By

DOROTHY QUICK
Seabury Quinn

Edmond Hamilton
Vennette Herron
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AN ADVENTURE IN THE FOURTH 1

City State
 A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e’er bmeath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover.
— Coleridge: Kubla Khan.

W. T.- 1 1
 A MAGAZINE OF THE BIZARRE AND UNUSUAL

REGISTERED IN U.S. PATENT OFFICE

Volume 31 CONTENTS FOR JANUARY, 1938 Number 1

Cover Design M. Bnmdage

"The Witch’s Mark" — "He saw behind the loveliness that was hers, and knew her for a witcH’
”Her Demon-Lover” Virgil Finlay 1
Illustration of a passage in Coleridge’s "Kubla Khan"
The Witch’s Mark Dorothy Quick 3
Shamus O’Brien risked his very soul for the red lips of Cecily Maltby —a strange and curious tale

The Canal H. P. Lovecraft 20

Verse
The House of Living Music Edmond Hamilton 21
A tragic weird-scientific tale about a composer who could re-create all visible things in sound
Roads Seabury Quinn 30
A reverent weird tale of Yuletide and the Crucifixion, and a gladiator from the Northland
The Hairy Ones Shall Dance Cans T. Field 53
A tale of terror and sudden death, and the frightful thing that laired in the Devil’s Croft
Toean Matjan Vennette Herron 70
A story of Java, and the incredible thing that the natives implicitly believe

The Voyage of the Neutralia (end) B. Wallis 77

An epic of weird adventure and a strange cruise to other planets

Lost Dream Emil Petaja 96

Verse, in memory of the late H. P. Lovecraft

The Light Was Green John R. Speer 97

A brief weird railroad story by the author of "Symphony of the Damned"
Valley of Bones David H. Keller 102
What weird tragedy took place in that African graveyard of a murdered people?

The Third Interne Idwal Jones 106

A brief tale of a surgical horror in the Asiatic wastes of northern Russia
Weird Story Reprint;
Ethan Brand Nathaniel Hawthorne 110
A chapter from an abortive romance

The Eyrie 122

Our readers discuss the magazine

Published monthly by the Popular Fiction Publishing Company, 2457 East Washington Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Entered
as second-class matter March 20, 1923, at the post olficc at Indianapolis, Ind., under the act of March 3, 1879. Single copies,
25 cents. Subscription rates: One year in the United States and possessions, Cuba, Mexico, South America, Spain, $2.50;-
Canada, $2.73; elsewhere, $3.00. English office: Otis A. Kline, c/o John Paradise, 86 Strand, W. C. 2, London. The pub-
lishers are not re^onsiblc for the loss of unsolicited manuscripts, although every care will be taken of such material while in
their possession. The contents of this magazine are fully protected by copyright and must not be reproduced either wholly or in
part without permission from the publishers.
—
NOTE All manuscripts and communications should be addressed to the publishers* Chicago office at 840 North Michigan
FARNSWORTH WRIGHT, Editor.
Avenue, Chicago, 111,
Copyright 1938, by the Popular Fiction Publishing Company.
COPYRIGHTED IN GREAT BRITAIN 48

WEIRD TALES ISSUED 1st OF EACH MONTH

514
 By DOROTHY QUICK
Shamus O’Brien risked his very soul for the red, red lips of Cecily Maltby —
a strange and curious story about a beautiful, evil
woman with red-gold hair

T he first time Shamus sav*'

Maltby he thought her easily the

most fascinating woman he had
ever seen. He weighed her charm against
Cecily
—
The second time he thought of Isolde
Isolde of the red-gold hair and the
snow-white skin. Cecily Maltby’s
was so white that a camellia seemed yel-
skin

her beauty and found they balanced each low against it. She had a slim figure
Cither perfectly. from which her breasts curved lushly, and
3
4 WEIRD TALES
she moved with the unconscious grace Shamus liked Trudy Rose. She was a
Isolde must have had. swell girl and they’d always been friends.
The third time he saw her he was con- "Why didn’t she call me herself?”
scious that her lips were much too red, Shamus asked.
that they looked as though blood had Jim laughed. "I just happened to be
been smeared across them. Quite sud- talking to her. Long-distance calls cost
denly he forgot her beauty and charm and money these days.” 'Then his face so-
felt an odd repugnance toward her, all bered. "If you must have the truth, I
the more odd because her great eyes were think Trudy’s a bit shy of you. Unre-
looking at him with the expression a wo- quited love turns sour after a point.”
man wears when she loves a man and is Unrequited love! Trudy in love with
willing to let him see that she does. him? Shamus had never dreamed of such
Shamus O’Brien was an author of sorts. a thing. Trudy and he had been pals,
That is, he lived on an income left him playmates, for years. He couldn’t picture
by his father and played at writing be- his life without her, and yet often he
cause he had nothing better to do and was didn’t see her for weeks. He conjured up
always in hopes of striking literary gold. a vision of her piquant rounded face with
He had an attractive apartment in the its turned-up nose, friendly smile and
East Sixties and was popular enough to clear blue eyes. She was like Diana, slen-
have his engagement book filled far der and unawakened. It had never oc-
ahead. curred to him to light the spark that
He had a sense of humor. His father would change her from the cold moon-
was Irish and his mother French. He was maiden into a warm, passionate woman.
six feet tall, broad-shouldered, with reg- If it hadn’t been for Jim, he would have
ular features and brown hair that v/ould gone on playing big brother to Trudy in-
wave no matter how he struggled to make definitely. But now he suddenly realized
it lie flat. All in all, he was quite an or- how lost he would be without her, and
dinary young man of twenty-seven and his heart beat faster at the idea of Trudy
there was no apparent reason why he —and love!
should have been thrown into such a He looked at Jim with perhaps a little

maelstrom of curious events. felt showing on his face,

of the elation he
They began on the Friday morning "Shamus O’Brien,” Jim said sternly,
when Jim Blaketon came breezing into "if you ever so much as hint to Truciy
his living-room. that I’ve let the cat out of the bag. I’ll

"Hi, old Stick-in-the-Mud, I’ve come tar and feather you! I just couldn’t keep
to dig you out,” he shouted, his words my mouth shut and let a fine romance go
reverberating among the Italian antiques. to waste for want of proper direction.”
”
"I’ve just settled in for the week-end. "I never dreamed
I’ve got a swell idea for a new story.” "You wouldn’t. You’re kind of dumb
Shamus waved a box of newly sharpened where women are concerned. That’s why
pencils at his friend. I spoke up. I knew you had a soft spot

"Rats! You’re too good-looking to de- for Trudy and that you’d never find it un-
prive the debutantes of for anything so less it was pointed out to you.”
inconsequential as a story. Come on, my With the perfect understanding there
lad, Trudy’s giving a house-party. She’s sometimes is between men who have done
a man short, so she sent me an S. O. S. to college and night-life together, they read
get you.” each other’s thoughts. Then Jim slapped
 THE WITCH’S MARK 5

Shamus on the bade and pulled him to-
ward the bedroom, talking as they went.
"Come on, pack the bag. I’ll guaran-
tee you a moon tomorrow night so you
can propose.”
She wore some kind of clinging green
material tied around her waist with a
gold cord. Shamus couldn’t tell what
type of dress it was —
sport or afternoon,
—
morning or evening he only knew that
she looked like Undine standing there

T here was a moon, and Trudy was

beside Shamus, her arm linked in his
—but he did not propose. In the mean-
and that when she spoke her
like the rippling of
ver stones.
deep waters over sil-
Sweet and mellow it vibrated
voice was

time he had met Cecily Maltby. against his heart-strings as she acknowl-
Jim and he motored up to Ridgefield, edged Trudy’s introduction.
where the Roses had a large ccnintry estate She didn’t move from her place by the
outside the little Connecticut town. They mantel, nor did she make the slightest
used it only for spring and fall and occa- effort to call Shamus to her. Neverthe-
sional winter housewarmings, but it was less, when he had acquired a highball, he
always lovely. Now, in the beginning of found himself beside her.
June, it was particularly so. When Sha- "Can I get you something?” he asked,
mus and Jim drove up under the rambler- matter-of-factly.
covered porte<ochere, Trudy followed "Not now,” she said in that deep
the butler to the door. She had on a soft melodious voice, "but perhaps some
yellow sports dress that brought out the day ” She looked
Shamus, and at
deep brown of her hair and eyes. She was there were smoldering fires behind her
lovely to look at as she stood in the door- eyes.
way with the wind ruffling her curls and It was an odd thing to say, "Not now
whipping her skirt back against her slen- — later perhaps” would have been tlie
—
der legs. expected thing "but perhaps some
"Shamus! I’m so glad Jim actually got day ” with the blank spaces left un-
you.” 'There was real joy in her eyes that filled! Shamus didn’t understand it; he
he would not have noticed ordinarily. didn’t want to —^he only wanted to hear
He caught her two hands and raised her speak again.
them one after the other to his lips. It She gratified his unspoken wish.
was the first gesture of sentiment there "You are Irish, are you not? ’There’s a
had ever been between them and he made touch of the Gaelic ateut you.”
it as a tribute to the girl he had decided "My name could have told you that.”
to make his wife. Shamus wondered if one could tease a
A swift color flooded Trudy’s cheeks goddess.
and she looked as though she had been "Your name?” she repeated, puzzled,
suddenly given a passport to the Seventh "I did not even hear it. Last names mean
Heaven. 'Then Jim swept down upon so little. What is your given name?”
them and presently they were all insidOj "Shamus —Shamus O’Brien. That con-
tlie center of a laughing, welcoming firms the Irish, doesn’t it?”
group. "There have been many men in Ireland
It was several minutes before Shamus who bore that name. One Shamus, who
saw Cecily. When he did, she was stand- was very like you, wooed the King’s
ing over against the mantelpiece. The daughter, Deidre; wooed her away from
gray stone threw her red hair into start- all the King’s sons who sought her hand.
ling relief as it silhouetted her figure. Though he was but a farmer’s lad, tlie
5 WEIRD TALES
Princess Deidre loved him and came several people and added his share to the
down from her golden throne to take him banter that was going on. But that was
in her arms. Do you remember that?” with only part of his mind, another part
All at once the room in the Connecti- — a tiny part that he had never known ex-
cut mansion was gone. Shamus seemed to isted —was listening to the music of Cec-
be out in the open spaces with the music ily Maltby’s voice, was remembering the
of Cecily Maltby’s voice singing in his he had held in his arms. Only
lo\'eliness
ears. The sky was blue and there w'as a second more and he w’ould have kissed
green grass all around him and some- the full red lips.

where in the distance thesound of waves. An overwhelming longing swept over

And in his arms was a slender loveliness him. Shamus shook himself as a terrier
with a cloud of red-gold hair that sent a w'hose coat is overburdened with water
wave of fragrant scent through his nos- might do. was foolish. He’d had a
'This
trils, a strange unearthly perfume that he long and listening to an old Irish
ride,
knew even in that moment was unforget- legend had made him dream day-dreams.
table.There was a beating in his ears, a It could be nothing else. Only why had
thumping of his heart. The loveliness in the girl in the vision had the face of Cec-
his arms raised her head, the cloud of red- ily instead of Trudy? Trudy was the girl

gold hair fell back revealing the white he loved. He had definitely decided that
face —
of Cecily Maltby. The past and the —
on the way up. And then oh, it was all
present surged about Shamus in a mad too silly! Just because Cecily Maltby was
spinning whirl. Presently out of it he easily the most beautiful, charming wo-
heard Cecily’s voice saying triumphantly, man he had ever seen, he mustn’t take her
"You do remember!” too seriously. Incongruously he wondered
He was back in the room at Ridgefield how old she was.
once more, looking at Cecily, who re- Jim and he shared a room; so while
garded him with strange languorous eyes. they struggled into their tuxedos,Shamus
From somewhere behind, Trudy’s voice asked him who Cecily Maltby was and
called, "Shay!” how she happened to be there, in a tone
He started to turn. As he did so, Cec- it was an effort to make casual.

ily put her hand on his arm. "Just one of Trudy’s friends,” Jim re-
"Some day you will remember even plied. "Nobody knows much about her.
more, and I will tell you the rest of the She has a house not far from here took —
story.” possession of it several months ago and

He bent over, and as his head came kept to herself. Trudy met her one day
level with hers, he caught a whiff of that while she was walking through the
unforgettable perfume. Then her hand woods, felt sorry for her lonesome state
left his arm, and in some curious way he and invited her for tea or something.
knew he was free to answer Trudy’s call. She’s had her here quite often. You
That was the first time he saw Cecily know Trudy’s soft heart.”
Maltby. Shamus didn’t say anything. Fortu-

W
nately for his curiosity, Jim went on.
HAT happened between then and "I don’t like her much. ’There’s some-
the time they went to dress for tliing about her that gives me cold shivers
dinner, Shamus didn’t know. He was in up and down the spine and makes me re-
a kind of daze. Nobody else noticed it, member that lady vampires are supposed
apparently, for he mixed highballs for to have red hair.”
 THE WITCH’S MARK 7

Shamus laughed. 'Tlie idea of Cecily the way up I was going to propose to
Maltby being even remotely associated Trudy. Did you ever see anyone look
with a vampire struck him as excessively sweeter than she did standing in the door-
funny. way when we arrived.?”

Jim joined in a good hearty guffaw, "Never!” 'There was something in

then suddenly turned serious. Jim’s tone that made Shamus wonder.
”
"I don’t think the lady’s up to any "Jim, do you, by any chance
good. She lives alone except for a gaunt "I did, but was no go. That’s how I
it

foreign maid she brought with her when
she came.”
"Sounds odd,” Shamus said, as he put
the finishing touches to histie. But he
was thinking more of the strange, unfor-
gettable perfume and the day-dream it
had evoked than of what Jim was saying.
knew you were the one she cared for
she told me. Trudy’s a swell girl! Yoii
needn’t get steamed up over me, though.
I’m going to marry Margery Standish. It
will be announced next week. I love
Margery and we’ll be happy but I’m —
still fond of Trudy, fond enough not to

"She’s a 'mystery woman’ all right,” want you to fall for eitlrer orchids or
Jim went on, "and I wish Trudy had vampires.”
never met her. Trudy’s like a beautiful For a long minute they looked into
rose blooming in the sunshine, and that each other’s eyes. 'Then Shamus said
Maltby wench is one of those orchids that blithely, in the way men have of cover-
hang from trees in South America, ex- ing real emotion, "You needn’t worry
otic, gorgeous, but they draw living I love Trudy.” Their hands met in a
things into their mouths for food, attract strong, solid clasp, as he added, "Con-
them by tlie strange perfume they send gratulations about Margery. She’s a
forth.” grand girl. I’m glad she and Trudy are

Shamus started. How

strange that Jim such good friends.”
should compare Cecily Maltby to a flower "We’ll malce a swell quartette,” Jim
emitting strange perfume —almost his remarked, and Shamus agreed heartily.
very words, remembering the day-dream He had completely forgotten Cecily, the
and the loveliness he had held in his strange perfume and the vision he had
arms! He shrugged his shoulders, an- had,
noyed with himself. This was utter fool-
ishness!
"You must have been delving into
weird literature,” he told Jim, "what
T rudy was
they
waiting for them
came downstairs.
"You’re going to sit on my right,
when

with red-haired vampires and orchids Shay,” she announced, slipping her arm
”
that through his. Her eyes looked up at him
Jim eyed his friend shrewdly. "I saw clearly, with no evasions.
you talking to her. Don’t, my boy "It’s more than I deserve. Trudy, I’ve
don’t! Tell Trudy you love her, and stay —
got something to tell you a question to
out in the sunshine — it’s better than the ask ” He leaned toward her, so
jungle depths.” close that he could have touclied her
"You talk as though you were my brown curls with his lips.
grandfather,” Shamus scoffed, although "Shay!” Her eyes were glowing now
Jim’s words had rung a warning bell in and a kind of inner light illuminated her
that corner of his brain that he had only face. "Tell me now!”
discovered tliis afternoon. "I told you on "Can’t you guess?”
8 WEIRD TALES
"I might,” she sighed happily, "but ignoring Trudy’s gesture. Without know-
I’d rather hear.” ing why, Shamus was grateful that Cec-
Just at tliat moment someone moved ily’s long tapering fingers hadn’t touched

out of the little group of people that were Trudy’s.

clustered around the cocktails and came As they walked along, Trudy squeezed
toward them. tlie hand which was still holding hers.
It was Cecily Maltby. "You’ll have to tell me later,” she
Cecily was in misty green chiffon that whispered.
clung to her revealingly. The dress "I certainly will,”he whispered back.
couldn’t be described. It was like the sea Just at that moment Cecily turned and
as it rippled about her feet. Shamus waited for them. There was an inscru-
thought of Venus rising out of the wave table expression on her face, but Shamus
ashe looked at her neck and arms emerg- knew just as though she had spoken aloud
ing from the green material. Her face tliat he would never tell Trudy what was

had the beauty that poets sing of yet can in his mind, if Cecily could prevent it.

never wholly describe because of its intan- He knew, and all at once he felt afraid.
gible loveliness. Her red hair was bound It was just then, as Trudy made a dive
about her head in two thick braids, like a to rescue the cocktail shaker, that he smelt
coronet. Her gray-green eyes looked at
the strange unforgettable perfume once
Shamus with a strange, compelling glance, more. It was as tliough someone had
but she spoke to Trudy, and her voice had sprayed a powerful atomizer over him so
changed again. Now it was like the bub- that he was enveloped in a cloud of
bling waters of a brook dancing down a nascent sweetness that was almost intoxi-
mountainside. cating in its effect.

"You most come and make your guests

'Through the mist that surrounded him
behave. Someone wants to put a bottle of
he saw Cecily Maltby’s red lips curving
absinthe into the cocktails. Perhaps you in a triumphant smile.
can exercise restraint, Trudy.” Something stirred in that comer of his
Was there a challenge in her words? brain that he had never known he pos-
There was none in her tone, only the sessed until today. In some vague way he
gay bubbling mountain brook sweeping knew a memory was there struggling to
downward. But Shamus thought of a come forth —
a memory that belonged to
stream he had once seen rushing down tlie the vision he had had — that vision of the
mountain, full, torrential, carrying great green meadow and the blue, blue sky with
trees in its wake, creating havoc as it the sound of the waves and the loveli-
went. ness in his arms —
a memory that went be-
He felt sudden cold and caught
a yond that—which was tremendously im-
Trudy’s hand in his. It was w’arm, reas- —
portant ^lie couldn’t seem to grasp it.
suring, just as her voice was, and comfort- He could only see Cecily Maltby’s face
ingly natural. witli its triumphant smile, and his fear
"Come along what we
then, we’ll see deepened until he wanted to cry out,
can do.” Trudy kept her arm linked "Save me!” to Jim, to Tmdy, to anyone.
through Shamus’ and stretched out her And just as he felt his tliroat muscles con-
free hand to Cecily. strict to give the cry, he heard the butler

Cecily gave Shamus a wise sidelong say, "Dinner is served. Miss Trudy,” and
glance and started over toward the group, the scent of the perfume died awa^. He
 THE WITCH’S MARK 9

laughed at himself for an utter fool as he
walked unmolested toward Trudy.
That was the second time he saw Cec-
ily.
she said, "I thought you knew, I am Hun-
garian.’’
Was it fancy, Shamus wondered, or
had he heard that certain parts of Hun-
gary were noted for vampires? It was at

D
ily
inner was very
just ten :
gay. There were
nine house guests and Cec-
Maltby. Mr. and Mrs. Rose had gone
that moment he decided Cecily’s lips were
too red. But he brushed the thought
away. What was the matter with him?
out to dine, so the young people had the He wondered. He was acting as though
place to themselves, and mirth ran high. this were the Middle Ages instead of
There wasn’t any chance for individual 1937. Seeing visions, smelling strange
conversation. Cecily saw to that. She perfumes, associating vampires with Cec-
dominated the conversation, did it with ily Maltby! 'There definitely must be
a chance word here and there, unobtru- something wrong with him —a touch of
sively, as though she were a juggler keep- liver probably. He’d see a doctor when
ing nine balls bouncing in the air with no he got back to town.
effort at all. Her balls were people and was speaking, and now her voice
Cecily
she juggled them around as she pleased. was as it had been when he first heard it,
While this was going on, Shamus like the rippling of deep waters over sil-
reached under the table and held Trudy’s ver stones, and her gray-green eyes had
hand. A kind of contentment flowed glints of the sea in them.
from her fingers to his. He felt a sense "It’s my turn to tell a story,’’ she said
of security and almost forgot Cecily’s eyes to the —
crowd but she looked at Shamus.
resting on him from the other end of the "Once there was a Princess of Ire-
table. land,” she began, and he wondered why
Cecily looked like a queen as she sat in she was telling that story to the others,
the high-backed chair, her head crowned wondered for a minute, tlien forgot every-
with braids. Like a queen she looked over thing but the magic of her voice and the
her subjects, insolently, except when her tale "Her name was De-
she was telling.
glance touched Shamus. Then there was idre,and many were the kings’ sons who
something in her eyes under their straight sought her hand. Among her suitors was
brows and heavy lashes that he could not a farmer’s lad, and because he was tall
read, nor did he want to. He was con- and handsome with arms that were strong
tent to sit with Trudy’s hand in his. He for holding a woman and lips that were
forgot to wonder about Cecily. He even eager to kiss, the Princess Deidre loved
forgot to pay attention to the conversa- him and came down from her golden
tion. He only held Trudy’s hand tighter, throne to take him in her swan-like
as though he were welding their fingers arms.”
together for ever and ever. It was the same story she had told him
When the dessert was finished, Trudy before, almost the same words, and al-
do so
started to rise, but before she could ready Shamus could hear the singing in
Cecily said quickly, "Can we not all have his ears and the faint, distant sound of
coffee together? In my country we do not the waves.
separate the men and women as we do Her voice went on, water dripping
sheep and goats.’’ slowly on the silver stones, dripping into
Trudy acquiesced gracefully. Someone that far corner of his brain, awakening it.
asked Cecily where her country was and "Then all the king’s sons who had
10 WEIRD TALES
sought her hand were angry and they but only on pain of worse than death will
went to the King who was Deidre’s father anyone give you food or drink or help of
and tliey said, 'This is an ill thing your any kind. Go now, before my heart
daughter has done. She has scorned us breaks in two.’
for a farmer’s lad. It will mean war.’ "And the Princess Deidre took the
"The King was sore beset, for he loved hand of her farmer’s lad and walked out
his daughter and he loved his kingdom, into the world with him.”
but in the end he loved his kingdom "Did they live happily ever after.?” It
more; for he called Deidre to him and she was Jim who asked the question or was —
came with her red-gold hair in two long it someone else.? Shamus didn’t know.
braids about her head, for she was no His mind was confused. He couldn’t see
longer a maid and could not let its flam- the faces at the table, but only Cecily’s
ing glory loose. And with her was the gray-green eyes holding his.
farmer’s lad, straight and strong, with "Yes,” she said slowly, "they lived
his arms to hold and his lips to kiss that happily ever after.”
had won the Princess.’’ "But how the King
could they when
forbade anyone to help them.?” It was

G
Little
radually
let

by
go
little
his
as Cecily talked,
hold of Trudy’s hand.
his fingers unclasped until
Shamus Trudy who questioned now.
"The Princess Deidre made a bargain
with the Little Folk, and the fairies let
finally hisarms rested on the table and them come to the Land of Heart’s Desire,
his eyes met the
curious gray-green ones where they lived happily ever after,”
of Cecily Maltby. It seemed to him as Cecily answered.
though in the whole room tliere were All at once the memory that had eluded
only he and Cecily, that the otliers were Shamus all evening came back. He leaned
not there at all, though he could see their on the table, toward Cecily, and cried ex-
tense faces as they listened to the magic citedly, "No, no! There’s more tlian that!
of Cecily’s voice continuing her tale. It wasn’t the Princess who made the bar-
"The King looked at them standing gain —
it was Shamus who bargained for

together and he said, 'Give up this far- the Land of Heart’s Desire. He even
mer’s lad, my daughter.’ gained it for a little while; but soon he
"Deidre shook her head. 'We have found that he hadn’t bargained w'ith a
gone beyond that, my father,’ she said fairy, he’d bargained with a witch wo-
proudly. ’He is mine for now and all
’’
man, and the price he had to pay
”
—was
time to come.’ the—the
Through the singing in his eyesand Like dropping, something
a shutter
the dripping of Cecily’s words, Shamus closed between that far comer of his
heard 'Trudy say, "Love is like that.” He mind and the rest of it a door tliat—
knew she meant it for him with one part sealed away the end of the story. The
of him, but the other part was growing singing died out of his ears and he leaned
stronger every minute and was so avid to back in his clrair feeling very foolish.
know the end of Cecily’s story that he ig- "Shamus?” Trudy was puzzled. "Did
nored the girl beside him. you say the farmer’s lad was named Sha-
Cecily went on. "The King said, mus.?” she asked Cecily directly.
"Tliere no use sending more arrows into
is "Of course I did,” Cecily laughed a.

tlie air have spoken. Go, my

to be lost. I laugh that sounded like the vibrations of
daughter, take witli you your farmer’s lad. a cjy’stal glass when it is stmck suddenly
 THE WITCH’S MARK 11

—a beautiful laugh, but entirely with- the far corner of his mind stirred under
out mirth. "Of course I did. That’s why her glance.
I told the story, because of the coinci- He danced with Trudy. Several times
dence of the names.’’ the words, "I love you,” trembled on his
Shamus knew she lied. Not once had lips, but he did not say them. He knew
she mentioned a name —she had always in some vague way that it was Cecily
said "the farmer’s lad.’’ Maltby’s sea-green eyes that kept the
"It wasn’t nice of you, Mr. O’Brien,’’ words back, and he resented tliis, yet
she said lightly, "to spoil my happy end- couldn’t defy her by telling Trudy what
ing. It was such a nice story. You must he wanted to. It v/as almost as though
have heard a different version of the Cecily had put a spell on him, binding
legend.” Shamus felt her words as pierc- his tongue where Trudy was concerned
ing as thin slivers of ice. a witch-woman’s spell. Shamus caught
"Yes, Shay, tell us how yours went.” his thoughts up sharply. This was all
Did he imagine it, or did Jim look to- nonsense! For the rest of the evening he
ward him curiously? would forget Cecily, and above all things
"I don’t seem to remember much more he would not take Cecily home. He was
than I said,” he managed to stammer. quite determined about that.
'Tm very sorry. Miss Maltby.” Nevertheless at midnight he found
Cecily smiled. no matter. To
"It’s himself walking through the woods with
show that I forgive you, I’ll let you take Cecily.
me home tonight.” She smiled again and "We’II just take this short cut,” she
tlren rose from the table, her green skirts had said. "It’s only a step this way,”
swirling around her like rippling waves. brushing aside his suggestion of running
As she passed by Shamus, she brushed over in the car.
against his hand, and it seemed to him as He had submitted gracefully, for he
though his fingers had been touched by had realizedhe couldn’t get out of es-
a cold ocean spray. He caught a whiff of corting her without a scene; so there was
the strange unforgettable perfume, and as nothing to do but make the best of it.

he did so he thought he heard her say,

"What else do you remember, Shamus?”
but he was not sure whether she had spo-
ken or not; and before he could find out,
T here was a deep

white birch trees. They walked along

stillness
woods, whicli consisted mainly of
in the

she had gone. quietly. Shamus was annoyed that de-

spite his resolve she had made him
ATER, other people came in for danc- bring her, and she was quite silent.
I -^ing. The rugs were rolled up and Wrapped in chiffons, she looked like a
two colored men appeared to play. Sha- wraith silhouetted against the white
mus wondered if Cecily would dance. trunks of the trees as she glided along.
He could picture her swaying like a wood- Shamus thought of Rider Haggard’s Sie,
nymph while Pan piped his tunes, but and decided Cecily had the same death-
somehow couldn’t associate her with the less indescribable beauty that Ayesha had
modern type of dancing. had.
She did not dance. She stood by the "I am glad you find me beautiful,”
fireplace surrounded by men. But though Cecily said, and her voice was like gold-
she talked with them, Shamus felt her en temple bells rung by a flower-scented
eyes upon him, searching, probing; and breeze.
12 WEIRD TALES
Shamus stopped short. "Can you read The far corner of his brain was strug-
thoughts.^” he exclaimed. gling to come to life, struggling to tell

She stood facing him, "I can read him something, fighting against the desire

yours, Shamus,beause in the old days for her that was mastering him, but he
we were one." shut his mind against it. Nothing mat-
The strange, imforgettable perfume tered of that dim past, nothing. He did

was filling his nostrils, seeping into his not care which was right — tlie long-dead
senses. He tried to think of Trudy, to memories that were striving to revive

remember what Jim had said of an or- themselves, or Cecily Maltby’s story of a

diid luring living creatures into its

curse, a seeking. They were in the past

mouth by its scent, but he couldn’t. and he was in the present, and he wanted
Everything was swept away from him by her —Cecily or Deidre— as he had wanted
the wonder of Cecily Maltby. no other woman.
She had thrown her draperies aside "Give me your lips!” he begged.
and stood there against the white birdies She caught his hands in hers and
with the moonlight streaming down upon pressed them against her. His head swam
her through an opening in the trees, with the scent of her perfume. He for-

almost as though it were a spotlight. got everything, his doubts, his fears. In
Shamus knew she had on the green all the world there was only this woman
dress she had worn at dinner —
^he could and his longing for her.

see it rippling like tlie waves of the sea
—
about her feet but it had suddenly be-
come transparent. Through it gleamed
Ae white lines of her body. It was as
though someone had tlirown a thin diif-
fon over a marble statue.
"Give me your lips!” he cried again.
She swayed nearer, yielded herself to
his arms. But still he could not reach
her lips. Red, inviting they were there,
but he knew he could not touch them un-
til she gave him leave, and he knew he

Desire such as he had never known should die of desire for her unless she
before swept over Shamus. He stretched gave that leave.
out his hands to her. She spoke again, and now her voice
"Not yet,” she whispered, her voice was like the soft petals of roses falling
dianged again. It was like deep waters on emerald grass.
falling over silver stones. "I am Deidre "Shamus, Shamus, you shall have my
— you are Shamus. Once before we loved lips if you desire them. You shall have
and lived, but we were parted, Shamus
myself if you desire me. But this time
parted because you tired of my beauty
there must be no turning back, no rurming
and I have gone down through the ages
I will roam the earth no more
—
seeking you seeking you
" away.
under a curse. You must be mine utter-
"But you said we lived happily ever
ly, now and for ever. Tell me if you will
after in the Land of Heart’s Desire.”
give me yourself in return for me!”
"Do you think I could tell tliem that
youleft me because my beauty was a well- She brushed her lips against his cheek.

—
known tale to you that you went away It was as tliough every fiber of his being
from the Land of Heart’s Desire out into leapt to life at her touch. was beyond It

the world, and a curse was put upon me explaining, beyond knowing. It was
to fiind you again, though it took age after wonderfully glorious, and yet hideously
age, century upon century?” obscene. It gave him a glimpse into an
 THE WITCH’S MARIC 13

unknown world, but when she took her ening the coils of her hair around his
lips away he though he were los-
felt as throat.
ing all that madeworth while, and
life
"Shamus, Shamus, I will be yours if
the desire for her that possessed him was
intensified, until there was no longer any-
—
you kiss me kiss me
”

He bent closer; then he heard the far-

thing within him but that desire. off voice distinctly. It was Jim’s voice
calling, "Shay! Shay! Where are you?”
HE stood a away from him and
little
S Shamus could no longer see the
and
his
at the far-off comer of
same time the
mind broke loose the bonds he had
swirling chiflPon of her dress; he could
put upon it, and an almost forgotten
only see her lush nudity, which was no memory cried its warning, "If you kiss
longer that of a statue but of a vibrantly
living woman. She shook her head, and
her this time, you are hers for ever — ^you
will have lost your soul!” just as he sud-
her hair fell about her in a red-gold denly realized that her hair was bound
flame. Eve! She was Eve, the mother of
so tight around his nedc that he could
all living, and Lilith, the serpent woman hardly breathe.
—both in one.
"Shay! Shay!” Jim sounded nearer.
"Do you want me, Shamus,’’ she asked,
"enough to pay the price you must pay?”
"Shamus — kiss me!” It was the voice
of tlie loveliness he held in his arms
"I want you,” he heard himself say. "I
water dripping over silver stones, silver
will pay the price.”
stones with sharp jagged edges.
She stretched out her arms, those won- Shamus looked at her, and underneath
derful swan-like arms. She tlurew back her beauty there was an avid rapacious
her red-gold hair. look. His throat began to throb agon-
izingly.
"Then come to me, Shamus, and seal
the bargain with a kiss!” In her voice The desire died. Slowly, as dew drops
was the music of the ages. It sang in his from a flower, it fell away.
ears, filling them just as the unforgettable "Shay! Shay!” Jim’s voice again.
perfume filled his nostrils, and desire for "Here, Jim, here!” Shamus called back,
her filled his soul. the words tearing through his tortured
He caught her iti his arms. Her skin throat.
was soft and lovely to touch. She took a "Coming!” The normality of Jim’s
long lode of her hair and boimd it voice recalled Shamus entirely to his
about his throat, drawing his face nearer senses.
and nearer to hers with the red-gold rope. "You’d better put something around
"At last, my Shamus!” he heard her you,” he said, letting go his hold of
whisper through the mad beating of his Cecily Maltby, stepping back away from
heart. her, putting up his hands to loosen the
Their lips had almost touched when he tightness of her hair about his throat.
heard a voice —a far-off voice — calling. 'Then he gasped with amazement, for
He couldn’t make was out what it saying, she stood in the moonlight with tlie greea
but he knew that the voice was calling chiffon dress swirling about her feet like
him. the rippling waves of tlie sea, no longer

He hesitated. Cecily pressed closer, transparent, but exactly as it had been at

wound her white arms about him, tight- dinner — ^and the hair which he had just
14 WEIRD TALES
loosened from his throat was bound se-
curely and sedately about her head.
His throat still ached from the con-
T he party was still going on. Shamus’
mind was in such a turmoil that he
could not face the idea of seeing people,
striction, and yet there were the braids especially Trudy. With the memory of
coroneting her head. The red-gold hair Cecily still in his mind, that glorious ob-
that he had seen loose, enveloping her, scenity that made his pulses leap, he
that he had felt round his throat a second couldn’t look into Trudy’s clear eyes.
ago, was now braided neatly. It didn’t He went in by a little side door and
seem possible, and yet looking at her made his way upstairs quietly, unseen.
Shamus saw a frustrated fury stamped on When he reached the room he shared
her face that filled him with terror and with Jim, he threw himself down on tlie
made him doubly glad to see Jim’s six- bed. His head ached, his throat throbbed;
feet-tw'O emerge from behind one of the he couldn’t see, he couldn’t think; he
birch trees. could only remember Cecily’s white body
"My scarf is very warm,” Cecily said, gleaming in the moonlight, her cloud of
touching the green wrap, the anger gone red-gold hair, her outstretched arms.
from her face. She turned to Jim, saying Presently he heard the door open and
casually, "Mr. O’Brien was worried for shut —and there was Jim standing over
fear the night air would be too cool for him.
me.” "God, man, what’s happened to your
Shamus had seen her throw that wrap neck?”
on the ground, and yet now it was about
Shamus staggered up and went across
her shoulders.
the room toward the mirror. With his
"I must be going mad,” he thought,
"unless — witch -woman, vampire what — dinner jacket he had worn a low turned-
down collar; above it was a fiery red line
has happened to me tonight?”
that ran, so far as he could see in the
"You’re wanted on the phone,' old
He
—
chap long distance. Your publisher. I
mirror, completely around his neck.
put his hand up to
—
rushed after you he’s holding the wire.”
it. The skin was
smooth and cool to the touch, but the red
Jim’s sentences were disjointed. "You
line was there, about an inch wide, flam-
run back. I’ll take Miss Maltby home.”
ing against the tan of his throat, just
"Thanks!” Shamus squeezed Jim’s arm
where Cecily Maltby’s hair had been
hard in appreciation. Then he turned to
wound about his neck.
Cecily, "I’m sorry,” he said.
Suddenly the far comer of his mind
She looked at him quizzically; then her
clicked again. "It’s tlie Witch’s Mark!”
lip curled a little.
he screamed, and tumbled over on the
"Are you?” she whispered, too low for
floor at Jim’s feet.
Jim to hear, and for a second Shamus
caught a whiff of tlie perfume again and
felt a touch of that
see you soon,
more
mad desire.
Shamus,” she said louder,
confidently.
"I shall
W
wrung
HEN Shamus came
bathing his
out in cold water.
head with
to, Jim was
a towel

Tlien she turned and took Jim’s arm. "Is it still there?” he asked.
They w'alked off, and Shamus went stum- "It doesn’t rub off, if that’s what you
bling back to the house in a kind of a mean. I tried,” Jim answered grimly.
daze, wondering if he ever wanted to see Then he helped Shamus into a big arm-
Cecily Maltby again. chair, "If I’d known what I was letting
 THE WITCH’S MARK as

you In for, I’d have left you in New "You seem to know a lot about this.”
York.” Jim watched Shamus closely.

"It might have been better,” Shamus "I don’t really. I’m only groping in
admitted. "You came just in time to- the dark, but I must talk while I can.
night.” 'This is the first time I’ve been really nor-

"I had a hunch. Of you know

course, mal since I saw her. I’m afraid it won’t
I made up that story of the phone call, last.See here, Jim, we’ve got to fight her,

but anyway it worked. Now, suppose you otherwise I’ll lose my soul. The far-off

tell me all about it.” He pointed to the comer of my brain told me that. Wasn’t
mark on his friend’s neck.
there something, somewhere, about

Shamus was feeling more normal now,

witches — succubae — eating up spirits to

make them strong?”

more Shay O’Brien and less Shamus the
"My God! Like the orchid luring in
farmer’s lad. He told Jim everything,
the flies for food!”
every small detail that he could remem-
"Like I may be crazy, but I be-
that.
ber, and when he’d finished he could see
lieve that if I had kissed her to seal the
that Jim was perfectly bewildered. Sha-
it, my spirit would
—
mus didn’t wonder ^he was all mixed up
bargain, as she put
have been drawn into hers, my body
himself.
would have died. Probably that’s the rea-
"What do you make of it?” Jim asked.
son for tills.” Shamus touched the mark
"I supposemight be a case of mental
it
on his throat.
suggestion, that Isaw what she wanted "It makes sense, if you’re goofy to start
me to see. It must have been that she — with!” Jim paced up and down. Sud-
wouldn’t have had time to braid her hair denly he stopped short. "What did you
”
between the time you called and mean at dinner when you busted up her
"I always thought she was a witch,” story of the legend, with the talk about
Jim remarked truculently. a bargain with a witch-woman?”
”
"There aren’t any witches now "I don’t know. That’s one of the mem-
"’There were. Anything that was, still ories, ancestral or actual. It didn’t finish.
can be. You said yourself it was a witch’s 'There’s something wrong with the legend
mark.” He pointed to the mark again. as she tells it. She’s twisted it for her
"I didn’t say that —Shamus, the farm- own reasons. I know
that much. De-
er’s lad, said it. He knows all about it.” spite the red-gold hairand the swan-like
Shamus spoke slowly as though he was arms, Cecily wasn’t Deidre Deidre —
searching for words. "See here, Jim, I Deidre ” Shamus’ voice died away as
believe I was the Shamus in the legend. that far corner of his memory began to
In fact, I know I was. Reincarnation —or wake again, to try to tell him
if you won’t have that, perhaps it was
ancestral memories.
has a theory that our ancestral memories
are buried deep in the unused parts of
There’s a man who
T he door opened. "Did you
Shay?”
threshold,
Tmdy was standing on the
Tmdy with her gallant head
call me,

our brains. It may be the farmer’s lad held high, her sweet lips curving in a
was an ancestor whose memories were smile, and love shining from her eyes. "I
born with me; or it may be I am Shamus thought I heard you call me as I came
himself come again, reborn just as she is along the hall.”
reborn. Or perhaps she never died Shamus sprang up, drew her into the
witch-women don’t die!” room, held her two hands close.
16 WEIRD TALES
"Trudy,” he said slowly, "Trudy, you He did remember, and he knew that
are Deidre.” while tliere was still life and death and

She looked amazed; then her eyes tlieworld continued to revolve he would
widened in horror as she saw the mark on always remember. He took a step toward
his neck. Behind Shamus, Jim motioned Cecily. He couldn’t see Trudy any more;
to her to be quiet. he could only see the loveliness that
"Trudy,” Shamus went on, "you saved waited, arms outstretched, bidding him
me once before. Will you save me come to her with honeyed magic in her
again?” tones. He touched her, as he had touched
"Of course, Shay, of course.” She her before, felt her white arms twipe
spoke soothingly, as one might speak to a themselves about his neck. In another
sick child. minute he would touch her lips — she
Now Shamus knew the trutli of tlie would be all his. Once again desire swept
legend. He knew w’hy Cecily had twisted over him — desire that must be satisfied
it,and he knew the depth of his danger. before it destroyed him utterly.
But about his neck was the witch’s mark He forgot everj'thing but that consum-
and in his ears the faint singing he had ing desire. He wanted more than even
heard in his vision of the meadow; a faint life itself to kiss those red, red lips.
scent of strange unforgettable perfume All at once he felt himself being pulled
—
was drifting tlirough his nostrils soon it back from those milk-white arms, away
would permeate his being again. He from tlie red, red lips. He heard another
knew that, and he knew, too, that there voice — Trudy’s voice — saying, "Shay,
—
was little time so little time! Shay, my darling! Shay, I love you —
"Trudy,” he cried, "Trudy take me — love you!”
in your arms —
hold me fast!” He struggled to release himself from
Beside Trudy he could see Cecily tliis new hold. He wanted to lose himself
Maltby standing, her body gleaming entirely in Cecily’s arms.
whitely through the transparent green "Come Shamus,” Cecily was
to me,
chiffon, her red-gold hair floating about whispering. "I can open the door to un-
her like a cloud, her milk-white arms ex- speakable delights, imbearable joys. I
tended toward him. will give you myself, myself, Shamus
"Trudy, you love me, take me save
if — Shamus
”

me! Trudy, for God’s sake ” Shamus Other arms were around his neck,
heard his own voice almost as though it strong, sun-tanned arms, and a lithe mus-
were not a part of him. cular figure was between him and tlie evil
'Tlie perfume was stronger now; it was loveliness. It was Trudy holding Shamus
deadening the part of his brain that could fast, Trudy pressing herself against him,
think, shutting the door of the far corner kissing his eyes so he could no longer see
that was striving to save him. Cecily, and Trudy's voice, w’armly nor-
Cecily’s voice, like deep waters falling mal, crying, "Shay, Shay, my darling, I
on silver stones, like golden temple bells, love you — I love you — kiss me — kiss
ruffled by perfumed breezes, like soft rose me ” so that he could no longer hear
petals falling on emerald grass, came to the melodious voice, though tlie last notes
him. of the music still vibrated through his
"Shamus, Shamus — just one kiss to brain.
seal the bargain
”
— just one! You remem- 'The grew less distinct as
loveliness
ber Trudy became more tangible. Still he
wT
 THE WITCH’S MARK 17

fought against Trudy, for the desire for "Is she ” Shamus couldn’t say the
the loveliness was driving him mad. word "dead” — he could hardly move.
"Come to me, Shamus —Shamus!” He He was weak and trembling witli the
could still hear the magic voice, but it was emotion he had lived through. "Have I
very faint, more like the echo of golden he cried.
killed her.^”
bells than the actual chiming, and the Jim looked down at the bed. "Trudy’s
loveliness was far away, a vision dimly only fainted. She’ll come
all right, she's

seen through mist. to in a minute.”

A command came to him from Cecily; Shamus began to speak, words rusliing
clear and sharp it rang in his brain, her from his mouth like newly freed waters
thoughts speaking to his. "Kill that that had been dammed up for a long
woman, then you can come to me —then time. "Trudy was Deidre. When her
I can be yours.” And
hands went to
his father put us out with the ban upon us,
Trudy’s throat because the desire that was we roamed the kingdom looking for food
ravaging him must be appeased the — and drink and a place to live.” He had
loveliness must be his no matter what the to tell Jim the things that the far corner
cost. of his mind had revealed to him, tell
As he pressed his hands about Trudy’s them before they were lost again, for the
neck, he could see the loveliness more door was shutting now into that corner of
plainly, smiling triumphantly. And then his mind and Shamus knew intuitively it
Trudy with a last desperate eflFort pulled would never open again.
his face to hers and set her lips on his, "Everyone shunned us, afraid to help;
her fresh young lips, although already the so we went to the forest to live. But we
pressure of his hands on her throat was could not find food. Even animals were
cmel. against us —the King’s curse had been a
Trudy’s lips held his, and through wide one. I could only defend Deidre
them her spirit reached out to the spirit from their onslaughts, give her water
of Shamus. from a brook and some berries that grew
He forgot the loveliness of Cecily near by.
Maltby; his hands loosened, fell away "Deidre weakened, she grew ill. I
from Trudy’s throat. He held Trudy in begged her to return to her fadier, to leave
his arms drinking of her sweetness, her me, but she would not. Then one day
love allaying the desire that Cecily’s evil while Deidre was asleep, came a woman
loveliness had aroused. with red-gold hair and lush rounded
Suddenly Shamus realized it was Trudy breasts who said she was of the fairy folk
—
he loved Trudy who loved him that — and that she would take us to the Land
they belonged to each other. There was of Heart’s Desire, and tlie only price 1
no longer desire, or perfume, no longer had to pay was to kiss her now, and once
the singing music. He looked up: the again when she asked me to. It seemed
evil loveliness was gone. Cecily Maltby, simple enough. I kissed her lips, and she
the witch-woman, had been conquered by took Deidre and me to a wonderful land
love. where everything was truly as our hearts
desired. We saw no one, but all our

T rudy went limp. As she did so,

Shamus was aware that Jim was be-
side them. Jim took Trudy and laid her
needs were satisfied and we anted noth-
ing but each other.
"Deidre grew strong again and we
on the bed. were happy; only all the time I remcm-
W. T.—
18 WEIRD TALES
bercd the magic of the fairy woman’s kiss "She looked at me with a glowering
and knew I would be glad when she came hate. 'Well is it for you that the second
to claim the rest of tlie bargain — the sec- kiss must be given, not taken,’ she said,
ond kiss I had promised. 'or your soul would feel mine this mo-
"Deidre knew there was something on ment. But if I must wait until you come
my mind, and being a woman as well as a again to feed my hunger, then you must
Princess she made me tell her. When I go quickly so you can return quickly, I
did, she shrank back in horror, for she do not like to wait.’
said that the woman was not of the fairies "And she stretched out her hand and
who were good and kind, and would ask —
whispered a name and I, Shamus the
—
no payment the woman was a witch- farmer’s lad, fell across the dead body of
woman and if I kissed her the second the Princess Deidre, my love!’’
time I would lose my soul; that we must
leave this pleasant land before she came hamus stopped talking. The room
again.
"I laughed at her fears, but when she
S was very still. Then Jim asked,
"You remembered all that?’’
wept I said that we would go. Just at that "Yes, in that second before I asked
moment the woman with the red-gold What happened in be-
Trudy’s help.
hair and lush rounded breasts appeared
tween I don’t know; my memory didn’t
beside us. 'You made a bargain, Shamus
go beyond this, but evidently the witch-
the farmer’s lad, and I have come to claim
woman, Cecily, has lost some of her
my
"I
kiss,’ she said.
remembered the first kiss, and desire
power with tlie years she didn’t blast—
me to annihilation this time.’’ Shamus
for her ran high in my heart. 'I am ready
sighed thankfully. Life still looked good
to pay.’ I moved toward her outstretdied
the truth of the
to him. "She didn’t tell
arms.
" legend, either. Obviously she wanted me
'No, No!’ cried Deidre. 'You shall
to think her Deidre, to give her the sec-
not!’ —
and she ran between us and
ond kiss freely.’’
pressed her lips against the woman’s, and
"I caught one glimpse of her as she
fell down dead from the force that was
stood beside Trudy. I don’t wonder you
in them, the force that was ready to take
wanted to kiss her. Do you think she’ll
my soul.
come back?’’ Jim’s voice was strained.
"Deidre’s soul it did not take, for she
"I don’t think so. I think at least for
had only been kissed once; but she was
dead, the beautiful Princess who had left
now she’s vanquished by my love for
’’

her throne for the farmer’s lad, and my

Trudy, but
heart was dead with her. "We’ll take no chances,” said Trudy
"I looked at the woman, and the desire from the bed, sitting up. "Come on, Jim,
for her was gone. I saw behind the love- you’re going to be best man at a wed-
liness that was hers, and I knew her for ding.”
a witch. So standing there, with Deidre’s "Now?” he exclaimed.
body at my feet, I cursed the witch-wo- "Right now. We’ll motor over to that
man, cursed her with the curse of the un- place where you can be married at any
—
dying ^that she could never find food, time. I heard everything you two said,
that she would grow hungry through the and I believe it. I’m not going to risk
ages longing for my soul, unable to at- losing Shay, now that I’ve got him,”
tain it. "She’s right, Jim. Let’s go.” Shamus
 THE WITCH’S MARK 19

took Trudy’s hand and helped her to her Neither Trudy nor Shamus botliered to
feet. answer. 'Tliey were very busy with each
Jim caught a scarf from tlie bureau. other.
"Better put this around your neck —the After a while Jim announced as he
mark’s still there.” slowed up, "There’s the house.” Then
"The witcli’s mark!” Shamus shud- his voice became puzzled, "Why, look,
dered; all the more need for haste. the front door’s swinging open!”

They went down the back way, al- He was right. Through the iron gates
though the house was dark and every- set in the wall, they could see the front
one was already sound asleep. door swinging back and forth.
"I’m going in,” Trudy said.

A s THEY drove up
ister’s
before the min-
door, the clock on the dash-
board said four o’clock. They woke up
Jim stopped the car near the path
that led up to the house, whicli stood
quite a way back from the road.
a kindly old man who agreed to officiate
"Now,see here, this has been a hard
if they’d get a license from the Justice of
night. Twice we’ve snatched Shay back
the Peace who lived next door.
from —
something witch-woman or
As the minister said, "’Those whom what —
I don’t know. The whole thing
God hath joined together let no man put may be as Shay doped it out, or it could
asunder,” Shamus thought he heard a be suggestion. Miss Cecily Maltby may
faint sigh like the rustle of leaves in a have fallen for Shay in a big W'ay, and
dying wind. Trudy must have heard be a hypnotist de luxe. But whichever
it too, for she clasped his hand tighter. it is, why jump into the lion’s den?”
'They were quiet as thej' drove away. There was anxiety in Jim’s voice.
Shamus felt an utter peace pervading
Trudy smiled. "'The mark has gone
—
him all the strange madness of the last from Shay’s throat.”
two days was over. Trudy was his. At
"It has!” both men exclaimed together.
last Shamus, the farmer’s lad, had re-

gained his Princess. we were being mar-

"It faded while

As they turned into Ridgefield, Trudy ried. was watching it.

I There’s no
danger now, Jim. I know there isn’t
said to Jim, who was driving, "Go past
and I must go in.”
Cecily’s house.”
"But why?” Jim remonstrated. Shamus got out and held the car door

"Haven’t you had enough for one open.

night?” "Come on Jim, Trudy’s right. We
"I have a feeling that I must" Trudy may as well get this settled now.”
answered. As they, walked up the path toward
"If you’re going to get feelings too that swinging door, Sliamus was afraid
and be psychic ” Jim groaned. of what the blackness behind it might

"Go ahead,” Shamus told him; "I’m reveal,and although he knew he was
not afraid —not now.” He looked into free of the witch’s mark, he dreaded
Trudy’s upturned eyes that reflected the seeing Cecily Maltby again.
love in his. On the porch Jim threw the beam
Margery were here. All this
"I wish from a pocket flashlight into the dark
romance is hard on me,” Jim grumbled hallway. It was empty. There was not
as he speeded up the car. a stick of furniture in the place. The
20 WEIRD TALES
house was barren, stripped of any sign Maltby to Shamus. He knew it as such.
of life. The witch’smark had gone from his
"I don’t understand.
suppose people I
throat, but would the mark she had made
can move in the middle of the night, across his soul ever vanish? he wondered.

but the place was furnished when I

Would the remembrance of her haunt
brought her home — lovely old antique him until in some future life they met
furniture in the hall,” there was awe in
again and fought tlie batle over and if —
Jim’s voice. “Now there’s nothing — it’s
they did, how would it end?
He felt Trudy tremble against him.
as though it had never been lived in.”
"Come, dear,” he said gently. “We must
"Perhaps never was,” Shamus said
slowly.
it
—
go now and we must forget Cecily
Maltby.”
"But I’ve been here! It was like any
Shamus said that, and he meant it, but
house, and we all saw Cecily!” Trudy as he guided Trudy out of the door
clung to me.
toward the new life that was to be theirs,
"Wewon’t see her again, darling,” he wondered if he could ever quite for-
Shamus whispered. "Between us we’ve get Cecily Maltby, the witch-woman, with
driven her away, back to Witch Land, her red-gold hair and her lush rounded
wherever it may be.” breasts.
Across the air floated just the vaguest Despite the happiness he has found
reminder of the unforgettable perfume, with Trudy, it is a question that has never
as though it was a farewell from Cecily been answered.

Vl/anal 1

By H. P. LOVECRAFT
Somewhere in dream there is an evil place
Where tall deserted buildings crowd dong
A deep, black, narrow channel, reeking strong
Of frightful things, whence oily currents race.
Lanes with old walls half meeting overhead
Wind off to streets one may or may not know.
And feeble moonlight sheds a spectral glow
Over long rows of windows, dark and dead.

'There are no footfalls, and the one soft sound

Is of the oily water as it glides
Under stone bridges, and along the sides
Of its deep flume, to some vague ocean bound.
None lives to tell when that stream washed awajj
Its dream-lost region from the world of day.
7he^
U (ouse of Living Music
By EDMOND HAMILTON
—
strange weird-sdentijic story ivith a tragic denouement about a great
composer who could re-create all living things in sound

F I HAD only killed Harriman on But at that time I, a young newspaper

I that first night! Yes, I know

have been murder, but the diabolical
it
thing that Harriman did was worse than
any murder. He was a great composer
— the world will never know just how
great. He was also a devil from hell.
would music critic, had only admiration for
Harriman. He was considered one of the
greatest living composers.His Mechani-
cal Symphony, with its mad blend of
and riveters, had started a
street noises
whole new sdiooi of music. Then he had
21
22 WEIRD TALES
upset the academies again with what he fectly expresses things in sound. Take a
called "mathematical” music. He always flower, for instance. A painter can re-
seemed striving to achieve some impos- produce that flower exactly for your eyes
sible musical ideal that haunted his brain. by his colors. A scientist can reproduce
That night I met him in the lobby of it exactly for your mind, by his exact
Gimegie Hall. Inside, the Philharmonic classifications and measurements. Why
had just launched into tlie last movement shouldn’t a musician be able to repro-
of Beethoven’s Ninth, and I was hurry- duce the flower exactly for your ear in
ing toward that exultant shout of strings sound, in music?”
when I bumped into Harriman, going "It’s an odd theory,” I commented.
out. "Sounds like a sort of sublimated pro-

muttered a hasty excuse, and tiien I

I gram music.”
suddenly recognized him and stopped. It "Program music, hell!” snarled Har-
”
was Harriman, all right, his tall, thin riman angrily. "You wait until I
figure clad as usual in rusty black, his un- He shut up suddenly, and I could not
ruly, thick gray hair falling over his bril- get another word out of him that eve-
liant gray eyes and taut face. He looked ning. I left him at his apartment build-
like a genius, Harriman did. ing, but I found pretexts to call on him
I exclaimed, "You’re not leaving now, during the next few days, and endeavored
surely? Don’t you want to hear the to draw him out further about his oddly
finale?” interesting theory.

Harriman said, "Hello, Raymer.” It was no use, for Harriman was not
Then he made an impatient, disgusted often there and when he was, he refused
movement with his hand, toward the dis- to be pumped. Yet my time wasn’t
tant music. "No, I don’t want to hear wasted, for in my first visit I’d discovered
it. It’s a confession — ^Beethoven’s con- his daughter. Lina Harriman became a
fession of his ultimate failure as a com- greater attraction for me there than her
poser.” father’s radical musical ideas.
His gray eyes were bitter and scorn-
ful now as we stood there, listening to HE was a small girl, with bright yel-
the chorus’ great song that blended wil;jj S low hair, a tip-tilted nose and blue
the tumultuous instruments in the con- eyes dancing with love of fun. I tliink I
clusion of Beethoven’s stupendous work, fell in love with laughing, gay little Lina
"Human voices,” said Harriman bit- from the Harriman was too pre-
first.

terly. '"rhat’s what Beethoven came occupied to notice, though what so ab-
down to in the end — his attempts to sorbed him I did not know, at first.
create pure, perfect music an admitted Lina told me, a few weeks after I’d
failure.” first met her. "I can’t understand it, Har-

"What do you mean by perfect old,” she said perplexedly. "Father is

music?” I demanded. going in for scientific research.”

Unconsciously, in my interest, I had I was amazed. "A first-class composer

fallen into step with Harriman and we like Harriman dabbling in science? Why
had strolled together out into the warm in the world should he?”
spring night. She shook her bright head, puzzled.
Harriman’s thin hand gesticulated as —
"I can’t guess he will tell me nothing.
he explained. "I mean music that per- But you know that he was a brilliant stu-
 THE HOUSE OF LIVING MUSIC 23

dent of physics before he took up music, asked to use my laboratories for some
and for the last months he has spent all private research. Of course I let him.”
his time down at the laboratories of Man- "You don’t know what kind of re-
hattan University, experimenting. He search.^” I asked, a little curiously.
says that it’s only a hobby of his.”
The scientist shook his head. "No, he
"Strange hobby for a man whose whole was quite secretive. It seemed that he
life-interest seemed to be music,” I com-
was conducting some experiments in
mented. And I resolved to ask Harriman
but
acoustics, I could not gather their
about it the next time I called.
nature.”
Well, I didn’t ask him, for the next
"And you’ve no idea where he and his
time I visited the apartment, Harriman
daughter could have gone?”
was gone. So was Lina. The apartment
was empty and I learned from the build- He hadn’t. I thanked him and left,

ing superintendent that the two had disappointed and wondering if Harri-

moved out only two days before. man had not become a little queer men-
tally.
He didn’t know where they had gone.
Neither could I find any forwarding ad- It certainly looked like it, for a com-

dtess through the post office. Harriman’s

poser of his reputation, a man of his de-

music publishers were similarly ignorant votion to music, to fling himself suddenly

— they didn’t know the composer had left into abstruse scientific research for weeks,
and then abruptly disappear. I told my-
town until I told them.
self, too, that if Lina had wanted me to
I was surprized, and a little hurt, for
know where she was, she would have
I had thought that Lina and I were com-
written me. She hadn’t, so I might as
ing to an understanding, and couldn’t
well forget her.
comprehend why she would leave like
that without a word. I thought, though, But it wasn’t so easy for me to forget
from wherever they
that she’d soon write laughing little Lina. Only now that she
had gone, but the weeks went by and was gone did I discover how much I
she didn’t. had come to care for her, 'The with-
She and her father had simply disap- drawal of her lilting, sunny being from
peared as though the earth had swal- my life left it flat and tasteless, and I
lowed them. I scoured aroimd New Yoric followed my routine around the concert
musical circles a good bit, without ever halls and operas of New York without
finding a clue to their whereabouts. much enthusiasm, in the following
As a final resort I tried Manhattan months.
whose physical laboratories
University, in
Harriman had been dabbling with re-
search. 'The professor of physics there, a
spectacled, white-haired Teuton, remem-
D uring all those months I had not
one word from Lina or her father,
and never heard from anyone in musical
bered Harriman quite well. circles any news of Harriman’s where-

"He was my pupil years ago — I ex- abouts. He and Lina might just have
pected him to become a brilliant physi- dropped out of existence. Then, a full
cist,” he told me. ’"Then he disappointed year after their disappearance, I was as-
me — ^he turned to music. A fine scientist tounded to receive a telegram from Har-
wasted, just like that.” He added, "He timan.
came back here a few months ago and It had been sent from a village in
24 WEIRD TALES
western Massachusetts, and I read and taut and strained than it had been, and
re-read it. his gray eyes, always brilliant, were burn-
"Raymer, I’m not dead as you may ing now with some continuous inward
have thought. I’ve been working up here, excitement. -

and 1 have achieved my ideal of perfect He smiled at me a little oddly and

music. If you will come up here, you said, "I hoped you’d come, Raymer. I
shall hear it.” was almost sure you would.”
Lina! That was all I thought of when "Where’s Lina.^” I demanded eagerly.
I read Harriman’s queer message. I "Does she know I’m coming?”
didn’t care at that moment what Har- Harriman made a brusk gesture. "Oh,
riman had been doing in music. I was Lina — she’s not here.”
only overjoyed to discover at last where
"Not here?” I echoed, dismayed.
he and Lina were living.
He shook his head. "No, she couldn’t
Larly the next morning,I was in my stand the loneliness out here. A month
roadster on the highway north. And as after we came, she left me and went
I drove through the spring-green Berk- down to live with an aunt of hers in
shires that afternoon, I could hardly wait North Carolina.” He added, "Come on j

to reach Lina. I still couldn’t understand in, Raymer. Let me have your bag.”
why she had not written me, but told I was numb with disappointment as I
myself that doubtless her father had for- followed him inside. Only now was I
bidden it, in his desire for seclusion. aware how eagerly I had looked forward
Tlie village from which his wire had to seeing Lina again. Harriman, how-;
come was a neatlittle community of ever, appeared not to notice my dejec-
white frame houses, tucked in the big tion, as he conducted me into the living-
hills west of Greenfield. There I learned room of the old house.
without trouble where Harriman was liv- The room was in an unforgivably slov-
ing —a hilltop house a few miles out of enly state from complete lack of care,
the village. It was late afternoon by the dust lying thick on the floor and old-
time I steered my car around a winding fashioned black furniture. It was quite
dirt road into sight of the place. evident that Harriman was living here
Harriman’s house stood brooding black alone.
against the red embers of sunset, up on He W'as rigid with repressed excitement
the low, domed hill. It w'as an old stone as he told me now,
"Raymer, you’ll thank
Colonial farmhouse, whose grounds heaven you came here, For you, first of
looked shabby and ill cared for. I allmen, are going to hear the greatest
stopped my car in its drive, wondering music ever produced on this earth my
whether gay, fun-loving Lina had liked music.”
this isolated place. I said hesitatingly, "Yes, but Lina —
My heart pounded with eager antici- can’t understand why she never w'rote me
pation as I stood in the dusk on the from Carolina.”
veranda, ringing the bell. But when the He exclaimed impatiently, "Oh, forget
door opened, my spirits were a little —
about Lina haven’t you any curiosity at
dashed, for it wasn’t Lina who stood in- all about my music?”
side, but Harriman himself. I tried to summon up an appearance
He had changed, in this year. His of interest.

white face was thinner, looking more "Of course I’m curious, Harriman.
 THE HOUSE OF LIVING MUSIC 25

,
What have you been composing up here,
anyway? Another symphony?”
He nodded slowly, his brilliant gray
H arriman took out one of
ords and placed
of the large phonograph near me.
it on the
the rec-
turntable
Then
eyes fixed with an odd expression on he turned to me.
mine. "You might call it that. You re- "This one of the first pieces of music
is

member, Raymer, that I once told you my I created here, Raymer. It is a series of
dream was to create music that would flowers, in music.”
perfectly express anything, any object, in I said doubtfully, "You mean a de-
sound? Well, I’ve succeeded, and you’re scriptive suite something like Had-
”
going to hear that music. Come along ley’s

to my laboratory.” "Hadley be damned!” he muttered.

"Your laboratory?” I repeated, sur- "This isn’t a musical description of flow-
prized. ers — it’s the flowers themselves, in music!
He chuckled. Raymer, this
"Yes, Listen.”
music isn’t composed with pen and ruled He started the phonograph. Out from
paper. It is created by —
but come on, the turning black disk welled music,
and see for yourself.” strange music such as I had never heard
I followed him along a dark corridor before. Its notes did not seem to have
ram-
that led into the rear portion of the been produced by any musical instru-
bling old house. He led into a dark ment known to man. 'They were purer,
room, and when he had snapped on the sweeter, clearer, than any sounds that
lights, I saw that it really did look like a man-made instruments could create. And
scientific laboratory. they wove a weird, magic pattern of
There were various electrical genera- changing sound in the lamplit laboratory,
tors and machines around the room, music that brought with it to my ears
which meant nothing to a music critic and brain, inevitable sound-pictures of
like myself. There was also a sound- the blossoming plants of earth. Each
recording machine and a large phono- separate drifting melodic phrase seemed
graph, but the central object in the room to conjure up for me a different impres-
was a big cubical m.etal chamber six feet sion of flowers blooming from the soil.
high. 'Thisweird apparatus was open There were shy, sweet, fluted melodies,
in front, and fastened outside one of its fugitive and brief, that brought to my
sides was a bank of big vacuum tubes mind the wild, nodding violets and
connected to a resonator like a flat loud- daisies. There were thrilling, full-
speaker. voiced harmonies of gorgeous roses, cool,
I said, "This is a queer kind of study low songs of drooping orchids, flaring
for a composer.” music of vivid poppy and hibiscus, sigh-
Harriman laughed triumphantly. ing whisper of white lilies beside forest
"Wait until you hear the music that has pools, and gay, climbing, clarinet-like
been created in this room.” notes that irresistibly suggested the wav-
He opened a big steel filing-case. I ing cat-tails.
saw that it was full of black disks, phono- I listened enthralled, almost forgetting
graph records of the long-playing kind. my disappointment over Lina’s absence.
They were not ordinary commercial rec- It was
like hearing all the flowers of earth
ords, tliough, for tlie only label on each instead of seeing them. As he played
one w'as a white sticker with a scrawled record after record, the cool drifting
word in Harriman’s writing. music brought before my eyes everything
26 WEIRD TALES
that has root and seed and flower, all the that? It’s as though you translated the
life that climbs upward from the soil rocks and birds and flowers themselves
into the sunlight. into music.”

"Harriman, it’s wonderful!” I cried. "That,” said Harriman, "is just what
"It is music like no other ever composed I do.”
before. But I can’t understand on what I stared at him. "What do you mean?”
”
instruments you produced it
what I said,” he replied calmly.
"Just
"You will soon learn that,” Harriman "Watch, Raymer.”
answered, his thin face smiling strangely. He went to the big, cube-shaped ap-
"Tliere is more that I want you to hear
paratus, and touched certain switches on
first.”
its control panel. 'The electrical mechan-
One record after another he brought isms around the room broke into whin-
from the cabinet and played. Enchanted, ing life. A flood of white radiance cas-
hearing music such as surely no
I listened, caded down from the top of the cube’s
one had ever listened to before, music interior, filling the hollow chamber with
perfectly expressive of the life of earth. shining force. ’The great vacuum on the
Strong, vibrating harmonies as of side began to sputter.
hushed reed-instruments that voiced the
trees of the forest, the sturdy young
elms and gnarled oaks and slender, grace-
ful birches. Deep, solemn chords like
H arriman took a red
a vase of flowers,
blossom into the force-filled chamber.
carnation from
and tossed the

the muttering of ancient bassoons, ex- Then my eyes beheld an uncanny thing.
pressing in sound the rocks of earth it- The carnation began to fade, to disappear
self, the eternal quartz and granite. Ring- slowly. As though under that terrific
ing, crystal bell-notes of shining forest flood of white force, its very substance
spring and stream. was melting away.
And the wild, moving life of earth And from the resonator outside the
welled out in the room in music, too. cubical chamber, at the same time, began
Swift, thrilling harmonies of the winged to issue sounds. Music! Hushed, vel-
birds that dart in the sky; nervous, quick- vety, slow-climbing tones in languid
tumbling music of the squirrels, running rhythm, a smooth, slow harmony that
in the branches, little orderly rhythms of sound the fading
perfectly expressed in
tiny pattering brasses in complex coun- flower inside the cube!
terpoint, that voiced the intricate life of The flower faded further, became al-
hive and ant-hill; long, suave harmonies most invisible in its increasing tenuity.
that brought before the eyes the silver The velvety music from the resonator
fish poised in his dim, curving world. swelled louder. 'Then, as I watched
All the inanimate earth, and also its ani- frozenly, the carnation in the cube van-
mate plant and animal life, poured forth ished altogether and the music ended.
in torrents of weird music. I gasped, "Good Lord, it isn’t possible
”
Harriman finally stopped the phono- that I’ve seen
graph, his eyes brilliant with triumph. Harriman nodded quietly. "Yes, Ray-
"Now do you know what perfect music mer. You have just seen solid matter
is, Raymer?” transmuted into sound, a flower trans-
I cried, "How in the world did you lated into music. I can do the same with
do it? How could you create music like any living or non-livmg matter.”
 THE HOUSE OF LIVING MUSIC 27,

And, to show me, he took a living rab-
bit from a cage in the comer, and tossed
it also into the force-filled chamber.
I saw the furry little
though petrified by the
tionless inside, as
white force. It too began slowly to fade.
And again from the resonator came music
— different music.
sound-vibrations. It Is Very little harder
to convert the different etheric vibrations
which are matter into sound-waves. This
animal freeze mo- apparatus of mine does it easily. The
more complex the matter, the naore com-
plex will be the sound, the music”
Harriman’s face was gleaming with
rapt devotion as he continued, "By this

of jovial sil-
E>arting, quidc little runs method, I am going to create the greatest
very notes in broken rhythm, a complex symphony that will ever be heard. An
harmony that was a perfect sound-picture Earth Symphony, containing the pure
of the furred, furtive little thing inside music of earth itself, its rocks and streams
the tube. The
rabbit faded further, the and flowers and birds and beasts. Out
music swelled quicker and louder. Then of the pure music preserved in these
the little beast too had vanished, and records, I shall assemble that Earth Sym-
with a last flutter of silver notes, the phony, the greatest musical work that will
music ended. ever be heard in this world.”

I said hoarsely, "A flower —an ani- Stunned, I said, "But somehow
—
mal converted into pure sound!” this whole business
”
seems unholy,
Harriman nodded again. "Just so was uncanny
created all the music which you have I asked with a sudden thought, "Is
heard, and which I have recorded as it thatwhy Lina left here? Because of this
issued from that apparatus. Everything weird work of aeation of yours?”
1 put into that cube beneath the chang- Harriman nodded impatiently. "Yes,
ing force, flower or rock or bird or beast, Lina too thought that it was uncanny and
has been transmuted into pure music didn’t want to stay.been living here
I’ve
which I have preserved on these records.” quite alone, and that’s why I wired you
"But how?” I cried, stupefied.
”
"The to come, Raymer —
I wanted someone to

thing’s not possible know what I have achieved.”

Harriman’s eyes glistened. "Yet I The brooding brilliance in his eyes
achieved it, Raymer achieved my life — deepened. "But my great woric here is

ambition of creating music that does not nearly completed now. Soon I shall have
describe a thing, but is that thing, turned arranged and assembled the pure mflsic
into sound. of these records into my Earth Symphony.
"It’s simple enough, in principle. When the world hears the records of
What is music, sound? A vibration in that symphony, it will hear pure, perfect

the air, is it not? And what is matter? music for the first time.”
A vibration in the ether, nothing more. He broke off, turning to me. "You
Well, find a way to transfer that vibration look pretty dazed, Raymer, and tired too.
from the ether to the air, and you have We’ll have some supper, and after a good
transmuted matter into sound, into night’s sleep you’ll be better able to ap-
music. preciate what I’m doing.”
"That process does not offer great dif- I made no objection, but I ate little
ficulties. After all, any ordinary radio can of the sketchy supper which Harriman
transfer etheric vibrations, the Hertzian prepared in the ill-kept kitchen. I was
waves which flash through the etlier, into still extremely disappointed by Lina’s ab-
28 WEIRD TALES
sence, yet I could well understand now trembling like a harp-string as I paused
why she had left. There was something outside that door.
so strange about Harriman’s fantastically From within, the gay, sweet music
created music that it repelled me in spite welled to a sheer climax of imearthly
of its perfect beauty. melody. A last phrase of exquisitely ten-
Later, as I lay in bed in the dark, der notes whispered to me. Then silence.
musty chamber Harriman had assigned I madly through the door.
crashed
me, I foimd myself shivering a little Harriman whirled from the big phono-
when I heard faint, drifting music from graph, his face a stiff white mask of
his library. He was there, I knew, even alarm, and came toward me.
this late, going over his records, listening
I thrust him reeling aside and ran to
to the music into which he had converted
the phonograph, peered with wild eyes
life itself.
at the black record that lay on it. The
label on the disk bore a single written

T hrough

in darkness.
the dark house the weird
music whispered to
I
me where
heard again those cool,
I lay
word: "Lina.”
"Lina!” I screamed it aloud like a ma-
niac at Harriman as he stumbled to his
sweet harmonies of forest flowers, those
feet. "You did the thing to her, too
mighty chords of the eternal rocks, the
translated her too into music!”
swift, rippling rhytlims of winged birds
"Yes, I did.” Harriman’s stiff white
and jovial, broken music of furtive for-
face was strange, and in his voice there
est beasts. The music stopped, and then
was a ghastly note of unhuman pride.
it began again. But this time it was not
He had drawn a pistol from his pocket
any music that Harriman had played for
and was covering me v/ith it.
me in the laboratory, but was new, dif-
His voice swelled, his eyes blazed.
ferent music that brought me bolt up-
"Yes, I put Lina into the cube and trans-
right in bed, trembling as I listened.

A melody it was now,

gay, dancing
muted her also into music ^music that —
will live for ever. I loved her, do you
clearerand sweeter and more tender than hear? Yet I did not hesitate to do that,
any he had let me hear. It rose and fell
for as a mere human being of flesh and
like love and laughter themselves trans-
blood she would have died within a few
lated into silver sound.
score of years. But as music, imprisoned
Sweeter, stronger, swelled that silver eternally in that record, she is undying
melody, while I listened with a strange in beauty!
feeling clutching my heart. That ex- "She will live on always as part of my
quisite, lilting music, it was like the immortal Earth Symphony. And you too
laughing tenderness of a loving heart, will be part of that great symphony, Ray-
like a bright-haired girl dancing in the mer! That is why I had you
the reason
sunlight, like come here. my
Earth Symphony, to
For
Like Lina! be must have in it not
really complete,
That hideous thought crashed into my only the rocks and streams, the birds and
brain like a dissonance of horror across flowers and beasts, it must also have in
the lilting notes. it human life, human love, man and
I leaped wildly out of bed, snatched woman who love each other. The music
on my clotlies and crept down the cor- that was Lina is already recorded and
ridor toward the laboratory door. I was preserved. And you, Raymer, shall now
 THE HOUSE OF LIVING MUSIC 29

become music likewise and take your Harriman’s thin body froze rigid in
place with her in my symphony.’’ there beneath the terrific forces. Pain,

And Harriman, keeping his pistol

awful pain, leaped into his stricken eyes.

aimed at my heart, strode toward the con- His body began to waver, to
petrified

trol panel of his diabolical apparatus. fade. Andhe faded, sound, music,
as

'The switches clicked, the white forces swelled out from the resonator at the side
streamed down into the interior of the of tlie cube. Music into which Harri-
tube. man’s mind and body were being trans-
He rasped, "You will step into the
lated! Thunderous, crashing chords of
cube, Raymer. Otherwise
’’
vaulting and collapsing superhuman as-
pirations. Mad bellowing as of brasses
He stopped. For by now the "wild
trumpeting soaring ambitions that had
grief that had frozen me suddenly dis-
failed. Wild music such as no man had
solved into mad rage as I stared at the
black record in which was prisoned the
ever heard before, thundering on my ears
as Harriman’s frozen body faded and
music that had been the girl I loved.
faded, until at last his misty form was
Gone, transmuted into silver melody,
gone, and with a last, long wail of bitter
me for ever! Lina
lost to
agony, the music had ended.
I shrieked, "By heaven, your devil’s
I was only dimly conscious. But I
symphony will never be heard by the
world! I’ll destroy —
it it and you
’’ reeled forward and with great blows
smashed the tubes and apparatus of the
And in my crazy rage I leaped at the cube, then staggered to the phonograph
filing-case and tore out the neat stadcs of
and snatched from it the black record
black records, sent them crashing to the
with Lina’s name upon it, the only one
floor in showers of broken black bits.
that had escaped destruction. And with
Harriman shridced and shot. I felt the it clutched to my breast, I stumbled
bullets tear into my shoulder but in my blindly and drunkenly out of that house
mad wrath I did not even experience any accursed.
pain.And as I tore out the last records
and smashed them, Harriman leaped
me.
Hb and his
eyes blazed awful agony
at
T he world never knew what became
of Harriman and Lina. When I
drove unsteadily into the village in the
hands clutched my throat to choke me. gray dawn after that hideous nigfit, I
He too had gone mad at si^t of the de- I had found them missing
told only that
struction of his work. We wrestled there, from the old house. The signs of de-
two crazily struggling men in the lamplit struction in the house led local authori-
laboratory. ties to believe that intruders bent on rob-
"Lina!” I kept shouting as I struggled, bery had killed Harriman and - his
that strangling horror still utterly possess- daughter and disposed of their bodies.
ing my soul. I let them think so, for I knew that if I

I tore hishands from my throat, forced

told the truth they would deem me mad,
him back across the room, toward the I am no longer a music critic, for I
devilish cube inside which the white can no longer bear to hear music of
transmuting forces flamed. I thrust him any sort. But there is one exception.
with a wild push inside the cube! 'That is the record that I took with me
30 WEffiD TALES

from Harriman’s house, the black disk melody swells out, gay and clear and
that imprisons for ever the tender, won- sweet, Lina is again beside me in the
derful melody into which was transmuted dark room — little Lina, laughing beside
the girl I loved. me in the lilting, exquisite music that
That music I hear each night. I start was her being. She will be with me
that record playing, and as the dancing thus while I live.

By SEABURY QUINN
A mystic stofy of the yuletide and a barbarian from the North in the Koman
—
army a reverent tale of the Crucifixion, and Pontius Pilate, and
a hetaera from the house of Mary the Magdalene

J. The Road to Bethlehem men say that he is that Messiah we have

waited for so long. He will rouse his
ires of thombush crackled in the mighty men of valor out of Galilee and

F
horses
courtyard of the
and grunted in
munched dry
sari, camels sighed
their kneeling-places,
grass. Around the
sweep the Roman tyrant in the sea
"Sh-s-sh, Joachim, hold thy babble;
that one yonder is belike a spy!”
”

empty stew-pots met licked the crumbs With one accord the men turned to-
of and grease from fingers and
rice ward the figure hunched in sleep before
brushed them from their beards, then a dying fire of thornbush. Flaxen-haired,
drew their sheepskin cloaks about them fair-skinned, hedrooped above the whit-
and lay down on the kidney stones to ening embers, his cloak of mddy woolen
sleep; all but the little group of three cloth draped loosely round his shoulders,
who huddled round a charcoal brazier in the sinking firelight picking out soft high-
a comer by the horse-lines. They were lights on the iron cap
tliat crowned his
talking treason: flowing, braided hair. A man of mighty
"Wah, these be evil days for Jacob’s stature, one of the gladiators kept by
children; they are as the tribes in Egypt Herod in his school for athletes that was
were, only they have neither Moses nor a constantly replenished with recruits from
Joshua! . . . The tax of a denarius on German provinces or the Slavic tribes
every household, and each one forced to beyond the Danube.
journey to his birthplace. . . . Now they "What does the godless dog so far
slay our children in their swaddling- from Herod’s kennels.^”
bands. , . . This Romans’ puppet that sits "The Lord of Zion knows, but if be
on the throne, this unbelieving Greek!” go back to the Holy City and tell the tale
"But Judas will avenge our wrongs; of what he has heard here, three crosses
 ROADS 31

will crown Golgotha before another sun

has set,” Joachim interrupted softly, and
the fight for breath, and
sleeping gladiator had a
—perhaps
wallet stuflPed
the

dropping to his knees imloosed the dag- with gold, or even copper. They were
ger at his girdle as he began to worm his well paid, these fighting dogs from
way across the courtyard flints. In all the Herod’s kennels. The on
firelight glinted
country round about Jerusalem there was the plunging knife, and
no hand more skilful with the knife than On the golden bracelet on the North-
that of Joachim the cut-purse. Softly as man’s arm. "Ho, little brother of a rat,
the cat that stalks a mouse he crept across would you bite a sleeping man,” the
the stones, paused and bore his weight on giant’s bell-like voice boomed, "and one
one hand while he drew the other back who never did thee any harm? For
... a single quick thrust underneath the shame!” White lines sprang into promi-
shoulder-blade, slanting downward to tire nence against his sun-gilt skin; his mighty
heart, then the gurgling, blood-choked muscles tightened, and a yelp of pain
cry, the helpless thrashing of the limbs. came from Joachim as the Imife dropped

"She lay as limp as death within his arms os he dashed back to Ihei
shelter ml the wolL"
32 WEIRD TALES
from unnerved fingers and a aackling
his dered, his hair was braided in two long,
like the breaking of a willow twig told fair plaits which fell on either side his
where his wrist-bones snapped beneath face beneath his iron skullcap. Like his
the other’s sudden grip. hair, his beard was golden as the ripening
"Have merqr, mighty one,” he begged. wheat, and hung well down upon his
”
"I thought breastplate. Yet be was not old; the
"Aye, that thou didst, thou niddering flaxen beard was still too young to have
craven,” came the answer. "Thou thougjit felt shears, his lightly sun-tanned skin
me and like the thief thou art,
sleeping, was smooth and fair, his sea-blue eyes
were minded to have had my purse and were clear and youthful. He glanced up
life at once. Now get thee gone from out at the star-flecked heavens, then drew his

my sight, thou and those hangdog friends cloak about him.

of thine, before I crush that puny neck "The dragon marches low upon the
"
between these hands of mine.” skies,”he muttered; 'tis time I set forth
He spread his hands, great, well-shaped, on my if I would reach the home-
journey
white-skinned hands trained in the wres- land ere the winter tempests howl again.”
tler’s art and in the wielding of the
sword, and his strong, white fingers
twitched as though already they felt yield-
ing flesh between them. With a fright-
T he

ket, for the

road was thick with travelers,
mostly peasants on their way to mar-
day began with sunrise, and
ened shirking, as though they were in the bartering would start within an hour.
named them,
truth the rats the stranger Hucksters of every sort of article, fanciful
the three conspirators slunk out, Joachim as well as necessary, pressed along the

the cut-purse nursing his broken right way, tugging at halters, now entreating,

wrist in the crook of his left arm, his two now berating their pack-animals to great-
companions crowding close beside him as er speed. A patrol of soldiers passed him,
they sought to gain the exit of the court- and their decurion raised his hand in
yard before the giant Northling reconsid- greeting.

ered and repented of his mercy. "Salve, Claudius! Art thou truly going
’The blond-haired watched
stranger back to that cold land of thine.? By Pluto,
them go, then swung from
his cloak back I am sorry that thou leavest us; many is
his shoulders. Beneath the cape he wore the silver penny I have won by betting
from neck to knee a tunic of fine woolen on those fists of thine, or on thy skill at

stufli dyed brilliant red and edged about swordplay!”

die bottom with embroidery of gold. A ’The Northman smiled amusedly.
corselet of tanned bullhide set with iron Though he had been among the Romans
studs w'as buckled round his torso; his since before his beard was sprouted, their

feet were shod widi buskins of soft rendering of his simple Nordic name of
leather laced about his legs with rawhide Klaus to Claudius had never failed to
thongs; from the girdle at his w'aist on rouse his laughter.
one side hung a double-bladed ax, on the "Yea, Marcus, I am soothly gone, this
other a soft-leather poudi which clinked time. Five years and more have I served
with a metallic sound each time he Herod’s whim, and in that time I’ve
moved. Between his shoulders swung a learnt the art of war as few can know it.
long two-handed sword with a wide, With sword and ax and mace, or with
well-tempered blade, pointed and double- bare hands or cestus have 1 fought until
edged. He was brawny and broad-shoul- methinks I’ve had my fill ©f fighting.
W. T.—
 ROADS 33

Now go back to till my

I fathers’ acres, like that theywore when he faced a Cap-
perchance to go a-viking, if the spirit padocian netman in the circus. "Who
moves me, but hereafter I will fight for hath done this to thee, woman?”
my own gain or pleasure, not to the The young Jewess looked up from her
humor of another.” keening.Her eyes were red and swollen
"The gods go with the, then. Bar- with much weeping, and the tears had
" cut small with
barian,” the Roman bade. ’Twill be a rivulets into the dust
long time ere we see thy match upon the W'hich her facewas smeared, but even in
sands of the arena.” her agony she showed some traces of her
wonted beauty.

A RAMBLING, single-streetcd
fringed' the highway,
trickling fountain
and at the
where the women came
village "The soldiers,”
breath-breaking sobs,
she replied between
"lliey came and
went from house to house, as the Angel
to fill their jars the wanderer rested to of the Lord went through tlie land of
scoop up a sup of tepid water in his hand. Egypt, but we had no blood to smear
The sun was up six hours and the little our lintels. Tliey came and smote and
square around the spring should have slew; there is not a man-child left alive
b^ alive with magpie-chattering women in all the village. Oh, my son, my little

and their riotously noisy children; but the son, why did they do this thing to thee,
place was like a city of the dead. Silence thou who never did them any harm? Oh,
thick as dust lay on the white, sun-bitten woe is me; my God hath left me comfort-
”
road; utter quiet sealed the houses with less, my firstborn, only son is slain
the silence of a row of tombs. Tlien, as "Thou liest, woman!” Klaus’s words
he looked about in wonderment, Klaus rang sharp as steel. "Soldiers do not do
heard a thin-drawn, piping wail: "Ai-ai- things like this. They war with men,
td-ai!” the universal cry of mourning in they make no war on babes.”
the East. ''Ai-ai-aj-ai!” The mother rocked her body to and
He kicked aside the curtain at the door- fro and beat her breast W’ith small
way and looked into the darkness of the clenched fists. "The soldiers did it,” she
little house. A woman crouched cross- repeated doggedly. "They came and
legged on the earthen floor, her hair un- went from house to house, and slew our
bound, her gown ripped open to expose ”
sons
her breasts, dust on her brow and cheeks "Romans?” Klaus asked incredulously.
and bosom. On her knees, very quiet, but Cruel the Romans were at times, but
not sleeping, lay a baby boy, and on the never to his knowledge had they done a
little breast there flowered a crimson thing like this. Romans were not baby-
wound. Klaus recognized it —a gladiator killers.
knew the trademark of his calling! — "Nay, the soldiers, of the King. Ro-
sword-cut. Half a hand’s-span long, mans only in the armor that they wore.
”
ragged at the edges, sunk so deep into They came marching into town, and
the baby flesh that the glinting white of "The soldiers of the King? Herod?”
breastbone showed between the raw "Yea, Barbarian. King Herod, may
wound’s gaping, bloody lips. his name be cursed for evermore! Some
"Who hath done this thing?” 'The days agone came travelers from the East
Northman’s eyes were hard as fjord-ice, who declared a king was bom among the
and a grimness set upon his bearded lips Jews, and Herod, fearing that tlie throne
'W. T.—
34 WEIRD TALES
might go to him, dispatched his soldiery of the widow-woman’s murdered son had
throughout tlie coasts of Bethlehem to set a canker in his brain. It were better
slay the sons of every house who had not that he had no traffic with his fellow men
reached their second year.” for several hours.
”
"Thy husband 'The broken rhythm of a donkey’s
"Alas, I am a widow.” hoofs came faintly to him from the high-
"And hast thou store of oil and meal?” way. The beast walked slowly, as though
tired, and as if he who led it were also
"Nay, my lord, here is only death.
” weary and footsore, yet urged by some
'Ai-ai-ai
compulsion to pursue his journey through
Klaus took some copper from his
the night.
pouch and dropped it in the woman’s lap
beside the little "Take this,” he
corpse.
"By Thor,” mused Klaus, "they are a
nation of strange men, these Jews. Al-
ordered, "and have them do unto the
ways disputing, ever arguing, never falter-
body of thy babe according to thy cus-
ing in tlieir lust for gold; yet withal they
tom.”
have a spirit in them like that no other
"The Lord be gracious unto you. Bar-
people has. Should their long-sought
barian. To you and all your house be
Messiah finally come, methinks that all
peace, for that thou takest pity on the
the might of Rome would scarcely be
widow in her sorrow!” ”
enough to stop them in their
"Let be. What name?”
is thy
"Rachel, magnificence; and may the 'The hail came piercingly, mounting in
” a sharp crescendo, freighted with a bur-
Lord of Israel give favor to
Klaus turned away and left the weep- den of despair. "Help, help ^we be be- —
ing woman with her dead. set by robbers!”
Klaus smiled sardonically. "So anxious

T
in
he waxing moon rode high above
the grove where Klaus lay bundled
his cloak. Occasionally, from the
to be early at tomorrow’s market that
braves the dangerous highway after dark;
yet when the robbers set upon him
”
he

denser of the thickets came the chirp of A woman’s scream of terror seconded
bird or squeak of insect, but otherwise the man’s despairing hail, and Klaus
the night was silent, for robbers roamed bounded from couch upon the turf,
his
the highways after dark, and though the dragging at the sword that hung between
soldiers of the Governor kept patrol, the his shoulders.
wise man stayed indoors until the sun A knot of spearmen clustered round a
had risen. But the hardiest highwayman man and woman. From their crested hel-
would stop and give the matter second mets and bronze cuirasses he knew them
thought ere he attacked a sworded giant, to be soldiers in the livery of Rome.
and the nearest inn was several miles From their hook-nosed faces he knew
away; also a journey of a thousand miles them to be Syrians, Jewish renegades, per-
and more lay between the Northman and haps, possibly Arabs or Armenians, for
hishome, and though his wallet bulged such composed the little private army
with gold saved from his years spent as which the Tetrarch kept for show, and to
a hired fighter in the Tetrarch’s barracks, do the work he dared not ask the Roman
it behooved him to economize. Besides, garrison to do.
the turf w'as sweet to smell, whicli the "Ho, there, what goes on here?” chal-
caravansaries were not, and the memory lenged Klaus as he hurried from the
 ROADS 35

woods. ’"What mean ye by molesting off and were cracked and they
their skulls
”
peaceful travelers fell dead, blood rushing from their ears
The decurion in command turned on and noses. Now only four remained to
him fiercely. "Stand aside, Barbarian," face him, and he seized the double-bladed
he ordered curtly. "We be soldiers of the ax that dangled at his girdle, and with a
”
King, and mighty shout leaped on his foes as though
"By Odin’s ravens, I care not if ye be they had been one and he a score. His
the Caesar’s soldiers. have your reason
I’ll iron ax-blade clove through bronze and
for attacking this good m.an and wife, bullock-hide though they had been
as
or the sword will sing its song!" roared parchment, and two more of the Tetrarch’s
Klaus. guardsmen fell down dead; the other two
some of you!" the decarch
"Seize him, turned tail and fled from this avenging
ordered. "We’ll take him to the Tetrarch fury with the fiery, wind-blov.'n beard and
for his pleasure. The rest stand by, we long, fair hair that streamed unbound
have our task to do —
woman!” He bared his sword and
give me thy baby,
ad-
upon the night wind. Then Klaus stood
face to face with the decurion.
vanced upon the w'oman seated on the "Now, thou sayer of great words and
ass, a sleeping infant cradled in her arms. doer of small deeds, thou baby-killer, say,

And now the wild war-madness of his wilt thou play the man’s game, or do I

people came on Klaus. A soldier sprang smite thee headless like the criminal thou
at him and thrust his lance straight at art.^” asked he.
his face, but Klaus’s long sword clove "I did but do my dut}-. Barbarian,” the
through bronze spearhead and ash-wood decurion answered sulkily. "The great
stave, and left the fellow weaponless King bade us go through all this land
before him. Then before his adversary and take the man-child of eacli house, if
could drag out his shortsw’ord, Klaus he were under two years old, and slay
thrust, and his blade pierced through the him. I know not why, but a soldier’s
’’
soldier’s shield and tlirough the arm be- duty is to bear his orders out
hind it, and almost through the cuirassed "Aye, and a soldier’s duty is to die,
body. The man fell with a gasping cry, by Odin’s Twelve Companions!” Klaus
and three more soldiers leaped at Klaus, broke in. "Take this for Rachel’s child;
heads low above their shields, their lances thewidow-woman’s only son, thou eater-
held at rest up of little, helpless babes!” And he
"Aie, for the song of the sword, aie aimed an ax-blow at the decarch, and
for the red blood flowing, aie for the lay never in his years of figliting in tlie circus
the Storm-Maidens sing of heroes and had Klaus the Smiter smitten such a blow.
Valhalla!” chanted Klaus, and as he sang Neither shield nor mail could stop it, for
he- struck,and struck again, and his gray- the ax-blade sheared through both as
steel blade drank tliirstily. Four soldiers though they had been linen, and the ax-
of the Tetrarch’s guard he slew before edge fell upon the decarch’s side where
they could close with him, and when two neck and shoulder join, and it cut through
others, rushing to attack him from be- bone and muscle, and the arm fell dow'n
hind, laid hands upon him, he dropped into the white dust of tlie roadway, and
his sword and reaching backward took the ax cleft on, and bit into the decarch’s
his adversaries in his arms as though he breast until it split his very heart in tw'o,
were some monstrous bear and beat their and as the oak-tree falls when fire from
heads together till their helmets toppled heaven blasts it, so fell the soldier of
36 WEIRD TALES
King Herod in the dust at Klaus’s feet, lent content, indifferent alike to war’s
and lay there, quivering and headless. alarms and tlie woman seated on the
Then Klaus unloosed the thong that cushioned pillion on its back. 'The wo-
bound the ax-helve to his wrist, and man on the ass was barely past her girl-
tossed the weapon up into the air, so that hood, not more than fifteen, Klaus sur-
it spun around, a gleaming circle in the mised as he glanced appreciatively upon
silver moonlight, and as it fell he caught her clear-cut, lovely features. Her face
it in his hand again and tossed it up above was oval, her skin more pale than fair,
tlie whispering treetops and sang a song her features were exquisite in their purity
of victory, as his fathers had sung victory- of outline; a faultless nose, full, ripe and
licder since the days when Northmen first warmly-colored lips, slightly parted with
went viking, and he praised the gods of the fright the soldiers’ rude assault had
Valhalla; to Odin, father of the gods, and caused, a mouth where tenderness and
Thor the Thunderer, and to the beauteous trust were mingled in expression, large
Valkyrior, choosers of the valiant slain in eyes of blue shaded by low-drooping lids
battle,he gave full praise, and on the and long, dark lashes, and, in harmony
bodies of his fallen foes he kicked the with all, a flood of golden hair which, in
white road-dust, and spat upon them, and the style permitted Jewish brides, fell un-
named them churls and nidderings, and confined beneath her veil down to the
unfit wearers of the mail of men of war. pillion upon which she sat. Her gown
was blue, aswas her over-mantle, and a

H
upon the
IS frenzy wore
putting up
little
his ax,
itself to calm, and,
he turned to look
family he had succored.
veil and wimple of white linen framed
her features to perfection.
breast she held a tiny infant,
Against her
bound round
The man stood by the donkey’s head, in Jewish fashion with layer on layer of
holding the leading-strap in one hand, in swaddling-clothes, and a single glance
the other a stout stick which seemed to showed the mother’s beauty and sweet
have been chosen for the double purpose purity were echoed in her baby’s face.
of walking-staff and goad. He was some "We are beholden to you, sir,’’ the
fifty years of age, as the gray which man thanked Klaus with simple courtesy.
streaked his otherwise black beard at- "Those men were seeking our son’s life.
tested, and was clothed from nedc to Only last night the Angel of the Lord
heels in a gown of somber-colored woolen forewarned me in a dream to take the
stuflF which from its freshness evidently young child and its mother and flee from
was the ceremonial best that he was wont Nazareth to Egypt, lest the soldiers of
to wear on Shabbath to the synagogue. A King Herod come upon us unawares. I
linen turban bound his head, and before hear that they have murdered many little
his ears the unshorn locks of "David- ones whose parents had not warning from
curls” hung down each side his face. His the Lord.”
clotlies and bearing stamped him as a "Thou heard’st aright, old man,”
countryman or villager; yet withal there Klaus answered grimly, thinking of the
was that simple dignity about him which widow-woman’s son. "Back in the village
has been the heritage of self-respecting yonder is the sound of lamentation; Ra-
poverty since time began. chel weeps for her dead and will not be
Unmindful of the battle which had comforted. Howbeit,” he looked disdain-
taken place so near it, the donkey cropped fully upon the bodies in the road, "me-
the short grass at the roadside in somno- seemeth I have somewhat paid the debt
 ROADS 37

your kinsmen owed these murdering was peopled with strange spirit-beings,
dogs.” all of whom were enemies to men. Yet as

"Alas!” the traveler returned; "you he looked into the little boy’s blue eyes,
have put your life in jeopardy for us, sir. so calm, so knowing for an infant’s, he
After this there is a price upon your head, felt his courage coming back, and made

and Herod will not rest until he nails you answer as is fitting when addressing a
to a cross for all to see the vengeance of magician of more than usual power.
the King.” "Lord Jarl,” he said, "I would not live
Klaus laughed, but not with mirth. alway. 'Ihere comes the time when arms
"Methinks the sword will sing its song, grow weak and sight is dim, however
and many more like these will journey to strong and brave the heart may be, and a
the storm-land ere they hang me on the man is no more able to take part in the
doom tree,” he answered as he leant to man’s game. Say, rather. Lord, that I
pick his sword up from the roadside turf. may die with sword and ax in hand, in
The blue eyes of the woman were on full vigor of my manhood and while the
his as he spoke, and he stopped abashed. crimson tide of battle runs full-spate. Let
Never in the score and two years of wild it be that Odin’s beauteous daughters

life which had been his had Klaus the deem me worthy to be taken from the
Northman, Klaus the champion of gladia- battlefield and tome aloft to that Val-
tors, felt a gaze like hers. halla where the heroes play the sword-
"Your baby, mistress,” he said awk- game evermore.”
wardly, "may I see its face beforeI go "Not so, my Klaus. *11100 who hast
my ways? ’Tis something to have saved a put tliy life in forfeit for the safety of a
little

’tis I
child
was not
from murderers’ steel
in the village to save the
— pity little child hast better things than that in
store for thee. When the name of Odin
widow Rachel’s child from them, as is forgot, and in all the world there is no
well.” man to do him reverence at his altars, thy
’The woman raised the infant in her name and fame shall live; and laughing,
arms, and the little boy’s blue eyes were happy children shall praise thy goodness
fixed on Klaus. 'The Northman took a and thy loving-kindness. *11100 shalt live
forward step to stroke the smooth, pink immortally in every childish heart so long
cheek, then, as if it had been a stone wall as men shall celebrate my birthday.”
that stopped him, halted where he stood. "I shall live past Gotterdammerung?”
For a voice was speaking to him, or, "So long as gleeful children praise thy
rather, it was no mortal voice that spake, name at the period of winter solstice.”
but a sound that touched his ears, yet "Then I shall be a mighty hero?”

seemed to come from nowhere. "A hero to be held in loving memory

"Klaus, Klaus,” the softly-modulated by every man who ever was a diild.”
voice proclaimed, "because thou hast done “Lord Jarlkin, I think thou art mistak-
this for me, and risked thy life and free- en. Rather would I die with the sword-
dom for a little child, I say to thee that song in my ears and the din of battle for
never shall thou taste of death until thy a dirge, but if thou speakest sooth, why,
work for me is finished.” then, a man follows his star, and where
Now, though the infant’s lips moved mine leads I go.”
not, Klaus knew the words proceeded Then Klaus unsheathed his sword and
from him. At first he was astonished, flourished it tliree times above his head,
even frightened; for the world he knew and finally brought its point to rest upon
38 WEIRD TALES
the road, for thus did heroes of the "Aye, Excellence, a stubborn and re-
Northland pay respect to their liege lords. bellious lot,” the first centurion agreed.

The father cried out in affright when 'The Procurator laughed. "None knows
he heard the gray sword-blade whistle in it better than myself, my Qaudius. Thou
wert here amongst them aforetimes, in
the air, but the mother locked on calmly,
the days of the great Herod, I’ve been
nor did she seem to marvel that the
Northling spake in heathen language to
told. Howcomes it that thou’rt here
her infant, as though he answered to
again? Dost like the odor of this sacred
city of the Hebrews?”
unspoken words.
The bearded soldier smiled sardoni-
So Klaus bade them safe faring on "I served King Herod
callyi. as a gladia-
their way to Egypt land, and turned to tor a tricennium ago,” he answered.
face him toward the North Star and the "When my period of service was expired
road that led toward home.
I foimd myself without scar or wound,

and with a wallet filled with gold. I told

2. The Road- to Calvary
the prastor I would fight no more for
hire, and set out for my northern home,
UCIUS PONTIUS PILATE, Procurator of but on the way ” he stopped and
1J Judea, leant across the parapet and
muttered something which the Procurator
looked down at the night-bound city.
failed to catch.
Lights blossomed here and there among on Roman
"Yes, the way?” the
the flat-roofed houses; now and then the
prompted.
clatter of mailed hooves was heard upon
"I became embroiled with certain sol-
the cobblestones; almost incessantly came
diers of the King who sought to do a
the roar of jostling, fractious crowds. Je-
little family violence. Herod swore a
rusalem was crowded to the bursting-
vengeance on me, and I was hunted like
point; for days the people had been
a beast from wood to desert and from
streaming through the Joppa gate, for a
desert to mountain. At sought the
great feast was in preparation these — shelterwhich so many hunted men have
last I

Jews were always celebrating either feast found, and joined the legions. Since then
or fast— and the police power of his le- I’ve followed where my star ^and army —
gionaries had been put upon its mettle.
orders —
led, and now once more I stand

"A turbulent and stiff-necked people, within these city walls, safe from the ven-
these, my Claudius,” the Governor ad- geance of King Herod’s heirs.”
dressed the tall, blond-bearded man who "And right glad am I that thou art
stood three paces to his left and rear. here,” the Governor declared. '"This is
"Ever disputing, always arguing and bick- no sinecure I hold, my Claudius. I have
ering, everlastingly in tumult of some but a single legion to police this seething
sort. But yesterday, when the troops country, and treason and rebellion lift
marched from the citadel with the Eagles their heads on every side. Do I do one
of the Legion at their head, a band of thing? The Jews cry out against me for
townsmen stoned tliem, crying out that violating some one of their sacred rights
they bore idols through the Holy City’s or customs. Do I do the other? Again
streets.It seems they hold it sin to make they howl to heaven that the iron heel of
an image in the likeness of anything that Rome oppresses them. By Jupiter, had I

walks or flies or swims. A stubborn, nar- a dozen legions more — nay, had I but a
row-minded lot, methinks.” single legion more of men like thee, my
 ROADS 39

Qaudius — I’d drive this mutinous rabble making use of this authority he could
at the lance-point till they howled like often bend the prelate to his will.
beaten dogs for mercy!” He gazed down "I would we had another pontifex,”
at the city for a time in moody silence; he mused, "one more pliant to sugges-
then: tion than this sacerdotal fool who rules
"What talk is this I hear of one who their priestly council.”
comes from Galilee claiming to be king The jingling clink of metal sword-
of the Jews? Think ye that it bodes sedi- sheath on mailed kilts was heard as a
tion? Had they but a leader they could legionary hurried out upon the roof,
rally to, I doubt not we should soon be halted and saluted, then handed Claudius
fighting for our lives against these pesti- a scroll. 'The centurion returned the mili-
lent Judeans.” tary salutation and, in turn, delivered the
"I do not think we need fear insurrec- rolled missive to the Procurator.
tion from that point, your Excellence,” "By Pluto’s beard,” swore Pilate as he
the soldier answered. "I saw this teacher broke the seal and read the message by
when he came into the city but four days the light of a small lantern set upon
agone. Mild of mien is he, and very the parapet, "it comes sooner than we
medc and humble, riding on an ass’s colt thought, my Claudius! Caiaphas has
and preaching in the temple, bidding all taken custody of this self-styled King of
men live as brothers, fear God, honor the Jews, tried him before the Sanhedrin and
King, and render unto Cassar that which judged him worthy to be crucified. Now
is his.” he brings the case to me on high petition.
"Ha, sayest thou? I had thought other- What are we to do?”
wise. Caiaphas, the chief priest, tells me "Why, bid the fat pig get him back
he foments sedition, and urges that I unto his sty, your Excellence. None but
throw him into prison or give him over Rome has jurisdiction in such cases. Caia-
to be crucified as one who preaches trea- phas can no more condemn a man to
son to the Empire.” death than he can don the toga of im-
”
"Caiaphas!” tlie big centurion pursed perial authority
his lips as though to spit. '"That fatted "Aye, but therein lies the danger. I
swine! No wonder his religion bids him alone, as Procurator, can mete out sen-
to refrain from pigs’ flesh. If he ate of it tence of death, but if these priests and
he would be a cannibal!” their paid underlings should rouse the
Pilate nodded gloomily. His quarrel louse-bit rabble to rebellion we have not
with the high priest was an old one, and troops enough to put it down. Furtlier-
one in which the victories were even. more, should insurrection come, Rome is

Caiaphas had on occasion sent appeal to like to have my life. I am sent out here
Rome, subtly intimating that unless the to govern and to rule, but chiefly to col-
Governor yielded there was danger of lect the tax. A people in rebellion pays
rebellion. Word came back to Pilate that no tribute to tfie throne. Come, Claudius,
the Caesar held him personally responsible my toga. Let us hear what harm this un-
for conditions in Judea, and that in case crowned king has done the state.”
of revolution his would be the blame.
Thus the high priest triumphed. On the
other hand, the Governor had advantage
in that appeal in criminal cases and mat-
A MURMUR like a storm-wind in the
treetops filled the hall of audience.
In the brilliant light of flambeaux double
ters of taxation lay with him, and by files of praetorian guardsmen stood at stiff
'40 WEIRD TALES
attention as the Procurator took his seat world, that I should bear witness unto the
upon the ivory and purple chair of state. truth ...”
Well forward in the hall, before the dais, "What is truth?” the Governor mused.
stood Caiaphas with Simeon and Annas "I myself have heard the sages argue long
to his right and left. A knot of temple about it, but never have I found two who
guards —tawdry imitations of the Roman agreed on it. Claudius!” he turned to the
legions —grouped about their prisoner, a centurion who stood behind his chair.
tall young man in white, bearded in the "Excellence!”
Jewish fashion, but so fair of skin and "I am minded to put these people to

light of hair that he seemed to bear no the test. Go thou to the dungeons and
racial kinship to the swarthy men sur- bring the greatest malefactor thou canst
rounding him. find into the hall. We shall see how far

"Hail, Procurator!” Meticulously Caia-

this bigotry' can go.”

phas raised his righthand in the Roman As Claudius turned to execute the or-

fashion, then bowed low with almost

der, the Governor faced the chief priest

fawning oriental courtesy. "We come to and his satellites.

you for confirmation of die sentence we "I will have him scourged, then turn

have passed upon this blasphemer and

him free,” he pronounced. "If he has
transgressed your laws the scourging will
traitor to the Empire.”
be punishment enough; as to your charge
was a merest lifting
Pilate’s salutation
of treason, I find no fault in him.”
of the hand. '"The blasphemy is your
Docilely the prisoner followed a decu-
he answered shortly. "What trea-
affair,”
rion to the barrack-room v/here the sol-
son hath he wrought.^”
diers stripped his garments off and lashed
"He hath proclaimed himself a king, him to a pillar, then laid a tracery of
and if you do not find that treason, then upon his naked back.
forty stripes
thou art not Caesar’s friend!” "The King of Jews is he?” laughed
"Art thou in very truth King of the the decurion. "Why, by the eyes of Juno,
Jews.^” the Governor turned curious eyes every king should have a crown to call
upon die prisoner. his own; yet thisone has no crown at all.
"Sayest thou this thing of m.e, or did EIo, there, someone, make a fitting crown
others tell thee of it?” the young man for Jewry’s king?”
answered. A chaplet of thorn-oranch was quickly
"Am I a Jew?” the Procurator asked. plaited and thrust upon the prisoner’s
"Thy own nation and thy chief priests head, and the long, sharp spines bit deep-
have brought thee unto me for judgment. ly in his tender flesh, so that a jewel-like
What hast thou done?” diadem of ruby droplets dewed his brow.
There came no answer from the pris- Then another found a frayed and tattered
murmuring outside the gates
oner, but the purple robe which they laid upon his
grew ominous. A mob was gathered at bleeding shoulders. Finally, a reed tom
the entnance, and the guards were having from a hearth-broom was thmst between
trouble holding them in check. his tight-bound wrists for scepter, and
Again the Procurator cliallenged: "Art thus regaled they set him on a table and
thou in trudi a king, and if so, of what bowed the knee to him in mock humility,
kingdom?” w'hat time they hailed him as Judea’s new
'"rhou hast said it. To diis end was I king. At length they tired of the cruel
born, and for this cause came I into the sport, and grinning broadly, brought him
 ROADS 41

back and stood him In the hall before the fore him, and laved his bands in water,
Governor and the priests. then dried them on the linen napkin. "I
"Behold the man!” the Procurator bade am innocent of tlie blood of this just
as they brought tlie figure of humiliation man. See ye to it!” cried the Procurator
"Behold your king!”
to the hall. as he handed ewer and napkin back to
"We have no king but Cassar!” an- Claudius.
swered Caiaphas self-righteously. "This
"His blood be on our heads and on our
one has declared himself a king, and
children's heads!” responded Caiaphas,
whoso calls himself a king speaketh
and the chorus massed outside the judg-
against Cassar.”
ment hall took up the savage piean of
Meanwhile Claudius was hastening to
blood-guiltiness: "On our heads and on
the judgment hall with a miserable ob-
our children’s! Crucify him!”
ject. The man was of great stature, but so
bowed with fetters that he could not stand Lucius Pontius PiLate shrugged his

erect. His clothing hung in tatters, no shoulders. "I have done the best I could,

second glance was needed to know he was my Claudius,” he said. "Let him be led
a walking vermin-pasture; the members away to prison, and on the morrow have
of the guard shrank from him, fending him taken with the other adjudged mal-
him away with spear-butts lest the lice efactors and crucified. My guard will have
which swarmed upon his hair and gar- no part in it, but I would that you go with
ments get on them. the execution party to make sure all is
Then Pilate bade the prisoner from tlie regularly done and” — his thin lips parted
—
dungeons stand before the priests, and in a mocking, mirthless smile "to put
motioned from him to the bound and my superscription on the cross to which
thorn-crowned captive. they hang him. The same nails that
"It is your custom, men of Judea, tliat
pierce his members are like to prick the

at the Passover I release to ye a prisoner,” vanity of Caiaphas, methinks,” he added,

Pilate said. "Whom will ye therefore, chuckling to himself as though he rel-

that I set at liberty, this convicted robber, ished some keen jest.
doomed to die upon the gallows tree, or
this
"We
one ye have called your king.?”
have no king but Caesar!”
shouted Caiaphas in rage. "Away with
T he procession to the execution
or "Place of Skulls,” began at dawn,
was a slow death, and the
for crucifixion
hill,

this one. Crucify him!” morrow being Shabbath it was not law-
And outside the great bronze grilles ful that the malefactors be left alive to
that barred the hall the rabble took the profane the sacred day with their expir-
cry up: "Away with him! Crucify him; ing groans. The crowds assembled in
crucify him!” the city to keep Passover lined the Street
"What, crucify your king?” the Procu- of David and gathered in the alley-heads
rator asked in mock astonishment. to watch tlie march of the condemned,

The carefully rehearsed mob of temple making carnival of the occasion. Sweet-
hangers-on who sv.'armed about the gates meat venders and v/ater-sellers did a
thundered back once more: "Crucify thriving trade among the merryTOakers,
him! Crucify him!” and one or two far-sighted merchants
"Water and a napkin, Clau-
in a ewer, who had come with panniers of rotten
dius,” ordered Pilate, and when his aide fruit and vegetables found their wares
returned he set the silver basin down be- in great demand; for everyone enjoyed
42 WEIRD TALES
the sport of heaving offal at the convicts like a dowel in the upri^t beam be-
as they struggled past beneath the burden tween their legs, that their bodies might
of their crosses. not sag too much. In the center, spiked
Claudius did not go with them. The upon the tallest cross, hung the young
Procurator rested late that morning, and Prophet, his frailer body already begin-
there were routine matters to engage his ning to give way beneath the dreadfa'
time when he had finished at the bath. torment it endured. A decurion set a
The sun was several hours high when a ladder up beside the cross, and armed
scrivener from the secretariat came into the with nail and hammer Claudius mounted
officium with the titulus the Governor quickly and fixed the placard to the up-
dictated, engrossed on stiffened parch- right beam above the bowed head of the
ment. Pilate smiled with grim amuse- dying man.
ment as he passed the scroll to Claudius. A high, thin wailing cry of astonish-
"Take thou this unto the place of exe- ment and rage sounded as the legend on
cution, and with thy own hand fix it
the card appeared. "Not that!” screamed
over the young Prophet’s head,” he or- Caiaphas as he put his hand up to his
"
dered. ’Twill give Caiaphas and his
throat and rent his splendid priestly robe.
plate-lickers something fresh to whine
"Not that, centurion! Yon superscription
about.”
labels this blasphemer with the very title
The centurion glanced down at the
and for claiming which
that he claimed,
scroll. In letters large enough for those he now hangs on the gallows. Take
who walked to read yet not be forced to down the card and change it so it reads
stop or strain their eyes, it proclaimed:
that he is not our king, but that he
claimed the kingly title in despite of
NAZARENVS
lESVS
REX IVDAEORVM Caesar!”

There was something almost comic in

Which was to say: “This is Jesus” (for the priests’ malevolence as they fairly
such was the forename that the Prophet gnashed their teeth with rage, and Claud-
bore) "King of the Jews.” Not only in
ius, with the fighting-man’s instinctive
Latin, but in Hebrew ^d in Greek, as
contempt for politicians, grinned openly
well, was the legend writ, that all who as he replied,
"
’Twere best you made
passed the place of crucifixion, whatever
complaint to Pilate, priest. What he has
tongue they spake, might read and under-
written he has written, nor do I think he
stand.
will change yon title for all your whining
'"They have prated long about a king
and complaints.”
who should sweep away the power of
Rome,” the Procurator smiled. "Let them "Cassar shall be told of this!” the

look upon him now, gibbeted upon a

wrathful high priest snarled. "He shall

cross. By Jupiter, I would that I could

hear how Pilate mocked our people and
incited tliem to riot by labeling a mal-
see that fat priest’s face when he reads ”
efactor as our king
the superscription!”
Three crowned the bald-topped
crosses Claudius turned abruptly to the cen-
hill when Claudius readied the place of turion commanding the execution squad.
execution. On two of them hung burly "Clear away this rabble,” he directed,
robbers, nailed by hands and feet, sup- "Must we be pestered by their mouth-
ported by the wooden peg, or sedule, set ings?”
 ROADS 43

From the figure on the central cross the cross, "he’s beautiful! he
I've heard
a low moan came: "I thirst.” called himself the son of God, nor is that

Claudius took a sponge and dipped it

hard to credit. ’Tis no man, but a god
in the jar of sour wine and myrrh that who hangs on yonder gallows Baldur —
the Beautiful, slain by foul treacheries!”
stood beside him on the ground. He put
it on a lance and held it to the sufferer’s A ringing sounded in his ears like

lips, but the poor, weak body was too the humming of innumerable bees, and
far spent to drink. A shudder ran through it he heard words, words in a
through it, and with a final flash of voice he had not heard in more than
strength the Prophet murmured: "It is thirty years, but which he recognized in-

finished. Father, into Thy hands I com- stantly. "Klaus, thou took pity on a little

mend my spirit.” A last convulsive child attacked by murderers in days agone;

spasm, and the thorn-crowned head fell this day thy pity bade thee save a dying
forward. All was over. man from brutish violence. According to

"We had best be finishing our work,”

thy lights thou dealtest mercifully when
the execution guard’s commander said
thou thrust the spear into my side.

phlegmatically. "These priests are set on

Knowest thou not me, Klaus?”
mischief, and we’ll have a riot on our "Lord Jarlkin!” Klaus turned round
hands if one of these should live until and gazed in wonder at the slight, wilted
the sundown.” He motioned to a burly body. “The little child whom I assisted

executioner who picked up a sledge and on his way to Egypt land! What wouldst

methodically went about the task of thou with thy liegeman. Lord? Did not
smashing the suspended felons’ arm- and my mercy-stroke drive true — is my w’ork
leg-bones. unfinished?” He stretched his hand out
for the soldier’s spear again, but:
"Now, by Father Odin’s ravens, thou
shalt not break the Prophet’s legs,” "Thy work is not yet started, Klaus.
Claudius declared as he snatched a and thou wilt know my voice
I will call

guardsman’s spear. "Let him die a man’s
death!” Withthe precision taught by
years of training in the circusand on the
battlefield,he poised the lance and drove
the long bronze spearhead between the
Prophet’s ribs, sinking it deep into the
heart. As he withdrew the point a
stream of water mixed with blood gushed
forth, and Claudius returned the sol-
dier’s spear.
"
’Tis long since I have
done that favor to a helpless man,” he
muttered as his memory flew back to his
days in the arena when the blood-mad
mob withheld the mercy sign and he had
thrust his sword or lance through his de-
feated adversary —
often the man with
whom he’d drunk and diced the night
before. "By Frigga’s eyes,” he added as
he looked at the pale body stretched upon
when I have need of thee.”
The soldiers of the guard and the
crowd of hang-jawed watAers at the exe-
cution ground were wonderstruck to see
the Procurator’s chief centurion draw
himself up and salute the body pendent
on the cross as though it were a tribune,
or tlie Governor himself.
D ark clouds obscured tlie sun, and
menacing thunder mingled with the
stabbing spears of lightning as Klaus hur-
ried through the Street of David on his
way back Once
to the Governor’s palace.
or came a rumbling in the
tw’ice there
bowels of the earth, and the solid ground
reeled drunkenly beneath his feet.
"Siguna goes to drain her cup, and Loki
writhes beneath the sting of serpent-
44 WEIRD TALES
venom,” Klaus muttered he dug his
as "but we tempt the gods by staying here.:
heels into his horse’s sides. It would not Canst walk?”
be comfortable in that narrow street when "I’ll try.” She drew herself erect and
the fury of the earthquake began to took a step, then sank down with a moan.
shake the buildings down. A temblor —
"My foot ’tis broke, I fear,” she gasped.
shook the riven earth afresh, and an ava- "Do thou go on, my lord; thou hast done
lanche of brcJcen tile and rubble slid into thy duty to the full already. ’Twould not
the street, almost blocking it. Klaus be meet to stay and risk thy life for
leaped down from his saddle and gave
his horse a smart blow on the flank.
"Be silent, woman,” he commanded
"Go thou, good beast, and Thor see gruffly. "Raise thy arms.”
thee safely to thy stable,” he bade, then Obediently she put her arms about his
took shelter by the blank-walled houses, shoulders and he lifted her as though she
dashing forward a few steps, then shrink- were a child. Then, his cloak about her
ing back again as spates of falling ma- head to fend off falling fragments of die
sonry cataracted overhead and fell crash- buildings, he darted from house to house
ing on the cobbles of the roadway. until the narrow street was cleared and
— —
"Ai ai ahee!” a woman’s scream they came at length into a little open
came thin-edged with terror. "Help, for space.
the love of God —save me or I die! Have It was lighter here, and he could see
mercy. Master!” his salvage. She was a pretty thing,
The flicker of a lightning-flash lit up scarce larger than a half-grown child, and
the pitch-black night-in-day that flooded little past her girlhood. Slender she was,
through the and by its quivering
street, yet with the softly rounded curves of
light Klaus saw a woman’s body lying budding womanhood. Her skin, deep
in the roadway. A timber from a brcJcen sun-kissed olive, showed every violet vein
house had fallen on her foot, pinioning through its veil of lustrous tan. Her
her to the cobbles, and even as she hands, dimpled like a child’s, were tipped
screamed, a fresh convulsion of the earth with long and pointed nails on which a
shook down a barrow-load of broken sheathing of bright goldleaf had been
brick and tile, scattering brash and lime- laid, so they shone like tiny mirrors. Her
dust over her. A stone fell clanging on little feet, gilt-nailed like her hands,
his helmet as he rushed across the gloom- were innocent of sandals and painted
choked street, and a parapet-fragment bright with henna on the soles. On
crashed behind his heels as he leant to ankles, wrists and arms hung bangles of
prize the timber off her ankle. She lay rose-gold studded thick with lapis-lazuli,
as limp as death within his arms as he topaz and bright garnet, while rings of
dashed back to the shelter of the wall, the same precious metal hung from each
and for a moment he thought he had ear almost to her creamy shoulders. A
risked his life in rescuing one beyond the diadem of gold thick-set with gems was
need of succor; but as he laid her down circled round her brow, binding back the
upon die flagstones her great eyes opened curling black locks which lay clustering
and her little hands crept up to clasp round her face. Her small, firm breasts
themselves about his neck. "Art safe, my were bare, their nipples stained with
lord.^” she asked tremulously. henna, and beneath her bosom was a zone
"Aye, for the nonce,” he answered. of woven golden wire from which a robe
 ROADS 45

of sheerest gauze was hung, bound round clinging hands aw'ay and half rose to his
the hips with a shawl of brilliant orange" feet when a voice—the well-remembered
silk embroidered with pink shells and voice his inward ear had heard before
roses. Ground antimony had been rubbed came to him:
upon her eyelids, and her full, voluptuous
"Despise her not. I have had mercy
lips were stained a brilliant red with
powdered cinnabar.
on her, and thou —and — I ^have need of
her. Klaus, take her to thee.”
Klaus recognized her: one of the he-
He stood irresolute a moment; then;
taeraefrom the house of love kept by
"I hear and obey. Lord,” he answered
the courtezan of Magdala before she left
softly and sank down again upon the
her harlotry to follow after the young
turf. "How art tliou called?” he asked
Prophet they had crucified that morning.
the girl.
Her mistress gone, the girl had taken
"Erinna.”
service as a dancer at Agrippa’s court.
He drew away a little. His clean-bred
"A Greek?”
northern flesh revolted at the thought of "Tyrian,my lord.” She moved closer
contact witli the pretty little strumpet. to him and rubbed her supple body
"What didst thou in the street?” he against his breastplate with a gentle,

asked. "Were there so few buyers of thy coaxing gesture. "They brought me
wares within the palace that thou must over the bright water whilst I was still a

seek them in the highways?” child, and schooled me in the arts of

"I — I came to see the Master,” she

love,
desired,
and I am very beautiful and much
but now I am all thine.” She
sobbed softly. "I had the dreadful mal-
bowed her head submissively and put
ady, and I sought His cure.”
his hand upon it. "Thou didst battle
"Aye? And did thou find it?”
with the earthquake for me, and rived
"Yea, that did I. As He went by, all
me from his clutches; now am I thine
burdened with his gibbet, I called to Him
by right of capture.”
and asked His mercy, and He did but
Klaus smiled, a trifle grimly. "What
raise the fingers of one hand and look on
me, and behold — I am clean and whole
need have I, a plain, blunt soldier, of
such as thee?”
again. See, is not my skin as fresh and
clean as any maiden’s?” "I am very subtle in tlie dance, and
can sing and play sweet music, even on
Klaus moved a little farther from her,
the harp and flute and cymbals. Also I
but she crept toward him, holding out her
hands for him to toudi. "Behold me, I
am skilled at cookery, and when thou
am clean!” she whispered rapturously. hast grown tired of me thou canst sell
”
"No more will I be shunned of men ” me for much gold
"By this one thou wilt be,” he broke in "Men of my race sell not their
”
grimly. "What have I to do with thee wives
and thy kind, girl? The earthquake pass- "Wife? Saidst thou wife, my lord?”
es; it is safe for thee to walk the streets. She breathed the word inaedulously.
Get thee gone.” "Am I a Greek or Arab to have slave-
"But my broken foot I cannot walk. —
”
girls travel in my wake? Come, rouse
Wilt thou not help me to my place tliee up; we must to the palace, where
"Not I, by Thor. Let scented darlings quarters can be found for dice until J
of the palace see to that.” He shook her take thee to mine own.”
46 WEIRD TALES

T ears streamed down her face, cut-

ting little rivers in the rouge with
which her cheeks were smeared, but her
like
such
any dog whene’er thou callest
name as you choose to give
me by
”

"Let be this talk of dogs and slaves,”

smile looked through the tear-drops as
he broke in sharply. "Thou’lt be a wife
the sun in April shines through showers
of rain. "In very truth. He told my
—
and equal aye, by Thor’s iron gaunt-
and whoso fails to do thee honor
lets,
future better than I knew!” she cried shall be shorter by a head!”
ecstatically, and, to Klaus’s utter con-
Pilate’s legion was recruited largely
sternation, bent suddenly and pressed a
from Germanic tribes, and enough of
fervid kiss upon his buskin.
his own
people could be found to en-
"What charlatan foretold thy for- able Klaus to have a marriage ceremony
tune?” he demanded, raising the girl shaped on Northern custom. Erinna’s
and crooking an arm beneath her knees, name was changed to Unna, and on the
for her broken foot was swelling fast, day they wed she sat in the high bride’s-
and walking was for her impossible. seat robed in modest white with a
"'The Master whom they crucified worked head-dress on her clustering

may dogs defile their mothers’ graves! black ringlets, a golden clasp about her

When I bowed me in the dust and waist and gold rings on her arms and
begged Him to have pity on me. He fingers. And the Northlings raised their
looked at me and smiled, e’en though drinking-horns and
aloft shouted
He trod the way to torture and to death, "Skoal!” and "Waes heal!” to the bride
and was borne down with the gallows’ and bridegroom, and when the feast was
wei^t, and He told me, 'Woman, thy finished and the bride’s-cup had been

desire shall be unto thee.’ I thought He drunk, because her broken foot was not

meant that I was healed, but ” She yet mended, Klaus bore Unna in his

flung both arms about her bearer’s neck arms unto the bride’s-bed. 'Thus did
and crushed his face against her bosom Claudius the centurion, who was also
as she sighed ecstatically. Klaus the Northling, wed a woman out
of Tyre in the fashion of the Northmen.
"But what, wench?”
"I
Claudius.
have

and had pleasure

from afar, my
seen
Long have
thee
watched thee
manly beauty.
in thy
I N ow talk ran througji the
Jerusalem that the Prophet
the priests had done to death was risen
city
whom
of

At night I used to dream that thou from the tomb. Men said that while
wouldst notice me, perchance come unto His sepulcher was watched by full-
me, or even buy me for thy slave; but armed guards an angel came and rolled
that ever I should bear the name of the stone away, and He came forth, all
wife” —again her voice broke on a sigh, bright and glorious. And many were
but it was a sigh of utter happiness the ones who testified that they had seen
”
"that I, Erinna the hetasra Him in the flesh.
"Thy Greek name likes me not,” he 'The and temple hangers-on
priests
interrupted. cast doubt upon the story, and swore

"What’s in a name, my lord? I’ll that whilst the guardsmen slept the
bear w'hatever name thou givest me, and Prophet’s followers had come and stolen
be happy in it, since ’tis given me by Him away, but Klaus and Unna both
you. By Aphrodite’s brows, I’ll come believed. “Said 1 not He was a god,
 ROADS 47

e’en as He hanged upon the gallows though the legions suffered such defeat
tree?” asked Klaus. "Baldur the Beau- as they had never known before when
tiful is He; Baldur the Fair cannot be the German tribesmen swept down on
holden by the gates of Hel; He is them Teutoburg Forest, the soldiers
in
raised up again in their despite,” under his command made an orderly re-
treat.
’’He is in truth the Son of God, as
Mary Magdalene said,” Unna answered As commander of a legion he stood
as she laid her cheek against her hus-
with Constantine the Great at Malvian
me my Bridge when, beneath tlie emblem of the
band’s breast. "He healed of
malady and gave me that which de-
once-despised cross, Maximian’s youthful
I

sired above all things.” son defeated old Maxentius and won the
purple toga of the Caesars. With Con-
Klaus kissed his new-made wife upon
stantinehe sailed across the Bosporus and
the mouth. "He said that I had need of
helped to found the world’s new capital
thee, my sweetling,” he whispered soft-
at %2antium.
ly. "I knew it not, but He spake sooth.
Emperors came and w-ent. The king-
And,” he added even lower, "He said
dom of the Ostrogoths arose in Italy, and
that He likewise had need of thee. We
strange, bearded men who spoke bar-
shall hear His call and answer Him
barian tongues ruled in the Caesars’ stead.
whenever He shall please to summon But though the olden land of Latium no
us, though the summons come from
longer offered reverence to the Empire,
lowest Niflheim.”
it owed allegiance to the name of Him
the priests had crucified so long ago in
3- The Long, Long Road Palestine; for nowhere, save in the frozen
fjords and forests of the farthest North

M en grew

but neither
old and grayed and died
in the service of Imperial Rome,
death nor old age came to
Klaus. His ruddy hair retained its
and when the men who joined the le-
gions as mere beardless youths laid their
swords aside and sate them in the ingle-
nook to tell brave tales of battles fought
and won upon the sea or field he was still
instinct with youthful vigor. For years he
followed Pilate’s fortunes, acting as his
aide-de-camp and confidant, and when
the aging Governor went from Palestine
to Helvetia it was Klaus who went with
him commander of his soldiery. When
as
death at last came to his patron, Klaus
stood among the mourners and watched
the funeral flames mount crackling from
the pyre, then turned his face toward
Rome, where men of valor still were in
demand. With the rank of a tribune he
fought Arminius under Varus,
and
did
and
in the sun-smit deserts of the South,
men fail to offer prayer and praise
sacrifice to the Prophet who had
sheen, come to save His people from their sins,
and had been scornfully rejeaed by their
priests and leaders.
And now a mighty conflict rose be-
tween the Christians of the West and the
followers of Mahound in the East; and
Klaus, who knew the country round
about Jerusalem as he knew the lines that
marked his palms, rode forth with Tan-
cred and Count Raymond and Godfrey
of Bouillon to take the Holy Gty from
the Paynims’ hands. With him rode his
ever-faithful, tlirice-beloved
Unna, armed
and mounted as a squire. Never since the
morning of their marriage had she and
he been out of voice-call of each other;
for she had shared his life in camp and
field, marching with the legions dressed
and in armor like a man, going with him to
48 WEIRD TALES
Byzantium when the new Empire was and begged the men-at-arms and knights
founded, riding at his side across the to stay theirhands and show their help-
troubled continent of Europe when the less, beaten foemen clemency, whereat

old Empire broke to pieces and the little the priests and monks who urged the
kings and dukes and princelings set their wearers of the cross to slay and spare
puny up in the midst of their
courts not cried out on them, and swore they
walled towns. Sometimes she cut her long were no true and loyal lovers of the
hair close and went forth in male attire; Prince of Peace.
again, in those brief intervals of peace But when the killing and the rapine
when they dwelt at ease in some walled ceased and men went forth to worship
city, she let her tresses grow and assumed at the holy places, Klaus and Unna
the garb of ladies of the time, and ruled walked the city, and their eyes were soft
his house with gentleness and skill as be- with memories. "Here it was they led
came the mate of one who rated the Him to the place of crucifixion,” Unna
esteem of prince and governor, general told a group of noble women who had
and lord, for her husband’s fame at come to make the pilgrimage to Calvary
weaponry and sagacity in war had given upon their knees, and, "Here He raised
him great standing among those who had His hand and blessed the very men who
need of strong arms and wise heads to did Him injury.” But when the Frank-
lead their soldiery and beat their foemen ish women heard her they would not
back. believe, but hooted her away; for the
Now, Klaus, with Unna fighting at his priests, who till that time had seen
never
elbow as hishad assailed the
squire, Jerusalem, had shown them where the
walls when Godfrey and Count Eustace Master’s blessed feet had trod, and sooth,
and Baldwin of the Mount leaped from a learned holy man knew more of sacred
the flaming tower and held tlie Paynims things than this wild woman of the
back till Tancred and Duke Robert broke camp who wore her hair clipped short
Saint Stephen’s Gate and forced their and swaggered it amongst the men-at-
way into the Holy City; but when the arms with a long sword lashed against
mailed men rode with martial clangor her thigh!
through the streets and massacred the But when she told them that she knelt
populace, they took no part. In the half- upon those very stones and watched
darkness of the rhosque that stood hard Cyrenian Simon bear the cross toward
by the ancient Street of David where Golgotha, they shrank from her in terror
aforetime the young Prophet had trod and crossed themselves and called on
the Via Dolorosa tliey saw old Moslems every saint tliey knew for succor, and
with calm features watch their sons’ named her witch and sorceress. And
heads fall upon the musty praying-carpets, presently came priests’ men who bound
then in turn submit to slaughter as the her arms with cords and took her to the
Christians’ axes split their skulls or prison-house beneath the Templars’
swords ripped through their bellies. They stableand swore that on the morrow they
saw the Paynim women cling in terror to would burn her at the stake, tliat all
their men-folk’s bending knees, what might see what fate befell a woman who
time they pleaded for mercy, panting and spake blasphemy within the very confines
screaming till sword or lance ripped open of the Holy City.
their soft bodies and they cried no more. When she came not to their dwelling-
They tried to stop the wanton killing. place that night, Klaus was like a man
W. T.—
 ROADS 49

made mad by those foul drugs the Pay-

nims use to give them courage in the
fight. And he went unto the prison-house
O
The
NE Yuletide Klaus and
them in a little city by the Rhine.
harvest was not plentiful that year,
Unna lodged

and smote the warders where they stood, and want and famine stalked the streets
so that they fled from him as from a as though an enemy had set siege to the

thing accursed, and with his mighty ax town. The feast of Christmas neared,
he brake the heavy doors that shut her in,
but within the burghers’ houses there

and they w'ent forth from that place and was little merriment. Scarce food had
they to keep starvation from their bellies,
took to horse and rode until they reached
and none at all to make brave holiday
the sea, where they took ship and sailed
upon the birthday of the Lord.
away. And no man durst stand in their
Now as they sate within their house
way, for the fire of Northern lightnings
Klaus thought him of the cheerless faces
burned in Klaus’s eyes, and he raged
of the children of the town, and as he
like a wild berserker if any bade them
thought he took a knife and block of wood
stand and give account of w’hence they
and carved therefrom the semblance of a
came and where their mission led them. little sleigh the like of which the people

used for travel when the snows of winter

T he years slipped swiftly

rapid rivers running in their courses,
and Klaus and Unna rode the paths of
by like
nude the roads impassable for wheels or
horsemen.
And when Unna saw his work she
high adventure. Sometimes they rested in
laughed aloud and clipped him in her
the cities, but more often they were on
arms and said, “My husband, make thou
the road, or fighting in the armies of
more of those, as many as the time ’twixt
some prince or duke or baron, and always now and Christmas Eve permits! We
fame and fortune came to them. But have good store of sweetmeats in our
they could not abide in any place for vaults, even figs from Smyrna and sweet,
long, for betimes they came in conflict
dried grapes from Cyprus and from
with the priests; for when these heard Sicily, and some quantity of barley sugar,
them speak of the Great Teacher as likewise. Do thou carve out the little
though they had beheld Him in the flesh sleighs and I will fill them to the brim
they sought to have them judged as witch
with comfits; then on the Eve of Christ
and warlock, and so great was these His birthday we’ll go amongst the poor-
men’s power that had they not been fleet est of tlie townsmen and leave our little
of foot and strong of arm they were like upon
gifts their doorsteps, that on the
to have been burned a dozen times and morrow when the children wake they
more. shall not have to make their Christmas
"Now, by the Iron Gloves of Thor,” feast on moldy bread and tliin meat
swore Klaus one time when they were fly- broth.”
ing from the priestly wrath, "meseemeth 'The little sleighs piled up right
that of all men on the earth the priest swiftly, for it seemed to Klaus his fingers
doth change the least. ’Twas Caiaphas had a nimbleness they never had before,
and his attendants whose foul plottings and he whittled out the toys so fast that
hanged our Master on tlie cross, and to- Unna was amazed and swore his skill at
day the truth He died for is perverted wood-carving was as great as with the
and withheld by the very men who claim sword and ax; whereat he laughed and
to be His prie^sand servants!” whittled all the faster.
W.T.—
 50 WEIRD TALES
was bitter cold on Qiristmas Eve,
It their feast of goose and herbs was sweeter
and the members of the night watch hid for the thought of joy they had brought
themselves in doorways or crept into the to the children of the town.
cellars to shield tliem from the snow that But when the priests were told about
rode upon the storm-wind’s howling the miracle of fruits and sweets that came
blast; so none saw Klaus and Unna as unmarked upon the doorsteps of the
they made their rounds, leaving on each poor they were right wroth, and swore
doorstep of the poor a little sleigh piled this was no Christian act, but the foul
high with fruits and sweets the like of design of some fell fiend who sought to
which those children of that northern steal men’s souls away by bribing them
clime had never seen. But one small lad with Satan’s sweetmeats.

j
whose empty belly would not let him The lad whose waking eyes had seen
sleep look^ from his garret window and Klaus’s scarlet mantle told his tale, and

espied the scarlet cloak Klaus wore, for all the poor folk praised his name, and
Klaus went bravely dressed as became one and all they named him Santa Klaus,
a mighty man of valor and one who a saint who walked the earth in human
walked in confidence with princes. And guise and had compassion on the suffer-
the small boy marveled mu^ that Klaus, ing of the poor.
the mighty soldier of whose feats and But the Aurchmen went imto the dty's
fame men spoke with bated breath, governor and said, "Go to, this man
should stop before his doorstep. But anon foments rebellion. He hath sought to
he slept, and when he waked he knew not buy thy people’s away by little
loyalty
if it were a dream he dreamed, or if he gifts made to their children. Look thou
had seen Klaus pass through the storm. to it, if thou failest to put him in re-
But when the church bells called the straint before he does more mischief thou
folk to prayer and praise next morning art no friend of the landgrave from whom
and the house doors were unbarred and thou boldest this city as a fief.”
the people found the sleighs all freighted So the graf would fain have put them
with their loads of comfits on their into prison on a charge of treason, but
thresholds, great and loud was the rejoic- the townsmen came to them and warned
ing, and little who had thought
children them of the plot; so they escaped before
that Christmas was to be another day of the men-at-arms came clamoring at their
fasting and starvation clapped their hands door, and fled across the winter snows.
and raised their voices in wild shouts of Behind them swept a raving tempest, so
happy laughter. And Klaus and Unna that those who sought to follow were en-
who went privily about the streets saw gulfed in drifting snows and lost their
their work and knew that it was good, tracks upon the road, and finally turned
and their hearts beat quicker and their and fought their way back to the city with
eyes shone bright with tears of happiness the tidings that they surely must have
for that they had brought joy where sor- perished in the storm.
row was before, and they clasped each But Klaus and Unna did not die, for

other by the hand and exchanged a kiss the storm that followed hard upon their
like lovers when their vows are new, and heels delayed its pace to cover their re-
each swore that the other had conceived treat,and anon they came unto another
the scheme, and each denied it; so in town where they rested safe throughout
sweet argument they got them to the min- the winter, and in the springtime set out
ster, and then unto their house, where on their journeys once again.
 ROADS 51

N ow their travels took

Baltic shores,
across the country of tlae
and
them to the
as they passed
Lappmen they
able
earth’s
to come out and play upon the
good face, neither to dance and
sing by moonlight in the glades, and,
came into a valley ringed about with nine worst of all, our human neighbors have
small hills, and no man durst go to that no use for our good offices, but drive us
brown men
place; for ’twas said the little hence with curse and song and bell and
of the land beneath the eartli had power book and candle.”
there, and whoso met them face to face
Now Klaus laughed long and loud
was doomed to be their servant alway, when he heard this, for well was he re-
and to slave and toil beneath the ground minded of the time when he and Unna
for evermore, because these people had had to flee for very life because they had
no souls, but were natheless gifted with done kindness to the poor; so he made
a sort of immortality, so that they should answer; "Would ye then find it happi-
live until the final Judgment Day when ness to serve your human neighbors, if ye
they and all the great host of the olden could?”
gods should stand before the throne of
"Aye, marry, that would we,” the aelf
the Most High and hear sentence of an
King told him. "We be great artificers
everlasting torment.
in both wood and stone and metal. There
But Klaus and Unna had no fear of are no smiths like unto us, nor any who
the aelf people or of any harm that they can fashion better things of wood, and
might do, for boldi of them wore crosses mudi would it delight our hearts to
round their necks, and in addition each shape things for men’s service and bestow
was girt with a long sword, and the ax them on the good men of the farms and
that had aforetime laid the mightiest of villages; but they, taught by their priests,
foemen in the dust was hung upon will have none of our gifts. Why, to
Klaus’s saddle-bow. call a thing a fairy gift is to insult the

So they bent their road among the giver in these days!”

haunted Nine Hills, and behold, as they Now Klaus listened to this plaint
as
rode seaward came a great procession of there came a ringing
as of many bells
the selfmen bearing packs upon their heard far away within his ears, and once
backs and singing dolefully. "W'aes hael again the voice he knew spake to him,
to thee, small aelfmen,” Klaus made chal- and he heard: "Klaus, thou hast need of
lenge; "why go ye sadly thus, singing these small men. Take them with thee on
songs of dole and drearihead.’” the road which shall be opened to thy
feet.”
"Alack and well-a-day!” the self King
answered; "we take our way to Niflheim, So he addressed the aelfmen’s King and
there to abide until the time shall come said: "Wouldst go with me unto a place
when we are sent to torment everlasting, of safety, and there work diligently to
for the people whom aforetime we did make the things which cliildren joy to
help, cry out upon us now and say that have? If thou wilt do it, I’ll see thy gifts

we are devils, and set no pan of milk or are put into the hands of those who will

loaf of barley bread beside their doorstep take joy in them and praise thy name for

for us; nor do they tell the tales their making them.”
fathers told of kindly deeds done by the "My lord, if thou wilt do this thing for
Little People, but only tales of terror and us, I am thy true and loyal vassal now
of widcedness. For this we are no longer and ever, lx)th I and all my people,”
52 WEIRD TALES
swore the aslf King.So on the fresh cunning selfmen under Unna’s teaching
green turf he kneeled him down and fashioned at the great looms they had
swore tire oatli of fealty unto Klaus, ac- built.

knowledging himself his vassal and swear- When Christmastide was come again
ing to bear true and faithful service unto there was a heap of toys raised mountain-
him. Both he and all his host of tiny high, and Klaus put them
magic in the
men pronounced the oath, and when they sleigh and whistled to the magic rein-
rose from off their knees tliey hailed deer, and away they sped across the
Klaus as their lord and leader. bridge Bifrost where in olden days men
said the gods had crossed to Asgard.
Then from their treasure-store they
brought a little sleigh of gold, no larger
And so swiftly sped his eight small
steeds, and so well his sleigh was stocked
than the helmet which a soldier wears to
with toys, that before the light of Qirist-
shield his skull from sword-blows, but so
cunningly contrived that it could stretch
mas morning dawned there was a gift to
and swell till it had room for all of them, joy the heart of children laid upon each
hearth,and Klaus came cloud-riding back
both the self King and his host of dwarfs,
again unto his Northern home and there
and Klaus and Unna and their steeds, as
his company of cunning dwarfs and his
well. And when they had ensconced
good wife Unna awaited him, and a
them magic sleigh they harnessed
in the
mighty feast was made, and the tables
to it four span of tiny reindeer, and at
groaned beneath the weight of venison
once these grew until they were as large
and salmon and fat roast goose, and the
as war-steeds, and with a shout the aslf
mead-horns frothed and foamed as they
King bade them go, and straightway they
bid each other skoal and woes hael and
rose up into the air and drew the sleigh
drank and drank again to childhood’s
behind them, high above the heaving
happiness.
billows of the Baltic.
Long years ago Klaus laid aside his
"Bid them ride on until they have the
sword, and his great ax gathers rust upon
will to stop," Klaus ordered, and the aslf
the castle wall; for he has no need of
King did as he commanded, and pres-
weapons as he goes about the work fore-
ently, far in the frozen North where the
told for him that night so long ago upon
light of the bridge Bifrost rests upon the
the road to Bethlehem.
earth, the reindeer came to rest. And
there they builded them a house, strong- Odin’s name is but a memory, and in
timbered and thick-walled, with lofty all the world none serves his altars, but

chimneys and great hearths where mighty Klaus is very real today, and every year
fires roared ceaselessly. And in the rooms ten thousand times ten thousand happy
about the great hall they set their forges children wait his coming; for he is
up, and the air was filled with sounds of neither Claudius the centurion nor Klaus
iron striking iron as the nimble, cunning the mighty man of war, but Santa Klaus,
dwarfs fashioned toys of metal while the very patron saint of little children,
others of their company plied saw and and his is the work his Master chose for
knife and chisel, making toys of wood, him that night two thousand years ago;
and others still made
dolls of plaster and his the long, long road that has no turn-
of chinaware and clothed them in small ing so long as men keep festival upon
garments deftly shaped from cloth which the anniversary of the Savior’s birth.
"Sometliing pale and cloudy was
making iUeli visible,"

airy Ones Shall Dance

By CANS T. FIELD
’A novel of a hideous, stark horror that struck during a spirit seance —a tale of
terror and sudden death, and the frightful thing that
laired in the Devil’s Croft

Foreword vast army of skeptics of which 1 once

made one. Therefore I write it brief and

T O WHOM
Few words

lenging an enemy.
It May
are

The
Concern:
best,
Philip Sidney once wrote in chal-
as

present account
Sir
bald.

it still
If

quivers
my story
spots, that is because the
from
seems unsteady in

my
hand that writes
recent ordeal,
Shifting the metaphor from duello to
will be accepted as a challenge by the military engagement, this is but the first
33
54 WEIRD TALES
gun of the bombardment. Even now "I know that you are a stage magi-
’’
sworn statements are being prepared by cian he began afresh.
all others who survived the strange and,
"I was once,’’ I amended, a little sulk-
in some degree, unthinkable adventure I
ily. My early career had brought me con-
am recounting. After that, every great siderable money and notice, but after
psychic investigator in the country, as the novelty of show business was worn
well as some from Europe, will begin
off I had never rejoiced in it. Talboto the
researches,
brother-magicians,
I wish that
Houdini
my friends
arid
and
Thurs-
Mysterious —
it had been impressive, but

tawdry. Better to be Talbot Wills, lec-

ton, had lived to bear a hand
in them,
turerand investigator in the field of ex-
I must apologize for the strong admix- posing fraudulent mediums.
ture of the personal element in my narra-
For six years I had known Doctor Otto
tive, Some may feel that I err against
Zoberg, the champion of spiritism and
good taste. My humble argument is that
I was not merely an observer, but an
mediumism, as rival and companion. We
had first met in debate under auspices of
actor, albeit a clumsy one, throughout
the drama.
the Society for Psychical Research in Lon-
don. I, young enough for enthusiasm but
As to the setting forth of matters
also for carelessness, had been badly out-
which many will call impossible, let me
thought and out-talked. But afterward.
smile in advance. Things happen and
Doctor Zoberg had praised my arguments
have always happened, that defy the nar-
row science of test-tube and formula, 1 and my delivery, and had graciously
can only say agedn that 1 am writing the
taken me out to a late supper. The fol-
lowing day, there arrived from him a
truth, and that my statement will be sup-
present of helpful books and magazines.
ported by my companions in the adven-
ture,
Our next platform duel found me in a
Talbot Wills. position to get a little of my own back;

November and he, afterward, laughingly congratu-

15, 1937.
1, "Why Must the Burden of Proof
Rest with the Spirits?"
*''\r ou don’t believe in psychic phe-
X nomena,” said Doctor Otto Zoberg
yet again, "because you won’t,"
This with studied kindness, sitting in
the most comfortable chair of
room. I, at thirty-four, silently hoped I
would have his health and charm at fifty-
—
four he was so rugged for all his lean
length, so well groomed for all his
tweeds and beard and joined eyebrows,
so articulate for all his accent. Doctor
Zoberg quite apparently liked and ad-
mired me, and I felt guilty once more
that I did not entirely return the compli-
ment.
lated me
on turning to account the ma-
terial he had sent me. After that, we
were public foemen and personal insep-
arables. Just now we were touring the
United States, debating, giving exhibi-
tions, visiting mediums. 'The night’s pro-
gram, before a Washington audience
liberally laced with high officials, had
my hotel
ended in what we agreed was a draw;
and here we were, squabbling good-
naturedly afterward.
"Please, Doctor,” I begged, offering
him a cigarette, "save your charges of
stubbornness for the theater.”
He waved my case aside and bit the
end from a villainous black cheroot. "I
wouldn’t say it, here or in public, if it
weren’t true, Talbot. Yet you sneer ev'en
at telepathy, and only half believe in
 THE HAIRY ONES SHALL DANCE 55

mental suggestion. 'Ach, you are worse
than Houdini.”
"Houdini was absolutely sincere,” I
almost blazed, for I had known and
worshipped that brilliant and kindly
prince of conjurers and fraud-finders.
*'Ach, to be sure, to be sure,” nodded
2k)berg over his blazing match. "I did
not say he was not. Yet, he refused
—
proof the proof that he himself em-
bodied. Houdini was a great mystic, a
medium. His power for miracles he did
not know himself.”
I had heard that before, from Conan
Doyle as well as Zoberg, but I made no
comment. Zoberg continued:
—
"Perhaps Houdini was afraid if any-
thing could frighten so brave and wise a
man it would assuredly come from with-
in. And so he would not even listen to
argument.” He turned suddenly somber.
"Perhaps he knew best, ]a. But he was
stubborn, and so are you.”
"I don’t think you can say that of
me,”
have offered a prize of five thousand dol-
lars to any medium whose spirit miracles
I could not duplicate by honest sleight-of-
hand.”
He gestured with slim fingers, as
though to push the words back into me.
"That proves absolutely nothing. Wills.
For all your skill, do you think that
sleight-of-hand can be the only way? Is
it even the best way?”
"I’ve unmasked famous mediums for
years, at the rate of one a month,” I
flung back. "Unmasked them as the
clumsiest of fakes.”
"Because some are dishonest, are all
dishonest?” he appealed. "What specific
thing would convince you, my friend?”
I thought for a moment, gazing at him
through the billows of smoke. Not a
—
gray hair to him and I, twenty years his
junior, had six or eight at either temple.
I went on to admire and even to envy
that pointed trowel of beard, the sort of
thing that a magician, might have cul-
I,

I objected once more. The cheroot was tivated once. ’Then I made my answer.
alight now, and I kindled a cigarette to "I’d ask for a materialization. Doctor.
combat in some degree the gunpowdery An ectoplasmic apparition, visible and
fumes. solid to touch — in an empty room with
Teeth gleamed amiably through the no curtains or closets, all entrances sealed
beard, and 2k)berg nodded again, in by myself, the medium and witnesses
frank delight this time. "Oh, we have shackled.” He started to open his mouth,
hopes of you. Wills, where we gave up but I hurried to prevent him. "I know
Houdini.” what you’ll say —
that I’ve seen a number
He had never said that before, not so of impressive ectoplasms. So I have, per-
plainly at any rate. I smiled back. "I’ve haps, but not one was scientifically and
always been willing to be shown. Give dispassionately controlled. No, Doctor, if
me a fool-proof, fake-proof, supernormal I’m to be convinced, I must make the
phenomenon. Doctor; let me convince conditions and set the stage myself.”
myself; then I’ll come gladly into the "And if the materialization was a com-
spiritistcamp.” plete success?”
"Ach, so you always say!” he ex- "Then it would prove the claim to me
ploded, but without genuine wrath. — to the world. Materializations are the
"Why must the burden of proof rest with most important question in tlie whole
the spirits? How can you prove that they field.”
do not live and move and act? Study He looked long at me, narrowing his
what Eddington has to say about that.” shrewd eyes beneath the dark single bar
"For five years,” I reminded him, "I of his brows. "Wills,” he said at length.
56 WEIRD TALES
"I hoped you would ask something like turtle-back we had stowed bags, for the
this.” November sky had begun to boil up with
"You did.^” dark, heavy clouds, and a storm might
"Ja. Because — first, can you spare a delay us.
day or so?” On the way Zoberg talked a great deal,
I replied guardedly, "I can, I believe. with his usual charm and animation. He
We have two weeks or more before the scoflied at my skepticism and prophesied
New Orleans date.” I computed rapidly. my conversion before another midnight.
''Yes, that’s December 8. What have you "A hundred years ago, realists like
got up your sleeve. Doctor?” yourself were ridiculing hypnotism,” he
Hegrinned once more, wdth a great chuckled. "They thought that it was a
display of gleaming white teeth, and fantastic fake, like one of Edgar Poe’s
flung out his long arms. "My sleeves, amusing tales, ja? And now it is a great
you will observe, are empty!” he cried. science, for healing and comforting the
"No trickery. But within five hours of world. A few years ago, the world
—
where we sit five hours by fast automo- scorned mental telepathy
”

bile — is a little town. And in that town "Hold on,” I interrupted. "I’m none
there is a little medium. No, Wills, you too convinced of it now.”
have never seen or heard of her. It is "I said just that, last night. However,
only myself who found her by chance, you think that there some grain of
is

who studied her long and prayerfully. truth to it. You would be a fool to laugh
Come with me. Wills she v/ill teach — at the many experiments in clairvoyance
you how little you know and how much carried on at Duke University.”
you can learn!” "Yes, they are impressive,” I admitted.
"They are tremendous, and by no
2. "Yon Can Almost Hear the Ghosts.” means unique,” he insisted. "Think of a
number between one and ten,” he said
HAVE sat down with the purpose of suddenly.
1 writing out,
plainly and even flatly, all I gazed at my hands on the wheel,

thathappened to me and to Doctor Otto thought of a joking reply, then fell in

Zoberg in our impromptu adventure at with his mexjd.
psychic investigation; yet, almost at the "All right,” I replied. "I’m thinking
start, I it necessary to be vague about
find of a number. What is it?”

the tiny town where that adventure ran ''It is seven,” he cried out at once, then
its course. Zoberg began by refusing to laughed heartily at the blank look on my
tell me its name, and now my friends of face.

various psychical research committees ''Look here, that’s a logical number for
have asked me to hold my peace until an average man to think of,” I protested.
they have finished certain examinations "You relied on human nature, not
without benefit of yellow journals or pry- telepathy.”
ing politicians. He grinned and tweaked the end of
It is located, as Zoberg told me, with- his beard between manicured fingers.
in five miles by fast automobile of "Very good. Wills, try again. A color
Washington. On the following morning, this time.”

after a quick and early breakfast, we de- I paused a moment before replying,
parted at seven o’clock in my sturdy "All right, guess what it is.”

coupe. I drove and Zoberg guided. In the He, too, hesitated, staring at me side-
 THE HAIRY ONES SHALL DANCE 57

wise. "I think it is blue,” he offered at "And this settlement has such a
length. place?”
"Go to the head of the class,” I "Ja wohl, a grove of the thickest tim-
grumbled. "I rather expected you to ber ever seen in this over-civilized coun-
guess red — that’s most obvious.” try, and hedged in to boot. I do not say
that they believe, but it is civic property
"But I was not guessing,” he assured
me. "A flash of blue came before my and protected by special order from tres-

mind’s eye. Come, let us try another passers.”

"I’d like to visit that grove,” I said.
time.”
"I pray you!” he aied, waving in pro-
We continued the experiment for a
"Do
test. not make us unwelcome.”
while. Zoberg was not always correct, but
he was surprizingly close in nearly every
case. The most interesting results were
with tlie names of persons, and Zoberg
achieved some rather mystifying approx-
W E
’The
ARRIVED shortly before noon.
little

hollow among high wooded

town rests in a circular
hills, and
there not a really good road into it,
is
imations. Thus, when I was thinking of
for two or three miles around. After
the actor Boris Karloff, he gave me the
listening to Zoberg, I had expected some-
name of the actor Bela Lugosi. Upon my
thing grotesque or forbidding, but I was
thinking of Gilbert K. Chesterton, he
disappointed. The houses were sturdy
named Chesterton’s close friend Hilaire
and modest, in some cases poor. The
Belloc,and my concentration on George
greater part of them made a close-hud-
Bernard Shaw brought forth a shout of
dled mass, like a herd of cattle threat-
"Santa Claus.” When I reiterated my
ened by wolves, with here and there an
charge of psychological trickery and
isolated dwelling like an adventuresome
besought him to teach me his method, he
young fighting-bull. The streets were
grew actually angry and did not speak
narrow, crooked and unpaved, and for
for more than half an hour. Then he
once in this age I saw buggies and
began to discuss our destination.
wagons outnumbering automobiles. The
"A most amazing community,” he pro- central square, with a two-story town
nounced. "It is old —one of the oldest hall of red brick and a hideous cast-iron
inland towns of all America. Wait until war memorial, still boasted numerous
you see the houses,my friend. You can hitching-rails, brown with age and
almost hear the ghosts within them, in
smooth with use. There were few real
broad daylight. And their Devil’s Croft,
signs of modern progress. For instance,
that is worth seeing, too.”
the drug store was a shabby clapboard
"Their what?” affair with "Pharmacy” painted upon its
He shook his though in
head, as windows, and it sold only drugs, soda
despair. "And up as an
j-ou set yourself and tobacco; while the one hotel was
authority on he sniffed.
occultism!” low and rambling and bore the title
"Next you will admit that you have never "Luther Inn.” I heard that the popula-
heard of the Druids. A Devil’s Croft, my tion was three hundred and fifty, but I
dull young friend, used to be part of am it was closer to three
inclined to think
every English or Scots village. The good hundred.
people would set aside a field for Satan, We drew up in front of the Luther
so that he would not take their own Inn, and a group of roughly dressed men
lands.” gazed at us with the somewhat hostile
58
interrogation that often
American community at the approach of
strangers.These men wore mail-order
coats of corduroy or suede the air was
growing nippier by the minute and
plow shoes or high laced boots under
dungaree pants. All of them were of
Celtic or Anglo-Saxon type.
"Hello!” cried Zoberg jovially. "I see
you there, my friend Mr. Gird. How is
your charming daughter?”
The man addressed took a
ward from the group on the porch. He
was a raw-boned, grizzled native with
pale, pouched eyes, and was a trifle bet-
ter dressed
WEIRD TALES
marks a rural "Yes,” he answered one of my ques-
tions, "the houses are old, as you can
see. Some of them have stood since the
— Revolutionary War with England, and
— our town’s ordinances have stood longer
than that. You aren’t tlie first to be im-
pressed, Mr. Wills. Ten years ago a cer-
tain millionaire came and said he wanted
to endowus, so that we would stay as we
are. He had a lot to say about native
color and historical value. We told him
step for- that we would stay as we are without hav-
ing to take money from him, or from
anybody else for that matter.”

black hat.
than the others, in a rather
ministerial coat of dark cloth
He
and a wide
cleared his throat before
G ird's
one
home was
story,
large but low, all
and of darkly painted
clapboards over heavy timbers. The front
replying. door was hung on the most massive hand-
"Hello, Doctor. Susan’s well, thanks. wrought hinges. Gird knocked at it, and
What do you want of us?” a slender, smallish girl opened to us.
It was a definite challenge, that would She wore a woolen dress, as dark as
repel or anger most men, but Zoberg was her father’s coat, with white at the neck
not to be denied. He scrambled out of and wrists. Her face, under masses of
the car and cordially shook the hand of thunder-black hair, looked Oriental at
the man he had called Mr. Gird. Mean- first what with high cheek-bones
glance,
while he spoke in friendly fashion to one and eyes set aslant; then I saw that her
or two of the others. eyes were a bright gray like worn silver,
"And here,” he wound up, "is a very and her skin rosy, with a firm chin and a
good friend of mine, Mr. Talbot Wills.” generous mouth. The features were rep-
All eyes —
and very unfriendly eyes resentatively Celtic, after all, and I won-
—
they were, as a whole turned upon me. dered for perhaps the fiftieth time in my
I got out slowly, and at Zoberg’s insist- life if there was some sort of blood link
ence shook hands with Gird. Finally the between Scot and Mongol. Her hand, on
grizzled man came with us to the car. the brass knob of the door, showed as
"I promised you once,” he said glumly slender and white as some evening
to Zoberg, "that would let you and
I flower.
Susan dig as deeply as you wanted to into "Susan,” said Gird, "here’s Doctor Zo-
this matter of spirits. I’ve often wished berg. And this is his friend, Mr.
since that I hadn’t, but my word was Wills.”
never broken yet. Come along with me; She smiled at Zoberg, then nodded to
Susan is cooking dinner, and there’ll be me, respectfully and rather shyly.
enough for all of us.” "My daughter,” Gird finished the in-
He got into the car with us, and as we troduction. “Well, dinner must be
drove out of the square and toward his ready.”
house he conversed quietly with Zoberg She led us inside. 'The parlor was
and me. rather plainer than in most old-fash-
 THE HAIRY ONES SHALL DANCE 59

ioned provincial houses, but it was com- I wondered which of tliem was the more
fortable enough. Much of its furniture disdainful of my confidence.
would have deliglited antique dealers, Then Susan Gird joined us, and for
and one or two pieces would have im- once I wanted to speak of other subjects
pressed museum directors. The dining- than the occult.
room beyond had on the walls
plate-racks
and a long table of dark wood, with 3. "That Thing Isn’t My Daughter "
high-backed chairs. We had some fried
ham, biscuits, coffee and stewed fruit that T WAS 2k)berg who suggested that I

must have been home-canned. Doctor I take Susan Gird for a relaxing drive in
Zoberg and Gird ate heartily, talking of my car. I acclaimed the idea as a bril-
local trifles, but Susan Gird hardly liant one, and she, thanking me quietly,
touched her food. I, watching her with put on an archaic-seeming cloak, black
stealthy admiration, forgot to take more and heavy. We
left her father and Zo-
than a few mouthfub. berg talking idly and drove slowly
After the repast she carried out the through the town.
dishes and we men returned to the par- She pointed out to me the Devil’s
lor. Gird faced us. Croft of which I had heard from the
"You’re here for some more hocus- doctor, and I saw it to be a grove of
pocus?” he hazarded gruffly. trees, closely and almost rankly set. It
"For another seance,” amended Zo- stood apart from the sparser timber on
berg, suave as ever. the hills, and around it stretched bare
"Doctor,” said Gird, "I think this had Their emptiness suggested that all
fields.
better be the last time.” the capacity for life had been drained
Zoberg held out a hand in pleading away and poured into that central clump.
protest,but Gird thrust his own hands No road led near to it, and I was oblig^
behind him and looked sternly stubborn. to content myself by idling the car at a
"It’s not good for the girl,” he an- distance while we gazed and she talked.
nounced definitely. "It’s evergreen, of course,” I said.
"But she is a great medium greater
than Eusapia Paladino, or Daniel
—Home,” "Cedar and a little juniper.”
"Only in the hedge around it,” Susan
Zoberg argued earnestly. "She is an im- Gird informed me. "It was planted by
portant figure in the psychic world, lost the town council about ten years ago.”
”
and wasted here in this backwater I stared. "But surely there’s greenness

"Please don’t miscall our town,” inter- in the center, too,” I argued.
rupted Gird. "Well, Doctor, I agree to "Perhaps. 'They say that the leaves
a final seance, as you call it. But I’m never fall, even in January.”
going to be present.” gazed at what appeared to be a lit-
I

Zoberg made a gesture as of refusal, tle fluff of white mist above it, the whiter
but I sided with Gird. by contrast with the blade clouds that
"If this is to be my test, I want an- lowered around the hill-tops. To my
other witness,” I told Zoberg. questions about the town council, Susan
"Ach! If it is a success, you will say Gird told me some rather curious things
that he helped to deceive.” about the government of the community.
"Not I.arrange things so there
I’ll There were five councilmen, elected every
will be no deception.” year, and no mayor. Each of the five
Both Zoberg and Gird stared at me. presided at a meeting in turn. Among
60 WEIRD TALES
the ordinances enforced by the council is used in Devonshire, which may throw
was one providing for support of the light on the original founders of the com-
single church. munity. Apparently this woman had
“I should think that such an ordinance shown some tendencies toward psychic
could be set aside as illegal,” I observed. power, for she had several times prophe-
"I think it could,” she agreed, "but sied coming events or told neighbors
nobody has ever wished to try.” where to find lost things. She was well
The minister of the church, she con- loved for her labors in caring for the
tinued, was invariably a member of the sick, and indeed she had died from a

council. No such provision appeared on fever contracted when tending the victims
the town records, nor was it even urged of an epidemic.
as a "written law,” but it had always been "Doctor Zoberg had known her,”
deferred to. The single peace officer of Susan Gird related. "He came here sev-
the town, she continued, was the duly eral years after her death, and seemed
elected constable. He was always com- badly shaken when he heard what had
missioned as deputy sheriff by officials happened. He and Father became good
and his duties included
at the county seat, friends,and he has been kind to me, too.
census taking, tax collecting and similar I remember his saying, the first time we
matters. The only other officer with a met, that I looked like Mother and that

state commission was the justice; and her it was apparent that I had inherited her

father, John Gird, had held that post for spirit.”

the last six years. She had grown up and spent three
"He’s an attorney, then?” I suggested, years at a teachers’ college, but left be-
but Susan Gird shook her head. fore graduation, refusing a position at a
'"The only attorney in this place is a school so that she could keep house for
retired judge, Keith Pursuivant,” she in- her lonely father. Still idiotically man-
formed me. "He came from some other nerless, I mentioned the possibility of
part of the world, and he appears in her marrying some young man of the
town about once a month lives out — town. She laughed musically.
yonder past the Croft. As a matter of "Why, I stopped thinking of mar-
fact, an ordinary experience of law isn’t riage when I was fourteen!” she cried.
enough for our peculiar little govern- Then, "Look, it’s snowing.”
ment.” So it was, and I thought it time to
She spoke of her fellow-townsmen as start for her home. We
finished the
quiet, simple folk who were content for drive on the best of terms, and when we
the most part to keep to themselves, and reached her home in midaftemoon, we
then, yielding to my earnest pleas, she were using first names.
told me something of herself.
'The Gird family counted
from an original settler
not exactly sure of or how the
when
its

—though she was

descent
G
From
ird, I found,
tor
had capitulated
Zoberg’s genial
disliking the thought of a seance,
to Doc-
insistence.

settlement was made—and had borne a
leading part in community affairs through
more tlian two centuries. Her mother, who
had died when Susan Gird was seven,
had been a stranger; an "outlander” was
the local term for such, and I think it
he had come to savor the prospea of wit-
—
nessing it Zoberg had always excluded
him before. Gird had even picked up a
metaphysical term or two from listening
to the doctor, and with these he spiced
his normally plain speech.
 THE HAIRY ONES SHALL DANCE iSl

"This ectoplasm stuff sounds reason- seal its legs and instmct
to the floor,
able,” he admitted. "If there is any such Gird to sit in it. He did so, and I pro-
thing, there could be ghosts, couldn’t duced a pair of handcuffs from my bag
there.^” and shackled his left wrist to the arm of
Zoberg twinkled, and tilted his beard- tlie chair.

spike forward. "You will find that Mr. "Capital!” cried Zoberg. "Do not be
Wills does not believe in ectoplasm.” so sour, Mr. Gird. I would not trust
"Nor do I believe that the production handcuffs on Mr. Wills —he was once a
of ectoplasm would prove existence of a magician and knows all the escape
ghost,” I added. "What do you say. tricks.”
Miss Susan?” "Your turn’s coming. Doctor,” I as-
She smiled and shook her dark head. sured him.
"To tell you the truth, I’m aware only
Against the opposite wall and facing
dimly of what goes on during a stance.”
Gird’s chair I set three more diairs, melt-
"Most mediums say that,” nodded Zo-
ing wax around their legs and stamping
berg sagely.
it. Then I dragged all other furniture
As the sun set and the darkness came
far away, arranging it against the kitchen
down, we prepared for the experiment.
door. Finally I asked Susan to take the
The dining-room was chosen, as the
central diair of the three, seated Zoberg
barest and quietest room in the house.
at her left hand and myself at her right.
First I made a thorough examination,
Beside me, on the floor, I set the carbide
poking into comers, tapping walls and
lamp.
handling furniture, to the accompani-
ment of jovial taunts from Zoberg. "With your permission,” I said, and
produced more manacles. First I fast-
Then, to his further amusement, I pro-
ened Susan’s left ankle to Zoberg’s right,
duced from my grip a big lump of seal-
then her left wrist to his right. Zoberg’s
ing-wax, and with this I sealed both
left wrist I chained to his chair, leaving
the kitchen and parlor doors, stamping
the wax with my signet ring. also closed,
him entirely helpless.
I

latched and sealed the windows, on the "What thick wrists you have!” I com-
sills of which little heaps of snow had mented. "I never knew they were so
begun to collea. sinewy.”
"You’re kind of making sure, Mr. "You never chained them before,” he
Wills,” said Gird, lighting a patent car- grinned.
bide lamp. With two more pairs of handcuffs I
"That’s because I take this business shackled my own left wrist and ankle to
seriously,” I replied, and Zoberg clapped Susan on tlie right.

his hands in approval. "Now we are ready,” I pronounced.

"Now,” I went on, "off with your "You’ve treated us like bank robbers,”
coats and vests, gentlemen.” muttered Gird.
Gird and Zoberg complied, and stood "No, no, do not blame Mr. Wills,”
up in their shirt-sleeves. I searclied and Zoberg defended me again. He looked
felt them both all over. Gird was a trifle anxiously at Susan. "Are you quite pre-
bleak in manner, Zoberg gay and bright- pared, my dear?”
faced. Neither had any concealed ap- Her eyes met his for a long moment;
paratus, I made sure. My next move was then she closed them and nodded. I,
to set a chair against the parlor door. boimd to her, felt a relaxation of her en-
62 WEIRD TALES
tire body. After a moment she bowed was aware of an odor, strange and dis-
her chin upon her breast. agreeable, like the wind from a great
"Let nobody talk,” warned Zoberg beast’s cage. Then the paws were upon
softly. "I think that this will be a suc- my lap — indeed, they were not paws. I

cessful venture. Wills, the light.” felt them grip my

legs, with fingers and
With my free hand I turned it out. opposable thumbs. A sniffing muazle
All was intensely dark for a moment. thrust almost into my face, and upon its
Then, as my eyes adjusted themselves, the black snout a dim, wet gleam was mani-
room seemed to lighten. I could see the fest.

deep gray rectangles of the windows, the Then Gird, from his seat across the
snow at their bottoms, the blurred out- room, screamed hoarsely.
”
line of the man in his chair across the "That thing isn’t my daughter
floor from me, the form of Susan at my it took him to rip out those
In the time
left hand. My ears, likewise sharpening, five words, the huddled monster at my
detected the girl’s gentle breathing, as knees whirled back and away from me,
if she slept. Once or tv'ice her right reared for a trice like a deformed giant,
hand twitched, shaking my own arm in and leaped across the intervening space
its manacle. It was as though she sought upon him. I saw that Gird had tried
to attract my attention. to rise, his drained wrist hampering him.
Before and a little beyond her, some- Tlien his voice broke in the midst of
thing pale and cloudy was making itself what he was trying to say; he made a
visible. Even as I fixed my ga.ze upon it, choking sound and the thing emitted a
I heard something that sounded like a barking growl.
gusty panting. It might have been a tired Tearing loose from its wax fastenings,
dog or other beast, lire pallid mist was the chair fell upon its side.There was a
changing shape and substance, too, and stmggle and a clatter, and Gird squealed
growing darker. It shifted against the like a rabbit in a trap. The attacker fell
dim light from the windows, and I had a away from him toward us.
momentary impression of something It was all over before one might ask

erect but misshapen —

misshapen in an what it was about.
animal way. Was that a head.? And were
those pointed ears, or part of a head- 4. "I Don’t Know What Killed Him.”
dress? I told myself determinedly that
this was a clever illusion, successful de- UST when I got up I do not remember,
spite my precautions. J but I was on my feet as the grapplers
It moved, and I heard a rattle upon separated. Without thinking of danger
the planks. Claw's, or perhaps hobnails. and surely danger was there in the
Did not Gird wear heavy boots? Yet he —
room I might have rushed forward; but
was surely sitting in his chair; I sav/ Susan Gird, lying limp in her chair,
something shift position at that point. hampered me in our mutual shackles.
The grotesque form had come before me, Standing where I was, then, I pawed in

crouching or creeping. my pocket for something I had not men-

Despite my self-assurance that this was tioned to her or to Zoberg; an electric
a trick, I could not govern the chill that torch.
swept over me. The thing had come to a It fitted itself into my hand, a compact
halt close to me, was lifting itself as a little q’linder, and I whipped it out with
hound that paws its master’s knees. I my finger on the switch. A cone of white
 THE HAIRY ONES SHALL DANCE 63

light spurted across the room,making a Gird, and his lips twitched, as though he
pool about and upon the motionless form would be hysterical.
of Gird. Hecrumpled on one side,
lay "Steady, Doctor,” I cautioned him
his back toward us, and a smudge of sharply,and took the lamp from him.
black wetness was widening about his "See what you can do for Gird.”
slack head and shoulders. He stooped slowly, as though he had
With the beam I swiftly quartered the grown old. I stepped to one side, putting
room, probing it into every corner and the lamp on the table. Zoberg spoke
shadowed nook. The creature that had again:
attacked Gird had utterly vanished. Susan "It is absolutely no use. Wills. We
Gird now gave a soft moan, like a can do nothing. Gird has been killed.”
dreamer of dreadful things. I flashed I had turned my attention to the girl.
my light her way. She still sagged in her chair, breathing
It flooded her face and she quivered deeply and rhythmically as if in un-
under the impact of the glare, but did troubled slumber.
not open her eyes. Beyond her I saw "Susan,” I called her. "Susan!”
Zoberg, doubled forward in his bonds. She did not stir, and Dextor Zoberg

He was staring blackly at the form of came back to where I bent above her.
Gird, his eyes protruding and his "Susan,” he whispered penetratingly,
clenched teeth showing through his "wake up, child.”
beard. Her eyes unveiled themselves slowly,
"Doctor Zoberg!” I shouted at him, and looked up at us. "What ” she
and his face jerked nervously toward began drowsily.
me. It was fairly cross-hatched with tense "Prepare yourself,” I cautioned her
lines, and as white as fresh pipe-clay. He quickly. "Something has happened to
tried to say something, but his voice your father.”
would not command itself. She stared across at Gird’s body, and
Dropping the torch upon the floor, I then she screamed, tremulously and long.
next dug keys from my pocket and with Zoberg caught her in his arms, and she
trembling haste unlocked the irons from swayed and shuddered against their sup-
Susan Gird’s wrist and ankle on my side. porting circle. From her own wrists my
Then, stepping hurriedly to Zoberg, I irons still dangled, and they clanked as
made him sit up and freed him as speed- she wrung her hands in aimless distrac-
ily as possible. Finally I returned, found tion.
my torch again and stepped across to Going to the dead man once more, I
Gird. unchained him from the chair and turned
My first glance at close quarters was him upon his back. Susan’s black cloak
enough; he was stone-dead, with his lay upon one of the other cliairs, and I
throat tom bmtally
out. His cheeks, too, picked it up and spread it above him.
were ripped in parallel gashes, as though Then I went to each door in turn, and to
by the grasp of claws or nails. Radiance the windows.
suddenly glowed behind me, and Zoberg "The seals are unbroken,” I reported.
moved forward, holding up the carbide "’There isn’t a space through w'hich even
”
lamp. a mouse could slip in or out. Yet
"I found this beside your chair,” he "I did it!” wailed Susan suddenly.
told me unsteadily. "I found a match "Oh, my God, what dreadful thing came
and lighted it.” He looked down at out of me to murder my father!”
64 WEIRD TALES
UNFASTENED the parlor door and business,” he said harshly. "You," he
I opened it. Almost at the same time a flung at me, "you seem to be the closest
loud knock sounded from the front of to sensible. Give me the story, and don’t
the house. leave out a single bit of it.”

Zoberg lifted his head, nodding to me Thus commanded, I made shift to

across Susan’s trembling shoulder. His describe the seanceand what had led up
arms were still clasped around her, and to it. I was as uneasy as most innocent
I could not help but notice that they people are when unexpectedly questioned
seemed thin and ineffectual now. When by peace ofiicers. O’Bryant interrupted
I had chained them, I had wondered at twice with a guttural "Huh!” and once
their steely cording. Had this awful with a credulous whistle.
calamity drained him of strength.^ “And this killing happened in the
"Go,” he said hoarsely. "See w'ho it dark?” he asked when I had finished.

is.” "Well, which of you dressed up like a

I went. Opening the front door, I devil and done it?”
came face to face with a tall, angular Susan whimpered and bowed her head.
silhouette in a slouch hat w'ith snow on Zoberg, outraged, sprang to his feet.
the brim. "It was a creature from another
"Who are you?” I jerked out, startled. world,” he protested angrily. "None of
"O' Bryant,” boomed back an organ- us had a reason to kill Mr. Gird.”
deep bass. "What’s the fuss here?” O’Bryant emitted a sharp, equine
"Well ” I began, then hesitated. laugh. "Don’t go to tell me any ghost
"Stranger in town, ain’t you?” was the stories,Doaor Zoberg. follb have We
next question. "I saw you when you heard a lot about the hocus-pocus you’ve
stopped at the Lutlier Inn. I’m O’Bryant pulled off here from time to time. Looks
— the constable.” like it might have been to cover up some
He strode across the door-sill, peered kind of rough stuff.”
about him in the dark, and then slouched "How could it be?” demanded Zoberg.
into the lighted dining-room. Following, "Look here, Constable, these handcuffs.”
I made him out as a stern, roughly He held out one pair of them. "We were
dressed man of forty or so, with a lean all confined with them, fastened to chairs
face made strong by a salient chin and a that were sealed to the floor. Mr. Gird
simitar nose. His light blue eyes studied was also chained, and his chair made fast
the form of John Gird, and he
still out of our reach. Go into the next room
stooped to draw away the cloak. Susan and look for yourself.”
gave another agoni2ed cry, and I heard "Let me see them irons,” grunted
Zoberg gasp as if deeply shodeed. 'The O’Brj’ant, snatching them.
constable, too, flindied and replaced the He turned them over and over in his
cloak more quickly than he had taken it hands, snapped them shut, tugged and
up. pressed, then held out a hand for my
"Whodone that?” he barked at me. keys. Unlocking the cuffs, he peered into
Again I found it hard to answer. the clamping mechanism.
Constable O’Bryant sniffed suspiciously "These are regulation bracelets,” he
at each of us in turn, took up the lamp pronounced. "You were all chained up,
and herded us into the parlor. 'There he then?”
made us take seats. "We were,” replied Zoberg, and both
"I want to know everything about this Susan and I nodded.
W.T.—
 THE HAIRY ONES SHALL DANCE 65

Into the constable’s blue eyes came a "You come along with me. I’m going
sudden shrewd light. "I guess you must to lockyou up.”
have been, at that. But did you stay that I rose with a sigh of resignation, but
way?” He whipped suddenly around, paused for a moment to address Zoberg.
bending above my cliair to fix his gaze "Get hold of yourself,” I urged him.
upon me. ‘'How about you, Mr. Wills?” "Get somebody in here to look after
"Of course we stayed that way,” I Miss Susan, and tlien clarify in your
replied. mind what happened. You can help me
"Yeh? Look here, ain’t you a profes- prove that it wasn’t I.”
sional magician?” Zoberg nodded very wearily, but did
"How did you know that?” I asked. not look up.
He grinned widely and without "Don’t neither of you go into that
warmtli. "The whole town’s been talk- room where the body is,” O’Bryant
ing about you, Mr. Wills. A stranger warned them. "Mr. Wills, get your coat
can’t be here all day without his whole and hat.”
record coming out.” The grin vanished. 1 did so, and we left the house. The

"You’re a magician, all right, and you snow was indies deep and still falling.
can get out of handcuffs. Ain’t that so?” O’ Bryant led me across the street and
"Of course it’s so,” Zoberg answered knocked on the door of a peak-roofed
for me. "But why should that mean that house. A swarthy little man opened to
my friend has killed Mr. Gird?” us.
O’Bryant wagged his head in triumph. "There’s been a murder, Jim,” said
"That’s what we’ll find out later. Right O’Bryant importantly. "Over at Gird’s.
now it adds up very simple. Gird was
killed, in a room that w'as all sealed up. Better take
—
You’re deputized go and keep watch.
the missus along, to look
Three other folks was in with him, all after Susan. She’s bad cut up about it.”
handcuffed to their chairs. Whicli of We left the new deputy in charge and
them got loose without the others catcli- walked down the street, then turned into
ing on?” He nodded brightly at me, as the square. Two or three men standing
if inanswer to his own question. in front of the "Pharmacy” stared curi-
Zoberg gave me a brief, penetrating ously, then whispered as we passed. An-
glance, then seemed to shrivel up in his other figure paused to give me a search-
own chair. He looked almost as ex- ing glance. I was not too stunned to be
hausted as Susan. I, too, was feeling near irritated.
to collapse. "Who are those?” I asked the con-
"You want to own up, Mr. Wills?” stable.
invited O’Bryant. "Town he
informed me.
fellows,”
"I certainly do not,” I snapped at him. "They’re mighty interested to see what a
"You’ve got the wrong man.” killer looks like.”
"I thought,” he made answer, as "How do they know about the case?”
though catching me in a damaging ad- I almost groaned.
mission, "that it was a devil, not a man, He achieved his short, hard laugh.
who killed Gird.” "Didn’t I say that news travels fast in
I shook my head. "I don’t know what a town like this? Half the folks are talk-
killed him.” ing about the killing this minute.”
"Maybe you’ll remember after a "You’ll find you made a mistake,” I
while.” He turned toward the door. assured him.
W. T.—
66 WEIRD TALES
"If I have, beg your pardon hand-
I’ll fects, palming of aces, making a king
some. Meanwhile, I’ll do my duty.’’ rise to the top, and springing the pack
We were at the red brick town hall accordion-wise from one hand to the
by now. At O’Bryant’s side I mounted other.
the granite steps and waited while he "I’d sure hate to play poker with you,”
unlocked the big double door with a key volunteered O’Bryant, who had come
the size of a can-opener. again to gaze at me.
"We’re a kind of small town,” he ob- I crossed to the grating and looked
served, half apologetically, "but there’s through at him. "You’ve got the wrong
a cell upstairs for you. Take off your hat man,” I said once more. "Even if I were
—
and overcoat ^you’re staying inside till guilty, you couldn’t keep me from talking
further notice.” to a lawyer.”
"Well, I’m doing it, ain’t I?” he
3. "They Want Take the Law
to into taunted me. "You wait until tomorrow
Their Own Hands" and we’ll go to the county seat. The
sheriff can do whatever he wants to about

T he cell was an upper room of the

town hall, with a heavy wooden
door and a single tiny window. The walls
a lawyer for you.”
He
heard
ceased
the
talking
sound, too
and
—
listened.
a hoarse, dull
I

were of bare, unplastered brick, the floor murmur as of coal in a chute, or a dis-
of concrete and the ceiling of white- tant, lowing herd of troubled cattle.
washed planks. An oil lamp burned in "What’s that?” I asked him.
a bracket. 'The only furniture was an O’Bryant, better able to hear in the
iron bunk hinged to the wall just below corridor, cocked his lean head for a mo-
the window, a wire-bound straight diair ment. 'Then he cleared his throat.
and an unpainted table. On top of this "Sounds like a lot of people talking, out in
”
last stood a bowl and pitcher, with play- the square,” he replied. "I wonder
ing-cards scattered around them. He broke off quickly and walked away.
G)nstable O’Bryant locked me in and ’The murmur was growing. I, pressing
peered through a small grating in the close to the grating to follow the con-
door. He was all nose and eyes and wide stable with my saw that his shoul-
eyes,
lips, like a sardonic Punchinello. ders were squared and his hanging fists
"Look here,” I addressed him sud- doubled, as though he were sudcfenly
denly, for the first time controlling my aware of a lurking danger.
frayed nerves; "I want a lawyer.” He reached the head of the stairs and
'"There ain’t no lawyer in town,” he dumped down, out of my sight. I turned
boomed sourly. back to the cell, walked to the bunk and,
Judge Pursuivant in the
"Isn’t there a stepping upon it, raised the window. To
neighborhood?” I asked, remembering the outside of the wooden frame two
something that Susan had told me. fiat straps of iron had been securely

"He don’t practise law,” O’Bryant bolted to act as bars. To these I clung as
grumbled, and his beaked face slid out I peered out.
of sight. was looking from the rear of the hall
I

I turned to the table, idly gathered up toward the center of the square, with
the cards into a pack and shuffled them. the war memorial and the far line of
To steady my still shaky fingers, I pro- shops and houses seen dimly through a
duced a few simple sleight-of-hand ef- thick curtain of falling snow. Something
 THE HAIRY ONES SHALL DANCE 67

dark moved doser to the wall beneath, of the stairs,” he said. "Let’s go and
and I heard a cry, as if. of menace. try to talk to them from that.”
“I see his head in the window!” The whole party followed him away,
bawled a voice, and more cries greeted and I could hear their feet on the stairs,

this statement. A moment later a heavy then tlie lifting of a heavy window-sash.
missile hit the walldose to the frame. A loud and prolonged yelling came to
I dropped back from the window and my ears, as if the gathering outside had
went once more to the grating of the sighted and recognized a line of heads
door. Through it I saw O’ Bryant coming on the sill above them.
back, accompanied by several men. They "Fellow citizens!” called the stout
came close and peered through at me. man’s voice, but before he could go on a
"Let me out,” I urged. "That’s a mob chorus of cries and hoots drowned him
out there.” out. I could hear more thumps and surg-
O’Bryant nodded dolefully, "Nothing ing shoves at the creaking door.
like this ever happened here before,” he Escape I must. I whipped around and
said, as if he were responsible for the fairly ran to the bunk, mounting it a sec-
town’s whole history of violence. '"They ond time for a peep from my window.
act like they want to take the law into Nobody was visible below; apparently
their own hands.” those I had seen previously had run to
A short, fat man spoke at his elbow. the front of the hall, there to hear the
"We’re members of the town council, bellowings of the officials and take a
Mr. Wills. We heard that some of the hand in forcing the door.
citizens were getting ugly. We came here Once again I dropped to the floor and
to look after you. We promise full pro- began to tug at the fastenings of the
tection.” bunk. It was an open oblong of metal, a
"Amen,” intoned a thinner specimen, stout frame of rods strung with springy
whom I guessed to be the preacher. wire netting. It could be folded upward
"There are only half a dozen of you,” against the wall and held with a catch, or
I pointed out. "Is that enough to guard dropped down with two lengths of chain
me from a violent mob.^” to keep it horizontal. I dragged the mat-
As if to lend significance to my ques- tress and blankets from it, then began a
tion, from below and in front of the close examination of the chains. They
building came a great shout, compounded were stoutlymade, but the screw-plates
of many voices. Then a loud pounding that held them to the brick wall might
echoed through the corridor, like a be loosened. Clutching one chain with
bludgeon on stout panels. both my hands, I tugged with all my
"You locked the door. Constable?” might, a foot braced against the wall.
asked the short man. A straining heave, and it came loose.
"Sure I did,” nodded O’Bryant. At the same moment an explosion
A perfect rain of buffets sounded
from echoed through the corridor at my back,
below, then a heavy impact upon the and more shouts rang through the air.
front door of the hall. I could hear the Either O’Bryant or the mob had begun to
hinges creak. shoot. Then a rending crash shook the
"They’re trj'ing to break the door building, and I heard one of the council-
down,” whispered one of the council. men shouting; "Another like that and
'The short man turned resolutely on his the door will be down!”
heel. "There’s a window at the landing His words inspired additional speed
68 VfTIRD TALES

within me. I took the loose end of the out. A lapel of my jacket tore against
chain in my hand. Its links were of the frame, but I made it. Clinging by the

twisted iron, and the final one had been other bar, I made out at my side a nar-
sawed through to admit the loop of the row band of perpendicular darkness
saew-plate, then clamped tight again. against the wall, and clutched at it. It
But my frantic tugging had widened this was a tin drainpipe, by the feel of it.

narrow cut once more, and quickly I An attack was being made upon the
freed it from the dangling plate. Then, door of the cell. The wood splintered
folding the bunk against the wall, I drew before a torrent of blows, and I heard
the chain upward. It would just reach to people pushing in.
the window — that open link would hook "He’s gone!” yelled a rough voice,
around one of the flat bars.
and, a moment later: "Hey, look at the
window!”

T
more
he
the
I
noise of breakage rang louder in
front of the building.
heard the voice of the short coun-
Once
it
had hold of the drainpipe, and gave
I

my
entire weight. Next instant it had
tom loose from its flimsy supports and
cilman: "I command you all to go home,
bent sickeningly outward. Yet it did not
before Constable O’Bryant fires on you
let me down at once, acting rather as a
again!”
slender sapling to the top of which an
"We got guns, too!” came back a de-
adventuresome boy has sprung. Still hold-
fiant shriek, and in proof of this state-
ing to it, I fell sprawling in the snow
ment came a of shots. I heard an
rattle
twenty feet beneath the window I had
agonized moan, and the voice of the
quitted. Somebody shouted from above
minister: "Are you hit?”
and a gun spoke.
"In the shoulder,” was O’Bryant’s
deep, savage reply.
"Get him!” screamed many voices.

My chain fast to the bar, I pulled "Get him, you down below!”
back and down on the edge of the bunk. was up and nmning for my life.
But I

It gave some leverage, but not enough The snow-filled square seemed to whip
the bat was fastened too solidly. Desper- away beneath my feet. Dodging around
ate, I clambered upon the iron frame- the war memorial, I came face to face
work. Gaining the sill, I moved sidewise, with somebody in a bearskin coat. He
then turned and braced my back against shouted for me to halt, in the reedy voice

the wall. With my feet against the edge of an ungrown lad, and the fierce-set

of the bunk, I thrust it away with all the face that shoved at me had surely never
strength in both my legs. A creak and a felt a razor. But I,who dared not be
ripping sound, and the bar pulled slowly merciful even to so untried an enemy,
out from its bolts. stmck with both fists even as I hurtled
But a roar and thunder of feet told me against him. He whimpered and dropped,
that the throng outside had gained en- and I, springing over his falling body,
trance to the hall at last. dashed on.
I heard a last futile flurry of protesting A wind was rising, and it bore to me
cries from the councilmen as the steps the howls of my pursuers from the direc-
echoed with the charge of many heavy tion of the hall. Two or three more guns
boots. I waited no longer, but swung went off, and one bullet whickered over
myself to the sill and wriggled through my head. By then I had reached the far
the narrow space where the bar had come side of the square, hurried across the
 THE HAIRY ONES SHALL DANCE 69

stieet and up an alley. The snow, still Devil’s Croft, its tops seeming to toss
falling densely, served to baffle the men and fall like the blade waves of a high-
who ran shouting in wake. Too,my pent sea.
nearly everyone who had
been on the
was an inspiration, helped
It by the
streets had gone to the front of the hall,
shouts of the mob. Nobody went into
and except for the boy at the memorial
none offered to turn me back.
that grove —avoidance of had become
it

a community habit, almost a community

I came out upon a street beyond the
instinct. Even if my enemies paused only
square, quiet and ill-lit. Along this way,
temporarily I could shelter well among
I remembered, I could approach the Gird
the trunks, catch my breath, perhaps hide
home, where my automobile was parked.
indefinitely. And surely Zoberg would
Once at the wheel, I could drive to the
be recovered, would back up my protest
county seat and demand protection from of innocence. With two words for it,
the sheriff. But, as I came cautiously near
the fantasy would not seem so ridiculous.
the place and could see through the bliz-
All this I sorted over in my mind as I
zard the outline of the car, I heard loud
ran toward the Devil’s Croft.
voices. A part of the mob had divined
my intent and had branched off to meet Another rail fence rose in my way. I

me. feared for a moment

it would baffle that

I ran down a side street, but they had me, so fast had I run and so
and far
greatly drained away was my strength.
seen me. "There he is!” they shrieked
at one another. "Plug him!” Bullets Yet I scrambled over somehow, slipped
struck the wall of a house as I fled past
and fell beyond, got up and ran crooked-
ly on. The trees were close now. Closer.
it, and the owner, springing to the door

with an angry protest, joined the chase Within a dozen yards. Behind me I
a moment later. heard oaths and warning exclamations.
The pursuit was ceasing at last.
WAS panting and staggering by now, found myself against close-set ever-
I
I and so were most of my pursuers. would be the hedge of which
greens; that
Only three or four, lean young athletes, Susan Gird had told me. Pushing
were gaining and coming even close to between and through the interlaced
my heels. With wretched determination branches, I hurried on for five or six
I maintained my pace, winning free of steps, cannoned from a big tree-trunk,

the close-set houses of the town, wrig- went sprawling, lifted myself for another
gling between the rails of a fence and brief run and then, with my legs like
striking off through the drifting snow of strips of paper, dropped once more. I

a field. crept forward on hands and knees. Final-

"Hey, he’s heading for the Croft!” ly I collapsed upon my face. 'The wei^t

someone was wheezing, not far behind. of all I had endured the seance, the —
"Let him go in,” growled another run- horrible death of John Gird, my arrest,
ner. "He'll wish he hadn’t.” my breaking from the cell and my wild
Yet again someone fired, and yet again —
run for life overwhelmed me as I lay.
tiie bullet went wide of me; moving Thus I must lie, I told myself hazily,
swiftly, and half veiled by tiie dark and until they came and caught me. I heard,
the wind-tossed snowfall, I was a bad or fancied I heard, movement near by,
tSirget that night.And, lifting my head, then a trilling whistle. A signal.? It
I saw indeed the dense timber of the sounded like the song of a little frog.
70 WEIRD TALES
Odd thought in this blizzard. I was I rose to my elbows. A white flower
thinking foolishly of frogs, while I bobbed and swayed before my nose,
sprawled face dow'n in the snow;. . , . shedding perfume upon me.
But where was the snow? Far away, as though in another world,
There was damp underneath, but it I heard the rising of the wind that was
was warm damp, like that of a riverside
in July. In my nostrils was a smell of
beating the snow into great drifts —but
that w'as outside the Devil’s Croft.
green life, the smell of parks and hot-
houses. My fists dosed upon something. Iq the fasdnating next instaiUnent of this story. Talbot
Wills comes face to face io mortal combat with the
Two handfuls of soft, crisp moss! frightful terror of the Devil’s Croft.
at your magarine dealer’s now.
Reserve your copy

GJoean
«s/0 Matjan
By VENNETTE HERRON
It happened in java, that strange, weird, incredible thing that the natives
jully believe but the white man refuses to credit —
the story of a tiger and a woman

AT A DINNER given by the British credible detail of tiny symbolic figures,

I first met the
consul in Batavia
Lady Violette Adair; but one way
or another we met rather often after that
and became friends, until finally she
asked me to visit her. 'The house which
she had had built out there one in
which to hide herself away for months
on end alone with her writing and paint-
ing —was a quaint affair of mixed billiek
and stucco; an enormous round studio,
at which many Europeans would prob-
ably have sniggered or blushed, but
which made a perfect frame for the
strangely blond and mask-like, more
Scandanavian than British beauty of the
— Lady Violette. And the threshold of the
door was a solid block of hand-hewn
wood nearly a foot square, forming the
and topmost step of a little bridge
central
of which led up to and then down
stairs,

with upper wall a ring of skylight

its into the studio, the floor ofwhich was
windows under the eaves, hung with sunken a couple of feet below the level
thick mustard-gold and mauve curtains, of the ground outside. A fascinating
which could be drawn to shut out either house, with a personality as exotic as
sun or moon when dc-sired, and no win- that of its mistress, which is saying a
dows below; with a half-circle of small great deal. And in it also there was the
rooms, like monks’ cells, at the back white cat.

and entered by a door stolen from a "What a gorgeous animal, Violette!'*

temple in Bali. The door was of intri- For we had become fast friends befotei
cately carven teak, covered with an in- ever she invited me there.
 TOEAN MATJAN 71

"Twocreatures oi another world they

seemed, one no more royal than
the other."

"Yes, isn’t it?” Tangomann Prahoe, sensing the exquisite

But still she did not tell me its story melancholy of the rose-gray dusk, of the
not until several weeks later indeed, only long lines of black-winged flying-foxes
a few evenings before I was to leave. flapping westward into infinity; out of

Then, however, she did. Not that I one cave, then into another, with a flash

asked it of her even then, much as I across space between —symbol of sad yet

would have liked to, but it was one of seaching little egos bom to die, while life

those portentous happenings which one itself goes on for ever.

simply has to relate to someone, some- "What would you think,” propounded
time. And the hour was ripe, and
I was Lady Violette suddenly, "if you saw a
there; wherefore, thanksbe to Allah, I tiger pass across the lawn right now? I
heard it. We were sitting side by side did, one night — a little later than this,

upon the threshold of the temple door, just after the moon had risen. I was sit-
just at twilight, smoking lazily and ting here alone just as we are now when
watching the sunset behind the distant all at once I heard a piteous bleat from
72
-

weird TALES
the and a great clamor of
goat-pern, tliinking to myself that the tiger might
frightened fowls. And then I saw the tiger, well have seen in her —
in her mystic gold-
with a kid in its mouth. He was padding en egg-shell fairness, in the fey blue eyes
along rather slowly, not even looking at beneath the thread-thin dark arcs which
the house, as though knowing that noth- were her brows, in the mask-like oval of
ing w'ould harm him, and content with her face —
very much what she’d seen in
his kill, enjoying the night.” it. Both were greater even than their
"Weren’t you frightened? What did super-finished shells. And both were part

you do, Violette?” of a pitiful personal transciency, terribly

came back with and rebelliously aware of all around and

"I dashed inside, and
just outside of themselves a mocking,
the short, double-barreled shotgun which
jibing, ruthlessly ruminating, living eter-
always keep loaded for jungle emer-
I

gencies; and he was still in sight — right

nity —Garoeda or the Sphinx —knowing
it there; yet never quite able to break into
over there by those trees.” She pointed.
gun my and become a part of it.
"But just as I raised the to
shoulder, suddenly he stopped stock-still tlie Lady Violette Adair.
"I?” replied
and lodked at me. And — I never saw "What could I do after that? I lowered
anything quite so magnificent! Tawny- my gun and salaamed to him. 'Toean
striped, enormous, royal
— 'fearful sym- —
matjan besar great Lord Tiger,’ I said,
metry’ indeed! With great golden-green *go home in peace. You are too beauti-

moon-eyes, wise, flaming, wild and sad. ful to kill. But don’t steal any more of
With blood dripping from his jowls my live-stock, please’.”

with in every line of him that marvelous "And then?”

feline pride w'hkh makes a few creatures "Then he did a strange thing. He
appear above all pettiness, above all little opened his mouth and let the dead kid
common things, no matter what they may fall onto the grass; his lips curled in a
do. And without trying to escape, it just tiger-smile, showing off his great white
stood there staring. I don’t know what fangs, and he gave a little low rumbling
itsaw in vie, but \ saw beauty incarnate, roar. Then he was gone, like a streak of
and some awful unnamable cosmic trag- bright light —not daylight, but light of
edy. It w'as speaking with its soul — in enchantment —burning its way beneath
words, just as you and I speak; and suf- him a ripple and
the trees, leaving behind
fering as no human being can suffer be- swish dew-drenched foliage, like a
of
cause in w'ords it could not speak. The phosphorescent wake, for a second; then
natives believe, you know, that the souls —
nothingness a kind of soundless blank,
of their great hero ancestors and likewise which had not been there before he
those of some of the lesser gods are passed.”
locked up in tiger bodies. They will
"And did you ever see him again?”
never one of the beasts themselves,
kill

if it; and if they meet one

/they can help
in the jungle, instead they kneel and
pray to it. And they’ll all swear that,
H er
with
face
its
was dreaming,
lips slightly
queerly quirked at the comers, like the
inscrutable,
parted and

if one does that, the tiger will pass on

without harming anyone.”

mask of a serhnpe —one of the Javanese
dancers of the Soesoehoenan’s court,
"But what did you do?” I asked my "Tliat very same night once again I heard
hostess, intensely curious to know, and him. After I’d gone to bed, suddenly|
 TOEAN MATJAN 73

upon die roof above my room diere came of gold sun, an enormous white cat.”
a soft heavy thud and the grate of a I started. "Matjan KetjU?”
slithering tile. Then a long soft, savagely
She nodded. "The same. 'Thorou^i-
tender purring, whicli went on and on.”
bred and dainty, with a great plume of a
"And still you weren't afraid.?” tail — like som.ething out of fairyland.

asleep
The Lady Violette smiled. "I
listening to it,” she said,
fell
"and
And its eyes —
have you noticed them? In
miniature they are twin replicas of those
knew that I was protected.” of the tiger. Without scruple, yet so fas-
"And is that the end of the story.?” so aloof. And
She shook her head. "Oh no only — tidious,
around him was the scent of sun-bruised
flooding in all

the beginning. The next morning Ati

marigolds.”
my head-boy, as you know brought me — "I know.” As indeed I did that pe- —
the kid, with his face gone almost white
culiar pungence which seemed to contain
with excitement. 'Look, nonjal’ he said.
'It was killed by a tiger — there are marks
in
"And
it the very essence of Java mornings.
then?”
of its teeth on the body, and also its foot-
prints, gigantic ones, in the dust of the
"I held out my hand and called to

compound. Something out of the or- it — in high Malay, suited to its rank.

dinary indeed must have happened to

'Enter, cat; dost want to be friends? Wel-
cause it to drop its prey; but probably it
come to my house.’ Then I told Ati to
fetch a saucer of cream and offer it to
will return. What does the nonja want
him; but when the boy approached, the
us to do? Shall we set a trap for it? For
if it has once killed
’ animal arched its back and spat. Then I
"But I hastened to reassure him. ordered Ati to set the cream upon the

'Don’t worry, Ati. I talked to the tiger

table opposite me and to draw up a chair

myself, even as your old men and as though for a guest; and I myself
doekoens talk, knowing the truth, even salaamed to the cat and again held out
I,

in so much of their knowledge and ways.

my hand. 'Wilt do me the honor of shar-
And the tiger answered me. It said tliat
ing my meal, Matjan KetjH — little tiger?’

itwould attack nothing here again, that I invited. And at tliat my visitor walked
over, with the tip of coral tongue and
no one belonging to me need be afraid; its

and of its own accord it left the kid to the grace of a courtier kissed my fingers,
” then sprang onto the diair and with a
show that it would keep its word.’
"And the boy believed you?” comically polite little mew commenced to

"Of course.” My hostess shrugged, a

lap up the cream.
trifle impatiently. "And after breakfast,” continued my
"And did it ever come back after friend, "it followed me all about the
that?” studio, until finally I placed a big velvet
The Lady Violette hesitated, then went pillow for it beside my work-cliair and
on: "The natives believe also, you know, sat down at my writing-table. Then
that the tiger can change shape at will
its Matjafi Ketjil — of course
for already that
— like the werewolf — like all of the ani- was his name— arranged himself upon
mals which are half-gods. Be that as it the cushion and remained there, unblink-
may, several days after that first appear- ing, unstirring, sometimes purring, some-
ance, as I was sitting at breakfast one times seeming to sleep, occasionally look-
”
morning in the studio, I looked up and ing up at me. And then
beheld in the doorway, backed by a sheet "Well?”
[Z4 WEIRD TALES
"My dear, I scarcely know how to tell though I doubt if you will — ^but should
you — it was the queerest thing! Of course you, you need not be afraid.”
everything in the East speaks to me; but "You mean that the tiger too still
between us two there was pure communi- sometimes returns?” I was not precisely
cation. I was not conscious of hearing afraid; but I peered across at the com-
sentences —
of an audible voice at all; pound, from out of which seeped every
but simply all kinds of fantastic ideas be- now and again the comforting night
yond any that I had ever known flowed sounds of sleepy goats and fowls, the
in and out of me —
and I understood the stamp of Violette’s riding-horse, or the
East and the cosmos as never before, and whining wail of a Malay love-song
wrote as I had never thought to write. peered with the sort of horrified unable-
And I felt strangely young and well, too. not-to feeling withwhich one regards a
It was fascinating and exhilarating, a mangling accident in a street.
kind of enchantment. I wrote on and
"Sometimes he purrs on my roof at
on. Some day very likely you will read
some of it; but much of it will never be
night —
^he’s not apt to while you’re here;

but should you ever hear him, be calm

published until after I am dead. And you have nothing to fear.”
since then the cat comes every day, as
"You are a strange woman, Violette!
you yourself have seen. And toward dusk,
But thank you for telling me.”
as you will have noted too, he leaves and
"'That’s not quite all, either,” she said.
goes into the jungle.”
I looked at my friend. Her eyes were "And may sound to you pretty
the rest

shining stars, her lashes were infinites-

terrible. But stark beauty is that, isn’t
imal glittering bronze-gold wires curving
it? Do you want to hear it?”
up to meet her brows; her mouth was a "Of course,” I responded, wondering
scarlet hibiscus blooming against a pale what could be more, if there were any
bamboo wall. Many men had paused to inner truth in it at all, than what she’d
look at her; but it was often said that, already told me.
except for the impersonal courtesy and "Did you ever know Haviland Nesbit?
consideration whidi was a part of her He was rather the rage in London at
breeding, she never looked back at them; —
one time. Just after ^yes, that one. 'Then
but confined her gaze instead to statues you know how handsome he was. But
and masks and animals, to oc-
shrines, to perhaps you don’t know that he came out

——
cult lore, to the things which gave to the here last year just wandering, as he so
innermost core of her a thrill and to often did and himted me up, with a
nothing else. Very ancient was the ego letter from my aunt. Lady Leila Car-
of the Lady Violette, although her so ruthers. Yes, I thought you must have.
strangely perfect body was still so young. Well ” She paused, then went on
"Your cat is a magic creature even — musingly: "Men as a rule do not attract
without knowing what you’ve just re- —
me I suppose you know that too; but
counted, and even though he will never more than any other Haviland Nesbit
let me stroke him,” I said. did. There was something about him
"He’ll never let anyone touch him but which made me feel more more as I —
me,” Violette answered. "But likewise suppose most other women feel; and I’ve
he will never harm you.” 'Then she added never cared a damn for conventions, of
slowly: "And neither would the tiger. course — so I asked him to stop awhile up
Should you ever chance to see him, al- here. And he did. But still we were
 TOEAN MATJAN 75

only friends —although he would have a little, low, pearly gurgle, soulless and
liked, of course
’’
bell-like —
fairy laughter. "And still you
"And was that after the episode of tlie need not be afraid,” she repeated gently.
tiger —and the white cat?” I interrupted, "For he knows now that I will not ex-
too interested to consider whether or not periment again.”
I was being rude. "But what did you do about Havi- —
My hostess laughed. "Of course! I land? For no one at home has ever heard
forgot that you couldn’t just loiow,” she what became of him have they?” —
said — kindly, but as though tliere were a
"You see how I trust you, having
way in might have known with-
which I
made you my friend,” she answered.
out asking. "But after the first day of his

visit, Matjan Ketjil walked out, and did

not return until after Haviland was was
gone." For an instant her face was in-
human in its cold, clear, dreaming
beauty.
"Yes?” I ventured, to egg her on.
—
"No, no one knows nor will, till I too
am dead. But then, if you should hap-
— pen to be still alive, you may tell, if you
like. But no, I didn’t tell then. My aunt
—
would have hated it so all the talk; and
there seemed no reason to. I called Ati,
and we buried him over there, under

“T MISSED my— my companion, of

that lovely tree, half purple flowers on
one side and orange berries on the other.
J- course; yet the days were complete
I don’t know where he would rather lie
and Until— until after some weeks
full.
for that last long rest —
do you? But I
like that,
when
there finally arrived a night
—
was furious then too furious! If Maijan

after all,
I too thought that there might,’
—
be something in in that some-
had come back then in any shape es-
”
—
pecially in his big tiger body
thing which usually is between a man

and a woman shut up alone together. A "Violette, you don’t mean that you
”
night when I called myself a fool for at aaually believe
least not trying and learning. A night "It’s no matter. You may think what
when at last —standing down there in the you like, but if the tiger had returned.
moonlight, just outside the temple door, . . . However, he didn’t —not then; and
Haviland Nesbit put his arms about me neither did the white cat. Not for sev-
—and I let him. And we kissed. And eral But then one morning
days. I

just at that moment, although neither of looked up and there he was, standing in
us had heard even a rustle before, there the door again, with the sun a bright
came a spring from the roof, and some- blob behind him. And I took down a
how I was knocked to one side; while kris from the wall, the one w’hich hangs
—
Haviland not even much mauled, but always above my desk, and I walked to-
dead of a broken neck before he could —
ward him meaning to put an end to it
so much as cry out —
lay in a crumpled all, of course —
remembering poor Havi-
heap at my feet. And then I saw the land, who had hardly earned the fate
tiger, without a backward look, like a which befell him. But then but then —
fierce yellow river, flowing off through Matjan Ketjil didn’t run away, you see;
the jungle.” instead just stood and looked at me. And
"Violette!” I shuddered, and glanced I knew myself better by then so what —
involuntarily up toward the eaves would you? I am not as other women.
beneath which we were sitting. This my life. And although I am fond
is

At which my hostess laughed again of you, my dear, very —

and one or two
76 WEIRD TALES
others — still I am always a little lonely, tentment of untenable communion. And
except when I am alone. And he was too God, how beautiful they were! I stared
beautiful to kill. So —so after a moment until my teeth chattered, then crept back
I hung the kris back on the wall again. to bed, feeling myself very small and
And that’s all.” child-like and earthy.

For a breath we both sat silent. Then And the next morning the white cat
over our shoulders came the voice of Ati. came and lapped its cream,
as always,
"Nonja, makan is served.” And we rose sitting solemnly upon a chair placed for
and went in. it between my hostess and me. And I
saw that its eyes were two slit-gashed
moons, solemn and wise, sad and inscrut-
A—
talk
fter dinner, over our
w liqueurs, there was a

fragmentary, but satisfying

coffee
little

—
and
more
^most-
able —
later it lay upon
—
and big bigger than it. And
its cushion, while Vio-
ly about the East. But I felt unusually lette as usual, even when I was there, sat

tired and so excused myself early and at her desk for a little, writing ^with the —
—
withdrew to my cubicle so perfect in its sun-scent of marigolds all about them
appointments, but so austere and cell- concentrated in them. And I knew that in
like. Then hastily I prepared for bed, all that she wrote there would be the
but weary as I was, found that I could swirling, spiraling, leering, heart-scorch-

not sleep. And presently I heard a soft
thud and a slithering tile, not quite above
my room, but somewhere not far away
np(Mi the roof -of the house. And I sprang
from bed and stood on tiptoe to look
out through my single window a very
high one, protected by stout steel bars.
From there I could catch a glimpse of
the lawn, badced by a black wall of
jungle. The clearing was a bowl of
ing, twisted, other-world thoughts which
had once gotten themselves engraved
upon all of the temple doors out there
thoughts like the carvings upon the door
which guarded the house I was in. The
— sun on the fur of the cat was blinding
the hair of my friend was virgin gold.
They were sun and snow on a mountain
— they were all that most of us are
not. . .

moonlight, white and clean and lonely,

with no movement in it at first. Then I wo days later I came away.
saw my hostess walk across the open And now Violette Adair is dead
space in her trailing white dinner-gown, of a fever, and lies buried —not beside
with a cigarette, glowing like a fire-fly, in Haviland Nesbit, but by her own request,
her hand. Like some rare white tropical just beneath the ground, very shallowly,

bird, stately and cold and lovely, she in the center of the lawn before her own
house, where her bones may be blessed
paced back and forth, slowly, superbly.
And then —then Isaw melt out of the and bleached for ever by the sun and the
moon and the rains of Java. And no one
shadows, like a thicker shadow forming,
a sinuous, splendid shape, tawny-striped
goes near or disturbs her; for it is said

and fearful. And suddenly there was a by the natives that night and day a tiger,

or its ghost, patrols her grave.

tiger walking beside the woman. Two
creatures of another world they seemed, Whether that last is true or not, I do
one no more royal than the other, both not know; but I do know what I saw. . . <

lofty, lord-like, stately, pacing up and And now that she is gone, as she said I
down in the witchlight, in a weird con- mi^it, I give you her story.
 "The captive abruptly reolixed the speaker was iiM
spired by iasoaity.''

oyage of the
Neutralia
By B. WALLIS
^An exciting story of weird adventures and a strange voyage through space to
—
other planets by the author of "The Abysmal Horror”
and other fascinating thrill -tales

The Story Thus Far cold repelled by other substances. He

A YLMER CARSCADDEN, eminent is financed by Hugh Burgoyne. They
/% American discovers and
scientist, construct a large shell, christened Neu-
manufactures metal impervious tralia, with which to explore beyond our
to gravitation, and also under intense planet’s atmosphere. The two, with
WEIBD TALES for November
This gtoiy began In 77
78 WEIRD TALES
Jacob Flint, an old employee, set out for Later Carscadden regains consciousness
our satellite. After starting, two former and finds tlie shell is attracted by Jupiter
employees, Kobloth and Whipps, dis- and heading for that planet at enormous
charged for spying, are found stowaways speed. Near Jupiter they pass through
in the storeroom. its ring of meteoroids and narrowly
After some experiments in arresting escape destruction. They manage to

the stupendous speed of the shell they alight on an inner satellite. As their air

arrive safely at the moon. Finding an supply is dangerously low they are com-
atmosphere, tliough rarefied, capable of pelled at once to endeavor to return to
supporting life, they alight in the great the earth. Sixty hours later they discover

crater of Gspernicus. Moss and giant that tlie sun’s pull must carry them be-
cacti are the sde vegetation; but gold and yond the earth to plunge into the flaming
diamonds are found in large deposits. giant; a slight error in a decimal was the
While the scientist is inspecting these,
cause of this terrible catastrophe. When
Koblotli and Whipps suddenly attack thej' try to head for Venus, they find that
the shell’s cover has become jammed. At
Carscadden and Flint, stunning them
with rocks. The treacherous pair instant-
the last second they manage to force the
cover over and change direction to Venus,
ly dash for the shell, hoping to make off
with it and later return to exploit the
now dangerously close to them.

vast wealth they have seen. Burgoyne, The story continues:

however, arrives on the scene and at the
point of his gun compels them to sur-
render. 12. A Tropic World. The Centipedes
Curscadden and Flint recovering, all

return, and the prisoners are locked in

the storeroom. Then tlie shell is headed
R ecovering quickly, but still dazed
and shaken, the four men slowly let
down tlie ladder and descended. They
for Mars. Traveling at a million miles an
were well armed, and the world they had
hour they arrive and alight. They find
alighted on seemed a very calm and
the surface is covered by a network of
peaceful one, a very different world from
great cables. A curious carriage comes
the others they had visited. It was more
racing along a cable, and its occupant
like the earth than the moss- and lichen-
immediately attacks them with electri-
covered wild rocks of the moon, the red
fied wires. Other carriages arrive and
deserts and gloomy ravines of Mars, or
join in the attack.
the glowing swirling gaseous Jupiter.
One down;
of the carriages is

contains a number of electrical instru-

shot it
—
Here was life ^grasses, trees, flowers, and
pure life-giving air, just as in their own
ments and a loathsome spider-like crea-
honest planet.
ture. The Neutrdia is nearly captured by
The Neutralia had fallen on a stretch
tlie Martians. After a sharp struggle the of rising ground, crushing several large
adventurers succeed in regaining it,
All around them, in
trees in its descent.
though Whipps is apparently electro- every direction stretched tlie shady forest;
cuted and dragged to a carriage by a a mass of trees of many varieties, shapes,
cable. Carscadden rendered unconscious and heights, some leafy, some fir-like,
by a gas-bomb cast by the Martians, his some gorgeous with vivid-hued blossoms,
companions w'ere compelled to head out and many hung with sprays and clusters
into space without direction or objective. of large brilliant-hued fruit. Among the
 THE VOYAGE OF THE NEUTRALIA 79

branches flitted strange birds,and the be ready for instant flight, if necessary.
spot resounded with curious cries and After that we can shut ourselves up in
whistling calls. Great and grotesque- the globe and make up for lost sleep.”
looking insects buzzed and droned in- This program was completed before
cessantly. Squirrels and lizard-like ani- nine o’clock, the hour of sundown; and
mals darted among the undergrowth and long before that the four men were ex-
hung on to the tree trunks, chattering and periencing the enervating lassitude that in-
gaping at the intruders. Away in the dis- variably follows hard upon a time of
tance, where the rising ground they stood stress and intense emotion, and had be-
on, and a stretch of thinner vegetation, come so drowsy that even their novel
permitted it, were visible a great green surroundings failed to interest them. All
plain and the silver line of a river thread- they craved was rest and sleep, and the
ing it. They also were conscious that the Nirvana of their couches inside tlie Neu-
air was very humid and hot, and the di- tralia.

rect glare of the sun, now much larger

than it appears from the earth, was al-

most unbearable, although it was shining

through a thin cloud veiling, a veiling
K obloth, the
•
first to
lowing morning, lay for a
joying the soft mellow light of a hazy
awake the
little
fol-
en-

so extensive that not a gleam of blue dawn that filled the globe’s interior. The
sky was visible through it. effect was beautiful in the extreme, and
It was a tropic world into which they for a while he regarded it with much ap-
—
had fallen a world of intense, humid proval. But the light also showed him
heat, and of prolific fauna and flora. the forms of his three sleeping com-
"Do you reckon any of this fruit is panions, and the sight aroused the basic
safe to eat?” asked Flint, eyeing a large evil of his nature. He had no love for
tree whose branches were laden profusely them, and it pleased him to conjure up
with clusters of green-skinned, pear-like mental pictures of the revenge he fervent-
objects. "I’m sick of the canned junk ly trusted would one day be vouchsafed
we have been feeding on.” him, when the three would be as com-
"I don’t know, but I’m going to take pletely at his mercy as they were that mo-
a chance on these extra-sized bananas,” ment, wrapped in their slumber. It was
declared Burgoyne, tearing off what cer- a balm to his vindictive pride to know
tainly did look like a gigantic banana, that even then he could have shot the
fully a foot long, from a palm-like tree. three without the least chance of reprisal
The others laughed but refrained from or future discovery. It would have been
following his example, Carscadden re- very simple, for he still retained the re-
marking that would be unwise for all
it volver with which he had aided in re-
to chance being ill at the same time; and pulsing the spider-Martians. Their
if the experimenters expired it was all corpses could be left on this lonely
for the good of science. planet, or discarded later in the pro-
"And now, what is our next move?” fundity of space. As for navigating the
asked Kobloth. Neutralia —
well, he had picked up
"As Venus is same size
practically the enough knowledge of its rudiments to
as the earth, and the day the same feel confident that the return to the earth
length, I will take the sun’s altitude and from this planet would be a compara-
we can set our watches to Venus’ time. tively simple problem. He could use a
Then we must fill the air-tanks, and compass and sextant; and wait until the
80 WEIRD TALES
earth’s place in its orbit lay exactly at w'e should be roasted to death before
right angles to tliat of this planet, turn midday,” remadeed Carscadden. "We
the great cover, and slow down when have landed on the southern hemisphere,
close to his objective. and in the height of summer. The con-
Was the moment propitious? Why stant cloudy veiling protects all this luxur-
not? Moreover, he had left word with iant vegetation from scorching, but even
an assistant in Prague to spread a report at that we must be prepared to experience
in the scientific journals that he was ex- a heat unknown to our own planet.”
perimenting with a space-ship; when "I presume you will investigate for a
these fools had kept their intention a while, and take some more photographs
profound secret. Could anything be bet- to add to your wonderful collection?”
ter? He had only to rid himself of his queried Kobloth suavely, and suppress-
jailers, and he could return and claim all ing his chagrin at the prospect of a hasty
the honor and glory, not to say fortune, departure, which the scientist’s words
thatwould be heape-d on the originator seemed to hint at. For he realized that
of this tremendous undertaking. The this was the last, and the ideal, occasion
tantalizing thought fired his evil spirit to on which he might hope to consummate
rash and impetuous action. Why not? the crime his mind was set on.
His hand crept to his pocket, and his "So long as we can stand the heat, and
fingers closed on the butt of a loaded find no hostile life that menaces our
gun. A set, malignant glare leapt into his safety, there is no particuLir hurry. Start-
narrow ej'es. Yes! now was tlie moment! ing in the night I could reach the earth
Then Burgoyne stirred, sat up, rubbed any time within the next eight weeks,”
his eyes, and yawned leisurely. The ac- declared Carscadden with decision.
tion unnerved Kobloth; he knew that a "Are we likely to find any brainy
single slip would seal his fate, there nightmares here, do you think?” asked
would be no next time. His fingers re- Burgoyne, leaning his broad bade against
laxed their hold on the thing in his a fallen forest monarch.
pocket; he was too late. Another "I hardly think so; the planet is

time younger than the earth and the time has

"Good morning, Herr Kobloth," been too short to evolve a high grade of
greeted the unsuspecting Burgoyne. "You intelligence. No doubt there is an abun-
see, that banana wasn’t so deadly after dance of wild animals, poisonous insects,
all; I’m going out to sample another.” reptiles and the lower forms of life in —
Now the others aw'akencd, and tlie fact, a much exaggerated replica of the
door was opened, and breakfast eaten in conditions met with on the steaming
the open, a meal that included several of coast of West Africa. But, I say, Hugh,
those delicious giant bananas. Of course just come over here, will you? Quickly!”
they went armed, and kept their eyes Suddenly his voice had grown urgent
open, but so far had not seen the least and commanding, and so compelling that
sign of any form of life that could be without a word Burgoyne at once rose to
thought seriously inimical. As yet it was his feet and stepped beside him.
not so hot as on their landing, for tlie "What’s the trouble?” he asked in
heavy white clouds had not been dissi- great surprize.
pated by the sun’s later fierce energy. "Look there, on the tree trunk you
"If it wefe not for the immense quan- leaned against!” he directed with a point-
tity of moisture in the air of this planet ing finger.
W. T.—
 THE VOYAGE OF THE NEUTRALIA 81

A long, rusty brown was creep-

object No time could be lost, for tliey did not
ing along the rotting bark that Burgoyne know how venomous these brutes might
had leaned against. Its long body was set be. At once the and stock-
victim’s boot
low on many-jointed legs, and its hc-ad ing were torn and the two little
off,
carried a pair of lobster-like mandibles, punctures slaslied with a knife and made
which were open-jawed, and held high to bleed freely. Then Kobloth, wko had
above as though ready for instant offen- rushed to the globe, produced an anti-
sive. It was fully a foot in length, and septic and bandages. By the way he
its repulsive head had not been more handled the wound it was obvious that he
than the same distance from Burgoyne’s had some medical knowledge, and the
when the scientist noted it; for the brute others were pleased with the deft and
up to then had been hidden by a loosened business-like way he treated the injury.
fold of the rotting bark — a fact that was Kobloth also was pleased: he desired be-
patent when, as the four men started, an- yond all to create an atmosphere of amity
other of the hideous creatures suddenly between the three and himself and lull
appeared from behind the same loosened the suspicions he knew they never lost
strip. sight of.
’’Centipedes, or scorpions? You have 'T do not think this will be very seri-
had narrow escape! I do not doubt but
a
ous,” he said as they carried Flint within
a bite on neck or face from one of those
the Neutralia, where he would be safe
brutes would kill a man very quickly and
from further attacks of a similar nature.
painfully.”
"I imagine that most of the poison these
"Look out! there’s another —and the brutes carrj' in their hollow jaws
was ex-
brutes are coming for us!” cried Kobloth.
pended in passing throu^i the leather.
These loathsome things were evidently
If he had received a full dose I have no
hostile, and not in the least frightened
doubt by now the limb would be para-
of human beings. For
at their first sight
lyzed, and he would be unconscious.”
there was no doubt that they were making
toward the watchers. The men hastily ."Quite so,” agreed Carscadden in a

snatched up whatever happened to be more gracious tone than he had so far

handy, thick broken tree limbs, and some used in addressing the Austrian. "But we
small boulders. But at close quarters the must be more careful; likely there are

brutes were quicker at turning and twist- many more of their kind in these thick
forests.”
ing than they bargained for. Burgoyne
and Kobloth wdth a hail of savage blows "I hardly think so. The forest would
smashed to pulp a couple of them, but not be so full of small creatures if such
Flint, who happened to be standing amid savage bruteswere plentiful. But it
some trailing vines, missed his footing would be a good idea to leave one of our
as he aimed a blow, and sprawled head- number always on board the globe, to
long. In a flash the brute had seized his guard it against a possible invasion of
boot between the keen-points of his jaws, such giant insects,” Kobloth suggested
and had pierced clean through the stout craftil)% for this would divide their forces

leather and into the foot. A cry of pain and much simplify matters for him.
from Flint announced the fact, and in a "A good idea, Kobloth; we will at once
second Carscadden had come down with put it in operation. But, although it may-
the brute beneath his heavily shod feet, sound unfriendly after the way you have
crushing the scaly segments. just aided us, I must ask you always to
W. T.—
82 WEIRD TALES
make one of Apart
the party exploring. vicious insect pests were at times almost
from other considerations, your entomo- unbearable. Of the mongrel centipede-
logical and botanical knowledge will be scorpions they saw but two more speci-
very useful on such occasions,” he added mens, which they promptly killed.
to soften the seeming ungracious de- 'Then one evening the Austrian casual-
mand. On this matter Carscadden was ly suggested an expedition.
adamant; for though they had come to "I should like to obtain a few more
look on the Austrian as a changed and Specimens of the Venezian fish,” he ob-
repentant man after the awful death of served thoughtfully. "And a few more
his companion, yet he had with Burgoyne bottles of the water; it certainly contains
decided that never again would they let elements not found in our home waters.
him out of their sight or leave him alone Do you think you could spare the time to
with the Neutralia. However, the de- go with me, Mr. Carscadden? I should
mand was exactly what Kobloth expected, like your opinion on a curious rock for-
and fitted in very nicely with a scheme he mation I noted a little way off on our last
had recently been hatching. trip in that direction.” He asked the
As Flint’s foot was so painful and question quietly and with a pleasing
weak that he was unable to walk, it de- deference to the scientist’s opinion.
volved upon Carscadden and Burgoyne "Yes, we might make a final trip. Yet
to take turns at sentry duty. Kobloth I don’t know, Kobloth, thatwe ought to
always accompanied one or the other, delay our departure much longer, unless
and he did not fail to make himself you have really set your mind on this ex-
very agreeable and even useful; for he pedition. Somehow I mistrust the peace
was a keen observer, and really had a and security that has surrounded us on
fund of accurate knowledge of the nat- this planet — it seems unnatural after our
ural sciences. other experiences,” replied Carscadden
doubtfully.
EVERAL days passed busily. The for- But the very elements played into Ko-
S est was searched in many directions. bloth’s hands. They were standing in
Photographs were taken until all their the doorway of the Neutralia, watching
films were exhausted. Large collections the glow of sunset vanishing amid the
of insects and the small animals that tree-clad slopes of the western hills, when
abounded in the shady woods were killed a sudden bright splash of vivid flame
and temporarily preserved in a mixture burst out of one of was
tire hill crests. It

of Carscadden’s own invention. Many followed by a soaring cloud that mush-

astronomical observations were taken, and roomed gigantically aloft like a huge
the scientist congratulated himself tliat opened umbrella, and then came a tre-
the cause of science would be advanced mendous roar of sound, and the ground
even more than he had hoped when he shook and the Neutralia rocked per-
started. ceptibly.
At last there seemed little more that "An eruption!” cried Carscadden.
they could accomplish without a pro- "Astronomers have thought they detected
longed exploration, which was impossible on Venus. Now
signs of volcanic activity
under the circumstances. Moreover, the we can confirm their observations. Yes,
heavy, humid heat began on them,
to tell we will certainly make the trip, Kobloth.
sapping their energies, mental and physi- Luckily this volcano lies in the same di-
cal, and the enormous flies and other rection.”
 THE VOYAGE OF THE NEUTRALU 83

For a little the voyagers remained
watching the red glow of the eruption,
though no more bursts of flame or thun-
derous explosions were emitted; but the
mushroom steadily grew larger and in
its reflected glow was seen
the ever-present cloud veiling.
Kobloth was thinking of something very
different.
to mingle with
T hey walked a little way to one side
and inspected a lava flow, a mere
trickle a few yards wide, and already
cru.sting, though still so hot that they

In the morning, an hour after sun- could not approach closely. Then they
rise,Carscaddcn and Kobloth set out on descended, and before reaching the
theirtramp through the forest. They had shelter of the dense forest Carscadden
blazed a rough trail on their previous turned and stared once more at the black
journeys, so found no difiiculty in hold- patch in the distance.But it had grown
ing to their direction. The Austrian larger,and was wider and nearer, and he
proved an entertaining companion, and fancied a faint humming sound came
from a angle the two had much
scientific from it, borne toward them on the light
in common. The forest was alive with warm breeze.
birds, animals and insects of strange and "It’s moving —
coming this way like a
grotesque shapes and vivid coloring. The swarm of locusts! It must be living. We
atmosphere of Venus is a hotbed for the must get back to the Neutralia in time to
growth of gigantic vegetation, and for warn them. We know nothing of what
gorgeous flowers. strange forms of life may exist in these
Passing a little to the right of the river hills,” he muttered uneasily.
that Kobloth had desired to examine "We have plenty of time,” Kobloth as-

again, by noon they were at the foot of sured hastily. "See, it is not moving in
the volcanic hill. A heavy steam-cloud, the direction of the Neutralia, though it

now and again up by flashes of aim-

lit will probably pass over the spot we stand
son flame, still poured from the crater, on,” he aied, as he too noted the move-
and down one side of the hill several ment and its direction. "Look out!
small streams of lava cascaded sluggishly. Centipedes!” he shouted in warning.
"It is still erupting. Shall we chance Carscadden sprang aside just in time to
ascending?’’ said Carscadden, though he escape tlie quick rush of one of the fear-
was already, and eagerly, leading the way less voracious monsters, and a blow from
to a slope that seemed fairly scalable a heavy stick Kobloth carried quickly dis-
and free from lava streams. patched it. But another, and still another,
"Tliere is a curious black patch, over came out of the low brush that clothed
there to the northwest, tliat I cannot make the hillside, and met a similar fate.
anything of,’’ remarked the scientist As the two men looked about them,
when they had come as near to the crater they became aware that tlie living things
as they dared. "It is neither rock nor in the brush, and in the forest close to
forest, as far as I can tell. What do you them, were in a state of commotion and
make of it?” he asked Kobloth as he panic. Birds flew off to the south in
stood and stared at the thing tliat was flocks and clouds; squirrels and rat-like
puzzling him. things emerged into the open, then scur-
"Queer,” agreed Kobloth shortly. ried off in the same and lizards
direction;
"Probably scorched jungle or grass,” he and all kinds of crawling things squirmed
suggested after a single glance at the spot and twisted after them.
his companion indicated. For Armand "Reminds me of a forest fire,” cried
84 WEIRD TALES
Kobloth. "They all seem badly scared together and smiling as though tiie de-
at something.” cision immensely pleased him. "You
"It must be that blackness. It must be know, the wheel must turn sooner or
a swarm of living things, perhaps those later, and now I find that our positions

very centipedes! They are certainly the are reversed; I am the dictator and you
most ferocious brutes we have seen here. are the despised supplicant. When I saw
Like ants, they may send their skirmishers the eruption, I fancied that you might like
ahead of the main body, and those we to be here in case of a second outburst;
have just killed are the advance agents! and when this immense swarm of savage
It is high time that we too get a move came on the scene, I knew my
insects
on,” cried Carscadden with decision. revenge would be as complete as even I
"All, there’s another of the brutes! It could wish for. Can you picture what a
looks as though you might be right; for mess these brutes will make of you when
every living thing is certainly deadly they arrive? By that time I shall most
scared of something.” He paused, as a probably be comfortably installed in the
sudden resolve leapt upon him. "And Neutralia, and congratulating myself on
that settles it!” having also come to an understanding
As Carscadden stepped aside to avoid —
with our friend Burgoyne a final one.
the scorpion, Kobloth brought his heavy As for old Flint, I shall just heave him
stick aashing down on his companion’s out and leave him to find what is left of
head. Instantly stunned, the scientist fell you. ’Thanks to your instructions, I can
forward on his face and lay silent and work the Neutralia very nicely now, and
motionless. A quick blow accounted for I anticipate no difi&culty in returning. I,

the monstrous insect, and then the Aus-
trian bent over his unconscious victim.
"Couldn’t have been better!” he mut-
tered jubilantly. "Just stunned enough
formy purpose. Now, you arrogant fool,
who is the master?” he sneered in bitter
derision, as he pulled a long length of
stout cord out of a capacious pcxket.
Raising the limp body, he propped
erect against a massive tree trunk,
which he bound it, rapidly but carefully.
As he finished his task the scientist’s eyes
flicked open, and for a moment he stared
dully and uncomprehendingly at his cap-
tor. Then abruptly he realized what had
happened.
"What are you going to do, you treach-
erous scoundrel?” he demanded
Armand Kobloth, the only man ever to
return from such an epochal journey!
Glory, fame, wealth awaits me, while
you, Mr. Carscadden, will leam a great
deal about centipedes! A good, and long,
day to you, Aylmer Carscadden!” And
as the last words fell smoothly from his
lips, there flamed in his evil eyes such a
it light of rapture, derision and hate that
to the captive abruptly realized the speaker
was most certainly inspired by insanity;
the man was a homicidal maniac!
13. The March of the Centipedes
OOKING back now and again, Kobloth
I J went down the hill, reached the for-
ccx)lly, est, turned and waved his hand in de-

but he knew that neither reason nor emo- rision. As soon as he disappeared, the
tion would turn his captor from his pur- captive set himself to breaking loose. But
pose, whatev'er that might be. after a half-hour’s fierce struggling he

"Just leave you to yourself. Nothing was forced to acknowledge defeat. He

violent, I assure you, Mr. Carscadden,” was helpless, alone, left there to meet
replied Kobloth, rubbing his thick hands death in horrible guise, either to be torn
 THE VOYAGE OF THE NEUTRALIA 85

to shreds by loathsome brutes, the fiery
agony of molten lava, or the long-drawn-
out misery of thirst and hunger!
There was little ground for hope; Ko-
bloth would get back to the Neutralia
easily before sunset, take Burgoyne by
surprize, and Flint in his present condi-
tion would be easy to dispose of. And
meanwhile the Future was racing to meet
the Present!
From his already painful position he
could see the black horde of insects com-
And every moment the black tide was
surging nearer.
The time came when several of the
advance guard raced past him in pursuit
of the small fleeing creatures that
streamed by him, but none noticed the
bound man staring with horror at them.
The sun sank low in the sky, and soft
dusky shadows crept into the forest be-
low him. Where he lay there was a deep
bay of sparse vegetation, and the forest,
a long finger of growth up a shallow de-

ing nearer and nearer, and could plainly pression, meandered between him and

humming drone the oncoming tide. With straining eyes

hear the they made in
their progress. Like a vast black tide they he was now searching this green finger,
surged over precipice and gully, rolling waiting to see the vanguard of loathsome
along and spreading out on both flanks brutes emerge from it.

their savage myriads, in a front

Abruptly strange and ominous rum-
that
must have been many hundred yards blings shook the hillside and a red glow
wide, yet so densely packed that not a came into the cloud veiling about it, and

speck of rock or vegetation was visible a fine dust began to around him.
fall all

between them. Another eruption was evidently brewing.

So far up the slope his position would
Watching their rate of advance, he
be one of extreme danger. Well, better
estimated that they would reach the vol- far to die thus than to be tom to pieces
canic hill about two hours before dusk, by that stream of smothering abomina-
long before any aid could reach him,
tion.
even had it already started. He shud-
The noise continued, rising to a thun-
dered at the awful thought, yet, in a
derous roaring, interspersed now and
curiously impersonal sort of way, found
again with violent concussions that shook
himself wondering what could be the
the ground and brought heavy masses of
reason of this migration of the monstrous
rock crashing down the hillside. Even
insects. What blind instinct compelled
the tree he was bound to trembled and
them to band together and invade new lurched unsteadily. The fine dust came
territory, devouring every living thing
down so tliickly that he had to close his
that could not escape them, as they
eyes to avoid being blinded. But one
poured on their way to some unknown
thing he had to be thankful for: the dust
objective? A similar cause no doubt in-
had driven away the vicious flies, and
spires the lemmings of Norway, the
the crawling insects seemed to abate their
Orient locusts, and some species of tropi-
energy.
cal ants. Well, what did it matter? the — For a while he stood, unseeing, patient,
end was inevitable.
endeavoring to brace himself for the ter-
How time passed he could scarcely tell. rible moment, to meet his fate with forti-
Already the torment of his position, the tude. Then, hearing the dreadful dron-
humid heat, the intolerable vicious flies, ing even through tlie uproar, he knew
the insects that crawled over him, made that the black tide was fast nearing him.
every moment unutterably miserable. He opened his eyes, and through the veil-
86 WEIRD TALES
ing dust, which was now quickly abating, two terrible streams swept down the hill-
he saw the foremost ranks of the crawl- side on and
their devastating migration,
ing brutes just emerging from the long a line of smoking reek ran ever between
finger of forest. Everything around was —
them the countless thousands of loath-
lighted up by the red glow from lurid some things being scorched to cinders.
heavens. For the moment he was saved from in-
At that moment a terrific aash re- stant extinction, but not for long could
sounded, and a huge tongue of flame was he count on that succor. For the stream
spat out of the crater; then the bound of lava was increasing in volume and its
man heard the swift rush of something banks fast widening, and every minute
cascading down the hillside behind him. its edge was creeping nearer him. Short-

It was not visible, but he knew it was ly he could feel the heat from it, and
a stream of lava. Whatever was going to his eyes smarted with its pungent gases.
happen would now shortly be over! Soon the fiery breath was as a blast from
Meanwhile, apparently indifferent to a furnace, and he was choking, and
the clamor, the living tide poured on gasping for breath; drumming noises
through the forest. Now the foremost of filled his head, and whirling lights
the repulsive things, a monster nearly two flashed before him. He was just con-
feet long,was not a couple of hundred scious of falling into a black and seem-
of yards from him. It appeared to sight ingly bottomless abyss, and was dimly
the captive, for it suddenly quickened its aware of a huge round, gray object de-
pace, a horrible wriggling, squirming mo- scending from the sky, close to him and —
tion, and came straight for him. then he fell into the abyss of nothingness,
Then into his field of view, from be-
hind him, came another racing monster; 14. The Fight in the Nentralia

W
and this one was darkly glowing, and
advanced by a constant overbrimming of HILE the second eruption was in
a crimson life that flooded and overtook full progress, Kobloth reached the

it from behind; and as it ran, blue foot of the knoll the Neutralia rested
lambent spurts of flame and puffs of upon. He was creeping from tree to tree
wispy smoke told of the intense heat very cautiously, and gradually working
raging within the stream of lava. his way toward the little clearing. At the
Helpless and fascinated, Carscadden last bit of cover he halted and minutely
watclied the fiery stream, and the holo- scrutinized the vicinity of the great globe.
caust that instantly was consummated; As he hesitated, listening intently, Bur-
watched the leader vanish in a tiny squirt goyne and Flint came to the open door-
of vapor, and the oncoming thousands of way. Kobloth’s revolver, already in his
the front ranks, driven ahead by the grasp, snapped up to the level of his
horde behind them, licked up by the fiery shoulder. The two men were talking;
flood in a second; and to him was v/afted, the leveled arm dropped back again, and
on a slight breeze, the abominable stench its owner quietly listened.
of the aemated myriads. "Ihad Burgoyne was
better get off,”
Not one passed the deadly river, for saying. "It is late already, and I have
it between the black tide and
lay exactly a queer hunch that something has hap-
the tree he was boundto. At last, with pened to Carscadden. You know, in spite
a great flanking movement the horde of his changed manner, I don't trust the
swung southward, and side by side the Austrian, and I don’t like this long ab-
 THE VOYAGE OF THE NEUTRALIA 87

sence,” he declared, shaking his head shout and fire a few shots; he cannot help
gloomily. hearing them.”
"Yes, I reckon you’re right — I’ve no Flint, fearful for the unknown injury
use either for that blasted Austrian, his master had suffered, immediately
though Mr. Carscadden seems to think limped to the door, and was about to
he’s been converted, got sort of civilized. shout at the top of his lung power, when
But take care of yourself and I’m not — the Austrian gave him a violent shove
stuck on being left alone at nightfall in forward. Taken unawares, the old man
this dark forest,” said Flint emphatically. tottered on his lame foot, clutched wildly
"You will be all right in the Neu- around for support, and crashed earth-
tralia. Don’t worry; you can shut the ward with a loud cry for help. Luckily,
door and nothing can get at you. As for however, he snatched at the ladder as he
myself. I’ll keep my eyes skinned; and fell, and though it was torn from his
save for those centipedes we haven’t grasp, yet it greatly broke his fall. As it

seen a thing to be afraid of,” Burgoyne was, he came down heavily on his injured
rejoined as he descended the ladder. foot, and collapsed on the ground in
He passed within a few feet of the agony.
crouching Kobloth, and that worthy, now "Ah, my dear Flint, how unfortunate!
calm and cool in his malevolent purpose, Another accident case to attend to,”
had sense enough to let him go unmo- sneered Kobloth with a mocking laugh,
lested. as he looked down on the writhing suf-
"A good riddance!” he muttered under ferer. "I regret, however, that I shall
his breath. '"That will save a shell, and not have time to devote to it. Good day,
possibly a little trouble with the other.” Mr. Jacob Flint,” laughed the callous
A little later he rose to his feet and maniac.
boldly walked to the Neutralia and As he spoke, Kobloth
whipped out a
ascended the rope ladder. He stepped long knife he had again got hold of
into the globe before Flint, who was secretly, and began to slash at the stout

resting, had heard him. rope that secured the globe to a great tree
trunk; for of course he could not close
"Where’s Burgoyne?” he cried in as-
the door until it was removed.
sumed concern. "I want him at once
Mr. Carscadden has had an accident. But Flint was not so helpless as the

Quick! Where is he? We must go to the Austrian had thought, and by a strong

aid of our friend at once,” he exclaimed effortof will pulled himself together and
twisting around managed to extract the
as though greatly worried.
revolver from his belt, and taking a hasty
"Why, haven’t you met him? He has
aim fired at the scoundrel. By a mere
only been gone a few minutes.”
chance the bullet smashed a finger of
"I came by a short-cut through the for-
Kobloth’s right hand, him
causing to
est,” Kobloth explained hastily. "Has he
drop the knife and give vent to a yell of
gone many minutes?” he asked anxiously. pain and rage. In a fury of mad passion
"Possibly five minutes —
he cannot be he grasped his own revolver with his left
half a mile away. But what ” com-
hand and, quite redcless of the noise he
menced Flint eagerly. would create, fired tliree shells at the
"Come to the door,” Kobloth inter- old man. However, what with rage, and
rupted impatiently. "We can talk later. the awkwardness of using this little-
I must get him back at once. Let us trained hand, the object of his aim suf-
88 WEIRD TALES
fered no damage. Flint, in spite of his and
tiger devil incarnate. Stepping back-
pain, pluckily fired off his remaining five ward he lost his balance, and Burgoyne
shells, and a bullet whistling close to thrust all his two hundred pounds of big
Kobloth’s ear caused the Austrian to re- bone and hard muscle against him. The
treat from the doorway just as Burgoyne, maniac went crashing, and his head
at top speed, dashed into the clearing. struck the steel spokes of the w'heel he
"He’s inside!” gasped Flint. "I’ve had been vainly striving to move. With
driven him in! He will be
off in a minute a clioking grunt he collapsed and his
if we can’t stop him!” he cried weakly, muscles relaxed. Tlie battle had ended.
and then collapsed. This was no time to be squeamish, and
Burgoyne did not hesitate a second. Burgoyne was certainly not the man to
"I’ll if I die for it!” he cried
stop him, indulge in such luxury. Without waiting
fiercely ashe rushed to the ladder. As to discover what damage had been in-
he swung himself through the doorway, flicted, or if he even lived, Burgoyne

he heard the clang and rattle of gearing dragged him to the trap-door, and fling-
being strained at, and likely it was this ing it open, tumbled his late opponent
clamor that accounted for the Austrian into the dark hold as though he were
not hearing his voice or the noise of his handling a sack of flour.
ascent. "Thank goodness,Flint!” he cried as
The scoundrel was madly tearing at in the doorway he saw that the man he
the wheel, but obviously something had had left unconscious now had his eyes
gone wrong with the mechanism, for be- open and was w’eakly struggling to his
yond an inch or so in either direction feet. "I was afraid he had potted you
there was no turning it. Just so much badly.”
Burgoyne saw as he leapt at the maniac "No, he didn’t get me; just an old
for that too was obvious; no man in his man’s foolishness going off like that,”
right senses, and knowing what Kobloth Flint called back apologetically. "I
knew, would dream of releasing the reckon you have settled him?” he queried
Neuiralta without first closing the door; angrily.
for in a single second the globe would "Thanks to good luck he’s quiet
be bej’ond tlic atmosphere, and the in- enough now. He may be dead, but I
tense cold of outer space would freeze fancy he’s too tough to exterminate so
the occupant to a block of solid ice in a easily. But what are we to do about
twinkling. Aylmer?” he asked anxiously as he slid to
the ground. "I am afraid the brute has
15. W^e Must Chance It! killed him, or done some terrible injury
to him.”
urgoyne might we
B cular, and in
be young, very mus-
good training, but Ko- he
'"There’s only
declaredafter
one thing
Flint had briefly
can do,”

bloth w'as tough, and for the moment en- sketclied what had occurred previous to
dowed with the prodigious strength of Burgoyne’s appearance. "We must en-
a maniac. Twice the Austrian went deavor to rouse up the scoundrel and ex-
down, but all hands,feet,. and teeth, and tract the truth from him. Can you man-
snarling like some wild animal, he re- age the ladder, Flint?”
covered himself and renewed the battle With a little assistance Flint ascended
with unabated vigor. But the end came the ladder, and the two men went into
suddenly’, and chance vanquished the the hold. Switching on the light, they
 THE VOYAGE OF THE NEUTRALIA 89

saw the Austrian lay huddled limply "See here, he aied loudly.
Flint,”
against one of the tanks. "This man is shamming. Well, he’ll
"He’s had a nasty smash,” said Bur- either quit it, or we’ll be well rid of a
goyne after a hasty examination. "But scoundrel. We’ll give him one last
I don’t think any bones are broken. —
chance put your pistol to his ear, and
Looks like a case of concussion. How- if he refuses to answer, blow his brains
ever, we must do our best to pull him out. No one will ever be the wiser, and
round, for the sake of Carscadden.” I’m sick of this villain and his evil do-
They applied restoratives, and in a few' ings,” he commanded in a tone of such
moments the Austrian’s eyes opened. pitiless ferocity that for a second Flint
"Kobloth, where is Mr. Carscadden?” was deceived by it, and stared aghast at
said Burgoyne quietly, but very sternly. him. But noting that the eyelid hidden
"Listen! We are going to have tlie truth from Kobloth unaccountably closed and
from you, if we have to torture orhang snapped open again, he readily obeyed
you to get it!” he added and
fiercely; its owner, and in a prompt and business-

though the latter infliction would have like manner cocked his revolver and
defeated its purpose, yet no man noticed placed the muzzle again.st the Austrian’s
it, so grim was the tone of the speaker. ear.
But not a word of response broke from "Now, Kobloth, what is it to be? An
the Austrian’s lips, neither excuse, nor —
answer, or your grave on Venus!” But
denial, nor defiance. did his eyes Nor Kobloth still stared vacantly at them, and
betray the slightest fear, or interest, or seemed not a bit distressed by the pres-
even consciousness of anyone speaking. sure of the menacing barrel. "Right, I
Instead, the narrow eyes stared vacantly give you exactly sixty seconds to decide,”
at them, and he commenced to mutter in- said Burgoyne, taking out his watch.
coherently. —
"Thirty past Flint, get ready!” he
Burgoyne and Flint stared at each snapped, and Flint responded by thrust-
other in consternation. Was it delirium, ing the hard barrel more firmly against
or madness, or w'as the cunning scoundrel its resting-place.
merely shamming? They bent down to And it was then the Austrian again
catch what they might of the broken commenced to babble, and Burgoyne bent
babbling. But all they could distinguish down and gazed most intently into the
was a word or two now and again that vacant eyes, and distinctly heard the
conveyed no information, or even the word "volcano” repeated several times,
least promise of intelligence. "Look then three words strung together: "Run,
out!” he repeated several times, and the lava!” and then a jumble of mere
"Damned centipedes!” he muttered amid soiuids.
a stream of incoherent babblings. Then "Yes, whether you are mad or sham-
once he called out excitedly, '"They’ve got ming, I think that is a hint good enough
him!” after which he relapsed into si- to act on,” said Burgoyne tlioughtfully.
lence, though his lips moved with unut- "But see her, my friend, don’t make any
tered ramblings. mistake — this is only a postponement, not
Was this shamming, or had his brain a reprieve. If we don’t find Aylmer, or
really gone astray? The minutes were fly- if he is killed, as sure as you now live
ing, and Carscadden might be still alive, a bullet will end you,” And such was
but in fearful danger. Abruptly Bur- the cold sincerity of his tone that even
goyne came to a decision. Flint knew he was no longer bluffing.
90 WEIRD TALES
"Come along, Flint!" he cried. get a single kick out of that wheel,” Flint
Though we’ll first rope this brute in case explained with a little simple pride.
he feels like playing some more of his "My hat’s off to you, Flint! The Neu-
devil’sgames.” tralia would be thousands of miles away
In a minute they had Kobloth securely by this time but for that spike. Put it
bound with his hands behind him. aside — it’s going to have a gold setting
"Now to make for the volcano! I when we get back to the good old earth.
must carry flashlights and lantern, as Now what about this jump to the vol-
it be dark very soon now,” ex-
will cano. You are quite a scientist too —can
claimed Burgoyne, turning to seek these we do it?” queried Burgoyne, knitting his
things in the case they were stored in. brows doubtfully.
"I reckon we can chance it anyway.
“T t's fully twelve miles to that vol- This Venus planet revolves west to east.
A cano,” Flint said slowly, "It’s impos- The volcano is due west exactly on our

sible for you to make the trip through parallel; Mr. Carscadden took the obser-
the forest in the dark; besides, it would vation justyesterday, Venus revolves
take you all of four hours, and by that about fourteen miles a minute; all we
time ” He left the sentence unfin- have to do is to shut out just enough of
ished, though his companion knew what her pull to rise above the atmosphere and
he hinted at. wait there while she does her stuff, rolls
"But we must do something! And not round and in less than a minute we shall
having wings I must walk,” declared the be above the volcanic hill. It will be
big man impatiently. snappy work, but I reckon we can do it,”
explained Flint, who had taken a great
"Wings? No, but we can fly there, or
interest in his master’s experiments.
try to,” replied Flint.
"A great notion! We’ll chance it. I’ll
"How? You mean the Neutralia? It’s
work the wheel, and you do the navigat-
a good idea, just a chance. But hold!
ing. Come on, let’s get busy,” replied
something has gone wrong with the turn-
ing-gear —
I saw Kobloth straining at it
Burgoyne, in high
of such a rapid transition.
spirits at the prospect

as I rushed in.”
was severed and the
Instantly the rope
"Yes, very likely,” agreed Flint coolly.
steel door shut; everything was ready for
"See here!” He limped to the wheel, the twelve-mile jump.
and sliding back the cover of the gearing- "It will take us about fifty-three
box, thrust in his hand and withdrew it
seconds to do the jump, likely a second
grasping a deeply scratched and indented
more to rise above the atmosphere, but
specimen of a four-inch nail. as our course in rising and descent will
"Phew! what the deuce?” was all Bur- form segments of converging arcs, we
goyne could say. need not worry about the rise or fall. At
"Took a liberty. I got to thinking after least that’s how I figure it out. Now
you went off; kind of mistrusted that keep your eyes glued on me if you please,
guy; reckoned he would think it was pie Mr. Burgoyne. Are you ready? Right
with me alone to worry about. So I off!” snapped Flint as sharply as a vet-
guessed I’d get things fixed so he couldn’t eran sergeant on a parade ground.
monkey with the Neutralia; I’m a me- In a twinkling Burgoyne had twirled
chanic, and I know just where to drop a the wheel and moved the cover so that it
spike so that a team of elephants couldn’t shut off most of the planet’s pull, but not
 THE VOYAGE OF THE NEUTRALIA 91

entirely, as Flinthad previously advised a twinkling had shut it, and was beside
him. Instantly the Neutralia was roaring tlie wheel.
through the Venezian atmosphere; an "Right! We must chance where we
uplifted hand from Flint, and the cover land, and make a longer hop this time.
was moved a trifle backward, and, pull Stand by! Go ahead!”
and repulsion being now almost equal, Again came the sudden shrieking
the globe hung motionless while the clamor of their passage through the Ven-
planet sped round below them. ezian atmosphere, then silence, as the

One quick glance Burgoyne had of a previous maneuvers were repeated,

steam-cloud that seemed to

vast, fire-shot
though Ae inter\’’als
between were a little
longer.
be racing toward them at an appalling
speed; then the hand again went up. A
This time more gently, Ae Neutralia

spoke or two of the wheel was reversed,

alighted in the forest, where no gleam
and the Neutralia fell Venusward, a from Ae now distant volcano penetrated

lightning-like return of a spoke, that just

the dense lofty growAs Aat surrounded
softened the shock of grounding; and
Aem; but of course Aeir electric equip-

then, as the wheelsman swung the cover ment rendered Aem indifferent to the
inky darkness.
clear above them, they struck the ground
with a great crash that sent both men "Good boy, Flint! You’ve done splen-
didly. Now we can attend to poor Ayl-
sprawling.
mer,” cried Burgoyne as he stepped to

16 , A Matter of Minutes Only

Ae side of Ae unconscious man.
It was some while before Ae scientist
regained consciousness; Ae strain of his
B y the

expected
things,
chance that
and the aid of
skill
governs

in navigation,
Flint’s
the
such

Neu-
un- cramped position, and Ae heat from Ae
approaching lava, had greatly weakened
the heart action, and left Aeir mark on
tralia alighted in a shallow depression not
him. However, eventually he came
a hundred yards from the tree to which
round, and again Ae light of intelligence
the now unconscious captive was bound.
suffused his serious dark eyes. But he
In the murky crimson glow that bathed
was excessively weak and weary, and
the scene, they at once perceived that
after listening to a few hurried words of
they had arrived just in the nick of time,
explanation from his friend, whiA he
and was a matter of minutes only be-
it
seemed but partly to comprehend, he
fore the fiery lava would brim over the
crest of the hollow it ran in, and in-
again sank into unconsciousness; Aough
now it was Ae blessed balm of a pro-
evitably overwhelm their captain.
found slumber, the slumber of utter
In a rush they severed his bonds, and exhaustion. As Aere was noAing further
carried him, senseless but still breathing,
Aey could do, Burgoyne and Flint di-
to the shell. Here with a rope beneath vided Ae night into watches, and slept
his arms they hauled him inside the alternately, as soimdly as Aough they
globe. were Aeir beds in Aeir home
safe in
"We must get away at once! That planet, twenty-five million miles distant!
lava stream will be round us in a minute, 'The full fresh light of new day was
and hopelessly jam the cover. Say the saturating the deep shaft Aat Ae descent
word, Flint!” cried Burgoyne as he leapt of Ae Neutralia had tom Arough Ae
to the levers and closed the door, and in forest when Gurscadden awoke. But little
92 WEIRD TALES
of it penetrated into the globe through for the centipedes to deal with,” cried
the windows. He was greatly refreshed Burgoyne savagely. And he related what
and had regained full possession of his had occurred during their captain’s
mental equipment, and remembered absence.
every incident of the previous day’s hap- "It would be simple justice to leave
penings. 'Though a little wondering who him,” agreed Carscadden as he realized
had been responsible for the skilful navi- the villainy of the Austrian and the nar-
gation of the globe, yet he had no trouble row escape all three had from a horrible
in piecing together the line of events that and hopeless ending. "But we can’t do
had ended in his rescue; the brief explan- it; we are civilized citizens of a great
ation of Burgoyne affording a basis for nation,and we cannot lower ourselves to
some rapid and accurate guesswork. But You say he is quite insane? We
his level.
he was puzzled why the light filtering must have a look at him, and consider
through the windows should be so faint, what we shall do with the scoundrel. But
and he could distinguish a muffled queer just IcKik at those brutes attacking the
humming sound. And gazing attentively glass, and you will realize what I went
at the windows he perceived that the through before the lava came between
light varied a little from time to time, us.”
sometimes darker, then again strangely It was, indeed, a strange and horrible
lighter. It seemed as though the light thing they stared at. 'The great horde,
itself was in motion! Then he knew diverted from their original course by the
what had happened, and, a little weakly, eruption, had surged through the forest
rose to his feet and went to the switch- all night, and reaching the Neutralia
board. soon after dawn, besieged it. To the
"Hugh! Flint! Rouse up!” he called as brutes, every living thing was something
the globe was flooded with brilliance. to destroy and devour, and sighting the
"The enemy are upon us!” sleeping men within they savagely sought
"What! Kobloth again?” cried Bur- to get at tliem. The humming noise was
goyne, leaping to his feet. made by their ceaseless movements, and
"No, I don’t even know if he’s alive. the rustling together of their stupendous
It’s the centipedes; they’re all over the myriads. Every minute or two, there
Neutralia, trying to force a way in! I would also resound a loud clicking,
need not say that nothing less than a caused by an unusually violent rush of
high-powered rifle bullet would splinter a score or so at the glass. Probably many
those windows.” thousands were killed thus, by their own
"A swarm of them!” exclaimed the savagery.
two men, who as yet had no knowledge "How would be to take another hop
it

of what their captain had suffered. "And to the westward?” asked Flint, who had
I had dozed at my post!” owned up Bur- an innate loathing of all crawling things.
goyne contritely. "Though we did both "Better not,” said the scientist. "It is
finally agree that there was no need for dangerous work. Of course it is very for-
sentinel duty,” he added in justification. tunate that TOu chanced it; but the Neu-
"A swarm? Yes, there must be mil- traliamight easily have struck a higher
lions of the brutes out there. Listen to mountain, or alighted with such force
this,” said the scientist. And briefly he that it would have been damaged beyond

outlined his terrible experiences. our present ability to repair it. It is irritat-
"The scoundrel! We should leave him ing not to be able to make use of our
 THE VOYAGE OF THE NEUTRALIA 93

last day on Venus, but we are quite safe,
and at nightfall will leave this horror
behind us.” He paused and then re-
sumed in a puzzled tone. "But how did
you managed to navigate so well, Flint?
I did not imagine you understood the
working of the Neutralia so nicety.”
"But I’m no navigator,” Flint objected
hastily, "Don’t run away with that
notion. But after our first experience with
this guy Kobloth, it struck me that it
wouldn’t be a bad idea if I knew enough
to take a little spin, just in case of acci-
dents. So I’ve paid particular attention to
the way you fixed things, and taken note
in writing of the course and speed of the
planets, and such-like things I’ve heard
you talk about. But I’m no navigator
no more than a harbor tugboat skipper
could take a liner across the Pacific.
Reckon it was chance did the most of it,
ment were out of the question, for one
cannot dispense justice on a madman.
Toward dusk, the scientist looked up
from some calculations he had been
going over. "At nine o’clock we will
start,” he said. "We shall be exactly in
a line with the earth, and need anticipate
no difficulty in making the twenty-five
million mile jump of our last journey.”
"Old Broadway will look good to me!”
was Burgoyne’s brief observation.
—
"I’m not crying Venus has got my
goat!” muttered Flint, staring in disgust
at the darkened windows.
17. For Ever Through Trackless Space
HARPat nine o’clock Carscadden gave
S the signal, and the great cover slid-
ing over the globe crushed hundreds of
the horrible giant insects in its resistless

anyway.” sweep. Instantly they rushed upward

"Well, we won’t quarrel about it,”
laughed Carscadden. "But I don’t think
it would take you long to get your cap-
tain’s ticket for space-navigating, Flint.”
The day dragged by wearily enough.
The voracious centipedes ceaselessly
swarmed over the globe, darkening the
through a shrill roaring, and a thrill of
damp choking heat. In another minute
or two they had passed beyond the dense
Venezian atmosphere and out into the
silence and cold of interplanetary space.
The hours passed quickly, but not too
quickly for their impatience; for now all

windows, and keeping up their monoton- were filled with a very human longing
ous droning. 'The three men descended for home and security. It had been a
to the hold and inspected their captive. great and wonderful adventure, but they
He seemed to sleep most of the time, and were glad it was nearly over. Humanity
when wakened he stared vacantly at them is not built for a too prolonged absence
and broke out into incoherent ram- from its own species.
blings, in which now and then they could Twice a sudden fierce uproar gave evi-
catch words and sentences indicating that dence that the Neutralia had met one of
the wrecked brain was busy with past the dense swarms of meteors that cease-
and recent experiences. Carscadden, after lessly swing round our sun. Luckily they
a careful inspection, came to the conclu- encountered no large fragments, and
sion that the man was really insane; and were soon through the scurrying vag-
seeing that he seemed quite harmless, rants.
and at any rate was securely imprisoned Half-way across to the eartli, Carscad-
removed the lashings
in the hold, they den announced that their speed must be
from him. Food and water he accepted arrested.
as a child might, unquestioning, but with "We have still twelve million miles
a healthy appetite. Reprisal and punish- to traverse, but our speed is so enormous
94 WEIRD TALES
thatwe must from now begin to check it. There was nothing more to do, simply
Moreover I am not at all certain that wait and wonder at the cruel fate that
the neutralium metal has not been af- after so many perils had overtaken them.
fected by the intense cold of space; on "We are about to enter the earth’s at-
our last landing in Venus I fancied that mosphere,” said Carscadden quietly, as
the Neutralia was a trifle slow in re- he replaced his watch in his pocket, and
sponding to the repulsive effect. Of a sigh of relief escaped his thin, firm
course I may be mistaken, but there nois lips — relief that the suspense was now
harm in being prepared,” announced over, and in a minute they would know
Qirscadden gravely. the worst, or know —nothing!
"And if you are not mistaken, I sup- "Well, we have had a run ” began
pose we stand a chance of being fused to Burgoyne, but the sentence was left un-
vapor the moment we enter the earth's finished; for at that moment a terrific
atmosphere. A pleasing prospect!” said rushing clamor filled the globe, and in-
Burgoyne with a wry grimace. stantly the skyabove turned from an inky
"Probably, but it’s no use crossing black to a glowing ultramarine blue. The
bridges before we come to them. Are stars vanished, and only the old familiar
you ready, Hugh? Turn a couple of sun shone through cerulean heavens.
spokes and slide the cover down a bit,” Then steam clouded every window, rose
the scientist ordered. from them in little cloudlets, and the
In a little the registers announced that interior was plunged in the fog and sti-
the slowing effect was in progression, fling heat of a Turkish bath. The Neu-
but not so diminished as their captain tralia was falling through the earth’s air
had expected. envelope at a pace no human being could
"Not enough. Give her another spoke, hope to survive at its finish. But for the
Hugh,” said the grave-eyed man at the immensely thick asbestos lining of the
registers. globe, already the three men above, and
"I fear my suspicion was only too well the maniac below, would have had the
founded —the metal has certainly been life scorched out of them by the heat en-
affected; it acts, but not so absolutely as gendered by the globe’s swift passage.
when we started. We must slide the Likely it was only a matter of seconds
cover right over.” And now a startled when the roaring came to a finish in a
query had come into the eyes of the men great concussion, which was immediately
he addressed. followed by a loud hissing. And the men
Half an hour later it was fairly certain who were thrown off their feet, found
that they would enter the earth’s atmos- themselves plunged in darkness, and felt
phere at a pace which, though not rapid a sudden abatement of temperature.
enough to fuse the Neutralia, yet must "What’s happened?” shouted Bur-
inevitably entail a catastrophe at landing, goyne, and his voice was only just aud-
if the excessive heat had not already ibleabove the insistent hissing.
destroyed them by that time. Carscadden switched on the lights.
Chronometer in hand, watching the The windows looked as though they had
speed dials, Carscadden relapsed into been daubed outside with a dull green
silence. His tv'O companions also had paint.
nothing to say, but just stood watching "That is what I hardly dared hope
him and waiting for the world that was for,” said the sdentist, pointing to the
rushing along its orbit to annihilate them. green squares. The hissing was abating
 THE VOYAGE OF THE NEUTRALIA 95

greatly and his voice was quite audible. in Ceylon, soon identified the hill upon
"We have fallen into the sea!” which they had alighted as the famous
"The sea!” cried his companions to- Adam’s Peak, not far from the port of
gether. Columbo.
"Yes. Likely we are a thousand feet "We must seek help to convey our col-
deep under it by now. Had it not been lections and specimens to safety. But I
for that bit of good luck we should have think it would be wise to first remove all
been smashed to splinters. As it is, we the stuff from the Neutralia; then we can
are already rising and will reach the close the door and keep out prying na-
surface very quickly. Then we must take tives, who likely would destroy and steal

one of those flying hops you originated, a good deal of the movable gearings.
Flint, and land somewhere on something For the time I have had enough of
more solid,” said Carscadden jocularly. space-traveling —
what do you say, Hugh?
Now, that the suspense was over, each Shall we leave tlie Neutralia to her own
man felt inclined to laugh hilariously, devices for a little?” asked Carscadden.
slap backs, play leap-frog, or any other "Same here! I’ve had more than
boy’s trick, just from the pure exuber- enough of space-traveling. But what
ance they experienced in the joy of being about Kobloth?” Burgoyne asked.
still alive, and back on the honest old "Bring him out, he must go with us.
earth again. We can decide later what to do with him.
Perhaps better let him go; when our story

T he shell, having the cover

neath it, shot buoyantly out of the
water and soared high in the air, as
still be- is

him
knovra, the authorities can deal with
if they wish.
actually killed anyone,
You see he has not
nor has he stolen
tliough minded to be off on another anything; besides, the man is insane,”
journey; for though affected by the in- said his friend, indifferently. What mat-
tense cold of its stupendous voyage, yet tered now? ’They were safe and sound
the metal, save at the most excessive and the voyage had been successful be-
speeds, was still practically non-gravita- yond his wildest dreams.
tional. So Kobloth was landed; looking rather
By maneuvering it was brought
skilful shaken and amazed, but still preserving
to a halt for a few minutes, and hung silence, the silence that later had suc-
motionless in space while the earth re- ceeded his ramblings. But for this he ap-
volved and slid away beneath them. In peared almost normal, rather haggard
less than five minutes land appeared be- and morose-looking, yet calm and harm-
low, and in another minute the Neutralia less enough.
was resting safely on the topmost slope He expressed no astonishment at their
of a well-wooded hill. /apid passage, made no comment on its
The was over, and the
great adventure violent ending, and appeared indifferent
voyagers, sound in wind and limb, and to where they had alighted. He simply
rich in experiences such as no other hu- stood silently and moodily watching the
man beings had ever experienced, had process of unloading. Obviously the
descended from the great globe and were man’s mind was entirely vacant.
rapturously gazing at a scene of tropic The work was finished and the toilers
vegetation that yet seemed very dear and sat down to a well-earned meal, but he
home-like to tliem. refused all offers of food and stalked
Burgoyne, who had lived for a little gloomily away in the shade cast bv a
96 WEIRD TALES
large tree. The three friends were seated opening. At that second the Neutralia
in the shadow at the rear of the globe. suddenly leapt upward and, as it went,
They were all laughing and conversing they could see he was speaking, shouting
happily, when Burgoyne, whose ears to them, but his words came in a torrent
were the quickest, leapt to his feet. of meaningless sounds, the unintelligble

"Did you hear that! He’s back in the ravings of a madman, muffled by the dis-
Neutralia!” and he rushed round the
tance. The globe gathered way; evidently
the turning-gear left unlocked was per-
globe to the doorway.
mitting the cover to slide gradually over,
True enough he was in the Neutralia,
and his voice rose to a scream of insane
had climbed noiselessly up the rope lad-
passion. Then there came a shrill hissing
der, pullled it inside, and shut the door.
that rapidly subsided, and the Neutralia
This last action was the cause of the
had vanished.
sound that had caught Burgoyne’s hear-
"The door was open!” exclaimed Bur-
ing.
goyne.
As they stood under the shut
helplessly
"Yes. By now he will be a block of
door, the great cover began to turn, com- ice out in the silence and blackness of
ing over noiselessly and resistlessly. space!” Carscadden gravely. "The
said
As huge globe rose from the
the Neutralia has commenced her last awful
ground, which it did before the cover had journey; and it is quite possible that ten
entirelygone round the lower half, and thousand years from this hour, Armand
the ea^’s pull was not quite cut off, the Kobloth will still be standing in that
door, some tv'elve feet above them, was doorway on his eternal voyage through
opened, and Kobloth appeared in the space.”
[THE END]

Dream
By EMIL PETAJA
Exalted, they whose far-off visions see
In memory’s mist a land of whispered dreams
Where beings god-like move in shadowed schemes,
A silver city by a sapphire sea.

They work their spells, and plan when they will be

Among the mystic dancers, under beams
Of ciy’stal crescent moons w’hose radiance seems
A light of necromantic sorcery.

Igaze enchanted w'hile they pass me by;

Ascend the hill w'here crumbling ruins lie
An eery sea-deep sound rings out the moor;
'They pause before a rock w'hich hides a door:
One fumbles in his scarlet cloak. I see
His slender fingers move —he turns a key. . . .

W. T.-6
 Was Green
By JOHN RAWSON SPEER
A brief weird story by the author of '^Symphony of the Damned"
and "The Carnal God"

UDDEN madness at seventy miles I must have been unconscious for fully

S an hour! Alone in the cab of a lo-

comotive with a madman. Will
Bryant, the engineer of the Fire Flyer,
fifteen minutes. During that time the
Fire Flyer had thundered on her way
with no one at the throttle unless it —
was insane. But why? was, as Will Biy'ant swears, the spirit of
What had suddenly turned this man I Nat Carson. Nat Carson had been dead
had worked with for over six years, for ten years!

and had known as a quiet, steady-going There was nothing to do but turn Will
person, into the raving madman I now over to the authorities, who committed
saw before me? him to an asylum.

His eyes violent, his face contorted Although I had been his closest friend,
with fear, he was cowering there in the there were things in his life which he
cab, pleading with some invisible pres- had never mentioned, even to me. The
ence. For a paralyzing instant I felt that doctors, after much deliberation, decided
presence. But tliere was no time to lose. remorse, coupled with a deep sense of
As the fireman of tlie Fire Flyer, I would guilt, had caused Will to have this in-
have to assume Will’s responsibility. tense belief in the return of the dead. I

There was no time to ask questions. 1 followed their theories with and
interest,

had to get to the throttle of that locomo- for some time believed that he would
tive. eventually realize that only his worry-
As rushed to him from my side of
I ridden mind had produced the sight he
the cab, he suddenly seized a shovel and claimed he saw in the cab that night.
struck me over the head. Blood trickled But know now that Will Bryant will
I
into my eyes, blurring my vision, and never recover. The last visit I had with
then I slipped away into unconsciousness him made me see how hopeless it was.
with only a fading but horrible picture of Some of the fear that comes to lock him
Will Bryant, insane. in delirious madness now attaches itself
What happened after that in the cab to me.
of that engine, pulling a train-load of I can still see him, the way he looked
passengers seven^ miles an hour, terri- that last day I talked to him in Terring-
fiesme constantly. ton Asylum; his q^es dull, a hopeless sor-
When I regained my senses after the row showing from within them as he
blow Will had given me, I found him said:
and gibbering
staring at the steam gage, "Steve, I am any man,
sane, as sane as
like an idiot. The air was set on the but I can never take my place in normal
brakes, and the Flyer was pulled in society again. Don’t you think I have
alongside the main track, waiting for tried to convince myself that there was
Number 93 to pass her. nothing unnatural about that night? I’ve
W. T.— 97
98 WEIRD TALES
gone over every detail of the affair, but "At the he claimed he saw the
trial

the result is always the same: Nat Gir- signal as green. He swore tlie red signal
son, dead though he may have been, sat set against uswas green, and that I was
in the cab of our engine; he pulled that a liar. 'You’re sending me to hell!’ he
train, and I know what he intended to do. cried. But I stuck to my testimony.
I know, Steve! He was there. I saw him, "You know the rest; two weeks later
I tell you. I did! I did!” Nat Carson killed himself. I tried to be-
"Will, please!” I gripped his shaking lieve like all the others that he had done it

hands and held them tightly. "Don’t because he realized the crime he had com-
talk or think about it if it disturbs you. mitted in risking the lives of all those
I only want to help you. I want to see passengers.
you well again so that you can leave this "The years went on. I was promoted
place.” to engineer, a regular 'hog head’ with my
Will shook his head sadly. own train to pull. I seldom thought of
"I don’t want to leave here now, Steve. Nat any more; only when stories of that
I feel safer here where they can watdi wreck were recalled would I think of
me at night. I have a room here, Steve, him. That was only natural.
where there are no train whistles blasting "Not until one night in the yards,
in my ears. I come face to face with
years later, did
"Steve, I’m going to tell you every- what has doomed me. I had checked my
thing, just as I see it. They call me crazy, engine over to the round-house hostler
but that is because they have no other and was walking across to the dispatch-
term for my affliction. It is not really in- er’s shack. The steam and smoke from
sanity; 'haunted' is the word. the trains was all mixed up with the fog
that was settling down over the yards.
“^7" ou remember hearing about the Brakemen’s lanterns were bobbing in and
-I wreck I was in ten years ago?
train out among the cars. You know how it

As you know, Nat Girson was the engi- is on foggy nights in the yards. I wasn’t
neer who allowed his train tp run by a paying much attention to anything when,
signal supposed to be set against him. I out of that fog, a face leered at me, then
was firing for him then. See these scars vanished. It was quick, so quick that, al-

—
on my arms all from that wreck. We though I was fri^tcned, I did not be-

crashed through the rear of a freight lieve had actually seen it. Surely I had
I

train, plowed through a chain of box-cars only imagined that I saw Nat Carson.
"
as if they had been mere cigar boxes. 'What am I thinking about?’ I asked
B/>th of us missed death for no other myself; even laughed a little. 'Must be
reason than that it wasn’t our time to go. seeing ghosts,’ I said, and went on into
"At the Board of Investigation, I told the dispatcher’s office.

them what I believed I should. I told them "I didn’t think any more about it.

that Nat had been drinking a little. He Tliat’s how much it meant to me then.
did take chances, unforgivable chances People are often imagining that they see
like that. I used to warn him that some faces of those who are dead. They’re like
day he would be caught. Nat could be flashes, quick pictures from the subcon-
drunk and still not show it. Of course scious mind.
the fact that I was in love with his girl "Two nights later, at the other end of
and had never really liked him had some- the run, I saw a figure walking toward
thing to do with my testimony. me. I noticed it particularly because it
 THE LIGHT WAS GREEN 99

seemed inteit upon walking right “Olow at first (I never jerked the
through me. It w'as under a street lamp *3 Flyer, you know that), easy, evenly
on the corner near my home. This time we started. I dreaded to see the lights
it did not disappear, and there was no from the station moving by. Gradually
doubt in my mind as to who it was. He faster, yard lights, crossings, twinkling

stood there sneering at me, Steve! I

stars
Fire Flyer
—greenwas on —way.
open
signals
its
country! 'The

couldn’tmove or talk as he eyed me with

contempt,moved around me, and finally "’The headlight’s gleaming spear of
walked on down the street. silver shot through the darkness; wheels
clicked over track joints; a crossing whis-
"All that night I tried to tell myself
tled by. She was rolling smoothly, pow-
that it was only my imagination playing
erfully on.
tricks. But why should it?
"
'Green!’ I called to you from my
"For weeks I would see Nat Carson,
side of the cab when I saw the signal.
always at night, usually in the yards or "
around my home. It was then that I be-
you answered back to me
'Green!’

gan thinking of tlie testimony I had given

when you saw it. And from somewhere
I heard that damned voice: 'It’s green,
at the Board of Investigation.
green like that night we crashed into that
"That Nat Carson was trying to com- freight!'
municate with me from beyond the bor-
"I tried to control myself, tried to
ders of this life seemed the only conclu-
throw out the tlioughts that were crowd-
sion to draw. ITiat he was accusing me
ing into my brain. But as we rolled
of his death, there was no doubt.
along, I found myself thinking; 'This
"The last night before the thing really is like the night we went tlirough those
happened, I was looking at a green box-cars!’
switch-lantern. A voice whispered in my "Again I felt that cold breath upon my
ear; 'It’s green! Green like the night neck, eyes peering into my back. I

we crashed that freight. Green, I tell turned, but no one was there only the —
you!’ swaying coaches, and you down on the
"I turned and saw Nat Carson’s face. bridge tending your fire.

I called out to him, but he turned and "Pulling myself togetlier again, I

ran. From then on I could feel his pres- peered straight ahead at the glistening

ence all around me. track.Another green signal! 'Nat! Nat!’

Each clack of steel upon steel seemed to
"You remember how you looked at me
sing out, 'Nat! Nat!’
when I climbed into the cab that last
"Again that voice, the feeling of his
night I took the run, Steve? I felt that
presence behind me. I wanted to cry out,
somewhere on that train Nat Carson was
to stop the train, and search for that
hiding, waiting to confront me. Just be-
voice. Conscience? I tried to tell myself
fore we pulled out I was on tlie verge of
that it should not bother me. Why didn’t
getting out of the cab and leaving the
he leave me alone to run my train? I
train.
wasn’t fit to highball a fast locomotive
"
'A-b-o-a-r-d!’ I heard the conductor over the road with such voices, such icy
drawl. From force of habit, I started my brcatlw upon my back.

train. "Gladly I welcomed the lights of a

100 WEIRD TALES
station, the on the run. I
first station not remember that. All I know is that
wanted to climb down out of the cab and Nat Carson, who was dead, who had
remain there. Something horrible, I been dead all those years, was now climb-
knew, lay ahead of me on that lone ing onto my seat in the cab. Nothing I
stretch of track. It was impossible to could do would make him go away.
confess to you how I felt. Words would "I saw him climb up onto the seat and
not come to me, Steve. take hold of the throttle. He said, Tm
"Miles yet ahead, miles of torture. pullin’ this train tonight. She’s my train
Would daylight never come? Perhaps again!’
that might drive away the awful fear. "I tried to push him away. 'Nat,
"Speeding again in the country, only you’re crazy!’ I cried.
"
the lights from the interlocker towers 'Crazy!’ He
laughed as his fingers
five miles apart, only an occasional farm- pulled the throttle out, and the locomo-
house with a lonely lamp lit. Shadows tive bellowed with the force of steam
on the hills, creeping shadows, and that driving its wheels on to greater speed.
chilling breath, that voice: 'Green! It "
'Yes, crazy! I’ve been crazy ever
was green
since that night when I saw the signal
"This time the voice seemed louder, green. Then those cars remember
. . .

much more real and certain. Only by how we piled into ’em? Remember how
sheer force of mind could I keep my the old 789 looked when she bit through
back turned to it.
that"crumm,” plowed off the track, and
"It came again! I had to look. A dug her pilot into the dirt? Remember!’
grim, awful-looking face was staring at "
'Nat, watch those signals!’ I begged.
me from the tender. I swear it was Nat
'Let me up there, Nat. Take your pun-
Carson, and he spoke to me. Somehow
ishment out on me, but don’t risk the
I mumbled the words: 'Nat, where in
lives of others.’
God’s name did you come from?’
" "The Flyer hit a sharp curve, bounced
'From the blinds maybe,’ he laughed.
uncertainly from side to side a moment,
'Maybe I been ridin’ ’em all night waitin’
then fled madly down the track.
for this little stretch of track. Ten years
"
since we rode side by side in the cab of 'Ten years ago,’ Nat began slowly,
an engine, ain’t it? Ten years ago to- 'ten years ago we both saw that signal
night we were ridin’ along this same old green. But you lied! You lied to make
road, you an’ me. Only difference was me lose my job, to lose Lucille because

that I was settin’ at the throttle and you you wanted her, and because you hated
was tossin’ coal into the belly of the old me. You told them about my drinking.
hog. In every way you put the blame of that
" wreck upon my soul. I thought I could
'Watchin’ your signals, pal? Crack
train you’re pullin’ now. How’s it feel to escape it when I sought death, but it was
be settin’ there watchin’ the drivers go still there. And now you’re going to pay

up and down?’ for every moment of doubt and torture.

Tonight we celebrate the tenth anniver-
"He moved toward me. I screamed
sary of that wreck!’
because I couldn’t help it. I wanted to
"
beat out the sight of that leering face. It "What are you going to do?’ I asked
must have been at that time that I struck hoarsely.
“
you with the shovel, Steve, although I do 'What am I going to do? He gave
 THE LIGHT WAS GREEN 101

the throttle another pull. 'I’m going to "All that time, Steve, our train had
pull the Flyer tonight. Somewhere along been out of our hands. You were uncon-
this road there’s a red signal set against scious; I was helpless. Someone pulled
us, and we’re going by it, seventy miles that train onto the siding! Who, Steve,
an hour we’re going by it!’ who?”
"
"
'No, Nat! No! You
'Seventy, eighty miles an hour we’re
going by it,’ he chanted. 'And then, if
you live, try to tell the Board of Investi-
can’t do this!’

W ILL was shaking now.

lived,
sobbing wreck.
Terror, re-
had made him a trembling,

gation why you went by that danger sig- "But, Will, if the spirit of Nat Carson
nal. Try to tell them that a man who has intended to destroy that train, why did
been dead for ten years forced you to we find it safely side-tracked to permit
run by that signal. Listen to them laugh another train to pass us as per changed-
as you tell your crazy story. See the doubt schedule?” I tried ta reason with him,
on their faces as I saw it when I tried to for my sake as well as his own, for now
tell them the signal was green.’ even I felt that perhaps it was true.

"Giving the throttle one final jerk, he '"rhere is only one answer,” Will re-

sent the locomotive roaring like some plied brokenly. "Nat Carson stopped at
wounded animal charging blindly to its the last station before Elva and received
own destruction. orders side-tracking us.No matter what
revenge he had planned for me, some-
"He sang out: 'The Flyer to Hell! No
signals — clear track! Red means green,
thing would not let him kill the others.
He took that train onto the siding, left
and green means nothing. A dead man
it standing there, and went away; his
at the throttle, pulling the fastest train
that ever polished steel. We’re on our revenge was realized. Just as I had sent
way. We’re highballing it to hell!’
him for ever from the cab of an engine,
so he has sent me.
"On we roared, with all those passen-
gers slumbering in the Pullmans or chat- "Nat Carson pulled that train. Nat
ting and talking. All of them innocently Carson’s dead but he pulled tliat train.

riding behind an engine headed for death He still comes back to remind me that

—pulled by death itself!

I sent him to hell! He’ll come tonight,
and tomorrow night, and every night of
"I closed my eyes and tried to pray. I
my life. Oh, God, help me!”
don’t know how long I stood there or
what went on after that. The next tiling Will broke into uncontrollable sob-
I remember was hearing the scream of
bing. The attendants were rushing to
the whistle, the sound of the air being him. Nothing I could say would calm
set on the brakes, the flanges biting into him.
the wheels, and the train groaning to a "Nat Carson’s dead! I sent him to
stop. hell. He pulled that train. He came badk
"When I looked we were pulled onto to pull that train. Nat Carson returned
a siding at Elva. Far ahead on the track from the dead!”
beside us I could hear a train coming at As I started to go, a thought came to
full speed. was Number 93. Before
It me; a brilliant thought it seemed at the
we left the last station there had been no time. Those orders, received at the last
orders to pull onto the siding to let 93 station before the side-track at Elva, had
go by. to be signed! Will must have signed
102 WEIRD TALES
them. Surely he had only gone Into a I hurried to the station dispatcher, and,
trance of terrorand imagined all he told running through his orders, I found the
me. were signed with
If those orders date of Will’s last run.
Will’s name they would prove every- My heart stopped, then began beating
thing to him. I would be able to recog- wildly.
nize his signature no matter how shaken The signature on those orders was Nat
he might have been when he signed it. Carson’s!

of Bones
By DAVID H. KELLER
What weird tragedy took place in that African spot where the
bones of a murdered people were scattered?

OU were kind to me in Eng- a brother; because, after all, there was

land,” said the Zulu. something of kin between us. Strange
I looked at him, and tried to thatwe meet after all those silent years;
remember, but I could not drag the past meet in Africa!”
out of the subconscious. Not wishing to "Hunting?”
offend him, I simply said,
"I suppose you might call it that.”
"It is nice to know that you have some
"But you have not killed anything. I
reason to remember me.”
have been watching you for five days.
He smiled. Game all around you, and you do not
"After all, you do not remember. We kill.”
were in the same classes at Oxford. All "No. There has been enough killing.
the men there were courteous to me, but
I carrya gim for protection in emer-
they never accepted me as their social
gencies, but I do not kill, except when I
equal. You had me in to tea several
have to.”
afternoons. We talked about psychology.
"I remember. You used to think that
You were majoring in it, and I told you
animals had rights and souls. You even
some things about my people.”
thought that they might live on after the
"I remember now!” I replied, rather first death.”
sharply. "In fact, I wonder why I did not
"Yes,” I said, laughing, "but I never
recognize you in the first place. But it
have proved it, and I have not talked
was a long time ago, over thirty years.
We were young then, and now? You — about that idea for a great
My
many
close friends started to worry about
years.

look young, but know that am nearly

sixty. Yet we were
I

same
interested in the
I
me —thought I was insane. Are you
hunting?”
thing at that time, saw no real
and I

reason for not accepting you as, well, as "Yes; but I also hunt without a gun.”
 VALLEY OF BONES 103

"You don’t mean you use a spear?” I time. You were kind to me. I said to
asked, curiously. myself tliat some day I would repay you.
"At times; when
need food, but on
I Will you leave your camp and porters
this trip I am going to use something here and come with me?”
older than a spear. In fact, I am going "Yes.”
to be, like you, simply an observer, of "We will start at once.”
life, and death.”
"Tonight?”

W E CAMPED
was alone, and
porters. Before supper
we dress for the occasion.
together that night.
I

I
had only two
suggested that
He
"Yes. It is necessary.

For supper
off these clothes.
ing to wear them. Now, I
back.”
First, I will take

I was
am
will-
going

Half an hour later we left the camp,

"Two Oxford men,” I remarked. "We
and started over the veldt. Fortunately,
should not omit the conventions of polite
itwas moonlight, almost as light as day.
society. I came from Idaho, you from
Africa. For the evening let us forget For three days and nights we walked,
our origins and remember our cultural with little talking. Every hour seemed
education.” to increase the moodiness of my com-
panion.
Rather to my surprize he agreed. So,
we dined according to the best traditions On the evening of the third day we
of Oxford. It was moonlight when we came to a hill. Below us was a little

him cup-shaped valley.

finished, and I asked to share the
camp with me that night. We even sat "This is the end,” the Zulu said, and
on camp chairs near the fire. He was sat down on a stone.
silent. I tried to make conversation. At I was glad to follow him. Tough as I
last he seemed to wake from his dreams. was, the trip had taxed my endurance.
"You thought animals lived after For two hours we rested. Then the
death?” moon started to shine.
"Yes.” "Now, I will talk,” said the dark man.
"Do men?” "I am listening,” I replied, and took a
"Perhaps.” deep sigh.

"Should you like to be sure?” "The story starts when I was a boy of
"Delighted! I should be the first man twelve,” he said. "I was tlie son of the

to know it.”
cliief of a Zulu was just a little
tribe. It

tribe, not more than a hundred warriors,

"Not the first. My ancestors have al-
but we were rather rich. We kept our
ways known it. Often they sleep for
isolation, refused to become involved in
years, perhaps for centuries. But, when
the Zulu wars with the white people. Be-
they wish to, they awake and live again
cause of this reservation, we lived on.
till their work is done. Then they sleep
The world did not know there was such
again.”
a tribe.
"Tradition? Folk-lore?” I asked.
"One day a hunter came and found us.
"Fact.”
He said that we were friends. To show
"Can you show me?” that he meant that, he said he would give
"Yes. Years ago you gave me cups of us a feast. My father believed his words.
tea, little cakes and some hours of your All of our warriors believed him, but
104 WEffiD TALES

therewas one old man who doubted. He back, and perhaps my people knew it. I
told me to go hunting and not to come knew that he intended to.”
back for three days. I did as he told me, "It is a small fire.”
and, when I returned, I found all of my "That is because he is alone. He could
people dead. Down in that valley that not hire any native to come with him, but
lies before us they were on the rocks, he wanted to come; so, he came alone;
dead. All of them: the warriors, the with a wagon and foiur oxen. He was
women and the little ones. But the hunt- after something.”
er was gone, and he had taken with him "But you said that he took all the
all of our wealth: the gold bracelets, the gold!”
ornaments of the women, the things of "Yes, but that is spent. He sold
gold that we had for many generations.” many of the ornaments to museums. 1
"Poison?” I asked. have seen them. I even bought some of
the duplicates. Now, he has learned that
"Yes. He fed them and killed them.”
he left part of the riches behind him.
"But the old man who warned you?
The war-axes, and spears. He can sell
He must have known something.”
them to the museums. Some are very old.
but we are fatalists. No
"Perhaps,
So, he decided to come back and take the
doubt he thought that it had to happen, last of our treasures.”
because it had to happen. I do not know.
"In a way, he must be a brave man.”
He was a very old and very wise man. I
sat here on this very rock for two days,
"Yes, but only through ignorance. He
and then I left. After that I met another thinks that my people are dead, just so
hunter. He liked me. We lived together. many bones. So, he camps among them,
He took me to England. He educated me. and tomorrow he will search among those
When he died, he made me his heir. But tones for things that he can sell. At
I came back to Africa.” least, he thinks he can. Perhaps my peo-
ple have other thoughts. That is why I
"And you made no effort to find the
brought you with me. Tonight I want to
man who had killed your people?”
show you something. I want to pay you
"Yes. I hunted him, but not with a for being kind to me.”
gun. I simply kept him under observa- "Are you going to kill him?”
tion.”
"No. I am going to sit here in the
"I guess it must have been the Oxford
moonlight witli you, and help you watch.”
influence!”
"It is full moon.”
"No. Not that. But I had an idea "Yes. We can see. It is not far to his
that when the time came my people
camp; so, we can hear.”
would act.”

"But you said tliat they were all dead?” LOOKED at my watch. It was only a
"Yes. They were dead. I have walked 1 little after nine. Tired as I was, I
among them, year after year, and I could knew that I could not sleep. The Zulu
take you down there now and show you sat motionless, his eyes shut. At ten I
the tones. Some of the bones are still touched him.
together; others have been torn apart by "Do you know what is going to hap-
animals. But the tones are there. See pen?” I asked.
that little fire over there? That is the "Iknow what should happen, but I am
campfire of the hunter. He has come uncertain. You see, there are two sets of
 VALLEY OF BONES 105

emotions tearing at each other inside me. Morning came at last. I turned to the
My Oxford education tells me that the Zulu. He sat there, eyes open, but, seem-
tiling is impossible and my inherited ingly, in a dream, I shook him by the
memories tell me that it has to happen. shoulder.
So, I am going to sit here. The old man "The day has cornel” I said.
who saved my life was a very wise man. "I know it,” he replied. "Shall we go
He is down there, and, perhaps, he knows down into the valley.^”
better than you or I.”
We walked down to the bottom of the
Eleven o’clock came and then, finally,
cup, toward the camp of the hunter.
a quarter of twelve. While still a hundred yards away I saw a
"The cattle are restless,” said the Zulu,
little hill When we came near-
of bones.
softly. "They feel something that the er, we saw wagon and
that the camp, the
sleeping man cannot feel. I think that
the dead were covered with bones,
fire
they will run away. It would be best.
and with the bones there were spears and
They have done nothing for which they battle-axes, sticking here and there among
should be punished.” the long and rounded and whitened ivory.
During the next five minutes the four "The Zulu turned to me and said,
oxen broke. We could see them gallop-
"You are a white man and the hunter
ing across the rocks. The fire started to
was a white man. 'The traditions of your
bum brighter, and near it we could see
race should be remembered. Will you
a man standing.
bury him? You will find him at the bot-
"He heard his cattle and awoke,” com-
tom of the bones. His skull is crushed
mented my friend. "It is good that he is
with battle-axes; his body is pierced with
awake.”
a hundred lances. In his heart there is a
"'There are white things moving down
dagger, and the handle is still held by
there!” I whispered sharply. "They all
the white hand of my father. Will you
seem to be moving toward the fire.”
go and throw the bones to this side and
"Yes. We see them. Now the hunter that and bury your white man?"
sees them. We had better flatten our-
selves against the rock. He will start
"How do you know?” I asked, almost
hysterically,
shooting very soon. I do not want you
to be hurt.”
"I was there last night. I saw the
Then those white things started to run hunter killed by my family, by my tribe.
I sat by you while the killing was on, but
toward the fire, and we heard the sharp
explosion of a magazine rifle, followed my spirit was with my own people. It
seems that I remember seeing my father
by tlie staccato of two automatic revol-
vers. After that, the gun-fire ceased, and
bury his dagger.”
we heard the shrieks of a man, afraid and "The hunter has dug his own grave,
dying. Then came silence, and the fire and your people have raised a monument
was out. above him!” I cried.
"It is over!” cried the Zulu. "Now, "Go back to the world and tell them
you go and in the morning we
to sleep, what you saw.”
will see what happened to the hunter.” "Never! I saw it happen, and you

I tried to sleep, but I could not. Even saw it happen, and we Imow, but the
with my eyes shut I could still see those world would never believe.”
white-lined things running toward the "Oxford is, after all, very ignorant,”
hunter and the fire. replied the Zulu.
 VheGT
c/ hird Interne
By IDWAL JONES
'A brief tale of a surgical horror in the Arctic wastes of
northern Russia

OCTOR ALEXIS GARSHIN "Doctor Pashev has gone out for an

poured himself a glass of wine, hour.”
sank deep into his leathern arm- "He is gone for ever,” said the young
chair, and watched the hearth-flames man, closing the door. "He is never
through the haze of an excellent cigar. coming back.”
Outside, the wind howled morosely like "Indeed?” queried Garshin. "I might
a thief. A blizzard had come up from even say, you surprize me.”
the timdra, and it was plastering the win-
"Now is my opportunity to give word
dows with gobbets of snow. Certainly,
to humanity, to the outside world, from
Yarmolinsk Prison, near the Arctic line,
which have been a prisoner for two
I
was the most desolate the little Govern-
years,” began the young man, drawing
ment inspector had yet visited. A man up a chair and fixing his eyes on Garshin.
could very well go mad in the solitude.
"Listen to me;
But its chief. Doctor Melchior Pashev,
found it a heaven; nobody to trouble him, “ T AM the third interne. There were two,
all the time he wanted to carry on his
-i-and the woman, Katerina Ivanovna.
researches in biology, a fair salary, and
little to do; for the prison and its hospital
We came here from the University of
Astrakhan, where a small band of us had
rarely held more than a dozen souls, be-
devoted ourselves to the study of the
yond the staff of five. Garshin, a neurolo-
brain and the nervous system. Our God
gist himself, admired him greatly.
was the great Pavlov, promulgator of the
Pashev had just gone out, to visit a theory of the conditioned reflex. He re-
dying trapper up the river a way, excus- ceived us once, and we stayed with him
ing himself for leaving his guest so hast- a month. Then we left, because we had
ily, but he would return in an hour, and discovered a far greater scientific man

dinner would keep. A bleak night, and than he —Doctor Melchior Pashev, the
Garshin shuddered at the idea of facing brilliant worker in neurology.
that howling wind, with snow in his "You probably know nothing about
teeth. Himself, he rather loved comfort. him, for you must be an engineer. I can
But a restful hour would do him good, see that, because your face is not hard.

and there was nobody afoot in this wing Sir, with all due respect to you, you are

of the prison. an infant in learning compared to Pashev.

He is as aloof as an icy summit of the
The door opened. A
young man
Alps; he dwells in the realm of pure
entered —a pallid, tousle-haired young
brain; human beings are nothing to him
man, with the burning eyes of a fanatic.
but matter to dissect. He would im-
A theological student, Garshin thought.
molate his own mother on the altar of
"Good evening, sir,” said Garshin. science. But he is a master. Pavlov, Ein-
106
 THE THIRD INTERNE 107

stein, —
Metchnikoff not one of these is hand; and at night studied in the dissect-
worthy to latch his shoes or fetdi in his ing-room, working with the great man
shaving-water. himself. It was Katerina Ivanovna, with

"We read at Astrakhan his report on whom I was in love, and I who worked
the spinal accessory nerve, proving that it out with him the theory, first proposed
not only controls the motor fibers of the by the learned Bengali, Professor Gobind
larynx but some of the fibers of the heart Lai, that the ganglia send out their own

as well. This is only a trifle in the vast impulses.

researches of the man, who became at "I know I am obscure, sir, but you will
once the most renowned thinker in the never know how indefatigably we toiled,
world. like slaves, devotedly, eager to serve the

"Pavlov’s experiments on dogs were man we idolized, feeling rewarded

child’s play, Pashev began where Pav-
sir.
lov left off, and went to an astronomical
height beyond him. He cut off the head
of a mastiff, and kept it alive, function-
ing beautifully, for three
barked, drank water, blinked its
affection, and showed all the normal re-
actions of a canine, save that
body.
"Our enthusiasm when we read of this
knew no bounds. It made us delirious
with admiration. Here was a genius on
the track of the larger synthesis, who
would crack open the last secrets
make himself the mightiest genius that
ever was bom. We would go to him
and beg him to take us on as his ap-
prentices. The two friends, Benno and
Nicolai Suvorin, my fiancee,
Katerina Ivanovna, and myself.
"So we pooled our funds, borrowed
money right and left and came here to
Yarmolinsk, half starved, weary and
enough that he tolerated us about him.
"But Katerina was devoted to me, also.
We had our plans. After two years we
were to go to Moscow and start up in
years. It practise as specialists on the brain. Re-
eyes with nown and fortune would be ours. I
would be professor at Moscow Uni-
it had no versity, Katerina my asistant, and we
would care for nothing but each other,
our science and music. Katerina was a
fine pianist, and kept her skill fresh,
practising an hour a day before she went
to her routine in the ward, which was as
of life, early as five in the morning.
"We mastered that dog’s head. Pashev
had now gone beyond that, and was
having success in keeping alive the head
of a chimpanzee. His device was most
who was ingenious. The head was mounted on a
glass base. The facial, auditory, ocul-
—
motor nerves all the nerves of the head
were given stimuli and nourishment by a
fine series of magnetic networks, termi-

more dead than alive, and he took us in. nating in a cell-box. The circulatory
An epidemic of bubonic plague had deci- system was kept going by a delicate
mated the province, all the nurses and motor and pump. And to crown all,
internes in this hospital had died, and so there was Pashev’s masterpiece, a chain
had Doctor Plotkin, Pashev’s assistant. of ganglia, made of rubber and platinum,
He died right in the chair you are sitting which took the place of the spinal cord.
in. Don’t start, sir. It all happened three "’That chimpanzee’s head roared,
years ago. opened its mouth, blinked at the light,
"Webegan working. We tended the w'inced at a mirror flash or the prick of
sick, swept the wards, buried the dead, a pin. It was as alive as mine. Nicolai
did all the menial work that came to and Benno, bereft of all interest in life
108 WEIRD TALES
save this tremendous achievement, wor- blow to me, but you never know the
shipped Pashev more than ever. They depth of a woman’s forgiveness, and in
bowed to him, shrinking in awe. It went time she loved me again.
far beyond idolatry.
"So we had rather a happy life, some-
"One day they came to him and times radiantly happy, especially when
pleaded. 'You cannot find out by the of a winter evening —the nights long are
head of an anthropoid ape what the here at Yarmolinsk, —she would play
sir
conscious brain is doing. If it were a on the piano for us, a little Schubert or
man’s head, it could talk back to you. a folk-song of our Astrakhan land.
Think of the service such a head would Pashev had a vulnerable spot in his
do for pure science!’ armor; he was susceptible to the charms
"
‘Well?’ said Pashev. of music, and he would listen to Katerina
" play or sing, listen to her by the hour,
'We offer ourselves to you for ex-
perimentation.’ elbows on his knee, his eyes fixed on her
lovely face. I believe, sir, that all scien-

mearit it. Even Pashev was tific men should cultivate one of the arts,

A moved, touched almost tc tears of

else their imagination becomes atrophied.
joy at the offer. He tried to dissuade Darwin, to the end of his days, never
them, spoke to them for nearly five
ceased to regret that he had lost all taste

minutes. But they were insistent. They for poetry. I have always admired Ein-

had no no ties of any kind, no

relatives,
stein for his devotion to the violin. And
love for anything but science. So Pashev Professor Gobind Lai for his delight in

agreed. The decapitation was done in the painting little water-colors.

operating-room. The heads were imme- "I sometimes imagined the two were
diately removed to glass bases, the sev- in love —merely a fancy of mine, but it

ered edges cauterized, and the wires and shadowed my spirits often, though it
arterial tubes and ganglia fibers, already went as swiftly as it came. Pashev, my
prepared, were attached. idol, was beyond such weakness, and

"Where was I? Sir, I fell ill of a brain Katerina was loyal to me.
fever and was confined for three weeks. "It was my task to minister to the two
The horror of it was too much for me. heads, to see that the pumps and the cells
That was my way of escape, swooning were functioning as they should. You,
to the floor when I learned Pashev had as an engineer, sir, will appreciate the
agreed to do this favor for Nicolai and importance of my task. It was Pashev
Benno, my friends. who made all the notes, who conversed
"I recovered, was weeks and
but it with Nicolai and Benno, holding to
weeks before I was myself, and I had their barely-moving lips a microphone
fears that I should go mad. Insanity has attached to a device strapped to his '"axs.

long been a matter of interest to me, sir. They spoke of how they felt, what their
But, as I said, my health and mental reactions were to heat and cold, to the
poise returned, with reason unshaken. prick of a pin, the flash of a mirror. They
"What hurt me was the horror, the spoke only of matters of laboratory in-
contempt with which Katerina now terest; for them the rest of the world did

viewed me. She regarded me as a ren- not exist. Were they happy, you ask? I

egade to science, a coward, a pitiful presume so. They were like souls that
wretch, unfit to love. It was another had attained Nirvana, beyond good and
 THE THIRD INTERNE 109

evil, beyond all feeling save response to see the pity in the eyes of Nicolai and
sensory stimuli by eye, ear and the nerves Benno, who knew the truth all along.
of the skin. And upstairs I wondered what they were
"
'They never did have much imagina- saying to each other in the darkness. I

tion,’ Pashev said once, coldly, as if dis- heard them laugh! A laugh of con-
appointed. 'A woman, now — ah, what tempt!’’
* * * « «
help one could get out of a woman!’
"Katerina spoke at once. With the
light of a fanatical devotion for an ideal Y DEAR friend, here I am!’’

in her eyes she spoke to Pashev, offering In the doorway stood Doctor
herself; nay, insisting tiiat he decapitate Pashev, tall, benevolent and smiling, his
her and add one more chapter to his great fur coat whitened with snow.
work on the sensory reactions of the head "I am happy to tell you the trapper
sans corpus. I froze with horror, then will pull through, after all.’’

went mad again. I can still see the pity The pallid young man had risen, then
on the face of the doctor, the joy and fell to the floor in a convulsion. It was

pride of the master whose pupil has come an attack, Garshin observed, of hystero-
up to his highest expectations. epilepsy, an interesting case. Pashev
"For weeks I was ill, lost to the world, stooped at once and carried the victim out
and when I returned, feeble, to my work, of the room. When he returned, the
Katerina was gone. Her body was gone, Government inspeaor said to him,
firmly:
but her head was on the heavy glass
shelf, alongside that of Nicolai.
"Doctor Pashev, you must allow me to
go into your laboratory for a minute.’’
"You look horror-stricken,
sir, and I
"Certainly. There is the door, to the
can well understand how you feel. Light
left.”
your cigar. your hand is shaking.
See,
Garshin entered and moved to the
Perhaps you now get an inkling of the
heavy glass mantelpiece. It held nothing
hell I have lived through, and the bitter
but three skulls, which he lifted curiously.
disillusion of my life when I found that
He could find no tubes nor wires nor any
my idol was a fiend, a demon out of the
attachment. They were old, dust-coverecl,
bottomless pit.
marked with ink, as if they had been kept
"Every night I say good-bye to the
there for years and years. He left the
heads of the only human beings I ever laboratory, thoughtful. The tale was
loved. Why did my heart turn against
naught but a figment of the imagination.
Pashev? Ah, I mustBut don’t
tell you.
"I suppose,” said Pashev, lighting a
stare at me so, your frighten me. I was
cigarette, "that poor fellow has been tell-
in the laboratory alone one night, going
ing you some weird story about heads and
through with a candle, when I heard a
some woman he loved, eh?”
voice. It was Katerina’s.
"Yes. He had me on edge for an hour.
"
'Coward!’ she was saying. 'Coward! I don’t think I was ever so frightened in
Here we all are but you. Ah, what a fool my life. Reminded me I had nerves,
you were, and blind! I loved only Doctor after all.”
Pashev. He seduced me tlie very night I "He tells die story well,” said Pashev,
came.’ sadly, "because he has told it often — to
"I fled past them with the candle, gib- everyone who comes here. It is rather
bering, my head turned so I shouldn’t pitiful. He came here three years ago
110 WEIRD TALES
with two youths, friends of his, and a A servant entered with a large tray.
young woman that he loved, to assist me "Ah, here comes our belated dinner,”
during that distressful outbreak of the said Pashev."Let us sit down. There’s
plague.The three died inside of a week. nothing like a sledge-ride to give a fillip

The shock to him was permanent. But to one’s appetite. Pigeons and claret! We
he is harmless, and quite a help to me in do ourselves well, here. Your health, my
the laborator}'.” dear friend!”

By NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
AR’TRAM lime-bumer, house So here he is, shaking

B
the a off. his jolly
rough, heavy-looking man, be- sides at the foot of Graylock.”
grimed with charcoal, sat watch- "But, father,” said the child, more
ing his kiln, at nightfall, while his little sensitive than the obtuse, middle-aged
son played at building houses witli the clown, "he does not laugh like a man
scattered fragments of marble, when, on thatis glad. So the noise frightens me!”

the hillside below them, they heard a "Don’t be a fool, child!” cried his
roar of laughter, not mirthful, but slow, father, gruffly. "You will never make a
and even solemn, like a wind shaking the man, I do believe; there is too much of
boughs of the forest. your mother in you. have known the
I

"Father, what is that?” asked the little rastling of a leaf startle you. Hark! Here
boy, leaving his play, and pressing be- comes the merry fellow now. You shall
twixt his fatlier’s knees. see that there is no harm in him.”
"Oh, some drunken man, I suppose,” Bartram and his little son, while they
answered the lime-bumer; "some merry were talking thus, sat watcliing the same
fellow from the bar-room in the village, lime-kiln that had been tlie scene of
who dared not laugh loud enough within Ethan Brand’s solitary and meditative
doors lest he should blow the roof of the life, before he began his search for the

* A chapter from an abortive romance.

Unpardonable Sin. Many years, as we
 ETHAN BRAND 111

have seen, had now elapsed since that be an intensely thoughtful occupation; as
portentous night when the idea was first it proved in the case of Ethan Brand, who

developed. The kiln, however, on the had mused to such strange purpose, in
mountainside, stood unimpaired, and was days gone by, while the fire in this very
in nothing changed since he had thrown kiln was burning.
his daric thouglits into the intense glow Tlie man who now watched the fire

of its furnace, and melted them, as it was of a different order, and troubled
were, into the one thought that took pos- himself with no thoughts save the very
session of his life. It was a rude, round, few that were requisite to his business.
tower-like structure, about twenty feet At frequent intervals, he flung back the
high, heavily built of rough stones, and clashing weight of the iron door, and,
with a hillock of earth heaped about the turning his face from the insufferable
larger part of its circumference; so that glare, thrust in huge logs of oak, or
the blodcs and fragments of marble stirred the immense brands with a long
might be drawn by cart-loads, and pole. Within the furnace were seen the
thrown in at the top. There was an open- curling and riotous flames, and the burn-
ing at the bottom of the tower, like an ing marble, almost molten with the in-
oven-mouth, but large enough to admit tensity of heat; while without, the reflec-
a man in a stooping posture, and pro- tion of the fire quivered on the dark
vided with a massive iron door. With the intricacy of the surrounding forest, and
smoke and jets of flame issuing from the showed in the foreground a bright and
chinks and crevices of this door, which ruddy little picture of the hut, the spring
seemed to give admittance into the hill- beside its door, the athletic and coal-

side, it resembled nothing so much as the begrimed figure of the lime-burner, and
private entrance to the infernal regions, the half-frightened child, shrinking into
which the shepherds of the Delectable the protection of his father’s shadow.
Mountains were accustomed to show to And when again the iron door was
pilgrims. closed, then reappeared the tender light
There are many such lime-kilns in that of the half-full moon, which vainly
tract of country, for the purpose of burn- strove to trace out the indistinct shapes of
ing the white marble which composes a the neighboring mountains; and, in the
large part of the substance of the hills. upper sky, there was a flitting congrega-
Some of them, built years ago, and long tion of clouds, still faintly tinged with
deserted, with weeds growing in the va- the rosy sunset, though thus far down
cant ground of the interior, which is open into the valley the sunshine had vanished
to the sky, and grass and wild-flowers long and long ago.
rooting themselves into the chinks of the
stones, look already like relics of antiq-
uity,

lichens
and may yet be overspread with the
of centuries to come. Others,
T he little boy now
his father, as footsteps
ascending the hillside, and a
crept still closer to
were heard
human form
where the lime-bumer still feeds his daily thrust aside the bushes tliat clustered be-
and night-long fire, afford points of inter- neath the trees.
est to the wanderer among the hills, who "Halloo! who is cried the lime-
seats himself on a log of wood or a frag- bumer, vexed at his son’s timidity, yet
ment of marble, to hold a chat with the half infected by it. "G)me forward, and
solitary man. It is a lonesome, and, when show yourself, like a man, or I’ll fling
the character is inclined to thought, may this chunk of marble at your head!’’
112 WEIRD TALES
"You offer me a rough welcome,” "Your task draws to an end, I see,”
gloomy voice, as the unknown man
said a said he. ’"This marble has already been
drew nigh. "Yet I neither claim nor burning three days. A few hours more
desire a kinder one, even at my own fire- will convert the stone to lime.”
side." "Why, who are you?” exclaimed the
To obtain a distinct view, Bartram lime-bumer. "You seem as well ac-
tlirew open the iron door of tlie kiln, quainted with my business as I am my-
whence immediately issued a gush of self.”
fierce light, that smote full upon the "And well I may be,” said the
stranger’s face and figure. To a careless stranger; "for I followed the same craft
eye tliere appeared nothing very remark- many a long year, and here, too, on this
able in his aspect, which was that of a very spot. But you are a newcomer in
man in a coarse, brown, country-made these parts. Did you never hear of Ethan
suit of clothes, talland thin, with tlie Brand?”
staffand heavy shoes of a wayfarer. As "The man that went in search of the
he advanced, he fixed his eyes which — Unpardonable Sin?” asked Bartram, with
—
were very bright intently upon the a laugh.
brightness of the furnace, as if he beheld, "The same,” answered the stranger.
or expfxted to behold, some object "He has found what he sought, and
worthy of note within it. therefore he conies back again.”
"Good evening, stranger,” said the "What! then you are Ethan Brand
lime-burner; "whence come you, so late himself?” cried the lime-bumer, in
in tlie day?" amazement. "I am a newcomer here, as
"I come from my search,” answered you say, and they call it eighteen years
the wayfarer; "for, at last, it is finished.” since you left the foot of Graylock. But,
"Dnmk! —or crazy!” muttered Bartram I can tell you, the good folks still talk
to himself. "I shall have trouble with about Ethan Brand, in the village yonder,
the fellow. The sooner I drive him away, and what a strange errand took him away
the better.” from his lime-kiln. Well, and so you
The little boy, all in a tremble, whis- have found the Unpardonable Sin?”
pered to his father, and begged him to "Even so!” said the stranger, calmly.
shut die door of the kiln, so that there "If tlie question is a fair one,” pro-
might not be so much light; for that there ceeded Bartram, "where might it be?”
was something in the man’s face which Ethan Brand laid his finger on his own
he was afraid to look at, yet could not heart,
look away from. And indeed, even tlie "Here!” replied he.
lime-bumcr’s dull and torpid sense began And then, without mirth in his counte-
to be impressed by an indescribable some- nance, but as if moved by an involuntary
thing in that thin, rugged, thoughtful recognition of the infinite absurdity of
visage, with the grizzled hair hanging seeking tliroughout tlie world for what

wildly about it, and those deeply sunken was the closest of all things to himself,
eyes, whicli gleamed like fires within tlie and looking into every heart, save his
entrance of a mysterious cavern. But, as own, for what was hidden in no other
he closed the door, tlie stranger turned to- breast, he broke into a laugh of scorn.
ward him, and spoke in a quiet, familiar It was the same slow, heaNy laugh that

way, that made Bartram feel as if he were had almost appalled the lime-bumer
a sane and sensible man, after all. when it heralded tlie wayfarer’s approach.
W. T.—
 ETHAN BRAND 113

The solitary mountainside was made might be, which it was within the scope
dismal by it. Laughter, when out of of man’s corrupted nature to conceive and
place, mistimed, or bursting forth from a cherish. They were all of one family;
disordered state of feeling, may be the they went to and fro between his breast
most terrible modulation of the human and Ethan Brand’s, and carried dark
voice. The laughter of one asleep, even greetings from one to tlie other.
if it be a little child, — the madman’s Then Bartram remembered the stories
laugh, —the wild, screaming laugh of a which had grown traditionary in refer-
born —
idiot, are sounds that we some- ence to this strange man, who had come
times tremble to hear, and would always upon him like a shadow of the night,
willingly forget. Poets have imagined no and was making himself at home in his
utterance of fiends or hobgoblins so fear- old place, after so long absence that the
fully appropriate as a laugh. And even dead people, dead and buried for years,
the obtuse lime-burner felt his nerves would have had more right to be at
shaken, as this strange man looked in- home, in any familiar spot, than he.
ward at his own heart and burst into Ethan Brand, it was said, had conversed
laughter that rolled away into the night, with Satan himself in the lurid blaze of
and was indistinctly reverberated among this very kiln. The legend had been mat-
the hills. ter of mirth heretofore, but looked grisly
"Joe,” said he to his little son, "scam- now. According to this tale, before Ethan
perdown to die tavern in the village, and Brand departed on his search, he had
tellthe jolly fellows there that Ethan been accustomed to evoke a fiend from the
Brand has come bade, and that he has hot furnace of the lime-kiln, night after
found the Unpardonable Sin!” night, in order to confer with him about
the Unpardonable Sin; the man and tlie

T
jection,
he boy
to
darted away
on his errand,
w'hich Ethan Brand made no ob-
nor seemed hardly to notice it.
fiend each laboring to frame
of some mode of
tlie image

which could
guilt
neither be atoned for nor forgiven. And,
He sat on a log of wood, looking sted- with the first gleam of light upon the
fasdy at the iron door of the kiln. When mountaintop, the fiend crept in at the iron
the diild w'as out of sight, and his swift door, tlaere to abide the intensest element
and light footsteps ceased to be heard of fire, until again summoned forth to
treading first on the fallen leaves and
share in the dreadful task of extending
then on the rocky mountain-path, the man’s possible guilt beyond the scope of
lime-burner began to regret his departure. Heaven’s else infinite mercy.
He felt that the little fellow’s presence
While the lime-burner was struggling
had been a barrier between his guest and
with the horror of those thoughts, Ethan
himself, and that he must now deal, heart
Brand rose from the and flung open
log,
to heart, wdth a man who, on his own
the door of the kiln. The action was in
confession, had committed the one only
such accordance with the idea in Bart*
crime for which Heaven could afford no
ram’s mind, that he almost expected to
mercy. That crime, in its indistinct bladc-
ness, seemed to overshadow him. The
see the Evil One issue fortli, red-hot from
lime-burner’s own sins rose up within the raging furnace.
him, and made his memory riotous with "Hold! hold!” cried he, with a tremu*
a throng of evil shapes that asserted their lous attempt to laugh; for he was
kindred with the Master Sin, w'hatever it ashamed of his fears, although they over*
W. T.—
114 WEIRD TALES
mastered him. "Don’t, for mercy’s sake, a sinner, like the rest of us, — nothing
bring out your Devil now!” more likely, — but. I’ll be sworn, he is a
"Man!” sternly replied Ethan Brand, madman too.”
"what need have I of tlie Devil? I have Nevertheless, he felt uncomfortable at
lefthim behind me, on my track. It is his situation, alone with Ethan Brand on
with such half-way sinners as you that he the wild mountainside, and was right
busies himself. Fear not, because I open glad to hear rough murmur of
the
the door. I do but act by old custom, and tongues, and the footsteps of what
am going to trim your fire, like a lime- seemed a pretty numerous party, stum-
burner, as I was once.” bling over the stones and rustling through
He stirred the vast coals, thrust in more the underbrash. Soon appeared the whole
wood, and bent forward to gaze into the lazy regiment that was wont to infest
hollow prison-house of the fire, regard- the village tavern, comprehending three
less of the fierce glow that reddened upon or four individuals who had drunk flip
his face. The lime-bumer sat watching beside the bar-room fire through all the
him, and half suspected his strange guest winters, and smoked their pipes beneath
of a purpose, if not to evoke a fiend, at the stoop through all the summers, since
least to plunge bodily into the flames, Ethan Brand’s departure. Laughing bois-
and thus vanish from the sight of man. terously, and mingling all their voices
Ethan Brand, however, drew quietly back, together in unceremonious talk, they
and closed the door of the kiln. now burst into the moonshine and nar-
"I have looked,” said he, "into many a row streaks of firelight that illuminated
human heart that was seven times hotter the open space before the lime-kiln.
with sinful passions than yonder furnace Bartram set the door ajar again, flooding
is with fire. But I found not there what the spot with light, that the whole com-
I sought. No, not the Unpardonable pany might get a fair view of Ethan
Sin!” Brand, and he of them.
"What is the Unpardonable Sin?”
asked the Eme-bumer; and then he
shrank farther from his companion, trem-
bling lest his question should be an-
T
now
here, among other old acquaint-
ances, was a once ubiquitous man,
almost extinct, but whom we were
swered. formerly sure to encounter at the hotel of
"It is a sin that grew within my own every thriving village throughout the coun-
breast," replied Ethan Brand, standing try. It was the stage-agent. The present
erect, with a pride that distinguishes all specimen of the genus was a wilted and
enthusiasts of his stamp. "A sin that smoke-dried man, wrinkled and red-
grew nowhere else! The sin of an intel- nosed, in a smartly-cut, brown, bobtailed
lect that triumphed over the sense of coat, with brass buttons, who, for a
brotherhood with man and reverence for length of time unknown, had kept his
God, and sacrificed everything to its own desk and comer in the bar-room, and was
mighty claims! The only sin that de- pufiing what seemed to be the same
still

serves a recompense of immortal agony! cigar that he had lighted twenty years
Freely, were it to do again, would I incur before. He
had great fame as a dry
the guilt. Unshrinkingly I accept the joker, though, perhaps, less on accoimt
retribution!” of any intrinsic humor than from a cer-
"The man’s head is turned,” muttered tain flavor of brandy-toddy and tobacco
the lime-bumer to himself. "He may be smoke, which impregnated all his ideas
 ETHAN BRAND 115

and expressions, as well as his person. rude, and brutal, yet half-gentlemanly
Another well-remembered though figure, with something wild, ruined, and
strangely altered face was that of Lawyer desperate in his talk, and in all the de-
Giles, as people still called him in tails of his gesture and manners. Brandy
courtesy; an elderly ragamuffin, in his possessed this man like an evil spirit,

soiled shirt-sleeves and tow-cloth trousers. and made him as surly and savage as a
This poor fellow had been an attorney, in wild beast, and as miserable as a lost soul;
what he called his better days, a sharp but there was supposed to be in him such
practitioner, and in great vogue among v/onderful skill, such native gifts of heal-
the village litigants; but flip, and sling, ing, beyond any which medical science
and toddy, and cocktails, imbibed at all could impart, that society caught hold of
hours, morning, noon, and night, had him, and would not let him sink out of its
caused him to slide from intellectual to reach. So, swaying to and fro upon his
various kinds and degrees of bodily labor, horse, and grumbling thick accents at the
till, at last, to adopt his own phrase, he bedside, he visited all the sick-chambers
slid into a soap-vat. In other words, Giles for miles about among the mountain
was now a soap-boiler, in a small way. towns, and sometimes raised a dying man,
He had come to be but tlie fragment of as it were, by miracle, or quite as often,
a human being, a part of one foot hav- no doubt, sent his patient to a grave that
ing been chopped bflf by an ax, and an was dug many a year too soon. The doc-
entire hand torn away by the devilish tor had an everlasting pipe in his mouth,
grip of a steam-engine. Yet, though the and, as somebody said, in allusion to his
corporeal hand was gone, a spiritual habit of swearing, it was always alight
member remained; for, stretching forth with hell-fire.

the stump, Giles stedfastly averred that These three worthies pressed forward,
he felt an invisible thumb and fingers and greeted Ethan Brand each after his
with as vivid a sensation as before the real own fashion, earnestly inviting him to
ones were amputated. A maimed and partake of the contents of a certain
miserable wretdi he was; but one, nev'er- black bottle, in which, as they averred,
theless, whom world could not
the he would find something far better worth
trample on, and had no right to scorn, seeking for than the Unpardonable Sin.
eitb.er in this or any previous stage of his No mind, which has wrought itself by
misfortune, since he had still kept up intense and solitary meditation into a
the courage and spirit of a man, asked high state of enthusiasm, can endure the
nothing in charity, and with his one hand kind of contact with low and vulgar
— and that the left one fought a stern — modes of thought and feeling to which
battle against want and hostile circutn- Etiian Brand was now subjected. It made
stances. —
him doubt and, strange to say, it was a
Among the throng, too, came another —
painful doubt whether he had indeed
personage, who, with certain points of found the Unpardonable Sin, and found
similarity to Lawyer Giles, had many it within himself. Tlie whole question on

more of difference. It was the village which he had exhausted life, and more
doctor; a man of some fifty years, whom, than life, looked like a delusion.
at an earlier period of his life, w^e intro- "Leave me,” he said bitterly, "ye brute
duced as paying a professional visit to beasts, that have made yourselves so,
Ethan Brand during the latter’s supposed shriveling up your souls with fiery
insanity. He was now a purple-visaged. liquors! I have done witli you. Yeats
116 WEIRD TALES
and years ago, I groped into your hearts, "Yes,” murmured he, turning away
and found nothing there for my pur- from the hoary wanderer; "it is no delu-
pose. Get ye gone!” sion.'There is an Unpardonable Sin!”
"Why, you uncivil scoundrel,” cried While these things were passing, a
the fierce doctor, "is that the way you merry scene was going forward in the
respond to the kindness of your best area of cheerful light, beside the spring
friends.? Then let me tell you the truth. and before the door of the hut. number A
You have no more found the Unpardon- of the youth of the village, young men
able Sin than yonder boy Joe has. You and girls, had hurried up the hillside, im-
are but a crazy fellow, —
I told you so pelled by curiosity to see Ethan Brand,
twenty years ago, —
neither better nor the hero of so many a legend familiar to
worse than a crazy fellow, and the fit their childhood. Finding nothing, how-
companion of old Humphrey, here!” ever, very remarkable in his aspect,
He pointed to an old man, shabbily nothing but a sunburnt wayfarer, in plain
dressed, with long white hair, thin vis- garb and dusty shoes, who sat looking
age, and unsteady eyes. For some years into the fire, he fancied pictures
as if
past this aged person had been wandering among the coals, —
young people
these
about among the hills, inquiring of all speedily grew As
tired of observing him.
travelers whom he met for his daughter. it happened, there was other amusement
The girl, it seemed, had gone off with a at hand. An old German Jew, traveling
company of circus-performers; and oc- with a diorama on his back, was passing
casionally tidings of hercame to the vil- down the mountain-road toward the vil-
lage, and fine stories were told of her lage just as the party turned aside from
glittering appearance as she rode on it, and, in hopes of eking out the profits
horseback in the ring, or performed of the day, the showman had kept them
marvelous feats on the tight-rope. company to the lime-kiln.
The white-haired father now ap- "Come, old Dutchman,” cried one of
proached Ethan Brand, and gazed un- the young men, "let us see your pictures,
steadily into his face. if you can swear they are worth look-
"They tell me you have been all over ing at!”
the earth,” said he, wringing his hands "O
yes. Captain,” answered the Jew,
with earnestness. "You must have seen whether as a matter of courtesy or craft,
my daughter, for she makes a grand fig- he styled everybody Captain, "I shall
—
ure in the world, and everybody goes to show you, indeed, some very superb pic-
see her. Did she send any word to her tures!”
old father, or say when she was coming So, placing hisbox in a proper posi-
back?" tion, he invited the young men and girls
to look through the glass orifices of the
than brand's
E eye quailed beneath
the old man’s. That daughter, from
machine, and proceeded to exhibit a series
of the most outrageous scratchings and
whom he so earnestly desired a word of daubings, as specimens of the fine arts,

greeting, was the Esther of our tale, the that ever an itinerant showman had the
very girl who, with such cold and re- face to impose upon his circle of specta-
morseless purpose, Ethan Brand had tors. 'The pictures were worn out, more-

made the subject of a psychological ex- over, tattered, full of cracks and wrinkles,
periment, and wasted, absorbed, and per- dingy with tobacco-smoke, and otherwise
haps annihilated her soul, in the process. in a most pititable condition. Some pur-
 ETHAN BRAND 117

ported to be cities, public edifices, and Captain, it has wearied my shoulders, this
ruined castles in Europe; others repre- long day, to carry it over the mountain.”
sented Napoleon’s battles and Nelson’s "Peace,” answered Ethan Brand, stern-
sea-fights; and in the midst of these ly, "or get thee into the furnace yonder!”
would be seen a gigantic, brown, hairy 'The Jew’s exhibition had scarcely con-
hand, —which might have been mistaken cluded, when a great elderly —
dog who
for the Hand of Destiny, though, in seemed to be his own master, as no per-
truth,
ing its
it was only the showman’s,
forefinger to various scenes
—of
point-
the
son in the company laid claim to him
saw fit to render himself the object of
conflict, while its owner gave historical public notice. Hitherto, he had shown
illustrations. When, with much merriment himself a very quiet, well-disposed old
at abominable deficiency of merit,
his dog going round from one to another,
the exhibition was concluded, the Ger- and, by way of being sociable, offering
man bade little Joe put his head into the his rough head to be petted by any kindly
box. Viewed through the magnifying- hand that would take so much trouble.
glasses, the boy’s round, rosy visage as- But now, all of a sudden, this grave and
sumed the strangest imaginable aspect of venerable quadruped, of his own mere
an immense Titanic child, the mouth motion, and without the slightest sugges-
grinning broadly, and the eyes and every tion from anybody else, began to run
other feature overflowing with fun at the round after his tail, which, to heighten
joke. Suddenly, however, that merry face the absurdity of tlie proceeding, was a
turned pale, and its expression changed great deal shorter than it should have
to horror, for this easily impressed and been. Never was seen such headlong
excitable childhad become sensible that eagerness in pursuit of an object that
the eye of Ethan Brand was fixed upon could not possibly be attained; never was
him through the glass. heard such a tremendous outbreak of
’’You make the man to be afraid.
little
growling, snarling, barking, and snap-
Captain,” said the German Jew, turning ping — as if one end of the ridiculous

up the dark and strong outline of his brute’s body were at deadly and most un-
visage, from his stooping posture. "But forgivable enmity with the other. Faster

look again, and, by chance, I shall cause

and faster, round about went the cur; and
you to see somewhat that is very fine,
faster and still faster fled the unapproach-
upon my word!” able brevity of his tail; and louder and
fiercer grew his yells of rage and ani-
Ethan Brand gazed into the box for an
mosity; until, utterly exhausted, and as
instant, and then starting back, looked
far from the goal as ever, the foolish old
fixedly at the German. What had he
dog ceased his performance as suddenly
seen? Nothing, apparently; for a curi-
as he had begun it. The next moment he
ous youth, who had peeped in almost at
was as mild, quiet, sensible, and respect-
the same moment, beheld only a vacant
able in his deportment, as when he first
space of canvas.
scraped acquaintance with the company.
"I remember you now,” muttered
As may be supposed, the exhibition
Ethan Brand to the showman.
was greeted with universal laughter, clap-
"Ah, Captain,” whispered the Jew of ping of hands, and shouts of encore, to
Nuremburg, with a dark smile, "I find it which the canine performer responded by
to be a heavy matter in my show-box, wagging all that there was to wag of his
this Unpardonable Sin! By my faith, tail, but appeared totally unable to repeat
118 WEIRD TALES
his veiy successful effort to amuse the to keep you company, I suppose,” mut-
spectators. tered Bartram, who had been making in-
timate acquaintance witli the black bottle

M eanwhile, Ethan Brand had re-

sumed his seat upon the log, and
moved, it might be, by a perception of
above mentioned.
like,

For
and
my
call as many
part, I shall
"But watch, if you
devils as you like!
be all the better for
some remote analogy bets^'een his own a snooze. Come, Joe!”
case and that of this self -pursuing cur, he As the boy followed his father into the
broke into the awful laugh, which, more hut, he looked back at the wayfarer, and
than any other token, expressed the con- the tears came into his eyes, for his tender
dition of his inward being. From that spirit had an intuition of the bleak and

moment, the merriment of the party was terrible loneliness in which this man had

at an end; they stood aghast, dreading enveloped himself.

lest the inauspicious sound should be re-

verberated around the horizon, and that

mountain would thunder it to mountain,
and so the horror be prolonged upon their
W HEN they had gone, Etlian Brand
sat listening to the crackling
kindled wood, and looking at the
of the
little

ears. Then, whispering one to another spurts of fire that issued through chinks
that it was late, —
that the moon was of the door. These however, once
trifles,

almost down, —
that the August night so familiar, had but the slightest hold of
was growing diill, —
they hurried home- his attention, w'hile deep within his mind
ward, leaving the lime-burner and little he was reviewing the gradual but marvel-
Joe to deal as they might witli their un- ous change that had been wrought upon
welcome guest. Save for these three hu- him by the search to which he had de-
man beings, the open space on the hill- voted himself. He remembered how the
side was a solitude, set in a vast gloom night dew had fallen upon him, how —
of forest. Beyond that darksome verge, the dark forest had whispered to him, —
the firelight glimmered on tlie stately how the stars had gleamed upon him, —
trunks and almost black foliage of pines, a simple and loving man, watching his
intermixed with the lighter verdure of fire in the years gone by, and ever mus-

sapling oaks, maples, and poplars, while ing as it burned. He remembered with
here and there lay the gigantic corpses of what tenderness, with what love and
dead trees, decaying on the leaf-strewn sympathy for mankind, and what pity for
soil. And it seemed to little Joe — a tim- human guilt and woe, he had first begun
orous and imaginative child — that the to contemplate those ideas w'hich after-
silent forest was holding its breath, until ward became the inspiration of his life;
some fearful thing should happen. with what reverence he had then looked
Ethan Brand thrust more wood into into the heart of man, viewing it as a
the fire, and closed tlie door of the kiln; temple originally divine, and, however
then looking over his shoulder at the lime- desecrated, still to be held sacred by a

burner and his son, he bade, rather than brother; with what awful fear he had
advised, them to retire to rest. deprecated the success of his pursuit, and
"For m.yself, I cannot sleep,” said he. prayed that the Unpardonable Sin might
"I have matters that it concerns me to never be revealed to him. Then ensued
meditate upon. I will w'atch the fire, as I that vast intellectual development, whicli,
used to .do in tlie old time.” in its progress, disturbed the counterpoise
"And call the Devil out of the furnace between his mind and heart. The Idea
 WErnD TALES 119

that possessed his life had operated as a

means of education; it had gone on culti- The Cream of
vating his powers to the highest point of
which they were susceptible; it had raised Weird Fiction
him from the level of an imlettered # Weird Tales prints the best weird
laborer to stand on a starlit eminence, fiction in the world today. The high
literary quality of its stories is evi-
whither the philosophers of the earth,
denced by the comparatively large
laden with the lore of universities, might
number of stories from Weird Tales
vainly strive to clamber after him. that have been reprinted or awarded
So much for the intellect! But where honorable mention in annual best fic-
was the heart? That, indeed, had with- tion anthologies. You are assured of

ered, — —
had contracted, had hardened, reading the best when you read Weird
Tales, The Unique Magazine.
had perished! It had ceased to partake of
the universal throb. He had lost his hold
of the magnetic chain of humanity. He
was no longer a brother-man, opening
book on sclentlflemllv
the chambers or the dungeons of our solTOd true crime cases sent
absolutely free to those over 17«
Also tells how to got Into SclentlAs
common nature by tlie key of holy Crime Detection. Ilome Study. New
opportunities. Travel. Steady Employment.
sympathy, which gave him a right to Experience not neeesoary. Very easy terms.
Scientific Crime Det^tlon Institute ef
share in all its secrets; he was now a cold America* Inc.* O. & O. Bldir. J. T. Bu^
dette* Pres.* Dept.45«A8* Huntington* W.Va.
observer, looking on mankind as the sub-
ject of his experiment, and, at length,
converting man and woman to be his
Do You Want A
puppets, and pulling the wires that
moved them to such degrees of crime as Baby?
were denianded for his study. i HUNDREDS upon hundreds ot
j
w(«nen from Cooet to CooHt. for-
Thus Ethan Brand became a fiend. He E
1
merly cbildlees for years from
functional aterility, a^ even oft-
j en told thw could never have chil-
began to be so from the moment that his f
dren ARE NOW PROUD AND
f HAPPY MOTHERS from know-
moral nature had ceased to keep the pace i led^ and use of a simple home
]
meHiod— details of which 1 send
FREE on request. Parents are ad-
of improvement with his intellect. And I
I mittedly far happier, he^thler,
I more contented, more prosperous
now, as his highest effort and inevitable j and actually live longer as a class
than childless couplet A baby
development, — as the bright and gor-
'
gives the real home spirit and ties a husband and wife in tru-
est enduring: love and mutual interests. The raaiority of dis-
contented, unhappy marriages are those of ehildieas couples
geous flower, and rich, delicious fruit of
GET THIS KNOWLEDGE FREEj
his life’s labor, — he had produced the During
women
my
my S6 years of practice iu functional conditions of
I developed this home method, which is described in
Unpardonable Sin! illustrated treatise sent FREE ON BLUEST. It dis-
cusses many subjects relating to the female organs and tells
bow you too may combat your troubles as thousands of others
"What more have I to seek? what more have who reported arrivm of babies after being chtldUss for
years, and report as well satisfactory relief from the various
female troubles amenable to correction by this home method.
to achieve?” said Ethan Brand to himself. OR. H. WILL ELDERS* 7tli & Falix Sts*, Suits SOS
St. iossph, Missouri.
"My task is done, and well done!” (Cbpr. isso

Starting from the log with a certain “QUICK ACTION’* (1937) PERFECTED
AUTOMATIC GAS LIGHTER
alacrity in his gait and ascending the hil- 360% Profit. We Pay P.P. Charges
$1.00 a Dozen. Rush Name and
lock of earth that was raised against the •Oftr Address for Free Sample
12 Dozen Saoo
stone cirounference of the lime-kiln, he 0RE15N Net Profit $S8
WOOD HAN- fife/.*.
thus reached the top of the structure. It DLE-S.
Packed on Individual Cards. mm .
was a space of perhaps ten feet across, Write Todav.
Co.,
Method Mfg.
D..k WTa.00, PrsKHord, Pn.
"CO
from edge to edge, presenting a view of
the upper surface of the immense mass of A SUPER-THRULERl
“The Moon Terror”
broken marble with which the kiln was book form 60c).
,(in —
120 WEIRD TALES
heaped. All these innumerable blocks He issued from the hut, followed by
and fragments of marble were red-hot little Joe, who kept fast hold of his
and vividly on fire, sending up great father’s hand. The was
early sunshine
spouts of blue flame, which quivered aloft already pouring its gold upon the moun-

and danced madly, as within a magic taintops; and though the valleys were still
circle, and sank and rose again, with con- in shadow, they smiled cheerfully in the
tinual and multitudinous activity. As the promise of the bright day that was hasten-
lonely man bent forward over this terrible ing onward. The village, completely shut
body of fire, the blasting heat smote up in by hills, which swelled away gently
against his person with a breath that, it about it, looked as if it had rested peace-
might be supposed, would have scorched fully in the hollow of the great hand
and shriveled him up in a moment. of Providence. Every dwelling was dis-
Ethan Brand stood erect, and raised his tinctly visible; the little spires of the two
arms on high. The blue flames played churches pointed upward, and caught a
upon his face, and imparted the wild and foreglimmering of brightness from the
ghastly which alone could have
light sun-gilt skies upon their gilded weather-
suited its it was that of a fiend
expression; cocks. The tavern was astir, and the
on tlie verge of plunging into his gulf of figure of the old, smoke-dried stage-
intensest torment. agent, cigar in mouth, w'as seen beneath
"O Mother Earth,” cried he, "who art the stoop. Old Graylock was glorified
no more my Mother, and into whose with a golden cloud upon his head. Scat-
bosom this frame shall never be resolved! tered likewise over the breasts of the sur-
O mankind, whose brotherhood I have rounding mountains, there were heaps of
cast off, and trampled thy great heart be- hoary mist, in fantastic shapes, some of
neath my feet! O stars of heaven, that them far down into the valley, others
shone on me of old, as if to light me high up toward the summits, and still

onward and upward! farewell all, and — others, of the same family of mist or
for ever. Come, deadly element of Fire, cloud, hovering in the gold radiance of
—henceforth my familiar friend! Em- the upper atmosphere. Stepping from
brace me, as I do thee!" one to another of the clouds that rested
on the hills, and thence to the loftier

T hat
peal
night the sound of a fearful
of laughter
through the sleep of the lime-burner and
rolled heavily
brotherhood that sailed in
almost as if a mortal
air,

man might
it seemed
thus
ascend into the heavenly regions. Earth
his little son; dim shapes of horror and
was so mingled v/ith sky that it was a
anguish haunted their dreams, and
day-dream to look at it.
seemed still present in the rude hovel,
when they opened tlieir eyes to the day-
To supply that charm of the familiar
light.
and homely, which Nature so readily
"Up, boy, up!” cried the lime-burner,
adopts into a scene like this, the stage-

staring about liim. "Thank Heaven, the

coach was rattling down the mountain-
night is gone, at and rather than pass
last; road, and the driver sounded his horn,

such another, I would watch my lime- while echo caught up the notes, and inter-
kiln, wide awake, for a twelvemonth. twined them into a rich and varied and
This Ethan Brand, widi his humbug of an elaborate harmony, of which the original
Unpardonable Sin, has done me no such perforiTicr could lay claim to little share.
mighty favor, in taking my place!” The great hills played a concert amon£|
 WEIRD TALES 121

themselves, eadi contributing a strain of

airy sweetness.
Little Joe’s face
"Dear father,”
brightened at once.
cried he, skipping
Man Can Now
cheerily to and fro, "that strange man is

gone, and the sky and the mountains

seem glad of it!”
"Yes,” growled the lime-burner, with
an oath, "but he has let the fire go down,
and no thanks to him if five hundred
bushels of lime are not spoiled. If
the fellow hereabouts again,
like tossing him into the furnace!”
With long pole in his hand, he
his
ascended to the top of the kiln. After a
moment’s pause, he called to his son.
"Come up here, Joe!” said he.
So little Joe ran up the hillock, and
all
Talk With God
SAYS NOTED PSYCHOLOGIST
"A new and revolutionary religious teaching
based entirely on the misunderstood sayings of the
I catch Galilean Carpenter, and designed to .show how we
may find, understand and use the same identical
I shall feel
power which Jesus used in performing His so-
called Miracles," is attracting world wide attention
to its founder. Dr. Frank B. Robinson, noted
psychologist, author and lecturer.
"Psychiana," this new psychological religion,
believes and teaches that it is today possible for
every normal human being, understanding spiritual
law as Christ understood it, "to duplicate every

stood by his fatlier’s side. The marble

work that the Carpenter of Galilee ever did" it —
believes and teaches that when He said, "the
was all burnt into perfect, snow-white things that I do shall ye do also," He meant what
lime. But on its surface, in the midst of He said and meant it literally to all mankind,
the circle, —
snow-white too, and thor-
through all the ages.

oughly converted into lime, — lay a human Dr. Robinson has prepared a 6000 word treatise
on "Psychiana," in which he tells about his long
skeleton, in the attitude of a person who, search for the Truth, how he finally came to the
after long toil, lies down to long repose. full realization ofan Unseen Power or force "so

Within the ribs — strange to say — w'as the

dynamic in itself that all other powers and forces
fade into insignificance beside it" —how he learned
shape of a human heart. to commune directly with the Living God, using
"Was the fellow’s heart made of mar- this mighty, never-failing power to demonstrate
health, happiness and financial success, and how
ble?” cried Bartram, in some perplexity any normal being may find and use it as Jesus did.
at this phenomenon. "At any rate, it is He is now offering this treatise free to every
reader of this magazine who writes him.
burnt into what looks like special good
lime; and, taking all the bones together, you want to read this "highly interesting,
If
revolutionary and fascinating story of the discov-
my kiln is half a bush.el the richer for
ery of a great Truth," just send your name and
him.” address to Dr. Frank B. Robinson, 418 12tli St.,
So saying, the rude lime-burner Moscow, Idaho. It will be sent free and postpaid
lifted
without cost or obligation. Write the Doctor
his pole, and, letting it fall upon the today. —
Copyright, 1935, Dr. Frank B. Robinson.
skeleton, the relics of Ethan Brand were
crumbled into fragments. > sy vy ny
A new thriller by
Coming soon SEABUKY QUINN appears
^
The Eyes oi the Mummy in WEIRD TALES
By Robert Bloch
evei’y month i

A gruesomcly powerful llirill-tale of AAA

Egypt, with an unforgettable ending
Subscribe to Weird Tales
 IRGIL FINLAY’S drawing on
V
the
first page of this issue illustrates a
weird passage of poetry so striking
that Dante Gabriel Rossetti rarJced it as one
of the two Pillars of Hercules of modern
human imagination. It is from Samuel Tay-
lor Coleridge’s imfinished poem, Kubla
Khan. ('The other "pillar” is from Keats’s
Ode to a Nightingale.) Mr. Finlay's imagi-
native full-page illustrations of famous bits
of weird poetry will be a monthly feature in
Weird Tales.
Literary Quality
K. Moor writes from Southport, England:
"One gets so sick of magazines about Fed-
eral agents, terror stories and Western thrill-
ers that it is a wonderful change to fiiid a
WT on a book-stand, with its correa English
and its fluent style. Here you find no 'spit-
ting guns snarling their song of death,’ and
no 'bleeding, mangled bodies oozing blood
from the seams of their clothes.’ Instead one
finds stories of the imagination and the un-
usual that rival H. G. Wells or Edgar Allan
Poe for their clear-cut style and striking sen-
tences. Congratulations on a fine magazine.”
Trudy’s Letter
Gertrude Hemkcn from Chicago;
writes
"I alius had an idea that lamas were kindly
fellows —
on the order of monks. Mr. Quinn
has again shattered an old belief that these
men are so pious —
in his Living Budd-
hess. Werry intrestin’ the manner he de-
scribes for the bad bad Oriental to enter
some unsuspecting viaim in this so-unusual
—
manner. Yes, indeedy and once more li’l
pal Jules comes to tlie rescue —
no kiddin’,
1 do like that fellow immensely. ... The
story of the issue is all I’ve expeaed it to
be-^nd more. I’ve been curious all these
months to learn by what methods and under
what circumstances would Jirel and North-
west Smith meet. The story is somewhat
lovely —seems as though I awakened from a
fantastic dream after I had read it. The
abstraa lives bro’t to mind the yarns of
Aladdin’s lamp and its genie. The illustra-
tion is superb. Jirel looks like a screen hero-
ine —and the two men seem rather 20th
Century in attire and general y)pearance.
The dancing flame-stars seem like a very
strange rain. Needless to say The Quest of
the Starstone is outstanding, in my opinion.
—
Robert Bloch getting oogy again huh? The
Secret of Sebek was just about that —
only
the closing paragraphs didn’t appeal to me.
They were too mellerdramatic and as is —
usual with such I —
look ahead to the ending
— and then the whole story is spoiled for
—
me. You know I’d like to take Paul Ernst
by the shoulders and give him a good shak-
ing. I feel quite sure that he can write some
mighty fine stories, but something seems to
be held back. In his Dread Summons, I en-
joyed going through the old mansion with
Meller and helping him smash the nice finer-
ies to tiny bits —
but I just got plain dis-
gusted at the end. The Lake of Life ended
nicely after a great deal of excitement. The
Guardians weren’t such dumb critters after
—
all and I can realize their strange weariness.
Who, in his right senses, wants to live for
ever? This story had ju^ about everything
— excitement, adventure, thrills —
the lower
element, savages, scientific explanations, a
strange life back to archaic days, fighting,
weirdness, queerness —
just about full of
—
everything to please most anyone e\’en ro-
mance.”
Three Rousing Cheers
V. C. Qowe writes from San Frandscoj
"Three rousing cheers for the story entitled
 WEIRD TALES 123

The Lake of Life concluded in the Novem- ner for splendid story. Quest of the
tliat
ber issue. 'Hiree more rousing cheers for Starstone. Best in the November copy. There
Mrs. Brundage and her front cover. Pay no w'as another tale, tliough, a real, honest-to-
attention to the nitwits who clamor against God scary yarn that ran a fine race. I refer
her masterpieces. They are the most charm- to Rex Ernest’s The Inn. Something about
ing piaures that ever a magazine carried. that gave me tlie creeps, ev'en though it had
Give us more of them.” to end way. Kuttner’s rejection slip
that
tale was good, too. Apparently Mr. Kuttner

Abyss Under the World has known the sting of die editorial veto
and does not particularly clierish the mem-
E. Jean Magee, of Los Angeles, writes:
ory.”
"Congratulations to Mr. Paul Surer for his
Abyss Under the World. To my mind, here
is really fine writing: The swinging spur in From Way Down Under
silvery light, the color, suspense ancf fare-
William H. Russell, of Wellington, New
well of the priest all carried the reader into
Zealand, writes: "I enjoy your magazine and
a world of beauty and dreams. Although the
hardly ever fail to get my copy, though out
explanation is a natural one, tliis in no way
here we get our numbers late. The bc-st story
detrarts from the principal charaaer’s w'eird
—
adventure an adventure of the subconscious
so far in Weird Tales, in my opinion, has
been The Globe of Memories. I would like
mind. Glad to see Clark Ashton Smith is
with us again in the September issue.”
to read more in &e same stj’le. I did not
cate so much for The Guardian of the Book;
I must confess it left me rather cold. In
A Valentine my humble opinion such stories of cosmic
Harry Sivia writes from Palestine, Texas: horrors are rather above the average man-in-
"A valentine to Miss Moore and Mr. Kutt- the-street life from other planets, and par-

BACK COPIES
Weird Tales, tlie publishers do their best
Because of the many requests for back issues of
on hand to meet all demands. This magazine was established early
to keep a sufficient supply
on the supply of back copies ever since. At present,
in 1923 and there has been a steady drain
we have the following back numbers on hand for sale;
193S 1933 1934 loss 1936 103Y
Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan.
m. Feb. Feb. Feb. Feb.
Mar. Mar. Mar. Mar.
Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr.
f < • May May May May
June June June June
July July July July
.... .... Au;;.
.... Sept. Sept. Sept. Sept.
Oct. Oct. Oct. Oct.
Nov. Nov. Nov. Nov. Nov.
.... Dec. Dec. Dec. Deo.

numbers contain many fascinating stories. If you are interested in obtaining

any of tlie 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, U. S. A,
124 WEIRD TALES
ticularly with such a fantastic theme as izations either one is too magnificent to al-
;

Guardian of the Book; it exceeds the bounds low extermination. Robert Bloch’s Secret of
of aedulity. Such stories as The Last Archer Sebek deserves second place. I admire his
are narratives concerning everyday things; smoothness of description. But the Novem-
and who knows, with the legends we have ber issue was so good in its entirety I hardly

of ancient curses, there may be some grain
of fact about them. I will mention another:
I, the Vampire; that story was quite good.
We are all familiar with Hollywood and
with such a novel background, as I have
stated. I like your stories dealing with every-
day affairs. I also read a story some time ago
know just where to praise. The conclusion
of die serial, The Lake of Life, for instance,
exceeds anything I’ve read from Hamilton’s
pen, and I have followed him through other
magazines as well as yours. Last, but not
least —could you allow Mr. Kuttner another
little piece or two of whatever laurels you

in which the locale was a little cinema where might have in stock for his short. The Case
a film was screened with dead actresses and of Herbert Thorp? ’The ending touched me
an actor featured in it. More stories of that so; I cannot forgive you for not illustrating

kind are just in my street.” [That story was the tale. It should have been done on the
The Theater Upstairs, by Manly Wade Well- front cover. How I would like to own a
man. The Editor.] framed picture of a dead editor —clutching a
rejection slip!”

A Magazine for Skeptics?

Sylvia B. Baker writes from Fallbrook,
Superb Poem by Howard
California: "Someone once wrote in the H. K. Weiss writes from Boston: '"Thanks
Eyrie that Weird Tales was a magazine for a million for printing Futility by R. E.
dceptics. His idea seemd to be that it would Howard in the November issue — it is superb.
be harmful to the superstitious. I believe Unfortunately ’superb’ has been used in too
that the readers who will enjoy it most are many other connections far less vital for it
students and thinkers. Witchcraft and sor- to be exaaly the word. But it’s about the
cery interest the psychiatrist. Astronomers order of magnitude. Futility is in sixteen —
and biologists, who have an imagination, en- lines —
the mood that WT
is striving for.

joy interplanetary stories and others which It’scompletely so. Many of your stories have
show the path evolution might have taken. —
come close to it Lovecraft is most consist-
Among the latter is one of the best stories ently near it —
and that is what makes WT
you have ever printed, Carnate Crystal.” —
worth buying because it says something and
hints at so infinitely much more. The reader
To Him the Laurels Belong takes out of it a portion of undefined knowl-
edge exaaly in ratio to his ability to under-
Clifford Ball writes from Astoria, New
stand. Thanks again for Futility and for
York; "Although the task of writing a fan-
Weird Tales.”
letter is distasteful to me, I feel compelled
to add my vote to the numbers doubtlessly
already pouring into your office, requesting Grandeur and Horror
that the blue ribbon for the November issue James O’Regan writes from Springfield,
be awarded to the team of Moore and Kutt- Missouri: "A fascinating story is The Voy-
ner. The Quest of the Starstone was a fast- age of the Neutralia. A globe wheeling
moving, interest-holdiqg, well-balanced piece madly toward some distant place, there to
of work and easily the best story in the cur- find unspeakable grandeur and horror. I
rent issue even if the famed charaaers of have long enjoyed such a tale as this. "The
Smith and Jirel are possibly unknown to the author has concorted a well-written tale.
later readers. 1 trust these two authors will There are several fine descriptive passages.
be encouraged to continue their partnership. 'This is my first letter to the Eyrie, although
They have the knack of producing master- I have read and enjoyed WT
for four years.
pieces. But I wish to humbly suggest that I I purchased my first
was only thirteen when
they do not attempt to bring N. S. or J. J. copy, but enjoyed your magazine even at
I
logrther again, for that might spoil the su- that tender age. During the past four years,
perb effea of this last story. Not that I I have read all but three issues of WT.

mean they should discontinue the cliaracter- Now, may 1 please offer a suggestion? I do
 WEIRD TALES 125

not care for stories with praaical endings,

and judging from letters I’ve seen in the
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS
SMAU- ADS WORTH WATCHING
Eyrie, other readers are of the same opinion.
Authors’ Service
Remember, your magazine did not reach its
enviable position by printing such stories.” MANUSCRIPTS WANTED. Books, Stories, Plays and
Articles for placement in U. S. and foreisn countries.
Motion picture rights placed. Circular T-138 describ-
ing UNIFIED SALES PLAN free on request. OTIS
The Same Old Tlirill ADELBERT KLINE, Authors* and Publishers’ Rep-
resentaUve, 430 W. 34th SL, New York City.
Charles H. Bert writes from Philadelphia:
"Congratulations on the fine November is-
Books
sue, the best in months in cover and con- —
THE MOON TERROR A stupendous weird-scientifle
novel of Oriental Intrigue to gain control of the world!
tents. I was delighted with Hypms by the Cloth-bound with handsome colored Jacket
postpaid. WEIItD TALES, 840 N. Michigan Ave.,
—W
cents
old master Lovecraft. I’ve read the yarn Chicago.
many years ago, and rereading it I got the
Business Opportunities
same old thrill. Lovecraft stories are real
masterpieces of literature. For beauty and NEWSPAPER clippings pay. Write: Goodall Com-
pany, 742 Market St., San Francisco.
forcefulness of style, few equal them. Please
Farm and Garden
show some consideration for other authors in
BULBS FREE I To spread the fame of our bulbs
your reprint department. Authors like White- everywhere, we will send you FREE a nice assortment
head, (Sea Change, The Shadows, Jumbee); of HYACINTHS, TULIPS. NARCISSI. IRISES. CRO-
CUS, etc., 350 bulbs In all, all guaranteed to flower
Quinn, (Tenants of Broussac, Out of the next spring and summer. It suffices to send us for
carriage, packing, etc., a one-dollar note by registered
Long Ago); B. Wallis, (The Whistling letter, and to mention your name and full address la
Monsters, The Abysmal Horror); etc. . . .
block letters. Ple<i8e do not send coins or stamps, and
kindly mention that you saw the advertisement la
I chuckled over The Case of Herbert Thorp. “Weird Tales” magazine. Dispatch carriage paid all
Better beware, editor, or you may find your- over the world without Increase In price. JAN VAN
GALEN, Bulb Grower, VOGELENZANG near Haar-
self in the fourth or some-such dimension lem, Holland, Europe.

for rejeaing stories for being ‘unconvinc-

Indian Relies
ing.’ Dread Summons by Ernst had some INDIAN REUC8. Beadwork. Coins. Stamps. Min-
wonderful descriptions and excellent realism. erahi.Books. Old West Photos. Weapons. Curioau
Temple Mound Blrdpoint 15c. Knife, ancient, ISti
I derive a certain amount of satisfaaion over Catalogue5c. Indltin Museum, Northbranch, Kansas.:
the fate of Herb Metier. Nice end of a rat.
Miscellaneous
The Inn was the best short short-story I’ve
REV. MILLER, Doctor Divinity, Bowbells, No. Dak.'
read in some months. Liked the tridcy, iron- 37 years medlumship, England, Australia. Six ques-
ic ending. I would like to see more stories tions and reading,$1. Lessons four dollars monthly
(degrees).
by Mr. Ernst.”
PEOPLE having lost hope or whose doctor has given
up,who desire absent metaphysical help, write to:
The Three Rover Boys ABSENT METAPHYSICAL HELP, Box 420, Saa
Diego, California.
Qifton Hall writes from Los Angeles: "I WHO IS THE MYSTERIOUS "KWO”? The
solution
consider Quest of the Starstone by Moore to this baffling mystery Is thrillingly told In one of the

and Kuttner the best yarn in the November

most startling stories ever written — THE MCK^
TERROR, In book form. Price 50c. WEIRD
TALES,
number. We’ve been waiting a long time for 840 North Michigan, Chicago, Illinois.

the return of Jirel and N. W. Smith, and to Novelties

have them on the same program is gratifying NEWEST SENSATION—19.38 Brain Teaser Book con-
taining Popular E.xclting Club and Parlor Games for
indeed. Can we have them soon again ? 'The —
conclusion of The Lake of Life takes second
families or parties; assorted; spicy medium polite.
Ideal for CMstmas parties. Order yours now. Onlv
—
10 cents, postpaid. CANADIAN-AMERICAN NOV-
spot. The theme was a trifle threadbare, but ELTIES. 122 Wellington SL, W., Toronto, Canada.
the effea was lusty and vigorous. Quinn’s
Living Buddhess is third best, with de Gran-
din continuing merrily on his spook-chasing Thrills! Mystery!
way. I was a little disappointed, on the Excitement!
other hand, with The Voyage of the Neu-
tralia. I think it might better have been titled
"THE MOON TERROR"
BOOK FORM—
(IN 50c)
The Three Rover Bo-^s from Planet to Planet.
, . . I’m still carrying the torch for ‘non-

climax-giving-away’ illustrations. There are WEIRD TALES

a couple of stories in every number the cul- IS THB ORIOINAIa AND LEADING
WEIRD STORY MAGAZINE
126 WEIRD TALES
minations of which are completely deflated Unguarded Moments
by a give-away picture. Can anything be
Franldin Earle Ham
writes from Desert
done about it?”
Center, California: has been with a great
''It

deal of entertainment and pleasure that I

Announce the Repriutd have read your fine magazine for the past
Lome W. Power writes from Windsor, three years. With invisible fingers it seems
Ontario: "I think that many readers will to into that thesaurus of w'ill-o’-
reach
support me in demanding that reprints be the-wisp, fantasmic dreams whiclt, to die
included in tlie 'coming next month’ list. dreamer, are vital, pulsing realities, perhaps
It is exasperating to have to wait until the matters of life and death; there to pluck
next month, meanwhile wondering w'hat the and bring into sliarp focus some of the weird
reprint w'ill be. Speaking of reprints, some beauty and horror that the subconscious self
of E. F. Benson’s stories would make excel- experiences at unguarded moments.”
lent ones. Paul Ernst’s Dread Summons
Dinosaur Bones
grabs first place for November, while Fin-
lay’s illustration for the tale is a 'humdinger.’ Dorothy C. Greene, of Valhalla, New
Bloch’s usual tale of grisly horror, while in- York, writes: "Have been reading ever WT
dicating originality and literary skill, cannot since it starred away back in the days when
compare with his sujserb Shambler from the I lived in a cave chewing on dinosaur bones

Stars. For some reason or otlicr, he has never and cave-bear steak. This is my first letter
been .able to equal that ghoulish masterpiece, to you, however, and it is an urgent request,
that horrendous and blood-chilling super-tale practically a demand, for a big, fat quarter-
of grotesque midniglit fantasy.” ly such as you published once in 1924, only
bigger, and with piles of illustrations. Am
enclosing my list of well-remembered stories
In a Suggesting Mood
which I would certainly love to read again.
Eugene Los Angeles, writes:
Benefiel, of . .When this bumper edition appears for
.

"How about an annual reprint edition of sale,you will hear my whoop of pure joy all
WT, say of one particular author’s works the way across the continent, so please do
selected by popular vote? If the idea takes not keep me waiting for it longer than you
hold, I nominate for first issue cither Love- can help.”
craft or Howard — preferably
view of the fact tliat a volume of HPL’s
Howard in
Circumventing the Hero
works is already on the way. And while I Robert Bloch writes from Milwaukee:
feel in a suggesting mood, how about try- "I noted Mr. Wilson’s homily in the Eyrie,
ing to do away with some of that printing widi his accusation that in the hero WT
on the cover of WT? A strip along tlie always wins. Might I politely toss the
bottom of the painting or drawing could be gauntlet? Let’s get down
and see to cases
utilized for the necessary lettering w'ithout what tlie Good Book reveals about Virtue
imposing it on the scene pictured by the Triumphant. Take the case of Henry Kutt-
artist, and it seems to me that this idea would ner not legally, of course. He can be
. . .

be heartily favored by the readers. I have convicted of murdering his protagonists right
noticed that many of your writers not, of — and left. He even has the effrontery to kill
course, your topnotchers —
feel they must me, without so much as asking my permis-
rationalize or explain the weird phenomena sion. Friend August Derleth seldom slips
they ijitroduce into their tales. Tliis, how- up on a chance to knife tlie charaaers in his
ever, can be found in any pulp detective tales. Certainly Clark Ashton Smith writes
thriller, and it is a shame to dissipate a well- many of his splendid yarns with little
built spine-tingling effea by telling the thought of 'the hero wins.’ Earl Peirce ex-
reader that it was accomplished by mirrors. hibits definitely sadistic tendencies in his
C. L. Moore, Bloch, Smith, Quinn, Hasse, stories; Hazel Heald swings a mean bludg-
and the late masters Howard and Lovccraft eon ;
Long and Wandrei always have been the
do not and did not destroy their effectiveness coroner’s little helpers. Such is the case, as
by lamely ending with a ‘proper’ explana- every informed reader knows, with Love-
tion, and they are easily fihe class of the work
craft’s — indeed,it is silly to think of a,

weird fiction field,'’ consummate artist like H. P. L. trifling witfi

 WEIRD TALES 127

the puerile notion of writing a tale about a

'hero.’ Whitehead never bothered with ‘pulp NEXT MONTH
limitations;’H. Warner Munn’s immensely
popular Werewolf of Ponkert tales were
founded on the fact that his demon in-
The Goddess
variably triunmhed; his torture studies were
superbly indifferent to hero-cliches. Francis
Flagg, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, Frank
Awakes
By Clifford Ball
Owen, and many others never spared the rod
when necessary. And there have been mul-
tiple similar examples. I
son has taken but a superficial survey of the
publication, or else he would reconsider this
fear that Mr. Wil- W
last July,
HEN "The

a torrent of
Thief of
was published in Weird Tales
letters
Forthe”

poured in
to the editor’s desk, entreating, de-
rash indiament when so many citations to
the contrary may be used. To my mind, the manding, and insisting that the intrep-
chief excellence of WT
is and always has id hero of that story be brought back
been that undue truckling to a 'hero wins’ in other tales for the readers of this
formula is not a policy at all.” magazine. Yielding to the pressure of
From an his admirers, Clifford Ball has brought
Old-time Reader
the tliief of Forthe back in a weird
Ralph Rayburn Phillips, of Portland, Ore-
^n, writes; "I desire to thank you for giv- novelette entitled "The Goddess
ing regularly to discriminating readers such Awakes.”
excellent stories as appear in Weird Tales.
I have been reading your splendid magazine
since it was first published, never miss an
issue. I have saved all of my copies and
T his
eery
is

and
a striking weird novelette,
fantastic and intensely
gripping, about a sinister stone idol in
value them highly. You never have disap- the form of a black panther, and a
pointed your readers; you have maintained race of women warriors. Those of you
the same high standard and have given us
the very best weird stories. Many of your
who have read Mr. Ball’s two previous
contributing writers are brilliant; some have stories in this magazine, '"rhe TTiief of
considerable mystical and occult knowledge Forthe” and "Duar the Accursed,”
as I well know, for I have been a student will not want to miss this fascinating
of these subjects and of Eastern philos- novelette. not a sequel, but is
'This is
tmhy for years. . . . The quality of your
a story complete in itself. It will ap-
iUustrations in Weird Tales is very high.
Virgil Finlay is truly a master, his teAnique pear in its entirety
is most unusual, his work is both beautiful in the February issue of
and weird. Margaret Brundage’s covers are
often beautiful; the June, 1933, cover was
exquisite, a masterpiece, jade and black with
WEIRD TALES
on sale January 1st
a faultless female figure, nude of course, but
To avoid missing your copy, clip and mail this
as it should be. There is something funda-
coupon today for SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION
mentally wrong with people who objea to
nude figures; tliey are not advanced and can
have no place in the Golden Age that is to
And now I want to express my WEIRD TA1E8
come. . . .
840 N. Mlehlgan Ato.
appreciation for a new and different type of Chicago, Dl*
Enclosed find $1.00, for which send me
the next
story by Seabury Quinn: Strange Interval. five issues of WETRD
TALES, to begin with the
Please let us have more different stories by February issue. (Special offer void unless remit-
tance is accompanied by coupon.)
tfiis very able writer. The omnipotent Jules
de Grandin who regularly vanquishes all the Name
Powers of Darkness that come from every- Address
where to infest Harrisonville, N. J., grows
aty state
tiresome. John Flanders in The Mystery of
128
the Last Guest, October, 1935, gave us a
story of horror that resembles the works of
the old masters Poe and Bierce.
more from John Flanders. H. P. Lov'ecraft
is the modern master of weird fiaion writing
in a cLiss by himself his stories of old New
;
England, wlicre I was born, make me wish
to return and explore some of the old towns.”
New Zealand Discovered
Roy New Zea-
B. Burdett, of Auckland,
land, writes: "It sure took you a long time
to findout that there is such a place as
N. Z. Anyway, we folks out here have been
! Concise
getting WT
every month since January this
year, and 1 guess that we must be thankful
for tliat much. Being a science-fiction fan
first and foremost, it was through that type
of literature tli.at I first heard of WT. I
have read (or I should say, have tried to
read) some of die other pulp mags that
print a lot of mystery drivel, and really it
was quite revolting. But then a Stf pen-pal
of mine who is also a rabid fan sent meWT
out a huge bunch of back numbers and con-
verted me. I have been going to write for
a long time, but it took the July issue with
its Finlay cover and illustrations to give me
that final urge. I cannot express in cold
print my praise of Finlay, but his style and
tones are admirably suited to the taste of
your publication. Inspiration is in his work,
and his nudes are beautiful v.'ichout a trace
of vulgarity. As with all other fans, my
idol was H. P. L., and although I have
only read about eight of his works, I am
beginning to realize the seriousness of his
passing. I think tlrat C. A. Smith made a truly
magnificent gesture in writing that symbolic
poem. To H. P. L. I am a keen admirer of
the mercurial Frcncliman J. dc Grandin, and
I hope to read another of his exploits in the
exceptionally near future. I have noticed
that a regular contributor to the Eyrie
Miss Hemkcn, and her quaint
Gertrude
spelling. 'Vv'ell, I re.td back somewhere in
my back numbers, where some guy flew off
the handle about it. I say, keep on with
'Trudy;' your letters are a humorous relief
from the more serious and more concise let-
ters. Clifford Ball, Robert Bloch and C. L.
Moore are the writers I like most, but
a difficult job trying to put one author be-
fore another, as they are all so good.”
WEIRD TALES
Ups and Downs
Charles Waldman, of Far Rockaway, New
Let’s have
York, writes: "I’ve October
just finished the
issue of Weird Tales and been disap-
I’ve
pointed in it. Keller’s Tiger Cat especially
is, to my way of thinking, an unweird, silly
yarn. Your issues have peculiar ups and
downs. I’ve noticed. One month good, next
bad. 'The September issue was excellent,
even the cover surpassed M. Brundage’s
usual efforts. According to formula there-
fore the next issue, November, should be
outstanding.”
Comments
Henry Hasse, of Indianapolis, writes:
"Eve noticed that your last seven or eight re-
prints have all been from past issues of WT.
The selections were admirable, but there’s
no reason why you should delve exclusively
into past issues for the reprint stories. There
are still a great many outside stories worthy
of your reprint department, which you could
make into one of the best parts of the maga-
zine.”
Dorothy Hoyt, of New York City, writes:
"Jirel and Northwest Smith were all they
should have been. Quest of the Starstone
was worth waiting for. My heart is set on
77tore Northwest Smith stories. Please.”
Jack Williamson writes from New Mex-
ico: "Keller’s Tiger Cat, in tlie current is-
sue, is a swell piece of work. It has the ar-
tistic simplicity that makes his best things
great.”
Nils H. Frome writes from Fraser Mills,
British Columbia: "I always get a kick out
of stories like —
The Inn mysterious happen-
ings that, like everything else in the world,
don’t leave you with more than a hint of
explanation. Life is like that —
only a much
better story if you can read it right.”
Norman Garrison, of Bridgeton, New Jer-
sey, writes: "Just a line to tell you your
magazine is getting better with the passing
is
of years. Your art work is wonderful, espe-
cially Finlay’s. Continue on your road to a
still better magazine.”
it, Most Popular Story
Readers, what is your favorite story in this
issue?The most popular Story in the No-
vember issue, as shown by your votes and
it is was Quest of the Starstone by those
letters,
two Weird Tales favorites, C. L. Moore
and Henry Kuttaer.
W. T.—
COMING NEXT MONTH
T he wood was heavy but not hard, and our tools cut through it easily. In fifteen
minutes we had forced a lengthwise girdle round the box, and bent to lift the lid.
A coat of hoarfrost fell away in flakes, and beneath it showed a glossy dome
with little traceries of rime upon it. Between the lace-like meshes of the gelid veil we
glimpsed a woman lying quiet as in sleep. There was a sort of wavering radiance about
her not entirely attributable to the icy envelope enclosing her. Rather, it seemed to me, she
matched the brilliant beams of the electric light with some luminescence of her own. Nude
she was as any Aphrodite sculptured by the master-craftsmen of the Isle of Melos a cloven ;

tide of pale-gold hair fell down each side her face and rippled over ivory shoulders, veiling
the pink nipples of the full-blown, low-set bosom and coursing down the beautifully shaped
thighs until it reached the knees. The slender, shapely feet were crossed like those on
mediaeval tombs whose tenants have in life made pilgrimage to Rome or Palestine; her
elbows were bent sharply so her hands were joined together palm to palm between her
breasts with fingertips against her chin. Oddly, I was conscious that this pallid, lovely
figure typified in combination the austerity of sculptured saint, lush, provocative young
womanhood and the innocent appeal of childhood budding into adolescence. Somehow, it
seemed to me, she had lain down to die with a trustful resignation like that of Juliet when
she drained the draft that sent her living to her family’s mausoleum.
"Nikakova!” whispered our companion in a sort of breathless ecstasy, gazing at the
quiet figure with a look of rapture.
"Hein?” de Grandin shook himself as though to free his senses from the meshes of a
”
dream. "What is this. Monsieur? A woman tombed in ice, a beautiful, dead woman
"She is not dead,’’ the other interrupted. "She sleeps.”
"Tiens,” a look of pity glimmered in the little Frenchman’s small blue eyes, "I fear it
isthe sleep that knows no waking, mon ami.”
"No, no, I tell you,” almost screamed the young man, "she’s not dead! Pavlovitch
assured me she could be revived. We
were to begin work tonight, but they found him
first, and —— ^

” . . .

This is an arresting which you cannot afford to miss. It is the

story, a different story,
story of a weird exploit of a great surgeon who was murdered before he could complete
his experiment. It will be published complete in the February issue of Weird Tales:

FROZEN BEAUTY
By Seabury Quinn
Also

THE GODDESS AWAKES THE DIARY OF ALONZO TYPER

By Clifford Ball By William Lumley
A striking weird novelette about a roving soldier What terrible fate befell the intrepid investigator
of fortune, a sinister, evil stone idol in the form who dared to brave the occult evil that lurked
of a black panther, and a race of women warriors. beyond the iron door in that old house?

THE STRAINGLING HANDS WORLD’S END

By M. G. Moretti By Henry Kuttner
The story of the Eye that was stolen from an idol A weird-scientific tale of travel through Time, and
in a jungle shrine, and the weird doom that pur- the terrific Black Doom, spawned in the heart of
sued those who stole it. a meteorite, that will menace our descendants. .

February Issue Weird Tales . . . Out January 1

 KNOWLEDGE
THAT HAS
ENDURED WITH THE
PYRAMIDS

A SECRET METHOD FOR

THE MASTERY OF LIFE

W
did its

started
HENCE

first

man on
came the knowledge that built the Pyramids
and the mighty Temples of the Pharaohs? Civiliza-
tion began in the Nile Valley centuries ago.
wisdom that
builders acquire their astounding
upward climb? Beginning with naught
his
Where

they overcame nature’s forces and gave the world its first
sciences and arts. Did their knowledge come from a race now
submerged beneath the sea, or were tihey touched with Infinite
inspiration? From what concealed source came the wisdom
that produced such characters as Amenhotep IV, Leonardo da
AMENHOTEP IV
FOUNDER OF EGYW-’i
Vinci, Isaac Newton, and a host of others ? MYSTERY SCHOOLS
Today it is known that they discovered and learned to inter-
pret certain Secret Methods for the development of their inner
power of mind. They learned to command the inner forces
within their own beings, and to master life. 'This secret art of
living has been preserved and handed down throughout the
ages. Today it is extended to those who dare to use its pro-
found principles to meet and solve the problems of life in
these complex times.

This Sealed Book —FREE

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gation. This Sealed Book tells how you, in the privacy of your own SCRIBE; B. S. B.
home, without interference with your personal aflfairs or manner of liv- The Rosicrucians Camorc)
San Jose» Caliloinia
ing, may receive these secret teachings. Not weird or strange practices,
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which I shall read as directed.
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NAME —
The ROSICRUCIANS ADDRESS -

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