Weird Tales v25n04

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cAtcA Gentury ofProgress

A A I kl CHAMPIONSHIP
A\S3A\IPI ^ “THE WORLD S
WON ON A WOODSTOCK
yUarie 0hie
1934 CHAMPION
INTfRNATlONAL COMMCRCIAl SCHOOLS CONTEST
and her
WOODSTOCK
Miss ThicmV victory was scored Against the
—
keenest of capabU competition a splendid
field of contestants from the country's reD>
resentative high schools, commercial schools,
colleges and universities. The writing ma>
chines used by the contestants were -34 L
C Smiths; 29 Woodstocks; 21 Royals; 20
Underwoods, and 2 Remingtons.
We congratulate Miss Thiem on her earned
and well deserved honor.
” nCrPI QUALITY AND

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A MAGAZINE OF THE BIZARRE AND UNUSUAL
registered in U.&^»VrENT OFFICE — .-.
[ volume 25 CONTENTS FOR APRIL, 1935 Number 4"|
Cover Design M. Brundage

Illustrating a scene in "The Man Who Was T wo Men”
The Man Who Was Two Men Arthur William Bernal 402
A story of the next sensational development in radio after television
The Hand of the O’Mecca Howard Wandrei 425

An uncanny story about the weird figures that beset Elof Bocak one night in the fog
Shadows of Blood Eando Binder 434
A grim story of torture in the cruel days of the Roman Emperor Caligula
Dear Ghosts Clarence Edwin Flynn 447

Verse
Lord of the Lamia (part 2) ,
. . . Otis Adelbert Kline 448
A colorful weird mystery-tale of an eery adventure in present-day Egypt
Dream-Stair Robert Nelson 465
Verse
The Last Hieroglyph Clark Ashton Smith 466
A grim figure strode like the approach of doom through the houses of the astrologer's horoscope
The New World Richard F. Searight 477
Verse
Out of the Eons Hazel Heald 478
A tale of elder magic and a monstrous idol —a shuddery story of primordial evil
The Aztec Ring John Flanders 496

A story of the grim and terrible conflict that took place one night in a pawnbroker' s shop
The Man Who Could Not Go Home L. E. Frailey 501
A fascinating, human story about the Great War
An Empty House at Night Cristel Hastings 507
Verse
Weird Story Reprint
The Canal Everil Worrell 508
One of the finest vampire stories ever written
The Eyrie 524
T!he readers express their opinions about this magazine
Published monthly by the Popular Fiction Publishing Company, 2457 E. Washington Street, Indianapolis, Ind.
tered as second-class matter March 20i 1923, at the post office at Indianapolis, Ind., under the act of March 3, 1879.
Single copies, 25 cents. Subscription, $3.00 a year in the United States, $4.00 a year In Canada. English office:
Charles Lavell, 13, Serjeants’ inn. Fleet Street. E. O. 4, London. The publishers are not responsible for the loss
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tents of this magaeine are fully protected by copyright and must not be reproduced either wholly or in part
Without permission from the publishers
NOTE—All manuscripts and communications should be addressed to the publishers^ Chicago office at 840
North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IlL FARNSWORTH WRIGHT, Editor.
Copyright, 1935, by the Popular Fiction Publishing Company.
COPYRIGHTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
WEIRD TALES ISSUED Ist OF EACH MONTH

W.T.-1 4os
an Who Was Two Men
By ARTHUR WILLIAM BERNAL
An amazing weird-scientific story that will hold your intense interest
—probably the most entertaining story about
radio ever written
H, I GUESS it does sound weird, tache. It sounded unutterably strange,

B doesn’t it?” asked the man who even to me whose business it is to hear
was called Harry Freest. incredible narratives — to whom fantastic
I nodded acquiescence, watching his stories are everyday commonplaces. Yes,

•white teeth as they chewed nervously inured as I was to such ravings, I had
upon the ragged fringe of a black mus- now come across something which far
402
a
THE MAN WHO WAS TWO MEN 403
overshadowed all others I had ever heard.

"It — it’s quite remarkable,” I said • Arthur William Bernal is a young
without exaggeration; then I added, "for author, yet he has already distin-
how long a time were you two separate guished himself as a writer of fasci-
men —one individual, living two distinct nating science-fiction. His weird-
lives?” scientific novel, "Vampires of the
The man Harry Freest looked
called Moon," won enthusiastic acclaim
me straight in the eye and answered in a when it was printed in Weird Tales a
taut half-whisper, stilt am!” year ago. This young California auth-
The air was quite warm, yet I could or presents an amazing story of what
not repress a sudden shudder. might happen in the near future—
"I see that you’d like to hear the whole striking tale of the next forward step
story, wouldn’t you?” went on the man in radio after television. "The Man
called Harry Freest. "Well, all right, I Who Was Two Men," published com-
don’t mind telling a sympathetic person plete in this issue, is an intensely
like you about it. You sit down here and human story, presenting a very real
make yourself comfortable,” he motioned dilemma. VVhat would you do if you
to the narrow bunk on which he slept, were suddenly changed by science
"and tell you everything.
I’ll No, I’ll Into two men, each complete with the
stand up; I talk better if I stroll up and body, the brains, the emotions and
down a bit as I speak.” the memory that yon have now? This
As he cleared his throat as though pre- novelette tells in interest-gripping
paring tomake a long speech, I eased my- foshionhow Harry Freest met that
self onto the bed he had indicated. I problem when a radio experiment
glanced up expectantly into bis bright, split his personality into two iden-
restless eyes. tical beings. We recommend the
"All right,” the man
Harry called story to you.
Freest said again, "but if I’m going to
tell you this story I’m going to do it in
my own way, in my own words, you other were fast paling. A discouraged
sigh escaped his lips.
understand. I don’t wish to be interrupt-
ed till I’m all finished. Agreed?”
"I beg your pardon, my dear sir,” re-
"Agreed.”
marked a high thin voice from beside
The other began slowly to pace to and him, unexpectedly, "but isn’t your name
Freest?”
fro within the small room, while his eyes
appeared to be searching the floor for the
Freest looked up. A slow smile of
recognition chased the worried frown
words he needed. "All right, now,” he
said. "Listen carefully to what I have to
from his face as he beheld a plump little
say.”
figure attired in a sport-back coat and
rather tight-fitting, shiny, blue serge
trousers.
The Amazing Dilemma of Harry Freest
"Doctor —Doctor Forthet!”
H arry freest, unemployed,
on a bench in the park, was
dolefully at two sparrows quarreling over
seated
staring ly.
little man, jovial-
"Exactly,” agreed the
"Doctor Emmett D. Forthet, at your
service.”
a stale crust of bread. He had lost his "Why, how are you, doctor? Won’tyou
job, and his hopes of soon getting an- sit down?”
—
404 iWEIRD TALES
The paunchy little man in the tight time during those dialogs of our previous
pants carefully dusted off a portion of the acquaintance, the name of Porthet — or,
bench and seated himself, his round face more strictly speaking, the name of Em-
agleam with pleasure. "Well," he said mett D. Porthet, Ph. D., F. R. S. — is one
pertly, at once, his eyes twinkling from which ranks among those foremost on the
behind octagonal lenses, "you, Harry honor rolls of science. You yourself are
Freest, are just the man I have been look- well aware of my accomplishments in
ing for. Have you any porcelain fillings such widely diversified fields as organic
in your mouth? No? Then, how would chemistry, medicine, and television, are
you like to earn one thousand dollars for you not?
a meager half-hour’s work this evening?” "Now,” this cherub of the scientific
Preest’s head jerked up as though he world tripped on, pausing only long
had been jabbed with a pin. "Uh? Say enough to take breath, "in the past five
that again, doc!" years, I have run across several startling
"I mean it,” insisted Porthet seriously. discoveries, all proceeding from my ex-
He cast a bird-like glance over his shoul- tensive work in the transmission of ob-
der to assure himself that no person was jects through space by means of electro-
”
within hearing distance, then resumed in magnetic impulses
a low voice. "I have urgent need for a "You mean radioing solids, don’t you,
man’s services tonight — a man who is doaor?” Freest interrupted.
willing to take a very little risk for a fat "Exactly, my dear sir, exactly. But to
and satisfying sum of good round dol- the point. Never let it be said of Doctor
lars. ventured to this park especially to
I Emmett Porthet that he dallies with ex-
pick up some unemployed fellow who cess verbiage when occasion demands ex-
seemed trustworthy; but now that I have pediency. Now, my dear sir, do you realize
found you, my dear Mr. Freest, I feel my that you have the honor to be the very first
search is terminated.” to compliment me on my discovery
"Risk, eh? Some experiment, doctor?” of transmitting three-dimensional objects
"Exactly —an extremely significant ex- through empty space to resolidify them in
periment,” pursued the smaller man im- a receiving-bowl as far away from the
portantly. "An
experiment which will broadcasting unit as desirable? —that you
if successful, and I give you my word that are the first person to whom I have con-
it can not fail —

an experiment which will, fided the fact that precisely one year ago
I say, astound the universe and open up this coming August, — I Emmett D. Por-
for mankind fields as yet undreamed of. thet —accomplished the heretofore impos-
Why, this discovery of mine, my sible feat of broadcasting a can of con-
”
dear densed vegetable soup from one part of
"But what about the thousand dol- my laboratory across some thirty feet of
lars?” put in Freest, his interest in the intervening space, to reassemble it in toto
material considerably outweighing his at the other end?
curiosity in the scientific. "You are surprized, my dear sir, you
—
"Exaaly the thousand dollars. I was are astounded, are you not? Exactly. But
justcoming to that,” chirped the cherubic that is not all. No, indeed. Is it like
little man of science, wagging a fat fore- Doctor Porthet to be content to publish
finger beneath Preest’s nose. "Well, Mr. the results of so trifling an achievement
Freest, as I have doubtless told you some- before he had plunged deeper into the
—
problem — to itsyou wish?

very crux, if ment, "yes. Your somewhat inelegant
Emphatically no, my dear Mr. Freest, em- terms rather inadequately describe the
phatically no! Not Doctor Emmett D. miracle which I on that occasion per-
Porthet!” formed. The piglet was, as you suggest,
"But what’s this about the thousand broadcast a good deal after the manner
dollars?’’ Freest inserted hastily while the of a musical note. Now, as to what he
round-faced orator paused for his second poor little creature —
looked like, that I was
wind. just coming to. In every lineament, eyes,
"I am coming to that directly, my dear
ears, nose and whiskers —
even in minuter
details such as nerve-fibers and corpuscles
As was saying, a year ago I suc-
sir. I
ceeded in tr^smirting an inanimate ob-

— the brave little fellow was in flawless
condition when I picked him up from the
ject through space and solids, to be com-
receiving-bowl at the conclusion of the
pletely reassembled, unharmed, at the re-
ceiving end of my laboratory unit. But experiment. 'That is, my dear Freest, ah,
was only the beginning. Day after

he was in absolutely flawless condition
that
day I slaved like the martyr to science
except for one thing — ah, he was, alas,
deceased.”
that I am, forging ever farther toward
that gleaming goal which I had set for "Oh.” There was a world of expression
myself. And in my heart of hearts, my in that single syllable as uttered by Harry
dear sir, I knew that the unfolding saolls Freest.
of time must eventually bring hard-earned "Yes, he was dead. But” the chubby —
but appropriate rewards to my genius.’’ forefinger jumped into action once more
"But what happened? Did you
’’ — "I had conquered my invisible and re-
"Exactly. At eight o’clock on the eve- lentless enemy. Nature, not only to the
ning of April first, this year, I solved the extent of reducing organic matter to mere
difficult problem of disintegrating a chlo- vibration, but actually to the point of re-
roformed guinea-pig into its component integrating those selfsame vibrations in

pulsations, broadcast them helter-skelter exact order of their transmittance across
through the air, picked up these invisible the ether. Do you see, my dear Mr.
vibrations of organic matter in my receiv- Freest?”
ing-unit, condensed them — maniere de "Yeah, I getMr. Freest. "He
it,” said
dire —and reintegrated the unconscious —
was perfectly O. K. only he was dead!”
little hero of the animal world within "But once again, sir, that was merely
the catching-bowl!’’ the beginning. Three short months later
— two nights ago, to be more explicit, at
A GLIMMER of uneasy suspicion was

dawning in the mind of the worthy
Porthet’s audience of one. "You mean,
precisely 11:45 p. m. Pacific Standard
—
Time I surmounted my final obstacle
and learned how to disintegrate that un-
doctor, thatyou broadcast a guinea-pig seen something, that bit of life-force, that
through a microphone and tuned in on divine spark called the soul, if you will,
him with a receiving-set across the room, along with the rest of the animal and
as if he was a piece of music?” demanded broadcast it, empty space as an
too, across
Freest breathlessly. "What did he look etheric impulse! Are you not astounded,
like? — I mean, was there any static?” Mr. Freest, to be talking thus informally
"In answer to your first query, my dear to one so great as the brilliant Doaor
sir,” nodded the scientific cherub in agree- Emmet Porthet — ^the man who broadcasts
— —
406 WEIRD TALES

living creatures as others transmit sounds — I this night seek the services of some
and pictures?” great hero who will volunteer to let me
"Then two nights ago you sent and re- broadcast him through but thirty short feet
ceived a guinea-pig alive?” asked Freest, of empty air! In appreciation of this timely
in unbounded amazement. aid, I will, besides not neglecting a men-
"No,” corrected the precise Porthet. tion of his full name in each and every
"Alive, yes —but not a guinea-pig this
newspaper account of
upon this fortunate individual,
my work, bestow
without ob-
time. No,my dear sir, two nights ago my
faithful and courageous house-cat, The- ligation, the handsomely generous amount
of one thousand United States silver dol-
resa, became an immortal in the corridors
lars or their equivalent in paper currency!
of scientific fame, when she leapt, in the
form of darting vibration, from one end What say you, Mr. Freest?”
of my laboratory across more than thirty
reest stared through the gathering
feet of thin air, safely into
bowl — alive and unharmed. Think of
my receiving-
it!
F dusk at his beaming would-be ben-
And in proof, my dear sir, just allow me efactor without responding. A thousand
to show you these,” a plump pink wrist
dollars —
cold cash! A thousand good
twisted itself from its sleeve to bare three

round cartwheels in a time of need! Ah,
fine, red scratches, where the ungrateful
that was something. But —
to be broadcast
Theresa had plunged her feline finger-

through space? Reduced to mere vibra-
tions broadcast? That also was some-
nails, in astonishment, no doubt, over her
thing. Something to be wary of.
abrupt ride through the ether. "And
now
” "Uh— well,” began Freest. "Great
"And now, about the thousand dol-
—
Scott, doctor I don’t know about this. I
lars?” asked Freest hopefully, raising his

—could —uh I
”
eyes from the woimds of this martyr to "Exactly,” chirped the portly Forthet
science. with a snap of the fingers. "Exactly.
"Exaaly. what I was coming to.

Just You who are
wish a demonstration. You,
It is growing dark, and I am growing about to brave the GreatUnknown in the
cold. I will dally no longer with history worthy cause of science you, who are —
— and what I have been telling you is his- about to become the first human to dare
tory, my dear Mr. Freest but will ad- — complete disintegration of your earthly
vance without delay to the very heart of —
body ^you, I say, desire a trial test, do
this matter which concerns us both so you not? I compliment you, my dear Mr.
Very
vitally. well, the thousand dollars. Freest, upon your sagacity and good judg-
Now, as you are doubtless cognizant, I ment. Your sagacity in wishing to view a
have amassed, through some modest con- trial demonstration, and your good judg-
tributions of mine in the field of true-color ment in expressing yourself so unselfishly

television, a small but tidy sum of profit willing to dare to do for the great god Sci-
—worldly recognition of my scientific en- ence, my dear sir!”

deavors, if you will. "Whoa,” demurred Freest as the other
"Now,” the glow of triumphant pink him
rose and clutched firmly by one arm.
”
checks was matched by the answering "I didn’t say
gleam in the eyes of Harry Freest, "so "Tut, tut, my dear sir,” the genius in
anxious am I to complete my experiments tight pants cut him off with superb non-
— to tie up the final loose ends — as it were chalance, "none of your thanks to me for
singling out a mere average man like you loose by a careless foot, spoiling a life’s
for so great an opportunity as this. No work. I shall explain the —the dimension-
indeed, Emmett Porthet seeks not praise al-transmission equipment in a moment,
from any man for his greatest deeds. but right now I must retrieve that fearless
Come, my dear sir, let us visit my humble veteran of countless experiments, The-
house of science." resa. Here kitty, kitty.”
Freest reluctantly allowed himself to Freest marveled at the dexterous man-

be dragged from the park, while his gra- ner in which the chubby Porthet crept in
cious benefaaor showered upon him a and out among the tentacles on the floor
brilliant monolog of verbal gems. in pursuit of the bashful Theresa. But
Harry Freest gnawed the fringe of his the dauntless little experimenter was not
mustache helplessly, and gazed in bewil- to be trifled with,and he finally emerged
derment at the intricate mazes of wires, triumphantly from beneath a table with a
lei of copper wire dangling from his neck
tubes, and dials heaped about him in
seemingly endless profusion. In all the and a shrilly protesting Persian cat in his
vast space of a thirty-foot room there ap- arms.
peared to be no single area in which one "When does the charming Mrs. Freest
might move about, unless he risked en- expect you home?” inquired the scientist,
tanglement in some mysterious mound of thrusting the unwilling Theresa into his
scientific paraphernalia. Freest under- visitor’s lap while he donned a once white
stood now for tlie first time how the laboratory apron.
paunchy little Porthet could keep half a "Oh, we just ate, and the wife went to
dozen experiments going simultaneously. the movies with her sister. Not for hours
He also observed that being broadcast in yet.” Freest batted a few fluffs of cat fur
the form of vibrations seemed to be about away from his face as he answered.
the only possible method to journey across
the wire jungle on the floor, unless per- HERE we are,” remarked Porthet as
haps the worthy doctor made use of some A he enclosed the rapidly shedding
sort of road map to make the precarious Theresa in a small wire cage and stood her
trip. in a shallow porcelain receptacle on the
Freest, wading through a mass of ap- floor. "Now, my dear sir, how much of
parently useless things in what might in this material,” he waved a pink hand at
ordinary quarters be termed a junk-heap, the wild disarray surrounding the mewing
doubtfully eyed a massive panel studded Theresa, "is familiar to you?”
with various-colored signd bulbs and "Well,” somewhat falteringly, "that
enough nickeled levers and switches to thing there is some sort of a tube — looks
control every railroad in the world. like akind of X-ray machine. And over
"Doaor Porthet," he pleaded eventual- there is a wire leading to this bell-like
ly, "please don’t make any more speeches thing up here, which looks as if it might
tonight —but can you tell me what all this be an air-purifier or something, and The-
stuff is about?” resa is sitting in a porcelain bowl, and up
Porthet chuckled proudly. "Brush those on top there is some kind of new-fangled
”
coils bench over there and be
off that aerial
seated. But do not touch anything, I "Alas!” bemoaned the eminent Porthet,
warn you, because I have several delicate pursing his lips in sorrow. "I see that
connections which might easily be jerked your scientific education has been sadly
408 WEIRD TALES
neglected. Well, my dear sir, just what be shaken down in such a manner by cer-
is your knowledge on the subject of radio tain periodic, rhythmic vibrations of tre-
transmission.^” mendous velocity that it will rapidly as-
"Why, of course, I —I’m in favor of

”
it; sume its basic form — etheric impulses.
I suppose it’s been very useful in You have no doubt heard that it is pos-
"No, no, my dear Mr. Freest. To put

sible for certain —
sounds vibrations, that
my meaning in more precise words: just

is—emitted by the violin to completely
shatter a glass vase or a window-pane in
how complete is your knowledge of what
occurs in a radio studio when a program
the room in which it is played. Well, that
is the first step in the process wnich I have
is broadcast?”
so rudely outlined to you.
"Oh, you mean theU! Well, all I know
is that, say, when a man
sound sings, the
"Now this,” the dapper little gentle-
of his voice is changed to some kind of

man pointed grandly to the apparatus
which Freest had likened to an X-ray
impulses called radio waves, and that
machine, "sends forth a bombardment of
these waves travel with the speed of light
and spread in all directions at once like
certain high-frequency rays which, when
big bubbles issuing from the station.
upon the atomic structure of
they impinge
a material set up that specific
object,
Then, when those waves strike an aerial,
they travel down it to the receiving-set,

rhythm among its component electrons,
sound waves by which I mentioned, until that atomic
are changed back again to
the tubes and things, and come out of the structure breaks down completely under
the influence of its internal disturbance, is
speaker just as they sounded before they
disintegrated, if you will, till naught re-
were picked up by the microphone in the
mains within that porcelain bowl but
studio. I guess that’s about all.”
"I see. How very unfortunate!” mused pulsing vibrations — the raw stuff from
the cherub of science regretfully. '"That
which matter is built. Do you follow me?
rather complicates matters for me in any
Watch!”
attempted explanation of my marvelous A
careful scrutiny of dials and a setting
invention here. Oh, well. Anyway, my of shining levers; then the bespectacled
dear sir, allow me to inform you of these Forthet plunged home a master switch on
few simple facts. If you had a fuller the broad paneling beside him. ’The drone
understanding of the man-made miracle and whine of tremendous dynamos sound-
of radio broadcasting, you would find it ed in Freest’s ears, and as the long room
immeasurably easier to grasp the gist of began trembling gently beneath their
what I am driving at. For this machine powerful purr, he paled slightly, wonder-
I have created operates on almost exactly ing uneasily if the entire laboratory were
the same fundamental principles, you see. liable to slip into that "raw stuff from
"But first, my friend,” the semaphoric which matter is built.”

pink digit was at work again, waving But nothing imusual occurred — at
itself beneath the generous nose of the at- least, not at that moment. Doctor For-
tentive Harry "heed you this. All
Freest, thet pottered about the bulbous glass tube,
matter, I have found, is nothing more nor making several adjustments in a mechan-
less than varying combinations and types ism at its base, and finally trained it on
—
of etheric vibrations to put it crudely, so the metal cage and its terrified Fersian
that you may understand me. Every exist- contents.
ing thing — metal, flesh or vegetable —can "Filing up a good deal of voltage for
this machine, my dear sir,” smiled the another moment the animal began to
round-faced gentleman while he removed grow semi-transparent and her crouching
and meticulously polished his glasses with form trembled violently into an extremely
a silken handkerchief. hazy indistinctness. Then, right before
Freest stared without comment. Freest’s startled eyes, Theresa —
not with-
"All right, Are we ready now?”
sir. out visible reluctance, it must be admitted
the cherub chirped at last and stepped — ^slowly melted out of sight!
behind the thick proteaive shield in back
of the monstrous tube. Freest made haste “>’T^ HERE, you see?” The cherub of sci-
to follow. "Now, sir, if you will just A ence was elated. "We have now
keep an eye on Theresa there, you will completed the most difficult portion of our
soon witness a spectacle that will be worth experiment. Naught remains of the lit-
writing to one’s home about, as they say tle Theresa but a shimmer of vibration.”
in the vernacular, eh, my dear Mr. What he said was true. Theresa as a
Freest?” personality was quite gone, and in her
"Go on,” urged that individual, con- place within the glistening porcelain
sumed by curiosity, "let’s see the thing shell, where the snapping purple glow
work.” bathed it with its weird sheen, was a hud-
dle of hazy pulsations, reminding Harry

"Right you are, my dear sir. There.
Freest of those heat undulations which
Just look at that!” Chubby fingers
rise from a desert on a blistering day. Of
worked buttons and switches.
the cat’s cage, also, there was no trace.
Of a sudden a lurid, bristling purple
glare was emitted by the angrily glowing "Wha —^what happens now?” demand-
tube, its eery light converging upon and ed Freest as soon as he had accustomed
completely engulfing the lunette of por- himself to the uncanny vision in the send-
celain that held the crouching cat and her ing-bowl. He glanced inquiringly at For-
tiny prison. In breathless fascination thet’s beaming face, which in the dazzling
Freest gaped, wide-eyed, while great refleaion of the purple glare, looked
sparks of blue- white flame writhed noisily something like the full moon over fairy-
about the lower edges of the sending- land.
bowl. "Exactly. What happens now, you

Theresa, every hair on her body erect ask,” glibly supplied the worthy Forthet,
with rage and fright, was frantically mew- wagging his plump finger to punctuate
ing her protest against being reduced to a his remarks. “Well, my dear sir, that,”
mere etheric disturbance. the cherub indicated a queerly glowing
"Hush, Theresa,” cautioned her master metal grid ensconced within the bell-
with severity, "you are spoiling the ex- shaped hood above the sending-bowl, "is
periment.” what corresponds to the microphone in
Theresa’s lithe body began to quiver the customary broadcasting-studio. It is
under the flood of mystic purple light. what might be termed something of a
as
She looked suddenly very ill. Abruptly dimensional-microphone; one for the pur-
Freest sucked in his breath. 'Theresa, purpose of picking up the basic vibrations of
pler than ever and caterwauling discord- a physical object, just as a regulation
antly, was beginning to get a trifle blurry microphone picks up the vibrations of
of outline, like a moving-picture whidi —
sound and a very pretty bit of work I
had accidentally slipped out of focus. In did on it too, I may remark, en passant.
— —
410 fWEIRD TALES
"But to press on. Now, when musical sucked — if you’ll excuse the vulgarity of
notes are produced in a broadcasting- the expression, my dear Mr. Freest
studio, what happens to them? I shall in- sucked, I say, into the grid, they are im-
form you, briefly. Those notes are a dis- mediately translated into electrical im-
tiubance in the atmosphere — a series of pulses and are thus rendered ready for
pressures against the air, so to speak instant release as electromagnetic radio
which, in traveling outward from their waves.”
source, encounter a properly stationed "Are they broadcast in all directions
microphone and are then transposed from like a bubble?” demanded Freest con-
an air pressure to an electrical pressure. fusedly.
Wires now receive these electrical im-
"Exactly, my dear Mr. Freest. Exactly
pulses and carry them to apparatus trans-
forming them into electromagnetic waves,
the term for it —
^hurled outward in all
directions like an expanding bubble! And
which the sending-antenna next radiates now, follow me, if you please, across the
into space in all directions. With the
laboratory to the receiving-bowl, where
amazing speed of light they now leap we shall fling Theresa to the winds, as it
acros? great distances of void until they
were; and then reintegrate the brave little
are collected by a receiving-antenna and
creature after she has traveled in the form
are re-formed into electrical impulses in-
of etheric impulses across thirty feet of
side a wire, once more. These wires con-
space. Come.”
nect with the set, and therein the loud-
Freest held his breath and made him-
speaker finally reconverts the elearic sig-
self as narrow as possible while the two
nals into sounds which are interpreted by
threaded their precarious way through the
the human ear as music.
jungle of wire, down between walls of
"Very well. At the closing of this
high-piled scientific apparatus.
switch here upon which I have my hand,
something very similar to what
related will occur to the pulsing vibra-
tions of valiant little Theresa, there in the
I have just
T he receiving-bowl, as far as Freest

could determine, was almost a dupli-
cate of the sending-unit. Voicing this
porcelain bowl. To be explicit, when this
observation, he received an answer in the
switch makes contact, that grid up there affirmative.
will create a — a vibrational suction, if you "Exaaly. 'This, the reintegrator, simply
will allow the employment of such an in-
acts in the same manner as the sending-
adequate term —a vibrational suction
bowl, only it is operated in reverse ratio.
whiA will cause it to absorb within itself
And, of is no vibratory ray
course, there
the component vibrations of Theresa, to-
needed at end of the mechanism.
this
gether with those of her imprisoning cage.
Further, as you can not see by casual in-
So!”
spection, in the grid above a translator, or
The plump wizard plunged home the condenser of component vibrations, is so
indicated switch,and Theresa’s handful situated as to focus upon the center of the
of component were swept up-
vibrations porcelain shell below. This I have clever-
ward, to vanish in the hooded grid like ly arranged so that it will operate concur-
a cloud of dust drawn inside a vacuiun rently with the receiving-apparatus, and
cleaner. so, as fast as the vibrations are received
"Now,” continued Porthet proudly, they are built up into matter in the bowl.
"when the object’s vibrations have been Are there any other questions?”
—
"Well, this thing over here —what is "Just another tiny cog in the vast mechan-
it?” pondered Freest. "It looks the same ism of service which I am for ever build-
as the reintegrator to me.” ing for humanity’s use. But, my dear Mr.
"And that is exactly what it is. I was Freest, since you have eaten already and
just coming to that. The other is a spare I have not, will you allow me a brief
receiver, as it were; but of late I have respite to prepare a hasty snack so that I
been having no trouble at all with this one may alleviate the unwelcome pangs of
and so, of course, there has been no need hunger? Then, after I have partaken of
of it. Be careful not to touch any of its prandial nourishment, we shall transact
switches, although I hardly think it is our little business. All I need to com-
being supplied with current at present, plete my experiment is the successful
anyway. But now, watch here carefully.” transmission and reintegration of a living
human!”
Porthet pulled back the lever which
"Oh, but ” protested Freest uncer-
sent the receiving-bowl into silent readi-
ness. A second later, as he plunged home tainly.
the sending-switch that would release "Tut, tut,” the cherub in tight pants
Theresa’s vibrations and whiz them remonstrated gently. "I know how eager
through space, there followed an ear- you must be to perform the journey
splitting crackle of sound like the crash through the ether, but let us wait until a
of lightning. The deafening roar sub- poor old man has partaken of adequate
sided almost at once, and scarcely had the refreshment. Now, not another word
thunderous reverberations died away, . . . not a word. Excuse me, please.”
when Theresa and her
W
cage sprang into
abrupt existence in the lunette of gleam- HILE the rotund Porthet prepared a
ing porcelain. meal from his stock of canned
"Why, she is reintegrated — or what- goods. Freest roved thoughtfully about
ever it is!” cried Freest excitedly. the crowded room investigating the "di-
"Of course.” There was not a trace of mensional transmitter” at close range.
offense in the gracious Porthet’s tones at Porthet had been careful to shut down
that insinuating remark from his visitor. the power so that no inadvertent twisting
"Reintegrated. Exactly.” of dials or nudging of levers could cause
Doctor Porthet wheezed painfully as any mishap. While Freest examined the
he stooped to free Theresa from her dis- various curious units of the remarkable
tasteful bondage. "Nobly done, my brave invention, he mulled over in his mind the
little kitten,” he complimented as he re- generous offer of the inventor-host.
leased the catch on the cage door. The- was horrible to contemplate what
It
resa quickly sprang out and scurried from might happen if his vibrations got meshed
sight among a nest of boxes. Porthet care- in the gears or something, should he vol-
fully set the empty cage away on a high unteer for the experiment. Yet a thou-
shelf. sand dollars was a lot of money and such a
"Man, that’s — that’s colossal!” ex- vast sum would come in mighty handy at
claimed the admiring Freest, but the scien- present. But being reduced to vibration
tific cherub, glowing like a happy infant, — broadcast through the sfir like a cook-
waved a deprecatory hand. ing-recipe! Well, a thousand simoleons
"Tut, my dear fellow,” the portly Por- couldn’t be earned without some effort
thet beamed with charming modesty^ some risk. And after all, what was there
—
412 WEIRD TALES

to be so greatly feared? The trip lasted Benny’s got that! Let’s get going, eh?
only half a dozen seconds, and Theresa I’m getting nervous.”
had made it twice now with apparently "Nothing to get nervous about, I as-
no ill effects. However, suppose anything sure you,” chided Porthet, inspecting one
did go wrong! A thousand dollars, of the two receiving-bowls and preparing
though . . .
it for use. "Look at me — I’ve got my
By the time the good doctor had com- entire scientific goal at stake — yet I’m not
pleted his supper, Harry Freest had the least bit nervous. Ah, now if you will
formed his decision. In response to the be so kind as to step this way, we shall
scientist’s inquiry about his readiness to soon be at the thing.”
proceed at once with "their little busi- As if to prove that the temerarious wiz-
ness,” he was able to make unhesitating ard was not shaky in the slightest degree,
reply. he whistled cheerfully as he primed the
"O. K., doc, sold! Let’s get at it, before sending-unit for its ultimate triumph.
I come to and back out. Do I take off my Trembling, but buoyed up by the cheery
clothes?” sight of the crisp, cool heap of currency.
"No, my dear sir,” said Porthet hap- Freest plucked impatiently at his mus-
pily. "Removal of your clothes will not tache and shifted dubiously from one foot
be necessary. There on that table will be to the other while he watched.
the thousand dollars, and here is a pen A minute later, the chipper Doctor
and an agreement. Just sign here on the Porthet straightened up with a sigh. He
dotted line, and our little compact is uttered a low, middle-aged chuckle of
sealed.” satisfaction. 'The great experiment was
"What’s this thing I’m signing?” asked about to begin.
Freest, eyes glued to the enticing stack of Harry Preest’s teeth were chattering,
greenbacks which the chubby genius was but he manfully stepped over the edge of
transferring from his safe. the porcelain shell and stood upright in
"Just a mere matter of form, my dear the sending-bowl. He felt very silly, and
Mr. Freest,” smiled the doctor disarming- not a little panic-stricken. His head, he
ly as he pocketed the document in ques- found, just fitted nicely beneath the grid
tion. "A little agreement to the effect and was shrouded completely by the pro-
that if any untoward accident should be- hood suspended over it.
tective
fall either of us during the course of the "All right, my dear sir,” glowed the
experiment, the other shall not be held genius with the paunch. "I think we are
responsible for Mainly for your own
it. ready to commence, are we not?”
protection, Mr. Freest, don’t you see?” —
"Oh, ah wait a minute,” Preest’s
"Yes, I see,” said Freest, who did noth- stammered retort was muffled sepulchrally
ing of the sort. "Now, anything else?” by the great hood about his head. "Let’s
"Oh, yes! You say you have no porce- not —not be too hasty, Porthet. I
”
lain your mouth

fillings in — and how "Tut, tut. Nonsense, my dear Mr.
about a watch? The vibratory beam is ad- Freest,” piped Porthet, then added dra-
justed so as not to affect porcelain or matically,"Remember, it is for science
glass, you see.” and a thousand dollars!”
"Nope, no porcelain; only silver and a Freest gulped. "I —
I guess I’m ready
speck of gold. No watch either Ûncle — now,” he choked hurriedly, thinking hard
of the neat stack of greenbacks on thp stiff as a wooden Indian, with his head in
table. "Let’s go — quick!’’ the confines of the grid-hood. Cautiously,
$0 as not to damage anything about him,
"Right you are, my dear sir. Now!"
he ducked and peered, first, down
slightly
W ITH the drone of dynamos throb-

bing heavily in his ears, Freest did
not hear the clicking of the switch which
the long -length ofroom across which he
had so mysteriously traveled, then at the
round face of the portly Forthet who
stood, hand on lever, staring in his direc-
operated the giant bulb, whose vibratory
impulses were to disrupt his entire atomic tion.
structure. But he winced a trifle and a But Freest’s reassuring smile froze on
tingling sensation skipped down his spine his lips, for Forthet, his eyes like huge
as, amid a sputter and crackle of sparks, black buttons in a white soup plate, was
the lurid purple glare drenched his frame not looking at him, but at something be-
with its mystic forces. yond. And that something beyond held
No sooner had the eery glimmer of more than a soup-plateful of terror for
light swirled hungrily over him than the rotund genius.

Harry Freest felt as though he were being Slowly, color drained back into the
given a swift ride on the hand-grip of a full-moon face until it shone with a rich-
super-riveting gun. This terrible jarring hued purple surpassing that emitted by
sensation persisted for less than ten sec- the wonderful glass bulb at the opposite
onds; then the torturing twinge and- jolt end of the room. Freest watched in hor-
upscaled gradually into a high-pitched ror, tensing himself for the moment
jerky buzz that paralyzed every cell in his when Forthet’s flushed would
features
body and set his teeth on edge like the vanish with the pop of a pimctured
harsh scrape of knife across frying-pan. balloon. Then Forthet spoke.
He knew not how long he jounced and "Ug — ^woih,” he exclaimed eloquently,
jittered under this awful strain before, pointing a palsied pink forefinger at some-
with an abrupt suddenness that swept thing over Freest’s left shoulder. Freest
away all consciousness, a maelstrom of faced puzzledly about, and nearly jumped
vibration descended upon him as though backward through the laboratory wall in
all the forces of evil had been unleashed sheer amazement at what he saw.
within his boiling blood. The last thing There, standing bewilderedly in the
Harry Freest remembered was the jangle spare receiving-bowl, was Harry Freest,
of a billion billion whirling dental drills
himself!
grinding away at the trembling rims of
each red corpuscle in his circulatory sys- or a sickening instant each man gaped
tem. Then it was over. F agonizedly at the apparition that faced
His clenched teeth relaxed and he him; then each ducked his head to see
sucked in a long, quivering breath. Hence- whose body he was wearing.
forth he knew there would always be a "Ug — ^wTih,” gasped the purpling For-
bond of sympathy between him and 'The- thet once again.
resa, the purple kitten. For a brief sec- Harry Freest Number One, after satis-
ond, vertigo seized him; then the nausea fying himself that he was seemingly in
ebbed speedily and the man who had his customary body and not in the least
been reintegrated opened his eyes. flocculent or shedding fluffs of cat fur,
He was standing in the receiving-bowl. groped for and found his voice.
414 WEIRD TALES
"That — that man,” he stuttered hoarse- Freest couple in identical accents, "what
ly, "that other man —who is he?” is this all about?”
"Ug —wuh,” reiterated Porthet for the Startled at the sound of their measured
third time, and noiselessly champed his voices, the duo transfixed each other with
jaws as though he were making a sound- piercing glances. Freest One caught him-
less after-dinner talk. self glaring at his own ireful phiz like a
Then Harry Freest Number Two dis- man making faces at himself in the mir-
covered that his vocal cords had been ror. Freest Two gnawed the fringe of his
safely tucked into their proper place by mustache in nervous resentment.
the efficient reintegrator. "Why, my dear sirs,” cried the ap-
"Hey, doc, who h this guy?” he de- palled Porthet after an ominolis silence,
manded. "don’t you see? One of you has been de-
"Oh dear, oh dear,” wailed the pink- materialized and then reintegrated twice!”
cheeked inventor at last, but without clari- "What!” The two exclamations met
fying his previous statement; "oh dear, and blended perfectly.
oh dear!” "Exactly,” Porthet hastened on. "Some-
"Well, doctor, what does this mean?” body tampered with the master switch of
insisted Freest One, upon learning that the spare receiver and turned it on. And
Porthet was again employing the English of course, when I broadcast the compo-
language. nent vibrations of the original Harry
"Yes, Porthet, what is this?” inquired Freest, it naturally tuned in on them also.
Freest Two like an echo to his fellow’s Now, which of you two men is responsi-
query. ble for this?”
'"This is — oh, this is terrible!” eluci- 'Well, I was fooling with the spare
dated the frantic scientist and collapsed receiver ” began Freest One.
"
weakly into a chair. There was the pop but you told me that it wasn’t
and jangle of bursting tubes as he sank plugged into the circuit,” finished Freest
down upon the pile of apparatus the Two.
chair contained, but he heeded it not. "I "Yes, yes,” groaned the inventor sadly,
knew I should have installed some sort of "I suppose it is mainly my fault for not
a directional beam device,” he groaned making sure that there was only one re-
miserably. ceiving-bowl functioning at the instant of
At this juncture, 'Theresa the cat, pre- broadcasting. Alas, the horror of it all!”
viously sulking in a corner but now evi- "You’ve got to get rid of him, then,
dently recovered from her gross misuse, somehow,” ejaculated the two Preests to-
began strolling leisurely out from under gether, each jabbing a thumb in the direc-
a table, approaching the stage of this tion of the other.
portentous drama. Suddenly Theresa 'Wait a minute, my dear sirs,” begged
caught sight of the pair of perplexed the chagrined cherub despairingly. 'We
Preests. Instantly her aristocratic back won’t get anywhere this way. Attend,
arched in wild astonishment like a human please. Now, which of you is the spuri-
eyebrow and her tail plumed into pugil- ous Mr. Freest?”
istic tibickness. "Pffftf” she exclaimed Silence.
and scampered madly through the open "G)me now, gentlemen, one of you
window to the alley below. speak up. Which of you is Mr. Freest
"Well, Doctor Porthet,” chorused the under false pretenses?”
"He is!” agreed both in perfect syn- ber of directions, in the same manner as
chronization. a transmitted musical chime. Had there
Again silence. The two Preests eyed been a hundred receiving-bowls about the
each other suspiciously; Porthet mopped place, therewould now be a hundred real
at his pink forehead with a silk handker- Harry Preests. Do you comprehend?”
chief. "That’s something to be thankful for,
"Wait a second ” commenced at any rate,” offered Preest One.
Preest One. "'Then he and I are both absolutely
" Let’s do this thing right,” ended genuine?” queried Preest Two.
Preest Two. "Exaaly, my dear Mr. Preest. Each
Porthet nodded feebly. "Yes, gentle- —
and every single cell every little gene
men, let us do this thing right, by all and tiny chromosome in one of your
means.” bodies is duplicated without a single ex-
"All right, now,” Preest One cleared ception in the corresponding place in the
his throat in a business-like manner and body of the other. Your brain is his brain
turned toward his mate. "We’ll start this — ^his heart is your heart. Do you follow
way. Tell us just who you are.” me?”
"Well, I’m Harry Cornelius Preest,” "But that’s impossible!” put in Preest
stated Preest Two simply and directly. One angrily. "We can’t be two people at
"Who are you?” the same time. It’s not right!”

"But you can’t be. I’m Harry Preest!” "No,” agreed the other emphatically,
protested the other strenuously. "and two people can’t be a single person
Preest Two tossed his head in impa- at any time. ’That’s not right, either!”
tience.
"Now, gentlemen, gentlemen,”
interrupted Porthet before the inevitable
argument could get further under way.
hastily
T he cherub of
ment.
science thought a
"Well, you are not actually one

mo-
in-
"Heed my explanations. This situation is dividual,” he supplied uncertainly. "You
graver than it seems. Both of you are the are two distinct entities, but —well— his
real Mr. Preest. .” . . ideas are your ideas, and his memory is
"What!” shrieked the pair of reinte- your memory at this moment; but from
grated men in unison. now on each of you will, of course, pile
"Exactly, gentlemen, exactly. Each up individual experiences for yourselves.
”
of It will be rather like the same man being
—
"But how? what? why? — ”
in two different places at once, although
"I was just coming to that, my dear naturally the experiences of the one can
sirs,” Porthet continued uneasily. "You not interfere with, or in any way affect,
see, in order to transmit your component the experiences of the other.”

vibrations from one point in space to "But that’s impossible!” stoutly insisted
another, it is necessary to alter them be- Preest One.
fore hurling them forth from the sending- "Oh yeah!” Preest Two inserted sar-
grid — as I explained before. So, although castically. "Then how come you’re stand-
there was originally but one of you re- ing over there, while I’m standing over
duced to vibrational form, the wave that here at the same time? Answer me that.”
carriedyou across the laboratory radiated But Preest One was in no mood for
from the sending-grid in an infinite num- riddles. "I don’t care,” he persisted, eyes
416 WEIRD TALES
narrowing with "I’m
determination. "I was just coming to that, my dear Mr.
Harry I know I am
Freest. and I can — Freest,” the scientist diplomatically ad-
prove am! See here, see this scar on my
I dressed them both by their common title.
wrist? That will identify me beyond the "One of you must re-enter the sending-
shadow of a doubt. Two years ago I and bowl to be reduced to his component
’’
my brother-in-law were out vibrations and broadcast through the air
" out hunting in the mountains," — —but he will not be reintegrated again!
concluded Freest Two without hesitation, Instead, the eliminated individual will
"and you felldown an embankment and simply speed onward for all eternity in
slashed your left wrist. I know all about vibrational form, painlessly and senseless-
it. I ought to — I was there! See, there’s ly — till the suns themselves grow cold.”
the proof. Take a look at that scar.” "Senselessly is right,” growled one of
"Why, you dirty impostor! You ’’
the Preests. "Which is the poor dope
ground out Freest One excitedly. who’s going to consent to do the vanish-
"Listen to me, you big tramp!” cut in
ing act for us? Him?”
the other in equal wrath. "If anyone is "That, of course, my dear sirs, is the
an impostor, it’s
”
you —and you know it! great stumbling-block. However, I see no
And I’m other way. Is there one?”
"My dear sirs,” came Porthet’s nervous "Listen, Harry,” remarked one Freest
voice above the ensuing clamor. "You We’re both in
seriously, "Porthet’s right.
shouldn’t say those nasty things about an awful jam as long as there’s two
each other. It merely amounts to casting Preests running around loose. One of us
ugly reflections on your own parentage, has got to disappear.”
when you do.” "Yeah,” grunted the other, a trifle em-
"You’re right,” acquiesced Freest One barrassed at finding himself engaged in
shamefacedly. "I am only calling my own conversation with himself, "guess you just
self names.” about hit it. But which one of us has got
His alter ego vouchsafed no comment to go? I won’t — will you?”
but subsided into a glowing silence. 'The other Freest shook his head in
'Thereupon followed a short lull in hos- silent negative.
tilities while the miserable two seated "Well, gentlemen,” said Porthet the
themselves, at Porthet’s request, to think portly, —
"we can although I may say such
things out in a logical manner. Both a distasteful thing goes wholly against my
Preests inadvertently chewed musingly grain —we can, I say, gamble on it. I will
upon the hirsute growths adorning their admit that this is a very serious matter to
upper lips, until each happened to glance be decided by the whims of fickle Fancy,
guiltily at the other simultaneously. but unethical as it is, we can draw lots to
Caught in the act, the twins immediately
ceased,and frowned sourly at their re- "Wait!” One of the Preest’s eyes
spective feet. gleamed triumphantly. "Listen, doctor,”
'"rhere is only one way out of this he said hurriedly, buttonholing that wor-
terrible impasse, as far as I can see,” thy, "here is the logical method of de-
sighed the portly Porthet eventually, "and ciing which one of us is to be disinte-
that is to eliminate one of you.” grated again. When you began this ex-
"Eliminate him? How?” spoke the periment, you had in mind but one rein-
synchronized two together. tegration of Harry Freest, did you not?
W. T—
2
Exact —uh, of course you did. All right, "Ah — see there?" exulted the first
then. The fellow who was received by Freest. "He admits it. Doctor Forthet, I
the ipare receiving-set is the spare man! implore you to do your duty!”
See.^” Forthet advanced hesitantly, waving an
"Exactly!” A cheery smile wreathed arm toward the sending-bowl of his ap-
the rosy cheeks of the diminutive scien- paratus."Now, you get back in there,” he
tific giant. "Right you are, my dear sir. warned.
The Harry Freest who was materialized
in the wrong reintegrator is
should undoubtedly be reduced back into
his component vibrations! This time, my
the one who
T
tors
he Harry Freest thus addressed
dodged behind one of the reintegra-
which had so disastrously brought
dear sirs, it will be a simple matter to him into existence. He chuckled savagely.
locate the spurious Mr. Freest. Now, "Ha-ha! I can’t get 'back’ into the dis-
which one of you is the — ah, authentic integrator because I was never in it in the
one.^ first place —or was I? Anyway, Doctor
“Preest's smile froze on hislips, for Forthet, his eyes like huge block buttons
in o white soup-plate, was not looking at him, but at something beyond. And
that something beyond held terror for the rotund scientist. Freest faced
puzzledly about, and nearly jumped backward through the laboratory wall
in sheer amazement at what he saw."
"Me!” declared twin voices ungram- Forthet and Mister Harry Freest,” he add-
matically but promptly. ed vindictively, "I tell you that you can’t
"You’re a liar,” said and one shortly, get rid of me by dissolving me into a
turned to the inventor. "You saw us bunch of vibrations! You can’t, see? You
materialize, doctor; which one is the extra can’t, because it would be murder!” —
Harry Freest?” "Murder?" This time it was Forthet
Two pairs of expectant eyes searched who helped out the twin act in chorusing
the scientist’s face. the word.
"My word,” vociferated the plump one "Yes, murder!” repeated the defiant
peevishly, "if you two men can’t tell Freest loudly. "I am a living man with
which is which, I assure you that I can feelings just like anybody else, and you
not!” can’t rub me out against my will because
"I can tell,” grated one Freest then, it’s against the statutes of this state! So,
pointing an accusing digit at his twin; what do you think of that?”
"that man there is the extra Harry Freest His coxinterpart was staggered into
— I swear it!” momentary silence, while Forthet seemed
"But ” spluttered Forthet uncom- to be struggling with a violent fit of apo-
fortably. plexy. "He’s right,” the latter affirmed
"All right,” snapped the second Freest, after a bit, "he’s right — it would be mur-
doubling his fists with great resolution, der to do away with him!”
"suppose I am the Harry Freest who was The accused Harry Freest chortled tri-
reintegrated by mistake? You can’t de- umphantly, in the true manner of villains
materialize me!” since time immemorial. One of the hands
W. T.—
418 WEIRD TALES
and noses of Harry Freest signaled arro- relieved at getting back out of dangerous
gant victory to one of his two bodies. territory. "Listen to me, both of you.
"No, you’re wrong!” blurted the baffled The doc, here, is correct. This whole
Freest after a few seconds of rapid nasty stink is all over just the mere name
thought. "It won’t be murder to disinte- of Harry Freest. Now, I’ve never par-
grate this geezer, doc, because legally ticularly gone for that name —
something
there can be only one Harry Freest —and more like Dixwood Carter Brent would
that will be me!” suit me better. Anyway, here’s the point.
So far as I can make out, I seem to be a
"Legal or not, here I am; and my name
isHarry Freest as much as yours is, too.
little bit more in the wrong than this
other Harry Freest, even though I had
Even if one Harry Freest is still left alive,
nothing to do with it. But anyhow. I’ll be
you can’t get around the fact that one
the hero and make the sacrifice that has to
Harry Freest will be killed.”
be made. For that $1,000 over there on
The plump little scientist fished wearily
the table, and another stack of bills like
in a pocket, drew forth a tiny box, and
it. I’ll volunteer to change my name, buy
prepared to down a couple of aspirins.
a ticket to some other town, and never see
"Gentlemen, gentlemen,” he moaned for
either of you again. Is it a bargain?”
the tenth time, "we are not getting any-
where.”
"But, my dear sir,” protested the tight-
trousered Forthet, at once, "it so happens
"Who wants to?” sneered the ostra-
that I have no extra thousand dollars to
cized Freest sarcastically. "If you want to
supply you with, although I would gladly
get anywhere, just step in your little send-
do so were I able.”
ing-bowl and I’ll ship you right off to
infinity. How’d you like that?” "Why, it’s a cinch,” interposed that
"Wup —my dear sir!” remonstrated one of the Freests whom the conversation
Forthet hastily as he strangled over the did not immediately concern. "Look. Fut
masticated tablets. "I beg your pardon! the dough in the sending-bowl, pull the
Let us not forget for one instant just switch and bloop!, you’ll have two rein-
whom this paradoxical situation involves.” tegrated piles of money —two thousand
"I still say,” spat a Freest acidly, his dollars!”
eyes glinting, "that itwould be perfectly "Sure,” supplemented the other, read-
legal to erase that guy from this cartoon, ily. "Why not?”
”
and I "Gentlemen!” Forthet expostulated in-
“No, no, my dear sirs.” It was For- dignantly. "My dear Misters Freest!
thet, the Great Mediator, at bat again. Now I ask you, does Emmett D. Forthet
“Can you not see the light of truth? Sup- appear to you to be a low, caddish, sneak-
pose this other Harry Freest were to as- ing counterfeiter?”
sume another name—then you must ad- "What do you mean, counterfeiter?”
mit that it would be a grave criminal asked Freest One.
offense to destroy him, would it not? He "Those bills would be as real and as
is truly a distinct individual, you see; it is genuine as we are exactly alike in — all
but a mere entanglement of names that respects,” confirmed Freest Two.

is causing all this dreadful confusion. "Exactly.” The dignified Forthet’s
”
If words were clipped. "Exactly. Evidently
"There! That’s it — I’ve got it!” ex- you are not aware of the fact, my dear
ploded the accused Freest happily, vastly sirs, that the wonderfully efficient Gov-
— I
ernment of this great nation keeps an ac- walls of wire before his counterpart
curate check on the serial numbers of all tapped him hesitantly on the shoulder.
the bills it issues.” He paused a moment "Of course,” said the latter, "you will
before adding confidentially, "You see, adopt some sort of a disguise shave off —
gentlemen, I had thought of doing that that mustache or let your beard grow, or
some time ago, but realized the terrible something?”
mistake I should be making. The Gov- "Well, as you know, we’ve grown our
ernment would certainly catch us at it.”
mustaches to cover a peculiar lip, but I’ll
"Well, it's two thousand berries, or I consider it. I think my wife would object
don’t go,” stated Freest One firmly. "You to a beard.”
make the money and I’ll take my chances Freest One’s heart did a hand-stand on
at being caught with it.”
his adam’s apple. He stopped, paralyzed,
Porthet wrinkled his brow confusedly. in his tracks.
"Come on, doc, it’s the only way we’ll "What was that?” he asked in the
get rid of this — this chiseler,” urged ghost of a whisper, through inert lips.
Freest Two. "Besides, those bills will be "I said I’ll have to shave off my mus-
so genuine nobody’ll ever think of com- tache, because the little woman would
paring the serial numbers.” ”
probably object to
The snugly-trousered cherub wavered, "D-di-did you mean to say that your
weakened and ”
wilted. "Very well, gen- u/ife
tlemen, very well. I am a clean-principled "Correct. I said that my wife
”
man, but in the face of such a dreadful would
state of affairs, I must unselfishly be- Porthet turned on them impatiently,
smirch the heretofore stainless shield of and motioned them forward.
the Porthet honor —not for myself, you Freest One waved him away. "Wait,
understand, but for the sake of others.” doctor,” he managed to gulp; then to his
He stopped, and struck by a new thought, twin he choked, "Are you married?”
ventured, "But, my dear Mr. Freest, "Sure,” returned the other in surprize.
couldn’t you let me keep just five hun- "Aren’t you?”
dred dollars of this extra money "Of course I’m married, but —— is
"Two grand^ —or else,” gritted a Freest mean — —who

are
’ ’
haughtily, indicating by his supple use of A

sudden gleam entered simultaneous-
the vernacular that he had witnessed more ly into the slitted eyes of both Preests
than one cinema epic of the underworld. and the two pairs of Harry Preest’s hands
The fat doctor shrugged resignedly. clenched themselves meaningly. Neither
"A princely ransom, my dear sir, but you uttered a sound.
shall have it. I must bend my will to "Gentlemen!” murmured the aghast
yours. ’This way, please.” Porthet, shuddering with alarm. "My
Porthet waddled off toward the stack very dear sirs!”’
of green currency, placidly braving the Harry Freest ignored the gasps from
perils of the great wire jungle which all the purpling cherub. Instead, he looked
but engulfed him. himself grimly in the eyes and grated,
"Whose wife?”
T he mercenary
Freest was starting to
do as the cherubic scientist bade him,
but had not progressed far between the
to his
"My wife!” he answered possessively
own
"Listen, you,”
question.
he grimaced next, ad-
420 WEIRD TALES
vancing slowly upon himself, "there’s One had clipped him with an exquisite
been an extra one of us for just a little right to the jaw, he deposited a goodly
while too long, and I’m going to remedy portion of a giant retort within the scalp
that little difficulty right now!’’ of his attacking double. The next mo-
"You take one step closer,’’ snarled ment the screaming scientist was helpless-
Harry Freest to Harry Freest wamingly, ly enmeshed in a net of wiring as lashing
"and I’ll knock you loose from a few of feet ripped loose half a dozen miles of
your front teeth. Get me.-*’’ intricate hook-ups. Together the pair of
Preests tumbled in a writhing, primitive
This was the first time in his life that
heap in the midst of the scientific maze,
Emmett D. Forthet had ever been faced
and hammering fists ana flying oaths
with the problem of keeping a jealous
whistled through the scorched air.
man from fighting with himself over his
own wife, but he rose to the occasion It is an egregious and horrible sensa-
masterfully. tion to be fighting oneself, a fact soon
"My dear Misters Freest,” he clamored realized byHarry Freest both One and
in great fright. "Let us not lose our tem- Two. After the first wild flurry and tilt,
pers. I can fix everything. If you will during which the two trusty right fists
only just bring the charming Mrs. Freest of Harry Freest scored heavily on both
here to my be only too
lalx)ratory, I shall his rather protuberant noses, the dupli-
glad to make one of her for each of you. cate antagonists lessened the energy of
There, won’t that clear things up?” their onslaught considerably. The dual
"Nope. You don’t ” started Freest duel, if such it may be termed, settled
One decidedly,
down to the more strategic, if less spec-
" ^know my wife!” completed

tacular,maneuvers of a thrust and parry
Freest Two with equal decision. form of warfare.
"But, my good friends friend, 1 — There would have been little or no ob-
mean,” implored the moon-faced scien- ject in continuing the conflict had not the
tist, "what, then, are we to do? One wife absconding Freest been favored by the
for two husbands? Tch, tch, tch, tch.” services of a deus ex machina, in the
The unthinkable impasse was growing form of a raveling coil of rubber-coated

even more involved. wire. As the vengeful twain laughed at
"Well, I know what I’m going to do,” and pounded each other like a man shad-
rasped Freest One; "I’m going to take my ow-boxing with his reflection in the mir-
money and get my wife. Then we’re both ror, neither could gain any advantage
leaving this town tonight!” And he made over the other, for the two Freests were
a dive for the stack of bills. and action. Be-
exactly equal in thought
"And I know what I’m going to do!” ing same man, each could
literally the
barked Freest Two, and made a similar foretell what the other would at-
just
dive at the fleeing figure of Freest Num- tempt next and so could launch a fero-
ber One. cious counter-attack against all broad-
"Oh dear! oh dear!” howled the little sides. Also their common speed, crafti-
man with the big stomach in a delirium ness and strength were contributing fac-
of terror. "What’s to become of all my tors which rendered the struggle even, to
beautiful apparatus?” a mathematical preciseness.
Two showed
Freest his host what was But Fate, as ever was her wont, inter-
to become of part of it, for after Freest vened, and the Freest who was not only
battling for his wife but also for a thou- and helplessness. The stricken scientist
sand good United States dollars, found doubled up like a folding jack-knife,
himself in a ticklish predicament as, in spun sideways and crashed headlong into
endeavoring to haul up a terrific round- the delicate mechanism of his precious
house right, he suddenly discovered that dematerializer.
itwas suspended in midair by a spiral of With the jangle of splintering tubes
heavy wire which had snared him as and the crash of crumbling apparatus
neatly as though his adversary had de- sounding a discordant paean of complete
liberately set the trap, victory in his ears, the sole Harry Freest
who was upright in posture if not in
O F COURSE the absconding

not intentionally lassoed his opponent
with the noose of wire, but he
Freest
made
had
full
principles, glared once about the chaos
had created, then
the night. The
wheeled and
villain —
he
fled into
the superfluous
use of the situation. Wiping the crimson man —was at large!
stains of siegefrom his battered nose with The defeated Harry Freest crawled
one hand, he simultaneously loosed a dazedly to his feet as the front door
snarl of victory and a fistic thunderbolt, slammed mightily behind the back of his
rendering his entangled twin temporarily counterpart, and began wrenching at the
hors de combat. The triumphant warrior constricting bands of wire which held him
staggered to his feet with difficulty and prisoner. Out of the corner of his eye as
turned to resume his rudely terminated he did so, he spied a plump but di-
flight to love and riches. sheveled little pink-faced man seated in a
Meanwhile, the plump cherub in the ruin of shattered instruments, weeping
laboratory apron had replaced his dan- dolorously.
gling spectacles upon the bony ridge "My invention,” he wailed as he in
from which they had been knocked, and turn glimpsed the other through his copi-
struggled valiantly from his own en-
shrouding web of wires. As the incred-
ous tears. "My invention — smashed
^you
it completely. Oh, I hate you,Harry
ible duel raged to its disappointing con- Freest, I hate you both —indisaiminate-
clusion, the portly pillar of science had ly!”
warily neared the scene of carnage with a
"Never mind that now,” ordered
heavy lamp-stand in one upraised hand,
Freest breathlessly. "Where’d he go?
ready to aid his fallen comrade should the
That other Freest is loose. We’ve got to
wrong Mr. Freest emerge triumphant.
catch him! Snap out of it, doc he’s —
So it was, when an enraged and some- gone!”
what tattered Freest did arise from the The scientist was jerked to his feet by
shambles on the floor, the cautious in- the scruff of his ample neck and dragged
ventor greeted him ominously with, "See in frenzied pursuit behind the avenging
here, my dear sir, exactly which Mr. Harry Freest.
Freest do you happen to be.^” "We’ll tear out the back way and head
"How should I know?” snorted the him off,” Freest grunted as he ran; "he’d
conqueror shortly, and with a superbly have to go by that way to get to my house.
placed thump of
fist in the very midst
his Step on it, will you?”
of Forthet’s capacious paunch, reduced Out the back way and down a dark and
that menacing gentleman to a state of narrow alley the pair raced, Forthet’s
complete speechlessness, breathlessness, gasping breaths inhaled in noisy sobs.
422 WEIRD TALES
The night was very daik; consequently and nobody will ever be the wiser. A
the dim rectangle of the alley-mouth was hospital would mean endless complica-
difficult to observe with any degree of tions, you see, my dear fellow. 'This way,
clarity, but just before they reached it the this way, sir.”
flying figure of a man whizzed past. The

pursuers leapt out into the thoroughfare
and saw the galloping form of Harry
Freest just ahead of them.
D octor porthet looked up with
sigh from the man he had just ex-
amined for injuries. "The fellow has a
a
"Hey, you! Stop!” bawled the other nasty knock on the head, a broken right
Freest at the top of his lungs. arm, and a few minor cuts and bruises.”
"Try and catch me!” bellowed the first

"Nothing more serious?” demanded
Freest, snatching a hurried glance back- his listener. "I thought he was a goner.
ward as he dashed off the curb into the

Machine must have just clipped him as
it swung by, I guess.”
street. "I can run as fast as you can!”
"Look out!” shrieked Freest Two fran-
"Exactly,” responded the smaller man.
For the white

tically to his racing twin. "He’ll be up and about in two or three
beams of a hurtling automobile abruptly days, I should venture. Let’s get him to
drilled the darkness as it sped recklessly bed here; then perhaps you had better
across the intersection. go home to your wife till tomorrow. I
shall be able to manage him alone with-
Two’s warning came too late.
Freest
out difficulty.”
Freest One
flung out his arms madly in a
vain attempt to ward off the monster on "O. K., doc.” Harry Freest, unhurt,
wheels as it bore swiftly down on him, did not know exactly whether to feel hap-
and the next second it was all over. There py, sad or sorry at the way affairs had
turned out. But no matter what, the
came a horrible screeching and skidding
and the roaring automobile spun about whole infernal business was far from be-
in a complete circle, jumped the curb,
—
ing settled of that he was certain.
missed a telephone pole by inches, then As Harry Freest, unharmed, walked

careened off down the street in the direc- slowlyhomeward that night, his brain
tion whence it had appeared. feebly grappled with the amazing dilem-
"Hit and run!” the pursuing Freest ma in which he found himself. Harry
flung over his shoulder at the paralyzed Freest —two men! A pair of Harry
and quavering Forthet, then raced toward Freests, precisely alike in all respects and
the crumpled body in the street. each reluctant to give place to the other.
"Is —
is he dead?” queried the plump
Twin Harry Freests with a common
doctor tremulously as one Freest swung home, a common wife, a common tem-
the other to his shoulders and staggered per. An incredible twain of individuals,
to the sidewalk. one of which must vanish somehow, in

"No. He’s unconscious but breathing,” some way, soon; but neither of whom
said the rescuer, puffingfrom his exer- would ever be willing to take the doom-
tions."Well, we got him. But now what ing step. What was the answer to this
on earth shall we do with him? Where paradox of paradoxes ... or was there
can we take him?” any answer?
"My place, my place,” chattered For- When Harry Freest stepped into the
thet, trotting off. "I’m a very excellent bedroom of his darkened apartment, his
doctor, you know. I’ll take care of him wife was gone and on his pillow there
——
was pinned a note. It read: "Gone to Aunt Again a brief interval of appalled si-
Christobel’s —rheumatism again — will be lence; then the whirling brain of the
home in the usual three days Daphne.” — Preest who was standing steadied itself
The man who was two men thankfully and came to his rescue. Words rushed
hurried back to Porthet’s laboratory to from his mouth in a torrent.
spend the night where he could keep "Do we know who you are?” he
close watch on his double. yelped joyously to the man in bed. "I’ll
That night, a day, and another night say we do. Listen! You’re a friend of
passed, during which the figure on the mine — named Dixwood Carter Brent.
bed rolled and groaned uneasily, but did You —
live in in the East — in, uh, Ver-
not awaken; and during which two very mont. You, ah, came here on business
perplexed men discussed endlessly and and made a thousand dollars. You got
unsatisfactorily the baffling problem with hit by a speeding auto, you’ve been asleep
which they were confronted. A man who for a week, and you should have been
—
was two men ghastly paradox!
Then, at last, on the morning of the
home days ago. And you’ve got to leave
for Vermont on the first train you can
second day, the man in bed unexpectedly or —or—or you’ll lose your job. See?”
groaned loudly, pulled himself to a sit- "Exactly, my dear sir,” an amazed Por-
ting position, and demanded huskily, thet acquiesced rapidly; "ah, er, uh — ex-
"What happened.^” actly!”
The man bed creased his brow in a
in
H
The
IS two nurses were
instant.
other man
The
at his side in
doctor felt his pulse.
and stared in
just stood
an frown of complete bewilderment. He
blinked dubiously at each of the two ex-
cited men who hovered about him.
dreadful expectancy. The whole mad "Oh. Oh, yes ... I see,” he muttered
mess was about to resume its nightmare slowly at last. "Thank you very much!”
complications once again, he thought,
« * * « •
and braced himself for the ordeal.
"What happened?” the sick man dully GLANCED at the pale-faced, nervous
shifted his gaze from one man to another. I man who had stopped his restless pac-
"Where am I? Who are you two men? ing, and now stood staring at me expect-
Who am I?” antly. He was watching me with odd ear-
Stunned silence. nestness, licking dry lips, pulling at a but-
A
pinwheel of words was spinning in ton on his coat.
the brains of two of that grotesque trio. "Quite a mix-up, wasn’t it?” I smiled,
The meaning of the whispered sentences for lack of anything else to say. He nod-
simultaneously struck home in the minds ded a jerky affirmative. "But — uh, this
of the neatly groomed doctor and his other man? What about the similarity
lanky assistant with the force of a burst- the mustache and all? And didn’t he find
ing bomb. out you were lying to him? How
”
"What did you say?” gasped Porthet about
unbelievingly. "No, he never suspected a thing. His
"Who are you?” echoed that incredu- right arm was battered up; so he asked
lous Preest who stood by the bed. me if I would shave him said he felt —
"Yes,” husked the bandaged man soft- well enough to make the trip to Vermont
ly. "My mind seems all a blank. Who at once. Well, when I shaved him I did
am I? Don’t you know?” a good job —took oS mustache and all.
424 WEIRD TALES
I have a peculiar upper lip, and without "That’s nothing! Listen! Day and night,
a mustache to hide it, it alters the whole night and day, awake or dreaming, I am
cast of my face. He never even dreamed tormented with the one thought: who am
that we two were the same man. I? Am
I really Harry Preest or am I
"As to the story I had told him, Por- really that other self, Dixwood Carter
thet didn’t dare do anything but back me Brent? Is this me here talking to you, or
up; and after all, that thousand dollars am away oflF in Vermont somewhere
I
cold cash that I sacrificed was strongly under an assumed name, not knowing my
convincing, you must admit. He was a true identity? If I really am Harry Preest
little reluctant to leave at first, though, —then who is that other man? And if
sincehe couldn’t get any details about he’s really Harry Preest —then who am
where he was going. But Porthet fixed I?”
that by saying that if the jolting of the Long fingers crumpled my lapels in a
train didn’t bring everything back to him, hard Gleaming eyes stared into
grip.
he should go see the authorities in the mine. "Answer me!” he commanded,
town of Vermont where we sent him. raising his voice to a shriek. "Answer
Said that they’d help him get rid of his me! Who am I? Who is heP—^ffliO
amnesia. ARE YOU?”
“Of course, as you know, when he Speechless, I gasped in unmitigated
went to the authorities they would simply horror, and jerked myself free. I looked
hold him for a day or so, while they tried askance at the man called Harry Preest.
to identify him, and after a while he Was the fellow a madman? The light in
would be he was perfectly
released, since his eyes was that of fanaticism, all right.
all somewhere
right otherwise. He’s safe I backed slowly away and clenched my
now, and perfectly happy with that thou- fists, fully prepared to sell my life dearly.
sand, I’ll bet. Anything else?’’ But just at that moment a familiar voice
"Never heard from him, I suppose?’’ broke in on and we both glanced up.
us,
"No. I wanted to keep an eye on him, A man in a white uniform was opening
but I knew it wouldn’t do to have letters the door behind me, jerking his head in
coming to my house addressed to me in my direction cheerily.
my own handwriting. Anyway, it was "O. K. there, Napoleon,” he said to
safer not to give him any clue so that he me quietly, in friendly fashion. "You’ve
might get hold of me again if anything — been playing at Waterloo long enough
should ever happen to bring back my and Josephine is worried about you. Come
memory to him, I mean.’’ on. Your Highness.”
"Hm-m, very interesting,” I said. "And For a moment I looked at the other
is that all?” occupant of the cell in considerable em-
"No, that isn’t all!” the man called barrassment, then rose and left hurriedly.
Harry Preest almost shouted, stabbing me 'The Empress gets very impatient with me
in the cliest with a lanky forefinger. if I keep her waiting.
Vhe
Jjjand of the O’Mecca

By HOWARD WANDREI
'A strange, uncanny story about the weird figures that beset Elof Bocak one
night in the jog, and the courting of a witch-woman
T WAS Elof Bocak, large and un- he most nearly resembled an erect shad-
I mistakable.
that waited
Like
for
the
him
two
in
figures
the lane,
ow. His formidable stature alone identi-
fied him. Unlike those two shadow-fig-
425
426 IWEIRD TALES
ures,which were still, his body gyrated and fled back through the woods. When
remarkably above his feet. Elof had that Elof sang the night was only big enough
in him tonight which was stronger than for himself.
himself. In John Colander’s kitchen be-
On the far side of the hill a long
hind him the whisky ran. 'They had filled
slough sprawled in ambush, drowned in
him with drink tonight, for was he not a lake of fog and darkness. The fog was
questing after the hand of Kate O’Mec-
too heavy to breathe. It was the thickest
ca.? A hazardous quest, perhaps, on this
fog that any man had ever seen, but it
night. Fog trapped the land; the murky would take more than a slough to mire
skeins of it crept stealthily southwest over
the feet of him. His headlong gait
the Colander farm, over the rolling Min- steered him down into the slough, and
nesota hills as though they needed to be
then the two figures that had been
concealed.
standing and waiting for him disengaged
While Elof profoundly calculated themselves from the fog. They joined
through which of the thirty-two points him so that they were three abreast, with
of the compass lay O’Mecca farm, he
tlie Elof between. The hill rose behind them
plucked a quip of felt from his head as and blinked out the rollicking lights of
one would skin a grape and wrung the John Colander’s kitchen. Hereupon Elof
whisky out of it. And a brace of still halted, puzzled. He thought he had heard
phantoms awaited the mighty, befuddled someone chuckling in the fog. Either
Bocak in the lane. Naive Elof! there — that, or the fog itself had taken a voice.
were more shadows in his head tonight Summer inseas clicked and chattered in
than walked abroad. In back of him the the wet grass; the silences were flooded
drinking Finns made the Colander kitchen with strange low sobbings and stilly whis-
echo and re-echo like a giant’s hall. pers. Elof moved on warily. Suddenly
"On the head of himself!’’ the Col- he found himself set upon.
ander had roared, upon which six farm- Sometimes, belike when you have the
ershad lifted their brimming tumblers cosmic night and the foggy silences to
to theO’ Mecca. 'The seventh, who was yourself, becomes fatal to advertise.
it
John Colander himself, crowned Elof’s Highwaymen amongst the Minnesota

pate with a full glass. 'This, the farmers hills are few, to be sure, but down that
agreed, was an efficacious, Finnic means dingle lurks the hobo and his kind, and
of expediting Kate and Elof’s troth. other creatures not so easy to lay your
White, inland fog brimmed the hol- hands on.
lows with ghostly pools and phantom The two strangers had a damned fa-
lakes as Elof reeled across Colander’s miliar way about themselves. When Elof
acres. The spirit of the corn hummed in realized that these shapes were solid and
his veins; there seemed to be a bumble- not figments of fog, he stopped short
bee locked in his skull, a bee that droned with his legs astraddle. He looked first
and strove to escape as he mounted the at one and thenat the other; he hunched
lane through the east hill pasture, sing- his shoulders ominously; then he raised
ing. Elof had a short throat, but he his hands and turned his hat completely
could send up the staggering notes of around once. The two shapes took hold
his love song high enough with it. It of his arms at the biceps. Thereupon Elof
was a fool’s defiance,and a fool’s lusty growled, as beast speaks unto beast; for
passion. Diminutive owls hooted at him the scruflF bristles at the tail of the scalp
THE HAND OF THE O’MECCA 427
when
their
things accost one in the dark with
own silence.
The grips on his arms strengthened.

A
flict
BRIEF, terrible conflict began at the
edge of the slough, a savage con-
of the fact that it was one-
in spite
Bocak answered by spreading his hands. sided from the first. Confronted with
He spread them flat with his thumb ends sinews which he thought must be like
resting lightly on his thighs. While he his own, Elof turned berserk. He me-
peered into the eyes of these alien shapes, thodically set about tearing the fog to
thunderstruck, his churning wits plunged shreds. A suddenly born army of shapes
back into the murky lore of his people. in the fog nibbled mischievously at his
Werewolves loped over Kalevala’s

flanks. He lifted a young poplar out of
the ground and whirled with it, snap-
moors, indeed, in Finland. His own
ping the tree short to wield it like a club.
grandfather, with a long and lucky shot,
The ball of earth at its roots described a
had brought down a thing in the vale of
meteoric arc over his head, showered sand
Woinemoinen. The thing his grandfath-
on the streaming grass. It thumped on
er slew left black blood and drowned it-
something with the sound a football
self in running water before it could be
makes when it hits one’s stomach. Armor
captured. In the morning they dragged
might have cracked under that mace.
the naked body of a handsome farm girl
from the stream, a human being with a Elof’s legs became entangled in solid
bullet through her breast. No one doubt- shadow, which he seized forthwith. 'This
ed that this girl was a werewolf. Elof’s mass he lifted on high; he sent it rioting
grandfather swore that he had shot a round and round his head in endless,
hairy thing running on all fours. giddy revolutions while he twisted off a
troublesome skein of fog that had clutched
But tlie shadows which had taken the
his windpipe.
Bocak prisoner were standing erect. It
was difficult to see one’s own feet in this "Elof! Elof!” 'The thing barked soft-
fog; nevertheless Elof perceived the ly at him with a sound like palms clap-
things were not wolves. True, they might ping. "Elof! Elof! Oh, Elof!” it whim-
be vested in a hide of short black hair, pered.
and he could truly see tlie gleam of a Elof didn’t hear it. He brought the
pointed tooth, but they were never wolves. soaring, twisting shape to earth with a
Then he saw, indeed, that each freaked a crash of finality. He
planned to dispatch
short, broad tail like that of the fallow the first shape in like manner, but when
deer, but shorter. The things had tails he searched for it on the ground on
that flicked and frolicked in the fog in hands and knees it had vanished.
a rhythmic dance of their own. When Continuing his search, at the same time
Elof saw the tails frisking he howled getting earth stains on his fresh trousers,
like a wild dog that has newly discovered he came to the conclusion that the shape
the moon. he had just felled had managed to absent
They heard him howl down there in itself from his ken also. Whereupon he
Colander’s ribald kitchen. They laughed assumed his feet, marvelously unsteady.
with rural gusto and they drank high, With the easy transit of intoxication from
tumbling, flat-footed jokes across the one mood to another, once more he con-
Colander board. "Ha!” said John Col- jured up thoughts of the O’Mecca and
ander. "Himself has run into himself in this night’s mission. As victor, he could
tile fog!” not determine just whom he had beaten.
428 WEIRD TALES
He saw mocking lights in the distance the pregnant purple berry that grows on
and stumbled through the slough toward the hillsides.
the O’Mecca farm. Colander tossed his knife and fodk
into his plate.
T he history of events leading

those of this foggy night was of a
singular order. Three farms, the Bocak’s,
up to "Kate O’ Mecca has no kin but her old
mother,” said John, "and this year she
plows but one field. Her cattle are dry,
the Colander’s, and the O’Mecca’s, lay in her land chokes with weeds. The O’Mec-
a direct line southwest of Mankato in the ca man is dead.”
Minnesota hills. Two Fridays preceding Elof nodded. It was Severin O’Mecca
this, Elof had rested on his plow at dusk. whom John spoke of: Kate’s brother.
He narrowly considered the fact that he Elof had known him well, had matched
lacked a wife. The old fogies having speed and strength with him hoeing down
gone their way, he had a rich farm of the long rows of young corn. It had
his own with a red, hip-roofed barn filled happened in the spring. 'The O’Mecca
with cattle. Elof’s brother Frankel, in windmill was old, and Severin had set
reality the elder son, had forfeited his about repairing it. He had climbed the
birthright two years past. This deed tower, disconnected the pump shaft be-
Frankel executed easily by capping a low the windmill in order to repair the
wheat-stack, tobogganing down its golden
vanes. From that height he had fallen;
side and spitting himself on seventeen the metal shaft pierced his stomach,
inches of pitchfork. Two years Elof and skewered him down to the lock nut on
his sister Edna had turned the earth, the pump before he could stop himself.
sowed and harvested alone; intolerably Kate and her husk of a mother could
alone with Edna, for that valkyrie of a never hope to till the broad O’Mecca
woman was dumb. The Bocak house was acres alone.
silent.
"We are ripe for each other,” said
Elof had abandoned the plow, tossing Elof, tremendously pleased within him-
the reins to Edna, and stamped across self. was the wife he wanted. The
It
the furrows to the kitchen of John Col- Colander had named the one who walked
ander. Was not that the shortest way in the distance like thistledown, with her
to the O’Mecca? fleet grace and yellow hair. Elof culti-
"Ho, John, I am in need of a wife,” vated a hill that rose against Colander’s
said Elof. northwest acreage. Twice it had been
"Then sit you down and eat,” said seeded in clover, and not long since he
John, his mouth crammed with bread and had plowed the field in for wheat. Elof
potatoes. "A woman can always wait never grudged the time required to plow-
until afterward.” in that stony hill, for it had a far view
The Colanders were pillaging their eve- of the O’Mecca farm and the road she
—
ning board John himself, his slaved rag used. It had a nearer view of the brook
that fed the slough, where Kate bathed
of a wife that he was plowing into the
ground to join the first one, and his two like a blond angel in the sight of God.
stalwart sons. Elof set to with no delay. Elof wondered what the dark stains were
He sacked his frame tight with fried po- which she washed from her naked body
tatoes drowned in sorghum, three tender on the stroke of dawn. "When I am an
chops from the carcass of a freshly old fogy,” said Elof to the Colander, "I
slaughtered pig, and fat pie made from must have sons like vours after the plow.”
— —
"She will never refuse you,” said the departed with his proposal unspoken, yd:
Colander, eyeing his neighbor up and stated in classic restraint with unmistak-
down with a show of envy. "You will able clarity.
sellme some of your land and I will
. . . Outside the rotting farmhouse the ec-
letsome of mine so that all your fields, centric shadows still moved in darts and
yours and Kate’s, will lie together.” flurries over the ground. The sidelong
They clapped each other on the back, statement of his argument for Kate’s hand
as though by the turn of a phrase the had gone far toward untangling his wits.
marriage had been consummated. They A cool hand played across his shoulders.
drank clear com liquor that was three His skin roughened. Untilled, the O’Mec-
summers old. When Elof traversed the ca farm was yielding a fine harvest of
O’Mecca farmyard an hour later he found burdock and rank grass which had be-
it difficult not to trample on the flight of come speedily populated with mice. There
bats that skirmished next to the ground was a kind of squeaking, quasi-cannibal-
around the weather-torn farmhouse ism going on here. 'The bats flew next
leather shadows flirting next to the to the ground at their nocturnal feasting.
ground, a phenomenon to consider well, It was time indeed that the sinews of the
whether one is drunk or sober. Bocak furrowed this wretched crop into
the ground. So he delivered a lordly,
R
stalk
ate and her mother, a hawk-eyed
wisp who reminded one of a corn-
with her twist of scant dry hair,
proprietary kick at the leather wings that
frisked in the moonlight. Very likely he
sundered a shadow or two.
received him with considerable but guard- Next Friday Elof had perched on the
ed interest. high stone steps of his woodshed and
"The bats are aground tonight,” Elof fretted with impatience. The engine he
grinned. "In Finland, then, the were- balanced on one extended forefinger was
wolves are running. It is the sign.” the rifle he had been shooting rats with.
Kate and her mother nodded. They It was a heavy repeating weapon which
looked at each other, making some know- he wielded with terrible efficiency. The
ing sign with their eyes. But they beck- last clean shot, indeed, had not only
oned Elof in, withal, not choosing to parted the rat’s vital thread, it had rico-
turn a suitor away because the Colander cheted off the boulder supporting the corn
kitchen lay between the two farms. Hav- crib and, save for a negligible string of
ing gained entrance, then, and been set feathered hide, decapitated a prize black
among a pile of fine cushions in the par- Minorca. The cock still sprang into the
lor, Elof bent himself to the close task air in its bewildered, mortal dance; Elof
of talking easily of earth and cattle. continued to sit on the stoop of the wood-
For forty minutes Elof spoke confi- shed, bent on solving the casuistries of
dently and with that specious eloquence courtship. His elbows rested on a blurred
furnished by corn. There is a rural meth- crease in his trouser legs. A crease, nev-
od of making a point sidewise. By tread- ertheless. He was freshened for the
ing on its skirts, by firing a word or two chase, against his will. Clean trousers
nigh it but not at it, by speaking of him- the distant smell of raw gasoline was
self in terms of someone else, Elof gave still among them. A black cloud of hair
the mummied ancient and the corn-maid- on his bared forearms —
the reward of
en to understand precisely what he want- wonderful toil with boiled yellow soap.
ed. It was the courtship oblique. He Edna looked up at him regularly from
430 WEIRD TALES
the doorway of the summer-house as she the morning. ’They had made him drunk.
whisked the handle of the separator. She Well, one week was suflident. Now that
was a kind of female clockwork. She his wits had been given a stiflf prodding,
knew well enough what ailed him. She he knew that he would have hung fire
was a woman. only one week anyhow. Was he not his
Through the woods beyond Bocak’s father’s son, and was he not master of
stock yard came sounds from the busy his father’s acres? Having addressed him-
kitchen of the Colander. The two houses self at length and aloud, Elof swore that
were only the long cast of a stone sep- he was. He swooped low with a hand
arated. The voices of field men who had outspread like a flail and whooped as he
toiled and were now in their cups the — sent the bat-like shadows tumbling. Bats.
sounds stormed Bocak’s simple imagina- He thought again of the werewolves of
tion with illimitable promise. He thought Finland, whose appearance must be an-
of his neat, clean, cold bed of down, nounced by these grounded bats. Were-
cursed once in Finnish. The rhythmical- wolves and vampire-wolves. Some time
ly rising and falling whine of the sep- ago a young man was buried in a near-by
arator was intolerable. He stood the gun town, a handsome boy who had his throat
in a corner. He made off for the Col- torn open one night by a wild dog. It
ander kitchen with Edna, the dumb one, was an odd thing that no blood was
standing in the doorway looking after found on the ground. The dog must
him. She would stand there with her have been a ranger, since all known dogs
eyes on nothing for a time. Edna dreamed. in the community were chained at night.
Edna, having no tongue, held converse The bats flicked somberly among Elof ’s
with nature alone. By one of those com- feet like Satan’s own hellish skirts as he
mon caprices of providence, she knew traversed the O’Mecca farmyard and
hidden things. She knew, for example, clubbed his knuckles on the door. It was
that Kate O’Mecca would never sleep in a moderate sound, comparatively. There
her brother’s bed. She herself could not was a certain elephantine elegance in his
say how she knew this. Presently she love.
would make a slow shrug, lug the can If Kate and her mother had received
of cream into the cool depths of the root him with guarded interest on one occa-
cellar. It was uncommonly heavy cream sion, on this it was a covert eagerness
this year, rich in fat. before which he stood abashed, even with
his head spinning at this pace. Elof set
OLANDER and men welcomed amongst Kate’s fine cushions
C his
Elof with a tumbler brimming with
the clear fire of the com. Afterward,
his frame
with immense precision; the two
rested delicately before him on
women
straight
when the Bocak mounted the lane that walnut chairs, their heads cocked at pre-
lifted over the east hill pasture, he was cisely the same angle. There was some-
well fortified against the hell’s-play of thing gracefully wing-like in their white
low-flying bats that came half-way down hands as they folded them in their laps.
to meet him. Bats earthbound, perilous These were no ordinary farm women.
to walk among. They did not look as though they toiled.
had been his sober intention to give
It On this second visit Elof dared to look
the O’Mecca two full weeks of grace. If upon his woman directly. It was a thirsty
this was haste, the guilt would lie witli appraisal, as though he would take her
John Colander and his corn whisky in down at one draft. You scarcely knew
THE HAND OF THE O’MECCA 43 i
whether you were safe to have her within wanted to say, "Where is Kate tonight?
reach of your hands. Elof could stand Where will she be? Do you think a
his team on the hill and covet her puff woman like that rests in her own parlor
of yellow hair at a distance of a hundred after nightfall? Have you never looked
rods withno immediate consequences. into those slant gray eyes of hers?”She
Kate was a smooth white filly with wanted to tell Elof that marrying Kate
narrow hips like a panther, like a woman was fatal, that Kate O’Mecca had point-
who had never labored and never would. ed teeth and a scarlet tongue; but Edna
Elof frowned somewhat at that. She was was dumb.
as slender as a city woman. But he re- The fertile black soil of the fields that
membered that his own mother had such had stained Elof’s nails a full summer
hips. Her three children had come easily disappeared under the carving-knife, after
and unharmed save for Edna, whose prodigious scraping. Edna watched the
voice, when it sounded at all, had a futile toil with a curious smile on
unique kinship with the owl’s. The tiny her mouth. When the door closed after
nipples of Kate’s breasts stood up through Elof, Edna made her singular slow shrug
the fine woolen cloth of her dress. That again, but her face was uneasy.
was a good sign. ’The O’Mecca had side- When Elof announced to the assembly
long, subtle gray eyes that forced one of farmers in John Colander’s kitchen
into speech. that he was inquiring after the O’Mecca’s
"John Colander,” said Elof, "has land hand tonight, his ears rattled and his back
against mine which he will bargain for stung with their approval. In two weeks’
with me.” time! They had to drink to this Finn
The O’Mecca smiled, whether with who could not contain himself. ’They had
amusement or agreement he could not to drink to his lucky woman, too. And
determine. But it was a neat, correct they drank again. They envied him in
speech, compact and well phrased. When the only way they knew. By saturating
you considered it, you knew there was a him with liquor, and themselves with
plan afoot to stagger the acres of the him, they conferred their own kind of
three farms. This plan could be realized regard on him. Corn whisky flowed like
best by marriage. You knew that John a treacherous brook. They poured it into
Colander was going to slip to the south- Elof’s gullet up to his throat level.
west and get somewhat the better of the Elof sat in their midst with the thick
bargain in the end. You knew that Kate glaze stealing into his eyes. He was not
O’Mecca was going to sidle back around joking this night, nor smiling at the jokes
him so that her land would meet that of of others. Nor would he ever do so after-
the Bocak’s. ward. He was thinking of Kate’s straight,
pale yellow hair that rested in a knot on
T
the
he
It
wind
third Friday came with the
was presupposed by those testing
that it was to be a courtship
fog. her shoulder. It was the hair that should
flood across his pillow at night like sun-
light. He thought of her high breasts
in three tries. On the third Friday Edna and the sound color in her cheeks, her
trimmed Elof’s duster of black hair with scarlet mouth. She looked strong. Their
the long, sharp shears in her sewing-kit. children would be the sturdiest that ever
Edna wanted to say to Elof, "You want sat on a peg stool to take a lesson in
Kate O’Mecca’s long white body in your milking. He would show them how to
bed. Much good may it do you.” She knuckle the udder, the knack that shot
2
432 WEIRD TALES

milk into the pail so that it filled with impossible for him to distinguish between
foam. Yet neither of the O’Mecca wo- the true and the false. His wits felt
men had ever spoken a word to him. Like heavy as a grindstone, a stone that shot
the dumb Edna. Elof thought of that, off sparks in all directions as he bore
but never thought it was singular. Well, down heavily on it —bore down on it
then, he had never asked a question that with something. What was it? He shook
needed to be answered. Tonight was the his head. He
had done something im-
third Friday and the night of troth. He portant on the hill, something to tell Kate
would ask his question and take his an- about. Someone on the hill had called
swer at last. Yet here he stalled in the him by name. He could hear the thin
Colander kitchen while the com went echoes mocking him. Elof! Elof!
round in uproarious drafts. A stronger He thrashed through the slough with
thirst brou^t him to his feet. Elof used a million muck-demons sucking and
a particular Finnish curse and shouldered snapping after his heels, and raised the
his way through the door into the creep- O’Mecca farmhouse, vaguely and ginger-
ing festoons of fog. Two shapes on the ly patting himself as though he had been
hill looked down at him, and then looked beaten on the way or had forgotten some-
at each other. thing. It was probably the thing he was
The most tremendous fog within mem- bringing to bear against the metaphorical
ory was on him, the thickest that had ever grindstone. There was a thing in his
moved over the land. He mopped his pocket. The lights in the O’Mecca par-
narrow forehead with a yard of red ker- lor still welcomed him dimly in the fog,
chief when he reached the hill’s base. though it was past twelve, just past twelve
They had saluted his queer hat with a by the clock. Love waits on time when it
full glass of whisky back there. It stank. goes spinning in drink.
He took the round, sopping skim of felt It was that thing he had picked up on
from his head and crushed it in one hand. the way, the trophy that would prove his
’The night was against him. All the way prowess and his to Kate
fearlessness
up the lane he quarreled with his feet. O’Mecca. Had not two werewolves leaped
Farther on, shadows set upon him, and on him and been defeated? 'That was it.
though Colander’s whisky had nearly For he was not in tlie least damaged by
mastered him he defeated those scaveng- his encounter at the edge of the slough.
ing shadows with certainty and dispatch. He had neither scratch nor bruise, noth-
In his drunkenness the Minnesota hills ing but the fresh earth stains on his
and the Finnish moors were one. He knees, a spattering of muck from the
thought the bats had grounded and the slough. Something pressed against his
wolves were abroad. He
thought thq^ thigh in the pocket that confined his
had tried to take advantage of him, and handkerchief. When he brought his
that he, in the full lustihead of his prow- knucklesdown on the door he was re-
ess, had torn a forepaw from one of membering what it was. He had fought
them. with a pair of werewolves across the
His visions were alternately clear and slough. That was it.
chaotic, like those of dreams. The fog

was magically embodying itself. When
he tripped in it he purposefully dismem-
bered it as though he were matched
K ate was looking down at him long
before he knew she was there.
Drunken and bewildered, the Bocak had
against human antagonists. It became taken a terrible object from his pocket
W.T.—
and was glaring at it. It was the bloody ing’s. They were scarlet, the glistening,
paw of the werewolf. When the fog in jeweled red of the wolf’s. And though
the slough turned solid, an erect beast he could not see it, he knew that she had
with a frisking tail had tried to throttle a long, slim, red tongue like a ribbon.
him. He had twisted off its offending He knew it now. Kate ©’Mecca was a
daw as he woidd behead a chicken by — werewolf. He knew that he had killed
whipping its wild body around his head her mother, crushed her skull back in the
like a limp club. The werewolf’s bloody slough, and that Kate must have drowned
claw, indeed! Without giving it much the skinny carcass when she fled.
thought, as is the way with mighty men, Elof stepped back; the werewolf s hand
he had deposited the claw in his pocket slipped from his clasp and bounced down
for safe-keeping along with his kerchief. the wooden steps in front of the door.
At the time, he had been vagudy aware Kate’s long, sleepy eyes slanted into
that it was a fairly large daw, one with Elof s with an expression of profound
a stiff scrub of black hair and short toes scorn, pity, and hatred, as though she
mounted with panther-like nails. He re- were imparting secret knowledge. He
membered that the claw was singularly was hearing her cool, husky voice for the
naked between the toes. But now, as he first time, and there was mockery in it:
stupidly regarded it with supreme and "Then you have asked ” she be-
swiftlymounting horror, he saw that it gan.
was a claw no longer. It was smooth and It was a lie. The night, the fog and
sUm and white, a human hand. It was, the corn whisky had played a ghoulish
in fact,Kate ©’Mecca’s hand; of that he prank on him. It never happened. Yet
could not be mistaken. He had plucked Kate ©’Mecca once had two hands like
the ©’Mecca’s hand out of the fog. anyone else, for he had seen them when he
Kate stood in the doorway, and to her courted her the last two Fridays. And now
Elof raised his eyes fearfully. Her arm her right hand was lying on the ground
was outstretched toward the terrifying at his feet. She was a werewolf, as he
object Elof held. Her arm was grace-
still had proved by twisting off her hand
ful and the flesh smooth and
perfect, across the slough. She had called to him
creamy, but ended at the wrist. Kate’s
it then. Her voice now was the same that
scarlet mouth was fixed in a smile. Elof had wept "Elof! Elof!” at the edge of
knew now why neither Kate nor her the slough, wept when he had hurt her
mother had ever spoken to him. It was be- so.
cause they were afraid of showing their He took yet another step back. And
teeth. Kate’s teeth were pointed like slim he turned and fled with the cool, inexora-
ivory needles, ©nly the two dainty front ble voice pursuing him, haunting him for
incisors met squarely. The gums were ever. "Then you have asked for my hand,
not the moist pink color of a human be- Elof!” said Kate. . . .
W. T—3
434
©/t^dows of Blood
By EANDO BINDER
A grim story of torture in the cruel days of the
Roman Emperor Caligula
T WAS late in the fall. Over the the black wraith above had been cast to
With appendages like beating
I shadow-engulfed waters of the Tiber
a raw wind blew down from the
earth.
wings, it seemed not human as it floated
north. A cold white moon swung over toward him over the shadowy lawn.
the Seven Hills, riding half submerged Brave Titus of the Roman legions fought
through a bank of heavy black clouds. off a momentary awesome fear, and, for-
The night was eery, made for evil things. getting the cold, stepped forth to battle
A guard, standing before the portals this gruesome, unearthly thing. It was
of a secluded villa, drew his long cloak nearly upon him as he leveled his great
more tightly about him. Sullenly, he spear.
cursed his metallic accouterments that "Who goes there.^” he challenged with
seemed to absorb thricefold the chill of a throaty rasp.
the night. Crouching closer into the The shadow stopped as if surprized to
small cubicle hewn into the marble of the find opposition to its approach. The
wall beside the entrance, teeth chattering, guard heaved a sigh of relief, for now he
he wondered if it were not better to be saw it was human after all. Anything
up north fighting the barbarians. True, earthly a Legionary could fight. He
there the cold was yet more intense, but called his challenge again, this time with
one could warm his blood in the heat of a more confident ring in his voice.
battle, and not stand like this, silently, "It is I, Junga of the Huns,” came
like an evil spirit of the night, freezing a hoarse voice from the head-folds of the
and shivering. cloak worn by the newcomer.
At the
As he stood there holding his great same time the concealing cloth was with-
spear in cloak-muffled hands, the moon drawn somewhat to reveal a visage of
broke for a short spell through the dense extreme ugliness. The swarthy, parched
clouds and momentarily illuminated the skin was drawn tightly over the bones.
park-like expanse before him. Suddenly It was like the face of a mummified
a shadow detached itself from a blotch corpse.
of blackness cast by a group of poplars, "Bah —a barbarian!” rumbled the
and toward him. Tago Titus
slithered guard, angered because of his own super-
flung aside his cloak and took firmer grip stitious fears. "Away with you, Hun!
of the spear. His Emperor, Caligula You have no business here.”
Caesar, was within, and it was his duty "But I seek audience with the Emper-
to see that no enemy, or evil thing of the or!” the trespasser remonstrated, not re-
night, should pass beyond the entrance. treating a step.
Closer and closer came the moving Titus’ lips curled scornfully. "Caligula
shadow. The fitful light of the moon Caesar does not give audience to every
made it appear as if an ugly portion of heathen from the north. Have you some
435
436 WEIRD TALES
talisman, some mark or sign of the Cae- against my life this night. I shall not
sar’s favor?” soon forget.” Then he slunk after the
"Nay, that I have not.” Emperor, having lost but a few steps by
"Then you can not enter these por- the pause.
tals!”
words.
"But
The guard
I
It
say that Caesar
Titus wasted no
was not the custom
”
further
in that time
W ITH Caligula in the lead, they
passed through an anteroom in
which a half-dozen guards stood as
to listen to audacious persons of no au- though carven into the marble walls
thority. His huge hands showed white about them, and thence into a sumptuous
knuckles as he raised his spear to trans- audience chamber. The Emperor made
fix the unlucky person before him. As he his way to a silk-carpeted dais and seated
was about to deal the death blow, a voice himself upon a throne-like chair of ex-
spoke over his shoulder, staying his hand. quisite ivory workmanship.
"Tago, hold your thrust. It is the The barbarian fell to his knees to await
Cassar’s wish to speak to the barbarian.” the Caesar’s command to speak, but his
Titus froze to attention as the voice sharp black eyes bored unflinchingly into
from behind continued: "Know you not the narrowed eyes of the other. He
the chamber of spotless white marble looked upon the face that could smile at
within these walls? Perhaps”
— —here the a victim’s screams of tortured agony, and
voicebecame a whisper "this newcomer there was no hint of fear in his manner.
would like to see it!” Caligula was impressed despite himself.
The guard trembled. Well he knew "Either you are a great fool,” spoke
of that chamber. Many were the nights the man on the throne, "or you have a
he had heard the shrieks of the tortured silly courage without reason. To attempt
and dying within its confines, despite the entrance to my villa at night is the height
thickness of the marble walls. The voice of folly. Only by chance I passed the
that had spoken was that of Caligula, the gate during a midnight stroll, and stayed
wanton butcher, whom all Rome feared my faithful guard’s hand. Furthermore,
and hated. Here at this seemingly peace- your people, the Huns, have always been
ful villa the mad Caesar held nightly de- Rome’s bitterest enemies. Speak! I will
bauches so cruel and vicious as to bring hear a word from you before I take your
shame to his high office. It was whis- life.”
pered that Caligula was the nether-world The ragged clothes of the stranger
spirit in the guise of man. shook convulsively for a moment, and
"See that he has no weapons, Tago.” then the Hun rose slowly to his feet.
The guard did as his master com- "You Romans speak of death and blood-
manded and stepped aside, having found shed as if they were nothing. Yet to-
the barbarian unarmed. night is not my time to die.”
"Come,” Caligula spoke, a note of sup- "If I command
you die!" said Ca-
it,
pressed satisfaction in his voice. ligula, whitening in sudden anger.
Junga the Hun hesitated not a whit. "Ah, Caesar, Master of the World, I
With an alacrity that astounded the come first because I fear not death, and
guard, he followed his unholy host. But secondly because I have been commanded
he slowed and turned his head momen- hither by the Sorceress of Belshewawar.
tarily. "Wretched man!” he snarled at 'Go,’ said her High Priest to me, 'go to
the Legionary. "You raised your spear the south where there is one whose des-
SHADOWS OF BLOOD 437
tiny has been written within the Holy "Have you proof, Priest of Belshewa-
Circle. Through you and your priestly war?” Already he addressed him respect-
knowledge of our secret powers shall he fullyand Junga was not slow to see his
know of Rome’s greatest hour.’ These victory.
were the words spoken to me, and I have "That I have,” Junga spoke confi-
come, Caesar.” dently.
Caligula stared at the unflinching black
"Lie not to me, Junga, or your body
eyes of the barbarian as though seeking to
shall know pain no speaking tongue could
read his mind and soul. "Rome’s greatest
describe. I have half a mind yet to take
hour.^” He repeated the words almost in-
you to the White Chamber and wring the
voluntarily, mystified at their suggestive
trudi from your lips.”
rhythm. Prompted by a desire to call the
"If it please you, Caesar, take me there
wretch before him a wily liar, he yet
now. Such a chamber, I think, will suit
withheld the words. He was known to
me better than any other!”
have openly sneered at the impotent gods
of Rome, but at heart his bloody soul Caligula started to his feet in aston-
quaked before powers which were reput- ishment. Then, with a sudden gesture, he
ed to sway the destiny of human life. led the way out of the room.
Junga the Hun smiled inwardly. He
could read the
lettered book.
human face like a well-
Furthermore, there was
something else that gave him secret
T he White Chamber was
of massive proportions.
private sanctum of one of
vaulted and
It was the
Rome’s most
amusement. Caligula had saved his life! heartless kings. On its snow-white mar-
Yet had he (Junga) but spoken one word ble floor human blood had splashed too
out there by the gate, before the spear often, and its walls had echoed the groans
—
was thrown a powerful sorcery would of hellish agonies of torture.
and slave, general
Tribune
and soldier, mistress
have seized the guard and rendered him
helpless. And that same witchcraft could
and harlot, all had seen the dazzling
be used against even an emperor. . . .
whiteness only as a mock to their horri-
ble death.
"Do you think, barbarian dog,” the
Emperor broke the silence, "that I, Cae- Scrubbed daily by slaves, the floor glis-
sar of Rome, would forsake the gods of tened like new-fallen snow in the dancing
Rome?” light of suspended lamps. One not know-
"Ah, Caesar, this is not a religious rite, ing its ghastly history would think the
but a strange power discovered by the chamber suited for some fair princess,
Sorceress of Belshewawar that is beyond with its priceless statuettes and costly fur-
the knowledge of other men’s minds. You niture tastefully distributed around the
can keep your gods. Take my life if you room. But the whole central portion had
will, too, but I say to you that your des- been reserved for instruments of torture
tiny of knowing 'Rome’s greatest hour’ — ^shuddery things of steel and bronze
shall then die with me!” that contrasted horribly with the other
The bairbarian’s beady eyes gleamed fittings.
strangely. Caligula sat long in silent Junga the Hun surveyed the chamber
thought. The stranger’s utter fearlessness without comment, while Caligula watched
and the tremendous portent of his words him marveling that he had
surreptitiously,
meant much to the Roman’s superstitious not even blanched at the sight of the
nature. machines of torture. The stranger nod-
438 WEIRD TALES
ded as though he found the chamber human blood was wasted, I shall show
suited to his bizarre purpose. you how it can be put to good advantage,
“August Gesar, at the break of dawn enabling me to see many things hidden to
I must have the best mosaic-worker in
ordinary eyes, and even to foretell the
future. Through its powers I will bring
Rome. And before the noon sun shines
upon the Tiber, the Magic Circle of Bel-
—
you 'Rome’s greatest hour!’
”
shewawar shall be completed here upon Again that strangely suggestive phrase,
this marble floor. Then will I show you and, despite the barbarian's bluntness in
I spoke not vain words, and will prove to speaking of his wanton butchery, Caligu-
you the power of the priests of Belshewa- la’s head came up expectantly. He mused
war, of whom I am one.” silently over its cryptical meaning for a
moment.
"It shall be done, Junga.” The mad
Caesar gloated, for already he believed.
"What sort of man do you want?”
asked the Emperor finally. "Or, if you
His weak, cruel mind had a new toy for
its amusement.
will —woman!” he added evilly.
"I have already chosen a viaim,” said
Junga quickly. "One called Tago Titus.”
T WAS shortly after the noon repast that
'The Roman clenched his fist and for a
I a slave announced to the Emperor that
moment resentment stormed over his face.
all was in readiness in the White Cham-
"Tago Titus is a trusted and faithful
ber. Glutted with food and reeking from
guard and knows well his duties. Choose
the fumes of overmuch wine, Caligula
another.”
strode on sandaled feet across the marble
'"There are a thousand such as Titus
floor.
in the Roman Legions,” returned the bar-
Junga the Hun was not now the ragged barian coolly."You are Master of the
barbarian of the night before. Attired in
World. All men’s lives belong to you.
the villa’s best choice of costly garments,
Your guard Titus is my choice.”
he might have passed as one of the Ro-
Caligula licked his lips in indecision,
man nobility, except for the alien cast of
and for the first time Junga the Hun
his yellow, sharp-featured visage. He showed a sign of perturbation. His with-
genuflected before the Caesar with a smirk
ered skin paled so that he resembled more
that Caligula might have seen if he had
than ever a living corpse. But in the bat-
had less wine to befuddle his eyes.
tle of wills, the barbarian won, and with
"Master of the World!” spoke Junga a clap of his hands the Emperor sum-
as the Emperor seated himself on a silken moned a slave. He was given orders, and
couch. “See there the two posts with a short time later the unfortunate Legion-
bolted shackles so that a man in them ary was dragged in, stripped naked. Bru-
stands with legs and arms stretched to tal attendants of the White Chamber,
the limit.Before them notice the mosaic long calloused to the distasteful work,
upon the marble floor in the form of a shackled the former guard to the two
circle. That is the Holy Circle— yea, the posts facing the circle of strange mosaic
Magic Circle —of Belshewawar, whose patterns. 'The hapless victim seemed re-
designs and symbols only a priest of our signed to his fate, but seeing the Hun
cult can read and interpret.” resplendent in a costly toga, leering at
"Ah, then you need a victim!” cried him, he burst into speech:
the Roman joyfully. "Heathen snake, this is your doing!
”
"That I do, Caesar. Where formerly May the gods of Rome curse
"Silence!” thundered the Emperor. gritted his teeth and not another sound
"My blood upon you both; may destiny came from his lips.
” "Look, Cassar!” cried the priest of Bel-
bring you with me soon and
"Silence!” roared Caligula again. The shewawar solemnly. "Look! The shadow
of blood creeps toward the Magic Circle!
Legionary set his jaw firmly and relapsed
into silence, but his eyes glared accusing-
When it reaches the mystic symbols and
flows around them, I shall read what por-
ly at his master. "You are sentenced to
death,” went on Caligula coldly, "be-
tends of importance in the empire.” He
pointed a scrawny finger at the huge-
cause you nearly took the life of this man
when my previous instructions had
pattemed ring on the snowy marble floor.
Junga,
been to conduct him into the portals when
he arrived.”
Titus’ eyes flared dumfoundedly, and
C
tricate
ALIGULA looked alternately at the
creeping blood and the mosaic of in-
and mysterious figures. There were
then lowered in resignation. The Caesar’s
the age-old symbols of the planets and
word was law —and truth. Then Caligu-
stars, interspersed with crude outlines of
la tossed his head, and all left the cham-
human beings, and the writhing shapes
ber except Junga.
of cabalistic signs. Wavy lines ran through
In the appalling silence that followed,
and about the area, connecting one to an-
broken only by the heavy breathing of the other with great complexity.
victim,Junga drew a sharp dagger from Long the two waited, while the misera-
and approached the shackled
his girdle
ble victim prayed silently for a quick
man. The leer of triumph on his mum-
death. Gradually the shadow of blood, a
mified face made the Roman soldier
darkly red reflection from the vaulted
wince, though he had been unperturbed
ceiling above, crept on itsway to the Holy
at sight of the shining blade.
Circle. Two heartless pairs of eyes fol-
His face close to that of the soldier, lowed the moving red refleaions, un-
the barbarian hissed softly like a venom- mindful of the tortured man waiting for
ous snake: "So, you insulted me, and an end to his death-agony, and of the re-
”
threatened my life! You see now volting mess at his feet, from which
He jerked back with an oath, wiping flowed the scarlet stain that filled the
from his face the material scorn of the chamber with a fearful ruby glow.
man he had brought to his doom. Suddenly Junga leaped from his perch
"Come, let us get on with this,” com- beside the Cassar’s couch. The long crim-
manded Caligula, who had watched im- son shadow of blood had reached the cir-
patiently. cle, and because of the mosaic’s intricate

Junga waited no longer, but plunged pattern, it began to form a gruesome de-
his dagger into the bowels of the naked sign. The barbarian knelt down beside
man, making a circle so swiftly that it the circle. After minutes of silent con-
was etched in a fine red line before the templation, he arose with a look of in-
entrails burst forth from the body. 'The tense excitement on his face, and cried:
barbarian had leaped aside to escape be- "Look, Cassar, and mark my words well.
ing spattered with blood, and he glided The Magic Circle has brought you great
like an evil wraith to the side of the seat- news. It tells that the Roman Legions in
ed Emperor. the north have won a great victory against
With a groan of intense pain, the Le- the barbarians, and the frontiers of the
gionary’s head fell upon his chest. He empire are secure. Oh, Caesar, thus speaks
440 WEIRD TALES
theMagic Circle of Belshewawar!” And of Rome in his own stronghold and speak-
Junga the oracle sank with his face upon ing to his own face of his atrocities. But
the marble floor in proper respect for the he had cunningly played on the depraved
man before him. instincts of the Emperor, knowing that
Caligula sat in silence, speechless. At would overshadow any audacity on his
the words of the other his hands had part.
gripped the arms of the chair until the Junga rose to his feet. Already en-
knuckles glared white. News of such grossed with plans for a glorious future
magnitude and importance astounded as Caligula’s honored soothsayer, he
him. For many days he had worried over straightened the folds of his toga and
the matter, for the Legions of Rome had stepped toward the doorway. But a low
been beaten back time and time again un- sound brought him to a pause, startled.
til it seemed the very frontiers of the em- It had been Titus, the guard, moaning in
pire must succumb before the barbarians. his death-agony. The barbarian glanced
He had shifted generals and military lead- shrugged disdain-
at his mutilated victim,
ers ceaselessly in an effort to find one who fully,and made for the doorway, sud-
might turn the long and doubtful cam- denly aware of the stench of freshly
paign into victory. spilled blood.
The Emperor leaped to his feet, both "Junga! Junga of the Huns!”
anger and a mad joy intermingled on his The barbarian stopped and turned half
face. Pointing a long finger at the sor- fearfully in his viaim’s direction. Titus,
cerer,he shouted loudly: "Priest of Bel- with the shadows of death in his eyes,
shewawar, you have spoken. This shall had raised hishead from his chest. Those
prove to me the truth or untruth of your eyes, sharp and accusing, focused till they
supposed powers. In a few days there met those of the heartless man of the
will come a courier from the north. If north.
he has other tidings than yours for my "Junga of the Huns! Do you hear
ears, your doom is sealed. I shall then me?”
know you for a liar.” Perspiration started from the sorcerer’s
Caligula strode from the chamber, forehead and he tried to break away from
Junga, still kneeling on the floor, fairly the sudden spell that seemed to have
laughed to himself. His schemes had been bound his feet —tried to escape the ac-
crowned with utter success. An adept in cusing tones of the agony-ridden voice
the dark art of anthropomancy, he had of the man he had murdered.
come to the key city of the world to make "You have done evil, Junga,” came
use of his evil profession. It had struck from the pain-twisted lips of the dying
him, while pursuing an obscure life as a Roman. Soft though the tones were, the
much-feared sorcerer in a barbaric land, words rang through the vaulted room
that his powers entitled him to greater like funeral chimes, "Your evil shall live
honor and fame. He had come to the after you —
but before that it shall com-
Caesar, therewith, intent upon advancing pass your own doom!”
his own interests. The Sorceress of Bel- 'The barbarian stared speechless in ter-
shewawar, supposedly his patroness, was ror and saw the eyes of the suffering man
but the figure of an impressive myth. turn to the mosaic ring between them.
Junga had come of his own will. What could he be seeing there? Why
And how well it had all gone! He had did those eyes, swiftly glazing in the mists
taken a great risk, facing the mad butcher of death, liglit up as though having seen
—
something in the configurations on the the moment he saw her, the barbarian
marble floor? dispatched a slave to the Caesar with a
"Look!” message.
The word came almost sharply from An hour later, in the early evening, a
the disemboweled victim. "My blood summons called him to the Emperor’s
see? It seeps into the Holy Circle. It is reception room, but not before Junga had
forming a design —a portent of the fu- seen the beautiful slave conducted to the
ture. I can read that sign! — It says that guarded quarters in the rear of the villa
you — fiendish slayerof— innocent men where Caligula’s loves of the day were
are —warned of your black gods— that kept in luxury and idleness.
you —Caligula—doom ”
Junga bowed low before the Caesar,
The agonizing voice ceased and the who gave him permission to speak. "Au-
great head of Titus the Legionary dropped gust Caesar, we must again watch the
Hun fled from the
to his chest. Junga the shadows of blood creep over the linea-
room with hands to his ears, vainly trying ments of the Holy Circle of Belshewawar.
to shut from them the words he had But an hour ago in my room there came
heard. to me a message borne by certain spirits
from my patroness, saying we must read
T HAD happened that several days be- the first of the portents that shall bring
I fore, there had come to the ears of you knowledge of 'Rome’s greatest hour’.”
Caligula the tale of a ravishingly beauti- "So be it,” said Caligula. "Tomorrow
”
ful female captive of Egypt, who was in evening
the hands of one of his generals in Rome. "Nay, but it must be this very eve-
He had forthwith decided to see her and ning,” cut in Junga softly.
perhaps take her for his own. The fair Caligula waved an imperious hand.
creature was brought to his villa, and by "Tomorrow evening, I say. I have just
chance, fell upon the day after the
it laid eyes upon the most beautiful creature
courier from the north, coming with news ever to draw breath in the land of Egypt,
”
of victory for Rome, vindicated the sor- and tonight
cery of Junga. "And tonight,” again interrupted Jun-
The northern wizard saw the coming ga, "must you forego your carnal pleasure
of her litter from the window of his to hear the prophecies of Belshewawar.”
room. Attracted by her manner and poise Caligula leaped to his feet angrily.
even from that distance, as she stepped "But it is my will,” he fairly roared,
”
gracefully from the vehicle in the court- "that tonight the fair Egyptian
yard, Junga contrived to be in the hall as —
"And who knows.^ the Holy Qrcle of
the retinue conducted her to the presence Belshev'awar may have something to say
of the Emperor. Stunned by her beauty, about this most gorgeous captive! It is
so perfect in contrast to the gnarled, un- best, Caesar, that you listen to the wisdom
shapely women of his own hardy, north- of the sorceress who sent me, before you
ern race, Junga silently vowed then and do in folly those things you contemplate
there that Caligula should not have her, without regard to the future.”
but he himself. Already he counted him- The firm, quiet voice of the barbarian,
self an authority in the villa, to whom delivered in sepulchral tones, played upon
nothing was impossible. Knowing he the superstitions of the Emperor. As a
must work fast if he would be the first result, later in the evening, they again
to have her, as was his fierce desire from met in the White Chamber.
442 WEIRD TALES
The same gruesome rite that had taken Caligula turned ashy and fairly stag-
place a week before was enaaed, the vic- gered back to his seat. The barbarian
tim a guard accused of having fallen continued, his eyes narrowing craftily:
asleep on watch. Not quite as stoical as "No one knows it, as the disease is in
his predecessor, this man screamed aloud that stage where outward signs are hardly
as the plunging knife searched his vitals. detectable, but none the less, it is there.
His powerful body writhed and knotted If you will dispatch your physician to her
in the grip of the gyves, and each throb to conduct a close examination, he will
of agony brought piteous groans to his confirm my prediction.”
lips. The Emperor nodded, too stunned to
But the two archfiends who had speak, and they parted.
brought him to that ghastly end showed
little interest or compassion in his suffer-
ing, except that Caligula
eyes
turned scornful
upon him and said that most men
A CLOSELY muffled figure stood in the
courtyard,
shadow of a tethering-post in the
nervous and impatient. At
died with far more pain in the infamous times it peered carefully beyond the post
White Chamber. The Caesar then turned where the moonlight flooded the flag-
his undivided attention to the winy re- stones, and as often it would turn its
flection from the vaults above that slowly head backward where a darker shadow
crept upon the Magic Circle of Belshe- seemed inked into the gloom-ridden cor-
wawar. ner beside the little-used stable entrance
Apparently in a semi-trance while de- of the villa.
ciphering the symbols of the mosaic, Jun- Suddenly a second figure stirred in the
ga the Hun, mumbling in a strange ca- shadows along the one wall, and resolved
dence, stared with beady eyes at the mys- itself into a man swathed from head to
tic signs, and suddenly leaped to his feet. feet in a faded toga and tattered woolen
"Alas, Caesar! It is not always that the scarf. The watcher melted to the side of
Holy Grcle tells that which the heart de- the concealing post and waited silently.
sires. For it reveals now that you should "Hsst! Bogamus! Are you there? It
not have this fair creature from the is I, Junga!”

south!” The watcher thereupon stepped from
Caligula rose from his couch, enraged. the shadow. "Be quiet, on your life! This
"Do you dare to command a Caesar what is business that calls for more care than
and what not to aa.ve? By the throne of daring.”
Jove, you go too far, I will have the Junga the Hun, for it was he in the
Egyptian girl, whatever your Holy Circle nondescript clothing, grunted softly, it
says.” may have been in derision or acquies-

As Jimga stood and arrogant in
silent cence, and came close to the other. "And
his total lack of fear at a Caesar's mighty the —our merchandise, it is here all
wrath, Caligula calmed down, asking: right?”

"And why. Priest of Belshewawar, must Bogamus the physician pointed to the
I deny myself the possession of a mere impenetrable darkness of the stable cor-
woman?” ner and nodded. "That which you wish
"Harken, answered Junga
Caesar,” is there; but by the gods, now I
”
quietly. "The Egyptian maid you so de- wish
sire, the magic of Belshewawar tells me, "Wish what, Bogamus?”
is tainted —
^tainted with leprosy!”
" that I had not agreed to it. Ca-
.
ligula is a widced man, a devil when for long minutes in the utter silence, and
wrathful.” assured that no one had detected him and
"But he is stupid,” Junga said quickly. followed, he closed the door, shot home
"Fear not, Bogamus; none but you and I its bolt, and turned to the girl lying pale
know that the Egyptian girl is untainted and alluring in the flicker of the candle.
and pure. Only we two shall know that In his face grew a concentrated lust that
she is yet here at the villa, accessible to transformed his natural ugliness into ut-
me. Tomorrow Caligula shall see a ter bestiality.
veiled woman hurried from the villa to
be exiled from human society. He will N THE week that followed, Junga and
quickly forget the matter when the cap- I Caligula forgathered three times in the
tain of the guards reports she is gone white chamber, staining the marble floor
from this place.” each time with the blood of innocent
Bogamus shook his head, worried and men, doomed by command of the Caesar.
frowning. "But only the gods can save The Priest of Belshewawar, skilled in his
us if someone be suspicious and raise the art, read from the Magic Circle omens
veil to find another woman in the Egyp- and portents that related mainly to Ca-
tian’s place.” ligula’s northern operations in extending
"What brave man will touch the veil the empire. The mad Caesar, engrossed
of a leper?” Junga’s voice reflected great in his superstition, became convinced that
confidence. "But come, we waste good the magic of the barbarian sorcerer would
time in idle talk. Lead the way to my eventually lead him to "Rome’s greatest
rooms. I shall carry the —merchandise.” hour.”
Bogamus in the lead, Junga staggering Junga, in turn, knew there was to be
behind with the limp and bound figure of no such fantastic climax in their relation-
a girl in his arms, they passed via the ship: it was his purpose merely to lead
stable entrance into a dark corridor that the trusting Emperor on, and make his
led upward on ramps of sturdy wood. It favor secure. But one thing bothered the
being the hour before dawn, the villa was cunning man of magic: try as he would
silent in sleep and there was none to he could not forget those fateful words
question the two wary evil-doers. Titus the Legionary had said with his dy-
In the week that Junga had been at ing breath. Had the revelations of his
the villa, he had already cast his eyes dark magic been able to open his eyes to
upon the various people in the Caesar’s his own future, the barbarian would have
service, with the possibility of contacting been yet more disturbed. . . .
some of them as helpers in his nefarious It was not many days later that a guard
operations. Bogamus the physician, gaimt came to Caligula witli a strange tale of
and he had quickly gathered
avaricious, what he had glimpsed in a window of
to his evil fold with the promise of that Junga’s private quarters. The guard had
lure that knows no honesty
Finally
gold.
a stray candle-beam
— lighted
been a close friend of the deceased Titus,
and had gained his information more
their feet as they gained the living-quar- •
by design than accident. The daring
ters of the villa, and Bogamus parted fellow had climbed, at risk of life and
from the barbarian after seeing him safe- limb, to the only vantage-point, high on
ly in his rooms. Junga the Hun laid the a peaked gable, from which one could see
unconscious, drugged girl on a couch, and into the chambers of the sorcerer. It had
strode to the doorway. After listening been well worth the while, for the in-
—
444 X!7EIRD TALES

formation he imparted startled the Em- and carried him away from the couch.
peror not a little. Caligula spent an hour With practised familiarity they strapped
in deep thought, his black brows fur- him by wrists and ankles to an apparatus
rowed in a thunderous scowl. Then he gleaming with much metal. Bogamus
called to him a trusted steward, to whom came out of a momentary faint to find
he gave certain whispered instructions, himself suspended horizontally four feet
enjoining him to secrecy. off the floor. Unable to see underneath
That very night Caligula himself re- himself, his mind sickened at the thought
paired to the White Chamber, and not of what devilish instrument might be
long afterward the door opened to re- there. His eyes focused then on the leer-
veal two of his attendants carrying being, insane face of Caligula and he cried
tween them the struggling form of Bo- loudly for mercy.
gamus the physician. The attendants stood "Strip him!”
him on his feet before the couch of the The mad Emperor strode to a position
Caesar and stepped back a pace with where he could peer into the drawn and
brawny arms folded. frightened face of his erstwhile trusted
Trembling in every limb, Bogamus at- physician.
tempted to put on a righteous front be- "Bogamus, you have lied to me and de-
fore the Emperor’s accusing eye. "Hail, ceived me. The fair Egyptian was not
august Caesar! For what reason am I, taken from this place! She has been ob-
your faithful physician, thus dragged to served in the chamber of another sup-
—
the ^White Chamber? I told these rough posedly faithful servant of mine. Now
fellows they had made a mistake. Will tell me, traitor, was the girl tainted with
the Caesar give me permission to leave?” leprosy or not?”
"I would talk with you, Bogamus,” "No, no!” cried the now naked and
Caligula said, transfixing the terror-strick- trembling man. "It was but a trick. Re-
en man with ominous eyes. “Some ten lease me, and I will tell you all! You do
days ago there was brought to this villa not have to torture me! I will tell all!”
a captive Egyptian maid. You remem- "You will tell all now, Bogamus,”
ber?” grated the Emperor, with a great anger
"Yes, Caesar.” clouding his face. "Who incited you to
Caligula said nothing for a long mo- play this deception?”
ment. Then: “Where is she now?” he The physician rolled his eyes fearfully,
suddenly shot out. unable to see any way of not being re-
Bogamus, licking dry lips, answered vealed a traitor and double traitor. "Jun-
as confidently as his shaken nerves would ga! Junga the Hun! He wanted the fair
allow: "If you will but recall, Caesar, she Egyptian. He plotted to get her. In his
was tainted with leprosy and by your own cunning and lust, he came to me. He
orders exiled from this place.” cast a spell over me. I swear it, Caesar,
Caligula arched his heavy brows and he played his magic on me. Never of my-
straightened a sleeve of his tunic. "That self would I have
”
—
it was Junga he —
is your story, Bogamus?” not I
"Y-yes, august Caesar.” His suspicions suddenly confirmed, the

Suddenly, at a wave of the Emperor’s boiling wrath of the mad Caesar explod-
hand, the two stalwarts grasped the physi- ed. With a roar of violent curses, he
cian by the arms, and unmindful of his turned from the babbling physician and
sudden shriek, dragged him off his feet his incoherent pleas for mercy and for-
giveness, and jerked a finger at his min- know its greatest hour. Come, a grateful
ions. Caesar invites you to dine with him!”
Without a word one of the slaves Unsuspeaing, the barbarian sorcerer
stooped beside a large wooden wheel came forward, and upon his parched and
whose outer edge, strewn with a score of wrinkled skin a smile of satisfaction grew.
jagged-edged knives, revolved beneath To dine with a Caesar! This honor had
the unproteaed spine of the doomed not yet been his.
man. Grasping the crank handle with Caligula raised a goblet of wine as
which it was equipped, he slowly turned Junga seated himself. “This is the choic-
it. Its axle uncentered, the wheel’s larger est vintage of the Carduc Hills. Drink,
arc reared from the floor and swung its my incomparable soothsayer, and the toast
freight of knives upward. — ^to what the Holy Circle will this night
Bogamus the physician screamed in reveal.”

sudden pain as a knife flicked his flesh Junga started in suspicion at this, and
imderneath, and arched his body desper- darted a quick glance at the Emperor.
ately so that the next revolution of the But seeing the Caesar’s goblet already up-
wheel left him untouched. The attend- raised, a veritable royalcommand to
ant methodically turned the crank, and drink, he drew up his own goblet and
Caligula looked on in vengeful gloating, drank deep of it. A moment later a cry
knowing that in a short time the strain- escaped from his lips. His arms fell help-
ing man would have no further strength less to his side and the golden goblet
to arch his back and then he would sag, crashed to the floor to taint with its dark
so that the knives red wine the snow-white purity.
Two hours later the mad Gesar left The color drained from his swarthy
the White Chamber as the last echoes of face so that he looked like an actual
screams and groans had died away. corpse, a dead man sitting in a chair with
living eyes —
eyes that glared a confusion
ITTING resplendent before a table of emotions: hatred, rage, and above all,
S loaded with delicious foods and rare a horrible fear. His voice, as if from the
wines in the vaulted White Chamber, grave, croaked: “You have poisoned me!”
Caligula Cassar drummed his fingers on “By the crown of Olympus, but the
the arms of the chair. At times his cruel Priest ofBelshewawar has again guessed
face lighted with a smile of anticipation. the truth. What evil magic gives you
It was apparent that he awaited some- this strange power Caligula’s voice
one, and at last the door swung aside and hissed mockingly as he burst into a spasm
two guards ushered in Junga, the Priest of triumphant laughter. Then his face
of Belshewawar, sumptuously clothed in became stem and he shook a clenched fist
contrast to the corpse-like lineaments of in the barbarian’s face. “A rare poison

his face. The attendants retreated at a that robs men of their strength, and sor-
signal from their master, and Junga stood cerers of their supernatural powers.
a moment hesitant, surprized at the sight Weave a spell if you can,” he taunted,
of food and drink in such a place. “and you shall find it dying unborn in
“Come, my Junga,” cried Caligula jo- your own treacherous heart.”

vially.“This night shall we dine in our Clapping his hands, Caligula arose as
citadel of sport.
I have for our rites to- the two attendants came running up, and
night a victim whose heart’s blood shall ordered them to shackle the barbarian to
surely tell when and how Rome shall the gyve-posts before the Holy Circle of
446 WEIRD TALES
Belshewawar. As quickly as they had the shadows of blood, and see what the
come, the slaves left, and Caligula faced Holy Circle will tell.”
the horror-stricken eyes of Junga. No longer a man, but a monster, the
"But five people knew that you have mad Cassar taunted the dying man, ex-
made a fool of Caesar. Three of them are acting vengeance for the trickery that had
gone already: Bogamus, the Egyptian lost to him a beautiful woman. Caligula
maid and one of my guards. You and I might have forgiven him the act had he
— are left!” been a Roman, and had he been a sooth-
With deliberate eagerness, the mad sayer of years of standing. But for a
wretched barbarian to steal from the
Emperor drew from his girdle a sharp
Caesar, within three weeks of being there,
dagger, while Junga stared speechless and
powerless, for the poison was truly an
a desirable woman — that was unforgiva-
ble.
antidote against witchcraft. "Look, Jun-
ga! There before you lies the mosaic ring
whose mysterious convolutions and signs
reveal great secrets when the shadows
T he scarlet light that rebounded from
the vaults above slanted gradually
toward the mosaic ring from the pool of
of human blood creep over them. What
blood at Junga’s feet. In an ecstasy of
more fitting tlian that your blood should
pain that groaning could not alleviate,
now be spilled for the purpose!”
Junga fell to silence except for labored,
"Who are you,” croaked the voice of
choking breath, and stared fixedly at the
Jimga suddenly, "that dare to threaten the
shadows of blood writhing over the sym-
life of one of Belshewawar’s priests.^ Be-
bols of the Magic Circle.
ware, for the Sorceress who sent me here
"I will read the meaning of the oracle
is jealous of her own.”
of Belshewawar,” gleefully cried the Em-
Caligula drew back in awed fear, but peror of Rome. "There, it says Junga is
only for a moment. "Bah! I have no a thief, one who thought to rob a Cisar.
dread of her power, for I am Master of It says he has murdered innocent men,
the World, all-powerful and protected of and despoiled a woman whose feet he
the gods of Rome. Furthermore, will the was not worthy to kiss. And for these
Sorceress of Belshewawar avenge the things, sorcerer though you are, death has
death of a priest of her cult who has been your lot. And what more does it
proved a traitor to his gods?” say?” leered Caligula insanely. "It says
With these words Caligula came closer that I, Caius Caligula Cassar, shall
to the doomed man, dagger extended, know 'Rome’s greatest hour’ — ^with your
gloating at the intense fear that shone death!”
from his victim’s anguished eyes. One 'The barbarian’s eyes flared wide sud-
quick motion and swing of the arm and denly. "That, Cassar of blood, is blas-
Junga the Hun became as those others phemy against my gods!”
had been under his own ministrations. The words rang ominously through the
Turning his back upon the man shriek- vaulted White Chamber, and Junga fixed
ing in agony, Caligula strode to his table his eyes intently on the mosaic ring be-
and drained a goblet of wine. "You see, fore his mutilated body. Seeing this, and
heathen and traitor, that although the shaken by those portentous words, Ca-
poison robs you of motion and of your ligula felt an icy finger touch his heart.
black skill in magic, it does not deaden Almost he wished he had not tampered
the capacity for pain. Now let us watch with tlie powers of Junga’s alien gods.
His eyes turned involuntarily to the Mag- sorcerer stared with wide eyes, forgetful
ic Circle, wondering what could be writ- of his great agony, for he had witnessed
ten there. Then he saw that there was the assassination of a Roman Emperor.
—
something there shadows that should A groan came from the murdered man,
not be. . . . as he stirred his hacked body in a grow-
Caligula whirled and in that instant ing pool of blood. Weakly he raised his
knew his doom. A dozen men with head. His eyes encountered those of the
drawn swords and daggers were behind barbarian.
none of
his back, their faces reflecting Junga’s lips opened, and his voice, al-
the reverence that should have been there ready vibrant with the rattle of death,
"
for their Emperor. With cries of "mur- came forth prophetically: 'Rome’s great-
derer” and "wanton butcher” they rushed est hour’ —
has come! For Caligula, the
upon him, and before he could cry out, mad, murdering Caesar, is no more!”
a dozen daggers plunged into his body. A harsh chuckle, ghostly with the tones
He fell mortally wounded as they rushed of death, reverberated from the white
out again. marble walls as the shadows of blood
A silence as of the grave fell upon the slowly crept in deepening shades over a
White Chamber. The shackled barbarian circle of strange mosaic patterns.
Ghosts
By CLARENCE EDWIN FLYNN
Dear ghosts I have that haunt my way,
And yet I feel no fear;
I count them friends, and hold the day
Brighter that they are near.
There are the ghosts of happy hours

That long ago have fled.
Yet come like resurrected flowers
To say they are not dead.
niere are the ghosts of hopes I prized,

And thought them done and o’er.
Returning, though unrealized.
As lovely as of yore.
“rhere are the ghosts of journeys done

Long, long ago, but yet.
Despite the distance I have gone,
I can not quite forget.
3
of the Lamia
By OTIS ADELBERT KLINE
John Tane, archeologist, was not afraid of man or beast, but he faced
a baffling, sinister mystery in ancient Cairo
The Story Thus Par feet state of preservation, its head resting
in a golden diadem.
OHN TANE, young archeologist and The cobra suddenly comes to life. One
explorer, rents a house in Cairo from
f Doctor Schneider, a German archeol-
candle bums out, and the snake knocks
over the other, leaving the room in dark-
ogist, intending to marry and bring his
ness. Tane lights a match and discovers
bride there to live. But scarcely has he
that the cobra is gone, but that Doctor
paid over the rent money when a Moslem
Schneider has been knocked out, and is
fimeral procession enters the place.
lying beneath a pile of rugs and cushions
Despite his protests, the coffin, presum-
on the divan. The doctor persuades him
ably containing the body of a saint, is
to look for the serpent, and he finds that
walled up in one end of the main recep-
tion room.
the doorkeeper has been slain. When he
returns to the room, the niche has been
That night, Tane and his servant are
closed, and the panel appears to have a
drugged by the doctor, but the former
solid wall behind it. The doctor tells him
awêns in his bedroom, and goes down-
the thing was all a drug dream. They
stairs. In a room next to the one in which
argue, and the doctor goes out, returning
the saint was interred, he sees a Persian
with four native policemen, accusing him
reading a strange litany before a niche
of murdering the doorman. Tane fights
lighted by two candles. He addresses the
the policemen, but is overcome by Hagg
stranger courteously, but the Persian at-
Nadeem, an Egyptian official, who places
tacks him.
him under arrest but courteously invites
Tane wins the fight, and the Persian
him to spend the night in his own home
flees. Then the archeologist examines the
instead of the vermin-infested jail.
scroll the intruder was reading, and finds
The story continues:
it contains a magic formula written in
ancient Egyptian characters. He reads it
aloud, and finds that it is a charm for

6. The Visitation
raising the dead. As he puts down the
scroll, he sees a coffin inside the niche, N ITS arrangement, the house of Hagg
and realizes it is the one brought into the I Nadeem was quite similar to the one
house a few hours before. The lid is off, Tane had rented some hours before, but
and instead of a corpse, he sees that it much more luxuriously appointed. As he
contains a mummy-case on which is de- sat in the reception room, sipping a
picted a beautiful girl. He removes the sherbet and smoking one of his host’s
lid of the mummy-case, and finds a cobra long oriental cigarettes, his eyes strayed
wrapped in muslin bandages of tremen- from one to another of the priceless ob-
dous age. Curiously he unwraps the jects of antique art which the room con-
bandages, and finds the serpent in a per- tained.
448 This story begran in WEIRD TAIÊS for March W. T.—
4
LORD OF THE LAMIA 449
"I had not heard that, among other in learning the truth is by telling all you
things, you were a connoisseur of an- know.”
tiques,” said Tane. "I have nothing to conceal, though
"These things? Mere trifles. Some day, some of the things I have to relate
inshallah, I will show you my private —
may sound fantastic even unbelievable,”
museum.” He smiled his sweet, dreamy Tane replied.
smile. "But now, effendi, I should be in- "Please let me be the judge of that,
finitely obliged to you you would relate

if eêndi. Proceed.”
to me, in detail, everything thathappened The American related his story in de-
after you called on Doctor Schneider yes- tail — his payment of the gold to Doctor
terday afternoon, to rent his house. I Schneider, his awakening near midnight
know you are weary, and need rest.
that with the unmistakable signs of having
At the same time, please realize that you been drugged, his encounter with the
are accused of a serious crime. If you are hawk-nosed Persian, the incident of the
innocent, the quickest way you can aid me scroll, the mummy-case and the serpent.
W. T.—
—
450 WEIRD TALES

his finding of the injured doctor, and the informed,” replied Nadeem, passing him
latter’s subsequent treachery. the gold-and-ivory cigarette box. "It hap-
"Did you tell Doctor Schneider that pens that I am directly descended from a
you had read the scroll aloud over the high priest of Sebek. Despite the fact
mummy-case and then unwrapped the that I am a Muslim, a believer in the one
haje?" asked Nadeem when he had fin- true God, as have been my ancestors for
ished. many generations, the ancient documents
"I did,” Tane replied, "but he evident-

of my forebears have been passed down
from seventh son to seventh son intact.
ly thought that part of it all a hashish
It appears that I have been the first of the
dream. He almost succeeded in convinc-
line with the temerity to break the ancient
ing me that this was the case, also
seals and examine them, since the con-
would have done so, in fact, if it hadn’t
version of the family to the faith of al
been for this.” Reaching into his pocket,
Islam,”
he produced the bit of candle wax he had
found on the floor and passed it to his Tane selected and lighted a cigarette.
host. "You have no idea,” he said, "how in-
tensely interesting all this is to me. I pre-
The latter sniffed at it and tested its
sume that none but a seventh son of a
hardness with his thumb-nail.
seventh son of your house would be per-
"Looks genuine enough,” he said. "I’ll
mitted to examine the documents.”
have it analyzed and checked microscop-
ically, though, to make sure.” Nadeem smiled his sweet, pensive
"To make sure of what? What do you smile. "Unfortunately, that is quite true.
mean?” In fact, there is an ancient curse laid upon
"’This,” said the hagg, "is evidently a the custodian who allows them to fall into
bit of one of the candles used by the high alien hands — a curse which would bring
priests of a certain secret sect of ancient a horrible doom not only upon the
times, when practising a branch of their desecrator, but upon my family in all its
black art — specifically that of raising the branches.”

dead. These candles were made from the "And you believe in the efficaqr of the
fat of virgins secretly sacrificed before the curse?”
crocodile god, Sebek. This fat was mixed
with beeswax in which had been incor-
porated several potent drugs and a com-
pound of aromatic resins, gums and es-
N adeem shrugged. "I shoiBd dislike
to test its power. There have been
numerous instances, within your memory
sential oils.” and mine, in which people have suffered
"Good Lord!” exclaimed Tane. "You death, sudden and inexplicable, after de-
don’t mean that innocent young women fying such a curse. It will be a long time
were actually slaughtered to make these before the world forgets what happened
candles! Why, I have been studying the to the desecrators of the tomb of Tut-
ancient records for years, and never heard ankh-Amen, son of Amen-hetep the
of such a tiling. If this is true. I’ll have to Fourth, which was protected by such a
admit that you are far better informed curse.”
than I on the doings of the ancient "It is my belief that these, and all other
Egyptians, despite my years of study and similar instances, can be traced to natural
research.” causes,” said Tane.
,
"There are reasons why I should be so "Mine also,” replied the Egyptian.
"Has it ever occurred to you that such a illogical it may seem. In this case, you
curse might operate through natural chan- are basing your assumption on the hypoth-
nels?” esis that it was a real haje you saw and
"Can’t say I ever thought of it in that handled, when what you actually saw may
way.” have been something entirely different,
temporarily assuming the shape of a
"In many things the ancients were
haje.”
better informed than are we,” Nadeem
said. "And while I grant you that there '"That would be preposterous.”
is nothing really supernatural, that all "Not necessarily. You are, I take it,
things must take place in accord with the familiar with the Lamia legends.”
laws of Nature, or Allah, it is my belief "Of course. A great English poem
that these ancient priests and master magi- was based on them.”
cians — the genuine adepts — were in pos- "I know. Lamia, by Keats. His picture
session of a number of scientific truths
of Lamia, the brightly colored female
which gave them tremendous power over serpent that transforms herself into a
the uninitiated, and which have not been
beautiful girl, conforms to the ancient
rediscovered by our modern scientists. I
do not claim that they really understood
belief — or superstition, if you will of —
the deadly, beautiful creatures called
all the natural laws they put into effect in
Lamias, half woman, half serpent, who
performing their so-called miracles and visited men in their sleep, sometimes to
feats of magic. However, they had much
make love to them, sometimes to drain
leisure for study and experiment, and
them of their vitality, and often, in the
learning that certain causes produced cer-
end, to slay them, drinking their blood or
tain mysterious effects, made use of them.”
devouring their flesh.”
"I can’t think of any application of "A superstition undoubtedly evoked by
natural law which would explain my the desire dreams of some ancient, love-
weird experience of this evening,” said lorn swains,” said Tane.
Tane. "I would prefer to believe that the
"Not necessarily. It is recorded that
greater part of it was a drug dream, but
one of these creatures once ruled all Libya.
the presence of the carbon spots in the
In fact, her name was Lamia, and that is
top of the niche and a bit of candle wax
why all such have subsequently been
on the rug is evidence that at least part of
called ’Lamias’.”
the experience was real. It is difficult for
me to believe that a serpent, dead for five
"I’ve heard of that, also,” Tane told
thousand years, should suddenly come to him. "It is said that, to this day, Greek
life and crawl away because of the read- mothers frighten their children into obe-
ing of a bit of mummery over it, accom- dience by mentioning her name.”
panied by the burning of two candles "Precisely. And it seems that a belief
made from the fat of virgins. That’s too which has endured so persistently through
preposterous for any sane man to swal- the ages must have some foundation in
low.” fact. Perhaps there were, and are, such
"A true scientist,” said Hagg Nadeem, things as Lamias.”

"weighs every fact with which he comes "At least the ancient scroll and crown
in contact before drawing a conclusion. If I saw, if I really saw them, seem to con-
he is he can not afford
in search of tmth, firm the fact that there was once a queen
to ignore a single fact, however absurd or of Libya by that name, who claimed to be
452 :WEIRD TALES
the daughter of a god and a royal prin- light and settled down among the cushions
cess.” and coverlets. Shortly thereafter, he fell
"That is true.”Hagg Nadeem snuflFed asleep.
his cigarette and stood up. "And it fol- It seemed to Tane that he had scarcely
lows that since you read the scroll and
closed his eyes in slumber, when he sud-
unwrapped the you may have an
serpent,
denly became wide awake. The moon had
opportunity to learn whether there was or
set, and the room was shrouded in that
is such a creature, and if so, whether she
deceptive darkness which precedes the
will live up to the promise made on the
dawn, the various objects looming up as
scroll, to become the slave of the man
bulky shadows. He could see nothing
who awakens her. I will leave you, now, amiss, yet hehad an inexplicable premoni-
to a well-earned rest. Since I can not invite
you up into my hareem, this will serve as
tion of danger —
of some alien presence in
the room. He held his breath and lis-
your bedroom. Sleep as late as you like.
tened. A faint rustling sound came from
The guards and servants will have orders
the mashrabiyeh window, and he strained
not to disturb you. If you have need of
his eyes through the gloom to learn the
anything, clap your hands. And I’ll see
cause. Suddenly he detected a movement,
you tomorrow. Just now, I have impor-
a wriggling sinuous motion through one
tant work to do. Hadrak.”
section of the lattice.Good Heaven! It
"Ma sedam,” Tane replied. —
was a snake a huge, mottled haje with
scales that gleamed dully!
A
went
s
1.
SOON
to the
as his host
window and peered

disappeared
through the doorway, the American
out. A
He
make
strove to cry out, but could not
a sound. Then he tried to sit up,
sentry, withand fixed bayonet, paced
rifle preparatory to running out the door and
just below him. He went to the courtyard calling the guard, but found that he could
door and looked tlirough the interstice not so much as move a finger. Such ex-
between the curtains. Another guard periences had been his before, in dreams,
stood there. A third door led into a nar- but this, he was convinced, was no dream.
row hallway, lighted by the yellow rays The snake slithered down from the lattice
of a brass lamp. And seated at the end of and disappeared in the gloom beneath
the hall with every evidence of alertness the window. The rustling sound now
was a third armed guard. continued on the floor, and the fact that
Returning to the diwan, Tane sat Tane could no longer see the reptile,
down. He decided that an attempt to made its approach immensely more ter-
escape would be foolish, futile, and dan- rifying. Again he made a desperate at-
gerous. After all, where could he go to tempt to shout or move, but in vain. A
help his case in any way? To escape to cold sweat bedewed his forehead, and he
the American consulate now would do was oppressed by a feeling of suffocation.
him no good, even if it were possible of The suspense of lying there, waiting for
accomplishment. He would be traced death to strike him from the shadows, was
and compelled to return to answer the horrible, enervating. He almost wished
murder charge, anyway. The diwan was the haje would sink venomous fangs
its
most inviting, and he was very tired and into his flesh It was thus
and end it all.
exceedingly sleepy. With a yawn, he that the incomparable Cleopatra had

began to undress. A few moments later, found swift surcease from her troubles,
clad only in his shorts, he blew out the ages before.
In breathless silence he waited for that ears were the heavy tread of the sentry
hooded head to rear itself above the edge below the window, and the occasional
of the diwan. But instead of the serpent’s matutinal crowing of the restless cocks of
head he was suddenly aware of something the neighborhood. Suddenly he discov-
light-colored, and faintly luminous, mov- ered that he could move once more. He
ing upward from the floor. It was a pair sat up, found his matclies, and lighted the
—
of plumes the two feathers of truth! lamp. Its yellow rays shone to every cor-
They nodded above a diadem, fronted by ner of the room and revealed nothing. —
a urasus with glittering jeweled eyes. And Sleep, he found, was impossible. He
beneath the diadem, there slowly material- smoked cigarette after cigarette in a fruit-
i2 ed the face and form of the girl he had less effort to soothe his jangled nerves.
seen depicted on the lid of the mummy- Presently, after what seemed ages of wait-
case. She appeared to be draped in some- ing, the dawn came. He blew out the
thing white and filmy, which revealed lamp, settled down once more on the
every line of her slender, perfect figure. diwan, and presently fell into a troubled
"Who are you? What are you?” he sleep.
tried to ask. But his voice would not
7. Kidnapped
function. He could not so much as
whisper.
Although he could not hear his own
voice, the figure seemed to hear it or —
T
watch.
ane awoke and
perspiration.
It was twelve
He
sat up,
glanced
and the air
o’clock,
bathed in
at his
read his thoughts —

for she answered him, quivered in the stifling noonday heat.
her voice low and musical. And the lan- "Then a huge negro, who had been stand-
guage she used was that of ancient Egypt. ing before one of the curtained doorways,
said:
"Don’t you know me, lord of my
awakening? I am Lamia, once proud "I have drawn a cold bath for you, sidi.
—
Queen of Libya, and now ^your slave. I Will you step this way?”
am still weak, for this is the first night, "Will I!” Tane leaped to his feet, and
and so I can not serve you yet. But I will followed the black giant through the
gain strength in the manner you and all doorway, down a hallway, and into a
adepts know, and then you may command modern, tiled bathroom. A cold tub and
my service and my power. You are in a brisk rub-down made him feel like a
great danger, my master —such danger as new man. The negro brought him shav-
will tax our combined efforts to thwart. ing things, and when he had finished,
I go now, to gain strength, but I will re- came in with his clothing, freshly pressed.
turn and watdi over you.” As soon as he was dressed, the black man
Slowly, soundlessly, she sank down- said:
ward until only the nodding plumes "This way, sidi,”
showed above the rim of the diwan. The servant conducted him back into
Then these disappeared. Shortly there- the reception room. There he saw Hagg
after there was a rustling sound at the Nadeem seated on a diwan with a taboret
window. He caught a flash of gleaming before him.
scales on a serpentine body that wriggled "Salam deykum,” he greeted.
swiftly through the lattice-work. "Aleykum salam," replied Nadeem.
For some time Tane lay there, listen- "Will you breakfast with me? I, too, have
ing. But the only sounds that came to his just arisen.”
454 WEIRD TALES
"With pleasure, hagg." small and insignificant as it is, it is enough
The Egyptian clapped his hands, and a to disprove the drug-dream theory, for
servant entered with a huge tray contain- such dreams do not materialize sub-
ing iced watermelon, eggs, toast, grilled stance.”
fish, and a pot of spiced, sweetened coffee. "That is true enough. Then you think
”
"Bismillah," said the hagg, piously, as that I am
he attacked his watermelon. "With "Lord of the Lamia.”
health and appetite.” Tane looked at him in astonishment.
For some time they addressed them- "I can’t believe it. I won’t. It’s all too in-
selves to their food in silence, after the credible — ^too uncanny. Such things can’t
oriental custom. Then, after they had be.”
rinsed their hands beneath a ewer brought "It may be that future developments
by a servant, dried them, and lighted will prove you wrong,” said the hagg,
cigarettes, Nadeem said; solemnly. "We know nothing of the na-
"I just received some good news for tures of these creatures called Lamias, or
you from the kadi. seems that Doctor
It theirpowers or tenacity to life. Cold-
Schneider appeared this morning and blooded animals are notoriously difficult
withdrew his accusation of murder against to kill, particularly serpents. There is an
you. He said that he, too, had been authentic record of a frog found alive in
drugged last evening, in addition to the the wall of an old building, where it had
blow on the head, but that now, since his been imprisoned without food or water
faculties are clearer, he believes your story for many years.”
about the Persian.” "But,” said Tane, "assuming that a
"Drugged. So that’s it. I wondered serpent did remain in a state of suspended
why he acted so queerly last evening. By animation for five thousand years, you
the way, I had a curious experience after still have the inexplicable phenomenon of
I retired. Sort of a vision, or dream. I that serpent changing to the semblance of
seemed to be awake, and yet I couldn’t a woman and returning to its original
make a move or a sound.” form, all in the course of a few moments.”
"Interesting. And what did you see?” "Even that,” said Hagg Nadeem, "is
Tane told him. not so difficult to believe as it might ap-
"Waha!” exclaimed the Egyptian. pear on first thought. I take it that you,
"And you call that a dream?” like most scientists, hold to the theory of
"What do you mean?” organic evolution.”
"At midnight, in the full of the moon, "We use it as aworidng hypothesis,”
you read the mystic incantation aloud over Tane replied. "Things happen as if it
the mummy-case of the ancient Queen of were true.”
Libya, by the light of two magic candles. "Exactly. You believe that your ances-
Then you opened the case and unwrapped tors in the dim and distant past were
the mummy. It is prophesied in the once reptiles.”
ancient writings that the man who does "So it would appear.”
these tilings becomes Lamia’s lord.” "Even the science of embryology fur-
’"rhen you believe that what I thought nishes analogical proof of this. For, at
I did and saw last night was real?” one stage of its development, the human
"As real as this bit of candle wax, embryo resembles a young salamander.”
which is your only physical evidence. Yet "'That is true.”
"You will grant me, then, that the evo- from you last evening. Keep it constantly
lutionists believe a reptile gradually within reach, and be ever on your guard.”
turned into a human being — say over a "May I ask,” queried Tane, "from
period of many millions of years. And whom or from what I am in danger? I
the embryologists tell us that a reptilian have injured no one. Why should any-
form, under proper conditions, becomes a one wish to kill me?”
human form in the course of a few
"You Lord of the Lamia. Hence
are
months.”
there are those who envy you and will try
"Of course.” to supplant you. She will be your greatest
"Then, effendi, I submit that there is protector, and will watch over you. But
but one difference between what your she is not invulnerable. I, too, shall
scientists tell us, and what you say you watch, and do what I can. But you must
witnessed last night. That difference is help yourself. You have a saying: 'The
'time’. You saw, or appeared to see, a Lord helps those who help themselves.’
reptile become a human being. The evo- It will be wise for you to live up to it in
lutionists say this has happened. The this respect. I presume that you will
embryologists say it still happens. Yet want to get settled in your new home
you did not believe the evidence of your today, so I will not detain you longer.
senses because it happened so quickly.” The doctor, I understand, moved out this
"But,” said Tane, "the girl appeared to morning. I will send a man with you to
change back to the serpent form once show you the way.”
more.” "I do have a devil of a lot to attend to
"Why not.’ Combine two gases, oxy- — servants to hire, furnishings to buy,
gen and hydrogen, in the correct propor- and all that. So, if you will excuse me.
tion, and under the proper conditions, and I’ll be on my way.”
they become water. Treat the water with Nadeem clapped his hands, and a
an electrical current, placing a receptacle short, dark-skinned fellah appeared.
over the anode and one over the cathode, "You will conduct Tane Effendi to his
and you reverse the process, for in the home, Mahmud,” he ordered.
one you will find oxygen and in the other, "Good-bye. Thanks for the hospitality
hydrogen. The water has changed back —and the warning,” said Tane, as he fol-
to its The time required

original form. lowed the servant out the door.
for the change depends only on the dis- "Ma salam,” replied Hagg Nadeem,
patch with which the process is applied.” smiling sweetly.
"You have offered analogical proof,”
said Tane, "but nothing more.”
"Permit me to remind you,” smiled
Nadeem, "that your own scientists have
T ane found his servant, Ali, seated
on the bench beside the door of his
empty house, smoking his chibouk. He
offered nothing more than analogical dismissed his guide with a coin, and
proof for a biological theory which many entered, Ali at his heels.
of them believe religiously — the theory "There have been many people here
of evolution. However, time will reveal seeking employment, sidi/' said the
what is true and what is false. And in Syrian, when they reached the reception
the meantime, let me warn you that your room. "Also there came merchants with
life is in grave danger. Here is the gun,” and other
rugs, mattresses, pipes, utensils
handing him the forty-five, "which I took household articles, having heard that you
456 WEIRD TALES
had moved in without furniture. But I Passing thence into the hallway once
told them all to retium later.” more, he came to the bathroom. Here,
Tane sat down wearily on the edge of everything loose had been removed, and
the cushionless diwan, and lighted a cig- the mirror door of the medicine cabinet
arette. stood open, revealing its emptiness. He
"We’ll camp here for today," he
just was about to go on, when a flash of color
said. "Tomorrow will be time enough to attracted his eye — a bright bit of some-
see about servants and begin buying the thing red and gold, which lay on the tile
furniture. Just get a couple of mattresses, floor. Bending, he picked it up. It was
a rug apiece, some food, and such uten- a piece of wood, gilded and lacquered,
sils and dishes as you will need to pre- which had evidently been split off an an-
pare and serve it.” He rose and handed cient mummy-case.
his servant five pounds. "Lock the door After minutely examining it, he
as you go out, so I won’t be disturbed by dropped it into his pocket. It was un-
peddlers and job-hunters.”
After he had finished his cigarette,
doubtedly part of a mummy-case per-
haps the very case he had viewed the
—
Tane decided to have another look at the night before.
mysterious niche which had baffled him Returning to the hallway, he walked
so completely, and to explore those parts on toward the kitchen. But suddenly,
of the house which he had not previously just ashe stepped through the doorway,
seen. He accordingly went through the the thick smothering folds of a burnoose
now airtainless doorway, into the room were thrown over his head, two pairs of
where his strange adventures had taken powerful arms pinioned his, and he was
place. Divested of its rugs and furnish- tripped and thrown to the floor.
ings it had a bare and forbidding look,
and despite the brightness of the noon- 8. The Oasis
day sun, he had, on entering it, an eery
feeling of impending danger
lurking, sinister presence.
An
of some —
examination of the niche revealed
T ane struggled fiercely but futilely in
the clutches of his captors.
quickly found and removed his gun, and
Thqr
the same thing he had last seen — the an- bound his wrists and ankles with ropes
that bit painfully into the flesh. The
cient brick wall flush against the panels
as before. But from behind that wall cloak, which was strongly redolent of
there now came, faintly but unmistaka- camel, was kept over his head. And with
bly, a charnel odor that was suggestive a knife pricking the flesh over his heart,
of the presence of an unembalmed corpse. one of his captors warned him that unless
So disagreeable was this effluvium that he he kept silent he would be instantly slain.
was glad to close the panels again, paus-
He was then rolled up in a rug, lifted to
ing only to re-examine the points above the shoulders of three men, and carried
off.
where the candles had stood. To his sur-
prize, he now found no carbon there, He heard a door open, then guessed by
though he distinctly remembered having the way he was being tilted, that his un-
previously soiled his finger with soot in known captors were taking him down a
examining it. But no matter what he had stairway. He judged from their whis
seen in that niche before, his olfactory pered conversation and the sounds of
nerves convinced him that a corpse was their footsteps that there were at least
now entombed within it. six of them. They walked on a level sur-
face for some distance, then tilted him half -smothered lethargy — a hideous night-
again, this time evidently carrying him up mare of heat and thirst and torture.
a stairway. Another door opened. A mo- Presently, when it seemed that he had
ment later, he was stowed away in what reached the limit of his endurance, the
appeared to be a camel litter. A man endless swaying ceased, and Tane heard
seated in the litter with him pricked him the cameleer’s guttural "Ikh! Ikh!" as he
with a knife and again warned him to be commanded the beast to kneel. The ani-
silent. Then he heard the cameleer alter- mal lurched downward, grunted, and
nately coaxing and cursing the beast, un- came to rest.
til it arose withmany snorting, grunting After Tane had been dragged from the
protests. The litter gave a lurch, then litter and unrolled from the rug, the
settled down to a steady, swaying motion smothering cloak was removed from his
as the great beast started off. head, and he saw his captors six lean, —
At first Tane knew by the sounds about dark-skinned, black-bearded Bedouins.
him that they were passing through the One bent and unbound his ankles. Then
bazars, probably along the Sukten Nah- two others caught him by the elbows,
hasi toward the Bab al Fotun, for he cruelly wrenching his bound wrists, and
heard the mueddins calling the Faithful jerked him to his feet.
to the thur, or noon prayer, from the He swayed dizzily between the two
minarets of the many mosques clustered kidnappers, and looked about him. They
in this vicinity. had halted at a small oasis, a shallow
Some time later he heard a traveler in- waterhole and a few palm trees, sur-
quire if this were the Bab al Hasaniyeh, rounded by the billowing sands of the
and a reply in the affirmative, which told Libyan Desert. Over beyond the water-
him that he had passed out of Cairo and hole a guard, silhouetted by the rays of
was probably on the Abbasiyeh Road. the setting sun, leaned on a long rifle,
Where, he wondered, could his myste- watching a half-dozen camels. And near
rious captors be taking him? And why? at hand a dozen of his fellpws squatted
He had been a fool to allow himself to about a campfire, smoking and chatting.
be caught thus off his guard. Hagg Na- Behind them was a large tent, the front
deem had warned him. But who wofuld wall of which had been raised to admit
have thought to find enemies hiding in the evening breeze.
his house? And hov/ could they have At this instant, the old man emerged
gotten in with Ali guarding the door? from the tent. With a start, Tane recog-
As he pondered these questions, he nized him as Shaykh Ibrahim, the dar-
presently noticed that all road-sounds wish, who had conducted the funeral.
had and that the thudding of the
ceased, With chin held high, he chanted the etdan
camels’ feet was muffled, as if with sand. mughareb, the call to the sunset prayer.
Apparently, they had turned ofiF the high- Instantly, all the ruffians except the camel
way into the desert. guard and the two men who held Tane,
Tane’s bonds, now perspiration-soaked, rushed to the pool to make their wuddu
chafed and stung his wrists almost un- ablutions. These finished, they faced
bearably. And the stifling heat engen- Mecca, while the shaykh led them in
dered a keen thirst that added to his tor- prayer.
ment. But the camel lurched on and on, Prayers over, the old man rose from
hour after hour, until Tane’s wrists and his rug, and, turning, entered the tent.
ankles grew numb and he sank into a Tane’s two captors dragged him forward.
438 WEIRD TALES
and into the tent, at the back of which back our Lamia, and leave this place, free
the old darwish was seated on a mattress, and unharmed, with a present of a thou-
smoking the narghile from which he had sand gold pounds.”
weaned himself long enough to perform "How do I know that you would keep
the pious office of imam. As the Ameri- your word?”
can was hauled up before the shaykh, the "We are pious Muslims, and will all
swarthy Bedouins crowded in behind him, swear to it by the triple oath.”
and seated themselves on either side, Tane knew full well that no true Mus-
along the tent walls. All glared at him lim would break the triple oath: "Wal-
with open hostility, and there were mut- lah! THlah! Billah!” And he shuddered
tered imprecations of "Infidel! Chris- to think of the form of death reserved
tian!” and "Dog of a Frank!” Though for him if he refused this demand, as he
his throat was parched and his tongue observed a man at his left carefully sharp-
was so dry it rattled against the roof of ening the end of a long stake. After all,
his mouth, Tane knew better than to ask what did this intangible, ephemeral crea-
for a drink of water. These ruffians meant ture called a Lamia mean to him? He was
him no good; hence they would give him not sure that she was more than a drug-
nothing either to eat or drink. For if induced dream. And, no matter what
they were to give either and then slay she was, it would be a relief to be rid of
him they would violate their desert code her.
— the law of the salt. He resolved to "Swear the oath,” he said.
face it out boldly, asking nothing of them, The shaykh swore first. He was fol-
and if need be, show these hard-bitten lowed by each of the men, even the camel
cutthroats than an American could die as guard, who was temporarily relieved
bravely as any of them. from duty for the purpose, until all had
pledged their irrevocable word to set
T
right,
he old shaykh passed the flexible
stem of his pipe to the man at his
and squinted up at the tall young
Tane free with a camel and a thousand
gold pounds as soon as he should trans-
fer his lordship of the Lamia to the
man standing before him. shaykh.
"I have been informed that you are This ceremony completed, the old
Lord of the Lamia,” he said in Arabic. darwish clapped his hands, and one of
"Is this true?” the men brought a small taboret, which
"And if I am, what then?” replied he set before his leader. On it was a box,
Tane, defiantly returning his gaze. which the old man opened, and from
"You have meddled in an affair which which he took two candles and a scroll.
does not concern you —
have stolen a priv- He set a candle on either side of the table,
ilege and seized a power which does not and placed the scroll in the center. At
belong to you a —
privilege for which my the same time one of Tane’s captors
comrades and I have fought and bled and slashed his bonds, and another placed a
labored. We demand that you renounce rug for him before the taboret.
this power in our favor.” "Be seated,” invited the shaykh.
"Suppose I do not choose to do so.” Tane sat down.
"The alternative,” said the shaykh, "And now,” went on Shaykh Ibrahim,
slowly, "is death by impalement, a horri- "you will light the two candles and read
ble, lingering death which can profit no the upper passage on the scroll, which
one. I am sure you will prefer to give us summons the Lamia. When she appears.
you will read the lower passage, which "O consort of camels and spawn of a
conveys her from you to me.” disease!” shrieked the darwish. "Again
He handed Tane a box of matches, you have betrayed us. Seize him, men,
and the latter lit the two candles. By and place him upon the stake.”
their yellow light, he made out two But before any of them could move
groups of hieroglyphic characters on the to carry out the order of their leader, a
scroll. strange thing happened. A tiny slit ap-
"Read,” commanded the shaykh. peared in the tent wall behind Shayldi
"First bring me a drink of water,” Ibrahim. 'Then a sinuous, glittering some-
Tane requested. "My throat is so dry it thing wriggled through and with a swift
is difiScult for me to speak.” dart fastened itself on the old man’s
The water was brought and he drank wrist. For a moment it hung there in
slowly, meanwhile scanning the first plain view of all; then as swiftly as it
group of hieroglyphics. In ancient Egyp- had come, it shot back through the open-
tian, they commanded Lamia, Queen of ing and disappeared from view. The
Libya, to appear before him. Of course shaykh glanced at the hideous black-and-
she wouldn’t appear, he thought. What yellow thing that had clamped on his
then.^ What would these desperadoes do? wrist — ^horrified unbelief written on his
he was committed to this course.
Still, features. Then, as it withdrew, he col-
There was nothing for it but to go on lapsed soundlessly, his head sagging on
with the ceremony. the taboret between the two candles.
shaykh waited until Tane
Patiently, the "The Lamia!” someone cried. "She
had drained the last drop of water from came, but only to avenge her lord.”
the cup. Then he commanded: "She will moaned another.
slay us all,”
"Read.” A third man leaped up and ran shriek-
Slowly, sonorously, Tane read the an- ing from the tent. As he did so, the
cient words. He reached the end and canvas wall was suddenly rent from top
paused expectantly. A hush had come to bottom. Through the opening stepped
over the entire assemblage. They, too, the slender, regal figure Tane had seen
were waiting expectantly, and somewhat in his dreams. She was enveloped from
fearfully. For five minutes they waited head to foot in a shimmering diaphanous
soundlessly, but nothing happened. Then veil thatwas like a phosphorescent mist,
the old shaykh spoke. surrounding and but slightly dimming
"Dog!” he rasped. "You have be- her lovely features and seductive curves.
trayed us. You have not read the words It was the first time Tane had seen her
correctly. We will give you one more so beautiful.
chance. Read, and if the Lamia does not But if the Bedouins were impressed
appear, I swear that we will hoist you by her 'loveliness, they did not linger to
on the stake.” admire. As one man, they sprang to their
"I have read them just as they are writ- feet and ran howling out into the night.
ten here,” Tane remonstrated. "How- "Follow them, my lord,” said the lovely
ever, I may have made some slight mis- apparition. "See that not one man re-
take in pronunciation. I’ll try again.” mains on the oasis.”
Once more he pronounced the words 'Though he was loth to tear his eyes
of that ancient language. And once more, from that witching vision, Tane obeyed.
for some minutes, nothing followed but Standing before the door of the tent, he
silence. watched the Bedouins frantically mount-
460 WEIRD TALES
ing their camels and riding away, until dles. Tane, looking over his shoulder,
no one remained. Then he turned and saw two tiny punctures surrounded by a
re-entered the tent. To his surprize, he purple discoloration on the bony wrist.
found itdeserted, save for the body of "Waha! Snake-bite!” he exclaimed.
the old shaykh, whose grizzled head still "Yes. It was a big black-and-yellow
rested on the taboret between the two haje,” Tane “We all saw it quite
replied.
guttering candles. With a muttered ex-
plainly.”
clamation of amazement, he ran to the
"That scum of the bazars I saw riding
back of the tent and peered out through
away must have seen something fearful
the slit in the wall. Behind it therewas
to send them scurrying so swiftly.”
no one. Nothing but the tall, shadowy
"She appeared,” Tane told him.
palm trees, their fronds rustling gently in
"You mean Lamia?”
the breeze. And beyond them, the rolling
"I don’t know whom or what I mean.”
desert. From behind a distant dune he
thought he heard the roar of a lion. Or
"Still the careful scientist —the stub-
was it an airplane motor.? Sorely puz-

born doubter — after all this! Your peo-
ple have a saying that we believe only
zled, he stood there, straining his eyes
what we wish to believe, and it is evident
into the night. But he whirled, suddenly
that you do not wish to credit the evi-
apprehensive, at sound of a human voice
dence of your own eyes. However, in
behind him.
this case, I judge that you were not the
only one who saw her.”
H agg nadeem, wearing his green tur-

ban and brown burnoose, was stand-
ing in the middle of the tent, leaning on
"The
had seen her.”
others certainly acted as if they
"Hm.” Nadeem raised the grizzled

hisMalacca stick and smiling his sweet,
head of the shaykh and removed the
dreamy smile.
parchment. "Ah! Interesting. They com-
"Salam deykum, effendi," he said,
pelled you to read this, no doubt.”
"You have come quite a way
pleasantly.
"With a threat of impalement.”
from home.”
"Exactly. And they would have carried
"Not purposely,” Tane replied. "I can
out the threat had you not complied. I
assure you of that.”
know But come. There is
these ruffians.
"So I was informed,” replied the hagg.
no profit in lingering hereany longer.
“Thinking you might not find it com-
You will be wanting that coffee and food.
fortable here, I came to take you back.
It is a long ride back to Cairo, but I have
No doubt you are hungry and thirsty. I brought a swift, easy-gaited racing-camel
have brought you food, and a thermos
with a comfortable litter. Or perhaps,”
bottle of coffee.”
with his dreamy smile, "I should have
"Allah yukhleff aleyka," Tane thanked
said that the camel brought me.”
him. "Lead me to it.”
"One moment, effendi. Patience is of

9. Men or Jinn?
Allah the Most High, but haste is of
Shaitan the Stoned. First let me have a T WAS well past midnight when Tane
brief look around.” I and Haag Nadeem, swaying wearily
Swiftly the Egyptian strode over to in their camel litter, entered the Bab al
where the shaykh’s head lolled on the Fotun. Some fifteen minutes later the
taboret. Stooping, he examined the man’s camel knelt before the American’s door-
wrist by the light of the sputtering can- way.
'Til go in with you,” said the hagg. with their bright new mattresses and
"You mean that I am still in danger?” silken cushions, and the various taborets
"Death hangs over your head, sus- and articles of furniture which, collective-
pended on a thread thinner than that ly, must have cost a sizable fortune. To
which supported the sword of Damo- his astonishment he also saw that the
cles,” replied Nadeem, as Tane unlocked wall which had been built in the alcove
the door. "Shaykh Ibrahim represented was torn out, and all traces of its pres-
only a minor menace. You have yet to ence obliterated. The diwans were re-
deal with the most dangerous of your stored as before, and a brazier of incense
adversaries.” was smoldering in the niche.
The American swung the door open, "Look, hagg," he exclaimed. "The
and they entered the courtyard. coffin has been taken away.”
"Perhaps I could be better prepared "So it seems,” agreed Nadeem.
to defend myself if you would tell me "And these furnishings! Good Lord!
who they are,” said Tane. Ali was always a sharp bargainer, but he
"That is just what I intend doing. But must have mesmerized some merchant to
first, let us see if the house is clear of get all this with the money he had with
enemies.” him.”
Nadeem opened the door of the man- Hagg Nadeem, meanwhile, parted the
darah. All was dark within.Producing brocaded curtains that led to the hallway,
a flashlight from beneath his clothing, he and once more turning on his flashlight,
projected a thin white beam into the shone it through the door of the next
room. room.
"Mashallah!” he exclaimed. "Well "By my head and beard! The man is
done, efendi. You have

a most efficient doubly a wizard!” he cried. "For this
servant. Already, he has furnished the room is as richly furnished as the other.”
reception room, and with considerable Hurrying after him, Tane gazed into
magnificence.” the room, speechless with amazement.
"What’s that? Wait until I light the "Well, there’s only one way to find
lamp. Why, this is amazing! I only gave out,” he said, finally. "We’ll ask Ali. I
him five pounds.” suppose he is asleep upstairs.”

Tane quickly lighted an ornate brass
lamp which the beam of Nadeem’s
light
ing.
had revealed hanging from the ceil-
Itsmellow amber glow revealed the
flash-
T
the
hey
way
returned to the reception room,
and Nadeem, with
up. Here,
his flashlight, led
when Tane stepped
room completely furnished with a magni- into the room more gasped
above, he once
ficence that would have done credit to a in amazement. For the majlis was fur-
sultan’s palace. And the air was fragrant nished with even greater splendor than
with the odors of musk and sandalwood. the rooms below.
"Did you say five pounds?” queried "Ali,” he called. "Where are you?”
the hagg, "If so, your man must be a There was no answer.
wizard.” "Ali!” he shouted, more loudly.
Tane stared at the rich tapestries and Still no reply.
rare rugs that graced the walls, the bro- "Here, what’s this?” said Hagg Na-
caded door-curtains in which were woven deem. His flashlight revealed the soles
golden threads, the thick, deep-piled rug of a pair of cordovan slippers projeaing
on which they were standing, the diwans from beneath a mattress on one of the
462 WEIRD TALES
diwans. StifBy, Tane lighted the central the Blessed; slender and graceful as a
hanging lamp, a priceless object of an- willow wand, with raven tresses, languor-
tique art, and hurried to the diwan. With ous dark eyes, a brow of alabaster, cheeks
the handle of his Malacca stick, Nadeem like newly ripened peaches, lips red as
hooked the mattress and jerked it off the crushed pomegranates, teeth that were
”
diwan. Beneath it lay Ali, shivering with matched pearls
fright, his head buried beneath his arms "Hold on. How was she dressed?”
as if he would fend off a blow. Swiftly, "She wore a crown of gold with two
he muttered the Takbir, the Testification nodding white plumes, fronted by a gold-
of Faith, and the Fatihah, one after an- en, jewel-eyed serpent. And a filmy veil
other. enveloped her. She was accompanied by
"Ali! What the devil’s got into you.^’’ a host of afreets, marids and peris, who
demanded Tane. did her bidding.”
"O iron, thou unlucky!” moaned Ali, "What are you talking about? How
burying his head still deeper. were these elementals dressed?”
'"The fool thinks we are pnn,” said "Like the ancient demons and ghuls
Nadeem. "Iron is the talisman against whose picturesare on the walls of tombs.”
the hosts of Jan ibn Jan, sultan of evil "Apparently he means the soldiers,
jinn. Something has frightened him half workmen, slaves and others depicted in
out of his wits.” the tomb paintings,” said Nadeem. '"This
"Clear out of them, I should say,” said is most remarkable!”
Tane. "Here, Ali,” seizing his arm. "It is unbelievable,” said Tane. "When
"Look at me.” did it happen, Ali?”
"Spare me, O brave and handsome "I had bought the mattresses and sup-
emir of the jinn,” moaned Ali. "Spare plies in accordance with yottr instruc-
the basest of your slaves.” tions, sidi,” said Ali, "and on finding
Impatiently, Tane clutched his arm and you absent when I returned from the
jerked him erect. The Syrian looked at souk, concluded that you had gone out
him as if scarcely crediting the evidence on some private business. I prepared din-
of his senses. ner, and awaited your coming until quite
"Don’t you know me, idiot?” snapped late. But when, long after sunset, you
his master. "What kind of dope have did not appear, I ate the cold food, made
you been taking?” wuddu, and prayed the prayer al aisha.
For a moment Ali stared fearfully at I then placed a mattress in the reception
him. Then he said: room and sat down beside a lighted can-
"Have they gone, sidi? Is it really dle to smoke my chibouk. Suddenly I
you, or are you a jinni who has taken heard the sound of footsteps in the hall-
the form of my master?” way. I arose, and was about to investi-
"Hagg Nadeem and I just came in,” gate, when the sultana of the jinn en-
said Tane. "We
saw no jinn, nor any- tered the room. Behind her trooped a
one else. Tell us what happened. And horde of afreets and marids, bearing box-
where did you get all these gorgeous fur- es and bales on their backs. And with
nishings?” her were two great black shaitans with
"She brought them, sidi.” swords in their hands and horns on their
"Who is 'She’?” heads.”
"The jinniyah. More
was beautiful "That would be about two hours after
she than a houri from the Gardens of sunset,” said Nadeem.
About an hour after I saw

"Precisely. kitchen, and if so, prepare us some ahhwi
Lamia on the oasis. Yet it took us five helwh.”
hours to ride back on a swift racing- "Harkening and obedience, sidi," said
camel. It seems that there are two of Ali, and withdrew.
her.”
"Perhaps she has a magic carpet,” sug- “TTIT HAT do you make of it?” Tane
gested Nadeem, facetiously. V » asked, turning to Nadeem.
"Go on, Ali,” said Tane.

"Most remarkable,” smiled the hagg.
"The lady seems to be looking out for
"The jinniyah pointed to me,” contin-
your material interests, as well as defend-
ued the Syrian, "and said to the two
ing your life.”
black shaitans: 'Seize him, and see that he
"But where could she have gotten all
does not escape.’ Whereupon they rushed
this plunder?”
at me, brandishing their simitars, and
"You might ask her,” suggested Na-
dragged me to my feet.
" deem.
'Throw these filthy vermin-nests into
"I still can’t believe it all. It seems
the street,’ she ordered one of the marids, a dream.
like I might, in time, have
and pointed to the mattresses I had come to believe in such creatures as Lamia
bought. Then she set about giving or- is supposed to be, but I can hardly credit
ders to the others, to tear out the new her with bringing a host of her subjeas
wall, carry out the coffin, install a rug with her through the ages, to raid the
here, a taboret there, a tapestry here, and palace of some wealthy pasha and bring
a curtain there, and to hang a lamp so, me the loot. That’s just a bit too thick.”
until the place looked like the salamlik
"Ah, well,” said Hagg Nadeem, prof-
of a palace. Then she moved from room
may be that
fering his cigarette case, "it
to room, doing likewise in each, until
this mystery, like the other, will eventual-
the house was completely furnished.
ly imravel itself.”
"When all was finished, her slaves At this instant, Ali entered with the
melted away, one by one, until there re- coffee.For some time they sipped and
mained but the two black shaitans. Then smoked in silence. Then Nadeem rose.
she, too, disappeared, and one of those "I must go, now,” he said. "I pre-
ebon sons of me to a diwan
Ibless hurled sume you will want a bowab and a cook.
in the majlis. 'Wait here until I come Tomorrow, I will send you two men
for you,’ he commanded. 'Try to leave, whom I can recommend. The bowab is
and you will be cut into cat-meat.’ He a powerful and trustworthy Nubian who
put out the lamp, and I waited here in will make an excellent guard. The cook
the darkness, afraid to leave and afraid is a Touareg, who adheres to the blue
to remain. Presently, hearing your voices veil of his people. But his culinary skill
and footsteps, I thought the two shaitans is most remarkable.”
had returned for me, and certain that my "One moment,” said Tane, rising.
end had come, hid beneath the mattress.” "You forgot to tell me the names of the
"Did I not know you for a man of two powerful enemies I am to look out
veracity, I you a colossal liar,”
should call for.”
said Tane, "even though you have plenty "So I did. The first is Maksoud, the
of evidence. But since the house has been hawk-nosed Persian you found reading
emptied of demons, see if you can find the scroll. The other is Doctor Schneid-
some coffee, sugar and charcoal in the er.”
4
464 WEIRD TALES

"Doctor Schneider! Why, I can’t be- weapons, after all,” he said. "I’m going
’’
lieve to turn in,now, and you’d better do the
"Hadrak,” interrupted the hagg with same. Sleep here in the majlis, and if
his pleasant smile. "And remember, it you hear theslightest sound, awaken me.”
will be to your interest to believe.” Tane parted the heavy gold-embroid-

ered hangings and went into his room.
With a polite bow, he disappeared
through the curtains.
He found his diwan furnished with a
mattress, coverlets and silken cushions
"See the hagg to the street door, Ali,^
that might have graced the bed of an
ordered Tane. "And don’t forget to bolt
opulent emir. Not bothering to light a
it.”
lamp, he dropped the hangings, and un-
dressed in the moonlight. He was dead-
T WAS not until Hagg Nadeem had
and that magnificently furnished
I gone, and Ali had returned, that Tane
tired,
couch was most inviting. As he tumbled
suddenly remembered the loss of his for-
in among the cushions Ali blew out the
ty-five. Also, he recalled that he had for-
lamp in the majlis.
gotten to ask the hagg the location of the
Placing the yatagan under the cover
secret passageway, with which his en-
beside him, Tane settled down and tried
emies were obviously familiar. Locking
to sleep. But it seemed that sleep was
the door, after all, had been but a futile
impossible. Presently, however, he heard
gesture.
the regular breathing of the Syrian in the
"Looks as if we’re up against it, Ali,” next room, and shortly thereafter slipped
he said, as his servant entered the majlis. into unconsciousness.
"Those cutthroats can walk in on us any Tane’s awakening was both sudden and
time they please, and my gun is gone.” unpleasant. There was something encir-
"The jinn hung two gold-hilted yata-
gans above the niche in the reception
cling his throat —
something that bit pain-
fully into the fleshand shut off his breath
room, sidi," said Ali. so quickly that his palate rattled. He had
'"rhen bring them. They’ll be better been lying on his side with his face
than nothing.” toward the window, and instinctively
The Syrian hurried downstairs, and re- tried to sit up. But he was immediately
turned with the two double-curved jerked back. Then two sets of knuckles
swords. pressed into his cervical vertebra; and the
Tane took one, and removed
it from cord about his throat tightened relent-
its plush-covered sheath.
It proved to lessly. He struggled spasmodically. The
be of excellent and splendid work-
steel moonlit room seemed whirling about
manship, with an edge of almost razor him, then turned to a maelstrom of black
sharpness. nothingness which he knew was the pre-
"Well! We’re not so badly off for cursor of death.
The fascinating, thrilling chapters that bring this

remarkable story to a conclusion will appear
in next month’s WEIRD TALES. Re-
serve your copy at your news
dealer’s now.
W. T.—
— ——
WEIRD TALES 465
ream-Stair
By ROBERT NELSON
What naked, bald and drunken child

Leads me to some mad, topless stair
And keeps me toiling upward there,
A withered thing, forlorn and wild?
About me swarm Satanic goats.
The seas below are frothing red.
And harsh winds sting my seething head
As steel on stone drops down in moats
Where drown and rot accursed swains
Dismembered thralls of some mad king
Whose bloating heads arise and sing.
But,lo! whence all these hellish rains
That seem to linger for an age

And pour upon my harried life
Such airs, with loathsome larvas rife.
As whisper o’er a wizard’s page?
Then, mounting with white moons, I see
The frenzied flight of huge man-birds,
And hear the cold and lethal words
Babbled behind that drapery
Whose swelling folds lean forth and sway.
Shrouding a handed Shape, that grasps
And throttles all the Gorgon’s asps.
And braves the Gorgon’s eyes to slay!
Tlie child brings ardent wine to me.
And still I climb the dream-built stair;
And in fell silence spreading there
Great shadows eat the sphered sea.
False child! false child! O traitor child!
What Image meets my frozen eyes?
Is It what Satan sanctifies
Full-fraught with bale but pleasing mild?
But the stair crumbles, clean destroyed.
The circling mists and phantoms flee,
'The child pursues them mad with glee,

And leaves me in the falling void.
W.T.—S
By CLARK ASHTON SMITH
A tale of inexorable destiny, and the grim figure of a mummy that strode
through the Houses of the astrologer’s horoscope
The world itself, in the end, shall be turned to fumes of the city. At intervals some
a —
round cipher. Old prophecy of Zothique.
housewife or jade, some porter or huck-
N
and had
USHAIN the astrologer had stud-
ied the circling orbs of night
from many far-separated
cast, with such skill as
regions,
he was
ster or petty merchant, would climb the
decaying stairs to his chamber, and would
pay him a small sum for the nativity
which he plotted with immense care by
able to command, the horoscopes of a the aid of his tattered books of astrolog-
myriad men, women and children. From ical science.
city to city, from realm to realm he had When, as often occurred, he found
gone, abiding briefly in any place: for himself still at a loss regarding the sig-
often the local magistrates had banished nificance of some heavenly conjunction
him as a common charlatan; or clsewise, or opposition after poring over his books,
in due time, had discov-
his consultants he would consult Ansarath, and would
ered the error of his predictions and had draw profound auguries from the varia-
fallen away from him. Sometimes he ble motions of the dog’s mangy tail or his
went hungry and shabby; and small honor actions in searching for fleas. Certain of
was paid to him anywhere. The sole com- these divinations were fulfilled, to the con-
panions of his precarious fortunes were a siderable benefit of Nushain’s renown in
wretched mongrel dog that had somehow Ummaos. People came to him more free-
attached itself to him in the desert town ly and frequently, hearing that he was a
of Zul-Bha-Sair, and a mute, one-eyed soothsayer of some note; and, moreover,
negro whom he had bought very cheaply he was immune from prosecution, owing
in Yoros. He had named the dog An- to the liberal laws of Xylac, which per-
sarath, after the canine star, and had mitted all the sorcerous and mantic arts.
called the negro Mou2da, which was a It seemed, for the first time, that the
word signifying darkness. dark planets of his fate were yielding to
In the course of his prolonged itinera- auspicious stars. For this fortune, and the
tions, the astrologercame to Xylac and coinswhich accrued thereby to his purse,
made his abode in its capital, Ummaos, he gave thanks to Vergama who, through-
which had been built above tlie shards of out the whole continent of Zothique, was
an elder city of the same name, long deemed the most powerful and mysterious
since destroyed by a sorcerer’s wrath. of the genii, and was thought to rule over
Here Nushain lodged with Ansarath and the heavens as well as the earth.
Mouzda in a half-ruinous attic of a rot-
ting tenement;
roof,
and from the tenement’s
Nushain was wont to observe the
positions and movements of the sidereal
O N A
siunmer night, when the stars
were strewn thickly like a fiery sand
on the black azure vault, Nushain went
bodies on evenings not obscured by the up to the roof of his lodging-place. As
466
THE LAST HIEROGLYPH
was often his custom, he took with him On this night the constellation of the
the negro Mouzda, whose one eye pos- Great Dog, which had presided over
sessed a miraculous sharpness and had Nushain’s was ascendant in the
birth,
served well, on many occasions, to sup- east. Regarding it closely, the dim eyes
plement the astrologer’s own rather near- of the astrologer were troubled by a
sighted vision. Through a well-codified sense of something unfamiliar in its con-
system of signs and gestures, the mute figuration. He could not determine the
was able to communicate the result of his precise character of the change till Mouz-
observations to Nushain. da, who evinced much excitement, called
468 WEIRD TALES
his attention to three new stars of the sec- no more: there was nothing to foretell
ond magnitude which had appeared in whether the journey would prove auspi-
close proximity to the Dog’s hindquar- cious or disastrous, nothing to indicate
ters. These remarkable novas, which Nu- its bourn, purpose or direction.
shain could discern only as three reddish The
astrologer was much disturbed by
blurs, formed a small equilateral triangle. this somewhat singular and equivocal au-
Nushain and Mouzda were both certain gury. He was ill pleased by the prospect
that they had not been visible on any pre- of an imminent journey, for he did not
vious evening. wish to leave Ummaos, among whose
"By Vergama, this is a strange thing,” credulous people he had begun to estab-
swore the astrologer, filled with amaze- lish himself not without success. More-
ment ^md dumfoundment. He began to over, a strong apprehension was roused

compute the problematic influence of the within him by the oddly manifold nature
novas on his future reading of the heav- and veiled outcome of the journey. All
ens, and perceived at once that they would this, he felt, was suggestive of the work-
exert, according to the law of astral ema- ings of some occult and perhaps sinister
nations, a modifying effect on his own providence; and surely it was no common
destiny, which had been so largely con- traveling which would take him through
trolled by the Dog. three elements and would require a tri-
He could not, however, without con- ple guidance.
sulting his books and tables, decide the During the nights that followed, he
particular trendand import of this super- and Mouzda watched the mysterious no-
vening influence; though he felt sure that vas as they went over toward the west be-
it was most momentous, whether for his hind the bright-flaming Dog. And he
bale or welfare. Leaving Mouzda to puzzled interminably over his charts and
watch the heavens for other prodigies, he volumes, hoping to discover some error
descended at once to his attic. There, in the reading he had made. But always,
after collating the opinions of several old- in the end, he was compelled to the same
time astrologers on the power exerted by interpretation.
novas, he began to re-cast his own horo- More and more, as time went on, he
scope. Painfully and with much agita- was troubled by the thought of that un-
tion he labored throughout the night, and welcome and mysterious journey which
did not finish his figurings till the dawn he must make. He continued to prosper
came to mix a deathly grayness with the in Ummaos, and it seemed that there was
yellow light of the candles. no conceivable reason for his departure
There was, it seemed, but one possible from that city. He was as one who await-
interpretation of the altered heavens. The ed a dark and secret summons, not know-
appearance of the triangle of novae in ing whence it would come, nor at what
conjunction with the Dog signified clear- hour. Throughout the days, he scanned
ly that Nushain was to start ere long on with fearful anxiety the faces of his vis-
an unpremeditated journey which would itors, deeming that the first of the three
involve the transit of no less than three star-predicted guides might arrive unher-
elements.Mouzda and Ansarath were to alded and unrecognized among them.
accompany him; and three guides, ap- Mouzda and the dog Ansarath, with
pearing successively, at the proper times, the intuition of dumb things, were sensi-
would lead him toward a destined goal. ble of the weird uneasiness felt by their
So much his calculations had revealed, but master. They shared it palpably, the ne-
.
THE LAST HIEROGLYPH 469
gro showing his apprehension by wild riddle the mystery: but in all his books
and demoniac grimaces, and the dog there was naught to enlighten him; for
crouching under the astrologer’s table or this thing, it seemed, was wholly without
prowling restlessly to and fro with his precedent in astrology.
half-hairless tail between his legs. Such During the next day he was busied
behavior, in its turn, served to reconfirm from morn till eve with the plotting of
the inquietude of Nushain, who deemed those destinies ordained by the heavens
it a bad omen. for certain people of Ummaos. After
completing the calculations with his usual
O
scope,
N A certain evening, Nushain pored
for the fiftieth time over his horo-
which he had drawn with sundry-
toilsome care, he unrolled his
once more, albeit with trembling
An
own
was nigh to panic seized

eeriness that
chart
fingers.
colored inks on a sheet of papyrus. He him when he saw that the brown hiero-
was much startled when, on the blank glyph no longer stood on the margin, but
lower margin of the sheet, he saw a cu- was now placed like a striding finger in
rious character which was no part of his one of the lower Houses, where it still
own scribbling. The charaaer was a hier- fronted toward the Dog, as if advancing
oglyph written in dark bituminous brown, on that ascendant sign.
and seeming to represent a mummy whose Henceforth the astrologer was fevered
shroudings were loosened about the legs with the awe and curiosity of one who
and whose feet were set in the posture of watches a fatal but inscrutable portent.
a long stride. It was facing toward that Never, during the hours that he pondered
quarter of the chart where stood the sign above it, was there any change in the in-
indicating the Great Dog, which, in Zoth- truding character; and yet, on each suc-
ique, was a House of the zodiac. cessiveevening when he took out the
Nushain’s surprize turned to a sort of chart,he saw that the mummy had strode
trepidation as he studied the hieroglyph. upward into a higher House, drawing al-
He knew that the margin of the chart had ways nearer to the House of the Dog. . .
been wholly clear on the previous night;

and during the past day he had not left
the attic at any time. Mouzda, he felt
sure, would never have dared to touch
T here came a time when
stood on the Dog’s threshold.
tentous with mystery and menace that
the figure
Por-
the chart; and, moreover, the negro was were beyond the astrologer’s divin-
still
little skilled in writing. Among the va- ing, it seemed to wait while the night
rious inks employed by Nushain, there wore on and was shot tlirough with the
was none that resembled the sullen brown gray wefting of dawn. 'Then, overworn
of the character, which seemed to stand with his prolonged studies and vigils,
out in a sad relief on the white papyrus. Nushain slept in his chair. Without the
Nushain felt the alarm of one who troubling of any dream he slept; and
confronts a sinister and unexplainable Mouzda was careful not to disturb him;
apparition. No human hand, surely, had and no visitors came to the attic on that
inscribed the mummy-shapen character, day. So the morn and the noon and the
like the sign of a strange outer planet afternoon went over, and their going
about to invade the Houses of his horo- was unheeded by Nushain.
scope. Here, as in the advent of the three He was awakened at eve by the loud
novae, an occult agency was suggested. and dolorous howling of Ansarath, which
Vainly, for many hours, he sought to un- appeared to issue from the room’s far*
470 WEIRD TALES
these corner. Confusedly, ere he opened "It were well to take with you nothing
his eyes, he became aware of an odor of but your horoscope: for this alone shall
bitter spicesand piercing natron. Then, you retain in the end.”
with the dim webs of sleep not wholly Nushain stooped above the table on
swept from his vision, he beheld, by the which he had left his nativity. Before he
yellowy tapers that Mouzda had lighted, began to roll the open papyrus, he no-
a tall, mummy-like form that waited in ticed that the hieroglyph of the mummy
silence beside him. The head, arms and had vanished. It was as if the written
body of the shape were wound closely symbol, after moving athwart his horo-
with bitumen-colored cerements; but the scope, had materialized itself in the figure
folds were loosened from the hips down- that now attended him. But on the chart's
ward, and the figure stood like a walker, nether margin, in remote opposition to
with one brown, withered foot in ad- the Dog, was the sea-blue hieroglyph of
vance of its fellow. a quaint merman with carp-like tail and
Terror quickened in Nushain’s heart, head half human, half apish; and behind
and it came to him that the shrouded the merman was the black hieroglyph of
shape, whether lich or phantom, resem- a small barge.
bled the weird, invasive hieroglyph that Nushain’s fear, for a moment, was sub-
had passed from House toHouse through dued by wonder. But he rolled the chart
the chart of his destiny. Then, from the carefully,and stood holding it in his
thick swathings of the apparition, a voice right hand.
issued indistinctly, saying: "Prepare your- "Come,” said the guide. "Your time
self, O Nushain, for I am the first is brief, and you must pass through the
guide of that journey which was foretold three elements that guard the dwelling-
to you by the stars.” place of Vergama from unseasonable in-
Ansarath, cowering beneath the astrol- trusion.”

oger’s bed, was still howling his fear of These words, in a measure, confirmed
the visitant; and Nushain saw that Mouz- the astrologer’s divinations. But the mys-
da had tried to conceal himself in com- tery of his future fate was in no wise
pany with the dog. Though a chill as of lightened by the intimation that he must
imminent death was upon him, and he enter, presumably at the journey’s end,
deemed the apparition to be death itself, the dim House of that being called Ver-
Nushain arose from his chair with that gama, whom some considered the most
dignity proper to an astrologer, which he secret of all the gods, and others, the
had maintained through all the vicissi- most cryptical of demons. In all the
tudes of his lifetime. He called Mouzda lands of ^thique, there were rumors and
and Ansarath from their hiding-place, fables regardingVergama; but these were
and the two obeyed him, though with wholly diverse and contradictory, except
many cringings before the dark, muffled in their common attribution of almost
mummy. omnipotent powers to this entity. No
With the comrades of his fortune be- man knew the situation of his abode; but
hind him, Nushain turned to the visitant. itwas believed that vast multitudes of
"I am ready,” he said, in a voice whose people had entered it during the centuries
quavering was almost imperceptible. "But and millenniums, and that none had re-
I would take with me certain of my be- turned therefrom.
longings.” Ofttimes had Nushain called upon the
The mummy shook his mobled head. name of Vergama, swearing or protesting
thereby as men are wont

do by the
to heard the shuffling of Mouzda, and at
cognomens of their shrouded lords. But whiles the low, frightened whine of An-
now, hearing the name from the lips of sarath; so he knew that the twain were
his macabre visitor, he was filled with the faithful to him. But upon him, with a
darkest? and most eery apprehensions. He chill of lethal damps, there grew the
sought to subdue these feelings, and to horror of his surroundings; and he shrank
resign himself to the manifest will of the with all the repulsion of living flesh
stars. With Mouzda and Ansarath at his from the shrouded thing that he fol-
heels, he followed the striding mummy, lowed, and those other things that mol-
which seemed little hampered, if at all, dered round about in the fathomless
by its trailing cerements. gloom.
With one regretful backward glance
at his littered books and papers, he passed
from the attic room and down the ten-
ement stairs. A wannish light seemed to
H alf thinking to hearten himself by
the sound of his own voice, he be-
gan to question the guide; though his
cling about the swathings of the mum- tongue clove to his mouth as if palsied.
my; from this, there was no
but, apart "Is it indeed Vergama, and none other,
illumination; and Nushain thought that who has summoned me forth upon this
the house was strangely dark and silent, journey.^ For what purpose has he called
as if all its occupants had died or had me.^ And in what land is his dwelling.?’’
gone away. He heard no sound from the "Your fate has summoned you,” said
evening city; nor could he see aught but the mummy. "In the end, at the time ap-
close-encroaching darkness beyond the pointed and no sooner, you shall learn
windows that should have gazed on a the purpose. As to your third question,
little street. Also, it seemed that the you would be no wiser if I should name
stairs had changed and lengthened, giv- the region in which the house of Ver-
ing no more on the courtyard of the ten- gama hidden from mortal trespass: for
is
ement, but plunging deviously into an the land is not listed on any terrene
unsuspected region of stifling vaults and chart, nor map of the starry heavens.”
foul, dismal, nitrous corridors. These answers seemed equivocal and
Here the was pregnant with death,
air disquieting to Nushain, who was pos-
and the heart of Nushain failed him. sessed by frightful forebodings as he
Everywhere, in the shadow-curtained went deeper into the subterranean char-
crypts and deep-shelved recesses, he felt nels. Dark, indeed, he thought, must be
the innumerable presence of the dead. the goal of a journey whose first stage
He thought that there was a sad sighing had led him so far amid the empire of
of stirred cerements, a breath exhaled death and corruption; and dubious, surely,
by long-stiffened cadavers, a dry clicking was the being who had called him forth
of lipless teeth beside him as he went. and had sent to him as the first guide a
But darkness walled his vision, and he sere and shrunken mummy clad in the
saw nothing save the luminous form of tomb’s habiliments.
his guide, who stalked onward as if Now, as he pondered these matters
through a natal realm. almost to frenzy, the shelfy walls of the
Itseemed to Nushain that he passed catacomb before him were outlined by a
through boundless catacombs in which dismal light, and he came after the mum-
were housed the mortality and corruption my into a chamber where tall candles of
of all the ages. Behind him still he black pitch in sodcets of tarnished silver
472 WEIRD TALES
burned about an immense and solitary there and had died in the darkness, un-
sarcophagus. Upon the blank lid and able to withdraw or go forward. White
sides of the sarcophagus, as Nushain spiders, demon-headed and large as mon-
neared it, he could see neither runes nor keys, had woven their webs in the hollow
sculptures nor hieroglyphs engraven; but arches of the bones; and they swarmed
it seemed, from tlie proportions, that a out interminably as Nushain approached;
giant must lie within. and the skeleton seemed to stir and quiv-
The mummy passed athwart the cham- er as they seethed over it abhorrently and
ber without pausing. But Nushain, see- dropped to the ground before the astrol-
ing that the vaults beyond were full of oger. Behind them others poured in a
darkness, drew back with a reluctance countless army, crowding and mantling
that he could not conquer; and though every ossicle. Nushain fled with his com-
the stars had decreed his journey, it panions; and running back to the forking
seemed to him that human flesh could of the caverns, he followed another pas-
go no farther. Prompted by a sudden im- sage.
pulse, he seized one of the heavy yard- Here he was not pursued by the demon
long tapers that burned stilly about the spiders. But, hurrying on lest they or the
sarcophagus; and, holding it in his left mummy overtake him, he was soon halt-
hand, with his horoscope still firmly ed by the rim of a great pit which filled
clutched in the right, he fled with Mouz- the catacomb from wall to wall and was
da and Ansarath on the way he had overwide for the leaping of man. The
come, hoping to retrace his footsteps dog Ansarath, sniffing certain odors tiiat
through the gloomy caverns and return arose from the pit, recoiled with a mad
to Ummaos by the taper’s light. howling; and Nushain, holding the taper
He heard no sound of pursuit from outstretched above it, discerned far down
the mummy. But ever, as he fled, the a glimmer of ripples spreading circle-
pitch candle, flaring wildly, revealed to wise on some unctuous black and fluid;
him the horrors that darkness had cur- two blood-red spots appeared to swim
tained from his eyes. He saw the bones with a weaving motion at the center.
of men that were piled in repugnant con- Then he heard a hissing as of some great
fusion with those of fell monsters, and cauldron heated by wizard fires; and it
the riven sarcophagi from which pro- seemed that the blackness boiled upward,
truded the half-decayedmembers of in- mounting swiftly and evilly to overflow
nominate beings; members which were the pit; and the red spots, as they neared
neither heads nor hands nor feet. And him, were like luminous eyes that gazed
soon the catacomb divided and redivided malignantly into his own. . . .
before him, so that he must choose his So Nushain turned away in haste; and,
way at random, not knowing whether it returning upon his steps, he found the
would lead him back to Ummaos or into mummy awaiting him at the junction of
the untrod depths. the catacombs.
Presently he came to the huge, brow- "It would seem, O Nushain, that you
less skull of an imcouth creature, which have doubted your own horoscope,’’ said
reposed on the ground with upward-gaz- the guide, with a certain irony. "How-
ing orbits; and beyond the skull was the ever, even a bad astrologer, on occasion,
monster’s moldy skeleton, wholly block- may read the heavens aright. Obey, then,
ing the passage. Its ribs were cramped the stars that decreed your journey.’’
by the narrowing walls, as if it had crept Heaceforwajd, Nushain followed the
mummy without recalcitrance. Returning The merman beckoned to him with

to thechamber in which stood the im- antic gestures, grinning deeply, and show-
mense sarcophagus, he was enjoined by ing the white serrations of his shark-like
his guide to replace in its socket the black teeth. Nushain went forward and entered
taper he had stolen. Without other light the barge in obedience to the signs made
than the phosphorescence of the mum- by the sea-creature; and Mouzda and An-
my’s cerements, he threaded the foul sarath, in faithfulness to their master, ac-
gloom of those profounder ossuaries companied him. Thereupon the merman
which lay beyond. At last, through cav- swam away through the boiling surf; and
erns where a dull dawning intruded upon the barge, as if oared and ruddered 1^
the shadows, he came out beneath shroud- mere enchantment, swung about forth-
ed heavens, on the shore of a wild sea with, and warring smoothly against wind
that clamored in mist and cloud and and wave, was drawn straightly over that
spindrift. As if recoiling from the harsh dim, unnamable ocean.
air and light, the mummy drew back Half seen amid rushing foam and mist,
into the subterrane, and it said: the merman swam steadily on before.
"Here my dominion ends, and I must Time and space were surely outpassed
leave you to await the second guide.” during that voyage; and as if he had gone
beyond mortal existence, Nushain expe-
TANDING with the poignant sea-salt riaiced neither thirst nor hunger. But it
S in his nostrils, with his hair and gar- seemed that his soul drifted upon seas of
ments outblown on the gale, Nushain strange doubt and direst alienation; and
heard a metallic clangor, and saw that a he feared the misty chaos about him even
door of rusty bronze had closed in the as he had feared the nighted catacombs.
cavern-entrance. The beach was walled Often he tried to question the mer-crea-
by unscalable cliffs that ran sheerly to the ture concerning their destination, but re-
wave on each hand. So perforce the as- ceived no answer. And the wind blowing
trologer waited; and from the torn stuff from shores unguessed, and the tide flow-
he beheld erelong the emergence of a ing to unknown gulfs, were alike filled
sea-blue merman whose head was half with whispers of awe and terror.
human, half apish; and behind the mer- Nushain pondered the mysteries of his
man there hove a small black barge that journey almost to madness; and the
was not steered or rowed by any visible thought came to him that, after passing
being. At this, Nushain recalled the hier- through the region of death, he was now
oglyphs of the sea-creature and the boat traversing the gray limbo of uncreated
whidi had appeared on the margin of things; and, thinking this, he was loth
his nativity; and imrolling the papyrus, to surmise the third stage of his journey;
he saw with wonderment that the figures and he dared not reflect upon the nature
were both gone; and he doubted not that of its goal.
they had passed, like the mummy’s hier- Anon, suddenly, the mists were riven,
oglyph, through all the zodiacal Houses, and a cataract of golden rays poured
even to that House which presided over down from a high-seated sun. Near at
his destiny; and thence, mayhap, they had hand, to the lee of the driving barge, a
emerged into material being. But in their tall island hove with verdurous trees and
stead now was the burning hieroglyph of light, shell-shaped domes, and blossomy
a fire-colored salamander, set opposite to gardens hanging far up in the dazzle-
the Great Dog. ment of noon. 'There, with a sleepy purl-
474 WEIRD TALES
ing, the surfwas lulled on a low, grassy from their defilement, or clear for hu-
shore that had not known the anger of man treading.
storm; and fruited vines and full-blown Turning seaward in his revulsion, Nu-
flowers were pendent above the water. It shain found the merman and the barge
seemed that a spell of oblivion and slum- waiting close at hand. Hopelessly he re-
ber was shed from the island, and that entered the barge with his followers, and
any who landed thereon would dwell in- the magically driven boat resumed its
violable for ever in sun-bright dreams. course. And now, for the first time, the
Nushain was seized with a longing for merman spoke, saying over his shoulder
its green, bowery refuge; and he wished in a harsh, half-articulate voice, not with-
to voyage no farther into the dreadful out irony; "It would seem, O Nushain,
nothingness of the mist-bound ocean. And that you lack faith in your own divina-
between his longing and his terror, he tions. However, even the poorest of as-
quite forgot the terms of that destiny trologers may sometimes cast a horoscope
which had been ordained for him by the correctly. Cease, then, to rebel against
stars. that which the stars have written.”
There was no halting nor swerving of
the barge; but it drew still nearer to the
isle in its coasting; and Nushain saw
that the intervening water was clear and

T he barge drove
closed heavily about
bright island was
on,
it,
and the mists
and the noon-
After a
lost to view.
shallow, so that a tall man might easily vague interim the muffled sun went down
wade to the beach. He sprang into the behind inchoate waters and clouds; and
sea, holding his horoscope aloft, and be- a darkness as of primal night lay every-
gan to walk toward the island; and Mouz- where. Presently, through the torn rack,
da and Ansarath followed him, swim- Nushain beheld a strange heaven whose
ming side by side. signs and planets he could not recognize;
Though hampered somewhat by his and at this there came upon him the
long wet robes, the astrologer thought to black horror of utmost dereliction. Then
reach that alluring shore; nor was there the mists and clouds returned, veiling
any movement on the part of the mer- that unknown sky from his scrutiny. And
man to intercept him. The water was he could discern nothing but the mer-
midway between his waist and his arm- man, who was visible by a wan phosphor
pits; and now it lapped at his girdle; and that clung always about him in his swim-
now at the knee-folds of his garment; ming.
and die island vines and blossoms drooped Still the barge drove on; and in time it
fragrantly above him. seemed that a red morning rose stifled

Then, being but a step from that en- and conflagrant behind the mists. The
chanted beach, he heard a great hissing, boat entered the broadening light, and
and saw that the vines, the boughs, the Nushain, who had thought to behold the
flowers, the very grasses, were intertwined sun once more, was dazzled by a strange
and mingled with a million serpents, shore where flames towered in a high
writhing endlessly to and fro in hideous unbroken wall, feeding perpetually, to all
agitation. From all parts of that lofty appearance, on bare sand and rock. With
island the hissing came, and the serpents, a mighty leaping and a roar as of blown
widi foully mottled volumes, coiled, surf the flames went up, and a heat like
creptand slithered upon it everywhere; that of many furnaces smote far on the
and no single yard of its surface was free sea. Swiftly the barge neared the shore;
THE LAST HIERCX5LYPH '475
and the merman, with uncouth gestures no longer the services of a guide.” So
of farewell, dived and disappeared under saying, it left him, going out like a
the waters. quenched fire on the smoky air.
Nushain could scarcely regard the Nushain, standing irresolute, beheld
flames or endure their heat. But the barge before him a white stairway that mounted
touched the tongue of land lying
strait amid the veering vapors. Behind him the
between them and the sea; and before flames rose unbroken, like a topless ram-
Nushain, from the wall of fire, a blazing part; and oneither hand, from instant to
salamander emerged, having the form instant, the smoke shaped itself into de-
and hue of that hieroglyph which had mon forms and faces that menaced him.
last appeared on his horoscope. And he He began to climb the stairs, and the
knew, with ineffable consternation, that shapes gathered below and about, fright-
this was the third guide of his threefold ful as a wizard’s familiars, and keeping
journey. pace with him as he went upward, so that
"Come with me,” said the salamander, he dared not pause or retreat. Far up he
in a voice like the crackling of fagots. climbed in the fumy dimness, and came
Nushain stepped from the barge to that unaware to the open portals of a house
strand which was hot as an oven beneath of gray stone rearing to unguessed height
his feet; and behind him, though with and amplitude.
palpable reluctance, Mouzda and Ansar-
ath still followed. But, approaching the
flames behind the salamander, and half
swooning from their ardor, he was over-
U NWILLINGLY, but driven by the
thronging of the smoky shapes, he
passed through the portals with his com-
come by the weakness of mortal flesh; panions. The house was a place of long,
and seeking again to evade his destiny, empty halls, tortuous as the folds of a
he fled along the narrow scroll of beach sea-conch. There were no windows, no
between the fire and the water. But he lamps; but it seemed that bright suns of
had gone only a few paces when the sala- silver had been dissolved and diffused in
mander, with a great fiery roaring and the air. Fleeing from the hellish wraiths
racing, intercepted him; and it drove him that pursued him, the astrologer followed
straight toward the fire with terrible Sail- the winding halls and emerged ultimately
ings of its dragon-like tail, from which in an inner chamber where space itself
showers of sparks were emitted. He was immured. At the room’s center a
could not face the salamander, and he cowled and muffled figure of colossal pro-
thought the flames would consume him portions sat upright on a marble chair,
like paper as he entered them: but in the silent, unstirring. Before the figure, on
wall there appeared a sort of opening, a sort of table, a vast volume lay open.
and the fires arched themselves into an Nushain felt the awe of one who ap-
arcade, and he passed through with his proaches the presence of some high de-
followers, herded by the salamander, into mon or deity. Seeing that the phantoms
an ashen land where all things were had vanished, he paused on the room’s
veiled with low-hanging smoke and threshold: for its immensity made him
steam. Here the salamander observed giddy, like the void interval that lies be-
with a kind of irony: "Not wrongly, O tween the worlds. He wished to with-
Nushain, have you interpreted the stars draw; but a voice issued from the cowled
of your horoscope. And now your jour- being, speaking softly as the voice of his
ney draws to an end, and you will need own inmost mind:
476 WEIRD TALES
"I am Vergama, whose other name is that person called Nushain the astrolo-
Destiny; Vergama, on whom you have ger, together with the dog Ansarath and
called so ignorantly and idly, as men are the negro Mouada, who followed his for-
wont to call on their hidden lords; Ver- tunes. But now, very shortly, I must
. . .
gama, who has summoned you on the turn the page, and before turning it, must
journey which all men must make at one finish the writing that belongs thereon.”
time or another, in one way or another
Nushain thought that a wind arose in
way. Come forward, O Nushain, and the chamber, moving lightly with a weird
read a little in my book.” sigh, though he felt not the actual breath
The astrologer was drawn as by an im- of its passing. But he saw that the fur
seen hand to the table. Leaning above it,
of Ansarath, cowering close beside him,
he saw that the huge volume stood open was by the wind. Then, beneath
ruffled
at its middle pages, which were covered
his marveling eyes, the dog began to
with a myriad signs written in inks of dwindle and wither, as if seared by a lethal
various colors, and representing men,
magic; and he lessened to tlie size of a
gods, fishes, birds, monsters, animals, rat, and thence to the smallness of a
constellations, and many other things. At mouse and the lightness of an insea,
the end of column of the right-
tlie last
though preserving still his original form.
hand page, where little space was left for After that, the tiny thing was caught up
other inscriptions, Nushain beheld the
by the sighing air, and it flew past Nu-
hieroglyphs of an equal-sided triangle of shain as a gnat might fly; and, following
stars, such as had lately appeared in prox-
it, he saw that the hieroglyph of a dog
imity to the Dog; and, following these, was insaibed suddenly beside that of the
the hieroglyphs of a mummy, a merman, salamander, at the bottom of the right-
a barge and a salamander, resembling the
hand page. But, apart from this, there
figures that had come and gone on his remained no trace of Ansarath.
horoscope, and those thathad guided him
the house of Vergama.
Again a wind breathed in the room,
to
touching not the astrologer, but fluttering
"In my book,” said the cowled figure,
the ragged raiment of Mouzda, who
"the diaracters of all things are written
crouched near to his master, as if appeal-
and preserved. All visible forms, in the
beginning, were but symbols written by
ing for protection. And the mute be-
came shrunken and shriveled, turning at
me; and at the last they shall exist only
the last to a thing light and thin as the
as the writing of my book. For a season
black, tattered wing-shard of a beetle,
they issue forth, taking to themselves that
which is known as substance. ... It was which the air bore aloft. And Nushain
saw that the hieroglyph of a one-eyed
I, O Nushain, who set in tlie heavens the
negro was inscribed following that of the
stars that foretold your journey; I, who
And these things,
dog; but, aside from this, there was no
sent the three guides.
now sign of Mouzda.
having served their purpose, are but
infoliate ciphers, as before.” Now, perceiving clearly the doom that
Vergama paused, and an infinite si- was designed for him, Nushain would
lence returned to the room, and a mea- have fled from the presence of Ver-
sureless wonder was upon the mind of gama. He turned from the outspread
Nushain. Then the cowled being con- volume and ran toward the chamber door,
tinued: his worn, tawdry robes of an astrologer
"Among men, for a while, there was flapping about his thin shanks. But
THE LAST HIERCXiLYPH 477
softly in his ear, as he went, there sound- swell, expanding infinitely. Borne up-
ed the voice of Vergama: ward, around and around, in a swift ver-
"Vainly do men seek to resist or evade tiginous swirling, he beheld the seated
that destiny which turns them to ciphers shape as it loomed ever higher above him
in the end. In my book, O Nushain, in cosmic vastness. Then the god was lost
there is room even for a bad astrologer.” in light; and Nushain was a weightless
Once more the weird sighing arose, and and exile thing, the withered skeleton of
a cold air played upon Nushain as he ran; a lost leaf, rising and falling on the
and he paused midway in the vast room as bright whirlwind.
if a wall had arrested him. Gently the air In the book of Vergama, at the end of
breathed on his lean, gaunt fig:ure, and it the last column of the right-hand page,
lifted his graying locks and beard, and it there stood the hieroglyph of a gaunt
plucked softly at the roll of papyrus astrologer, carrying a furled nativity.
which he still held in his hand. To his Vergama leaned forward from his
dim eyes, the room seemed to reel and chair, and turned the page.
Vhe
ew World
By RICHARD F. SEARIGHT
I dreamed I hung in ebon, star-flecked space;
And, through a rift in dense-piled banks of cloud
That veil this world like a colossal shroud.
Looked down into the planet’s molten face
Where flaming vapors surge and writhe and race.
The clouds are seared by an imending blast

Of cosmic heat from gory seas below;
And painted crimson by the lurid glow
From lambent, gassy streamers swirling past.
To coil and undulate and sink at last.
Beneath the angry spouts of fiery spray

The blood-red cauldron bubbles, deep and slow.
It seethes and moans in an incessant throe
Of genesis, that by its pangs it may
Mold to a fairer life, Aough hard the way.
—
ut of the Eons
By HAZEL HEALD
'A tale of Elder Magic and a monstrous idol —a shuddery
tale of primordial evil
(Mss. found among the effects of the and universe which it is better for the
late Richard H. Johnson, Ph. D., curator majority not to know, and I have not de-
of the Cabot Museum of Archeology, parted from the opinion in which all of
Boston, Mass.) us —
^museum staff, physicians, reporters,
T IS not likely that any one in Boston
—
and police concurred at the period of
I— or any alert reader elsewhere the horror itself. At the same time it
will ever forget the strange affair of seems proper that a matter of such over-
the Cabot Museum. The newspaper pub- whelming scientific and historic impor-
licity given to that hellish mummy, the tance should not remain wholly unre-
antique and terrible rumors vaguely corded —hence this account which I have
linked with it, the morbid wave of inter- prepared for the benefit of serious stu-
est and cult activities during 1932, and dents. I shall place it among various pa-
the frightful fate of the two intruders on pers to be examined after my death, leav-
December first of that year, all combined ing its fate to the discretion of my execu-
to form one of those classic mysteries tors. Certain threats and unusual events
which go down for generations as folk- during the past weeks have led me to
lore and become the nuclei of whole believe that my life — well
as as that of
cycles of horrific speculation. other museum officials— some is in peril
Every one seems to realize, too, that through the enmity of several widespread
something very vital and unutterably hid- secret cults of Asiatics, Polynesians, and
eous was suppressed in the public accounts heterogeneous mystical devotees; hence
of the culminant horrors. Those first dis- it is possible that the work of the
quieting hints as to the condition of one executors may not be long postponed.
of the two bodies were dismissed and [Executors’ note; Doctor Johnson died
ignored too abruptly — nor were the suddenly and rather mysteriously of heart
singular modifications in the mummy failure on April 22, 1933. Wentworth
given the following-up which their news Moore, taxidermist of the museum, dis-
value would normally prompt. It also
appeared around the middle of the pre-
struck people as queer that the mummy ceding month. On February 18 of the
was never restored to its case. In these same year Doctor William Minot, who
days of expert taxidermy the excuse that superintended a disseaion connected with
its disintegrating condition made exhibi- the case, was stabbed in the back, dying
tion impracticable seemed a peculiarly the following day.]
lame one. The real beginning of the horror, I

As curator of the museum I am in a suppose, was in 1879 — long before my
position to reveal all the suppressed facts, term as curator —^when the museum ac-
but this I shall not do during my life- quired that ghastly, inexplicable mummy
time. There are things about the world from the Orient Shipping Company. Its
478
OUT OF TOE EONS 479
very discovery was monstrous and men- dently of volcanic origin. It projected
acing, for itcame from a crypt of im- quite boldly out of the sea in the form
known origin and fabulous antiquity on of a truncated cone. A landing-party
a bit of land suddenly upheaved from under Captain Weatherbee noted evi-
the Pacific’s floor. dences of long submersion on the rugged
On May 11, 1878, Captain Charles slopes which they climbed, while at the
Weatherbee of the freighter Eridanus, summit there were signs of recent de-
bound from Wellington, New Zealand, struction, as by an earthquake. Among
to Valparaiso, Chile, had sighted a new the scattered rubble were massive stones
island unmarked on any chart and evi^ of manifestly artificial shaping, and a
5
480 WEIRD TALES

little
of some
examination disclosed the presence
of that prehistoric
masonry found on certain Pacific islands
Cyclopean T he Cabot Museum
which
of ancient and
specializes
unknown
of Archeology,
in such remnants
civilizations as
and forming a perpetual archeological do not fall within the domain of art, is a
puazle. small and scarcely famous institution,
Finally the sailors entered a massive though one of high standing in scientific
stone crypt —judged to have been part of circles.
exclusive
It stands in the heart of Boston’s
Beacon Hill
district in Mt. —
a much larger edifice,and to have
originally lain far —
underground in one Vernon near Joy
Street, —
housed in a
corner of which the frightful mummy former private mansion with an added
crouched. After a short period of virtual wing in the rear, and was a source of
panic, caused partly by certain carvings on pride to its austere neighbors until the re-
the walls, the men were induced to move cent terrible events brought it an luidesir-
the mummy to the ship, though it was able notoriety.
only with fear and loathing that they The hall of mummies on the western
touched it. Close to the body, as if once side of the original mansion (which was
thrust into its clothes, was a q^linder of designed by Bulfinch and erected in
an unknown metal containing -a roll of 1819), on the second floor, is justly es-
thin, bluish-white membrane of equally teemed by historians and anthropologists
unknown nature, inscribed with peculiar as harboring the greatest collection of its
characters in a grayish, indeterminable kind in America. Here may be found
pigment. In the center of the vast stone typical examples of Egyptian embalming
floor was a suggestion of a trap-door, but from the earliest Sakkarah specimens to
the party lacked apparatus sufficiently the last Coptic attempts of the Eighth
powerful to move it. Century; mummies of other cultures, in-
The Cabot Museum, then newly estab- cluding the pre-historic Indian specimens
lished,saw the meager reports of the dis- recently foimd in the Aleutian Islands;
covery and at once took steps to acquire agonized Pompeian figures molded in
the mummy and the cylinder. Curator plaster from tragic hollows in the ruin-
Pickman made a personal trip to Val- choking ashes; naturally mummified bod-
paraiso and outfitted a schooner to search ies from mines and other excavations
for the crypt where the thing had been in all parts of the earth —^some surprized
found, though meeting with failure in by their terrible entombment in the gro-
this matter. At the recorded position of tesque postures caused by their last, tear-
the island nothing but the sea’s unbroken ing death-throes — everything, in short,
expanse could be discerned, and the seek- which any collection of the sort could well
ers realized that the same seismic forces be expected to contain. In 1879, of
which had suddenly thrust the island up, course, it was much less ample than it is
had carried it down again to the watery now; yet even then it was remarkable. But
darkness where it had brooded for untold that shocking thing from the primal
eons. The secret of that immovable trap- Cyclopean crypt on an ephemeral sea-
door would never be solved. spawned island was always its chief at-
The mummy and the cylinder, how- traaion and most impenetrable mystery.
ever, remained —and the former was The mummy was that of a medium-
placed on exhibition early in November, sized man of unknown race, and was cast
1879, in the museum’s h^l of mummies. in a peculiar crouching posture. The face,
W.T.—
6 —
OUT OF THE EONS 481
half shielded by claw-like hands, had its of which the Easter Island images and the
under jaw thrust far forward, while the megalithic masonry of Ponape and Nan-
shrivelled features bore an expression of Matal are conceivable vestiges, were free-
few spectators could
fright so hideous that ly circulated among students, and learned
view them immoved. The eyes were journals and often con-
carried varied
closed, with lids clamped down tightly on a possible former
flicting speculations
over eyeballs apparently bulging and continent whose peaks survive as the
prominent. Bits of hair and beard re- myriad islands of Melanesia and Polyne-
mained, and the color of the whole was sia. The diversity in dates assigned to the
a sort of dull neutral gray. In texture the hypothetical vanished culture — or con-
thing was half leathery and half stony, tinent —was at once bewildering and
forming an insoluble enigma to those ex- amusing; yet some surprizingly relevant
perts who sought to ascertain how it was allusions were found in certain myths of
embalmed. In places bits of its substance Tahiti and other islands.
were eaten away by time and decay. Rags Meanwhile the strange cylinder and its
of some peculiar fabric, with suggestions baffling scroll of unknown hieroglyphs,
of unknown designs, still clung to the carefully preserved in the museum library,
object. received êir due share of attention. No
what made it so infinitely horrible
Just question could exist as to their association
and repulsive one could hardly say. For with the mummy; hence all realized that
one thing, there was a subtle, indefinable in the unravelling of their mystery the
sense of limitless antiquity and utter mystery of the shrivelled horror would in
alienage which affected one like a view all probability be unravelled as well. The
from the brink of a monstrous abyss of cylinder, about four inches long by seven-
—
unplumbed blackness but mostly it was eighths of an inch in diameter, was of a
the expression of crazed fear on the queerly iridescent metal utterly defying
puckered, prognathous, half-shielded face. chemical analysis and seemingly impervi-
Such a symbol of infinite, inhuman, cos- ous to all reagents. It was tightly fitted
mic fright could not help communicating with a cap of the same substance, and
the emotion to the beholder amidst a dis- bore engraved figurings of an evidently
quieting cloud of mystery and vain con- decorative and possibly symbolic nature
jecture. conventional designs which seemed to
Among the discriminating few who follow a peculiarly alien, paradoxical, and
frequented the Cabot Museum this relic doubtfully describable system of geom-
of an elder, forgotten world soon ac- etry.
quired an unholy fame, though the in- Not less mysterious was the scroll it
stitution’s seclusion and quiet policy pre- contained —a neat roll of some thin,
vented it from becoming a popular sensa- bluish-white, unanalyzable membrane,
tion of the "Cardiff Giant” sort. In the coiled round a slim rod of metal like that
last century the art of vulgar ballyhoo of the cylinder, and unwinding to a length
had not invaded the field of scholarship of some two feet. The large, bold hiero-
to the extent it has now succeeded in glyphs, extending in a narrow line down
doing. Naturally, savants of various kinds the center of the scroll and penned or
tried their best to classify the frightful painted with a gray pigment defying
object, though always without success. analysis, resembled nothing known to
Theories of a bygone Pacific civilization, linguists and paleographers, and could not
W. T.—
482 WEIRD TALES
be deciphered despite the transmission of among cultivated Bostonians, but no more
photographic copies to every living expert than that; while the very existence of the
in the given field. tylinder and scroll — after a decade of
It is true that a few scholars, un- futile research — ^was virtually forgotten.
usually versed in the literature of occult- So quiet and conservative was the Cabot
ism and magic, found vague resemblances Museum that no reporter or feature writer
between some of the hieroglyphs and cer- ever thought of invading its uneventful
tain primal symbols described or cited in precincts for rabble-tickling material.
two or three very ancient, obscure, and The invasion of ballyhoo commenced
Book of Eibon,
esoteric texts such as the in the spring of 1931, when a purchase of
reputed to descend from forgotten Hy- somewhat spectacular nature—that of the
perborea; the Pnakotic fragments, alleged strange objects and inexplicably preserved
to be prehuman; and the monstrous and bodies found in crypts beneath the almost
forbidden Necronomkon of the mad Arab vanished and evilly famous ruins of
Abdul Alhazrcd. None of these resem- Chateau Faussesflammes, in Averoigne,
blances, however, was beyond dispute; —
France brought the museum prominent-
and because of the prevailing low estima- ly into the news columns. True to its
tion of occult studies, no effort was made "hustling” policy, the Boston Pillar sent
to circulate copies of the hieroglyphs a Sunday feature writer to cover the in-
among mystical specialists. Had such cir- cident and pad it with an exaggerated
culation occurred at this early date, the general account of the institution itself;
later history of the case might have been and this —
young man Stuart Reynolds by
very different; indeed, a glance at the name — hit upon the nameless mummy as
hieroglyphs by any reader of von Junzt’s a potential sensation far surpassing the
horrible Nameless Cults would have es- recent acquisitions nominally forming his
tablished a linkage of unmistakable chief assignment. A smattering of theo-
significance. At this period, however, the sophical lore, and a fondness for the
readers of that monstrous blasphemy were speculations of such writers as Colonel
exceedingly few; copies having been in- ûrchward and Lewis Spence concern-
credibly scarce in the interval between the ing lost continents and primal forgotten
suppressions of the original Diisseldorf civilizations, made Reynolds especially
edition (1839) and of the Bridewell alert toward any eonian relic like the un-
translation(1845) and the publication of known mummy.
the expurgated reprint by the Golden At the museum the reporter made him-
Goblin Press in 1909. Practically speak- self a nuisance through constant and not
ing, no occultist or student of the primal always intelligent questionings and end-
past’s esoteric lore had his attention called less demands for the movement of en-
to the strange scroll until the recent out- cased objects to permit photographs from
burst of sensational journalism which pre- unusual angles. In the basement library
cipitated the horrible climax. room he pored endlessly over the strange
metal cylinder and its membranous
2
scroll, photographing them from every
T hus
the frightful
matters glided along for a half-
century following the installation of
mummy at the museum.
angle and securing pictures of every bit of
the weird hieroglyphed text. He likewise
asked to see all books with any bearing
The gruesome object had a local celebrity whatever on the subject of primal cul-
a —
OUT OF THE EONS 483
hires and sunken continents — sitting for was not altogether pleasing to our staff,
three hours taking notes, and leaving only sincewe are a scientific institution with-
in order to hasten to Cambridge for a out sympathy for fantastic dreamers; yet
sight (if permission were granted) of the we answered all questions with civility.
abhorred and forbidden Necronomicon at One result of these catechisms was a
the Widener Library. highly learned article in The Occult Re-
On April fifth the article appeared in view by the famous New Orleans mystic
the Sunday Pillar, smothered in photo- Etienne-Laurent de Marigny, in which
graphs of mummy, cylinder, and hiero- was asserted the complete identity of some
glyphed scroll, and couched in the pecul- of the odd geometrical designs on the
iarly simpering, infantile style which the iridescent cylinder, and of several of the
Pillar affects for the benefit of its vast and hieroglyphs on the membranous scroll,
mentally immature clientele. Full of in- with certain ideographs of horrible sig-
accuracies, exaggerations, and sensational- nificance (transcribed from primal mono-

ism, it was precisely the sort of thing to liths or from the secret rituals of hidden
stir the brainless and fickle interest of the bands of esoteric students and devotees)
herd —
and as a result the once quiet mu- reproduced in the hellish and suppressed
seum began to be swarmed with chatter- Black Book or Nameless Cults of von
ing and vacuously staring throngs such as Jun2t.
its stately corridors had never known De Marigny recalled the frightful
before. death of von Junzt in 1840, a year after
There were scholarly and intelligent the publication of his terrible volume at
visitors, too, despite the puerility of the Dusseldorf, and commented on his blood-
article the pictures had spoken for them- curdling and partly suspected sources of
selves —and many persons of mature at- information. Above all, he emphasized
tainments sometimes see the Pillar by the enormous relevance of the tales with
accident. one very strange char-
I recall which von Junzt linked most of the mon-
acter who appeared during November — strous ideographs he had reproduced.
dark, turbaned and bushily bearded man That these tales, in which a cylinder and
with a labored, unnatural voice, curiously scroll were expressly mentioned, held a
expressionless face, clumsy hands covered remarkable suggestion of relationship to

with absurd white mittens, who gave a the things at the museum, no one could
squalid West End address and called him- deny; yet they were of such breath-taking
self "Swami Chandraputra”. This fellow extravagance — involving such unbeliev-
was unbelievably erudite in occult lore able sweeps of time and such fantastic
and seemed profoundly and solemnly anomalies of a forgotten elder world

moved by the resemblance of the hiero- that one could much more easily admire
glyphs on the scroll to certain signs and than believe them.
symbols of a forgotten elder world about Admire them the public certainly did,
which he professed vast intuitive knowl- for copying in the press was universal.
edge. Illustrated articles sprang up everywhere,
By June, the fame of the mummy and telling or purporting to tell the legends
scrollhad leaked far beyond Boston, and in the Black Book, expatiating on the hor-
the museum had and requests
inquiries ror of the mummy, comparing the cylin-
for photographs from occultists and stu- der’s designs and the saoll’s hieroglyphs
dents of arcana all over the world. This with the figures reproduced by von Junzt,
484 WEIRD TALES
and indulging in the wildest, most sensa- sacred place, since from its midst the
tional and most irrational theories and bleak basalt cliffs of Mount Yaddith-Gho
speculations. Attendance at the museum soared starkly into the sky, topped by a
was and the widespread nature of
trebled, gigantic fortress of Cyclopean stone, in-
the interestwas attested by the plethora of finitely older than mankind and built by
—
mail on the subject most of it inane and the alien spawn of the dark planet Yug-
superfluous —
received at the museum. goth, which had colonized the earth
Apparently the mummy and its origin before the birth of terrestrial life.
—
formed for imaginative people a close — The spawn of Yuggoth had perished
rival to the depression as chief topic of
eons before, but had left behind them
1931 and 1932. For my own part, the
one monstrous and terrible living thing
principal effect of the furor
me
was
read von Junzt’s monstrous volume in
to make which could never die — their hellish god
or patron demon Ghatanotlioa, which
the Golden Goblin edition a perusal — lowered and brooded eternally though
which left me dizzy and nauseated, yet unseen in the crypts beneath that fortress
thankful that I had not seen the utter
on Yaddith-Gho. No human creature had
infamy of the unexpurgated text.
ever climbed Yaddith-Gho or seen that
blasphemous fortress except as a distant
3
and geometrically abnormal outline
T he archaic whispers reflected in the

Black Book and linked with designs
and symbols so closely akin to what the
against the sky; yet most agreed that
Ghatanothoa was still there, wallowing
and burrowing in unsuspected abysses
mysterious scroll and cylinder bore, were beneath the megalithic walls. There were
indeed of a character to hold one spell- always those who believed that sacrifices
bound and not a little awestruck. Leap- must be made to Ghatanothoa, lest it
ing an incredible gulf of time behind — crawl out of its hidden abysses and wad-
and lands we
^11 the civilizations, races, dle horribly through the world of men as
—
know they clustered round a vanished ithad once waddled through the primal
nation and a vanished continent of the world of the Yuggoth-spawn.
misty, fabulous dawn-years . . . that to
People said that if no victims were
which legend has given the name of Mu, offered, Ghatanothoa would ooze up to
and which old tablets in the primal Naacal the light of day and lumber down the
tongue speak of as flourishing 200,000
basalt cliffsYaddith-Gho bringing
of
years ago, when Europe harbored only
doom might encounter. For no
to all it
hybrid entities, and lost Hyperborea knew
living thing could behold Ghatanothoa,
the nameless worship of black amorphous
or even a perfect graven image of Gha-
Tsathoggua. tanothoa, however small, without suffer-
There was mention of a kingdom or ing a change more horrible than death
province called K’naa in a very ancient itself. Sight of the god, or its image, as
land where the first human people had all the legends of Yuggoth-spawn agreed,
found monstrous ruins left by those who meant paralysis and petrifaction of a sin-
—
had dwelt there before ^vague waves of gularly shocking sort, in which the vic-
unknown entities which had filtered down tim was turned to stone and leather on
from the stars and lived out their eons on the outside, while the brain within re-
a forgotten, nascent world. K’naa was a mained perpetually alive— ^horribly fixed
OUT OF THE EONS 485
and prisoned through the ages, and mad- T WAS in the Year of the Red Moon
deningly conscious of the passage of inter- I (estimated as B. C. 173,148 by von
minable epochs of helpless inaction till Junzt) that a human being first dared to
chance and time might complete the de- breathe defiance against Ghatanothoa and
cay of the petrified shell and leave it ex- its nameless menace. This bold heretic
posed to die. Most brains, of course, was T’yog, High Priest of Shub-Nig-
would go mad long before this eon-de- gurath and guardian of the copper temple
ferred release coidd arrive. No human of the Goat With a 'Thousand Young.
eyes, it was said, had ever glimpsed T’yog had thought long on the powers of
Ghatanothoa, though the danger was as the various gods, and had had strange
great now as it had been for the Yuggoth- dreams and revelations touching the life
spawn. of this and earlier worlds. In the end he
And was a cult in K’naa which
so there felt svire that the gods friendly to man
worshipped Ghatanothoa and each year could be arrayed against the hostile gods,
sacrificed to it twelve young warriors and and believed that Shub-Niggurath, Nug,
twelve young maidens. These victims and Yeb, as well as Yig the Serpent-god,
were offered up on flaming altars in the were ready to take sides with man against
marble temple near the mountain’s base, the tyranny and presumption of Ghata-
for none dared climb Yaddith-Gho’s nothoa.
draw near to the cyclopean

basalt cliffs or Mother Goddess, T’yog
Inspired by the
pre-human stronghold on its crest. Vast wrote down
a strange formula in the
was the power of the priests of Ghata- hieraticNaacal of his order, which he
nothoa, since upon them alone depended believed would keep the possessor im-
the preservation of K’naa and of all the mune from the Dark God’s petrifying
land of Mu from the petrifying emer- power. With this protection, he reflected,
gence of Ghatanothoa out of its unit might be possible for a bold man to
known burrows. climb the dreaded basalt cliffs and first —
There were in the land a hundred of all human beings —enter the cyclopean
priests of theDark God, under Imash-Mo fortress beneath which Ghatanothoa re-
the High Priest, who walked before King putedly brooded. Face to face with the
Thabou at the Nath-feast, and stood god, and with the power of Shub-Nig-
proudly whilst the King knelt at the gurath and her sons on his side, T’yog
Dhoric shrine. Each priest had a marble believed that he might be able to bring it
house, a chest of gold, two hundred to terms and mankind from

at last deliver
slaves, and a hundred concubines, be- its brooding menace. With humanity
sides immunity from civil law and the freed through his efforts, there would be
power of life and death over all in K’naa no limit to the honors he might claim.
save the priests of the King. Yet in All the honors of the priests of Ghata-
spite of these defenders there was ever a nothoa would perforce be transferred to
fear in the land lest Ghatanothoa slither him; and even kingship or godhood might
up from the depths and lurch viciously conceivably be within his reach.
down the mountain to bring horror and So T’yog wrote his protective formula
petrifaction to mankind. In the latter on a scroll of pthagon membrane (ac-
years the priests forbade men even to cording to von Junzt, the inner skin of
guess or imagine what its frightful aspect the extinct yakith-lizard) and enclosed it
might be. in a carven cylinder of lagh metal—the

— •
486 WEIRD TALES

metal brought by the Elder Ones from was slipped back into the sleeper’s cloak
Yuggoth, and found in no mine of earth. Imash-Mo was content, for he knew
This charm, carried in his robe, would T’yog was little likely to study that cylin-
make him proof against the menace of der’s contents again. Thinking himself
—
Ghatanothoa it would even restore the protected by the true scroll, the heretic
Dark God’s petrified victims if that mon- would march up the forbidden mountain
strous entity should ever emerge and and into the Evil Presence and Ghata- —
begin its devastations. Thus he proposed nothoa, unchecked by any magic, would
to go up the shunned and man-imtrodden take care of the rest.
mountain, invade the alien-angled citadel It would no longer be needful for

of Cyclopean stone, and confront the Ghatanothoa’s priests to preach against
shocking devil-entity in its lair. Of what the defiance. Let T’yog go his way and
would follow, he could not even guess; meet his dooqi. And secretly, the priests
but the hope of being mankind’s savior would always cherish the stolen scroll
lent strength to his will. the true and potent charm —
^handing it
He had, however, reckoned without down from one High-Priest to another
die jealousy and self-interest of Ghata- for use in any dim future when it might
nothoa’s pampered priests. No sooner did be needful to contravene the Devil-God’s
they hear of his plan than — fearful for will. So the rest of the night Imash-Mo
their prestige and privilege in case the slept in great peace, with the true scroll
Demon-God should be dethroned they — in a new cylinder fashioned for its har-
set up a frantic clamor against the so- borage.
called sacrilege, crying that no man might
prevail against Ghatanothoa, and that any T WAS at dawn on the Day of the Sky-
effort to seek it out would merely provoke I Flames (nomenclature undefined by
it mankind
to a hellish onslaught against von Junzt) that T’yog, amidst the prayers
which no spell or priestcraft could hope to and chanting of the people and with
avert. With those cries they hoped to King Thabou’s blessing on his head,
turn the public mind against T’yog; yet started up the dreaded mountain with a
such was the people’s yearning for free- staff of tlath-wood in his right hand.
dom from Ghatanothoa, and such their Within his robe was the cylinder holding
confidence in the skill and zeal of T’yog, what he thought to be the true charm —
that all the protestations came to naught. for he had indeed failed to find out the
Even the King, usually a puppet of the imposture. Nor did he see any irony in
priests, refused to forbid 'T’yog’s daring the prayers which Imash-Mo and the
pilgrimage. other priests of Ghatanothoa intoned for
his safety and success.
It was then that the priests of Ghata-
nothoa did by stealth what they could not All that morning the people stood and
do openly. One night Imash-Mo, the watched as T’yog’s dwindling form
High-Priest, stole to T’yog in his temple struggled up the shunned basalt slope
chamber and took from his sleeping form hitherto men’s footsteps, and
alien to
the metal cylinder; silently drawing out many stayed watching long after he had
the potent scroll and putting in its place vanished where a perilous ledge led
another scroll of great similitude, yet round to the mountain’s hidden side.
varied enough to have no power against That night a few sensitive dreamers
any god or demon. When the cylinder thought they heard a faint tremor con-
—
OUT OF THE EONS 487
Tulsing the hated peak; though most ridi- rudiments of a dark and secret cult
culed them for the statement. Next day secret because the people of the new lands
vast crowds watched the mountain and had other gods and devils, and thought
prayed, and wondered soon T’yog how only evil of elder and alien ones and —
would return. And so the next day, and within that cult many hideous things were
the next. For weeks they hoped and done, and many strange objects cherished.
waited, and then they wept. Nor did any It was whispered that a certain line of
one ever see T’yog, who would have saved elusive priests still harbored the true
mankind from fears, again. charm against Ghatanothoa which Imash-
Thereafter men shuddered at T’yog’s Mo stole from the sleeping T’yog;
presumption, and tried not to think of though none remained who could read or
the punishment his impiety had met. And understand the cryptic syllables, or who
the priests of Ghatanothoa smiled to could even guess in what part of the
those who might resent the god’s will or world the lost K’naa, the dreaded peak of
challenge its right to the sacrifices. In Yaddith-Gho, and the titan fortress of
later years the ruse of Imash-Mo became the Devil-God had lain.
known to the people; yet the knowledge Though it flourished chiefly in those
availed not to change the general feeling Pacific regions around which Mu itself
that Ghatanothoa were better left alone. had once stretched, there were rumors of
None ever dared defy it again. And so the hidden and detested cult of Ghata-
the ages rolled on, andKing succeeded nothoa in ill-fated Atlantis, and on the
King, and High-Priest succeeded High- abhorred plateau of Leng. Von Junzt im-
Priest, and nations rose and decayed, and plied its presence in the fabled subterrene
lands rose above the sea and returned kingdom of K’nyan, and gave clear evi-
into the sea. And with many millennia dence that it had penetrated Egypt, Gial-
decay fell upon K’naa — till at last on a dea, Persia, China, the forgotten Semite
hideous day of storm and thunder, ter- empires of Africa, and Mexico and Peru
rific rumbling and mountain-high waves, in the New World. That it had a strong
all the land ofMu sank into the sea for connection with the witchcraft movement
ever. in Europe, which the bulls of
against
Yet down the later eons thin streams popes were vainly directed, he more than
of ancient secrets trickled. In distant strongly hinted. The West, however, was
lands there met together gray-faced fugi- never favorable to its growth; and public
tives who had survived the sea-fiend’s indignation —
aroused by glimpses of hid-
rage, and strange drank the smoke
skies eousrites and nameless sacrifices wholly —
of altars reared to vanished gods and stamped out many of its branches. In the
demons. Though none knew to what end it became a hunted, doubly furtive
bottomless deep the sacred peak and —
underground affair yet never could its
nucleus be quite exterminated.
Cyclopean fortress of dreaded Ghata- It always
nothoa had sunk, there were still those survived somehow, chiefly in the Far East
who mumbled its name and offered to it and on the Pacific Islands, where its teach-
nameless sacrifices lest it bubble up ings became merged into the esoteric lore
through leagues of ocean and shamble of the Polynesian Areoi.
among men spreading horror and petri- Von Junzt gave subtle and disquieting
faction. hints of actual contact with the cult; so
Around the scattered priests grew the that as I read I shuddered at what was
—
488 WEIRD TALES

rumored about his death. He spoke of the strange cylinder and the diaracters on the
growth of certain ideas regarding the ap- scroll, and the whole account teemed with
pearance of the Devil-God a creature — details having vague, irritating sug-
which no human being (unless it were gestions of resemblance to things con-
the too-daring T’yog, who had never re- nected with the hideous mummy. The
turned) had ever seen —and contrasted cylinder and scroll — the Pacific setting
this habit of speculation with the taboo the persistent notion of old Captain
prevailing in ancient Mu against any at- Weatherbee that the Cyclopean crypt
tempt to imagine what the horror looked where the mummy was found had once
like. There was a peculiar fearfulness lain under a vast building somehow . . .
about the devotees’ awed and fascinated I was vaguely glad that the volcanic island
whispers on this subject — whispers had sunk before that massive suggestion
heavy with morbid curiosity concerning of a trap-door could be opened.
the precise nature of what T’yog might
have confronted in that frightful pre- 4
human edifice on the dreaded and now-
sunken mountains before the end (if it
was an end) finally came
oddly disturbed by the German scholar’s
—and I felt
W
for the
HAT I read in the Black
formed a fiendishly apt preparation
news items and closer events which
Book
began to force themselves upon me in the

oblique and insidious references to this
spring of 1932. I can scarcely recall just
topic.
when the increasingly frequent reports of
Scarcely les^ were von
disturbing police action against the odd and fan-
Junzt’s conjectures on the whereabouts of tastical religious cults in the Orient and
the stolen scroll of cantrips against Ghata- elsewhere commenced to impress me; but
nothoa, and on the ultimate uses to which by May or June I realized that there was,
this scroll might be put. Despite all my all over the world, a surprizing and un-
assurance that the whole matter was pure- wonted burst of activity on the part of
ly mythical, I could not help shivering at bizarre, furtive, and esoteric mystical or-
the notion of a latter-day emergence of ganizations ordinarily quiescent and sel-
the monstrous god, and at the picture of dom heard from.
an humanity turned suddenly to a race of It is not likely that I would have con-
abnormal statues, each encasing a living
nected these reports with either the hints
brain doomed to inert and helpless con- of von Junzt or the popular furor over the
sciousness for untold eons of futurity. mummy and cylinder in the museum, but
The old Dusseldorf savant had a poison- for certain significant syllables and per-
ous way of suggesting more than he sistent resemblances — sensationally dwelt
stated, and I could understand why his
damnable book was suppressed in so many
upon by the press— in the rites and
speeches of the various secret celebrants
countries as blasphemous, dangerous, and
brought to public attention. As it was, I
unclean. could not help remarking with disquiet
I writhed with repulsion, yet the thing the frequent recurrence of a name— in
exerted an unholy fascination; and I could various corrupt forms —which seemed to
not lay it down till I had finished it. The constitute a focal point of all the cult
alleged reproductions of designs and worship, and which was obviously regard-
ideographs from Mu were marvellously ed with a singular mixture of reverence
and startlingly like the markings on the and terror. Some of the forms quotedi
—
OUT OF THE EONS 489
were G’tanta, Tanotah, Than-Tha, Gatan, did the papers cease adding fuel to the
—
and Ktan-Tah and it did not require the flames — for the stories on the cult-stir-
suggestions of my now numerous occult- rings were even wilder than the earlier
ist correspondents to make me see in series of yarns.
these variants a hideous and suggestive As the summer drew on, attendants
kinship to the monstrous name rendered noticed a curious new element among the
by von Junzt at Ghatanothoa. throngs of visitors which — after a lull
There were other disquieting features, following the first burst of publicity
too. Again and again the reports cited were again drawn to the museum by the
vague, awestruck references to a "true second furor. More and more frequently
scroll” —something on which tremendous there were persons of strange and exotic
consequences seemed to hinge, and which aspect — swarthy Asiatics, long-haired
was mentioned as being in the custody of nondescripts, and bearded brown men
a certain "Nagob”, whoever and whatever who seemed unused to European clothes
he might be. Likewise, there was an in- —^who would invariably inquire for the
sistent repetition of a name which sound- hall ofmummies and would subsequently
ed like Tog, Tiok, Yog, Zob, or Yob, be found staring at the hideous Pacific
and which my more and more excited con- specimen in a veritable ecstasy of fascina-
sciousness involuntarily linked with the tion. Some quiet, sinister undercurrent in
name of the hapless T’yog as
heretic this flood of eccentric foreigners seemed
given in the Black Book. This name was to impress all the guards, and I myself
usually uttered in connection with such was far from xmdisturbed. I could not
cryptical phrases as "It is none other than help thinking of the prevailing cult-stir-
he,” "He had looked upon its face,” "He rings among just such exotics as these
knows all, though he can neither see nor and the connection of those stirrings with
feel,” "He has brought the memory down myths all too close to the frightful
through the eons,” "The true scroll will mummy and its cylinder scroll.
release him,” "Nagob has the true scroll,” At times I was half tempted to with-
"He can tell where to find it.” draw the mummy from exhibition — espe-
Something very queer was undoubtedly cially when an attendant told me that he
in the air, and I did not wonder when my had several times glimpsed strangers mak-
occultist correspondents, as well as the ing odd obeisances before it, and had
sensationalSunday papers, began to con- overheard singsong mutterings which
nect the new abnormal stirrings with the sounded like chants or rituals addressed to
legends of Mu on the one hand, and with it at hours when the visiting throngs were
the frightful mummy’s recent exploita- somewhat thinned. One of the guards ac-
tion on the other hand. The widespread quired a queer nervous hallucination
articles in the first wave of press pub- about the petrified horror in the lone glass
licity, with their insistent linkage of the case, alleging that he could see from day
mummy, and scroll with the tale
cylinder, to day certain vague, subtle, and infinitely
in the Black Book, and their crazily fan- slight changes in the frantic flexion of the
tastic speculations about the whole mat- bony claws, and in the fear-crazed expres-
ter, might very well have roused the sion of the leathery face. He could not
latent fanaticism in hundreds of those get rid of the loathsome idea that those
furtive groups of exotic devotees with horrible, bulging eyes were about to pop
?whtdi our complex world abounds. Nor suddenly open.
— —
490 WEIRD TALES

T WAS early in September, when the had seen in the pre-human citadel he had
I curious crowds had lessened and the invaded, and preserved intact through
hall of mummies was sometimes vacant, 175,000 years of our planet’s turbulent
that the attempt to get at the mummy by history. That the strange devotees repre-
cutting the glass of its was made.
case sented cults descended from Mu, and that
The culprit, was
a swarthy Polynesian, they were worshipping the mmmy— or
spied in time by a guard, and was over- perhaps even seeking to awaken it to life
powered before any damage occurred. by spells and incantations ^was empha- —
Upon investigation the fellow turned out sized and reiterated in the most sensation-
to be a Hawaiian notorious for his activ- al fashion.
ity in certain underground religious cults, Writers exploited the insistence of the
and having a considerable police record in old legends that the brain of Ghata-
connection with abnormal and inhuman nothoa’s petrified victims remained con-
rites and sacrifices. Some of the papers scious and unaffected — a point which
found in his room were highly pu2 zling served as a basis for the wildest and most
and disturbing, including many sheets improbable speculations. The mention of
covered with hieroglyphs closely resem- a "true scroll” also received due attention
bling those on the scroll at the museum — it being the prevailing popular theory
and in the Black Book of von Junzt; but that T’yog’s stolen charm against Ghata-
regarding these things he could not be nothoa was somewhere in existence, and
prevailed upon to speak. that cult-members were trying to bring it
Scarcely a week after this incident, into contact with T’yog himself for some
another attempt to get at the mummy purpose of their own. One result of this
this time by tampering with the lock of its exploitation was that a third wave of gap-
case — resulted in a second arrest. The ing visitors began flooding the museum
offender, a Cingalese, had as long and un- and staring at the hellish mummy which
savory a record of loathsome cult activi- served as a nucleus for the whole strange
ties as the Hawaiian had possessed, and and disturbing affair.
displayed a kindred unwillingness to talk It was among this wave of spectators

to the police.What made this case doubly many of whom made repeated visits
and darkly interesting was that a guard that talk of the mummy’s vaguely chang-
had noticed this man several times before, ing aspect first began to be widespread. I
and had heard him addressing to the —
suppose despite the disturbing notion
mummy a peculiar chant containing un- of the nervous guard some months before
mistakable repetitions of the word — that the museum’s personnel was too
"T’yog.” As a result of this affair I dou- well used to the constant sight of odd
bled the guards in the hall of mummies, shapes to pay close attention to details; in
and ordered them never to leave the now any case, it was the excited whispers of
notorious specimen out of sight, even for visitors which at length aroused the
a moment. guards to the subtle mutation which was
As may well be imagined, the press apparently in progress. Almost simulta-
made much of these two incidents, re- neously the press got hold of it —with
viewing its talk of primal and fabulous blatant results which can well be imag-
Mu, and claiming boldly that the hideous ined.
mummy was none other than the daring Naturally, I gave the matter my most
heretic T'yog, petrified by something he careful observation, and by the middle of
—
OUT OF THE EONS 491
October decided that a definite disintegra- was beginning to acquire an unholy repu-
tion of the mummy was under way. tation in its austere and quiet neighbor-
Through some chemical or physical in- hood. After this incident I gave instruc-
fluence in the air, the half -stony, half- tions that no one be allowed to pause
leathery fibers seemed to be gradually re- before the monstrous Pacific relic for
laxing, causing distinct variations in the more than a few minutes at a time.
angles of the limbs and in certain details was on November twenty-fourth,
It
of the fear-twisted facial expression. after the museum’s five o’clock closing,
After a half-century of perfect preserva- that one of the guards noticed a minute
tion this was a highly disconcerting de- opening of the mummy’s eyes. The
velopment, and I had the museum’s taxi- phenomenon was very slight nothing —
dermist, Doctor Moore, go carefully over but a thin crescent of cornea being visible
the gruesome object several times. He rein either eye —but
was none the less
it
ported a general relaxation and softening, of the highest interest. Doctor Moore,
and gave the thing two or three astringent having been summoned hastily, was
sprayings, but did not dare to attempt about to study the exposed bits of eyeball
anything drastic lest tliere be a sudden with a magnifier when his handling of
crumbling and accelerated decay. the mummy caused the leathery lids to
The eflfect of all this upon the gaping fall tightly shut again. All gentle efforts
crowds was curious. Heretofore each new to open them failed, and the taxidermist
sensation sprung by the press had brought did not dare to apply drastic measures.
a fresh wave of staring and whispering When he notified me of all this by tele-
visitors, but now — though the papers phone I felt a sense of mounting dread
blathered endlessly about the mummy’s hard to reconcile with the apparently sim-
changes — the public seemed to have ac- ple event concerned. For a moment I
quired a definite sense of fear which out- could share the popular impression that
ranked even its morbid curiosity. People some evil, amorphous blight from un-
seemed to feel that a sinister aura hovered plumbed deeps of time and space hung
over the museum, and from a high peak murkily and menacingly over the museum.
the attendance fell to a level distinctly Two nights later a sullen Filipino was
below normal. This lessened attendance trying to secrete himself in the museum
gave added prominence to the stream of at closing time. Arrested and taken to
freakish foreigners who continued to in- the station, he refused even to give his
fest the place, and whose numbers seemed name, and was detained as a suspicious
in no way diminished. person. Meanwhile the strict surveillance
On November eighteenth a Peruvian of of the mummy seemed to discourage the

Indian blood suffered a strange hysterical odd hordes of foreigners from haunting
or epileptic seizure in front of the it. At least, the number of exotic visitors
mummy, afterward shrieking from his distinctly fell off after the enforcement of
open its eyes!
hospital cot, "It tried to the "move along” order.
T’yog tried to open his eyes and stare at was during the early morning hours
It
me!’’ I was by this time on the point of of Thursday, December first, that a ter-
removing the object from exhibition, but rible climax developed. At about one
permitted myself to be overruled at a o’clock horrible screams of mortal fright
meeting of our very conservative directors. and agony were heard issuing from the
However, I could see that the museum museum, and a series of frantic telephone
—
492 WEIRD TALES

callsfrom neighbors brought to the scene They were dead, and the
cult activities.
quickly and simultaneously a squad of more we examined them the more utterly
police and several museum officials, in- monstrous and unnamable we felt their
cluding myself. Some of the policemen manner of death to be. On both faces
surrounded the building while others, was a more wholly frantic and inhuman
with the officials, cautiously entered. In the look of fright than even the oldest police-
main corridor we found the night watch- man had ever seen before; yet in the state
man strangled to death — a bit of East In- of the two bodies there were vast and
dian hemp still knotted around his neck significant differences.
and realized that despite all precautions The Burmese lay collapsed close to the
some darkly evil intruder or intruders had nameless mummy’s case, from which a
gained access to the place. Now, how- square of glass had been neatly cut. In
ever, a tomb-like silence enfolded every- his hand was a scroll of bluish
right
thing and we almost feared to advance membrane which I at once saw was cov-
upstairs to the fateful wing where we ered with grayish hieroglyphs —almost a
knew the core of the trouble must lurk. duplicate of the scroll in the strange
We felt a bit more steadied after flooding cylinder in the library downstairs, though
the building with light from the central later study brought out subtle differences.
switches in the corridor, and finally crept There was no mark of violence on the
reluctantly up the curving staircase and body, and in view of the desperate, agon-
through a lofty archway to the hall of ized expression on the twisted face we
mummies. could only conclude that the man died of
sheer fright.
5
It was the closely adjacent Fijian,
T IS from this point onward that reports though, gave us the profoundest
that
I of the hideous case have been censored shock. One of
the policemen was the first
—for we have all agreed that no good to feel of him, and the cry of fright he
can be accomplished by a public knowl- emitted added another shudder to that
edge of those terrestrial conditions im- neighborhood’s night of terror. We ought
plied by the further developments. I have to have known from the lethal grayness
said that we flooded the whole building of the once-black, fear-twisted face, and
with light before our ascent. Now, be- of the bony hands —one
of which still
neath the beams that beat down on the clutched an electric torch —
that something
glistening cases and their gruesome con- was hideously wrong; yet every one of us
tents, we saw outspread a mute horror was unprepared for what that officer’s
whose baffling details testified to happen- hesitant touch disclosed. Even now I can
ings utterly beyond our comprehension. think of it only with a paroxysm of dread
There were two intruders who we after- — and repulsion. To be brief the hapless —
ward agreed must have hidden in the invader, who less than an hour before had
building before closing time —but they been a sturdy living Melanesian bent on
would never be executed for the watch- unknown evils, was now a rigid, ash-gray
man’s murder. They had already paid figure of stony, leathery petrifaction, in
the penalty. every respect identical with the crouching,
One was a Burmese and the other a eon-old blasphemy in the violated glass
Fiji-Islander —both known to the police case.
for their share in frightful and repulsive Yet that was not the worst. Crowning
— a
OUT OF THE EONS 493
all other horrors, and indeed seizing our bulging optics of this nameless spawn of
shocked attention before we turned to the the eons. Certainly, there was a dimly
bodies on the floor, was the state of the outlined scene on the age-old retinal sur-
frightful mummy. No longer could its face, and I could not doubt that it
changes be called vague and subtle, for it formed the last thing on which those eyes
had now made radical shifts of posture. —
had looked in life countless millennia
It had sagged and slumped with a curi- ago. It seemed to be steadily fading, and
ous loss of rigidity; its bony claws had I fumbled with the magnifier in order to
sunk until they no longer even partly shift another lens into place. Yet it must
covered its leathery, fear-crazed face; and have been accurate and clear-cut; even if
—God help us! its hellish bulging eyes infinitesimally small, when — in response
had popped wide open, and seemed to be to some evil spell or act connected with
staring directly at thetwo intruders who their visit —
had confronted those in-
it
had died of fright or worse. truders who were frightened to death.
That ghastly, dead-fish stare was hid- With the extra lens I could make out
eously mesmerizing, and it haunted us all many details formerly invisible, and the
the time we were examining the bodies awed group around me hung on the flood
of the invaders. Its effect on our nerves of words with which I tried to tell what
was damnably queer, for we somehow I saw.
felt a curious rigidity creeping over us and For here, in the year 1932, a man in
hampering our simplest motions a rigid- — the city of Boston was looking on some-
ity which later vanished very oddly when thing which belonged to an unknown and
we passed the hieroglyphed scroll around utterly alien world— a world that van-
for inspection. Every now and then I felt ished from existence and normal memory
my gaze drawn irresistibly toward those eons ago. There was a vast room —
horrible bulging eyes in the case, and chamber of cyclopean masonry and 1 —
when I returned to study them after view- seemed to be viewing it from one of its
ing the bodies I thought I detected some- corners. On the walls were carvings so
thing very singular about the glassy sur- hideous that even in this imperfect image
face of the dark and marvellously well- their stark blasphemousness and bestiality
preserved pupils.The more I looked, the sickened me. I could not believe that the
more fascinated I became; and at last I carvers of these things were human, or
went down to the oflice despite that — that they had ever seen human beings
strange stiffness in my limbs — and when they shaped the frightful outlines
brought up a strong multiple magnifying which leered at the beholder. In the cen-
glass. With this I commenced a very ter of the chamber was a colossal trap-
close and careful survey of the fishy door of stone, pushed upward to permit
pupils, while the others crowded expect- the emergence of some object from below.
antly around. The object should have been clearly visi-
I had always been rather skeptical of ble —indeed, must have been when the
the theory that scenes and objects become eyes first opened before the fear-stricken
photographed on the retina of the eye in intruders —

though under my lenses it was
cases of death or coma; yet no sooner did merely a monstrous blur.
I look through the lens than I realized As it happened, I was studying the
the presence of some sort of image other right eye only when I brought the extra
than the room’s reflection in the glassy. magnification into play. A moment later
—
494 WEIRD TALES

I wished fervently that my search had I had glimpsed such an unbelievable
ended there. As it was, however, the zeal behemothic monstrosity that I could not
of discovery and revelation was upon me, doubt the power of its original to kill
and I shifted my powerful lenses to the with its mere sight. Even now I can not
mummy's left eye in the hope of finding begin to suggest it with any words at my
the image less faded on that retina. My command. I might call it gigantic
hands, trembling with excitement and un- tentacled — —
^proboscidian octopus-eyed
naturally
ence,
stiff from some obscure influ-
were slow in bringing the magnifier

semi-amorphous —
mous and
—
rugose—ugh! But nothing
partly
plastic partly squa-
into focus, but a moment later I realized I could say could even adumbrate the
that the image was less faded than in the loathsome, non-human, extra-
xuiholy,
other eye. I saw in a morbid flash of half- galactic horrorand hatefulness and un-
distinctness the insufferable thing which spawn of
utterable evil of that forbidden
was welling up through the prodigious black chaos and illimitable night. As I
trap-door in that Cyclopean, immemorially write these words the associated mental
archaic crypt of a lost world and fell — image causes me to lean back faint and
fainting with an inarticulate shriek of nauseated. As I told of the sight to the
which I am not even ashamed. men around me in the office, I had to
fight to preserve the consciousness I had
y the time I revived there was no dis- regained.
B tinct image of anything in either eye
mummy. Sergeant Keefe
Nor were my hearers much less moved.
of the monstrous Not a man spoke above a whisper for a
of the police looked with my glass, for I full quarter-hour, and there were awed,
could not bring myself to face that ab- half-furtive references to the frightful
normal entity again. And I thanked all lore in the Black Book, to the recent
the powers of the cosmos that I had not newspaper tales of cult-stirrings, and to
looked earlier than I did. It took all my the sinister events in the museiun. Ghata-
resolution, and a great deal of solicitation, nothoa. . . . Even its smallest perfect
to make me relate what I had glimpsed image could petrify T’yog —
the false —
in that hideous moment of revelation. scroll —
he never came back the true —
Indeed, I could not speak till we had all scroll which could fully or partly undo
adjourned to the ofiice below, out of sight the petrifaction ——— did it survive? the
of that demoniac thing which could not hellish cults —— the phrases overheard "It
Forhad begun to harbor the most none other than he” "He had looked
be. I
terrible and fantastic notions about the

is
upon
—"He knows though
mummy and its glassy, bulging eyes that — he can
its face”
nor
neither see
—"He has feel”
all,
it had a kind of hellish consciousness, brought memory down through the

the
—
seeing all that occurred before it and try-
ing vainly to communicate some fright-
eons”
— "The
"Nagob has the
— "Hehim”
true scroll will release
can true scroll”
ful message from the gulfs of time. That tell where to find it.”
—
meant madness but at last I thought I Only the healing grayness of the dawn
might be better off if I told what I had brought us back to sanity; a sanity which
half-seen. made of that glimpse of mine a closed
all, it was not a long thing to
After topic —something not to be explained or
tell.Oozing and surging up out of that thought of again.
yawning trap-door in the Cyclopean crypt We gave out only partial reports to the
—
OUT OF THE EONS 495
press, and later on co-operated with the comes. Besides, no one will believe the
papers in making other suppressions. For facts when they are finally told. That is
example, when the autopsy showed the the curious thing about the multitude.
brain and several other internal organs of When their yellow press makes hints,
the petrified Fijian to be fresh and un- they are ready to swallow anything; but
petrified, though hermetically sealed by when a stupendous and abnormal revela-
the petrifaction of the exterior flesh an — tion is actually made, they laugh it aside
anomaly about which physicians are still as a lie. For the sake of general sanity it
guardedly and bewilderedly debating
is probably better so.
we did not wish a furor to be started. We
knew too well what the yellow journals,
remembering what was said of the intact- HAVE said that a scientific examination
brained and still-conscious state of Ghata-

I of the frightful mummy was planned.
nothoa’s stony-leathery victims, would This took place on December eighth, ex-
make of this detail. actly a week after the hideous culmination
As matters stood, they pointed out that

of events, and was conducted by the
the man who had held the hieroglyphed eminent Doctor William Minot, in con-
scroll —and who had evidently thrust it junction with Wentworth Moore, Sc. D.,
at the mummy through the opening in the taxidermist of the museum. Doctor Minot
case — ^was not petrified, while the man had witnessed the autopsy of the_ oddly
who had not held it was. When they de- petrified Fijian the week before. There
manded that we make certain experiments were also present Messrs. Lawrence Cabot
—applying the scroll both to the stony- and Dudley Saitonstall of the museum’s
leathery body of the Fijian and to the trustees. Doctors Mason, Wells, and Car-
mummy itself—^we indignantly refused to ver of the museum staff, two representa-
abet such superstitious notions. Of course, tives of the press, and myself. During the
the mummy was withdrawn from public week the condition of the hideous speci-
view and transferred to the museum men had not visibly changed, though
laboratory awaiting a really scientific ex- some relaxation of its fibers caused the
amination before some suitable medical position of the glassy, open eyes to shift
authority. Remembering past events, we slightly from time to time. All of the
kept it under a strict guard; but even so, staff dreaded to look at the thing —for its
an attempt was made to enter the museum suggestion of quiet, conscious watching
at 2:25 a. m. on December fifth. Prompt had become intolerable —and it was only
working of the burglar alarm frustrated with an effort that I could bring myself
the design, though unfortunately the to attend the examination.
criminal or criminals escaped. Doctor Minot arrived shortly after
That no hint of anything further ever 1:00 p. m., and within a few minutes
reached the public, I am profoundly began his survey of the mummy. Con-
thankful. I wish devoutly that there were siderable disintegration took place under
nothing more to tell. There will, of his hands, and in view of this and of —
course, be leaks, and if anything happens what we told him concerning the gradual
to me I do not know what my executors relaxation of the specimen since the
will do with tliis manuscript; but at least first of October — ^he decided that a thor-
the case will not be painfully fresh in the ough dissection ought to be made before
multitude’s memory when the revelation the substance was further impaired. The
— 6
496 WEIRD TALES

proper instruments being present in the destruction. The resemblance of this con-
laboratory equipment, he began at once; dition to that found in the fright-killed
exclaiming aloud at the odd, fibrous na- Fiji-Islander was so strong that the emi-
ture of the gray, mummified substance. nent physician gasped in bewilderment.
But his exclamation was still louder The perfection of those ghastly bulging
when he made the first deep incision, for eyes was uncanny, and their exact state
out of that cut there slowly trickled a witli respect to petrifaction was very diffi-
thick crimson stream whose nature cult to determine.
despite the infinite ages dividing this At 3:30 p. m. the brain-case was
hellish mummy’s life-time from the pres- opened —
and ten minutes later our
ent —was utterly luimistakable. A few stunned group took an oath of secrecy
more deft strokes revealed various organs which only such guarded documents as
in astonishing degrees of non-petrified this manuscript will ever modify. Even
preservation — all, indeed, being intact ex- the two reporters were glad to confirm
cept where injuries to the petrified ex- the silence. For the opening had reveded
terior had brought about malformation or a pulsing, living brmn.
By JOHN FLANDERS
A story of the grim and terrible conflict that took place one
night in a pawnbroker’s shop
OSHUA GULLICK the pawnbroker "Two shillings, or you can take your
was a hard man to deal with. home for elderly gipsy-moths and run
All day long women crept into along.”
his dingy shop, spread out cloaks and In most cases was the simple truth
it
overcoats on his counter and murmured that the poor woman’s husband was scour-
pathetically: ing the Gravesend docks without digging
"You can see it’s almost new, Mr. Gul- up a scrap of a job to pay for the family’s
lick. Can’t you give me as much as a bread and tea, and that a poor kiddy or
pound for it?’’ two was coughing and moaning in a foul
To which Joshua Gullick invariably re- cellar in Battersea or Whitechapel. And
plied, like a parrot: the thing usually ended by the woman’s
"Two shillings.” taking the two shillings and dragging
Then the poor woman would burst herself out of the door. But sometimes
into tears and tell a sad story of a hus- she would call back some such bitter
band out of work and little children ill. prophecy as:
But Joshua Gullick would repeat his "God will punish you, you skinflint!"
litany: But Joshua Gullick, busy pinning a
W. T.—
7 — I
THE AZTEC RING 497
ticketon the newly acquired garment, did Joshua Gullick raised his hands to
not worry a great deal about God. —
heaven a heaven shut off by the green
ceiling from which hung a motley crew of
O
which
NE evening a man came into the
pawnbroker’s shop with a tale of wo
at least was different from the
gibbeted
cloaks and
overcoats, tail-coats, women’s
capes, and costumes of every
imaginable variety.
others.
"I am an old man, sir, and I am not in
"She can’t live another day, and I want a position to speculate on the future.”
so much to put the chain and the little
"But I swear to you you will live long
cross back on her neck while she is still
enough to see me bring back the chain
conscious. It will be a little bit of conso- and what I owe you on the loan.”
’’
lation
But the usurer shook his head energet-
Then, with a shudder, he lowered his ically.
voice and went on:
amount of the
"And when —^when it’s all over — "I have told you the
,debt, sir. It’s two pounds four exactly.
could bring it back to you.” And my time is valuable.”
Joshua Gullick answered very politely: The man slowly drew off his thread-
"Yes indeed, sir, your attachment to bare overcoat, but Joshua Gullick stopped
your family heirlooms is a real credit to
him with a gesture.
you. But your sister got fourteen shillings
"The most I could possibly let you
on that little ornament, so that she owes
have on it would be four shillings, and
me now, with the interest which has ac- ”
you would owe me
cumulated — let’s see —two pounds four
still
But he never finished his sentence. His

shillings.”
eye had chanced to fall on the man’s hand,
"But I tell you, sir, I haven’t a penny
” and he caught the sparkle of a gorgeous
at least not just now
stone.
"Tm sure you realize,” replied the
money-lender in the same tone of perfect "After all, sir, I have a soft heart, and
politeness, "that I am very sorry, especial- I should be glad to do you a service if I
ly since I knew your sister well, and could. I notice you have a handsome ring
honored her for her efforts to support on your finger there — oh, yes, I can see
herself by giving piano lessons
”
but busi- — that it’s only an imitation and that it isn’t
ness is business, you know worth much of anything, but I’m sorry for
"Listen, Mr. Gullick. I don’t know —
you and I can’t I want to help you, and
whether I told you that I’ve just come back I should be willing to make a trade with
from Mexico. You know Mexico is in a you You let me have that ring, and I
terrible way just now. I was getting on will give you back the chain and the gold
”
very well there and was accumulating a cross
little fortune, when the revolution broke As this chaffering went on, it had
out, and in an hour I was ruined. grown dark. The feeble, whistling, twist-
"I got back here sick and despairing, ing little gas jet did not do justice to the
pockets empty, not knowing which way change which had suddenly come over
to turn to keep from starving. And I the visitor’s face, and even if it had,
found my sister, my poor, gentle little Joshua Gullick would probably not have
Edith, at the point of death. I know I’ll noticed it, for he had no eyes except for
”
get back on my feet again the ring. It was a beautifully shaped ser*
W. T.—
498 WEIRD TALES
pent of brown metal, encircling a stone inscription reads that if any one ever se-
which emitted curious red flashes. cures possession of the ring through dis-
”
"Pawnbroker,” said the man slowly, honest means
"you say this stone is worth little or noth- "Sir,” growled the money-lender, "do
”
ing?” you mean to insinuate
"I’d swear it on a Bible!” cried Gullick "It was in the Mexican mountains, one
eagerly. moonlight night, that I happened to meet

the Indian who owned it. He had a bad
"You take your oath to it!” said the
case of fever. I had a little quinine with
man in a strange low voice which to any- ”
me, not enough. I’m sorry to say, to
body but Joshua Gullick would have been
"Sir,” interrupted Gullick, trembling
ominous, threatening and terrible.
for fear something might still happen to
"I take my oath to it,” Gullick repeated
separate him from his bargain, "I never
fervently.
cared for stories of adventure. Good-
"Here is the ring,” said the man.
night!”
Gullick scarcely knew how it hap- ”
"But let me tell you
pened, but the ring seemed to glide off
"Good-night!”
the visitor’s finger and around his own ”
"Listen to
before either of the two had made a ges-
"Good-night!”
ture. But he did not waste much time
"Very well then, if you will have it
wondering, he was so filled with bewil-
man, and disappeared in the
so,” said the
dered delight at the unbelievably fine
darkness and the fog.
business deal he had just concluded.
Joshua Gullick put up his shutters.
T he man turned and walked

toward the door, playing abstractedly
with the little chain and cross as he went.
slowly
“Tt’s strange,” he said to himself.
-I can’t get the thing off my finger.”
"I
Like many of his trade, he was an ex-

But before he reached the threshold, he
pert in precious stones. But he had never
turned back.
before seen a jewel like this one. And it
"Gullick,” he said, "I’m very sor-
was having abandoned his fruitless
after
investigation and after having decided to
"Bargain’s made!” snapped the pawn-
put the ring away in his safe, that he made
broker.
the discovery that it could not be removed
"Oh, I wasn’t trying to back out,” said
from his finger.
the other. "But I have a feeling I ought
” "My hand must be a little swollen to-
to warn you
day,” he told himself.
By this time Gullick had begun to
And he set about his nightly task of
notice the strange, suppressed excitement
getting ready in a special portfolio the
in his client’s manner and the savage
obligations which fell due on the follow-
flame in his eyes. 'The old man squinted
ing day.
cautiously at the half-open drawer in
On the first of next December, I promise to pay
which lay a big Colt revolver with all to the order of Joshua Gullick the sum of forty
Seven chambers loaded. pounds
'"rhat ring is an Aztec talisman. When "Good God! I’m going crazy!”
you look at it with a magnifying-glass It was Gullick himself who had uttered
you can see a row of strange signs in- this cry. And he had uttered it when he
scribed on the body of the serpent. The saw the leaping flame devour the note,
THE AZTEC RING 499
which had fallen into the open fireplace

— the note which Gullick himself had
thrown into the flames!
T oward morning Joshua Gullick,
ing exhausted against his empty safe,
glared with haggard eyes at the dying
ly-
'Tm mad!” he groaned. 'Tm mad! I fire, glutted with blackened scraps of pa-
threw it in with my own hands! Oh Lord, per. All at once the terrible hand grew
Lord, Lord!” active again. It pulled violently at his
left wrist, forced him to rise to his feet,
A succession of frantic barks. With a
and after feeling around hastily, it took
sureand steady aim, he had tossed the
possession of a pen-holder.
whole portfolio into the fire.
I,the undersigned Joshua Gullick, declare all
He rushed to the grate, and reached for my debtors free of all financial obligation to me.
die leather case. The flames were already I restore all pledged articles to their owners. And
curling around it —but with a sudden
I bequeath all my property to the poor of London.
I hereby declare that no one is responsible for my

change of direction his hand had shot out death.
toward the open safe, and another pack- Joshua Gullick stared at the paper.
age of notes flew into the flames. Was it he who had written that? He rec-
"Mad and crazy! Mad and crazy!” he ognized his own handwriting, his own
bellowed. "What devil is driving me.^” signature. . . .
His hand was fumbling feverishly in His old stubborn shrewdness began to
the drawers of his safe and hurling paper come back to him a little. He saw that he
after paper into the grate. All at once had not the physical strength to defeat
Gullicic remembered. the enemy. But perhaps he could outwit
"The ring!” that ring finger, after all. . . .
Ah! the ring clung firmly to his finger, There! His faithful left hand had
buried in the flesh, half hidden under the tossed the crazy paper into the fire.
livid, swollen tissue. The right hand seemed to hesitate for

"No, no,” he panted. "I don’t want a moment. Then it reached for the pen-
”
to, I don’t holder again, and the document was
He
dragged himself across the floor on quickly rewritten. And again — — ah! the
his knees, pleading with his own hand, left hand undid the insane folly of its
which roved back juid forth like a crazy fellow-member.

wild thing, throwing open account-books, "Good heavens!”
tearing out pages, turning keys in locks, The sharp claws of the right hand dug
seizing packages of notes and tickets and into the tough flesh of the left. Animated
tossing them into the crackling flames. with a diabolical fury, the bewitched
Then a furious rage seized him. He hand fought and struggled with its fel-
noticed in a corner of the room the low.

hatchet with which he split his little sup- The battle was grotesque, desperate,
ply of kindling. terrible.
"I’ll chop it off!” he roared. "I’ll chop Gullick tried in vain to shield his left
it off!” hand behind his back, in his pockets, un-
With hand he gripped the
his left der the furniture. The odier always found
weapon. But the other hand, the hand it, clawed it, tore it, twisted it, broke the
which was no longer his, tore the dan- joints apart. Gullick suffered agonies of
gerous tool free and hurled it across the pain, and all his spasmodic struggling
room. was unavailing.
What a night it was! At last the rent and broken left hand
500 WEIRD TALES
hung helpless. And very deliberately and Joshua Gullick made no attempt at re-
carefully, the right hand once more re- sistance.His vacant, glassy eyes reflected
wrote the last will and testament of the yellow gaslight like the eyes of a dead
Joshua Gullick. Then, slowly, methodi- man.
opened the drawer of the counter
cally, it The muzzle of the revolver moved up-
and took out the big revolver. ward toward his temple. ^
Coming Soon—
SATAN IN EXILE
By ARTHUR WILLIAM BERNAL
A stupendous weird serial novel of a space bandit whose ex-
ploits among the planets of our solar system made him a veritable
Robin Hood of the airways.
This is not at all the usual type of interplanetary story, but is a
glorious saga of a strange charaaer whose heroic feats won him the
nickname, Satan. Watch for this thrilling epic in WEIRD TALES.

— I
Vhej^
an
Who Could Not Go Home
By L. E. FRAILEY
A grim, human story about the Great War —a story with
an unexpected ending
“"W 'ÊRY well, sinceyou must have I heard him pacing up and down his
it,” said the young captain, "I quarters. At he played old songs,
times,
^ will tell you the story, but do the sentimental on a singularly
kind,
not blame me if your dreams are bad sweet violin. Both in the music and the
tonight.” monotony of his walking, there was
We were passengers on the New York something that suggested a melancholy
Central, and for several hours had been mind. Hour after hour he kept going,
talking and smoking. One of us had and as the partition was very thin be-
asked the officer, whose left arm had re- tween us, I felt like asking him to be-
mained in France, if it didn’t seem jolly come quiet so that I could go to sleep.
to be going home, and he had answered But I never did. Maybe I sensed it
that he was journeying a thousand miles wouldn’t do any good, or maybe I just
out of his way to make good a mysterious didn’t want to play the bully. I don’t
promise. This had aroused our curiosity, know. But I did fall asleep finally, perhaps
and, although reluctant to say anything about midnight. I can’t be sure of that.
more, the captain had at last consented. Toward morning —time for the sun to
# * # « « be coming up, as I understood later —
was half awakened by a commotion in the
rom the beginning of our voyage same room. You know how it is, gentle-
F home on the transport Liberty, I was men, when you have been sleeping sound-
curious about the occupant of Stateroom ly and are not ready to call it a night
17 — the one to the right of my own. Call how you are vaguely aware that things
it premonition, or what you will, I could are going on, and yet so quickly go back
not pass the closed door of that room to sleep that you are never sure what
without a strange feeling of fear an — happened? Well, it was that way with
emotion which I had not felt in such me. I knew that several men were in the
measure even while fighting in France. room, that they were talking low, and
I wondered who the fellow might be, and that at last they went out with dragging
why he kept to his quarters. You see, feet. As they went by my door, one of
the door was always shut. I decided the men spoke to the others
—"He’s bet-
finally that he was one of the more se- ter off than he was before” —and then I
verely wounded officers who could not was asleep again. Sure — I know what you
go on deck. are thinking. I should have known. Well,
But Number 17 was not a bed pris- maybe so, but it was all too much like
oner. That was evident. The first night a dream. I thought nothing more about
501
502 WEIRD TALES
it until that last night on the ship the — I never found out who the fellow was, or
one which I can never forget, and never how he got the note, but you can imagine
understand. my astonishment when I discovered that
Every night I continued to hear the it had been written by the occupant of
music and the footsteps, but they didn’t Number 17. It was a short note, written
—
bother me so much ^not until the night in a peculiar hand. He wanted to see me
before we reached New York. I was sit- — asked if I would mind coming to his
ting in my stateroom, excited at the quarters. It would only take a few min-
thought of landing the next day, going utes, the writer said, and was of great
over all my two

of the experiences of importance.
years in France. And
then, suddenly and
quite terribly, began to be afraid. I
I
READ the note under one of the ship
didn’t know why. It is a sensation you
I lamps; then I tossed it to the deck.
would have to feel to understand, but I For a while, I stood wondering if I
began to tremble and my body was wet wanted to go. You can laugh at me, if
with sweat. The diought came to me you wish, but the cold fear which had
that more than anything else I wanted to sent me bolting out of my stateroom had
get to bed and bury myself, in (he blank- again swept over me. All during the voy-
ets. You see, the music of that violin age I had been wanting to see the fellow,
seemed closer than ever before. The fel- and there I stood, afraid now that the
low was still walking up and down, but chance had come. It is all still so unex-
each time he stopped on the other side plainable. Perhaps if it had not been for
—
of the partition he stopped and played —
the package but then I must stick to my
for me! Maybe you don’t understand,

story in the way it happened. You can
but I couldn’t stand it. ’The wild notion explain for yourselves the mystery of that
came into my head that soon he wouldn’t room.

stop —
that he would walk right through ’The fellow was playing his violin again
that wall. I didn’t wait to see. I rushed when I got to his door, but when I
out of my room and up to the deck. knocked, the music stopped immediately,
Nerves? Sure, I told myself that. I and in a few seconds the door opened.
was ashamed of my funk. I laughed to The light in the room was shaded, and
think how many had faced in
dangers I at first I could see but little, I did notice,
France, only to run away from a fellow however, that the air seemed unusually
officer and his violin. I wondered what cold, and, curiously enough, that there
he would do if I stopped on the way were no covers on the bed. That struck
bade to my room and knocked on his me as queer, but I forgot all about it as
door. Why not? gradually there appeared the outlines of
I had alx)ut decided to do it, when one a tall figure standing at the other end of
of the sailors touched my arm. It startled the room.
me a bit, especially when I saw that he When the man spoke, I noticed that
was shaking and that his face was pale. his voice was pleasant but quite imnatural
"Look here, my man,” I cried to him in quality,
crossly, "what’s up? You look as if you "Will you not sit down?” he began.
”
had seen "I thank you very much for coming. One
But he wouldn’t let me finish. Thrust- can always count on a marine for a favor,
ing a note into my hand, he hurriedly even though the supplicant is a stranger,”
crossed himself and fied across the deck. By this time my eyes were becoming
THE MAN WHO COULD NOT GO HOME 503
more accustomed to the shadows. Imagine must take the liberty of asking a great
my astonishment when I saw that a mask service.Perhaps the fact that we both
concealed the lower half of the man’s fought for the same cause, and’’ (his
face. Of course, as a soldier, I had be- glance wandered to my empty coat sleeve)
come more or less indifferent to the unex- "have both suffered for it, is sufficient
pected, but the thought of the man meet- reason to make me hope you will not re-
ingme with masked features was so far fuse my request.’’
from my mind that I could not resist a I may have been rash to promise, but I
start of surprize. I took a step backward felt keenly the speaker’s personality; be-
toward the door. sides, he was my superior ofiicer. I lost
In a second, however, I was ashamed no time in assuring him that he could

of myself, for the manners of my host count on me for any reasonable service.
were those of a gentleman, and he wore He was silent for a moment as if seek-
the uniform of a colonel of the infantry. ing the best way to begin. "Captain
It was absurd that I should have doubted Thomas, you are looking forward to see-
him. I took the stool which he had indi- ing home again, are you not? May I ask
cated and, while waiting for him to ex- if you intend going there at once?’’ He
plain, studied all of his face that was not put the questions calmly, but his voice
hidden. had a queer break in it at the mention
The eyes, just above the mask, were of the word home.
large. The forehead was high. I could "Just as soon as the train will take me,
imagine that women must have loved his sir,’’I replied with enthusiasm. "You
hair, for it was so boyishly curly just — might not believe it, but there is a little
the kind of hair that entwines easily about woman and two kids in Virginia who are
a woman’s fingers. He stood very erect, mighty anxious to see me even if I am —
and in the tight-fitting fatigue blouse he minus half an arm.”
suggested muscular quickness rather than I might have rambled on, but I no-
brute strength. Above all, there was some- ticed that my words seemed to hurt the
thing unreal about the man, highly inten- man in the mask. There was a sudden
sified by the dim light, the dull thumping droop to his shoulders, and he turned
of the engines below, and the insistent quickly away, pretending to glance out
beating of the waters against the ship. the open port-hole. I stopped in some
My nerves were jumping, and I was confusion, and then, like a fool, made it
glad when he spoke again. worse by apologizing.

"You are wondering what I want of "I am sorry, sir,” I told him, "if I
you and who I am. Is it not so. Captain spoke of unpleasant things. I did not
”
Thomas?’’ know
"So strange a stimmons could hardly He turned back to me, and I thought I
fail to arouse my curiosity, sir,’’ I an- saw an escaping tear run truant-like un-
swered. "I am content to wait, however, der the black mask.
xmtil you are ready to explain.’’ "Do not worry; it is nothing,” he said.
I fancied that his big eyes were smil- "You are not to blame. Your words,
ing at me for a second or so. however, brought back to me some very
"Part of your curiosity —which is indeed precious memories. It happens that I,
justified — I may satisfy,’’ he said, "but too, have a wife and two kids waiting for
some things are better left untold. Let me.
it be enough that I am a stranger who "Well, that’s jolly fine,” I interrupted.
—
504 WEIRD TALES

"Isn’t it great to be out of the trenches I blinked from the new brilliance, he
out of them and on the way home?" rushed toward me.
"Great enough for you," he cried al- "Look,” he screamed, "look —have I a
most fiercely, "yes, but it is hell for reason? Would you want to go home like
me." this?”
I thought then that I understood why May God help me if ever a human be-
my words about home had pained him. ing looked at anything more hideous than
"Forgive me, sir," I pleaded. "I have the face which he thrust within six inches
unintentionally touched upon a sorrow of my own. Describe it I can not. Yet
of yours. You mean that something has to forget it is impossible. All my life it
happened while you have been away?” will live in my memory — that mutilated
"No, nothing has happened they are — countenance grinning at me in the stuffy
alive and well, thank God. I am the one stateroom.
who is dead.” "Take it away!” I shouted. "For God’s
For a moment I thought he must be sake, let me get out of here!”
insane. He went on rapidly.
"You are going home. Captain Thom- MADE for the door, nauseated, trem-
as. You will feel again the arms of your I bling. My nerve was gone. I had only
wife about you. Your children will cling one thought — to get out into the open air
to you and shout for a good old romp. as quickly as possible.
At night, you will sit among them, and At the threshold, I shot one terrified
they will listen with big eyes while you glance over my shoulder. Instead of that
tellthem about what you did in France. awful thing, saw only the mask-cov-
I
As for your empty sleeve, they will wor- ered features of the colonel. He was
ship you for it, and your children will standing with folded arms and bowed
brag about their soldier daddy to all their head.
playmates. For you there is heaven for — A wave of pity swept over me. I
me, nothing! I, too, have a wife and paused, ashamed of my own weakness.
children, but I will never, never see them While I knowing not what to
hesitated,
again. For me no happy reunion, no tiny say, he spoke to me in the same precise
fingers to cling to my uniform. For me tones which he had used in the early part
nothing at all but eternal loneliness. Is of our meeting. Understanding the con-
not a man who can not ever hope to see dition of the lower half of his face, I
his friends, his children, his wife — is not marveled to note how well he enunciated.
such a man one of
the dead?" "Sit down
again, Captain Thomas,” he
He had spoken with tremendous pas- said kindly,"and forgive me, if you can,
sion, and even though I did not under- for the rude manner in which I have
stand what he meant I knew that I had frightened you, At least, you can now
just witnessed the overflowing of a man’s agree with me that I never could have
soul filled to the uttermost with misery. gone home. Do not fear that you have
"I do not want to seem inquisitive," I offended me. With quite brutal candor,
said soothingly, “and yet — is there some me in the French hospital that
they told
reason why you can not go home?” my wound was the most hideous they had
The interview had not prepared me If the sight of my poor face
ever seen.
for the answer to my question. With a so terrified you, a soldier, imagine what
quick step to the light, the man tore off the result would have been upon mjr
the cloth which had shaded it, and, while wife.”
”
THE MAN WHO COULD NOT GO HOME 505
I did not argue. In my heart, I knew held out his hand. His grasp was firm.
he was right. I ofiFered one suggestion. There were tears in my eyes and a lump
"Couldn’t you always wear the mask?’’ in my throat.
I asked. "Thomas,” he said, "if you see the lit-
"Quite impossible,” he responded. "It is tle ones, kiss them for me.”
a tragedy I would not wish to bring into I nodded, then the door closed behind
her life. By now my name has already me. In some way, I found my way back
been reported among the dead. I would to the upper deck. I felt that I must have
rather live in her memory as I once was fresh air and plenty of it.
than live in her presence as I now am.” It was past eleven o’clock, and most
I remained silent, still sick at what I of those on the ship were asleep. Occa-
had beheld. sionally, the full moon
eluded the rush-
"That is why I sent for you,” he con- ing clouds, and for a few seconds I could
tinued. "I want you to go to her. I have see the ugly waves beneath.
a little package. Tell her I gave it to you I had fallen into a melancholy retro-
just before I died. In the package is a spection, leaning on the rail,when I heard
medal. It will mean much to her —and a sudden splash as if something heavy
some day the children will prize it, too.” had been thrown into the water. For just
a moment, the moon escaped the clouds,
He handed me a little box, neatly
and I thought I could make out the body
wrapped in brown paper, and I took it
of a man. Was it my imagination, or did
mechanically.
I really see, down there staring up at me,
"Make it as easy for her as you can.
the mutilated face of the man in Num-
Tell her I was glad to die for my country
and that she must be happy if only be- — ber 17?
cause I wanted her to be.”

"But there is no address on the pack-
—
age I do not know your name
"You will find it inside,” he interrupt-
—— T he young captain hesitated.
tlemen,” he said nervously,
not been easy to you this story. The
tell
"Gen-
"it has
ed. "It has two wrappers. Please do me rest I do not expect you to either believe
”
the favor not to open the package, or seek or understand. And yet
to read the address, until you land.” We gazed at him in mute sympathy,
He drew himself to the position of a our foreheads wet with sweat.
soldier and looked at me with stern in- "Don’t stop!” stammered the traveling
tensity. man who sat huddled in one corner of
"On your honor as a gentleman and an the smoker. "Tell us what happened to
officer,” he commanded, "promise me to the colonel. Did you actually see him in
do what have asked.”
I the water?”
"On my honor, I swear to do it,” I The captain shuddered. "That Ido not
cried. —
"But you ^what are you going to know,” he replied. "I realize now, as I
do?” did not then, the significance of many of
"That was not difficult to decide,” he the incidents in that strange experience.
replied, as he opened the door. "It is a Piece by piece, I can put them together
great service you are doing me. Good now. So can you. There was that com-
night.” motion in the room the second morning
I did not want to go, but what else — and the fellow’s remark that he was
could I do? As I passed him, he suddenly better off than before. Remember, too.
506 WEIRD TALES
the sailor who gave me the colonel’s note. For a moment, probably we all felt that
I told you how he trembled. 'Those things, we had been cheated in the telling of
I suppose, should have prepared me for tlie story. At least, the man in the comer
what I discovered about that stateroom. laughed. "Oh, so it was only a dream,”
”
But he said. "There wasn’t any man in a
"Well, what did you discover?” I mask after all.”
pleaded. "Perhaps you are right,” replied the
The captain hesitated. I think he feared captain slowly, "but do not decide too
to end his story, feared that we would not quickly.”
believe him. smoker seemed suddenly
'The air in the
"You see,” he finally said, "I rushed to grow damp and thin, and our faces as
below and dashed down the passageway. white as the frosted windows, as the cap-
I kicked open the door, but Number 17 tain extended his hand so that we all
was empty. I called the commander. He could see.
said that the colonel had died on the sec- "Maybe a dream,” he said, "but there
ond night of our voyage. The door had is still a promise for me to keep. You
been locked ever since. The colonel had see —here is the package which I must
been buried at sea.” give to the colonel’s wife.”
Watch for this amazing story—
The Horror in the Studio

By DOROTHY QUICK
•
A startling tale of Holl3wood and the moving picture industry.

A tale that will hold your breathless interest. The story of an
unutterable horror out of the dark ages —a ghastly horror that
stunned the motion picture world with its tragedy.
Hollywood has produced a number of weird pictures; but none

of them could approach in weirdness this gripping tale
about the making of motion pictures.
Watch for it in WEIRD TALES

—
House at Night
By CRISTEL HASTINGS
Quiet enough at noon among its trees
And weed-grown paths that slumber in the sun,
The empty house seems settled back at ease
Watching the gray years drift by, one by one.
Here bees may drone and plunder at their will
In gardens long forgotten — ^here a bird
May twitter under eaves where all is still
And somnolent —where never voice heard. is
But let night come! —the old house dhe is
With sound and motion with each wind that sighs!
An empty house at night becomes a hive

Of creeping monsters with a thousand eyes.
Each leaf that falls is like a giant’s stride
Across a roof velvet with moss and mold
Here settling timbers creak — ^here dragons hide
To slither from their attics, queerly bold.
The empty rooms are peopled in the gloom

With hordes of shapeless, voiceless ghosts that roam
Through doors and windows and from room to room
Of this lone place that once was known as Home.
Winds weep and wail the long nights through old — doors
Move back and forth propelled by unseen hands
On hinges long unused —along the floors
Sly forms may stalk the boards in fearsome bands.
Huge spiders spin their curtains, gray and wide.

On grimy windows shutting out the light
For fear some passer-by may see inside

The ghostly things that haunt the place at night.
507
‘^heC2
wanal
By EVERIL WORRELL
AST the sleeping the —
have done but its mourning will be of
P
city river
sweeps; along its left bank the old no consequence beside that other fate
canal creeps. from which I shall have saved it.
I did not intend that to be poetry, al-
though the scene is poetic somberly, — HAVE always had a taste for nocturnal
gruesomely poetic, like the poems of Poe. I prowling. We as a race have grown
Too well I know it —too often have I too intelligent to take seriously any of the
walked over the grass-grown path beside old, instinctive fears that preserved us
the reflections of black trees and tumble- through preceding generations. Our sole
down shacks and distant factory chimneys remaining salvation, then, has come to be
in the sluggish waters that moved so our tendency to travel in herds. We wan-
slowly, and ceased to move at all. der at night —
but our objective is some-
be called mad, and I shall be a
I shall where on the brightly lighted streets, or
suicide. I shall take no pains to cover up still somewhere where men do not go
my trail, or to hide the thing that I shall alone. When we travel far afield, it is in
do. What will it matter, afterward, what company. Few of my acquaintance, few
they say of me? If they knew the truth in the whole city here, would care to ram-
— if they could vision, even dimly, the ble at midnight over the grass-grown path
beings with whom
have consorted if
I — I have spoken of; not because they would
the faintest realization might be theirs of fear to do so, but because such things are
the thing I am becoming, and of the fate not being done.
from which I am saving their city then — Well, it is dangerous to differ individ-
they would call me a great hero. But it ually from one’s fellows. It is dangerous
does not matter what they call me, as I to wander from the beaten road. And the
have said before. Let me write down the fears that guarded the race in the dawn of
things I am about to write down, and let time and through the centuries were real
them be taken, as they will be taken, for fears, founded on reality.
the last ravings of a madman. The city A month was a stranger here. I
ago, I
will be in mourning for the thing I shall had just taken my

first position I was —
•From Weim) Tales for December, 1927. graduated from college only three months
508
THE CANAL 509
before, in the spring. I was lonely, and I left behind that part of town which
likely to remain so for some time, for I was thick with vehicles carrying people
have always been of a solitary nature, home from their evening engagements,
making friends slowly. and began to thread my way through
I had received one invitation out — to darker and narrower streets. Once I had
visit the camp of a fellow employee in to back out of a cul-de-sac, and once I
the firm for which I worked, a camp had to detour around a closed block. This
which was located on the farther side of part of town was not alluring, even to
—
the wide river the side across from the me. It was dismal without being solitary.
city and the canal, where the bank was But when I had parked my car on a
high and steep and heavily wooded, and rough, cobbled street that ran directly
little tents blossomed all along the water’s down into the inky waters of the canal,
edge. At night these camps were a string and crossed a narrow bridge, I was re-
of sparkling lights and tiny, leaping paid. A few minutes set my feet on the
campfires, and the tinkle of music carried old tow-path where mules had drawn riv-
faintly far across the calmly flowing wa- er-boats up and down only a year or so
ter. That far bank of the river was no ago. Across the canal now, as I walked
place for an eccentric, solitary man to upstream at a swinging pace, the misera-
love. But the near bank, which would ble shacks where miserable people lived
have been an eyesore to the campers had seemed to march with me, and then fell
not the river been so wide the near — behind. They looked like places in which
murders might be committed, every one
bank attracted me from my first glimpse
of it.
of them.
We embarked in a motor-boat at some The bridge I had crossed was near the
distance downstream, and swept up along end of the city going north, as the canal
the near bank, and then out and across marked its western extremity. Ten min-
the current. I turned my eyes backward. utes of walking, and the dismal shacks
The murk of stagnant water that was the were quite a distance behind, the river
canal, the jumble of low buildings be- was farther away and the strip of waste
yond it, the lonely, low-lying waste of the land much wider and more wooded, and
narrow strip of land between canal and tall trees across the canal marched with
river, the dark, scattered trees growing me as the evil-looking houses had done
there — I intended to see more of these before. Far and faint, the sound of a bell
things. in the city reached my ears. It was mid-
That week-end bored me, but I repaid night.
myself no later than Monday evening, the

first evening when I was back in the city, STOPPED, enjoying the desolation
alone and free. I ate a solitary dinner I around me. It had the savor I had
immediately after leaving the office. I expected and hoped for. I stood for some
went to my room and slept frqm seven time looking up at the sky, watching the
until nearly midnight. I weened natural- low drift of heavy clouds, which were
ly, then, for my whole heart was set on visible in the dull reflected glow from
exploring the alluring solitude I had dis- distant lights in the heart of the city, so
covered. I dressed, slipped out of the that they appeared to have a lurid phos-
house and into the street, started the mo- phorescence of their own. The ground
tor in my roadster and drove through the under my feet, on the contrary, was utter-
lighted streets. ly devoid of light. I had felt my way
510 WEIRD TALES
carefully, knowing the edge of the canal my pupils expanded, I dimly discerned
partly by instinct, partly by the even more the contours of an old boat or barge, half
perfect blackness of the water in it, and sunken in the water. An old, abandoned
even holding fairly well to the path, be- canal-boat.But was I dreaming, or was
cause it was perceptibly sunken below the there a white-clad figure seated on the
ground beside it. roof of the low cabin aft, a pale, heart-
Now as I stood motionless in this spot, shaped face gleaming strangely at me
my eyes upcast, my mind adrift with from the darkness, the glow of two eyes
strange fancies, suddenly my feelings of seeming to light up the face, and to de-
satisfactionand well-being gave way to tach it from the darkness?
something Fear was an emotion
different. Surely, there could be no doubt as to
unknown to me —
for those things which the eyes. They shone as the eyes of ani-
make men fear, I had always loved. A mals shine in the dark, with a phosphor-
graveyard at night was to me a charming escent gleam, and a glimmer of red!
place for a stroll and meditation. But Well, I had heard that some human eyes
now the roots of my hair seemed to move have that quality at night.
upright on my head, and along all the But what a place for a human being
length of my spine I was conscious of a to be —
a girl, too, I was sure. That dain-
prickling, tingling sensation —such as my tily heart-shaped face was the face of a
girl, surely; I was seeing it clearer and
forefathers may have felt in the jungle
when the hair on their backs stood up as clearer, either because my eyes were grow-
the hair of my head was

doing now. Also, ing more accustomed to peering into the
I was afraid to move; and I knew that deeper shadows, or because of that phos-
there were eyes upon me, and that that phoresance in the eyes that stared back
was why I was afraid to move. I was at me.
afraid of those eyes —

afraid to see them,
to look into them. RAISED my voice softly, not to break
All this while, I stood perfectly still, I too much the stillness of the night.
my face uptilted toward the sky. But "Hello! who’s there? Are you lost, or
after a terrible mental effort, I mastered marooned, and can I help?’’
myself. There was a little pause. I was con-
Slowly, slowly, with an attempt to pro- scious of a soft lapping at my feet. A
pitiate the owner of the unseen eyes by stronger night wind had sprung up, was
my casual manner, I lowered my own. I ruffling the I had been over-
dark waters.
looked straight ahead — at the softly sway- warm, and where it struck me the per-
ing silhouette of the tree-tops across the spiration turned cold on my body, so that
canal as they moved gently in the cool I shivered imcontrollably.
night wind; at the mass of blackness that "You can stay —and talk awhile, if you
was those and the opposite shore; at
trees, will. I am lonely, but not lost. —
I I live
the shiny blackness where the reflections here.”
of the clouds glinted vaguely and disap- I could hardly believe my ears. The
peared, that was the canal. And again I voice was little more than a whisper, but
raised my eyes a little, for just across the it had carried clearly —a girl’s voice, sure
canal where the shadows massed most enough. And she lived there in an old, —
heavily, therewas that at which I must abandoned canal-boat, half submerged in
look more closely. And now, as I grew the stagnant water.
accustomed to the greater blackness and "You are not done there?”
a
I —
THE CANAL 511
"No, not alone. My father lives here "Not in the daytime — never in the
with me, but he is deaf —and he sleeps daytime!”
soundly.” Again the intensity of her low-toned
Did the night wind blow still colder, negation held me spellbound.
as though it came to us from some un- It was not her sense of the impropriety
seen, frozen sea —or was there something of the hour, then, that had diaated her
in her tone that chilled me, even as a manner. For surely, any girl with the
strange attraction drew me toward her? slightest sense of the fitness of things
I wanted to draw near to her, to see close- would rather have a tryst by daytime than
ly the pale, heart-shaped face, to lose my- after midnight — yet there was an infer-
self in the bright eyes that I had seen ence in her last words that if Icame again
shining in the darkness. I wanted — it should be again at night.
wanted to hold her in my arms, to find Still feeling the spell that had en-
her mouth with mine, to kiss it. . . . thralled me, as one does not forget the
With a start, I realized the nature of presence of a drug in the air that is steal-
my thoughts, and for an instant lost all ing one’s senses, even when those senses
thought in surprize. Never in my twenty- begin to wander and to busy themselves
two years had I felt love before. My with other things, I yet spoke shortly.
fancies had been otherwise direaed — "Why do you say, 'Never in the day-
moss-grown, fallen gravestone was a dear- time’? Do you mean that I may come
er thing to me to contemplate than the more than this once at night, though now
fairest face in all the world. Yet, surely, you won’t let me cross the canal to you
what I felt now was love! at the expense of my own clothes, and
I took a reckless step nearer the edge you won’t put down your plank or draw-
of the bank. bridge or whatever you come on shore
"Could I come over to you?” I begged. with, and talk to me here for only a mo-
"It’s warm, and I don’t mind a wetting. ment? I’ll come again, if you’ll let me
It’s late, I know —
but I would give a talk to you instead of calling across the
great deal to sit beside you and talk, if water. I’ll come again, any time you will
only for a few minutes before I go back let me —day or night, I don’t care. I
to town. It’s a lonely place here for a want to come to you. But I only ask you
girl like —
you to live your father should to explain. If I came in the daytime and
not mind if you exchange a few words met your father, wouldn’t that be the best
with someone occasionally.” thing to do? Then we could be really ac-
Was it the unconventionality of my re- quainted —we could be friends.”
quest that made her next words sound "In the nighttime, my father sleeps.
like a long-drawn shudder of protest? In the daytime, / sleep. How could I
’There was a strangeness in the tones of you to my father

talk to you, or introduce
her voice that held _me wondering, every then? you came on board this boat in
If
time she spoke. the daytime, you would find my father
"No, no. Oh, no! You must not swim and you would be sorry. As for me, I
across.” would be sleeping. I could never intro-
'"rhen —
could I come tomorrow, or duce you to my father, do you see?”
some day soon, in the daytime; and would "You sleep soundly, you and your fa-
you let me come on board then or would — ther.” Again there was pique in my voice.
you come on shore and talk to me, per- "Yes, we sleep soundly.”
haps?” "And always at different times?”
— 7 —
512 WEIRD TALES

"Always at diflferent times. We are on clearer vision of the girl showed me that
—
guard one of us is always on guard. We she was pitifully thin, even though pos-
have been hardly used, down there in sessed of the strange face that drew me
your city. And we have taken refuge to her. Her clothes hung around her like
here. And we are always —
always on — old rags, but hers was no scarecrow as-
guard.” pect. Although little flesh clothed her
The resentment vanished from my bones, her very bones were beautiful. I
breast,and I felt my heart go out to her was sure the little, pale, heart-shaped face
anew. She was so pale, so pitiful in the would be more beautiful still, if I could
night. My eyes were learning better and only see it closely. I must see it closely
better how to pierce the darkness; they I must establish some claim to considera-
were giving me a more definite picture tion as a friend of the strange, lonely
of my companion —
if I could think of crew of the half -sunken wreck.
her as a companion, between myself and "This
is a poor place to call a refuge,”
whom stretclied the black water. I said finally."One might have very lit-
The sadness of the lonely scene, the tlemoney, and yet do somewhat better.
perfection of the solitude itself, these Perhaps I might help you I am sure I —
things contributed to her pitifulness. Then could. If your ill-treatment in the city
there was that strangeness of atmosphere was because of poverty — I am not rich,
of which, even yet, I had only partly but I could help that. I could help you a
taken note. There was the strange, shiv- little with money, if you would let me;
ering chill, which yet did not seem like or, in any case, I could find a position
the healthful chill of a cool evening. In for you. I’m sure I could do that.”
fact, it did not prevent me from feeling
the oppression of the night, which was
imusually sultry. It was like a little breath
of deadly cold that came and went, and
T he
me
termittently lit
eyes that shone fitfully toward
two small pools of water in-
like
by a cloud-swept sky
yet did not alter the temperature of the seemed to glow more brightly. She had
air itself, as the small ripples on the sur- been half crouching, half sitting on top
face of the water do not concern the wa- of the cabin; now she leaped to her feet
ter even a foot down. with one quick, sinuous, abrupt motion,
And even that was not all. There was and took a few rapid, restless steps to and
an unwholesome smell about the night fro before she answered.
a dank, moldy smell that might have been When she spoke, her voice was little
the very breath of death and decay. Even more than a whisper; yet surely rage was
I, the connoisseur in all things dismal and in its shill sibilance.
unwholesome, tried to keep my mind from "Fool! Do you think you would be
dwelling overmuch upon that smell. helping me, to tie me to a desk, to shut
What it must be to live breathing it con- me behind doors, away from freedom,
stantly in, I could not think. But no away from the delight of doing my own
doubt the girl and her father were used will, of seeking my own way.? Never,
to it; and no doubt it came from the stag- never would I let you do that. Rather
nant water of the canal and from the rot- this old boat, rather a deserted grave xm-
ting wood of the old, half-sunken boat der the stars, for my home!”
that was their refuge. A boundless surprize swept over me,
My heart throbbed with pity again. and a positive feeling of kinship with this
Their refuge —what a place! And my strange being, whose face I had hardly
W.T.—
8
THE CANAL 51J
seen, possessed So I myself might

me. will come to you there, on the bank of
have spoken, so I had often felt, though the canal, when the water in the canal
I had never dreamed of putting my ceases to flow.”
thoughts so definitely, so forcibly. My Imust have made a gesture of impa-
regularized daytime life was a thing I tience, or of despair. It sounded like a
thought little of; I really lived only in my way of saying "never” — for why should
nocturnal prowlings. Why, this girl was the water in the canal cease to flow? She
right! All of life should be free, and read my thoughts in some way, for she
spent in places that interested and at- answered them.
traaed. "You do not understand. I am speak-
How little, how
knew, that
little I ing seriously —
I am promising to meet
night, that dread forces were tugging at you there on the bank, and soon. For the
my soul, were finding entrance to it and water within these banks is moving slow-
easy access through the morbid weakness er, always slower. Higher up, I have heard
of my nature! How little I knew at what that the canal has been drained. Between
a cost I deviated so radically from my these lower locks, the water still seeps in
kind, who herd in cities and love well-lit and drops slowly, slcTwly downstream. But
ways and the sight of man, and sweet and there will come a night when it will be
wholesome places to be solitary in, when quite, quite stagnant —
and on that night
the desire for solitude comes over them! I will come to you. And when I come, I
That night it seemed to me that there will ask of you a favor. And you will
was but one important thing in life to — keep your oath.”
allay the angry passion my unfortunate
words had aroused in the breast of my T WAS all the assurance I could get that
beloved, and to win from her some an- I night. She had come back to die side
swering feeling. of the cabin where she had sat crouched
"I understand —
much better than you before, and she resumed again that pos-
think,” I whispered tremulously. "^JtTiat ture and sat still and silent, watching me.
I want is to see you again, to come to Sometimes I could see her eyes upon me,
know you, and to serve you in any way and sometimes not. But I felt that their
that I may. Surely, there must be some- gaze was unwavering. The little cold
thing in which I can be of use to you. All breeze, which I had finally forgotten
you have to do from tonight on for ever, while I was talking with her, was blow-
is to command me. I swear it!” ing again, and the unwholesome smell of
"You swear that you do swear it?” — decay grew heavier before the dawn.
Delighted at the eagerness of her She would not speak again, nor answer
words, I lifted my hand toward the dark me when I spoke to her, and I grew nerv-
heavens. ous, and strangely ill at ease.
"I swear it. From this night on, for At last I went away. And in the first
ever — I swear it.” faint light of dawn I slipped up the stairs
"Then listen. Tonight you may not of my rooming-house, and into my own
come to me, nor I to you. I do not want room.
you to board this boat not tonight, not — I was deadly tired at the office next
any night. And most of all, not any day. day. And day after day slipped away and
But do not look so sad. I will come to I grew more and more weary; for a man
you. No, not tonight, perhaps not for can not wake day and night without suf-
many nights — ^yet before very long. I fering, especially in hot weatlier, and that
W. T.—
I
514 WEIRD TALES

was what was doing. I haunted the old
I "It was horrible, horrible! Those lit-
tow-path and waited, night after night, tle houses below the bridge, those houses
on the bank opposite the sunken boat. along the canal —
me, are they not
tell
Sometimes I saw my lady of the dark- worse than my boat.^ Life there was shut
ness, and sometimes not. When I saw in, and furtive. I was not free as I am
her, she spoke little; but sometimes she —

now and the freedom I will soon have
sat thereon the top of the cabin and let will make me forget the things I have
me till the dawn, or until the
watch her not yet forgotten. The screaming, the
strange uneasiness that was like fright reviling and cursing! Fear and flight!
drove me from her and back to my room, As you pass back by those houses, think
where I tossed restlessly in the heat and how you would like to be shut in one
dreamed strange dreams, half waking, till of them, and in fear of your life. And
the sun shone in on my forehead and I then think of them no more; for I would
tumbled into my clothes and down to the forget them, and I will never speak of
office again. them again.”
Once I asked her why she had made I dared not answer her, I was sur-
the fanciful condition that she would not prized that she had vouchsafed me so
come ashore meet me until the waters
to much. But surely her words meant this:
of the canal had ceased to run. (How that before she had come to live on the
eagerly I studied those waters! Howl stole decaying, water-rotted old boat, she had
away at noontime more than once, not to lived in one of those horrible houses I
approach the old boat, but to watch the passed by on my way to her. Those
almost imperceptible downdrift of bub- houses, each of which looked like the
bles, bits of straw, twigs, rubbish!) predestined scene of a murder!
My questioning displeased her, and I As I left her that night, I felt that I
asked her that no more. It was enough was very daring.

that she chose to be whimsical. My part "One or two nights more and you
was to wait. will walk beside me,” I called to her. "I
It was more than a week later that I have watched the water at noon, and it
questioned her again, this time on a dif- hardly moves at all. I threw a scrap of
ferent subject. And after that, I curbed paper into the canal, and it whirled and
my curiosity relentlessly. swung a little where a thin skim of oil
"Never speak me
of things you do
to lay on the water down there oil from —
not imderstand about me. Never again, the big, dirty city you are well out of.
or I will not show myself to you again. But though I watched and watched, I
And when I walk on the path yonder, could not see it move downward at all.
it will not be with you.” Perhaps tomorrow night, or the night

had asked her what form of perse-
I after,you will walk on the bank with
cution she and her father had suffered in me. I hope it will be clear and moon-
the city, that had driven them out to light, and I will be near enough to see
this lonely place, and where in the city you clearly —
as well as you seem always
they had lived. to see me in darkness or moonlight,
Frightened seriously lest I lose the equally well. And perhaps I will kiss
ground I was sure I had gained with you —but not unless you let me.”
her, I was about to speak of something And yet, the next day, for the first
else. But before I could find the words, time my thoughts were definitely trou-
her low voice came to me again. bled. I had been living in a dream —
— —
THE CANAL 515
began to speculate concerning the end to you to keep away from those houses.
is
of the path on which my feet were set. They’re unsavory, and their reputation
I had conceived, from the first, such is unsavory. Positively, I think you’d
a horror of those old houses by the canal! be in danger of your life, if you go
They were well enough to walk past, poking around there. They have been
nursing gruesome thoughts for a mid- the scene of several murders, and a dope
night treat. But, much as I loved all den or two has been cleaned out of them.
that was weird and eery about the girl Why in the world you should want to
”
I was wooing so strangely, it was a little investigate them
too much for my fancy that she had come "I don’t expea to investigate them,”
from them. I said testily. "I was merely interested
in them —from the outside. To tell you
B y THIS
unpopular in
time, I had become decidedly
my place of business.
the truth. I’d heard a story, a rumor
never mind where. But you say there
—
Not that I had made enemies, but that have been murders there I suppose this
my peculiar ways had caused too much rumor I heard may have had to do with
adverse comment. It would have taken an attempted one. There was a girl who
very little, I think, to have made the en- lived there with her father once, and
tire office force decide that I was mad. they were set upon there, or something
After the events of the next twenty-four of the sort, and had to run away. Did
hours, and after this letter is found and you ever hear that story?”
read, they will be sure that they knew it Barrett gave me an odd look such as
all along! At this time, however, they one gives in speaking of a past horror
were punctiliously polite to me, and so dreadful that the mere speaking of it
merely let me alone as much as possible makes it live terribly again.
—which suited me perfectly. I dragged "What you say reminds me of a hor-
wearily through day after day, exhaust- rible thing that was said to have hap-
ed from lack of sleep, conscious of their pened down there once,” he said. "It
speculative glances, living only for the was in all the papers. A little child dis-
night to come. appeared in one of those houses, and a
But on this day, I approached the man couple of poor lodgers who lived there,
who had invited me to the camp across a girl and her father, were accused of
the river, who had unknowingly shown having made away with it. They were
me the way that led to my love. —
accused they were accused oh, well, —
"Have you ever noticed the row of I don’t like to talk about such things.
tumble-down houses along the canal on It was too dreadful. The child’s body
the city side?” I asked him. —
was found part of it was found. It was
He gave me an odd look. I suppose mutilated, and the people in the house
he sensed the significance of my break- seemed to believe it had been mutilated
ing silence after so long to speak of them in order to conceal the manner of its
— sensed that in some way I had a deep death; there was an ugly wound in the
interest in them. throat, it finally came out, and it seemed
"You have odd tastes, Morton,” he as if the child might have been bled to
said after a moment. "I suppose you death. It was found in the girl’s room,
wander into strange places sometimes hidden away. The old man and his
I’ve heard you speak of an enthusiasm daughter escaped, before the police were
for graveyards at night. But my advice called. The countryside was scoured, but
516 WEIRD TALES
they were never found. Why, you must being the victim of an enchantment
have read it in the papers, several years stronger than my feeble will. But I
ago.” went.
I I had
nodded, with a heavy heart. I approached the neighborhood of the
read it remembered now.
in the papers, I canal-boat as the distant city clock chimed
And came
again, a terrible questioning the first stroke of twelve. It was the dark
over me. Who was this girl, what was of the moon and the sky was overcast.
this girl, who seemed to have my heart Heat-lightning flickered low in the sky,
in her keeping? seeming to come from every point of the
Why did not a merciful God let me compass and circumscribe the horizon, as
die then? if unseen fires burned behind the rim of
Befogged with exhaustion, bemused the world. By its fitful glimmer, I saw
in a dire enchantment, my mind was a new thing: between the old boat and
incapable of thought. And yet, some the canal bank stretched a long, slim,
soul-process akin to that which saves the solid-lookingshadow a plank had been —
sleepwalker poised at perilous heights let down! In that moment, I realized
sounded itswarning now. that I had been playing with powers of
My mind was filled with doleful im- evil which had no intent now to let me
ages. There were women I had heard — go, which were indeed about to lay hold
—
and read who slew to satisfy a blood- upon me with an inexorable grasp. Why
lust. There were ghosts, specters call — had I come tonight? Why, but that the
them what you will, their names have spell of the enchantment laid upon me
been legion in the dark pages of that was a thing more potent, and far more
lore which dates back to the infancy of unbreakable, than any wholesome spell
the races of the earth —who retained of love? The creature I sought out — oh,
even in death this blood-lust. Vampires I remembered now, with the cold per-
—they had been called that. I had read spiration beading my
brow, the lore hid-
of them. Corpses by day, spirits of evil den away between die covers of the dark
by night, roaming abroad in their own old book which I had read so many years
forms or in the forms of bats or unclean ago and half forgotten! — until dim mem-
beasts, killing body and soul of their vic- ories of it stirred within me, this last day
tims —
for whoever dies of the repeated and night.
"kiss” of the vampire, which leaves its My lady of the night! No woman of
mark on the throat and draws the blood wholesome and blood and odd per-
flesh
from the body, becomes a vampire also verted tastes that matchedmy own, but
— of such beings I had read. one of the undead! In that moment, I
And, horror of horrors! In that last knew it, and knew that the vampires of
cursed day at the office, I remembered old legends polluted still, in these latter
reading of these vampires these undead — days, the fair surface of the earth.
— that in their nocturnal flights they had And on the instant, behind me in the
one limitation —they could not cross run- darkness there was the crackle of a twig,
ning water. and something brushed against my arm.
This, then, was the fulfilment of my
T—
face
hat
way with
for
night I went
tears of
my weakness was
my usual nightly
weakness on my
supreme, and
dream. I knew, without turning my head,
that the pale, dainty face with
ing eyes was near my own —
its
that I
glow-
had
I recognized fully at last the misery of (Please turn to page 518)
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517
518 WEIRD TALES
(Continued from page 316) My gaze was fixed on them, while I
only to stretch out my arm to touch the held away from me the pallid face and
slender grace of the girl had so longed
I fought off the embrace that sought to
to draw near. I knew, and should have overcome my resisting will. And so a
felt the rapture I had anticipated. Instead, long moment passed. The glare faded
tlie roots of my hair prickled coldly, un- out of the sky, and a greater darkness
endurably, as they had on the night when took the world. But there was a near,
I had first sighted tlie old boat. The mias- more menacing glare fastened upon my
mic odors of the night, heavy and op- face — ^the glare of two eyes that watched
pressive with heat and unrelieved by a mine, that had watclied me as I, unthink-
breath of air, all but overcame me, and I ing, stared down at the dark houses.
fought with myself to prevent my teeth This girl — this woman who had come
clicking in my head. The little waves of to me at my own importunate requests,
coldness I had felt often in this spot were did not love me, since I had shrunk from
chasing over my body, yet they were not her. She did not love me but it was —
from any breeze; the leaves on the trees not only that. She had watched me as I
hung down motionless, as though they gazed down at the houses that held her
were actually wilting on their branches. dark past, and I was sure that she divined
With an effort, I turned my head. my thoughts. She knew my horror of
Two hands caught me around my neck. tliose houses —
she knew my new-born
The pale face was so near that I felt the horror of her. And she hated me for it,
warm breath from its nostrils fanning my hated me more malignantly than I had
cheek. believed a human being could hate.
And, suddenly, all that was wholesome And at that point in my thoughts, I
in my perverted nature rose uppermost. felt my skin prickle and my scalp rise
I longed for the touch of the red mouth, again: could a human being cherish such
like a dark flower opening before me in hatred as I read, trembling more and
the night. I —
longed for it and yet more more, in those glowing fires lit with
I dreaded it. I shrank back, catching in a what seemed to me more like the fires
powerful grip the fragile wrists of the of hell than any light that ought to shine
hands that strove to hold me. I must not in a woman’s eyes?
—I must not yield to the faintness that I And through all this, not a word had
felt stealing over me. passed between us!
I was facing down the path toward the
city. A low rumble of thunder the first — o FAR I have written calmly. I wish
— broke the torrid hush of the summer S that I could write on so, to the end.
night. A glare of lightning seemed to If I could do that, there might be one or
tear the night asunder, to light up the two of those who will regard this as the
universe.Overhead, the clouds were ca- document of a maniac, who would be-
reeringmadly in fantastic shapes, driven lieve the horrors of which I am about to
by a wind that swept the upper heavens write.
without causing even a trembling in the But I am only flesh and blood. At this
air lower down. And far down the canal, point in the happenings of the awful
that baleful glare seemed to play around night, my calmness deserted me — at this
and hover over the little row of shanties point I felt that I had been drawn into
— ^murder-cursed, and haunted by the the midst of a horrible nightmare from
ghost of a dead child. which there was no escape, no waking!
—
WEIRD TALES 519
As I write, this feeling again overwhelms

me, until I can hardly write at all un- — NEXT MONTH
til, were it not for the thing which I must
do, I would rush out into the street and

run, screaming, until I was caught and
The Decrth Cry
Craig Kennedy Story
dragged away, to be put behind strong
iron bars. Perhaps I would feel safe By Arthur B. Reeve
there —perhaps!
I know saw
that, terrified at
confronting me in those redly gleaming
the hate I
T he name of Craig Kennedy is as
well known to readers of detec-
tive stories as Sherlock Holmes. But
eyes, I would have slunk away. The two
never before have Kennedy’s great de-
thin hands that caught my arm again were
ductive powers been employed in a
strong enough to prevent that, however.
murder mystery so weird and creepy as
I had been spared her kiss, but I was not
this unusual novelette.
to escape from the oath I had taken to
serve her.
in
"You promised, you swore,” she hissed
my ear. "And tonight you are to keep
O
ly
NE after another,
Three Pines Hotel are mysterious-
murdered, almost under the sheriff’s
guests at the
your oath.” eyes. In each case a long, wailing, in-
I felt my senses reel.

had an oath to keep. I had lifted my
My oath — yes, human scream floods the hotel with
gruesome sound at the moment when
its
hand toward the dark heavens, and sworn the murder is committed. Each of the
to serve her in any way she chose. Freely, victims has two small holes in his neck
and of my own volition, I had sworn. through which the jugular vein has
I sought to evade her.

been pierced. Vampires! you will say;
but you are wrong, for the murders
"Let me help you back to your boat,”
have a perfectly natural explanation.
I begged. "You have no kindly feeling
— We challenge you to guess the solution
for me, and —
you have seen it I love
to this baffling mystery before the au-
you no longer. I will go back to the city
You will not want
—you can go back to your father, and
thor reveals it to you.
to miss this stirring novelette of un-
forget that I broke your peace.”
canny happenings. It will be published
The laughter that greeted my speech
complete in the May issue of
I shall never forget —not in the depths
under the scummy surface of the canal
not in the empty places between the
WEffiD TALES
worlds, where my tortured soul may on sale May 1st
wander. To avoid missing your copy, clip and mail this
"So you do not love me, and I hate coupon today for SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION
OFFER.
you! Fool! Have I waited these weary
months for the water to stop, only to go
WEIRD TALES
840 N. Michif^n Ave.*
Chicaero, 111.
back now.? After my father and I re- Enclosed And $1.00 for which send me the next
turned here and found the old boat rot- five issues of WEIRD TALES to begin with the
May issue ($1.75 In Canada). Special offer
ting in the drained canal, and took refuge void unless remittance isaccompanied by coupon.
in it; when the water was turned into the Name — —

canal while I slept, so that I could never Address -
City .......... State -

escape until its flow should cease, because
— — I
520 WEIRD TALES

of the thing that I am —even then I And again I walked with her against my
dreamed of tonight. will, while the trees lashed their branches
"When the imprisonment we still around me, showing the pale under-sides
shared ceased to matter to mjr father of their leaves in the vivid frequent flash-
come on board the deserted boat tomor- es that rent the heavens.
row, and see why, if you dare! still I — On and on we went, branches flying
dreamed on, of tonight! through the air and missing us by a mir-
“I have been lonely, desolate, starving acle of ill fortune. Such as she and I are
—now the whole world shall be mine! not slain by falling branches. The river
And by your help!” was a welter of whitecaps, flattened down
I asked her, somehow, what she want- into strange shapes by the pounding rain.
ed of me, and a madness overcame me The clouds as we glimpsed them were
so that I hardly heard her reply. Yet some- like devils flying through the sky.
how, I knew that there was that on the Past dark tent after dark tent we stole,
opposite shore of the great river where and past a few where lights burned dimly
the pleasure camps were, that she wanted behind their canvas walls. And at last
to find. In the madness of my terror, she we came to an old quarry. Into its arti-
made me understand and obey her. I ficial ravine she led me, and up to a crev-
must carry her in my arms across the long ice in the rock wall.
bridge over the river, deserted in the "Reach in your hand and pull out the
small hours of the night. loose stone you will feel,” she whispered.
The way back to the city was long to- "It closes an opening that leads into deep
night — long. She walked behind me, and caverns. A human hand must remove
I turned my eyes neither to right nor left. that stone — ^your hand must move it!”
Only as I passed thetumble-down hous- Why did I struggle so to disobey her.!*
es, I saw their reflection in the canal and Why did I fail? It was as though \,knew
trembled so that I could have fallen to —but my failure was foreordained —
the ground, at the thoughts of the little had taken oath!
child this woman had been accused of
slaying there, and at the certainty I felt F YOU who read have believed that I
that she was reading my thoughts. I have set down the truth thus far, the
And now the horror that engulfed me little that is left you will call the ravings
darkened my brain. of a madman overtaken by his madness.
I know that we set our feet upon the Yet these things happened.
long, wide bridge that spanned the river. I stretched out my arm, driven by a
I know the storm broke there, so that I compulsion I could not resist. At arm’s
battled for my footing, almost for my length in the niche in the rock, I felt
life, it seemed, against the pelting del- —
something move ^the loose rock, a long,
uge. And the horror I had invoked was narrow fragment, much larger than I had
in my arms, clinging to me, burying its expected. Yet it moved easily, seeming
head upon my shoulder. So increasingly to swing on a natural pivot. Outward it
dreadful had my pale-faced companion swung, toppling toward me z. moment
become to me, that I hardly thought of more and there was a swift rush of the
her now as a woman at all —only as a ponderous weight I had loosened. I
demon of the night. leaped aside and went down, my fore-

The tempest raged still as she leaped head graxed by the rock.
down out of niy arms on tire other shore. For a brief moment 1 must have beea
WEIRD TALES 521
unconscious, but only for a moment.

head a stabbing agony of pain, unreal
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equally low prices. Write today for this great
that led to the pleasure camps. time and money saving book. It’s Free!
So the caverns I
outer world were infested with bats.

had laid open to the
I
CENTRAL CAMERA CO.
Dept. Z4. 2C0 S. Wabash Ave.. Chicago.
^
111.
had been inside imlit caverns, and had

heard there the squeaking of the things,
felt and heard the flapping of
—but never in all my life
their
before had 1
wings
BRAIN MAGIC
Security is the problem of modem civilization. In solv-
ing this problem. Qovernmonts are hampered by crlmlnaL
seen bats as large as men and women! powers and public indifference ; Rallalona fail because they
deal with faith and the immaterial; Scieno* provea inade-
and dizzy from the blow on my
Sick quate since it is subservient to big business and huge cor-
porations. The only Institution in the world which pledges
itself to ameliorate the mental and financial status of its
head, and from disgust, I crept along the members Is— THE FUTURIST SOCIETY.
way they were going. If I touched one of Members of the Futurist Society are many years ahead
of their time. They know more, earn more, and live more
fully than most other groups of people. By Joining them,
them, I felt that I should die of horror. you follow an advanced trail of evolution. You learn how
to solve your money problems. In knowledge, you will sur-
Now, storm abated, and a
at last, the pass the average college graduate. Inatead of a slave, you
become a ruler of Uila planet. Write today for information,
asking about our Clearing-House ot Knowledge. A charge
heavy darkness made the whole world 25c has been established to eliminate curiosity seekers.
seem like the inside of a tomb. FUTI7BIST 80CIETT
416 FruiJcfort Ave.» Cleveland^ Ohio
Where the tents stood in a long row,
the number of the monster bats seemed
to diminish. It was as though ^horrible — LONESOME?
thought! —they were creeping into the
,
Let me arruige a romantic e<»respondeneo for
you. Find yourself a sweetheart thru Ameiica’a
tents, with their slumbering occupants. . foremost select soeial oorrespondenoe club. A frirad-
^'XJlbi....dS7shlp letter society for lonely ladles and 'genUemen.
At last I came to a lighted tent, and Members everywhere; CONFIDENTIAL rntroduetions letter;
efficient, dignified and continuous service. I have made thousands of
paused, crouching so that the dim ra- lonely people bappy^-vdiy not you? Write for FREE sealed particulars.
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diance which shone through the canvas
did not touch me in the shadows. And SPANKING
there I waited, but not for long. There
was a dark form silhouetted against the

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finely Illustrated, $2.00 ea. or 8 for
thing was again in silhouette but with — 15.00.

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(Other
stamp for illustr. bulletin on
books dealing with sexual attraction
a difference in the quality of the shadow. of the rod. State ago. occupation.
ABBFrY PRESS. Dept. T-2,
The dark thing was inside the tent now, 179 W. Washington, Chicago.
its bat wings extending across the en-
trance through which it had crept.

Lonely Hearts —
MKET
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—
We have made thousands happy why not you? Particulars
looked, the shadow changed again, im- Free. Write today.
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perceptibly, so that I could not have told

how it changed. But now it was not the PERFUME. High quality imported French ex-
shadow of a bat, but of a woman.

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card for list of 12 exquisite odors.
"The storm, the storm! I am lost, ex- JOHN HAMMER
Box 574 Terre Haute, Ind*
— — — —
522 WEIRD TALES

hausted! I crept in here, to beg for ref- gered away, but I suppose it crazed him.”
uge until the dawn!” I waited for no more. I ran away, mad-
That low, thrilling, sibilant voice — too ly, through the night and back across the
well I knew it! bridge to the city.
Within the tent I heard a murmur of — —

Next day today I boarded the sunk-
acquiescent voices. At last I began to en canal-boat. It is the abode of death
understand. no woman could have lived there only —
I knew the nature of the woman I had such an one as she. 'The old man’s corpse
carried over the river in my arms, the was there — must have died long, long
^he
woman who would not even cross the ago. The smell of death and decay on the
canal until the water should have ceased boat was dreadful.
utterly to flow. remembered books I
I Again, I felt that I understood. Back
had read Dracula other books, and — in those awful houses, she had committed
stories. I knew they were true books and the crime when first she became the thing
stories, now — I knew those horrors ex- she is. —
And he her father less sin- —
isted for me. steeped, and less accursed, attempted to
I had indeed kept my oath to the crea- destroy the evidence of her crime, and
ture of darkness — I had brought her to fled with her, but died without becoming
her kind, under her guidance. I had let like her. She had said that one of those
them loose in hordes upon the pleasure two was always on watch did he indeed —
camps. The campers were doomed —and divide her vigil on the boat? What more
through them, others. . . . fitting —the dead standing watch with the
I forgot my fear. I rushed from my undead! And no wonder that she would
hiding-place up to the tent door, and not let me board the craft of death, even
there screamed and called aloud.
I to carry her away.
"Don’t take her in don’t let her stay — And still I feel the old compulsion. I
— nor the others, that have crept into the have been spared her kiss but for a lit- —
other tents! Wake all the campers they — tle while. Yet I will not let the power of
will sleep on to their destruaion! Drive my oath draw me back, till I enter the
out the interlopers — them out quick-
drive caverns with her and creep forth in the
ly! They are not human —
no, and they form of a bat to prey upon mankind.
are not bats! Do you hear me? do you — Before that can happen, I too will die.
understand?”
I was
was strange to me.
"She is a vampire
fairly howling, in a voice that
—they are all vam-

T oday in the city I heard that a horde
of strange insects or small animals
infested the pleasure camps last night.
pires. Vampires!” Some said, with horror-bated breath, that
Inside the tent I heard a new voice. they perhaps were rats. None of them
"What can be the matter with that was seen; but in the morning nearly every
poor man?” the voice said. It was a camper had a strange, deep wound in his
woman’s, and gentle. throat. I almost laughed aloud. They
—
"Crazy somebody out of his senses, were so horrified at the idea of an army
dear,” a man’s voice answered. "Don’t of rats, creeping into the tents and biting
be frightened.” the sleeping occupants on their throats!
And then the voice I knew so well If they had seen what I saw if they —
so well: "I saw a falling rock strike a knew that they are doomed to spread cor-
man on the head in the storm. He stag- ruption
—
WEIRD TALES 523
So my own death will not be enough.

Today I bought supplies for blasting. To-
night I will set my train of dynamite,
from the hole I made in the cliff where
the vampires creep in and out, along the
row of tents, as far as the lilt one
From a Thousand Fathoms Dêp
then I shall light my fuse. It will be
done before the dawn. Tomorrow, the The Secret Knowledge

city will mourn its dead and execrate my
of Q Lost Race
name. Choked info stillness by the risipg waters were the
words of wisdom of a vast forgotten people. Majestic
And then, at last, in the slime beneath structures once stood where now is naught but the
the unmoving waters of the canal, I shall ocean's roar. By what mysterious means did the sur>
vivors reach Egypt's shore? What magnificent wisdom
find peace! But perhaps it will not be did they bring as their heritage?
peace — for I shall seek it midway be- 6efore*<ieath sealed their lips they imparted to te«
cret Brotherhoods their knowledge. The Pyramid
tween the old boat with its cargo of death stands as silent testimony to their greatness. There
began the schools of secret wisdom; the traditions of
and the row of dismal houses where a lit- this knowledge have come down the ages as a guide
tle child was done to death when first she for those who seek happiness and mastery of life. For
centuries the Rosicrucians have searched out and per*
became the thing she is. That is my ex- .petuated this store of fascinating truths.
piation. This Sealed Book Loaned to You

If you are willing to study and apply unusual knowU
edge, a Sealed Book will be loaned you without cost,

revealing how you may acquire these secret teach*
Coming soon— ings. Write to Scribe F. S. B.
A weird and startling story about \Kosicrucians

‘AMORC*
Northwest Smith. SAN JOSE. CALIFORNIA.'
THE COLD GRAY GOD NOW YOU CAN HAVE A NEW SKIN
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By C. L. Moore
•
Hiis is one of the eeriest and strangest
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learn that what was considered impossible before—the
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It Is all explained in a new treatise called
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— —
W
Fantasy Fan
E ARE
from the
zines
current issues to
—
gratified indeed to learn
editors of two fan maga-
Fantasy Magazine and I'he
that they are dedicating their
Weird Tales. These two
my own satisfaction. By best stories, I
the finest stories in their respective field, in-
cluding originality of plot, story interest, sus-
pense, aaion, and so forth; in faa, every-
thing that helps to make a masterpiece. They
mean
littlemagazines serve as mediums in which are as follows: the best ghost story was The
lovers of fantastic and weird fiction exchange Ghosts of Steamboat Coulee by Arthur J.
views. The Fantasy Fan is edited by Charles Burks (May 1926) the strangest and most
;
D. Hornig, and Fantasy Magazine (formerly outre story, that vivid masterpiece. The Out-
called Science Fiction Digest) is edited by sider by H. P. Lovecraft (April 1926) the ;
Julius Schwartz. Editor Schwartz informs us best spider story was Spider-Bite by Robert
that a free copy of Fantasy Magazine will be S. Carr the best werewolf
(June 1926) ;
mailed to any reader of Weird Tales who story. The Phantom Farmhouse by Seabury
sends in a post card requesting it. Address Quinn (Oct. 1923) the best witchcraft
;
your post card to Fantasy Magazine, in care story. The Supreme Witch by G. Appleby
of Weird Tales; and your request will be
immediately forwarded to Mr. Schwartz.
Terrill (Oa. 1926) —
this was recently re-
published. Yourvoodoo story was Black
best
Medicine by Arthur J. Burks (Aug. 1925)
A Bathroom Gallery of Art the best Aztec sacrifice tale, Teoquitla the
;
Alden Moras, of Long Beach, California, Golden by Ramon de las Cuevas (Nov.
writes to the Eyrie: "I wish to commend you 1924) the best science-fiction story. When
;
on your very interesting magazine. 1 have the Green Star Waned by Nictzin Dyalhis
been reading it for about six years, and have (April 1925) the most different story. The
;
never been bored by it. The outstanding Woman of the Wood by A. Merritt (Aug.
story in all this time was C. L. Moore’s 1926) ;
the best devil-worship story. The
Sbambleau. None of his other tales have Stranger From Kurdistan by E. Hoffmann
equaled this. Please give us more of Doctor Price (July 1925) ; and the finest oriental
de Grandin. His mysticism is interesting, story. The Wind that Tramps the World by
and also true to fact in ancient religions Frank Owen (April 1925). The best torture
I have traced some of it back to find out. story was The Oldest Story in the World by
Please do not discontinue Brundage’s nude Murray Leinster (Aug. 1925) the finest ;
covers. They may stir up controversies, but atavistic tale of ancestral throwback. The
they are beautiful and weird. 1 have made Rats in the Walls by H. P. Lovecraft (March
a gallery of them on our bathroom walls.” 1924) ;
The Canal by
the best vampire story.
Everil Worrell and the best
(Dec. 1927) ;
Our Fifteen Best Stories necrophilic story was The Loved Dead by C.
Charles H. Bert, of Philadelphia, writes: M. Eddy, Jr. (May 1924). The most recent
"In the February Weird Tales, B. M. Reyn- masterpieces are Shambleau, They Called Him
olds of North Adams, Massachusetts, wants Ghost, and The House of the Worm. The
to know which are the twelve best stories best stories in the February issue are, in order
you’ve published. I have made a list of the of merit.The Fireplace by Whitehead and
fifteen best, and answered that question to The Body-Masters by Long,”
524
. »
WEIRD TALES 525
A List of Twelve
Henry Hasse, of Indianapolis, writes:
was glad to see the new interior artists
"I
in
DANCE!
Home Study Courses
the February issue. Napoli especially is good. tap — NO VKX.TT
I hope you continue to use him, but don’t DANCES. Beginners Waltz and
discontinue Rankin, either. B. M. Reynolds

—
Foxtrot $1.00. Also Hesitation,
Canter, and Finale Hop WiUtze«;
Intermediate, syncopated and Fi-
made a good suggestion, that of a vote on nale Hop Foxtrots. Novelty Ball-
the twelve best stories to be used as reprints. r«>om dances; Rumba, Tango,
Continental. Carioea and La Cu-
In submitting my twelve reprint seleaions, characha; 60c each. ENTIRE
SET (13 dances) for $4.00.
I have chosen no stories this side of 1928; I
have chosen only such stories as are of proper
length to be reprinted I have chosen stories
Tap and Novelty Dances
;
Beg. Tap; Adv. Tap; Soft Shoe; Waltz Clog; Mili-
that represent a miscellany of themes; in tary Tap; Kussian Solo; Gypsy Solo; $1.00 each;
4 for $3.00. Time-step 10c. Send for List
short, I have given much thought to the
THE KINSELLA ACADFÎT
selection of these twelve stories. Not all of S536 (May St. Cincinnati, Ohio
them are my own prime favorites, but each
of them is weird, and written with literary
polish no science-fiction stories among them.
;
BOOKS on
I submit these twelve choice stories, 1923 to (ORPORfiL punisHmenT
1928: March 1923: Hark! The Rattle! by
Joel Townsley Rogers (the particular style
in which this story is written is a delight)
April 1923: The Parlor Cemetery by C. E.
Howard (humor! WT could do well with a
little). April 1923: A Square of Canvas by Remarkable stories of Whippings inflicted on both
•exes, disclosing the strange grip the Rod has had on
Anthony Rud (as a study of a madman this men and women since the beginning of Time.
f »
story has never been surpassed; tremendous Also many other curious and absorbing voluihei
on strange amatory customs coid practices,—>uni^ridged,.
climax). May 1923: Feline by Bruce Grant pcivotely priided and unusually illustrated.
(a whimsical storiette). January 1924: The
^ ^
OiXISTRATQ) booklet, hondbomoty prlntad dMOtbtne those
volumee in great dolali, sent free in M<ded envelope lo reaponsible
Picture in the House by Lovecraft (I have adults ooly. Send statop. State aga Posloarda igncK^
often wondered why you reprinted so many THB QARaOYLC PRESS

Dept. FC, 70 Fifth Av#., New Verk
of Lovecraft’s and negleaed this one, which
is absolutely the best horror story H. P. L.
ever penned). November 1924: The Desert ^ Qrow Mushrooms la your
or shed. Exclusive now lUggcr,
process.
cellar
better,
^
Lich by Frank B. Long, Jr. (why not?). Quickercrops. More money for you Enormous^ 1
new demand. Write for Free Book. Amerieas

November 1925: Lukundoo by Edward Mushroom InduttrieSiDept. 1S2, Toronto, Ont.i
Lucas White (you know tliis one) February .

WE PURCHASE ATX INDIANHKAD PENNIES
1926: The Kidnaper’s Story by Walter G. Price range 6c—-$85
Send 10c for purchasing catalogue.
Detrick (read this one again before deciding PHOTOCKNT, 100 Forsyth Street, New York
on it) November 1926: The Ode to Pegasus
.
by Maria Moravsky (a dream tale) Decem- . CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS

ber 1927: The Canal by Everil Worrell (I SMALL ADS WORTH WATCHING
think you promised this). March 1928: The
Photo Finishing
Eighth Green Man by G. G. Pendarves
FILMS DEVELOPED, ANY SIZE, 2r>c COIN, In-
(other readers have asked for this). April cluding two enlargements. Century Photo Service,
1928: The Chafn by H. Warner Munn; and Box 829, LaCrossc, Wisconsin.
December 1928: The Copper Bowl by EIGHT GUARANTEED PRINTS AND TWO PRO-
fessional double weight enlargements. 25c. Perfect
George Fielding Eliot (use either one of Film Servee, LaOrosso, Wis.
these as the best torture story) I think the
.
2
Psychism
above stories represent everything the readers
expea in a weird tale. You are still printing KNOW YOUR FUTURE, 34 years medlumship,
certified. Send birthdate. Reading and six ques-
excellent stories. In 1947 I will again send tions $1. Marie, 4f»l Fayette. Hammond, Indiana.
you a list of twelve stories for reprints, and
Songwriters
three will be from 1934. (None yet from
WRITERS FORMS, MELODIES. AMAZING
193 Vin the single issue I have read) For a
t
.
offer. Hibbeler, D-156. 2167 North Avers, Chicago.
— —
526 WEmD TALES

long time have wondered about W. C.
I scarcely aword about it in the Eyrie! Oh,
Morrow. You have reprinted four of his well,maybe it is just a matter of opinion.
stories. Where did they come from.? Mor- And the other thing I have in mind is a
row didn’t appear originally in WT, and I poem, the equal of which has not been seen
had never heard of him until I saw these in WT since Clark Ashton Smith’s The
WT reprints. I have been unable to find any Saturnienne. I mean the gripping contri-
more of his stories in the libraries. Has W. bution by Robert Nelson, Sable Revery. I
C. Morrow written other weird tales ? If so, don’t remember ever seeing his name before
by all means reprint them all, interspersing in WT, but if all his work is like Sable
them with the other reprints.” [The late W. Revery I hope he becomes a regular con-
C. Morrow was a Superior Court judge in tributor. Candles, by Dorothy Quick, was
San Francisco. He wrote many stories, which another fine piece of verse. It was most un-
appeared in The Argonaut and other publi- usual —
a sordid theme obscured by a veil of
cations. Some of these were weird stories, exquisite pastel word-painting. Can it be
but not all of them. A number of his stories that the readers of WT
are unappreciative
were collected into a volume, now out of of such excellence.? I hope not. I hate to
The Ape, the Idiot, and Other
print, entitled imagine I am
the only one who enjoyed
People ^The Editor.]
.
Nelson’s and Miss Quick’s efforts.”
Are Our Covers Too Sexy? Mysterious Atmosphere Lost

Jack Darrow, of Chicago, writes: "Just a Paul Brown of Washington, D. C., writes:
word about the covers. First let me repeat "I have been a constant reader of Weird
so long as the covers are weird I don’t care Tales for a long time, and I have always
if the females are clad or unclad. I believe enjoyed the fine and unusual stories in it.
that the cover scenes should be picked be- For the past few issues, however, I have
cause they are weird. In looking bade over noticed something incomplete in the maga-
Weird Tales for a year and a half I have zine; and it was not until a few days ago by
come to the conclusion that the covers are looking at some back issues that I discovered
not picked because they are weird, but be- what was missing. As I turned the pages to
cause the scene happens to have a nude or a the table of contents for July 1928, I noticed
near nude in it. In other words, you are a strange and peculiar man and a funny,
trying to attractnew readers with nudes and weird little woman with a monkey on her
sexy covers, fooling the buyer into believing back standing under the moon. few more A
that it is an entirely different magazine from pages and the title. The Witches’ Sabbath, in
what it really is. ('These may be harsh letters that appeared drawn rather than
statements, but they are made only after care- printed, and underneath a misty, exotic illus-
ful research and are meant only as construc- tration by Hugh Rankin imparted a ‘spooky’
tive criticism.) This policy will not bring air. ’Then I looked at the February 1935
new permanent readers. Only those who are issue. None of those delightful little touches
attracted to the covers because they are weird were there. 'The illustrations were bold,
are likely to become new [Believe
readers.” harsh outline, and had none of that vague,
it or not, there is not a woman on the cover intangible feeling of the Rankin drawings;
of this issue, and there will not be one on and the titles were stiff, unromantic type.
next month’s cover either. ^The Editor.] ’The magazine had somehow lost some of the
mysterious atmosphere that it once had. 'The
About Our Poetry stories still retain the same standard of
Edmond L. Beaird, of St. Louis, writes: excellence, but I think Weird Tales has
"It seems to me that in the hubbub about somehow lost that little extra touch that puts
interplanetary stories, and nudes on the cov- one in the proper mood for its particular
ers, a lot of literary gems of smaller caliber
type of literature.”
than the majority of the stories printed by
WT are being overlooked. I refer to a clas- About Our Artists
sic short story by Mary E. Counselman, Dwight A. Boyce, of Ludlow, Massachu-
The Three Marked Pennies. That was one setts, writes: "Congratulations, Weird
of the most perfea, enthralling ‘shorts’ it Tales, on your new illustrator. The facile
has ever been my good fortune to read, and pen technique of Napoli is a joy to the eye
—
WEIRD TALES 527 ,
and is ahead of the general run of art-

far
work appearing in any other fantasy maga-
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS
zine. The artist who did the drawing for
SMALL ADS WORTH WAXailNG
Frank Belknap Long’s story deserves praise Back Copies Wanted
too; his work shows a clean clear-cut style
WHili PA'V $1 EACH FOK 1933>4-5 WKIKD
that reproduces well. [’This artist is Rodney TALJSS. Charles Bert, 646 North Fifth, Philadel-
phia, Pa.
McCord Ruth, of Chicago. The Editor.}
Incidentally, how about a credit line for your Business Opportunities
artists? They merit whatever attention they
SFXL BY MAH,: BOOKS, NOVRLTIKS! BAR-
can get. I was somewhat disappointed in grains! Big
profits! Particulars Free! K. ELFCO,
625 South Dearborn, Chicago.
Hammond’s illustration for Paul Ernst’s
story. Ernst’s description of the monster-god !
lliSAl. OPFOKTUNITY. COLLECT $10-$35 DAIl.Y
in the pool was depicted in vivid detail the — i
from your mall. Guaranteed proven plan 26r. Ed-
ward Williamson, Box 66-C, Sweetser, Indiana.
ten-foot curved 'parrot beak’ the great, dead,
; I
Female Help Wanted

expressionless, coldly ferocious disks of eyes
the two-foot hawsers of gristle that are the
; j
LADIES: WB WANT NBEDLEWOKKRRS. Good

|
pay. No canvassing. Stamped envelope brings par-
tentacles, the leprous and oily sheen to the ticulars. ROYAL NOVELTY CO., Portsmouth, Ohio.
sac, twenty feet in diameter. Hammond’s
Instruction
conception, I feel, was rather anemic. And
why, for Pete’s sake, did he draw the three CUSTOMS, CLRRKS, STKN08. Join CIVIL SERV-
ICE. Good pay, easy work. Get out of the rut.
men in the nude, when Ernst states that Take our complete course of Instnudion, coaching,
examinations. One dollar. Box 2, 24 West 20
Ticknor, hoping to destroy the monster, Street. New York City.
'fumbled swiftly in his pocket, drew out a
HYPNOTISM. Learn to liypoioiize in ten easy les-
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it on his dripping coat-sleeve’? And again, instruction. Box 2, 24 West 20 Street. New York
City.
after the tussle with the overgrown octopus,
'We took off our tattered, ripped coats, and \
Outdoor Work
our shoes.’ Hammond draws the human fig-
WANTED—^NAMES OF (MEN desiring steady out-
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;
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Personal
rather ridiculous, v » Perhaps I am too
.
critical of my fellow artists. But I do de- LOVE—IT’S MAGIC! SEEK THE SECRET OF
love control? the power to make others love you?
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you to greater power, more lure. Send 10c for
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while I am in a critical mood, can’t we have er happiness. Gardin Co., Dept. 3380, Box 352,
G. C. A., New York.
some weird covers? This steady diet of seduc-
tive females is rather ill-balanced fare. Mrs.
LONESOME! Get 150 Descriptions people wishing
marriage. Many wealthy. For lOo and Stamp. W.
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fine sense of design; her January cover was WOULD YOU MABRY IF SUITED? Write me for
free descriptions of lonely people wishing marriage.
excellent. But a course in anatomy drawing
Many wealthy. Box 370, St. Louis, Missouri.
seems to be indicated, for the Brundage fig-
YOU WANT AN AFFECTIONATE, ROMANTIC
ures are not always well proportioned —too IF
sweetheart with money,
446-W, Rolla, Missouri.
write: Mary Lee, Box
much in one place, and not enough in
another, etc. And I heartily agree with the LONESOME—BOOK OF PHOTOS AND DESCRIP-
tions of wealthy members sent free in plain wrap-
contributor to the Eyrie who wished for a per. The Exchange, AE-3827 Main, Kansas City. Mo.
'sad-looking spook, sitting on the edge of an
“BOOK OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE** Tells
empty grave’, for a change. While Mrs. All. First time In print. (Adults only.) Price
Brundage is busy taking her anatomy course, &
$1.00. Jones Jones, Chambersburg, Pa.
sandwich in a few spooks, ghouls, vampires, Photo Finishing

exotic monsters and grinning skulls, will TWO PROFESSIONAL DOUBLE WEIGHT EN-
you?” largements and eight guaranteed prints. 26c. Mays
Photo Shop. LaCrosse, Wis.
False Prophets?
Poems Wanted
Ernest M. Smola, of New York City,
writes: "Sad story, mates, sad. No raspberry WE PLACE ON COMMISSION. POEM PLACE-
D. Springdale, W. Va.
, —
528 WEIRD TALES

owing to the excellent general
to the editor, Robert E. Howard was excellent. It had a
tenor of WT. However, the Body-Masters good background and was very interesting.
tale of your February issue is decidedly out It held you in suspense all through the story,
—
of place what with insipid glandular be- and ended well. Murder in the Grave
. . .
haviorism, absurdly piaured surgery (ir- by Edmond Hamilton was something new in
reparably slicing off a piece of any gland stories. It had a very good plot and was very
alleged to funaion to excess), and robots thrilling. ’The second part of Paul Ernst’s
that haven’t got a leg to stand on. can’t Why scientific story. Rulers of the Future, is a
man’s true make-
futuristic writers ascertain masterpiece, and I can hardly wait until the
up first (a study of theosophy will do in a third and last installment
is published. By
pinch, as merely one source of information) the way, is Seabury Quinn his right name?”
or else read Francis Bacon’s last manuscript. [Yes, Seabury Quinn is the real name of a
—
The New Atlantis there is a story for you real person. When Mr. Quinn first wrote
and a prophecy. Meantime, how could you, magazine stories he used his full name, Sea-
Mr. Editor, how could you humor false bury Grandin Quinn. It was his middle
prophets?” name that suggested the character of Jules de
The February Cover Grandin to him. Mr. Quinn is a descendant
Doaor LeRoy C. Bashore, of Lebanon, of the first Anglican bishop in the colonies.
Pennsylvania, wrires: "How rapidly Weird Bishop Seabury, for whom he was named.
Tales has taken the lead in its field! 'The The Editor.]
February issue is superb, and I enjoyed it
)
immensely. The cover painting is magnif-
Your Favorite Story
icent. It shows up very well, the nudes look Readers, what is your favorite story in this
as if they were alive. Mrs. Brundage knows issue of Weird Tales? Write a letter to the
her stuff. Her cover paintings are O. K. and Eyrie, or out the coupon on this page
fill
should not be objected to. Keep her, by all and send it to us. This will help us to
means. The Web of Living Death, by your know the type of stories that you want to
great author, Seabury Quinn, was very good. see in the magazine. Your votes for the most
. . “Ilie story had both a splendid beginning
.
popular story in the February issue were
and a splendid ending. It was well written, divided between The Web of Living Death
and very interesting. ’This story takes first by Seabury Quinn, and part 2 of Paul Ernst’s
place, in my opinion. The Grisly Horror by weird-scientific story. Rulers of the Future.
(1)
MY FAVORITE STORIES IN THE APRIL WEIRD TALES ARE:

Story Remarks
(
1)
(
2)
( 3)
I do not like the foUowing stories:
Why?
(
2
r
It will help us to know what kind of I Reader’s name and address:
stories you want in Weird Tales if you I
j
will fill out this coupon and mail it to
The Eyrie, Weird Tales, 840 N. Michigan
Ave., Chicago, III. 1
W T _8
COMING NEXT MONTH
N o SOUND came from the black woods,
Balthus no longer heard the drums.
invisible
They had been
blinking, unconsciously trying to see through the deep gloom.
smells of the river and the damp forest oppressed him.
beyond the overhanging bushes.
silent for hours.
Somewhere, near
The dank
by, there
He kept
night-
was a
sound as if a big fish had flopped and splashed the water. Balthus thought it must have
leaped so close to the canoe that it had struck the side, for a slight quiver vibrated the
craft. The boat’s stern began to swing slightly away from the shore. The man behind
him must have let go of the projection he was gripping. Balthus twisted his head to hiss
a warning, and could just make out the figure of his companion, a slightly blacker bu'k in
the blackness.
The man did not reply. Wondering if he had fallen asleep, Balthus reached out and
grasped his shoulder. To his amazement, the man crumpled under his touch and slumped
down in the canoe. Twisting his body half about, Balthus groped for him, his heart shoot-
—
ing into his throat. His fumbling fingers slid over the man’s throat only the youth’s con-
vulsive clenching of his jaws choked back that cry that rose to his lips. His fingers en-
—
countered a gaping, oozing wound his companion’s throat had been cut from ear to ear.
In that instant of horror and panic Balthus started up —
and then a muscular arm out
of the darkness locked fiercely about his throat, strangling his yell. The canoe rocked
wildly. Balthus’ knife was in his hand, though he did not remember jerking it out of his
boot, and he stabbed fiercely and blindly. He felt the blade sink deep, and a fiendish yell
rang in his ear, a yell that was horribly answered. The darkness seemed to come to life
about him. A bestial clamor rose on all sides, and other arms grappled him. Borne under
a mass of hurtling bodies the canoe rolled sidewise, but before he went under with it,
something cracked against Balthus’ head and the night was briefly illuminated by a blind-
ing burst of fire before it gave way to a blackness where not even stars shone. . . .
This thrilling weird saga of terrific adventures and dark magic will begin in next
month’s Weird Tales:
BEYOND THE BLACK RIVER

By ROBERT E. HOWARD
—Also—
THE DEATH CRY YELLOW DOOM
By Arthur B. Reeve By Robert H. Leitfred
A sensational weird detective murder-mystery, fea- A breath-taking thrill-tale of the final conflict be-
turing Craig Kennedy. Never before have Ken- tween the U. S. A. and the teeming hordes of
nedy’s great deductive powers been employed in a —
Asia a tale of the year 2000, of red death high
murder mystery so weird and creepy as this unus- in the air, of destruction raining out of the sky,
ual novelette. of crimson ruin fought by super-science.
THE FLOWER- WOMAN THE BRONZE CASKET

By Clark Ashton Smith By Richard H. Hart
A bizarre fantasy, about a race of vampiric flowers A strange tale of the Wandering Jew, and the
and an alien sorcerer on a far world warmed by weird experiences of an American art student who
three suns. was stranded in Paris.
May Weird Tales . . . Out May 1

A Mysterious Message from
the Ether!
“To All Mankind:
"I am
the dictator of human destiny. Through control of the earth's inter*
nal forces am master of every existing thing. I can blot out all life— destroy
I
the globe itself, it is my intention to abolish all present governments and

make myself emperor of the earth.
"Communicate this to the various governments of the earth:
"As a preliminary to the establishment of my sole rule throughout the
world, the following demands must be complied with:
"First: All standing armies shall be disbanded, and every implement of
warfare, of whatsoever nature, destroyed.
"Second: All war vessels shall be assembled those — of the Atlantic fleets
midway between New York and Gibraltar, those of the Pacific fleets midway
l;>ntween San Francisco and Honolulu and sunk. —
"Third: One-half of all the monetary gold supply of the world shall be col-
lected and turned over to my agents at places to be announced later.
"Fourth: At noon on the third day after the foregoing demands hove been
complied with, all existing governments shall resign and surrender their pow-
ers to my agents, who will be on hand to receive them.
"In my next communication I will fix the date for the fulfillment of these
demands.
"The alternative is the destruction of the globe.
"KWO"
Who was this mysterious "KWO,” and was his message actually a momentous
declaration to the human race, or merely a hoax perpetrated by some person with an
over-vivid imagination?
Newspapers and scientific journals began to speculate upon the matter, advancing
all manner of theories to account for this strange summons. In Europe, as well as in
America, vast throngs of excited people filled the streets in front of the newspaper
offices, watching the bulletin boards for further developments. Was this really the
beginning of the dissolution of our planetl Read The Moon Terror.
For a limited time, the publishers of
FREE WEIRD TALES

away with each
are giving this
six
tion to the magazine.

book
months’ subscrip-
Simply send
BOOK $1.50, the regular six months’ sub-

scription price for WEIRD TALES,
and this book will be sent to you without further cost.
Address:
WEIRD TALES
Dept. S-57 840 N. Michigan Ave. Chicago, III.

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m

cAtcA Gentury ofProgress

” nCrPI QUALITY AND

Branches in all principal cities Distributors all over the world

registered in U.&^»VrENT OFFICE — .-.

[ volume 25 CONTENTS FOR APRIL, 1935 Number 4"|

Cover Design M. Brundage

The Hand of the O’Mecca Howard Wandrei 425

Dear Ghosts Clarence Edwin Flynn 447

The Aztec Ring John Flanders 496

WEIRD TALES ISSUED Ist OF EACH MONTH

H, I GUESS it does sound weird, tache. It sounded unutterably strange,

was called Harry Freest. incredible narratives — to whom fantastic

I nodded acquiescence, watching his stories are everyday commonplaces. Yes,

THE MAN WHO WAS TWO MEN 403

overshadowed all others I had ever heard.

404 iWEIRD TALES

it can not fail —

THE MAN WHO WAS TWO MEN 405

problem — to itsyou wish?

ceeded in tr^smirting an inanimate ob-

was only the beginning. Day after

dear sir, I knew that the unfolding saolls Freest.

roformed guinea-pig into its component integrating those selfsame vibrations in

A GLIMMER of uneasy suspicion was

406 WEIRD TALES

twisted itself from its sleeve to bare three

Theresa had plunged her feline finger-

lars?” asked Freest hopefully, raising his

"Exaaly. what I was coming to.

tributions of mine in the field of true-color ment in expressing yourself so unselfishly

—worldly recognition of my scientific en- ence, my dear sir!”

Freest reluctantly allowed himself to Freest marveled at the dexterous man-

"Why, of course, I —I’m in favor of

"No, no, my dear Mr. Freest. To put

my meaning in more precise words: just

of his voice is changed to some kind of

they travel down it to the receiving-set,

"But first, my friend,” the semaphoric which matter is built.”

dle of hazy pulsations, reminding Harry

bowl. "Exactly. What happens now, you

410 fWEIRD TALES

T he receiving-bowl, as far as Freest

THE MAN WHO WAS TWO MEN 411

412 WEIRD TALES

scientist’s inquiry about his readiness to soon be at the thing.”

lain your mouth

W ITH the drone of dynamos throb-

light swirled hungrily over him than the rotund genius.

"Who are you?” the same time. It’s not right!”

"Well, you are not actually one

see, in order to transmit your component the experiences of the other.”

THE MAN WHO WAS TWO MEN 417

but a mere entanglement of names that respects,” confirmed Freest Two.

THE MAN WHO WAS TWO MEN 419

"Two grand^ —or else,” gritted a Freest mean — —who

haughtily, indicating by his supple use of A

" ^know my wife!” completed

The unthinkable impasse was growing form of a raveling coil of rubber-coated

O F COURSE the absconding