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THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE

a smashing wesrd novel of eery black magic
By ROBERT I WAffff
« A BURY QtyFtNH' GREYE tA SPINA
 A MAGAZINE OF THE BIZARRE AND UNUSUAL

.REGISTERED (M_U.S_JEATENT OFFICE—

j Volume 24 CONTENTS FOR SEPTEMBER, 1934 Number 3

Cover Design
Illustrating a scene in
"-.-

"The People of the Black

...... Circle"
M. Brundage

The People of the Black Circle ..,*..,. Robert E. Howard 274

A weird novel featuring Conan the Barbarian
The Jest of Warburg Tantavul Seabury Quinn 296
A ghost story of vivid power and gripping human appeal—a story of Jules de Crandin
Naked Lady . . Mindret Lord 317
A tale of voodoo and a millionaire's strange scheme for vengeance on his wife
The Sinister Painting Greye La Spina 325
An eery story of a fiendish murder and a midget psychic investigator

The Return
Verse
..,,,«........ Julia Boynton Green 334

Vine Terror Howard Wandrei 335

A weird-scientific tale, about vegetable vampires that lusted for animal and human food

Sable Revery Robert Nelson 351

Verse

The Trail of the Cloven Hoof (part 3) . . . . . . . . Arlton Eadie 352

An astounding weird mystery novel by a British master of eery fiction

The Pale Man Julius Long * 373

A queer little tale, about the eccentric behavior of a strange guest in a country hotel
Weird Story Reprint:
The Coming of Abel Behenna * Bram Stoker . 377
A weird tale of the sea
A Cloak from Messer Lando . . . . . . August W. Derleth
. . . 389
A short story about Cesare Borgia and the magic-.of a mediaeval sorcerer
The Eyrie . . 394
An informal chat with the readers

Published monthly by the Popular Fiction Publishing Company, 2457 E. Washington Street, Indianapolis, Ind. En-
tered as seoond-e*lasa matter March 20, 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
FARNSWORTH WRIGHT, Editor.
North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 111.

Copyright, 1934, by the Popular Fiction Publishing Company,

COPYRIGHTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

WEIRD TALES ISSUED 1st OF EACH MONTH

W.T.-l 273
Uhe
eople of the Black Circle
By ROBERT E. HOWARD

^MMa

"Strike, I command you ! Strikel"

'A stupendous story of Conan the barbarian soldier of fortune, and a tremen-
dous adventure in the castle of the 'Black Seers

1. Death Strikes a King echo in the gold-domed chamber where

THE king of Vendhya was dying.

Through the hot, stifling night the
Bunda Chand
cushioned dais.
struggled on the velvet-
Peads of sweat glistened
temple gongs boomed and the on his dark skin; his fingers twisted the

tonchs roared. Their clamor was a faint gold-worked fabric beneath him. He was
274
 —

THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE 275!

young; no spear had touched him, no

poison lurked in his wine. But his veins ® Robert E. Howard's speefseiiEar and
stood out like blue cords on his temples, original her®,Conan the barbarian ad-
and his eyes dilated with the nearness of venturer and fighting-man, has eap-
death.. Trembling slave-girls knelt at the fured the fancy of ear readers by his
foot of the dais, and leaning down to him, and his utter human"
brilliant exploits
watching him with passionate intensity, aess. He has seised the place in popu-
was his sister, the Devi Yasmina. With laresteem that was formerly held by
her was the -wazam, a noble grown old in Mr. Howard's earlier heroes, Solomon
the royal court. Kane the English Puritan, and King
She threw up her head in a gusty ges- Kull of the fabled land of Vaiusia.

ture of wrath and despair as the thunder Rough, and at times uncouth, Conan is
of the distant drums reached her ears. a primitive man, whs will brave almost
certain death against terrific odds to
"The priests and their clamor!" she
rescue a damsel in distress; yet he will
exclaimed. "They are no wiser than the
just as quickly give her a resounding
leeches who are helpless! Nay, he dies
slap on the posterior or drop her Into
and none can say why. He is dying now
—and I stand here helpless, who would a cesspool if she displeases him. But
rude though he is, he possesses a sort of
burn the whole city and spill the blood of
primordial chivalry and an innate rev-
thousands to save him."
erence for womanhood that make him
"Not a man of Ayodhya but would die
wholly fascinating. Fighting, stabbing,
in his place, if it might be, Devi," an-
" dealing swift death in red combat,
swered the wazam. "This poison
Conan Is a truly striking and heroic
"I tell you it is not poison!" she cried.
figure. We are pleased to present him
"Since his birth he has been guarded so
herewith for the first time in a novel-
closely that the cleverest poisoners of the
length story: "The People of the Black
East could not reach him. Five skulls
Circle."
bleaching on the Tower of the Kites can
testify to attempts which were made
and which failed. As you well know, limp hand in a convulsive grasp. "I am
there are ten men and ten women whose "
here! Do you not know me-
sole duty is food and wine,
to taste his
Her voice died at the utter vacancy of
and fifty armed warriors guard his cham- his face. A low confused moaning waned
ber as they guard it now. No, it is not
from his mouth. The slave-girls at the
poison;
—"
it _ is sorcery — black, ghastly
foot of the dais whimpered with fear,
magic
and Yasmina beat her breast in her an-
She ceased as the king spoke; his livid
guish.
lips did not move, and there was no rec-
ognition in his glassy eyes. But his voice N another part of the city a man
rose in an eery call, indistinct and far stood in a latticed balcony overlooking
away, as if he called to her from beyond a long street in which torches tossed lurid-
vast, wittd-blown gulfs. ly,smokily revealing upturned dark faces
"Yasmina! Yasmina! My sister, where and the whites of gleaming eyes. A
are you? I can not find you. All is dark- long-drawn wailing rose from the mul-
ness, and the roaring of great winds!" titude.
"Brother!" cried Yasmina, catching his The man shrugged his broad shoulders
276 WT2IRD TALES

and turned back into the arabesqued hair and other waste products of the per-
chamber. He was a tall man, compactly sons of the royal family are carefully re-
built, and richly clad. duced to ashes and the ashes hidden. But
"The king is not yet dead, but the at the urgent entreaty of the princess of
dirge is sounded," he said to another Khosala, who loved Bhunda Chand vain-

man who sat cross-legged on a mat in a ly, he gave her a lock of his long black
corner. This man was clad in a brown hair as a token of remembrance. When

camel-hair robe and sandals, and a green my masters decided upon his doom, the
turban was on his head. His expression lock, in its golden, jewel-crusted case,
was tranquil, his gaze impersonal. was stolen from under her pillow while
"The people know he will never see sheslept, and another substituted, so like

another dawn," this man answered. the first that she never knew the differ-
The first speaker favored him with a ence. Then the genuine lock travelled

long, searching stare. by camel-caravan up the long, long road

"What I can not understand," he said, to Peshkhauri, thence up the Zhaibar

"is why I have had to wait so long for Pass, until it reached the hands of those

your masters to strike. If they have slain for whom it was intended."

the king now, why could they not have "Only a lock of hair," murmured the
slain him months ago?" nobleman.
"Even the arts you call sorcery are gov- "By which a soul is drawn from its
erned by cosmic laws," answered the man body and across gulfs of echoing space,"
m the green turban. "The stars direct returned the man on the mat.
these actions, as in other affairs. Not The nobleman studied him curiously.
even my masters can alter the stars. Not "I do not know if you are a man or a
nntil the heavens were in the proper or- demon, Khemsa," he said at last. "Few
der could they perform this necromancy." of us are what we seem. I, whom the
With a long, stained finger-nail he Kshatriyas know as Kerim Shah, a prince
mapped the constellations on the mar- from Iranistan, am no greater a masquer-
ble-tiled floor. "The slant of the moon ader than most men. They are all traitors
presaged evil for the king of Vendhya; in one way or another, and half of them
the stars are in turmoil, the Serpent in know not whom they serve. There at
the House of the Elephant. During such least I have no doubts; for I serve King
juxtaposition, the invisible guardians are Yezdigerd of Turan."
removed from the spirit of Bhunda "And I the Black Seers of Yimsha,"
Chand. A path is opened in the unseen said Khemsa; "and my masters are great-
realms, and once a point of contact was er than yours, for they have accomplished
established, mighty powers were put in by their arts what Yezdigerd could not
play along that path." with a hundred thousand swords."
"Point of contact?" inquired the other.
"Bo you mean that lock of Bhunda Outside, the moan of the tortured
Gland's hair?" thousands shuddered up to the stars
"Yes. All discarded portions of the which crusted the sweating Vendhyan
human body stillremain part of it, at- night, and the conchs bellowed like oxen

tached to it by intangible connections. in pain.

The priests of Asura have a dim inkling In the gardens of the palace the torches
pf this truth, and so all nail-trimmings, glinted on polished helmets and curved
 — ——

THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE 277

swords and gold-chased corselets. All of life, and thrust my soul into the body
the noble-born fighting-men of Ayodhya of a foul night-weird their sorcery sum-
were gathered in the great palace or about moned up from hell. Ah! I feel their
it, and at each broad-arched gate and door pull upon me now! Your cry and the
fifty archers stood on guard, with bows grip of your fingers brought me back,
in their hands.But Death stalked through but I am going fast. My soul clings to
the royal palace and none could stay his my body, but its hold weakens. Quick-
ghostly tread. kill me, before they can trap my soul for
On the dais under the golden dome the ever!
king cried out again, racked by awful "I can not!" she wailed, smiting her
paroxysms. Again his voice came faintly naked breasts.
and far away, and again the Devi bent "Swiftly, I command you!" There was
to him, trembling with a fear that was the old imperious note in his failing whis-
darker than the terror of death. per. "You have never disobeyed me
"Yasmina!" Again that far, weirdly obey my last command! Send my soul
dreeing cry, from realms immeasurable. clean to Asura! Haste, lest you damn
"Aid. me! I am far from my mortal me to spend eternity as a filthy gaunt of
house! Wizards have drawn my soul darkness. Strike, I command you! Strike!"
through the wind-blown darkness. They Sobbing wildly, Yasmina plucked a
seek to sap the silver cord that binds me jeweled dagger from her girdle and
to my dying body. They cluster around plunged it to the hilt in his breast. He
me; their hands are taloned, their eyes stiffened and then went limp, a grim

are red like flame burning in darkness. smile curving his dead lips. Yasmina
Aie, save me, my sister! Their fingers hurled herself face-down on the rush-
sear me like fire! They would slay my covered floor, beating the reeds with her
body and damn my soul! What is this clenched hands. Outside, the gongs and
they bring before me? Ale!" conchs brayed and thundered and the
At the terror in his hopeless cry Yas- priests gashed themselves with copper

mina screamed uncontrollably and threw knives.

herself bodily upon him in the abandon
of her anguish. He was torn by a terri- 2. A Barbarian from the Hills
ble convulsion; foam flew from his con-
Chunder shan, governor of Pesh-
torted lips and his writhing fingers left laid down his golden pen
khauri,
their marks on the girl's shoulders. But and carefully scanned that which he had
the glassy blankness passed from his eyes written on parchment that bore his offi-
like smoke blown from a fire, and he
cial seal. He had ruled Peshkhauri so
looked up at his sister with recognition. long only because he weighed his every
"
"Brother!" she sobbed. "Brother word, spoken or written. Danger breeds
"Swift!" he gasped, and his weakening caution, and only a wary man lives long
voice was rational. "I know now what in that wild country where the hot Ven-
brings me have been on a
to the pyre. I dhyan plains meet the crags of the Himel-
far journey and I I have
understand. ians. An hour's ride westward or north-
been ensorceled by the wizards of the ward and one crossed the border and was
Himelians. They drew my soul out of among the Hills where men lived by the
my body and far away, into a stone room. law of the knife.
There they strove to break the silver cord The governor was alone in his cham-
•278 WEIRD TALES
ber, seated at his ornately-carven table of breasts,supported by a flowing head-dress
inlaid ebony. Through the wide window, bound about with a triple gold braid and
open for the coolness, he could see a adorned with a golden crescent. Her dark
square of the blue Himelian night, dotted eyes regarded the astonished governor
with great white stars. An adjacent para- over the veil, and then with an imperious
pet was a shadowy line, and further cre- gesture of her white hand, she uncovered
nelles and embrasures were barely hinted her face.
at in the dim starlight. The governor's "Devi!" The governor dropped to his
fortress was strong, and situated outside knee before her, his surprize and confu-
the walls of the city it guarded. The sion somewhat spoiling the stateliness of
breeze that stirred the tapestries on the his obeisance. With a gesture she mo-
wall brought faint noises from the streets tioned him to rise, and he hastened to
of —
Peshkhauri occasional snatches of lead her to the ivory chair, all the while
wailing song, or the thrum of a cithern. bowing level with his girdle. But his
The governor read what he had writ- first words were of reproof.

ten, slowly, with his open hand shading "Your Majesty! This was most un-
his eyes from the bronze butter-lamp, wise! The border is unsettled. Raids
his lips moving. Absently, as he read, from the hills are incessant. You came
he heard the drum of horses' hoofs out- with a large attendance?"
side the barbican, the sharp staccato of 'An ample retinue followed me to
the guards' challenge. He did not heed,
Peshkhauri," she answered. "I lodged
intent upon was addressed
his letter. It
my people there and came on to the fort
to the wazam of Vendhya, at the royal with my maid, Gitara."
court of Ayodhya, and it stated, after the Chunder Shan groaned in horror.
customary salutations: "Devi! You do not understand the
"Let it be known to your excellency that. I have peril. An hour's ride from this spot the
faithfully carried out your excellency's instruc- hills swarm with barbarians who make a
tions. The seven tribesmen are well guarded in
their prison, and I have repeatedly sent word into profession of murder and rapine. Women
the hills that their chief come in person to bar- have been stolen and men stabbed be-
gain for their release. But he has made no move,
except to send word that unless they are freed he
will burn Peshkhauri and cover his saddle with
tween the fort and the city. Peshkhauri
is not like your southern provinces—
—
my hide, begging your excellency's indulgence.
This he is quite capable of attempting, and I have "But I am here, and unharmed," she
tripled the numbers of the lance guards. The man
interrupted with a trace of impatience.
is not a native of Ghulistan. I can not with cer-
tainty predict his next move. But since it is the
"
"I showed my signet ring td the guard at
wish of the Devi
the gate, and to the one outside your
He was out of and on
his ivory chair door, and they admitted me unannounced,
his feet facing the arched door, all in one not knowing me, but supposing me to be
instant. He snatched at the curved sword a secret courier from Ayodhya. Let us
lying in its ornate scabbard on the table, not now waste time.
and then checked the movement. "You have received no word from the
It was a woman who had entered un- chief of the barbarians?"
announced, a woman whose gossamer "None save threats and curses, Devi.
robes did not conceal the rich garments He is wary and suspicious. He deems it

beneath any more than they concealed a trap, and perhaps he is not to be blamed.
the suppleness and beauty of her tall, slen- The Kshatriyas have not always kept
der figure.- A filmy veil fell below her their promises to the hill people."
 THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE 279

"He must be brought to terms!" broke border. A Kshatriya army, unaided, would
in Yasmina, the knuckles of her clenched never reach Yimsha."
hands showing white. "Aye," muttered Chunder Shan. "You
"I do not understand." The governor speak the truth there. It would be fight
shook his head. "When I chanced to every step of the way, with hairy hillmen
capture these seven hillmen, I reported hurling down boulders from every height,
their capture to the ivazam, as is the cus- and rushing us with their long knives in
tom, and then, beforeI could hang diem, every valley. The Turanians fought their
therecame an order to hold them and way through the Himelians once, but how
communicate with their chief. This I did, many returned to Khurusun? Few of
but the man holds aloof, as I have said. those who escaped the swords of the
These men are of the tribe of Afghulis, Kshatriyas, after the king, your brother,
but he is a foreigner from the west, and defeated their host on the Jhumda River,
he is called Conan. I have threatened to ever saw Secunderam again."
hang them tomorrow at dawn, if he does "And so I must control men across the
not come." border," she said, "men who know the
"Good!" exclaimed the Devi. "You way to Mount Yimsha "
have done well. And I will tell you why
I have given these orders. My broth- ut the tribes fear the Black Seers
i

er " she faltered, choking, and the

and shun the unholy mountain,"
governor bowed his head, with the cus- broke in the governor.
tomary gesture of respect for a departed "Does the chief, Conan, fear them?"
sovereign.
she asked.
"The king of Vendhya was destroyed "Well, as to that," muttered the gov-
by magic," she said at last. "I have de- ernor, "I doubt if there is anything that
voted my life to the destruction of his devil fears."
murderers. As he died he gave me a "So I have been told. Therefore he is
clue, have followed it. I have read
and I
the man I must deal with. He wishes
the Book of Skalos, and talked with name- the release of his seven men. Very well;
less hermits in the caves below Jhelai.
their ransom shall be the heads of the
I learned how, and by whom, he was
Black Seers!" Her voice thrummed with
destroyed. His enemies were the Black
hate as she uttered the last words, and
Seers of Mount Yimsha."
her hands clenched at her sides. She
"Asura!" whispered Chunder Shan, looked an image of incarnate passion as
paling. she stood there with her head thrown
Her eyes knifed him through. "Do high and her bosom heaving.
you fear them?" Again the governor knelt, for part of
"Who does not, your Majesty?" he re- his wisdom was the knowledge that a
plied. "They are black devils, haunting woman in such an emotional tempest is

the uninhabited hills beyond the Zhaibar. as perilous as a blind cobra to any about
But the sages say that they seldom inter- her.
fere in the lives of mortal men." "It shall be as you wish, your Majesty."
"Why they slew my brother I do not Then as she presented a calmer aspect,
know," she answered. "But I have sworn he rose and ventured to drop a word of
on the altar of Asura to destroy them! warning. "I can not predict what the
And I need the aid of a man beyond the chief Conan's action will be. The tribes-
 —
280 WEIRD TALES
men are always turbulent, have rea-
and I chamber. In his preoccupation he forgot
son to believe that emissaries from the to replace the man.
Turanians are stirring them up to raid The governor had not been gone long
our borders. As your majesty knows, the from her when Yasmina suddenly re-
Turanians have established themselves membered something else which she had
in Secunderam and other northern cities, wished to discuss with him, but had for-
though hill tribes remain uncon-
the gotten until that moment. It concerned
quered. King Yezdigerd has long looked the past actions of one Kerim Shah, a
southward with greedy lust and perhaps nobleman from Iranistan, who had dwelt
is seeking to gain by treachery what he for a while in Peshkhauri before coming
could not win by force of arms. I have on to the court at Ayodhya. A vague
thought that Conan might well be one of suspicion concerning the man had been
his spies." stirred by a glimpse of him in Peshkhauri
"We shall see," she answered. "If he that night.She wondered if he had fol-
loves his followers, he will be at the gates lowed her from Ayodhya. Being a truly
at dawn, to parley. I shall spend the remarkable Devi, she did not summon
night in the fortress. I came in disguise the governor to her again, but hurried out
to Peshkhauri, and lodged my retinue at into the corridor alone, and hastened
an inn instead of the palace. Besides my toward his chamber.
people, only yourself knows of my pres-
ence here." hunder shan, entering his cham-

"I shall escort you to your quarters, ber,closed the door and went to

your Majesty," said the governor, and as
they emerged from the doorway, he beck-
oned the warrior on guard there, and the
man fell in behind them, spear held at
salute.
The maid waited, veiled like her mis-
tress, outside the door, and the group
traversed a wide, winding corridor, light-
ed by smoky torches, and reached the
quarters reserved for visiting notables
generals and viceroys, mostly; none of the
his table. There he took the letter he had
been writing and tore it to bits. Scarce-
ly had he finished when he heard some-
thing drop softly onto the parapet adja-
cent to the window. He looked up to see
a figure loom briefly against the stars, and
then a man dropped lightly into the
room. The light glinted on a long sheen
of steel in his hand.
"Shhhh!" he warned. "Don't make
henchman!"
a noise, or I'll send the devil a

royal family had ever honored the fort- The governor his motion
checked
ress before. Chunder Shan had a per- toward the sword on the table. He was
turbed feeling that the suite was not suit- within reach of the yard-long Zhaibar

able to such an exalted personage as the knife that glittered in the intruder's fist,

Devi, and though she sought to make and he knew the desperate quickness of
him feel at ease in her presence, he was a hillman.

glad when she dismissed him and he The invader was a tallman, at once
bowed himself out. All the menials of strong and supple. He was dressed like a
the fort had been summoned to serve his hillman, but his dark features and blazing
royal guest —though he did not divulge Chunder
blue eyes did not match his garb.
her identity —and he stationed a squad of Shan had never seen a man like him; he
spearmen- before her doors, among them was not an Easterner, but some barbarian
the warrior who had guarded his own from the West. But his aspect was as
 THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE 281'

untamed and formidable as any of the would be more to our advantage to hang
hairy tribesmen who haunt the hills of these seven thieves."
Ghulistan. Conan ripped out a sulfurous oath and
"You come like a thief in the night," the long blade quivered in his grip as
commented the governor, recovering some the muscles rose in ridges on his brown
of his composure, although he remem- arm.
bered that there was no guard within call. "I'll split your head like a ripe melon!"
Still, the hillman could not know that. A wild blue flame flickered in the hill-

"I climbed a bastion," snarled the in- man's eyes, but Chunder Shan shrugged
truder. "A guard thrust his head over his shoulders, though keeping an eye on
the battlement in time for me to rap it the keen steel.
with my knife-hilt." "You can kill me easily, and probably
"You are Conan?" escape over the wall afterward. But that
"Who else? You sent word into the
would not save the seven tribesmen. My
you wished for me to come and
hills that
men would surely hang them. And these
parley with you. Well, by Crom, I've
men are headmen among the Afghulis."
"I know it," snarled Conan. "The
come! Keep away from that table or I'll
gut you."
tribe is baying like wolves at my heels be-
cause I have not procured their release.
"I merely wish to-* seat myself," an-
Tell me words what you want,
in plain
swered the governor, carefully sinking
because, by Crom! if there's no other
into the ivory chair, which he wheeled
way, I'll raise a horde and lead it to
away from the table. Conan moved rest-
the very gates of Peshkhauri!"
lessly before him, glancing suspiciously
Looking at the man as he stood square-
at the door, thumbing the razor edge of
ly,knife in fist and eyes glaring, Chunder
his three-foot knife. He did not walk
like an Afghuli, and was bluntly direct
Shan did not doubt that he was capable
where the East is subtle. of it. The governor did not believe any
hill-horde could take Peshkhauri, but he
"You have seven of my men," he said
did not wish a devastated countryside.
abruptly. "You refused the ransom I of-
"There is a mission you must per-
fered. What the devil do you want?"
form," he said, choosing his words with
"Let us discuss terms," answered Gran-
much care as if they had been
der Shan cautiously.
"Terms?" There was a timbre of dan-
-as

"There —-" razors.

Conan had sprung back, wheeling to

gerous anger in his voice. "What do you
face the door at the same instant, lips
mean? Haven't I offered you gold?" asnarl. His barbarian ears had caught
Chunder Shan laughed. the quick tread of soft slippers outside
"Gold? There is more gold in Pesh- the door. The next instant the door was
khauri than you ever saw." thrown open and a slim, silk-robed form
"You're a liar," retorted Conan. "I've entered hastily, pulling the door shut
seen the suk of the goldsmiths in Khuru- then stopping short at sight of the hill-

sun." man.
"Well, more than any Afghuli ever Chunder Shan sprang up, his heart
saw," amended Chunder Shan. "And it jumping into his mouth.
is but a drop of all the treasure of Ven- "Devi!" he cried involuntarily, losing
dhya. Why should we desire gold? It his head momentarily in his fright.
282 WEIRD TALES
"Devi!" It was
an explosive echo
like ring had been carried away by the chief
from the hillman's lips. Chunder Shan of the Afghulis. The abductor was out of
saw recognition and intent flame up in sight and hearing, but they knew the path
the fierce blue eyes. he would strike —the road that runs
The governor shouted desperately and straight to the mouth of the Zhaibar.

caught at his sword, but the hillman
moved with the devastating speed of a
hurricane. He sprang, knocked the gov-
ernor sprawling with a savage blow of his
knife-hilt, swept up the astounded Devi
in one brawny arm and leaped for the
window. Chunder Shan, struggling fran-
tically to his feet, saw the man poise an
instant on the sill in a flutter of silken
skirts and white limbs that was his royal
captive, and heard his fierce, exultant
snarl: "Now dare to hang my men!"
and then Conan leaped to the parapet and
was gone. A wild scream floated back
to the governor's ears.
"Guard!Guard!" screamed the gov-
ernor, struggling up and running drunk-
enly to the door. He tore it open and
There was no moon; peasant huts rose
dimly in the starlight. Behind them fell
away the grim bastion of the fort, and
the towers of Peshkhauri. Ahead of them
loomed the black walls of the Himelians.
3. Kbemsa Uses Magic
the confusion that reigned in the
INfortress while the guard was being
turned out, no one noticed that the girl
who had accompanied the Devi slipped
out the great arched gate and vanished
in the darkness. She ran straight for the
city, her garments tucked high. She did
not follow the open road, but cut straight
through fields and over slopes, avoiding
fences and leaping irrigation ditches as
surely as if it were broad daylight, and as

reeled into the hall. His shouts re-echoed
along the corridors, and warriors came
running, gaping to see the governor hold-
ing his broken head, from which the
blood streamed.
"Turn out the lancers!" he roared.
"There has been an abduction!" Even
in his frenzy he had enough sense left to
withhold the full truth. He stopped short
as he heard a sudden drum of hoofs out-
side, a frantic scream and a wild yell of
barbaric exultation.
Followed by the bewildered guards-
men, the governor raced for the stair. In
the courtyard of the fort a force of lanc-
ers always stood by saddled steeds, ready
to ride at an instant's notice. Chunder
Shan led his squadron flying after the
fugitive, though his head swam so he had
to hold with both hands to the saddle.
He did not divulge the identity of the
victim, but said merely that the noble-
woman who had borne the royal signet-
easily as if she were a trained masculine
runner. The hoof-drum of the guards-
men had faded away up the hill road
before she reached the city wall. She did
not go to the great gate, beneath whose
arch men leaned on spears and craned
their necks into the darkness, discussing
the unwonted activity about the fortress.
She skirted the wall until she reached a
certain point where the spire of a tower
was visible above the battlements. Then
she placed her hands to her mouth and
voiced a low weird call that carried
strangely.
Almost head appeared at an
instantly a
embrasure and a rope came wriggling
down the wall. She seized it, placed a
foot in the loop at the end, and waved
her arm. Then quickly and smoothly she
was drawn up the sheer stone curtain.
An instant later she scrambled over the
merlons and stood up on a flat roof which
covered a house that was built against
 THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE 283

the wall. There was an open trap there, "That is forbidden!" He was shaking
and a man in a camel-hair robe who si- as if with an ague. "1 am not one of the
lently coiled the rope, not showing in Black Circle. Only by the command of
any way the strain of hauling a full- the masters do I dare to use the knowl-
grown woman up a forty-foot wall. edge they have taught me."
"Where is Kerim Shah?" she gasped, "But you can use it!"she argued pas-
panting after her long run. sionately. "Do as I beg you! Of course
"Asleep in the house below. You have Conan has taken the Devi to hold as hos-
news?" tage against the seven tribesmen in the
"Conan has stolen the Devi out of the governor's prison. Destroy them, so
fortress and carried her away into the Chunder Shan can not use them to buy
hills!" She blurted out her news in a back the Devi. Then let us go into the
rush, the words stumbling over one an- mountains and take her from the Afghu-
other. lis. They can not stand against your sor-

Khemsa showed no emotion, but mere- cery with their knives. The treasure of
ly nodded his turbaned head. "Kerim the Vendhyan kings will be ours as ran-
Shah will be glad to hear that," he said. som —and then when we have it in our
"Wait!" The
threw her supple
girl hands, we can trick them, and sell her to
arms about his neck. She was panting the king of Turan. We shall have wealth
hard, but not only from exertion. Her beyond our maddest dreams. With it we
eyes blazed like black jewels in the star- can buy warriors. We will take Khorbhul,
light. Her upturned face was close to oust the Turanians from the hills, and
Khemsa's, but though he submitted to send our hosts southward; become king
her embrace, he did not return it. and queen of an empire!"
"Do not tell the Hyrkanian!" she Khemsa too was panting, shaking like
panted. "Let us use this knowledge our- a leaf in her grasp; his face showed gray
selves! The governor has gone into the in the starlight, beaded with great drops
hills with his riders, but he might as well of perspiration.
chase a ghost. He has not told anyone "I love you!" she cried fiercely, writh-
that it was the Devi who was kidnapped. ing her body against his, almost stran-
None in Peshkhauri or the fort knows it glinghim in her wild embrace, shaking
except us." him in her abandon. "I will make a king
"But what good does it do us?" the of you! For love of you I betrayed my
man expostulated. "My masters sent me mistress; for love of me betray your mas-
with Kerim Shah to aid him in every ters! Why fear the Black Seers? By your
"
way love for me you have broken one of their
"Aid yourself!" she cried fiercely. laws already! Break the rest! You are
"Shake off your yoke!" as strong as they!"
"You mean —disobey my masters?" A man of ice could not have withstood
he gasped, and she felt his whole body the searing heat of her passion and fury.
turn cold under her arms. With an inarticulate cry he crushed her
"Aye!" she shook him in the fury of to him, bending her backward and show-
her emotion. "You too are a magician!. ering gasping kisses on her eyes, face and
Why will you be a slave, using your Mp
f.\
powers only to elevate others? Use your "I'll do it!" His voice was thick with
arts for yourself!" laboring emotions. He staggered like a
 —

284 WEIRD TALES

drunken man. "The arts they have taught And he signed it with a name that was
me shall work for me, not for my mas- not in the least like Kerim Shah.
ters. We shall be rulers of the world Then from a golden cage hedrew forth
"
of the world a carrier pigeon, to whose leg he made fast
"Come then!" Twisting lithely out of the parchment, rolled into a tiny cylinder
Ms embrace, she seized his hand and led and secured with gold wire. Then he
him toward the trap-door. "First we must went quickly to a casement and tossed
make sure that the governor does not ex- the bird into the night. It wavered on
change those seven Afghulis for the fluttering wings, balanced, and was gone
Devi." like a flitting shadow. Catching up hel-
met, sword and cloak, Kerim Shah hur-

HE moved they
like a man in a daze, until
had descended a ladder and
ried out of the chamber and down the
winding stair.
she paused in the chamber below. Kerim
Shah lay on a couch motionless, an arm The prison of Peshkhauri
were separated from the
quarters
of the
across his face as though to shield his rest

sleeping eyes from the soft light of a city by a massive wall, in which was set
brass lamp. She plucked Khemsa's arm a single iron-bound door under an arch.
and made a quick gesture across her own Over the arch burned a lurid red cresset,
throat. Khemsa lifted his hand; then his and beside the door squatted a warrior
expression changed and he drew away. with spear and shield.

"I have eaten his salt," he muttered.

This warrior, leaning on his spear, and

"Besides, he can not interfere with us."

yawning from time to time, started sud-
denly to his feet. He had not thought he
He led the girl through a door that
had dozed, but a man was standing be-
opened on a winding stair. After their
fore him, a man he had not heard ap-
soft tread had faded into silence, the man
proach. The man wore a camel-hair robe
on the couch sat up. Kerim Shah wiped
and a green turban. In the flickering
the sweat from his face. A knife-thrust
light of the cresset his features were
he did not dread, but he feared Khemsa
shadowy, but a pair of lambent eyes
as a man fears a poisonous reptile.
shone surprizingly in the lurid glow.
"People who plot on roofs should re-
"Who comes?" demanded the warrior,
member to lower their voices," he mut-
presenting his spear. "Who are you?"
tered. "But as Khemsa has turned against
The stranger did not seem perturbed,
his masters, and as he was my only con-
though the spear-point touched his bos-
tact between them, I can count on their
om. His eyes held the warrior's with
aid no longer. From now on I play the
strange intensity.
game in my own way."
"What are you obliged to do?" he
Rising to his feet he went quickly to
asked, strangely.
a table, drew pen and parchment from his The
"To guard the gate!" warrior i

girdle and scribbled a few succinct lines. spoke thickly and mechanically; he stood
rigid as a statue, his eyes slowly glazing.
"To Khosru Khan, governor of Secunderam:
the Cimmerian Conan has carried the Devi Yas- "You lie! You are obliged to obey me!
mina to the villages of the Afghulis. It is an op-
portunity to get the Devi into our hands, as the You have looked into my eyes, and your
king has so long desired. Send three thousand soul is no longer your own. Open that
horsemen at once. I will meet them in the valley
pf Gurashah with native guides."
door!"
 THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE 285

Stiffly, with the wooden features of an left hand, as a man might flick a straw,

image, the guard wheeled about, drew a and his right flashed out and back, seem-
great key from his girdle, turned it in ing gently to caress the warrior's neck in
the massive lock and swung open the passing. And the guard pitched on his
door. Then he stood at attention, his face without a sound, his head lolling on
unseeing stare straight ahead of him. a broken neck.
A woman glided from the shadows and Khemsa did not glance at him, but
laid an eager hand on the mesmerist's went straight to one of the arched doors
arm. and placed his open hand against the
"Bid him fetch us horses, Khemsa," heavy bronze lock. With a rending shud-

she whispered. der the portal buckled inward. As the

"No need of that," answered the Rakh- girl followed him through, she saw that
sha. Lifting his voice slightly he spoke to the thick teakwood hung in splinters, the

the guardsman. "I have no more use for bronze bolts were bent and twisted from
you. Kill yourself!" their sockets, and the great hinges brok-
Like a man in a trance the warrior
en and disjointed. A thousand-pound
battering-ram with forty men to swing it
thrust the butt of his spear against the
could have shattered the barrier no more
base of the wall, and placed the keen
completely. Khemsa was drunk with free-
head against his body, just below the ribs.

Then slowly, stolidly, he leaned against

dom and the exercise of his power, glory-
ing in his might and flinging his strength
it with all his weight, so that it trans-
about as a young giant exercises his thews
fixed his body and came out between his
with unnecessary vigor in the exultant
shoulders. Sliding down the shaft he lay
pride of his prowess.
still, the spear jutting above him its full
length, like a horrible stalk growing out
The broken door let them into a small
courtyard, lit by a cresset. Opposite the
of his back.
door was a wide grille of iron bars. A
The girl stared down at him in mor-
hairy hand was visible, gripping one of
bid fascination, until Khemsa took her
these bars, and in the darkness behind
arm and led her through the gate. Torch-
them glimmered the whites of eyes.
es lighted a narrow space between the
outer wall and a lower inner one, in Khemsa stood silent for a space, gaz-
which were arched doors at regular in- ing into the shadows from which those
tervals. A warrior paced this enclosure, glimmering eyes gave back his stare with
and when the gate opened he came saun- burning intensity. Then his hand went
tering up, so secure in his knowledge of into his robe and came out again, and

the prison's strength that he was not sus- from his opening fingers a shimmering
picious until Khemsa and the girl emerged feather of sparkling dust sifted to the

from the archway. Then it was too late. flags. Instantly a flare of green fire light-

The Rahksha did not waste time in hyp- ed the enclosure. In the brief glare the
notism, though his action savored of forms of seven men, standing motionless
magic to the girl. The guard lowered behind the bars, were limned in vivid
his spear threateningly, opening his detail; tall, hairy men in ragged hillmen's

mouth to shout an alarm that would bring garments. They did not speak, but ia
spearmen swarming out of the guard- their eyes blazed the fear of death, and
rooms at either end of the alleyway. their hairy fingers gripped the bars.
Khemsa flicked the spear aside with his The fire died out but the glow re-
286 WEIRD TALES
mained, a quivering ball of lambent green fear of falling froze her, the reckless de-
that pulsed and shimmered on the flags scent of a rope bound to a merlon he —
before Khemsa's feet. The wide gaze of went down almost at a run, his captive
the tribesmen was fixed upon it. It wav- folded limply over his brawny shoulder
ered, elongated; it turned into a luminous — all this was a befuddled tangle in the
green smoke spiraling upward. It twist- Devi's mind. She retained a more vivid
ed and writhed like a great shadowy ser- memory of him running fleetly into the
pent, then broadened and billowed out in shadows of the trees, carrying her like a
shining folds and whirls. It grew to a child, and vaulting into the saddle of a
cloud moving silently over the flags — fierce Bhalkhana stallion which reared
straight toward the grille. The men and snorted. Then there was a sensation
watched its coming with dilated eyes; the of flying, and the racing hoofs were strik-
bars quivered with the grip of their des- ing sparks of fire from the flinty road as
perate fingers. Bearded lips parted but the stallion swept up the slopes.
no sound came forth. The green cloud
As the girl's mind cleared, her first sen-
rolled on the bars and blotted them from
sations were furious rage and shame. She
sight; like a fog it oozed through the
was appalled. The rulers of the golden
grille and hid the men within. From the
kingdoms south of the Himelians were
enveloping folds came a strangled gasp,
considered little short of divine; and she
as of a man plunged suddenly under the
was the Devi of Vendhya! Fright was
surface of water. That was all.
submerged in regal wrath. She cried out
Khemsa touched the girl's arm, as she furiously and began struggling. She, Yas-
stood with parted lips and dilated eyes. mina, to be carried on the saddle-bow of a
Mechanically she turned away with him, hill chief, like a common wench of the
looking back over her shoulder. Al- market-place! He merely hardened his
ready the mist was thinning; close to the massive thews slightly against her writh-
bars she saw a pair of sandaled feet, the ings, and for the first time in her life she
toes turned —
upward she glimpsed the experienced the coercion of superior phys-
indistinct outlines of seven still, pros- ical strength. His arms felt like iron
trate shapes. about her slender limbs. He glanced
"And now for a steed swifter than the down at her and grinned hugely. His
fastest horse ever bred in a mortal sta- teeth glimmered whitely in the starlight.
ble," Khemsa was saying. "We will be The on the stallion's flow-
reins lay loose
in Afghulistan before dawn." ing mane, and every thew and fiber of the
great beast strained as he hurtled along
4. An Encounter in the Pass the boulder-strewn trail. But Conan sat
easily, almost carelessly, in the saddle,
Yasmina devi could never clearly re-
riding like a centaur.
member the details of her abduction.
The unexpectedness and violence stunned "You hill-bred dog!" she panted, quiv-

her; she had only a confused impression ering with the impact of shame, anger,

of a whirl of happenings — the terrifying and the realization of helplessness. "You

grip of a mighty arm, the blazing eyes —
dare you dare! Your life shall pay for
this! Where are you taking me?"
of her abductor, and his hot breath burn-
ing on her flesh. The leap through the "To the villages of Afghulistan," he
window to the parapet, the mad race answered, casting a glance over his shoul-
across battlements and roofs when the der.
 THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE 287

Behind them, beyond the slopes they upon a trail that followed the lap of the
had traversed, torches were tossing on the left-hand wall.
walls of the fortress, and he glimpsed a
flare of light that meant the great gate
had been opened. And he laughed, a
NOT even Conan could spy, in that
darkness, anambush set by Zhaibar
deep-throated boom gusty as the hill tribesmen. As they swept past the
wind. black mouth of a gorge that opened into
"The governor has sent his riders after the Pass, a javelin swished through
us,"he laughed. "By Crom, we will lead the air and thudded home behind the
him a merry chase! What do you think, stallion's straining shoulder. The great
Devi — will they pay seven lives for a beast let out his life in a shuddering sob
Kshatriya princess?" and stumbled, going headlong in mid-
"They will send an army to hang you stride. But Conan had recognized the
and your spawn of devils," she promised flight and stroke of the javelin, and he

him with conviction. acted with spring-steel quickness.

He laughed gustily and shifted her to As the horse fell he leaped clear, hold-
a more comfortable position in his arms. ing the girl guard her from
aloft to

But she took this as a fresh outrage, and striking boulders. He

on his feet like
lit

renewed her vain struggles, until she saw a cat, and

thrust her into a cleft of rock,

that her efforts were only amusing him. wheeled toward the outer darkness, draw-
Besides, her light silken garments, float- ing his knife.
ing on the wind, were being outrageously Yasmina, confused by the rapidity of
disarranged by her struggles. She con- what had hap-
events, not quite sure just
cluded that a scornful submission was the pened, saw a vague shape rush out of
better part of dignity, and lapsed into a the darkness, bare feet slapping softly
smoldering quiescence. on the rock, ragged garments whipping
She felt even her anger being sub- on the wind of his haste. She glimpsed
merged by awe as they entered the mouth the flicker of steel, heard the lightning
of the Pass, lowering like a black well crack of stroke, parry and counter-stroke,
mouth in the blacker walls that rose like and the crunch of bone as Conan's long
colossal ramparts to bar their way. It was knife split the other's skull.
as if a gigantic knife had cut the Zhaibar Conan sprang back, crouching in the
out of walls of solid rock. On either shelter of the rocks. Out in the night
hand sheer slopes pitched up for thou- men were moving and a stentorian voice
sands of and the mouth of the Pass
feet, roared: "What, you dogs! Do you flinch?
was dark as hate. Even Conan could not In, curse you, and take them!"
see with any accuracy, but he knew the Conan started, peered into the dark-
road, even by night. And knowing that ness and lifted his voice.
armed men were racing through the star- "Yar Afzal! Is it you?"
light after him, he did not check the There sounded a startled imprecation,
stallion's speed. The great brute was not and the voice called warily.
yet showing fatigue. He thundered along "Conan? Is it you, Conan?"
the road that followed the valley bed, 'Aye!" The Cimmerian laughed.
labored up a slope, swept along a low "Come forth, you old war-dog. I've
ridge where treacherous shale on either slain one of your men."
hand lurked for the unwary, and came There was movement among the rocks,
 1

288 WEIRD TALES

and then a flame ap-
a light flared dimly, "Come with us to my village," sug-
peared and came bobbing toward him, gested Yar Afzal. "We have horses hid-
and as it approached, a fierce bearded den in the gorge. They can never follow
countenance grew out of the darkness. The us in the darkness. They are close be-
man who carried it held it high, thrust hind you, you say?"
forward, and craned his neck to peer "So close that I hear now the clink of
among the boulders it lighted; the other their hoofs on the flint," answered Co-
hand gripped a great curved tulwar. Co- nan grimly.
nan stepped forward, sheathing his knife, Instantly there was movement; the
and the other roared a greeting. torch was dashed out and the ragged
"Aye, it is Conan! Come out of your shapes melted like phantoms into the
rocks, dogs! It is Conan!"
darkness. Conan swept up the Devi in
his arms, and she did not resist. The
Others pressed into the wavering cir-
cle of light —
wild, ragged, bearded men,
rocky ground hurt her slim feet in their
soft slippers and she felt very small and
with eyes like wolves, and long blades in
helpless in that brutish, primordial black-
their fists. They did not see Yasmina, for
ness among those colossal, nighted crags.
she was hidden by Conan's massive body.
Feeling her shiver in the wind that
But peeping from her covert, she knew
time that night. These
moaned down the defiles, Conan jerked
icy fear for the first
human a ragged cloak from its owner's shoul-
men were more like wolves than
ders and wrapped it about her. He also
beings.
hissed a warning in her ear, ordering her
"What are you hunting in the Zhaibar
to make no sound. She did not hear the
by night, Yar Afzal?" Conan demanded
distant clink of shod hoofs on rock that
of the burly chief, who grinned like a
warned the keen-eared hillmen; but she
bearded ghoul.
was far too frightened to disobey, in any
"Who knows what might come up the event.
Pass after dark? We Wazulis are night- She could see nothing but a few faint
hawks. But what of you, Conan?" but she knew by the deep-
stars far above,
"I have a prisoner," answered the Cim- ening darkness when they entered the
merian. And moving aside he disclosed gorge mouth. There was a stir about them,
the cowering girl. Reaching a long arm the uneasy movement of horses. A few
into the crevice he drew her trembling muttered words, and Conan mounted the
forth. horse of the man he had killed, lifting
Her imperious bearing was gone. She the girl up in front of him. Like phan-
stared timidly at the ring of bearded toms except for the click of their hoofs,
faces that hemmed her in, and was grate-
the band swept away up the shadowy
ful for the strong arm that clasped her gorge. Behind them on the trail they left
possessively. The torch was thrust clce the dead horse and the dead man, which
to her, and there was a sucking intake of were found less than half an hour later
breath about the ring.
by the riders from the fortress, who rec-
"She is my captive," Conan warned, ognized the man as a Wazuli and drew
glancing pointedly at the feet of the man their own conclusions accordingly.
he had slain, just visible within the ring
of light. "I was taking her to Afghulis- Yasmina, snuggled warmly in her cap-
tan, but now you have slain my horse, and tor's arms, grew drowsy in spite of
the Kshatriyas are close behind me." herself. The motion of the horse, though
W. T.—
 —

THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE 289

it was uneven, uphill and down, yet pos- a well-built man in a helmet and gilt-

sessed a certain rhythm which combined braided cloak, held up his hand warning-
with weariness and emotional exhaustion ly, until the riders had sped on. Then he
to force sleep upon her. She had lost all laughed softly.
sense of time or direction. They moved "They must have lost the trail! Or else
in soft thick darkness, in which she some- they have found that Conan has already
times glimpsed vaguely gigantic walls reached the Afghuli villages. It will take
sweeping up like black ramparts, or great many riders to smoke out that hive. There
crags shouldering the stars; at times she will be squadrons riding up the Zhaibar
sensed echoing depths beneath them, or by dawn."
felt the wind of dizzy heights blowing "If there is fighting in the hills there
cold about her. Gradually these things will be looting," muttered a voice behind
faded into a dreamy unwakefulness in him, in the dialect of the Irakzai.
which the clink of hoofs and the creak "There will be looting," answered the
of saddles were like the irrelevant sounds man with the helmet. "But first it is our
in a dream. business to reach the valley of Gurashah
She was vaguely aware when the mo- and await the riders that will be gallop-
tion ceased and she was lifted down and ing southward from Secunderam before
carried a few steps. Then she was laid daylight."
down on something soft and rustling, He and rode out of the
lifted his reins

—
and something a folded coat perhaps — defile, his men falling in behind him
was thrust under her head, and the cloak thirty ragged phantoms in the starlight.
in which she was wrapped was carefully
tucked about her. She heard Yar Afzal 5. The Black Stallion

laugh.
"A rare prize, Conan; fit mate for a
The sun was well up when Yasmina
awoke. She did not and start stare
chief of the Afghulis." blankly, wondering where she was. She
"Not came Conan's answer-
for me," awoke with full knowledge of all that
ing rumble. "This wench will buy the had occurred. Her supple limbs were stiff
lives of my seven headmen, blast their from her long ride, and her firm flesh
souls." still seemed to feel the contact of the

That was the last she heard as she sank
into dreamless slumber.
She slept while armed men rode
through the dark hills, and the fate of
kingdoms hung in the balance. Through
the shadowy gorges and defiles that night
there rang the hoofs of galloping horses,
and the starlight glimmered on helmets
and curved blades, until the ghoulish
shapes that haunt the crags stared into the
darkness from ravine and boulder and
wondered what things were afoot.
A band of these sat gaunt horses in
the black pit-mouth of a gorge as the
hurrying hoofs swept past. Their leader,
muscular arm that had borne her so far.
She was lying on a sheepskin covering
a pallet of leaves on a hard-beaten dirt
floor. A folded sheepskin coat was under
her head, and she was wrapped in a rag-
ged cloak. She was in a large room, the
walls of which were crudely but strong-
ly built of uncut rocks, plastered with
sun-baked mud. Heavy beams supported
a roof of the same kind, in which showed
a trap-door up to which led a ladder.
There were no windows in the thick
walls, only loop-holes. There was one
door, a sturdy bronze affair that must
have been looted from some Vendhyan
290 WEIRD TALES
border tower. Opposite it was a wide had risen from her pallet and was re-
opening in the wall, with no door, but garding him doubtfully.
several strong wooden bars in place. Be- "Rough fare for a Devi, girl, but our
yond them Yasmina saw a magnificent best," he grunted. "It will fill your belly,
black stallion munching a pile of dried at least."

grass. The building was fort, dwelling- He set the platter on the floor, and she
place and stable in one. was suddenly aware of a ravenous hunger.
room Making no comment, she seated herself
At the other end of the a girl in
cross-legged on the floor, and taking the
the vest and baggy trousers of a hill-
dish in her lap, she began to eat, using
woman squatted beside a small fire, cook-
her fingers, which were all she had in
ing strips of meat on an iron grid laid
over blocks of stone. There was a sooty
the way of table utensils. After all, adapt-
ability is one of the tests of true aristoc-
cleft in the wall afew feet from the
racy. Conan stood looking down at her,
floor, and some of the smoke found its
The his thumbs hooked in his girdle. He never
way out there. rest floated in blue
sat cross-legged, after the Eastern fashion.
wisps about the room.
"Where am I?" she asked abruptly.
The hill-girl glanced at Yasmina over
"In the hut of Yar Afzal, the chief of
her shoulder, displaying a bold, hand-
the Khurum Wazulis," he answered.
some face, and then continued her cook-
"Afghulistan lies a good many miles far-
ing. Voices boomed outside; then the
ther on to. the west. We'll hide here
door was kicked open, and Conan strode
awhile. The Kshatriyas are beating up
in. He looked more enormous than ever

with the morning sunlight behind him,

the hills for you — several of their squads
have been cut up by die tribes already."
and Yasmina noted some details that had
escaped her the night before. His gar-
"What are "you going to do?" she
asked.
ments were clean and not ragged. The
"Keep you until Chundar Shan is will-
broad Bakhariot girdle that supported
his knife in its ornamented scabbard
ing to trade back my seven cow-thieves,"
would have matched the robes of a prince,
he grunted. "Women of the Wazulis
are crushing ink out of shoki leaves, and
and there was a glint of fine Turanian
after a while you can write a letter to the
mail under his shirt.
governor."
"Your captive is awake, Conan," said
A touch of her old imperious wrath
the Wazuli girl, and he grunted, strode shook her, as she thought how madden-
up to the fire and swept the strips of ingly her plans had gone awry, leaving
mutton off into a stone dish. her captive of the very man she had plot-
The squatting girl laughed up at him, ted to get into her power. She flung
with some spicy jest, and he grinned down the dish, with the remnants of her
wolfishly, and hooking a toe under her meal, and sprang to her feet, tense with
haunches, tumbled her sprawling onto anger.
the floor. She seemed to derive consid- "I will not write a letter! If you do
erable amusement from this bit of rough not take me back, they will hang your
horse-play, but Conan paid no more heed seven men, and a thousand more besides!"
to her. Producing a great hunk of bread The Wazuli girl laughed mockingly,
from somewhere, with a copper jug of Conan scowled, and then the door opened
wine, he carried the lot to Yasmina, who and Yar Afzal came swaggering in. The
 THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE
Wazuli chief was Conan, and
as tall as
of greater girth, but he looked fat and
slow beside the hard compactness of the
Cimmerian. He plucked his red-stained
beard and stared meaningly at the Wazu-
li girl, and that wench rose and scurried
out without delay. Then Yar Afzal turned
to his guest.
"The damnable people murmur, Co-
nan," quoth he. "They wish me to mur-
der you and take the girl to hold for
ransom. They say that anyone can tell
by her garments that she is a noble lady.
They say why should the Afghuli dogs
profit by her, when it is the people who
take the risk of guarding her?"
"Lend me your horse," said Conan.
"I'll take her and go."
"Pish!" Afzal. "Do you
boomed Yar
think I can't handle my own people? I'll
have them dancing in their shirts if they
cross me! They don't love you —
or any
—
other outlander but you saved my life
once, and I will not forget. Come out,
though, Conan; a scout has returned."
Conan hitched and fol-
at his girdle
lowed the chief outside. They closed
the door after them, and Yasmina peeped
through a loop-hole. She looked out on
a level space before the hut. At the far-
ther end of that space there was a cluster
of mud and stone huts, and she saw naked
children playing among the boulders, and
the slira erect women of the hills going
about their tasks.
Directly before the chief's hut a circle
of hairy, ragged men squatted, facing the
door. Conan and Yar Afzal stood a few
paces before the door, and between diem
and the ring of warriors another man sat
cross-legged. This one was addressing
his chief in the harsh accents of the Wazu-
li which Yasmina could scarcely under-
stand, though as part of her royal educa-
tion she had been taught the languages
291
of Iranistan and the kindred tongues of
Ghulistan.
"I talked with a Dagozai who saw the
riders last night," said the scout. "He
was lurking near when they came to the
spot where we ambushed the lord Conan.
He overheard their speech. Chunder
Shan was with them. They found the
dead horse, and one of the men recog-
nized it as Conan's. Then they found the
man Conan slew, and knew him for a
Wazuli. It seemed to them that Conan
had been slain and the girl taken by the
Wazuli; so they turned aside from their
purpose of following to Afghulistan. But
they did not know from which village
the dead man was come, and we had left
no trail a Kshatriya could follow.
"So they rode to the nearest Wazuli
village,which was the village of Jugra,
and burnt it and slew many of the peo-
ple. But the men of Khojur came upon
them in darkness and slew some of them,
and wounded the governor. So the sur-
vivors retired down the Zhaibar in the
darkness before dawn, but they returned
with reinforcements before sunrise, and
there has been skirmishing and fighting
in the hills all morning. It is said that a
great army is being raised to sweep the
hills about the Zhaibar. The tribes are
whetting their knives and laying ambush-
es in every pass from here to Gurashah
valley. Moreover, Kerim Shah has re-
turned to the hills."
A grunt went around the circle, and
Yasmina leaned closer to the loop-hole
at the name she had begun to mistrust.
"Where went he?" demanded Yar Af-
zal.
"The Dagozai did not know; with him
were thirty Irakzai of the lower villages.
They rode into the hills and diappeared."
"These Irakzai are jackals that follow
a lion for crumbs," growled Yar AfzaJ.
"They have been lapping up the coins
292 WEIRD TALES
Kerim Shah scatters among the border ground and stood over him with his tul-
tribes to buy men like horses. I like him war in his hand.
not, for all he is our kinsman from Iran- "Is there any who questions my author-
istan." ity?" he roared, and his warriors looked
"He's not even that," said Conan. "I down sullenly as his bellicose glare swept
know him of old. He's an Hyrkanian, their semicircle. Yar Afzal grunted scorn-
a spy of Yezdigerd's. If I catch him I'll fully and sheathed his weapon with a
hang his hide to a tamarisk." gesture that was the apex of insult. Then
"But the Kshatriyas!" clamored the he kicked the fallen agitator with a con-
men in the semicircle. "Are we to squat centrated vindictiveness that brought
on our haunches until they smoke us out? howls from his victim.
They will learn at last in which Wazuli "Get down the valley to the watchers;
village the wench is held. We are not on the heights and bring word if they
loved by the Zhaibari; they will help the have seen anything," commanded Yar
Kshatriyas hunt us out." Afzal, and the man went, shaking with
"Let them come," grunted Yar Afzal. fear and grinding his teeth with fury.
"We can hold the defiles against a host." Yar Afzal then seated himself ponder-
One of the men leaped up and shook
ously on a stone, growling in his beard.
his fist at Conan. Conan stood near him, legs braced apart,
"Are we to take all the risks while he thumbs hooked in his girdle, narrowly
reaps the rewards?" he howled. "Are watching the assembled warriors. They
we to fight his battles for him?" stared at him sullenly, not daring to
With a stride Conan reached him and brave Yar Afzal's fury, but hating the
bent slightly to stare full into his foreigner as only a hillman can hate.
hairy face. The Cimmerian had not drawn "Now listen to me, you sons of name-
his long knife, but his left hand grasped less dogs, while I tell you what the lord
the scabbard, jutting the hilt suggestive- Conan and I have planned to fool the
ly forward. Kshatriyas" — the boom of Yar Afzal's
"I ask no man to fight my battles," he bull-like voice followed the discomfited
said softly. "Draw your blade if you warrior as he slunk away from the as-
dare, you yapping dog!" sembly.
The Wazuli started back, snarling like The man passed by the cluster of huts,
a cat. where women who had seen his defeat
"Dare to touch me and here are fifty laughed at him and called stinging com-
men to rend you apart!" he screeched. ments, and hastened on along the trail

"What!" roared Yar Afzal, his face that wound among spurs and rocks toward
purpling with wrath. His whiskers bris- the valley head.
tled, his belly swelled with his rage. "Are Just as he rounded the first turn that
you chief of Khurum? Do the Wazulis took him out of sight of the village, he
take orders from Yar Afzal, or from a stopped short, gaping stupidly. He had
low-bred cur?" not believed it possible for a stranger to
The man cringed before his invincible enter the valley of Khurum without being
chief, and Yar Afzal, striding up to him, detected by the hawk-eyed watchers along
seized him by the throat and choked him the heights; yet a man sat cross-legged
until his face was turning black. Then he on a low ledge beside the path a maa —
hurled the man savagely against the in a camel-hair robe and a green turban.
 — s

THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE 293

The Wazuli' s mouth gaped for a yell, hands the globe of Yezud to the chief of
and his hand leaped to his knife-hilt. Khurum."
But at that instant his eyesmet those of Back before the hut, Yar Afzal halted
the stranger and the cry died in his throat, in the midst of some tirade, surprized
his fingers went limp. He stood like a and displeased to see the man he had sent
statue, his own eyes glazed and vacant. up the valley, pushing his way through
the throng.

For minutes the scene held motionless; "I bade you go to the watchers!" the
then the man on the ledge drew a chief bellowed. 'You have not had time
cryptic symbol in the dust on the rock to come from them."
with his forefinger. The Wazuli did not The other did not reply; he stood wood-
see him place anything within the com- enly, staring vacantly into the chief's face,
pass of that emblem, but presently some- his palm outstretched holding the jade
thing gleamed there —
a round, shiny ball. Conan, looking over Yar Afzal'
.
black ball that looked like polished jade. shoulder, murmured something and
The man in the green turban took this up reached to touch the chief's arm, but as
and tossed it to the Wazuli, who me- he did so, Yar Afzal, in a paroxysm of
chanically caught it.
anger, struck the man with his clenched
"Carry this to Yar Afzal," he said, and fist and felled him like an ox. As he
the Wazuli turned like an automaton and fell, the jade sphere rolled to Yar Afzal's
went back along the path, holding the foot, and the seeming to see it for
chief,
black jade ball in his outstretched hand. the first time, bent and picked it up.
He did not even turn his head to the re- The men, staring perplexedly at their
newed jeers of the women as he passed senseless comrade, saw their chief bend,
the huts. He did not seem to hear. but they did not see what he picked up
from the ground.
The man on the ledge gazed after him
Yar Afzal straightened, glanced at the
with a cryptic smile. A girl's head rose
jade, and made a motion to thrust it into
above the rim of the ledge and she looked
his girdle.
at him with admiration and a touch of
"Carry that fool to his hut," he
fear that had not been present the night
before.
growled. "He has the look of a lotus-
eater. He returned me a blank stare. I
"Why did you do that?" she asked. of"
ate:
He ran his fingers through her dark In his right hand, moving toward his
locks caressingly. girdle, he had suddenly felt movement
"Are you still dizzy from your flight where movement should not be. His
on the horse-of-air, that you doubt my voice died away as he stood and glared
wisdom?" he laughed. "As long as Yar at nothing; and inside his clenched right
Afzal lives, Conan will bide safe among hand he felt the quivering of change, of
the Wazuli fighting-men. Their knives motion, of life. He no longer held a
are sharp, and there are many of them. smooth shining sphere in his fingers. And
What I plot will be safer, even for me, he dared not look; his tongue clove to
than to seek to slay him and take her the roof of his mouth, and he could not
from among them. It takes no wizard to open his hand. His astonished warriors
predict what the Wazulis will do, and saw Yar Afzal's eyes distend, the color ebb
what Conan will do, when my victim from his face. Then suddenly a bellow
 —

294 WEIRD TALES

of agony burst from his bearded lips; he head-first through the doorway. Conan
swayed and fell as if struck by lightning, stooped, grasped the slack of his gar-
his right arm tossed out in front of him. ments and hauled him clear, and slammed
Face down he lay, and from between his the door in the faces of the men who
opening fingers crawled a spider a hid- — came surging into it. Bones snapped un-
eous, black, hairy-legged monster whose der the impact, and the next instant Co-
body shone like black jade. The men nan slammed the bolts into place and
yelled and gave back suddenly, and the whirled with desperate haste to meet the
creature scuttled into a crevice of the rocks man who sprang from the floor and tore
and disappeared. into action like a madman.
The warriors started up, glaring wild- Yasmina cowered in a corner, staring
ly, and a voice rose above their clamor, a two men fought back and
in horror as the
far-carrying voice of command which forth across the room, almost trampling
came from none knew where. After- her at times; the flash and clangor of
—
ward each man there who still lived their blades filled the room, and outside
denied that he had shouted, but all there the mob clamored like a wolf -pack, hack-
heard it. ing deafeningly at the bronze door with
"Yar Afzal is dead! Kill the out- their long knives, and dashing huge rocks
lander!" against it. Somebody fetched a tree trunk,
That shout focused their whirling and the door began to stagger under the
minds as one. Doubt, bewilderment and thunderous Yasmina clasped her
assault.

fear vanished in the uproaring surge of ears, staring wildly. Violence and fury
the blood-lust. A furious yell rent the within, cataclysmic madness without. The
skies as the tribesmen responded instant- stallion in his stall neighed and reared,

ly to the suggestion. They came headlong thundering with his heels against the
across the open space, cloaks flapping, walls. He wheeled and launched his hoofs
eyes blazing, knives lifted. through the bars just as the tribesman,
backing away from Conan' s murderous
onan's action was as quick as theirs. swipes, stumbled against them. His spine
As the voice shouted he sprang for cracked in three places like a rotten branch
the hut door. But they were closer to and he was hurled headlong against the
him than he was to the door, and with Cimmerian, bearing him backward so
one foot on the sill he had to wheel and that they both crashed to the beaten floor.
parry the swipe of a yard-long blade. He Yasmina and ran forward;
cried out
split the man's skull —
ducked another to her dazed sight it seemed that both
swinging knife and gutted the wielder were She reached them just as
slain.
felled a man with his left fist and stabbed Conan threw aside the corpse and rose.
another in the belly —
and heaved back She caught his arm, trembling from head
mightily against the closed door with his to foot.
shoulders. Hacking blades were nicking
chips out of the jambs about his ears,
"Oh, you live! I thought — I thought
you were dead!"
but the door flew open under the impact
of his shoulders, and he went stumbling He glanced down at her quickly, into

backward into the room. A bearded tribes- the pale, upturned face and the wide
man, thrusting with all his fury as Conan staring dark eyes.

sprang back, over-reached and pitched "Why are you trembling?" he demand-
 THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE 295

ed. "Why should you care if I live or drunk. opens out into the mouth of
It

die?" the ravine behind the hut. Ha!"

A vestige of her poise returned to her,

As he tugged at a projection that
and she drew away, making a rather piti-
seemed casual, a whole section of the
wall slid back on oiled iron runners.
ful attempt at playing the Devi.
Looking through, the girl saw a narrow
"You are preferable to those wolves
defile opening in a sheer stone cliff within
howling without," she answered, gestur- a few feet of the hut's back wall. Then
ing toward the door, the stone sill of Conan sprang into the saddle and hauled
which was beginning to splinter away. her up before him. Behind them the
"That won't hold long," he muttered, great door groaned like a living thing
then turned and went swiftly to the stall and crashed in, and a yell rang to the
of the stallion. roof as the entrance was instantly flooded
with hairy faces and knives in hairy fists.
Yasmina clenched her hands and caught
her breath as she saw him tear aside the
And then the great stallion went through
the wall like a javelin from a catapult,
splintered bars and go into the stall with
the maddened The stallion reared
and thundered into the defile, running
beast.
low, foam flying from the bit-rings.
above him, neighing terribly, hoofs lifted,
That move came as an absolute sur-
eyes and teeth flashing and ears laid back,
prize to the Wazulis. It was a surprize,
but Conan leaped and caught his mane
with a display of sheer strength that
too, to those stealing down the ravine.

seemed impossible, and dragged the beast

It happened so quickly —the hurricane-

down on his forelegs. The steed snorted like charge of the great horse — that a man
in a green turban was unable to get out
and quivered, but stood still while the
man bridled him and clapped on the of the way. He went down under the
frantic hoofs,and a girl screamed. Co-
gold-worked saddle, with the wide silver
nan got one glimpse of her as they thun-
stirrups.

Wheeling the beast around in the stall,

dered by — a slim, dark girl in silk trous-
ers and a jeweled breast-band, flattening
Conan called quickly to Yasmina, and herself against the ravine wall. Then the
the girl came, sidling nervously past the black horse and his riders were gone up
stallion's heels. Conan was working at
the gorge like the spume blown before a
the stone wall, talking swiftly as he storm, and the men who came tumbling
worked. through the wall into the defile after
"A secret door in the wall here, that them met that which changed their yells
not even the Wazuli know about. Yar of blood-lust to shrill screams of fear and
Afzal showed it to me once when he was death.

Tou will not want to miss the powerful chapters in next month's

WEIRD TALES that tell of the strange happenings on

the Mountain of the Blac\ Seers
VheJ
Jest of Warburg Tantavul
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/I We <z£o&tf <2K sw/ o/i w^w w^o reached back from the grave to work his
—
will -a story of Jules de Grandin

"ARBURG TANTAVUL was dy- man was never prepossessing. Now,

ing. Little more than skin and wasted with disease, that smile of self-
bones, his face like a mask of sufficient mingled with ma-
satisfaction
parchment drawn drum-tight across his lignant glee upon
he was noth- his face,
skull, crisscrossed with myriad wrinkles so ing less The eyes, which
than hideous.
small and fine and. hear together that they nature gave him, were small, deep-set,
made shadows instead of lines, he lay and an oddly terrifying shade of yellow;
propped up with pillows in the big sleigh calculating, cruel and ruthless as the yel-
bed and smiled as though he found the low orbs of a crafty and ill-natured cat.
thought of dissolution faintly humorous. The mouth, which his own thoughts had
Even in comparatively good health the fashioned through the years, was wide
296
 THE JEST OF WARBURG TANTAVUL 297

and thin-lipped, almost colorless, and

even in repose was always tightly drawn
against his small and queerly perfect
teeth. Now, as he smiled, a flickering
light, lambent as the quick reflection of
an unseen flame, flared in his yellow eyes,
and a hard white line of teeth showed on
his lower lip, as though he bit it to hold
back a chuckle.
"And you're still determined that you'll
marry Arabella?" he asked his son, fixing
his sardonic, mocking smile upon the
young man's face.
" tured the sympathies of our readers,
"Yes, Father, but
"No buts, my —
boy" this time his
chuckle came, low and muted, but at the
same time sharp and glassy-hard "no
— little Frenchman is. Since "The Horror
buts. I've told you I'm against the match,
and that you'll rue it to your dying day if
you should marry her; but" he paused,—
and the breath rasped in his wizened throat
— "go ahead and marry her, if you will.
© One day back in 1925, Seabury
Qu'mn wrote a story called "The Hor-
ror on the Links," which was published
in WEIRS TALES for October of that
year. The story told of a weird and
uncanny mystery that was solved by a
mercurial, egotistical yet altogether
human and likable French scientist
named Jules de Grandin. This strange
figure —
occultist, phantom-lighter and
ghost-breaker, defective and physi-
—
cian, vain yet lovable -ai once cap-
and also fired the Imagination ©f K4r.
Qulnn, whose literary creation the
oh the Links"' appeared, this magazine
has printed more than fifty stories
about the weird exploits of the indomi-
table little Frenchman, aad hopes to
print as many mere in the future.

I've said my say and warned you—heh,

Hsnfh after month, year after year,
Jules de Grandin has grown in the af-
heh, my boy, never say your father didn't
fections of the reading public, and his
warn you!"
appearance in a new st®ry is wel-
He lay back on his piled-up pillows for
comed by msny thousands of de ©rasi-
a moment, swallowing convulsively, as
din fans as occasion for rejoicing.
though to force the fleeting life-breath
Ifyou have not yet made the acquaint-
back; then, abruptly: "Get out," he or- ance of this strangest and most as-
dered. "Get out and stay out, you poor tonishing defective of Hctisss, you
fool; but remember what I've said."
now have the opportunity to meet him
"Father," young Tantavul began, tak-
in this story: "The Jest of Warburg
ing a quick step toward the head of the
Tantavul."
bed, but the look of concentrated fury
mixed with hatred which flashed up in
the old man's tawny eyes halted him in which stood upon a little table in the bed-
midstride. room window-bay.
"Get — out — — I said!" his father He clutched the portrait which she
snarled; then, as the door closed softly on handed him as though it were some pre-
his son: cious relic, and for a minute let his yel-
"Nurse —
hand me — — — that picture." low eyes rove over it. "Lucy," he whis-
His breath was coming now,slowly, in pered hoarsely, and now his words were
shallow, labored gasps, but the claw-like thick and indistinct, "Lucy, they'll be mar-
fingers of his withered hand writhed in a ried, 'spite of all that I have said —
they'll
gesture of command, pointing to the sil- —
be married, Lucy d'ye hear?" Thin and
ver-framed photograph of a woman high-pitched as a child's, his voice rose to
298 WEIRD TALES
a shrill and piping he grasped
treble as called himself a florist. But no. It must
the picture's heavy silver frame and held it not be. It should not be, by blue! He,
level with his face. "They'll be married, personally, would seek out the vile one
Lucy, my dear, and they'll have " and tweak his ears, pull thump
his nose,
Abruptly as a penny whistle's note is hishead most soundly. He would •

stilled when no more air is blown in it, "Axin" yer pardon, sor," Nora McGin-
old Tantavul's cry was hushed. The pic- nis broke in from the study door, "there's
ture, still grasped in his hands, fell to the a Miss an' Misther Tantavul to see ye,
tufted coverlet with a soft and muffled "
an'
thud, the man's lean jaw relaxed, and he
"Bid them be gone. Request that
slumped back on his pile of pillows with
they will fill their pockets full of rocks
a shadow of the mocking smile still show-
and jump into the bay, say that we will
ing in his glazing eyes.
not see
Etiquette requires that the nurse await
the doctor's confirmation at such times;
"Grand Dieu" — he cut his oratory
short "les enjants dans le bols!"
so, obedient to professional dictates, Miss

Williamson stood beside the bed until I Truly, there was something reminis-
felt the dead man's pulse and nodded; cent of the Babes in the Wood about the
then, with the skill of years of practise, couple who had followed Nora to the
she began her offices, bandaging the study. Dennis Tantavul looked even
wrists and jaw and ankles, that the body younger and more boyish than I remem-
might be ready when the representative bered him, and the girl beside him was
of Martin's Funeral Home came to con- so childish in appearance that I felt a
vey it to the operating-room. quick, instinctive pity for her. Plainly
they were frightened, too, for they clung
together, hand to hand, like frightened
children going past a graveyard, and in
friend de Grandin was annoyed.
My Arms akimbo,knuckles on hips,
their eyes was that look of helpless, heart-
sick terror I had seen so often when blood
forcing back his black-silk kimono till it.
test and X-ray confirmed preliminary di-
resembled the outspread wings of an
agnosis of carcinoma.
angry bat, he took his stance in the center
"Monsieur, Mademoiselle," the little
of the study and voiced his plaint in no
Frenchman gathered his kimono and his
uncertain terms. In fifteen little so small
minutes he must leave for the theater,
dignity about him in a single sweeping
gesture as he struck his heels together and
and that son and grandson of a pig who
was the florist delayed delivery of the gar-
bowed stiffly from the hips, "I apologize

for unseemly words. Were it not

my
denia which must grace the left lapel of
his evening coat. And was it not indis- that I have been subjected to a terrible,
calamitous misfortune, I should not so
putably a fact that he could not go forth "
far have forgotten myself as to-
without a fresh gardenia? But certainly.
What was it that the sale chameau was The girl's quick smile cut through his
thinking of that he thus procrastinated in words. "We understand," she reassured;
delivering that unmentionable flower till "we, have been through trouble,
too,

this unspeakable time of night? He was and have come to see Doctor Trow-
"
Jules de Grandin, he, and not to be op- bridge
pressed by any species of a goat who "Ah? Then I hare permission to with-
 THE JEST OF WARBURG TANTAVUL 299

draw?" He bowed again and turned titled, inthe event of his marrying Arabella Tan-
tavul, but, should he not marry the said Arabella
upon his heel, but I called him back. Tantavul, then it is my will that he receive only
"Perhaps you can assist us," I remarked one-half of my estate, the residue thereof to go to
the said Arabella Tantavul, who has made her
as I introduced the callers. home with me since childhood and occupied the
"The honor is entirely mine, Ma- relationship of daughter to me.

demoiselle," de Grandin told her as he

"H'm," I replied, "that looks as if he
raised her fingers to his lips. "You and wanted you to marry your cousin,
" really
Monsieur your brother "
even though
"But he's not my brother," said the
"And see here, sir," Dennis inter-
girl. "We're cousins. That's why we
rupted, "here's an envelope we found in
called on Doctor Trowbridge."
Father's papers."
De Grandin tweaked the already
needle-sharp points of his little, blond
Sealed with red wax, the packet of
heavy, opaque parchment was addressed:
mustache he looked at her. "Pardon-
as
nez-moi, Mademoiselle," he begged; "I To my children, Dennis and Arabella Tantavul,
have resided in your country but five little to be opened by them upon the occasion of the
birth of their first child.
years, and perhaps I do not understand
the English fluently. It is because you De Grandin's small blue eyes were
and Monsieur are cousins that you come snapping with that flickering light they
to see the doctor? Me, I am dull and showed when he was interested. "Mon-
stupid like a pig; I fear I do not compre- sieur Dennis," he said, turning the thick
hend." envelope over and between his
over
Dennis Tantavul replied: "It's not be- small, white hands, "Doctor Trowbridge
cause of the relationship, Doctor —not
"
has told me something of your father's
entirely, at any rate, but because death-bed scene. There is a mystery
He turned to me, a look of mingled about this business. My suggestion is
"You were "
fear and wonder in his eyes. you read this message now
at my father's bedside when he died; you
"No, sir, I won't do that," the young
remember what he said about my marry-
man interrupted. "My father didn't love
ing Arabella?"
nodded.
I
me — sometimes I think he hated me but —
I never disobeyed a wish that he ex-
"There was something some ghastly, — pressed, and I don't feel at liberty to do
—
hidden threat concealed in his warn- so now. It would be like breaking faith

— But"—he smiled
ing," he continued. "It seemed as
with the dead. a trifle
though he were jeering at
"
me — daring shamefacedly "Father's lawyer, Mr.
me to marry her, yet Bainbridge, is out of town on business,
"Was there some provision in his
and it will be his duty to probate the will.
will?" I asked, and:
In the meantime, I'd feel better if the
"Yes, sir, there was," the young man will and envelope were in other hands
answered. "Here it is."
than mine. So we came to Doctor Trow-
From his pocket he produced a sheet bridge to ask him to take charge of them
of folded parchment, opened it and indi-
till Mr. Bainbridge comes from Washing-
cated a paragraph: "
ton, and meanwhile

To my son, Dennis Tantavul, I give, devise and "Yes, Monsieur, meanwhile?" de Gran-
bequeath all my property of every kind and sort,
real, personal and mixed, of which I may die
din prompted as the young man paused.
seized and possessed, or to which I may be en- "You know human nature, Doctor,"
300 WEIRD TALES
Dennis turned to me; "no one can see Now, once more hand in hand, they sat
farther into hidden meanings than the before us on the sofa, and, as Dennis be-
man who sees humanity with its mask off, gan speaking, I saw that frightened,
the way a doctor does. Do you think haunted look shine once again in their
Father might have been delirious when light eyes.
he warned me not to marry Arabella, "Do you remember us as children, sir?"
or " His voice trailed off to silence,
he asked me.
but his troubled eyes were eloquent. "Yes," I answered. "It must have
"H'm," I moved uncomfortably in my been some twenty years ago they called
chair, "I can't see any reason for your me out to see you youngsters. You'd
hesitation, Dennis. That bequest of all just moved into the old Stephens House,
your father's property in the event you and there was a deal of gossip about the
married Arabella would seem to indicate strange gentleman from die West with
his true feelings." I tried to make my his two little children and his Chinese
words convincing, but the memory of cook, who greeted all the neighbors' over-
Warburg Tantavul's dying words dinned tures with churlish rebuffs and never
in my ears. There had been something spoke to anyone."
gloating in his voice as he told the picture "And what did you think of us, sir?"
that his son and niece would marry. "Well, I thought you and your sister

— as I thought her then had as fine a —

DE grandinmy
tion in
caught the hint of hesita-
tone. "Monsieur," he
case of measles as I'd ever seen."
"How old were' we then, do you re-
asked, "will you not tell us of the ante- member?"
cedents of your father's warning? Doc- "Oh, you were something like two
tor Trowbridge is perhaps too near to see years; the little girl was half your age, I'd
the situation clearly. Me, I have no guess."
knowledge of your father or your family. "And do you remember the next time
You and Mademoiselle are strangely you saw us?"
like. The will describes her as having "Yes. You were somewhat older then;
lived with you since childhood. Will you eight or ten, I'd say. That time it was
kindly tell us how it came about?" the mumps. Queer, quiet little shavers

The Tantavuls were, as he said, you were. I remember I asked you if you
strangely similar in appearance. Anyone thought you'd like a pickle, and you an-
"
might easily have taken them for twins. swered: 'No, it hurts.'

Like as two plaster portraits from the "It did, Every day Father
too, sir.

same mold were the delicate features of made us eat one; stood over us with a
their faces, the small, straight noses, the whip till we'd chewed and swallowed the
delicately curved lips, the curling, pale- last morsel."
gold hair. Arabella wore hers in a "What!"
close-cut bob; Dennis' hair was slightly The young folks nodded solemnly as
longer than the average man's. Strip off Dennis answered. "Yes, sir; every day.
his dinner clothes and put them on his He said he wanted to check up the prog-
cousin, encase him in the simple dinner ress we were making."
frock she wore, and not one person in a For a moment he was silent; then:
thousand could you which was man
tell "Doctor Trowbridge, if anyone treated
and which was woman. you with studied cruelty all your life if —
 THE JEST OF WARBURG TANTAVUL 301

you'd never had a kind word or gracious scended from the car and walked beside
act from that person in all your memory, the train, and I climbed down after him
then suddenly that person offered you a and tried to run and take his hand. I
—
favor made it possible for you to gratify stumbled over something on the platform
your dearest wish, and threatened to and fell and cut my forehead. I called
penalize you if you failed to do so, to him for help, but he didn't even turn
wouldn't you be suspicious? Wouldn't you around, and one of the Indian women
suspect some sort of dreadful practical lifted me to my and wiped the blood
feet
joke?" from my facewith her handkerchief.
"I don't think that I quite understand," Then, when the bleeding didn't stop, she
I answered. tore the handkerchief in half and used it
"Very well, then, listen: for a bandage. It was the only act of

"In allmy life I can't remember ever kindness that had been shown me for

having seen my father smile. Not really

many a year, and I still have that me-
mento of a savage woman's tenderness
smile with friendliness, humor or affec-
tion, mean. My
I — life Arabella's, too
somewhere among my childhood's treas-
—was one long persecution at his hands.
ures, Doctor.

I was eighteen months old when we came "Father treated Arabella and me with
to Harrisonville, I believe, butI still have
impartial harshness. We were beaten
vague recollections of our Western home, for the slightest fault; and we had faults
of a house set high on a hill, overlooking a-plenty. If we sat quietly we were ac-

the ocean, and a wall with climbing vines cused of sulking and asked why we didn't
and purple flowers on it, and a pretty lady go and pjajr. If we played and shouted,
who would take me in her arms and cud- we were whipped for being noisy little
dle me against her breast, and feed me nuisances.

ice-cream from a spoon, sometimes. I "As we weren't allowed to associate

have a sort of recollection of a little baby with any of the children in the neighbor-
sister in that house, too, but these things hood, we made up our own games. I'd
are so far back in babyhood that possibly "be Geraint and Arabella would be Enid
they never really were more than some of the dove-white feet, or perhaps we'd
childish fancy which I built up for myself play that I was Arthur in the Castle Peril-
and which I loved so dearly and so secret- ous, while shewas the kindly Lady of
ly that they finally came to have a kind of the Lake who gave him back his magic
reality for me. sword. And though we never mentioned
"My real memories, the things I can it, both of us knew that whatever the ad-
recall with began with a hur-
certainty, venture was, the false knight I contended
ried train trip through hot, dry, uncom- with was really my father. But when
fortable country with my father and a actual trouble came I wasn't an heroic
strangely silent Chinese servant and a figure.
little girl they told me was my cousin Ar-

abella. Little things make big impres- "T must have been thirteen years old
sionson child-minds, you know, and of -i- when I had my last thrashing. A
all which I remember
that trip the thing brook ran through the lower part of
little
most is seeing some Indians standing on our land, and the former owners had
the platform of a station with pottery widened it into a lily-pond. The flow-
and blankets to sell. My father had de- ers had died out years before, but the out-
302 WEIRD TALES
lines of the pool remained, and it was of my half-remembered dreams and —
our favorite summer play place. We told me: 'We'll be married, dear, the
taught ourselves to swim—not very well, very day that Uncle Warburg dies, and
of course, but well enough—and as we I'll be so sweet and good to you and you
had no bathing-suits, we used to go in in will love me so that we shan't remember
our underwear. When we'd finished any of these cruel things that we have to
swimming we'd lie out in the sun until go through now.'
our under-things were dry, then don our "Wethought my father' d gone away,
outer clothing. One afternoon we were but he must have stayed to see what we
splashing in the water, happy as a pair of would say; for as Arabella finished speak-
baby beavers sporting in the woods, and ing he stepped out from behind a clump
nearer to shouting with laughter than of rhododendron and then, for the first
we'd ever been before, I think, when my time, I heard him laugh. 'You'll be mar-
father suddenly appeared upon the bank. ried, will you?' he asked jeeringly. 'Well,
" 'Come out o' there!' he ordered me, you'd better not. You'll both wish that
and there was a kind of sharp, hard dry- the earth had opened and swallowed you
ness in his voice I'd never heard before. if you ever dare to marry.'
'So that's the shameless way you spend "That was the last time he actually
your time behind my back?' he asked as I struck me, but from that time on he
climbed up the bank. 'In spite of all I've seemed to go out of his way to invent
done to keep you decent, you dared to do mental torments for us both. We weren't
a thing like this?' allowed to go to public school, but he had
" 'Why, Father, we were only swim- a private tutor, a little rat-faced man
ming,' I began, but he struck me on the named Erickson, come in and give us les-
mouth. sons, and in the evening he would take
" 'Be quiet, you young rake!' he roared. the book and make us stand before him
'I'll teach you.' and recite. If either of us failed to an-
"Before I realized his intention he'd swer promptly when he gave a problem
cut a willow switch, seized me by the in arithmetic or demanded that we spell
neck and thrust my head between his a word or conjugate a French or Latin
knees; then, while he held me tight as in verb, he'd wither us with sarcasm, and
a vise, he flogged me with the willow lash always as a finish of his diatribe he'd
until the blood came through the skin and bring the subject of our marriage up,
stained my soaking cotton singlet. Then jeering at us, and hinting at some awful
he released me and kicked me back into consequence if we went through with
the pool as a heartless master might abuse what we'd set our hearts upon.
a dog. "So, Doctor, you can see," he finished,
"As I said, I wasn't an heroic figure. "why I can't help but suspect that this
It was Arabella who came to my rescue, provision of my father's will is really
helped me up the slippery bank, and took some sort of horrible practical joke he's
my head upon her shoulder. 'Poor Den- —
planned on us almost as though he'd
nie,' 'Poor, poor Dennie.
she said. It planned to force us into a situation which
was my Dennie dear; I never
fault, would make it possible for him to laugh
should have you take me in the water.'
let at us from the grave."
—
Then she kissed me it was the first time "I can understand your feelings, boy,"
"
anyone had kissed me since the pretty lady; I answered, "but
 THE JEST OF WARBURG TANTAVUL 303

" 'But' be baked and roasted in the hot- to another . . . for a thousand years in
test oven hell possesses!" interrupted Thy sight are but as yesterday, seeing it

Jules de Grandin. "The wicked dead is as a watch in the night. . . . Oh teach

one's funeral is at two tomorrow after- us tonumber our days that we may apply
noon, n'est-ce-pas? our hearts unto wisdom ." . .

"Tres Men. At eight tomorrow eve- As the final Amen sounded, one of Mr.
—
ning or earlier, if it will be convenient Martin's young men glided forward,
— you shall be married. I shall esteem it paused beside the casket for a moment,
a favor if you permit that I shall be best and made the stereotyped announcement:
man. Doctor Trowbridge will be there "Those who wish to say good-bye to Mr.
to give the bride away, and we shall have Tantavul may do so at this time."
a merry time, by blue! You shall go The grisly rite of passing by the bier
upon a gorgeous honeymoon and learn dragged on. I would have left the place,
how sweet the joys of love can be — sweet- for had no wish to look upon the man's
I
er for having been so long denied, par- dead face and folded hands; but de Gran-
dieu! And in the! meantime we shall din took me firmly by the elbow, held me
keep those papers safe for you, and when back until the final curiosity-impelled
your lawyer has returned, I shall see that female had filed past the body, then
he receives them in due course. steered me quickly to the casket.
"You fear the so unpleasant joke? The little Frenchman paused beside the
Mais non, I on the other
think the joke is bier, and it seemed to me there was a hint
foot, my friends, and the laugh upon the of irony in the smile that touched the cor-
wicked old one who had thought himself ners of his mouth as he leant forward.
so clever!" "Eh bien, my old one; we know a secret,
thou and I, n'est-ce-pas?" he asked the

silentform before us.

Warburg tantavul was neither I swallowed back an exclamation of
widely known nor popular, but the dismay. Perhaps it was a trick of the un-
solitude in which he had lived had invest- certain light, possibly it was one of those
ed him with mystery; now the bars of ghastly, inexplicable things which every
reticence were down and the walls of iso- doctor and embalmer meets with some-
lation broken, upward of a hundred —
time in his practise the effect of desicca-
neighbors, mostly women, gathered in the tion from formaldehyde, the pressure of
Martin funeral chapel as the services be- some tissue gas within the body, or some-
gan. The afternoon sun beat softly thing of the sort — de
at any rate, as Jules
through the stained glass windows and Grandin spoke the corpse's upper lids
glinted upon the polished mahogany of drew back the fraction of an inch, reveal-
the pews. Here and there it touched ing slits of yellow eyes, which seemed to
upon bright spots of color that marked a glare at us with mingled hate and fury.
flower, a woman's hat or a man's tie. The "Good heavens; come away!" I begged.
solemn hush was unbroken save for occa- "It seemed as if he looked at us, de Gran-
sional soft sibilations: "What'd he die din!"
of? Did he leave much? Were the two "Et puis —and if he did?" he asked me
young folks his only heirs?" as we left the chapel. "Me, I damn think
Then the burial office: "Lord, Thou that I can trade him look for look, my
hast been our refuge from one generation friend. He was clever, that one, I admit
304 WEIRD TALES
it; but do not be mistaken, Jules de Gran- I could endure the stabbing of that
din is no one's imbecile." needle-sound no longer, it ceased abrupt-
ly, giving way to blessed, comforting
4 silence. And through the silence came a
peal of chuckling laughter, half breath-

The
of
wedding took
Chrysostom's.
St.
place in the rectory
Robed in stole
less,
—bu-u-uh—
half hysterical, wholly devilish
hu-u-u-u-uh! the final
: Huh
syl-

and Doctor Bentley glanced be-

surplice, lable drawn out until it seemed almost a
nignly from Dennis to Arabella, then to grcan.
de Grandin and me as he began: "Dear- "The wind, Monsieur le Cure, it is the
ly beloved, we are gathered together here wind," said Jules de Grandin sharply.
in the sight of God and in the face of this "Proceed to marry them, if you will be so
company to join together this man and kind."
this woman in holy matrimony. ." . .
"The wind?" Doctor Bentley echoed
His round and ruddy face grew slightly incredulously. "Why, I could have sworn
stern as he continued: "If any man can "
I heard somebody laugh, but
show just cause why they should not law- "It is the wind, Monsieur; it plays
fully be joined together, let him now strange tricks at times," the little French-
speak or else hereafter for ever hold his man answeredr his small, blue eyes as
peace." hard as frozen iron. "Proceed, if you
He
paused the customary short, dra- will be so kind; we wait on you."
matic moment, and I thought I saw a "Forasmuch as Dennis and Arabella
hard, grim look spread on Jules de Gran- have consented to be joined together in
din's face. Very faint and far-off seem- holy wedlock ... I pronounce them man
ing, so faint that we could scarcely hear and wife," concluded Doctor Bentley, and
it, but gaining steadily in strength, there de Grandin, ever gallant, kissed the bride
came a high, thin, screaming sound. upon the lips, and, before we could re-
Curiously, it seemed to me to resemble strain him, planted kisses upon both of
the long-drawn, wailing shriek of a Dennis' cheeks.
freight train's whistle heard from miles "Parbleu, I thought that we might have
away upon a still and sultry summer the trouble, for a time," he told me as we
night, weird, wavering and ghastly. Now left the rectory.
itseemed to grow in shrillness, though its "What was that awful, shrieking noise
volume was no greater. High, so high we heard?" I asked.
the human ear could scarcely register it, "It was the wind, my friend," he an-
it. beat upon our consciousness with a swered in a hard, fiat, toneless voice.
frightful, piercing sharpness. It was like "The ten times damned, but wholly in-
a sick, shrill scream of hellish torment effectual wind."
that set the tortured air to quivering till

we could not say if we were really hear-

ing it, or if it were but a subjective ring- I

o, THEN, little sinner, weep and wail
ing in our heads. for the burden of mortality that has
I saw a look of haunted fright leap into befallen thee; weep, wail, cry and breadie,
Arabella's eyes, saw Dennis' pale face go my little wrinkled one.' Ha, you will not?
paler as the strident whistle sounded Pardieu, I say you shall!"

shriller and more shrill; then, as it seemed Gently, but smartly, Jules de Grandin
W. T.—2
 THE JEST OF WARBURG TANTAVUL 305

spanked the small red infant's small red tered she opened her lips to emit another
posterior with the end of a towel wrung shriek.

out in hot water, and as the smacking im- "Stop it, Mademoiselle, you are dis-

pact sounded, the tiny, toothless mouth turbing your small charges!" De Grandin
opened to its fullest compass, and a thin, seized the horrified girl's shoulder and
high, piping squall of protest sounded. administered a shake. Then
"Ah, that is better, mon petit ami," the "What is it that you saw, Mademoi-

Frenchman chuckled. "One can not

little selle," he asked her in a whisper. "Do
learn too soon that one must do as one is not be afraid to speak; we shall respect
told, not as one wishes, in this world your confidence —but speak softly."
which you have entered. Look to him, "It — it was up there!" she pointed
Mademoiselle." He passed the wrig- with a shaking finger toward the black
gling, bawling morsel of humanity to the square of the skylight. "They'd just
nurse and turned to me as I bent above brought Baby Tantavul in and I'd laid
the table where Arabella Tantavul lay. him in his crib when I thought I heard
"How does
Trowbridge?" he asked.
the mother, good Friend somebody laughing.
dered at the recollection
Oh"
— —was awful!
"it
shud-
she

"U'm'mp," I answered noncommittal- Not really a laugh, but something more

ly, working furiously. "Poor youngster," like a long-drawn-out hysterical groan.
I added as Arabella, swathed in blankets, Did you ever hear a child tickled to ex-
was trundled to her room, "she had a
"
haustion —how he moans and gasps for
pretty tough time of it, but breath and laughs, all at once? I think
"But in the morning she will have for- the fiends in hell must laugh like that!"
gotten!" de Grandin cut in with a laugh. "Yes, yes, we understand," de Grandin
"Ha, have I not seen it? She will gaze nodded shortly, "but tell us, if you please,
upon the little monkey-thing which I just what happened next?"
caused to breathe the breath of life, and "I looked around the nursery, but I was
vow it is the loveliest of all God's lovely all alone here with the babies. Then it
creatures. Cordieu, she will hold it at her came again, louder, this time, and seem-
tender breast and smile on it — she ingly right above me. I looked up at the
will skylight, —
and there it was!
nom
"Sacre
From
d'un rat, what
the nursery where, ensconced in
is that?" "It was a face, sir just a
it, and it seemed to
— face, with no
body to float in mid-
wire trays twenty new-born fragments of air, just above the glass, then to dip down
humanity slept or squalled, there came a against it, like a child's balloon drifting
sudden frightened scream a woman's — in the wind, and it looked right past me
cry of terror. down at Baby Tantavul and laughed
We raced along the corridor, reached again."
the glass-walled room and thrust the door "A face, Mademoiselle, did you
back, taking care to open it no wider than "
say
was necessary, lest a draft disturb the
carefully conditioned air within the place.
"Yes, sir, a face —the most awful face
I've ever seen. It was thin and wrinkled,
Backed against the farther wall, her and shriveled like a mummy, and its
face gone gray with fright, the nurse in long, gray hair hung down across its fore-
charge was staring at the skylight with head, and its eyes were yellow like a—
horror-widened eyes, and even as we en- cat's! —and as they looked at Baby Tan-
W. T.—
306 WEIRD TALES
tavul they seemed to stretch and open till Your marriage was his dearest wish, his
the white of the balls glared all round the fondest hope," de Grandin answered sol-
yellow and the mouth opened, not
irises, emnly.
widely, but as though it were chewing "I felt that way, too. He was harsh
something that it relished and it gave — and cruel to us while we were growing
that dreadful, cackling, jubilating laugh up, and preserved his stony-hearted atti-

again. That's it! I couldn't think before, tude to the end, but underneath it all

but it seemed as if that bodiless head there must have been some hidden streak
were laughing with a sort of evil tri- of kindness, some lingering affection for
umph, Doctor de Grandin!" Dennis and me, or he'd never have put
"
"H'm," the little Frenchman tweaked that clause into his will

his tightlywaxed mustache. "I should "Nor have left this memorandum for
not wonder if it did, Mademoiselle." you," de Grandin interrupted, drawing
He turned to me, and: "Stay with her, from an inner pocket the parchment en-
if you please, my friend," he ordered. "I velope which Dennis had given him the
shall see the supervisor and have her send day before his father's funeral.
another nurse to keep her company. I The youthful mother started back as
shall request a special watch for the small though he menaced her with a live scor-
Tantavul. I do not think that there is pion, and instinctively her arms closed
any danger, but — mice do not play where protectively about the baby at her breast.
cats are wakeful." "The — — that letter?" she faltered, her
breath coming in short, smothered gasps.
"Tsn't he just lovely?" Arabella Tanta- "I'd forgotten it. Oh, Doctor de Gran-
-S- vul looked up from the small knob din, burn it. Don't let me see what's in
of hairless which rested on her
flesh it. I'm afraid!"
breast, and ecstasy was in her eyes. "I It was a bright May morning, without
don't believe I ever saw so beautiful a sufficient breeze to stir the budding leaf-

baby!" letson the maple trees outside, but as de

"Tzens, Madame, his voice is excellent, Grandin held the letter out I thought I
at any rate," de Grandin answered with a heard the sudden rustle of a wind beyond
grin, "and from what one may observe, the window, not loud, but shrewd and
his appetite is excellent, as well." keen, like wind among the graveyard
Arabella smiled and patted the small evergreens in autumn, and, curiously,

creature's back. "You know, I never had there was a note of soft, malicious laugh-

a doll in all my life," she told us. "Now ter mingled with it.

I've got this dear little mite, and I'm go- The little Frenchman heard it too, and
ing to be so happy with him. Oh, I wish for an instant he looked toward the win-

Uncle Warburg were alive; I know this dow, and I thought I saw the flicker of
darling baby would soften even his hard an ugly sneer take form beneath the ends
heart. of his mustache.
"But I mustn't say such things about "Open it, Madame" he bade. "It is
him, must I? He really wanted Dennis for you and Monsieur Dennis, and little
and me to marry, didn't he? His will Monsieur Bebe here."
"
proved that. You think he wanted us to "No-o; I daren't
marry, Doctor?" "Tres bien, then Jules de Grandin
"I am persuaded that he did, Madame. does!" Drawing out his penknife he slit
 THE JEST OF WARBURG TANTAVUL 307

the heavy envelope, pressed suddenly rupted from the door of the consulting-
against its ends, so that its sides bulged room, "I could not help but hear your last
"
out, and dumped its contents on the coun- remark, and if it is net an intrusion
terpane. Ten twenty-dollar bills dropped "Not at all," the young man answered.
on the coverlet. And nothing else. "I'd like the benefit of your advice. It's

"Two hundred dollars!" Arabella Arabella, and I'm dreadfully afraid that
" "
gasped. "Why she
"As a birthday Monsieur
gift for petit "Non, do not try it, mon ami," de
Dennis, one de Grandin
surmises," Grandin warned. "Do you give us the
smiled, "Bb bien, the old one had a sense symptoms, let us make the diagnosis. He
of humor underneath his ugly outward who acts as his own doctor has a fool for
shell, it seems. He kept you on the ten- a patient, you know."
terhooks lest the message in this envelope "Well, then, here are the
facts: This
were one of evil import, while all the morning Arabella woke me up, crying as
time it was a present of congratulation." though her heart would break. I asked
"But such a gift from Uncle Warburg her what the trouble was, and she looked
— I can't understand it!" Arabella mur- at me as if I were a stranger no, not —
mured wonderingly. exactly that, rather as if I were some
dreadful thing she'd suddenly discovered
"Perhaps it is as well, Madame," he
answered as we rose to go. "Be happy lying by her side. Her eyes were positive-
with the gift, and give your ancient uncle ly round with horror, and when I tried
to take her in my arms and comfort her
credit for at least one act of kindliness.
she shrank away as though I were infect-
Au 'voir."
ed with the plague.
" 'Oh, Dennie, don't!' she begged, and
"TT anged if I can understand it
positively cringed away from me. Then
A A either," I told him as we left the
she sprang out of bed, and drew her ki-
hospital. curmudgeon had
"If that old
mono about her as though she were
left a message berating them for fools for
ashamed to have me see her in pajamas,
having offspring, it would have been
more in character, but such a gift -well, — and ran sobbing from the room.
"Presently I heard her crying in the
I'm surprized."
nursery, and went down there to try and
Amazingly, de Grandin halted in mid- -" He paused, and tears
comfort her
stride and laughed until the tears rolled
started to his eyes. "She was standing
down his face. "Parbleu, my friend," he by the crib where little Dennis lay, look-
told me when he managed to regain his
ing at him with tears streaming down her
breath, "I do not think that your surprize cheeks, and in her hand she held a long,
is half so great as that of Monsieur War- sharp steel letter-opener. 'Poor little mite;
burg Tantavul!"
poor little flower of unpardonable sin,' she
said. 'We've got to go, Baby darling; you
to limbo, I to hell — oh, God wouldn't,
Dennis tantavul regarded me with couldn't be so cruel as to damn you for
misery-haunted eyes. "I just can't your parents' sin! —but we'll all three suf-
understand it," he admitted. "It's all so fer torment endlessly, because we didn't
"
sudden, so utterly know!'
"Pardonnez-moi," de Giandin inter- "She raised the knife to plunge it in
308 WEIRD TALES
the little and he stretched
fellow's heart, carries 'im back ter th' settin'-room where
his baby hands out and laughed and Miss' Arabella wuz, an' she ain't dere no
cooed as the sunlight glinted on the dead- mo'. Naw, suh."
ly steel. "I thought I told you Dennis *'

"I was on her in an instant, wrenching began furiously, but de Grandin laid a
the knife from her with one hand, hold- hand upon his arm.
ing her against me with the other, but she "Softly, ifyou please, Monsieur," he
fought me off. soothed. "La bonne did wisely, though
!<
'Don't touch me, Dennie, please, she knew it not; she was with the small
please don't!' she begged. 'I know it's one all the while, so no harm could come
deadly sin, but I love you so, my dear, to him. Was it not better so, after what
that I can't resist you if I let you put your you witnessed in the morning?"
arms around me.' "Ye-es," the other grudgingly admit-
ted. "I suppose so. But Arabella "
"I tried to kiss her, but she hid her
face against my shoulder and moaned as "Let us see if we can find a trace of
if in pain when she felt my lips against her," the Frenchman interrupted. "Look,
her neck. Then she went suddenly limp do you miss her clothing?"
in my arms, and I carried her, uncon- Dennis looked about the pretty, chintz-
scious but moaning pitifully, into her sit-
hung room. "Yes," he decided as he fin-
ting-room and laid her on the couch. I ished his inspection; "her dress was on
left Sarah, the nurse maid, with her, giv- that lounge, and her shoes and stockings
ing strict orders not to let her leave the on the floor beneath it. They're all

room till I returned. Can't you come gone."

over right away?" "So," de Grandin nodded. "Distrait
De Grandin's cigarette had burned as she appeared to be, it is unlikely she

down till it threatened his mustache, and would have stopped to dress had she not
in his small, blue eyes was such a look planned on going out.
of murderous rage as I had not seen for "Friend Trowbridge, will you kindly
years. "Bete!" he murmured savagely. call Police Headquarters, inform them of
"Sale chameau; species of stinking goat! the situation, and ask to have all exits to

This is his doing, or Jules de Grandin is the city watched?"

a lop-eared fool! Come, my friends, let As I picked up the telephone he and
us rush, hasten, fly; I would talk with Dennis started on a room-by-room in-

Madame Arabella!" spection of the house.

"Find anything?" I asked as I hung up
aw, suh, she's gone,"
"\J the colored the 'phone after notifying headquarters.
*-]y nurse-maid told us when we "Cordieu, I should damn say yes!" de
asked for "Master Dennie
Arabella. Grandin answered as I joined them in the
started ter squeal sumpin awful right upstairs living-room. "Look yonder, if
after Mistu Dennis lef, an' Ah knowed you please, my friend."
it wuz time fo' 'is breakfas', so Mis' Ar- The room was obviously the intimate
abella wuz lying' nice an' still on th' apartment of the house. Electric lamps
sofa, an' Ah says to her, Ah says, 'Yuh under painted shades were placed beside
lay still, dere, now honey, whilst Ah goes the big leather-upholstered chairs, ivory-
an' sees after yo baby; so Ah goes down enameled bookshelves lined the walls to
ter th' nussery an' fixes 'im all up, an' a height of four feet or so, upon their
 THE JEST OF WARBURG TANTAVUL 309

tops was a litter of gay, unconsidered metropolis. Truck chauffeurs there are
little trifles — cinnabar cigarette boxes, far too careless and repair bills for
bits of hammered brass. Old china, blue wrecked mudguards far too high. "How
and red and purple, glowed mellowly in a full-grown woman could evaporate that
cabinets of mahogany, its colors catching way is something I can't understand," I

up and accentuating the muted blues and added as we stepped briskly through the
reds of an antique Hamadan carpet. A bracing autumn had happened
air. "If it

Paisley shawl was draped scarfwise across twenty years ago there might be some ex-
the baby grand piano in the corner. cuse for it, but today, with our radio
Directly opposite the door a carven cru- police-call systems and all the other mod-
"
cifix was standing on the bookcase top. ern
It was an exquisite bit of Italian work, "S-s-st," his sibilated admonition cut
the cross of ebony, the corpus of old me short. "That woman there, my friend,

ivory, and so perfectly executed that, observe her, if you please." He nodded
though it was a scant four inches high, toward a female figure twenty feet ahead
one could note the tense, tortured mus- of us.
cles, the straining throat which overfilled I looked, and wondered at his sudden
with groans of agony, the brow all interest in the draggled hussy.
knotted and bedewed with the cold sweat She was dressed in tawdry finery much
of torment. Upon the statue's thorn- the worse for wear. Sleazy silken skirt
crowned head, where it made a bright, was much too tight, cheap fur jaquette far
iridescent halo, was a band of gem-en- too short and snug; high heels of her
crusted platinum, a woman's diamond- satin slippers shockinglyrun over, make-
studded wedding ring. up plastered on her cheeks and lips and
"Helas, it is love's crucifixion!" whis- eyes, and her short black hair fairly bris-

pered Jules de Grandin. tled with untidiness beneath the rim of

her abbreviated hat. Written unmistak-
ably upon her was the nature of her
Three months went by, and though
ing, the oldest and least
call-

honorable pro-
we kept the search up unremittingly,
no trace of Arabella could be found. fession known to womanhood.
Dennis Tantavul installed a full-time, "Well?" answered tartly. "What
I
"
highly trained and recommended nurse in possible interest can you have in a
his desolate house, and spent his time "Do not walk so
fast," he whispered as

haunting police stations and newspaper his fingers closed upon my arm, "and do

offices. He aged a decade in the ninety not raise your voice. I would that we

days since Arabella left; his shoulders should follow her, but I do not wish that
stooped, his footsteps lagged, and a look she should know."
of never-ending misery dwelt v/ithin his The neighborhood was far from savory,
eyes as he trod his daily Via Dolorosa, a andI felt uncommonly conspicuous as we
prematurely old and broken man. turned from Forty-second Street into
"It's the most uncanny thing I ever Eleventh Avenue in the wake of the
saw," I said to Jules de Grandin as we young strumpet, followed her provoca-
walked through Forty-second Street tively swaying hips down two malodor-
toward the West Shore Ferry. We had ous blocks, finally paused as she went in
gone over to New York for some surgical the doorv/ay of a filthy, unkempt "room-
supplies, and I do not drive my car in the ing-house,"
 I

310 WEIRD TALES

With de Grandin in the lead, stepping De Grandin eyed her steadily, and, as
softly as a pair of cats, we trailed the her strident order wavered:
woman through the dimly lighted, bar- "Madame Arabella, we have come to
ren hall and up a flight of shadowy, un- take you home," he told her softly.
carpeted stairs. We
climbed two further "Good Lord, man, you're crazy!" I ex-
"
flights,the last one letting into a sort of claimed. "Arabella? This
littleoblong foyer bounded on one end "Precisely, my good friend; this is
by the stair-well, on the farther extremity Madame Arabella Tantavul, whom we
by a barred and very dirty window, and have sought these many months in vain."
on each side by two sets of sagging, paint- Crossing the room in two quick strides
blistered doors. On each of these was he seized the cringing woman by the
pinned a card, handwritten with the shoulders and turned her face up to the
many flourishes dear to the chirography
window. I looked, and felt a sudden
of the professional card-writer who still
swift attack of nausea.
does business in the poorer quarters of
He was right. Thin to emaciation, her
our great cities. The air was heavy with face already lined with the deep-bitten
the odor of cheap whisky, stale bacon and
scars of dissipation, thewoman on the
fried onions.
bed was Arabella Tantavul, though the
We made a hasty circuit of the hall, shocking change wrought in her features
studying the cardboard labels. On the and the black dye in her hair had dis-
farthest door the notice read Miss Sie- guised her so I never would have recog-
glinde. nized her.
"Mon Dieu," exclaimed de Grandin, "We have come to take you home, ma
"le mot propre!" pauvre," he repeated. "Your hus-
"
"Eh?" I answered, puzzled. band
"Sieglinde, do you not recall her?" "My husband?" Her reply was half a
"No-o, I can not say I do. The only scream. "Oh, dear God, as if I had a
"
Sieglinde Iremember is the character in husband
Wagner's Die Walkure who unwittingly "And a little one who needs you," the
"
became her brother's mistress and Frenchman interrupted. "You can not
"Precisement. Let us youenter, if leave him so, Madame "
please." Without pausing to knock, he "I can't? Ah, that's where you're mis-
turned the handle of the door and stepped taken, Doctor. I can never see him
across the threshold of the squalid room. again, in thisworld or the next. Please,
The woman upon the bed, her hat
sat please,go away and forget you found
pushed backward from her brow, a me, or I'll have to drown myself I've —
cracked and dirty tumbler in one hand, a tried it twice already, but my courage
whisky bottle poised above it. "Get out!" failed. But if you try to take me back,
she ordered thickly. "Get out o' here — or tell Dennis that you saw me
"

don't want " A gasp cut short her "Tell me, Madame," he broke in, "was
utterance, and she turned her head away. not your flight caused by a visitation from
Then: the dead?"
"Get fell out o' here, you lousy rum-
mies!" she half screamed.
think you are, breakin' into a lady's room
like this? Get out, or
"
"Who d'ye
H er
"How
"Tiens, one
faded brown eyes
did you know?" she asked.
may make
widened.

surmises," he
 THE JEST OF WARBURG TANTAVUL 311

replied. "Will you not tell us just what he'll loathe and hate you for the things
happened? I think there is a way out of you are, and curse the day you bore him.'
your difficulties." " And you'll promise never to come
"There isn't any way," she muttered near Dennis or the baby if I go?' I asked.
dully, and her head sank listlessly upon "He promised, and I staggered back to
her chest. "He planned his work too bed, where I fell fainting.
well; all that's left for me is death and — "Next morning when I wakened I was
damnation afterward." sure that it had been a dream, but when
"But if there were a way if I could — I looked at Dennis and my own reflection

show it to you?" in the glass, I knew it was no dream, but

"Can you repeal the laws of God?" a dreadful visitation from the dead.
"I am a very clever person; perhaps I "It was then that I went mad. I tried

can discover an evasion, if not an absolute to kill my baby, and when Dennis stopped
repeal. Now, tell me: how and when me I watched my chance to run away,
did Monsieur your late but not lamented came over to New York and took to this."
uncle, come to you?" She looked significantly around the mis-
"The night before before I went — erably furnished room. "I knew they'd
away. I woke up about midnight, think- never look for Arabella Tantavul among
ing I heard a cry from Dennie's nursery. the sisters of the pavement; I was safer
I rose to go to him, and when I reached from pursuit right here than if I'd been
the room where he was sleeping I saw in Europe or in China."
my uncle's face glaring at me through the —
"But Madame" de Grandin's voice
—
window. It seemed to be illuminated by was vibrant with shocked reproof "that
a sort of inward, hellish light, for it stood which you saw was nothing but a dream;
out against the darkness like a jack-o'- a most unpleasant dream, I grant, but
lantern, and it smiled an awful smile at still a dream. Look in my eyes, Madame!"

me. it said, and I could see

'Arabella,' She raised her eyes to his, and I saw
its dead lips writhe back as though
thin, his pupils widen, as a cat's do in the dark,
its were burning-hot, 'I've come to
teeth saw a line of white outline the cornea,
tell you that your marriage is a mockery and, responsive to his piercing gaze, be-
and a lie. The man you married is your held her brown eyes set in a fixed stare,

brother, and the child you bore is doubly first as though in fright, then with a glaze
illegitimate. You can't continue living - almost like that of death.
with them, Arabella. That would be an "Attend me, Madame Arabella," he
even greater sin than the one you have commanded softly. "You are tired —
committed. You must leave them; leave grand Dieu, how tired you are! You
them right away, or' —once more — his lips have suffered greatly, but you are about
crept back until his teeth were bare "or I to rest. Your memory of that night is
shall come to visit you each night, and gone; so memory of all things which
is all

when grown old enough to

the baby has have occurred since. You will move and
understand, I'll tell him of his parents' eat and sleep as you are bidden, but of
sin. Take your choice, my dear. Leave them what takes place until I bid you wake you
and let me go back to my grave in peace, will retain no recollection. Do you hear
or stay and see me every night, and know me, Madame Arabella?"
that I will tell your son when he is old "I hear," she answered softly, in a
enough to understand. And if I do it small, tired voice.
 —

312 WEIRD TALES

"Bien. Lie down, my
poor one. little "I can't remember anything about my
Lie down, rest and dream; dream happy illness, Doctor Trowbridge," she told me
dreams of love. Sleep, rest; dream and with a weary little smile, "but vaguely I
forget. connect it with some dreadful dream I
"Will you be good enough to 'phone had. And"—she wrinkled her smooth
to Doctor Wyckoff?" he asked me. "We forehead in an effort at remembrance

shall place her in his sanitarium, wash "I think I had a rather dreadful dream
"
this sacre dye out of her hair and nurse last night, but
her back to health; then, when all is "Ah-ha?" de Grandin leant abruptly
ready, we can bear her home and have forward in his chair, his little mustache
her take up life— and love —where she twitching like the whiskers of an irritated
left off. None shall be the wiser. This tom-cat. "Whatwas it thatyou dreamed?"
chapter in her life isclosed and sealed "I — —
don't know," she answered slow-
for ever. ly. "Odd, isn't it, how you can remem-
"Each day I'll call upon her and renew ber that a dream was so unpleasant, but
hypnotic treatments that she may simulate can't recall its details? Somehow, I con-
the mild but curable mental case which "
nect Uncle Warburg with it, but
we shall tell the good Wyckoff she is. "Parbleu, your uncle? Again? Ah
When finally I release her from hypnosis, bah, he makes me to be so mad, that
her mind will be entirely cleared of that
one!"
bad dream which nearly wrecked her
happiness."
"Tt is time we went, my friend," de
i Grandin told me as the tall clock in
the hall beat out its tenth deliberate

Arabella TANTAVUL lay upon the stroke; "we have important duties to per-
- sofa in her charming upstairs liv- form."
ing-room, an orchid negligee trimmed in "For goodness' sake," I protested,
white marabou about her slender shoul- "where are you going at this time of
ders, an eiderdown rug tucked around her night?"
feet and knees. Her wedding ring was "Where but to Monsieur Tantavul's?"
once more on her finger. Pale with a he answered with a smile that had small
pallor not to be disguised by the most humor in it. "I am expectant of a vis-
skilfully applied cosmetics, and with itor tonight —
and we must be ready for
deep violet circles underneath her amber him."
eyes, she lay back listlessly, drinking in When he was in a mood like this I
the cheerful warmth which emanated knew that questioning would be a waste
from the fire of apple-logs that snapped of breath; accordingly I drove him to the
and crackled on the hearth. Two months Tantavuls' in silence, knowing he would
of rest in Doctor Wyckoff' s sanitarium have an explanation when he deemed the
had erased the marks of dissipation from time had come.
her face; even as the skilled ministrations "Is Madame Arabella sleeping?" he
of beauticians had restored the yellow asked as Dennis met us in the hall.
luster to her pale-gold hair, but the list- "Yes, like a baby," answered the young
lessnesswhich followed her complete husband. "I've been sitting by her all

breakdown was still upon her like the evening, and I don't believe she's even
weakness from a fever. turned in bed."
 THE JEST OF WARBURG TANTAVUL 313

"And did you keep the window closed, "In half an hour you will rise," he told
as I requested?" her in a low, insistent voice. "You will
"Yes, sir; closed and latched." put on your robe and stand before the
"Bien. Await us here, mon brave; we window, but on no account will you go
shall rejoin you presently." near it or lay hands on it. Should any-
He led the way to Arabella's bedroom, one address you from outside, you will
removed the wrappings from a bulky par- reply, but you will not remember what

cel, and displayed the object thus dis- you say or what is said to you."
closed with the air of a magician about He motioned me to follow him, and
to do a trick. "You see him?" he de- we left the room, taking station in the
manded proudly. "Is he not a beauty?" hallway just outside.
—
"Why -what the deuce? it's nothing —
but a window-screen," I answered. How long we waited I
it was an hour, perhaps
Perhaps
have no idea.

"Ah, but it is made of copper," he in-

formed me, as though explaining some- any rate, the silent vigil seemed
less; at

thing of inordinate importance. unending, and I raised my hand to stifle

" a tremendous yawn, when:
"Well
"Well? Pardieu, I shall say it is well; "Yes, Uncle Warburg, I can hear you,"

it is very exceedingly well, my friend. we heard Arabella saying softly in the

Observe him, how he works." room beyond the door.
From his kit bag he produced a reel of Wetiptoed to the entry: Arabella
insulated wire, an electrical transformer Tantavul stood before the window, look-
and a set of tools. Working quickly, he ing fixedly at its darkened square, and
passe-partouted the screen's wooden beyond her, framed in the window-casing
frame with electrician's tape, then as a masterpiece of horror might be
plugged a wire into a near-by lamp sock- framed for exhibition, glared the face of
et, connected it with the transformer, and Warburg Tantavul.
from the latter led a double strand It was dead, there was no doubt about
of cotton-wrapped wire to the screen. it. In the sunken cheeks, the pinched-in
This he clipped firmly to the copper nose and the yellowish-gray skin there
meshes and led a third wire to the metal showed the evidence of death and early
grille of the heat register. Last of all, putrefaction, but dead though it was, it
he filled a bulb-syringe with water and was also animated with a dreadful sort
sprayed the screen from it, repeating the of life. The eyes were glaring horribly,
dousingstill the woven copper sparkled as though illuminated with some inward
cobweb in the morning sun. "Now,
like a phosphorescence, and they bulged for-
Monsieur le Revenant. I damn think we ward in their sunken sockets as though
are ready for you," he announced, sur- a throttling hand were clutching at the
veying his handiwork with every sign of dead thing's throat. The lips were red —
satisfaction. red as rouge— but they were not red with
We
waited quietly for something like life; they were dead, and painted with

an hour; then de Grandin rose and bent fresh blood.

above the bed where Arabella slept. "You hear me, do ye?" he demanded,
"Madame!" and the ruddy, foam-flecked lips writhed
The girl stirred faintly, murmuring across his yellow teeth. "Then listen,
some half-audible response, and: girl; you broke your bargain with me,
314 WEIRD TALES
now I'm come to keep my threat: Every Dennis Tantavul came charging up the
time you kiss your husband" a shriek — stairs. "I thought I heard a scream
"

of bitter laughter cut his words, and his "You did, Monsieur," de Grandin an-
staring, starting eyes half closed with
hellish merriment
—
"or the child you love
swered, "but
ever hear its
I do not think that you will

repetition, unless you are

so well, my shadow will be on you. so unfortunate as to go to hell when your
You've kept me out thus far, but some earthly pilgrimage is ended."
"
day I'll get in, and "What was it?" began Dennis, but de
Once more the foam-dyed lips writhed Grandin stopped him with a smile.
across thegleaming teeth, and the lean, "One who thought himself a clever
dead jaw dropped downward, then jester pressed his jest a bit too far," he
snapped up, as though it champed on liv- answered enigmatically. "Meantime, look
ing flesh; then, suddenly, the whole ex-
to Madame your wife. See how peaceful-
pression of the corpse-face changed. Sur-
ly she lies upon her bed. Her time for
prize, incredulous delight, anticipation,
evil dreams is past, my friend. Be kind
as before a feast, were pictured on it.
to her, do not forget that a woman loves
—
"Why" its cachinnating laughter sent a
— to have a lover, even though he is her
down my spine "why, you're win-
chill
husband." He bent and kissed the sleep-
dow's open now! You've changed the ing girl upon the brow, and:
screen, and I can enter!"
"Au 'voir, my little lovely one," he
Slowly, like a child's balloon stirred by
murmured. Then, to me:
a vagrant wind, the dreadful face moved
"Come, Trowbrdige, my good friend.
closer to the window, and I noted with a
Our work is finished here; let us leave
nauseated start that it was bodiless.
them to their happiness."
Closer, closer to the screen it came, and
Arabella Tantavul gave ground before it,

shuddering with nameless dread, putting

up her hands to shield her eyes from the Jules de grandin poured an ounce or
laughing thing which menaced her. so of Couvoisier into a lotus-bud
swore de Grandin softly,
"Sapristi," shaped brandy sniffer and passed the gob-
his fingers clenched about my elbow till let back and forth beneath his nose, in-

they numbed my arm. "Come on, my haling the rich fragrance of the brandy.
old and evil one; come a little nearer; "Morbleu, old Omar had it right," he
"
only one so little tiny step, and told me with a grin; "what is it that the
The dead thing floated closer. Now distillers buy one-half so precious as the

its mocking mouth and shriveled, pointed stuff they sell?"

nose were pressing against the screen; "And when you get through misquot-
now they seemed to filter through the ing poetry, perhaps you'll deign to tell me
copper meshes like a wisp of fog what it's all about?" I countered.

There came a blinding flash of blue- "Perhaps I shall," he answered. "At-

white flame, the cracking, sputtering tend me, if you please: You will recall
gush of fusing metal, a wild, despairing that this annoying Monsieur Who Was
shriek which ended ere it fairly started in Dead Yet Not Dead appeared several
a sob of mortal torment, and the sharp times and grinned most horribly through
and acrid odor of burned flesh! thewindow? Through the window, please
"Arabella — darling — is she all right?" remember. At the hospital, where he near-
 THE JEST OF WARBURG TANTAVUI 315

ly caused thegarde-malade to have a fit, for their due shares. Voila, if he have
he laughed and mouthed at her through physical properties, he can be destroyed
the glass skylight, which was tightly by physical means.'
closed. When he first appeared and threat- "And so I set my trap. I procure a
ened Madame Arabella, he also spoke to screen of copper, through which he could
"
her through the window, and make entrance to the house —
but I
"But the window was open," I pro- charged it with electricity — -I increase the
tested. potential of the current with a step-up
"Yes, but screened," he answered with transformer, to make assurance doubly
a smile. "Screened with iron, if you sure —and then I wait for him to try to
please." enter, and electrocute himself."
"What difference did that make? To- "But is he really destroyed?" I asked
night I saw him force his features part- dubiously.
"
way through the screen
"As the candle-flame when one has
"Precisement," he agreed. "But it was
blown on it," he replied. "He was how —
a screen of copper;
Then, seeing my
I saw to that."
bewilderment: "Iron
—
do you say it? short-circuited. No con-
vict in the chair at Sing Sing ever died
is of all metals the most earthy," he ex-
more thoroughly than that one did to-
plained. "It and its derivative, steel, are
night, my friend."
so instinct with the essence of the earth
seems queer, though, he should
"It
that creatures of the spirit world can not
have come back from the grave to haunt
abide its presence. The legends tell us
those two poor kids and break up their
that when Solomon's Temple was con-
marriage, when he really wanted it," I
structed no tool of iron was employed, be-
murmured wonderingly.
cause even the friendly spirits whose help
he had enlisted could not perform their
"Wanted it?" he echoed. "Ha, yes, he
tasks in close proximity to iron. The wanted it as the hunter wants the bird to
step within his snare."
werewolf, a most unpleasant sort of crea-
ture which is half a demon, can be slain "But he gave them such a handsome
"
by a sword or spear of steel. The witch present when little Dennis was born

can be detected by the pricking of an iron "Oh, my good, kind, trusting friend,
—
pin never by a pin of brass. are you, too, deceived?" he laughed.
"
"Very well. When first I thought about
'
'Deceived
this evil dead one's reappearances, I "But certainly. That money which I
noted that each time he stared outside the gave to Madame Arabella was my own.
window. Glass, apparently, he could not I put it in that envelope."

pass —
and glass contains a modicum of "Then what was in the message which
iron. Iron window-wire stopped him. he really left?"
'He are not a ghost, then,' I inform me. The little Frenchman sobered sudden-
'They are things of spirit only, they are ly. "It was a dreadful thing, that wicked
thoughts made manifest. This one is a jest he played on them," he told me sol-
thing of hate, but also of some physical emnly. "The night that Monsieur Den-
material as well; he is composed in part nis left that packet with me I determined
of the emanations from that body which that the old one meant him injury; so,
lies in the tomb and for which the Devil when he went, I steamed the package
of hell and the devils of decay fight, each open and destroyed Monsieur Warburg's
316 WEIRD TALES
message from it. In it he made plain permitting them to grow to manhood and
the things which Dennis thought that he womanhood together, ceaselessly striving
remembered. to guide them toward the altar, knowing
"Long and long ago Monsieur Tanta- always that his vengeance would be sated
vul lived in San Francisco. His wife was when his vile design had been accom-
seven years his junior, and a pretty, joy- plished."
ous thing she was. She bore him two "But, great heavens, man, they're
fine children, a little boy and girl, and on brother and sister!" I exclaimed in horror.
them she bestowed the love which he "Perfectly," he answered coolly. "They
could not appreciate. His business took are also husband and wife, and father
him often from the city, but when he and mother."
went away he set a watch on her.
"Ha, the eavesdropper seldom hears
"But but— "T stammered, utterly
at a loss for words.
good tidings of himself, and he who "But me no buts, good friend," he
spies on others often wishes that he did
bade. "I know what you would say.
not so. His surliness, his evil temper, Their child? Ah bah; consider: Did not
his reproaches without praise, had driven
the kings of ancient times repeatedly take
her to seek release. She met and loved their own sisters and were not
to wife,
another man, and though she shrank their offspring sound and healthy? But
from seeking freedom in that way, at last certainly. Did not both Darwin and
she yielded to his importunities, and was Wallace fail to find foundation for the
feady to escape, when Master Bluebeard- doctrine that cross-breeding between
Tantavul suddenly returned. healthy people with clean blood is pro-
"Eh he had planned a pretty
bien, but ductive of inferior offspring? Look at
scheme of vengeance! His baby girl he the little Monsieur Dennis. Were you
spirited away, gave her for keeping to not blinded by your silly training and tra-
some Mexicans, then told his wife his dition — did you not know his parents'
plan:He would bring the children up as near relationship — you would have no
strangers to each other, and when they hesitation in pronouncing him an unus-
grew to full estate he would marry them ually fine and healthy child.
and keep their consanguinity a secret till "Besides," he added earnestly, "they
they had a child, then break the dreadful love each other, not as brother and sister,

truth to them. Thereafter they would but as man and woman. He is her hap-
live on, bound together for their chil- piness, she is his, and little Monsieur
dren's sake, and fearing the world's cen- Dennis is the happiness of both. Why
sure; their consciences would cause them destroy this joy le bon Dieu knows they
ceaseless torment, and the very love which earned it by a joyless childhood! —when
they had for each other would be like fet- I can preserve it for them by simply keep-
ters forged of white-hot steel, binding ing silent?"
"
them in a prison-house from which there . "But
offered no release. "But what you have learned yout

"When he had told her this his wife learned under the seal of your profes-
went mad, and, heartless as a devil out sion," he warned me solemnly. "You
of hell, he thrust her into an institution, can not tell. I will not.
left her there to die, and took his babies
with him, moving to New Jersey, and
"Meantime"
another drink
—— he "I thirst."
poured himself
"Twenty—thirty years ago*-a night in the Haitian jungle —when was it?"
V"ffxiirirCHi>'->f

aked Lady
By MINDRET LORD
this is not a sex story, but an ingenious tale of West Indian voodoo and a
is

millionaire's strange scheme for vengeance on the actress

whom he had married

MARION
packing
VAN ORTON
her
finished
dressing-case,
"Madam will be gone for the week
end?" he asked.
opened her purse to make sure "Including the week end," Mrs. Van
that her steamer tickets were still there, Orton amended.
took one last look in the mirror and then The town car was waiting at the curb.
descended the wide, polished staircase of He helped her intoit and stood waiting

the Van Orton mansion for the last time. at the door while she settled back com-
Gorham, the butler, met her at the door. fortably. She looked up questioningly.
317
318 WEIRD TALES
"Will Madam leave any message?" ing to hold a tiring pose. Mr. Blake was
Gorham asked. very much annoyed, and he determined
"Oh," she sighed, "just say I've gone." that in the future he would use stronger,
"For an indefinite stay, Madam?" if less perfect, models.
Languidly, Mrs. Van Orton motioned
to the chauffeur. "No," she said. "Just N the West Indies there were many,
say I've gone." many men who would have testified to
The purring motor drew away. Only Van Orton. As
the cleverness of Jeremiah
Gorham' s eyes moved as he watched it a lad of twenty he had come to Curacao
turn the corner. With a start he recov- from Holland, and for forty-five years
ered himself and closed his mouth. thereafter he had remained in the Indies.
"Well!" he said as he walked up the Then he had decided that he was too rich
stairs. A greater degree of volubility and too old to go on working. That was
had returned to him when he reported the his first mistake. If he had kept his nose
incident to the cook. to the grindstone, he would not have
come to New York. He would not have
Just for the moment, Gilda Ransome's met Marion Martin, the actress. He
life had crystallized into one des- would not have made a fool of himself.
perate wish: if she couldn't scratch her Van Orton sat huddled in front of an
thigh, this instant, she would go stark, open fire and thought the matter over. In
raving mad. A few hours earlier she had this climactic hour he paused to review
thought that if she didn't have breakfast his life and works.
life would be insupportable. Hunger Vivid flashes of memory confused
—
was bad enough but this itch! his efforts to keep his thoughts order-
"You may rest now," said Mr. Blake, ly. A tongue of flame licked around
the well-known designer of the fleshier a log in the fireplace. A thread of
covers of the naughtier magazines. He scented smoke curled into the room. . . .

turned away and lit a cigarette. Gilda A night in the Haitian jungle—when was
applied her nails to her skin as she went it? Twenty—thirty years ago? A black
behind a screen and drew on a dressing- wench was dying. "For no reason," the
gown. doctor said; "for superstition. Voo-
She began to think about her hunger doo." . . . Marion Martin had been con-
again. She was not hungry because she vincing. She had said that she was tired
was on a reducing diet she needed — of young men —men whom she could not
neither reduction nor addition. Every respect. She had said a man was not in
artist for whom she had posed had agreed his prime until sixty or seventy. Until
that her figure was "just the type" pre- — then, he was callow, unproved, not wor-
sumably the type that sells magazines. thy of admiration or love. He knew
And her face was certainly no less at- nothing of metropolitan people. He had
tractive than her figure —
which is an em- been attracted to her and, presently, he
phatic statement. had believed and loved her. What
. . .

She felt starved because influenza had was that about the natives destroying with
kept her idle for three weeks and during such care every fingernail cutting, every
that time her money had run out. She hair? One had to be careful voodoo —
had never been one to save. was strong in the West Indies. . He . .

Later in the day she fainted while try- had given Marion his honorable name
 NAKED LADY 319

and a million dollars besides. Even if to what they might be if they weren't
she hadn't pretended to love him, he what they are. Oh, I know it sounds like
might have done the same. She had sour grapes, but I wouldn't mind if it

given him the illusion of youth. He had weren't for the fact that I'm a painter
thought of a future with her, for her. He with greater talent than any of them. If
might have lived for ever! I were living in Henry the Eighth's time,
And now he was nothing but an old people would now be collecting Bonzes
fool who was going to die. But so was instead of Holbeins. Damn the Twen-
she. Oh, yes, so was she! tieth Century!"

The idea of following his wife to "Look," said Vanneau, "have you ever
wherever she might come to rest and mur- painted a beautiful young girl? You
dering her there never occurred to Jer- know — curves and flowing hair and so
emiah Van Orton. He was too tired and on?"
feeble for such a melodramatic role. One Bonze slapped his big hand down on
did not spend a lifetime in the Indies for the table top and the dishes jumped
nothing. He was clever; except for this "Are you trying to be insulting?" he bel
little interlude of marriage, he had always lowed. "Do you take me for Henry
been clever. He would find a way, a Clive? or — —
or Zuloaga, maybe? No
good wav — a safe way for him, an un- Xo, I haven't painted any pretty valen
pleasant way for her. tines of beautiful young girls!"

Jeremiah Van Orton could always Vanneau murmured into his coffee
think better among his beautiful collec- cup, "Rubens did. Tiepolo did. Titian
tion of paintings. He went to the draw- did. . .
."

ing-room and drew up a chair before a "Oh, shut up!" said Bonze. 'You
Hobbema landscape. There he remained know what I meant. People won't take
until he had planned all the details of his that sort of thing from a modern artist
vengeance. it isn't art. Art is old, wrinkled-up men,
or nauseous arrangements of dried fish
the restaurant of the Hotel Lafay- and rotten apples, or anything sufficiently
IN
ette, Michael Bonze sat across the ugly and nasty."
table from his friend, Pierre Vanneau, "How do you know that is so?" Van-
and cursed the age in which they both neau asked. "What modern artist has
were born. dared to paint a pretty picture? I don't
"What does art mean in the Twentieth know of anyone since Greuze, and his
Century?" he asked rhetorically. "Noth- picture sold well enough."
ing! People talk about the dynamic "Well " Bonze began doubtfully.
beauty of a new stream-lined toilet seat "And look," Vanneau continued, "in
or the Empire State Building. Or take this jaded age, sex appeal is important.
Surrealism: daubs — -damn it! —daubs by Important? It is everything!" He spread
clumsy, color-blind house-painters! Picas- out his arms in an all-embracing gesture.
so eats while I starve! Cocteau is the "And what do you create for an avid pub-
white-haired boy while I worry myself lic? A public that waters at the mouth
bald! People don't want things to look at the very mention of nudism or Mae
like what they are —they want them to West? You give them old men and dried
look like the sublimation of the mood of
the essence of the psychological reaction
fish!

give
Don't weep on my shoulder you
me a pain!"
—
 3

320 WEIRD TALES

Bonze was still feeling a little sorry Within a month, old Mr. Van Or-
for himself. "I give Meyergold, the crit- ton had become the scandal of
ic, a pain, too. Today, he came to the Sutton Place. Every day, from nine until
studio and said he didn't think I was six, a constant stream of handsome young
ready, just yet, to have a show. He women entered and left his house. Much
stayed about fifteen minutes. Damn to Gorham's bewilderment and disap-
him!" proval, it had become his master's custom
to sit in the drawing-room and interview

ON the morning following

Van Orton en-
departure, Jeremiah
his wife's the young ladies, one by one. Discreet
inquiries elicited the fact that they were

gaged the Mr. Moses Win-

services of a artists' models answering a newspaper
kler, a student of biology, who was prom- advertisement.
ised double payment if he could manage "What," Gorham had asked the cook,
to get through his work without asking "does the old reprobate want with a
questions. He was led into a lady's bou- model? And if he wants a model, why
doir and told that he must go over the is he so hard to satisfy? He must have
entire room with a microscope in order to seen two hundred of them already and
collect every human remain, no matter he's not kept one over ten minutes."
how small or apparently unimportant. It was the cook's considered opinion
Mr. Van Orton watched every move that Jeremiah Van Orton was an inde-
he made. Somehow, Moses did not like cent, dirty old man who should be put
the eagerness with which the old man away where he couldn't do any harm.
greeted each new find. It made him quite The procession of applicants ended
nervous. when Gilda Ransome was ushered into
the drawing-room. Gorham was called and
When Moses finished his work he was
told that no more models would be seen.
able to deliver to his employer a surpriz-
He breathed a sigh of relief and stole a
ing number of small envelopes, on each
glance at the young lady who had been
of which he had written a description of
chosen from among so many. Gorham
the contents.
from a nail-file;
One held grains of dust
another, an eyelash. On
had a shock —
for a second he had
thought she was Mrs. Van Orton. It was
a brush in the bathroom he had found a
a startling resemblance.
few flakes minute drop of
of skin. A
blood had been discovered on a handker-
'ichael bonze sat in his studio win-
chief in the laundry basket. . . . The
dow and looked at the dreary
list went on.
square with bare trees and muddy streets.
Moses t was paid and dismissed. He It was a picture of his mood. His money
was glad to go. was running low and he was thinking
Van Orton added the envelopes to a that he ought to be putting in a stock of
collection he had made of all the photo- canned baked beans instead of buying a
graphs of his wife that she had left in half-case of gin. There was nothing he
the house. He looked long at the relics wanted to paint. He hated painting and
before locking them safely away. art patrons and critics.
"It is not a great deal," he muttered A sedate foreign limousine came
to himself, "but in Haiti I've known them splashing along the street below and
to do it with less —much less," stopped at the door to his studio building.
W. T.—
 NAKED LADY 321

The sight didn't make him any happier. "Because your painting is so realisti-

"Art patron!" he said with a wealth of cally accurate that not even a colored pho-
exrreii.::: in bis voice. tograph can compare with it. I don't

Inane — ent was a knock on the there consider it art, but it will serve my pur-
£::.- an; Mi±ael opened it to admit pose."

"e:r.r_ah Van Orton. After all, a man had to have some

"You are Michael Bonze?" he asked. pride. "I'm not interested," said Bonze.
Bonze admitted his identity, although, No shade of disappointment crossed
just then, he was not particularly proud the old man's face. "No, no," he agreed,
of it. The caller presented his card with "of course not. But you would, perhaps,
the question, "You have heard of me?" be interested in fifteen thousand dollars,
"Yes." said Bonze; "I've heard you a third payable now?"
have quite a large collection of Flemish Michael resisted an impulse to jump
ra.naings. Will you take a chair?" up and kiss the beneficent bald head.
Van Orton launched into his business "Write the check and send me the
at once. come to see you," he
"I have model," he said. "I'll start today."
said, want a special kind of
"because I "Good!" said Van Orton. "But now I
painting which you do better than anyone must lay down two important conditions.
I know." First, I will give you a number of photo-

"Thank you!" Michael murmured and graphs of a young woman who bears
crossed his fingers behind him. some resemblance to the model you will
"Not that I like the sort of painting use. I want you to study the pictures very

vou do," the old man continued, "on the closely, because your painting must look
contrary, I dislike it intensely. It is dull, more like them than like the model."
spiritless — I might say, insipid." "But why," Michael protested, "why
3fc do say 'insipid'!" said Michael. can't I simply paint a portrait of the sub-
;: £:?.' sir. at once!'
-: ject of the photographs? It would be a

"Come, come aid Van Orton. calm- lot more and easier."
satisfactory
ly. "This b nc time ::: ;: mpliments. "If the were as easy as that,
job
I am n : : here to discuss art but to make I wouldn't be paying you fifteen thousand

vou a proposition which you will find dollars." Van Orton reached in the pock-
highly beneficial, financially." et of his coat and withdrew ten or twelve
Bonze had a sudden vision of rows of little envelopes. "The second request
canned baked beans, and he held his that I must make is this," he continued.
tongue. "Each of these packets contains a pinch
Bar a -articular reason, which is none of powder. They are plainly marked,
: :
": a: affair, I
wish you to paint a life- 'hair, nails, skin, lips,' and so on. Now,
size :.:: :<: a model I have selected. The when you mix your paints for these vari-
r::e .-__:.-:- "trr l:::ie difference, but I ous details, you must add these powders
ragge : ±a: -
: ahave her reclining on a as indicated. You are a man of honor?"
chaise-lcngue. For background you may "Certainly!" said the very mystified
use drapery or anything you please — it is painter.
of no importance." "You will give me your word that this
Bonze asked, "Would you mind telling will be done according to my instruc-
me why I should have been chosen for tions?"
this work?" Michael nodded.
W, T.—
322 WEIRD TALES
"Very Here is my check for five
well. and helped her into her kimono, kissing,
thousand dollars. Hurry your work as ashe did so, the back of her neck.
much as you can with safety and let me "I wonder," he said, "if I could have
know the instant it is done." Van Orton done such a good portrait if I hadn't
went to the door. "I brought the model fallen in love with you. I owe a lot to
with me in the car. I will send her up old Van Orton. If it hadn't been for
with the photographs. Good day!" him —and for Pierre Vanneau
"

Bonze collapsed into a chair as the "Why Pierre Vanneau?" she asked.
door closed. Michael smiled in memory of his an-
noyance. "It was he who first suggested

Spring has come to Venice and the that I paint beautiful women. I was fu-
Piazza San Marco has a freshly rious."
washed and burnished look. Mrs. Van "So shall I be," said Gilda, "if you
Orton sits at Florian's on the edge of the dare to paint any woman but me."
square, sipping a Pernod. She feels that "Never fear!" he laughed. "There
God's in His Heaven and Life is Just a will be no one but you. I'll paint you as
Bowl of Cherries. everything from Medusa to the Virgin
Mrs. Van Orton has a figure that looks Mary."
well m anything, but its effectiveness in- "I might make a Medusa," said Gilda.

creases in inverse ratio with the amount Later in the day, the picture was fin-

of clothing she wears; hence, to some ex- ished to the immense satisfaction of both
tent, Venice and the Lido. When she artist and model.

walks along the beach, this summer, the The next morning Michael arose be-
women will turn away and the men will fore Gilda was awake. He wanted to
turn toward her. The women will say, look at the portrait in the cold light of
"Who is that doll-faced American in the dawn. Without, he told himself, undue
daring bathing-costume?" The men are self-praise, he found it good very good. —
discreet —
on the Lido they will say noth- Maybe it wasn't modern, maybe the style
wasn't spon-
ing. But they will look. wasn't original, perhaps it

taneous. But the draftsmanship, the

AndSquare.
spring has come to Washington color, the texture, the composition — that

. The old trees are begin- was all perfect. ,No one could deny it.
ning to think about their Easter clothing. It would take no violent stretch of the

Probably they will decide that the well- imagination to conceive the beautiful

dressed tree will wear a very light and creature rising from her couch and step-

delicate chartreuse. Feathers, too, may ping lightly down from the canvas to the
be worn. floor.

Michael Bonze looked up from his Bonze thought it wasn't fair that this,
painting. "Darling," he said, "you're his best work, was destined to be hung in
the best work I've ever done. And a dark, lonely house, among a lot of
you're just about finished." gloomy Flemish paintings, for the exclu-
"Thank goodness!" said Gilda Ran- sive pleasure of a solitary old Dutchman.
some. "May I move, now?" After all, Art was for the masses. If
"Go ahead," he said. "Get up and Meyergold could see this, he'd sing a dif-
we'll make some coffee." ferent tune. If it weren't for the money.
He put down his palette and brushes he'd never let Van Orton have the picture
 NAKED LADY 323

— the insulting old idiot! He wouldn't the execution was killing him, that he
appreciate it, anyway. It wouldn't have must hurry. He got to his feet and ad-
made any difference to him if the picture dressed the painting in a high, cracked
had been good or bad. All he wanted voice.
was a likeness. "Marion," he said, "I hold your life in
On Bonze
the heels of this reflection, this image by virtue of your skin and
realized in a flash of inspiration how he blood. Do you understand? This is
could keep his picture. He would make you!"
a copy and give that to Van Orton. He tried the point of a blue steel probe
Naturally, it wouldn't be so good as the against his thumb. His voice rose to a
original, but what of that? He hadn't shriek.

promised to deliver a masterpiece. Of "You are going to die, Marion, my

course, there was the matter of those little love, wherever you are!"
packets of —he'd
powder used it all in His bloodshot eyes fixed themselves in
the original —but— well, it was silly, any- a hypnotic stare as he approached the por-
way. trait. Great veins throbbed in his shriv-
He woke Gilda with a shout and told eled neck and temples.
her his plan. "I'll have the thing fin-

ished by the end of the week. Then I'll "TT^xcellent!" said Mr. Meyergold.
get my check and we'll go right down to Xl/ "Really excellent! I must say, my
the City Hall and be married." dear Bonze, you surprize me!"
Gilda looked on the bed
at the clock
He looked around with an expression
table. hour to propose to
"Is this a nice frequently worn by owners of dogs that
a girl?" she groaned and pulled the cov- are able to sit up or shake hands. He as-
ers over her head. sumed an air of patronizing pride. He
Whistling loudly and cheerfully, reasoned that he had played an important
Michael started to work. part in the development of this young
artistby his stern and uncompromising
Jeremiah van orton crouched before now, of everything he had
rejection, until

the likeness of his wife lying nude done. He turned again to the picture and
upon a chaise-longue. He had never seen nodded. Bonze was a good dog and it
her so.She had always kept him at arm's was no more than fair to throw him a
length. But now she was near near — —
bone he had earned it. "Excellent!" he
enough to touch with the finger tips, or repeated. "What do you call it?"

a long pin, or a keen-edged knife. "I call it," said Michael, racking his
Though never for a moment did he brain for a likely name, "I call it 'Naked
take his mad gaze from the portrait, he Lady."
did not neglect the task at which he Mr. Meyergold glanced up sharply.
worked. Methodically, he sharpened on "Naked Lady." He rolled it around on
a whetstone a number of efficient-looking his tongue. "Good! Oh, very good! A
probes and knives. The scrape of the fine distinction. This is no ordinary
steel and his panting breath v/ere the only nude; no allegorical Grecian goddess to
sounds in the darkened room. Incessant- whom a yard of drapery more or less
ly, he moistened his opened lips with his makes no difference." He thought that
tongue. His heart pounded in his ears. an awfully good line for a review and
Jeremiah knew that the excitement of decided to make a note of it the instant
 524
he left. He laughed in appreciation of
his wit. "Oh, no, this young lady is shy
and embarrassed without her clothing."
He went on enlarging the idea in the
hope that he would hit upon another use-
ful line. "Here you've caught a lady in
a most undignified situation. I get the
impression that your 'Naked Lady' is
very much annoyed with us for looking
at her."
her cabin on the beach, Marion
INOrton was changing from her bath-
ing-suit to an elaborate pair of pajamas.
Suddenly she had a distinct impression
that she was being observed. She jerked
a bath-towel up to her chest and swung
around. Apparently there was nothing
to account for her fear. But she knew
that someone was minutely examining
her. Hurriedly, she pulled on her pa-
jamas and ran from the cabin, fully ex-
pecting to surprize some rude man in the
through a chink in the wall.
act of staring
There was no one near.
In spite of the heat of the day, she
went back- into the cabin and wrapped a
heavy cloak tightly about her. Still the
miserable feeling persisted.
"My goodness!" she said to herself,
"I feel positively naked!"
A
Lido.
month
- cause to
She was
later,Marion Van Orton had
remember that day on the
sitting in the Excelsior
Bar, reading a New York Times, two
weeks old. She had really been looking
through it to see if there were any more
news of the death of her husband. For
a few days the papers had been full of
"Millionaire Husband of Actress
Dead." When she had first heard of
she had wondered which of the paintings
WEIRD TALES
it was that had been found slashed to
rags and tatters, and she wondered what
had happened before his heart failed that
had made him want to ruin one of the
pictures of which he had always been so
proud.
There was nothing more in the Times.
The story had been squeezed dry and
dropped in favor of an expedition to the
South Pole. Finishing a rather dull an-
nouncement of the forthcoming exhibit
of paintings by an artist who had just
Van
married his model, Marion turned to her
handsome companion.
"Some people insist," she said, "that
more important things happen in New
York than here, or anywhere else. But
look at this paper; there isn't an interest-
ing or important thing in it. It's all too,
too boring for words."
And then, quite suddenly, that awful
nightmarish feeling returned to her. She
was entirely naked and people were look-
ing at her, criticizing her, appraising her.
As she crossed her arms at her throat,
here eyes darted about the room, search-
ing for the guilty Peeping Tom. She
could detect no one, but she knew, she
knew that to someone her clothing was
perfectly transparent.
Without excusing herself to her star-
tled friend, Mrs. Van Orton jumped up
and rushed to her room in the hotel. She
locked and bolted the door. The sensa-
tion was growing stronger every moment.
She pulled down the shades and turned
off the light. But it was no better. She
ran into the clothes closet and shut the
door. Even there, there was no escape
from the certain knowledge that she was
bare and defenseless before a crowd. She
Found drew the hanging dresses tightly around
it her and shrank into a corner of the closet.
She felt she was going mad.
 (2/inister Pamtinj
By GREYE LA SPINA

•'Barclay stared, closed

his eyes convulsively,
then stared again."

An eery story of a fiendish murder and a midget psychic investigator — by the

author of "Invaders From the Dark" and "The Devil's Pool"

THE taxi drove off, leaving

on the Hoddeston lawn, surround-
Funk ton farm lay drenched in a torpid leth-
argy for which was obvious more than
it

ed by valises. Funk was thinking the July heat must be responsible. With-
it more than merely odd that Barclay, for in the house, no one stirred. On the sur-
whose coaching he had come prepared to rounding fields, no one was abroad. Even
spend a month, had not met him as the usual sounds of the farm animals
planned. He tried the screen door; it were hushed.
was hooked inside. Funk was unpleasantly affected. Surely
"Hello, in there!" he hailed hopefully. the entire household had not gone to
There was no response. The Hoddes- meet his train and somehow missed it.

325
 —

326 WEIRD TALES

He carried his traps to the stoop, patiently for him to finish his examina-
crossed the yard to the barnyard, and hal- tion of the studio's interior stood a man
loed again. He knew of old where Bar- in patched, stained blue overalls.
clay's studio was, so he set off down the "Well?" snapped Funk sharply, a bit
path toward the grateful shade of the taken aback.
woods. "Mr. Barclay's at the house, sor. You're
The gray stone walls of the old build- Mr. Funk? I'm Mulcahy, Hoddeston's
ing soon glinted through the tree trunks hired man."
and heavy foliage. A strong conviction Funk nodded. "All right. I'm com-
possessed Funk
that Barclay was not ing. How did Mr. Barclay come to miss
within. he found the studio door
In fact, my train?"
padlocked. He noted that the west win- "We was all down to the police station,
dow was rudely boarded up. He walked sor." Mulcahy fell in behind him.
around the studio to the north. "Police station?" echoed Funk. "What's
Here the trees had been cut down, and been going on here?"
the studio wall was entirely of glass. He "I found Mr. Oakey dead in the studio
peered in with deepening curiosity, but this mornin', sor."
apart from the usual litter of easels, "What!" Funk whirled and confront-
painting paraphernalia and accessories, ed the Irishman.
canvases in serried rows against the walls, "There's somethin' wrong in there, sor.
his attention was almost immediately I saw blood on the ould divil's beard."

drawn propped against the

to a painting The man's voice quavered.
south wall where the full light from the "Snap out of it, Mulcahy. Are you
opposite windows poured in revealingly. referring to that — picture?"

"Rum go!" Funk muttered, puzzled. "I am that, sor." .

"That never is Barclay's work. And he "Blood on the old man's beard? Ri-
would never have let a student perpetrate diculous! I saw none."

such a monstrosity of line and crude Mulcahy insisted stubbornly: "Blood

color." it was, sor. An' the poor young man's
He pressed his face to the glass, cup- was all drained out av him, sor."
ping it against the outside light. Funk stiffened to deep attention. "Ha!
"That old man," Funk said aloud, This sounds intriguing. Blood on the
amazed, "may be crudely done, but he's old man's beard?"
also absolutely horrible. His hands "An' drippin' from his dead fingers,
ugh, they're dead hands. Bloodless sor. An' not wan dhrop left in the
—
waxen aaarrrgh! Something about the corpse, sor. —
Blood all over the dommed
—
way he's sitting there drooping as if he ould divil's whiskers, an' his dead fingers,
hadn't the strength of himself to sit erect, sor. Mary Mother!" Mulcahy crossed
and was being held by something —some- himself with pious haste.
thing without, that you can't see. ... I "Who did that painting?" Funk de-
don't like the thing. It's ugly. There's manded, turning again toward the house.
—something wrong with it." "A mon be the name av Silva, sor.

Hesaid this last with conviction, and He's afther bein' a cabinet-maker, but he
as he exclaimed became aware of another got to thinkin' he cud paint, so he made
gaze fixed upon himself. He snapped that beauty back there, divil fly away wid
upright and wheeled quickly. Waiting him!"
 THE SINISTER PAINTING 327

"He sure can paint!" muttered Funk "Where's my

room, Barclay?" Funk
cryptically, gathered up his bags and followed the
"He's mixin' somethin' wid his paint other painter up the front stairs.

that only divilsfrom the Pit can give Both men lighted cigarettes in silence.
him," the Irishman declared darkly. He Barclay stared abstractedly from the win-
hesitated, then rushed on: "Sor,the night dow, while Funk unpacked rapidly, puff-
before the poor lad was murthered, there ing clouds of smoke about himself as he
was a fine canvas of Mr. Barclay's cut into tossed shirts, underwear, ties, into the
ribbons, and Mr. Oakey's prize picture open bureau drawers.
the same. What might that mean, along "I want to know how Silva's painting
with the poor lad's bein' killed the next got into your studio," he said at last, with
night? An' Silva only gettin' honorable an air of relief as he finished his work.
mention last week, where he was lookin' "So you are taking that attitude?" Bar-
for first prize?" clay asked, his eyes heavy.
"Looks as if Silva had a motive," de- Funk did not attempt to evade the im-
clared Funk as they walked into the barn- plied issue. "Anybody but a crass, ma-
yard. terialistic jackass would," he responded
quietly.

Iife was stirring normally about the "I didn't know you went in for that
J farm now, as if a ban of enchanted sort of thing. I've no time for anything
silence had been lifted. Funk could see but painting. Just making a living takes
Barclay's bulky body leaning over the va- most of my time these days, Funk."
lises on the front stoop. He hailed his The younger man's eyes snapped. "A
friend, then asked Mulcahy hastily: very little suffices for me. I'm too fas-
"What do the police say?" cinated with studying the truths underly-
"Anny of us might have done it, sor, ing the illusions of material existence.
but the studio was locked from the inside. Not that I've gotten very far, but what I

An' there's no motive. An' they can't know, I know."

figure where the poor lad's blood wint, "Then perhaps you can say what's un-
sor." Back of the simple words pushed natural about poor Harry's death? I

a dark significance of terrible things. know there's —something wrong about

"Looks as if there were more here than it."

appears on the surface." "Something wrong!" echoed theyoung-

"Right you are, sor. From now on, er man thoughtfully. "Yes, there's some-
Tom Mulcahy wears a blessed medal next thing —
wrong and uncanny about this —
his hide, day an' night." lad's death. As to its being unnatural,
Funk met Barclay's welcoming hand there aremany strange and little-known
with a heartening grip. laws operating along lines so new to
"Sorry to have missed you, Funk, but us " He broke off there, his expres-
this ghastly tragedy has dislocated all sion clearing as if an illuminating idea
plans. I — I was fond of the boy," had suddenly clarified the situation for
groaned Barclay, his face working. "He him. "I believe the poor chap's death is

had a had Harry. I I was looking

gift, — due to an extremely interesting example
forward to what he would do with color of the transference of an evil will-to-
"
in the not far future. And now power."
his voice broke. Barclay wheeled from the window, say-
328 WEIRD TALES
ing abruptly: "I didn't tell the police degree it possessed a touch of wild genius.
what I felt lay behind this tragedy. I Harry pronounced it ghastly, to paint a
have no hankering to live in an insane hunched-up old man as dead as a door-
asylum. Now I have a faint hope that nail, his hands frightful, decomposing

you may be able to appreciate the strange- — yet sitting up there ugh! —
Silva's
ness of my experience. Listen! colors were crude, his drawing distorted

"Manuel Silva settled here a few years — just how, it would be difficult to say,

ago and has been doing well as a cabinet- —

but wrong, you understand wrong. —
maker. Recently he learned that I got "I said I dared not encourage Silva be-
from three hundred dollars up, for a can- cause of a very strange quality in his
vas. He thought this an easy way to get work — that something wrong. And then
rich, I refused to teach him.
but You we both nearly jumped out of our skins,
know, never take any but advanced stu-
I for in the dusk behind us someone broke
dents of decided promise. My refusal into an ugly chuckle, and we turned to
roused Silva's furious resentment. see a dark figure slouching out. It was

"I have instituted an annual art ex- Silva, and I realized that he'd heard me

hibit in town. Silva entered three can- pronounce him an evil genius. Harry
vases, to force my hand. They were made light of my compunctions, but I was
rather terrible. One was a blacksmith, disturbed.

dark, sullen, sinister; he was hammering "We confronted the old man in the
viciously at what appeared to be a bat- painting once more. As twilight gained
tered Another was a farmer
crucifix. the room, a murky dusk seemed creeping
slaughtering a wretched hog that some- into the very canvas. Its shadows deep-
how looked like a naked man; the butch- ened. The old man merged into his
er's face wore a too realistic grin of sad- dark background; all but his pallid face,
istic enjoyment as he wielded his bloody his grayish beard, the waxen fingers drop-
knife. The third —
the third was the ping over his angular knees. It was
painting you've just seen in my studio. wrong. Entirely wrong. And then all
"Harry's entry took first prize; this was at once Harry twitched my sleeve, and ex-
inevitable. I felt inclined to encourage claimed, 'Let's get out of here!' and we
a couple of young local artists, so gave turned and plunged into the street, strick-
them honorable mention. Not to slight en by some subtle panic so obsessing that
Silva's pride, I included him. it was not until we were back at the Hod-

"The night before the canvases were deston farm that we realized how foolish
removed, Harry and I were in the gallery, and unreasonable had been our flight."
and he pointed out that someone had de-
liberately cut the honorable mention rib-
Funk lighted another cigarette.
bon on Silva's canvas so that it hung in "We went sketching next day," Bar-
dangling strips. Odd, that, eh?" clay went on, "and Hoddeston brought
"You're opening vistas," replied Funk, our canvases back to the studio. That
lighting another cigarette from the one night he told me that Silva had sent me
he had been smoking. "You are absorb- one of his for a gift; so Harry and I went
ingly interesting." down to see which one. We lighted
"I criticized Silva's painting, observ- candles, and really, we got a nasty shock.
ing that Harry was right when he said it The flickering, inadequate candle-light
gave him the jitters, but that in just that made that old man appear more than ever
 THE SINISTER PAINTING 329

an entity with a horrid existence inde- "Mulcahy told me," Funk hastened to
pendent of his painted presentment. say, lighting another cigarette.
Harry said, 'My God!' in a kind of comic "Itwas ghastly, Funk. Mulcahy was
dismay. howling 'Blood!' at every jump he took.
"I knew instinctively that Silva was up Blood, he yelled, on the old man's beard!"
to no good; he bore me malice. His very "H'm. How about the coroner?"
gift seemed to convey dire menace. In "Harry'd been dead for hours. Fin-
the pale candle-light the old man's beard ger marks on his throat. Every drop of
appeared to rustle stiffly as if his lips were blood drained from his body," Barclay
parting under its bushy shelter. Of said with slow emphasis. "Mulcahy had
course, I could not see anything, but I seen him through the north windows. I
felt that I was seeing a pale dead tongue had to break the west window to get in.
flick moisture over dry dead lips. Ugh!" The coroner said at first that he'd had a
fit but finally decided he'd been killed by
"That must have been an odd sensa-
tion," cogitated Funk aloud, as he ex-
a person unknown."
pelled a thick cloud of smoke. "You "About the blood?" queried Funk.
make it very clear."
"Mulcahy was right about it. Funk —
I saw it, too."
"Yes? Well, there's more of it, Funk.
"It's not there now," Funk declared.
Oakey and I went over our canvases to Barclay nodded. "That's another
check on their return and good condition.
strange thing. When I rushed over, I
We were satisfied. Just remember this
found poor Harry sprawling on the floor,
point, will you? We padlocked the stu-
his body all twisted in a grotesque, grue-
dio door and went off to bed. When we
some position. And so terribly white!
went in next morning, the padlock was As I threw myself on the floor beside
undisturbed, and all the windows locked
him, something struck upon my inner ear.
on the inside.
It was a sound. But such a sound! Even
"But one of my had been
best canvases as I heard it, I knew I was hearing what
slit into ribbons. And
Harry's, which could not be apprehended physically.
had taken was completely de-
first prize,
"I sprang to my feet and confronted
molished, even the frame. That last act
Silva's hideous canvas. God, it was hor-
of vandalism made me feel bad. I'd been
rible!" He shuddered at the bare recol-
sure the boy could cash in on his work,
lection. "The painted old man sat there
and he needed the money. He took it like was a
motionless, but it sinister restraint,
a Spartan, but he told me he was going to
Funk. by a horror that
I stared, stricken
sleep in the studio that night, for he felt
affected me with nausea, for I saw then
sure that Silva had done the damage.
that someone had smeared that ancient's
"I agreed, although I couldn't figure deathly pallor with crimson that crawled
out how Silva could have gotten inside. down the painted gray beard. The dead
So last night I left the boy there. He hands that hung over the angular knees
said he was going to hang something over were dripping, every pallid finger-tip,
the old man's gosh-awful face. I offered with blood. Blood, Funk!"
to stay with him, but he wouldn't have it. "How do you know it was blood?"
This morning " Barclay broke down, Funk demanded sharply.
turning back to the window with a suspi- "I— I touched it," whispered the old
cious gulp. man, distastefully.
330 WEIRD TALES
"And then?" Funk prompted, not un- quired, but you may have to sacrifice one
gently. or two of your canvases. We'd better get
"A ghastly thing came to pass. I did the rest of Oakey's work over here. And
not see it. I felt, rather than saw. I be- Silva must learn that you are taking steps
came aware with that inner sense of the to protect Harry's work and your own.
movement of one of the old man's paint- He must be informed that tomorrow
ed arms. It lifted with the jerking un- night you yourself will sleep in the stu-
evenness of an automaton, and passed dio. That will bring him," Funk pre-
across the stained gray beard. I say, it
dicted darkly.

moved. I felt it move, yet at the same "You agree that it's Silva!" cried Bar-
time I was aware that it was only painted, clay in relief.
hence incapable of movement. It was a "I've no doubt of it. But not in pro-
Something Else behind it that actually pria persona. He's projecting his astral
moved. body through that hideous old man, and
"I find it almost impossible to clarify he's alreadymade a grave error."
my intuitions," Barclay deprecated de- "What do you mean?"
spairingly, "other than to say that while "He's permitted himself to savor hu-
the painted figure did not stir, I was yet man blood. Hence, he can not be per-
inwardly aware that it lifted one arm and mitted to — continue.He's dangerous,
wiped away the crimson from its beard. now. He will be yet more so. unless
Then it reached out on either side, to checked. I propose to do this in the only
drag off that horrible drip from its waxen permanent way possible."
finger-tips against the painted grass that "We have no proof of his presence in
reddened under them. the studio, Funk. Who would believe
"God! was the more horrible be-
It the intangible evidence of my experi-

cause, although the figure did not show ence?"

movement my
straining eyes, yet I saw
to "No one, ordinarily," Funk agreed,
the crimson life-blood of poor Harry dis- adding quickly, "but / believe. And
appearing from the canvas as those move- there is another person who will not only

ments which I felt, rather than saw, took believe, but will furnish me with the
place. Of course this explanation is in- means of putting a stop to Silva' s mur-
adequate," he finished. derous proclivities, without disturbing the
authorities unduly," he finished dryly.

Funk pushed the consumed tip of his "Wouldn't it be wise to return that pic-
cigarette to the fresh one he was hold- ture to Silva? Or cut it to bits and burn
ing between his thin lips. A cloud of it?" suggested Barclay uneasily.
blue smoke enveloped him, out of which "Later," said Funk, queerly. "You
his voice pronounced decidedly: "Not see, Silva has somehow learned how to
inadequate, my dear fellow. On the con- transfer his will-for-evil to that creature
trary, it is very enlightening; so clear that of his own making. It is through that
I believe we may yet punish the murderer same creation that we must reach him and
of that poor lad." stop his criminal career before it is too
Barclay's dreamy eyes burned with sud- late."
den fire. "I'd give a year of my life to Barclay sighed. "You speak
you as if
accomplish that," he exclaimed fiercely. knew what you were talking about, Funk.
"I hardly think so much will be re- I can't just understand you, but I feel
 THE SINISTER PAINTING 331

that you are somehow right. What do it, I am certain. I'm going to see Gwen
you wish done?" Carradorne."
"Get Mukahy — or Hoddeston — to "Where have I heard that name?" puz-
clear out all Oakey's canvases. Leave only zled Barclay.

a couple of your own that you don't par- "Possibly in connection with her pub-
ticularly care about, so as not to stir lished brochures. Her Reality of the Ab-
Silva's suspicions overly. He'll imagine stract is fairly well known; it's discussed
you're exhibiting. Then have Hoddeston everywhere."
step in and what happened to
tell Silva "Quite likely," sighed Barclay. "I

the canvases in the studio, and askhim to seem to remember it vaguely."

have his moved out of harm's way. That "Now," pursued Funk briskly, "how
will appear a kindly impulse on your part, about your car?"
and he will reply that he'll send for his
dusk when Funk returned on the
canvas in a couple of days. He'll figure IT was
on polishing you off by then," finished following day. The seriousness and
Funk callously. abstraction that wove a cloak about him
struck Barclay's curious inquiries into si-
"Agreeable thought, that," sighed the
older painter.
lence. A certain high air about the

"Now, you're going to lend me your younger artist forbade imperiously any
break upon that lofty mood. Funk's first
roadster. I'll be back tomorrow after-
noon query was, Had Silva been duly informed
at the latest. Be sure Silva is given
of the occupation of the studio that night?
to understand that tomorrow night you'll
be sleeping in the studio. Under no cir- "He knows. He told Hoddeston that
cumstances, however, venture in there he would call for his unappreciated mas-
tonight," Funk warned gravely. "To- terpiece in a couple of days." The words

night Silva, or whatever wakens in the were significantly emphasized.

studio under the stimulus of his evil pur- "I rather fancied he'd say that. He
may have free play. But tomorrow
pose, knows you'll be there tonight?"
night—ah, tomorrow night / shall be "Hoddeston told him, if there were
there, not you." any further trouble, I'd sleep there from
"I won't permit your getting into a tonight on, to protect his painting."
nasty situation, Funk. This isn't your "Excellent!" Funk rubbed his hands
affair, after all. Harry was my protege. together and blew a cloud of thick smoke
It'sup to me." from the cigarette in one corner of his

"Are you prepared to give effective bat- mouth. "And was there any?"
tle to a painted demon, Barclay?" Funk's "Yes. Last night the two canvases I'd
laugh was incredulous. "Can you, left were demolished."
through that painted thing, silence for "Good! He'll be expecting you to

ever the intangible, distant malefactor?" sleep there tonight. Let's have supper.
"You can do such things?" said Bar- Then I'll run into town and fetch Miss
clay's hushed murmur. Carradorne. She insists upon coming
"I shall know how to, before I return out; the time was too brief to prepare me
tomorrow afternoon." to handle the situation single-handed."
"But how?" "That's extraordinarily kind of her,
"I'm going to someone who knows. I Funk. But if she is to be at the studio
shall demand the secret. She will yield tonight, why not I?" Barclay insisted.
332 WEIRD TALES
"She would have handled it alone, only curiosity. The rear doors had been
that she " Funk broke off suddenly, closed, and nothing marked it as out of
looking apologetic. "Sorry I can't be the ordinary save, perhaps, the expensive
more explicit, but she bans discussion of type of shock-absorbers for a delivery
herself unless she decides to come out body; and of course, what looked very
into the open, which she rarely does. like a periscope set in the top, as much
She's — well, wait until you meet her, if out of place as was a modern child in a
she permits it," Funk broke off, in a kind sedan chair.
of embarrassment. "You'll understand He sat at his window, fell asleep there
then. But believe me, she is worthy the in his chair, and did not waken until Mrs.
highest respect and admiration a human Hoddeston tapped at his door, calling
being could expect." that Mr. Funk and the little girl had re-
turned. She volunteered that the little
Funk did not have to drive to town. girl was a perfect little French doll.
Between dusk and dark a shining dark Barclay took the stairs three at a stride.
blue car with a special delivery body In the hall Funk sat on a hassock which
slipped into the driveway. From the brought his face slightly below the level
limousine-like front two uniformed men of the small oval countenance of the
alighted and walked to the rear of the child, who sat sedately on the hall chair.
car. There were wide doors there, which Barclay noted with an artist's apprecia-
they proceeded to open. They withdrew, tion the bloom on her dazzling cheeks;
with the utmost care, a strange anachron- the straight nose; the richly scarlet mobile
ism; a blue-and-black-and-gold decorated lips. He approved the curling black
sedan chair, small and delicate. They lashes, finely penciled arching eyebrows,
placed themselves between the shafts and sleek black bobbed hair. Her creamy
started toward the farmhouse. silk dress, rather longer than worn by
Funk exclaimed, and sprang down the most children of her age (apparently
steps to meet that odd equippage. He about six), was smocked in a knowing
bent over what was obviously an extended fashion with bright colors. Her feet
hand, white in the dusk. Barclay, star- were inappropriately encased in high-
ing, saw the young artist touch his lips heeled French slippers.
to those extended fingers. A child's All this the artist in Barclay captured
high, shrilly sweet voice gave an order, at a glance, just as he took in the beauty
and the chair-bearers carried the sedan of the slender, tiny hands, of the taper
chair toward the barnyard. Funk fol- fingers, and the eloquence of every ges-
lowed, calling back as he went. ture. A strange, an unusual child, this.
"See you tomorrow morning, Barclay." His leaping footsteps brought upon him a
With that, he disappeared after the chair lifting of fringed eyelids, and what he
into the soft darkness beyond the barn- felt shrinkingly was a glance of indiffer-

yard. ence. He stopped short at the foot of

Barclay felt that he could not sleep. the staircase, abashed at this disdainful
He was intensely irritated that Gwen Car- glance.
radorne should have sent a child to take He knew all at once why this child's
her place in what he felt must be a post frock was longer than customary; why
of danger. He went down to the shining her tiny feet wore adult-styled foot-gear;
automobile and walked around it with why sophistication animated those taper
 THE SINISTER PAINTING 333

fingers. The cobalt blue eyes that regard- Suspended in the bosom of her frock
ed him from the child's elfin face were by a slender platinum chain was a plat-
the eyes of a grown woman. They were inum whistle which she put to her lips
the informed eyes of one who has passed and sounded. At once the bearers of the
through the fires of varied experiences; sedan chair came up the steps and into
the eyes of one who has gazed unafraid the hall, holding the chair close to their
upon unveiled mysteries. The child was mistress. Like some bright bird, so airy
not a child, but was an exquisite midget, and graceful was her lithe movement, she
a creature set apart from the entire world seemed to fly from her diair into the
by her miniature proportions. sedan's shelter. She waved one tiny
Funk sprang up, caught the other hand. The bearers took their light bur-
man's hand and drew him down to the den outside, slid it into place in the rear

hassock, himself sinking upon the floor of the waiting automobile.They mount-
so that both men's faces were below the ed into the front, and the car slipped
level of the midget's. noiselessly away down the road, bespeak-

"Barclay," Funk said, in a tone of re- ing the many-cylindered motor by its very
pressed excitement, "Miss Carradorne silence and power.
permits me to present you."
"Honored, Miss Carradorne," mumbled >arclay stared after it, amazed. "So
Barclay, still confused under the keen that strange little thing is your won-
gaze of those faintly derisive blue eyes. derful Gwen Carradorne? Why didn't
He understood it, after a minute; she was you warn me?"
touched with amusement at his discomfi- Funk lighted a cigarette hastily and be-
ture. gan surrounding himself with smoke.
An elfish smile twitched at one corner "Why didn't I? Because she won't be
of her scarlet
lips, and she actually turned talked about. She's proud and sensitive.
away those too-shrewd eyes as if to spare She considers her miniature body the ul-
Barclay's feelings, a kindly gesture which timate of human perfection, and won't
did not serve to tranquillize him, for permit its comparison with what she con-
there was just a touch of condescension in siders our gross bodies. And she's ab-
her half -smile. normally proud of her brain. She has
"Mr. Funk has been showing me these reason to be. I think it is the most high-
canvases from your studio," she said, ly developed I have ever known. As an
slowly, in a shrilly sweet voice. "I would occultist — she's the seventh
"
daughter of a
very much like that snow scene; it is seventh daughter
charming. If you will tell me the Funk broke off bruskly. "You are an-
price ?"
xious to know about last night? She has
Barclay's embarrassment vanished. forbidden me to divulge details, but I
Here he could be sure of himself. may tell you briefly that Silva will never
"I would feel honored if you would again repeat his evil act."
accept it as a proof of my gratitude for "He was there, then, last night?"
your having come here," he began, but gasped Barclay incredulously.
his eyes questioned Funk. "Not in propria persona, but his famil-
"You are anxious to learn the outcome iar was already locked in with us, when I
of last night's plans?" said Miss Carra- bolted the door behind Gwen and my-
dorne's high voice lightly. self."
 — —

334 WEIRD TALES

"What do you mean?" of the painting leaning against the south
Funk sighed resignedly. "Let's go wall with a neatly trimmed vacancy in its
down to the studio. It's easier to under- center.
stand, when you've seen things with your Barclay stared, closed his eyes convul-
own eyes." sively, then stared again.
The telephone rang. Mrs. Hoddeston "I couldn't have done it alone," Funk
ran out of the kitchen and answered it. kept repeating in a kind of feverish ex-
An expression of horror settled on her citement. "She furnished the power.
placid face. She'd have done it herself, but she's too
"Manuel Silva's been found dead, with — I mean," he corrected himself hastily,

a knife-wound in his throat," she called, "he was too tall."

and gave closer attention to the tel- Barclay stared, motionless. He was
ephone. absorbing the details of a bizarre thing
Funk beckoned Barclay and
silently, which confirmed him in his hasty resolu-
the two hurried across the barnyard and tion to burn Silva's painting without de-
into the woods. With the key Barclay lay.

had loaned him, Funk unlocked the pad- The empty space in the painting dis-
lock. He pushed the studio door open. tinctly outlined a drooping, seated figure.

Words seemed superfluous. The painted canvas shape lying on the

Spread on the floor lay a painted can- floor, pinned down by the knife through
vas figure, pinned down by a knife its pallid painted throat, could have
through its throat. The edges of the can- filled that vacancy twice over.
vas were sharply defined as if just cut out It was a full length, standing figure. . . .

eturn
By JULIA BOYNTON GREEN
"Look, dearest, this shall be my flower!" she said,
"This starry jasmine." And she thrust a spray
For me to smell. "Remember!" Ah, today
I see her buoyant loveliness her red —
Sweet lips. In one brief twelvemonth she was dead.
Last night wind wailed. December's first snow lay
Upon the ground. Too unresigned to pray,
Too torn with racking grief to sleep, I fed
My misery on remembrance. "Love," I cried,
"Come back to me — come back! No heaven, no tomb
Can keep you from me. Come my own, my own!" —
And as I ceased the gloom was glorified
Iwas aware that I was not alone
A sudden scent of jasmine filled the room.
"There was a violent explosion of radiant energy that shocked him into temporary blindness."

Vine Terror
ffiMtJf&M&tf By HOWARD WANDREI
An unusual weird-scientific tale, about vegetable vampires that lusted for
animal and human food

ROMANon still
SHOLLA stood perfectly
his front sidewalk, bewil-
Rate Supplies, lived on the outskirts of
the community below the hill on which
* dered. He blinked a few times, stood the glass, stone, and metal faced
and opened and closed his mouth like a South Experimental Laboratories.
fish out of water. Then he thrust his It was about twenty minutes past seven
still unlighted pipe into his pocket and when Sholla issued from his front door,
ran. in his hand a pipe, which he loaded
There was reason enough for his methodically with a poking forefinger.
fright. Sholla, proprietor of South's Cut- He proceeded down his front walk, at
335
 4

336 WEIRD TALES

which point he produced a match from funny t'ings." He looked up balefully at
his side pocket and struck it on the mail- the power plant, and fingered the mutila-
box nailed to the oak tree. But the tree tions of the arm that had been caught in
wasn't there. It had moved, moved out the mill machinery many years ago.
of reach. The earth was shouldered aside. "Ay," spoke up an old bearded fellow,
At the base of the huge, broken-barked Papa Freng. "What has happened to the
bole was what seemed to be a wake of game? Tell me, Roman Sholla."
turf. "The game?" said Sholla. "How do
'To' fo'teen years," he explained ex- you mean?"
citedly to Eric Shane, who lived across the "The game, the small game. What
street, "I strike m' match on the tree. has happened to all the rabbits? Where
You see me do it. What is happen?" He are the squirrels that used to come to my
looked around belligerently at the little window for nuts, all summer and all win-
group that had collected, and which had ter? I tell you, there has been no small
drifted back to the scene of the novelty. game seen here these three months, nor
"1 tell come down the
you what. I the small green snakes, even. Roman
walk and put out my hand to the post- Sholla, what of the birds?"
box to strike the match. Every morning "Birds? What you talking about,
are
just the same. Eric will tell you so. But papa? Up there is a bird, now." He
now he said, his voice
I can't reach it," pointed off at a slow-winged turkey buz-

trembling. "Look for yourself. The zard of remarkable size, a really gigantic
tree has move' away from the sidewalk!" specimen, that was pursuing a low, undu-
He pointed passionately at the base of the lating flighttoward the wood that sur-
tree with his unlighted pipe. Before it, rounded the hill and the laboratories.
between the little huddle of men and the The five men at the oak tree turned and
tree, was a plowed furrow, like a short, eyed the bird warily as though they were
fresh grave. watching Judgment approach. The buz-
Wiry, dark little Fred Yanotsky, who zard passed nearly overhead, somewhat to
had once inspected ore at the Ashton the right of Sholla's house, and side-

mills, was looking up at the laboratories winged into a wide spiral as it prepared
on the hill above Sholla's house. to alight in the trees half-way between
'You vill find vhy up d'ere, I t'ink," the house and the laboratories on the hill.

he said malignantly. "No good come of Its trailing legs dropped a trifle, the

machines. I know. I work wit' ma- wings spread umbrella-wise, and momen-
chines for ten, twelve year. Many funny tarily it disappeared from view among

t'ings happen. Funny t'ings." His voice the foliage. Sholla turned to Papa Freng
trailed off ominously. triumphantly, saying,
"Ah!" exclaimed Sholla contemptuous- "Well, papa, there was one —or didn't

ly. "You talk like crazy. Because you catch I see it?"

yourself in the wheels one time, whose
fault was it? You want to hang the big
stamp, maybe, or the digger? P'r'aps you
like to burn those generator' up there,
like witches in the old country?"
"Look!" said the old man, seizing his
arm and shaking it.
The buzzard had suddenly reappeared,
beating its wings so violently that to the
five astonished men it sounded like a

"I do' know," said Yanotsky slowly, waterfall. The frantic bird uttered
shaking his head. "I see some awful hoarse, terrified cries, thrashing the air
W. T.—
 VINE TERROR 337

heavily. was apparently working to

It "Yes," said Schommer, blinking away
lift some tremendous weight. The cries the dregs of sleep. "Why, I haven't seen
ceased abruptly, as the bird seemed to even a squirrel around here since — well,
erupt above the foliage. It was heavily since poor Keene got his."
laden with what could only be a vine, That was three months ago. Haver-
which was entangled in its claws and land remembered it with regret and a
dangled with many lively twists, drop- great deal of embarrassment. To his
ping earth from the curling, whipping complete shame, whatever it was that
roots as the bird circled wearily higher Keene, the senior engineer, had been
and higher above the woods higher and — —
working on and those projects of his
higher, till the silent, gaping circle of were remote enough Haverland had —
watchers strained their eyes to see. And destroyed. When Keene had been elec-
then, when the great black buzzard, like trocuted, Haverland and the newcomer,
a living kite with its grotesque tail, was Harriss, had been assisting in his experi-
almost beyond vision above them, the ment. Schommer stood just back of
vine dropped away. It fell though
as Keene. There was one peculiar aspect of
weighted, roots first. Behind its down- the affair that Haverland thought of af-
ward plunge trailed a little flurry of terward as a remarkable, if peculiar,
leaves that had been torn away. The vine conception of his own. At any rate, it
plummeted into the trees with a distant, seemed have been a phenomenon wit-
to
leafy uproar in almost precisely the same nessed only by himself.
spot from which it had issued. And Keene had stretched forth a lean hand,
when the five gaping watchers looked
and the bare wire had crossed his wrist.
again into the sky the great buzzard was And then there was light, like a halo.
nowhere to be seen. From where Haverland stood, watch-
ing through the poles of two huge elec-
From the central chamber of the lab- trodes, between which was fixed a bulb
oratories a watcher commanded at
of one of the inert gases, Keene's body
least a fifteen-mileview across the plains. seemed to be aflame. He stood there like
This morning a gray man was stand-
tall,
a waxwork, moments after Haverland had
ing at the windows, looking out thought- disconnected the current. Phosphores-
fully with keen blue eyes. From where cent fires chased up and down his arms,
he stood he could just make out the group and die exposed flesh of his breast and
of men now straggling away from the face seemed to be burning. The soft ra-
front of Sholla's house. He was smiling diance brightened gradually. Harriss and
tolerantly. Schommer, apparently blind to this auro-
"What cheer, fellow citizen?" said a ra of light, gaped at their chief fearfully.
voice behind him. The radiation of light was now sharply
"Oh, hello, Schommer," said Haver- brilliant, and as Haverland gasped at its

land, turning around. "Why, it's those brightness there was a violent explosion
confounded birds again. They don't of radiant energy from Keene's head that
seem to like these woods at all. I can't shocked him into temporary blindness.
imagine what the devil has got into 'em. It was a stupid, an unforgivable thing
We'll have to beat them up one of these to do; it irritated Haverland to think he
days and see whether there's a hungry could be capable of such carelessness.
critter or two down there. Set traps." That bulb of gas, in which had appeared
W. T.—
338 WEIRD TALES
a deposit of transparent, flowing crystals, into the unknown, and again and again
might have had some important bearing the sensation of his personal connection
on the nature of Keene's mystical and with the death of Keene filled him with
complex experiments. One almost dared uneasiness and with shame, as though he
suppose that the impossible was some- had committed some vast error.
times possible, and that perhaps in this He noted something unusual in the
one case the inert gas, or combination of condition of his room, and stopped short.
inert gases, that Keene had been work- At the end of the laboratory table the
ing on was active after all. window had been broken, possibly by a
Still, who would know
the subtle ways vine which passed through the opening.
of Agnes, the laboratory cat? It was all The vine twisted along the table top, and
chance: was high noon when
that it was entangled in Haverland's microscope.
Keene died, that the hungry cat was A pile of glass slides was knocked down.
mewing on the central table, and that Several had fallen to the floor and shat-
when Haverland set the mysterious bulb tered.
with its more mysterious contents on the Haverland toed the fragments irri-

table the affectionate Agnes pawed it, tably. A great deal of damage had been
caused it to roll into the sink compart- done. He started to untangle the vine
ment and shatter. All chance, and yet from the microscope and crowd it back
Haverland could only blame himself for through the window, swearing mildly to
a fool's negligence. himself, then dropped it and pulled ab-
But that radiation of light from sently at his lower lip, perplexed. It

Keene's dying body was something to be struck him suddenly as being very, very
considered. In Haverland's own idiom, it odd meandering growth
that a clumsy,

was "one for the books." Halo. The leg- like this tortuous creeper should have

endary gods of Greece and Rome, robed worked so much of itself into the room.
in light. The death light. The ancient Some four or five days later Haverland
gods of India, the primitive deities of all experienced a moment of pure fright.
countries, even unto Christ and the Chris- The window had been repaired, but was
tian saints, all enhaloed. Tradition some- now open. Haverland sat on the sill,

where originates in truth, and in the time- looking over rolling country that was
forgotten genesis of that shining legend, farmed by the hunkies of South. He
the legend of the halo, was the simple could see a fan of men spreading through
function of a physical law, a mystery once a distant plowed field, for what, he didn't
visible.Haverland shook his head. know. As he watched, he was aware of
There were more fools with their fol- something crawling along his bare fore-
lies. . . . arm. A small beetle, a fly. He brushed
As he entered his own private labora- it off, then froze in position, panic-strick-
tory, leaving Schommer to luxurious en. The was not a beetle at all,
beetle
yawns, he thought again of that curious, but a tendril of the vine that grew out-
inexplicable deposit of crystals in the bulb side the window. In one eternal minute
of stable gas —
crystals that seemed to be he took account of many things: of the
composed of microcosmic glass beads by fact that the vine, which had never been
the billion, and that surely had an in- any more remarkable than any of its kind,
volved, slow, endless motion of their was now unimaginably luxuriant, hang-
own. Haverland felt that he was peering ing from the side of the building in a
 VINE TERROR 339

vast cloud of leaves; of the fact that a Plowed up. A few bars of the grille
pungent, unpleasant odor moved about were bent, and impaled on the spears of
and among this cloud; and that a small these bars was Keene's body. It had ap-
tendril of this inexplicable new growth parently been so displaced for some time,
was visibly insinuating its way along his vines having partially enwrapped it and
forearm. broken into the flesh.

"When did you discover it?" asked

'
averland had watched the slow un- Haverland, appalled.
folding of the cereus, but this thing "Only this morning. My wife reminds
crept along like a wooden worm vested me to put flowers on the grave once a
in leaves. It was encircling his arm de-
week." Schommer pointed to a scattered
liberately.
be freckled
The
with
delicate shoots
infinitesimal
seemed to
suckers,
bunch of flowers on the ground fresh —
flowers, and the dried stalks of the past.
and wherever they touched they clung. "Now, who would do this thing?" he
Haverland plucked at the thing and it said bitterly, looking at Haverland. Then
resisted. Suddenly it seemed to grow he was silent.
into his flesh. With the shock of pain Afterward, though, the whole horror
the engineer snatched it violently from
of it seemed to be crystallized in some-
his arm and flung it out. The thing had thing almost irrelevant. When the body
been sucking his blood. was removed to the cemetery in town, it
Vegetable vampires! had first to be disengaged from those
All along his arm were tiny red beads, horrible vines. The trained eyes of Hav-
like a perspiration of blood, asthough he erland and Schommer were alone in see-
had been pricked with a thousand needles ing that the flesh in nearest conjunction
all at once. At this moment there was with the vines presented a most remark-
an impatient rapping at the door. It was able appearance. It looked raw. Haver-
Schommer. land thought of the word "digested."
"Grave-robbers," he said shortly, and Schommer was staring at him. And Hav-
with an expression on his face that Hav- erland looked at Schommer, while the
erland was not to forget. disgusted deputies of South's coroner
"What?" he said, astonished. quickly practised their trade.
Schommer' s blue eyes glared. The potentialities of the vine. Vines
"They've dug him up," he said furi- that climb, and vines that hang. Creep-
ously. To which he added, meeting ers that find their ways upward to the
Haverland's blank look, "Keene." sun. Tough vines that bind, vines that
Keene had been buried at the bottom clutch and choke, that gripe the best life

of the hill according to his own often- out of the vegetation that gives them
expressed wish. Schommer and Haver- foothold. The gleaming, wholly denud-
land, hastening toward the small cleared ed skeleton of a squirrel, still intact,

plot that contained his grave, could see entangled in the vine that girdled the
nothing until they reached the place be- body of Keene. .

cause of the foliage-banked iron grille- Keene's death seemed in some way to
work around it. Then Haverland stopped have laid a curse over the woods and the
dead, dismayed, while Schommer watched small game that inhabited them. The
him grimly, almost accusingly, thought three months afterward were a chronicle
Haverland. The grave was torn up. of desertion, the small cries of birds and
340 WEIRD TALES
the chuckling calls of wild things decreas- window to listen also. There was never
ing in number day by day till there were a sound; the woods were deathly still.
only long silences, broken by sounds that "Hear something?" he asked skepti-
could not be identified. The quick, fly- cally. "Only living thing I've seen around
ing skip of a rabbit was as rare now as here in three months was our friend the
the cadenced flight of the jay and the buzzard this morning. C. a. septentrion-
gull. The pleasant, frightened movement dis, and for such a big one even he didn't
of wild things disturbed and the splash stay long."
of leaves had given place to queer, long, "Listen!" said the sharp-eared Haver-
meaningless rustles; rustles that marked land, and with so commanding a voice
the insinuating course of large snakes, or that Schommer obeyed, opening the door
perhaps the rustles of heavy vines, that, and stepping outside the car.
overweighted, were dropping by degrees At once there was an explosion of
from their places among the oaks, the sound in the woods near by. The air
birches, and the cottonwoods. Contin- was filled with outburst after outburst of
uous movements unseen. The threat of agonized cries, cries > that seemed to be
invisibles. neither brute nor human.
Schommer snatched a flashlight from
Except when some problem kept him the pocket of the car and plunged
in the building overnight, Haverland through the brush at the side of the road,
habitually rode into the city with Schom- Haverland following. They had scarcely
mer. And both men were thankful for entered the woods, the beam of light
Schommer's car. It was a good three- playing through the leaves ahead of them,
quarters of a mile from the laboratories when the uproar terminated in a cutting
into South, and the dense woods, denser scream. They advanced through the
now with this monstrous new growth of woods hastily, still hearing an unaccount-
underbrush, overhung the road all the able, wild thrashing sound close at hand.
way. A lonely walk, at night. When they found the origin of the dis-
"Not even an owl," said Schommer. turbance not fifty feet within the woods,
"Used to be a lot of them." they stopped, gasping with horror. All
He was driving slowly, and now about them were trees hung with vines.
stopped the car to listen. Not a sound of Directly in front of them was a large
bird or beast. He looked at Haverland, specimen at the foot of a huge cotton-
who had his lean gray head cocked for- wood, in movement. It was thrashing
ward listening intently. about like a whip. The end of it was
"This place is like a cellar," Schommer wound tightly about some object, which,
continued, in his peculiar clipped style of as they watched it thrown bloodily against
speech. "Nothing moving; not a sound. the trunks of the cottonwood and the sur-

Even a beastly smell."

rounding trees, they saw was a dog.
His broad lips curled with displeasure Schommer ran forward for a closer

as he released the brake and the car began view.

to move. "Stop, you fool!" shouted Haverland
"Wait!" said Haverland, gripping his and at that moment a creep-
instinctively,

arm. er on the ground entangled itself in

Schommer looked at him inquiringly, Schommer's leg and tripped him head-
then thrust his head farther out of the long. He tried to get up and found him-
 VINE TERROR 341

self tiedhand and foot. Tender young Schommer stepped on it, and grimaced as
vines enwound his wrists and ankles like it gave under his heel like flesh.

steel wires; he wrestled with them, grunt- "Ugh!" he exclaimed. "What the
ing with pain. devil do you suppose it is? Never saw
Cannibalism. Kind
eating kind. Hav- anything like it!"

erland stood there nerveless, and felt, Haverland examined the root of the
sickeningly, he was looking again
that vine, and was about to draw his knife
into the unknown. When Schommer through it. But there was a windless
fell, the light had been thrown from his rustle in the trees, and the vine, which
hand, and now shone directly on the base had been lying as loose as a newly dead
of the cottonwood. The vine moved snake, and as cold, was now rigid and
slightly, like a tentacle, as though the dog hard in his hand. He caught the fleeting
somewhere off in the darkness were still impression that he was the object of eery,
struggling to free itself, slowly. Schom- unearthly attention. He felt that he was
mer was still trying to raise himself from threatened. The woods were now com-
the ground, the gre*at veins of his neck pletely still, watching, waiting; the silence
and forehead standing out darkly in the was a tangible menace, suffocating him,
oblique light of the flash. moving against him.
"I'm caught!" he said helplessly, and "Shall we take it along?" asked Schom-
then cried out with terror as a creeper cut mer. "Might have to get a spade, un-
"
into one fleshy wrist and made a bracelet less

of spouting blood. He stooped over and gripped the vine

at its base, now quite limp, and tried to
"Help! Help me!" he screamed. At
pull it out by the roots. Haverland held
which Haverland, nervously aware of
the light. Schommer was generously
black, black shadows banked on shadows
built, and his contorted face showed tre-
blacker still among the depths of the tall
mendous exertion, but the vine wouldn't
trees, stumbled blindly forward, produced
give an inch. As he straightened up,
a knife from his pocket and flicked it
nursing his wrist and swearing softly,
open. The vine holding the dog was
Haverland saw the root of the creeper
perfectly and Schommer sud-
still then,
withdraw fractionally into the ground,
denly managed to free himself; upon
for all the world like an earthworm.
which, having brushed off his clothes, he
"Hm-m," said Schommer, clearing his
proceeded to bind up his wrist with a
throat. "Queer vine, that. How about
handkerchief. Then, feeling highly re-
the other one?"
sentful, and perhaps a little foolish be-
"Let's go see," said Haverland, and
cause of the wholly deserted character of
walked carefully through the dark litter
the woods, he picked up the flash-
still
of brush toward the big cottonwood,
light and directed it toward the ground
holding the light before him.
at his feet.
The vine that had trapped the dog was
"Well, that's funny," he said, taking a large climber. Closely involved in its
up the vine that had tripped him and foliage was the dead, mangled animal,
dropping it again. "Did you ever see which he stooped to examine. Schom-
any wood like that?" mer grasped the main stem of the plant
The vine was limp, flabby, and draped and shook it experimentally; it seemed to
along the ground like a leafy rope. have the character of any other vine, but
J42 WEIRD TALES
when he turned aside to toe the battered, laboratory was filled with sound. The
bloody ruin of the dog, the vine wobbled majestic trees were scarcely distinguish-
drunkenly. able against the black sky, but fireflies

Compact, gnarled arms of fiber that illuminated the foliage here and there,
thought. Intricately contrived, sap-carry- and briefly showed vast and looming
ing tubes, sap that pulsed, sap that beat walls of leaves and 'branches, in whose
through wooden arms. Arms that looked enclosure the two men seemed
at the car

about for supporting trees and moved de- to be at the bottom of a well of shadows.
liberately like the tentacles of a land The effect was that of a great beast lying
octopus. Haverland shivered with the prone and still which had suddenly com-

thought. He received the uncomfortable menced to breathe. There was no fresh-

impression that he had entered a stran- ness in the air, rather the effluvia pouring
ger's house by some freak, or had the out of a boundless swamp. The sensitive

dubious privilege of wandering through Haverland harkened to the sound of the

the devil's own garden, of being tolerated night breeze through the leaves, and
in that journey. noted the peculiar leatheriness of their
Schommer," motion and collision with each other. The
"Let's get out of this, said
Haverland. "We can look this thing familiar, fresh sound of the wind playing
over in the daytime." He tried to make through poplars and cottonwoods had
his voice sound casual, but the words taken on the character of a confident, ju-

came out harsh and knotty. bilant, multitudinous handclapping.

Schommer joined him, and as the two He remembered that sound. Later,

picked theirway back to the car he said, among the realities of his home in the

"What the devil do you suppose hap- city, those engulfing shadows flocked

pened to that dog?" about him and marched

endlessly through

"Looked like some cat's work," Haver- his dreams, through dreams of leafy cord-
land lied; "probably the beast that's been ings and living dreams of phos-
ropes,

accounting for all the game that's disap- phorescent foliage and vines enhaloed, all
peared. Got away before either of us sounding before the violence of cyclonic
saw him." winds that blew the radiance into flame.
Schommer shook his massive, leonine Hurried, harried by dreads and he
head. No cat in the country was big knew not what, next day he busied him-
enough to kill a dog so horribly. Why, self with an apparatus which he had set
the thing he had touched with his foot up in his rooms a day or two before. This
was no more than shreds, a red puddle consisted chiefly of a microscope and a
of flesh and splintered bones. No, it was common broad beaker. In the beaker,
a stronger, more savage beast than a cat. and filling it to the brim, was a pulpy
A beast so thorough and so subtle in its mass in which could be discerned indis-
destruction that it absorbed living things putable chlorophyl; leaves ground into a
into itself without its existence being sus- kind of rough paste; macerated vines with
pected. their foliage, which he had clipped from
the creeper outside the window (the

Alight breeze moved through the writhing, the leaping, and the voiceless
woods as the two engineers ap- fury) . Near the microscope was a del-
proached the car, a moist, muggy breeze, icate, graduated instrument used for some
and the grove of cottonwoods below the kind of measurement. Alongside the
 VINE TERROR 343

microscope stood a small glass-stoppered color of dusty metal, that seemed to serve
bottle nearly full of a transparentumber as a sounding-board for dull thunders in
fluid which had been expressed from the the distance.
pulp.
Still doubtful, hesitating, never con- Schommer, since he lived near by and
vinced, Haverland delayed his investiga- wanted to finish up the business of
tion one moment more. He approached the night before, had called for his chief

a locker and removed from it a soggy in the morning. Early as they were, when
paper package. With as much delibera- they had passed through South and en-
tion as he could muster, he opened it and tered the road leading through the woods
produced a large piece of ravv meat. He below the South laboratories they found
walked to the window with it, opened their way blocked by a man at work.
the window, and then, lingering still, Eric Shane, who lived at the far end of
stepped back. Wind outside plucked at South, was one of the
more capable labor-
the tower of vines, and its whole length ers among the community of foreigners.
undulated with a confusion of whispers. Because of his war record, when such
Haverland wiped his brow, sagging things were of importance in employ-
with perspiration,and flung the meat ment, he held the position of road patrol-
outside. The vine thrashed out across the man along the network leading out of
window. In a moment the meat had South. His grader, built after the fash-
been torn into minute shreds, and the ion of the war-time tanks with which he
whole disappeared among the foliage. was familiar, was stalled in the middle
Haverland slammed the window and of the road. He was proceeding on foot
leaned against it. When the leaves pat- along the ditch at one side, industriously

ted the glass against his back he sobbed. wielding a scythe. At the sound of
Pound after pound of fresh, raw meat, Schommer' s brakes he turned about.
vanishing thus in midair. Below the win- After observing the two in the car
dow, if he desired to look, was a sprin- silently for a moment, he said deliber-
kling of clean-picked bones, even to the ately,

skeleton of a bird or two. There re- 'Wery juicy."

mained one certain test which the engi- "What's that, Eric?" asked Schommer.
neer felt was final. "The wines. Wery juicy," Shane re-

As he stood before the odd collection
of objects on the laboratory table, silent
and thoughtful, he was aware of remark-
able hootings and whisperings outside the
building. It was as though the wind,
finding small apertures and irregularities
in the construction of the place, were de-
riding him and his work, making sport
of his loneliness.
The day had been overcast.
breeze that had begun the day before had
blown up banks of clouds all
by late afternoon the sky was obscured
till
with a thick, uninterrupted blanket the
peated. He held out his scythe, from
which yellow sap was dripping.
"Vines? Well," said Schommer, puz-
zled, "what' re you cutting 'em for?"
"Big fellahs," said Shane, shaking his
head. "Across the road, blowing around
from the wind. Lots easier to cut."
"I don't see any," said Schommer,
craning his neck to look beyond the grad-
The light er. "Cut the rest of them already?"
Shane looked steadily up the road, then
day long, stared owlishly at the two engineers as
though he had seen them for the first
time.
344 WEIRD TALES
"Maybe, maybe not," he said. "I ain't "The devil! That's a big fellow,
been vorking wery long. I t'ink maybe Charlie," said Schommer. "That surely
vind blow him back." can't be the one we saw lying on the
He picked up the creeper he had just ground last night."
slashed and threw it hastily into the Haverland shrugged. The vine was
woods, delivering a kick at one heavy, thick as a small tree, but it was as
dragging end of it. Then he wiped his gnarled and twisted as though it had been
sap-stained hands on his coveralls and through torture.
looked at Schommer shyly. "You know," he said, "this is all kind
"Should I move him?" he asked, point- of backward. I've seen wind tear a vine
ing to the grader. free, but blowing it back up is a horse of
"Later," said Schommer. "We've got another color."
a little job for you in the woods. Bring "I don' like it," said Eric. The air was
along your spade." charged with a musty, pungent animal
Ericunhooked the spade from the smell, at which he wrinkled his nose with

grader and looked at it perplexed as he dislike. "I t'ink maybe I better go now."
followed Schommer and Haverland "O. K., Eric," said Schommer. "We
through the brush. In a moment the don't need you after all."
three men arrived at a spot where the As he turned around, and Haverland
ground was broadly disturbed. stooped to examine the bark of the vine,
"This is it," said Schommer. there was a rustle in the foliage overhead
"Minus the dog," said Haverland, that was not caused by any wind. It was
staring at his companion. He was sud- the sound of innumerable bats in flight,
denly filled with a great wrath, and a the sound of leather in motion. Eric
hatred enough to drive out any fear of jumped up and down with excitement,
the unknown. The great creeper that moving soundlessly as he point-
his jaws
had been lying on the ground at the base ed. Schommer stared at him, marveling.
of the cottonwood now mounted upward "Watch himself! Watch himself!"
and was lost among the foliage of the shouted the Finn, finding his voice.
tree. There was no trace of the dog. "Wine come!"
Both Schommer and Haverland ad- Schommer glanced up, then snatched
vanced to the base of the vine and looked at Haverland and hurled himself for-
about. ward. The two men sprawled headlong
"X marks the spot," said Schommer as the "wine" slipped from the tree and
grimly. He scraped a cross into the fell behind them. The leaves of the vine
ground with one foot, where lay a loose were massed like, a great green mush-
scattering of splintered bones. "Marrow room, and the whole growth fell limply
and all," he continued. "Nothing left and heavily, all at once, smothering the
but splinters." base of the cottonwood with a thud, in a
was uncommonly dark in the woods,
It solid mound of foliage.
for today there was no sun. Eric looked "Well, I will be damned!" said Schom-
all around carefully, then planted his mer, finding his feet and brushing him-
shovel firmly in the soft earth. He eyed self off."Now, what do you suppose
the two engineers earnestly and rather made happen?"
that
uneasily as they examined the creeper "It fell," said Haverland slowly, as if
wound all about the cottonwood. to himself. "Simply came loose and fellj
 VINE TERROR 345

in a heap. And we were directly beneath Looks as though they've used a plow,
it." doesn't it?"
"Looks as though someone were wish- Schommer squinted at the tree without
ing us a lot of bad luck," said Schom- recognition. The turf was broken all
mer, laughing nervously. "Now, if I the way down the lawn, so that clods
"
were superstitious formed a rough ditch running from the
walls of the laboratory directly into the
Haverland said nothing, but he was tree.
subdued as he tramped back to the "Sloppy work," repeated Haverland,
car with Schommer. He had seen what shaking his head.
Schommer had not seen, just before the Schommer removed the pipe from his
vine had fallen. That vine had a most teeth and followed the course of the
unnatural surface of flexible, wrinkled ditch with troubled eyes. Something be-
wood, all covered with a kind of unholy yond the tree attracted him; he walked a
sweat. The crevices of the bark were few paces down the lawn. The ditch
thickly packed with parasites, countless continued on the other side of the tree, to
numbers of small insects which conceiv- the extreme bottom of the hill. Curious
ably could only be battening on the vine technique —
as though the plumbers were
itself. These insects were lice, uncom- hunting for the tree and couldn't find it.
monly large, well-fed lice in great num- Haverland, slowly taking his place beside
bers. He considered this phenomenon Schommer, saw the loose flesh of Schom-
judiciously and humorously as the car mer' s face harden, tighten, till he seemed
left the grader behind (with the panting, ten years younger.
exhausted Eric) and mounted the drive
Schommer raised his arm and pointed
to the garage behind the laboratories.
at the tree with his pipe as though
it were
Half-way up the drive his restless eyes Then he
a target and the pipe a gun.
saw something new. looked Haverland with eyes whose per-
at
"We're late," he said, breaking the plexity had something also of terror.
silence. "That's sloppy work, too." "Wonderful!" he ejaculated. "Charlie,
"Eh?" Schommer was surprized out of that tree wasn't there before!"
a mood of his own. When he had locked "What?"
the car and issued from the garage with "No! The hill has always been clear.
Haverland he looked at his watch. That tree is a good twenty paces up!"
"As a matter of fact, Charlie," he said, "Schommer •" said Haverland
"we're early. Only ten minutes to." through his teeth. Then he checked him-
Haverland verified the time with a self; no need yet for the wild statements
glance at his own timepiece. Then he he could make. After all, no one could
looked mystified down the hill and said, be really sure, really certain that the fan-
"Plumbers are early, then. They've tastic things he suspected had any basis in

dug in." fact. He was silent. Schommer only re-

"Where?" asked Schommer,
as he loaded his pipe. Haverland pointed
toward an oak near the bottom of the
hill, where the ground was spaded up.
"Something clogged up the drain," he
said. "Probably the roots of that
puzzled, garded him curiously, placing the pipe
again between his teeth. Then he drew
hurriedly against the almost dead fire in
the bowl as Haverland proceeded farther
down the hill. An oak tree, that looked
tree. all of a hundred years old. Immovable
346 WEIRD TALES
as rock. A fresh leaf sailed out of the building they dug in at a point midway
foliage and reached the ground about ten between the tree and the laboratories.
feet in front of him. He picked it up Advantage was taken of the ditch in the
absently, and as he stood there for a mo- turf, since it was discovered that below
ment, genuinely troubled, he twisted the it, down to the sewer, was a cleavage line

leaf idly in his fingers and noted that it of broken, friable earth. It was as though
was as limp and as tough as leather. He a giant plow had followed the sewer-pipe
turned slowly and retraced his steps up from end to end, breaking the ground.
the hill. Actually, one of the extraordinarily long

More of those leaves, and the leaves of .roots of the oak tree had entered a joint

other trees in the woods, flapped against in the pipes. All manner of refuse had
the windows of the building during the caught on the obstruction and damned
day. The wind was steadily rising. the sewer effectively. The difficulties of
Leaves like patterns cut in the skins of repair, however, were negligible.

animals. By this time the wind outside had be-

Some time ago, there was that item in come rather heavy, in the midst of which
the local paper concerning the tree that the laboratories were an isolated calm.

had moved. The Laboratories people The wind occasionally gusted with still

told jokes about the ignorance and super- increasing violence, and now and then
stitions of the people who lived in South small objects struck the walls and win-
how the hunkies hated the whine of the dows with faint rappings. Haverland
generators, the complicated glass and could fancy he heard shoutings from
metal apparatus, and the living blue down the hill; there was a waterfall of
sparks that jumped all over the labora- sound among the cottonwoods. At this
tories like fireflies. But finally the tree moment the night-bell rang.
had left the yard entirely to stand at the With some degree of surprize and curi-
edge of the woods. Now therewas an osity he left his chambers to see what
investigation; sliding substrata were dis- was wanted. He was alone in the build-
covered, in which the roots were involved. ing, it was late, and this was a place

Odd that the layer of earth should have where few visitors came. He had locked
moved uphill! And now a tree on the the door, of course, after Schommer had
very hill on which the laboratories were gone at last; and now, to his further sur-
built, playing the same tricks, tearing up prize, there was no one on the steps when

the sod. he opened it. He stood there in the

doorway wondering. It was those queer
little dark people in South, and their total
During the day Haverland several
times discovered Schommer stand- lack of comprehension of the purpose in
ing at the window area looking down these researches, their distrust of every-
speculatively at the woods. Young Har- thing mechanical, and their absolute fear
risshad the phenomenon pointed out to of electricity; but it was rather a quaint
him, and twice left his work to make an expression of hatred, to ring the bell be-
examination. Cowl shrugged; he would cause the machinery whined. Annoying,
not have been surprized if a hen had too.

crowed after laying an egg. It was an unlucky night for ignorant,

The plumbers did come in the after- fearful people, though. The sky was
noon. Having taken a sounding from the heavy with storm, and the wind was
 VINE TERROR 347

speaking angrily through the cotton- ed, but still recognizable. He heard the
woods. A handful of glossy leaves swept voice of Eric Shane say,
up the hill, and a creeper which had been "I hear' a cat scream —one time, two
torn from the side of the building blew times, up those hill'."
across the walk and was shaken against There was something deadly in the
the steps. Haverland locked the door
woods. A killer thatworked ceaselessly,
and walked slowly back to his table. stealthily, that was not caught in any trap
Mysterious. Something grimly face- set for it.

tious about the whole business. All the In the meantime the first few drops of
earmarks of a practical joke on a grand rain were being flung against the win-
scale. Trees that move. Vines that dows with smart rappings like thrown
plummet down fatly from trees that hold sand. The vine that had been torn from
them like great green spiders. Game the walls thrashed against the building
gradually and wantonly slaughtered; and occasionally struck the windows in
skeletons and splintered bones scattered the central chamber with that brittle,
all through the woods. Something in the short sound peculiar to glass.
woods concealed, foul-smelling enough to Haverland hesitated only a moment as
attract a ranging turkey buzzard. Vines,
pale violet lightning flickered among the
spongy with sap, blowing around in the
clouds, then turned to the microscope on
road with the slightest breeze. A labor-
the table. He prepared a slide cleverly,
er's fear of still, disinhabited woods, and
like a magician's trick, and slipped it
his flight from them. A vine had tripped under his lenses. One certain test. He
Schommer, and so held him that he be-
adjusted his focus, found something, and
came frightened. Vines clustering along rigged up the delicate, graduated instru-
the road that provided the only means of
ment that was apparently intended for
approach or retreat to the laboratories.
some occult measurement. There he sat,
Blowing across it. The way Haverland
hands on hips, peering, his face as grim
came to work and went home. Vines
as death. His thin lips recited some rit-
tough enough to stop a road grader. The
ual without sound.
voice of Eric Shane, saying, "Wery juicy."
"Yes, Schommer," he heard himself
Vines. saying, "those are mighty queer vines;
Anger filled him again, and he ex- you can tell me nothing. Do you know
claimed aloud, "It's a lie!" there's salt in their sweat, eh? Did you
But the walls of the building flung the know their sap clots? That it takes a
shout into a trail of echoes; from some blood count, like your blood and mine?
remote corner of his brain he plucked out Ever hear 'em talking to each other at
the impression of a bulb cf sliding crys- night in those cursed woods with their
that Agnes, the laboratory cat, had
tals, damned clicks, and rubbings, and whis-
broken into the sink. Down the sewer, pers? What do you suppose they talk
down the hill, into the woods. A thirsty about? Death!"
oak, mounting the hill along the sewer, But Schommer was far away in the
using its roots like the tentacles of an en- city, asleep by now. Haverland leaped
foliaged devil-fish, a wooden mole. In to his feet and knocked the microscope
this whirl of half -thoughts he found the crashing to the floor. He had a grim pur-
skeleton of the cat outside his own win- pose in mind, but even now was arrested
dow, the bones completely disarticulat- by the second ringing of the bell, which
348 WEIRD TALES
broke the comparative silence in the vile with rich, putrid yellow sap. Those
building in the most startling manner. tendrils remaining in the door writhed
spasmodically; there was a heavy scraping
sound, and they were withdrawn through
IT was a late hour for anyone to return,
the crack with a powerful jerk, leaving a
and the hunkies of South had all rather
sleep in coffins thancome anywhere near leaf or two in the room. Haverland still

this place.The bell continued to ring as held the piece that had broken off. It

he made his way to the door. Someone was quite limp, like a rounded, dirty
out there was passionately, or mischiev- strip of flesh, and was bleeding that

ously, ringing the bell again and again. sticky, pale yellow sap into his hand. He
Longs and shorts. Staccato rings in series, flung the thing away across the floor and
rings that set the nerves on edge; a whole walked unsteadily back to his rooms,
wild, weird variety of ringings by some drawing the palms of his hands heavily
impatient lunatic. The bell still sounded down his cheeks. He could hear vines
alarmingly when he reached the door, beating against the door and grinding
which he snatched open at once. The along the walls, unimaginable vines, foul
steps were devoid of any presence but his things that were hosts to billions of lice.
own. There was something definite and mali-
Nearly hysterical with exasperation, cious in their movement as they worked
Haverland looked into the black, wrath- along the window-ledges, tapping at the

ful night, but not for long. A blockade panes that were now streaming with mois-
of vines crowded up the steps with a rush, ture.

and advancing tendrils whipped through In the downpour outside, the trees in
the doorway. Haverland flung the door the woods arched and lashed the air with

to with a re-echoing crash. A few short foliage. Haverland listened bewildered

lengths of the vine were caught in the to the stunning impact of barrage after
crack, and there they writhed, like the barrage of thunder, and fancied that the
sprouting tails of snakes. One he living voices that issued from the grove
gripped, which instantaneously snapped of cottonwoods were many times multi-
about his wrist and entered the flesh. He plied. Then the lights throughout the
cried out with pain; taking a shorter grip laboratories brightened unbearably. As
on the vine with his other hand, at the the engineer approached the end of his
same time bracing his feet against the table the lights went out. The wires had
door, he tugged with all his might, gasp- gone down in the storm.
ing with panic. It was like trying to He stumbled over some rope-like
break a wet leather thong, but the gods thing on the floor, and noticed wildly as
gave him the advantage of weight and he fell that the window was open. Some-
terror. The vine parted abruptly; he thing had come in. He reached out in
caught himself as he staggered crazily the darkness, however splintered with
past the first of the series of generators lightnings, and found it, pulled at it.
that ran back from the door. Clutching it was like squeezing the com-
It was the thing that had nearly got pact, corded flesh of a squid. A long,
Schommer. Vines gone soft; vines turned eel-shaped thing that passed through the
animal. Vines as flexible as rubber. window into the outside.
Vines whose wooden hearts had been At that moment ragged lightning
turned into some kind of unholy flesh, seemed to tear the southern sky in two,
 VINE TERROR 349

answered by an eruption of light in the phorescence. The tree-trunks glowed,

north. As the following thunder bat- and the masses of leaves shone like soft,
tered the place with sound, Haverland burnished metal. All the great vines
stood up thrilling. He had a brilliant were alive with light, and hung from the
vision of the dying Keene; for indeed, trees in waterfalls of flame. It was a

this again was the legendary
two colossal charges of electricity in the
sky seemed to serve as electrodes, each
bolt a pole, the laboratory between; and
in this room the halo appeared once more,
just as Haverland had seen it over the
halo. The thing seen in a nightmare or read in a
fairy-tale. Another Birnam Wood, that
" was coming by degrees, but surely,
toward the central point that was the lab-
oratories. The laboratory hill seemed to
rise from a chasm whose walls were solid

tube of gas three months past. There light. Trees and vines in motion. Be-
was a full, mysterious effulgence through- fore their advancing trunks and stems the
out the room. A pale, thin radiance earth was rolling away in waves. Then,
flowed out from the thing on the floor dark off in one end of the chamber, the
and filled the room with a glory of soft engineer saw that the oak on the hill had
light. By this illumination the engineer already entered the building. The end
saw thatwas really a denuded length of
it generator had been shouldered aside and
vine, now more like a hideous, tapering crashed through the floor into the base-
worm; saw, too, that there was scarcely a ment. Commotion was in the air. The
leaf remaining on the tangle of vines at storm entered the chamber with the oak,
the window. In the glory of the halo and rain beat on Haverland's face.
these boneless arms serpentined in a ter- And was not too late. The en-
still it

rible dance; every tentacle glittered
sweat in small beads, that winked
lightning like innumerable
vine in the room began to
from the floor.
And now, having formed a towering,
closed palisade about it, and accompanied
by the sound of shouting leaves and col-
liding trunks, the vine-hung grove of cot-
tonwoods was advancing on the house.
It was the sound of earthquake; the hill
shook, and metal clanged in the central
chamber of the laboratories. Followed a
stupendous crash. Haverland hurried to
the door, half stunned.
with gineer whirled and retreated through his
at the own laboratories, leaping the handful of
eyes. The twining creepers in his way. In the back
raise itself of the building he picked up a sledge-
hammer, then raced back through the
smother of rain to the garage, in which
stood three full drums of gasoline. He
ran up the incline on which the drums
rested, and worked rapidly with a wrench.
He stepped back a little, swung the sledge
in one heavy blow. The drums, released,
tumbled booming down the runway,
spilling their contents as they went, and
bounded out the doorway to go careering
down the hill.

Through the broad windows of this Haverland waited, dripping with rain
centralchamber one commanded a view and perspiration, then produced a box of
of the entire countryside. The hill itself matches. As he was about to strike a
was just high enough to permit sight over light the heavens gaped and a volcano of
the foliaged heads of the oaks and cotton- flame plunged cracking and thundering
woods. Haverland, looking down at the into the woods like the finger of God.
trees, saw the entire woods bathed in cold Haverland flung himself out of the
flame. The grove was one vast phos- garage in time to escape the arm of fire
350 WEIRD TALES
that leaped up the hill. From the back took on some importance. He told how
of the laboratories he watched a tower of the storm had wakened him. The woods
flame boom up in the declining storm. had caught on fire somehow, and three
Above low thunders he heard three suc- explosions ("when those gasoline go
cessive explosions as the gasoline drums off") illuminated the room he slept in.
went. There was enough of it, he felt, "It was one big bonfire," he said, hold-
to suffocate, if not to consume. A shift ing out his arms.
of wind carried the sound of crackling
He told of seeing the lightning strike.
and hissing vegetation, and carried into
"Big," he said helplessly, shaking his
the engineer's nostrils the charnel stench
head. The bolt was indescribably huge.
of all the pyres of history. Sickened, he
He could tell of the sharp burned-leather
stumbled back into the laboratories.
and ozone smell in the air afterward,
though, and did. But the thunder, ah!
THE following day dawned calm and
Roman Sholla came out
clear. early
They all remembered that sound of cata-
clysm when the big bolt struck, but that
and stood on his front lawn, smoking his
could not be described either.
pipe deliberately and looking up at the
hill. A crew
had appeared several hours Sholla's three friends were silent. They
before, and were making much noise as had said nothing yet, and seemed very
they repaired the damage done to the lab- much satisfied about something as they
oratories by a falling oak. There had looked up at the crew busy at the shat-

been a strong, unpleasant odor in the air tered masonry and twisted metal above
all morning, which likely enough came
them.
with the shift of the wind from the pack- "Well, Fred," said Sholla, "what you
ing-plant in the The members of
city. think of it, eh?"
the crew, as one occasionally came down "I t'ink," said dark little Yanotsky,
into South, found the work distasteful, "maybe it vas a good t'ing if all the plant
the stench seemingly worse the higher fall in. Never, no good come of ma-
one got up the hill. chines."
One man alone in the building, the "Ah!" said Sholla contemptuously.
chief engineer, Haverland, had escaped "Always the same. Crazy stubborn like
serious injury when lightning had touched your father. You should go to school,
drums of gasoline in the garage
off three Fred Yanotsky!"
and burned it. The South woods had suf- "This morning," said white-haired
fered heavily, with a number of the trees Papa Freng, "a squirrel came to my win-
and the extraordinarily large vines that dow for nuts. He was very tame, and
grew here either totally burned or badly the first I have seen in a long time." His
charred. The famous oak that had taken eyes were fixed on the dreaming distance.
a journey away from Sholla's own yard, As he spoke, something moving near by
though not burned, was now dead, its brought him to sharp attention. With
leaves already withered. something of eagerness in his voice he
Eric Shane came out presently, scratch- exclaimed, "Look!"
ing his head and blinking cautiously. He He pointed up the road. A small cot-
and Sholla were joined shortly by little tontail, pursuing a rather aimless course
Fred Yanotsky and Papa Freng. Sholla, of exploration or foraging, was proceed-
situated as he was nearest the laboratory, ing along the ditch, nibbling at green
 VINE TERROR 351

shoots. Its way was blocked presently by South, his ghost must have rested at last.

a creeper that lay along the road and The watchers saw the rabbit pass care-
sagged under its own weight. It was re- lessly, unmolested, over the stiff tangle
markable in being almost totally leafless. of vines and disappear among the ruins
The rabbit, in skipping over it, sud- of the South woods. Roman Sholla
denly froze, as beast does in the presence walked the few paces up to the vine, and,
of beast. But if the grotesque old Keene toeing its snarled trunks and leafless ten-
had been responsible for the mockery of drills, said,
sentience in these singular growths of "Dead."

able Revery
(Written to music)

By
Black roses sprout across the sky,
Pipes sing insensate 'neatfi the sea,
The clamant heads of madmen fly
And shatter with a dark outcry,
As tones transpose to deeper dye
And leaves whirl wild with jubilee
Through themad organist' s rambling brain
In the disordered sepulcher
A lady's dead eyes strive to stir,
She dares to laugh, but all in vain;
Three-fingered hands paint a far frieze
With the black blood of vanquished devils,
Who sway and slay the music-breeze
ROBERT NELSON
And feed upon the organist's soul,
Which and roll
ne'er doth cease to toll
dusk abyss;
Bell-like within this
Fell plantsand flowers writhe in wombs
Of blighted worlds remote from morn,
And musty myrrh exhales from tombs
Whirling in utmost stars forlorn.
Swart suns on sounding waters swell
The turgid notes to direr din,
And murky spirits soar from hell
To flap their cerements palpable
In the wild player's face, and tell

In their daft and dying revels. Jet jewels into his mouth, and spin
Mad gossamers amid his hair;
Now ebon fluids 'gin to flow Swift raven locks entwine his throat,
And drip with waxen candle-men; His eyes no longer glare and gloat;
Black disks of stone are trundling low; As from a tower high in air,
From bosom fuming slow,
the organ's The console wakes a weirder fear;
Fouler and sadder perfumes blow His flaming, fitful fingers chill;
To drown the bourns of demon ken; One tear he weeps, a dead man's tear:
Skulls flown from swarthy corpses kiss The sable revery is still.
 S

Uhe
GJ rail of the Cloven Hoof
By ARLTON EADIE

"One look was enough. I snapped

off my flashlight and fled."

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 Seeking help at the nearest house, a

private hospital, Hugh meets Professor
WHILE on tramping a
Exmoor, Hugh Trenchard
vacation on
dis-
Felger, the proprietor, a sinister figure
whose features are hidden beneath a sur-
covers an old recluse, Silas Marie,
lying unconscious after having been at-
geon's gauze mask. The professor tries

tacked by a mysterious thing which, to prevent Hugh phoning the police, but

though speaking with a human voice,

he gets the message through by a strata-

leaves behind it a trail of footprints gem, afterward making his escape.

shaped like a cloven hoof. Ronnie Brewster, a former fellow-stu-
352 W. T.—
 6

THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 353

dent of Hugh's, is called in to attend to

Silas Marie's injuries, and one night ® This is the third installment of a fas-
Ronnie and Hugh are astonished by the cinating book-length serial story by
arrival of a strange girl, Joan Endean, Arlfon Eadie, a British master of weird
apparently half dead with cold and ex- fiction, whose skill in building up eery
haustion. She recovers with suspicious plots and gripping suspense is rapidly
suddenness the moment she is alone with winning him a well-deserved fame and
Hugh, and to his unbounded amazement making new friends for his stories. If
informs him that she has just made her you have not yet read the preceding
escape from Professor Felger's institu- installments of this thrilling weird
tion, which is really a private mental hos- mystery novel, then you should begin
pital. So convinced is Hugh of her san- reading it with this issue, for other-
ity that when Dawker arrives to take her wise you will be missing a real treat.
back, he resolutely refuses to give her up. For your convenience we preface this
Thepolice have been notified, how- installment of "The Trail of the Cloven
ever, and when Sergeant Jopling arrives Hoof" with a synopsis of the chapters
he Joan has gone, but lying on
finds that which have gone before.
the bed is the body of Silas Marie,
stabbed to the heart with a dagger whose
hilt isshaped like a cloven hoof. Later news of the unexpected legacy — for leg-
that night the body is found to be miss- acy it was, in spite of the lawyer's respect
ing, and the only clue to its disappearance for legal nicety of expression —followed
is a trail of cloven hoofs beneath the bed- so swiftly by the fantastic, knight-errant
room window. task on which it was conditional, filled

Andrew Shale, Marie's lawyer, re- him with an amazement too deep to be
quests an interview with Hugh, and in- expressed by the usual commonplaces of
forms him that Marie has signed a letter speech. His mind groped in vain for a
of attorney, giving Hugh the benefit of rational explanation. Was it the mere
his fortune, conditional on his giving desire for revenge that had induced Silas

a solemn undertaking to use his utmost Marie to offer his fortune as a reward for
endeavor to destroy the supernatural the destruction of the mysterious thing
monster which is referred to as "The Ter- that had caused his death? Or was there
ror of the Moor." another, a deeper motive?
"Well, Doctor Trenchard," the voice
of the lawyer snapped his train of
13 thought. "I suppose you would like a
time in which to think over things,
There was a long pause after the law- little

before coming to a decision?"

yer had made his startling announce-
ment. He carefully folded the doc- "It certainly seems to call for a little

ument, laid it on the pile by his side, serious thought," Hugh answered with a
then once more leant forward on his smile.
desk, his chin resting on his interlocked The smile was reflected on Shale's fea-
fingers, his shrewd eyes fixed on the tures as he shrugged his shoulders.
young man's face. "I should imagine that the answer to
Hugh Trenchard, on his part, found that depends on your own belief in mat-
himself utterly at a loss for words. The ters supernatural. If you are convinced
W. T.—
 —

354 WEIRD TALES

that this so-called Terror of the Moor' get lost in a fog without barging up
exists only in the imagination of my against a millionaire with a fortune to
client,you may be inclined to settle the give away!"
matter by accepting right now. It would "What makes you think that Silas
not be a very dangerous or difficult task Marie was a millionaire?"
to rid the earth of a thing which is non- PvOnnie laughed gayly.
existent." "I know because I've been using the
"That's very true, Mr. Shale. But I highly specialized gray matter which I
fear the matter is not to be so easily dis- carry beneath my hat. My mode of de-
posed of. In my own mind I am quite duction would do credit to the superest
certain that the moor is haunted by a super-sleuth that ever sleuthed. Listen,
well, for the want of a more definite and I will expound: I have sufficient
name, let us call it a monster, which, knowledge of the habits of my fellow-
though not necessarily supernatural in the bipeds to know that when a man wears a
general meaning of the word, is certainly suit as old and as shabby as that of Silas
unknown to science. I had already made Marie's, he's either very rich or very poor.
up my mind to get to the bottom of the Silas Marie could not have been poor, or
mystery, and intended to take lodgings in he could not have bequeathed you any-
the nearest village so as to be as near the thing. Therefore he was a very rich man,
scene as possible. But that will not be A millionaire is a very rich man, there-
necessary now, as you inform me that fore Silas Marie was a millionaire. Q. E.
Moor Lodge is my property. Would D., as my friend Euclid used to say."
there be any objection to my taking up "I only hope you're right," said Hugh,
my residence there immediately?" laughing. "But you seem to forget that
Andrew Shale shook his head. I shall have to do something for the
"Your claim to the estate is incontest- money."
able, the more so in view of the fact that "Slay one full-sized dragon," nodded
Mr. Marie has no living relatives. The Ronnie. George up to date!
"Saint
legal formalities may take a day or two, What Miss Endean has disappeared
a pity

but I hand you the keys of the house

will — she could have fitted in with the gen-
now, you wish to take possession im-
if eral scheme of things by taking the role

mediately. I think you may rest assured of the Enchanting Princess! But you are
that no one will dispute your presence surely not taking that Terror stuff serious-
there" —
Mr. Shale paused and a slow ly, are you?"

smile twisted his parchment-like features Hugh drew meditatively at his pipe.
— "unless it be the fabled 'Terror of the "Upon my word, old chap, I hardly
Moor'!" know whether I do or not," he said pres-
A few minutes later the interview ter- ently, a look of indecision on his tanned
minated, and Hugh hurried back to tell face. "Sometimes the whole affair seems
his friend of the new and unexpected so fantastic that it would be a positive
development that had taken place. relief if I could think it was all a night-
mare. But I can't, and that's the trouble."

Ronnie was profuse in his congratula- "But hang it all! this is the Twentieth
- tions. Century —not the Dark Ages!" expostu-
"Well, if you're not the luckiest lad lated his friend. "What data have you
ever!" he exclaimed. "You can't even got? A few footprints made by a cloven
 —

THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 355

hoof — footprints which the Harborer of "Of course. What better center could
the Staghounds, a man who has grown I have for my investigations?"
gray on these moors, declares to have "Ho, ho! — investigations?" His friend
been the slot of an old stag." chuckled as he repeated the word with
Hugh Trenchard shook his head. exaggerated dramatic emphasis. "That
"I would only be too glad to accept seems as if 3'ou're going into the detec-
that explanation if I could, Ronnie. But tive business in real earnest. But surely
I know well enough that it was no stag you can't be thinking of living at that all-
that I encountered the night Marie was forsaken place like Robinson Crusoe on
attacked." his island?"
"Then what on earth was it?" "Well, I had thought of asking you to
"That's what I'm going to find out act as my Man Friday for a bit, but it's

and before long, too." Hugh started to not fair to make you neglect your prac-
his feet and began to pace the room rest- tise."

lessly. His lean jaws were tightly Ronnie Brewster gave a somewhat rue-
clenched and there was a light of battle ful laugh.
in his eyes. "There must be some ex- "Up to the present my practise is still

planation —
a natural and logical explana- in the nebulous stage of development,"
tion that will fit the facts as we know he <:onfessed. "If Moor Lodge were con-
them. The trouble is that I've grasped nected with the town by phone I would
the tangled skein haphazard, and every almost as easily make my calls from there.
attempt to straighten out the snarl only But it wouldn't be worth while to run a
"
makes the confusion worse. Once the line out here
end of a thread is in my hands, the whole "Why not install a couple of wireless
tangle may straighten out with one sets?" Hugh made the suggestion half
"
pull in jest, but to his surprize Ronnie jumped
"You remind me of my old granny at the idea.

soliloquizing over her knitting!"Ronnie "The very thing!" he exclaimed. "It

interrupted flippantly. "What do you ought not to be difficult to get a transmit-
say to getting the car out and having a ting license, and then we could be in
look at your new home? You may pick touch with each other even when I was
up a few clues, you know," he added not stopping at your place. And it would
with a grin. be very handy to be able to send out an
S. O. S. if you happened to wake up in

'ugh needed no second invitation.
Ten minutes later he was seated in
Ronnie's small but powerful
piloted through the winding lanes which
led to the great uplands of the Moor.
Each was busy with his own thoughts,
and it was not until half the distance had
been covered that Ronnie broke the si-
lence.
"So you have really decided to take up
the night and find a gentleman with a
cloven foot leaning over the bed-rail, ask-
car, being ing you if it is to be roast or boiled."
Ronnie was on his favorite subject
now, and he kept on in the same vein of
half-cynical banter until they came in
sight of the red-tiled gables and quaint,
twisted chimneys of Moor Lodge softly
outlined against the grayish-purple sweep
of the distant hills.

your residence at Moor Lodge?" "Creepy-looking shack, isn't it?" was

Hugh glanced round in some surprize. his final comment as they alighted. "If
356 WEIRD TALES
there isn't a genuine, blown-in-the-glass, erable antiquity,and had probably been
dyed-in-the-wool family spook on the built as a lodge for one of the Yeoman
premises — well, all I can say is that the Rangers when Exmoor was one of the
builder ought to be prosecuted for obtain- royal preserves. One had not to look
ing shudders under false pretenses." very closely to detect the marks imprinted

"Obtaining shutters?" Hugh repeated, by the passing years. The tiles of the
showed his thoughts had
in a tone which high-pitched roof were toned to a deep,

been wandering from the other's light- mellow oaken beams of the half-
red; the

hearted chatter. timbered walls were weathered to a gray-

ish drab; the intersecting plaster was in
"Wake up!" cried the indignant Ron-
places stained a sickly green by the drip-
iiie. "Who said anything about shutters?
I was talking about shudders — s-h-u-d-
pings from the eaves, and its whole sur-

d-e-r-s —
two 'd's,' and the 'h' is
"
silent, as
face starred and cracked until it resem-
bled the face of a wrinkled hag. There
fli 'pudding.'
are some houses upon which the hand of
"I getyou," laughed his friend. "What
Time seems to have been laid with be-
You
a lad you are for a joke, Ronnie!
really must take up your quarters here
nign touch —
gray havens of peace and
quietude, or stout old manor-houses
the murmur of your baby prattle will be
whose wide hearths remind one of the
like a ray of sunshine in this gloomy old
crackling of Yule logs; whose cheerful,
house."
panelled walls still seem to retain a kind-
"Anything to oblige, old bean," Ron-
ly echo of the songs and laughter of top-
nie smirked with the air of one acknowl-
booted, red-faced squires; oak-roofed
edging a well-deserved compliment. But
halls which still seem to ring with the
the next moment his grin vanished as he
merry strains of Sir Roger de Coverly;
laid his hand on the other man's shoul-
painted and gilded salons where one
der. "But, seriously, Hugh, I hope you
seems to catch the measured rhythm of
don't mind my silly nonsense," he went
violsand harpsichord, and the light tap-
on in an altered voice. "You see, I have
ping of red-heeled shoes in the stately
to be so preternaturally wise and solemn
minuet.
when I've got my bedside manner en,
But there are others whose dusty cham-
that it's quite a relief to blow the cork
out now and again." bers are shadowy, aloof, and mysterious
"Come and stay with me," invited
— fit settings for whispered plots, cloaked
and masked figures flitting like sinister
Hugh Trehchard, "and you never need
shadows, or stealthy deeds which shunned
put the cork in at all."

Ronnie gave a laugh and smacked his

the light of day. And of such was the
lips with mock gusto.
house of which Hugh Trenehard had
"That sounds alluringly festive.
come to take possession.
I'll

think it over." The footsteps of Hugh and

his com-
panion echoed eerily as they passed along
Hugh had not been
had described the
jesting when he the passage on the ground floor, entering
each room in turn and throwing back the
house as a "gloomy
old place," for it looked almost as eery curtains which shrouded the windows.
in the bright sunshine as it had looked Passing through the darkest part of the
in the mist-dimmed moonlight when he passage, Hugh's left-hand sleeve caught
had first seen it. It was a structure of tol- in something which projected from the
 "

THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 357

wall. He drew his hand over the surface papers and memoranda to clear up a
of the panelling and uttered an exclama- thousand mysteries. And the desk is not
tion as he felt an unmistakable door- even locked — or the cabinet, either. See
knob. here!"
"Hullo! I never noticed a door here He thrust back the cover of the desk
before. I wonder where it leads to?" and began to rummage among the pa-
"If it leads to the wine-cellar I'll give pers, only to give vent to a grunt of dis-
an unsolicited testimonial to your detec- appointment.
tive abilities right now!" laughed Ronnie. "Nothing that is likely to help us
"Come on, let's see what sort of a tap the here," he declared. "Bills, invoices for
old boy kept." chemicals and apparatus supplied the —
"It's locked," said Hugh, tugging in old boy seems to have been a whale for
vain at the handle. experimental chemistry. Stop a moment,
"Try some of the keys that Shale gave though!" he added suddenly as he opened
you," suggested his friend. "If they fail the lowest drawer. "Here's something
we'll have to try a little gentle persuasion that may shed a little light on our dark-
with the kitchen poker." ness. Just run your eagle eye over
But there was no need for the burglar- these ——
ious proposals to be put into operation, Glancing at the official-looking doc-
for the lock clicked smoothly back when uments which Ronnie spread on the desk,
Hugh inserted the third key on the bunch. Hugh saw one was a printed form
that
"Ah-ha! the mystery deepens!" Ronnie bearing the royal arms at
its head. It was

exclaimed dramatically, as he peered an official of discharge, and

certificate
through the open doorway. "Who would the words which had been filled in by
expect to find an up-to-date chemical lab- hand intimated that MARLE, Silas James,
oratory in the wilds of Exmoor?" had been employed in the INVESTIGA-
Hugh nodded in silent agreement. The TION BRANCH of THE RESEARCH
room which they found themselves
in LABORATORIES of the ROYAL AR-
could have been used for no other pur- SENAL, WOOLWICH, from April the
pose. The whole of one wall was cov- 23rd, 1915, to October the 11th, 1918,
ered with glass-fronted cupboards, and being discharged therefrom at his own
inside could be seen row upon row of request. Another was a well-worn pass,
jars, bottles and phials. Standing against enclosed in a leather case, authorizing the
another wall was a long, breast-high same MARLE, Silas James, to enter the

bench bearing an orderly array of retorts, area of the "Danger Buildings" at the
test-tubes, scales and recording-instru- royal arsenal.

ments. A powerful electric battery stood "Evidently our friend was a retired ex-
in one corner, flanked, in the opposite pert in explosives," Ronnie remarked. "I
angle of the room, by a large and very don't think there's much to be gathered
modern-looking safe. A roll-top desk from these papers beyond that not very
and a filing-cabinet occupied the center interesting fact."
of the room, and toward these Ronnie Trenchard did not answer immediately.
gave an expressive nod. He was staring at the blue-gray papers,
"There ought to be plenty of data for hismind working rapidly. At length he
your investigations here," he observed turned to Brewster with an unexpected
with a smile. "There seem to be enough question.
 — —

358 WEIRD TALES

"Does the date, April the 23rd, 1915, 14
suggest anything to you?"

The other man

ments, then shook his head.
thought for a few mo- A
eyes fell
look of the blankest mystification
spread over Hugh's features as his
on the duplicate sealed packet.
For it was an exact duplicate, not only in
"Of course the War
was on at that
down
time — that accounts for Marie being em-
its general size and bulk, but
such details as the peculiar texture of the
to

ployed in manufacturing, or inventing,

" paper and the heraldic device which
explosives
adorned the large red seal. Such a like-
"But he need not have had anything
ness could not possibly be accidental.
to do with explosives at all," Hugh broke
Either the packet lying before him was
in excitedly. "It was on April the 23rd
the same one that had been stolen from
that the first German attack was made in
him in the Valley of Rocks, or else this
which they used asphyxiating gas! Silas
was the genuine packet which the decoy
Marie may have been employed in evolv-
—
one containing nothing but blank pa-
ing retaliatory counter-measures."
pers —
had been intended to safeguard.
Ronnie Brewster received his chum's In any case, the presence of the latter in
suggestion with a careless shrug. Marie's safe formed a strange and unex-

"Interesting, but scarcely informative," pected link between him and the myste-
rious Joan Endean.
was his comment. "I flatter myself I'm
not particularly slow in the uptake, but "What's wrong, old man?" Ronnie's
voice, tinged with a note of amused sur-
I'm hanged if I can see any connection
prize, brought Hugh's speculations to an
between a retired government chemist
and that precious cloven-hoofed Terror of abrupt end. "You've been staring at that
letter as though you were expecting to see
yours. Why not see what is in the safe?"
it vanish in a whiff of brimstone. I be-
Hugh nodded and, selecting the like-
lieve the greedy beggar is disappointed
liest-looking key on the ring, inserted it
because the safe wasn't packed tight
in the brass-rimmed keyhole. It fitted
with wads of bank-notes!"
it turned — the ponderous bolts slid back.
"Scarcely that." Hugh forced a smile
Grasping the handle, Hugh gave it a half-
as he shook his head. "But that letter
turn and the heavy door swung open, and
happens to be a perfect facsimile of"
as it did so, a loud gasp of amazement he paused, suddenly calling to mind
escaped his lips.
Joan's stipulation of secrecy; adding, a
moment he had scarcely
Until that trifle lamely
— —
"of of another letter that
paused to consider what a safe of these I have seen."
dimensions might contain; for all he "Nothing wonderful in that," was the
knew he might be confronted with the other's careless rejoinder. "Most letters
dead body of Marie in a repulsive state have a family likeness on the outside —
of decomposition. But the which
object it's what is inside them that makes all the
met his gaze was less gruesome, though difference between a tender missive of
not less surprizing. love and a curt intimation that a check by
The sole content of the safe was a long, return mail will oblige."
bulky, sealed packet, in every respect the Trenchard picked up the letter and bal-
counterpart of the one given to him by anced it thoughtfully in his hand as he
Joan Endean! read the superscription:
 —

THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 359

To Hugh Trenchard, M. D. accurate judge of character, and I know

Beneath, apparently written by the that your acceptance of the strange task
same hand, though in weak and shaky which I have imposed on you will not be
characters, was the injunction: Only to actuated by the mere sordid desire to pos-
be opened in the event of the Death or sess my money. Moreover, I have trav-

Disappearance of Mr. Silas Marie. enough to have my

elled in the East long

"Pardon my mentality tinged and more than tinged,

idle curiosity," said Ron-
nie, trying to speak indifferently in spite with the fatalism of the Orient. I do not

of his impatience at his friend's tardiness.

believe that it was mere blind chance that
"Aren't you going to open the thing?" led your footsteps through the mist, guid-

Hugh again weighed the letter in his ing you to me in my hour of need, send-
hand; then he shook his head. ing in you a champion, young, clear-
thinking, with sound nerves and a healthy
"Not here, old chap. Judging by the
weight, this is a somewhat lengthy com- body. Surely it was Fate —maybe a Power
munication. I think it would be more even higher — that ordained the appear-

cheerful and comfortable to read it before

ance, at the very moment I was stricken
Besides" — Hugh
a nice bright fire.
down, of the very man whom I should
pointed to the single window of the lab-
have chosen out of all the world as the
dimming one best fitted to carry on the work I had
—
oratory,
dusk "probably
already
be dark it will
in the early
in here
begun. That the work is not free from
before I've and— finished, unless I'm
danger, my own fate will be sufficient

verymuch mistaken— the contents of this

proof; whether the end justifies the risk

packet will not sound any the better for you must judge for yourself. But this
being read in the gloaming." —
much I will say here no mail-clad Cru-
sader knight ever rode forth on a holier
or more righteous cause than the one you
Returning to the library, they lighted
will follow in ridding the earth of the
the lamp, drew the curtains and set
a match which was ready laid
to the fire
Terror of the Moor.

in the grate. Then and then only did "It would be both tedious and unnec-
Hugh break the seal, draw forth several essary to give even a brief account of my
closely written sheets of foolscap, and eventful life; suffice to say that the out-
commence to read: break of war in 1914 found me a lecturer
"Dear Doctor: on chemistry at a university in the North
"When you read these lines I shall be of England. I soon found my post a
dead (or I have disappeared, which
shall sinecure, however, for the whole of the
practically amounts to the same thing) students joined the army in a body one
and you may regard what I have to state afternoon, and I was left facing rows of
as a revelation coming from the grave. empty benches. I myself was too old
Considering the very short time I have for military service; so I transferred my
known you, it will undoubtedly come as a activities to a munition factory that had
surprize to you that I should single you been newly opened in the neighborhood,
out as my confidant. But you may be- and for the next six months or so I was
lieve me when I say that I have not re- employed in the simple routine work of
posed this trust in you because my time checking the purity of the various chem-
is short and I have little choice in the mat- icals used in the manufacture of explo-
ter. I flatter myself that I am a keen and sives. The work, though of course re-
 —

360 WEIRD TALES

sponsible and fairly dangerous, was not repeated the words slowly and emphat-
hard in itself, and I frequently found my- ically, 'in no way official. You must make

self compelled to wait for hours in the up your mind to regard me as merely be-
great, well-equipped laboratory with ing a certain Mr. Jones, a private and
nothing whatever to do. undistinguished Englishman who has the
was during these periods that I be-
"It welfare of his country at heart. Is that

gan make a few experiments on my

to quite clear?'

own account, and as a result I was able " 'Quite.'

to suggest some minor improvements " "Then be pleased to follow me.'
both in the mode of handling and the
actual proportions of the ingredients "A big limousine was waiting a few
used. But beyond a mere formal ac- yards away, the door held open by a
knowledgment of my communications, liveried footman whose stature quite
the War Office took no notice, and I dwarfed my
companion. As we emerged
quite thought that my
were repos-
letters into the station courtyard, two other cars
ing in some dusty pigeon-hole, when, on started into motion, taking up their posi-

the twenty-third of April, 1915, I re- tion one ahead and one behind the car

ceived an urgent and imperative order to we were in, and my wonder grew as I
proceed to London. noted the burly forms and watchful eyes
of their occupants. 'Mr. Jones' might
"Upon my arrival at King's Cross Sta-
modestly proclaim himself an ordinary
tion I was met by an eminent statesman,
private citizen, but it was evident that he
a man whose features the cartoonist and
camera-man have made familiar to every
had the resources of Scotland Yard at his
beck and call.
inhabitant of the Kingdom.
" 'Professor Marie, I presume?' he "The three cars turned west, zigzag-
said, coming forward with outstretched ging through the mean streets which lie
hand. between King's Cross and New Oxford
"In the shock of surprize I blurted out Street", and as we headed south I made
hisname, but he immediately shook his sure that we were bound for Downing
head in smiling remonstrance. Street. But we skirted the north side of
" 'I fear I can not lay claim to such a Trafalgar Square, swinging down the
—
famous name' even at the time I noted darkened Mall, leaving Buckingham Pal-
the ambiguous nature of his disclaimer ace on our right. There was a traffic

'A moment's reflection should convince block opposite Victoria Station, but a
you that you have been misled by a chance brief, silent signal from the leading car
resemblance.' He spoke coolly, but the cleared a way as ifby magic, and a few
twinkle in his eye told me that I was not minutes later we were heading down the
intended to take his word too literally. King's Road at racing speed. I caught
"As a matter of fact, you must consider a glimpse of the river as we passed over
me as belonging to the good old Welsh Putney Bridge, but lost my bearings com-
'

family of "Jones." pletely in the dimly lighted suburban

" An extensive clan,' I said, falling in roads beyond. When at last we pulled
with his humor. And
what might your up before a large country mansion, I

business be with me, Mr. Jones?' knew that I must be somewhere in the
" 'Important, but in no way official. I neighborhood of Richmond, but that was
hope you understand that perfectly.' He all.
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 361

"^T^ HE door swung open as we ascend- of that sheet when I sent that letter to
-i- ed the front steps, and I was ush- you.'
ered into a cheerful dining-room where " 'I can well believe that!' Mr. Jones
a rneal lay already spread. Mr. Jones smiled somewhat grimly. "It's extremely
was a brilliant talker, and throughout the fortunate that the communication did not
meal he kept up a flow of interesting fall into However, I have
other hands.
conversation, without, however, once not brought you here to call you over the
hinting at the nature of the business coals for being so careless. It is rather
which he had brought me there to dis- to ask you for a friendly explanation of
cuss. It was only when we had adjourned what was in your mind when you made
to the smoking-room, with one detective those notes.'
patrolling the gravel walk in front of the " 'You know the meaning of the for-
windows and another keeping watch in mula:?'
the passage outside the door, that he
"Mr. Jones nodded his gray head.
placed his hand in his pocket and pro-
'Naturally, in these days, when every
duced a small sheet of paper.
newspaper is full of the spy peril, we
" 'Did you write that?' he asked in a should not allow a set of mysterious-
conversational tone. looking letters and figures to pass through
"I nodded, wondering what was com- our hands without wanting to know the
ing next. For the thing was merely one meaning of Within an hour of its
it.

of the letters that I had sent to the Min- was in the hands of a
receipt, that letter
istry of Munitions, suggesting a quite government analyst. But his report only
minor and unimportant modification of seemed to deepen the mystery. He states
the formula of one of the stock explo- that the first three formulas respectively
sives. But before I could frame the ques- represent creatine, inosite, and albumen
tion that was in my mind, he turned the —three organic substances which are to
sheet over and pointed to some chemical be found in every human body; while the
symbols scribbled in pencil on the back. last three combinations of symbols rep-
" "And this too, resent gun-cotton, nitro-glycerin, and the
I presume?' he went

on, watching me keenly the while. newly invented devastite three of the —
"I took the paper in my hand and read: most powerful explosives known to sci-
C4H N 7 3 2
. OH 12 3
. C 216
H N
338 51
S5 63
. ence.'
C12H 14 4
(N0 3
)
6
. OH (NO 5 3
)
8
. There " 'Yet the same chemical elements oc-
was a sixth combination of symbols, but cur in each!' I said slowly. 'Carbon,
this I must not divulge, even to you; so, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen —com-
for the purpose of this narrative, I will bined in certain proportions they form
refer to it simply as the 'X Formula.' substances, not only innocuous in them-
"In a flash I realized what had hap- selves, but substances that are absolutely
pened. I must have been jotting down vital to thehuman organism. Combine
some notes respecting my experiments, the same elements in different propor-
and I had inadvertently used the same tions, and you have the deadliest explo-
sheet of paper on which to write my let- sives!'
ter to the ministry. " 'My God!
" 'That every
—you mean to say
'

'
was forced to admit, 'that is
'Yes,' I human being is a poten-
my handwriting. But I certainly had no tial living bomb!'
idea that there was anything on the back "The effect of my words was electrical.
 —

362 ^EIRD TALES

The man who would have faced a hostile would see a holocaust such as the world
House without a tremor now sank into has never known.'
his chair, deathly white and unnerved. It
did not need more explanation to enable "Tj^or a long time my companion
his keen, far-seeing brain to visualize the -F looked at me without speaking. 'So
awful possibilities of my discovery. Yet that was your idea?'
I could see that he was struggling to dis- "I felt myself flush at his tone. 'It cer-
believe me, tainly was my idea, but I abandoned it.'

" 'It — it's incredible!' he gasped at " 'Why?' he asked quickly.

last. 'Why, if what you say is true
'
" 'It was too horrible, too fiendish, too
'

'Why waste words? Words may

' frightful
" 'Frightful?' He pounced on the word
sway the thoughts and actions of men,
but the most transcendent eloquence is like a swooping hawk. 'Do you know
powerless to affect the elements of nature. who has taught us that word? Who has
Compare those sets of symbols, and tell advocated the doctrine of ruthless fright-
me honestly —without
if you the assist- fulness, backing up with specious argu-
it

ance of a chemical expert— could say off- ments that the most terrible weapons are
hand which represents, say, creatine, the the most merciful because they make the

crystalline substance which is contained struggle of opposing nations shorter? Our

in your own muscles at this present mo- foes have taught us that and now they —
ment, and the high explosive which goes shall be confounded by their own text

by the name of devastite. Consider again "hoist with their own petard" in real

that the very air we breathe consists of earnest! Put whatever price you please
four-fifths of nitrogen —and it is scarcely on your own services we must have that —
necessary to remind a man occupying your gas! I hope, I pray that we may never
post that nitrogen forms the basic prin- need to employ it, but we must have it
ciple of almost every explosive known. or the knowledge of its preparation — to

Then ask yourself whether it is beyond use as a last resort.'

the power of modern science to make "I will not weary you with a recapit-
practical use of those facts. I know that ulation of the arguments he employed

you will probably remind me, in your before I consented to renew my re-
turn, that the use of that particular ex- searches. But I made one stipulation.
plosive, devastite, has been discontinued The secret of the gas must remain in my
because it has been found liable to own possession, contained in a sealed en-
detonate spontaneously through decom- velope that would only be handed to him
position. But my answer is, that such a when I was convinced that no other alter-

defect is a defect only so long as the native remained than the complete de-

explosive is within our lines — the mo- struction of the British Empire. But for-

ment it is within the enemy lines, the tunately I was not called upon to make

more easily it explodes the better! Each that momentous decision, for when the
soldier in the vast armies arrayed against United States of America became our
us contains within himself the means of allies there was very little doubt as to the
his own destruction. It but needs one ultimate result of the war.
single element, harmless in itself, to be "The peril has passed — but has it

incorporated in a gas and sent over the passed for all time? If I could have
enemy trenches, and the next few hours answered that question with an unhesitant
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 363

affirmative, I would have committed the disengaged hand and glanced at the con-
secret to the flames. But ever at the back ical bullets which nestled in the chambers
of my mind there lurked a fear that the of the cylinder. "See what sort of artil-
world might be confronted with another, lery the red-headed chap's got in the back
"
even graver, crisis, when the possession of his pants
of my secret would be the deciding factor "Look here, old sport," remonstrated
between victory and defeat. For you may Ronnie, "not so much of the 'red-headed
rest assured that whoever holds the sealed chap.' I know I'm not exactly a bru-
packet, which I hereby give into your nette, but "
hands, holds in his hands the destiny of "Shut up! You'll have plenty of time to
mankind. Guard it, I entreat you, as a squawk when " The rest of his remark
sacred trust; assomething even dearer was drowned in Ronnie's sudden cackle
than life. For, once it falls into the of laughter as the searcher inserted his
hands of the emissaries of a nation whose fingers beneath his armpits. "What's the
ambition is the domination of the world, game now? Getting hysterical?"
carnage and hideous chaos will follow as
"
"No — ticklish. I never could bear any
surely as the night follows day, and one to touch me there. If you do not de-
A harsh command cut through Tren- sist, I shall give one long scream and bite
chard's voice like the stroke of an ax: your face. I will — if it poisons me!"
"Up with your hands —both of you!" "Stow your jaw," ordered the searcher
Three shadowy holding a
figures, each roughly. "Where do you pack your gat?"
levelled revolver, stood in the doorway. Ronnie looked pained.
"Gat? What
vulgarity of terminology!
15
We always it as a 'lethal weapon'
refer to

The grim command, backed as it was

by muzzles of three weapons trained
in our Well, if you're going to
set.

probe my anatomy until you find one,

with such deadly accuracy as to make you'll wear your fingers into fists before
them appear like so many circles of steel, you get the gat I haven't got. If you
leftno alternative but to obey. Hugh manage to find anything on me more
and Ronnie raised their hands above deadly than a fountain-pen I'll present
their heads. you with a fiver for your trouble."
"Keep 'em there, and don't move ex- The searcher paused and glanced round
cept as I tell you," said the man who had at the man who appeared to be the lead-
spoken before; to his companions he er of the party.
added, but without turning his head: "You heard that, sir?" he asked in a
"Keep the red-headed chap covered, tone of virtuous triumph. "I call on you
Dawson; I'll see that the other one be- to witness that he offered me a bribe in
haves himself. Regan, give 'em a frisk." the execution of my duty."
One of the men stepped forward and "Your duty?" gasped Hugh, a light
ran his hands lightly over Hugh's cloth- beginning to dawn on him. "You don't
ing. In a very few seconds he had found mean to tell me that you are policemen?"
and removed the revolver which Hugh "By no means," was the answer, given
had carried in his hip pocket ever since somewhat stiffly. "We are detectives be-
the death of Silas Marie. longing to the Special Investigation
"Well heeled, eh?" The spokesman Branch of Scotland Yard. I am Detec-
of the party took up the weapon with his tive-Inspector Renshaw, and it is my duty
 —

364 WEIRD TALES

to takeyou into custody for being on en- Hugh laughed.
closed premises at night for a supposed "Oh, I'm getting used to scares since
unlawful purpose. And it is my duty to coming down here for a quiet holiday."
warn you that anything you may say may "The rest cure hasn't been a success,
"
be taken down and eh?" Inspector Renshaw nodded in a
"Oh, my sacred aunt!" wailed Ronnie, manner that was intended to convey sym-
suddenly collapsing in the nearest chair pathy. "We've heard all about the funny
and hiding his face in his hands. business that has been going on here, and
" The for the past few days the place has been
used in evidence." inspec-
tor produced a note-book. "I'll trouble under observation. When my man re-

you for your names and the last addresses ported that he'd seen two men enter, I
at which you slept." rushed over at once, and thought I'd got
Ronnie's shoulders ceased shaking as a capture."
he rose to his feet. "You must have hustled," Ronnie put
"Put down the red-headed chap as Au- in, speaking in a tone of admiring re-
burn Harry, of Wapping," he said grave- spect. "Unless you were camping some-
ly. "You know — the man who strangled where on the Moor, you must have start-

policemen with his bare hands. My ed soon after we entered this house.
five
accomplice in crime
— 'pal' is the correct am rather curious to know how your man
I

term, I believe
"
— is Cross-eyed Dick, of managed to tip you off so promptly."
Shadwell The inspector shrugged and permitted
"Shut up, you ass!" Hugh interrupt- himself a cryptic smile.
ed; then he turned to the detectives. "I'm "Oh, we have our methods, sir," he
afraid there have been mistakes on both said with an air of mystery. "Some peo-
sides, inspector. You apparently took us ple are very fond of sneering at us and
for a couple of crooks, and your dramatic hinting that the mental development of
entry certainly made us think you were the C. D. got atrophied somewhere in
I.

three gentlemen of the same kidney. As the Mid- Victorian era. They are apt to
a matter of fact, I am Doctor Trenchard, remember our failures and forget the fact
the present owner of this house, and this that Scotland Yard delivers the goods
is my friend, Doctor Brewster." in the shape of the wanted man nine —
Inspector Renshaw looked at him half times out of ten. We don't advertise
incredulously. "I suppose you have some every new invention we adopt, but I can
proof of what you say?" he asked at tell —
you this at one hour's notice I could
length. get enough men here to search every
"Not here, I'm afraid. But Mr. An- square yard of this Moor, big as it is."
drew Shale, Marie's solicitor, will vouch "That's the stuff to give 'em!" cried
for me, as will also Sergeant Jopling of Ronnie approvingly. "I bet you've got
the local police." a wireless set, and a few airplanes, and
half-a-dozen tanks up your sleeve some-

The
mate
inspector did not verbally inti-
was satis-
that the explanation
where! I thought I and my friend were
going to enjoy a nice little spook-hunt all

was eloquent. He
factory, but his action on our own, but now you've come in, all
handed the revolver back to Hugh. we'll have to do is sit tight and read all
"Hope we didn't scare you with our about it in the papers. Of course you
gun-play, sir." have a theory?"
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 365

Inspector Renshaw gave a non-commit- oratory staff of the Royal Arsenal, Wool-
tal shrug. wich. But it was very seldom that I en-
"I don't set much store on theories tered the gates of that establishment, for
when I can get hold of solid facts. You I quickly realized that my work was too
seem have got hold of a few," he made
to hazardous to be carried on in the same
a gesturetoward the sheets of manuscript vicinity where large quantities of explo-
on the table. "I suppose you have been sives were being manufactured and
going through the dead man's papers?" stored. I looked out for a spot, lonely
"As he had a perfect right to do," Ron- and remote from human habitations, and
nie interposed briskly, "seeing that the at last I decided to buy a dilapidated and

whole of Silas Marie's property devolves reputedly ghost-haunted house known as

" Moor Lodge, situated on the most des-
on him
"Of course, of course," Inspector Ren- olate part of Exmoor.

shaw hastened to say. "My remark was "Needless to say, I did not go out of
not intended as a criticism of your action, my way to refute the grisly legends re-
Doctor Trenchard. I was merely anxious specting the old house, for I counted on
to know if you have found anything that them ensuring me the seclusion I so much
will shed light on the mysterious happen- desired. One of the rooms I fitted up as
ings here." a laboratory, and there I labored to con-
"Well, not directly," Hugh answered, vert my dream into a tangible, practicable
after a pause during which he did some reality.

hard thinking. "The only salient facts "No galley-slave ever toiled harder at
contained in the papers I have already his oar than I toiled at my bench during
read are that Marie was a chemist who the first three months. We lived here
had made a special study of the chemical alone, my dear wife and I, and sometimes
warfare which the late War brought into whole weeks would go by without either
being, and had invented a novel and at — of us seeing a strange face. She knew
—
any rate theoretically effective method that I was engaged in confidential work
of wholesale slaughter. You are quite for the government, but little did she
welcome to hear the remainder of his nar- guess the nature of that work!
rative, warn you I shall
but I skip any "But gradually the strain began to tell
passage which appears to be of a private on me. I was far from being a young
or personal nature." man, and in addition to my experiments
"That's fair enough," assented Ren- I was obliged to perform the rough work

shaw. To his subordinates he added: of the house; for my wife was not strong
"You two keep watch outside and see physically, though nothing could have
we are not disturbed."
that exceeded her love and devotion to me.
It was almost impossible to hire a domes-

When selves,
they had the
Hugh
room to
took up the thread of
them- tic servant at that time, when
of earning high wages was tempting every
the prospect

Silas Marie's story: able-bodied girl to the munition factories;

"My conditions were accepted without even in normal times I doubt whether any
the slightest demur. I was to be given local girl would have consented to spend
an absolutely free hand in making my re- a single night in a house with such a
searches, but, merely as a matter of form, ghostly reputation as Moor Lodge. I

I was entered on the pay-roll of the lab- even journeyed to Plymouth and inter-
 I

366 WEIRD TALES

viewed several discharged soldiers and
, gered forward and would have fallen if
sailors who had been disabled in the war. I had not caught him in time.
But they all seemed too intelligent for
"When I my arms round him I got
put
—
my purpose I simply dared not risk hav- a shock. The man was nothing but skin
ing a man on the premises who might so
and bone, and when I lifted him he
much as guess at the nature of the work weighed no heavier than a large child.
on which I was employed.
Things were
at a deadlock when Fate brought to my
He —
was starved not 'starved with the
cold,' as they say hereabouts, but literally
door the very man I needed.
starved with hunger. I got him into the
"No doubt you will call to mind how living-room, pulled him round with a
severe the weather was in the winter of stiff glass of brandy, then ransacked the
'16-' 17.

in the war.
It was by far the worst winter
The ponds and wells were
larder and watched him eat. Eat! —
thought he would never stop eating, and
frozen solid, and the very earth seemed as he wolfed the platefuls I took a good
blighted with the intense cold. Toward look at him.
evening, on one of the bitterest days, I
was working in the laboratory when there
came a light, timid tap on the front door. is age could not have been more
The sound was so unusual in that desolate than eighteen or twenty, but he
region that for a moment I attributed it
was and big-made and when in his
tall

to a fall of half-melted snow from the usual health he must have been unusually

roof; but presently there came another strong. His hair was fair and inclined
tap, this time accompanied by a low, half- to be curly, and I judged by its length
that some considerable time had elapsed
articulate moan. I caught up the nearest
weapon handy —which happened be to a
since
a
it

military
had last

barber.
received the attentions of
His features were
short iron bar which had been using
I as
a poker for my furnace— and made my prominent, but not unpleasing — indeed,

way to the door. Outside was a man had it not been for the curious expression
dressed in a ragged and mud-plastered in his eyes he might have been considered
khaki uniform. The badges and buttons handsome. I find it difficult to convey
had been roughly torn off, so that the that expression in w ords.
It was at once
T

tunic was open, showing the gray shirt wary, alert, and restless. But
shifting,

beneath. He wore no cap, and his hands the only way in which I can make my

and face were blue with the cold. meaning clear is to describe it as an
" 'Hullo!' I said, staring at him. —
animal look not that which one sees in
"He was leaning against the door-post, the eyes of an intelligent dog, or even a

as though for support, and at the sound cat, or any domesticated animal; rather

of my voice he raised two deeply sunken, was it the look of instinctive hostility and

lack-luster eyes to mine. distrustwhich one may see in die eyes of

" 'Hullo, matey,' he responded weakly. a wild beast, untamed and untamable, as
it roams its native wilds. I took but little
'What are you doing here?' I de-
'

manded. 'You'll catch your death of cold heed of this strange trait at the time,
if you go about half dressed in this naturally attributing it to the hardships

weather.' which he had obviously undergone. Later

" 'I'm half dead already, matey;' and on I had good reason to recall it to mind.
as though to prove his words, he stag- "When he had cleared his plate for
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 367

the third time, I began to put a few ques- passed unnoticed in the perfunctory ex-
tions : amination to which recruits were subject-
" "What's your name?' ed in the latter days of the war.
" 'Jake.' "By degrees I got his story from him.
" 'Jake The of the
what?' length Of course he was a deserter, though to do
pause which followed my question him bare justice he seemed quite uncon-
warned me that the answer was likely to scious of the gravity of his offense —or,
be a lie. indeed, that he had committed any of-
" 'Jake Thomas Smith.' fense at all. He had simply got tired of
" 'Have you any more names?' que-
I his and the irksome re-
surroundings,
ried sarcastically, and to my surprize he straints on and had wandered
his liberty,
nodded. drawing him to the great
off, his instinct
" 'The blokes in my platoon call me open moors, living on herbs and roots,
"Crazy Jake",' he informed me solemnly. and scraps that he could find or steal,
"I looked hard at him, suspecting that until the intense cold had beaten him.
I was being paid back in my own coin. "
'And what do you intend to do?' I
But he went on unconcernedly finishing asked him when he had finished his vague
up the remaining scraps of food, cracking and rambling tale.
the bones with his strong teeth, the ca- "He gave me a vacant stare. 'I dun-
nines of which were unusually long and no,' was the extent of his future plans.
pointed. When he licked up every scrap " 'Do you know what they'll do to you
of gravy off his plate, just like a dog, I if they catch you, Jake?'
began to glimpse something of the truth. " 'Make me slope arms by numbers?'

He was one of those rare examples of His accompanying grimace was eloquent
extreme atavism, a throw-back to prim- of his distaste for that form of exercise.
itive types, an unlucky being who had
" 'They'll do more than that, my poor

been cursed with more than his fair share lad. They will shoot you.'
of the thin streak of animalism which is " 'Me?' he cried with a sort of simple

the compulsory legacy of the human race. wonder. 'Shoot me dead?'

Later on, when I had the opportunity of " 'Dead as mutton,' I had to tell him.

examining him more closely, I found that " 'Why?' he demanded in an aggrieved
he was able to exercise those muscles tone. 'I never hurt 'em —
I never hurt a

(represented in the normal man as mere fly.'

rudimentary survivals) which move the " 'That's just the trouble, Jake. You
ears; his sense of smell was unusually became a soldier in order to hurt people.
keen; his eyes possessed the power of re- That's what a soldier is for in time of
flecting the light in exactly the same man- —
war to hurt soldiers wearing another
ner as the eyes of certain species of car- sort of uniform —
or to get hurt by them.'
nivores. It came
something of a shock
as I tried to explain the matter as best I

to think that such a man had been accept- could, but after I had finished I very
ed for military service, but, after all, there much doubted whether the enormity of
was nothing wrong with him in a phys- his offense had penetrated his intelli-

ical sense. On the contrary, as is so often gence. Not that he was an idiot in the
the case with these reversions, the man ordinary sense of the word; I classed him
was exceptionally strong and active, and as a 'mattoid,' a man whose brain could
his peculiar mental traits might well have not be gaged by comparison with ordinary
 6

368 WEIRD TALES

standards. He
might be trained, and leave it. I had provided him with a suit
taught to perform certain tasks, much in of clothes such as might be worn by a lad
the same manner as an intelligent dog working on a farm, and he was accus-
goes through certain tricks. More than tomed to spend his hours off duty roam-
that, he might be capable of having cer- ing freely about the Moor. One evening
tain fixed and elementary ideas instilled he came home at dusk, after having been
into him by simple repetition; for later on absent most of the day, took off his coat,
I had good reason to know that he pos- and began to sweep out the laboratory
sessed an unusually retentive memory. where I was still working. At first I took
But beyond that, and as far as original no notice of him, but presently I began to
and self-conscious thought and reasoning see that he was not giving much attention
were concerned, his mind was an absolute to what he was doing. Every now and
blank. And as I realized the fact, I knew then he would stop sweeping and furtive-
that here was the very sen-ant I had been ly take something from his trousers pock-

praying for — strong, willing, docile, and et, glance at it, polish it on his sleeve,

no more capable of understanding the examine it again, and then transfer it to

work on which I was engaged than was a his pocket and go on sweeping. Secret-
horse or a dog. ly amused, I watched his antics for a
while out of the corner of my eye, and
SAT up late that night, watching Jake when he was admiring the thing for the
sleeping curled up on the floor in umteenth time, I purposely made a sud-
front of the fire, debating with myself den movement. Jake tried to conceal his
whether I should turn him over to the treasure, but in his hurry to replace it in
military authorities or keep him myself. his pocket the thing slipped out of his
In the end I decided that he would be hand, falling on the stone floor with a
serving his country more effectively by jingle that was unmistakable. It was a
doing the menial work of Moor Lodge brightly polished five-shilling piece.
than by endangering his own life, and " 'Hullo, Jake,' I laughed. 'I didn't
the lives of all around him, by handling know you were a moneyed man. Where
a loaded and experimenting with
rifla did you get that from? Have you been
Mills's bombs. In the morning I put the robbing a bank or something?' For I
matter to him, and he was only too glad knew well enough that he had not had
to stay with me. He soon picked up the any money when he arrived.
routine of his simple duties, and for a "Instead of saying that he'd found it—
time all went well. My experiments pro-
ceeded apace. I succeeded in isolating
which I quite thought he had —he jibbed
at my question and stood silent, his hands
the missing element and gasefying it in a
fumbling with the broom-handle while he
form that could not be detected when shifted his feet uneasily, the very picture
mingled with the ordinary atmosphere. of conscious guilt.
Complete success was within my very '
'Where did you get that money
grasp when I was brought up short by an from?' I repeated more sternly. 'Did you
unexpected and disquieting discovery. steal it?'

"You must understand that I had never "He bridled up at that. 'Jake is not
attempted to keep Jake confined to the a thief!' he declared, looking me full in

—
house indeed, I doubt whether he would the face.
" 'Then
have obeyed me had I forbidden him to where did you get it from?'
W. T.—
 7

THE TEAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 369

:<
" 'Some one give it me,' he said at 'Sing one to me,' I said, struck by a
length. sudden idea, 'and I'll give you another
" 'Who's the some one?' five shillings.'
" 'A man.' "He needed no further inducement,
" "What man?' but immediately put down the broom and
" "The man that lives in the big house.' struck up one of the very unofficial
"His evident reluctance to answer only marching tunes that he'd learnt in camp.
increased my suspicions that something But it wasn't the tune that caused the col-
was wrong. I kept questioning him until or to drain away from my face and my
I learnt that 'the big house' was the place heart to be filled with a sickening horror
which is now known as 'The Torside Pri- — it was the doggerel words which he had
vate Sanatorium.' Turning this piece of adopted in place of the quasi-French of
information over in my mind, I handed the original. They were a crude but rec-
him back his coin, and as he dropped it ognizable parody of the chemical equation
into his pocket I heard it jingle against which represented the composition of my
other money. secret explosive!
" 'Ah, have you got many of those "In a flash I realized what had hap-
pretty bits of silver, Jake?' I asked care- pened. Underrating the creature's intel-
lessly, pretending to resume my work as ligence and forgetting his marvelously
though the matter were of no importance. retentive memory, I had not troubled to

"He fell into the trap at once. He was keep my notes out of sight. Somebody
unable to count, but he proudly held up had got hold of him and bribed him to
the outstretched fingers of one hand. learn them off by heart and who was—
'
'Five, eh?' I commented with forced likely to do such a thing except a secret

geniality. 'He must be a nice, kind man enemy agent? Cold sweat broke out on
to give away all that money. Do you my forehead as I saw how narrowly irre-
think he might give me some?' trievable disaster had been averted. Once
" 'Not all at once,' Jake explained in- the secret of the gas was in the hands of

jaocently. 'He only gives me one at a the enemy, it would be a mere matter of
time.' days —perhaps only hours —before their

"Oh-ho! thought I, so he has been at immense and well-equipped system of

the 'big house' four times before today. gas-producing factories would enable
The mystery was deepening! them to wipe out the Allied Armies en
" 'I think I'll have to pay a visit to this masse. At that time it was known in of-
kind gentleman who gives money away,' ficial circles that the German guns were
I smiled. 'I've been wanting to meet firing more than fifty per cent of gas and
some one like that all my life.' war-chemical shells, besides using their

'You'll have to sing first,' said Jake,

' apparatus for cloud attacks and batteries
eyeing me as though doubtful as to my of short-range Liven's projectors. Was
vocal abilities. it likely they would refuse to use this new
" 'What?' I cried. and terrible weapon when once it lay
:

'
'I always have to sing before he ready to their hands?
gives me anything.' "Steadying myself with an effort, I
:

"
'And what on earth do you sing?' I turned to the innocent cause of all the
asked, utterly bewildered. trouble:
" 'Songs,' grunted '
'So that was the song you sang to the
Jake.
W. T.—
370 WEIRD TALES
nice gentleman at the big house, eh? Did 'Tonight, after supper,' he answered,
'

he seem to think that it was worth the and with those words he sealed his own
money?' fate.

"Jake shook his head. 'No, he was "There could be no turning back now;
angry and said I must have learnt it one man must be sacrificed in order that
wrong. He said he wanted to hear the humanity might be spared a scourge such
last song that was in that book,' and he as has never fallen on it since theworld
pointed to the large note-book in which I was evolved. What was one single life
entered the results of my experiments. —and such a life! —compared with the
millions of clear-minded, sentient beings
"A wave of relief swept over me as I who would dissolve in smoke and flame
-i\ realized that the fool had not yet if he were allowed to reach the big house
betrayed the secret; yet he must now that night? During the hour which
know the final and ultimate formula, for elapsed before supper-time I probed my
he had just repeated But the
it to me. soul as I had never probed it before,
explanation was not far to seek: he had weighing the matter, sifting each argu-
taken another look at the book and mem- ment for or against, as meticulously as
orized the last formula since he had re- did any judge before assuming the black
turned that evening. So far, my secret cap. Ishrunk from my task with horror,
was safe; but how long would it remain but I went through with it to the bitter
so after Jake had paid another visit to the end.
"big house'? "Its actual accomplishment was sim-
"That visit must be prevented at all_ plicity itself. A few drops of the color-
costs.But how? If he chose to quit the less liquidpoured into the mug of cider
house that minute, I had no power to that he always drank at supper, and the

stop him, How could I ensure the silence thing was done. It only remained to get
of a creature of such mentality unless I him well away from the house without
silenced him for ever? For ever! I felt delay.
"
myself trembling as a thought flashed 'Your friend will be waiting for you,
through my mind as a blinding electric Jake,' I reminded him.
" 'Aye, so he will.' He rose and took
flash traverses a vacuum tube. Within the
reach of my arm was a phial containing a up his cap. 'Good-night, sir.'
" 'Good-bye, Jake,' I answered, adding
liquid preparation of the deadly formula.
So far it had never been on a living
tried under my breath, 'and God help you!'
organism, but here —
forced on me by "I allowed him five minutes' start, then
circumstances over which I had had no hurried on my overcoat and followed.
control —was the opportunity to test its Outside, the night was dark and forbid-
efficiency in a practical manner and at the ding, with the sky overcast by a murky
same time ensure the silence of the only which shrouded the face of
veil of cloud
man likely to betray it to the enemy. the moon. Beforeme stretched the Moor,
"Averting my head lest my very ex- a waste of empty blackness, devoid of
pression should betray the sinister project even a film of low-lying mist to denote
I had in mind, I addressed Jake: 'When the winding combes which ran between
have you arranged to see the kind gentle- the rocky tors. As I made my way along
man again?' I asked as carelessly as I the well-defined track I seemed to be
could. -J walking through an infinity of shadows.
 THE TRAIL OF THE CLOVEN HOOF 571

The only sounds which broke the eery or evolve a system of perpetual motion?
stillness were the slight crunching of the Throwing aside all caution in my desire
gravel beneath my hurrying footsteps and to know what had happened, I pressed
the far-off mournful cries of a flock of onward almost at a run. Nor did I
wandering sea-gulls. pause or slacken speed when my onward
"When the slope of the ground told progress brought into sight a single pin-

me that I had passed the brow of the point of light, telling me that the inmates

ridge, I glanced at the illuminated dial of the Sanatorium were awake and stir-

of my watch and saw that twenty minutes ring.

had elapsed since I had administered the "Then, slowly but inexorably, the con-
drug to Jake. This told me little, for I viction was forced on me that my experi-
had not the slightest idea how long the —
ment had failed that, though theoret-
stuff would take to work. I walked more ically flawless, it had proved useless when
slowly down the slope, and only quick- subjected to the acid test of practise — and
ened my pace to mount the farther side I can truthfully say that my first emotion
of the combe in order to get a view of was a feeling of profound relief.
the path ahead. Not that I could see " 'Thank God, the formula is harm-
anything in that pall of darkness as yet,
less!' I cried, and laughed aloud in the
but I wanted to have an uninterrupted
darkness. 'Let him tell the spy the secret
view of what was about to happen. Of
—and much good may do him! have it I
course, I had not caught sight of Jake
since quitting the house, but I knew that
—but again thank God and am
failed I

content. At least, humanity has been

the path I had followed was the only '
spared the menace of
means of his reaching 'the big house.'
Somewhere in the darkness ahead he "Coming from a spot barely a hundred
must be hurrying along, his poor brain yards ahead, a flash of blood-red fire

filled with childish delight at the pros- stabbed the night, and the fraction of a
pect of soon possessing another big, shin- second later a dull, muffled concussion
ing coin; as blissfully unconscious of his smote my ears. It was the death-khell of
impending fate as are the microscopic in- —
Crazy Jake! that was my one conscious
fusoria before the drop of sterilizing thought as I stood, stunned by the awful

solution wipes them out of existence. manner in which my theory had been
proved. It was some minutes before I

could pull myself together.

T last I reached the summit of the
'A high tor from which I knew I "Prudence warned me to leave the
could command a view almost to the spot as soon as possible, for it was but a
gates of the house for which Jake was short distance to the spy's house and he
making. I paused and glanced at my could not have failed to hear the explo-
watch again. I started when I saw that a sion. Yet a horrible fascination, an ir-
full hour had elapsed widiout anything resistible desire to look upon my fell
happening. Had the experiment failed? handiwork, drew me onward as a mag-
Was the whole thing nothing but an net draws a needle. Almost before I was
empty, impracticable dream? Had my aware of what I was doing the danger —
days and nights of labor been wasted in a I was courting in risking being seen near
quest as useless and futile as those of the the spot —
I found myself running for-
madman who strove to square the circle wara, my eyes following the dancing
 W'vsairt^ ,

372 WEIRD TALES

beam of my flashlight as it searched the explain the facts —
that the remains had
ground. been carried off and devoured by some
"I will not harrow your feelings by de- prowling animal. Gradually my fears
scribing the sight which finally met my became lulled into a sense of security.
eyes. Sufficient to say that the explosion Whether his remains were above ground
had expended its force downward, in pre- or below, Crazy Jake was dead and un-
cisely the same manner as dynamite does. recognizable by this time, I argued with
The whole of the lower portion of his myself, and his secret had perished with
body had been blown to atoms, but the him. My fears slept so soundly that the
upper part of his chest, his arms and rude shock of their awakening almost un-
head, were comparatively uninjured. One settled my reason.
look was enough —
more than enough! I "It happened like this: It was a night
snapped off my flashlight and fled. . . . in winter, six months, almost to the very
day, after the affair that I have just de-

"~%T ou can well imagine the eagerness scribed. It was intensely cold, and the

X with which I scanned the first snow, which had fallen heavily through-
newspapers I could get hold of. But out the day, lay thick upon the ground.
there was no account in the morning pa- But I was cozy enough, sitting in my
per of a mutilated body being found, nor easy-chair in front of a roaring fire in the
in the next morning's, nor the next. As library of Moor Lodge, with my pipe
the days lengthened into weeks without alight and a recently published scientific
a single hint of the tragedy, my relief volume on my lap. My wife had retired
gave place to wonder, and finally to a early in consequence of a slight chill, and
vague, nameless fear. Had I not seen I was alone.

the uninjured half of Jake's body lying "A faint, fumbling sound at the win-
in the roadway, I should have dismissed dow made me glance up, though there
the matter with the assumption that it was nothing more in my mind than a
had been completely destroyed by the ex- mere idle curiosity as to the origin of the
plosion. But the Moor is not so utterly sound. But the moment I rested my eyes
deserted that such an object could remain on the casement I felt my limbs grow stiff
unnoticed in the public highway for any with stark, paralyzing terror.
length of time. It must have been re- "Gazing fixedly at me through the
moved on the same night when the trag- glass, his face and figure clear and unmis-
edy occurred. But by whom? And for takable in the bright rays of the moon,
what purpose? But as the months went —
was Crazy fake the man whom I had last
by without a single hint or rumor of the seen a hideously maimed corpse, blown
affair being brought to light I could only literally in halves by the terrible fulmina-
come to the conclusion —a fantastic one, tor whose secret he had been about to be-
maybe, but the only theory that would tray!"

Professor Felger's attempts to obtain possession of the formula ma\e

next month's installment of this story one of many
thrills. Don't miss it.
 v a

3k
ale Man
By JULIUS LONG
/4 queer little tale, about the eccentric behavior of a strange
guest in a country hotel

HAVE not yet met the man in No. chosen No. 212 at the extreme rear. The

I 212.
He
I do not even know
never patronizes the hotel
his name.
res-
building is a long, narrow affair three
stories high. The rooms are all on the
taurant, and he does not use the lobby. east side, as the west wall is flush with a
On the three occasions when we passed decrepit business building. The corridor
each other by, we did not speak, although is long and drab, and its stiff, bloated
we nodded in a semi-cordial, noncommit- paper exudes a musty, unpleasant odor.
tal way. I should like very much to make The feeble electric bulbs that light it

his acquaintance. It is lonesome in this shine dimly as from a tomb. Revolted

dreary place. With the exception of the by this corridor, I insisted vigorously
aged lady down the corridor, the only upon being given No. 201, which is at
permanent guests are the man in No. 212 the front and blessed with southern ex-
and myself. However, I should not com- posure. The room clerk, a disagreeable
plain, for this utter quiet is precisely what fellow with a Hitler mustache, was very_
the doctor prescribed. reluctant to let me have it, as it is ordi-

I wonder if the man in No. 212, too, narily reserved for his more profitable

has come here for a rest. He is so very transient trade. I fear my stubborn in-
pale. Yet I can not believe that he is sistence has made him an enemy.
ill, for his paleness is not of a sickly cast, If only I had been as self-assertive
but rather wholesome in its ivory clarity. thirty years ago! I should now be a full-
His carriage is that of a man enjoying the fledged professor instead of a broken-
best of health. He is tall and straight. down assistant. I still smart from the
He walks erectly and with a brisk, ath- cavalier manner in which the president of
letic stride. His pallor is no doubt con- the university summarily recommended
genital, else he would quickly tan under my vacation. No
doubt he acted for my
this burning, summer sun. best interests. The people who have
He must have traveled here by auto, dominated my poor life invariably have.
for he certainly was not a passenger on Oh, well, the summer's rest will prob-
the train that brought me, and he checked ably do me considerable good. It is

in only a short time after my arrival. I pleasant to be away from the university.
had briefly rested in my room and was There is something positively gratifying
walking down the stairs when I encoun- about the absence of the graduate student
teredhim ascending with his bag. It is face.
odd that our venerable bell-boy did not If only it were not so lonely! I must
show him to his room. devise a way of meeting the pale man in
It is odd, too, that, with so many va- No. 212. Perhaps the room clerk can
cant rooms in the hotel, he should have arrange matters.
373
374 WEIRD TALES
1HAVE been here exactly a week, and if he is so desirous of locating himself more
there is a friendly soul in this miser- conveniently in the hotel, why does he not
able little town, he has escaped my notice. move to No. 202, which is the nearest
Although the tradespeople accept my available room to the front?
money with flattering eagerness, they Perhaps I can make his inability to lo-
studiously avoid even the most casual con- cate himself permanently an excuse for
versation. I am afraid I can never culti- starting a conversation. "I see we are
vate their society unless I can arrange to closer neighbors now," I might casually
have my ancestors recognized as local res- say. But that is too banal. I must await
idents for the last hundred and fifty years. a better opportunity.
Despite the coolness of my reception, I
have been frequently venturing abroad.
In the back of my mind I have cherished
HE has done it

cupying No. 209. I am intrigued

again! He is now oc-

hopes that I might encounter the pale man
in No. 211. Incidentally, I wonder why
he has moved from No. 212. There is
certainly little advantage in coming only
one room nearer to the front. I noticed
by his little game. I waste hours trying
to fathom its point. What possible mo-
tive could he have? I should think he
would get on the hotel people's nerves.
I wonder what our combination bellhoo- i.

the change yesterday when I saw him chambermaid thinks of having to pre-
coming out of his new room. pare four rooms for a single guest. If he
We nodded again, and this time I were not stone-deaf, I would ask him. At
thought I detected a certain malign satis- present I feel too exhausted to attempt

faction in his somber, black eyes. He such an enervating conversation.

must know that I am eager to make his I axn tremendously interested in the
acquaintance, yet his manner forbids over- pale man's next move. He must either
tures. he wants to make me go all the
If skip a room or remain where he is, for a
way, he can go to the devil. I am not the permanent guest, a very old lady, occupies
sort to run after anybody. Indeed, the No. 208. She has not budged-from her
surly diffidence of the room clerk has been room since I have been here, and I im-
enough to prevent me from questioning agine that she does not intend to.

him about his mysterious guest. I wonder what the pale man will do. I

await his decision with the nervous excite-

wonder where the pale man takes his ment of a devotee of the track on the eve
I meals. I have been absenting myself of a big race. After all, I have so little
from the hotel restaurant and patronizing diversion.
the restaurants outside. At each I have
ventured inquiries about the man in No. Well, the mysterious guest was not
210. No one at any restaurant remem- forced to remain where he was, nor
bered his having been there. Perhaps he did he have to skip a room. The lady in
has entree into the Brahmin homes of No. 208 simplified matters by convenient-
this town. And again, he may have ly dying. No one knows the cause of her
found a boarding-house. I shall have to death, but it is generally attributed to old
learn if there be one. age. She was buried this morning. I was
The pale man must be difficult to among the curious few who attended her
please, for he has again changed his funeral. When I returned home from
room. I am baffled by his conduct. If the mortuary, I was in time to see the pale
 THE PALE MAN 375

man leaving her room. Already he has versity. Obviously he never expected to
moved in. see me alive again.

He favored me with a smile whose

Of course I am not that unwell. Nev-
meaning I have tried in vain to decipher.
must be more careful. Thank
ertheless, I

can not but believe thai he meant

heaven have no dependents to worry
I
I it to
about. I have not even a wife, for I was
have some significance. He acted as if
never willing to exchange the loneliness
there were between us some secret that I
of a bachelor for the loneliness of a hus-
failed to appreciate. But, then, perhaps
band.
his smile was meaningless after all and
I can say in all sincerity that the pros-
only ambiguous by chance, like that of
pect of death does not frighten me. Spec-
the Mona Lisa.
ulation about life beyond the grave has
always bored me. Whatever it is, or is

My man of mystery
No. 207, and I am not the least
now resides in
not,

I
I'll try to get along.

have been so preoccupied about the

surprized. I would have been astonished
sudden turn of my own affairs that I have
if he had not made his scheduled move,
neglected to make note of a most ex-
I have almost given up trying to under-
traordinary incident. The pale man has
stand his eccentric conduct. I do not
done an astounding thing. He has
know more about him than
a single thing
skipped three rooms and moved all the
I knew the day he arrived. I wonder

whence he came. There is something in-

way to No. 203. We are now very close

definably foreign about his manner. I am

neighbors. We shall meet oftener, and
my chances for making his acquaintance
curious to hear his voice. I like to im-
are now greater.
agine that he speaks the exotic tongue of
some far-away country. If only I could
have confined myself to my bed dur-
somehow inveigle him into conversation!
ing the last few days and have had my
I wish that I were possessed of the glib
food brought to me. I even called a local
assurance of a college boy, who can ad-
doctor,whom I suspect to be a quack. He
dress himself to the most distinguished
looked me over with professional indiffer-
celebrity without batting an eye. It is no
ence and told me not to leave my room.
wonder that I am only an assistant profes-
For some reason he does not want me to
sor.
climb stairs. For this bit of information
he received a ten-dollar bill which, as I
AM worried. This morning awoke to I directed him, he fished out of my coat
I find myself lying prone upon the pocket. A pickpocket could not have
floor. I was fully clothed. I must 'have done it better.
fallen exhausted there after I returned to
He had not been gone long when I
my room last night.
was visited by the room clerk. That
wonder if my condition is more seri-
I worthy suggested with a great show of
ous than I had suspected. Until now I kindly concern that I use the facilities of
have been inclined to discount the fears the local hospital. It was so modern and
of those who have pulled a long face all that. With more firmness than I have
about me. For the first time I recall the been able to muster in a long time, I gave
prolonged hand-clasp of the president him to understand that I intended to re-
when he bade me good-bye fronuthe uni- main where I am. Frowning sullenly, he
376 WEIRD TALES
stiffly retired. The doctor must have "But I assure you there is no such per-
paused long enough downstairs to tell son in the house. As for his checking in
him a pretty story. It is obvious that he when you did, you were the only guest
is afraid I shall die in his best room. we registered that day."
The pale "man is up to his old tricks. "What? Why, I've seen him twenty
Last night, when I tottered down the hall, times! First he had No. 212 at the end
the door of No. 202 was ajar. Without of the corridor. Then he kept moving
thinking, I looked inside. The pale man toward the front. Now he's next door in
sat in a rocking-chair idly smoking a cig- No. 202."
arette. He looked up into my eyes and The room clerk threw up his hands.

smiled that peculiar, ambiguous smile "You're crazy!" he exclaimed, and I

that has so deeply puzzled me. I moved saw that he meant what he said.
on down the corridor, not so much mysti- shut up at once and dismissed him.
I

fied as annoyed. The whole mystery of After he had gone, I heard him rattling
the man's conduct is beginning to irk me. the knob of the pale man's door. There
It is all so inane, so utterly lacking in is no doubt that he believes the room to

motive. be empty.
I feel that I shall never meet the pale Thus it is that I can now understand
man. But, at least, I am going to learn the events of the past few weeks. I now
his identity. Tomorrow I shall ask for comprehend the significance of the death
the room clerk and deliberately interro- in No. 207. I even feel partly respon-

gate him. sible for the old lady's passing. After

all, I brought the pale man with me. But
Iknow now. I know the identity of the it was not I who fixed his path. Why he
pale man, and I know the meaning of chose to approach me room after room
his smile. through the length of this dreary hotel,
Early this afternoon I summoned the why his path crossed the threshold of the
room clerk to my bedside. woman in No. 207, those mysteries I

"Please tell me," I asked abruptly, can not explain.

"who is the man in No. 202?" I suppose I should have guessed his
The clerk stared wearily and uncom- identity when he skipped the three rooms
prehendingly. the night I fell unconscious upon the
"You must be mistaken. That room floor. In a single night of triumph he
is unoccupied." advanced until he was almost to my door.
"Oh, but it is," I snapped in irritation. He will be coming by and by to inhabit
"I myself saw the man there only two this room, his ultimate goal. When he
nights ago. He is a tall, handsome fel- comes, I shall at least be able to return
low with dark eyes and hair. He is un- his smile of grim recognition.
usually pale. He checked in the day that Meanwhile, I have only to wait beyond
I arrived." my bolted door.
* # * # #
The hotel man regarded me dubiously,
as if I were trying to impose upon him. The door swings slowly open. . . ,
 Doming of Abel Behenna
By BRAM STOKER
THE little Cornish port of Pencastie
was bright in the early April,
lonely rock, pierced with
blow-holes through which the sea in
many caves and

when the sun had seemingly come storm time sent its thunderous voice, to-
to stay after a long and bitter winter. gether with a fountain of drifting spume.
Boldly and blackly the rock stood out Hence, it wound westward in a serpentine
against a background of shaded blue, course, guarded at its entrance by two
where the sky fading into mist met the little curving piers and right.
to left
far horizon. The sea was of true Cornish These were roughly built of dark slates
—
hue sapphire, save where it became placed endways and held together with
deep emerald green in the fathomless great beams bound with iron bands.
depths under the where the seal
cliffs, Thence it flowed up the rocky bed of the
caves opened grim jaws. On the
their stream whose winter torrents had of old
slopes the grass was parched and brown. cut out its way amongst the hills. This
The spikes of furze bushes were ashy stream was deep at first, with here and
gray, but the golden yellow of their flow- there, where it widened, patches of bro-
ers streamed along the hillside, dipping ken rock exposed at low water, full of
out in lines as the rock cropped up, and holes where crabs and lobsters were to be
lessening into patches and dots till finally found at the ebb of the tide. From
it died away altogether where the sea among the rocks rose sturdy posts, used
winds swept round the jutting cliffs and for warping in the little coasting-vessels
cut short the vegetation as though with which frequented the port. Higher up,
an ever-working aerial shears. The whole the stream still flowed deeply, for the tide
hillside, with its body of brown and ran far inland, but always calmly, for all
flashes of yellow, was like a colossal yel- the force of the wildest storm was broken
low-hammer. below.
The little harbor opened from the sea Some quarter-mile inland the stream
between towering cliffs, and behind a was deep at high water, but at low tide
377
378 WEIRD TALES
there were at each side patches of the two to contend against, and each of these
same broken rock as lower down, through the strongest and most resolute man in
the chinks of which the sweet water of the port —except the other. The average
the natural stream trickled and murmured young man thought that this was very
after the tide had ebbed away. Here, too, hard, and on account of it bore no good
rose mooring-posts for the fishermen's will to either of the three principals:
boats. At either side of the river was a whilst the average young woman who
row of cottages down almost on the level had, lest worse should befall, to put up
of high tide. They were pretty cottages, with the grumbling of her sweetheart,
strongly and snugly built, with trim nar- and the sense of being only second best
row gardens in front, full of old-fash- which it implied, did not either, be sure,
ioned plants, flowering currants, colored regard Sarah with friendly eye.
primroses, wallflowers, and stonecrops. Thus it came, in the course of a year or
Over the fronts of many of them climbed so, for rustic courtship is a slow process,
clematis and wisteria. The window-sides that the two men and the woman found
and door-posts of all were as white as themselves thrown much together. They
snow, and the little pathway to each was were all satisfied, so it did not matter, and
paved with light-colored stones. At some Sarah, who was vain and somewhat friv-
of the doors were tiny porches, whilst at olous, took care to have her revenge on
others were rustic seats cut from tree both men and women in a quiet way.
trunks or from old barrels; in nearly every When a young woman in her "walking
case the window-ledges were filled with out" can only boast one not-quite-satisfied
boxes or pots of flowers or foliage plants. young man, it is no particular pleasure to
Two men lived in cottages exactly op- her to see her escort cast sheep's eyes at a
posite each other across the stream. Two better-looking girl supported by two de-
men, both young, both good-looking, voted swains.
both prosperous, and who had been com- At length there came a time which
panions and rivals from their boyhood. Sarah dreaded, and which she had tried
Abel Behenna was dark with the gipsy to —
keep distant the time when she had
darkness which the Phenician mining to make her choice between the two men.
wanderers left in their track; Eric Sanson She liked them both, and, indeed, either
—which the local antiquarian said was a of them might have satisfied the ideas of
corruption of Sagamanson — was fair, even a more exacting girl. But her mind
with the ruddy hue which marked the was so constituted that she thought more
path of the wild Norseman. These two of what she might lose than of what she
seemed to have singled out each other might gain; and whenever she thought
from the very beginning to work and she had made up her mind she became in-
strive together, to fight for each other and stantly assailed with doubts as to the wis-
to stand back to back in all endeavors. dom of her Always the man
choice.
They had now put the coping-stone on whom she had presumably lost became
their Temple of Unity by falling in love endowed afresh with a newer and more
with the same girl. bountiful crop of advantages than had
Sarah Trefusis was certainly the pret- ever arisen from the possibility of his ac-
tiest girl in Pencastle, and there was many ceptance. She promised each man that
a young man who would gladly have tried on her birthday she would give him his
his fortune with her, but that there were answer, and that day had now arrived.
 THE COMING GF ABEL BEHENNA 379

The promises had been given singly hot for ye, and now's the time to get
and confidentially, but each was given to things fixed!"
a man who was not likely to forget. Early Sarah began a feeble remonstrance, but
in the morning she found both men hov- her mother cut her short.
ering round her door. Neither had taken "I tell ye, girl, that my mind is made
the other into his confidence, and each up! Both these men want ye, and only
was simply seeking an early opportunity one can have ye, but before ye choose
of getting his answer, and advancing his it'll be so arranged that ye' 11 have all

suit if necessary. Damon, as a rule, does that both have got! Don't argy, child!
not take Pythias with him when making Go up the hillside, and when ye come
a proposal; and in the heart of each man —
back I'll have it fixed I see a way quite
his own affairs had a claim far above any easy!"
requirements of friendship. So, through-
out the day, they kept seeing each other
out. The position was doubtless some-
Sothesarah went up the hillside through
narrow paths between the golden
what embarrassing to Sarah,and though furze, and Mrs. Trefusis joined the two
the satisfaction of her vanity that she men in the living-room of the little house.
should be thus adored was very pleasing, She opened the attack with the desper-
yet there were moments when she was an- ate courage which is in all mothers when
noyed with both men for being .so per- they think for their children, howsoever
sistent. Her only consolation at such mean the thoughts may be.
moments was that she saw, through the "Ye two men, ye' re both in love with
elaborate smiles of the other girls when my Sarah!"
in passing they noticed her door thus Their bashful silence gave consent to
doubly guarded, the jealousy which filled the barefaced proposition. She went on:
their hearts. "Neither of ye has much!"
Sarah's mother was a person of com- Again they tacitly acquiesced in the
monplace and sordid ideas, and, seeing soft impeachment.
all along the state of affairs, her one in- "I don't know that either of ye could
tention, persistently expressed to her keep a wife!"
daughter in the plainest of words, was to Though neither said a word their looks
so arrange matters that Sarah should get and bearing expressed distinct dissent.
all thatwas possible out of both men. Mrs. Trefusis went on:
With this purpose she had cunningly kept "But if ye'd put what ye both have to-
herself as far as possible in the back- gether ye'd make a comfortable home for
ground in the matter of her daughter's —
one of ye and Sarah!"
wooings, and watched in silence. At first She eyed the men keenly, with her cun-
Sarah had been indignant with her for ning eyes half shut, as she spoke; then,
her sordid views; but, as usual, her weak satisfied from her scrutiny that the idea

nature gave way before persistence, and was accepted, she went on quickly, as if
she had now got to the stage of passive to prevent argument:
acceptance. She was not surprized when "The girl likes ye both, and mayhap
her mother whispered to her in the little it'shard for her to choose. Why don't
yard behind the house: ye toss up for her? First put your money
"Go up the hillside for a while; I want —
together ye've each got a bit put by, I
to talk to these two. They're both red- know. Let the lucky man take the lot and
380 WEIRD TALES
trade with it a bit, and then come home There was only room on the path for two
and marry her. Neither of ye's afraid, I abreast, and it marked the state of things
suppose. And neither of ye'll say that he pretty well when, by a sort of implied
won't do that much for the girl that ye arrangement, Sarah went first, and the
both say ye love." two men followed, walking abreast and
Abel broke the silence: keeping step. By this time, each man's
"It don't seem the square thing to toss heart was boiling with jealousy. When
for the girl. She wouldn't like it herself, they came to the top of the rock, Sarah
and it doesn't seem respectful-like to stood against the flagstaff, and the two
"
her young men stood opposite her. She had
Eric interrupted. He was conscious chosen her position with knowledge and
that his chance was not so good as Abel's, intention, for there was no room for any
in case Sarah should wish to choose be- one to stand beside her. They were all
tween them: silent for a while; then Sarah began to
"Are ye afraid of the hazard?" laugh and said:
"Not me!" said Abel, boldly. "I promised the both of you to give
Mrs. Trefusis, seeing that her idea was you an answer today. I've been thinking
beginning to work, followed up the ad- and thinking and thinking, till I began to
vantage: get angry with you both for plaguing me
"It is settled that ye put yer money so; and even now I don't seem any nearer
together to make a home for her, whether than ever I was to making up my mind."
ye toss for her or leave it for her to
Eric said suddenly: "Let us toss for it,
choose?"
lass!"
"Yes," said Eric quickly, and Abel
Sarah showed no indignation whatever
agreed with equal sturdiness.
at the proposition; her mother's eternal
Mrs. Trefusis' little canning eyes twin-
suggestion had schooled her to the accept-
kled. She heard Sarah's step in the yard,
ance of something of the kind, and her
and said:
weak nature made it easy to her to grasp
"Well! here she comes, and I leave it
at any way out of the difficulty. She stood
to her." And she went out. with downcast eyes, idly picking at the
sleeve of her dress, seeming to have tacit-
uring her brief walk on the hillside
,

Both men
ly acquiesced in the proposal.
Sarah had been trying to make up
instinctively realizing this pulled each a
her mind. She was feeling almost angry
coin from his pocket, spun it in the air,
with both men for being the cause of her
and dropped his other hand over the
difficulty, and as she came into the room
palm on which it lay. For a few seconds
said shortly:
they remained thus, all silent; then Abel,
"I want to have a word with you both who was the more thoughtful of the men,
—come to the Flagstaff Rock, where we spoke:
can be alone." "Sarah! is this good?"
She took her hat and went out of the As he spoke he removed the upper
house up the winding path to the steep hand from the coin and placed the latter
rock crowned with a high flagstaff, where back in his pocket Sarah was nettled.
once the wreckers' fire-basket used to "Good or bad, it's good enough for
burn. This was the rock which formed me! Take it or leave it as you like," she
the northern jaw of the little harbor. said, to which he replied quickly:
 THE COMING OF ABEL BEHENNA 38-1]

"Nay, lass! Aught that concerns you said Sarah. Having said it, the intoler-
is good enow for me. I did but think of ably mercenary spirit of her action
you lest you might have pain or disap- seemed to strike her, and impulsively she
pointment hereafter. If you love Eric turned away with a bright blush. Fire
better nor me, in God's name say so, and seemed to sparkle in the eyes of both the
I think I'm man enow to stand aside. men.
Likewise, if I'm the one, don't make us Said Eric: "A year so be! The man
both miserable for life." that wins is to have one year."
Face to face with a difficulty, Sarah's "Toss!" cried Abel, and the coin spun
weak nature proclaimed itself; she put in theair. Eric caught it, and again held
her hands before her face and began to itbetween his outstretched hands.
cry, saying: "Heads!" cried Abel, a pallor sweep-
"It was my mother. She keeps telling ing over his face as he spoke.
me. As he leaned forward to look, SaraH
The silence which followed was broken leaned forward too, and their heads al-
by Eric, who said hotly to Abel: most touched. He could feel her hair blow-
"Let the lass alone, can't you? If she ing on his cheek, and it thrilled through
wants to choose this way, let her. It's him like fire. Eric lifted his upper hand;
—
good enough for me and for you, too! the coin lay with its head up. Abel stepped
She's said it now, and must abide by it." forward and took Sarah in his arms.
Hereupon Sarah turned upon him in With a curse Eric hurled the coin far into
sudden fury, and cried: the sea. Then he leaned against the flag-
"Hold your tongue! What is it to you, staff and scowled at the others with his
at any rate?" and she resumed her crying. hands thrust deep in his pockets. Abel
Eric was so flabbergasted that he had not whispered wild words of passion and de-
a word to say, but stood looking foolish, light into Sarah's ears, and as she listened
with his mouth open and his hands held she began to believe that fortune had
out with the coin still between them. All rightly interpreted the wishes of her se-
were silent till Sarah, taking her hands cret heart, and that she loved Abel best.
from her face, laughed hysterically and
said: Presently Abel looked up and caught
"As you two can't make up your minds, sight of Eric's face as the last ray of
I'm going home!" and she turned to go. sunset struck it. The red light intensified
"Stop!" said Abel, in an authoritative the natural ruddiness of his complexion,
voice. "Eric, you hold the coin, and I'll and he looked as though he were steeped
cry. Now, before we settle it, let us in blood. Abel did not mind his scowl,
clearly understand: man who wins
the for now that his own heart was at rest he
takes all the money that we both have could feel unalloyed pity for his friend.
got, brings it to Bristol and ships on a He stepped over, meaning to comfort
voyage and trades with it. Then he him, and held out his hand, saying:
comes back and marries Sarah, and they "It was my chance, old lad. Don't
two keep all, whatever there may be, as grudge it me. I'll try to make Sarah a
the result of the trading. Is this what we happy woman, and you shall be a brother
understand?" to us both."
"Yes," said Eric. "Brother be damned!" was all the
"I'll marry him on my next birthday," answer Eric made, as he turned away.
382 IWEIRD TALES

Whenhe had gone a few steps down word he rushed down the steep path and
the rocky path he turned and came back. disappeared behind the rocks.
Standing before Abel and Sarah, who had When he had gone Abel hoped for
their arms round each other, he said: some tender passage with Sarah, but the
"You have a year. Make the most of first remark she made chilled him:
it! And be sure you're in time to claim "How lonely it all seems without Eric!"
your wife! Be back
have your bans up
to and this note sounded till he had left her
in time to be married on the 11th of at home —and after.
April. If you're not, I tell you I shall
Early on the next morning Abel heard
have my bans up, and you may get back
a noise at his door, and on going out saw
too late."
Eric walking rapidly away; a small can-
"What do you mean, Eric? You are vas bag full of gold and silver lay on the
mad!" threshold; on a small slip of paper pinned
"No more mad than you are, Abel Be- to it was written:
henna. You go, that's your chance! I

stay, that's mine! I don't mean to let the

Take the money and go. I stay. God for you
The Devil me! Remember the 11th of April.
for
grass grow under my feet. Sarah cared Eric Sanson.
no more for you than for me five minutes
ago, and she may come back to that five That afternoon Abel went off to Bris-
minutes after you're gone! You won by tol, and a week later sailed on the Star
a point only- —the game may change." of the Sea bound for Pahang. His money
"The game won't change!" Abel
— including that which had been Eric's

shortly. "Sarah, you'll be true to

said
me?
—was on board in the shape of a venture

You won't marry till I return?"

of cheaptoys. He had been advised by a
shrewd old mariner of Bristol whom he
"For a year!" added Eric, quickly;
knew, and who knew the ways of the
"that's the bargain."
Chersonese, who predicted that every
"I promise for the year," said Sarah. penny invested would be returned with a
A dark look came over Abel's face, and shilling to boot.
he was about to speak, but he mastered
himself and smiled.
the wore on, Sarah became
"I mustn't be too hard or get angry
As more .
year
and more disturbed in her
tonight. Come, Eric! we played and mind. Eric was always at hand to make
fought together. I won fairly. I played love to her in his own persistent, master-
fairly all the game of our wooing. You ful manner, and to this she did not object.
know that as well as I do; and now when Only one came from Abel, to say
letter
I am going away, I shall my old
look to that his venture had proved successful,
and true comrade to help me when I am and that he had sent some two hundred
gone." pounds to the bank at Bristol, and was
"I'll help you none," said Eric, "so trading with fifty pounds still remaining
help me God!" in goods for China, whither the Star of
"It was God helped me," said Abel, the Sea was bound and whence she would
simply. return to Bristol. He suggested that
"Then let Him go on helping you," Eric's share of the venture should be re-

said Eric angrily. "The Devil is good turned to him with his share of the prof-
enough for me!" and without another its. This proposition was treated with
 THE COMING OF ABEL BEHENNA
anger by Eric, and as simply childish by
Sarah's mother.
More than six months had since then
elapsed, bat no other letter had come, and
Eric's hopes, which had been dashed down
by the letter from Pahang, began to rise
again. He perpetually assailed Sarah with
an "if!" If Abel did not return, would
she then marry him? If the 11th of April
went by without Abel being in the port,
would she give him over? If Abel had
taken his fortune, and married another
girl on the head of it, would she marry
him, Eric, as soon as the trutii were
known? And so on in an endless variety
of possibilities.
The power of the strong will and the
determined purpose over the woman's
weaker nature became in time manifest.
Sarah began to lose her faith in Abel and
to regard Eric as a possible husband; and
a possible husband is in a woman's eye
different from all other men. A new af-
fection for him began to arise in her
breast, and the daily familiarities of per-
mitted courtship furthered the growing
affection. Sarah began to regard Abel as
rather a rock in the road of her life, and
had it not been for her mother's constant-
ly reminding her of the good fortune
already laid by in the Bristol bank she
would have tried to shut her eyes alto-
gether to the fact of Abel's existence.
The 11th of April was Saturday, so
on that
that in order to have the marriage
day would be necessary that the bans
it
should be called on Sunday, the 22nd of
March. From the beginning of that
month Eric kept perpetually on the sub-
ject of Abel's absence, and his outspoken
opinion that the latterwas either dead or
married began to become a reality to the
woman's mind. As the first half of the
month wore on, Eric became more jubi-
lant, and after church on the 1 5th he took
Sarah for a walk to the Flagstaff Rock.
383'
There he asserted himself strongly:
"I told Abel, and you too, that if he
was not here up his bans in time
to put
for the eleventh, would put up mine for
I
the twelfth. Now the time has come
when I mean to do it. He hasn't kept
"
his word
Here Sarah struck in out of her weak-
ness and indecision: "He hasn't broken
it yet!"
Eric ground his teeth with anger. "If
you mean to stick up for him," he said,
as he smote his hands savagely on the
flagstaff, which sent forth a shivering
murmur, "well and good. I'll keep my
part of the bargain. On Sunday I shall
give notice of the bans, and you can deny
them in the church if you will. If Abel
is in Pencastle on the eleventh, he can
have them canceled, and his own put up;
but till then, I take my course, and wo to
any one who stands in my way!"
With that he flung himself down the
rocky pathway, and Sarah could not but
admire his Viking strength and spirit, as
crossing the hill, he strode away along the
cliffs toward Bude.
During the week no news was heard of
Abel, and on Saturday Eric gave notice of
the bjAs of marriage between himself and
Sarah Trefusis. The clergyman would
have remonstrated with him, for although
nothing formal had been told to the
neighbors, it had been understood since
Abel's departure that on his return he was
to marry Sarah; hut Eric would not dis-
cuss the question.
"It is a painful subject, sir," he said
with a firmness which the parson, who
was a very young man, could not but be
swayed by. "Surely there is nothing
against Sarah or me. Why should there
be any bones made about the matter?"
The parson said no more, and on the
next day he read out the bans for die first
time amidst an audible buzz from the
 7

384 WEIRD TALES

congregation. Sarah was present, con- decision afresh. She cried a little, and
trary to custom, and though she blushed put by her dress, and to soothe herself
furiously enjoyed her triumph over the went out to sit for a while on the sum-
other girls whose bans had not yet come. mit of the Flagstaff Rock. When she
Before the week was over she began to arrived she found there a little group
make her wedding dress. Eric used to anxiously discussing the weather. The
come and look at her at work and the sea was calm and the sun bright, but
sight thrilled through him. He used to across the sea were strange lines of dark-
say ail sorts of pretty things to her at such ness and and close in to shore the
light,

times, and there were to both delicious rocks were fringed with foam, which
moments of love-making. spread out in great white curves and cir-

The bans were read a second time on cles as the currents drifted. The wind
the 29th, and Eric's hope grew more and had backed, and came in sharp, cold
more fixed, though there were to him puffs. The blow-hole, which ran under
moments of acute despair when he re- the Flagstaff Rock, from the rocky bay

alized that the cup of happiness might be without to the Harbor within, was boom-

dashed from his lips at any moment, right

ing at intervals, and die sea-gulls were

up to the last. At such times he was full screaming ceaselessly as they wheeled

of passion —
desperate and remorseless — about the entrance of the port.

and he ground his teeth and clenched his "It looks bad," she heard an old fisher-

hands in a wild way as though some taint man say to the coast guard. "I seen it

of the Berserker fury of his ancestors still just like this once before, when the East
lingered in his blood. On the Thursday Indiaman Coromandel went to pieces in

of that week he looked in on Sarah and Dizzard Bay!"

found her, amid a flood of sunshine, put- Sarah did not wait to hear more. She
ting finishing touches to her white wed- was of a timid nature where danger was
ding gown. His own heart was full of concerned, and could not bear to hear of
gayety, and the sight of the woman who wrecks and disasters. She went home
was 50 soon to be his own so occupied, and resumed the completion of her dress,
filled him with a joy unspeakable, and he secretly determined to appease Eric when
felt faint with a languorous ecstasy. she should meet him with a sweet apol-
Bending over he kissed Sarah on the ogy—and to take the earliest opportunity
mouth, and then whispered in her rosy of being even with him after her mar-
ear: riage.
"Your wedding dress, Sarah! And for
me!"
As he drew back to admire her she
The
was
old fisherman's weather prophecy
That night
justified. dusk at a
looked up saucily, and said to him: "Per- wild storm came on. The sea rose and
haps not for you. There is more than a lashed the western coasts of Skye to Scilly
week yet for Abel!" and then cried out and left a tale of disaster everywhere.
in dismay, for with a wild gesture and a The and fishermen of Pencastle all
sailors
fierce oath Eric dashed out of the house, turned out on the rocks and cliffs and

banging the door behind him. watched eagerly. Presently, by a flash of

The incident disturbed Sarah more lightning, a ketch was seen drifting under
than she could have thought possible, for only a jib about half a mile outside tlie
itawoke all her fears and doubts and in- port. All eyes and all glasses were concea-
W. T.—
 8

THE COMING OF ABEL BEHENNA 385.

trated on her, waiting for the next flash, there on a night like this when my boat
and when it came a chorus went up that it went on the Gull Rock. He dragged me
was the Lovely Alice, trading between up from the deep water in the seal cave,
Bristol and Penzance, and touching at all and now some one may drift in there
"God help them!"
the little ports between. again as I did," and he was gone into the
said the harbormaster, "for nothing in darkness.
thisworld can save them when they are The projecting rock hid the light on
between Bude and Tintagel and the wind the Flagstaff Rock, but he knew his way
on shore." too well to miss His boldness and
it.

The coast guards exerted themselves, sureness of foot standing to him, he short-
and, aided by brave hearts and willing ly stood on the great round-topped rock
hands, they brought the rocket apparatus cut away beneath by the action of the
up on the summit of the Flagstaff Rock. waves over the entrance of the seal cave,
Then they burned blue lights so that where the water was fathomless. There
those on board might see the harbor open- he stood in comparative safety, for the
ing in case they could make any effort to concave shape of the rock beat back the
reach it. They worked gallantly enough waves with their own force, and though
on board; but no skill or strength of man the water below him seemed to boil like
could avail. Before many minutes were a seething cauldron, just beyond the spot
over the Lovely Alice rushed to her doom there was a space of almost calm. The
on the great island rock that guarded the rock, too, seemed here to shut off the
mouth of the port. The screams of those sound of the gale, and he listened as well
on board were fairly borne on the tem- as watched. As he stood there ready,
pest as they flung themselves into the sea with his coil of rope poised to throw, he
in a last chance for life. The blue lights thought he heard below him, just beyond
were kept burning, and eager eyes peered the whirl of the water, a faint, despairing
into the depths of the waters in case any cry. He echoed it with a shout that rang
face could be seen; and ropes were held out into the night.Then he waited for the
ready to fling out in aid. But never a flashof lightning, and as it passed flung
face was seen, and the willing arms rested his rope out into the darkness where he
idle. had seen a face rising through the swirl
Eric was there amongst his fellows. of the foam. The rope was caught, for
His old Icelandic origin was never more he felt a pull on it, and he shouted again
apparent than in that wild hour. He took in his mighty voice:
a rope, and shouted in the ear of the har- "Tie it round your waist, and I shall
bor-master: pull you up."
"I shall go down on the rock over the Then when he felt that it was fast he
seal cave. The tide is running up, and moved along the rock to the far side of
some one may drift in there." the seal cave, where the deep water was
"Keep back, man!" came the answer. something stiller, and where he could get

"Are you mad? One slip on that rock foothold secure enough to drag the res-
and you are lost: and no man could keep cued man on the overhanging rock. He
his feet in the dark on such a place in began to pull, and he knew from
shortly
such a tempest!" the rope taken in that the man he was
"Not a bit," came the reply. "You now rescuing must soon be close to the
remember how Abel Behenna saved me top of the rock. He steadied himself for
W. T.—
386 WEIRD TALES
a moment, and drew a long breath, that for ever. There was no one to bear wit-
he might at the next effort complete the ness—and if he should have to carry that

rescue. He had just bent his back to the still white face in his eyes and that de-
work when a flash of lightning revealed spairing cry in his ears for evermore, at
to each other the two men —
the rescuer least none should know of it. "No one,"
and the rescued. he cried,more loudly still. "I slipped on
Eric Sanson and Abel Behenna were the rock, and the rope fell into the sea."
face to face, and none knew of the meet- So saying he left them, and, rushing
ing save themselves —
and God. down the steep path, gained his own cot-

On the instant a wave of passion swept tage and locked himself within.
through Eric's heart. All his hopes were The remainder of that night he passed
shattered, and with the hatred of Cain his lying on his bed — dressed and motionless
eyes looked out. He saw in the instant — staring upward, and seeming to see
of recognition the joy in Abel's face that through the darkness a pale face gleam-
his was the hand and this
to succor him, ing wet in the lightning, with its glad
intensified his hate. Whilst the passion recognition turning to ghastly despair,
was on him he and the rope
started back, and to hear a cry which never ceased to
ran out between his hands. His moment echo in his soul.
of hate was followed by an impulse of his In the morning the storm was over and
better manhood, but it was too late. all was smiling again, except that the sea

Before he could recover himself, Abel, was still boisterous with its unspent fury.
encumbered with the rope that should Great pieces of wreck drifted into the
have aided him, was plunged with a de- port, and the sea around the island rock

spairing cry back into the darkness of the was strewn with others. Two bodies also
devouring sea. drifted into the harbor —
one the master
Then, feeling all the madness and the of the wrecked ketch, the other a strange
doom of Cain upon him, Eric rushed back seaman whom no one knew.
over the rocks, heedless of the danger
and eager only for one thing to be — Sarah saw nothing of Eric till the eve-
amongst other people whose living noises ning, and then he only looked in for
would shut out that last cry which seemed a minute. He did not come into the
to ring still in his ears. When he re- house, but simply put his head in through
gained the Flagstaff Rock the men sur- the open window.
rounded him, and through the fury of "Well, Sarah," he called out in a loud
the storm he heard the harbor-master say: voice, though to her it did not ring truly,
"We feared you were lost when we "is the wedding dress done? Sunday
heard a cry. How white you are! Where week, mind! Sunday week!"
is your rope? Was there any one drifted Sarah was glad to have the reconcilia-
in?" tion so easy; but, woman-like, when she
"No one," he shouted in answer, for saw the storm was over and her own fears
he felt that he could never explain that groundless, she at once repeated the cause
he had let his old comrade slip back into of offense.
the sea, and at the very place and tinder "Sunday so be it," she said, without
the very circumstances in which that com- looking up, "if Abel isn't there on Satur-
rade had saved his own life. He hoped day!" Then she looked up saucily, though
by one bold lie to set the matter at rest her heart was full of fear of another out-
 —

THE COMING OF ABEL BEHENNA 387

burston the part of her impetuous lover.
But the window was empty; Eric had
taken himself off, and with a pout she
resumed her work.
She saw Eric no more till
noon, after the bans had been called the
third time, when he came up to her be-
fore all the people with an air of propri-
etorship which half pleased and half
annoyed her.
"Not yet, mister!" she said, pushing
him away, as the other girls giggled.
"Wait till Sunday next, if you please
home the week ere last on the Star of the
Sea from Canton, and that he had lodged
a sight of money in the Bristol Bank in
the name of Sarah Behenna. He told
Sunday after- —
Michael so himself and that he had
taken a passage on the Lovely Alice to
Pencastle. Bear up, man," for Eric had
with a groan dropped his head on his
knees, with his face between his hands.
"He was your old comrade, I know, but
you couldn't help him. He must have
gone down with the rest that awful night.
I thought I'd better tell you, lest it might

the day after Saturday!" she added, look- come some other way, and you might
ing at him saucily. keep Sarah Trefusis from being fright-
The girls giggled again, and the young ened. They were good friends once, and

men guffawed. They thought it was the women take these things to heart. It

snub that touched him so that he became would not do to let her be pained with
as white as a sheet as he turned away. But such a thing on her wedding day."
Sarah, who knew more than they did, Then he rose and went away, leaving
laughed, for she saw triumph through the Eric still sitting disconsolately with his

spasm of pain that overspread his face. head on his knees.

The week passed uneventfully; how- "Poor fellow!" murmured the chief
ever, as Saturday drew nigh, Sarah had boatman to himself; "he takes it to heart.
occasional moments of anxiety, and Eric Well, well! right enough! They were
went about at night-time like a man pos- true comrades once, and Abel saved him!"

sessed. He restrained
others were by, but now and
went down amongst the rocks and caves
and shouted aloud. This seemed to re-
lieve him somewhat, and he was better
able to restrain himself for some time
after. All Saturday he stayed in his own
house and never left it. As he was to be
married on the morrow, the neighbors
thought it was shyness on his part, and
did not trouble or notice him. Only once
was he disturbed, and that was when the
himself when The afternoon of that day, when the
again he children had left school, they strayed as
usual on half -holidays along the quay and
the paths by the cliffs. Presently some of
them came running in a state of great ex-
citement to the harbor, where a few men
were unloading a coal ketch, and a great
many were superintending the operation.
One of the children called out:
"There is a porpoise in the harbor
mouth! We saw it come through the
blow-hole! It had a long tail, and was

chief boatman came to him and sat down, deep under the water!"
and after a pause said: "It was no porpoise," said another;
"Eric, I was over in Bristol yesterday. "it was a seal; but it had a long tail! It
I was in the ropemaker's getting a coil to came out of the seal cave."
replace the one you lost the night of the The other children bore various testi-

storm, and there I saw Michael Heavens mony, but on two points they were unan-
of this place, who is salesman there. He imous—it, whatever it was, had come
told me that Abel Behenna had come through the blow-hole deep under the

388
water, and had a long, thin tail
long that they could not see the end of
There was much unmerciful chaffing
of the children by the men on this point,
but as it was evident that they had seen
something, quite a number of persons,
young and male and female, went
old,
along the high paths on either side of the
harbor-mouth to catch a glimpse of this
new addition to the fauna of the sea, a
long-tailed porpoise or seal.
was now coming in. There was a slight
breeze, and the surface of the water was
rippled so that it was only at moments
that any one could see clearly into the
deep water. After a spell of watching, a
woman called out that she saw something
moving up the channel, just below where
she was standing. There was a stampede
to the spot, but by the time the crowd had
gathered, the breeze had freshened, and it
was impossible to see with any distinct-
ness below the surface of the water. On
being questioned, the woman
what she had seen, but in such
herent way that the whole thing was put
down as an effect of imagination; had it
not been for the children' si report she
would not have been credited at
semi-hysterical statement that what she
saw was "like a pig with the entrails out"
was only thought anything of by an old
coast guard, who shook his head but did
not make any remark. For the remainder
of the daylight this man was seen always
on the bank, looking into the water, but
always with disappointment manifest on
his face.
Eric arose early on the next morning
he had not slept all night,
him to move about in the light.
a relief to
He shaved himself with a hand that did
not tremble, and dressed himself in his
wedding clothes. There was a haggard
look on his face, and he seemed as though
—
WEIRD TALES
— a tail so he had grown years older in the last few
it. days. Still there was a wild, uneasy light
of triumph in his eyes, and he kept mur-
muring to himself over and over again:
"This is my wedding day! Abel can
not claim her now — living or dead! —
liv-
ing or dead! Living or dead!"
He sat in his armchair, waiting with an
uncanny quietness for the church hour to
arrive. When the bell began to ring he
The tide arose and passed out of his house, closing
the door behind him. He looked at the
river and saw that the tide had just
turned. In the church he sat with Sarah
and her mother, holding Sarah's hand
tightly in his all the time, as though he
feared to lose her. When the service was
over they stood up together, and were
married in the presence of the entire con-
gregation; for no one left the church.
Both made the responses clearly Eric's —
being even on the defiant side. When the
wedding was over Sarah took her hus-
described band's arm, and they walked away to-
an inco- gether, the boys and younger girls being
cuffed by their elders into a decorous be-
havior, for they would fain have fol-
lowed behind their heels.
close
all. Her The way from the church led down to
the back of Eric's cottage, a narrow pas-
sage being between it and that of his
next neighbor. When the bridal couple
had passed through this, the remainder
of the congregation, who had followed
them at a little distance, were startled by
a long, shrill scream from the bride.
They rushed through the passage and
found her on the bank with wild eyes,
pointing to the river bed opposite Eric
Sanson's door.
and it was The falling tide had deposited there
the body of Abel Behenna stark upon the
broken rocks. The rope trailing from its
waist had been twisted by the current
round the mooring-post, and had held it
back whilst the tide had ebbed away from
 THE COMING OF ABEL BEHENNA 389

it. The right elbow had fallen in a chink would come a buzzing in her ears and a
in the rock, leaving the hand outstretched dimness in her eyes, and all would pass
toward Sarah, with the open palm up- away. The only thing that she could re-
ward as though it were extended to re- member of it at all —and this she never
ceive hers, the pale, drooping fingers open forgot —was Eric's breathing heavily,
to the clasp. with his face whiter than that of the dead
All that happened afterward was never man, as he muttered under his breath:
quite known to Sarah Sanson. When- "Devil's help! Devil's faith! Devil's
ever she would try to recollect there price!"
 Coming Next Month
A N OLD man, withered and disreputable-looking, in a robe that appeared no less
/% antique and unsavory than himself, was standing near to the fire. He was not en-
"r •* gaged in any visible culinary operations; and, in view of the torrid sun, it hardly
seemed that he required the warmth given by the queer-colored blaze. Aside from this
individual, Ralibar Vooz looked in vain for the participants of the muttered conversation
he had just overheard. He thought there was an evanescent fluttering of dim, grotesque
shadows around the obsidian block but the shadows faded and vanished in an instant and,
; ;

since there were no objects or beings that could have cast them, Ralibar Vooz deemed that
he had been victimized by another of those highly disagreeable optic illusions in which that
part of the mountain seemed to abound.
The old man eyed the hunter with a fiery gaze and began to curse him in fluent but
somewhat archaic diction as he descended into the hollow. At the same time, a lizard-
tailed and sooty-feathered bird, which seemed to belong to some night-flying species of
archaeopteryx, began to snap its toothed beak and flap its digited wings on the objection-
ably shapen stela that served it for a perch. This stela, standing on the lee side of the
fire and very close to it, had not been perceived by Ralibar Vooz at first glance.

"May the ordure of demons bemire you from heel to crown!" cried the venomous an-
cient. "O lumbering, bawling idiot! you have ruined a most promising and important
evocation. How you came here I can not imagine. I have surrounded this place with
twelve circles of illusion, whose effect is multiplied by their myriad intersections; and the
chance that any intruder would ever find his way to my abode was mathematically small
and insignificant. Ill was that chance which brought you here: for They that you have
frightened away will not return until the high stars repeat a certain rare and quickly pass-
ing conjunction; and much wisdom is lost to me in the interim." . . .

The astounding adventures of Ralibar Vooz, which followed his affront to the old
man, make a saga as unusual as it is interest-gripping. You can not afford to miss this
strange tale, which will be published complete in Weird Tales for October:

THE SEVEN GEASES

By CLARK ASHTON SMITH
—ALSO—
THE BLACK GOD'S KISS OLD SLEDGE
By C. L. Moore By Paul Ernst
A gripping story of a warrior maid who went A piece of science-fiction
strange —
the story
down into a land of unthinkable evil in search of an eccentric inventor who foretold the future
of a strange weapon. by means of a weird machine.

THE SLEEPER
By H. Bedford-Jones
Ranjit Singh, the East Indian necromancer and stage
—
magician, was dead and buried, so they said but what was
that thing in the mummy-case?

THE PISTOL
By S. Gordon Gurwit A soi a thrilling installment of Robert E. How-
An appealing story of a love so strong that it ard's vivid novel, The People of the Black Circle.
broke through the barriers of Death.

Oct. WEIRD TALES Out Oct.

/ 393
1
FROM time to time we are importuned
by our readers to devote several pages
of Weird Tales each month to a
forum in which the lovers of fantastic fic-
tion can exchange views. We
are asked to
have articles on weird fiction generally, in-
formation about our authors, debates between
the fans. It has been suggested that we ex-
pand the Eyrie for this purpose, and make
it a battleground for the conflicts of the
weird fiction fans. This we have stedfastly
refused to do, for Weird Tales, after all, is
a magazine of fiction, and undue expansion
of the Eyrie, or the opening of a new de-
partment to satisfy the fans, would take just
that much space away from weird stories,
which are our primary interest. So, instead
of reducing our story space to make room
for such a department, we suggest to those
of you who are interested that you write
to Charles D. Hornig, editor of The Fantasy
Fan, whose home address is 137 West
Grand Street, Elizabeth, New
have been receiving The Fantasy Fan for
several months, and we think it is just the
—
forum you want that is, those of you who
make weird fiction your hobby. The Fantasy
Fan does not appear on the news stands, but
Mr. Hornig can supply you with detailed
information about it.
Constant Reader Airs His Thoughts
Joseph T. Ryerson, of Muskegon Heights,
Michigan, writes to the Eyrie: "Having
been a constant reader of WT
ever since its
conception, I feel it's about time I aired my
thoughts. I just read in the July issue the
reprint from your first issue,
Man's and feel that your present auth-
Tale,
ors will have to keep on their toes in order
to maintain the standard of that story. But
for sheer pathos and beauty, One Christmas
394
Eve stands out above the rest. It was a very
fortunate circumstance that Robert E. How-
ard did not have a hand in writing Through
the Gates of the Silver Key, for it is a
humdinger as it is. . . . No biographies of
authors, please."
A New High Mark
B. M.Reynolds, of North Adams, Massa-
chusetts, writes: "Congratulations on your
July issue. It was a knockout and then some.
I don't believe you have ever put out an
issue containing so many stories of superb
qualityand high standard. You have cer-
tainly seta new high mark. Through the
Gates of the Silver Key was a classic, and
positively the best piece of work those in-
comparable artists Lovecraft and Price have
ever done. Its cosmic scope and imaginative
brilliance certainly give one plenty of food
for thought. By all means give us a sequel
to this story, and get Randolph Carter or one
Jersey. We of his 'facets' back to earth again. Arlton
Eadie takes second honors with his new
mystery serial, The Trail of the Cloven
Hoof. This is the best serial since Golden
Blood and the best work I have ever seen
by Eadie. If he can sustain the present high
mark of eery mystery and nameless horror
throughout the forthcoming chapters, he will
have written a masterpiece. The Master of
Souls by Harold Ward was also a very en-
tertaining and unusual story, having a most
bizarre and original theme. Ward's work
has been steadily improving, and I am sur-
prized he does not receive more comment."
Don't Enlarge the Eyrie
The Dead
Edgar Hurd, of Crescent City, California,
writes: "I have been reading Weird Tales
for about four years and I think it has im-
(Please turn to page 396)
 —

Back Copies
Because of the many requests for back issues of Weird
Tales, the publishers do their best to keep a sufficient supply
on hand to meet all demands. This magazine was established
in early 1923 and there has been a steady drain on the supply
of back copies ever since. At present, we have the following
back numbers on hand for sale:

1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934

Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan.
Feb. -Mar. Feb. Feb. Feb.
Mar? Mar. , „ mim Mar. Mar.
Apr. Apr.-May Apr. Apr. Apr.
May May May
June Jun.-Jul. June June June
July __-._ July July July July
Aug. — ,
Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug.
Sept. Sept.
Oct. Oct Oct. Oct. — _«.
Nov. MMMM Nov. Nov. Nov.
Dec. Dec. — -_, Dec. Dec.

These back numbers contain many fascinating stories. If you

are interested in obtaining any of the back copies on this list please
hurry your order because we can not guarantee that the list will be
as complete as it now is within the next 30 days. The price on all
back issues is 25c per copy. Mail all orders to:

WEIRD TALES
840 N. Michigan Ave. Chicago, Illinois

39}
 39'
(Continued from page 394)
proved constantly and the best magazine
is
of any type on the market. I like Brun-
dage's covers, though I think some weird
monsters in addition to the human figures
would be good. Please don't enlarge the
Eyrie until it crowds out a couple of short
stories. The plan of making extracts of the
important parts of the letters is best. And
I hope the majority of the readers vote
against an author's page. In the July issue,
Through the Gates of the Silver Key was my
first choice. It was marvelous. It filled my
head with mighty thoughts and great yearn-
ings. I give The Illusion of Flame by Paul
Ernst second place. Your newest auth-
. . .
or, C. L. Moore, is excellent,
waiting for his story, Dust of Gods.
favorite story characters are
Northwest Smith. The bloody adventures of
Conan are very interesting, and C. L. Moore
has such unusual and original conceptions
that reading his stories is a pleasure. I am
fed up with stories of animated corpses and
vampires. ... I like the fantastic and imag-
inative story better than the scary one. Espe-
-eiall? do I like stories about undeveloped
-and unknown powers of the mind."
About Our Authors
Robert Bloch, of Milwaukee, writes: "In
heaven's name, publish that author's page!
WT has a very interesting staff of authors,
indeed. No one could claim a more inter-
esting career than Price, soldier of fortune,
etc.; Howard, a typical barbarian like his
own Conan; Lovecraft, the recluse; Derleth,
the descendant of a count who fled the
French revolution; Quinn and his interesting
job. Yet the bulk of your readers know
nothing of these fascinating facts. Loosen
up with them!"
Arltoa Eadie's Stories
Emil Petaja, .of Montana,
Milltown,
writes: "Although I have just had time to
glance over the July issue of Weird Tales,
the stories appear to be unusually excellent.
I am glad to see a novel by Arlton Eadie.
It seems to me that his stories have never
been fully appreciated by your readers. One
of his tales, The Avenging Shadow, which
appeared in 1931, was never mentioned in
the Eyrie, but it struck me as being one of
the best tales you have ever published.
WEIRD TALES
I want to say a word regarding suggestions
made of late with reference to a quarterly
or mid-monthly magazine, to be devoted to
longer stories, reprints, etc. I consider this
a splendid idea. You could publish in it long
serial reprints, both from back issues of
Weird Tales and stories such as The Wolf-
Leader by Dumas, which appeared serially as
a reprint in WT. This could appear quar-
terly and be twice as large as WT, and sell
for fifty cents. In this, you could give in-
formation on old, forbidden magic, true
weird tales, and old writers like Cagliostro,
Roger Bacon, etc. With regard to a page
giving information about your authors, I
agree with you, by ali means don't have one.
In many cases these would detract from the
I am eagerly
author's popularity. I can see no reason for
My
kicking about your covers. Individually,
Conan and
each is a work of art, and the weird atmos-
phere is uppermost in each."
More Vampire Stories
Miss Andre Cross, of Hollywood, Cali-
fornia, writes: "For three years I have been
a faithful reader of Weird Tales and I have
never found anything to make a comment
about. I was never very interested in writ-
ing fan letters, but it seems I must write to
you and say how much I enjoy every word
of your magazine. It is simply supreme.
Your cover designs are extremely attractive,
and if they are not actually done by a wo-
man, they have the fine, delicate touch of a
woman. ... I think you should have more
stories of vampires and stories such as The
Return of Balkis, The Sapphire Goddess,
and Revelations in Black. Give us more of
the charming fascinating character Monsieur
Jules de Grandin, the gallant Frenchman,
and his adventures."
By Air Mail
Fred Anger, of Berkeley, California,
writes: "Weird Tales is certainly improv-
ing steadily. Every new copy gets better and
better; evidently there no end to your
is
progress. The first installment of The Trail of
the Cloven Hoof is as good a piece of weird
fiction as it is possible to find. Mr. Eadie
has given us nothing but the best in all the
years he has been writing. The Trail of the
Cloven Hoof equals if not excels The
World-Wrecker of several years ago. Con-
. . . gratulations, Mr. Eadie. Through the Gates
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