"Why, yes, I think there’s one some- "But—but you — that trocar ” I
where.” began.
"And may one borrow it tonight?” "I returned your instrument case
it to
—
"Of course, but where are you going last Tuesday night,” he answered. "Will
at this hour?” you be good enough to pour me out a
“To Staten Island,” he replied as he brandy? Ah, thank you, my friend.”
little
 By BASSETT MORGAN
A story of brain transplantation, huge apes that spoke with the voices of menT
and a swirling, dancing, black leopard-cat in the Maharajah’ s court

F THERE existed under the hard sur- failed to touch it. He tried every human

I face of Captain Daunt’ s not unhand-

some visage an assailable weakness,
means of persuasion.
"Give up the idea,” said Captain
or if he possessed an Achilles heel, young Daunt.
Mobray, late of the Royal Navy, had "No. I’m finding my brother or his
57
58 WEIRD TALES
remains. hoped you would help me,
I "Genus 'Man-trap’,” said Captain
but I’ve one more ace in the hole Ti — Daunt. "They roam this island you’re in-
Fong.” terested in, though these were hand-
"He’s a very fine man to dodge,” said raised from cubs. Listen, my lad, would a
Captain Daunt, "as your brother could trip with me delivering these keep you
tell you, maybe, if he could speak to you.” from tangling with worse, which is one
"I’m not afraid. His fast yacht has description of Ti Fong? Not that it mat-
been seen in the vicinity of the Red God ters to me what happens to you, only I

Island, and I’ve shown you the message hate letting him add you to his collection
picked up in a floating bottle and assured of odd achievements. We are foes, as
you I’ve checked the drift and the bottle you might put it politely.”
could easily have come from that cursed "I’d like the trip with the cats, Captain
island. I believe my brother is there. Daunt.” And the skipper was aware
Daunt, don’t you understand it’s more to Mobray thought it might provide a chance
us than settling the estate, which can’t be to obtain further information in case ac-
done until his death is proved or legally quaintance proved amicable.
admitted? His wife and my mother are The big chromium-plated car of the
taking it hard. Nick’s son, born since he Maharajah waiting for him on the wharf
disappeared.” with a uniformed chauffeur under the
"I know all that and I’m sorry, but wheel was searing the eyes of all behold-
there is nothing I can do about it,” said ers in the hot Singapore sunlight. Cap-
Captain Daunt. tain Daunt exchanged his cap for a
"You call at the Island of the Red God. panama, whistled to the leopards, who
You could get permission from Jornado stretched, yawned again and undulatingly
to let me land and search.” Captain slid within reach of leather collars he
Daunt was shaking his head when Mo- snapped around their necks, holding the
bray burst out, "Then I’m off to Sumatra chains in his hand.
to see Ti Fong.” Mobray stepped lively going to the
"Make your will,” said Captain Daunt. deck. Daunt sauntered along, talking to
"Your brother tangled with that devil.” the cats, which showed uneasiness at the

"Afraid of the Chink, Captain?” crowded wharf and glittering automobile.

"Enough to let you get away with that It took soothing to keep them beside
remark because I feel sorry for your moth- him while the car hummed
through traffic
er, and your wife or sweetheart. Go and shot into the empty road down the
along. I’ve warned you, and I’m busy peninsula. Mobray was ahead with the
taking two black panthers to His Highness chauffeur.
the Maharajah of Awroot, up-country.
Nice cats.”
joining cabin,
er shadows
He

in the
opened a door of an ad-
and Mobray saw two thick-
room corner, with blink-
T
short
he car rolled into a walled court, and
was received with some pomp. A
time later Mobray and Captain
ing emeralds for eyes. One yawned, his Daunt were entertained by the resplendent
pink throat and red muzzle set with potentate in his best British manner, and
fanged ivory. the leopards lapped milk .from a golden
"Beauties!” Mobray backed toward basin and stretched supine. Before he
the door, however. "That mouth looked left, Daunt put them through a few tricks,

like an orchid of rare color. Captain.” most pleasing of which was a feline waltz
 BLACK BAGHEELA 59

on their hind paws and leaping high to ping a cigarette lighter, he entered. Be-
capture a flower Daunt tossed in the air. hind him the door was banked shut and
The prince was delighted and presented a lock grated. He was a prisoner. Be-
Captain Daunt with a black pearl in ad- side the lode, an iron bar clanged, though
dition to the high price paid for the leop- he could have sworn there was none on
ards, and after due courtesies the visitors the door when he entered that noonday.
were escorted to the car and whirled The throb of engines jarred the vessel.
away. There were shouts and running feet over-
"So that’s part of the treasures of the head, and the navy man knew they were
Red God Island,” said Mobray, "trained being towed stern-first into the stream,
leopards. Why can’t you trust me bound God alone knew where. He took
enough?” it philosophically. He wanted a trip to
"My lad, I rather like you. It isn’t that. Daunt’s source of valuable cargo, and the
I’ve orders ” He interrupted himself Asiatic trickery of unknowns had granted
to speak to the driver. "Put me down at his wish by an odd twist of adventure.

Ira Singh’s, the gold-beater. ... If you Captain Daunt would be surprized to see
want to see pretty jewelry, Mobray, come him, probably, if he didn’t drop him at

along. I’ll have this pearl set for use.” the nearest opportunity.
In the bazar, Mobray watched Captain But Mobray was not destined to see
Daunt select a pendant setting on a chain Captain Daunt, for that cruise. He sight-
of fine gold for his pearl, an ornament ed landmarks through his porthole, the
woman, which was boxed for him.
for a spire of St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Tanjong
The native said something Mobray did Ru and Tanjong Kantong, the Straits

not understand. Islands dark against a moonlighted sea,

"Wait outside and we’ll go somewhere praos flitting like black moths through
for dinner,” said Daunt. "I’ll pay for webbed waves and silver; and he slept

this trinket. He says I am foolish to be soundly.

walking with you, Mobray, which means
whoever got your brother is watching you.
Ira Singh is a friend of mine.”
Mobray walked down the block gazing
N
nese
ext morning his door was unlocked
and opened by. a tall, urbane Chi-
speaking excellent English, who
at bazars lighted in the early darkness, listened to Mobray’s protest.

looking like pirate caves of colorful loot. "You came on board uninvited, Mr.
He walked back, up and down, and finally Mobray. Captain Daunt is not on the
entered Ira Singh’s bazar. Daunt-sahib vessel. He is the guest of the Lord Ti
was gone, said an obsequious clerk, but Fong.”
hard on his words came a native police of- Mobray controlled a grin of satisfac-
ficer barging into the place. The clerk tion at the joke on Daunt, who warned
yelped and took to his legs, a crowd after him about the mysterious Ti Fong.
him. The singular occurrence alarmed "Noneed of keeping me a prisoner,”
Mobray. He hailed a ricksha and was he said. "I’m a navy man, quite willing
driven to the wharf and Daimt’s vessel. for a voyage and rather anxious to meet
The gang-plank was drawn in, but Mo- this Ti Fong. I obtained leave of ab-

bray leaped the intervening lane of water sence to search for my brother out here.”
and climbed over the rail. He ran down The Chinese nodded.
to Daunt’s cabin, which was dark. Snap- "And a bottle was found containing a
60 WEIRD TALES
message from him from the Island of the Rocks protect the island and the sea leaps
Red God, where we hope to land, Lieu- like wolves on three sides, unfathomably
tenant Mobray.” deep. Guns guard the lagoon anchorage.

"You know the whole story, evidently, But this vessel with a white man on the
and you’re going there! Good. I’m in bridge may run in, so we are glad to have

luck. Anything I can do?” you take command and use your oppor-
"In the absence of Captain Daunt, per- tunity to search the island for your
haps you would be willing to fill his posi- brother. And breakfast is waiting us.”
tion on the vessel.” Mentally limp, Mobray followed to a
"Look here, you’ve taken this craft good meal, hearing the interesting conver-
over. Piracy. You can’t expect me to sation of Doctor Loo Yee on everything
head your villainy, you know. I’ve been except the things vital to himself, while
abducted.” he cogitated his predicament. Trapped.
"Could you prove that statement in a Nick alive on the island where only this
court of inquiry?” asked the bland Asiatic, boat could anchor. Guilty of piracy if he
and Mobray considered before answering. accepted Loo Yee’s terms. . . . Well, to
Into a space of silence came the suave hell with quibbling. He’d sail in and find
voice of the Chinese. "You are search- Nick.
ing for Sir Nicolas Mobray who came out "I’m with you,” he announced, inter-

here to obtain a pair of Celestial Singers rupting politics from Loo Yee, "though
to adorn his fine English estate. The Daunt will accuse me of piracy and his
fame of those birds has stirred ornitholo- word is as good as mine. I can’t expect
gists to their lees. A pair of them among my abductor to speak in my defense
the white and purple peacocks of Athel- either, I suppose.”
stane would make Sir Nicolas the proud- "You are erecting future bridges to
est peer in Britain.” cross. Wait for those until you have seen
"You know my brother is alive,” shot the Celestial Singers, and the black ba-
from Mobray. gheelas dancing in the jungle.”
"The splendor of the Celestial Sing- From that hour the voyage was a pleas-
ers,” went on the Chinese, "took centuries ant adventure outwardly, though Mobray
to produce, the eighteen-foot tail of the knew trouble was coming. The cold
cock of Ku, the coloring of the peacock, black eyes of Loo Yee held the unblinking
the song of the nightingale ... a man malignancy of a snake’s. His brilliant
would commit crimes to possess them.” conversation covered unplumbed hellery
Mobray’s throat tightened, his scalp be- afoot. There were dark stains on deck
gan to prickle. Premonition crawled over and in the crew’s quarters, never obliter-
his courage. Nick was in bad with these ated, which looked like blood and savored
Chinks, perhaps their prisoner. Nick had of wholesale slaughter of Daunt’s crew
the lordly scorn of white men for Asiatics when the vessel was seized.
and was unfamiliar with the sinister ven- Mobray, wearing one of Daunt’s drill
geance of the East. suitsand a gold-banded cap, was a mere
“Who are you?” broke from him. nautical figurehead when the vessel sight-
"Loo Yee, doctor, Lieutenant Mobray ed the island. Far out in the indigo blue
I assureyou of your brother’s existence on sea stretched a white spit on which
the Island of the Red God, where no ves- squatted an amazing image carved of red
sel may drop anchor except this schooner. rock from which the island was named.
 BLACK BAGHEELA 61

Palms shimmered behind a coral beach of Shots came thickly from Loo Yee’s men
the lagoon. Mountains rose farther back, as Mobray was dragged ashore and up the
dark with jungle growth. The island was coral to sheltering shrubbery.
shaped like a severed black hand with a "I’m not Daunt, of course,” he panted.
thumb and forefinger forming the anchor- "Daunt disappeared. A Chinese named
age, and on that thumb the Red God Loo Yee has his vessel . . . abducted me
squatted. . . . forced me to land. My name is

Mobray.”

T
more
he throb of drums came over the
at a great distance
menacing, as
and grew louder,
they approached.
sea The paws of the ape held him, claws
dug
nearer his windpipe.
into the flesh of his shoulders, slid

Doom . . . doom . . . doom . . . went a "Mobray?” boomed that incredible

giant drum through affrighted agitation voice. "Flow do I know you aren’t lying?
of smaller tom-toms. Behind the Red What’s your word worth?” The claws
God the sun dropped in a blaze on the were around his throat. His hands tugged
sea, and fires on shore winked through at the hairy wrists of the ape uselessly.
the palms. On the vessel, evil-looking His breath was going.
Dyaks put on fancy sashes and wore "My brother Nicolas ... is here,” he
waved knives, the formidable kriss of the gasped. "Better fight Loo Yee and . . .

race that fathered piracy. It meant slaugh- his gang . . . than me. . Take me to
. .

”
ter, and Mobray was the traitor leading . . .
Jornado . . . tell him
death to the island. Loathing his role, he Then he was flung to the natives, and
was helpless to escape it. the great ape was giving orders like an
"You will go ashore alone, unham- army captain. A howl like a beast’s broke
pered,” said Loo Yee. "They expect Cap- from his throat, quivered in the night
tain Daunt. May your search prove prof- above the unceasing noise of drums,
itable! Being unexpectedly detained, Cap- echoed on distant rocks. Mobray was
tain Daunt put you in charge of his borne swiftly through darkness and rus-
vessel.” tling growth to lights, the sound of bab-
A boat was lowered. From shore a bling water, tie dark wall of a house,
booming voice hailed the ship. A small lamps, revealing a room with heavy
fire was lighted on the coral beach and Dutch furniture. Natives wearing only
Mobray’s hair rose as he saw the slouch- loin-rags held him, bound him to a mas-
ing form of a great ape among natives sive chair with a highnarrow back. The
peering over the water as he rowed the lashings around arms and trunk and legs
boat nearer. held him motionless, his feet were be-
"All dressed up, Daunt,” came as if tween the lower rungs, high above the
words zoomed from the pipes of an floor, and he was helpless to move any-

organ. thing but his head.

Mobray held the dripping oars. An Turning that, he saw a divan along one
ape spoke! He couldn’t believe his eyes wall, heaped with cushions, and on it a
and ears. Frankly frightened, he backed woman, queerly handsome, hybrid, with
the boat. A gun cracked from the ship. long-lidded eyes of a Manchu, skin of a
A bullet whined and kicked up coral dust. white woman. On a taboret near by burned
Natives, at a snarl from the ape, dashed a flame on a small silver lamp. The pe-
into the lagoon water and seized him. culiar odor of poppy gum transcended
62 WEIRD TALES
flower scent coming through open doors bare its teeth and hiss at him, and the girl

and windows. turned, leaped, caught the beast by the

But Mobray’s head turned again as a neck scruff and spoke sharply. To Mo-
girl came down wide stairs, wrapped in bray’s terrific relief the leopard sat on its

a flowered silk sarong to her arm-pits, tail beside the couch and allowed the

young, lovely, her dark eyes startled as woman to head and seemed
fondle its

she saw him. An instant later a cannon listening to an explanation from her re-

boomed. The lamp flame swayed. A garding the man bound to the chair.
sharp cry broke from the girl. She ran to
the woman on die couch, spoke, and Mo- “T? or God’s sake, let me loose,” begged
bray decided her speech was Chinese.
Jl' Mobray, "or call off those cats.”

Getting no reply she approached Mobray, "You do not answer,” complained the
gliding on bare feet, tinkling as she came girl querulously.

shaking a circlet of golden bells on her "I was too scared to speak. My name
”
ankles. isMobray, my brother Sir Nicolas
"English?” she asked, and as he nodded But she halted his words by the change of
she went on. "Who are you? Where is her face.

Captain Daunt? Why are the cannons "You —

you are Sir Nick’s brother,
shooting?” come here to find him? Oh, he hoped
All hell was breaking loose in the you would come!”
jungle after each blast of the big gun, the “Then he is alive.”
trumpeting howl of great apes from near "Captain Daunt, where is he? Why
and far gathering closer, streaking past don’t you speak? Your tongue is not
toward the lagoon shores. The girl’s eyes tied.”
were bright with alarm as she ran to the "I was taken prisoner on Daunt’s ves-
door and stood peering into further dark- sel by Chinese. I know nothing of him
ness, calling once or twice in words Mo- except that he is the guest of Ti Fong,
bray did not understand. Even in that they said.”
tumult and the chaos of his thoughts, "Ti Fong!” cried the woman on the
Mobray had eyes for her young loveli- couch, instantly wrenched from dreami-
ness; but he felt his hair standing on its ness that not even the apes’ howling had
roots when out of the night a sinuous em- disturbed. The living gloom that slipped
bodiment of gloom flowed to a place be- inside the door on feet of silence was
side her bright-flowered sarong and lifted electrifiedby the women’s fear.
its rounded head under her spread fingers. "Call off your cats,” begged Mobray.
Mobray stared at those fingers with their "If they kill me you won’t know about
almond-shaped nails like pink pearls rub- the danger coming with Ti Fong.”
bing the blackness of a leopard’s head, as The girl whirled, spoke, beat their
unawarely as if it had been a house dog. black muzzles with her small folded fists,

A second black beast appeared. Twin drove them outside.Mobray faced the
emeralds glowed in pairs beyond the older woman whose one hand held the
door, moving up and down, back and neck of the leopard at her side.
forth. Mobray counted a dozen and for- “Ti Fong can not come here,” she said,

got to count because one was gliding as challenging him to contradict her. "Only
the clouds travel, toward the couch where Daunt’s vessel may enter the lagoon.”
the older woman lay. It took time to "That may be true. But they evidently
 BLACK BAGHEELA 63

abducted Captain Daunt. Ti Fong’s men the quiver of his flesh that seemed coward-
are on his vessel in the lagoon now, unless ice, but the dismembered flesh of Dyaks
they have landed. And it sounds to me revolted him and showed the way apes
as if your cannons were so busy sinking disposed of humans.
the boat they are giving Ti Fong plenty Then a cry froze his blood.
of chance to make a landing. I’m a navy "Dick.” One ape came toward him,
man and my ideas run to nautical tactics still staring, and in those eyes he saw rec-
and sea warfare. It’s only a guess . . . ognition and surprize, human attributes.
but where is Jornado who owns and runs "Dick ... oh God, you don’t know me
this island? He ought to be told. I’m no ... no wonder Dicky, it’s me . . . . . .

friend to Ti Fong, I assure you. I’d like what they made of me your brother . . .

to be in the fight to keep him from land- Nick. That devil Ti Fong ... I tried
. . .

ing.” to buy his cursed birds then lost my . . .

A quick exchange of words between head and tried to take them. ... Wait till
the two brought action. The girl snatched you’ve seen them, Dick. But I’m talking
a knife from somewhere and cut his too fast my brain isn’t what it used to
. . .

bonds. be. Dick

. . .you can’t believe ... no
. . .

"Get me a gun and do something about wonder.” And the ape slouched away,
the leopards.” shamed, slumping toward a palm bole,
"I go with you, Tuan.” where it leaned, the great shoulders heav-
"I’m not a tuan. Nick has the title. ing in anguish, its forehead against one
I’m Dick Mobray. May I ask your name? arm along the tree.
It’ll be handier to know it.” Mobray stood rooted to the spot with
"Mayala Jornado, and this is my terror that he had lost his own reason,
mother.” that his mind facing incredible horror had
"Jornado’s daughter,” Mobray said snapped. It was the girl who went and

and turned to the mother. "You will not laid a hand on the arm of this monstrosity
regret cutting my lashings. I’m on Jor- and spoke softly, that steadied his nerve.
nado’s side.” "There seems no doubt you are Lieu-
A moment later he realized the foolish- tenant Richard Mobray,” boomed from
ness of his speech. The leopards trailed the other ape. "Sir Nicolas recognizes you
him and the girl as she seized his hand . . and my name once was Jornado. Like
.

and ran down a jungle trail too dark for your brother, I offended Ti Fong, who
him to find a way, toward the lagoon. makes apes of us both. You’ll believe
The worst din was over, but yowls from what seems impossible, presently, Mo-
the trees made him aware of the great bray, just as I believed that” —he pointed
apes in those upper terraces. On shore a to a headless torso of a Dyak on the coral
big fire lighted a shambles, what re- sand — "when he said Ti Fong took
mained of Dyaks of the crew fallen Daunt’s vessel, made Daunt his prisoner,
into the apes’ hands. Daunt’s men were and sent the vessel here. Unfortunately
avenged, and his vessel lay shorn of her the Dyak didn’t know the rest of the
upper works after the guns finished with scheme, but we haven’t seen the end of it
her. Mobray was too late to fight. The yet. They didn’t land intact, because you
girl led him toward two huge orang- gave warning. For that I am grateful.
outangs at the edge of the firelight, who We’ll go to the house now. You’ve had
stared as he approached. Mobray hated a shock that needs digesting to believe.”
64 WEIRD TALES
"You . you killed them all? Doctor
. .
A servant showed Mobray to a room
Loo Yee also?” asked Mobray. He was with an old four-poster bed and heavy
startled at the sudden rage of the man- furnishings shipped to the island a cen-
ape. tury before, when the Dutch were strip-
"Loo Yee, no! The surgeon, cleverest ping its lagoon of pearls, its jungle of
of them all. Nick, you hear that? Loo Birds of Paradise, before they abandoned
Yee was on board. He’s escaped us.” it and — for services rendered a high offi-

And the man-ape called Jomado howled cial — it came into the possession of Jor-
to the apes in the trees in their lingo. Mo- nado. Mobray heard from his brother
bray saw the leopards sniff at human flesh how Jornado had stolen the pair of Celes-
and turn away daintily, but the smell of tial Singers from Ti Fong and was cap-
blood affected them. Jornado caught the tured, and his brain transplanted into the
neck of one and flung the animal savagely skull of a huge orang-outang before he

toward the jungle. The others disap- was landed on the island.
peared after it.

dawn Mobray
Again the
they returned to the house
girl grasped his hand and
where natives A T
^
was awakened by
bird songs of such singular ecstasy
he went to the window. Fine wire
brought brandy and a glass for Mobray that
and he drank a tumblerful before his flesh screened an enormous expanse of gardens
ceased quivering. with orange trees in flower and golden
"Come out here where it’s dark, Dick,” fruit, drapes of wine-red bougainvillea,
called the voice of his brother, the same flame trees, hibiscus, and the seductive
inflections, the tones magnified, and Mo- perfume of ylang-ylang. On tall perches
bray sat on the porch hearing the dreadful birds of shimmering plumage poured
tale of master surgery that dealt worse forth their love-songs, their long tails
than death and after-hells to Sir Nicolas swaying with iridescent colors to the car-
Mobray. pet of flame-tree petals beneath. Jorna-
"I’ve got one hope, Dick, that I can go do’s daughter was holding cupped hands
through it again and have this brain, this filled with rice,and she saw him and
ego restored to the body of a human. You beckoned. By her smile the night horror
could do that for me. You could round might have been a bad dream, pleasantly
up those devils and force them to operate ended by morning.
again. Otherwise death is the only way Dressed, he came down to watch her
out.” feed the Celestial Singers. Sun dappled
In the darkness Mobray clutched hope. the gardens, made living jewels of the
He lost his horror of this uncouth shape birds and an Eden of the old stone house
that spoke his and
brother’s thoughts despite its incongruous solidity in a tropic
asked so tenderly about Nick’s wife and setting that called for airy bamboo build-
little son. Loo Yee was on the island and ing. The stoop flanked a pool fed from
would be captured, he said with child-like a mountain stream. Ripe oranges fell
optimism. The jungle was as silent as it from the trees and plopped into the water,
had been noisy. bounded down the steps, those soft
"You go to bed, Dick, in the big front sounds like the ghost echoes of drums that
room that was mine. I like sleeping in a had boomed in the night recalling reali-
tree better. Tomorrow you’ll see the ties in a dream nuance that began when

birds.” Jornado’s daughter finished feeding the

W. T. <1 —
 BLACK BAGHEELA 65

birds and sat beside him on the old stone crooning purr, resting. And when she
steps that were tilted by crowding jungle rose and lifted her hand a tom-tom began
roots. throbbing, a little flute played a tune, the
He had under the spell of youth,
fallen players hidden beyond the vines, and Ti
a girl’s beauty and soft voice, the passion- Fong’s daughter coaxed the leopards to
ate wooing of tropic beauty in lush leap over her head; she coaxed them to

growth, and forgot she was a mystery his form figures like circus tumblers with a
mind refused to accept, Jornado’s daugh- row of cats resting their paws against one
ter, until she spoke of those things. another and others on their backs until
"All night I worried about Captain the pyramid loomed high and an agile
Daunt. He is our friend. Tell me what young cat bounded to the top and stood
happened to him.” erect. At her word the towering wall of
Mobray mentioned the trip with the velvet crumpled and became cats again,

black leopards to the Maharajah’s palace, dancing on their hind paws, leaping to
the visit to the jewel-shop. swipe at hanging orchids or crunch them
"Probably he had that big pearl made in their scarlet muzzles.

into an ornament for you,” he said. "But Mobray watched entranced, forgetting
I never dreamed of a girl on the Island everything but the sight. Then as Ti
of the Red God . . . never of a girl like Fong’s daughter made a circle of the cats,
you, Mayala.” the girl beside Mobray clutched his fin-
was born here just a few days be-
"I gers and touched her own lips in a warn-
fore Jornado was brought here as you — ing gesture, though he had been motion-
see him. He Ti Fong’s daughter
stole less, hardly breathing.
who is my mother, and Ti Fong’s Celes- In the circle Ti Fong’s daughter knelt
tial Singers. And Ti Fong never forgets. under flickering shadows threaded with
He a terrible man.
is My mother feared sun-gold. The drums beat faster, the
him, and her mother feared him and flute was silent. Watching intently, Mo-
from him though
killed herself to escape bray lifted a hand to rub his eyes. Where
she was his wife.” the woman had crouched a black leopard
"Ti Fong’s daughter- your mother,” — sat and the woman was nowhere. Leger-
he murmured. demain! But clever as magic. The cat
"And she is clever like him, but not danced as no leopard ever danced, gor-
cruel. Come and see her with the leop- geously swaying, twirling on her hind
ards the bagheelas. . .
.” paws, spinning until there was a dark
. . .

She led him through green tunnels of nimbus swelling as a humming top seems
ferns and flowering vines where the air to spread, then diminishing as Mobray
was perfumed and moist as warm wet watched until he saw it was not a leopard,
gauze. Mobray thought they came miles but the woman whirling, and the black
to the clearing, a natural glen of grass fur blanching to the color of her flesh and
above which vines grew from tree to tree dark sarong. He had time to notice the
in a green trellis heavy with flowers hang- circle of leopards, ears laid back, fangs
ing like colored flames. At the edge of bared, scarlet muzzles twitching, snapping
the clearing they halted. Leopards lay, at empty air, as a dog will snap if his
or stalked back and forth, or sat around master blows in his face; as if they sensed
Ti Fong’s daughter who pulled their ears, the dreaded powers of darkness evoked
rubbed their pelts, talked to them in a by her who ruled them. And when the
W. T.—
66 WEIRD TALES
weird spell broke, they slunk, mewing, streaked black and white like an orca,
nearer her and fawned, their tails drag- turning abeam to glide along as the
ging the grass. launch slowed down.
Mayala’s hand was drawing him back A cannon shot crashed. A puff of
over the path. smoke floated and broke and vanished.
"If I could only do as she does,” the There was a splash where the ball fell
girl sighed. "I dance with them, but I short of Ti Fong’s vessel, and before an-
can not become one of them.” other shot was fired, the cage was swung
Mobray opened it was his lips to say on her, the launch was towing behind and
a trick, an optical illusion, but changed she streaked for the far horizon.
his impulse because of a howl that rang Mobray was scrambling up the feet of
out suddenly, the cry of a great ape boom- theRed God, climbing to its knees and
ing, vibrating on the quiet heat, silencing shoulders by rough apertures of its crude
the myriad sounds of rustlings and insects carvings. He stood beside the great ear,
in the jungle, and the twittering of birds. shorter than its hanging lobe, staring at
The song of Celestial Singers was broken the sea, the tropic sun blazing on his bare
off. Coming near the wire enclosure he head, his senses swimming dazedly. And
saw the birds’ heads under their wings as he saw the man-ape called Jornado swing-
they gripped the high perches. ing toward the god and swarming up be-
"Something has happened,” cried the side him.
girl, running. "You saw?” growled the mighty voice.
"You heard. They outwitted us, but how

M obray ran after her to a break in the

where they could see the long
trees
white thumb of coral and the Red God
could
steamer with his
I guess Ti Fong sent
in Daunt’s
own men
have us busy
fighting them away while he sent in the
to

like a grotesque setting of a thumb-ring. launch to lie hidden? God knows what
Streaking the blue sea, leaping like a devils it has landed! We’ll have to scour
stone ricochetting over the waves from the the jungle to find them. They can’t
speed at which it flew, was a power- escape, but the pity is that Nick, your
launch, and lashed to the stern was a brother, is in Ti Fong’s hands again. It
barred cage from which a voice howled. means a more hellish vengeance. Your
Mobray knew that voice. He froze in brother tried to take Ti Fong’s pair of
his trades at its message, booming over Celestial Singers as I took the parent pair.

the water, growing fainter, dying away. The were killed. Making Sir Nick
birds
"Jornado, they trapped me. It’s Nick into a companion for me is not enough
Mobray. Ti Fong’s launch came in dur- for Ti Fong. You heard what he cried
ing the fight and lay hidden. Look . . . out at first?”

Ti Fong’s boat . . . out there.” Mobray couldn’t speak. The man-ape,

Forgetting the girl, Mobray raced Jornado,swung beside him; the mighty
toward the spit, staring where that bound- voice had the organ sorrow of a requiem,
ing power-launch flew to a rendezvous the eyes held grief, but the sea for Mo-
with a vessel barely discernible. bray was heaving up and down, the long
The island was all noise, the bedlam white spit was waved like a kriss to his
of the night tore loose again. But Mo- eyes.
"
bray was staring, focussing his gaze at 'Jornado,’ he called, 'shoot and end
sea, and he saw the vessel, low, rakish, me . . . don’t let Ti Fong put me in a cir-
 BLACK BAGHEELA 67

cus ... he says ’

Then they must stars came out, the moon rose presently
have hit him, though he yelled again, as and the house was very still. Then she
you heard,” growled Jornado. lefthim, and he went upstairs to bed and
''Nick,” gasped Mobray, "a circus!” A wakened to the music of the Celestial
moment later he slumped and was sliding Singers and watched her feed them again.

down the shoulder of the Red God. A huge But there was a new distraction below.
hairy arm caught him from that fall, and A group of island natives came through
Mobray was carried through the jungle the jungle and interrupted the bird-feed-
to the house over the shoulder of Jornado ing. They carried a man in a hammock
the ape. of twisted vines and came up the steps of
the stoop. Looking down, Mobray saw

H
that
e wakened on the stoop, lying on
a couch in the ineffable peace of
perfumed shade. Mayala was lifting
it was a white man,
spent,
head and cheeks.
alive but utterly
dark hair streaked over his fore-
But Mobray knew him.
his head, holding a lime drink to his lips. He ran down the stairs, startled out of
His hands grasped her, felt the warm lethargy and bad dreams.
strength of her wrists, clung because they The bearers halted at the door, and
were blessed flesh and blood and youth Mobray laid a hand on the man’s wrist.
and things he could comprehend. The weary head turned and the eyes
"The sun was too much for you,” she opened.
murmured. "Mobray,” whispered a croaking voice.
"Not the sun hells, devils, mys-
. . .
"Daunt!” came Mobray’s cry, and the
teries . . and Nick!” His voice cracked
.
bearer went inside to where Jornado sat
on his brother’s name. He sat up, still in a great chair in the cool, dark living-
grasping the girl’s arms. “Tell me I’ve room beside the silk cushions of the
dreamed. Assure me none of it happened. couch where Ti Fong’s daughter sat, her
I’ve been whanged on the head and lost small, ivory-tinted hand caressed by the
my mind.” paws of the ape.
"No, no, you’re quite well. The sun Captain Daunt!” Mobray cried as
"It’s

on the Red God is always fierce. The red thewoman rose.

rock draws heat.” "And about done for,” croaked Daunt.
She did not understand that he craved "The devil made me swim ashore after
a denial of what happened. And he they got what they came for. He’s put
thought the lime drink was drugged, for it Over again, Jornado. My fault! Give
the spasm of horror passed and he lay me some brandy and I’ll talk.”
in a languid waking coma hearing the On the couch, with natives massaging
oranges plop and splash as they fell into his body with scented oils, Captain
the pool, hearing distant sounds that did Daunt’s hoarse voice gathered strength to
not mean anything to him or matter until tell his story, from the time Ira Singh
the sun was low and there was no golden warned him in the jewel shop he was
spidery gleam of it on the pool. foolish to be in company with Lieutenant
Mayala brought him food, turtle broth, Mobray.
cold roasted chicken, bread and fruit, and "Somebody grabbed Ira Singh and
he ate hungrily. She played on a silk- slugged me. Ti Fong’s men evidently
stringed, moon-shaped guitar and sang followed us after we got out of the Ma-
little Chinese love-songs for him, and the harajah's car. Thej' move like eels any-
68 WEIRD TALES
way.
time I

a bag over
They got
got breath
my
i-n the bazar, and next
I was being hustled with

head to Ti Fong’s yacht. I

W hile Captain Daunt slept in Mo-
were on the
bray’s bed, the others
vessel with torchlights and the work of re-
expected the worst, but he wanted to use pair was already begun. Mobray’s career,
me. I’m more valuable to him at large, Jornado’s seamanship, swarms of natives
evidently. He sent in my vessel, knowing whose forebears had sailed those seas in
you’d use the cannons when you found beautifully built dugouts before the Ro-
out the trick, and he gave me my choice mans Londinium, were clearing the
settled
of piloting his launch in while the noise wreckage and repairing the deck-house
was loudest and hiding it, or — well, never and steering-gear, the severed cargo
mind his alternative. I took the safe way slings and emergency sailing-gear. And
for myself. Then I had to be a party to on the rail, against the buxom figurehead
the abduction of —your brother, Mobray.
wanted
of the bows sat Mayala, plucking the silk
I wish to Got it wasn’t true. I strings of her moon-guitar and singing
to live as I am. Somebody has to fetch love-songs.
supplies here and take out cargo. I guess Captain Daunt slept the sun around,
you know by this time what’s been going waking only to eat and drink and sleep
on. Jornado is my friend and partner. again. The swim from Ti Fong’s vessel
I failed to save him from Ti Fong’s ven- had been a test for his iron endurance,
geance, but I’m the only link between him but the native massage, the food and rest
and his lady and Mayala, and necessities. restored him amazingly and he was work-
... If it was just Jornado, he’d get along ing with the others on the third day after
”
on the island. But the women he landed. In a week the vessel was fit

Mobray nodded. He blamed Daunt for a cruise. And during that week Mo-
for his forced treachery, but recognized bray had explored much of the island
the reason. After all, Nick had blun- with Mayala. He had watched daily the
dered into the vengeance of a master-devil circle of leopards put through their tricks.
when he tried to take Ti Fong’s remain- He had seen again and again that trans-
ing Celestial Singers. formation of Ti Fong’s daughter into the
"Why did Ti Fong want Sir Nick?" guise of a leopard and restored again to
growled Jornado’s voice. her own form. Almost he believed what
"He’s insane, of course,” said Daunt, Mayala said:

"the most terrible madman ever spawned "It is true. Many native people have
by hell. It suits his Asiatic whim to sell that gift. I wish I could be a black ba-
his captive to some zoo or circus as an gheela.” Mobray's arm caught her closer.
orang-outang able to speak. A trained "You stay as you are. Some day you’re
ape. We’ve got to stop it. The minute coming away from this island, to see other
”
my vessel can navigate I’m after him. places .some day, when Nick
. .

And I know every lane of the animal He could not speak of his brother sanely
cargo game. I know all the dealers. I’ll even yet.

head him off. Just let me get over that "But if I could become a black ba-

swim and the coral scratches, and get my gheela, I would go with you. I would
boat in shape. And Jornado, you might break into Ti Fong’s kampong and kill
start men working on her. You might him.”
look over her and tell me how badly she’s "I wouldn’t let you take the risk,” said
damaged.” Mobray. But with the girl soft and warm
 BLACK BAGHEELA 69

in hisarms he was staring into the clear- It’s going to take plenty to pay the price
ing where Ti Fong’s daughter crouched, Ti Fong will ask for his prisoner.”
the outlines of her form blurred darkly, "Captain Daunt, don’t hesitate about
trembling as she shook off human shape the price,” cried Mobray. "I haven’t it,

and became a leopard dancing, leaping but his estate, everything he has.”
lithely to bring down hanging orchids and "That would take time to negotiate.
bits of vine. Besides, it’s my carelessness that let Ti
There were no tom-toms and flutes that Fong’s men on the island.”
day to drive parakeets and lories from the "Take the birds,” cried Mayala. "Only
surrounding trees. Birds darted in drifts they need such care on a voyage. I must
of brilliant color from branch to branch. go with them.”
A big green parrot circled a vine and "I thought of that. Not you, Mayala.
hung upside-down above the dancing Perhaps your mother. Jornado wouldn’t
bagheela. A swipe of her paw struck it let you go. I’ve talked to him and we
lifeless, and tossing it like a ball she agreed about it.” And from the thick
played as a cat with a mouse, gay feathers foliage of an ancient tree boomed the
strewing the grass. voice of Jornado:

Mayala caught her breath and drew "Sir Nicolas was our guest and we let

Mobray silently away. that devil Ti Fong get hold of him. We

"Never have I seen her kill anything must make amends. So Bibi-ti will go
with the birds. She knows the cruelty of
before. She is never cruel. It shows she
Ti Fong as none of us do. She is of his
is wholly bagheela, not even her kindness
house and knows the anguish of her own
left of my mother. How awful if she
mother who was Ti Fong’s wife before
should ever be hungry when she turns to
she killed herself to escape him. She has
bagheela!”
seen the world beyond these shores,
Mobray tried to comfort Mayala as
where she has lived with grief for fifteen
they sat on the stone steps of the pool
years and never once complained or
watching oranges bobbing. The girl
wished aloud that she could return to the
seemed depressed by the metamorphosis
land of the living. Perhaps she will find
of her mother into a merciless cat killing
amusement in seeing other places again,
for amusement, but Mobray marveled at
and other . . .
people.” And the mighty
the ancient witchcraft of the dark ages
voice of Jornado ended in a sigh of sor-
and reeking jungles and forests.
row, a sigh of renunciation.
Captain Daunt barged on their brood-
Mobray felt the stark tragedy of Jor-
ing and dispelled by handing the girl
it
nado as never before, doomed to live in
a little box. was the black pearl on
In it
his half-world, neither man nor beast, re-
its chain, which he dropped over her
taining the intelligence and fine attributes
head, and said:
of a man imprisoned in beast form,
"If I hadn’t stopped to have the Ma- chained to the daily torture of hideous
harajah’s pearl fixed so you could wear it, grotesquery before the woman he loved,
we wouldn’t be in this mess, Mayala.” separated from her by worse than death.
"Then what can I do to make up to you, He was glad to be aboard the vessel in
Captain?” she asked. the rush of last-minute preparations when
"A pretty big favor. Let me sell a pair the big cage containing a pair of Celestial
of Celestial Singers to the Maharajah. Singers was carried beside the black-
70 WEIRD TALES
swathed figure of Bibi-ti. As the vessel "Of course,” Daunt agreed.
forged away they saw Jornado standing She was wrapped in a black sari and
on the Red God’s shoulder with Mayala veiled like a Moslem woman for the ride
beside him waving. to the Maharajah’s court,
and only on the
journey did Daunt confide his most im-

B ibi-ti
til
devoted herself to the birds un-
the vessel docked at Singapore for
Captain Daunt to go ashore. was an-
portant news.
"I asked him to have Ti Fong present,
It Bibi-ti.”
chored far from shore and a sharp watch Under the veil she trembled as Daunt
set with Mobray in command. Ti Fong’s assured her no harm could possibly come
spieswould inform him of its arrival, and of the meeting, but both men walked
they feared the terrible power of his evil close to the veiled figure as they were
tentacles reaching into every port. ushered into the court where the Mahara-
There on deck, watching the distant jah sat beside the Chinese. A mere in-
city like a marble hand on the arm of the clination of heads acknowledged the na-
long Johore peninsula, Bibi-ti told Mo- bob’s introduction. Their eyes were on
bray of Jornado’ s tragedy. The blue- the hapless transformation of a once
eyed, red-headed sea captain had seen her proud peer, chained to the bole of a living
in her father’s house feeding the Celestial tree. Its head lifted. Around the skull
Singers. He had taken them and her, as was the puckered brand of its ignominy,
mad a love idyl as the tropics ever fos- the mark of surgical skill of the dread Ti
tered, and for weeks they were happy un- Fong’s henchmen. The dull eyes quick-
til the day Jornado disappeared. Captain ened at sight of Mobray. The black lips
Daunt took her to the island, where in- moved, but only a croak of despair was
stead of her lover, the soul and brain of uttered and the shamed head drooped
him was brought in the ape's body, just again.
before Mayala was born. Near the Maharajah lay his two tame
"I had my daughter or I should have leopards, lazy as full-fed house-cats until
gone mad or killed myself. And I the visitors entered. Then they were
delved into the ancient mysteries that Ti afoot, ears back, teeth showing in snarls,
Fong taught me in childhood and prac- spitting as they glared at the veiled figure.
tised them among the bagheelas.” The Maharajah tried to soothe them be-
Daunt’s respect for her was profound, tween courteous amenities and explana-
when Captain Daunt was rowed out to tions.

the vessel bursting with news. "Captain Daunt, I have complained to

"Ti Fong sold Nick to the Maharajah. Ti Fong of a bad bargain. The ape he
I called on the nabob and he’s complain- sold me does not speak, but he has offered
ing of trickery. He paid enormously and to prove his claims for the creature today.
his purchase refuses to 'talk’ and seems As a dealer in rare animals I knew you
dying, refuses food. The only good fea- would be interested in my new posses-
ture is that in the Maharajah’s court the sion.”

crowd can’t gape and jeer. And he’ll

look at the birds.
buy.
"I
If they please
I’ve got us an audience with
must go with you
him he’ll
him.”
to coax the birds
M obray was

mask of Ti Fong’s
briefly fascinated
aspect of triumph
face.
in
Black eyebrows
by the
the yellow

to sing,” said Bibi-ti. cut horizontally across the dome-shaped,

 BLACK BAGHEELA 71

shaven poll. The nostrils were dark screeching of the dancing bagheela as she
apertures of the flattened nose, the lips a leaped in fury, driving back a tamed cat
thin dark line. He wore a magnificent that had shaken the ape limp.
robe embroidered in gold and green From the safety beyond the grilled iron
dragons, the wide sleeves concealing his doors the Maharajah saw his pampered
hands. pets trying to climb the walls to escape
"The ape shall speak. You will hear the she-leopard. His court was a bloody
him beg for favors,” he said, striding arena. Utterly cowed, their tails lashing,
toward the tree while the Maharajah rose their fangs showing, they crouched while
and tried to quiet the spitting leopards the dancing leopard caught up the black
that glared with burning green eyes at sari inher teeth and tossed it. On her
the quivering folds of Bibi-ti’s wrappings. hind paws she stood quivering and turn-
Mobray saw the black veil fall. ing like a top. The sari covered her.
"Not here, not that dance here," he The white teeth and the red mouth
gasped at her, but was too late. The sari blurred before their eyes, and as the spin-
dropped. A black leopard began that ning slowed down they saw a woman’s
slow, swaying dance of the jungle, ter- black hair, white face and red lips.
rible to watch in the court where punkahs She glided to the doors which His
moved with restful pause and swing, Highness opened and flew to the cage of
peace-conveying where there was no Celestial Singers. Her voice crooned, her
peace, but only primal madness, mon- hands caressed them while Mobray knelt
strous cruelty and impending doom pi- beside the dying ape-man.
ping to the danse macabre. He lifted the grotesque head to his
Mobray did not see the whip in Ti
shoulder, seeing only the intelligent eyes
Fong’s hands hurled high, until the lash
glazing fast, hearing only the hoarse echo
whined through the air and the ape
of his brother’s voice:
howled and leaped as its chains clashed
"I’m glad it is ended, Dick. Forget
and a long red snake oozed blood where
you can. I'm not suffering at
all this if
the lash had coiled around its body and
all.I’ve heard that the big cats paralyze
lifted skin.
by that neck hold. Odd adventure,
"You fiend! You devil!” boomed the
wasn’t it? You’ll carry on till my boy
agonized howl. "God, Dick, shoot me
can take things over. them
Don’t tell
and end this misery. I only want to die
what happened. And don’t try to take
quickly.”
vengeance on Ti Fong, it’s too risky . . .
Mobray leaped at the Chinese, but a ”
Dick ... I fancy I hear music
gun spat from his left hand, a bullet in
his shoulder spun Mobray around. In the outer court the Celestial Singers

Ti Fong was running toward the iron broke into glorious melodic song and on
door-grilles, firing again. The dancing the wings of music the soul of a man in

leopard leaped. A ribbon of soft flowing torture escaped its prison of grotesque

The tame flesh.

red unfurled from her flank.
leopards were mad and the court seemed Captain Daunt heard a car roaring
full of snarling, spitting There was
cats. away. Ti Fong had escaped. The sailor

a mewing screech as one landed on the stood with a hand at Salute to Death but
ape’s shoulders, the snap of jaws on a his mind was planning reprisals as the

spinal column, a shake and an unearthly Maharajah slipped into the court and
72 WEIRD TALES
snapped chains on the collars of his leop- shed the last stoic silence of that alter ego
ards. at her command.
"Command me,” he said to Mobray. "Take me home to Jornado,” she
"Anything in my power shall be done to pleaded. "The circumference of Earth is

honor him who was your brother. There all too short a distance to run from Ti
is a tomb in the grounds where lies an il- Fong. Had his aim today been as deadly
lustrious warrior of my ancestors that his as his powers of darkness, I would never
presence would honor, and its silence is see my child and Jornado again. Take me
no deeper than shall be mine about what home.”
I have seen today. Captain Daunt, any Through the night roared the Mahara-
price you name shall be paid for the Celes- with armed guards bring-
jah’s shining car
tial Singers, that they may sweeten his rest ing them to Daunt’s vessel.
with their songs. How may I serve you "He’s licked us again,” commented
and the lady further?” Captain Daunt.
In the zenana, the skin wound of Bibi- "At least my quest for my brother is

ti was dressed and she rested while a ended,” said Mobray. "Ended in the
flower-covered, flag-wrapped form was only way and peace for him.
possible, rest
sealed in a tomb of carved marble with And I begin to see the oriental argument
priestly chanting and rites of honor. for Nirvana since Asia spawns devils
When again Daunt saw her, she had like Ti Fong.”

By A. LESLIE

Violet winds whispering

Beneath a yellow moon.
Blue shadows dancing
To a river’s silver croon.

White the stars and black the sky,

Gray the rising mist,

Where the frost with ashen lips

The brown earth kissed.

Amber lances flinging

From a purple cloud
As the dawn with scarlet stains
The night’s pallid shroud.
 of the Cloven Hoof
By ARLTON EADIE

any moment the ball

might shatter and bring
death to both.”

A startling weird mystery story, of strange deaths on the desolate

Moor of Exham, and the mysterious creature known as
"The Terror of the Moor”

The Story Thus Far lying stunned and helpless one misty

W
a
HAT is the real explanation of
the mysterious monster —horned,
cloven-footed, yet speaking with
human voice
late recesses
—which haunts the
of Exmoor?
deso-
The problem
night,

With
and the subsequent disappearance
of the old man’s body only serves to
deepen the mystery.
the aid of a former fellow-
Ronnie Brewster, Hugh deter-
student,
confronts Hugh Trenchard mines to solve the mystery, and his reso-
in a dramatic
guise when he stumbles on Silas Marie lution is strengthened when he learns that
This story began in WEIRD TALES for July
73
74 WEIRD TALES
SilasMarie has bequeathed his entire for- lars,where the so-called friend, using a
tune to him on that very condition. Ac- cunning stratagem, chains Hugh to the
companied by Ronnie, he motors to Moor wall and boldly proclaims that he is the
Lodge, Marie’s former home, and in a professor himself. Having at last secured
safe there finds a letter which seems to Marie’s secret formula, he has manufac-
give the clue to the origin of the Terror tured enough detonating gas to annihilate
of the Moor. a regiment, and Hugh is destined to be

to this statement, Marie had

According die first victim of its deadly power.
method whereby the nitrogen
discovered a
of the atmosphere, combined with the
28
natural elements contained in every living
body, might be utilized as a means of N spite of his iron self-control, Hugh
wholesale slaughter. The chemical for- I Trenchard’s face grew a shade paler at
mula whereby this may be effected is con- the calmly uttered threat. He had not
tained in a sealed envelope, which Hugh been deaf to the hiss of venomous hatred
replaces, unopened, in the safe. that had swept like a sinister undercur-
Marie’s letter further states that he had rent through the other’s words. The man
taken into his employ a half-witted lad was in deadly earnest. Short of a miracle
known as Crazy Jake, who having mem- happening, Hugh was doomed.
orized the formula, was about to be- Yet he could have faced the adverse
tray it to Professor Lucien Felger, a sup- fortune of war with greater stoicism if it
posed secret agent in the pay of a foreign had been brought about by a fair duel of
power. As the only means of preserving wits. His jaw tightened ominously as he
the secret, Marie determined to use his recalled how his faith and trust in Ron-
new invention on Jake as he made his way nie’s much -protested friendship had en-
across the Moor to Felger’s house. abled his false comrade and ally to throw
The explosion completely destroys the dust in his eyes with such ease and ef-
lower portion of Jake’s body, and Marie, fectiveness. All unknowingly he had
leaving the remains lying on the Moor, shown his opponent every card as soon as
hurries home, thinking his secret safe for it had come into his hand. No wonder
all time.Some six months later, how- the game had gone against him!
ever, he is horrified to see the face of his "Well, Mr. Brewster or Felger or — —
victim gazing in at him through the win- Brauschiitter — or whichever of your crook
dow of Moor Lodge, and when he ex- aliases you prefer to be called by— I’ve
amines the spot where the apparition had the misfortune to knock up against
stood, he finds the unmistakable trail of some pretty low-down skunks in my time,
cloven hoofs. but I don’t think there’s one of them that
Apparently eager to help Hugh, Ron- wouldn’t feel physically sick if he had to
nie succeeds in casting suspicion on In- share the same jail-cell as you!”
spector Renshaw, a Scotland Yard man Hugh was watching his man keenly as
who has been sent to investigate, and he spoke, and for an instant it seemed as
when that officer disappears with Joan if his tone of withering contempt had

Fndean, Ronnie openly declares that pierced the armor of his suave self-satis-
Renshaw is really Professor Felger in dis- faction. For the fraction of a second his
guise. Ronnie and Hugh make their way scowling brows met on a forehead to
to Felger’s Sanatorium and enter the cel- which the hot blood had suddenly mount-
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF i75

ed. Then he shrugged and laughed as the report I guessed what had happened,
though his humor had been tickled by an and hurried across the Moor until I came
excellent joke. to his —
body or what remained of it. No
"I suppose your temper is still a bit wonder Marie was certain that his victim
raw, so I will make some allowance, and —
could not survive he was a mere frag-

for the present overlook the bad taste of ment of a man. But, strangely enough,
your last remark,” he said pleasantly. —
the head the seat of the intellect and the

"But it seems to me, my dear Doctor memory—was but slightly injured. It

Trenchard, that your quite natural irrita- seemed the very essence of madness even
tion at finding yourself outwitted by a to dream of retaining life in such a mu-

more subtle mind than your own is mak- tilated torso; yet if I could do so I might
still learn the secret that he was on his
ing you unappreciative of the delicate
finesse by which that result has been way to tell me that night. I was desper-
achieved. For instance, take the method ate, and I took a desperate chance. By a
” stroke of great good fortune I had at the
by which I eliminated Silas Marie
"Then it was you who murdered him?” time a large stag in my operating-room.
Professor Felger lifted his shoulders in I had been using the animal for a series of

a pitying shrug. experiments which, though of great inter-

"That is a fact which you certainly est to me, would not have been appre-
should have discovered long before this. ciated by those who administer your nar-

Why, I even went so far as to anticipate

row-minded vivisection laws. The ani-
that you would suspect me, seeing that I mal was still living, though the man was
was the only person in the upstairs floor to all appearances dead. I resolved to at-

of Moor Lodge at the time. The only tempt what no other surgeon had at-

precaution I took before striking the blow tempted before. ...”

was to make sure that Miss Endean had Professor Lucien Felger paused in his
already left the house, and I was pleasant- narrative, glanced at the watch on his
ly surprized at the readiness with which wrist and shook his head with an air of
you assumed her to be the guilty party. disappointment as he continued
Taking everything into consideration, I "I fear there is not sufficient time for

think you must admit it was a very neat me to give you a technical description of
piece of work.” the operation, or rather the series of oper-
"And so heroic!” Hugh cried in atone ations, which followed. Without undue
of biting sarcasm. "I wonder that you egotism I can assure you that my daring
are not ashamed to boast of the murder and unprecedented conception deserves to
of a helpless old man!” rank as the crowning triumph of recon-
"Why should I have spared him? Why structive surgery. But do not imagine
should I have shown him more mercy that my triumph was lightly won. For the
than he showed the half-witted lad who first three weeks after the beginning of

had learnt his secret?” Felger retorted in the experiment I did not snatch more
swift defense. "The moment it suited than twenty minutes’ sleep at a stretch.
Marie's purpose, he doomed Crazy Jake By day and by night I watched my pa-
to a horrible death, and exulted when he tients — or perhaps I should say my one
thought his secret was safe. But Jake did composite patient — tending, observing,
not perish in the explosion. I was await- taking notes and even photographs which,
ing his arrival here, and as soon as I heard when embodied in my forthcoming work,
76 WEIRD TALES
will electrify the whole scientific world. that I could learn the secret of the detonat-
In the end the result exceeded my most ing gas. But Jake in his new form proved
sanguine anticipations, but I will not seek sadly intractable. He sulked and refused
to hide the fact that at least some of my to speak. I had to humor him by allowing

success was due to the undoubted atavistic him to roam tire moors at night, where,
traitswhich existed in my human subject. wearing a helmet made from the antlered
Jake was, both mentally and physically, skull of the animal that had restored him
one of those curious 'throw-backs’ rever- — to life, he indulged his crazy fancy by
sions to ancestral type —
which occur now proclaiming himself the King of the
and then, subtle reminders (to those that Moors. It was on one of his excursions
have eyes to observe and brains to under- that he met and fell in love with Joan
stand) of the former lowly origin of the Endean.”
biped race which now dominates the "Hewbat?” Hugh Trenchard cried
earth. Doubtless this accidental factor thickly,a sudden surging fear almost
explains the readiness with which the tis- choking his utterance.
sues and sinews united, and the almost "He happened to catch sight of her on
perfect functioning which resulted in the the night on which he carried off Marie’s
union. Be that as it may, I can claim body, and her beauty completely captivat-
some credit for the centaur-like creature ed his crazy desire. For whole weeks I
which at last —
emerged a creature with couldn’t get a word out of him except
the strength and fleetness of a stag com- ravings about her shining hair, her red
bined with the intelligence — naturally lips, her smooth, rounded limbs
”

small, unfortunately — of a man. The "Cut it out, curse you!” shouted

fictitious Frankenstein was supposed to Trenchard, goaded beyond endurance by
have created a monster—
I, in sober truth, the mental picture which rose before him.
have evolved from two distinct animal Felger’s lips parted in a slow smile as
types the monstrosity that has become he saw the effect of his words.
celebrated as 'The Terror of the Moor'.” "That is precisely what I told Jake at
the time,” he drawled, "but do you think

H UGH had listened in amazement, so

absorbed in the fate of the half-
witted Jake that he had forgotten his own
I

tune?
could make the poor sap change his
He got more goofy every day, and
began to throw out hints that he was
perilous situation. about tired of playing King-o’ -the- Castle
"You mean to stand there and tell me all on his lonesome. He wanted a little

you have linked a four-footed beast to the playmate, and he told me flat that he
”
body of a human being wasn’t going to talk about old Marie’s
"Half a body,” Felger corrected grave- chemical formula until he got one. But
k- I humored him a bit, and finally got him
"And condemned him to an existence to promise that he would tell the secret of
in that diabolical shape?” the gas to Joan Endean. Well, he’s go-
The professor laughed. ing to tell her tonight, and I’m going to
"The shape is a mere accident due to be near enough to hear what it is.”

the only material I had at hand,” he ex- "Tonight?” ejaculated Trenchard. "It’s
plained, soft-voiced and imperturbable. —
you that’s crazy not Jake! Don’t you
"My one object was to preserve the mind, remember that Miss Endean is far away
the memory of the shattered frame, so beyond your reach by now?”
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 77

"True,” Felger and once

answered, tion of his electric torch grow dimmer and
again Hugh detected the note of mocking dimmer; then came the dull clang of a
triumph hidden in the silk-smooth tones. distant door,and he was alone in a dark-
"But a telephone message from your dear ness which, though impenetrable, was not
old pal Ronnie Brewster, telling her that blacker than his own despairing thoughts.
you were waiting for her here, would soon
bring her flying into the trap like a
fluttering bird!”

Hugh Trenchard reeled under

little,

the
H is situation
appalled
was such
the stoutest
things might have been worse.
as might have
heart
At
Yet
least his

shock as his mind plumbed the depths hands and feet were free, and the length of
of the intended villainy against the girl the chain permitted a certain radius of
he loved. His breathing became deep movement. His electric flashlight still re-
and rapid as that of an exhausted runner; mained with him, though he dared not
queer flashes of red appeared before his avail himself of its light now in case the
staring eyes. He tore at the constricting battery should fail later on, when he might
chain with the fury of a maniac. His need it was
badly. His revolver, of course,
fingers itched to close about the throat of in the professor’s keeping,and he raged
the man who had masqueraded as his inwardly when he neatly he
recalled how
friend. had been tricked into handing it over to
"You cad! You foul, unspeakable his enemy. Never before had he so ap-
cad!” In his fury Hugh hurled every preciated the inherent truth of the old
scathing epithet came into his
which Western adage: "When you need a gun,
seething brain. "I thought you had some you need it badly.”
dregs of honor and decency, but now I But Hugh Trenchard was not one to
can see that you have never so much as waste time yearning for the unattainable.
understood the meaning of either word. As soon as he was satisfied that his captor

You filthy reptile —you fighter of had really left him to himself, his
was to make a thorough test of the
first

women!” action
The suave demeanor dropped from chain and the staple which secured it to
Felger like a cloak, revealing the brute the stone pillar of his prison. But a very
beast beneath. Clenching his fist, he few minutes of strenuous exertion demon-
drove it full in the face of his helpless strated the unwelcome fact that he could
captive, laughing like an exultant fiend never hope to free himself without the aid
as he saw him crash to the ground. of a file or a specially tempered saw.
"You shall pay for each one of those Desisting from his vain attempt, he
words with an hour of exquisite agony, seated himself on the heap of straw and
Hugh Trenchard! In imagination you gave himself up to reflection. But his
shall die a thousand deaths before you every thought was a torture in itself;
gladly welcome the real thing at the every second the suspense became more
finish. Wait till I return—then I’ll show intolerable; any certainty, however dread-
you something that will make the most ful, was to be preferred to these dragging

devilish device of Chinese torture look hours of haunting dread. His enforced
like a toy to amuse a kid. Wait — just inaction, while his Joan might, for all he
wait — that’s all!” knew, be even then hastening toward the
Abruptly Felger turned on his heel and net spread by Felger, was harder to bear
strode away. Trenchard saw the reflec- than the thought of his own approaching
78 WEIRD TALES
fate. Slowly but surely he felt that his thus divert suspicion from himself. But
nerve was leaving him; he was sure of it the most brilliant master-stroke of the
when the sudden scurry of a rat in the whole elaborate plot was Ronnie’s auda-
straw brought him to his feet tensed and cious plan of disguising himself as the
trembling. professor — his real self, in fact—and pre-

"Come, come!” he said aloud, with a tending to enter the Sanatorium. Even if

laugh that was somewhat shaky. "This the truth had been suspected, the fact of

will never do.” hisacknowledged disguise (as the man he

Reseating himself on his bed of straw, was really impersonating) would have
he resolutely forced his thoughts into a completely baffled discovery and exposure.
different channel by reviewing the events The riddle of Dawker’s strange words
that had happened since his first arrival when he had paid his stealthy visit to
on Exmoor. The revelation that had Moor Lodge was now a riddle no longer.
identified Professor Felger with Ronnie He had found out that Ronnie and the
Brewster was like the beam of a search- professor were one and the same, and he
light focussed on those hitherto dark and was trying to make capital out of his dis-
mysterious crimes. Everything that had covery. Having failed with Hugh, he
confused and bewildered him was now so had attempted to blackmail Ronnie, and
clear that he marvelled how he had ever had been silenced for ever with a bullet.
been baffled. The seemingly supernatural But—Hugh saw it clearly now the fatal —
voice of the Terror, which he and Joan shot had been fired before Ronnie had
had heard in the library of Moor Lodge, rung up the police, the report which had
had come from Ronnie himself. The let- sounded while tire conversation was in
ter, making the assignation at the Devil’s progress being merely that of a blank
Cheesepress, which had so mysteriously cartridge which had been fired by Ronnie
appeared on the hall-stand, had been left for the purpose of establishing his own
there by the same man, who, he remem- alibi. Afterward he had thrown the
bered now, had been the last to leave the weapon out of the window into the front
house. Ronnie, too, had been in the vicin- garden, where it had been found by Joan
ity of the Cheesepress when Hugh had just previous to her arrest. There never
been attacked, and he had been careful to had been a third actor in that midnight
get rid of the inconvenient presence of drama, the story of a "slightly built youth
Sergeant Jopling before the appointed like a girl in man’s clothes” being but a
hour. Now he could understand how his cunning attempt to cast suspicion on Joan.
so-called friendhad been able to appear Nor had Ronnie’s ingenuity ended there,
on the scene so promptly after he, Hugh, for after Inspector Renshaw had pretend-
had been felled senseless to the ground. ed to arrest the girl, Ronnie had con-
It was no mystery, now, how Ronnie trived to convince both Hugh and Ser-
had managed to find the hidden door geant Jopling that the detective was none
leading to Marie’s laboratory. And of other than Professor Felger in disguise.
course was he who had held Hugh up
it Hugh Trenchard held the master-clue
at the pistol’s point and demanded the at But at what a price had his
last.

key of the safe. Afterward it would have knowledge been bought! The readiness
been a simple thing for a man with Ron- and completeness with which Professor
nie’s medical training to fake a chloro- Felger had thrown off his mask was in it-
form attack, feign unconsciousness, and self an ominous sign. Never would he
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 79

have revealed his real identity unless he "Can’t you let me have a gun?” he
was sure that his secret would soon be begged.
buried in the grave. A man who had al- "I’m afraid I can’t,” returned the detec-
ready taken two lives to attain his purpose, tive. "I’ve loaned my shooter to Miss
would he be likely to shrink from a third Endean —maybe she’ll be needing it even
victim, when that victim knew as much as worse than you.”
Hugh Trenchard? "Joan! Surely she has not ventured
Thus far proceeded Hugh’s train of into this place?”
thought. Then, like an overstrained harp- "She surely has,” came the whispered
string, it Out of the
snapped abruptly. reply from above. "You’ll never find
surrounding blackness, with no sound of that girl shirking her duty because of a
gliding footstep or rustling movement to bit of peril. Why, she’s been carrying her
herald its coming, Hugh felt the touch of life in her hands for three months.”
cold steel on his bare, upturned throat. "Her duty?” gasped Hugh. "Did you
say her duty?”
29 "I did, and I’ll say more. The girl you
know as Joan Endean is really the daugh-
nstinctively he threw up his hand ter of Sir Arnold Edgeworth, the chief of
I and grabbed at the hovering weapon, the British Secret Service, and she’s one
but to his utter amazement it receded be- of the smartest investigators on the job.
neath his touch, as though it were float-
She was sent down here not so much to
ing in the air. Hugh wrenched his flash-
secure the secret formula for our Govern-
light from his pocket, slid the switch, and
ment as to prevent it falling into the
the mystery w as explained. The steel that
hands of a possible enemy. I thought you’d
had touched his throat was the blade of a queer her game unless you kept away
file which dangled at the end of a long
from her, so I pitched you the yarn that
cord from a small round opening in the
vaulted roof. Nor was this all. Looking
she was known to the police —which was
quite true, though not in the usually un-
down at him through the circular aperture derstood sense. She’s got nerve, has that
was the familiar face of Detective-Inspec-
tor Renshaw of Scotland Yard.
girl —she even got herself certified as a
lunatic in order to get inside that Sana-
"Snap off that light!” came the detec- torium of Felger’s. But things got too
tive’s urgent command in a whisper just warm and she was forced to make her es-
loud enough to reach the ears of the cape with her task unfinished. She’s back
shackled man. When Hugh had obeyed, again now, though, and I’m willing to bet
he went on rapidly. "Get busy with that she’ll put 'paid’ to Felger’s long overdue
file, and work as you have never worked account before she quits the house.”
before. Felger may be in on you at any "How did you find that trap-door in
moment. you can manage to saw
If the roof there?”
through before he comes,
your chain "She discovered that when she was here
spring on him the moment he enters and last. They used it for the purpose of low-
take him by surprize. It’s your only ering food to the Terror when he was
chance.” stabled down there. But there’s no time
With unsteady fingers Hugh untied the for talk. Work at that chain of yours,
cord,which Renshaw immediately pulled and work as though you were working for
up. your life.”
 • 5

80 WEIRD TALES
Hugh Trenchard needed no further iron against his blistered palm. Back-
urging. Any form of exercise was a posi- —
ward forward. Backward
tive relief after his long spell of enforced, Above the low, rhythmical grind of steel
nerve-sapping inaction. Making a swift against steel, another and different sound
circuit of the stone pillar, so that the came to Hugh Trenchard’s ears. It was
tautened was forced against the
chain the noise of heavy bolts being drawn, and
masonry as immovably as if it were in the only too well he knew that it heralded the
jaws of a vise, he plied the file with a return of Professor Felger. Desperately
fierce joy. It was awkward at first, work- he exerted his whole strength on the
ing in the dark, but as soon as the ser- chain, but the half-severed link still held
rated edge of the tool had bitten the first firmly. His labor had been in vain!
slightgroove the absence of light did not Hastily thrusting the file into his pock-
trouble him much. For a full hour he et and throwing straw over the telltale
worked without pause, until the continu- heap of filings, he seated himself in such
ous friction of his fevered strokes had a position as to conceal with his body the
made the blade of the file too hot to be held portion of the chain on which he had been
by the naked hand. Yet the notch in the working, resting his bowed head on his
was the result of his
steel chain link, that hand in an attitude of dejection that was
labor,seemed disappointingly slight. Bare- not wholly assumed. The knowledge
ly a quarter of the tough steel had been that he had been so near tofreedom made
sawn through. At the same rate of prog- his failure all the harder to bear. Yet,
ress it would take him another three even in the bitterness of heart which that
hours to complete his task. knowledge brought, Trenchard’s keen
But he had no intention of giving up. ears did not fail to note that the man who
Two minutes’ rest was all he allowed him- had entered had not re-fastened the door
self as a respite for his cramped and ach- behind him. If only he could convey that
ing arm. Then he once again seized the intelligence to Inspector Renshaw or Joan!
file and resumed his monotonous task. She, at least, was armed, and
Backward and forward backward and —
forward went the file, its short, sharp, ood evening, Doctor Trenchard.”
grinding strokes sounding with the VJ The smooth accents of Professor
mechanical regularity of a steam-driven Felger cut into his thoughts. Standing
piston rod, and at every stroke tiny grains well beyond the limit of the chain, his
of the disintegrated steel went to swell the captor was regarding him with a mocking
little shining heap at the foot of the pil- smile. "So our noble hero is growing
lar. Ifhad not been for these indica-
it despondent? Curious —
is it not? what —
tions he might have doubted whether he an inferiority complex can be induced in
was making any progress at all. Hope a naturally rebellious spirit by such a sim-
and fear alternately possessed his mind as ple thing as a chain. I fancy those Nor-
he w'orked at his task—seemingly as end- man barons of bygone ages possessed a
less as the labors of Sisyphus. much greater insight into psychology than
Backward —forward . backward—
. . we give them credit for, when they com-
forward. Backward —though cramped his pelled their serfs to wear a collar as the
muscles felt though they were
as con- symbol of servitude. It is a fascinating
stricted by iron bands. Forward — though study, this strange influence which a few
the handle of the tool felt like a searing steel links have over the mental outlook of
W. T.—
 6 —

THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 81

the man on whom they are riveted, and I you do not appreciate its full beauty — yet!

can but regret that I can not demonstrate Wait until the basin is full of water: then
it more fully just now. For one thing, I’ll show you something. Nothing alarm-

there will not be time; for another, it ing, my dear sir, nothing alarming
would be profitless to enlighten a mind merely a little demonstration of centrif-
which will soon be incapable of appreci- ugal force.”
ating any knowledge. Still, I can accom- When the water had reached the brim
modate you with some light of a more of the shallow basin and was beginning
material nature.” to escape through the drainage holes
Professor Felger raised his hand to a which had evidently been placed near the
switch that had hitherto escaped Hugh’s rim to prevent it overflowing, Felger
notice, and immediately a single electric withdrew his hand from his pocket, and
globe in the vaulted roof burst into radi- Hugh saw, with a sense of puzzled as-
ance, flooding the prison with its white tonishment, that it was grasping a globe
glare. of greenish glass about the size of an or-
"Presently you will understand my mo- dinary cricket ball.
tive in providing you with such an excel- Without a word, Felger leant over and
lent illumination,” went on,
Felger carefully placed the transparent sphere in
"though it is extremely doubtful whether the center of the tiny fountain, where it

you will thank me for it. But it is neces- remained dancing up and down in the
sary for the success of the coming enter- grip of the continuous stream, in precise-
tainment that you should have the fullest ly the same manner as the colored balls

use of your eyes.” which form elusive targets in some shoot-

Hugh Trenchard made no reply, but ing galleries.
his observant eyes did not fail to note “At first sight it seems impossible that
every one of the professor’s subsequent such an unstable force as a rapidly mov-
actions. And these were extraordinary ing column of water should be capable
enough to have merited attention, even if of neutralizing the weight of the ball, but
they had been enacted under less sinister such a condition is maintained only so
conditions. long as the ball is accurately balanced, as
Crossing to the center of the floor, he it were, in the center of the stream. When
stooped and lifted up a hinged circular the erratic movements of the ball carry it

slab of stone, revealing a sunken, funnel- sufficiently to one side, it topples over
”
shaped basin, in the middle of which was as it is about to do now
a brass nozzle. The professor reached As he spoke the ball’s downward path
down and turned a tap, and immediately failed to bring it within the power of the
a fine jet of water sprang from the noz- jet, and it fell with a little splash into the

zle, ascending about a yard into the air water in the basin. Professor Felger
before curving outward like a glittering chuckled softly as he saw the bewilder-
plume and falling in a shower of tiny ment reflected on Hugh Trenchard’s face.
drops into the surrounding basin. Profes- Rack his brains as he might, Hugh failed
sor Felger straightened and stood with his to grasp the meaning of this seemingly
hands in his pockets watching it with an senseless piece of child’s-play.
expression of placid satisfaction. "Oh, our little game is not finished by
"A pretty contrivance, is it not?” he re- any means,” Felger went on. "Having
marked at length. "I fear, however, that fallen into the water, the centrifugal
W. T.—
82 WEIRD TALES
force once more comes into play, bringing Felger’s eyebrows flickered upward in
the little ball nearer and ever nearer the an expression of mild surprize.
jet in the center, until at last the upward "My dear sir, your — —your
er little or-

much
——
stream catches it and once more sends it deal has not so as begun so far. As
merrily aloft. So for my taking you at your word, and kill-

Again the gleaming sphere began its ing you offhand, that— considering the
dance in the air, again it escaped from the novel means I intend to employ —would
stream and fell, only to be again caught be far too risky to my own life. When at
and whirled upward. Not a word was last you quit this earthly vale of tears
spoken by either of the men as they that is the nicest way of putting
I it that
watched the process repeated time after can call to mind on the sour of the mo-
—
j.

time, until, a chance spurt of the fountain ment I shall be far away from here.
having sent the ball a trifle higher than Knowing how completely I have succeed-
usual, it rebounded, not into the water- ed in fooling everybody connected with
filled basin, but onto the stone floor, this case, you may well believe that I have
where it was shattered in pieces. not overlooked the obvious precaution of
"And that, my dear Doctor Trenchard, securing for myself what is vulgarly
is the whole point of this little demonstra- termed 'a slick get-away.’ Long before the
tion. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred little ball has finished its last gavotte, I

the glass ball will be precipitated into the shall be beyond the coasts of England.
basin,where the water will break its fall Nor will I travel alone, for I shall have a

and enable it to reach the jet again. But very beautiful and interesting companion
the hundredth time it will be projected in the lady whom you have hitherto
beyond the rim of the basin and will shat- known as Miss Joan Endean.”
ter itself on the stone. On this particular "You’ll find your science is at fault
occasion it has taken exactly nineteen and there!” Hugh cried with a ringing laugh.
one quarter minutes before the smash "Joan would rather die a thousand deaths
came. But my previous experiments have than allow you to lay your filthy hands on
shown that there is a great divergence in her. She knows you for what you really
the various times which elapsed before the are.”
end came. Sometimes the ball would "Indeed?” The professor’s tone ex-
dance uninjured for over an hour; some- pressed no more than the tolerance with
times it would be shattered in a few which one may explain an obvious thing
minutes. It is pure chance whether it to an unruly child. "But have you stopped
takes seconds or hours. It is, in vulgar to ask yourself how long she will continue
parlance, just a gamble. As far as you are to know me for what I am? An injection
concerned, Hugh Trenchard, it’s going to of a few drops of the memory-stealing
be a gamble with death!” Datura obliterare, and both my past mis-
A cold sweat broke out on the forehead deeds, as well as the all-important formula
of the fettered captive. There was a suave of the detonating gas, will be wiped from
and devilish malignancy in the coldly pre- her mind. As for yourself, she will be
cise voice of Professor Felger that was utterly unconscious that such a person as
more terrifying than any blustering threat. Hugh Trenchard has ever existed.”
"Speak out like a man — if you call “'You devil!” raged Hugh, vainly strain-
yourself one!” cried Hugh. "Why don’t ing at his chain. "You fiendish devil!”
you kill me now, and end this torture?” “Spare your mouthings,” said Felger in
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 83

a voice of cold contempt. "I have the that leaped and gyrated under the impulse
same dislike that every possessor of a of the glittering stream which issued from
scientific mind has of mere empty forms the nozzle of the fountain. Suddenly he
of speech. Be silent! and listen to me. bit his lip to restrain a cry of horror. The
The glass ball with which I conducted the ball had missed the propelling jet of
last experiment was, of course, empty. water. With widened eyes he followed its
But this” —
he carefully drew another downward plunge, and a gasp of relief
from his pocket and held it aloft for escaped him as he saw it fall into the water
Hugh’s inspection —
"this one, I say, which bubbled in the basin below. Yet it
though to all intents and purposes its had missed the stone margin by less than
very counterpart, contains a concentrated an inch. The narrowness of his escape
liquid solution of the detonating gas in- from death roused him to the necessity of
vented by the late Silas Marie. Before I immediate action, for only too well did he
leave this room I shall place this glass know that the slightest impact of the glass
sphere on the jet of the fountain —and ball against a solid substance would mean
you shall stand there, chained, and watch the shattering of the frail envelope, the
it dance. And when it ceases to dance, release of the imprisoned gas, and
you will cease to live! For the moment then
the glass is shattered, the gas will en- He felt no inclination to follow his
velop you, changing your living tissues speculations any further, nor was there
into a deadly explosive, converting you anything to be gained by so doing. While
into a human grenade that will blow your life remained to him he must try his best
soul to eternity!” to circumvent the deep-laid plot of the
With a swift but precise movement, he scientist whose misapplied genius had
placed the gas-filled sphere on the leap- evolved that elaborate and diabolical ap-
ing fountain, then swiftly crossed the floor. paratus of death. Henceforward "Work”
At the door he paused and looked around. must be his watchword. Now or never
"Farewell, Hugh Trenchard!” he cried must he exert his wits and muscles, or
with a mocking salute. "Let me wish you before long they would be stilled forzever
a swift and pleasant journey into the by the fate which must inevitably over-
Great Unknown. My forthcoming jour- take him if he delayed.
ney with your sweetheart will not be so With an effort of will he tore his gaze
swift as yours, but it will be more pleas- from the which had justrre-
glittering ball
ant, and there will be more certainty as commenced mazy dance in the air, and,
its

to the destination. Any last message for pulling the file from his pocket, he ap-
the fair Joan? No? Then it only remains plied it to the stubborn steel of his chain.
for me to give you my parting benedic- He had worked hard before, but now he
tion. Requiescat in pace!" plied the tool with the frenzy of a mad-
The door slammed. Hugh Trenchard man, for he knew that he was striving for
was alone with the dancing globe of something even more precious than life
death. itself. Joan —
his Joan! —
was in the clutch

30
—
of that scheming villain even now she
might be vainly calling on him for the aid
or several minutes Hugh Trenchard that he would willingly have sacrificed his
F stood rigid and motionless, staring as life to give. The maddening thought
if hypnotized at the tiny sphere of glass nerved his flagging muscles to even great-
84 WEIRD TALES
er effort. The blade of the file grew hot Still no aud-
the mysterious visitant gave
beneath the continued friction of his Hugh was
ible sign of his presence; yet

frenzied strokes. handle became moist

Its some one had entered and was
certain that

and slippery with the blood which oozed watching him from the shadows.
unheeded from his raw and blistered Who had come to him, and for what
palm. But the steady grind of steel on purpose? Was he about to be confronted
steel continued without pause or falter, with a friend or a foe?
and accompanying it—a grim reminding Hugh’s straining eyes searched the
spur to his efforts —
was the musical purl- depths of the gloom that clustered about
ing of the fountain which, like a pretty the farther end of his prison, and at length
child innocently playing with a deadly his gaze was concentrated on a patch of
bomb, alternately tossed and caught the darker shadow which seemed to have
gleaming ball of death. shifted slightly. The next moment the
Suddenly another sound came to Hugh new-born hope was dead in his heart.
Trenchard’s ears. From the direction of From the shrouding darkness two faintly
the hidden door came the slow, stealthy luminous eyes were watching him fixedly.
creaking of ponderous bolts being with- Transfixed, Hugh stood motionless, his
drawn. Again he whipped the file back brain almost giving way beneath its

into his pocket and threw himself on the weight of horror as he realized that, alone,
straw at the base of the column. A thou- unarmed, and shackled to a chain of steel,
sand wild thoughts seethed in his brain. he was at last face to face with the dread-
Was it the professor returning? Scarcely ed Terror of the Moor!
that, for he would have no need to exer-
cise caution in his approach.
the idea of Felger’s return from
knitted his brows in
He
him and
thought. The next
thrust
T
terror.
hen ensued a spell of unbroken
silence that
This last
was thick with unspoken
blow of Fate crushed the
instant he was on his feet, his heart beat- last vestiges of hope from Hugh Trench-
ing a wild tattoo, his brain humming with ard’s heait. A wave of utter despair
the reaction as despair gave place to re- almost swamped his reason —but with it

turning hope. came that desperate courage that born is

Until that moment he had completely of despair. Forcing his horror-frozen fea-
forgotten that Inspector Renshaw was in- tures into a smile, he called to the in-
side that house of mystery. Who else visible apparition.
would be likely to seek him out except "Jake!”
the man from Scotland Yard? Filled with Another, shorter pause, then:
a certitude that his deliverance was near, "Who are you?” said the deep, boom-
Hugh Trenchard raised his voice in a joy- ing voice that Hugh had heard on the
ous shout. Moor.
“Help, help! This way, inspector! "Your friend, I hope” —
never had
Come right in, and hurry. Help!” Hugh spoken with such heartfelt convic-
But no cheery answering cry came from tion as when he voiced that wish “but at
—
the gloom which shrouded the door. The least I am a companion in misfortune.
second bolt was drawn with the same Come nearer, Jake. I want to talk to
slow caution as the first. Then came the you.”
creaking of hinges as the heavy door was There was a slight, hesitant pause, and
opened, and, after a pause, closed again. then there emerged into the circle of bril-
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 85

liance castby the shaded lamp a creature the question. Everything depended on
so extraordinary and bizarre that it seemed keeping the Terror in his present state of
more like the grotesque fantasm of a quiescence.
hashish-dream than an organism of actual "What pretty lady?” he asked in as
flesh and blood. It was the upper portion casual a tone as he could assume.
of a man’s body united to the body of a pretty lady who was upstairs. I
"The
large stag!
—
found her hiding for Jake can see in the
In his secret heart Hugh Trenchard dark, —
you know- and she would have shot
had flatly disbelieved Professor Felger’s me with a shiny pistol w'hich she had.
boast respecting the unparalleled opera- But I told her that I was her friend and
tion by which he had kept alive the mu- would not hurt so much as one of her
tilated body of Silas Marie’s victim, but golden hairs. And as we talked the Mas-
here, standing before his eyes, was the liv- ter came and seized her from behind, and
ing proof. And as he looked, his wonder took away her pistol. He carried her
gave place to an ungrudging admiration away, but he told me she would soon
of the surgical skill of the man who had come back to me. Then I could teach her
accomplished such an apparent impossi- all about the moors, and the forests, and
bility. The co-ordination of movement the secret paths through the bogs and
between the muscles of the man and beast marshes; show her the deep stone caves
was perfect; his actions had an easy nat- in the hearts of the tors, and the mossy
uralness that was amazing. There could dells where the wild-flowers grow. For I
be no question of deception, for the man’s am the Monarch of the Moors, and they
body was bare, and Hugh could see dis- have no secrets from me!” A transient
tinctly where the human skin merged into gleam cf his old fierceness flashed in his
the reddish-brown hide of the deer. Ex- eyes as he threw back his head, but it van-
cept that the animal portion was that of a ished as he went on plaintively: "Where
stag instead of a horse, the composite has the pretty lady gone to? Do you
creature exactly resembled the centaurs know?”
which are depicted in sculpture in the Trenchard’s brain had been working
famous frieze of the ancient Greek Par- feverishly during the foregoing speech.
thenon at Athens. Small wonder that such
Beyond a doubt Jake was referring to
a monster had gained the title of "The
Joan Endean, and Hugh could well imag-
Terror of the Moor”! ine with what fantastic promises the wily
Yet, despite his terrifying aspect, there professor had kept him quiet while he
was nothing fierce in the creature’s de- effected his escape with the girl. Maybe
meanor. He came forward slowly, his it would be possible to turn this creature’s
chin sunk upon his massive chest, an ex- whim to some account.
pression of sadness that was piteous in its
"Yes,” he nodded. "I think I know
hopelessness delineated on his weather-
who has taken her.”
tanned features. His first w’ords seemed
unexpected change.
"Who?” demanded Jake, clenching his
to give the key to this
hands and bracing his arms until the
"Where is the pretty lady?” he asked in
great muscles stood out. "Tell me who!”
a fretful tone. "Who has taken her
away?” "Before I tell you, you must do some-

With an effort Hugh suppressed the thing for me,” Hugh bargained.

awful train of thought which started at "Anything — only tell me.”

 •

88 WEIRD TALES
Hugh Trenchard pointed to the danc- tion. If Felger was already in die air, all
ing glass globe. hope of a successful pursuit would be
"Gatch that pretty ball —but very, very over. Then would Joan be lost to him in-
carefully —and hand it to me.” deed! Hoping against hope, he turned
But the half-witted creature turned With a quick question.
away with a petulant gesture. "Where does the Master keep his bird-
"Jake does not want to play with a ball machine? In this house?”
— he wants to find the pretty lady.” "No,” Jake shook his head. "It is hid-
Trenchard’s heart sank. It would be den in a cave on Cow Castle. But yester-
hopeless to attempt to convey to that day we got it out and I helped to feed it
primitive intelligence the deadly possi- for its journey.”
bilities of that glittering ball. Yet at any "Feed it?” It was some seconds before
moment the thing might shatter and bring the puzzled Hugh grasped the meaning of
death to both. Mastering his chagrin, he the queer expression. Petrol for the en-
uttered an approving laugh. gine —of course that was what the simple-
"Quite right! — this is no time to play. minded lad meant. Felger had been fill-

The pretty lady needs our help, and we ing the tanks for a long journey. He in-

must follow her at once. But” — he went tended to start from his secret hangar on
on, silencing the other’s eager exclamation
— "the wicked man Cow Castle —would it be possible to reach
who has stolen her that spot before he took off?
away has also chained me up so that I can Cae Castle (to give it its correct desig-
not show you where she is. Help me to nation, the "Cow” being merely a local
break this chain and I will lead you to corruption) was well known to Hugh
her.” Trenchard—as indeed it must be to every
Without a single word Jake advanced lover of Exmoor. Lying about five miles
to where Hugh stood. Seizing the slack northwest of the village of Withypool,
of the chain with both hands, he put forth near where the Sheardon Water joins the
the strength of his mighty muscles, brac- River Barle, three circular hills rise from
ing his hoofed feet on the uneven floor the floor of the valley, the loftiest of
and throwing his immense weight on the which is the "castle” in question. But it
chain with a sudden jerk. The weakened is a castle without battlements or even the
link parted like a strand of pack-thread. crumbling remnants of stone walls. The
Hugh Trenchard was free at last! name is a mere tradition which has been
handed down unbroken from the prehis-
T was the work of a moment to catch toric days when this eminence was a
I the gas-charged ball and transfer it stronghold of the ancient Britons. The
safely to an inner pocket. Then he turned only remaining traces of its former war-
to his new-found ally. like use are the earthen rampart,nowhere
"You know Professor Felger?” more than ten feet high, and the shallow
The creature nodded eagerly. "Yes, he depression which marks the course of the
is my Master.” ancient fosse. Measured in a direct line,
"Where is he?” its distance from the Torside Sanatorium
"He is going to fly away in a bird- was but a trifle under eight miles, but —
machine,” was the unhesitating answer. and at the thought Hugh’s heart began to
An airplane? Hugh
Trenchard bit his beat high with returning hope there was —
lip. Here was an unexpected complica- no direct road between the two places, and
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 87

such roads as existed in the Valley of the muscles of the mighty haunches would
Barle were little better than mere tracks, bunch together for a spring, and the next
strewn with rocks and, in places, mere moment it would be flying through the
quagmires. air like an arrow, in a leap that would

he but had a good horse between his

If easily have cleared a five-barred gate.

legs he might be able to beat Felger yet. But if the going was hard, the pace was
A horse? He looked at the clean-molded hot. Breathless, and not a little concerned
limbs of the great man-animal which about the safety of his neck, Hugh clung
stood by his side; and in it he saw the final on like grim death and saw the nearer
answer to his problem. Here, ready to details of the landscape streaming past
hand, eager and willing, was as swift a him like a badly operated cinema film.
mount as any man could desire. Mounted But on and on went his nightmare steed,
on the back of the erstwhile Terror of the swift as the wind and seemingly as tire-
Moor, he could yet snatch victory from less. Now the great hoofs would be
the very jaws of defeat! cleaving the long grass with a gentle
In a few words he explained his plan swishing sound; now they would be rat-

to Jake, and to his joy he found him no tling over loose shingle or bare, naked
less eager than himself. rock; now splashing through some shal-

"Yes, yes,” cried the cloven-hoofed low stream; now muffled in a ghost-like
centaur as they ascended the stairs and swoop over green cushions of spongy
emerged into the open. "I know a hun- moss. Once the sure-footed beast thread-

dred paths and tracks known only to the ed an apparently non-existent ledge across
great herds of deer of which I am the the face of a dizzy crag, where a single
King. Mount on my back. Mount, and false step would have hurled both to in-
away!” stant death. Once they found their prog-
The man-beast crouched on the ground ress barred by a wide, rushing river —one
to let Hugh bestride his broad back. An of the lower readies of the Barle. But
instant later he was on his
and gal- feet the cloven-footed steed dived with a
loping straight across the wild Moor, mighty plunge which sent the water
pointing with unerring instinct straight to splashing in a myriad glistening jewels,
his goal. ^ breasting the swift current with gallant
strokes until, panting, dripping, but re-

H ugh was no
rider, and it
expert
took
before he found a secure seat on his
bare-backed
him some time
freshed by
up the
breakneck pace.
its

farther
ice-cold bath, it

bank and resumed the

scrambled

novel steed. It was only by sitting well Disdaining to use the little rustic bridge
forward, racing-fashion, and grasping the —which would have meant a detour of a
long, coarse hair of the stag’s withers few hundred — yards the stag again took
that he avoided being thrown. For the water, and when it emerged, Hugh, dash-
going was certainly rough, consisting as ing the water from his eyes, saw rising
it did of a series of lightning-like bounds, from the valley of the river, isolated and
occasionally varied with a sharp, chopping forbidding, the towering mass of the pre-
gallop. The beast seemed to be in the air historic stronghold.
far more frequently than on the ground. The Terror halted and, for the first

There would be a few minutes of fairly time since the beginning of that night-
steady progress over the heather; then the mare ride, spoke:
88 WEIRD TALES
"Look!” he said, pointing. method by
tried in vain to ascertain the
Half-way up the slope of the hill, two which the stag-man guided his course. A
twin stars had appeared, winding slowly hundred times he turned and twisted to
upward to the summit. It needed no sec- avoid some jutting boulder or impassable
ond glance for Hugh to recognize them crag. But his track, though necessarily
as the headlights of Felger's car. He was devious, was ever in the same direction,
nearing his destination, while they had and always it headed upward. Whether
still the steep slope of the mountain to he trusted to blind instinct, or whether his
climb. nightly roaming of the Moor had made
Now would the muscles and sinews of him familiar with the approach to the
the Terror of the Moor be put to their isolated hill, Hugh could not determine.
final test. It would be a matter of seconds But never once did the Terror have to re-
whether they arrived just in time or — trace his steps. Again and again they
just too late. reached a place whence it seemed as if no
living creature, other than a bird, could
31 proceed another foot. But always the
tark, grim, mysterious, the ancient Terror managed to surmount or circum-
S hill-fortress loomed before them, vent the obstacle and mount to heights

seemingly as impregnable as it had been dizzier still.

in the ages before the trumpet-blare of At first Hugh could not help wonder-
the Roman legions had echoed from its ing why Jake did not take the easier
rock-bound slopes. And even now, when gradient which Felger was following in
the skin-dad, blue-painted wielders of the car. But on glancing to the right he
bow and spear, who had manned its ram- saw the reason. They were almost on a
parts in the dim, far-off past, were now level with the white glare of the head-
moldering dust, it was still a place of lights. Jake was counting on the more
considerable natural strength. Its broad direct, though more dangerous, route to
summit, 1,400 feet in circumference, bring him to the summit before the ar-
stood over two thousand feet above the rival car. Yet it was clear that the
of the
level of the sea. Except where the rough final spurtwould be a race neck to neck.
road had appropriated the easiest inclines Hampered as he was by Hugh's weight
of approach, its sides were steep enough on his back, the iron endurance of the
to daunt the heart of the boldest rider. Terror was beginning to flag at last. His
But the Terror of the Moor appeared breath grew labored, his movements slow-
to feel no qualms. Stooping over the er, the shaggy hair to which Hugh clung

shelving bank of the stream, he drank was soaked in sweat.

deeply of the ice-cold water, as though "Let me get off and follow as best I

well aware of the ordeal that lay before can,” Hugh urged as he noted these signs.
him; then, without pause or hesitation, he The Terror shook his head impatiently.
set off with undiminished speed. The "You would go to your death without
narrow space of level ground was covered my guidance,” he gasped. "Set your
in a flash, and they were at the foot of a weight well forward on my shoulders,
hill so vast that its bulk seemed to blot hold tight, and trust to me. I’ll make it
out the stars above. Then the nerve-rack- yet!”
ing ascent began. And make it he did, though by the
Hugh Trenchard, keenly on the alert. bare margin of a chance-gripped root
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 89

which held firm when a crumbling ledge lamps. Hugh could see that her head was
of rode disintegrated into a shower of cas- held fearlessly and proudly erect, as if

cading fragments beneath their combined she realized the peril of her position and
weight. Spent and panting, Jake drew was resolved to face it without flinching.
himself over the brow of the cliff and lay, "You have won so far, Professor Lu-
safe indeed, but for the time being pros- cien Felger,” she said in a voice that
trate with sheer exhaustion. And at the never quivered. "You may even succeed
same moment the headlights of Felger’s in fordng me to accompany you wherever
car came into sight on the farther side of you may be bound. But rest assured that
the plateau, and by their light Hugh saw your triumph will extend no further. You
the outlines of a small monoplane stand- will have to travel very far indeed before
ing fadng a gap in the earthen rampart, you can reach a land where the extradi-
apparently in readiness for an immediate tion laws do not hold good a much —
flight. farther distance, in fact, than you could
Naturally the professor antidpated safely cover in a machine as small as the
finding the plateau deserted, and there one you have here. And do you think that I
was no attempt at concealment in his ac- will remain silent after we have landed?
tions. Alighting from the car, he opened If you do, then you must be mad indeed!
the reardoor and lifted out an inert I know you for what you are, and I will
body. The blood began to throb quickly proclaim your guilt from the housetops.
in Hugh Trenchard’s temples as he saw There are few towns in Europe from
thatit was Joan, bound hand and foot. which one can not get into touch with a
Keeping in the shadows, he began to British consul. After I have had ten min-
creep forward, his hand caressing the utes’ conversation with one, your career
smooth surface of the deadly gas-bomb in will be ended.”
his pocket.
Professor Felger’s shoulders lifted in
Apparently Felger dedded that the
an elaborate shrug.
bonds had served their purpose, for
girl’s
"That would be deplorable —would it
he drew a knife from his pocket and
quickly severed them.
not? — for a man with such gifts as I pos-
sess to end his career on a vulgar British
"We have a long journey before us,
gallows, like any common, uneducated
my dear,’’Hugh heard him say, "and I
crook.” Suavely as he spoke, there was a
shall be too busily occupied to do that
cold, rasping ring in the words. "But,
after we have once taken off from the
fortunately, that is not likely to happen.
ground. But pray do not let your free-
Oh,” he gave a bark of laughter, "I have
dom lead you into a foolish attempt to
not the slightest doubt of your perfect
escape. You and I are the only two peo-
readiness to denounce me, as you threat-
ple in the world who know the secret of
ened, but you must realize that in order
the detonating gas, and thus you are
to detail my crimes to your most estima-
doubly predous in my eyes. Come now,
ble British consul, you must first be able
will you enter that airplane of your own
to remember them."
accord, or shall I have to tie you up
again?”
A faint smile dawned on Joan En-
dean’s features.
oan rose to her feet and faced him, "Remember them?” she echoed. "Soon-
J her slender figure outlined blackly er than I would forget them, I would for-
against the fierce white glare of the head- get my own identity!”
90 WEIRD TALES
"Indeed?” purred Felger. "There is In his rage and indignation he had
many a true word spoken in jest, Miss quite forgotten that he was unarmed; but
Endean, and even such an apparent im- it was not long before he was reminded
possibility as the one you have just men- of it. Twisting like an eel, Felger
tioned may come to pass. Have you for- wrenched an automatic from his pocket
gotten that I hold the secret of the so- and promptly covered him.
called Apple of Lethe —the tincture of "Stick ’em up, curse you!” he rasped,
which memory without leaving
steals the rising to his feet without shifting his
so much behind? One little in-
as a trace aim. "So you’ve managed to dodge the
jection, and your mind will become as globe of gas, eh? Well, I’ve a few words
a clean sheet of paper on which I can to say to you before I dispatch you in a
write as I will.” manner which will not fail. Up with
In spite of her courage the girl re- ’em!”
coiled.

"No, no! you would not dare

"Dare?” he repeated, and Hugh saw
”
H ugh’s hands were already in the air,
and Felger’s lips drew back in a
he saw the promptness of
tigerish grin as
that his countenancehad taken on such a
the movement. But the next moment the
diabolical look as he never thought a
grin vanished, to give place to a stare of
human face was capable of. "You shall
gaping fear. Poised in Hugh’s right hand
see how much I will dare to ensure my-
was the deadly glass ball which contained
self being the sole possessor of the secret
the detonating gas!
of Marie’s detonating gas!”
He darted forward as he spoke and you not to fire, Pro-
"I strongly advise

seized her wrist in an iron grip. Disre-

fessor,” warned the young man quietly.
garding her struggles, he brought for- "If you do, there will be more victims
than one. Probably you recognize the
ward his left hand, and Hugh caught the
glass ball which I hold in my hand? In
silvery glint of a poised hypodermic
syringe.
that case it is needless for me to explain
to you what will happen if I let it drop
At the sight of the imminent peril of
the girl he loved, all Hugh Trenchard’s
on the rock at my feet. And you may
carefully pre-arranged plan
rest assured that I shall drop it the mo-
of action
scattered like chaff before the wind. Like
ment you fire.”

an avenging fury he bore down on the

“And doom the girl you love to cer-
tain death?” sneered the professor.
struggling pair; his clenched fist shot out
like a battering-ram. But Felger heard "A clean and certain death is prefer-

the quick footfalls on the rocky ground, able a thousand times to the living death

and, releasing the girl, tried to dodge. which you intended to inflict on her,”
Had- Hugh’s blow found its intended Hugh answered sternly.
mark on the point of the other man’s "Yes, yes!” Joan cried eagerly. "And
chin, the fight would have been ended. if my death will save the soldiers of my
But Felger’s sudden movement made the country from being exposed to the gas

blow land on his shoulder, sending him that would turn them into living bombs,
sprawling backward on the ground. I shall at least not have died in vain!”
"Take that, you swine!” cried Hugh A long pause of silence followed her
in a voice of thunder. "You have a man words. Baffled by this unexpected turn,
to deal with now!” Felger stood biting his thin lips, his eyes
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 91

alternately searching the faces of the man ran past the spot where Hugh and Joan
and the girl. But in neither could he read were standing, their figures starkly out-
the slightest sign of fear or irresolution. lined against the headlamps of the car,
His crafty brain was not slow in recog- Felger levelled his automatic and emptied
nizing the fact that he had failed when its contents at the pair in one long,
success was almost within his grasp. treacherous fusillade.
Slowly, reluctantly, he lowered the muz- But Hugh was prepared. Not for one
zle of his weapon. instant had he thought that the outwitted
‘'Stalemate!” he said with the air of a spy would accept defeat without one last
veteran gambler who sees his stake bid for victory, and this was precisely the
raked in. form that Hugh had anticipated his
Hugh Trenchard shook his head vengeance would take. It had not been
grimly. by chance that Hugh had taken his stand
"Checkmate — as far as you’re con- in front of the car, where his figure,

cerned,” he corrected. showing sharp and clear against the glare

“I think not,” said Felger coolly. "Life of the headlights, offered a tempting tar-

is too precious for heroics. Better call it a get. Now, at Felger’s first suspicious
drawn game. You take your girl, and movement with his pistol-hand, he
I’ll take the secret of the gas, and we’ll caught Joan in his arms and leapt aside,
call it quits.” allowing the dazzling white beams to
"Agreed!” cried Hugh, and so unex- shine full in the eyes of the perfidious
pected was his ready acceptance that Joan villain who had thus broken his word.
looked at him in surprize. Dazed, half blinded by the sudden
"But, Hugh ” she began to re- glare, Felger fired at random, one shot

monstrate, but he silenced her with a splintering the lens of a headlight, the

gesture. rest droning harmlessly away into the

darkness.
"Wait. Leave everything to me.”
Apparently Felger was only too glad As the first report rang out, Hugh
to agree to the truce. Without a word raised hishand and threw the gas-charged
he moved to the airplane and clambered globe into the rear cockpit of the moving
plane. He saw it drop out of sight be-
into the pilot’s cockpit. There he rapidly
hind the fuselage, but, owing to the noise
took from a locker a leather flying-helmet
and a pair of goggles, Hugh watching of the engines, he could not tell whether
his death-dealing missile had fallen in-
him closely the while.
Professor Felger settled himself in his
tact on the cushioned seat or shattered
against the woodwork.
seat and depressed the starting-lever, and
immediately the twin blades of the pro- Felger, all unconscious of his sinister

peller began to revolve. Its low hum- cargo, clicked over a lever and the air-

ming grew to a dull roar as the revolu- plane began to move with increasing
tions increased. The plane began to move speed toward the edge of the plateau. It

in its preliminary run along the ground was barely half-way across when Joan
before taking off, and it was not until suddenly gripped the arm of the man by
then that the thing happened for which her side.
Hugh Trenchard had been waiting. “Look!” she gasped, white and tremb-
Half turning in his seat as the plane ling. “The Terror of the Moor!”
92 WEIRD TALES
t was indeed the half-human monster. must have passed the coastline by
"It
I Huge, silent, menacing in his very now,” said Hugh, voicing his thoughts
”
bulk, he stood full in the path of the on- aloud. "That means
rushing plane, his four feet firmly Even as he spoke, a trail of glowing
planted on the ground, his dual bodies crimson leaped from the cloudless sky,
braced as though to withstand the coming and, after what seemed an interminable
shock. Calm and inexorable as some mis- interval, a dull, rending boom floated to
shapen Nemesis, the light of implacable their ears, as amid a tangled and twisted
hatred shining in his luminous eyes, he mass of wreckage the Terror of the Moor
must have appeared to the terror-stricken and the man whose misapplied genius
Felger like some phantom of retributive had brought it into being, together
justice, a Frankenstein monster about to flashed into flaming death.
wreak vengeance on the
his long-delayed Not until the last hissing fragment had
man who had brought him into existence. plunged into the distant sea did Hugh
Nearer and nearer came the whirling Trenchard break the silence.
propeller until it seemed as if the next "God grant that so may perish every
second would see the centaur stag scat- device that tends to man’s in-
foster
tered to the winds in shreds of mangled humanity against man,” he said gravely.
flesh. Then was that the Terror gath-
it "Amen,” murmured the girl by his
ered his mighty muscles and leapt. side. "A greater Power than our puny
Like a speeding arrow he rose from the efforts has decreed that tire secret of the
ground, not sideways, not backward, but dread gas shall remain to me
alone. But
forward, straight over the zooming I have no intention of parting with my

blades. He landed somewhere on the knowledge, for war is terrible enough

body of the plane. The two watchers had without such a fiendish method of
a fleeting glimpse of a confused mass of slaughter. If a day of conflict between
lashing hoofs and struggling human rival nations must dawn again, then let
limbs; then the inclined pinions of the clean fighting and the fortitude inspired
plane swooped itupward, and like an by a righteous cause be the arbiters
uncaged bird the machine rose and which confer victory or defeat. As far as
headed for the distant silver streak of the I am concerned, the secret of Marie’s
sea. formula shall remain a mystery for all
With set, expectant faces, Hugh and time.”
Joan waited and watched. Quickly the Clinging closely to him, she raised her
roar of the engine dwindled to a musical face to his, and in her radiant eyes Hugh
hum; the dark shadow of the plane itself Trenchard read the answer to the most
merged into the sable veil of the night. entrancing mystery of all.

[THE END]
 —

“Namirrha regarded the statue

grimly.”

Eidolon
By CLARK ASHTON SMITH
A powerful, vivid and eery tale of the tremendous doom that was
loosed upon the kingdom of Xylac by a
vengeful sorcerer

N ZOTHIQUE, the
Thasaidon, lord of seven hells
Wherein the single Serpent dwells.
With volumes drawn from pit to pit
Through fire and darkness infinite
Thasaidon, sun of nether skies,
O with the whiteness of
but was dim and tarnished as
last continent
of Earth, the sun no longer shone
its

if
prime,
with a
Thine ancient evil never dies, vapor of blood. New stars without num-
For aye thy somber fulgors flame ber had declared themselves in the heav-
On sunken worlds that have no name,
ens, and the shadows of the infinite had
Man's heart enthrones thee, still supreme,
Though the false sorcerers blaspheme.
fallen closer. And out of the shadows,

—The Song of Xeethra.

the older gods had returned to man: the
93
94 WEIRD TALES
gods forgotten since Hyperborea, since ling, he lay senseless for many hours,
Mu and Poseidonis, bearing other names while the people passed him by unheed-
but the same attributes. And the elder ing. And at last, regaining his senses, he
demons had also returned, battening dragged himself to his hovel; but he
on the fumes of evil sacrifice, and foster- limped a little thereafter all his days, and
ing again the primordial sorceries. the mark of one hoof remained like a
Many were the necromancers and ma- brand on his body, fading never. Later,
gicians of Zothique, and the infamy and he left Ummaos and was forgotten
marvel of their doings were legended quickly by its people. Going southward
everywhere in the latter days. But among into Tasuun, he lost his way in the great
them all there was none greater than desert, and was near to perishing. But
Namirrha, who imposed his black yoke finally he came to a small oasis, where
on the cities of Xylac, and later, in a dwelt the wizard Ouphaloc, a hermit who
proud delirium, deemed himself the veri- preferred the company of honest jackals
table peer of Thasaidon, lord of Evil. and hyenas to that of men. And Ouph-
Namirrha had built his abode in Um- aloc, seeing the great craft and evil in the
maos, the chief town of Xylac, to which starveling boy, gave succor to Narthos
he came from the desert realm of Tasuun and sheltered him. He dwelt for years
with the dark renown of his thauma- with Ouphaloc, becoming the wizard’s
turgies like a cloud of desert storm be- pupil and the heir of his demon-wrested
hind him. And no man knew that in com- lore. Strange things he learned in that
ing to Ummaos he returned to the city of hermitage, being fed on fruits and grain
his birth; for alldeemed him a native of that had sprung not from the watered
Tasuun. Indeed, none could have dreamt earth, and wine that was not the juice of
that the great sorcerer was one with the terrene grapes. And like Ouphaloc, he
beggar-boy, Narthos, an orphan of ques- became a master in devildom and drove
tionable parentage, who had begged his his own bond with the archfiend Thasai-
daily bread in the streets and bazars of don. When Ouphaloc died, he took the
Ummaos. Wretchedly had he lived, alone name of Namirrha, and went forth as a
and despised; and a hatred of the cruel, mighty sorcerer among the wandering
opulent city grew in his heart like a peoples and the deep-buried mummies of
smothered flame that feeds in secret, bid- Tasuun. But never could he forget the
ing the time when it shall become a con- miseries of his boyhood in Ummaos and
flagration consuming all things. the wrong he had endured from Zotulla;
through his boyhood
Bitterer always, and year by year he spun over in his
and was the spleen and ran-
early youth, thoughts the black web of revenge. And
cor of Narthos toward men. And one hisfame grew ever darker and vaster, and
day the prince Zotulla, a boy but little men feared him in remote lands beyond
older than he, riding a restive palfrey, Tasuun. With bated whispers they spoke
came upon him in the square before the of his deeds in the cities of Yoros, and
imperial palace; and Narthos implored in Zul-Bha-Sair, the abode of the ghoul-
an alms. But Zotulla, scorning his plea, ish deity Mordiggian. And long before
rode arrogantly forward, spurring the the coming of Namirrha himself, the
palfrey; and Narthos was ridden down people of Ummaos knew him as a fabled
and trampled under its hooves. And scourge that was direr than simoom or
afterward, nigh to death from the tramp- pestilence.
 THE DARK EIDOLON 95

Now, in the years that followed the ness; and afterward they brought a slum-
going-forth of the boy Narthos from Um- ber no less profound than the Lethe of
maos, Pithaim, the father of Prince Zo- the tomb. And one by one, as they drank,
tulla, was slain by the sting of a small the revellers fell down in the streets, the

adder that had crept into his bed for houses and gardens, as if a plague had
warmth on an autumn night. Some said struck them; and Zotulla slept in his ban-
that the adder had been purveyed by Zo- quet-hall of gold and ebony, with his
tulla, but this was a thing that no man odalisques and chamberlains about him.
could verily affirm. After the death of So, in all Ummaos, was no man or
there
Pithaim, Zotulla, being his only son, was woman wakeful at the hour when Sirius
emperor of Xylac, and ruled evilly from began to fall toward the west.
his throne in Ummaos. Indolent he was, Thus it was that none saw or heard the
and tyrannic, and full of strange luxuries coming of Namirrha. But awakening
and cruelties; but the people, who were heavily in the latter forenoon, the em-
also evil, acclaimed him in his turpitude. peror Zotulla heard a confused babble, a
So he prospered, and the lords of hell and troublous clamor of voices from such of
heaven smotehim not. And the red suns his eunuchs and women as had awakened
and ashen moons went westward over before him. Inquiring the cause, he was
Xylac, falling into that seldom-voyaged told that a strange prodigy had occurred
Sea, which,
if the mariners’ tales were during the night; but, being still bemused
true, poured evermore like a swiftening with wine and slumber, he comprehend-
river past the infamous isle of Naat, and ed little enough of its nature, till his
fell in a worldwide cataract upon nether favorite concubine, Obexah, led him to
space from the far, sheer edge of Earth. the eastern portico of the palace, from
Grosser still he grew, and his sins were which he could behold tire marvel with
as overswollen fruits that ripen above a his own eyes.
deep abyss. But the winds of time blew Now the palace stood alone at the cen-
softly; and the fruits fell not. And Zo- ter of Ummaos, and to north, west and
tulla laughed amid his fools and his south, for wide intervals of distance, there
eunuchs and his lemans; and the tale of stretched the imperial gardens, full of
his luxuries was borne afar, and was told superbly arching palms and loftily spir-
by dim outland peoples, as a twin marvel ing fountains.But to eastward was a
with the bruited necromancies of Na- broad open area, usedas a sort of com-
mirrha. mon, between the palace and the man-
sions of high optimates. And in this
T came to pass, in the year of the space, which had lain wholly vacant at
I Hyena and the month of the star Cani- eve, a building towered colossal and lord-
cule, that a great feast was given by Zo- ly beneath the full-risen sun, with domes
tulla to the inhabitants of Ummaos. like monstrous fungi of stone that had
Meats that had been cooked in exotic come up in the night. And the domes,
spices from Sotar, isle of the east, were rearing level with those of Zotulla, were
spread everywhere; and the ardent wines builded of death-white marble; and the
of Yoros and Xylac, filled as with sub- huge facade, with multi-columned por-
terranean fires, were poured inexhaust- ticoes and deep balconies, was wrought in
iblyfrom huge urns for all. The wines alternate zones of night-black onyx and
awoke a furious mirth and a royal mad- porphyry hued as with dragons’ -blood.
 8

96 WEIRD TALES
And Zotulla swore lewdly, calling with trembled. And the foot-bones of the
hoarse blasphemies on the gods and devils skeleton clicked sharply on the pavement
of Xylac; and great was his dumfound- of blade onyx as it paused; and the putre-
ment, deeming the marvel a work of wiz- fying tongue began to quiver between its

ardry. The women gathered about him, teeth; and it uttered these words in an
crying out with shrill cries of awe and unctuous, nauseous voice:
terror; and more and more of his cour- "Return, and tell the emperor Zotulla
tiers, awakening, came to swell the hub- that Namirrha, seer and magidan, has
bub; and the fat castradoes diddered in come to dwell beside him.”
their cloth-of-gold immense black
like Hearing the skeleton speak as if it had
jellies in golden basins. But Zotulla, been a living man, and hearing the dread
mindful of his dominion as emperor of name of Namirrha as men hear the tocsin
all Xylac, sought to conceal his own of doom in some fallen city, the chamber-
trepidation, saying: lains could stand before it no longer, and

"Now who is this that has presumed to they fled with ungainly swiftness and
enter Ummaos like a jackal in the dark, bore the message to Zotulla.
and has made his impious den in prox- Now, learning who it was that had
imity and counterview with my palace? come to neighbor with him in Ummaos,
Go forth, and inquire the miscreant’s the emperor’s wrath died out like a feeble
name; but, ere you go, instruct the im- and blustering flame on which the wind
perial headsman to make sharp his double- of darkness has blown; and the vinous
handed sword.” purple of his cheeks was mottled with a
Then, fearing the emperor’s wrath if strange pallor; and he said nothing, but
they tarried, certain of the chamberlains his lips mumbled loosely as if in prayer
went forth unwillingly and approached or malediction. And the news of Na-
the portals of the strange edifice. It mirrha’s coming passed like the flight of
seemed that the portals were deserted till evil night-birds through all the palace
they drew near, and then, on the thresh- and throughout the city, leaving a noisome
old, there appeared a titanic skeleton, tall- terror that abode in Ummaos thereafter
er than any man of earth; and it strode till the end. For Namirrha, through the
forward to meet them with ell-long black renown of his thaumaturgies and
strides. The skeleton was swathed in a the frightful entities who served him, had
loin-cloth of scarlet silk with a buckle of become a power that no secular sovereign
jet, and it wore a black turban, starred dared dispute; and men feared him every-
with diamonds, whose topmost foldings where, even as they feared the gigantic,
nearly touched the lofty lintel. Eyes like shadowy lords of hell and of outer space.
flickering marsh-firesburned in its deep And in Ummaos, people said that he had
eye-sockets; and a blackened tongue like come on the desert wind from Tasuun
that of a long-dead man protruded be- with his underlings, even as the pestilence
tween its it was clean
teeth; but otherwise comes, and had reared his house in an
of and the bones glittered whitely
flesh, hour with the aid of devils beside Zo-
in the sun as it came onward. tulla’s palace. And they said that the
The chamberlains were mute before it, foundations of the house were laid on
and there was no sound except the golden the adamantine cope of hell; and in its

creaking of their girdles, the shrill floors were pits at w hose bottom burned
rustling of their silks, as they shook and the nether fires, or stars could be seen as
W. T.—
 THE DARK EIDOLON 97

they passed under in lowermost night. as they had boasted of the purple sins of
And the followers of Namirrha were the Zotulla.
dead of strange kingdoms, the demons of But Namirrha, still unbeheld by living
sky and earth and the abyss, and mad, men and living women, sat in the inner
impious, hybrid things that the sorcerer halls of that house which his devils had
himself had created from forbidden reared for him, and spun over and over
unions. in his thoughts the black web of revenge.
Men shunned the neighborhood of his And in all Ummaos there was none,
lordly house; and in the palace of Zo- even among his fellow-beggars, who re-

tulla few cared to approach the windows called the beggar-boy Narthos. And the
and balconies that gave thereon; and the wrong done by Zotulla Narthos in old
to

emperor himself spoke not of Namirrha, time was the least of those cruelties which
pretending to ignore the intruder; and the emperor had forgotten.
the women of the harem babbled ever-
more with an

cerer himself
evil gossip concerning Na-
mirrha and his concubines. But the sor-
was not beheld by the peo-
N
gossiped
ow, when the fears of Zotulla were
somewhat lulled, and his women
less often of the neighboring
ple of the city, though seme believed that wizard, there occurred a new wonder and
he walked forth at will, clad with in- a fresh terror. For, sitting one eve at his

visibility. His servitors likewise were not banquet-table with his courtiers about
seen; but a howling as of the damned him, the emperor heard a noise as of
was sometimes heard to issue from his myriad iron-shod hooves that came tramp-
portals; and sometimes there came a stony ling through the palace-gardens. And the
cachinnation, as if some adamantine courtiers also heard the sound, and were
image had laughed aloud; and sometimes startled amid their mounting drunken-
there was a chuckling like the sound of ness; and the emperor was angered, and
shattered ice in a frozen hell. Dim he sent certain of his guards to examine
shadows moved in the porticoes when into the cause of the trampling. But peer-
there was neither sunlight nor lamp to ing forth upon the moon-bright lawns
cast them; and red, eery lights appeared and parterres, the guards beheld no visi-
and vanished in the windows at eve, like ble shape, though the loud sounds of
a blinking of demoniac eyes. And slowly trampling still went to and fro. It seemed
the ember-colored suns went over Xylac, as if a rout of wild stallions passed and
and were quenched in far seas; and the re-passed before the facade of the palace
ashy moons were blackened as they fell with tumultuous gallopings and capri-
nightly toward the hidden gulf. Then, coles. And came upon the guards as
a fear
seeing that the wizard had wrought no they looked and listened; and they dared
open evil, and that none had endured not venture forth, but returned to Zotulla.
palpable harm from his presence, the peo- And the emperor himself grew sober
ple took heart; and Zotulla drank deeply, when he heard their tale; and he went
and feasted in oblivious luxury as before; forth with high blusterings to view the
and dark Thasaidon, prince of all turpi- prodigy. And all night the unseen hooves
tudes, was the true but never-acknowl- rang out sonorously on the pavements of
edged lord of Xylac. And in time the onyx, and ran with deep thuddings over
men of Ummaos bragged a little of Na- the grasses and flowers. The palm-fronds
mirrha and his dread thaumaturgies, even waved on the windless air as if parted by
W. T.—
98 WEIRD TALES
racing steeds; and visibly the tall-stemmed the palace toward Namirrha’s house. And
lilies and broad-petaled exotic blossoms from the portals of the wizard none came
were trodden under. And rage and ter- forth; or if any came, there was no visible
ror nested together in Zotulla’s heart as sign or sound.
he stood in a balcony above the garden, So the day went over, and the night
hearing the spectral tumult, and behold- rose, bringing later a moon that was
ing the harm done to his rarest flower- slightly darkened at the rim. And the
beds. The women, the courtiers and night was silent; and Zotulla, sitting long
eunuchs cowered behind him, and there at tlie banquet-table,drained his wine-cup
was no slumber for any occupant of the often and muttering new
wrathfully,
palace; but toward dawn the clamor of threats against Namirrha. And the night
hooves departed, going toward Na- wore on, and it seemed that the visita-
mirrha’s house. tion would not be repeated. But at mid-
When the dawn was full-grown above night, lying in his chamber with Obexah,
Ummaos, the emperor walked forth with and fathom-deep in slumber from his
his guards about him, and saw that the wine, Zotulla was awakened by a mon-
crushed grasses and broken-down stems strous clangor of hooves that raced and
were blackened as if by fire where the capered in die paJace porticoes and in the
hooves had fallen. Plainly were tire long balconies. All night the hooves
marks imprinted, like the tracks of a thundered back and forth, echoing awful-
great company of horses, in all the lawns ly in die vaulted stone, while Zotulla and

and parterres; but they ceased at the verge Obexah, listening, huddled close amid
of the gardens. And though
every one their cushions and coverlets; and all die
believedthat the visitation had come occupants of the palace, wakeful and
from Namirrha, there was no proof of fearful, heard the noise but stirred not
this in tlie grounds that fronted the sor- from their chambers. A little before
cerer’s abode; for here the turf was un- dawn the hooves departed suddenly; and
trodden. afterward, by day, their marks were found

"A pox upon Namirrha, if he has on the marble flags of the porches and
done this!” cried Zctulla. "For what balconies; and the marks were countless,

harm have I ever done to him? Verily, I deep-graven, and black as if branded
shall set my heel on the dog’s neck; and there by flame.

the torture-wheel shall serve him even as Like mottled marble were the emper-
these horses from hell have served my or’s cheeks when he saw the hoof -printed
blood-red lilies of Sotar and my vein- floors; and terror stayed with him hence-
colored irises ofNaat and my orchids forward, following him to the depths of
from Uccastrog which were purple as the his inebriety, since he knew not where
bruises of love. Yea, though he stand the haunting would cease. His women
the viceroy of Thasaidon above Earth, murmured and some wished to flee from
and overlord of ten thousand devils, my Ummaos, and it seemed that the revels
wheel shall break him, and fires shall of the day and the evening were shad-
heat the wheel white-hot in its turning, owed by ill wings that left their umbrage
till he withers black as the seared blos- in the yellow wine and bedimmed the
soms.” Thus did Zotulla make his brag; aureate lamps. And again, toward mid-
but he issued no orders for the execution night, the slumber of Zotulla was broken
of the threat; and no man stirred from by the hoorves, which came galloping and
 THE DARK EIDOLON 99

pacing on the palace-roof and through Then, in his hall of audience, whose
all the corridors and halls. Thereafter, floor of sard and jasper had been griev-
till dawn, the hooves filled the palace ously pocked by the unseen hooves, Zo-
with their iron clatterings, and they rang tulla called together many priests and
hollowly on the topmost domes, as if the magicians and soothsayers, and asked
coursers of gods had trodden there, pass- them to declare the cause of the sending
ing from heaven to heaven in tumultuous and devise a mode of exorcism. But,
cavalcade. seeing that there was no agreement among

Zotulla and Obexah, lying together them, Zotulla provided the several priest-
while the terrible hooves went to and fro ly sects with the wherewithal of sacrifice

in the hall outside their chamber, had no to their sundry and sent them
gods,
heart or thought for sin, nor could they away; and the wizards and prophets,
find any comfort in their nearness. In the under threat of decapitation if they re-
gray hour before dawn they heard a great fused, were enjoined to visit Namirrha in

thundering high on the barred brazen his mansion of sorcery and learn his will,
door of the room, as if some mighty if haply the sending were his and not the

stallion, rearing, had drummed there with work of another.

his forefeet. And
soon after this, the Loth were the wizards and the sooth-
hooves went away, leaving a silence like sayers, fearing Namirrha, and caring not
an interlude in some gathering storm of to intrude upon the frightful mysteries of
doom. Later, the marks of the hooves were his obscure mansion. But the swordsmen
found everywhere in the halls, marring of the emperor drave them forth, lifting
the bright mosaics. Black holes were great crescent blades against them when
burnt in the golden-threaded rugs and the they tarried; so one by one, in a strag-
rugs of silver and scarlet; and the high gling order, the delegation went toward
white domes were pitted pox-wise with Namirrha’s portals and vanished into the
the marks; and far up on the brazen door devil-builded house.
of Zotulla’ s chamber the prints of a Pale, muttering and distraught, like
horse’s forefeet were incised deeply. men who have looked upon hell and have
seen their doom, they returned before

N ow,
Xylac,
in Ummaos, and throughout
the tale of this
became known, and the thing was deemed
haunting
sunset to the emperor.
that Namirrha had received them cour-
And

teously and had sent them back with this

they said

an ominous prodigy, though people dif- message:

fered in their interpretations. Some held "Be it known to Zotulla that the haunt-
that the sending came from Namirrha, ing is a sign of that which he has long
and was meant as a token of his suprem- forgotten;and the reason of the haunting
acy above all kings and emperors; and will be revealed to him at the hour pre-
some thought that it came from a new pared and set apart by destiny. And the
wizard who had risen in Tinarath, far to hour draws near: for Namirrha bids the
the east, and who wished to supplant emperor and all his court to a great feast
Namirrha. And the priests of the gods on the afternoon of the morrow.”
of Xylac held that their various deities Having delivered this message, to the
had dispatched the haunting, as a sign wonder and consternation of Zotulla, the
that more sacrifices were required in the delegation begged his leave to depart.
temples. And though the emperor questioned them
100 WEIRD TALES
minutely, they seemed unwilling to relate form of horses’’ skulls, with flames issuing
the circumstances of their visit to Na- changeably in blue and purple and crim-
mirrha; nor would they describe the sor- son from their eye-sockets. Wild and
cerer’s fabled house, except in a vague luridwas their light, and the face of the
manner, each contradicting the other as demon, peering from under his crested
to what he had seen. So, after a little, helmet, was filled with malign, equivocal
Zotulla bade them go, and when they had shadows that shifted and changed eternal-
gone he sat musing for a long while on ly. And sitting in his serpent-carven
the invitation of Namirrha, which was a chair, Namirrha regarded the statue grim-
thing that he cared not to accept but ly, with a deep-furrowed frown between
feared to decline. That evening he drank his eyes : had asked a certain thing
for he
even more liberally than was his wont; of Thasaidon, and the fiend, replying
and he slept a Lethean slumber, nor was tli rough the statue, had refused him. And

there any noise of trampling hooves about rebellion was in the heart of Namirrha,
the palace to awaken him. And silently, grown mad with pride, and deeming him-
during the night, the prophets and the self the lord of all sorcerers and a ruler

magicians passed shadows

like furtive by his own right among the princes of
from Ummaos; and no man saw them de- devildom. So, after long pondering, he
part; and at morning they were gone repeated his request in a bold and haughty
from Xylac into other lands, never to re- voice, like one who addresses an equal
turn. . . . rather than the all-formidable suzerain to
whom he has sworn a fatal fealty.

N ow, on that same evening, in the

great hall of his house,
sat alone,
Namirrha
having dismissed the mummies,
"I have helped you heretofore in all
things,” said the image, with stony
sonorous accents that were echoed metal-
and

the monsters, the skeletons and familiars lically in the seven silver lamps. "Yea,
who attended him ordinarily. Before the undying worms of fire and darkness
him, on an altar of was the dark,
jet, have come forth like an army at your
gigantic statue of Thasaidon which a summons, and the wings of nether genii
devil-begotten sculptor had wrought in have risen to occlude the sun when you
ancient days for an evil king of Tasuun, called them. But, verily, I will not aid
called Pharnoc. The archdemon was de- you in this vengeance you have planned:
picted in the guise of a full-armored war- for the emperor Zotulla has done me no
rior, lifting a spiky mace as if in heroic wrong and has served me well though
battle. Long had the statue lain in the unwittingly; and the people of Xylac, by
desert-sunken palace of Pharnoc, whose reason of their turpitudes, are not the
very site was disputed by the nomads; least of my terrestrial worshippers. There-
and Namirrha, by his divination, had fore, Namirrha, it were well for you to
found it and had reared up the infernal live in peace with Zotulla, and well to
image to abide with him always there- forget this olden wrong that was done to
after. And often, through the mouth of the beggar-boy Narthos. For the ways of
the statue, Thasaidon would utter oracles destiny are strange, and the workings of
to Namirrha, or would answer interro- its laws are sometimes hidden; and truly,
gations. if the hooves of Zotulla’s palfrey had not

Before the blade-armored image there spurned you and trodden you under, your
hung seven silver lamps, wrought in the life had been otherwise, and the name
 THE DARK EIDOLON 101

and renown of Namirrha had still slept a giddying gulf. There, kneeling, Na-
in oblivion as a dream undreamed. Yea, mirrha touched a secret spring in the
you would tarry still as a beggar in marble, and the circular pane slid back
Ummaos, content with a beggar’s guer- without sound. Then, lying prone on the
don, and would never have fared forth to curved interior of the dome, with his face
become the pupil of the wise and learned over the abyss, and his long beard trail-

Ouphaloc; and I, Thasaidon, would have ing stiffly into space, he whispered a pre-
lost the lordliest of all necromancers who human rune, and held speech with certain
have accepted my service and my bond. entities who belonged neither to hell nor
Think well, Namirrha, and ponder these the mundane elements, and were more
matters for both of us,
: it would seem, are fearsome to invoke than the infernal genii
indebted to Zotulla in all gratitude for or the devils of earth, air, water and
the trampling that he gave you.” flame. With them he made his compact,
"Yea, there is a debt,” Namirrha defying Thasaidon’s will, while the air

growled implacably. "And truly, I will curled about him with their voices, and
pay the debt tomorrow, even as I have rime gathered palely on his sable beard
planned. There are Those who will
. . .
from the cold that was wrought by their
aid me, Those who will answer my sum- breathing as they leaned earthward.
moning in your despite.”

"It an thing to affront me,” said aggard and loth was the awakening of
is ill

the image, after an interval. "And also,

I •/ Zotulla from his wine; and quickly,

not well to upon Those that you

call
ere he opened his eyes, the daylight was
it is

designate. However, I perceive clearly poisoned for him by the thought of that
that such is your intent. You are proud
invitation which he feared to accept or de-
and stubborn and revengeful. Do, then, cline. But he spoke to Obexah, saying:
as you will, but blame me not for the out- "Who, after all, is this wizardly dog,
come.” that I should obey his summons like a

So, after this, there was silence in the beggar called in from the street by some
hall where Namirrha sate before the eido- haughty lord?”
lon; and the flames burned darkly, with Obexah, a golden-skinned and oblique-
changeable colors, in the skull-shapen eyed girl from Uccastrog, Isle of the Tor-
lamps; and the shadows fled and returned, turers, eyed the emperor subtly, and said:
unresting, on the face of the statue and "O Zotulla, it is yours to accept or re-

the face of Namirrha. Then, toward mid- fuse, as you deem fitting. And truly, it is

night, the necromancer rose and went up- a small matter for the lord of Ummaos
ward by many spiral stairs to a high dome and all Xylac, whether to go or stay, since
of his house in which was a single small naught can impugn your sovereignty.
round window that looked forth on the Therefore, were it not as well to go?”
constellations. The window was set in For Obexah, though fearful of the wiz-
the top of the dome; but Namirrha had ard, was curious regarding that devil-
contrived, by means of his magic, that builded house of which so little was
one entering by the last spiral of the known; and likewise, in the manner of
stairs would suddenly seem to descend women, she wished to behold the famed
rather than climb, and, reaching the final Namirrha, whose mien and appearance
step, would peer downward through the were still but a far-brought legend in
window while stars passed under him in Ummaos.
102 WEIRD TALES
"There something in what you say,”
is with new offerings; and, calling unctu-
admitted Zotulla. "But an emperor, in ously upon Zotulla and all his household
his must always consider the
conduct, the vicarious blessings of their several
public good; and there are matters of state gods, the priests departed. And the day
involved, which a woman can scarcely be wore on, and the sun passed its meridian,
expected to understand.” falling slowly beyond Ummaos through

So, later in the forenoon, after an the spaces of afternoon that were floored
ample and well-irrigated breakfast, he with sea-ending deserts. And still Zotulla
called his chamberlains and courtiers was and he called his wine-
irresolute;

about him and took counsel with them. bearers, bidding them pour for him the

And some advised him to ignore the in- strongest and most magistral of their vin-
vitation of Namirrha; and others held tages; but in the wine he found neither

that the invitation should be accepted, lest certitude nor decision.

a graver evil than the trampling of ghost- Sitting still on his throne in the hall

ly hooves should be sent upon the palace of audience, he heard, toward middle
and the city. afternoon, a mighty and clamorous outcry

Then Zotulla called the many priest- that arose at the palace-portals. There
hoods before him in a body, and sought were deep wailings of men and the shrill-
to resummon those wizards and soothsay- ings of eunuchs and women, as if terror

ers who had fled privily in the night. passed from tongue to tongue, invading
Among all the latter, there was none who
the halls and apartments. And the fear-

answered the crying of his name through ful clamor spread throughout all the

Ummaos; and this aroused a certain won- palace, and Zotulla, rousing from the

der. But the priests came in greater num- lethargy of wine, was about to send his

ber than before, and thronged the hall of attendants to inquire the cause.

audience so that the paunches of the fore- Then, into the hall, there filed an array
most were straitened against the imperial of tall mummies, clad in royal cerements
dais and the buttocks of the hindmost of purple and scarlet, and wearing gold
were flattened on the rear walls and pil- crowns on their withered craniums. And
lars. And Zotulla debated with them the after them, like servitors, came gigantic
matter of acceptance or refusal. And the who wore loin-cloths of nacarat
skeletons
priests argued, as before, thatNamirrha orange and about whose upper skulls,
was nowise concerned with the sending; from brow to crown, live serpents of
and his invitation, they said, portended banded saffron and ebon had wrapped
no harm nor bale to the emperor; and it themselves for head-dresses. And the
was plain, from the terms of the message, mummies bowed before Zotulla, saying
that an oracle would be imparted to Zo- with thin, sere voices:
tulla by the wizard; and this oracle, if "We, who were kings of the wide
Namirrha were a true archimage, would realm of Tasuun aforetime, have been
confirm their own holy wisdom and re- sent as a guard of honor for the emperor
establish the divine source of the sending; Zotulla, to attend him as is befitting when
and the gods of Xylac would again be he goes forth to the feast prepared by
glorified. Namirrha.”
Then, having heard the pronounce- Then, with dry clickings of their teeth,
ment of the priests, the emperor in- and whistlings as of air through screens
structed his treasurers to load them down of fretted ivory, the skeletons spoke:
 THE DARK EIDOLON 103

"We, who were giant warriors of a members of Zotulla’s household even to

race forgotten, have also been sent by the cooks and scullions, were drawn like
Namirrha, so that the emperor’s house- a procession of night-walkers from the
hold, following him to the feast, should rooms and alcoves in which they had
be guarded from all peril and should fare vainly hidden themselves; and, mar-
forth in such pageantry as is meet and shaled by the flutists, they followed after
proper.” Zotulla. A strange thing it was to behold
Witnessing these prodigies, the wine- this mighty company of people, going
bearers and other attendants cowered forth in the slanted sunlight toward

about the imperial dais or hid behind the Namirrha’s house, with a cortege of dead
pillars, while Zotulla, with pupils swim- kings about them, and the blown breath
ming starkly in a bloodshot white, with of skeletons thrilling eldritchly in the sil-
face bloated and ghastly pale, sat frozen ver flutes. And little was Zotulla com-
on and could utter no word in
his throne forted when he found the girl Obexah at

reply to the ministers of Namirrha. his side, moving, as he, in a thralldom of

Then, coming forward, the mummies involitient horror, with the rest of his
said in dusty accents: "All is made ready, women close behind.

and the feast awaits the arrival of Zo- Coming to the open portals of Namir-
tulla.” And the cerements of the mum- rha’s house, the emperor saw that they
mies stirred and fell open at the bosom, were guarded by great crimson-wattled
and small rodent monsters, brown as tilings, half dragon, half man, who
bitumen, eyed as with accursed rubies, bowed before him, sweeping their wattles
reared forth from the eaten hearts of the like bloody besoms on the flags of dark
mummies like rats from their holes and onyx. And the emperor passed with
chittered shrilly in human speech, repeat- Obexah between the louting monsters,
ing the words. The skeletons in turn took with the mummies, the skeletons and his
up the solemn sentence; and the black own people behind him in strange
and saffron serpents hissed it from their pageant, and entered a vast and multi-
skulls;and the words were repeated lastly columned hall, where the daylight, fol-
in baleful rumblings by certain furry crea- lowing timidly, was drowned by the bale-
tures of dubious form, hitherto unseen by ful arrogant blaze of a thousand lamps.
Zotulla, who sat behind the ribs of the Even amid his horror, Zotulla mar-
skeletons as if in cages of white wicker, velled at the vastness of the chamber,
which he could hardly reconcile with the
ike a dreamer who obeys the doom of mansion’s outer length and height and
LJ dreams, the emperor rose from his breadth, though these indeed were of
throne and went forward, and the mum- most palatial amplitude. For it seemed
mies surrounded him like an escort. And that he gazed down great avenues of top-
each of the skeletons drew from the red- less pillars, and vistas of tables laden with
dish-yellow folds of his loin-cloth a curi- piled-up viands and thronged urns of
ously pierced archaic flute of silver; and wine, that stretched away before him into
all began a sweet and evil and deathly luminous distance and gloom as of star-
fluting as the emperor went out through less night.
the halls of the palace. A fatal spell was In the wide intervals between the ta-
in the music: for the chamberlains, the bles, the familiars of Namirrha and his
women, the guards, the eunuchs, and all other servants went to and fro incessantly,
104 WEIRD TALES
as if dreams were
a fantasmagoria of ill as if congealing into ice. And Obexah,
embodied before the emperor. Kingly peering beneath lowered lids, was
cadavers in robes of time-rotten brocade, abashed and frightened by the visible
with worms seething in their eye-pits, horror that invested this man and hung
poured a blood-like wine into cups of the upon him even as royalty upon a king.
opalescent horn of unicorns. Lamias, But amid her fear, she found room to
trident-tailed, and four-breasted chimeras, wonder what manner of man he was in
came in with fuming platters lifted his intercourse with women.
high by their brazen claws. Dog-headed "I bid you welcome, O Zotulla, to such
devils, tongued with lolling flames, ran hospitality as is mine to offer,” said Na-
forward to offer themselves as ushers for mirrha, with the iron ringing of some
the company. And before Zotulla and hidden mortuary bell deep down in his
Obexah, there appeared a curious being hollow voice. "Prithee, be seated at my
with the full-fleshed lower limbs and hips table.”
of a great black woman and the clean- Zotulla saw that a chair of ebony had
picked bones of some titanic ape from been placed for him opposite Namirrha;
there-upward. And this monster signified and another chair, less stately and im-
by certain indescribable becks of its perial, had been placed at the left hand
finger-bones that the emperor and his for Obexah. And the twain seated them-
favorite odalisque were to follow it.
selves; and Zotulla saw that his people
Verily, it seemed to Zotulla that they were sitting likewise at other tables
had gone a long way into some malignly throughout the huge hall, with the fright-
litten cavern of hell, when they came to ful servitors of Namirrha waiting upon
the end of that perspective of tables and them busily, like devils attending the
columns down which the monster had led damned.
them. Here, at the room’s end, apart Then Zotulla perceived that a dark and
from the rest, was a table at which Na- corpse-like hand was pouring wine for
mirrha sat alone, with the flames of the him in a crystal cup; and upon the hand
seven horse-skull lamps burning restlessly was the signet-ring of the emperors of
behind him, and the mailed black image Xylac, set with a monstrous fire-opal in
of Thasaidon towering from the altar of the mouth of a golden bat: even such a
jet at his right hand. And a little aside ring as Zotulla himself wore perpetually
from the altar, a diamond mirror was up- on his index-finger. And, turning, he be-
borne by the claws of iron basilisks. held at his right hand a figure that bore
the likeness of his father, Pithaim, after

N amirrha
serving
rose to greet them,
solemn and funereal
a
courtesy. His eyes were bleak and cold as
ob- the
through
poison
all his
of the
limbs,
the purple bloating of death.
adder,
had left
spreading
behind
And
it

Zo-
distant stars in the hollows wrought by tulla, who had caused the adder to be
strange fearful vigils. His lips were like placed in the bed of Pithaim, cowered in
a pale-red seal on a shut parchment of his seatand trembled with a guilty fear.
doom. His beard flowed stiffly in black- And wore the similitude of
the thing that
anointed banded locks across the bosom Pithaim, whether corpse or ghost or an
of his vermilion robe, like a mass of image wrought by Namirrha’s enchant-
straight black serpents. Zotulla felt the ment, came and went at Zotulla’s elbow,
blood pause and thicken about his heart, waiting upon him with stark, black, swol-
 THE DARK EIDOLON 105

len fingers that never fumbled. Horribly tulla froze in his mouth, as a mandrake
he was aware of its bulging, unregarding freezes in the rime-bound soil of winter;
eyes, and its livid purple mouth that was and he found no reply to Namirrha’s
locked in a rigor of mortal silence, and courtesy.
the spotted adder that peered at intervals "Prithee, make trial of this meat,”
with chill orbs from its heavy-folded quoth Namirrha, "for it is very choice,
sleeve as it leaned beside him to replen- being the flesh of that boar which the
ish his cup or to serve him with meat. Torturers of Uccastrog are wont to pas-
And dimly, through the icy mist of his ture on the well-minced leavings of their
terror, the emperor beheld the shadowy- wheels and racks; and, moreover, my
armored shape, like a moving replica of cooks have spiced it with the powerful
the still, grim statue of Thasaidon, which balsams of the tomb, and have farced it
Namirrha had reared up in his blasphemy with the hearts of adders and the tongues
to perform the same office for himself. of black cobras.”
And vaguely, without comprehension, he Naught could the emperor say; and
saw the dreadful ministrant that hovered even Obexah was silent, being sorely
beside Obexah: a flayed and eyeless troubled in her turpitude by the presence
corpse in the image of her first lover, a of that flayed and piteous thing which
boy from Cyntrom who had been cast had the likeness of her lover from Cyn-
ashore in shipwreck on the Isle of the trom. And her dread of the necromancer
Torturers. There Obexah had found him, grew prodigiously; for his knowledge of
lying beyond the ebbing wave; and reviv- this old, forgotten crime, and the raising
ing the boy, she had hidden him awhile of the fantasm, appeared to her a more
in a secret cave for her own pleasure, and baleful magic than all else.
had brought him food and drink. Later, "Now, I fear,” said Namirrha, "that
wearying, she had betrayed him to the you find the meat devoid of savor, and
Torturers, and had taken a new delight the wine without fire. So, to enliven our
in the various pangs and ordeals inflicted feasting, I shall call forth my singers and
upon him before death by that cruel, my musicians.”
pernicious people. He spoke a word unknown to Zotulla
"Drink,” Namirrha, quaffing a
said or Obexah, which sounded throughout
strange wine that was red and dark as the mighty hall as a thousand voices in
if

if with disastrous sunsets of lost years. turn had taken it up and prolonged it.
And Zotulla and Obexah drank the wine, Anon there appeared the singers, who
feeling no warmth in their veins there- were she-ghouls with shaven bodies and
after, but a chill as of hemlock mounting hairy shanks, and long yellow tushes full
slowly toward the heart. of shredded carrion curving across their
"Verily, ’tis a good wine,” said Na- chaps from mouths that fawned hyena-
mirrha, "and a proper one in which to wise on the company. Behind them en-
toast the furthering of our acquaintance: tered the musicians, some of whom were
for it was buried long ago with the royal male devils pacing erect on the hind-
dead, in amphorae of somber jasper quarters of sable stallions and plucking
shapen like funeral urns; and my ghouls with the fingers of white apes at lyres of
found it, whenas they came to dig in the bone and sinew of cannibals from
Tasuun.” Naat; and others were pied satyrs puffing
Now it seemed that the tongue of Zo- their goatish cheeks at hautboys made
106 WEIRD TALES
from the femora of young witches, or trussed with thongs on the floor, like so

bagpipes formed from the bosom-skin of many fowls of gorgeous plumage. Above
negro queens and the horn of rhinoceri. them, in time to a music made by the
They bowed before Namirrha with lyrists and flutists of the necromancer, a
grotesque ceremony. Then, without delay, troupe of skeletons pirouetted with light
the she-ghouls began a most dolorous and clickings of their toe-bones; and a rout
execrable howling, as of jackals that have of mummies bounded stiffly; and others

sniffed their carrion; and the satyrs and of Namirrha’ s creatures moved with
devils played a lament that was like the monstrous caperings. To and fro they
moaning of desert-born winds through leapt on the bodies of the emperor’s peo-
forsaken palace harems. And Zotulla ple, in the pacesof an evil saraband. At
shivered, for the singing filled his mar- every step they grew taller and heavier,
row with ice, and the music left in his till the saltant mummies were as the
heart a desolation as of empires fallen mummies of Anakim, and the skeletons
and trod under by the iron-shod hooves were boned like colossi; and louder the
of time. Ever, amid that evil music, he music rose, drowning the faint cries
seemed to hear the sifting of sand across of Zotulla’s people. And huger still
withered gardens, and the windy rustling became the dancers, towering far into
of rotted silks upon couches of bygone vaulted shadow among the vast columns,
luxury, and the hissing of coiled serpents with thudding feet that wrought thunder
from the low fusts of shattered columns. in the room; and those whereon they

And the glory that had been Ummaos danced were as grapes trampled for a
seemed to pass away like the blown pil- vintage in autumn; and the floor ran deep
lars of the simoom. with a sanguine must.
"Now that was a brave tune,” said As a man drowning in a noisome,
Namirrha when the music ceased and the night-bound fen, the emperor heard the
she-ghouls no longer howled. "But verily voice of Namirrha:
I fear that you find my entertainment "It would seem that my dancers please
somewhat dull. Therefore, my dancers you not. So now I shall present you a
shall dance for you.” most royal spectacle. Arise and follow
He turned toward the great hall, and me, for the spectacle is one that requires
described in the air an enigmatic sign an empire for its stage.”
with the fingers of his right hand. In
answer to the sign, a hueless mist came otulla and Obexah
down from the high roof and hid the
room like a fallen curtain for a brief in-
Z
ers.
rose from
chairs in the fashion of night-walk-
Giving no backward glance at their
their

terim. There was a babel of sounds, con- ministering phantoms, or the hall where
fused and muffled, beyond the curtain, the dancers bounded, they followed Na-
and a crying of voices faint as if with mirrha to an alcove beyond the altar of
distance. Thasaidon. Thence, by the upward-coil-
Then, dreadfully, the vapor rolled ing stairways, they came at length to a
away, and Zotulla saw that the laden broad high balcony that faced Zotulla’s
tables were gone. In the wide inter- palace and looked forth above the city
spaces of the columns, his palace-inmates, roofs toward the bourn of sunset.
the chamberlains, the eunuchs, the cour- It seemed that several hours had gone

tiers and odalisques and all the others, lay by in that hellish feasting and entertain-
 :

THE DARK EIDOLON 107

ment; for the day was near to its close, and their
as if devil-ridden into Xylac,
and the sun, which had fallen from sight feet descended like falling mountain
behind the imperial palace, was barring crags upon far oases and towns of the
the vast heavens with bloody rays. outer waste.
"Behold,” said Namirrha, adding a like a many-turreted storm they came,
strange vocable to which the stone of the and it seemed that the world sank gulf-
edifice resounded like a beaten gong. ward, tilting beneath the weight. Still as

The balcony pitched a little, and Zo- a man enchanted into marble, Zotulla
tulla, looking over the balustrade, beheld stood and beheld the ruining that was
the roofs of Ummaos lessen and sink be- wrought on his empire. And closer drew
neath him. It seemed that the balcony the gigantic stallions, racing with incon-
flew skyward to a prodigious height, and ceivable speed, and louder was the thun-
he peered down across the domes of his dering of their footfalls, that now began
own upon the houses, the tilled
palace, to blot the green fields and fruited orch-
fields and the desert beyond, and the ards lying for many miles to the west of
huge sun brought low on the desert’s Ummaos. And the shadow of the stal-
verge. And Zotulla grew giddy; and the lions climbed like an evil gloom of
chill airs of the upper heavens blew upon eclipse, till it covered Ummaos; and look-
him. But Namirrha spoke another word, ing up, the emperor saw their eyes half-
and the balcony ceased to ascend. way between earth and zenith, like bale-
"Look well,” said the necromancer, ful suns that glare down from soaring
"on the empire that was yours, but shall cumuli.
be yours no longer.” Then, with arms Then, in the thickening gloom, above
outstretched toward the sunset, and the that insupportable thunder,he heard the
gulfs beyond the sunset, he called aloud voice of Namirrha, crying in mad
the twelve names that were perdition to triumph
utter, and them the tremendous in-
after "Know, Zotulla, that I have called up
vocation: Gna padambis devompra the coursers of Thamorgorgos, lord of
thungis furidor avoragomon. the abyss. And the coursers will tread
Instantly, it seemed that great ebon your empire down, even as your palfrey
clouds of thunder beetled against the sun. trod and trampled in former time a beg-
Lining the horizon, the clouds took the gar-boy named Narthos. And learn also
form of colossal monsters with heads and that I, Namirrha, was that boy.” And
members somewhat resembling those of the eyes of Namirrha, filled with a vain-
stallions. Rearing terribly, they trod down glory of madness and bale, burned like
the sun like an extinguished ember; and mal'gn, disastrous stars at the hour of
racing as in some hippodrome of Titans, their culmination.
they rose higher and vaster, coming to- To wholly mazed with the
Zotulla,
ward Ummaos. Deep, calamitous rum- horror and tumult, the necromancer's
blings preceded them, and the earth words were no more than shrill, shrieked
shook visibly, till Zotulla saw that these overtones of the tempest of doom; and he
were not immaterial clouds, but actual understood them not. Tremendously,
living forms that had come forth to tread with a rending of staunch-built roofs, and
the world in macrocosmic vastness. an instant cleavage and crumbling down
Throwing their shadows for many of mighty masonries, the hooves de-
leagues before them, the coursers charged scended upon Ummaos. Fair temple-
108 WEIRD TALES
domes were pashed like shells of the compelled the girl to go downward with
haliotis, and haughty mansions were them by the stairs and had stifled her out-
broken and stamped into the ground even cries with their rotten cerements as they
as gourds;and house by house the city went.
was trampled flat with a crashing as of
worlds beaten into chaos.
the darkened
like scurrying
streets,

emmets
Far below, in
men and
but
camels fled
could not
T he chamber was one that Namirrha
used for his most unhallowed rites
and alchemies. The rays of the lamps that
escape. And implacably the hooves rose illumed it were saffron-red like the spilt
and fell, till ruin was upon half the city, ichor of devils, and they flowed on alu-
and night was over all. The palace of dels and crucibles and black athanors and
Zotulla was trodden under, and now the alembics whereof the purpose was hardly
forelegs of the coursers loomed level with to be named by mortal man. The sorcerer
Namirrha’s balcony, and their heads tow- heated in one of the alembics a dark
ered awfully above. It seemed that they liquid full of star-cold lights, while Zo-
would rear and trample down the necro- tulla looked on unheeding. And when
mancer’s house; but at that moment they the liquid bubbled and sent forth a spiral
parted to left and right, and a dolorous vapor, Namirrha distilled it into goblets
glimmering came from the low sunset; of gold-rimmed iron, and gave one of the
and the coursers went on, treading under goblets to Zotulla and retained the other
them that portion of Ummaos which lay himself. And he said to Zotulla with a
to the eastward. And Zotulla and Obexah stern imperative voice: "I bid thee quaff
and Namirrha looked down on the city’s this liquor.”
fragments as on a shard-strewn midden, Zotulla, fearing that the draft was poi-
and heard the cataclysmic clamor of the son, hesitated. And the necromancer re-
hooves departing toward eastern Xylac. garded him with a lethal gaze, and cried
"Now that was a goodly spectacle,” loudly: "Fearest thou to do as I?” and

quoth Namirrha. Then, turning to the therewith he set the goblet to his lips.
emperor, he added malignly: "Think not So the emperor drank the draft, con-
that Ihave done with thee, however, or strained as if by the bidding of some
that doom is yet consummate.” angel of death, and a darkness upon fell

It seemed that the balcony had fallen his senses. But, ere the darkness grew
to its former elevation, which was still a complete, he saw that Namirrha had
lofty vantage above the sharded ruins. drained his own goblet. Then, with un-
And Namirrha plucked the emperor by speakable agonies, it seemed that the em-
the arm and led him from the balcony to peror died; and his soul floated free; and
an inner chamber, while Obexah followed again he saw the chamber, though with
mutely. The emperor’s heart was crushed bodiless eyes. And discarnate he stood in
within him by the trampling of such ca- the saffron-crimson light, with his body
lamities, and despair weighed upon him lying as if dead on the floor beside him,
like a foul incubus on the shoulders of a and near it the prone body of Namirrha
man lost in some land of accursed night. and the two fallen goblets.
And he knew not that he had been parted Standing thus, he beheld a strange
from Obexah on the threshold of the thing: for anon his own body stirred and
chamber, and that certain of Namirrha’s arose, while that of the necromancer re-

creatures, appearing like shadows, had mained still as death. And Zotulla
 THE DARK EIDOLON 109

looked on his own lineaments and his redly as if heated by infernal fires. And
figure in its short cloak of azure samite even as Zotulla watched this prodigy, the

sewn with black pearls and balas-rubies; hooves glowed white and incandescent,
and the body lived before him, though and fumes mounted from the floor be-
with eyes that held a darker fire and a neath them.
deeper evil than was their wont. Then, Then, on the black altar, the hybrid
without corporeal ears, Zotulla heard the abomination came pacing haughtily to-
figure speak, and the voice was the ward Obexah, and smoking hoofprints
strong, arrogant voice of Namirrha, say- appeared behind it as it came. Pausing
ing: beside the girl, who lay supine and help-
"Follow me, O houseless phantom, and less regarding it with eyes that were pools
do in all things as I enjoin thee.” of frozen horror, it raised one glowing

Like an unseen shadow, Zotulla fol- hoof and set the hoof on her naked bosom
lowed tire wizard, and the twain went between the small breast-cups of golden
downward by the stairs to the great ban- filigree begemmed with rubies. And the
quet hall. They came to the altar of girl screamed beneath that atrocious
Thasaidon and the mailed image, with treading as the soul of one newly damned
the seven horse-skull lamps burning be- might scream in hell; and the hoof glared
fore it as formerly. Upon the altar, Zo- with intolerable brilliance, as if freshly
tulla’ s beloved leman Obexah, who alone plucked from a furnace wherein the
of women had power to stir his sated weapons of demons were forged.
heart, was lying bound with thongs at At that moment, in the cowed and
Thasaidon’s feet. But the hall beyond was crushed and sodden shade of the emperor
deserted, and nothing remained of that Zotulla, close-locked within theadaman-
Saturnalia of doom except the fruit of tine image, there awoke the manhood
the treading, which had flowed together that had slumbered unaroused before the
in dark pools among the columns. ruining of his empire and the trampling
Namirrha, using the emperor’s body under of his retinue. Immediately a great
in all ways for his own, paused before abhorrence and a high wrath were alive
the dark eidolon; and he said to the spirit in his soul, and mightily he longed for
of Zotulla: "Be imprisoned inw this his own right arm to serve him, and a
image, without power to free thyself or sword in his right hand.
to stir in any wise.” Then it seemed that a voice spoke
Being wholly obedient to the will of within him, chill and bleak and awful,
the necromancer, the soul of Zotulla was and as if uttered inwardly by the statue
embodied in the statue, and he felt its itself. And the voice said: "I am
cold, gigantic armor about him like a Thasaidon, lord of the seven hells be-
strait sarcophagus, and he peered forth neath the earth, and the hells of man’s
immovably from the bleak eyes that were heart above the earth, which are seven
overhung by its carven helmet. times seven. For the moment, O Zotulla,
Gazing thus, he beheld the change that my power is become thine for the sake of
had come on his own body through the a mutual vengeance. Be one in all ways
sorcerous possession of Namirrha: for with the statue that has my likeness, even
below the short azure cloak, the legs had one with the flesh. Behold!
as the soul is
turned suddenly to the hind legs of a there is a mace of adamant in thy right
black stallion, with hooves that glowed hand. Lift up the mace, and smite.”
110 WEIRD TALES
Zotulla was aware of a great power Nothing was clear in his thought ex-
within him, and giant thews about him cept a malign, exorbitant longing for re-
that thrilled with the power and re- venge; but the reason thereof, and the
sponded agilely to his will. He felt in object, were as doubtful shadows. And
his mailed right hand the haft of the stillprompted by that obscure animus, he
huge spiky-headed mace; and though the arose; and girding to his side an en-
mace was beyond the lifting of any man chanted sword with runic sapphires and
in mortal flesh, it seemed no more than a opals in its hilt, he descended the stairs
goodly weight to Zotulla. Then, rearing and came again to the altar of Thasaidon,
the mace like a warrior in battle, he struck where the mailed statue stood impassive
down with one crashing blow the im- as before, with the poised mace in its im-
pious thing that wore his own rightful movable right hand, and below it, on the
flesh united with, the legs and hooves of altar, the double sacrifice.

a demon courser. And the thingcrumpled

A veil of weird darkness was upon the
swiftly down and lay with the brain
senses of Namirrha, and he saw not the
spreading pulpily from its shattered skull
stallion-legged horror that lay dead with
on the shining jet. And the legs twitched
slowly blackening hooves; and he heard
a little and then grew still; and the
hooves glowed from a fiery, blinding
not the moaning of the girl Obexah, who
still lived beside But his eyes were
it.
white to the redness of red-hot iron, cool-
ing slowly.
drawn by the diamond mirror that was
upheld in the claws of black iron basilisks
or a space there was no sound, other beyond the altar; and going to the mirror,
F than the shrill screaming of the girl he saw therein a face that he knew no
longer for his own. And
Obexah, mad with pain and the terror of because his eyes
those prodigies which she had beheld. were shadowed and his brain filled with
Then, in the soul of Zotulla, grown sick shifting webs of delusion, he took the
with that screaming, the chill, awful face for that of the emperor Zotulla. In-
voice of Thasaidon spoke again: satiable as hell’s own flame, his old
"Go free, for there is nothing more hatred rose within him; and he drew the
for thee to do.” So the spirit of Zotulla enchanted sword and began to hew there-
passed from the image of Thasaidon and with at the reflection. Sometimes, because
found in the wide air the freedom of of the curse laid upon him, and the im-
utter nothingness and oblivion. pious transmigration which he had per-
But the end was not yet for Namirrha, formed, he thought himself Zotulla war-
whose mad, arrogant soul had been ring with the necromancer; and again, in
loosened from Zotulla’s body by the the stuffings of his madness, he was
blow, and had returned darkly, not in the Namirrha smiting at the emperor; and
manner planned by the magician, to its then, without name, he fought a nameless
own body lying in the room of accursed foe. And soon the sorcerous blade,
rites and forbidden transmigrations. though tempered with formidable spells,
There Namirrha woke anon, with a dire was broken close to the hilt, and Na-
confusion in his mind, and a partial for- mirrha beheld the image still unharmed.
getfulness: for the curse of Thasaidon Then, howling aloud the half-forgotten
v/as upon him now because of his runes of a most tremendous curse, made
blasphemies. invalid through his forgettings, he ham-
 THE DARK EIDOLON ill

aoered still with the heavy sword-hilt on above her laughter, and above the curs-
the mirror, till the runic sapphires and ings of Namirrha, there came anon like
opals cracked in the hilt and fell away at a rumbling of swift-risen storm the thun-
his feet in little fragments. der made by the macrocosmic stallions
Obexah, dying on the saw Na-
altar, of Thamogorgos, returning gulfward
mirrha battling with his image, and the through Xylac over Ummaos, to trample
spectacle moved her to mad laughter like down the one house that they had spared
the pealing of bells of ruined crystal. And aforetime.

7he
I east in the Abbey
By ROBERT BLOCH
The story of a grisly horror encountered in a weird monastery
in the forest

CLAP
A of thunder in the sullen west
heralded the approach of night
and storm together, and the sky
deepened to a sorcerous black. Rain fell,
which had evidently once surrounded
The
was such
force of the elements, however,
as to preclude all further in-
spection or speculation, and I was only
it.

thewind droned dolefully, and the forest too pleased when, in reply to my con-
pathway through which I rode became a tinued knocking, the great oaken door
muddy, treacherous, bog that threatened was thrown open and I stood face to face
momentarily to ensnare both my steed with a cowled man who courteously
and myself in its unwelcome embrace. A ushered me past the rain-swept portals
journey under such conditions is most in- into a well-lighted and spacious hallway.
auspicious; in consequence I was greatly My was short and fat,
benefactor
heartened when shortly through the garbed voluminous gabardine, and
in
storm-tossed branches I discerned a from his ruddy, beaming aspect, seemed
flicker of hospitable light glimmering a very, pleasant and affable host. He in-
through mists of rain. troduced himself as the abbot Henricus,
Five minutes later I drew rein before head of the monkish fraternity in whose
the massive doors of a goodly-sized, ven- headquarters I now found myself, and
erable building of gray, moss-covered begged me to accept the hospitality of the
stone, which, from its extreme size and brethren until the inclemencies of the
sanctified aspect, I rightly took to be a weather had somewhat abated.
monastery. Even as I gazed thus perfunc- In reply I informed him of my name
torily upon it, I could see that it was a and station, and told him that I was jour-
place of some importance, for it loomed neying to keep tryst with my brother in
most imposingly above the crumbled Vironne, beyond the forest, but had been
foundations of many smaller buildings arrested in my journey by the storm.
 7

112 WEIRD TALES

These civilities having been concluded, sight of the chamber which was indicated
he ushered me past the paneled ante- as my own. It was fully as large as my

chamber to the foot of a great staircase father’s study at Nimes—its walls hung
set in stone, that seemed hewn out of the in Spanish velvets of maroon, of an ele-
very wall itself. Here he called out gance surpassed only by their bad taste in
sharply in an uncomprehended tongue, such a place. There was a bed such as
and in a moment I was startled by the would grace the palace of a king; furni-
sudden appearance of two blackamoors, tureand other appurtenances were of
who seemed to have materialized out of truly regal magnificence. The blackamoor
nowhere, so swiftly silent had been their lighted a dozen mammoth candles in the
coming. Their stern ebony faces, kinky silver candelabra that stood
about the
hair and rolling eyes, set off by a most room, and then bowed and withdrew.
outlandish garb —great, baggy trousers of Upon inspecting the bed I found there-
red velvet and waists of cloth-of-gold, in upon the garments the abbot had desig-
Eastern fashion— intrigued me greatly, nated for my use during the evening
though they seemed curiously out of place meal. These consisted of a suit of black
in a Christian monastery. velveteen with satin breeches and hose
The abbot Henricus addressed them of a corresponding hue, and a sable sur-
now in fluent Latin, bidding one to go plice. Upon doffing my travel-worn ap-
without and care for my horse, and order- parel I found that they fitted perfectly,

ing the other to show me to an apartment albeit most somberly.

above, where, he informed me, I could During this time I engaged myself in
change my rain-bedraggled garments for observing the room more closely. I won-
a more suitable raiment, while awaiting dered greatly at the lavishness, display
the evening meal. and and more greatly still at
ostentation,
I thanked my courteous host and fol- the complete absence of any religious
lowed the silent black automaton up the paraphernalia —
not even a simple cruci-
great stone staircase. The flickering torch fix was visible. Surely this order must be

of the giant servitor cast arabesque shad- a rich and powerful one; albeit a trifle
ows upon bare stone walls of great age worldly; perchance akin to those societies
and advanced decrepitude; clearly the of Malta and Cyprus whose licentiousness
structure was very old. Indeed, the mas- and extravagance is the scandal of the
sive walls that rose outside must have world.
been constructed in a bygone day, for the As I thus mused there fell upon my
other buildings that presumably were ears the sounds of sonorous chanting that
contemporaneously erected beside this swelled symphonically from somewhere
had long since fallen into irremediable, far below. Its measured cadence rose and
unrecognizable decay. fell solemnly as if it were borne from a

Upon reaching the landing, my guide distance incredible to human ears. It was
led me along a richly carpeted expanse subtly disturbing; I could distinguish
of tessellated floor, between lofty walls neither words nor phrases that I knew,
tapestried and bedizened with draperies but the potent rhythm bewildered me. It

of black. Such velvet finery was most un- welled, a malefic rune, fraught with in-
seemly for a place of worship, to my sidious strange suggestion. Abruptly it

mind. ceased, and I breathed unconsciously a

Nor was my opinion shaken by the sigh of relief. But not an instant during
W. T.—
 8 —

THE FEAST IN THE ABBEY 113

the remainder of my sojourn was I mains cast upon the floor; the common
wholly free from the spark of unease gen- decencies were often ignored. For a
erated by the far-distant sound of that moment I was dumfoimded, but natural
nameless, measured chanting from below. politeness came to my rescue, so that I
fell to without further ado.
2
Half a dozen of the black servants

N ever have I eaten a stranger meal

than that which I partook of at the
monastery of the abbot Henricus. The
glided silently about the board, replenish-
ing the dishes or bearing platters
with new and still more
filled

exotic viands.
banquet hall was a triumph of ostenta- My eyes beheld marvels of cuisine upon
tious adornment. The meal took place in golden platters —but pearls were
verily,

a vast chamber whose lofty eminence rose For these cowled and
cast before swine?
the entire height of the building to the hooded brethren, monks though they
arched and vaulted roof. The walls were were, behaved like abominable boors.
hung with tapestries of purple and blood- They wallowed in every kind of fruit
royal, emblazoned with devices and great luscious cherries, honeyed melons,
escutcheons of noble, albeit to me un- pomegranates and grapes, huge plums,
known, significance. The banquet table and dates. There
exotic apricots, rare figs
itself extended the length of the chamber were huge cheeses, fragrant and mellow;
—
•
at one end unto the double doors tempting soups; raisins, nuts, vegetables,
through which I had entered from the and great smoking trays of fish, all served
stairs; the other end was beneath a hang- with ales and cordials that were as potent
ing balcony under which was the scullery as the nectar of nepenthes.
entrance. About this vast festal board During the meal we were regaled with
were seated some two-score churchmen in music from unseen lutes, wafted from
cowls and gabardines of black, who were the balconies above; music that trium-
already eagerly assailing the multitudi- phantly swelled in an ultimate crescendo
nous array of foodstuffs with which the as six servitors marched solemnly in,

table was weighted. They scarcely ceased bearing an enormous platter of massy,
their gorging to nod a greeting when the beaten gold, in which reposed a single
abbot and I entered to take our place at haunch of some smoking meat, garnished
the head of the table, but continued to with and redolent of aromatic spices. In
devour rapaciously the wonderful array profound silence they advanced and set
of victuals set before them, accomplishing down their burden in the center of the
this task in a most unseemly fashion. The board, clearing away the giant candelabra
abbot neither paused to motion me to my and smaller dishes. Then the abbot rose,
seat nor to intone a blessing, but immedi- knife in hand, and carved the roast, the
ately followed the example of his floch while muttering a sonorous invocation in
and proceeded directly to stuff his belly an alien tongue. Slices of meat were ap-
with choice titbits before my astounded portioned to the monks of the assemblage
eyes. It was certain that these Flemish on silver plates. A marked and definite
barbarians were far from fastidious in interest was apparent in this ceremony;
their table habits. The meal was accom- only politeness restrained me from ques-
panied by uncouth noises from the tioning the abbot as to the significance of
mouths of the feasters; the food was taken the company’s behavior. I ate a portion
up in the fingers and the untasted re- of my meat and said nothing.
W. T.—
 —

114 WEIRD TALES

To find such barbaric dalliance and ness about the banquet board. Talk
kingly pomp in a monastic order was in- turned to vaguely alarming channels, and
deed curious, but my curiosity was regret- cowled faces took on a sinister aspect in
tably dulled by copious imbibing of the the wan and flickering light. As I gazed
potent wines set before me at the table, bemused about the board, I was struck by
in beaker, bumper, flask, flagon, and be- the peculiar pallor of the assembled faces;
jeweled cup. There were vintages of every they shone whitely in the dying light as
age and distillation; curious fragrant po- with a distorted mockery of death. Even
tions of marvelous headiness and giddy the atmosphere of the room seemed
sweetness that affected me strangely. changed; the rustling draperies seemed
The meat was peculiarly rich and moved by unseen hands; shadows
sweet. I washed it down with great marched along the walls; hobgoblin
drafts from the wine-vessels that were shapes pranced in weird processional over
now freely circulating about the table. the groined arches of the ceiling. The
The music ceased and the candle-glow festal board looked bare and denuded
dimmed imperceptibly into softer lumi- dregs of wine besmirched the linen; half-
nance. The storm still crashed against the eaten viands covered the table’s expanse;
walls without. The liquor sent fire the gnawed bones on the plates seemed
through my veins, and queer fancies ran grim reminders of mortal fate.
riot through my addled head.
I

pany’s
sat almost stupefied when, the com-
trenchermannish appetites being
at last satisfied, they proceeded, under in-
T he
conversation was ill-suited to fur-
my peace of mind it was far
ther
from the pious exhortations expected of
—
fluence of the wine, to break the silence such a company. Talk turned to ghosts
observed during the meal by bursting into and enchantments; old tales were told
the chorus of a ribald song. Their mirth and infused with newer horror; legends
grew, and broad jests and tales were told, recounted in broken whispers; hints of
adding to the merriment. Lean faces were eldritch potency passed from wine-
convulsed in lascivious laughter, fat smeared lips in tones sepulchrally muted.
paunches quivered with jollity. Some I satsomnolent no longer; I was nerv-
gave way to unseemly noise and gross ous with an increasing apprehension
and several collapsed beneath the
gesture, greater than I had ever known. It was
table and were carried out by the silent almost as if I knew what was about to

blacks. I could not help but contrast the happen when at last, with a curious smile,
scene with that in which I would have the abbot began his tale and the monkish
figured had I reached Vironne to take my presences hushed their whispers and
meal at the board of my good
brother, the turned in their places to listen.

cure. There would be no such noisome At the same time a black entered and
ribaldry there; I wondered vaguely if he deposited a small covered platter before
was aware of this monastic order so close his master, who regarded the dish for a
to his quiet parish. moment before continuing his introduc-
Then, abruptly, my thoughts returned tory remarks.
to the company before me. The mirth It was fortunate (he began, addressing
and song had given place to less savory me) that I had ventured here to stay the
things as the candles dimmed and deep- evening, for there had been other travel-
ening shadows wove their webs of dark- ers whose nocturnal sojoumings in these
 THE FEAST IN THE ABBEY 115

woods had not reached so fortunate a in the deep woods . . . wolfish faces glar-
termination. There was, for example, the ing into my own . . .

legendary "Devil’s Monastery.” (Here Then, three things happened simulta-

he paused and coughed abstractedly be- neously. The abbot slowly lifted the lid
fore continuing.) of the small tray before him. ("Let us
According to the accepted folk-lore of finish the meat,” I think he said.) Then
the region, this curious place of which he I screamed. Lastly came the merciful
spoke was an abandoned priory, deep in thunder-clap that precipitated me, the
the heart of the woods, in which dwelt a laughing monks, the abbot, the platter
strange company of the Undead, devoted and the monastery into chaotic oblivion.
to the service of Asmodeus. Often, upon When I awoke I lay rain-drenched in
the coming of darkness, the old ruins a ditch beside the mired pathway, in wet
took on a preternatural semblance of their garments of black. My horse grazed in
vanished glory, and the old walls were the forest ways near by, but of the abbey
reconstructed by demon artistry to be- I could see no sign.
guile the passing traveler. It was indeed I staggered into Vironne a half-day
fortunate that my brother had not sought later,and already I was quite delirious,
me woods upon a night like
in the this, and when I reached my brother’s home I
for he might have blundered upon this cursed aloud beneath the windows. But
accursed place and been bewitched into my delirium lapsed into raving madness
entrance; whereupon, according to the an- when he who found me there told me
he would be seized, and
cient chronicles, where my brother had gone, and his
his body devoured in triumph by the probable fate, and I swooned away upon
ghoulish acolytes that they might preserve the ground.
their unnatural lives with mortal suste- I can never forget that place, nor the
nance. chanting, nor the dreadful brethren, but
All this was recounted in a whisper of I pray to God that I can forget one thing
unspeakable dread, as if it were some- before I die: that which saw before the
I

how meant convey a message to my

to thunderbolt; the thing that maddens me
bewildered senses. It did. As I gazed and torments me all the more in view of
into the leering faces all about me I real- what I have since learned in Vironne. I
ized the import of those jesting words, know it is all true, now, and I can bear

the ghastly mockery that lay behind the the knowledge, but I can never bear the
abbot’s blandand cryptic smile. menace nor the memory of what I saw
The Devil’s Monastery . subterrene
. . when the abbot Henricus lifted up the lid
chanting of the rites to Lucifer . . . of the small silver platter to disclose the
blasphemous magnificence, but never the rest of the meat. . . .

sign of the cross ... an abandoned priory It was the head of my brother.
 Uhe
hattered Timbrel
By WALLACE J.
KNAPP
A strange tale of a weird surgical operation
and its ghastly results

O VER all these ponderous volumes

on the desk before me I have

pored. Krestenivnikov’s Condi-
tioned Reflexes of the Parietal Lobe, Eb-
than two months.
that after
Schmerzholt told
he gets back from the Experi-
mental Biologists’ Conference in Berlin,
me a month’s vacation.”
he’ll give
me

bingbaum’s reprints from Neurologie "Marvelous! Let’s drive somewhere

Centralblatt, even the rare Derangements and do something.”
cerebro-spinales I have read over and over, I begged off. The breakneck speed at

seeking a clue. Hopeless. All hopeless. I, which she drives that blue roadster of
whom Schmerzholt, the world’s greatest hers is breath-taking for a staid scientist
physio-biologist, called the most promis- like me. Besides, I wanted to stay there
ing assistant he ever had, face a blank and plan what we’d do for the next two
wall. months.
How I remember our excitement the Before Schmerzholt sailed, however, he
firstfew times we performed the modern outlined enough research to keep me busy
miracle. Even Schmerzholt’s funny little for a year, not including the time neces-
beard danced up and down and his eyes sary to look after our resurrected monkeys,
behind their powerful lenses glinted, as a job that demanded almost the entire at-

the monkey that had actually been dead tention of one person; but Jim Briggs,
for two weeks raised its paw to claw at Doctor Briggs with a string of letters
the life-restoring stream pouring into its after his name, even if he is younger than
arteries. If we had been publicity-seek- I, told him not to worry.
ers, the successful culmination of my Still, my duties did cut into the time I

chief’s lifetime of experimenting would had hoped to spend with Nancy. When
have put us on the front page of news- you are trying to grow a cutaneous tissue
papers all over the world; but for some synthetically, and need to add a drop of
reason the little German held back. some solution or other every half-hour
"Nein, Wally, ve are not ready yet.” for ten days, there’s little chance of cover-
But Nancy Follett, when I told her ing much country, even with a speed
about it that night, could not understand demon like Nancy for a driver. She’s un-
the delay. happy unless she’s hitting fifty miles or
"Why, darling, bringing the dead back better; but that, I suppose, is what I

to life! It’s wonderful. When people should expect from the red-headed elf
learn about someone will be sure to
it, who was so soon to marry me.
offer you a salary big enough so that we We scientists are agnostics about telep-
can get married.” athy, waiting the results of further in-
"We’ll be married without waiting for vestigation. But I know how uneasy I

that, sweetheart,” I told her. "and in less felt around the laboratory that afternoon.
116
 THE SHATTERED TIMBREL 117

Nothing went right. One of the monkeys ing and with me in the rear, my arms
ended the state of coma in which it had about Nancy and my voice screaming for
existed ever since before Schmerzholt’s more speed.
departure, by dying. The howling of the By myself I took her to our operating-
dogs we use for experimental purposes room, immaculate except for the angry
got more on my nerves than usual. And red spot on the tile, like a little lake of
the shrill telephone ring so startled me blood.
that I dropped the pan of analine I was Briggs, arriving afterward, said he
carrying across the operating-room. pounded for ten minutes on the locked
Briggs was nearest the phone, but he door before he made me hear and let him
just stood there looking at me and at the in. Then he gasped. On the operating-
spreading red pool on the spotless tile. covered by a surgical sheet, lay the
table,
I reached the phone first. The voice dead body of the girl I had expected to
was breathless and choked as it asked for marry.
Doctor Knapp. I licked my dry lips and "What are you going to do, Wally?”
answered. he cried.
"Oh, Doctor, there’s been an accident, 'We’ve brought animals back to life,”
”
a terrible accident. Miss Follett is I told him. "I’m going to revive Nancy.”
"Dead?” I rasped. "Where? When?” "You’re out of your head.”
"Maybe, but science saved monkeys.
\\ 7e beat the ambulance to the scene Science is going to save my sweetheart or

T of the auto wreck. Nancy’s blue I’m through with it for ever. And you’re
car still remained rammed against a tree, going to help me.”
but the farmer in the neighboring house I caught him as he was sidling out of
and the two occupants of the truck that the room. Vainly he protested. I de-

had been hugging the wrong side of the manded his help. Mine would be the re-
turn had pulled her out of the wreck and sponsibility, but alone I could not do what
laid her on a blanket. I planned. Finally he sterilized me and
It seemed impossible to believe she buttoned me into my operating-gown,
was dead, but though she had not a cut or though still protesting.
a visible bruise, her heart had stopped "But look here,” I thundered. "Every
beating. I was bent over her when the doctor in the land would pronounce her
ambulance clanged up. I pushed back dead, wouldn’t they?”
the doctor. No hands but mine should He tried Nancy’s pupillary reflex.
touch her. If anything remained to be "She’s dead,” he admitted.
—
done for her that gave me the idea. My "And unless we do something, she’ll
choking cry brought Briggs to his knees remain dead. So if we can do anything
beside me. at all for her, she’ll be better off than
"What is it, Wally?” he demanded. now.”
"We’ve got to get her to the labora- As we rigged up the teeter board, I
tory.” could see that though he said nothing, he
At first the ambulance driver refused. was set against what I proposed to do, but
It was his duty to take her to the hos- I went ahead. I bound the girl I loved

pital, but I insisted. Afterward he testi- to a sort of seesaw; then, biting my lips,

fied in court that I threatened to kill him. I made my incisions. As I had watched
I don’t know, but it ended with his driv- Schmerzholt, so now I pumped in the
118 WEIRD TALES
epinephrin reagent to stimulate her heart and slightly moved the hand that wore
action, the hepatin for its effect on her the engagement ring I had given her.
liver, the leucholchyle for nervous system And then Briggs slumped to the floor.

tone, all in a blood and saline solution I could not stop to help him. Even
from which the coagulating matter had though Nancy had begun to breathe
been filtered. And from time to time I again, slowly, I could not leave her, even
glanced up at Briggs, whose eyes, all I for an instant. Not until the black of the
could see above his mask, remained fixed windows turned to gray and I knew she
on the pulmonamic machine with which was safe did I open the laboratory door.
he was trying to start her breathing. With Outside, Mrs. Follett, dry-eyed and gray,
his gloved right hand he gently teetered sat folding and refolding her handker-
the board back and forth, eight times a chief. I gave her instructions and stum-
minute. bled to a cot in our smoking-room. I

Outside it grew dark. Inside the oper- slumped onto it.

ating-room, dripping in the air heated to When I awoke, I discovered they had
lessen shock, we watched, blinking in the moved her to the hospital, since our lab-
glare of overhead lights. I was dimly oratory had no facilities to care for her.
conscious of people knocking at the door, Quickly I drove over, still haggard. The
but we did not open it. When the tele- doctor began questioning me, but all I

phone annoyed me, I hurled a pair

bell said was thathad given her a blood
I

of haemostats at it and sent the apparatus

transfusion to replace what she had lost

crashing to silence on the tile. And still in the accident. For a moment he looked
we watched, feeding the life-giving fluids at me queerly.
into the body and waiting for them to "She’s still unconscious,” was his an-
take effect swer to my question. "From the shock,
of course.”
Yes, waiting, because, somehow, I had
The next day I was given the same re-
no thought of failure. The reason
port. She was, however, as I saw her,
Schmerzholt went to the added expense
resting easier, breathing quicker and with
of buying monkeys for his experiments
a better color. But it was four days be-
was because their reactions parallel human
fore she opened her eyes, and then those
reactions. If they had been restored after
hazel eyes that used to sparkle at me were
two weeks of death, Nancy must come
glazed. When I saw she did not recog-
back to me.
nize me yet, I soon left.
Briggs called my attention to the blood Mornings and evenings I made my pil-
on my gown, dripping from the lip I had grimage Nancy’s bedside, but when a
to
been worrying with my teeth as I worked. week passed and still she had not spoken
But I did not stop to change. Just then, or recognized anyone, the family began
Ithought I saw a slight movement of her to worry. Hour after hour the girl lay
mouth, but when it was not repeated, I unmoving, her lusterless eyes fixed vacant-
calledit a product of my tensed imagina- ly on the ceiling, saying nothing, appar-
tion. ently hearing nothing. Finally they de-
It was Briggs who first detected the cided to call in a specialist. I tried to
trembling of Nancy’s eyelids. That gave have them put it off until Schmerzholt’s
new vigor to our exhausted bodies and we arrival, for we were expecting him in ten
kept on until finally she gave a little moan days, but they were frantic.
 THE SHATTERED TIMBREL 119

T hey made
suppose there
of greater skill
a good
is
choice. I

a neuropathologist
than Doctor Parker in the
don’t the instant blood stops flowing through
the brain a chemical change takes place?
You revive her body, perhaps, but her
Midwest. He made a thorough examina- brain, what of her brain? Dead! Dead!”
tion, but I could see how puzzled he was, Briggs tried to divert his anger by
and while he talked in hopeful general- quoting what I had said to him.
ities to Mr. and Mrs. Follett, to me he '"We thought anything at all that we
acknowledged that he was at sea. could do for her would be better than to
"It locks like pressure on the brain leave her dead.”
somewhere, but although I’ve used this The little German whirled on him.
new X-ray technique, there isn’t the "So? Eh, so you made her what do —
slightest evidence of lesion. Even an in- they call those Haitian imbeciles? — a zom-
jury to the spinal column would partly bie? And
he —he loves her, so he wants
account for her condition, if we could her to live an idiot? A lifetime of tor-
find any. You found no trace immediately ture for everyone? And perhaps you will
after the accident?” think you must marry her, dummkopf.
I assured him had no explana-
that I Look what happens when I go away. If
tion. I still do not know what except — I had been here, I would have broken all

—
shock could have stopped her heart- the instruments, and chloroformed you,
beats without leaving a wound. And so, first. If it had not been impossible, do
after promises to keep her under observa- you think I would not have experimented
tion, Doctor Parker left and I waited for with people? Well, now where are you
Schmerzholt. going?”
Finally he arrived, tanned and viva- After all, what could I say to him? I
cious, but he sobered instantly when he went out slowly, stopped at the store-
saw me, and by the time I had told him room, and then on to the hospital. There
the whole story, he was so furious that he I saw the girl I loved better than anything

choked. I had thought that when a scien- in the world, as beautiful as ever, but
tist like Schmerzholt had devoted a quar- with the dull eyes of an idiot. To my
ter-century to the problem of methods of kisses on her fiery hair, her lips, her fin-

restoring human life, the acme of delight gers, she made no response. Then from
would be the report of its successful use, my pocket I drew a tiny bottle and emp-
but instead he became more enraged than tied its few flakes of powder into a glass.
I have ever seen him. He bombarded me In my arms I clasped her as I held it to
with German oaths. her lips. The nurse, coming in, found me
"You fool!” he ended. "Aber tell me kissing a corpse.
instantly, how is she?” They kept the name of the poison I
"Getting better all the time. She is still used out of the papers, for, after all, if
”
dazed, but Doctor Parker thinks peopleknew how painlessly death may be
"Dazed?” snapped Schmerzholt. summoned, more of them might seek it.
"Dazed? Have you from the observation But everything else made front page head-
of our monkeys learned nothing, block- lines.
head? Don’t you know what to that
lovely girl you have done?”
I tried to stammer a question.

"Don’t you know,” he shrieked, "that

T
it.
he story
tastic that

When Briggs
I told at my trial was so fan-
none of the jury believed
testified that Nancy had
120 WEIRD TALES
been dead in the first place, they thought way to awaken the brain as it is possible
his words an attempt to shield a friend. to start heart and lungs functioning. My
From the beginning, I knew there could time on earth is short now, but if I keep

be only one possible sentence. looking . . .

But now, as I wait for the death guard, What? They are waiting for me in the
I have only one ambition. Somewhere in death chamber? Then
must go. Nancy,
I

one of these ponderous volumes on the you understand. You’ll be waiting for
desk before me may hide the secret of a me. Nancy! Nancy!

/f^harf
By
W atchman
EDGAR DANIEL KRAMER
When the harbor lights are winkin’
Through the dusk that hides the day,
Though ’tis little folks are thinkin’
That I’m wanderin’ away,
Lord, I’m laughin’, while I’m roamin’
From the shadow-haunted quays,
An’ the stars, white in the gloamin’,
Lead me out across the seas.

As upon my rounds I’m goin’

With a lantern in my hand,
There is no one to be knowin’,
An’ folks wouldn’t understand.
IfI told them I was sailin’

To be walkin’ the bazars,

Where the temple bells are wailin’
To the pale moon an’ the stars.

When the harbor bells are cryin’

Through the smother of the mist,
That comes when day is dyin’,
I am keepin’ an old tryst,

Where the gulls an’ winds are screamin’.

Where the salt spray stings my lips,

An’, contrary to all seemin’,

Lord, I’m followin’ the ships.
 in Twenty Minutes
By CHARLES HENRY MACKINTOSH
Doctor Graeme little thought how his death’s-head spider plot would redound
on his own head —a story about an Egyptian mummy

T HIS
in my
is exciting

the reading-lamp lighted on

.

darkened study,

desk, to hear the shrill, harsh cries of the

. . waiting here
with only
mummy—not very good mummy, but
genuine one— and one of my two
my head spiders from Hawaii.
of me to think of
a

my
It

death’s-head spider
death’s-
was clever
a

newsboys calling the Extra! He will rate in this connection. It is no larger than a
an Extra, surely: the good, the great, the scarab. Strange that so tiny a creature
learned Doctor Barrion. That is the can distill death in twenty minutes! They
measure of fame in our America—to rate say it is the only poisonous thing in that
—
an Extra and Doctor Barrion is or may — Paradise of the Pacific, and very rare even
I say, already, was? —
famous. A bit too there,found only in the deep woods,
famous, perhaps, for his own health. where my two specimens were found.
"We are sorry, Doctor Graeme, but the Now I have only one.
committee appointed to choose a curator I may need it for that young snip,

has decided in favor of Doctor Barrion, Skipsworth, who took so great secret sat-

because of his wide fame as the author of isfaction in condoling with me upon the
the Amen monographs.” He-he-he! committee’s decision. That sneer on his
Amen monographs! I shall be the one, face! Damn him and all of them! "And
Doctor Barrion, to write the last of your besides, they thought Doctor Barrion had
Amen monographs ... an end to your the kindlier, stronger character.” —A de-
growing fame, an end to your career, and liberate insult! Kindlier, maybe —none
to your interference with mine. Amen . . . but weaklings are "kind” —but stronger!
so let it be! Well, we shall soon learn who has proved
I wonder whether he is now unwrap- the stronger. I am as strong as Death,
ping the bitumen bandages from that fine Doctor Barrion; strong as Death, and not
female mummy I so freely contributed to kind. You will not like your death . . .

his new curatorship. Always with his but then I did not like your life, and I am
own hands, eh? —because of the scarabs stronger than you, Doctor Barrion. He-
and other amulets often wound in with he-he!
the bandages ... so tempting to curio- Why don’t they hurry with that Extra?
hunters and so easy to abstract! He-he- Surely they won’t hold so rare a piece of
he! There one amulet wound in with
is news for the morning editions. I can’t
that mummy’s bandages you would have bear to sit here waiting, waiting, till

done well to allow some curio-hunter to morning — yet I shall if I must. I have
abstract, Doctor Barrion but it is . . . waited so many years already . . . surely
too late to think of that now, isn’t it? I can wait through one more night. I

One does not lightly change the habits of v/onder what they will make of it, those
a lifetime. newspapermen. Of course they will bring
It is costing me something, too. My in the old idea of a priestly curse upon
121
 e

122 WEIRD TALES

tomb-robbers. How mad it always made ditional security, that my voice shall be
dear Doctor Barrion to be classed with heard from my locked study. He-he-he!
tomb-robbers! But they will bring that Not "Doctor Graeme was in
bad, that!
up, of course, for the titillation of their his study with the door locked all eve-
readers’ superstitions. ning! I heard his voice ...” so the
Strange that so practical a people as good Williams, on the witness stand.
ours should be so superstitious. We But I am mad to think so! There will
whose duty it is to deal with the long be no occasion for any witnesses. No
dead, to "rifle” their tombs and to "des- trial. No witnesses. "Death by misad-
ecrate” their bodies ... tv are not venture.” A nice funeral ... to which
superstitious. We couldn’t afford such I shall go in my Easter Sunday outfit,

a luxury as superstition in our business, after sending an appropriate wreath.

could we, Doctor Barrion? We are not More expense but it must all be re- . . .

superstitious. We are scientists, you and garded as an investment. The committee

I, cold, rational scientists. He-he-he! can have no other choice than Doctor
But perhaps even Doctor Barrion will Graeme this time. What’s that?
recant during those last twenty minutes! I swear, this waiting has given me the
He may rave and sob. He may shriek jitters! I thought I heard someone in the
prayers and promises to the priests of room with me . . . but the door is

Amen. I wish I could be there to hear. . . . locked; yes, it is locked, I say, and no one

But it is better to wait quietly in my dark- can get in. Fool! I must get myself a
ened study with my servants below to little drink. Here . . . here’s to you,
swear that I have not been out since din- Doctor Barrion, wherever, whatever, you
ner, if any swearing should be necessary. are now! Salve atque vale!
It won’t be. I have planned so surely Good God! How did you get in? The
and so well. No one can connect me with door is locked, locked, I tell you. I . . .

the poor, dear doctor’s mysterious death. you . . . what is it you want. Doctor
It will be the curse of Amen-Ra upon a Barrion? What is that strange phosphor-
grave-robber! A fine end for you, my escence about you? Is this some school-
dear, famous, imperious colleague! boy trick? What! You came to bring
me my death’ s-head

W
back spider? What’s
as that a cry from the end of the that in your hand? The spider? Impos-
street? "Wuxtry!” Yes, yes! they sible . . . it’s death to the touch! But
are calling the Extra! Oh, come closer, maybe it is dead. Maybe the bitumen-
cry! Come closer quickly! Let me hear bandages smothered it. I was afraid of
it clearly, the glad tidings of —what was that . . . but what am I saying? I know
that? A knock on my study door? But nothing of any death’s-head spider! God!
I left the strictest orders I was on no ac- It isn’t dead! I saw it move!
count to be disturbed! Be careful man, for God’s sake!
"Is that you, Williams?” There’s death in your hand! No . . .

No answer. Strange . . . and annoy- no . . . keep it away from me! It’s

ing that my orders should be disregarded. death, I tell you . . . horrible, agonizing
Yet, on second thought, it may be an ad- death . . . death in twenty minutes. . . .
 Vhe
G/upreme Witch*
By G. APPLEBY TERRILL

T HE logs that had just

the fire were wet, and as the
erful yellow flames
been laid on
pow-
wrapped them
round, long, hissing spurts of steam broke
he and Old Jem quarreled hotly in the
veryfirst hour of their acquaintance, some

eighteen months before, rarely speaking

since,but Old Jem was reputed to have
the silence. been a thoroughly bad man all his days,
At the table with its wine-bottles, and, in his eighty-seventh year, to be ever
glasses and candles four men sat Jacob-
ite conspirators; for they were met in the
— ready to gibe at good, to talk with satis-
faction of his own misdeeds, and to ap-
interests of the king in exile,
Stuart prove those of others. The only spark in
—
James the Third the Pretender, the Gov- his soul which was not a gleam of evil
ernment styled him. The four were: the (it was commonly said) was a sincere

parson, the messenger from King James, wish that James III could be placed on the
Mr. Gartshore the scrivener, and "Old throne of his fathers.
Jem” Lambardiston, the lord of the So far, tonight, the affairs of the exile
manor. had fully occupied Old Jem. But, with
Mr. Gartshore was pondering a ques- the deliberations finished, it was not im-
tion of finance, for an answer to which probable that his tongue would turn in
the others waited. Eventually he spoke: malice to themes and assertions which
"Not much above five thousand would sharply wound the parson. At
pounds. Tell his Majesty five thousand least, thus the parson reasoned; and his

guineas.” ears were alert for an attack as he hesitated

The messenger made a note; and this betwixt remaining and showing discour-
concluded the business of the evening. tesy to thecompany by taking his leave.
The parson's inclination now was to go. However, Old Jem tended to be silent.
He was ill at ease sitting in Old Jem’s Sunken a little in his chair, he watched
house. Nothing short of the Stuart the messenger fold his papers. Anon he
agent's presence in it would have enticed motioned him to fill his glass; and, drain-
him over the threshold; for not only had ing his own, he blinked, and closed his
•From WEIRD TAL.ES for October, 1826. eyes, breathing thickly.
123
 —

124 WEIRD TALES

The parson, though becoming drawn Over his face a shadow came — the kind
into converse with Mr. Gartshore, looked of shadow that the parson would least
at his host. he would, he could
Strive as have expected to find there. It hinted

feel no touch of that pity which the old so that once Old Jem had met with some-
often stir in one; he could feel only de- thing which had appalled even his iron
testation for the aged face in repose. mind.
Partly encircled by a tumbled, very white "In our town?” said the parson. "I
peruke, and now colored high by wine, it have not heard
was, for all its deep lines, fleshy still. "Certes you have not. ’Twas away
The under lip, tinged with purple, hung back in King Charles’ time nigh to —
loose, the mouth seeming to leer lazily; three-score years ago. They who were in
yet, because of the great puckers about it, it with me are long since dead, and ’twas
it was no weak mouth, but ruthless, brow- a thingwe had no wish to talk of, and
beating. hoped we should forget.” Old Jem shook
"There is a lad in Parliament,” said the his head, with his lips pursed and his
messenger, buttoning his waistcoat over eyes cloudy. "I have forgot no scrap, no
his papers, “a Mr. Faunce, that spoke jot.”

cleverly on the witchcraft statutes. We "V oila, then, Mr. Lambardiston,” said
should gain him to our side.” the messenger, "give us the story.”
"I have seen to it,” said the scrivener. "No,” said Old Jem, taking up his
He drank, and put down his glass slowly. snuff-box. "I would not have spoke this
"Witchcraft!” he exclaimed, a thrill of much, but the wiping out of the witch
anger in his voice. "That is some credit laws by these perky fellows who are too
to this year 1736, it hath witnessed the wise to believe in magic hath left me in
snuffing out of the witchcraft laws —and a fume. And when
”
Gartshore there, and
therefore of witchcraft. For the law, and Parson
the law only, made witchcraft. ... To He stopped, surveying the scrivener
think that in our day — twenty-five, twen- and parson in turn. "So ye deem it an
ty years back- —the law of England was empty tale, Gartshore, and you too, Par-
murdering women and little girls for son?” For a few seconds his lips pressed
witchcraft! Mr. Parson, sir, I grant
. . . together tightly, his face ever setting
you there was witchcraft in Israel. But, harder, decision growing in his eyes,
declare to me, was there ever such in which smoldered with exasperation. "Very
England?” well!” he cried; "ye shall have the tale;
"Nay, there was not,” answered the and if ye will go to the jail tomorrow ye
parson emphatically. shall find some records that will savor of
Old Jem’s eyes opened. Faded and its truth.” He raised himself and leaned
watery, they nevertheless bent on the par- forward with his arms on the table.
son a strong, unwavering gaze, and the The messenger breathed "Good!” Mr.
limp under lip stiffened truculently. Gartshore muttered something apologetic,
"Take back your nay, parson,” he said, and the parson’s interest vanquished his
"for I have been in witchraft. Ay, I have inclination to go.
been in —
it head and shoulders in as great "Now listen,” said Old Jem.
a piece of witchcraft as witch ever did His voice was wonderfully powerful
and the place of it no farther off than our for his years; and he gave his narrative
town down yonder.” with an orderliness and ease that were to
 I

THE SUPREME WITCH 125,

be anticipated from one who in the past pleaded guilty and was sentenced to be
had been reckoned one of the finest Tory hanged.
orators in the House of Commons. "Now mark this well. She was to be
hanged in the market-place, opposite the
“* <0 begin with,” he said, "I must go Red Bull inn. On the morning a great
|
JL back to the year ’67 1667, when — and savage crowd was gathered there,
I was a lad of seventeen. Witchcraft groaning and yelling and bent to seize her
trials were frequent enough thenadays, as ere she reached the gallows-tree and to
you do know; and at the autumn assize give her a rougher death than by the rope.
here we had the case of a woman who For witchcraft is a crime that oft will
lived in this very town. Her name was drive a populace to a frenzy.
Shafto —
Ellen Shafto. She was a widow "I was looking on from the Red Bull,
whose man had been killed in the great ill enough pleased by the scene being —
Four Days Fight with the Hollander young, and the witch so comely; and close
fleet. She had two young children, a boy on nine o’clock, the hour for the hanging,
and a girl, and was of no ripe age her- everything appeared the horrider to me be-
self, say, twenty-eight. And a pretty cause of the strange quality of the day-
woman she was, dark-haired, slim, and
smiling, with a sweet curve to the jaw and
light. It was November — for the assize
had come late. The sun was but little
a taking poise of the head — as I had be- risen, and shone weakly through a gap it
gun to note. But, despite her prettiness had melted in the thick murk which float-
and her poverty, she was known as a very ed over us. The market-place was partly
honest woman. Having been, ere she shadows and partly a blotch of queer,
came hither, needle-maid to some modish heavy, yellow light, wherein the faces of
madam, she kept herself and her children those who tiptoed to see if Mrs. Shafto
by sewing for the gentlefolk roundabout —
were near faces with teeth showing and
here. eyes wide open —
had the look of waxen
"Now there was another woman — masks.
forget how called —
who was her neigh- "Of a sudden the bell in the clockhouse
bor and did work of a like kind; and be- commenced to ring nine. The multitude
twixt her and Mrs. Shafto jealousy and was stricken silent on the instant. All
quarreling arose. were bewildered because Mrs. Shafto was
"After a while it chanced that this not come. But presently we caught the
woman’s hand and arm became
right sound of a huge, angry cry from near the
swelled, so that she was sorely pained and jail. And soon it was known that the
could not sew. Old Doctor Peters, the sheriff, aware of what the mob intended,

leech, could in no wise get rid of the had called Ralph Timmins, the hangman,
swelling and was puzzled to discover a to him and bidden him hang Mrs. Shafto
cause for it. privily, which he did forthwith in her cell,
putting the rope over a beam.
"A bruit spread that Mrs. Shafto had
bewitched the arm, accomplishing this by "My father, who was in the jail with
standing at her window with a silk kirtle the sheriff, told me afterwards that neither
across her own arm and her eyes held on the sheriff nor he went to see the execu-
the other woman’s house. At her trial, tion done. They stood with divers others
under threat of torture, Mrs. Shafto in the passage by the main door, it being
 — —

126 WEIRD TALES

well-nigh dark save where a flood of the which she told me was Nora and inquir- —
dull, yellow light fell, this coming to ing how she and her brother lived.
them through the window of a room "Shyly, but giving me no further curtsy
whereof the door, opening upon the pas- than that with which she had halted, she
sage, was swung wide back. said that her brother had received a gift
"And anon, my father said, Ralph Tim- of money from the lady in London in
mins walked down the stone stairs to whose service mother had been.
their
them, and was near to falling at the last With this money he had leased a trifle of
step on account of the gloom; and salut- land, which he farmed, and she dwelt
ing the sheriff, he quoth: 'Sir, I have put with him.
the young witch away, as your worship "I spoke with her for several minutes,
”
bid.’ and had meant to drop a couple of guineas
Old Jem stopped to pour some wine. into her palm; but I noted a stormy spar-
Presently the scrivener asked: kle in her eyes when the coins clinked in

"And the woman’s arm?” my pocket, so them

I let fall back; and I

"Mended from that day,” said Old

lifted not my fingers to her chin as I

Jem. "Oh, Ellen Shafto was a witch,

turned away —from memory of that
stormy sparkle.
doubt it not; and maybe her power was
far vaster than she showed. But she is "But there and then Iwas mightily in
not the witch of my tale — the supreme love with Nora Shafto; and I knew that
witch that was more potent than a score the winning of her was now to be the aim
of Ellens. of my life, and that she would fight me
hard.”
"Now harken again:
"It was, I said, in '67 that Ellen Shafto
was hanged.
I came but
For the next twelve years
little to these parts, but, my O ld Jem’s eyes,
ing dimmer and dimmer as he
himself more surely in the past, half
which seemed grow-
lost
lit
father dying in ’79, I removed hither
from London.
for a moment and swept to the parson
who discovered straightway, to the dis-
"In a short while I learned that Ellen
comfiture of his conscience, that in one
Shafto’s children, the lad now aged twen-
thing at least he had estimated Old Jem
ty-one and the girl eighteen, still dwelt
unjustly.
near the town; and one day I met this girl
"I ask your pardon. Parson,” quoth
in the street. I knew her as soon as I saw

her, for she woke my recollection of her Old Jem, "for what I shall say next. But
to give you a full understanding of my
mother. She was younger, fresher, even
slighter, but she had the same dark curls,
story I must speak plainly.”
the same sweet curve of the jaw, the same His eyes moved from the parson.
alluring poise of the head. Only in the "As I said, I was mightily in love with
expression of her face did she differ Nora Shafto. Ihad no thought to marry
much. The mother was wont to be smil- her —though when ’twas too late I would
ing, the daughter’s lips pouted (though in have wed her a dozen times over if that
a pretty fashion), and her eyebrows, with could have brought her to me. That she
the line of a little frown between them, was a witch’s daughter, and might be a
warned one of a temper. witch herself, was naught to me. I was
"I stopped her, asking her name the sort of man who would have enjoyed
 — I

THE SUPREME WITCH 1271

to wed a witch for the fun of it—were braced and of better self-assurance by
she a witch of birth. But I was not the reason ofit. There was less anger in her
sort of man to wed a needle-woman’s face,and a good deal more of bold con-
—
daughter were she white-souled as an tempt, which is a thing to make one seethe,

angel. coming from a person of low birth.

"And certes, Nora Shafto was that, so "
'Ay, you were very gentle, Mr. Lam*
far as accepting my love was concerned.
She could have loved me. For a brief
bardiston —thinking to fill my ears with
toys,’ said she, using a common phrase of
while, during which she let me speak
the time. 'Farthing toys,’ she added, her
often with her, I saw her affection for me eyes most scornful.
— —
grow grow radiant burn forth. But "
'Farthing toys is a lie.’ I said. 'And
that was before she knew meant I not
you know
marriage. Afterwards—
that well.’ I strove to master
months
wards, I
for
followed her, waylaid her, be-
after-
myself. 'Nora, I promised — I
promise,
to put round your fingers, round your
sought her, vainly. The flame which had
neck, round your pretty curls, toys worth
burned was dead. I offered her what she
the ransom of this town. ... You will do
—
would gems by the handful, gold and
all the gaining, I shall do all the spend-
more gold, till she had the chance to beg- ’

ing-
gar me well-nigh! She answered nay to
"She moved her shoulders quickly, lift-
all; not even a kiss did I get from her
ing her chin higher and looking deliber-
save a flick of one which I snatched.
ately away from me.
"That was by the horse-pool below the
"
'Ay, that’s your sleek prating,’ she
town, of an evening in
intercepted
May of ’80. I had
my young paragon, and most said in a slow, loathing way,
— 'you will

lovely was she to see, a-stand with her do all the spending! . . . And you blamed
head thrown back and her color bright, me for a liar! You — that will do all the

holding me at a distance with her look. spending! . . . Oh!’ cried she, looking
The frowning line was plain betwixt her back to me ——and saw her I in eyes that

eyebrows, her eyes were all anger, and she hated me 'Oh, why doth not choke it

there were revealed —one near each nos- —

you that damned lie? You will spend

tril —two little stern furrows which some- some bits of gold, but I —must spend
how made her face appear old without my soul—my soul! . . . Mr. Lambardiston
taking away its youthfulness — a strange whines to me to buy him a little diversion
blending that was hauntingly beautiful. —with my soul. "Let us two voyage
"But of late her tongue and manner through loveland,” quoth he. And / am
had so scathed me that I could keep my to pay for his voyage with my soul!

temper only by the hardest effort. And Faugh! you blackguard cur!’

this evening, being presently jabbed by a "Nora Shafto was ready with words,
retort from her, I exclaimed: and her voice was of a better-bred quality
"
'Nora, verily you are a little spite! than fitted her station — for after her
You answer nothing but bitterness and mother’s hanging a lady of the district had
spite to all I say, and I have never spoke a taken her into her house and cared for
word to you that was not love and gentle- own death. But this
her well until her
ness — till now.’ denouncement had more barbed wit than
"She was in no way disconcerted by my anything she had given me yet and it —
new tone. She seemed rather to feel smarted me mightily; though I covered
 I 8

128 WEIRD TALES

diis with a laugh, deeming that a kiss "I heard her draw in her breath at that
would be ample amends for the invective, I heard her move, as though she med-
and determining that this instant I would itated to cast herself on my back. But
take it. then she spoke mockingly:
"
"There was a horseman riding slowly 'I knew it!’ cried she. 'I knew your
up the lane towards us, but I cared not brute’s mouth would go to my poor moth-
for him, and stepped across to Nora with er. Oh, ay, I have a witch’s temper,
.. .

a word of my intent. I noted that, in- Mr. Lambardiston, and witch’s craft
stead of seeking to dart aside, she put her enough to keep myself out of your hands
hand to the basket of flower roots, dug however you strive.’
from the hedge, which she was carrying; "At this last idle saying — as I deemed
and then my hands clapped on her shoul- it — I faced about for a moment and
ders and my lips touched a comer of her quietly bade her cease from dangerous
mouth as she jerked it past me. words of witchcraft. For though I never
"She stamped swiftly on my foot — would have repeated them to her harm,
—
wore but shoes threw off one of my the horseman was now within earshot.
hands, whirled, and got free, the basket "Having given which warning, I went
dropping to the ground and emptying home.
forth its plants. From amid these she
whipped up a dull, stout knife.
"Two days afterwards her brother,
Francis Shafto, a big, dour-visaged fellow,
"
'So that is Mr. Lambardiston!’ she placed himself surlily, with extreme im-
gasped. 'Mr. Lambardiston —of the great pudence, in my path as I was entering the
gentry that visit the lawon poor folk. town. He threatened that if I so much as
Mr. Lambardiston, that was made deputy spoke to Nora henceforth, he would so
sheriff a se’nnight since. An attacker of beat me with his cudgel that I should lie
maids!’ She showed me the knife. 'I abed for many a week; and he added
want you to try again,’ she said; 'for yon- ’twas his belief no magistrate or judge
der comes a gentleman that shall swear I would do other than hold him justified in
killed you fairly.’ this.

"Ihad a good mind to try again. But "It was plain that I must have him
the fellow on horseback had flipped up cleared out of the place. I wrote that
his nag, and was trotting forward all same day to a friend, captain of a second-
a-grin; and I had no sword with which to rate of the navy; and a week after this,
stay him from interference, whereas a half a dozen sailors went to Shafto’s farm
very long iron was jogging by his leg. and impressed Master Francis for the sea
Withal, as Nora had fleered, I was deputy — most lawlessly, I confess.
sheriff, and could not but cut an unseem-
“Hearing that he was taken off, with
ly figure in the affair, which, by an argu- Nora left swooning from the fury with
ment with the arriving knave, might be which she had struggled to tear him from
much noised.
the sailors, I felt I had done cleverly. His
"So I turned from her, limping with release would be an additional bribe to
my hurt foot. offer Nora. . . .

"
'You witch’s jade!’ I said; 'you have "I had not done deverly; I had done
the black temper of a witch yourself.’ fatally.

W. T.—
 THE SUPREME WITCH 129

w(r
HB first hint I got of the truth was "Now the tale of the filly and the
A a report that the seamen, on their whinger had reached here before her;
road to the coast with Francis Shafto, had and, everyone knowing of her mother,
been charged into by a vicious bull. Then tongues were already a-wag. It needed
followed the news that no bull had at- but the cut on Nora’s shoulders to set the
tacked them, but a black filly, which, burst- town mad with excitement. Never had
ing suddenly through a gate, had raced there been so clear a case of a child in-
straightway upon them and, biting, lash- heriting evil magic! And the strength of
ing, trampling, like a fiend, had badly this magic in Nora! She was a far more
torn one man, broken the leg of another, dangerous witch than ever her mother
and killed a third outright. Francis Shaf- was. The magistrates were clamored at to
to, whose hands were tied because of commit her to prison, and this was done
fight he had made at the farm, was the ere she had been home many hours —
first to be knocked down, but was not crowd lingering about the jail till nearly
harmed by the beast, which presently, set- midnight, roaring and threatening to
ting her teeth in his coat, began to drag break in to her, and everyone saying that
him away; but a sailor, who by now had no man could account himself safe while
drawn his whinger, struck her on the she were alive.

shoulder, whereat she dropped Shafto and

"I knew not whether to believe Nora a
clattered off fast.
witch or to flout the notion, but I did
"I was starting forth for London when know one thing —she should be neither
I had these tidings. Beyond being some- hanged nor harmed, if my influence could
what pleased that Shafto was unhurt, I shield her; and I was very certain it could.
was little interested. But returning hither
"Forthwith, using my sheriff powers, I
a few days later to renew matters with
proclaimed penalties against any that
Nora, I was prettily astounded to find
should make a turmoil outside the jail;
that she was in jail, accused of having
and I called out and stationed therein a
changed herself into a black filly and slain
score of train-bandmen, armed to the eye-
a sailor with the hope to rescue her
lids. I used the rough of my tongue to
brother.
the magistrates who had caused the arrest
"I will tell you what was evidenced and detention of Nora instead of flog-
against her. The filly, when driven off by ging the mob that had clamored against
the blow from the whinger, was seen again
her.
by no man, nor was anyone in the country-
"And then I went to Nora.
side to be found who owned her or re-
membered to have seen her. At the time "My purpose was to dispel her fears at
of the onset Nora was a day gone from once, to tell her that I would see she was

home, having told her friends that she not put on trial at the assize, that indeed
would privily follow the press-party and, I would get her freed ere the week was
it might be, persuade some folk to attack
out. And as I strode with the chief turn-
it for her. She came back on the day key to her cell I was sure she would read
after the filly’s attack. She was very much of this in my face, and, in her relief
wearied and draggled and white, and in and gratitude, give me a kinder welcome
great pain from a cut across her shoulder, than of late.

which had been done, she said, by strik- "When the fellow had unbarred the
ing against a fence in the dark. door, I bade him begone to a distance.
W. T.—
130 WEIRD TALES
and, swinging back the door myself, I en- your power; wherefore you should be of
tered the cell. stem honor, Mr. Lambardiston should —
"Nora greeted me with a gasp of her you not? — that we and such as we could
breath, with stormshine in her eyes. De- ever trust you.But what are you?’ She
spite that I came to a standstill, she breathed between her set teeth with a
moved, facing me, to the far wall. Lean- hissing sound. 'If my mother’s spirit is

ing against it, with her head held back here beside me,’ she said, 'of which I am
and touching it, she commenced to rage very sure, what must she think of you?
at me, her voice low for the most part, Have you no whit of shame, striving to
yet often thrown hither and thither by her break me in the room where my mother
passion —
the palms of her hands now and doubtless stands?’
"
again beating upon the wall. 'Why doubtless here?’ I asked.

"What need to tell you her speech? "She looked upwards. Following her
’Twas the old tale of hate over again, yet glance, I saw above us a balk of dark oak
now twice as bitter, with its accusation spanning the cell. I exclaimed loudly;
that had planned her brother’s carrying-
I for I was moved by the cruel thoughtless-
off, whereby I was responsible for the ness which had caused Nora to be placed
pass she was come to. in the very room in which her mother was
"For a soace she would heed no word hanged.
x
"
of mine. But anon she began to listen to 'You shall be taken out of this,’ I said,

my protest that I would avert all peril making a step to summon the turnkey.
—
from her obtain her quick release. "But far from thanking me, she
While harkening, she seemed to cool fast brought me to a halt by declaring she
from her rage, her palms lying quite still would liefer remain, and would entreat
against the wall, her eyes lacking luster. Mr. Palmer, the governor of the jail, to
Her face had become wooden, as the say- put her back in this cell, did I have her
ing is. This I little liked. removed.
"
'For your favor,’ she said, on my "The dreaminess had gone from her
pausing, 'I am to love you? Is that the eyes, but for some seconds it came again.
compact?’ I could not tell whether she spoke chiefly
"
'Scarce a compact,’ I answered. 'I am to me or to herself when she said:
mean man you
will not save "
not so a I 'I do remember my mother very well,
unless you shall love me. No, no, Nora; though I had her for so little a time. She
yet I shall hope you will change to me; was a dear, sweet mother, and I know
and mark you this if you do, your — doth yearn to hearten me now am
that I
brother shall swiftly be libertied from the accused as she was. ... I think I am more
navy.’ near to her in this room than I could be
"
’Ah-h,’ she said softly, a dreaminess elsewhere on earth.’ Her voice sank, be-
In her eyes — eyes that were much my —
coming a moan, soft scarce unhappy. 'I
study when I was with her; they were so have wanted my mother. None knows
fluent of expression, so beautiful. 'Ah-h,’ how much! She was all tender love, and
she said, 'in truth — in truth, there is no the world is loneliness and cruel as stone.
worse than you in all this villain
villain I shall be glad to go away to my mother,

world! For see, you are high-placed, with though I would it were not by the hang-
my poor life and my brother’s much in man.’
 THE SUPREME WITCH 131

"Then her eyes, meeting mine squarely, place, should tell her that, outside the
lit of a sudden. There was a quick rous- prison, she would have no safety, despite
ing of her mind and body. She started her pardon, except she drove forth with
from the wall and bent towards me. 'But me and my train-bandmen and lodged in
rather would I go by hanging, rather by my house.
the roasting-post, than come to you you — "I would forbid any sheltering of her
sneaking dog! Ay, an hundred times in the jail.And by a gift of drink to the
rather!’ mob I should have inflamed it to an ex-
was dear she could not be reasoned
"It traordinary ferocity, such as, in her stub-
with that day. I turned on my heel, wast- bomest hate of me, she could not dream
ing no more words; and, walking from to face. Oh, I had Miss Nora in a rare
the jail, I decided that my best plan would trap from which there was no escape but
be to seem to abandon her until she had into my doorway.
been put in greater fright than she was in "With her pardon under my pillow, I
at present. I would let her stand her trial, slept complacent of mind through the
which I doubted not would result in her night which she would deem to be her
condemnation; and then I would secure a last.

pardon.”
Old Jem sipped from his glass. Setting “T started for the jail early in the
it down, he relapsed in his chair and —
morning the clearest, sweetest July
clasped his hands, without having looked morning I had ever known, with the hills
at His gaze brooded
any of his auditors. beyond the woods wondrous outstanding
darkly on the wall opposite him. and gleaming in the sunlight. I went
"She was tried at the .summer assize. afoot to enjoy the air, having ordered my
She pleaded ‘not guilty’, and was not coach to be at the jail for my return with
threatened with torture to make her alter Nora.
that. For the judge was old Jack Phillips, "Her hanging was to be at nine, op-
no firm believer in witchcraft as his — posite the Red Bull. Passing behind the
words to the jury showed. But the jury market-place, I felt the air a-tremble from
took only a few minutes to find her guil- the vast confusion of voices coming
ty; and she was condemned to be hanged thence; and at intervals these uplifted in
in the market-place, where her mother a shout of execration against her that nigh
was to have been flung off. stunned one —which noise reaching me as

"Already I had arranged almost fully I paused before the jail to warn a group
about getting the pardon; and after the of persons that I should permit no gather-
case Jack Phillips threw in his weight ing there, was like the tumbling down of
with me; and I had the pardon in my thousands of planks of wood.
hands with forty hours to spare. But I "I smiled to think what a tempest
meant to bring Nora fairly to the ground, would burst when the news of the pardon
with no fight left in her, this time. I had spread (I had increased my train-band-
charge of the execution —
Holden, the men to fifty), and to think what indigna-
sheriff, being bedridden- —
and I intended tion would be shown by sundry gentle-
to say naught of the pardon until my pret- men who were to meet me in the jail
ty one was within a few minutes of being when it was disclosed to them that the

carted forth to the gibbet, and the uproar pardon { which they would have expected
of the mob, sounding from the market- instant tidings of) was by no means newly
132 WEIRD TALES
arrived. These same gentlemen Palmer — the outcry in the market-place, which was
the governor. Captain Jones and Sir Hugh borne to us; and I explained to her that
—
Gerrow, justices were prone to take of- only by taking refuge in my house could
fense at my high-handed acts, as they she preserve herself from the savage
termed them. anger of the town. Not until that last did
her face lose its stoniness, did her eyes
"However, I saw not how the latter two
cease from looking balefully into mine.
received the tidings; for about half after
eight, they being not yet come, I informed "She raised them towards the beam; her
Palmer, bidding him tell them, and went fingers twitched amid her curls. 'Oh, my
up to Nora’s cell. On my way
met I mother —mother! mother!’ she said, her
Ralph Timmins, tire hangman, who had lips so quivering that 1 believed she
put her mother to death by means of the would fall to sobbing.
"
beam in the cell. He was an oldish man 'Now, come at once with me, Nora,’
now, with his thin beard streaked white I said gently.

and brown. "She gave but one sob, a strange, sigh-

"
'There be a riot of howling in the ing one, and her gaze returned to me.
"
market-square, your worship,’ said he. 'What if I ask Mr. Palmer to harbor
’
’Tis as it was in her mother’s time, or me here?’
worse, I’d affirm.’ He rubbed his chin "
'I will not allow him.’
with his knuckles.
sir — these two.
'A queer, sad business,
Both so pretty to look on
"
'I had wagered that — bully of every
man!’ Then she spoke with greater
and like as a pair o’ pink roses.’
steadiness. 'You believe you are the win-
"
'You will have no hanging today, ner betwixt us, but I believe I quoth true
Ralph,’ I answered; 'she is pardoned. But when I said I had witch’s craft enough to
you shall nothing lose in fees.’ Unwill- keep myself out of your hands.’
ing to stay even long enough to get out "
'Come,’ I said.
some gold for him, because of my eager-
"She took her fingers from her curls
ness to greet Nora, I added: 'Wait for me and pointed to the pardon. 'Until that is
below.’
given to Mr. Palmer, his warranty to re-
"The door of Nora’s cell was open, two lease me, you can not force me to stir, or
turnkeys standing by the threshold. I force any man to stir me, bully whom you
gestured them away and walked in. I shall. And I will not stir except Mr.
could perceive that Nora had gone white Palmer comes hither to bid me, or Mr.
at the sound of my approach. Perchance Drew doth bid me.’
sheknew not —
my step thought one was “Drew was the chief turnkey, one of
come to take her to the cart. When I the two who had been conversing with
confronted her the color began to come her. He had been present at her mother’s
again to her cheeks; and the line of the death, and — I suspect —had been pitying
littlefrown between her eyebrows was to the daughter.
deeper than I had ever discerned it. She "Frail though Nora’s argument was, I
held herself rigid, the fingers of one hand made no dispute. I should get her more
gripping motionlessly a cluster of her quickly to my coach by bending to her
dark curls.
whim. I started immediately to go down
"Well, I showed her the pardon. I to Palmer, beckoning to Drew to accom-
lifted my finger, telling her to listen to ( Please turn to page 134)
 — a

Coming Next Month

M ’GRATH

people
rolling eyes
came upon the glade almost before he knew
the low branches, blood-red, high enough to illumine
who squatted in a vast semicircle about it,

gleamed milkily in the shadows, their features were grotesque masks.

it.

it
The moon hung
and the throng of
facing the moon. Their
in

None spoke. No head turned toward the bushes behind which he crouched.
He had vaguely expected blazingfires, a blood-stained altar, drums and the chant

of maddened worshippers; that would be voodoo. But this was not voodoo, and there
was a vast gulf between the two cults. There were no fires, no altars. But the
breath hissed through his locked teeth. In a far land he had sought in vain for the
rituals of Zambebwei; now he looked upon them within forty miles of the spot
where he was born.
In the center of the glade the ground rose slightly to a flat level. On this stood
a heavy iron-bound stake that was indeed but the sharpened trunk of a good-sized
pine driven deep into the ground. And there was something living chained to that'
stake— something which caused McGrath to catch his breath in horrified unbelief.
He was looking upon a god of Zambebwei. Stories had told of such creatures,
wild tales drifting down from the borders of the forbidden country, repeated by
shivering natives about jungle fires, passed along until they reached the ears of skep-
tical white traders. McGrath had never really believed the stories, though he had

gone searching for the being they described. For they spoke of a beast that was a
—
blasphemy against nature a beast that sought food strange to its natural species. . . .

You can not afford to miss this superb novelette — -this gripping, thrilling tale of
the ghastly horror that stalked the swamps of the Mississippi River, a tale of glo-
rious heroism and the hunger of a black god. It will be printed complete in the Feb-
ruary Weird Tales:

THE GRISLY HORROR

By ROBERT E. HOWARD
ALSO
THE WEB OF LIVING DEATH MURDER IN THE CRAVE
By Seabury Quinn By Edmond Hamilton
A terror-tale of a strange house in the swamp A grim story of a terrible ordeal— a night of ter-
a weird tale of stark horror and eery happenings. ror ten feet below the surface of the ground.

THE BODY-MASTERS THE SILVER BULLET

By Frank Belknap Long, Jr. By Phyllis A. Whitney
A strange weird story of the far-distant future— An eldritch tale of horror, of a terrible adventure
tale of mechanical robots and synthetic love, by on Loon Mountain, and a talisman that was po-
the author of "The Space-Eaters.” tent in the old days against witches and warlpcks.

Also, another thrilling installment of Paid Ernst’s

weird-scientific novel, “Rulers of the Future.”

February Weird Tales - Out February 1

133
 , )

134 WEIRD TALES

( Continued from page 132)
pany me, so that Palmer could send him
back for Nora. Then it came to my mind
T immins mounted the
sharpest pace.
spurring him. Yet
My
stairs

three guineas were

when full time enough
at his

that her boast anent witch’s craft might was passed for him to have reached Drew
have some subtle meaning. What if she and one of them be back with Nora, no
were planning to kill herself? At once I one came.
"
swung round and went to the entrance of 'They are seeking her hood or dust-
the cell, whither the second turnkey was ing her kirtle, or more like she is swooned
advancing. Nora stood much as I had with happiness,’ said Jones, on Palmer
left her. himself remarking that Ralph was some-
"I intercepted the turnkey, whispered what long gone.
"
that he should watch her narrowly. Then, 'Nay, tell the truth as it is,’ said Ger-

giving one more glance at the sweetly row. 'The maid is not over-raptured with
molded face and the eyes balefully fol- Lambardiston. And, deuce take me!*
. . .

lowing me, I rejoined Drew. he added, with his spleen coming to the

"I found Palmer and Jones and Sir

surface, 'I can not tell why we stay to see
the meeting of the child and the gentle-
Hugh Gerrow standing in a passage with-
man.’
in the main door, with Ralph Timmins a
"There was a considerable sneer about
yard or two from them waiting expectant-
ly Within a minute Palmer had
for me.
the last word which whipped my atten-
tion pretty smartly from the stairs. I
dispatched Drew
to bring Nora to us, and
faced round, and was on the point of re-
then I had leisure to note that Jones and
torting hotly, when I was diverted by the
Gerrow were even more cholerically silent
casting open of a door beside us. Three
than I had anticipated. I surmised that
of my train-bandmen stepped forth from
they had been examining my motive in
my house. a room. They saluted us, and two of
taking Nora to
them marched off. The third, a sergeant,
"I let them have my back, and gazed
paused to shut the door.
along the passage to the stone stairs, look- "
ing forNora to appear round the bend of
'Nay, leave it,’ said Jones.
v
We get
some daylight thus. . . . he con-
Faith!’
them. Anon I recollected Ralph Timmins
tinued, as the sergeant went away, 'how
and gave him three guineas, which moved
queerly dark it hath grown in this last
him to very many thanks. These, how-
minute! A storm is on us.’
ever, I scarce heeded, for I was watching
’Tis the suddenest thing,’ said Ger-
the stairs again, exasperation growing in
row with astonishment. He lifted his
me as I realized that Nora was contriving
cane towards the barred aperture above
somehow a long delay.
the main door. 'Not a minute ago the
"
'Palmer,’ I said presently, 'that girl is
sky yonder was fresh blue, Palmer; I was
making a to-do of sorts the little in- — looking at it. See it now, the smokiest
grate! I beg you go yourself and fetch
her.’
brown I ever beheld’ —he broke off with
an extraordinary gulp, flicking down his
"I heard him take a step behind me. cane and jabbing the end hard upon the
But then he spoke to Timmins: paved floor
—— — 'I ever beheld,’ he re-
"
'Ralph, go you and tell Drew to hast- peated, sheer amazement in his voice,

en with her.’ 'save once a wintry morning nigh thirteen.

"
'Ay, go, Ralph,* I said. (Please turn to page 136
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WEIRD TALES
840 N. Michigan Avc. Chicago, ISSinois
136 WEIRD TALES
( Continued from page 134) The sky was the sky of the morning when
years ago, when I stood in this very pas- Mrs. Shafto was hanged. It was that

sage,and Ralph Timmins was gone up to same November sky not a similitude —
hang this girl’s mother this girl’s moth- — made by the overcasting of the July sky.
er! .Jones, Palmer, do you mark the
. .
For the sun, seemingly, had fallen back
marvel of it? Here I stood, with Am- from the height whence it shone as I
phlett the sheriff, and with Harry Lam- walked to the jail, and was little risen;
bardiston —Lambardiston’s father. And and it shone feebly through a gap molten
up above there was death for a witch, as in the thick murk —
just as it had when I
looked on it from the Red Bull in my
there was near to have been for her daugh-
ter in this hour —
and that up above too, boyhood. Its turbid light then had ren-
for there would have been dangerous dered Mrs. Shafto’ s coming death increas-
trouble in the market-place had she gone edly dreadful to me; but now, ere I had
thither. List, you can hear the tumult gazed on it five seconds, there slid over
from it. So we heard it then and — me a horror —on this morning when no
through this doorway
’
execution was to be done! — a hundred-
"Gerrow moved athwart the room’s fold worse than that which qualmed me
doorway, and instantly his spare, elderly when execution really was to be.
"
face was illumined by a sickly, yellow 'Gerrow!’ I breathed; and I looked at
light, v/hich showed him staring with him.
something akin to fear, with his lips work- "He was gripping his chin tightly.
ing. His eyes were expanding, vacant. His
"
'Yea, there it is!’ he cried, pointing mien was that of one dismayed to stupe-
shakily through the doorway. 'There is faction by something he has discovered.
the selfsame sky that was over us.’ ’Tis thirteen years ago,’ he said,
slurredly, for his grip was hampering his
M TWT ow, having been preoccupied by mouth. 'This day is thirteen years ago
-A ^1 Nora’s tardiness, I had not noticed we are in November, ’67. . . . How can it

the change to gloom until Jones spoke of be?’

"
it. In my surprize at perceiving how deep 'Gerrow!’ I cried.

an obscurity was about us, save in the yel- "His vacant eyes sought me. A startled
low light’s path, I straightway forgot my glitter sprang up in them. He gaped,
anger against Gerrow; and, listening taking his hand from his chin and holding
while he spoke of that other morning, I it, limp-fingered, towards me.
"
found myself remembering much that my 'Lambardiston,’ he said, 'how like to
father had said anent their standing in your father you are! Why—why, you are
this passage. And when the dull, yel- he! Harry —Harry Lambardiston, old
low glow swam over Gerrow’ s face I re- friend!’
called vividly indeed how my father had "His hand dropped in affection on my
spoken of the yellow light pouring shoulder. I clasped his arm to push it

through this very doorway —and in an in- away, but I heard Jones speak to Palmer,
stant, for no reason that I knew of, I felt and his words arrested me in the act.
"
my heart cold and heavy. 'Palmer,’ he quoth heavily, 'my dear
"I went to Gerrow’s side and glanced cousin, Ned Olpherts, is dead at last of
through the doorway to the window be- the wounds the French gave him at Mar-
yond; and at that verily I got a shock. tinique.’
 —

WEIRD TALES 137

"Well did know that Jones’ cousin,

Olphert, lingering with
when
I

fighting under
wounds
Admiral Harman
received
at
STOP Dandruff
Martinique, had died in November, ’67.
"Palmer replied not, except to mumble
and FALLING
of the fort
men —
at Tangier, and of the Moor-
seeming to believe himself in Afri-
HAIR
Don’t continue to endure Itching
!
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138 WEIRD TALES
distance from me, I saw that there was that man can inflict on man. Then —
yet in his face a far greater confusion than can not tell why, save that I was bereft of
had ever been in my companions. Con- reason — I shouted:
fusion! —
it was the completest astound- "
'Bring her! Go, bring her down to
ment! Save that his pale blue eyes were me!’ —menacing him with my point.
wide open, as though from some waxing
"He moved his hands hopelessly.
torment of his mind, he was in a stupor.
"
He seemed a man midway between a 'Your worship, she is dead.’

dream that was terrible and an awakening "

'Bring her!’ I screamed.
that was more terrible. Above his
"He turned and went to the stairs. He
streaked beard his cheeks were marble-
mounted and was gone behind their bend;
white.
and once more I was watching those emp-
"Slowly he moved down. At the last
ty stone stairs. I felt a hand patting my
step he tripped, nearly pitching on his
arm. ’Twas Jones; for Gerrow, some way
head.
behind me, was saying: 'Look, blue sky
"It was then that Gerrow’s voice rose and clear sunlight! Man, open that
. . .

in a very wail. 'Oh, see that!’ he cried. door, I am nigh swooning.’ And the main
'What means it? What witch’s craft is
door grated open, which would be done
on us!’ by Palmer’s hand.
"I had seen, with my father’s saying of
"I took not my eyes from the stairs. I
how Ralph Timmins had stumbled at the
listened strainedly; sound
and at last the
bottom step darting like a sword-blade
of slow steps, the steps of someone de-
through my brain. That stumble, and
scending sideways with a burden, came to
Gerrow’s final words, discovered the
me from beyond the bend. And then ap-
truth to me.
peared Nora’s little feet in their gray hose
f
—
7 knew ay, I knew what Timmins, —extended in the air, the shoon fallen
coming drag-foot straight to me with his off. I saw her kirtle edge; I saw her
eyes now on my face, desperately ques- knees, swathed in her kirtle, half arched
tioning me, was going to say. 1 knew upon Timmins’ arm. In another second
My poor, wondrous little Nora, who I should have seen her face. But I could
deemed she had witch’s craft enough to not endure that much. I leapt round with
keep herself from me! How supremely fresh and frantic screams and ran out to
had she wrought with her magic! my coach.”
"Timmins stopped, and saluted me. Old Jem put his hand over his eyes, re-
"
'Sir,’ he said, have put the young
'I maining very still for a while.
witch away, as your worship bid.’ "After the rain yesterday,” he said, his
"Knowing, I had waited petrified. But voice gone wan and low, "I went walk-
his words stung me to life to madness. — ing, and came home by the horse-pool. I
I shrieked twice or thrice, making the pas- halted in the lane, thinking much on
sage echo —
Timmins crouching and wilt- Nora. This is December month, but
ing before me. With both hands I seized ’twas May to me in the lane; and how
his neckcloth, tearing it off him as I strove clear I could see Nora with her sweet,
to smash him against the wall. I struck angered face, her poor little basket of
him on the face. I wrung out my sword, flower roots —and her old knife,which I
cursing him, promising him every agony would, with all my heart, she had drove
 —

WEIRD TALES 139

through and through me.

these six-and-fifty years!”
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By Otis Adelbert Kline
craft of Nora Shafto that took her from
you.”
"Could aught save witchcraft have A fascinating novel by a master
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"Yes,” answered the parson. For a
moment he was silent, then:
Watcli for this story in

(Please turn to page 144) WEIRD TALES

 UGGESTIONS as to stories for the Against Serial Stories
Weird Story Reprint section have been
W. C. Murray, of Fort Warren, Wyo-
pouring in lately. Most of the requests
ming, writes to the Eyrie: "I have been read-
are for the reprint of stories from old issues
ing Weird Tales magazine since January,
of Weird Tales, which is now completing
1927, when I bought my first copy. I have
its twelfth year. We will give careful con-
not missed a copy since. I thought Queen of
sideration to these requests, as far as we can,
the Lilin in the November issue exception-
keeping always before us the desires of the
ally good. Let us keep our magazine weird.
greatest number. It is because of numerous
How about more horror tales such as The
requests that we are reprinting in this issue
Copper Bowl by George Fielding Eliot and
The Supreme Witch by the late G. Appleby The Coffin of Ltssa by August Derleth? I
Terrill. And next month we will reprint would very much like to read The Coffin of
another favorite, that strange ghost story by
the late Henry S. Whitehead: The Fire-
Lissa again in the WT
reprint. Here’s . . .

to more short stories, no serials, and more

place, which was very popular when it was
vampire and horror and torture tales.”
first published in our pages ten years ago.

A Suggested Reprint
Best Stories of 1934
Alonzo Leonard, of Portsmouth, Ohio,
Julius Hopkins, of Washington, D. C., writes:"For those readers who so tumultu-
writes to the Eyrie: "The November WT is ously clamor for interplanetary thrillers
an excellent issue and I thoroughly enjoyed under the delusion that they are weird stories,
every story in it. However, two stories stand I suggest that you republish Frank Belknap
out in my mind as the best ones in this Long’s supreme story, The Devil-God, which
issue. I pick for first place the last part of appeared in June 1925. ’Nuff sed.”
The People of the Black Circle because of
its very exciting and fast-moving conclusion. Gripped in Suspense
The second-best story, in my estimation, is Claude H. Cameron, of Toronto, writes:
The Golden Glow. When one considers the "C. L. Moore again scores with The Black
possibilities of such rays as are used by the God’s Kiss. It is ... a superb piece of
professor in this story, he will find that it workmanship and it held me gripped in sus-
may not be long before such things will be pense until I finished it. That is sufficient.
in actual use. My selections of the twelve The character of Jirel may become as famous
best stories in WT during 1934, judging by to us as Conan. I vote her first place. Stories
their uniqueness and originality, are as fol- like The Pistol I like because they are some-
lows: The Solitary Hunters, Black Thirst, what believable.Gurwit is excellent at any
Vampires of the Moon, Scarlet Dream, The time. H. Bedford-Jones’ The Sleeper was
Satanic The Colossus of Ylourgne,
Piano, written in the proper vein with just the
They Called Him Ghost, The Isle of Dark right amount of allusion. I detest weird

Magic, The Three Marked Pennies, The Peo- stories whose very weirdness is removed by
ple of the Black Circle, The Black God’s laborious explanations of intent. Your read-
Kiss, and —
guessing on this one — Black ers are not morons. As has often been stated
God’s Shadow.” by your readers, the truly desirable weird
140
 — -

WEIRD TALES 141

tale isweird by virtue of what is suggested. MEMBERS of the Futnrlst Society are many
years ahead of their time. They know
Howard’s The People of the Black Circle is more, earn more, and live more fully than
most other groups of people. By joining
very good I will remember it for some time
; them, you follow an advanced trail of evo-
to come. ... In the November WT, there
lution. You learn how to solve your money
problems. In knowledge, you will surpass
is no question but that S. Gordon Gurwit the average college graduate. Instead of
a slave, you become a ruler of this planet.
wins first place for The Golden Glow. I do Write today for information, asking about
our Clearing-House of Knowledge.
not favor too many interplanetary yarns or FUTURIST SOCIETY, 416 FRANKFORT AVENUE, CLEVELAND. OHIO
B
science stories in Weird Tales, but Gur-
wit’s story was so well thought out and so
FULL YEAR HOROSCOPE and advice on
perfectly written that I can not avoid giving
three questions by “Famnoyz” —one dol-
lar.Send birthdate. V. DeLoss Gipe, Dept.
him first place. Second comes Paul Ernst A, Alma, Mich.
Concert to Death. Sufficient to say that I be-
lieve the story will outlive the author.
ard’s story, The People of
How-
the Black Circle,
BE A DETECTIVE
Work home or travel. Experience unnecessary.
had a very satisfactory conclusion. I vote it
DETECTIVE particulars FREE. Write GEORGE
as a suitable companion piece to Jack Wil- T. L. WAGNER, 2640 Broadway, N. Y.
liamson’s recent masterpiece. All in all, the
ii How? Thru
November issue is well up to the top in the Happiness Insured. rare and inti-
usual high standard I have come to expect. mate knowledge of life forces daringly revealed in
vein—
“Special Book,” of plain facts in understanding
Now for something in a different knowledge. Everyone should own this “Special
somehow Price’s yarn, Queen of the Lilin, Book,” formerly $1, now 50c postpaid, plainly
wrapped. Ellen Lee, Box 1703, Hollywood, Calif.
left me cold. The idea and entire plot is
threadbare from use. Furthermore, it wasn’t T — /iLr*? Here is your opportunity.
as smooth a job as I had grown accustomed
Correspond with Ladies and
Gentlemen everywhere in U. S. This is your life.
to expea from this master craftsman. . . .
Many seeking pen pals. M. S. Family Corr.
Gurwit’s story far outshadows Price’s yarn Club, P. O. Box 1017, Sta. A, Cleveland, Ohio.
any way I look at them. Nude With a Dag- WE PURCHASE AM, INRIANHEAD PENNIES.
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The Golden Glow

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Jack Darrow, of Chicago, writes to the Small ads worth watching.
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to. The cover by M. Brundage is a nice piece RARE BOOKS, CARTOONS, PHOTOGRAPHS. 20
Snappy Samples, $1.00. Samples, Catalogue, 25c.
of work, but there is nothing weird about it. W. BRAUN, 353 West 47th, Chicago.
Keep the covers weird. The People of. . .

the Black Circle ended well. The shortest

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The Prophet’s Beard B-5335-W, Portland, Oregon.
LONELY? I’ve a pal for you, lonesome like your-
Fred Anger, of Berkeley, California, self. Attractive members everywhere (many
writes to the Eyrie: "By the beard of the wealthy). Description Free. Mrs. Budd, Box 753-T,
San Francisco, California.
prophet ! Several things concerning the
LOYAL FRIENDSHIP CLUB. Established, reliar-
November have aroused my ire, and
issue ble. Members everywhere (many wealthy). If lone-
several others have done just the opposite. ly, writ® Box 620-W, Santa Cruz, Calif.
Queen of the Lilin surpasses all the others by WHY BE LONESOME? WHEN STAMP WILL
find future sweetheart. Heilman, General Delivery,
its sheer beauty. It certainly takes E. Hoff- Indianapolis.
 , —

142 WEIRD TALES

mann Price to write weird literature. I hope it,ye loyal Conan supporters. A story by
that you intend to print a great deal more of Robert Bloch appears in this issue. The
his work* S. Gordon Gurwit was rather dis- Tomb will be published lata:.
Secret in the
appointing. His story, The Golden Glow The Editor.]
failed to register; perhaps it is my dwarfed

mentality, but it seems to me that this story Short Comments

was only the general run of death-ray, world- Adolphe de Castro, former American con-
saver tales. Robert E. Howard brought his sul at Madrid, and co-author with Ambrose
serial, The People of the Black Circle, to a
Bierce of The Monk and the Hangman’s
very nice close it takes second place on my
; Daughter, writes: “I have been a fairly con-
voting list. A-n-d, speaking or Robert E. stant reader of Weird Tales, and among
Howard reminds me of our friend Conan. many delights have enjoyed the art of Price,
Robert Bloch’s nasty crack about our blood- particularly in his latest story, Queen of the
thirsty hero has certainly started something. Lilin.”
For the past day the grindstones of Anger- Miss Mary L. Briggs, of Los Angeles,
vilie have been whetting my ax, and I am
writes:"Much as I dislike scientific thrill-
now ready to charge into the fray waving ers,The Golden Glow held my attention.
the banner of Conan the Cimmerian. I used Voodoo Vengeance was gripping and color-
to consider Conan a vile and despicable hero,
ful. I would like weirder cover designs. If
but I have changed and he is now foremost not an author’s page, couldn’t there be pho-
in my estimation as a hero. Bring on your
tographs of contributors ?”
tale by Bloch, The Secret in the Tomb, and
Mrs. Jane Howard, of Marlin, Texas,
I'll cut it to the ground. Paul Ernst and Kirk
writes: "Robert E. Howard’s serial story, The
Mashburn seem to leave a blank space; in- People of the Black Circle, is one of his very
deed, so boring did I find Voodoo Ven- best.’’
geance that I lapsed into peaceful slumber
while reading it. Next let us turn to that
The Dust of Death
small but nevertheless immense atrocity, Ernest Krah, of Trenton, New Jersey,
Peigman’s Beard, by August W. Derleth. Call writes to the Eyrie: "Though I am not ad-
it hexerei, call it witchcraft or anything you dicted to writing fan letters, I must say that
please, but it was rank. Ditto, only more I have been reading Weird Tales for a
vehemently, to Nude With a Dagger.” [To number of years, and I consider it the best of

My favorite stories in the January WEIRD TALES are:

Story Remarks

(V)-

(
2 ).

( 3 )-

I do not like the following stories;

( 1 )-
Why?

(
2 ).

It know what kind of

will help us to
storiesyou want in Weird Tales if you
will out this coupon and mail it to
fill

The Eyrie, Weird Tales, 840 N. Michigan I

Ave., Chicago, 111. 1

 WEIRD TALES 143

kind on the market, for it surpasses any- Are the Greatest

its

thing else I have ever read. The weirder the

Bar BelisIf you want t* get enormous
Body Builders
development with super
better to my satisfaction. A number of years strength, send for my

read a story in your magazine that I

FREE Booklet
ago I “PHYSICAL. DEVELOPMENT 1*

must say was one of the best stories I have It contains various sizes of Bar Bells. All Strong Men
use Bar Bells. Be strong and healthy.
ever read, the kind that makes the chills run LOUIS SCHMITT, Dept. 3, McHenry, III.

up and down -your spine. The author’s name, Let me arrange a romantio
the year and month I do not remember, but Lonesome? correspondence for you! Find
a sweetheart through the world’s foremost social
the title of the story, I think, is Fungus Isle, magazine, the one that is different. Members every-
where. Send 10c for magazine.
I would appreciate your giving it to us again
J. F. HENRY
as a reprint.” [We have printed several Dept. WT., 3043 Jackson Blvd., Chicago
stories about fungi, but none entitled Fungus LET MY SPIRITUATiNSIGHT HELP YOU.
Isle. The story you ask for is probably The I am an understanding friend wtth whom you can discuss your
most secret personal affairs in strictest confidence. Write fully;
Dust of Death by Geoffrey Hewelcke, which ask questions. Advice $1.00. J. Benjamin Hsbbs, 55 North
Previtiencia, Burbank, California.
appeared in Weird Tales for May, 1931.
The story was 20,000 words in length, too CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS
long to use as a reprint. The Editor.] SMALL ADS WORTH WATCHING
Detectives
About that Slave-Girl
BE A DETECTIVE. MAKE SECRET INVF.STtGA-
A reader in New York City who merely tions. Experience unnecessary. Write, United De-
tective System, 1623-T W. Grand, Chicago.
signs himself "T” writes to the Eyrie: 'T
have been a reader of stories of the super- Photo Finishing
natural for many years, and of Weird Tales FILMS DEVELOPED, ANY SIZE, 35c COIN, in-
cluding twe enlargements. Century Photo Service,
since I discovered the magazine. Thank Box 829, LaCrosse, Wisconsin.
heaven for a magazine that does not ’type’
Songwriters
its stories. Your stuff is really first rate (and
WRITERS! POEMS, MELODIES. AMAZING
my teaching literature, my hobby
business is offer. Hibbeler, D-156, 2157 North Avers, Chicago.
the study of the ancient civilizations of
Personal
Greece and Rome) Indeed yours is the .

only non-professional publication I always

LONESOME? MEET FRIENDS! Get South’s Fin-
Full of pnotos and descriptions of
est Social Paper.
read. Not long ago you had a letter in the men and women, wishing early marriage. Many
fine
wealthy. Some near you whom you will be pleased
Eyrie from somebody who wanted good toknow. Don’t be Lonely. Sent for 10c and stamp.
ghosts,and I want to send my thanks for a W. H. Beeson, P. O. Box 7C9, Houston. Texas.
few. Also you had in the Eyrie a note
. . . ENJOY LIVELY INTERESTING CORRFSPOND-
ence! Meet your “Ideal Mate’’ through “Fidelity”.
from someone who wanted to see on the cov- Remarkably efficient plan. “Distinctive Individual-
ers M. Brundage’s conception of one or two ized Service.” Particulars, specimen descriptions
BOX 128-WT, TIFFIN, OHIO.
(sealed).
beautiful girls chained in the slave marts
crouching in terror or exposed nude upon
LONESOME—BOOK OF PHOTOS AND DESCRIP-
tions of wealthy members sent free in plain wrap-
block. I’d like to see such a picture.” per. The Exchange, AE-3827 Main, Kansas City, Mo,

IF YOU WANT AN AFFECTIONATE, ROMANTIC

Your Favorite Story sweetheart with money,
445-W, Rolia, Missouri.
write: Mary Lee, Box

The Golden Glow by S. Gordon Gurwit WORLD CARD CLUB, King, N. t>., have sweet-
hearts everywhere, membership 25c year.
easily took first place in your estimation
among all the stories in our November issue, Miscellaneous
as shown by your votes and letters to the MVSTIC CURIOS. PSYCHIC AIDS. RAKE NOVEL-
Eyrie. The concluding installment of Robert ties. Scarce Manuscripts. Occult Books. Catalogue
6c. Post Box 196, Chambersburg, Pa.
E. Howard’s serial story about Conan, The
People of the Black Circle, was next. Let us DIVORCES IN MEXICO. FREE INFORMATION
and Validity. International Law Office, First Na-
know what stories you like best in our maga- tional Bank Bldg., El Paso, Texas.
zine, as that will help us to fill each issue HYPNOTIZE— New instruction course just printed.
with the kind you want. Write a letter to the Learn this amazing power. $1. "Practical Hypno-
tism” — 10c. DeSala, Campbellsville, Ky.
Eyrie, or fill out the vote coupon on page
142 of this issue.
WEIRD LIQUID LIGHT; Pocket Lamp. Formula;
dime. Pelishek’s, Adeli, Wisconsin.
144 WEIRD TALES
THE SUPREME WITCH
( Continued from page 139)
NEXT MONTH
"Mr. Lambardiston, this is to be a re-

The Web ply to your question, 'Could aught?’

no attempt to interpret — would not dare
I
’Tis

of living Death
so to interpret — the happening. ... Of
poor little Nora Shafto you have used the

word 'supreme’. Bethink you, is not that

By SEABURY QUINN word often given to a Veritable Power
far asunder from witchcraft? The Su-
A terror-tale of a strange house
in a dismal
story of stark horror
swamp —a weird
and eery episodes.
preme Power which stayed the sun upon
Gibeon and the moon in the valley of
Ajalon, which thrust back the shadow on
This novelette will hold your eyes
the sun-dial, could with equal ease have
glued to the printed page, with its
transmuted the years for you that were in
breath-taking suspense,
dangerous episodes and strange events.
vivid action,
the jail —decreeing that thus should Nora,
who, for her childish vauntings of

W
all

ith this tale Author Quinn in- witchcraft, was truly 'white-souled as an
angel’ ” The speaker paused. "De-
troduces a new central charac-
ter: Thomas Carter, whose duties lead creeing that thus should Nora go to her
him to investigate mysterious disap- mother,” he ended mercifully.
pearances for a life insurance company. For the color had ebbed from Old
In this weird detective mystery his Jem’s cheeks, the very purple of his lips
powers are put to a severe test; for the was mud-hue, and consternation and
utterly unusual happenings of the tale growing despair were in his face.
are unique, in fiction or in fact. This "I had not thought of that!” said the
startling story will be published com- old man whisperingly. "If that should
plete be the right answer to all of it, Parson!”
Then a new expression crossed his face,
in the February issue of
and during an instant his voice was firm-
"For Nora’s sake I hope it is, for
WEIRD TALES er.

that means heaven for her! But if it is

. . .

On sale February 1st the answer, Parson —

what is going to be-
come of me?”
To avoid missing your copy, clip and mail this
coupon today for SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION "I believe such things as that hope for
OFFER. Nora’s sake do make some little pica for
”
us,” said the parson quietly. "Also
WEIRD TARES
840 N. Michigan Ay©., The nudged
courtly king’s messenger
Chicago, 111.
Enclosed find $1.00 for whioh send me the next the scrivener with his knee. The two got
five issues of WEIRD TALES to begin with the
February issue (51.75 in Canada). Special offer up and lit their pipes at the far end of the
void unless remittance is accompanied by coupon.
room, noting that the parson left his chair
Name and took one beside Old Jem.

Address —— And not until they perceived these two

clinch some matter with a long handclasp,
City State did the smokers go back to the table.
W. T.—
A Phantom from the Ether
Threatens the Lives
of all Mankind

he
T 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.

THE PHANTOM OF THE ETHER

T
ether— a
he inside story of a tremendous threat
engineered by a phantom from
threat to gain control of the world
the
cost.
months and
of charge.
You receive the magazine for six
this book is sent to you free

— is thrillingly told in "The Moon Terror,’’ Limited Supply

the most enthralling fantastic mystery of This offer may be withdrawn at any time,
the age. The gigantic powers and clever so we advise you to order now. Remember,
plans behind this super-dream will hold you the supply of books is limited. Send today!
spellbound. WEIRD TALES
840 N. Michigan Ave., Dept. S-54, Chicago,
Here Is How You Can Get III.

This Amazing Book FREE ! WEIRD TALES, Dept. S-54,

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 Wfl I
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