The Moon Pool....................................................................................................................................................1

A. Merritt................................................................................................................................................1

The publication of the following narrative of Dr. Walter T. Goodwin has been authorized by the Executive

To end officially what is beginning to be called the Throckmartin Mystery and to kill the innuendo and

scandalous suspicions which have threatened to stain the reputations of Dr. David Throckmartin, his youthful

wife, and equally youthful associate Dr. Charles Stanton ever since a tardy despatch from Melbourne,

Australia, reported the disappearance of the first from a ship sailing to that port, and the subsequent reports of

the disappearance of his wife and associate from the camp of their expedition in the Caroline Islands.

Because the Executive Council have concluded that Dr. Goodwin's experiences in his wholly heroic effort to

save the three, and the lessons and warnings within those experiences, are too important to humanity as a

whole to be hidden away in scientific papers understandable only to the technically educated; or to be

presented through the newspaper press in the abridged and fragmentary form which the space limitations of

For these reasons the Executive Council commissioned Mr. A. Merritt to transcribe into form to be readily

understood by the layman the stenographic notes of Dr. Goodwin' s own report to the Council, supplemented

by further oral reminiscences and comments by Dr. Goodwin; this transcription, edited and censored by the

Himself a member of the Council, Dr. Walter T. Goodwin, Ph.D., F.R.G.S. etc., is without cavil the foremost

of American botanists, an observer of international reputation and the author of several epochal treaties upon

his chosen branch of science. His story, amazing in the best sense of that word as it may be, is fully supported

by proofs brought forward by him and accepted by the organization of which I have the honor to be president.

What matter has been elided from this popular presentation because of the excessively menacing

potentialities it contains, which unrestricted dissemination might developwill be dealt with in purely

FOR two months I had been on the d'Entrecasteaux Islands gathering data for the concluding chapters of my

book upon the flora of the volcanic islands of the South Pacific. The day before I had reached Port Moresby

and had seen my specimens safely stored on board the Southern Queen. As I sat on the upper deck I thought,

with homesick mind, of the long leagues between me and Melbourne, and the longer ones between

It was one of Papua's yellow mornings when she shows herself in her sombrest, most baleful mood. The sky

was smouldering ochre. Over the island brooded a spirit sullen, alien, implacable, filled with the threat of

latent, malefic forces waiting to be unleashed. It seemed an emanation out of the untamed, sinister heart of

Papua herselfsinister even when she smiles. And now and then, on the wind, came a breath from virgin

It is on such mornings that Papua whispers to you of her immemorial ancientness and of her power. And, as

every white man must, I fought against her spell. While I struggled I saw a tall figure striding down the pier;

a KapaKapa boy followed swinging a new valise. There was something familiar about the tall man. As he

reached the gangplank he looked up straight into my eyes, stared for a moment, then waved his hand.

And now I knew him. It was Dr. David Throckmartin "Throck" he was to me always, one of my oldest

friends and, as well, a mind of the first water whose power and achievements were for me a constant

Coincidentally with my recognition came a shock of surprise, definitelyunpleasant. It was

Throckmartinbut about him was something disturbingly unlike the man I had known long so well and to

whom and to whose little party I had bidden farewell less than a month before I myself had sailed for these

seas. He had married only a few weeks before, Edith, the daughter of Professor William Frazier, younger by

at least a decade than he but at one with him in his ideals and as much in love, if it were possible, as

Throckmartin. By virtue of her father's training a wonderful assistant, by virtue of her own sweet, sound heart

aI use the word in its olden senselover. With his equally youthful associate Dr. Charles Stanton and a

Swedish woman, Thora Halversen, who had been Edith Throckmartin' s nurse from babyhood, they had set

forth for the NanMatal, that extraordinary group of island ruins clustered along the eastern shore of Ponape

I knew that he had planned to spend at least a year among these ruins, not only of Ponape but of Leletwin

centres of a colossal riddle of humanity, a weird flower of civilization that blossomed ages before the seeds of

Egypt were sown; of whose arts we know little enough and of whose science nothing. He had carried with

him unusually complete equipment for the work he had expected to do and which, he hoped, would be his

What then had brought Throckmartin to Port Moresby, and what was that change I had sensed in him?

Hurrying down to the lower deck I found him with the purser. As I spoke he turned, thrust out to me an eager

handand then I saw what was that difference that had so moved me. He knew, of course by my silence and

involuntary shrinking the shock my closer look had given me. His eyes filled; he turned brusquely from the

"'E looks rather queereh?" said the purser. "Know 'im well, sir? Seems to 'ave given you quite a start."

I made some reply and went slowly up to my chair. There I sat, composed my mind and tried to define what it

was that had shaken me so. Now it came to me. The old Throckmartin was on the eve of his venture just

turned forty, lithe, erect, muscular; his controlling expression one of enthusiasm, of intellectual keenness,

ofwhat shall I say expectant search. His always questioning brain had stamped its vigor upon his face.

But the Throckmartin I had seen below was one who had borne some scaring shock of mingled rapture and

horror; some soul cataclysm that in its climax had remoulded, deep from within, his face, setting on it seal of

wedded ecstasy and despair; as though indeed these two had come to him hand in hand, taken possession of

Yesit was that which appalled. For how could rapture and horror, Heaven and Hell mix, clasp

Deep in thought, subconsciously with relief, I watched the shore line sink behind; welcomed the touch of the

wind of the free seas. I had hoped, and within the hope was an inexplicable shrinking that I would meet

Throckmartin at lunch. He did not come down, and I was sensible of deliverance within my disappointment.

All that afternoon I lounged about uneasily but still he kept to his cabinand within me was no strength to

Dusk and night fell swiftly. I was warm and went back to my deckchair. The Southern Queen was rolling to

Over the heavens was a canopy of cloud, glowing faintly and testifying to the moon riding behind it. There

was much phosphorescence. Fitfully before the ship and at her sides arose those stranger little swirls of mist

that swirl up from the Southern Ocean like breath of sea monsters, whirl for an instant and disappear.

Suddenly the deck door opened and through it came Throckmartin. He paused uncertainly, looked up at the

sky with a curiously eager, intent gaze, hesitated, then closed the door behind him.

"Throck," I said, wasting no time in preliminaries. "What's wrong? Can I help you?"

"I'm going to Melbourne, Goodwin," he answered. "I need a few thingsneed them urgently. And more

He stopped abruptly; rose from his chair, gazed intently toward the north. I followed his gaze. Far, far away

the moon had broken through the clouds. Almost on the horizon, you could see the faint luminescence of it

upon the smooth sea. The distant patch of light quivered and shook. The clouds thickened again and it was

Throckmartin dropped into his chair. He lighted a cigarette with a hand that trembled; then turned to me with

"Goodwin," he said. "I do need help. If ever man needed it, I do. Goodwincan you imagine yourself in

another world, alien, unfamiliar, a world of terror, whose unknown joy is its greatest terror of all; you all

He paused abruptly and arose; the cigarette dropped from his fingers. The moon had again broken through the

clouds, and this time much nearer. Not a mile away was the patch of light that it threw upon the waves. Back

of it, to the rim of the sea was a lane of moonlight; a gigantic gleaming serpent racing over the edge of the

Throckmartin stiffened to it as a pointer does to a hidden covey. To me from him pulsed a thrill of

horrorbut horror tinged with an unfamiliar, an infernal joy. It came to me and passed awayleaving me

He bent forward, all his soul in his eyes. The moon path swept closer, closer still. It was now less than half a

mile away. From it the ship fledalmost as though pursued. Down upon it, swift and straight, a radiant

"Good God!" breathed Throckmartin, and if ever the words were a prayer and an invocation they were.

The moon path stretched to the horizon and was bordered by darkness. It was as though the clouds above had

been parted to form a lanedrawn aside like curtains or as the waters of the Red Sea were held back to let the

hosts of Israel through. On each side of the stream was the black shadow cast by the folds of the high

canopies And straight as a road between the opaque walls gleamed, shimmered, and danced the shining,

Far, it seemed immeasurably far, along this stream of silver fire I sensed, rather than saw, something coming.

It drew first into sight as a deeper glow within the light. On and on it swept toward usan opalescent

mistiness that sped with the suggestion of some winged creature in arrowed flight. Dimly there crept into my

mind memory of the Dyak legend of the winged messenger of Buddha the Akla bird whose feathers are

woven of the moon rays, whose heart is a living opal, whose wings in flight echo the crystal clear music of

the white starsbut whose beak is of frozen flame and shreds the souls of unbelievers.

Closer it drew and now there came to me sweet, insistent tinklingslike pizzicati on violins of glass; crystal

Now the Thing was close to the end of the white path; close up to the barrier of darkness still between the

ship and the sparkling head of the moon stream. Now it beat up against that barrier as a bird against the bars

of its cage. It whirled with shimmering plumes, with swirls of lacy light, with spirals of living vapour. It held

within it odd, unfamiliar gleams as of shifting motherofpearl. Coruscations and glittering atoms drifted

Nearer and nearer it came, borne on the sparkling waves, and ever thinner shrank the protecting wall of

shadow between it and us. Within the mistiness was a core, a nucleus of intenser lightveined, opaline,

effulgent, intensely alive. And above it, tangled in the plumes and spirals that throbbed and whirled were

Through all the incessant but strangely ordered movement of theTHINGthese lights held firm and

steady. They were sevenlike seven little moons. One was of a pearly pink, one of a delicate nacreous blue,

one of lambent saffron, one of the emerald you see in the shallow waters of tropic isles; a deathly white; a

ghostly amethyst; and one of the silver that is seen only when the flying fish leap beneath the moon.

The tinkling music was louder still. It pierced the ears with a shower of tiny lances; it made the heart beat

jubilantly and checked it dolorously. It closed the throat with a throb of rapture and gripped it tight with

Came to me now a murmuring cry, stilling the crystal notes. It was articulatebut as though from something

utterly foreign to this world. The ear took the cry and translated with conscious labour into the sounds of

earth. And even as it compassed, the brain shrank from it irresistibly, and simultaneously it seemed reached

Throckmartin strode toward the front of the deck, straight toward the vision, now but a few yards away from

the stern. His face had lost all human semblance. Utter agony and utter ecstasythere they were side by side,

not resisting each other; unholy inhuman companions blending into a look that none of God's creatures

should wear and deep, deep as his soul! A devil and a God dwelling harmoniously side by side! So must

Satan, newly fallen, still divine, seeing heaven and contemplating hell, have appeared.

And thenswiftly the moon path faded! The clouds swept over the sky as though a hand had drawn them

together. Up from the south came a roaring squall. As the moon vanished what I had seen vanished with

itblotted out as an image on a magic lantern; the tinkling ceased abruptlyleaving a silence like that

which follows an abrupt thunder clap. There was nothing about us but silence and blackness!

Through me passed a trembling as one who has stood on the very verge of the gulf wherein the men of the

Louisades says lurks the fisher of the souls of men, and has been plucked back by sheerest chance.

"It is as I thought," he said. In his voice was a new note; the calm certainty that has swept aside a waiting

terror of the unknown. "Now I know! Come with me to my cabin, old friend. For now that you too have seen

As we passed through the door we met the ship's first officer. Throckmartin composed his face into at least a

Throckmartin straightened as though with a new thought. He gripped the officer's sleeve eagerly.

"You mean at least cloudy weatherfor"he hesitated "for the next three nights, say?"

"Thank God!" cried Throckmartin, and I think I never heard such relief and hope as was in his voice.

But Throckmartin was moving onward to his cabin. I started to follow. The first officer stopped me.

"The sea!" I answered hurriedly. "He's not used to it. I am going to look after him."

Doubt and disbelief were plain in the seaman's eyes but I hurried on. For I knew now that Throckmartin was

HE WAS SITTING, face in hands, on the side of his berth as I entered. He had taken off his coat.

"Throck," I cried. "What was it? What are you flying from, man? Where is your wifeand Stanton?"

"Dead!" he replied monotonously. "Dead! All dead!" Then as I recoiled from him"All dead. Edith,

Stanton, Thoradeador worse. And Edith in the Moon Pool with themdrawn by what you saw on

"Look at this," he said. Around his chest, above his heart, the skin was white as pearl. This whiteness was

sharply defined against the healthy tint of the body. It circled him with an even cincture about two inches

"Burn it!" he said, and offered me his cigarette. I drew back. He gesturedperemptorily. I pressed the

glowing end of the cigarette into the ribbon of white flesh. He did not flinch nor was there odour of burning

"Feel it!" he commanded again. I placed my fingers upon the band. It was coldlike frozen marble.

"Two things you have seen," he said. "ITand its mark. Seeing, you must believe my story. Goodwin, I tell

you again that my wife is deador worseI do not know; the prey ofwhat you saw; so, too, is Stanton;

"Why did God let it conquer us? Why did He let it take my Edith?" he cried in utter bitterness. "Are there

"I do not know just how you define God," I managed at last through my astonishment to make answer. "If

"Science," he said. "What is our science againstthat? Or against the science of whatever devils that made

"Goodwin," he said, "do you know at all of the ruins on the Carolines; the cyclopean, megalithic cities and

harbours of Ponape and Lele, of Kusaie, of Ruk and Hogolu, and a score of other islets there? Particularly, do

"Of the Metalanim I have heard and seen photographs," I said. "They call it, don't they, the Lost Venice of the

"Look at this map," said Throckmartin. "That," he went on, "is Christian's chart of Metalanim harbour and the

"There," he said, "under those walls is the Moon Pool and the seven gleaming lights that raise the Dweller in

the Pool, and the altar and shrine of the Dweller. And there in the Moon Pool with it lie Edith and Stanton

A solid sheet of rain swept the ports, and the Southern Queen began to roll on the rising swells. Throckmartin

drew another deep breath of relief, and drawing aside a curtain peered out into the night. Its blackness seemed

"There are no more wonderful ruins in the world," he began almost casually. "They take in some fifty islets

and cover with their intersecting canals and lagoons about twelve square miles. Who built them? None

knows. When were they built? Ages before the memory of present man, that is sure. Ten thousand, twenty

"All these islets, Walter, are squared, and their shores are frowning seawalls of gigantic basalt blocks hewn

and put in place by the hands of ancient man. Each inner waterfront is faced with a terrace of those basalt

blocks which stand out six feet above the shallow canals that meander between them. On the islets behind

these walls are timeshattered fortresses, palaces, terraces, pyramids; immense courtyards strewn with

ruinsand all so old that they seem to wither the eyes of those who look on them.

"There has been a great subsidence. You can stand out of Metalanim harbour for three miles and look down

upon the tops of similar monolithic structures and walls twenty feet below you in the water.

"And all about, strung on their canals, are the bulwarked islets with their enigmatic walls peering through the

dense growths of mangrovesdead, deserted for incalculable ages; shunned by those who live near.

"You as a botanist are familiar with the evidence that a vast shadowy continent existed in the Pacifica

continent that was not rent asunder by volcanic forces as was that legendary one of Atlantis in the Eastern

Ocean.*1 My work in Java, in Papua, and in the Ladrones had set my mind upon this Pacific lost land. Just as

the Azores are believed to be the last high peaks of Atlantis, so hints came to me steadily that Ponape and

Lele and their basalt bulwarked islets were the last points of the slowly sunken western land clinging still to

the sunlight, and had been the last refuge and sacred places of the rulers of that race which had lost their

*1 For more detailed observations on these points refer to G. Volkens, Uber die Karolinen Insel Yap, in

Verhandlungen Gesellschaft Erdkunde Berlin, xxvii (1901); J. S. Kubary, Ethnographische Beitrage zur

Kentniss des Karolinen Archipel (Leiden, 18891892); De Abrade Historia del Conflicto de las Carolinas,

"Mymy wife and I had talked before we were married of making this our great work. After the honeymoon

we prepared for the expedition. Stanton was as enthusiastic as ourselves. We sailed, as you know, last May

"At Ponape we selected, not without difficulty, workmen to help usdiggers. I had to make extraordinary

inducements before I could get together my force. Their beliefs are gloomy, these Ponapeans. They people

their swamps, their forests, their mountains, and shores, with malignant spirits ani they call them. And they

are afraidbitterly afraid of the isles of ruins and what they think the ruins hide. I do not wondernow!

"When they were told where they were to go, and how long we expected to stay, they murmured. Those who,

at last, were tempted made what I thought then merely a superstitious proviso that they were to be allowed to

go away on the three nights of the full moon. Would to God we had heeded them and gone too!"

"We passed into Metalanim harbour. Off to our lefta mile away arose a massive quadrangle. Its walls were

all of forty feet high and hundreds of feet on each side. As we drew by, our natives grew very silent; watched

it furtively, fearfully. I knew it for the ruins that are called NanTauach, the 'place of frowning walls.' And at

the silence of my men I recalled what Christian had written of this place; of how he had come upon its

'ancient platforms and tetragonal enclosures of stonework; its wonder of tortuous alleyways and labyrinth of

shallow canals; grim masses of stonework peering out from behind verdant screens; cyclopean barricades,'

and of how, when he had turned 'into its ghostly shadows, straightway the merriment of guides was hushed

"Of course I wanted to pitch our camp there," he went on again quietly, "but I soon gave up that idea. The

natives were panicstrickenthreatened to turn back. 'No,' they said, 'too great ani there. We go to any other

"We finally picked for our base the islet called UschenTau. It was close to the isle of desire, but far enough

away from it to satisfy our men. There was an excellent campingplace and a spring of fresh water. We

"I DO not intend to tell you now," Throckmartin continued, "the results of the next two weeks, nor of what

we found. Laterif I am allowed, I will lay all that before you. It is sufficient to say that at the end of those

"The place, for all its decay and desolation, had not infected us with any touch of morbiditythat is not

Edith, Stanton, or myself. But Thora was very unhappy. She was a Swede, as you know, and in her blood ran

the beliefs and superstitions of the Northlandsome of them so strangely akin to those of this far southern

land; beliefs of spirits of mountain and forest and water werewolves and beings malign. From the first she

showed a curious sensitivity to what, I suppose, may be called the 'influences' of the place. She said it

"Two weeks slipped by, and at their end the spokesman for our natives came to us. The next night was the

full of the moon, he said. He reminded me of my promise. They would go back to their village in the

morning; they would return after the third night, when the moon had begun to wane. They left us sundry

charms for our 'protection,' and solemnly cautioned us to keep as far away as possible from NanTauach

"No work could be done without them, of course, so we decided to spend the days of their absence junketing

about the southern islets of the group. We marked down several spots for subsequent exploration, and on the

morning of the third day set forth along the east face of the breakwater for our camp on UschenTau,

planning to have everything in readiness for the return of our men the next day.

"We landed just before dusk, tired and ready for our cots. It was only a little after ten o'clock that Edith

"I did so, and seemed to hear, far, far below, as though coming up from great distances, a faint chanting. It

gathered strength, died down, ended; began, gathered volume, faded away into silence.

"'It's the waves rolling on rocks somewhere,' I said. 'We're probably over some ledge of rock that carries the

"'It's the first time I've heard it,' replied my wife doubtfully. We listened again. Then through the dim

rhythms, deep beneath us, another sound came. It drifted across the lagoon that lay between us and

NanTauach in little tinkling waves. It was musicof a sort; I won't describe the strange effect it had upon

"I went to the flap of the tent," he continued, "and peered out. As I did so Stanton lifted his flap and walked

out into the moonlight, looking over to the other islet and listening. I called to him.

"'That's the queerest sound!' he said. He listened again. 'Crystalline! Like little notes of translucent glass. Like

the bells of crystal on the sistrums of Isis at Dendarah Temple,' he added halfdreamily. We gazed intently at

the island. Suddenly, on the seawall, moving slowly, rhythmically, we saw a little group of lights. Stanton

"'The beggars!' he exclaimed. 'That's why they wanted to get away, is it? Don't you see, Dave, it's some sort

of a festival rites of some kind that they hold during the full moon! That's why they were so eager to have

"The explanation seemed good. I felt a curious sense of relief, although I had not been sensible of any

"'They're a difficult lot as it is,' I said. 'If we break into one of their religious ceremonies they'll probably

never forgive us. Let's keep out of any family party where we haven't been invited.'

"'There's somethingsomething very unsettling about it,' said Edith at last soberly. 'I wonder what they

make those sounds with. They frighten me half to death, and, at the same time. they make me feel as though

"And as he spoke the flap of Thora's tent was raised and out into the moonlight strode the old Swede. She

was the great Norse typetall, deepbreasted, moulded on the old Viking lines. Her sixty years had slipped

"She stood there, her eyes wide, brilliant, staring. She thrust her head forward toward NanTauach, regarding

the moving lights; she listened. Suddenly she raised her arms and made a curious gesture to the moon. It

wasan archaic movement; she seemed to drag it from remote antiquity yet in it was a strange

suggestion of power, Twice she repeated this gesture andthe tinklings died away! She turned to us.

"'Go!' she said, and her voice seemed to come from far distances. 'Go from hereand quickly! Go while you

may. It has called' She pointed to the islet. 'It knows you are here. It waits!' she wailed. 'It

"She fell at Edith's feet, and over the lagoon came again the tinklings, now with a quicker note of

"We watched beside her throughout the night. The sounds from NanTauach continued until about an hour

before moonset. In the morning Thora awoke, none the worse, apparently. She had had bad dreams, she

said. She could not remember what they wereexcept that they had warned her of danger. She was oddly

sullen, and throughout the morning her gaze returned again and again halffascinatedly, halfwonderingly to

"That afternoon the natives returned. And that night on NanTauach the silence was unbroken nor were there

"You will understand, Goodwin, how the occurrences I have related would excite the scientific curiosity. We

"Oursymptoms let me call themcould all very easily be accounted for. It is unquestionable that the

vibrations created by certain musical instruments have definite and sometimes extraordinary effect upon the

nervous system. We accepted this as the explanation of the reactions we had experienced, hearing the

unfamiliar sounds. Thora's nervousness, her superstitious apprehensions, had wrought her up to a condition of

semisomnambulistic hysteria. Science could readily explain her part in the night's scene.

"We came to the conclusion that there must be a passageway between Ponape and NanTauach known to the

natives and used by them during their rites. We decided that on the next departure of our labourers we

would set forth immediately to NanTauach. We would investigate during the day, and at evening my wife

and Thora would go back to camp, leaving Stanton and me to spend the night on the island, observing from

"The moon waned; appeared crescent in the west; waxed slowly toward the full. Before the men left us they

literally prayed us to accompany them. Their importunities only made us more eager to see what it was that,

we were now convinced, they wanted to conceal from us. At least that was true of Stanton and myself. It was

"When the men were out of sight around the turn of the harbour, we took our boat and made straight for

NanTauach. Soon its mighty seawall towered above us. We passed through the watergate with its gigantic

hewn prisms of basalt and landed beside a halfsubmerged pier. In front of us stretched a series of giant steps

leading into a vast court strewn with fragments of fallen pillars. In the centre of the court, beyond the

shattered pillars, rose another terrace of basalt blocks, concealing, I knew, still another enclosure.

"And now, Walter, for the better understanding of what followsandand" he hesitated. "Should you

decide later to return with me or, if I am taken, totofollow us listen carefully to my description of this

place: NanTauach is literally three rectangles. The first rectangle is the seawall, built up of

monolithshewn and squared, twenty feet wide at the top. To get to the gateway in the seawall you pass

along the canal marked on the map between NanTauach and the islet named Tau. The entrance to the canal

is bidden by dense thickets of mangroves; once through these the way is clear. The steps lead up from the

"This courtyard is surrounded by another basalt wall, rectangular, following with mathematical exactness the

march of the outer barricades. The seawall is from thirty to forty feet highoriginally it must have been

much higher, but there has been subsidence in parts. The wall of the first enclosure is fifteen feet across the

top and its height varies from twenty to fifty feethere, too, the gradual sinking of the land has caused

"Within this courtyard is the second enclosure. Its terrace, of the same basalt as the outer walls, is about

twenty feet high. Entrance is gained to it by many breaches which time has made in its stonework. This is the

inner court, the heart of NanTauach! There lies the great central vault with which is associated the one name

of living being that has come to us out of the mists of the past. The natives say it was the treasure house of

Chauteleur, a mighty king who reigned long 'before their fathers.' As Chan is the ancient Ponapean word

both for sun and king, the name means, without doubt, 'place of the sun king.' It is a memory of a dynastic

name of the race that ruled the Pacific continent, now vanishedjust as the rulers of ancient Crete took the

"And opposite this place of the sun king is the moon rock that hides the Moon Pool.

"It was Stanton who discovered the moon rock. We had been inspecting the inner courtyard; Edith and Thora

were getting together our lunch. I came out of the vault of Chaute leur to find Stanton before a part of the

"'What do you make of this?' he asked me as I came up. He pointed to the wall. I followed his finger and saw

a slab of stone about fifteen feet high and ten wide. At first all I noticed was the exquisite nicety with which

its edges joined the blocks about it. Then I realized that its colour was subtly different tinged with grey and

"'Looks more like calcite than basalt,' I said. I touched it and withdrew my hand quickly for at the contact

every nerve in my arm tingled as though a shock of frozen electricity had passed through it. It was not cold as

we know cold. It was a chill forcethe phrase I have usedfrozen electricitydescribes it better than

"'So you felt it too,' he said. 'I was wondering whether I was developing hallucinations like Thora. Notice, by

"We examined the slab eagerly. Its edges were cut as though by an engraver of jewels. They fitted against the

neighbouring blocks in almost a hairline. Its base was slightly curved, and fitted as closely as top and sides

upon the huge stones on which it rested. And then we noted that these stones had been hollowed to follow the

line of the grey stone's foot. There was a semicircular depression running from one side of the slab to the

other. It was as though the grey rock stood in the centre of a shallow cuprevealing half, covering half.

Something about this hollow attracted me. I reached down and felt it. Goodwin, although the balance of the

stones that formed it, like all the stones of the courtyard, were rough and agewornthis was as smooth, as

"'It's a door!' exclaimed Stanton. 'It swings around in that little cup. That's what makes the hollow so smooth.'

"We went over the slab againpressing upon its edges, thrusting against its sides. During one of those

efforts I happened to look upand cried out. A foot above and on each side of the corner of the grey rock's

lintel was a slight convexity, visible only from the angle at which my gaze struck it.

"We carried with us a small scalingladder and up this I went. The bosses were apparently nothing more than

chiseled curvatures in the stone. I laid my hand on the one I was examining, and drew it back sharply. In my

palm, at the base of my thumb, I had felt the same shock that I had in touching the slab below. I put my hand

back. The impression came from a spot not more than an inch wide. I went carefully over the entire

convexity, and six times more the chill ran through my arm. There were seven circles an inch wide in the

curved place, each of which communicated the precise sensation I have described. The convexity on the

opposite side of the slab gave exactly the same results. But no amount of touching or of pressing these spots

singly or in any combination gave the slightest promise of motion to the slab itself.

"'Idon't know,' he answered hesitatingly. 'But something tells me so. Throck,' he went on half earnestly,

half laughingly, 'the purely scientific part of me is fighting the purely human part of me. The scientific part is

urging me to find some way to get that slab either down or open. The human part is just as strongly urging

"'Which shall it be?' he askedand I thought that in his tone the human side of him was ascendant.

"'I thought of that,' he answered, 'and I wouldn't dare,' he added soberly enough. And even as I had spoken

there came to me the same feeling that he had expressed. It was as though something passed out of the grey

rock that struck my heart as a hand strikes an impious lip. We turned awayuneasily, and faced Thora

'Miss Edith wants you quick,' she beganand stopped. Her eyes went past me to the grey rock. Her body

grew rigid; she took a few stiff steps forward and then ran straight to it. She cast herself upon its breast, hands

and face pressed against it; we heard her scream as though her very soul were being drawn from herand

watched her fall at its foot. As we picked her up I saw steal from her face the look I had observed when first

"WE CARRIED Thora back, down to where Edith was waiting. We told her what had happened and what we

had found. She listened gravely, and as we finished Thora sighed and opened her eyes.

"'I would like to see the stone,' she said. 'Charles, you stay here with Thora.' We passed through the outer

court silently and stood before the rock. She touched it, drew back her hand as I had; thrust it forward

again resolutely and held it there. She seemed to be listening. Then she turned to me.

"'David,' said my wife, and the wistfulness in her voice hurt me'David, would you be very, very

disappointed if we went from herewithout trying to find out any more about itwould you?'

"Walter, I never wanted anything so much in my life as I wanted to learn what that rock concealed.

Nevertheless, I tried to master my desire, and I answered'Edith, not a bit if you want us to do it.'

"She read my struggle in my eyes. She turned back toward the grey rock. I saw a shiver pass through her. I

"She looked at me again. 'Science is a jealous mistress,' she quoted. 'No, after all it may be just fancy. At any

"And there was no changing her decision. As we neared the others she laid a hand on my arm.

"'Dave,' she said, 'if there should be somethingwell inexplicable tonightsomething that seemstoo

dangerous will you promise to go back to our own islet tomorrow, if we canand wait until the natives

"I promised eagerlythe desire to stay and see what came with the night was like a fire within me.

"We picked a place about five hundred feet away from the steps leading into the outer court.

"The spot we had selected was well hidden. We could not be seen, and yet we had a clear view of the stairs

and the gateway. We settled down just before dusk to wait for whatever might come. I was nearest the giant

"Night fell. After a time the eastern sky began to lighten, and we knew that the moon was rising; grew lighter

still, and the orb peeped over the sea; swam into full sight. I glanced at Edith and then at Thora. My wife was

intently listening. Thora sat, as she had since we had placed ourselves, elbows on knees, her hands covering

"And then from the moonlight flooding us there dripped down on me a great drowsiness. Sleep seemed to

seep from the rays and fall upon my eyes, closing themclosing them inexorably. Edith's hand in mine

relaxed. Stanton's head fell upon his breast and his body swayed drunkenly. I tried to riseto fight against

"And as I fought, Thora raised her head as though listening; and turned toward the gateway. There was

infinite despair in her faceand expectancy. I tried again to riseand a surge of sleep rushed over me.

Dimly, as I sank within it, I heard a crystalline chiming; raised my lids once more with a supreme effort.

"Dawn was breaking when I wakened. Recollection rushed back; I thrust a panicstricken hand out toward

Edith; touched her and my heart gave a great leap of thankfulness. She stirred, sat up, rubbing dazed eyes.

"Edith looked at me laughingly. 'Heavens! What sleep!' she said. Memory came to her.

"'What's the matter!' he exclaimed. 'You look as though you've been seeing ghosts.'

"'Where's Thora?' she cried. Before I could answer she had run out into the open, calling.

"'Thora was taken,' was all I could say to Stanton, 'together we went to my wife, now standing beside the

great stone steps, looking up fearfully at the gateway into the terraces. There I told them what I had seen

before sleep had drowned me. And together then we ran up the stairs, through the court and to the grey rock.

"The slab was closed as it had been the day before, nor was there trace of its having opened. No trace? Even

as I thought this Edith dropped to her knees before it and reached toward something lying at its foot. It was a

little piece of gay silk. I knew it for part of the kerchief Thora wore about her hair. She lifted the fragment. It

had been cut from the kerchief as though by a razoredge; a few threads ran from itdown toward the base

"I think that for the next few minutes we all were a little insane. We beat upon that portal with our hands,

"Goodwin, during the next two hours we tried every way in our power to force entrance through the slab. The

rock resisted our drills. We tried explosions at the base with charges covered by rock. They made not the

slightest impression on the surface, expending their force, of course, upon the slighter resistance of their

"Afternoon found us hopeless. Night was coming on and we would have to decide our course of action. I

wanted to go to Ponape for help. But Edith objected that this would take hours and after we had reached there

it would be impossible to persuade our men to return with us that night, if at all. What then was left? Clearly

only one of two choices: to go back to our camp, wait for our men, and on their return try to persuade them to

go with us to NanTauach. But this would mean the abandonment of Thora for at least two days. We could

"The other choice was to wait where we were for night to come; to wait for the rock to open as it had the

night before, and to make a sortie through it for Thora before it could close again.

"We had, of course, discussed the sleep phenomena very fully. If our theory that lights, sounds, and Thora's

disappearance were linked with secret religious rites of the natives, the logical inference was that the slumber

had been produced by them, perhaps by vapoursyou know as well as I, what extraordinary knowledge

these Pacific peoples have of such things. Or the sleep might have been simply a coincidence and produced

by emanations either gaseous or from plants, natural causes which had happened to coincide in their effects

with the other manifestations. We made some rough and ready but effective respirators.

"As dusk fell we looked over our weapons. Edith was an excellent shot with both rifle and pistol. We had

decided that my wife was to remain in the hidingplace. Stanton would take up a station on the far side of the

stairway and I would place myself opposite him on the side near Edith. The place I picked out was less than

two hundred feet from her, and I could reassure myself now and then as to her safety as it looked down upon

the hollow wherein she crouched. From our respective stations Stanton and I could command the gateway

"A faint glow in the sky heralded the moon. Stanton and I took our places. The moon dawn increased rapidly;

the disk swam up, and in a moment it was shining in full radiance upon ruins and sea.

"As it rose there came a curious little sighing sound from the inner terrace. Stanton straightened up and stared

"'Stanton, what do you see?' I called cautiously. He waved a silencing hand. I turned my head to look at

Edith. A shock ran through me. She lay upon her side. Her face, grotesque with its nose and mouth covered

by the respirator, was turned full toward the moon. She was again in deepest sleep!

"As I turned again to call to Stanton, my eyes swept the head of the steps and stopped, fascinated. For the

moonlight had thickened. It seemed to becurdledthere; and through it ran little gleams and veins of

shimmering white fire. A languor passed through me. It was not the ineffable drowsiness of the preceding

night. It was a sapping of all will to move. I tried to cry out to Stanton. I had not even the will to move my

"Stanton was in the range of my fixed vision. I watched him leap up the steps and move toward the gateway.

The curdled radiance seemed to await him. He stepped into it and was lost to my sight.

"For a dozen heart beats there was silence. Then a rain of tinklings that set the pulses racing with joy and at

once checked them with tiny fingers of iceand ringing through them Stanton's voice from the courtyarda

great crya screamfilled with ecstasy insupportable and horror unimaginable ! And once more there was

silence. I strove to burst the bonds that held me. I could not. Even my eyelids were fixed. Within them my

"Then GoodwinI first saw theinexplicable! The crystalline music swelled. Where I sat I could take in

the gateway and its basalt portals, rough and broken, rising to the top of the wall forty feet above, shattered,

ruined portals unclimbable. From this gateway an intenser light began to flow. It grew, it gushed, and out

"GOODWIN," Throckmartin went on at last, "I can describe him only as a thing of living light. He radiated

light; was filled with light; overflowed with it. A shining cloud whirled through and around him in radiant

"His face shone with a rapture too great to be borne by living man, and was shadowed with insuperable

misery. It was as though it had been remoulded by the hand of God and the hand of Satan, working together

and in harmony. You have seen that seal upon my own. But you have never seen it in the degree that Stanton

bore it. The eyes were wide open and fixed, as though upon some inward vision of hell and heaven!

"The light that filled and surrounded him had a nucleus, a coresomething shiftingly human shapedthat

dissolved and changed, gathered itself, whirled through and beyond him and back again. And as its shining

nucleus passed through him Stanton's whole body pulsed radiance. As the luminescence moved, there moved

above it, still and serene always, seven tiny globes of seven colors, like seven little moons.

"Then swiftly Stanton was liftedlevitatedup the unscalable wall and to its top. The glow faded from the

moonlight, the tinkling music grew fainter. I tried again to move. The tears were running down now from my

"I have said my gaze was fixed. It was. But from the side, peripherally, it took in a part of the far wall of the

outer enclosure. Ages seemed to pass and a radiance stole along it. Soon drifted into sight the figure that was

Stanton. Far away he wason the gigantic wall. But still I could see the shining spirals whirling jubilantly

around and through him; felt rather than saw his tranced face beneath the seven moons. A swirl of crystal

notes, and he had passed. And all the time, as though from some opened well of light, the courtyard gleamed

and sent out silver fires that dimmed the moonrays, yet seemed strangely to be a part of them.

"At last the moon neared the horizon. There came a louder burst of sound; the second, and last, cry of

Stanton, like an echo of his first! Again the soft sighing from the inner terrace. Thenutter silence!

"The light faded; the moon was setting and with a rush life and power to move returned to me. I made a leap

for the steps, rushed up them, through the gateway and straight to the grey rock. It was closedas I knew it

would be. But did I dream it or did I bear, echoing through it as though from vast distances a triumphant

"I ran back to Edith. At my touch she wakened; looked at me wanderingly; raised herself on a hand.

"'Dave!' she said, 'I sleptafter all.' She saw the despair on my face and leaped to her feet. 'Dave!' she cried.

"I lighted a fire before I spoke. Then I told her. And for the balance of that night we sat before the flames,

Walter, old friend!" he cried. "Don't look at me as though I were mad. It's truth, absolute truth. Wait" I

"Never," he said, "did man welcome the sun as we did that morning. A soon as it had risen we went back to

the courtyard. The walls whereon I had seen Stanton were black and silent. The terraces were as they had

been. The grey slab was in its place. In the shallow hollow at its base was nothing. Nothingnothing was

"What were we to do? Precisely the same arguments that had kept us there the night before held good

nowand doubly good. We could not abandon these two; could not go as long as there was the faintest hope

of finding themand yet for love of each other how could we remain? I loved my wife,how much I never

"'We will meet it together,' she said. And it was thus at last that we arranged it."

"That took great courage indeed, Throckmartin," I interrupted. He looked at me eagerly.

"We talked it over carefully," he went on, "bringing to bear all our power of analysis and habit of calm,

scientific thought. We considered minutely the time element in the phenomena. Although the deep chanting

began at the very moment of moonrise, fully five minutes had passed between its full lifting and the strange

sighing sound from the inner terrace. I went back in memory over the happenings of the night before. At least

ten minutes had intervened between the first heralding sigh and the intensification of the moonlight in the

courtyard. And this glow grew for at least ten minutes more before the first burst of the crystal notes. Indeed,

more than half an hour must have elapsed, I calculated, between the moment the moon showed above the

"'Edith!' I cried. 'I think I have it! The grey rock opens five minutes after upon the moonrise. But whoever or

whatever it is that comes through it must wait until the moon has risen higher, or else it must come from a

distance. The thing to do is not to wait for it, but to surprise it before it passes out the door. We will go into

the inner court early. You will take your rifle and pistol and hide yourself where you can command the

openingif the slab does open. The instant it opens I will enter. It's our best chance, Edith. I think it's our

"My wife demurred strongly. She wanted to go with me. But I convinced her that it was better for her to stand

guard without, prepared to help me if I were forced again into the open by what lay behind the rock.

"At the halfhour before moonrise we went into the inner court. I took my place at the side of the grey rock.

Edith crouched behind a broken pillar twenty feet away; slipped her riflebarrel over it so that it would cover

"The minutes crept by. The darkness lessened and through the breaches of the terrace I watched the far sky

softly lighten. With the first pale flush the silence of the place intensified. It deepened; became

unbearablyexpectant. The moon rose, showed the quarter, the half, then swam up into full sight like a great

"Its rays fell upon the wall before me and suddenly upon the convexities I have described seven little circles

of light sprang out. They gleamed, glimmered, grew brightershone. The gigantic slab before me glowed

with them, silver wavelets of phosphorescence pulsed over its surface and then it turned as though on a

"With a word to Edith I flung myself through the opening. A tunnel stretched before me. It glowed with the

same faint silvery radiance. Down it I raced. The passage turned abruptly, passed parallel to the walls of the

"The passage ended. Before me was a high vaulted arch. It seemed to open into space; a space filled with

lambent, coruscating, manycoloured mist whose brightness grew even as I watched. I passed through the

"In front of me was a pool. It was circular, perhaps twenty feet wide. Around it ran a low, softly curved lip of

glimmering silvery stone. Its water was palest blue. The pool with its silvery rim was like a great blue eye

"Upon it streamed seven shafts of radiance. They poured down upon the blue eye like cylindrical torrents;

"One was the tender pink of the pearl; one of the aurora's green; a third a deathly white; the fourth the blue in

motherof pearl; a shimmering column of pale amber; a beam of amethyst; a shaft of molten silver. Such are

the colours of the seven lights that stream upon the Moon Pool. I drew closer, awestricken. The shafts did not

illumine the depths. They played upon the surface and seemed there to diffuse, to melt into it. The Pool drank

"Through the water tiny gleams of phosphorescence began to dart, sparkles and coruscations of pale

incandescence. And far, far below I sensed a movement, a shifting glow as of a radiant body slowly rising.

"I looked upward, following the radiant pillars to their source. Far above were seven shining globes, and it

was from these that the rays poured. Even as I watched their brightness grew. They were like seven moons set

high in some caverned heaven. Slowly their splendour increased, and with it the splendour of the seven

"I tore my gaze away and stared at the Pool. It had grown milky, opalescent. The rays gushing into it seemed

to be filling it; it was alive with sparklings, scintillations, glimmerings. And the luminescence I had seen

"A swirl of mist floated up from its surface. It drifted within the embrace of the rosy beam and hung there for

a moment. The beam seemed to embrace it, sending through it little shining corpuscles, tiny rosy spiralings.

The mist absorbed the rays, was strengthened by them, gained substance. Another swirl sprang into the amber

shaft, clung and fed there, moved swiftly toward the first and mingled with it. And now other swirls arose,

here and there, too fast to be counted; hung poised in the embrace of the light streams; flashed and pulsed into

"Thicker and thicker still they arose until over the surface of the Pool was a pulsating pillar of opalescent mist

steadily growing stronger; drawing within it life from the seven beams falling upon it; drawing to it from

below the darting, incandescent atoms of the Pool. Into its centre was passing the luminescence rising from

the far depths. And the pillar glowed, throbbedbegan to send out questing swirls and tendrils

"There forming before me was That which had walked with Stanton, which had taken Thorathe thing I had

"My brain sprang into action. My hand threw up the pistol and I fired shot after shot into the shining core.

"As I fired, it swayed and shook; gathered again. I slipped a second clip into the automatic and another idea

coming to me took careful aim at one of the globes in the roof. From thence I knew came the force that

shaped this Dweller in the Poolfrom the pouring rays came its strength. If I could destroy them I could

check its forming. I fired again and again. If I hit the globes I did no damage. The little motes in their beams

"But up from the Pool like little bells, like tiny bursting bubbles of glass, swarmed the tinkling soundstheir

"It caught me above the heart; wrapped itself around me. There rushed through me a mingled ecstasy and

horror. Every atom of me quivered with delight and shrank with despair. There was nothing loathsome in it.

But it was as though the icy soul of evil and the fiery soul of good had stepped together within me. The pistol

"So I stood while the Pool gleamed and sparkled; the streams of light grew more intense and the radiant

Thing that held me gleamed and strengthened. Its shining core had shapebut a shape that my eyes and

brain could not define. It was as though a being of another sphere should assume what it might of human

semblance, but was not able to conceal that what human eyes saw was but a part of it. It was neither man nor

woman; it was unearthly and androgynous. Even as I found its human semblance it changed. And still the

mingled rapture and terror held me. Only in a little corner of my brain dwelt something untouched; something

that held itself apart and watched. Was it the soul? I have never believed and yet

"Over the head of the misty body there sprang suddenly out seven little lights. Each was the colour of the

"I heard a scream. It was Edith's voice. It came to me that she had heard the shots and followed me. I felt

every faculty concentrate into a mighty effort. I wrenched myself free from the gripping tentacle and it swept

"The radiant shape above the Pool leaped swiftlyand straight into it raced Edith, arms outstretched to

"She threw herself squarely within its splendour," he whispered. "It wrapped its shining self around her. The

crystal tinklings burst forth jubilantly. The light filled her, ran through and around her as it had with Stanton;

"But her rush had taken her to the very verge of the Moon Pool. She tottered; she fellwith the radiance still

holding her, still swirling and winding around and through herinto the Moon Pool! She sank, and with her

"I dragged myself to the brink. Far down was a shining, manycoloured nebulous cloud descending; out of it

"And then a darkness fell upon me. I remember running back through the shimmering corridors and out into

the courtyard. Reason had left me. When it returned I was far out at sea in our boat wholly estranged from

civilization. A day later I was picked up by the schooner in which I came to Port Moresby.

"I have formed a plan; you must bear it, Goodwin" He fell upon his berth. I bent over him. Exhaustion and

the relief of telling his story had been too much for him. He slept like the dead.

All that night I watched over him. When dawn broke I went to my room to get a little sleep myself. But my

The next day the storm was unabated. Throckmartin came to me at lunch. He had regained much of his old

"Come to my cabin," he said. There, he stripped his shirt from him. "Something is happening," he said. "The

"I'm escaping," he whispered jubilantly, "Just let me get to Melbourne safely, and then we'll see who'll win!

For, Walter, I'm not at all sure that Edith is deadas we know deathnor that the others are. There is

"There's a natural explanation, of course," he said. "My theory is that the moon rock is of some composition

sensitive to the action of moon rays; somewhat as the metal selenium is to sun rays. The little circles over the

top are, without doubt, its operating agency. When the light strikes them they release the mechanism that

opens the slab, just as you can open doors with sun or electric light by an ingenious arrangement of

seleniumcells. Apparently it takes the strength of the full moon both to do this and to summon the Dweller

in the Pool. We will first try a concentration of the rays of the waning moon upon these circles to see whether

that will open the rock. If it does we will be able to investigate the Pool without interruption

"Look, here on the chart are their locations. I have made this in duplicate for you in the eventof something

happening to me. And if I loseyou'll come after us, Goodwin, with helpwon't you?"

"But it's just weariness," he said. "Not at all like that other drowsiness. It's an hour till moonrise still," he

He lay upon the berth. I sat thinking. I came to myself with a guilty start. I had completely lost myself in my

deep preoccupation. What time was it? I looked at my watch and jumped to the porthole. It was full

moonlight; the orb had been up for fully half an hour. I strode over to Throckmartin and shook him by the

"Up, quick, man!" I cried. He rose sleepily. His shirt fell open at the neck and I looked, in amazement, at the

white band around his chest. Even under the electric light it shone softly, as though little flecks of light were

Throckmartin seemed only halfawake. He looked down at his breast, saw the glowing cincture, and smiled.

He went to the port and sleepily drew aside the curtain. The moon traced a broad path of light straight to the

ship. Under its rays the band around his chest gleamed brighter and brighter; shot forth little rays; seemed to

The lights went out in the cabin; evidently also throughout the ship, for I heard shoutings above.

Throckmartin still stood at the open port. Over his shoulder I saw a gleaming pillar racing along the moon

path toward us. Through the window cascaded a blinding radiance. It gathered Throckmartin to it, clothed

him in a robe of living opalescence. Light pulsed through and from him. The cabin filled with murmurings

A wave of weakness swept over me, buried me in blackness. When consciousness came back, the lights were

MY COLLEAGUES of the Association, and you others who may read this my narrative, for what I did and

did not when full realization returned I must offer here, briefly as I can, an explanation; a defenseif you

My first act was to spring to the open port. The coma had lasted hours, for the moon was now low in the

west! I ran to the door to sound the alarm. It resisted under my frantic hands; would not open. Something fell

tinkling to the floor. It was the key and I remembered then that Throckmartin had turned it before we began

our vigil. With memory a hope died that I had not known was in me, the hope that he had escaped from the

And as I stooped, fumbling with shaking fingers for the key, a thought came to me that drove again the blood

from my heart, held me rigid. I could sound no alarm on the Southern Queen for Throckmartin!

Conviction of my appalling helplessness was complete. The ensemble of the vessel from captain to cabin boy

was, to put it conservatively, average. None, I knew, save Throckmartin and myself had seen the first

apparition of the Dweller. Had they witnessed the second? I did not know, nor could I risk speaking, not

knowing. And not seeing, how could they believe? They would have thought me insane or worse; even, it

I snapped off the electrics; waited and listened; opened the door with infinite caution and slipped, unseen,

into my own stateroom. The hours until the dawn were eternities of waking nightmare. Reason, resuming

sway at last, steadied me. Even had I spoken and been believed where in these wastes after all the hours could

we search for Throckmartin? Certainly the captain would not turn back to Port Moresby. And even if he did,

of what use for me to set forth for the NanMatal without the equipment which Throckmartin himself had

There was but one thing to dofollow his instructions; get the paraphernalia in Melbourne or Sydney if it

were possible; if not sail to America as swiftly as might be, secure it there and as swiftly return to Ponape.

Calmness came back to me after I had made this decision. And when I went up on deck I knew that I had

been right. They had not seen the Dweller. They were still discussing the darkening of the ship, talking of

dynamos burned out, wires short circuited, a half dozen explanations of the extinguishment. Not until noon

was Throckmartin's absence discovered. I told the captain that I had left him early in the evening; that,

indeed, I knew him but slightly, after all. It occurred to none to doubt me, or to question me minutely. Why

should it have? His strangeness had been noted, commented upon; all who had met him had thought him half

mad. I did little to discourage the impression. And so it came naturally that on the log it was entered that he

A report to this effect was made when we entered Melbourne. I slipped quietly ashore and in the press of the

war news Throckmartin's supposed fate won only a few lines in the newspapers; my own presence on the ship

I was fortunate in securing at Melbourne everything I needed except a set of Becquerel ray condensersbut

these were the very keystone of my equipment. Pursuing my search to Sydney I was doubly fortunate in

finding a firm who were expecting these very articles in a consignment due them from the States within a

And now it will occur to you to ask why I did not cable, during this period of waiting, to the Association;

demand aid from it. Or why I did not call upon members of the University staffs of either Melbourne or

Sydney for assistance. At the least, why I did not gather, as Throckmartin had hoped to do, a little force of

To the first two questions I answer franklyI did not dare. And this reluctance, this inhibition, every man

jealous of his scientific reputation will understand. The story of Throckmartin, the happenings I had myself

witnessed, were incredible, abnormal, outside the facts of all known science. I shrank from the inevitable

disbelief, perhaps ridiculenay, perhaps even the graver suspicion that had caused me to seal my lips while

on the ship. Why I myself could only half believe! How then could I hope to convince others?

And as for the third questionI could not take men into the range of such a peril without first warning them

It was checkmate! If it also was cowardicewell, I have atoned for it. But I do not hold it so; my conscience

That fortnight and the greater part of another passed before the ship I awaited steamed into port. By that time,

between my straining anxiety to be after Throckmartin, the despairing thought that every moment of delay

might be vital to him and his, and my intensely eager desire to know whether that shining, glorious horror on

the moon path did exist or had been hallucination, I was worn almost to the edge of madness.

At last the condensers were in my hands. It was more than a week later, however, before I could secure

passage back to Port Moresby and it was another week still before I started north on the Suwarna, a swift

little sloop with a fiftyhorsepower auxiliary, heading straight for Ponape and the NanMatal.

We sighted the Brunhilda some five hundred miles south of the Carolines. The wind had fallen soon after

Papua had dropped astern. The Suwarna's ability to make her twelve knots an hour without it had made me

very fully forgive her for not being as fragrant as the Javan flower for which she was named. Da Costa, her

captain, was a garrulous Portuguese; his mate was a Canton man with all the marks of long and able service

on some pirate junk; his engineer was a halfbreed ChinaMalay who had picked up his knowledge of power

plants, Heaven alone knew where, and, I had reason to believe, had transferred all his religious impulses to

the American built deity of mechanism he so faithfully served. The crew was made up of six huge, chattering

The Suwarna had cut through Finschafen Huon Gulf to the protection of the Bismarcks. She had threaded the

maze of the archipelago tranquilly, and we were then rolling over the thousandmile stretch of open ocean

with New Hanover far behind us and our boat's bow pointed straight toward Nukuor of the Monte Verdes.

After we had rounded Nukuor we should, barring accident, reach Ponape in not more than sixty hours.

It was late afternoon, and on the demure little breeze that marched behind us came farflung sighs of

spicetrees and nutmeg flowers. The slow prodigious swells of the Pacific lifted us in gentle, giant hands and

sent us as gently down the long, blue wave slopes to the next broad, upward slope. There was a spell of peace

over the ocean, stilling even the Portuguese captain who stood dreamily at the wheel, slowly swaying to the

There came a whining hail from the Tonga boy lookout draped lazily over the bow.

Da Costa straightened and gazed while I raised my glass. The vessel was a scant mile away, and must have

been visible long before the sleepy watcher had seen her. She was a sloop about the size of the Suwarna,

without power. All sails set, even to a spinnaker she carried, she was making the best of the little breeze. I

tried to read her name, but the vessel jibed sharply as though the hands of the man at the wheel had suddenly

dropped the helmand then with equal abruptness swung back to her course. The stern came in sight, and on

I shifted my glasses to the man at wheel. He was crouching down over the spokes in a helpless, huddled sort

of way, and even as I looked the vessel veered again, abruptly as before. I saw the helmsman straighten up

He stood so for a moment, looking straight ahead, entirely oblivious of us, and then seemed again to sink

down within himself. It came to me that his was the action of a man striving vainly against a weariness

unutterable. I swept the deck with my glasses. There was no other sign of life. I turned to find the Portuguese

staring intently and with puzzled air at the sloop, now separated from us by a scant half mile.

"Something veree wrong I think there, sair," he said in his curious English. "The man on deck I know. He is

captain and owner of the Brrwun'ild. His name Olaf Huldricksson, what you sayNorwegian. He is eithair

veree sick or veree tiredbut I do not undweerstand where is the crew and the starb'd boat is gone"

He shouted an order to the engineer and as he did so the faint breeze failed and the sails of the Brunhilda

flapped down inert. We were now nearly abreast and a scant hundred yards away. The engine of the Suwarna

The man at the wheel turned toward us. He was a giant; his shoulders enormous, thick chested, strength in

every line of him, he towered like a viking of old at the rudder bar of his shark ship.

I raised the glass again; his face sprang into the lens and never have I seen a visage lined and marked as

The Tonga boys had the boat alongside and were waiting at the oars. The little captain was dropping into it.

"Wait!" I cried. I ran into my cabin, grasped my emergency medical kit and climbed down the rope ladder.

The Tonga boys bent to the oars. We reached the side and Da Costa and I each seized a lanyard dangling

from the stays and swung ourselves on board. Da Costa approached Huldricksson softly.

"What's the matter, Olaf?" he beganand then was silent, looking down at the wheel. The hands of

Huldricksson were lashed fast to the spokes by thongs of thin, strong cord; they were swollen and black and

the thongs had bitten into the sinewy wrists till they were hidden in the outraged flesh, cutting so deeply that

blood fell, slow drop by drop, at his feet! We sprang toward him, reaching out hands to his fetters to loose

them. Even as we touched them, Huldricksson aimed a vicious kick at me and then another at Da Costa which

"Let be!" croaked Huldricksson; his voice was thick and lifeless as though forced from a dead throat; his lips

The Portuguese had picked himself up, whimpering with rage and knife in hand, but as Huldricksson's voice

reached him he stopped. Amazement crept into his eyes and as he thrust the blade back into his belt they

"Something veree wrong wit' Olaf," he murmured to me. "I think he crazee!" And then Olaf Huldricksson

began to curse us. He did not speakhe howled from that hideously dry mouth his imprecations. And all the

time his red eyes roamed the seas and his hands, clenched and rigid on the wheel, dropped blood.

"I go below," said Da Costa nervously. "His wife, his daughter" he darted down the companionway and

"There is nobody, nobody," he pausedthen"nobody nowhere!" His hands flew out in a gesture of

Then Olaf Huldricksson opened his dry lips and as he spoke a chill ran through me, checking my heart.

"The sparkling devil took them!" croaked Olaf Huldricksson, "the sparkling devil took them! Took my Helma

and my little Freda! The sparkling devil came down from the moon and took them!"

He swayed; tears dripped down his cheeks. Da Costa moved toward him again and again Huldricksson

I took a hypodermic from my case and filled it with morphine. I drew Da Costa to me.

"Get to the side of him," I whispered, "talk to him." He moved over toward the wheel.

Huldricksson turned his head toward him. "The shining devil took them," he croaked. "The moon devil that

A yell broke from him. I had thrust the needle into his arm just above one swollen wrist and had quickly shot

the drug through. He struggled to release himself and then began to rock drunkenly. The morphine, taking

him in his weakness, worked quickly. Soon over his face a peace dropped. The pupils of the staring eyes

contracted. Once, twice, he swayed and then, his bleeding, prisoned hands held high and still gripping the

With utmost difficulty we loosed the thongs, but at last it was done. We rigged a little swing and the Tonga

boys slung the great inert body over the side into the dory. Soon we had Huldricksson in my bunk. Da Costa

sent half his crew over to the sloop in charge of the Cantonese. They took in all sail, stripping Huldricksson's

boat to the masts and then with the Brunhilda nosing quietly along after us at the end of a long hawser, one of

I cleansed and bandaged the Norseman's lacerated wrists and sponged the blackened, parched mouth with

Suddenly I was aware of Da Costa's presence and turned. His unease was manifest and held, it seemed to me,

"What you think of Olaf, sair?" he asked. I shrugged my shoulders. "You think he killed his woman and his

"Nonsense, Da Costa," I answered. "You saw the boat was gone. Most probably his crew mutinied and to

torture him tied him up the way you saw. They did the same thing with Hilton of the Coral Lady; you'll

"No," he said. "No. The crew did not. Nobody there on board when Olaf was tied."

"Wait!" he went on at my incredulous gesture of dissent. "Wait, I show you." He had been standing with

hands behind his back and now I saw that he held in them the cut thongs that had bound Huldricksson. They

were bloodstained and each ended in a broad leather tip skilfully spliced into the cord. "Look," he said,

pointing to these leather ends. I looked and saw in them deep indentations of teeth. I snatched one of the

thongs and opened the mouth of the unconscious man on the bunk. Carefully I placed the leather within it and

gently forced the jaws shut on it. It was true. Those marks were where Olaf Huldricksson's jaws had gripped.

"Wait!" Da Costa repeated, "I show you." He took other cords and rested his hands on the supports of a chair

back. Rapidly he twisted one of the thongs around his left hand, drew a loose knot, shifted the cord up toward

his elbow. This left wrist and hand still free and with them he twisted the other cord around the right wrist;

drew a similar knot. His hands were now in the exact position that Huldricksson' s had been on the Brunhilda

but with cords and knots hanging loose. Then Da Costa reached down his head, took a leather end in his teeth

and with a jerk drew the thong that noosed his left hand tight; similarly he drew tight the second.

He strained at his fetters. There before my eyes he had pinioned himself so that without aid he could not

"You will have to cut me loose, sair," he said. "I cannot move them. It is an old trick on these seas.

Sometimes it is necessary that a man stand at the wheel many hours without help, and he does this so that if

He fidgeted, avoided my eyes, and then rapidly, almost surreptitiously crossed himself.

"No," he replied. "I know nothing. Some things I have heardbut they tell many tales on these seas."

He started for the door. Before he reached it he turned. "But this I do know," he half whispered, "I am

damned glad there is no full moon tonight." And passed out, leaving me staring after him in amazement.

I bent over the sleeper. On his face was no trace of that unholy mingling of opposites the Dweller stamped

"The sparkling devil took them!" Nay, he had been even more explicit"The sparkling devil that came down

Could it be that the Dweller had swept upon the Brunhilda, drawing down the moon path Olaf Huldricksson's

As I sat thinking the cabin grew suddenly dark and from above came a shouting and patter of feet. Down

upon us swept one of the abrupt, violent squalls that are met with in those latitudes. I lashed Huldricksson

The long, peaceful swells had changed into angry, choppy waves from the tops of which the spindrift

A halfhour passed; the squall died as quickly as it had arisen. The sea quieted. Over in the west, from

beneath the tattered, flying edge of the storm, dropped the red globe of the setting sun; dropped slowly until it

I watched itand rubbed my eyes and stared again. For over its flaming portal something huge and black

Da Costa had seen it, too, and he turned the Suwarna straight toward the descending orb and its strange

shadow. As we approached we saw it was a little mass of wreckage and that the beckoning finger was a wing

of canvas, sticking up and swaying with the motion of the waves. On the highest point of the wreckage sat a

We brought the Suwarna to, dropped a boat, and with myself as coxswain pulled toward a wrecked

hydroairplane. Its occupant took a long puff at his cigarette, waved a cheerful hand, shouted a greeting. And

just as he did so a great wave raised itself up behind him, took the wreckage, tossed it high in a swelter of

foam, and passed on. When we had steadied our boat, where wreck and man had been wasnothing.

There came a tug at the side, two muscular brown hands gripped it close to my left, and a sleek, black, wet

head showed its top between them. Two bright, blue eyes that held deep within them a laughing deviltry

looked into mine, and a long, lithe body drew itself gently over the thwart and seated its dripping self at my

"Much obliged," said this man from the sea. "I knew somebody was sure to come along when the O'Keefe

"The O'Keefe bansheeI'm Larry O'Keefe. It's a far way from Ireland, but not too far for the O'Keefe

"Have you a cigarette? Mine went out," he said with a grin, as he reached a moist hand out for the little

I saw a lean, intelligent face whose fighting jaw was softened by the wistfulness of the cleancut lips and the

honesty that lay side by side with the deviltry in the laughing blue eyes; nose of a thoroughbred with the

suspicion of a tilt; long, wellknit, slender figure that I knew must have all the strength of fine steel; the

I liked Larry O'Keefe from the beginningbut I did not dream as the Tonga boys pulled us back to the

Suwarna bow that liking was to be forged into man's strong love for man by fires which souls such as his and

Larry! Larry O'Keefe, where are you now with your leprechauns and banshee, your heart of a child, your

laughing blue eyes, and your fearless soul? Shall I ever see you again, Larry O'Keefe, dear to me as some

PRESSING BACK the questions I longed to ask, I introduced myself. Oddly enough, I found that he knew

me, or rather my work. He had bought, it appeared, my volume upon the peculiar vegetation whose habitat is

disintegrating lava rock and volcanic ash, that I had entitled, somewhat loosely, I could now perceive, Flora

of the Craters. For he explained naively that he had picked it up, thinking it an entirely different sort of a

book, a novel in factsomething like Meredith's Diana of the Crossways, which he liked greatly.

He had hardly finished this explanation when we touched the side of the Suwarna, and I was forced to curb

"That thing you saw me sitting on," he said, after he had thanked the bowing little skipper for his rescue,

"was all that was left of one of his Majesty's best little hydroairplanes after that cyclone threw it off as excess

O'Keefe whistled. "A good three hundred miles from where I left the H.M.S. Dolphin about four hours ago,"

"The Dolphin," he went on, calmly divesting himself of his soaked uniform, "was on her way to Melbourne.

I'd been yearning for a joy ride and went up for an alleged scouting trip. Then that blow shot out of nowhere,

"About an hour ago I thought I saw a chance to zoom up and out of it, I turned, and BLICK went my right

"I don't know how we can notify your ship, Lieutenant O'Keefe," I said. "We have no wireless."

"Thanksbut not a bit of it," broke in O'Keefe. "Lord alone knows where the Dolphin is now. Fancy she'll

be nosing around looking for me. Anyway, she's just as apt to run into you as you into her. Maybe we'll strike

something with a wireless, and I'll trouble you to put me aboard." He hesitated. "Where are you bound, by the

"No wireless there," mused O'Keefe. "Beastly hole. Stopped a week ago for fruit. Natives seemed scared to

"It's no secret, Lieutenant," I replied. "I'm about to undertake some exploration worka little digging among

I looked at the Portuguese sharply as I named the place. A pallor crept beneath his skin and again he made

swiftly the sign of the cross, glancing as he did so fearfully to the north. I made up my mind then to question

him when opportunity came. He turned from his quick scrutiny of the sea and addressed O'Keefe.

"Oh, just give me a sheet to throw around me, Captain," said O'Keefe and followed him. Darkness had fallen,

and as the two disappeared into Da Costa's cabin I softly opened the door of my own and listened.

I drew my electricflash, and shielding its rays from my face, looked at him. His sleep was changing from the

heavy stupor of the drug into one that was at least on the borderland of the normal. The tongue had lost its

arid blackness and the mouth secretions had resumed action. Satisfied as to his condition I returned to deck.

O'Keefe was there, looking like a spectre in the cotton sheet he had wrapped about him. A deck table had

been cleated down and one of the Tonga boys was setting it for our dinner. Soon the very creditable larder of

the Suwarna dressed the board, and O'Keefe, Da Costa, and I attacked it. The night had grown close and

oppressive. Behind us the forward light of the Brunhilda glided and the binnacle lamp threw up a faint glow

in which her black helmsman's face stood out mistily. O'Keefe had looked curiously a number of times at our

"You're not the only passenger we picked up today," I told him. "We found the captain of that sloop, lashed

to his wheel, nearly dead with exhaustion, and his boat deserted by everyone except himself."

"We don't know," I answered. "He fought us, and I had to drug him before we could get him loose from his

lashings. He's sleeping down in my berth now. His wife and little girl ought to have been on board, the

"From the condition of his mouth he must have been alone at the wheel and without water at least two days

and nights before we found him," I replied. "And as for looking for anyone on these waters after such a

He was silent for a time, and then, at my solicitation, began to tell us more of himself. He had been little more

than twenty when he had won his wings and entered the war. He had been seriously wounded at Ypres during

the third year of the struggle, and when he recovered the war was over. Shortly after that his mother had died.

Lonely and restless, he had reentered the Air Service, and had remained in it ever since.

"And though the war's long over, I get homesick for the lark's land with the German planes playing tunes on

their machine guns and their Archies tickling the soles of my feet," he sighed. "If you're in love, love to the

limit; and if you hate, why hate like the devil and if it's a fight you're in, get where it's hottest and fight like

I watched him as he talked, feeling my liking for him steadily increasing. If I could but have a man like this

beside me on the path of unknown peril upon which I had set my feet I thought, wistfully. We sat and smoked

Da Costa at last relieved the Cantonese at the wheel. O'Keefe and I drew chairs up to the rail. The brighter

stars shone out dimly through a hazy sky; gleams of phosphorescence tipped the crests of the waves and

sparkled with an almost angry brilliance as the bow of the Suwarna tossed them aside. O'Keefe pulled

contentedly at a cigarette. The glowing spark lighted the keen, boyish face and the blue eyes, now black and

"Because," I answered, "from your name and your service I would suppose you Irishbut your command of

"I'll tell you how that is," he said. "My mother was an Americana Grace, of Virginia. My father was the

O'Keefe, of Coleraine. And these two loved each other so well that the heart they gave me is half Irish and

half American. My father died when I was sixteen. I used to go to the States with my mother every other year

for a month or two. But after my father died we used to go to Ireland every other year. And there you

"When I'm in love, or excited, or dreaming, or mad I have the brogue. But for the everyday purpose of life I

like the United States talk, and I know Broadway as well as I do Binevenagh Lane, and the Sound as well as

St. Patrick's Channel; educated a bit at Eton, a bit at Harvard; always too much money to have to make any;

in love lots of times, and never a heartache after that wasn't a pleasant one, and never a real purpose in life

until I took the king's shilling and earned my wings; something over thirtyand that's me Larry O'Keefe."

"But it was the Irish O'Keefe who sat out there waiting for the banshee," I laughed.

"It was that," he said somberly, and I heard the brogue creep over his voice like velvet and his eyes grew

brooding again. "There's never an O'Keefe for these thousand years that has passed without his warning. An'

twice have I heard the banshee callingonce it was when my younger brother died an' once when my father

He mused a moment, then went on: "An' once I saw an Annir Choille, a girl of the green people, flit like a

shade of green fire through Carntogher woods, an' once at Dunchraig I slept where the ashes of the Dun of

Cormac MacConcobar are mixed with those of Cormac an' Eilidh the Fair, all burned in the nine flames that

sprang from the harping of Cravetheen, an' I heard the echo of his dead harpings "

He paused again and then, softly, with that curiously sweet, high voice that only the Irish seem to have, he

Woman of the white breasts, Eilidh; Woman of the goldbrown hair, and lips of the red, red rowan, Where is

the swan that is whiter, with breast more soft, Or the wave on the sea that moves as thou movest, Eilidh.

THERE was a little silence. I looked upon him with wonder. Clearly he was in deepest earnest. I know the

psychology of the Gael is a curious one and that deep in all their hearts their ancient traditions and beliefs

Here was this soldier, who had faced war and its ugly realities openeyed and fearless, picking, indeed, the

most dangerous branch of service for his own, a modern if ever there was one, appreciative of most

unmystical Broadway, and yet soberly and earnestly attesting to his belief in banshee, in shadowy people of

the woods, and phantom harpers! I wondered what he would think if he could see the Dweller and then, with

He shook his head half impatiently and ran a hand over his eyes; turned to me and grinned:

"Don't think I'm cracked, Professor," he said. "I'm not. But it takes me that way now and then. It's the Irish in

I looked eastward where the moon, now nearly a week past the full, was mounting.

"You can't make me see what you've seen, Lieutenant," I laughed. "But you can make me hear. I've always

wondered what kind of a noise a disembodied spirit could make without any vocal cords or breath or any

"All right," he said. "I'll show you." From deep down in his throat came first a low, weird sobbing that

mounted steadily into a keening whose mournfulness made my skin creep. And then his hand shot out and

gripped my shoulder, and I stiffened like stone in my chairfor from behind us, like an echo, and then

taking up the cry, swelled a wail that seemed to hold within it a sublimation of the sorrows of centuries! It

gathered itself into one heartbroken, sobbing note and died away! O'Keefe's grip loosened, and he rose

"It's all right, Professor," he said. "It's for me. It found meall this way from Ireland."

Again the silence was rent by the cry. But now I had located it. It came from my room, and it could mean

Out of the corner of my eye I noted a look of halfsheepish relief flit over O'Keefe's face, and then he was

beside me. Da Costa shouted an order from the wheel, the Cantonese ran up and took it from his hands and

the little Portuguese pattered down toward us. My hand on the door, ready to throw it open, I stopped. What

if the Dweller were within what if we had been wrong and it was not dependent for its power upon that full

flood of moon ray which Throckmartin had thought essential to draw it from the blue pool!

From within, the sobbing wail began once more to rise. O'Keefe pushed me aside, threw open the door and

crouched low within it. I saw an automatic flash dully in his hand; saw it cover the cabin from side to side,

following the swift sweep of his eyes around it. Then he straightened and his face, turned toward the berth,

Through the window streamed a shaft of the moonlight. It fell upon Huldricksson's staring eyes; in them great

tears slowly gathered and rolled down his cheeks; from his opened mouth came the woeladen wailing. I ran

The Norseman's dolorous crying stopped as abruptly as though cut. His gaze rolled toward us. And at one

bound he broke through the leashes I had buckled round him and faced us, his eyes glaring, his yellow hair

almost erect with the force of the rage visibly surging through him. Da Costa shrunk behind me. O'Keefe,

"Where do you take me?" said Huldricksson, and his voice was like the growl of a beast. "Where is my

"Listen, Olaf Huldricksson," I said. "We take you to where the sparkling devil took your Helma and your

Freda. We follow the sparkling devil that came down from the moon. Do you hear me?" I spoke slowly,

distinctly, striving to pierce the mists that I knew swirled around the strained brain. And the words did pierce.

"You say you follow?" he asked falteringly. "You know where to follow? Where it took my Helma and my

"Just that, Olaf Huldricksson," I answered. "Just that! I pledge you my life that I know."

Da Costa stepped forward. "He speaks true, Olaf. You go faster on the Suwarna than on the Brrwun'ilda,

The giant Norseman, still gripping my hand, looked at him. "I know you, Da Costa," he muttered. "You are

"She follow be'ind on a big rope, Olaf," soothed the Portuguese. "Soon you see her. But now lie down an' tell

us, if you can, why you tie yourself to your wheel an' what it is that happen, Olaf."

"If you'll tell us how the sparkling devil came it will help us all when we get to where it is, Huldricksson," I

On O'Keefe's face there was an expression of wellnigh ludicrous doubt and amazement. He glanced from

one to the other. The giant shifted his own tense look from me to the Irishman. A gleam of approval lighted

in his eyes. He loosed me, and gripped O'Keefe's arm. "Staerk!" he said. "Ja strong, and with a strong

"I tell," he muttered, and seated himself on the side of the bunk. "It was four nights ago. My Freda"his

voice shook "Mine Yndling! She loved the moonlight. I was at the wheel and my Freda and my Helma

they were behind me. The moon was behind us and the Brunhilda was like a swanboat sailing down with the

"I heard my Freda say: 'I see a nisse coming down the track of the moon.' And I hear her mother laugh, low,

like a mother does when her Yndling dreams. I was happythat nightwith my Helma and my Freda, and

the Brunhilda sailing like a swanboat, ja. I heard the child say, 'The nisse comes fast!' And then I heard a

scream from my Helma, a great screamlike a mare when her foal is torn from her. I spun around fast, ja! I

The Portuguese had crept close to me, and I heard him panting like a frightened dog.

"I saw a white fire spring over the rail," whispered Olaf Huldricksson. "It whirled round and round, and it

shone like like stars in a whirlwind mist. There was a noise in my ears. It sounded like bellslittle bells,

ja! Like the music you make when you run your finger round goblets. It made me sick and dizzythe hell

"My Helma wasindeholdewhat you sayin the middle of the white fire. She turned her face to me and

she turned it on the child, and my Helma's face burned into my heart. Because it was full of fear, and it was

full of happiness of glaede. I tell you that the fear in my Helma's face made me ice here"he beat his

breast with clenched hand "but the happiness in it burned on me like fire. And I could not moveI could

"I said in here"he touched his head"I said, 'It is Loki come out of Helvede. But he cannot take my

Helma, for Christ lives and Loki has no power to hurt my Helma or my Freda! Christ lives! Christ lives!' I

said. But the sparkling devil did not let my Helma go. It drew her to the rail; half over it. I saw her eyes upon

the child and a little she broke away and reached to it. And my Freda jumped into her arms. And the fire

wrapped them both and they were gone! A little I saw them whirling on the moon track behind the

"The sparkling devil took them! Loki was loosed, and he had power. I turned the Brunhilda, and I followed

where my Helma and mine Yndling had gone. My boys crept up and asked me to turn again. But I would not.

They dropped a boat and left me. I steered straight on the path. I lashed my hands to the wheel that sleep

"Where was the God I prayed when my wife and child were taken?" cried Olaf Huldrickssonand it was as

though I heard Throckmartin asking that same bitter question. "I have left Him as He left me, ja! I pray now

to Thor and to Odin, who can fetter Loki." He sank back, covering again his eyes.

"Olaf," I said, "what you have called the sparkling devil has taken ones dear to me. I, too, was following it

when we found you. You shall go with me to its home, and there we will try to take from it your wife and

your child and my friends as well. But now that you may be strong for what is before us, you must sleep

Olaf Huldricksson looked upon me and in his eyes was that something which souls must see in the eyes of

Him the old Egyptians called the Searcher of Hearts in the Judgment Hall of Osiris.

He stretched out an arm at my bidding. I gave him a second injection. He lay back and soon he was sleeping.

I turned toward Da Costa. His face was livid and sweating, and he was trembling pitiably. O'Keefe stirred.

"You did that mighty well, Dr. Goodwin," he said. "So well that I almost believed you myself."

"Nuts!" he said. I was a little shocked, I admit. "I think he's crazy, Dr. Goodwin," he corrected himself,

"There's no need for any anxiety tonight, Captain," I said. "Take my word for it. You need some rest yourself.

"I do wish you would, Dr. Goodwin, sair," he answered gratefully. "Tomorrow, when I feel bettairI would

I nodded. He did know something then! I mixed him an opiate of considerable strength. He took it and went

I locked the door behind him and then, sitting beside the sleeping Norseman, I told O'Keefe my story from

end to end. He asked few questions as I spoke. But after I had finished he crossexamined me rather minutely

upon my recollections of the radiant phases upon each appearance, checking these with Throckmartin's

"Not what you seem to think, Dr. Goodwin," he answered at last, gravely. "Let me sleep over it. One thing of

course is certainyou and your friend Throckmartin and this man here sawsomething. But" he was

silent again and then continued with a kindness that I found vaguely irritating "but I've noticed that when a

"Here's a few things I can tell you now though," he went on while I struggled to speak"I pray in my heart

that we'll meet neither the Dolphin nor anything with wireless on board going up. Because, Dr. Goodwin, I'd

"And another thing," said O'Keefe. "After thiscut out the trimmings, Doc, and call me plain Larry, for

whether I think you're crazy or whether I don't, you're there with the nerve, Professor, and I'm for YOU.

"Good night!" said Larry and took himself out to the deck hammock he had insisted upon having slung for

And it was with extremely mixed emotions as to his compliment that I watched him go. Superstitious. I,

whose pride was my scientific devotion to fact and fact alone! Superstitious and this from a man who

believed in banshees and ghostly harpers and Irish wood nymphs and no doubt in leprechauns and all their

Half laughing, half irritated, and wholly happy in even the part promise of Larry O'Keefe's comradeship on

my venture, I arranged a couple of pillows, stretched myself out on two chairs and took up my vigil beside

WHEN I awakened the sun was streaming through the cabin porthole. Outside a fresh voice lilted. I lay on

my two chairs and listened. The song was one with the wholesome sunshine and the breeze blowing stiffly

The little red lark is shaking his wings, Straight from the breast of his love he springs

His wings and his feathers are sunrise red, He hails the sun and his golden head, Good morning, Doc, you are

This last was a most irreverent interpolation, I well knew. I opened my door. O'Keefe stood outside laughing.

The Suwarna, her engines silent, was making fine headway under all sail, the Brunhilda skipping in her wake

The sea was crisping and dimpling under the wind. Blue and white was the world as far as the eye could

reach. Schools of little silvery green flying fish broke through the water rushing on each side of us; flashed

for an instant and were gone. Behind us gulls hovered and dipped. The shadow of mystery had retreated far

over the rim of this wide awake and beautiful world and if, subconsciously, I knew that somewhere it was

brooding and waiting, for a little while at least I was consciously free of its oppression.

He was answered by Huldricksson himself, who must have risen just as I left the cabin. The Norseman had

slipped on a pair of pajamas and, giant torso naked under the sun, he strode out upon us. We all of us looked

at him a trifle anxiously. But Olaf's madness had left him. In his eyes was much sorrow, but the berserk rage

"We go first to Ponape and from there to Metalanim Harbour to the NanMatal. You know the place?"

He looked at Da Costa inquiringly and the little Portuguese, following his thought, answered his unspoken

A restraint fell upon us; the embarrassment all men experience when they feel a great sympathy and a great

pity, to neither of which they quite know how to give expression. By silent consent we discussed at breakfast

When the meal was over Huldricksson expressed a desire to go aboard the Brunhilda.

The Suwarna hove to and Da Costa and he dropped into the small boat. When they reached the Brunhilda's

deck I saw Olaf take the wheel and the two fall into earnest talk. I beckoned to O'Keefe and we stretched

ourselves out on the bow hatch under cover of the foresail. He lighted a cigarette, took a couple of leisurely

"Well," said O'Keefe, "suppose you tell me what you thinkand then I'll proceed to point out your scientific

"Larry," I replied, somewhat severely, "you may not know that I have a scientific reputation which, putting

aside all modesty, I may say is an enviable one. You used a word last night to which I must interpose serious

objection. You more than hinted that I hidsuperstitions. Let me inform you, Larry O'Keefe, that I am solely

a seeker, observer, analyst, and synthesist of facts. I am not"and I tried to make my tone as pointed as my

words"I am not a believer in phantoms or spooks, leprechauns, banshees, or ghostly harpers."

"Forgive me, Goodwin," he gasped. "But if you could have seen yourself solemnly disclaiming the

banshee" another twinkle showed in his eyes"and then with all this sunshine and this wideopen

world"he shrugged his shoulders"it's hard to visualize anything such as you and Huldricksson have

"I know how hard it is, Larry," I answered. "And don't think I have any idea that the phenomenon is

supernatural in the sense spiritualists and table turners have given that word. I do think it is supernormal;

energized by a force unknown to modern sciencebut that doesn't mean I think it outside the radius of

"Tell me your theory, Goodwin," he said. I hesitated for not yet had I been able to put into form to satisfy

"I think," I hazarded finally, "it is possible that some members of that race peopling the ancient continent

which we know existed here in the Pacific, have survived. We know that many of these islands are

honeycombed with caverns and vast subterranean spaces, literally underground lands running in some cases

far out beneath the ocean floor. It is possible that for some reason survivors of this race sought refuge in the

abysmal spaces, one of whose entrances is on the islet where Throckmartin's party met its end.

"As for their persistence in these cavernswe know they possessed a high science. They may have gone far

in the mastery of certain universal forms of energyespecially that we call light. They may have developed

a civilization and a science far more advanced than ours. What I call the Dweller may be one of the results of

this science. Larryit may well be that this lost race is planning to emerge again upon earth's surface!"

"And is sending out your Dweller as a messenger, a scientific dove from their Ark?" I chose to overlook the

"In Papua," I explained, "there is a widespread and immeasurably old tradition that 'imprisoned under the

hills' is a race of giants who once ruled this region 'when it stretched from sun to sun before the moon god

drew the waters over it'I quote from the legend. Not only in Papua but throughout Malaysia you find this

story. And, so the tradition runs, these peoplethe Chamatswill one day break through the hills and rule

the world; 'make over the world' is the literal translation of the constant phrase in the tale. It was Herbert

Spencer who pointed out that there is a basis of fact in every myth and legend of man. It is possible that these

*1William Beebe, the famous American naturalist and ornithologist, recently fighting in France with

America's air force, called attention to this remarkable belief in an article printed not long ago in the Atlantic

Monthly. Still more significant was it that he noted a persistent rumour that the breaking out of the buried

"This much is surethe moon door, which is clearly operated by the action of moon rays upon some

unknown element or combination and the crystals through which the moon rays pour down upon the pool

their prismatic columns, are humanly made mechanisms. So long as they are humanly made, and so long as it

IS this flood of moonlight from which the Dweller draws its power of materialization, the Dweller itself, if

not the product of the human mind, is at least dependent upon the product of the human mind for its

"Wait a minute, Goodwin," interrupted O'Keefe. "Do you mean to say you think that this thing is made

"Moonlight," I replied, "is, of course, reflected sunlight. But the rays which pass back to earth after their

impact on the moon's surface are profoundly changed. The spectroscope shows that they lose practically all

the slower vibrations we call red and infrared, while the extremely rapid vibrations we call the violet and

ultraviolet are accelerated and altered. Many scientists hold that there is an unknown element in the

moonperhaps that which makes the gigantic luminous trails that radiate in all directions from the lunar

"At any rate, whether by the loss of the vibrations of the red or by the addition of this mysterious force, the

light of the moon becomes something entirely different from mere modified sunlightjust as the addition or

subtraction of one other chemical in a compound of several makes the product a substance with entirely

"Now these rays, Larry, are given perhaps still another mysterious activity by the globes through which

Throckmartin said they passed in the Chamber of the Moon Pool. The result is the necessary factor in the

formation of the Dweller. There would be nothing scientifically improbable in such a process. Kubalski, the

great Russian physicist, produced crystalline forms exhibiting every faculty that we call vital by subjecting

certain combinations of chemicals to the action of highly concentrated rays of various colours. Something in

light and nothing else produced their pseudovitality. We do not begin to know how to harness the

"Listen, Doc," said Larry earnestly, "I'll take everything you say about this lost continent, the people who

used to live on it, and their caverns, for granted. But by the sword of Brian Boru, you'll never get me to fall

for the idea that a bunch of moonshine can handle a big woman such as you say Throckmartin's Thora was,

nor a twofisted man such as you say Throckmartin was, nor Huldricksson's wifeand I'll bet she was one

of those strapping big northern women tooyou'll never get me to believe that any bunch of concentrated

moonshine could handle them and take them waltzing off along a moonbeam back to wherever it goes. No,

"All right, O'Keefe," I answered, now very much irritated indeed. "What's your theory?" And I could not

"Professor," he grinned, "if that Thing's a fairy it's Irish and when it sees me it'll be so glad there'll be nothing

to it. 'I was lost, strayed, or stolen, Larry avick,' it'll say, 'an' I was so homesick for the old sod I was desp'rit,'

it'll say, an' 'take me back quick before I do any more harrm!' it'll tell mean' that's the truth.

"Now don't get me wrong. I believe you all saw something all right. But what I think you saw was some kind

of gas. All this region is volcanic and islands and things are constantly poking up from the sea. It's probably

gas; a volcanic emanation; something new to us and that drives you crazy lots of kinds of gas do that. It hit

the Throckmartin party on that island and they probably were all more or less delirious all the time; thought

they saw things; talked it over andcollective hallucinationjust like the Angels of Mons and other

miracles of the war. Somebody sees something that looks like something else. He points it out to the man

next him. 'Do you see it?' asks he. 'Sure I see it,' says the other. And there you arecollective hallucination.

"When your friends got it bad they most likely jumped overboard one by one. Huldricksson sails into a place

where it is and it hits his wife. She grabs the child and jumps over. Maybe the moon rays make it luminous!

I've seen gas on the front under the moon that looked like a thousand whirling dervish devils. Yes, and you

could see the devil's faces in it. And if it got into your lungs nothing could ever make you think you hadn't

"Larry," I said at last, "whether you are right or I am right, I must go to the NanMatal. Will you go with me,

"Goodwin," he replied, "I surely will. I'm as interested as you are. If we don't run across the Dolphin I'll stick.

I'll leave word at Ponape, to tell them where I am should they come along. If they report me dead for a while

there's nobody to care. So that's all right. Only old man, be reasonable. You've thought over this so long,

And again, the gladness that I might have Larry O'Keefe with me, was so great that I forgot to be angry.

DA COSTA, who had come aboard unnoticed by either of us, now tapped me on the arm.

"Doctair," he said, when we had entered, "this is a veree strange thing that has happened to Olaf. Veree

"Of what they fear I know nothing, nothing!" Again that quick, furtive crossing of himself. "But this I have to

tell you. There came to me from Ranaloa last month a man, a Russian, a doctair, like you. His name it was

Marakinoff. I take him to Ponape an' the natives there they will not take him to the NanMatal where he wish

to gono! So I take him. We leave in a boat, wit' much instrument carefully tied up. I leave him there wit'

the boat an' the food. He tell me to tell no one an' pay me not to. But you are a friend an' Olaf he depend

"You know nothing more than this, Da Costa?" I asked. "Nothing of another expedition?"

"No," his eyes were steady as he answered but the pallor had crept again into his face.

I was not so sure. But if he knew more than he had told me why was he afraid to speak? My anxiety deepened

"A Russian, eh," he said. "Well, they can be damned nice, or damnedotherwise. Considering what you did

Next morning we raised Ponape, without further incident, and before noon the Suwarna and the Brunhilda

had dropped anchor in the harbour. Upon the excitement and manifest dread of the natives, when we sought

among them for carriers and workmen to accompany us, I will not dwell. It is enough to say that no payment

we offered could induce a single one of them to go to the NanMatal. Nor would they say why.

Finally it was agreed that the Brunhilda should be left in charge of a halfbreed Chinaman, whom both Da

Costa and Huldricksson knew and trusted. We piled her longboat up with my instruments and food and

camping equipment. The Suwarna took us around to Metalanim Harbour, and there, with the tops of ancient

sea walls deep in the blue water beneath us, and the ruins looming up out of the mangroves, a scant mile from

Then with Huldricksson manipulating our small sail, and Larry at the rudder, we rounded the titanic wall that

swept down into the depths, and turned at last into the canal that Throckmartin, on his map, had marked as

that which, running between frowning NanTauach and its satellite islet, Tau, led straight to the gate of the

And as we entered that channel we were enveloped by a silence; a silence so intense, soweighted that it

seemed to have substance; an alien silence that clung and stifled and still stood aloof from usthe living. It

was a stillness, such as might follow the long tramping of millions into the grave; it wasparadoxical as it

Standing down in the chambered depths of the Great Pyramid I had known something of such silencebut

never such intensity as this. Larry felt it and I saw him look at me askance. If Olaf, sitting in the bow, felt it,

too, he gave no sign; his blue eyes, with again the glint of ice within them, watched the channel before us.

As we passed, there arose upon our left sheer walls of black basalt blocks, cyclopean, towering fifty feet or

In front of us the mangroves widened out and filled the acanal. On our right the lesser walls of Tau, sombre

blocks smoothed and squared and set with a cold, mathematical nicety that filled me with vague awe, slipped

by. Through breaks I caught glimpses of dark ruins and of great fallen stones that seemed to crouch and

menace us, as we passed. Somewhere there, hidden, were the seven globes that poured the moon fire down

Now we were among the mangroves and, sail down, the three of us pushed and pulled the boat through their

tangled roots and branches. The noise of our passing split the silence like a profanation, and from the ancient

bastions came murmurs forbidding, strangely sinister. And now we were through, floating on a little open

space of shadowfilled water. Before us lifted the gateway of NanTauach, gigantic, broken, incredibly old;

shattered portals through which had passed men and women of earth's dawn; old with a weight of years that

pressed leadenly upon the eyes that looked upon it, and yet was in some curious indefinable

Beyond the gate, back from the portals, stretched a flight of enormous basalt slabs, a giant's stairway indeed;

and from each side of it marched the high walls that were the Dweller's pathway. None of us spoke as we

grounded the boat and dragged it upon a halfsubmerged pier. And when we did speak it was in whispers.

"I think we ought to take a look around," I replied in the same low tones. "We'll climb the wall here and take

Huldricksson, his blue eyes alert, nodded. With the greatest difficulty we clambered up the broken blocks.

To the east and south of us, set like children's blocks in the midst of the sapphire sea, lay dozens of islets,

none of them covering more than two square miles of surface; each of them a perfect square or oblong within

On none was there sign of life, save for a few great birds that hovered here and there, and gulls dipping in the

We turned our gaze down upon the island on which we stood. It was, I estimated, about threequarters of a

mile square. The sea wall enclosed it. it was really an enormous basaltsided open cube, and within it two

other open cubes. The enclosure between the first and second wall was stone paved, with here and there a

broken pillar and long stone benches. The hibiscus, the aloe tree, and a number of small shrubs had found

I shook my head. There was no sign of life here. Had Marakinoff goneor had the Dweller taken him, too?

Whatever had happened, there was no trace of him below us or on any of the islets within our range of vision.

"We start the search now, Olaf," I said. "And first, O'Keefe, let us see whether the grey stone is really here.

After that we will set up camp, and while I unpack, you and Olaf search the island. It won't take long."

Larry gave a look at his service automatic and grinned. "Lead on, Macduff," he said. We made our way up

the steps, through the outer enclosures and into the central square, I confess to a fire of scientific curiosity and

eagerness tinged with a dread that O'Keefe's analysis might be true. Would we find the moving slab and, if

so, would it be as Throckmartin had described? If so, then even Larry would have to admit that here was

something that theories of gases and luminous emanations would not explain; and the first test of the whole

And there before us, the faintest tinge of grey setting it apart from its neighbouring blocks of basalt, was the

There was no mistaking it. This was, in very deed, the portal through which Throckmartin had seen pass that

gloriously dreadful apparition he called the Dweller. At its base was the curious, seemingly polished cuplike

What was that portalmore enigmatic than was ever sphinx? And what lay beyond it? What did that smooth

stone, whose wan deadness whispered of agesold corridors of time opening out into alien, unimaginable

vistas, hide? It had cost the world of science Throckmartin's great brain as it had cost Throckmartin those

he loved. It had drawn me to it in search of Throckmartinand its shadow had fallen upon the soul of Olaf

the Norseman; and upon what thousands upon thousands more I wondered, since the brains that had

I stretched out a shaking hand and touched the surface of the slab. A faint thrill passed through my hand and

arm, oddly unfamiliar and as oddly unpleasant; as of electric contact holding the very essence of cold.

O'Keefe, watching, imitated my action. As his fingers rested on the stone his face filled with astonishment.

"It's the door?" he asked. I nodded. There was a low whistle from him and he pointed up toward the top of the

grey stone. I followed the gesture and saw, above the moon door and on each side of it, two gently curving

"There's nothing we can do till moonrise," I replied. "And we've none too much time to prepare as it is.

A little later we were beside our boat. We lightered it, set up the tent, and as it was now but a short hour to

sundown I bade them leave me and make their search. They went off together, and I busied myself with

First of all I took out the two Becquerel raycondensers that I had bought in Sydney. Their lenses would

collect and intensify to the fullest extent any light directed upon them. I had found them most useful in

making spectroscopic analysis of luminous vapours, and I knew that at Yerkes Observatory splendid results

had been obtained from them in collecting the diffused radiance of the nebulae for the same purpose.

If my theory of the grey slab's mechanism were correct, it was practically certain that with the satellite only a

few nights past the full we could concentrate enough light on the bosses to open the rock. And as the ray

streams through the seven globes described by Throckmartin would be too weak to energize the Pool, we

could enter the chamber free from any fear of encountering its tenant, make our preliminary observations and

go forth before the moon had dropped so far that the concentration in the condensers would fall below that

I took out also a small spectroscope, and a few other instruments for the analysis of certain light

manifestations and the testing of metal and liquid. Finally, I put aside my emergency medical kit.

I had hardly finished examining and adjusting these before O'Keefe and Huldricksson returned. They

reported signs of a camp at least ten days old beside the northern wall of the outer court, but beyond that no

We prepared supper, ate and talked a little, but for the most part were silent. Even Larry's high spirits were

not in evidence; half a dozen times I saw him take out his automatic and look it over. He was more thoughtful

than I had ever seen him. Once he went into the tent, rummaged about a bit and brought out another revolver

which, he said, he had got from Da Costa, and a halfdozen clips of cartridges. He passed the gun over to

At last a glow in the southeast heralded the rising moon. I picked up my instruments and the medical kit;

Larry and Olaf shouldered each a short ladder that was part of my equipment, and, with our electric flashes

pointing the way, walked up the great stairs, through the enclosures, and straight to the grey stone.

By this time the moon had risen and its clipped light shone full upon the slab. I saw faint gleams pass over it

as of fleeting phosphorescencebut so faint were they that I could not be sure of the truth of my observation.

We set the ladders in place. Olaf I assigned to stand before the door and watch for the first signs of its

opening if open it should. The Becquerels were set within threeinch tripods, whose feet I had equipped

I scaled one ladder and fastened a condenser over the boss; descended; sent Larry up to watch it, and,

ascending the second ladder, rapidly fixed the other in its place. Then, with O'Keefe watchful on his perch, I

on mine, and Olaf's eyes fixed upon the moon door, we began our vigil. Suddenly there was an exclamation

But I had already seen those beneath my lens begin to gleam out with a silvery lustre. Swiftly the rays within

the condenser began to thicken and increase, and as they did so the seven small circles waxed like stars

growing out of the dusk, and with a queercurdled is the best word I can find to define itradiance entirely

"The stoneit is open" And then a shriek, a wail of blended anguish and pity, of rage and despairand

I dropped to the ground. The moon door was wide open, and through it I caught a glimpse of a corridor filled

with a faint, pearly vaporous light like earliest misty dawn. But of Olaf I could seenothing! And even as I

stood, gaping, from behind me came the sharp crack of a rifle; the glass of the condenser at Larry's side flew

into fragments; he dropped swiftly to the ground, the automatic in his hand flashed once, twice, into the

I rushed toward the turning stone with the wild idea of holding it open. As I thrust my hands against it there

came at my back a snarl and an oath and Larry staggered under the impact of a body that had flung itself

straight at his throat. He reeled at the lip of the shallow cup at the base of the slab, slipped upon its polished

curve, fell and rolled with that which had attacked him, kicking and writhing, straight through the narrowing

Forgetting all else, I sprang to his aid. As I leaped I felt the closing edge of the moon door graze my side.

Then, as Larry raised a fist, brought it down upon the temple of the man who had grappled with him and rose

from the twitching body unsteadily to his feet, I heard shuddering past me a mournful whisper; spun about as

The end of the corridor no longer opened out into the moonlit square of ruined NanTauach. It was barred by

O'Keefe took a stumbling step toward the barrier behind us. There was no mark of juncture with the shining

"It's shut all right," said Larry. "But if there's a way in, there's a way out. Anyway, Doc, we're right in the pew

we've been heading forso why worry?" He grinned at me cheerfully. The man on the floor groaned, and he

At my exclamation he moved aside, turning the face so I could see it. It was clearly Russian, and just as

The strong, massive brow with orbital ridge unusually developed, the dominant, highbridged nose, the

straight lips with their more than suggestion of latent cruelty, and the strong lines of the jaw beneath a black,

pointed beard all gave evidence that here was a personality beyond the ordinary.

"Couldn't be anybody else," said Larry, breaking in on my thoughts. "He must have been watching us over

Swiftly he ran practised hands over his body; then stood erect, holding out to me two wickedlooking

magazine pistols and a knife. "He got one of my bullets through his right forearm, too," he said. "Just a flesh

wound, but it made him drop his rifle. Some arsenal, our little Russian scientist, what?"

I opened my medical kit. The wound was a slight one, and Larry stood looking on as I bandaged it.

"Got another one of those condensers?" he asked, suddenly. "And do you suppose Olaf will know enough to

"I heard him yell, yes," he said. "But I didn't know what was the matter. And then this wildcat jumped me"

He paused and his eyes widened. "Which way did he go?" he asked swiftly. I pointed down the faintly

"Watch that bird close," hissed O'Keefe, pointing to Marakinoff and pistol in hand stretched his long legs

and raced away. I looked down at the Russian. His eyes were open, and he reached out a hand to me. I lifted

"I have heard," he said. "We follow, quick. If you will take my arm, please, I am shaken yet, yes" I gripped

his shoulder without a word, and the two of us set off down the corridor after O'Keefe. Marakinoff was

gasping, and his weight pressed upon me heavily, but he moved with all the will and strength that were in

As we ran I took hasty note of the tunnel. Its sides were smooth and polished, and the light seemed to come

not from their surfaces, but from far within themgiving to the walls an illusive aspect of distance and

depth; rendering them in a peculiarly weird wayspacious. The passage turned, twisted, ran down, turned

again. It came to me that the light that illumined the tunnel was given out by tiny points deep within the

I gripped Marakinoff's arm closer and we sped on. Now we were coming fast to the end of the passage.

Before us was a high arch, and through it I glimpsed a dim, shifting luminosity as of mist filled with

rainbows. We reached the portal and I looked into a chamber that might have been transported from that

Before me stood O'Keefe and a dozen feet in front of him, Huldricksson, with something clasped tightly in

his arms. The Norseman's feet were at the verge of a shining, silvery lip of stone within whose oval lay a blue

pool. And down upon this pool staring upward like a gigantic eye, fell seven pillars of phantom lightone of

them amethyst, one of rose, another of white, a fourth of blue, and three of emerald, of silver, and of amber.

They fell each upon the azure surface, and I knew that these were the seven streams of radiance, within which

the Dweller took shapenow but pale ghosts of their brilliancy when the full energy of the moon stream

Huldricksson bent and placed on the shining silver lip of the Pool that which he heldand I saw that it was

the body of a child! He set it there so gently, bent over the side and thrust a hand down into the water. And as

he did so he moaned and lurched against the little body that lay before him. Instantly the form movedand

slipped over the verge into the blue. Huldricksson threw his body over the stone, hands clutching, arms thrust

deep downand from his lips issued a longdrawn, heartshrivelling wail of pain and of anguish that held

He leaped forward, but before he could half clear the distance, O'Keefe had leaped too, had caught the

Norseman by the shoulders and toppled him backward, where he lay whimpering and sobbing. And as I

rushed behind Marakinoff I saw Larry lean over the lip of the Pool and cover his eyes with a shaking hand;

Then I stared down myself into the Moon Pool, and there, sinking, was a little maid whose dead face and

fixed, terrorfilled eyes looked straight into mine; and ever sinking slowly, slowlyvanished! And I knew

"You have nitroglycerin there, yes?" he asked, pointing toward my medical kit that I had gripped

unconsciously and carried with me during the mad rush down the passage. I nodded and drew it out.

"Hypodermic," he ordered next, curtly; took the syringe, filled it accurately with its one onehundredth of a

grain dosage, and leaned over Huldricksson. He rolled up the sailor's sleeves halfway to the shoulder. The

arms were white with somewhat of that weird semitranslucence that I had seen on Throckmartin's breast

where a tendril of the Dweller had touched him; and his hands were of the same whitenesslike a baroque

Then he reached down into a belt about his waist and drew from it a small, flat flask of what seemed to be

lead. He opened it and let a few drops of its contents fall on each arm of the Norwegian. The liquid sparkled

and instantly began to spread over the skin much as oil or gasoline dropped on water doesonly far more

rapidly. And as it spread it drew a sparkling film over the marbled flesh and little wisps of vapour rose from

it. The Norseman's mighty chest heaved with agony. His hands clenched. The Russian gave a grunt of

satisfaction at this, dropped a little more of the liquid, and then, watching closely, grunted again and leaned

back. Huldricksson' s laboured breathing ceased, his head dropped upon Larry's knee, and from his arms and

"He will all right be in five minutes," he said. "I know. I do it to pay for that shot of mine, and also because

we will need him. Yes." He turned to Larry. "You have a poonch like a mule kick, my young friend," he said.

"Some time you pay me for that, too, eh?" He smiled; and the quality of the grimace was not exactly

"You're Marakinoff, of course," he said. The Russian nodded, betraying no surprise at the recognition.

"Lieutenant O'Keefe of the Royal Flying Corps," replied Larry, saluting. "And this gentleman is Dr. Walter

"Ah," cried Marakinoff eagerly, "but this is fortunate. Long I have desired to meet you. Your work, for an

American, is most excellent; surprising. But you are wrong in your theory of the development of the

I was interrupting him with considerable heat, for my conclusions from the fossil Cycadeoidea I knew to be

"Say," he spluttered, "am I crazy or are you? What in damnation kind of a place and time is this to start an

"You have not the scientific mind, young friend," he said. "The poonch, yes! But so has the mule. You must

learn that only the fact is importantnot you, not me, not this"he pointed to Huldricksson"or its

sorrows. Only the fact, whatever it is, is real, yes. But"he turned to me"another time"

Huldricksson interrupted him. The big seaman had risen stiffly to his feet and stood with Larry's arm

"I saw her," he whispered. "I saw mine Freda when the stone swung. She lay therejust at my feet. I picked

her up and I saw that mine Freda was dead. But I hopedand I thought maybe mine Helma was somewhere

here, too, So I ran with mine yndlinghere" His voice broke. "I thought maybe she was NOT dead," he

went on. "And I saw that" he pointed to the Moon Pool "and I thought I would bathe her face and she

might live again. And when I dipped my hands withinthe life left them, and cold, deadly cold, ran up

through them into my heart. And mine Fredashe fell" he covered his eyes, and dropping his head on

"Da!" he said. "That which comes from here took them boththe woman and the child. Da! They came

clasped within it and the stone shut upon them. But why it left the child behind I do not understand."

"Because I saw it," answered Marakinoff simply. "Not only did I see it, but hardly had I time to make escape

through the entrance before it passed whirling and murmuring and its bell sounds all joyous. Da! It was what

"Wait a moment," I saidstilling Larry with a gesture. "Do I understand you to say that you were within this

I gaped at him, stricken dumb; into Larry's bellicose attitude crept a suggestion of grudging respect; Olaf,

"Dr. Goodwin and my impetuous young friend, you," went on Marakinoff after a moment's silence and I

wondered vaguely why he did not include Huldricksson in his address"it is time that we have an

understanding. I have a proposal to make to you also. It is this; we are what you call a bad boat, and all of us

are in it. Da! We need all hands, is it not so? Let us put together our knowledge and our brains and

resourcesand even a poonch of a mule is a resource," he looked wickedly at O'Keefe, "and pull our boat

"All very well, Marakinoff," interjected Larry, "but I don't feel very safe in any boat with somebody capable

"It was natural that," he said, "logical, da! Here is a very great secret, perhaps many secrets to my country

invaluable " He paused, shaken by some overpowering emotion; the veins in his forehead grew congested,

"I do not apologize and I do not explain," rasped Marakinoff. "But I will tell you, da! Here is my country

sweating blood in an experiment to liberate the world. And here are the other nations ringing us like wolves

and waiting to spring at our throats at the least sign of weakness. And here are you, Lieutenant O'Keefe of the

English wolves, and you Dr. Goodwin of the Yankee packand here in this place may be that will enable

my country to win its war for the worker. What are the lives of you two and this sailor to that? Less than the

"But that is not now the important thing," he resumed, almost coldly. "Not that nor my shooting. Let us

squarely the situation face. My proposal is so: that we join interests, and what you call see it through

together; find our way through this place and those secrets learn of which I have spoken, if we can. And when

that is done we will go our ways, to his own land each, to make use of them for our lands as each of us may.

On my part, I offer my knowledgeand it is very valuable, Dr. Goodwinand my training. You and

Lieutenant O'Keefe do the same, and this man Olaf, what he can of his strength, for I do not think his

"In effect, Goodwin," broke in Larry as I hesitated, "the professor's proposition is this: he wants to know

what's going on here but he begins to realize it's no one man's job and besides we have the drop on him.

We're three to his one, and we have all his hardware and cutlery. But also we can do better with him than

without himjust as he can do better with us than without us. It's an even breakfor a while. But once he

gets that information he's looking for, then look out. You and Olaf and I are the wolves and the flies and the

midges againand the strafing will be about due. Nevertheless, with three to one against him, if he can get

"It is not just as I would have put it, perhaps," he said, "but in its skeleton he has right. Nor will I turn my

hand against you while we are still in danger here. I pledge you my honor on this."

"All right, Professor," he grinned. "I believe you mean every word you say. Nevertheless, I'll just keep the

"And now," he said, "I will tell you what I know. I found the secret of the door mechanism even as you did,

Dr. Goodwin. But by carelessness, my condensers were broken. I was forced to wait while I sent for

othersand the waiting might be for months. I took certain precautions, and on the first night of this full

An involuntary thrill of admiration for the man went through me at the manifest heroism of this leap in the

"I hid in the vault," continued Marakinoff, "and I saw that which comes from here come out. I waitedlong

hours. At last, when the moon was low, it returnedecstatically with a man, a native, in embrace

enfolded. It passed through the door, and soon then the moon became low and the door closed.

"The next night more confidence was mine, yes. And after that which comes had gone, I looked through its

open door. I said, "It will not return for three hours. While it is away, why shall I not into its home go through

the door it has left open?' So I wenteven to here. I looked at the pillars of light and I tested the liquid of the

Pool on which they fell. That liquid, Dr. Goodwin, is not water, and it is not any fluid known on earth." He

Wonderingly, I took the bottle; dipped it down into the Pool. The liquid was extraordinarily light; seemed, in

fact, to give the vial buoyancy. I held it to the light. It was striated, streaked, as though little living, pulsing

veins ran through it. And its blueness, even in the vial, held an intensity of luminousness.

"Radioactive," said Marakinoff. "Some liquid that is intensely radioactive; but what it is I know not at all.

Upon the living skin it acts like radium raised to the nth power and with an element most mysterious added.

The solution with which I treated him," he pointed to Huldricksson, "I had prepared before I came here, from

certain information I had. It is largely salts of radium and its base is Loeb's formula for the neutralization of

radium and Xray burns. Taking this man at once, before the degeneration had become really active, I could

"Next I studied the nature of these luminous walls. I concluded that whoever had made them, knew the secret

of the Almighty's manufacture of light from the ether itself! Colossal! Da! But the substance of these blocks

confines an atomichow would you sayatomic manipulation, a conscious arrangement of electrons,

lightemitting and perhaps indefinitely so. These blocks are lamps in which oil and wick are electrons

drawing light waves from ether itself! A Prometheus, indeed, this discoverer! I looked at my watch and that

little guardian warned me that it was time to go. I went. That which comes forth returnedthis time

"And the next night I did the same thing. Engrossed in research, I let the moments go by to the danger point,

and scarcely was I replaced within the vault when the shining thing raced over the walls, and in its grip the

Very briefly I went over my story. His eyes gleamed now and then, but he did not interrupt me.

"A great secret! A colossal secret!" he muttered, when I had ended. "We cannot leave it hidden."

"Nevertheless we'll try," said Larry. We retraced our way through the winding tunnel to the end, but soon

even O'Keefe saw that any idea of moving the slab from within was hopeless. We returned to the Chamber of

the Pool. The pillars of light were fainter, and we knew that the moon was sinking. On the world outside

before long dawn would be breaking. I began to feel thirstand the blue semblance of water within the

"Da!" it was Marakinoff, reading my thoughts uncannily. "Da! We will be thirsty. And it will be very bad for

"This place would give an angel of joy the willies," he said. "I suggest that we look around and find

something that will take us somewhere. You can bet the people that built it had more ways of getting in than

that onceamonth family entrance. Doc, you and Olaf take the left wall; the professor and I will take the

"After you, Professor," he bowed, politely, to the Russian. We parted and set forth.

The chamber widened out from the portal in what seemed to be the arc of an immense circle. The shining

walls held a perceptible curve, and from this curvature I estimated that the roof was fully three hundred feet

The floor was of smooth, mosaicfitted blocks of a faintly yellow tinge. They were not lightemitting like

the blocks that formed the walls. The radiance from these latter, I noted, had the peculiar quality of

THICKENING a few yards from its source, and it was this that produced the effect of misty, veiled distances.

As we walked, the seven columns of rays streaming down from the crystalline globes high above us waned

steadily; the glow within the chamber lost its prismatic shimmer and became an even grey tone somewhat

Now before us, out from the wall, jutted a low terrace. It was all of a pearly rosecoloured stone, slender,

graceful pillars of the same hue. The face of the terrace was about ten feet high, and all over it ran a

basrelief of what looked like shorttrailing vines, surmounted by five stalks, on the tip of each of which was

We passed along the terrace. It turned in an abrupt curve. I heard a hail, and there, fifty feet away, at the

curving end of a wall identical with that where we stood, were Larry and Marakinoff. Obviously the left side

of the chamber was a duplicate of that we had explored. We joined. In front of us the columned barriers ran

back a hundred feet, forming an alcove. The end of this alcove was another wall of the same rose stone, but

We took a step forwardthere was a gasp of awe from the Norseman, a guttural exclamation from

Marakinoff. For on, or rather within, the wall before us, a great oval began to glow, waxed almost to a flame

and then shone steadily out as though from behind it a light was streaming through the stone itself!

And within the roseate oval two flametipped shadows appeared, stood for a moment, and then seemed to

float out upon its surface. The shadows wavered; the tips of flame that nimbused them with flickering points

of vermilion pulsed outward, drew back, darted forth again, and once more withdrew themselvesand as

they did so the shadows thickened and suddenly there before us stood two figures!

One was a girla girl whose great eyes were golden as the fabled lilies of KwanYung that were born of the

kiss of the sun upon the amber goddess the demons of LaoTz'e carved for him; whose softly curved lips

And the second was a gigantic frogA WOMAN frog, head helmeted with carapace of shell around which a

fillet of brilliant yellow jewels shone; enormous round eyes of blue circled with a broad iris of green;

monstrous body of banded orange and white girdled with strand upon strand of the flashing yellow gems; six

feet high if an inch, and with one webbed paw of its short, powerfully muscled forelegs resting upon the

Moments must have passed as we stood in stark amazement, gazing at that incredible apparition. The two

figures, although as real as any of those who stood beside me, unphantomlike as it is possible to be, had a

They were there before usgoldeneyed girl and grotesque frogwomancomplete in every line and

curve; and still it was as though their bodies passed back through distances; as though, to try to express the

wellnigh inexpressible, the two shapes we were looking upon were the end of an infinite number stretching in

fine linked chain far away, of which the eyes saw only the nearest, while in the brain some faculty higher

The gigantic eyes of the frogwoman took us all in unwinkingly. Little glints of phosphorescence shone

out within the metallic green of the outer iris ring. She stood upright, her great legs bowed; the monstrous slit

of a mouth slightly open, revealing a row of white teeth sharp and pointed as lancets; the paw resting on the

girl's shoulder, half covering its silken surface, and from its five webbed digits long yellow claws of polished

But if the frogwoman regarded us all, not so did the maiden of the rosy wall. Her eyes were fastened upon

Larry, drinking him in with extraordinary intentness. She was tall, far over the average of women, almost as

tall, indeed, as O'Keefe himself; not more than twenty years old, if that, I thought. Abruptly she leaned

forward, the golden eyes softened and grew tender; the red lips moved as though she were speaking.

Larry took a quick step, and his face was that of one who after countless births comes at last upon the twin

soul lost to him for ages. The frogwoman turned her eyes upon the girl; her huge lips moved, and I knew

that she was talking! The girl held out a warning hand to O'Keefe, and then raised it, resting each finger upon

one of the five flowers of the carved vine close beside her. Once, twice, three times, she pressed upon the

flower centres, and I noted that her hand was curiously long and slender, the digits like those wonderful

Three times she pressed the flowers, and then looked intently at Larry once more. A slow, sweet smile curved

the crimson lips. She stretched both hands out toward him again eagerly; a burning blush rose swiftly over

Like the clicking out of a cinematograph, the pulsing oval faded and goldeneyed girl and frogwoman were

And thus it was that Lakla, the handmaiden of the Silent Ones, and Larry O'Keefe first looked into each

"Eilidh," I heard him whisper; "Eilidh of the lips like the red, red rowan and the goldenbrown hair!"

"Clearly of the Ranadae," said Marakinoff, "a development of the fossil Labyrinthodonts: you saw her teeth,

"What do you meanfossils and Stego whatever it is?" he asked. "She was a girl, a wonder girla real girl,

"Say," he said, "if you two had been in the Garden of Eden when Eve took the apple, you wouldn't have had

He strode swiftly over to the wall. We followed. Larry paused, stretched his hand up to the flowers on which

"It was here she put up her hand," he murmured. He pressed caressingly the carved calyxes, once, twice, a

third time even as she hadand silently and softly the wall began to split; on each side a great stone pivoted

slowly, and before us a portal stood, opening into a narrow corridor glowing with the same rosy lustre that

"Have your gun ready, Olaf!" said Larry. "We follow Golden Eyes," he said to me.

"Follow!" he said. "She came to show us the way! Follow? I'd follow her through a thousand hells!"

And with Olaf at one end, O'Keefe at the other, both of them with automatics in hand, and Marakinoff and I

At our right, a few feet away, the passage ended abruptly in a square of polished stone, from which came

faint rose radiance. The roof of the place was less than two feet over O'Keefe's head.

A yard at left of us lifted a fourfoot high, gently curved barricade, stretching from wall to walland beyond

it was blackness; an utter and appalling blackness that seemed to gather itself from infinite depths. The

roseglow in which we stood was cut off by the blackness as though it had substance; it shimmered out to

meet it, and was checked as though by a blow; indeed, so strong was the suggestion of sinister, straining force

within the rayless opacity that I shrank back, and Marakinoff with me. Not so O'Keefe. Olaf beside him, he

"Flash your pocketlight down there," be said to me, pointing into the thick darkness below us. The little

electric circle quivered down as though afraid, and came to rest upon a surface that resembled nothing so

much as clear, black ice. I ran the light acrosshere and there. The floor of the corridor was of a substance

so smooth, so polished, that no man could have walked upon it; it sloped downward at a slowly increasing

"We'd have to have nonskid chains and brakes on our feet to tackle that," mused Larry. Abstractedly be ran

his hands over the edge on which he was leaning. Suddenly they hesitated and then gripped tightly.

"That's a queer one!" he exclaimed. His right palm was resting upon a rounded protuberance, on the side of

There was a sharp click; the slabs that had opened to let us through swung swiftly together; a curiously rapid

vibration thrilled through us, a wind arose and passed over our headsa wind that grew and grew until it

became a whistling shriek, then a roar and then a mighty humming, to which every atom in our bodies pulsed

Wrapped in the clinging, impenetrable blackness we were racing, dropping, hurling at a frightful

And ever that awful humming of the rushing wind and the lightning cleaving of the tangible darkso, it

came to me oddly, must the newly released soul race through the sheer blackness of outer space up to that

I felt Marakinoff creep close to me; gripped my nerve and flashed my pocketlight; saw Larry standing,

peering, peering ahead, and Huldricksson, one strong arm around his shoulders, bracing him. And then the

Millions of miles, it seemed, below the sound of the unearthly hurricane I heard Larry's voice, thin and

The wind died down to the roar, passed back into the whistling shriek and diminished to a steady whisper. In

"Some little shootthechutes, what?" he shouted. "Say if they had this at Coney Island or the Crystal

Palace! Press all the way in these holes and she goes tophigh. Diminish pressurediminish speed. The

curve of thisdashboard here sends the wind shooting up over our headslike a windshield. What's

I flashed the light back. The mechanism on which we were ended in another wall exactly similar to that over

"Well, we can't fall out, anyway," he laughed. "Wish to hell I knew where the brakes were! Look out!"

We dropped dizzily down an abrupt, seemingly endless slope; fellfell as into an abyssthen shot abruptly

out of the blackness into a throbbing green radiance. O'Keefe's fingers must have pressed down upon the

controls, for we leaped forward almost with the speed of light. I caught a glimpse of luminous immensities on

the verge of which we flew; of depths inconceivable, and flitting through the incredible spacesgigantic

shadows as of the wings of Israfel, which are so wide, say the Arabs, the world can cower under them like a

"What was that?" This from Larry, with the nearest approach to awe that he had yet shown.

"Have you considered, Dr. Goodwin," be went on after a pause, "a curious thing? We know, or, at least, is it

not that nine out of ten astronomers believe, that the moon was hurled out of this same region we now call the

Pacific when the earth was yet like molasses; almost molten, I should say. And is it not curious that that

which comes from the Moon Chamber needs the moonrays to bring it forth; is it not? And is it not

significant again that the stone depends upon the moon for operating? Da! And lastsuch a space in mother

earth as we just glimpsed, how else could it have been torn but by some gigantic birthlike that of the

moon? Da! I do not put forward these as statements of factno! But as suggestions"

I started; there was so much that this might explainan unknown element that responded to the moonrays

in opening the moon door; the blue Pool with its weird radioactivity, and the force within it that reacted to the

It was not inconceivable that a film had drawn over the world wound, a film of earthflesh which drew itself

over that colossal abyss after our planet had borne its satellite that world womb did not close when her

shining child sprang forthit was possible; and all that we know of earth depth is four miles of her eight

What is there at the heart of earth? What of that radiant unknown element upon the moon mount Tycho?

What of that element unknown to us as part of earth which is seen only in the corona of the sun at eclipse that

we call coronium ? Yet the earth is child of the sun as the moon is earth's daughter. And what of that other

unknown element we find glowing green in the farflung nebulaegreen as that we had just passed

throughand that we call nebulium? Yet the sun is child of the nebulae as the earth is child of the sun and

And what miracles are there in coronium and nebulium which, as the child of nebula and sun, we inherit?

"SAY DOC!" It was Larry's voice flung back at me. "I was thinking about that frog. I think it was her pet.

Damn me if I see any difference between a frog and a snake, and one of the nicest women I ever knew had

two pet pythons that followed her around like kittens. Not such a devilish lot of choice between a frog and a

snakeexcept on the side of the frog? What? Anyway, any pet that girl wants is hers, I don't care if it's a

By which I knew that our remarks upon the frog woman were still bothering O'Keefe.

"He thinks of foolish nothings like the foolish sailor!" grunted Marakinoff, acid contempt in his words. "What

are their women tothis?" He swept out a hand and as though at a signal the car poised itself for an instant,

then dipped, literally dipped down into sheer space; skimmed forward in what was clearly curved flight, rose

Far ahead a point of light showed; grew steadily; we were within itand softly all movement ceased. How

acute had been the strain of our journey I did not realize until I tried to standand sank back, legmuscles

too shaky to bear my weight. The car rested in a slit in the centre of a smooth walled chamber perhaps twenty

feet square. The wall facing us was pierced by a low doorway through which we could see a flight of steps

The light streamed through a small opening, the base of which was twice a tall man's height from the floor. A

curving flight of broad, low steps led up to it. And now it came to my steadying brain that there was

something puzzling, peculiar, strangely unfamiliar about this light. It was silvery, shaded faintly with a

delicate blue and flushed lightly with a nacreous rose; but a rose that differed from that of the terraces of the

Pool Chamber as the rose within the opal differs from that within the pearl. In it were tiny, gleaming points

like the motes in a sunbeam, but sparkling white like the dust of diamonds, and with a quality of vibrant

A little breeze came through the oval and played about us. It was laden with what seemed the mingled breath

of spice flowers and pines. It was curiously vivifying, and in it the diamonded atoms of light shook and

I stepped out of the car, the Russian following, and began to ascend the curved steps toward the opening, at

the top of which O'Keefe and Olaf already stood. As they looked out I saw both their faces changeOlaf's

At first all that I could see was spacea space filled with the same coruscating effulgence that pulsed about

me. I glanced upward, obeying that instinctive impulse of earth folk that bids them seek within the sky for

sources of light. There was no skyat least no sky such as we knowall was a sparkling nebulosity rising

into infinite distances as the azure above the dayworld seems to fill all the heavens through it ran pulsing

waves and flashing javelin rays that were like shining shadows of the aurora; echoes, octaves lower, of those

brilliant arpeggios and chords that play about the poles. My eyes fell beneath its splendour; I stared outward.

Miles away, gigantic luminous cliffs sprang sheer from the limits of a lake whose waters were of milky

opalescence. It was from these cliffs that the spangled radiance came, shimmering out from all their lustrous

surfaces. To left and to right, as far as the eye could see, they stretchedand they vanished in the auroral

"Look at that!" exclaimed Larry. I followed his pointing finger. On the face of the shining wall, stretched

between two colossal columns, hung an incredible veil; prismatic, gleaming with all the colours of the

spectrum. It was like a web of rainbows woven by the fingers of the daughters of the Jinn. In front of it and a

little at each side was a semicircular pier, or, better, a plaza of what appeared to be glistening, paleyellow

ivory. At each end of its halfcircle clustered a few lowwalled, rosestone structures, each of them

We looked at each other, I think, a bit helplesslyand back again through the opening. We were standing, as

I have said, at its base. The wall in which it was set was at least ten feet thick, and so, of course, all that we

could see of that which was without were the distances that revealed themselves above the outer ledge of the

He crept out upon the ledge and peered down, the rest of us following. A hundred yards beneath us stretched

gardens that must have been like those of manycolumned Iram, which the ancient Addite King had built for

his pleasure ages before the deluge, and which Allah, so the Arab legend tells, took and hid from man, within

the Sahara, beyond all hope of findingjealous because they were more beautiful than his in paradise.

Within them flowers and groves of laced, fernlike trees, pillared pavilions nestled.

The trunks of the trees were of emerald, of vermilion, and of azureblue, and the blossoms, whose fragrance

was borne to us, shone like jewels. The graceful pillars were tinted delicately. I noted that the pavilions were

doublein a way, twostoriedand that they were oddly splotched with circles, with squares, and with

oblongs ofopacity; noted too that over many this opacity stretched like a roof; yet it did not seem material;

Down through this city of gardens ran a broad shining green thoroughfare, glistening like glass and spanned

at regular intervals with graceful, arched bridges. The road flashed to a wide square, where rose, from a base

of that same silvery stone that formed the lip of the Moon Pool, a titanic structure of seven terraces; and along

it flitted objects that bore a curious resemblance to the shell of the Nautilus. Within them werehuman

And between the two the gardens grew sweetly down to the hither side of that opalescent water across which

Thus it was that we first saw the city of the Dweller; blessed and accursed as no place on earth, or under or

above earth has ever beenor, that force willing which some call God, ever again shall be!

"Listen, Olaf!" said Larry. "Cut out that Trolldom stuff! There's no Trolldom, or fairies, outside Ireland. Get

that! And this isn't Ireland. And, buck up, Professor!" This to Marakinoff. "What you see down there are

"There's no way in but inand no way out but out," said O'Keefe. "And there's the stairway. Eggs are eggs

no matter how they're cookedand people are just people, fellow travellers, no matter what dish they are in,"

"YOU'D better have this handy, Doc." O'Keefe paused at the head of the stairway and handed me one of the

"When you need it you'll get it," answered O'Keefe. "I'll tell you frankly, though, Professor, that you'll have

"You say always just what is in your mind, Lieutenant O'Keefe," he mused. "Dathat I shall remember!"

Later I was to recall this odd observationand Marakinoff was to remember indeed.

In single file, O'Keefe at the head and Olaf bringing up the rear, we passed through the portal. Before us

dropped a circular shaft, into which the light from the chamber of the oval streamed liquidly; set in its sides

the steps spiralled, and down them we went, cautiously. The stairway ended in a circular well; silentwith

no trace of exit! The rounded stones joined each other evenlyhermetically. Carved on one of the slabs was

one of the five flowered vines. I pressed my fingers upon the calyxes, even as Larry had within the Moon

A crackhorizontal, four feet wideappeared on the wall; widened, and as the sinking slab that made it

dropped to the level of our eyes, we looked through a hundredfeetlong rift in the living rock! The stone fell

steadilyand we saw that it was a Cyclopean wedge set within the slit of the passageway. It reached the

level of our feet and stopped. At the far end of this tunnel, whose floor was the polished rock that had, a

moment before, fitted hermetically into its roof, was a low, narrow triangular opening through which light

"Nowhere to go but out!" grinned Larry. "And I'll bet Golden Eyes is waiting for us with a taxi!" He stepped

forward. We followed, slipping, sliding along the glassy surface; and I, for one, had a lively apprehension of

what our fate would be should that enormous mass rise before we had emerged! We reached the end; crept

We stood upon a wide ledge carpeted with a thick yellow moss. I looked behindand clutched O'Keefe's

arm. The door through which we had come had vanished! There was only a precipice of pale rock, on whose

surfaces great patches of the amber moss hung; around whose base our ledge ran, and whose summits, if

summits it had, were hidden, like the luminous cliffs, in the radiance above us.

"Nowhere to go but aheadand Golden Eyes hasn't kept her date!" laughed O'Keefebut somewhat grimly.

We walked a few yards along the ledge and, rounding a corner, faced the end of one of the slender bridges.

From this vantage point the oddly shaped vehicles were plain, and we could see they were, indeed, like the

shell of the Nautilus and elfinly beautiful. Their drivers sat high upon the forward whorl. Their bodies were

piled high with cushions, upon which lay women halfswathed in gay silken webs. From the pavilioned

gardens smaller channels of glistening green ran into the broad way, much as automobile runways do on

There came a shout from one. Its occupants had glimpsed us. They pointed; others stopped and stared; one

shell turned and sped up a runwayand quickly over the other side of the bridge came a score of men. They

were dwarfednone of them more than five feet high, prodigiously broad of shoulder, clearly enormously

"Trolde!" muttered Olaf, stepping beside O'Keefe, pistol swinging free in his hand.

But at the middle of the bridge the leader stopped, waved back his men, and came toward us alone, palms

outstretched in the immemorial, universal gesture of truce. He paused, scanning us with manifest wonder; we

returned the scrutiny with interest. The dwarf's face was as white as Olaf'sfar whiter than those of the other

three of us; the features cleancut and noble, almost classical; the wide set eyes of a curious greenish grey and

Dwarfed though he was, there was no suggestion of deformity about him. The gigantic shoulders were

covered with a loose green tunic that looked like fine linen. It was caught in at the waist by a broad girdle

studded with what seemed to be amazonites. In it was thrust a long curved poniard resembling the Malaysian

kris. His legs were swathed in the same green cloth as the upper garment. His feet were sandalled.

My gaze returned to his face, and in it I found something subtly disturbing; an expression of halfmalicious

gaiety that underlay the wholly prepossessing features like a vague threat; a mocking deviltry that hinted at

entire callousness to suffering or sorrow; something of the spirit that was vaguely alien and disquieting.

He spokeand, to my surprise, enough of the words were familiar to enable me clearly to catch the meaning

of the whole. They were Polynesian, the Polynesian of the Samoans which is its most ancient form, but in

some indefinable way archaic. Later I was to know that the tongue bore the same relation to the Polynesian

of today as does NOT that of Chaucer, but of the Venerable Bede, to modern English. Nor was this to be so

astonishing, when with the knowledge came the certainty that it was from it the language we call Polynesian

"From whence do you come, strangersand how found you your way here?" said the green dwarf.

I waved my hand toward the cliff behind us. His eyes narrowed incredulously; he glanced at its drop, upon

"We came through the rock," I answered his thought. "And we come in peace," I added.

"And may peace walk with you," he said halfderisively "if the Shining One wills it!"

"Show me, strangers, where you came through the rock," he commanded. We led the way to where we had

"It closed behind us," I answered; and then, for the first time, realized how incredible the explanation

sounded. The derisive gleam passed through his eyes again. But he drew his poniard and gravely sounded the

"You give a strange turn to our speech," he said. "It sounds strangely, indeedas strange as your answers."

He looked at us quizzically. "I wonder where you learned it! Well, all that you can explain to the Afyo Maie."

His head bowed and his arms swept out in a wide salaam. "Be pleased to come with me!" he ended abruptly.

"Oh, come on, Doc!" cried Larry. "As long as we're here let's see the sights. Allons mon vieux!" he called

gaily to the green dwarf. The latter, understanding the spirit, if not the words, looked at O'Keefe with a

twinkle of approval; turned then to the great Norseman and scanned him with admiration; reached out and

"Lugur will welcome you, at least," he murmured as though to himself. He stood aside and waved a hand

courteously, inviting us to pass. We crossed. At the base of the span one of the elfin shells was waiting.

Beyond, scores had gathered, their occupants evidently discussing us in much excitement. The green dwarf

waved us to the piles of cushions and then threw himself beside us. The vehicle started off smoothly, the now

silent throng making way, and swept down the green roadway at a terrific pace and wholly without vibration,

As we flew along I tried to discover the source of the power, but I could notthen. There was no sign of

mechanism, but that the shell responded to some form of energy was certainthe driver grasping a small

We turned abruptly and swept up a runway through one of the gardens, and stopped softly before a pillared

pavilion. I saw now that these were much larger than I had thought. The structure to which we had been

carried covered, I estimated, fully an acre. Oblong, with its slender, varicoloured columns spaced regularly,

The green dwarf hurried us up a flight of broad steps flanked by great carved serpents, winged and scaled. He

stamped twice upon mosaicked stones between two of the pillars, and a screen rolled aside, revealing an

immense hall scattered about with low divans on which lolled a dozen or more of the dwarfish men, dressed

They sauntered up to us leisurely; the surprised interest in their faces tempered by the same inhumanly gay

The green dwarf nodded, beckoned us, and led the way through the great hall and into a smaller chamber

whose far side was covered with the opacity I had noted from the aerie of the cliff. I examined

It had neither substance nor texture; it was not matter and yet it suggested solidity; an entire cessation, a

complete absorption of light; an ebon veil at once immaterial and palpable. I stretched, involuntarily, my

"Do you seek your end so soon?" whispered Rador. "But I forgetyou do not know," he added. "On your

He stopped, for abruptly in the density a portal appeared; swinging out of the shadow like a picture thrown by

a lantern upon a screen. Through it was revealed a chamber filled with a soft rosy glow. Rising from

cushioned couches, a woman and a man regarded us, half leaning over a long, low table of what seemed

About the roomthat part of it, at least, that I could see were a few oddly shaped chairs of the same

substance. On high, silvery tripods three immense globes stood, and it was from them that the rose glow

emanated. At the side of the woman was a smaller globe whose roseate gleam was tempered by quivering

Rador bowed deeply and stood aside, motioning us to pass. We entered, the green dwarf behind us, and out of

the corner of my eye I saw the doorway fade as abruptly as it had appeared and again the dense shadow fill its

The woman, sober scientist that I am, made the breath catch in my throat. Never had I seen a woman so

beautiful as was Yolara of the Dweller's cityand none of so perilous a beauty. Her hair was of the colour of

the young tassels of the corn and coiled in a regal crown above her broad, white brows; her wide eyes were of

grey that could change to a cornflower blue and in anger deepen to purple; grey or blue, they had little

laughing devils within them, but when the storm of anger darkened themthey were not laughing, no! The

silken webs that half covered, half revealed her did not hide the ivory whiteness of her flesh nor the sweet

curve of shoulders and breasts. But for all her amazing beauty, she wassinister! There was cruelty about

the curving mouth, and in the music of her voicenot conscious cruelty, but the more terrifying, careless

The girl of the rose wall had been beautiful, yes! But her beauty was human, understandable. You could

imagine her with a babe in her armsbut you could not so imagine this woman. About her loveliness

hovered something unearthly. A sweet feminine echo of the Dweller was Yolara, the Dweller' s

AS I LOOKED at her the man arose and made his way round the table toward us. For the first time my eyes

took in Lugur. A few inches taller than the green dwarf, he was far broader, more filled with the suggestion of

The tremendous shoulders were four feet wide if an inch, tapering down to mighty thewed thighs. The

muscles of his chest stood out beneath his tunic of red. Around his forehead shone a chaplet of brightblue

Upon his face pride and ambition were written large and power still larger. All the mockery, the malice,

the hint of callous indifference that I had noted in the other dwarfish men were there, toobut intensified,

"Who are you strangers, and how came you here?" She turned to Rador. "Or is it that they do not understand

"One understands and speaks itbut very badly, O Yolara," answered the green dwarf.

But it was Marakinoff who found his voice first, and I marvelled at the fluency, so much greater than mine,

"We came for different purposes. I to seek knowledge of a kind; he"pointing to me "of another. This

The greyblue eyes had been regarding O'Keefe steadily and with plainly increasing interest.

"And why did YOU come?" she asked him. "NayI would have him speak for himself, if he can," she

When Larry spoke it was haltingly, in the tongue that was strange to him, searching for the proper words.

"I came to help these menand because something I could not then understand called me, O lady, whose

eyes are like forest pools at dawn," he answered; and even in the unfamiliar words there was a touch of the

Irish brogue, and little merry lights danced in the eyes Larry had so apostrophized.

"I could find fault with your speech, but none with its burden," she said. "What forest pools are I know not,

and the dawn has not shone upon the people of Lora these many sais of laya.1 But I sense what you mean!"

*1 Later I was to find that Murian reckoning rested upon the extraordinary increased luminosity of the cliffs

at the time of full moon on earththis action, to my mind, being linked either with the effect of the light

streaming globes upon the Moon Pool, whose source was in the shining cliffs, or else upon some mysterious

affinity of their radiant element with the flood of moonlight on earththe latter, most probably, because

even when the moon must have been clouded above, it made no difference in the phenomenon. Thirteen of

these shinings forth constituted a laya, one of them a lat. Ten was sa; ten times ten times ten a said, or

thousand; ten times a thousand was a sais. A sais of laya was then literally ten thousand years. What we

would call an hour was by them called a va. The whole time system was, of course, a mingling of time as it

had been known to their remote, surfacedwelling ancestors, and the peculiar determining factors in the vast

"Are there many like you in the world from which you come?" she asked softly. "Well, we soon shall"

She darted a quick look at him, and again the little devils danced in her wondrous eyes.

Unquestionably there is a subtle difference between time as we know it and time in this subterranean

landits progress there being slower. This, however, is only in accord with the wellknown doctrine of

relativity, which predicates both space and time as necessary inventions of the human mind to orient itself to

the conditions under which it finds itself. I tried often to measure this difference, but could never do so to my

entire satisfaction. The closest I can come to it is to say that an hour of our time is the equivalent of an hour

and fiveeighths in Muria. For further information upon this matter of relativity the reader may consult any

"In the world above," he said, "there are ruins of cities not built by any of those who now dwell there. To us

these places called, and we sought for knowledge of the wise ones who made them. We found a passageway.

The way led us downward to a door in yonder cliff, and through it we came here."

"Then have you found what you sought?" spoke she. "For we are of those who built the cities. But this

"After we passed, it closed upon us; nor could we after find trace of it," answered Marakinoff.

The incredulity that had shown upon the face of the green dwarf fell upon theirs; on Lugur's it was clouded

And there was so fierce a fire in the eyes of Lugur as he swung back upon us that O'Keefe's hand slipped

"Best it is to speak truth to Yolara, priestess of the Shining One, and to Lugur, the Voice," he cried

"It is the truth," I interposed. "We came down the passage. At its end was a carved vine, a vine of five

flowers"the fire died from the red dwarf's eyes, and I could have sworn to a swift pallor. "I rested a hand

upon these flowers, and a door opened. But when we had gone through it and turned, behind us was nothing

I had taken my cue from Marakinoff. If he had eliminated the episode of car and Moon Pool, he had good

reason, I had no doubt; and I would be as cautious. And deep within me something cautioned me to say

nothing of my quest; to stifle all thought of Throckmartinsomething that warned, peremptorily, finally, as

He thrust forward a long arm. Upon the thumb of the hand was an immense ring, set with a dullblue stone.

Graven on the face of the jewel was the symbol of the rosy walls of the Moon Chamber that had opened to us

their two portals. But cut over the vine were seven circles, one about each of the flowers and two larger ones

"The strangers are weary, Lugur," she said. "When they are rested they shall show where the rocks opened."

I sensed a subtle change in their attitude toward us; a new intentness; a doubt plainly tinged with

apprehension. What was it they feared? Why had the symbol of the vine wrought the change? And who or

Yolara's eyes turned to Olaf, hardened, and grew cold grey. Subconsciously I had noticed that from the first

the Norseman had been absorbed in his regard of the pair; had, indeed, never taken his gaze from them; had

He returned her scrutiny fearlessly, a touch of contempt in the clear eyeslike a child watching a snake

I caught a quickly repressed gleam in O'Keefe's eyes. He knew, as I knew, that Olaf must have understood.

"This man is a sailor from what we call the North," thus Larry haltingly. "He is crazed, I think. He tells a

strange tale of a something of cold fire that took his wife and babe. We found him wandering where we were.

And because he is strong we brought him with us. That is all, O lady, whose voice is sweeter than the honey

"A shape of cold fire that whirled beneath the moon, with the sound of little bells," answered Larry, watching

"Then he, too, is fortunate," she said. "For he has come to the place of his something of cold fireand tell

Upon the Norseman's face there was no hint of comprehension, and at that moment I formed an entirely new

opinion of Olaf's intelligence; for certainly it must have been a prodigious effort of the will, indeed, that

He looked at Yolara with wellassumed gratitude. Lugur, who had been scanning his bulk, drew close. He

"But he shall meet Valdor and Tahola before he sees those kin of his," he laughed mockingly. "And if he

A shudder, quickly repressed, shook the seaman's frame. The woman bent her supremely beautiful head.

"These two," she said, pointing to the Russian and to me, "seem to be men of learning. They may be useful.

As for this man,"she smiled at Larry"I would have him explain to me some things." She hesitated.

"What 'honey of 'e wild beess' is." Larry had spoken the words in English, and she was trying to repeat

them. "As for this man, the sailor, do as you please with him, Lugur; always remembering that I have given

my word that he shall join that wife and babe of his!" She laughed sweetly, sinisterly. "And nowtake them,

She stretched out a hand toward O'Keefe. The Irishman bowed low over it, raised it softly to his lips. There

was a vicious hiss from Lugur; but Yolara regarded Larry with eyes now all tender blue.

We turned to go. The rosy, azureshot globe at her side suddenly dulled. From it came a faint bell sound as of

chimes far away. She bent over it. It vibrated, and then its surface ran with little waves of dull colour; from it

came a whispering so low that I could not distinguish the wordsif words they were.

"They have brought the three who blasphemed the Shining One," she said slowly. "Now it is in my mind to

And again it ran swiftly with its film of colours, darkened, and shone rosy once more. From without there

came a rustle of many feet upon the rugs. Yolara pressed a slender hand upon the base of the pedestal of the

globe beside her. Abruptly the light faded from all, and on the same instant the four walls of blackness

vanished, revealing on two sides the lovely, unfamiliar garden through the guarding rows of pillars; at our

backs soft draperies hid what lay beyond; before us, flanked by flowered screens, was the corridor through

The dwarfs advanced. Each, I now noted, had the same clustering black hair of Rador. They separated, and

from them stepped three figuresa youth of not more than twenty, short, but with the great shoulders of all

the males we had seen of this race; a girl of seventeen, I judged, whitefaced, a head taller than the boy, her

long, black hair dishevelled; and behind these two a stunted, gnarled shape whose head was sunk deep

between the enormous shoulders, whose white beard fell like that of some ancient gnome down to his waist,

and whose eyes were a white flame of hate. The girl cast herself weeping at the feet of the priestess; the youth

"You are Songar of the Lower Waters?" murmured Yolara almost caressingly. "And this is your daughter and

"It has come to me that you three have dared blaspheme the Shining One, its priestess, and its Voice," went

on Yolara smoothly. "Also that you have called out to the three Silent Ones. Is it true?"

"Your spies have spokenand have you not already judged us?" The voice of the old dwarf was bitter.

A flicker shot through the eyes of Yolara, again cold grey. The girl reached a trembling hand out to the hem

"Tell us why you did these things, Songar," she said. "Why you did them, knowing full well what

"Because evil are your thoughts and evil are your deeds," he cried. "Yours and your lover's, there"he

levelled a finger at Lugur. "Because of the Shining One you have made evil, too, and the greater wickedness

you contemplate you and he with the Shining One. But I tell you that your measure of iniquity is full; the

tale of your sin near ended! Yeathe Silent Ones have been patient, but soon they will speak." He pointed at

"Is it even so, Songar?" her voice caressed. "Now ask the Silent Ones to help you! They sit afarbut surely

they will hear you." The sweet voice was mocking. "As for these two, they shall pray to the Shining One for

forgivenessand surely the Shining One will take them to its bosom! As for youyou have lived long

enough, Songar! Pray to the Silent Ones, Songar, and pass out into the nothingnessyou!"

She dipped down into her bosom and drew forth something that resembled a small cone of tarnished silver.

She levelled it, a covering clicked from its base, and out of it darted a slender ray of intense green light.

It struck the old dwarf squarely over the heart, and spread swift as light itself, covering him with a gleaming,

pale film. She clenched her hand upon the cone, and the ray disappeared. She thrust the cone back into her

breast and leaned forward expectantly; so Lugur and so the other dwarfs. From the girl came a low wail of

For the moment the white beard stood rigid; then the robe that had covered him seemed to melt away,

revealing all the knotted, monstrous body. And in that body a vibration began, increasing to incredible

rapidity. It wavered before us like a reflection in a still pond stirred by a sudden wind. It grew and grewto

a rhythm whose rapidity was intolerable to watch and that still chained the eyes.

The figure grew indistinct, misty. Tiny sparks in infinite numbers leaped from itlike, I thought, the radiant

shower of particles hurled out by radium when seen under the microscope. Mistier still it grewthere

trembled before us for a moment a faintly luminous shadow which held, here and there, tiny sparkling atoms

like those that pulsed in the light about us! The glowing shadow vanished, the sparkling atoms were still for a

"You have seen," she said. Her eyes lingered tigerishly upon Olaf's pallid face. "Heed!" she whispered. She

"The justice of Lora," said the red dwarf. "The justice of Lora and the Shining One under Thanaroa!"

Upon the utterance of the last word I saw Marakinoff start violently. The hand at his side made a swift,

surreptitious gesture, so fleeting that I hardly caught it. The red dwarf stared at the Russian, and there was

"Yolara," the red dwarf spoke, "it would please me to take this man of wisdom to my own place for a time.

And as, shaken to the core, we passed out into the garden into the full throbbing of the light, I wondered if all

the tiny sparkling diamond points that shook about us had once been men like Songar of the Lower

OUR WAY led along a winding path between banked masses of softly radiant blooms, groups of feathery

ferns whose plumes were starred with fragrant white and blue flowerets, slender creepers swinging from the

branches of the strangely trunked trees, bearing along their threads orchidlike blossoms both delicately frail

The path we trod was an exquisite mosaicpastel greens and pinks upon a soft grey base, garlands of

nimbused forms like the flaming rose of the Rosicrucians held in the mouths of the flying serpents. A smaller

Upon its threshold Rador paused, bowed deeply, and motioned us within. The chamber we entered was large,

closed on two sides by screens of grey; at the back gay, concealing curtains. The low table of blue stone,

dressed with fine white cloths, stretched at one side flanked by the cushioned divans.

At the left was a high tripod bearing one of the rosy globes we had seen in the house of Yolara; at the head of

the table a smaller globe similar to the whispering one. Rador pressed upon its base, and two other screens

He clapped his hands; the curtains parted, and two girls came through them. Tall and willow lithe, their

bluishblack hair falling in ringlets just below their white shoulders, their clear eyes of forgetmenot blue,

and skins of extraordinary fineness and puritythey were singularly attractive. Each was clad in an

extremely scanty bodice of silken blue, girdled above a kirtle that came barely to their very pretty knees.

Before I could question him further upon this extraordinary statement the pair reentered, bearing a great

platter on which were small loaves, strange fruits, and three immense flagons of rock crystaltwo filled with

a slightly sparkling yellow liquid and the third with a purplish drink. I became acutely sensible that it had

been hours since I had either eaten or drunk. The yellow flagons were set before Larry and me, the purple at

The girls, at his signal, again withdrew. I raised my glass to my lips and took a deep draft. The taste was

Almost at once my fatigue disappeared. I realized a clarity of mind, an interesting exhilaration and sense of

irresponsibility, of freedom from care, that were oddly enjoyable. Larry became immediately his old gay self.

The green dwarf regarded us whimsically, sipping from his great flagon of rock crystal.

"Much do I desire to know of that world you came from," he said at last"through the rocks," he added,

Should I ask him of the Dweller; seek from him a clue to Throckmartin? Again, clearly as a spoken

"Let us learn, then, from each other." The dwarf was laughing. "And firstare all above like youdrawn

"There are" I hesitated, and at last spoke the Polynesian that means tens upon tens multiplied

indefinitely"there are as many as the drops of water in the lake we saw from the ledge where you found

us," I continued; "many as the leaves on the trees without. And they are all like us varyingly."

"In Muria," he said at last, "the men are like me or like Lugur. Our women are as you see themlike Yolara

or those two who served you." He hesitated. "And there is a third; but only one."

"Brownhaired with glints of ruddy bronze, goldeneyed, and lovely as a dream, with long, slender, beautiful

"Saw her?" Larry recovered himself. "Nay, Rador, perhaps, I only dreamed that there was such a woman."

"See to it, then, that you tell not your dream to Yolara," said the dwarf grimly. "For her I meant and her you

have pictured is Lakla, the handmaiden to the Silent Ones, and neither Yolara nor Lugur, nay, nor the

"Nay," he answered, "ask me no more of her." He was silent for a space. "And what do you who are as leaves

or drops of water do in that world of yours?" he said, plainly bent on turning the subject.

"Keep off the goldeneyed girl, Larry," I interjected. "Wait till we find out why she's tabu."

"Love and battle, strive and accomplish and die; or fail and die," answered Larryto Radorgiving me a

"How great indeed I do not know," he said frankly at last. "The land where we dwell with the Shining One

stretches along the white waters for" He used a phrase of which I could make nothing. "Beyond this city of

the Shining One and on the hither shores of the white waters dwell the mayia ladalathe common ones." He

took a deep draft from his flagon. "There are, first, the fairhaired ones, the children of the ancient rulers," he

continued. "There are, second, we the soldiers; and last, the mayia ladala, who dig and till and weave and toil

and give our rulers and us their daughters, and dance with the Shining One!" he added.

"The fairhaired, under the Council of Nine, who are under Yolara, the Priestess and Lugur, the Voice," he

answered, "who are in turn beneath the Shining One!" There was a ring of bitter satire in the last.

"They were of the mayia ladala," he replied, "like those two I gave you. But they grow restless. They do not

like to dance with the Shining Onethe blasphemers!" He raised his voice in a sudden great shout of

In his words I caught a fleeting picture of the racean ancient, luxurious, closebred oligarchy clustered

about some mysterious deity; a soldier class that supported them; and underneath all the toiling, oppressed

Without warning the globe beside us sent out a vicious note, Rador turned toward it, his face paling. Its

"Ask me no more questions, strangers," he said. "And now, if you are done, I will show you where you may

He arose abruptly. We followed him through the hangings, passed through a corridor and into another smaller

chamber, roofless, the sides walled with screens of dark grey. Two cushioned couches were there and a

curtained door leading into an open, outer enclosure in which a fountain played within a wide pool.

"Your bath," said Rador. He dropped the curtain and came back into the room. He touched a carved flower at

one side. There was a tiny sighing from overhead and instantly across the top spread a veil of blackness,

impenetrable to light but certainly not to air, for through it pulsed little breaths of the garden fragrances. The

room filled with a cool twilight, refreshing, sleepinducing. The green dwarf pointed to the couches.

"Sleep!" he said. "Sleep and fear nothing. My men are on guard outside." He came closer to us, the old

"But I spoke too quickly," he whispered. "Whether it is because the Afyo Maie fears their tonguesor" he

laughed at Larry. "The maids are NOT yours!" Still laughing he vanished through the curtains of the room of

the fountain before I could ask him the meaning of his curious gift, its withdrawal, and his most enigmatic

"Back in the great old days of Ireland," thus Larry breaking into my thoughts raptly, the brogue thick, "there

was Cairill mac CairillCairill Swiftspear. An' Cairill wronged Keevan of Emhain Abhlach, of the blood of

Angus of the great people when he was sleeping in the likeness of a pale reed. Then Keevan put this penance

on Cairillthat for a year Cairill should wear his body in Emhain Abhlach, which is the Land of Faery and

"In that year Cairill met Emar of the Birds that are one white, one red, and one blackand they loved, and

from that love sprang Ailill their son. And when Ailill was born he took a reed flute and first he played

slumber on Cairill, and then he played old age so that Cairill grew white and withered; then Ailill played

again and Cairill became a shadow then a shadow of a shadowthen a breath; and the breath went out

upon the wind!" He shivered. "Like the old gnome," he whispered, "that they called Songar of the Lower

"But that was in Iceland ages agone. And there's nothing like that here, Doc!" He laughed. "It doesn't scare

me one little bit, old boy. The pretty devil lady's got the wrong slant. When you've had a pal standing beside

you one moment full of life, and joy, and power, and potentialities, telling what he's going to do to make

the world hum when he gets through the slaughter, just running over with zip and pep of life, Docand the

next instant, right in the middle of a laugha piece of damned shell takes off half his head and with it joy

and power and all the rest of it"his face twitched"well, old man, in the face of THAT mystery a

disappearing act such as the devil lady treated us to doesn't make much of a dent. Not on me. But by the

brogans of Brian Boruif we could have had some of that stuff to turn on during the waroh, boy!"

He was silent, evidently contemplating the idea with vast pleasure. And as for me, at that moment my last

doubt of Larry O'Keefe vanished, I saw that he did believe, really believed, in his banshees, his leprechauns

In one drawer of his mind was packed all his superstition, his mysticism, and what of weakness it might

carry. But face him with any peril or problem and the drawer closed instantaneously leaving a mind that was

utterly fearless, incredulous, and ingenious; swept clean of all cobwebs by as fine a skeptic broom as ever

"Some stuff!" Deepest admiration was in his voice. "If we'd only had it when the war was onimagine half a

dozen of us scooting over the enemy batteries and the gunners underneath all at once beginning to shake

"It's easy enough to explain, Larry," I said. "The effect, that isfor what the green ray is made of I don't

know, of course. But what it does, clearly, is stimulate atomic vibration to such a pitch that the cohesion

between the particles of matter is broken and the body flies to bitsjust as a flywheel does when its speed

"Absolutely right," I nodded. "Everything in Nature vibrates. And all matterwhether man or beast or stone

or metal or vegetableis made up of vibrating molecules, which are made up of vibrating atoms which are

made up of truly infinitely small particles of electricity called electrons, and electrons, the base of all matter,

"If a magnifying glass of sufficient size and strength could be placed over us we could see ourselves as

sievesour space lattice, as it is called. And all that is necessary to break down the lattice, to shake us into

nothingness, is some agent that will set our atoms vibrating at such a rate that at last they escape the unseen

"The green ray of Yolara is such an agent. It set up in the dwarf that incredibly rapid rhythm that you saw

"They had a gun on the West Fronta seventyfive," said O'Keefe, "that broke the eardrums of everybody

who fired it, no matter what protection they used. It looked like all the other seventyfivesbut there was

"It's practically the same thing," I replied. "By some freak its vibratory qualities had that effect. The deep

whistle of the sunken Lusitania would, for instance, make the Singer Building shake to its foundations; while

the Olympic did not affect the Singer at all but made the Woolworth shiver all through. In each case they

I paused, aware all at once of an intense drowsiness. O'Keefe, yawning, reached down to unfasten his puttees.

"Lord, I'm sleepy!" he exclaimed. "Can't understand it what you saymostinterestingLord!" he

yawned again; straightened. "What made Reddy take such a shine to the Russian?" he asked.

"When Lugur spoke that name I saw Marakinoff signal him. Thanaroa is, I suspect, the original form of the

name of Tangaroa, the greatest god of the Polynesians. There's a secret cult to him in the islands. Marakinoff

may belong to ithe knows it anyway. Lugur recognized the signal and despite his surprise answered it."

"The cult is a very ancient one. Undoubtedly it had its origin in the dim beginnings before these people

migrated here," I replied. "It's a linkoneof the few links between up there and the lost past"

"Trouble then," mumbled Larry. "Hell brewing! I smell it Say, Doc, is this sleepiness natural? Wonder

But I myself was struggling desperately against the drugged slumber pressing down upon me.

"Lakla!" I heard O'Keefe murmur. "Lakla of the golden eyesno Eilidhthe Fair!" He made an immense

"Thought this was paradise when I first saw it, Doc," he sighed. "But I know now, if it is, NoMan's Land

was the greatest place on earth for a honeymoon. Theythey've got us, Doc" He sank back. "Good luck,

old boy, wherever you're going." His hand waved feebly. "Gladknewyou. Hopeseeyou'gain"

His voice trailed into silence. Fighting, fighting with every fibre of brain and nerve against the sleep, I felt

myself being steadily overcome. Yet before oblivion rushed down upon me I seemed to see upon the

greyscreened wall nearest the Irishman an oval of rosy light begin to glow; watched, as my falling lids

inexorably fell, a flametipped shadow waver on it; thicken; condenseand there looking down upon Larry,

her eyes great golden stars in which intensest curiosity and shy tenderness struggled, sweet mouth half

smiling, was the girl of the Moon Pool's Chamber, the girl whom the green dwarf had namedLakla: the

vision Larry had invoked before that sleep which I could no longer deny had claimed him

I AWAKENED with all the familiar, homely sensation of a shade having been pulled up in a darkened room.

I thrilled with a wonderful sense of deep rest and restored resiliency. The ebon shadow had vanished from

above and down into the room was pouring the silvery light. From the fountain pool came a mighty splashing

and shouts of laughter. I jumped and drew the curtain. O'Keefe and Rador were swimming a wild race; the

Had that overpowering sleepand now I confess that my struggle against it had been largely inspired by fear

that it was the abnormal slumber which Throckmartin had described as having heralded the approach of the

Dweller before it had carried away Thora and Stantonhad that sleep been after all nothing but natural

And that last vision of the goldeneyed girl bending over Larry? Had that also been a delusion of an

overstressed mind? Well, it might have been, I could not tell. At any rate, I decided, I would speak about it to

O'Keefe once we were alone againand then giving myself up to the urge of buoyant wellbeing I shouted

like a boy, stripped and joined the two in the pool. The water was warm and I felt the unwonted tingling of

life in every vein increase; something from it seemed to pulse through the skin, carrying a clean vigorous

vitality that toned every fibre. Tiring at last, we swam to the edge and drew ourselves out. The green dwarf

"The Afyo Maie has summoned us, Doc," he said. "We're towellI suppose you'd call it breakfast with

her. After that, Rador tells me, we're to have a session with the Council of Nine. I suppose Yolara is as

curious as any lady ofthe upper world, as you might put itand just naturally can't wait," he added.

He gave himself a last shake, patted the automatic hidden under his left arm, whistled cheerfully,

"After you, my dear Alphonse," he said to Rador, with a low bow. The dwarf laughed, bent in an absurd

imitation of Larry's mocking courtesy and started ahead of us to the house of the priestess. When he had gone

"See anything!" he grinned. "Doc, sleep hit me like a Hun shell. I thought they were pulling the gas on us.

II had some intention of bidding you tender farewells," he continued, half sheepishly. "I think I did start

"Well," he answered slowly, "I suppose it was because I'd been thinking ofGolden Eyes. Anyway, I

thought she came through the wall and leaned over meyes, and put one of those long white hands of hers

on my headI couldn't raise my lidsbut in some queer way I could see her. Then it got real dreamish.

But through me went a little glow of reassurance. Whatever the maze through which we were moving;

whatever of menacing evil lurking therethe Golden Girl was clearly watching over us; watching with

We passed the pillared entrance; went through a long bowered corridor and stopped before a door that

seemed to be sliced from a monolith of pale jadehigh, narrow, set in a wall of opal.

Rador stamped twice and the same supernally sweet, silver bell tones ofyesterday, I must call it, although

in that place of eternal day the term is meaninglessbade us enter. The door slipped aside. The chamber was

small, the opal walls screening it on three sides, the black opacity covering it, the fourth side opening out into

a delicious little walled garden a mass of the fragrant, luminous blooms and delicately colored fruit. Facing

it was a small table of reddish wood and from the omnipresent cushions heaped around it arose to greet

Larry drew in his breath with an involuntary gasp of admiration and bowed low. My own admiration was as

She was swathed in the filmy, halfrevelant webs, now of palest blue. The cornsilk hair was caught within a

widemeshed golden net in which sparkled tiny brilliants, like blended sapphires and diamonds. Her own

azure eyes sparkled as brightly as they, and I noted again in their clear depths the halfeager approval as they

rested upon O'Keefe's lithe, wellknit figure and his keen, cleancut face. The higharched, slender feet rested

upon soft sandals whose gauzy withes laced the exquisitely formed leg to just below the dimpled knee.

"Some giddy wonder!" exclaimed Larry, looking at me and placing a hand over his heart. "Put her on a New

"I said, O lady whose shining hair is a web for hearts, that in our world your beauty would dazzle the sight of

men as would a little woman sun!" he said, in the florid imagery to which the tongue lends itself so well.

A flush stole up through the translucent skin. The blue eyes softened and she waved us toward the cushions.

Blackhaired maids stole in, placing before us the fruits, the little loaves and a steaming drink somewhat the

"Nothing like getting acquainted quick," he said to me but kept his eyes upon Yolara as though he were

voicing another honeyed phrase. And so she took it, for: "You must teach me your tongue," she murmured.

"Then shall I have two words where now I have one to tell you of your loveliness," he answered.

"And also that'll take time," he spoke to me. "Essential occupation out of which we can't be drafted to make

"Larree," mused Yolara. "I like the sound. It is sweet" and indeed it was as she spoke it.

"And what is your land named, Larree?" she continued. "And Goodwin's?" She caught the sound perfectly.

She repeated the two namesslowly, over and over. We seized the opportunity to attack the food; halting

"Oh, but you are hungry!" she cried. "Eat then." She leaned her chin upon her hands and regarded us, whole

"How is it, Larree, that you have two countries and Goodwin but one?" she asked, at last unable to keep silent

"I was born in Ireland; he in America. But I have dwelt long in his land and my heart loves each," he said.

"Are all the men of Ireland like you, Larree? As all the men here are like Lugur or Rador? I like to look at

you," she went on, with naive frankness. "I am tired of men like Lugur and Rador. But they are strong," she

added, swiftly. "Lugur can hold up ten in his two arms and raise six with but one hand."

We could not understand her numerals and she raised white fingers to illustrate.

"That is little, O lady, to the men of Ireland," replied O'Keefe. "Lo, I have seen one of my race hold up ten

"Hold up ten times twenty of our corials with but two fingersand these corials of ours"

"And these coria of ours are each greater in weight than ten of yours. Yes, and I have seen another with but

"And so I have," he murmured to me. "And both at Fortysecond and Fifth Avenue, N. Y.U. S. A."

"Well," answered O'Keefe. "Say Muria then. In many ways they are, I gather, O heart's delight, one and the

"None of our men can do THAT!" she answered, at length. "Nor do I think you could, Larree."

"Oh, no," said Larry easily. "I never tried to be that strong. I fly," he added, casually.

"Not with my own wings, Yolara. In aa corial that moves throughwhat's the word for air, Docwell,

through this" He made a wide gesture up toward the nebulous haze above us. He took a pencil and on a

white cloth made a hasty sketch of an airplane. "In aa corial like this" She regarded the sketch gravely,

thrust a hand down into her girdle and brought forth a keenbladed poniard; cut Larry's markings out and

"Remarkably intelligent young woman," muttered O'Keefe. "Hope I'm not giving anything awaybut she

"But what are your women like, Larree? Are they like me? And how many have loved you?" she whispered.

"In all Ireland and America there is none like you, Yolara," he answered. "And take that any way you please,"

"Now that I do not believe." There was both anger and mockery in her eyes. "I know women, Larreeand if

"There isn't!" replied he. The anger died out and she laughed, sweetly, understandingly.

But the priestess was laughinglittle trills of sweet bell notes; and pleasure was in each note.

"You are indeed bold, Larree," she said, "to offer me your worship. Yet am I pleased by your boldness.

StillLugur is strong; and you are not of those whowhat did you say have tried. And your wings are

The laughter died; she looked at him searchingly; a little enigmatic smile about her mouthso sweet and so

"Wellwe shall see," she murmured. "You say you battle in your world. With what?"

"Have you the KethI mean that with which I sent Songar into the nothingness?" she asked swiftly.

"See what she's driving at?" O'Keefe spoke to me, swiftly. "Well I do! But here's where the O'Keefe lands.

"I said," he turned to her, "O voice of silver fire, that your spirit is high even as your beautyand searches

out men's souls as does your loveliness their hearts. And now listen, Yolara, for what I speak is truth"into

his eyes came the faraway gaze; into his voice the Irish softness"Lo, in my land of Ireland, this many of

your life's length agonesee" he raised his ten fingers, clenched and unclenched them times twenty"the

mighty men of my race, the TaithadaDainn, could send men out into the nothingness even as do you with

the Keth. And this they did by their harpings, and by words spokenwords of power, O Yolara, that have

"There was Cravetheen who played swift flames from his harp, flying flames that ate those they were sent

against. And there was Dalua, of Hy Brasil, whose pipes played away from man and beast and all living

things their shadows and at last played them to shadows too, so that wherever Dalua went his shadows that

had been men and beast followed like a storm of little rustling leaves; yea, and Bel the Harper, who could

make women's hearts run like wax and men's hearts flame to ashes and whose harpings could shatter strong

His eyes were bright, dreamfilled; she shrank a little from him, faint pallor under the perfect skin.

"I say to you, Yolara, that these things were and are in Ireland." His voice rang strong. "And I have seen

men as many as those that are in your great chamber this many times over"he clenched his hands once

more, perhaps a dozen times"blasted into nothingness before your Keth could even have touched them.

Yeaand rocks as mighty as those through which we came lifted up and shattered before the lids could fall

over your blue eyes. And this is truth, Yolaraall truth! Stayhave you that little cone of the Keth with

"Then use it." He took a vase of crystal from the table, placed it on the threshold that led into the garden.

The exaltation dropped from him; there was a touch of horror in the eyes he turned to her; her own dropped

"It shall be as you say," she said hurriedly. She drew the shining cone from her breast; levelled it at the vase.

The green ray leaped forth, spread over the crystal, but before its action could even be begun, a flash of light

shot from O'Keefe's hand, his automatic spat and the trembling vase flew into fragments. As quickly as he

had drawn it, he thrust the pistol back into place and stood there empty handed, looking at her sternly. From

Yolara's face was white, her eyes strainedbut her voice was unshaken as she called to the clamouring

But when the sound of their return had ceased she stared tensely at the Irishmanthen looked again at the

I followed her pointing finger. Each broken bit of the crystal was vibrating, shaking its particles out into

space. Broken it the bullet of Larry's hadbut not released it from the grip of the disintegrating force. The

"But what matters it, O shining urn of beautywhat matters it to the vase that is broken what happens to its

"Next," whispered O'Keefe to me. "Lots of surprises in the little box; keep your eye on the opening and see

We had not long to wait. There was a sparkle of anger about Yolara, something too of injured pride. She

clapped her hands; whispered to the maid who answered her summons, and then sat back regarding us,

"You have answered me as to your strengthbut you have not proved it; but the Keth you have answered.

She pointed out into the garden. I saw a flowering branch bend and snap as though a hand had broken itbut

no hand was there! Saw then another and another bend and break, a little tree sway and falland closer and

closer to us came the trail of snapping boughs while down into the garden poured the silvery light

revealingnothing! Now a great ewer beside a pillar rose swiftly in air and hurled itself crashing at my feet.

And unseen hands held my arms in a mighty clutch fast to my sides, another gripped my throat and I felt a

"Larry!" I cried, despairingly. I twisted my head; saw that he too was caught in this grip of the invisible. But

Now from Yolara burst chime upon chime of mocking laughter. She gave a commandthe hands loosened,

the poniard withdrew from my heart; suddenly as I had been caught I was freeand unpleasantly weak and

"Have you THAT in Ireland, Larree!" cried the priestess and once more trembled with laughter.

"A good play, Yolara." His voice was as calm as his face. "But they did that in Ireland even before Dalua

piped away his first man's shadow. And in Goodwin's land they make shipscoria that go on waterso you

can pass by them and see only sea and sky; and those water coria are each of them many times greater than

"It did get me a little," whispered Larry. "That wasn't quite up to my mark. But God! If we could find that

"Not so, Larree!" Yolara gasped, through her laughter. "Not so! Goodwin's cry betrayed you!"

Her good humour had entirely returned; she was like a mischievous child pleased over some successful trick;

and like a child she cried"I'll show you!"signalled again; whispered to the maid who, quickly returning,

laid before her a long metal case. Yolara took from her girdle something that looked like a small pencil,

pressed it and shot a thin stream of light for all the world like an electric flash, upon its hasp. The lid flew

open. Out of it she drew three flat, oval crystals, faint rose in hue. She handed one to O'Keefe and one to me.

"Look!" she commanded, placing the third before her own eyes. I peered through the stone and instantly there

leaped into sight, out of thin airsix grinning dwarfs! Each was covered from top of head to soles of feet in

a web so tenuous that through it their bodies were plain. The gauzy stuff seemed to vibrateits strands to run

together like quicksilver. I snatched the crystal from my eyes andthe chamber was empty! Put it

"It is what they wear, Larree," explained Yolara, graciously. "It is something that came to us fromthe

"Such treasures must be twoedged swords, Yolara," commented O'Keefe. "For how know you that one

"And now no more. You two are to appear before the Council at a certain timebut fear nothing. You,

Goodwin, go with Rador about our city and increase your wisdom. But you, Larree, await me here in my

garden" she smiled at him, provocativelymaliciously, too. "For shall not one who has resisted a world of

She laughedwholeheartedly and was gone. And at that moment I liked Yolara better than ever I had

I noted Rador standing outside the open jade door and started to go, but O'Keefe caught me by the arm.

"Wait a minute," he urged. "About Golden Eyesyou were going to tell me somethingit's been on my

I told him of the vision that had passed through my closing lids. He listened gravely and then laughed.

"Hell of a lot of privacy in this place!" he grinned. "Ladies who can walk through walls and others with

regular invisible cloaks to let 'em flit wherever they please. Oh, well, don't let it get on your nerves, Doc.

Remembereverything' s natural! That robe stuff is just camouflage of course. But Lord, if we could only

"The material simply admits all lightvibrations, or perhaps curves them, just as the opacities cut them off," I

answered. "A man under the Xray is partly invisible; this makes him wholly so. He doesn't register, as the

"Camouflage," repeated Larry. "And as for the Shining OneSay!" he snorted. "I'd like to set the O'Keefe

banshee up against it. I'll bet that old resourceful Irish body would give it the first three bites and a strangle

I heard him still chuckling gleefully over this vision as I passed along the opal wall with the green dwarf.

A shell was awaiting us. I paused before entering it to examine the polished surface of runway and great road.

It was obsidianvolcanic glass of pale emerald, unflawed, translucent, with no sign of block or juncture. I

"What makes it go?" I asked Rador. At a word from him the driver touched a concealed spring and an

aperture appeared beneath the controllever, of which I have spoken in a preceding chapter. Within was a

small cube of black crystal, through whose sides I saw, dimly, a rapidly revolving, glowing ball, not more

than two inches in diameter. Beneath the cube was a curiously shaped, slender cylinder winding down into

"Watch!" said Rador. He motioned me into the vehicle and took a place beside me. The driver touched the

lever; a stream of coruscations flew from the ball down into the cylinder. The shell started smoothly, and as

"The corial does not touch the road," explained Rador. "It is lifted so far"he held his forefinger and thumb

And perhaps here is the best place to explain the activation of the shells or coria. The force utilized was

atomic energy. Passing from the whirling ball the ions darted through the cylinder to two bands of a peculiar

metal affixed to the base of the vehicles somewhat like skids of a sled. Impinging upon these they produced a

partial negation of gravity, lifting the shell slightly, and at the same time creating a powerful repulsive force

or thrust that could be directed backward, forward, or sidewise at the will of the driver. The creation of this

[Dr. Goodwin's lucid and exceedingly comprehensive description of this extraordinary mechanism has been

deleted by the Executive Council of the International Association of Science as too dangerously suggestive to

scientists of the Central European Powers with which we were so recently at war. It is allowable, however, to

state that his observations are in the possession of experts in this country, who are, unfortunately, hampered

in their research not only by the scarcity of the radioactive elements that we know, but also by the lack of the

element or elements unknown to us that entered into the formation of the fiery ball within the cube of black

crystal. Nevertheless, as the principle is so clear, it is believed that these difficulties will ultimately be

The wide, glistening road was gay with the coria. They darted in and out of the gardens; within them the

fairhaired, extraordinarily beautiful women on their cushions were like princesses of Elfland, caught in

gorgeous fairy webs, resting within the hearts of flowers. In some shells were flaxenhaired dwarfish men of

Lugur's type; sometimes blackpolled brother officers of Rador; often raventressed girls, plainly

handmaidens of the women; and now and then beauties of the lower folk went by with one of the blond

We swept around the turn that made of the jewellike roadway an enormous horseshoe and, speedily, upon

our right the cliffs through which we had come in our journey from the Moon Pool began to march forward

beneath their mantles of moss. They formed a gigantic abutment, a titanic salient. It had been from the very

front of this salient's invading angle that we had emerged; on each side of it the precipices, faintly glowing,

The slender, graceful bridges under which we skimmed ended at openings in the upflung, far walls of

verdure. Each had its little garrison of soldiers. Through some of the openings a rivulet of the green obsidian

river passed. These were roadways to the farther country, to the land of the ladala, Rador told me; adding that

none of the lesser folk could cross into the pavilioned city unless summoned or with pass.

We turned the bend of the road and flew down that farther emerald ribbon we had seen from the great oval.

Before us rose the shining cliffs and the lake. A halfmile, perhaps, from these the last of the bridges flung

itself. It was more massive and about it hovered a spirit of ancientness lacking in the other spans; also its

garrison was larger and at its base the tangent way was guarded by two massive structures, somewhat like

blockhouses, between which it ran. Something about it aroused in me an intense curiosity.

"To the one place above all of which I may not tell you, Goodwin," he answered. And again I wondered.

We skimmed slowly out upon the great pier. Far to the left was the prismatic, rainbow curtain between the

Cyclopean pillars. On the white waters graceful shellslacustrian replicas of the Elf chariotsswam, but

"What is the Shining One?" I cried, eagerly. Again he was silent. Nor did he speak until we had turned on our

And lively as my interest, my scientific curiosity, were I was conscious suddenly of acute depression.

Beautiful, wondrously beautiful this place wasand yet in its wonder dwelt a keen edge of menace, of

uneaseof inexplicable, inhuman woe; as though in a secret garden of God a soul should sense upon it the

gaze of some lurking spirit of evil which some way, somehow, had crept into the sanctuary and only bided its

THE SHELL carried us straight back to the house of Yolara. Larry was awaiting me. We stood again before

the tenebrous wall where first we had faced the priestess and the Voice. And as we stood, again the portal

But now the scene was changed. Around the jet table were grouped a number of figuresLugur, Yolara

beside him; seven othersall of them fairhaired and all men save one who sat at the left of the priestessan

old, old woman, how old I could not tell, her face bearing traces of beauty that must once have been as great

as Yolara's own, but now ravaged, in some way awesome; through its ruins the fearful, malicious gaiety

Began then our examination, for such it was. And as it progressed I was more and more struck by the change

in the O'Keefe. All flippancy was gone, rarely did his sense of humour reveal itself in any of his answers. He

was like a cautious swordsman, fencing, guarding, studying his opponent; or rather, like a chessplayer who

keeps sensing some farreaching purpose in the game: alert, contained, watchful. Always he stressed the

Their questions were myriad. What were our occupations? Our system of government? How great were the

waters? The land? Intensely interested were they in the World War, querying minutely into its causes, its

effects. In our weapons their interest was avid. And they were exceedingly minute in their examination of us

as to the ruins which had excited our curiosity; their position and surroundingsand if others than ourselves

At this I shot a glance at Lugur. He did not seem unduly interested. I wondered if the Russian had told him as

yet of the girl of the rosy wall of the Moon Pool Chamber and the real reasons for our search. Then I

answered as briefly as possibleomitting all reference to these things. The red dwarf watched me with

unmistakable amusementand I knew Marakinoff had told him. But clearly Lugur had kept his information

even from Yolara; and as clearly she had spoken to none of that episode when O'Keefe's automatic had

shattered the Kethsmitten vase. Again I felt that sense of deep bewildermentof helpless search for clue to

For two hours we were questioned and then the priestess called Rador and let us go.

"Hell's brewing here all right," he said at last, stopping before me. "I can't make out just the particular

brand that's all that bothers me. We're going to have a stiff fight, that's sure. What I want to do quick is to

find the Golden Girl, Doc. Haven't seen her on the wall lately, have you?" he queried, hopefully fantastic.

"Laugh if you want to," he went on. "But she's our best bet. It's going to be a race between her and the

O'Keefe bansheebut I put my money on her. I had a queer experience while I was in that garden, after

you'd left." His voice grew solemn. "Did you ever see a leprechaun, Doc?" I shook my head again, as

solemnly. "He's a little man in green," said Larry. "Oh, about as high as your knee. I saw one once in

Carntogher Woods. And as I sat there, half asleep, in Yolara's garden, the living spit of him stepped out from

"'It's a tight box ye're gettin' in, Larry avick,' said he, 'but don't ye be downhearted, lad.'

"'I'm carrying on,' said I, 'but you're a long way from Ireland,' I said, or thought I did.

"'Ye've a lot o' friends there,' he answered. 'An' where the heart rests the feet are swift to follow. Not that I'm

"'I know where my heart is now,' I told him. 'It rests on a girl with golden eyes and the hair and swanwhite

"'It's what I came to tell ye,' says he. 'Don't ye fall for the BheanNimher, the serpent woman wit' the blue

eyes; she's a daughter of Ivor, ladan' don't ye do nothin' to make the brownhaired coleen ashamed o' ye,

Larry O'Keefe. I knew yer great, great grandfather an' his before him, aroon,' says he, 'an' wan o' the O'Keefe

failin's is to think their hearts big enough to hold all the wimmen o' the world. A heart's built to hold only wan

permanently, Larry,' he says, 'an' I'm warnin' ye a nice girl don't like to move into a place all cluttered up wid

another's washin' an' mendin' an' cookin' an' other things pertainin' to general wife work. Not that I think the

"'Well, I'm just a tellin' you,' he says. 'Ye've got some rough knocks comin', Larry. In fact, ye're in for a devil

of a time. But, remember that ye're the O'Keefe,' says he. 'An' while the bhoys are all wid ye, avick, ye've got

"'I hope,' I tell him, 'that the O'Keefe banshee can find her way here in timethat is, if it's necessary, which I

"'Don't ye worry about that,' says he. 'Not that she's keen on leavin' the ould sod, Larry. The good ould soul's

in quite a state o' mind about ye, aroon. I don't mind tellin' ye, lad, that she's mobilizing all the clan an' if she

HAS to come for ye, avick, they'll be wid her an' they'll sweep this joint clean before ye go. What they'll do to

it'll make the Big Wind look like a summer breeze on Lough Lene! An' that's about all, Larry. We thought a

voice from the Green Isle would cheer ye. Don't fergit that ye're the O'Keefe an' I say it againall the bhoys

Between the seven sleeps that followed, Larry and I saw but little of each other. Yolara sought him more and

more. Thrice we were called before the Council; once we were at a great feast, whose splendours and

surprises I can never forget. Largely I was in the company of Rador. Together we two passed the green

They seemed provided with everything needful for life. But everywhere was an oppressiveness, a gathering

together of hate, that was spiritual rather than materialas tangible as the latter and far, far more menacing!

"They do not like to dance with the Shining One," was Rador's constant and only reply to my efforts to find

Once I had concrete evidence of the mood. Glancing behind me, I saw a white, vengeful face peer from

behind a treetrunk, a hand lift, a shining dart speed from it straight toward Rador's back. Instinctively I

thrust him aside. He turned upon me angrily. I pointed to where the little missile lay, still quivering, on the

"That, some day I will repay!" he said. I looked again at the thing. At its end was a tiny cone covered with a

"Look!" he said. He dropped it upon the dartand at once, before my eyes, in less than ten seconds, the fruit

Come now between this and the prelude to the latter half of the drama whose history this narrative isonly

Firstthe nature of the ebon opacities, blocking out the spaces between the pavilionpillars or covering their

tops like roofs, These were magnetic fields, light absorbers, negativing the vibrations of radiance; literally

screens of electric force which formed as impervious a barrier to light as would have screens of steel.

They instantaneously made night appear in a place where no night was. But they interposed no obstacle to air

or to sound. They were extremely simple in their inceptionno more miraculous than is glass, which,

inversely, admits the vibrations of light, but shuts out those coarser ones we call airand, partly, those

[For the same reason that Dr. Goodwin's exposition of the mechanism of the atomic engines was deleted, his

description of the lightdestroying screens has been deleted by the Executive Council.J. B. F., President, I.

There were two favoured classes of the ladalathe soldiers and the dreammakers. The dreammakers were

the most astonishing social phenomena, I think, of all. Denied by their circumscribed environment the wider

experiences of us of the outer world, the Murians had perfected an amazing system of escape through the

They were, too, intensely musical. Their favourite instruments were double flutes; immensely complex

pipeorgans; harps, great and small. They had another remarkable instrument made up of a double octave of

small drums which gave forth percussions remarkably disturbing to the emotional centres.

It was this love of music that gave rise to one of the few truly humorous incidents of our caverned life. Larry

We skimmed off to one of the bridge garrisons. Rador called the twoscore guards to attention; and then, to

my utter stupefaction, the whole company, O'Keefe leading them, roared out the anthem, "God Save the

King." They sangin a closer approach to the English than might have been expected scores of miles below

"Taught 'em that for Marakinoff's benefit!" he gasped. "Wait till that Red hears it. He'll blow up.

"Just wait until you hear Yolara lisp a pretty little thing I taught her," said Larry as we set back for what we

And I did hear. For it was not many minutes later that the priestess condescended to command me to come to

"Show Goodwin how much you have learned of our speech, O lady of the lips of honeyed flame!" murmured

She hesitated; smiled at him, and then from that perfect mouth, out of the exquisite throat, in the voice that

was like the chiming of little silver bells, she trilled a melody familiar to me indeed:

"She thinks it's a lovesong," said Larry when we had left. "It's only part of a repertoire I'm teaching her.

Honestly, Doc, it's the only way I can keep my mind clear when I'm with her," he went on earnestly. "She's a

deviless from hell but a wonder. Whenever I find myself going I get her to sing that, or Take Back Your

Gold! or some other ancient lay, and I'm back againprontowith the right perspective! POP goes all the

FOR HOURs the blackhaired folk had been streaming across the bridges, flowing along the promenade by

scores and by hundreds, drifting down toward the gigantic seventerraced temple whose interior I had never

as yet seen, and from whose towering exterior, indeed, I had always been kept far enough

awayunobtrusively, but none the less decisively to prevent any real observation. The structure, I had

estimated, nevertheless, could not reach less than a thousand feet above its silvery base, and the diameter of

I wondered what was bringing the _ladala_ into Lora, and where they were vanishing. All of them were

flowercrowned with the luminous, lovely bloomsold and young, slender, mockingeyed girls, dwarfed

youths, mothers with their babes, gnomed oldsterson they poured, silent for the most part and sullena

sullenness that held acid bitterness even as their subtle, halfsinister, halfgay malice seemed tempered into

There were many of the greenclad soldiers along the way, and the garrison of the only bridge span I could

Wondering still, I turned from my point of observation and made my way back to our pavilion, hoping that

Larry, who had been with Yolara for the past two hours, had returned. Hardly had I reached it before Rador

came hurrying up, in his manner a curious exultance mingled with what in anyone else I would have called a

"Come!" he commanded before I could speak. "The Council has made decisionand _Larree_ is awaiting

"What has been decided?" I panted as we sped along the mosaic path that led to the house of Yolara. "And

And at his answer I felt my heart pause in its beat and through me race a wave of mingled panic and

"The Shining One dances!" had answered the green dwarf. "And you are to worship!"

"Great stuff!" he cried, when we had met in the great antechamber now empty of the dwarfs. "Hope it will be

worth seeinghave to be something damned good, though, to catch me, after what I've seen of shows at the

And remembering, with a little shock of apprehension, that he had no knowledge of the Dweller beyond my

poor description of itfor there are no words actually to describe what that miracle of interwoven glory and

He led us to a tiny fountain room in whose miniature pool the white waters were concentrated, pearllike and

"Bathe!" he commanded; and set the example by stripping himself and plunging within. Only a minute or two

did the green dwarf allow us, and he checked us as we were about to don our clothing.

Then, to my intense embarrassment, without warning, two of the blackhaired girls entered, bearing robes of

a peculiar dullblue hue. At our manifest discomfort Rador's laughter roared out. He took the garments from

the pair, motioned them to leave us, and, still laughing, threw one around me. Its texture was soft, but

decidedly metalliclike some blue metal spun to the fineness of a spider's thread. The garment buckled

tightly at the throat, was girdled at the waist, and, below this cincture, fell to the floor, its folds being held

together by a halfdozen looped cords; from the shoulders a hood resembling a monk's cowl.

Rador cast this over my head; it completely covered my face, but was of so transparent a texture that I could

see, though somewhat mistily, through it. Finally he handed us both a pair of long gloves of the same material

"The priestess of the Shining One does not altogether trust the Shining One's Voice," he said at last. "And

these are to guard against any suddenerrors. And fear not, Goodwin," he went on kindly. "Not for the

Shining One itself would Yolara see harm come to _Larree_ herenor, because of him, to you. But I would

not stake much on the great white one. And for him I am sorry, for him I do like well."

Grimly Larry reached down and drew from his uniform his automatic. He popped a fresh clip into the pocket

"This," said Larry, "slays quicker than the _Keth_I take it so no harm shall come to the blueeyed one

whose name is Olaf. If I should raise itbe you not in its way, Rador!" he added significantly.

"A change comes," he said. "What it is I know not, nor how it will fall. But this rememberRador is more

He led us, not through the entrance, but into a sloping passage ending in a blind wall; touched a symbol

graven there, and it opened, precisely as had the rosy barrier of the Moon Pool Chamber. And, just as there,

but far smaller, was a passage end, a low curved wall facing a shaft not black as had been that abode of living

darkness, but faintly luminescent. Rador leaned over the wall. The mechanism clicked and started; the door

swung shut; the sides of the car slipped into place, and we swept swiftly down the passage; overhead the

wind whistled. In a few moments the moving platform began to slow down. It stopped in a closed chamber

Rador drew his poniard and struck twice upon the wall with its hilt. Immediately a panel moved away,

revealing a space filled with faint, misty blue radiance. And at each side of the open portal stood four of the

dwarfish men, greyheaded, old, clad in flowing garments of white, each pointing toward us a short silver rod.

Rador drew from his girdle a ring and held it out to the first dwarf. He examined it, handed it to the one

beside him, and not until each had inspected the ring did they lower their curious weapons; containers of that

terrific energy they called the _Keth_, I thought; and later was to know that I had been right.

We stepped out; the doors closed behind us. The place was weird enough. Its pave was a greenishblue stone

resembling lapis lazuli. On each side were high pedestals holding carved figures of the same material. There

were perhaps a score of these, but in the mistiness I could not make out their outlines. A droning, rushing roar

The roaring became deeptoned, clamorous, and close in front of us a rift opened. Twenty feet in width, it cut

the cavern floor and vanished into the blue mist on each side. The cleft was spanned by one solid slab of rock

The four leading priests marched out upon it one by one, and we followed. In the middle of the span they

knelt. Ten feet beneath us was a torrent of blue seawater racing with prodigious speed between polished

walls. It gave the impression of vast depth. It roared as it sped by, and far to the right was a low arch through

which it disappeared. It was so swift that its surface shone like polished blue steel, and from it came the

blessed, OUR WORLDLY, familiar ocean breath that strengthened my soul amazingly and made me realize

Whence came the stream, I marvelled, forgetting for the moment, as we passed on again, all else. Were we

closer to the surface of earth than I had thought, or was this some mighty flood falling through an opening in

sea floor, Heaven alone knew how many miles above us, losing itself in deeper abysses beyond these? How

near and how far this was from the truth I was to learnand never did truth come to man in more dreadful

The roaring fell away, the blue haze lessened. In front of us stretched a wide flight of steps, huge as those

which had led us into the courtyard of NanTauach through the ruined seagate. We scaled it; it narrowed;

from above light poured through a still narrower opening. Side by side Larry and I passed out of it.

We had emerged upon an enormous platform of what seemed to be glistening ivory. It stretched before us for

a hundred yards or more and then shelved gently into the white waters. Oppositenot a mile awaywas

that prodigious web of woven rainbows Rador had called the Veil of the Shining One. There it shone in all its

unearthly grandeur, on each side of the Cyclopean pillars, as though a mountain should stretch up arms

raising between them a fairy banner of auroral glories. Beneath it was the curved, scimitar sweep of the pier

Before that brief, fascinated glance was done, there dropped upon my soul a sensation as of brooding weight

intolerable; a spiritual oppression as though some vastness was falling, pressing, stifling me, I turnedand

At first all that my staggering consciousness could realize was an immensity, an immeasurable uprearing that

brought with it the same throatgripping vertigo as comes from gazing downward from some great

heightthen a blur of white facesintolerable shinings of hundreds upon thousands of eyes. Huge,

incredibly huge, a colossal amphitheatre of jet, a stupendous semicircle, held within its mighty arc the ivory

It reared itself almost perpendicularly hundreds of feet up into the sparkling heavens, and thrust down on

each side its ebon bulwarkslike monstrous paws. Now, the giddiness from its sheer greatness passing, I

saw that it was indeed an amphitheatre sloping slightly backward tier after tier, and that the white blur of

faces against its blackness, the gleaming of countless eyes were those of myriads of the people who sat silent,

flowergarlanded, their gaze focused upon the rainbow curtain and sweeping over me like a

Five hundred feet beyond, the smooth, high retaining wall of the amphitheatre raised itselfabove it the first

terrace of the seats, and above this, dividing the tiers for another half a thousand feet upward, set within them

like a panel, was a deadblack surface in which shone faintly with a bluish radiance a gigantic disk; above it

On each side of me, bordering the platform, were scores of small pillared alcoves, a low wall stretching

across their fronts; delicate, fretted grills shielding them, save where in each lattice an opening staredit

came to me that they were like those stalls in ancient Gothic cathedrals wherein for centuries had kneeled

paladins and people of my own race on earth's fair face. And within these alcoves were gathered, score upon

score, the elfin beauties, the dwarfish men of the fairhaired folk. At my right, a few feet from the opening

through which we had come, a passageway led back between the fretted stalls. Halfway between us and the

massive base of the amphitheatre a dais rose. Up the platform to it a wide ramp ascended; and on ramp and

dais and along the centre of the gleaming platform down to where it kissed the white waters, a broad ribbon

On one side of this dais, meshed in a silken web that hid no line or curve of her sweet body, white flesh

gleaming through its folds, stood Yolara; and opposite her, crowned with a circlet of flashing blue stones, his

O'Keefe drew a long breath; Rador touched my arm and, still dazed, I let myself be drawn into the aisle and

through a corridor that ran behind the alcoves. At the back of one of these the green dwarf paused, opened a

Entering, I found that we were exactly opposite where the ramp ran up to the daisand that Yolara was not

more than fifty feet away. She glanced at O'Keefe and smiled. Her eyes were ablaze with little dancing points

of light; her body seemed to palpitate, the rounded delicate muscles beneath the translucent skin to run with

I looked where he pointed. Opposite us sat the Russian, clothed as we were, leaning forward, his eyes eager

Beneath the carved stall in which sat the Russian was an aperture and within it was Huldricksson.

Unprotected by pillars or by grills, opening clear upon the platform, near him stretched the trail of flowers up

to the great dais which Lugur and Yolara the priestess guarded. He sat alone, and my heart went out to him.

The green dwarf was looking at the Norseman, too, a shade of pity upon his mocking face. He shook his

"Wait!" he said. "You can do nothing nowand it may be there will be no need to do anything," he added;

YOLARA threw her white arms high. From the mountainous tiers came a mighty sigh; a rippling ran through

them. And upon the moment, before Yolara's arms fell, there issued, apparently from the air around us, a peal

of sound that might have been the shouting of some playful god hurling great suns through the net of stars. It

was like the deepest notes of all the organs in the world combined in one; summoning, majestic, cosmic!

It held within it the thunder of the spheres rolling through the infinite, the birthsong of suns made manifest

in the womb of space; echoes of creation's supernal chord! It shook the body like a pulse from the heart of the

On its death came a blaring as of all the trumpets of conquering hosts since the first Pharaoh led his

swarms triumphal, compelling! Alexander's clamouring hosts, brazenthroated wolfhorns of Caesar's

legions, blare of trumpets of Genghis Khan and his golden horde, clangor of the locust levies of Tamerlane,

Fast upon it, a throbbing, muffled tumult of harp sounds, mellownesses of myriads of wood horns, the

subdued sweet shrilling of multitudes of flutes, Pandean pipingsinviting, carrying with them the calling of

waterfalls in the hidden places, rushing brooks and murmuring forest windscalling, calling, languorous,

And after them a silence in which the memory of the music seemed to beat, to beat ever more faintly, through

From me all fear, all apprehension, had fled. In their place was nothing but joyous anticipation, a supernal

freedom from even the shadow of the shadow of care or sorrow; not now did anything matterOlaf or his

haunted, hatefilled eyes; Throckmartin or his fatenothing of pain, nothing of agony, nothing of striving nor

endeavour nor despair in that wide outer world that had turned suddenly to a troubled dream.

Once more the first great note pealed out! Once more it died and from the clustered spheres a kaleidoscopic

blaze shot as though drawn from the majestic sound itself. The manycoloured rays darted across the white

waters and sought the face of the irised Veil. As they touched, it sparkled, flamed, wavered, and shook with

The light increasedand in its intensity the silver air darkened. Faded into shadow that white mosaic of

flowercrowned faces set in the amphitheatre of jet, and vast shadows dropped upon the highflung tiers and

shrouded them. But on the skirts of the rays the fretted stalls in which we sat with the fairhaired ones blazed

I was sensible of an acceleration of every pulse; a wild stimulation of every nerve. I felt myself being lifted

above the worldclose to the threshold of the high godssoon their essence and their power would stream

The peacock waves streamed out over the waters, cleaving the seeming darkness, a rainbow path of glory.

And the Veil flashed as though all the rainbows that had ever shone were burning within it. Again the mighty

Into the centre of the Veil the light drew itself, grew into an intolerable brightnessand with a storm of

tinklings, a tempest of crystalline notes, a tumult of tiny chimings, through it spedthe Shining One!

Straight down that radiant path, its highflung plumes of feathery flame shimmering, its coruscating spirals

whirling, its seven globes of seven colours shining above its glowing core, it raced toward us. The hurricane

of bells of diamond glass were jubilant, joyous. I felt O'Keefe grip my arm; Yolara threw her white arms out

in a welcoming gesture; I heard from the tier a sigh of raptureand in it a poignant, wailing undertone of

Over the waters, down the light stream, to the end of the ivory pier, flew the Shining One. Through its crystal

_pizzicati_ drifted inarticulate murmuringsdeadly sweet, stilling the heart and setting it leaping madly.

For a moment it paused, poised itself, and then came whirling down the flower path to its priestess, slowly,

ever more slowly. It hovered for a moment between the woman and the dwarf, as though contemplating them;

turned to her with its storm of tinklings softened, its murmurings infinitely caressing. Bent toward it, Yolara

seemed to gather within herself pulsing waves of power; she was terrifying; gloriously, maddeningly evil;

and as gloriously, maddeningly heavenly! Aphrodite and the Virgin! Tanith of the Carthaginians and St.

Only for a moment did that which we had called the Dweller and which these named the Shining One, pause.

It swept up the ramp to the dais, rested there, slowly turning, plumes and spirals lacing and unlacing,

throbbing, pulsing. Now its nucleus grew plainer, strongerhuman in a fashion, and all inhuman; neither

man nor woman; neither god nor devil; subtly partaking of all. Nor could I doubt that whatever it was, within

that shining nucleus was something sentient; something that had will and energy, and in some awful,

Another trumpetinga sound of stones openinga long, low wail of utter anguishsomething moved

shadowy in the river of light, and slowly at first, then ever more rapidly, shapes swam through it. There were

half a score of them girls and youths, women and men. The Shining One poised itself, regarded them.

They drew closer, and in the eyes of each and in their faces was the bud of that awful intermingling of

emotions, of joy and sorrow, ecstasy and terror, that I had seen in full blossom on Throckmartin's.

The Thing began again its murmuringsnow infinitely caressing, coaxinglike the song of a siren from

some witched star! And the bellsounds rang outcompellingly, callingcallingcalling

I saw Olaf lean far out of his place; saw, halfconsciously, at Lugur's signal, three of the dwarfs creep in and

Now the first of the figures rushed upon the daisand paused. It was the girl who had been brought before

Yolara when the gnome named Songar was driven into the nothingness ! With all the quickness of light a

At its touch there was an infinitely dreadful shrinking and, it seemed, a simultaneous hurling of herself into

its radiance. As it wrapped its swirls around her, permeated her the crystal chorus burst

forthtumultuously; through and through her the radiance pulsed. Began then that infinitely dreadful, but

infinitely glorious, rhythm they called the dance of the Shining One. And as the girl swirled within its

sparkling mists another and another flew into its embrace, until, at last, the dais was an incredible vision; a

mad star's Witches' Sabbath; an altar of white faces and bodies gleaming through living flame; transfused

with rapture insupportable and horror that was hellishand ever, radiant plumes and spirals expanding, the

core of the Shining One waxed growing greateras it consumed, as it drew into and through itself the

So they spun, interlacedand there began to pulse from them life, vitality, as though the very essence of

nature was filling us. Dimly I recognized that what I was beholding was vampirism inconceivable! The

Then, whirling, bellnotes storming, the Shining One withdrew slowly from the dais down the ramp, still

embracing, still interwoven with those who had thrown themselves into its spirals. They drifted with it as

though halfcarried in dreadful dance; white faces sealedforeverinto that semblance of those who held

I heard a gasp from O'Keefe; opened my eyes and sought his; saw the wildness vanish from them as he

strained forward. Olaf had leaned far out, and as he did so the dwarfs beside him caught him, and whether by

design or through his own swift, involuntary movement, thrust him half into the Dweller's path. The Dweller

paused in its gyrationsseemed to watch him. The Norseman's face was crimson, his eyes blazing. He threw

himself back and, with one defiant shout, gripped one of the dwarfs about the middle and sent him hurtling

through the air, straight at the radiant Thing! A whirling mass of legs and arms, the dwarf flewthen in

midflight stopped as though some gigantic invisible hand had caught him, andwas dashed down upon the

Like a broken spider he movedfeeblyonce, twice. From the Dweller shot a shimmering

tentacletouched him recoiled. Its crystal tinklings changed into an angry chiming. From all

Lugur leaped forward. On the instant Larry was over the low barrier between the pillars, rushing to the

Norseman's side. And even as they ran there was another wild shout from Olaf, and he hurled himself out,

But before he could touch the Shining One, now motionless and never was the thing more horrible than

then, with the purely human suggestion of surprise plain in its poise Larry had struck him aside.

I tried to followand was held by Rador. He was trembling but not with fear. In his face was incredulous

The Shining One stretched out a slow spiral, and as it did so I saw the bravest thing man has ever witnessed.

Instantly O'Keefe thrust himself between it and Olaf, pistol out. The tentacle touched him, and the dull blue

of his robe flashed out into blinding, intense azure light. From the automatic in his gloved hand came three

quick bursts of flame straight into the Thing. The Dweller drew back; the bellsounds swelled.

Lugur paused, his hand darted up, and in it was one of the silver _Keth_ cones. But before he could flash it

upon the Norseman, Larry had unlooped his robe, thrown its fold over Olaf, and, holding him with one hand

away from the Shining One, thrust with the other his pistol into the dwarf's stomach. His lips moved, but I

Now Yolara was thereall this had taken barely more than five seconds. She thrust herself between the three

men and the Dweller. She spoke to itand the wild buzzing died down; the gay crystal tinklings burst forth

again. The Thing murmured to herbegan to whirlfaster, fasterpassed down the ivory pier, out upon

the waters, bearing with it, meshed in its light, the sacrificesswept on ever more swiftly, triumphantly and

Abruptly the polychromatic path snapped out. The silver light poured in upon us. From all the amphitheatre

arose a clamour, a shouting. Marakinoff, his eyes staring, was leaning out, listening. Unrestrained now by

Rador, I vaulted the wall and rushed forward. But not before I had heard the green dwarf murmur:

"There is something stronger than the Shining One! Two thingsyeaa strong heartand hate!"

"Both these men," Lugur was raging, "they shall dance with the Shining one. And this one, too." He pointed

"This man is mine," said the priestess, and her voice was menacing. She rested her hand on Larry's shoulder.

"He shall not dance. Nonor his friend. I have told you I dare not for this one!" She pointed to Olaf.

"Neither this man, nor this," said Larry, "shall be harmed. This is my word, Yolara!"

I saw Marakinoff stare at O'Keefe with a new and curiously speculative interest. Lugur's eyes grew hellish; he

raised his arms as though to strike her. Larry's pistol prodded him rudely enough.

"No rough stuff now, kid!" said O'Keefe in English. The red dwarf quivered, turnedcaught a robe from a

priest standing by, and threw it over himself. The _ladala_, shouting, gesticulating, fighting with the soldiers,

"Come!" commanded Yolaraher eyes rested upon Larry. "Your heart is great, indeedmy lord!" she

"Bring him," she said. "Bring himonly tell him to look no more upon me as before!" she added fiercely.

Beside her the three of us passed along the stalls, where sat the fairhaired, now silent, at gaze, as though in

the grip of some great doubt. Silently Olaf strode beside me. Rador had disappeared. Down the stairway,

through the hall of turquoise mist, over the rushing seastream we went and stood beside the wall through

Yolara pressed; the portal opened. We stepped upon the car; she took the lever; we raced through the faintly

And one thing now I knew sick at heart and soul the truth had come to meno more need to search for

Throckmartin. Behind that Veil, in the lair of the Dweller, deadalive like those we had just seen swim in its

shining train was he, and Edith, Stanton and Thora and Olaf Huldricksson's wife!

The car came to rest; the portal opened; Yolara leaped out lightly, beckoned and flitted up the corridor. She

paused before an ebon screen. At a touch it vanished, revealing an entrance to a small blue chamber, glowing

as though cut from the heart of some gigantic sapphire; bare, save that in its centre, upon a low pedestal,

stood a great globe fashioned from milky rockcrystal; upon its surface were faint tracings as of seas and

continents, but, if so, either of some other world or of this world in immemorial past, for in no way did they

Poised upon the globe, rising from it out into space, locked in each other's arms, lips to lips, were two figures,

a woman and a man, so exquisite, so lifelike, that for the moment I failed to realize that they, too, were

carved of the crystal. And before this shrinefor nothing else could it be, I knew three slender cones

raised themselves: one of purest white flame, one of opalescent water, and the third ofmoonlight ! There

was no mistaking them, the height of a tall man each stoodbut how water, flame and light were held so

Yolara bowed lowlyonce, twice, thrice. She turned to O'Keefe, nor by slightest look or gesture betrayed

she knew others were there than he. The blue eyes wide, searching, unfathomable, she drew close; put white

"My lord," she murmured. "Now listen well for I, Yolara, give you three thingsmyself, and the Shining

One, and the power that is the Shining One'syea, and still a fourth thing that is all threepower over all

upon that world from whence you came! These, my lord, ye shall have. I swear it" she turned toward the

altaruplifted her arms"by Siya and by Siyana, and by the flame, by the water, and by the light!"1

*1 I have no space here even to outline the eschatology of this people, nor to catalogue their pantheon. Siya

and Siyana typified worldly love. Their ritual was, however, singularly free from those degrading elements

usually found in lovecults. Priests and priestesses of all cults dwelt in the immense seventerraced structure,

of which the jet amphitheatre was the water side. The symbol, icon, representation, of Siya and Siyanathe

globe and the upstriving figurestypified earthly love, feet bound to earth, but eyes among the stars. Hell

or heaven I never heard formulated, nor their equivalents; unless that existence in the Shining One's domain

could serve for either. Over all this was Thanaroa, remote; unheeding, but still maker and ruler of allan

absentee First Cause personified! Thanaroa seemed to be the one article of belief in the creed of the

soldiersRador, with his reverence for the Ancient Ones, was an exception. Whatever there was, indeed, of

high, truly religious impulse among the Murians, this far, High God had. I found this exceedingly interesting,

because it had long been my theoryto put the matter in the shape of a geometrical formula that the real

attractiveness of gods to man increases uniformly according to the square of their distanceW. T. G.

"Let none dare to take you from me! Nor ye go from me unbidden!" she whispered fiercely.

Then swiftly, still ignoring us, she threw her arms about O'Keefe, pressed her white body to his breast, lips

raised, eyes closed, seeking his. O'Keefe's arms tightened around her, his head dropped lips seeking, finding

herspassionately ! From Olaf came a deep indrawn breath that was almost a groan. But not in my heart

The priestess opened eyes now all misty blue, thrust him back, stood regarding him. O'Keefe, deadwhite,

"And thus have I sealed my oath, O my lord!" she whispered. For the first time she seemed to recognize our

"Go, now!" she said. "Soon Rador shall come for you. Thenwell, after that let happen what will!"

She smiled once more at himso sweetly; turned toward the figures upon the great globe; sank upon her

knees before them. Quietly we crept away; still silent, made our way to the little pavilion. But as we passed

we heard a tumult from the green roadway; shouts of men, now and then a woman's scream. Through a rift in

the garden I glimpsed a jostling crowd on one of the bridges: green dwarfs struggling with the _ladala_and

Larry threw himself down upon one of the divans, covered his face with his hands, dropped them to catch in

"_I_ couldn't help it," he said, half defiantlyhalfmiserably. "God, what a woman! I COULDN'T help it!"

"Spoken like a scientist, Doc!" he exclaimed. "I suppose if a burning angel struck you out of nowhere and

threw itself about you, you would most dignifiedly tell it you didn't want to be burned. For God's sake, don't

"Evil! Evil!" The Norseman's voice was deep, nearly a chant. "All here is of evil: Trolldom and Helvede it is,

Ja! And that she _djaevelsk_ of beautywhat is she but harlot of that shining devil they worship. I, Olaf

Huldricksson, know what she meant when she held out to you power over all the world, _Ja!_as if the

Olaf made a gesture of caution, relapsed into sullen silence. There were footsteps on the path, and into sight

came Radorbut a Rador changed. Gone was every vestige of his mockery; curiously solemn, he saluted

O'Keefe and Olaf with that salute which, before this, I had seen given only to Yolara and to Lugur. There

"The _ladala_ are awake!" he said. "So much for what two brave men can do!" He paused thoughtfully.

"Bones and dust jostle not each other for place against the grave wall!" he added oddly. "But if bones and

*1 I find that I have neglected to explain the working of these interesting mechanisms that were telephonic,

dictaphonic, telegraphic in one. I must assume that my readers are familiar with the receiving apparatus of

wireless telegraphy, which must be "tuned" by the operator until its own vibratory quality is in exact harmony

with the vibrationsthe extremely rapid impactsof those short electric wavelengths we call Hertzian, and

which carry the wireless messages. I must assume also that they are familiar with the elementary fact of

physics that the vibrations of light and sound are interchangeable. The hearingtalking globes utilize both

these principles, and with consummate simplicity. The light with which they shone was produced by an

atomic "motor" within their base, similar to that which activated the merely illuminating globes. The

composition of the phonic spheres gave their surfaces an acute sensitivity and resonance. In conjunction with

its energizing power, the metal set up what is called a "field of force," which linked it with every particle of

its kind no matter how distant. When vibrations of speech impinged upon the resonant surface its rhythmic

lightvibrations were broken, just as a telephone transmitter breaks an electric current. Simultaneously these

lightvibrations were changed into soundon the surfaces of all spheres tuned to that particular instrument.

The "crawling" colours which showed themselves at these times were literally the voice of the speaker in its

spectrum equivalent. While usually the sounds produced required considerable familiarity with the apparatus

to be understood quickly, they could, on occasion, be made startlingly loud and clearas I was soon to

"The _Afyo Maie_ has sent me to watch over you till she summons you," he announced clearly. "There is to

"By the Ancient Ones, and by my love for you, and by what you twain did before the Shining OneI swear

Rador clapped palms; a soldier came round the path, in his grip a long flat box of polished wood. The green

"Here is your apparel for the feast, _Larree_," he said, pointing to the contents.

O'Keefe stared, reached down and drew out a white, shimmering, softly metallic, longsleeved tunic, a broad,

silvery girdle, leg swathings of the same argent material, and sandals that seemed to be cut out from silver.

"Nay, _Larree_!" muttered the dwarf. "Wear themI counsel itI pray itask me not why," he went on

O'Keefe, as I, was impressed by his earnestness. The dwarf made a curiously expressive pleading gesture.

"No," he said. "No"he hesitate"it is the usual feast that follows the sacrament! Lugurand Double

"Perhaps because of what happened, Goodwin, my friend," he answeredhis eyes again full of malice; "and

there will be othersfriends of Yolarafriends of Lugur and perhaps another"his voice was almost

inaudible "one whom they have not called" He halted, halffearfully, glancing at the globe; put finger to

He strode into the room. I am bound to say that the admiration in Rador's eyes was reflected in my own, and

He knelt, took from his girdlepouch a silkwrapped something, unwound itand, still kneeling, drew out a

slender poniard of gleaming white metal, hilted with the blue stones; he thrust it into O'Keefe's girdle; then

"Now," he said grimly, "let the Silent Ones show their powerif they still have it!"

"For God's sake, Larry," I urged as we approached the house of the priestess, "you'll be careful!"

He noddedbut I saw with a little deadly pang of apprehension in my heart a puzzled, lurking doubt within

As we ascended the serpent steps Marakinoff appeared. He gave a signal to our guardsand I wondered

what influence the Russian had attained, for promptly, without question, they drew aside. At me he smiled

"Have you found your friends yet?" he went onand now I sensed something deeply sinister in him. "No! It

The Irishman started, eyed him with a certain shocked incredulity, then turned to me.

"Just a minute, Doc!" he said, and I caught the suspicion of a wink. They drew aside, out of earshot. The

Russian talked rapidly. Larry was all attention. Marakinoff's earnestness became intense; O'Keefe

interruptedappeared to question. Marakinoff glanced at me and as his gaze shifted from O'Keefe, I saw a

flame of rage and horror blaze up in the latter's eyes. At last the Irishman appeared to consider gravely;

nodded as though he had arrived at some decision, and Marakinoff thrust his hand to him.

And only I could have noticed Larry's shrinking, his microscopic hesitation before he took it, and his

involuntary movement, as though to shake off something unclean, when the clasp had ended.

Marakinoff, without another look at me, turned and went quickly within. The guards took their places. I

"Don't ask a thing now, Doc!" he said tensely. "Wait till we get home. But we've got to get damned busy and

WE PAUSED before thick curtains, through which came the faint murmur of many voices. They parted; out

came two ushers, I suppose, they werein cuirasses and kilts that reminded me somewhat of

chainmailthe first armour of any kind here that I had seen. They held open the folds.

The chamber, on whose threshold we stood, was far larger than either anteroom or hall of audience. Not less

than three hundred feet long and half that in depth, from end to end of it ran two huge semicircular tables,

paralleling each other, divided by a wide aisle, and heaped with flowers, with fruits, with viands unknown to

me, and glittering with crystal flagons, beakers, goblets of as many hues as the blooms. On the

gaycushioned couches that flanked the tables, lounging luxuriously, were scores of the fairhaired ruling

class and there rose a little buzz of admiration, oddly mixed with a halfstartled amaze, as their gaze fell

upon O'Keefe in all his silvery magnificence. Everywhere the lightgiving globes sent their roseate radiance.

The cuirassed dwarfs led us through the aisle. Within the arc of the inner halfcircle was another glittering

board, an oval. But of those seated there, facing usI had eyes for only oneYolara! She swayed up to

greet O'Keefeand she was like one of those white lily maids, whose beauty HoangKu, the sage, says

made the Gobi first a paradise, and whose lusts later the burnedout desert that it is. She held out hands to

She was Circebut Circe conquered. Webs of filmiest white clung to the roseleaf body. Twisted through

the cornsilk hair a threaded circlet of pale sapphires shone; but they were pale beside Yolara's eyes. O'Keefe

bent, kissed her hands, something more than mere admiration flaming from him. She sawand, smiling,

It came to me that of all, only these two, Yolara and O'Keefe, were in whiteand I wondered; then with a

tightening of nerves ceased to wonder as there enteredLugur! He was all in scarlet, and as he strode

His gaze turned upon Yolara, rested upon O'Keefe, and instantly his face grewdreadfulthere is no other

word than that for it. Marakinoff leaned forward from the centre of the table, near whose end I sat, touched

and whispered to him swiftly. With appalling effort the red dwarf controlled himself; he saluted the priestess

ironically, I thought; took his place at the further end of the oval. And now I noted that the figures between

were the seven of that Council of which the Shining One's priestess and Voice were the heads. The tension

relaxed, but did not passas though a stormcloud should turn away, but still lurk, threatening.

My gaze ran back. This end of the room was draped with the exquisitely coloured, graceful curtains looped

with gorgeous garlands. Between curtains and table, where sat Larry and the nine, a circular platform,

perhaps ten yards in diameter, raised itself a few feet above the floor, its gleaming surface halfcovered with

On each side below it, were low carven stools. The curtains parted and softly entered girls bearing their

flutes, their harps, the curiously emotionexciting, octaved drums. They sank into their places. They touched

Now about the tables passed other duskyhaired maids, fair bosoms bare, their scanty kirtles looped high,

My eyes sought O'Keefe. Whatever it had been that Marakinoff had said, clearly it now filled his

mindeven to the exclusion of the wondrous woman beside him. His eyes were stern, coldand now and

then, as be turned them toward the Russian, filled with a curious speculation. Yolara watched him, frowned,

The girl disappeared, entered again with a ewer that seemed cut of amber. The priestess poured from it into

Larry's glass a clear liquid that shook with tiny sparkles of light. She raised the glass to her lips, handed it to

him. Halfsmiling, halfabstractedly, he took it, touched his own lips where hers had kissed; drained it. A nod

At once there was a swift transformation in the Irishman. His abstraction vanished; the sternness fled; his

eyes sparkled. He leaned caressingly toward Yolara; whispered. Her blue eyes flashed triumphantly; her

chiming laughter rang. She raised her own glassbut within it was not that clear drink that filled Larry's!

And again he drained his own; and, lifting it, full once more, caught the baleful eyes of Lugur, and held it

toward him mockingly. Yolara swayed close alluring, tempting. He arose, face all reckless gaiety;

"A toast!" he cried in English, "to the Shining Oneand may the hell where it belongs soon claim it!"

He had used their own word for their godall else had been in his own tongue, and so, fortunately, they did

not understand. But the contempt in his action they did recognize and a dead, a fearful silence fell upon

them all. Lugur' s eyes blazed, little sparks of crimson in their green. The priestess reached up, caught at

"The Shining One." He spoke low. "An' now again I see the faces of those who dance with it. It is the Fires of

Mora come, God alone knows howfrom Erinto this place. The Fires of Mora!" He contemplated the

hushed folk before him; and then from his lips came that weirdest, most haunting of the lyric legends of

"The fretted fires of Mora blew o'er him in the night; He thrills no more to loving, nor weeps for past delight.

Again Yolara tried to draw him down beside her; and once more he gripped her hand. His eyes grew

"And through the sleeping silence his feet must track the tune, When the world is barred and speckled with

He stood, swaying, for a moment, and then, laughing, let the priestess have her way; drained again the glass.

And now my heart was cold, indeedfor what hope was there left with Larry mad, wild drunk!

The silence was unbrokenelfin women and dwarfs glancing furtively at each other. But now Yolara arose,

"Hear you, the Council, and you, Lugurand all who are here!" she cried. "Now I, the priestess of the

Shining One, take, as is my right, my mate. And this is he!" She pointed down upon Larry. He glanced up at

"Can't quite make out what you say, Yolara," he muttered thickly. "But say anythingyou likeI love your

I turned sick with dread. Yolara's hand stole softly upon the Irishman's curls caressingly.

"You know the law, Yolara." Lugur's voice was flat, deadly, "You may not mate with other than your own

kind. And this man is a strangera barbarianfood for the Shining One!" Literally, he spat the phrase.

"No, not of our kindLugurhigher!" Yolara answered serenely. "Lo, a son of Siya and of Siyana!"

"The Shining One revealed it to me!" said Yolara sweetly. "And if ye believe not, Lugurgo ask of the

There was bitter, nameless menace in those last words and whatever their hidden message to Lugur, it was

potent. He stood, choking, face hellshadowedMarakinoff leaned out again, whispered. The red dwarf

bowed, now wholly ironically; resumed his place and his silence. And again I wondered, icyhearted, what

Only for a moment they consulted among themselves. Then the woman, whose face was a ravaged shrine of

Defiance died from Yolara's face; she looked down at Larry tenderly. He sat swaying, crooning.

"Bid the priests come," she commanded, then turned to the silent room. "By the rites of Siya and Siyana,

Yolara takes their son for her mate!" And again her hand stole down possessingly, serpent soft, to the

The curtains parted widely. Through them filed, two by two, twelve hooded figures clad in flowing robes of

the green one sees in forest vistas of opening buds of dawning spring. Of each pair one bore clasped to breast

a globe of that milky crystal in the sapphire shrineroom; the other a harp, small, shaped somewhat like the

Two by two they stepped upon the raised platform, placed gently upon it each their globe; and two by two

crouched behind them. They formed now a star of six points about the petalled dais, and, simultaneously,

I halfroseyouths and maidens these of the fairhaired; and youths and maids more beautiful than any of

those I had yet seenfor upon their faces was little of that disturbing mockery to which I have been forced

so often, because of the deep impression it made upon me, to refer. The ashengold of the maiden priestesses'

hair was wound about their brows in shining coronals. The pale locks of the youths were clustered within

circlets of translucent, glimmering gems like moonstones. And then, crystal globe alternately before and harp

What was that song, I do not knownor ever shall. Archaic, ancient beyond thought, it seemednot with

the ancientness of things that for uncounted ages have been but winddriven dust. Rather was it the

ancientness of the golden youth of the world, love lilts of earth younglings, with light of newborn suns

drenching them, chorals of young stars mating in space; murmurings of April gods and goddesses. A languor

stole through me. The rosy lights upon the tripods began to die away, and as they faded the milky globes

gleamed forth brighter, ever brighter. Yolara rose, stretched a hand to Larry, led him through the sextuple

The roselight died; all that immense chamber was black, save for the circle of the glowing spheres. Within

this their milky radiance grew brighterbrighter. The song whispered away. A throbbing arpeggio dripped

from the harps, and as the notes pulsed out, up from the globes, as though striving to follow, pulsed with

them tips of moonfire cones, such as I had seen before Yolara's altar. Weirdly, caressingly, compellingly the

harp notes throbbed in repeated, rerepeated theme, holding within itself the same archaic golden quality I

Yolara lifted her arms; within her hands were clasped O'Keefe's. She raised them above their two heads and

slowly, slowly drew him with her into a circling, graceful step, tendrillings delicate as the slow spirallings of

As they swayed the rippling arpeggios grew louder, and suddenly the slender pinnacles of moon fire bent,

dipped, flowed to the floor, crept in a shining ring around those two and began to rise, a gleaming,

With one swift movement Yolara unbound her circlet of pale sapphires, shook loose the waves of her silken

hair. It fell, a rippling, wondrous cascade, veiling both her and O'Keefe to their girdlesand now the shining

What was that! I started to my feet, and all around me in the darkness I heard startled motion. From without

came a blaring of trumpets, the sound of running men, loud murmurings. The tumult drew closer. I heard

cries of "Lakla! Lakla!" Now it was at the very threshold and within it, oddly, as thoughpunctuatingthe

clamour, a deeptoned, almost abysmal, booming soundthunderously bass and reverberant.

Abruptly the harpings ceased; the moon fires shuddered, fell, and began to sweep back into the crystal globes;

Yolara' s swaying form grew rigid, every atom of it listening. She threw aside the veiling cloud of hair, and in

the gleam of the last retreating spirals her face glared out like some old Greek mask of tragedy.

The sweet lips that even at their sweetest could never lose their delicate cruelty, had no sweetness now. They

were drawn into a squareinhuman as that of the Medusa; in her eyes were the fires of the pit, and her hair

seemed to writhe like the serpent locks of that Gorgon whose mouth she had borrowed; all her beauty was

transformed into a nameless thinghideous, inhuman, blasting! If this was the true soul of Yolara springing

I wrested my gaze away to O'Keefe. All drunkenness gone, himself again, he was staring down at her, and in

Only for a moment did the darkness hold. With lightning swiftness the blackness that was the chamber's other

wall vanished. Through a portal open between grey screens, the silver sparkling radiance poured.

And through the portal marched, two by two, incredible, nightmare figuresfrogmen, giants, taller by

nearly a yard than even tall O'Keefe! Their enormous saucer eyes were irised by wide bands of greenflecked

red, in which the phosphorescence flickered. Their long muzzles, lips halfopen in monstrous grin, held rows

of glistening, slender, lancet sharp fangs. Over the glaring eyes arose a horny helmet, a carapace of black and

They lined themselves like soldiers on each side of the wide table aisle, and now I could see that their horny

armour covered shoulders and backs, ran across the chest in a knobbed cuirass, and at wrists and heels jutted

out into curved, murderous spurs. The webbed hands and feet ended in yellow, spadeshaped claws.

They carried spears, ten feet, at least, in length, the heads of which were pointed cones, glistening with that

They were grotesque, yesmore grotesque than anything I had ever seen or dreamed, and they

And then, quietly, through their ranks camea girl! Behind her, enormous pouch at his throat swelling in

and out menacingly, in one paw a treelike, spikestudded mace, a frogman, huger than any of the others,

guarding. But of him I caught but a fleeting, involuntary impressionall my gaze was for her.

For it was she who had pointed out to us the way from the peril of the Dweller's lair on NanTauach. And as

I looked at her, I marvelled that ever could I have thought the priestess more beautiful. Into the eyes of

And from all about came murmursedged with anger, halfincredulous, tinged with fear:

She halted close beside me. From firm little chin to dainty buskined feet she was swathed in the soft robes of

dull, almost coppery hue. The left arm was hidden, the right free and gloved. Wound tight about it was one of

the vines of the sculptured wall and of Lugur's circled signetring. Thick, a vivid green, its five tendrils ran

between her fingers, stretching out five flowered heads that gleamed like blossoms cut from gigantic, glowing

So she stood contemplating Yolara. Then drawn perhaps by my gaze, she dropped her eyes upon me; golden,

translucent, with tiny flecks of amber in their aureate irises, the soul that looked through them was as far

I noted the low, broad brow, the proud little nose, the tender mouth, and the softsunlightglow that

seemed to transfuse the delicate skin. And suddenly in the eyes dawned a smilesweet, friendly, a touch of

roguishness, profoundly reassuring in its all humanness. I felt my heart expand as though freed from fetters, a

recrudescence of confidence in the essential reality of thingsas though in nightmare the struggling

consciousness should glimpse some familiar face and know the terrors with which it strove were but dreams.

She raised her head and looked again at Yolara, contempt and a certain curiosity in her gaze; at

O'Keefeand through the softened eyes drifted swiftly a shadow of sorrow, and on its fleeting wings deepest

interest, and hovering over that a naive approval as reassuringly human as had been her smile.

She spoke, and her voice, deeptimbred, liquid gold as was Yolara's all silver, was subtly the synthesis of all

"The Silent Ones have sent me, O Yolara," she said. "And this is their command to youthat you deliver to

me to bring before them three of the four strangers who have found their way here. For him there who plots

with Lugur" she pointed at Marakinoff, and I saw Yolara start"they have no need. Into his heart the

Yolara was herself now; only the edge of shrillness on her voice revealed her wrath as she answered.

This last, I knew, was a very vulgar word; I had heard Rador use it in a moment of anger to one of the serving

maids, and it meant, approximately, "kitchen girl," "scullion." Beneath the insult and the acid disdain, the

"Yolara"her voice was low"of no use is it to question me. I am but the messenger of the Silent Ones.

And one thing only am I bidden to ask youdo you deliver to me the three strangers?"

Lugur was on his feet; eagerness, sardonic delight, sinister anticipation thrilling from himand my same

glance showed Marakinoff, crouched, biting his fingernails, glaring at the Golden Girl.

"No!" Yolara spat the word. "No! Now by Thanaroa and by the Shining One, no!" Her eyes blazed, her

nostrils were wide, in her fair throat a little pulse beat angrily. "You, Laklatake you my message to the

Silent Ones. Say to them that I keep this man"she pointed to Larry"because he is mine. Say to them that

"Tell them that upon their mouths I place my foot, so!" she stamped upon the dais viciously"and that in

their faces I spit!"and her action was hideously snakelike. "And say last to them, you handmaiden, that if

YOU they dare send to Yolara again, she will feed YOU to the Shining One! Now go!"

"Not unforeseen by the three was this, Yolara," she replied. "And did you speak as you have spoken then was

I bidden to say this to you." Her voice deepened. "Three _tal_ have you to take counsel, Yolara. And at the

end of that time these things must you have determinedeither to do or not to do: first, send the strangers to

the Silent Ones; second, give up, you and Lugur and all of you, that dream you have of conquest of the world

without; and, third, forswear the Shining One! And if you do not one and all these things, then are you done,

your cup of life broken, your wine of life spilled. Yea, Yolara, for you and the Shining One, Lugur and the

Nine and all those here and their kind shall pass! This say the Silent Ones, 'Surely shall all of ye pass and be

Now a gasp of rage and fear arose from all those around mebut the priestess threw back her head and

laughed loud and long. Into the silver sweet chiming of her laughter clashed that of Lugurand after a little

the nobles took it up, till the whole chamber echoed with their mirth. O'Keefe, lips tightening, moved toward

"Those ARE great wordsgreat words indeed, _choya_," shrilled Yolara at last; and again Lakla winced

beneath the word. "Lo, for _laya_ upon _laya_, the Shining One has been freed from the Three; and for

_laya_ upon _laya_ they have sat helpless, rotting. Now I ask you againwhence comes their power to lay

their will upon me, and whence comes their strength to wrestle with the Shining One and the beloved of the

And again she laughedand again Lugur and all the fairhaired joined in her laughter.

Into the eyes of Lakla I saw creep a doubt, a wavering; as though deep within her the foundations of her own

She hesitated, turning upon O'Keefe gaze in which rested more than suggestion of appeal! And Yolara saw,

"Look!" she cried. "Look! Why, even SHE does not believe!" Her voice grew silk of silvermerciless, cruel.

"Now am I minded to send another answer to the Silent Ones. Yea! But not by YOU, Lakla; by these"she

pointed to the frogmen, and, swift as light, her hand darted into her bosom, bringing forth the little shining

But before she could level it the Golden Girl had released that hidden left arm and thrown over her face a fold

of the metallic swathings. Swifter than Yolara, she raised the arm that held the vineand now I knew this

It writhed down her arm, and its five rubescent flower heads thrust out toward the priestessvibrating,

quivering, held in leash only by the light touch of the handmaiden at its very end.

From the swelling throat pouch of the monster behind her came a succession of the reverberant boomings.

The frogmen wheeled, raised their lances, levelled them at the throng. Around the reaching ruby flowers a

The silver cone dropped from Yolara's rigid fingers; her eyes grew stark with horror; all her unearthly

loveliness fled from her; she stood palelipped. The Handmaiden dropped the protecting veiland now it

"It would seem, then, Yolara, that there IS a thing of the Silent Ones ye fear!" she said. "Wellthe kiss of

She looked at Larry, long, searchingly, and suddenly again with all that effect of sunlight bursting into dark

places, her smile shone upon him. She nodded, half gaily; looked down upon me, the little merry light

She spoke to the giant frogman. He wheeled behind her as she turned, facing the priestess, club upraised,

fangs glistening. His troop moved not a jot, spears held high. Lakla began to pass slowlyalmost, I thought,

In his excitement he spoke in his own tongue, the velvet brogue appealing. Lakla turned, contemplated

O'Keefe, hesitant, unquestionably longingly, irresistibly like a child making up her mind whether she dared or

"I go with you," said O'Keefe, this time in her own speech. "Come on, Doc!" He reached out a hand to me.

But now Yolara spoke. Life and beauty had flowed back into her face, and in the purple eyes all her hosts of

"Do you forget what I promised you before Siya and Siyana? And do you think that you can leave

"Now, listen, Yolara," Larry interrupted almost plaintively. "No promise has passed from me to youand

why would you hold me?" He passed unconsciously into English. "Be a good sport, Yolara," he urged, 'You

HAVE got a very devil of a temper, you know, and so have I; and we'd be really awfully uncomfortable

together. And why don't you get rid of that devilish pet of yours, and be good!"

She looked at him, puzzled, Marakinoff leaned over, translated to Lugur. The red dwarf smiled maliciously,

drew near the priestess; whispered to her what was without doubt as near as he could come in the Murian to

"Hear me, Lakla!" she cried. "Now would I not let you take this man from me were I to dwell ten thousand

_laya_ in the agony of the _Yekta's_ kiss. This I swear to youby Thanaroa, by my heart, and by my

strengthand may my strength wither, my heart rot in my breast, and Thanaroa forget me if I do!"

"Be silent, you!" It was almost a shriek. And her hand again sought in her breast for the cone of rhythmic

Lugur touched her arm, whispered again, The glint of guile shone in her eyes; she laughed softly, relaxed.

"The Silent Ones, Lakla, bade you say that theyallowed me three _tal_ to decide," she said suavely. "Go

now in peace, Lakla, and say that Yolara has heard, and that for the three _tal_ theyallowher she will

"The Silent Ones have said it," she answered at last. "Stay you here, strangers"the long lashes drooped as

her eyes met O'Keefe's and a hint of blush was in her cheeks"stay you here, strangers, till then. But,

Yolara, see you on that heart and strength you have sworn by that they come to no harmelse that which

you have invoked shall come upon you swiftly indeedand that I promise you," she added.

Their eyes met, clashed, burned into each otherblack flame from Abaddon and golden flame from

"Remember!" said Lakla, and passed through the portal. The gigantic frogman boomed a thunderous note of

command, his grotesque guards turned and slowly followed their mistress; and last of all passed out the

A CLAMOUR arose from all the chambers; stilled in an instant by a motion of Yolara's hand. She stood

silent, regarding O'Keefe with something other now than blind wrath; something half regretful, half

"Yolara,"his voice shook with rage, and he threw caution to the wind"now hear ME. I go where I will

and when I will. Here shall we stay until the time she named is come. And then we follow her, whether you

will or not. And if any should have thought to stop ustell them of that flame that shattered the vase," he

The wistfulness died out of her eyes, leaving them cold. But no answer made she to him.

"What Lakla has said, the Council must consider, and at once." The priestess was facing the nobles. "Now,

friends of mine, and friends of Lugur, must all feud, all rancour, between us end." She glanced swiftly at

Lugur. "The _ladala_ are stirring, and the Silent Ones threaten. Yet fear notfor are we not strong under the

Her hand dropped to the table, and she gave, evidently, a signal, for in marched a dozen or more of the green

The green dwarfs clustered about us. Without another look at the priestess O'Keefe marched beside me,

between them, from the chamber. And it was not until we had reached the pillared entrance that Larry spoke.

"I hate to talk like that to a woman, Doc," he said, "and a pretty woman, at that. But first she played me with

a marked deck, and then not only pinched all the chips, but drew a gun on me. What the hell!she nearly had

me MARRIEDto her. I don't know what the stuff was she gave me; but, take it from me, if I had the

recipe for that brew I could sell it for a thousand dollars a jolt at Fortysecond and Broadway.

"One jigger of it, and you forget there is a trouble in the world; three of them, and you forget there is a world.

No excuse for it, Doc; and I don't care what you say or what Lakla may sayit wasn't my fault, and I don't

"I must admit that I'm a bit uneasy about her threats," I said, ignoring all this. He stopped abruptly.

"Listen to me, Goodwin," He took up his walk impatiently. "I've all the love and admiration for you in the

world; but this place has got your nerve. Hereafter one Larry O'Keefe, of Ireland and the little old U. S. A.,

leads this party. Nix on the tremolo stop, nix on the superstition! I'm the works. Get me?"

"Yes, I get you!" I exclaimed testily enough. "But to use your own phrase, kindly can the repeated references

"Why should I?" He was almost wrathful. "You scientific people build up whole philosophies on the basis of

things you never saw, and you scoff at people who believe in other things that you think THEY never saw

and that don't come under what you label scientific. You talk about paradoxes why, your scientist, who

thinks he is the most skeptical, the most materialistic aggregation of atoms ever gathered at the exact

mathematical centre of Missouri, has more blind faith than a dervish, and more credulity, more superstition,

than a crosseyed smoke beating it past a country graveyard in the dark of the moon!"

"Olaf's no better," he said. "But I can make allowances for him. He's a sailor. No, sir. What this expedition

needs is a man without superstition. And remember this. The leprechaun promised that I'd have full warning

before anything happened. And if we do have to go out, we'll see that banshee bunch clean up before we do,

By this time we were before our pavilion; and neither of us in a very amiable mood I'm afraid. Rador was

"Let none pass in here without authorityand let none pass out unless I accompany them," he ordered

bruskly. "Summon one of the swiftest of the _coria_ and have it wait in readiness," he added, as though by

But when we had entered and the screens were drawn together his manner changed; all eagerness he

questioned us. Briefly we told him of the happenings at the feast, of Lakla's dramatic interruption, and of

"Three _tal_," he said musingly; "three _tal_ the Silent Ones have allowedand Yolara agreed." He sank

1 A _tal_ in Muria is the equivalent of thirty hours of earth surface time.W. T. G.

_"Ja!" It was Olaf. "_Ja!_ I told you the Shining Devil's mistress was all evil. _Ja!_ Now I begin again that

tale I started when he came"he glanced toward the preoccupied Rador. "And tell him not what I say should

"After the oldster was _adsprede_"Olaf once more used that expressive Norwegian word for the dissolving

of Songar "I knew that it was a time for cunning. I said to myself, 'If they think I have no ears to hear, they

will speak; and it may be I will find a way to save my Helma and Dr. Goodwin' s friends, too.' _Ja_, and they

"The red _Trolde_ asked the Russian how came it he was a worshipper of Thanaroa." I could not resist a

swift glance of triumph toward O'Keefe. "And the Russian," rumbled Olaf, "said that all his people

"And then we had come to Lugur's palace. They put me in rooms, and there came to me men who rubbed and

oiled me and loosened my muscles. The next day I wrestled with a great dwarf they called Valdor. He was a

mighty man, and long we struggled, and at last I broke his back. And Lugur was pleased, so that I sat with

him at feast and with the Russian, too. And again, not knowing that I understood them, they talked.

"The Russian had gone fast and far. They talked of Lugur as emperor of all Europe, and Marakinoff under

him. They spoke of the green light that shook life from the oldster; and Lugur said that the secret of it had

been the Ancient Ones' and that the Council had not too much of it. But the Russian said that among his race

"And the next day I wrestled with a great dwarf named Tahola, mightier far than Valdor. Him I threw after a

long, long time, and his back also I broke. Again Lugur was pleased. And again we sat at table, he and the

Russian and I. This time they spoke of something these _Trolde_ have which opens up a _Svaelc_abysses

"Lugur had drunk much," went on Olaf. "He was boastful. The Russian pressed him to show this thing. After

a while the red one went out and came back with a little golden box. He and the Russian went into the garden.

I followed them. There was a _lille Hoj_a moundof stones in that garden on which grew flowers and

"Lugur pressed upon the box, and a spark no bigger than a sand grain leaped out and fell beside the stones.

Lugur pressed again, and a blue light shot from the box and lighted on the spark. The spark that had been no

bigger than a grain of sand grew and grew as the blue struck it. And then there was a sighing, a wind

blewand the stones and the flowers and the trees were not. They were _forsvinde_vanished!

"Then Lugur, who had been laughing, grew quickly sober; for he thrust the Russian backfar back. And

soon down into the garden came tumbling the stones and the trees, but broken and shattered, and falling as

though from a great height. And Lugur said that of THIS something they had much, for its making was a

"They feared to use it, he said, for a spark thrice as large as that he had used would have sent all that garden

falling upward and might have opened a way to the outside before he said just this'BEFORE WE ARE

"The Russian questioned much, but Lugur sent for more drink and grew merrier and threatened him, and the

Russian was silent through fear. Thereafter I listened when I could, and little more I learned, but that little

enough. _Ja!_ Lugur is hot for conquest; so Yolara and so the Council. They tire of it here and the Silent

Ones make their minds not too easy, no, even though they jeer at them! And this they plan to rule our

"Trolldom is awake; Helvede crouches at Earth Gate whining to be loosed into a world already devil ridden!

I felt the blood drive out of my heart. But Larry's was the fighting face of the O'Keefes of a thousand years.

Rador glanced at him, arose, stepped through the curtains; returned swiftly with the Irishman's uniform.

"Put it on," he said, bruskly; again fell back into his silence and whatever O'Keefe had been about to say was

submerged in his wild and joyful whoop. He ripped from him glittering tunic and leg swathings.

"Richard is himself again!" he shouted; and each garment as he donned it, fanned his old devilmaycare

confidence to a higher flame. The last scrap of it on, he drew himself up before us.

"Bow down, ye divils!" he cried. "Bang your heads on the floor and do homage to Larry the First, Emperor of

Great Britain, Autocrat of all Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales, and adjacent waters and islands! Kneel,

"Not a bit of it," he said. "I'm that and more if Comrade Marakinoff is on the level. Whoop! Bring forth the

royal jewels an' put a whole new bunch of golden strings in Tara's harp an' down with the Sassenach forever!

"Lord how good the old togs feel," he grinned. "The touch of 'em has gone to my head. But it's straight stuff

"Not that it's not serious enough at that. A lot that Olaf's told us I've surmised from hints dropped by Yolara.

But I got the full key to it from the Red himself when he stopped me just beforebefore"he

"Maybe he had a hintmaybe he just surmised that I knew a lot more than I did. And he thought Yolara and

I were going to be loving little turtle doves. Also he figured that Yolara had a lot more influence with the

Unholy Fireworks than Lugur. Also that being a woman she could be more easily handled. All this being so,

what was the logical thing for himself to do? Sure, you get me, Steve! Throw down Lugur and make an

alliance with me! So HE calmly offered to ditch the red dwarf if I would deliver Yolara. My reward from

He went off into a perfect storm of laughter. But not to me in the light of what Russia has done and has

proved herself capable, did this thing seem at all absurd; rather in it I sensed the dawn of catastrophe colossal.

"And yet," he was quiet enough now, "I'm a bit scared. They've got the _Keth_ ray and those

"Sure," he said. "The little fairy that sent the trees and stones kiting up from Lugur's garden. Marakinoff

licked his lips over them. They cut off gravity, just about as the shadow screens cut off lightand

consequently whatever's in their range goes shooting just naturally up to the moon

"They get my goat, why deny it?" went on Larry. "With them and the _Keth_ and gentle invisible soldiers

walking around assassinating at willwell, the worst Bolsheviki are only puling babes, eh, Doc?

"I don't mind the Shining One," said O'Keefe, "one splash of a downtown New York highpressure fire hose

But for once O'Keefe's confidence found no echo within me. Not lightly, as he, did I hold that dread mystery,

the Dwellerand a vision passed before me, a vision of an Apocalypse undreamed by the Evangelist.

A vision of the Shining One swirling into our world, a monstrous, glorious flaming pillar of incarnate, eternal

Evil of peoples passing through its radiant embrace into that hideous, unearthly lifeindeath which I had

seen enfold the sacrificesof armies trembling into dancing atoms of diamond dust beneath the green ray's

rhythmic deathof cities rushing out into space upon the wings of that other demoniac force which Olaf had

watched at workof a haunted world through which the assassins of the Dweller's court stole invisible,

carrying with them every passion of hellof the rallying to the Thing of every sinister soul and of the weak

and the unbalanced, mystics and carnivores of humanity alike; for well I knew that, once loosed, not any

nation could hold this devilgod for long and that swiftly its blight would spread!

And then a world that was all colossal reek of cruelty and terror; a welter of lusts, of hatreds and of torment; a

chaos of horror in which the Dweller waxing ever stronger, the ghastly hordes of those it had consumed

At the last a ruined planet, a cosmic plague, spinning through the shuddering heavens; its verdant plains, its

murmuring forests, its meadows and its mountains manned only by a countless crew of soulless, mindless

deadalive, their shells illumined with the Dweller's infernal gloryand flaming over this vampirized earth

like a flare from some hell far, infinitely far, beyond the reach of man's farthest flung imaginingthe

Rador jumped to his feet; walked to the whispering globe. He bent over its base; did something with its

mechanism; beckoned to us. The globe swam rapidly, faster than ever I had seen it before. A low humming

"I will take the tall one named_Larree_." It was the priestess' s voice. "After the three _tal_, you may have

"He shall die," again Yolara. "But I would that first he see Lakla passand that she know what is to happen

"No!" I startedfor this was Marakinoff. "Now is no time, Yolara, for one's own desires. This is my counsel.

At the end of the three _tal_ Lakla will come for our answer. Your men will be in ambush and they will slay

her and her escort quickly with the _Keth_. But not till that is done must the three be slainand then

quickly. With Lakla dead we shall go forth to the Silent Onesand I promise you that I will find the way to

"It IS well, Yolara." It was a woman's voice, and I knew it for that old one of ravaged beauty. "Cast from

your mind whatever is in it for this strangereither of love or hatred. In this the Council is with Lugur and

"Let the three be taken now by Rador to the temple and given to the High Priest Sator"thus Lugur"until

Rador gripped the base of the globe; abruptly it ceased its spinning. He turned to us as though to speak and

even as he did so its bell note sounded peremptorily and on it the colour films began to creep at their

"I hear," the green dwarf whispered. "They shall be taken there at once." The globe grew silent. He stepped

"Not on your life, Rador," said Larry. "Nothing doing!" And then in the Murian's own tongue. "We follow

Lakla, Rador. And YOU lead the way." He thrust the pistol close to the green dwarf's side.

"Of what use, _Larree_?" he said, quietly. "Me you can slay but in the end you will be taken. Life is not

held so dear in Muria that my men out there or those others who can come quickly will let you byeven

"You're a good sport, Rador, and far be it from me to get you in bad," he said. "Take us to the templewhen

The green dwarf nodded; on his face a curious expression was it relief? Or was it emotion higher than this?

"Follow," he said. We passed out of that gay little pavilion that had come to be home to us even in this alien

"You, Sattoya, stand by the globe," he ordered one of them. "Should the _Afyo Maie_ ask, say that I am on

We passed through the lines to the _corial_ standing like a great shell at the end of the runway leading into

"Wait you here," he said curtly to the driver. The green dwarf ascended to his seat, sought the lever and we

"_Larree_," he cried, "I love you for that spirit of yours! And did you think that Rador would carry to the

temple prison a man who would take the chances of torment upon his own shoulders to save him? Or you,

Goodwin, who saved him from the rotting death? For what did I take the _corial_ or lift the veil of silence

"I am done with Lugur and with Yolara and the Shining One!" cried Rador. "My hand is for you three and for

NOW we were racing down toward that last span whose ancientness had set it apart from all the other soaring

The green dwarf nodded, pointing to the right where the bridge ended in a broad platform held high upon two

gigantic piers, between which ran a spur from the glistening road. Platform and bridge were swarming with

menatarms; they crowded the parapets, looking down upon us curiously but with no evidence of hostility.

"We don't have to break our way through, then?" There was disappointment in the Irishman's voice.

"No use, _Larree_!" Smiling, Rador stopped the _corial_ just beneath the arch and beside one of the piers.

"Now, listen well. They have had no warning, hence does Yolara still think us on the way to the temple. This

is the gateway of the Portaland the gateway is closed by the Shadow. Once I commanded here and I know

its laws. This must I do by craft persuade Serku, the keeper of the gateway, to lift the Shadow; or raise it

myself. And that will be hard and it may well be that in the struggle life will be stripped of us all. Yet is it

He swept the shell around the pier. Opened a wide plaza paved with the volcanic glass, but black as that

down which we had sped from the chamber of the Moon Pool. It shone like a mirrored lakelet of jet; on each

side of it arose what at first glance seemed towering bulwarks of the same ebon obsidian; at second, revealed

themselves as structures hewn and set in place by men; polished faces pierced by dozens of high, narrow

Down each facade a stairway fell, broken by small landings on which a door opened; they dropped to a broad

ledge of greyish stone edging the lip of this midnight pool and upon it also fell two wide flights from either

side of the bridge platform. Along all four stairways the guards were ranged; and here and there against the

ledge stood the shells in a curiously comforting resemblance to parked motors in our own world.

The sombre walls bulked high; curved and ended in two obelisked pillars from which, like a tremendous

curtain, stretched a barrier of that tenebrous gloom which, though weightless as shadow itself, I now knew to

be as impenetrable as the veil between life and death. In this murk, unlike all others I had seen, I sensed

movement, a quivering, a tremor constant and rhythmic; not to be seen, yet caught by some subtle sense; as

The green dwarf turned the _corial_ slowly to the edge at the right; crept cautiously on toward where, not

more than a hundred feet from the barrier, a low, wide entrance opened in the fort. Guarding its threshold

stood two guards, armed with broadswords, doublehanded, terminating in a wide lunette mouthed with

murderous fangs. These they raised in salute and through the portal strode a dwarf huge as Rador, dressed as

he and carrying only the poniard that was the badge of office of Muria's captainry.

"Lakla!" exclaimed Serku. "Why, the handmaiden passed with her _Akka_ nigh a _va_ ago!"

"Passed!" The astonishment of the green dwarf was so real that half was I myself deceived. "You let her

"Certainly I let her pass" But under the green dwarf's stern gaze the truculence of the guardian faded.

"There came no command to me." Little beads of sweat stood out on Serku's forehead.

"Serku," interrupted the green dwarf swiftly, "truly is my heart wrung for you. This is a matter of Yolara and

of Lugur and the Council; yes, even of the Shining One! And the message was sentand the fate, mayhap,

of all Muria rested upon your obedience and the return of Lakla with these strangers to the Council. Now

truly is my heart wrung, for there are few I would less like to see dance with the Shining One than you,

"Wait, Serku!" There was a thrill as of inspiration in Rador's voice. "This _corial_ is of the swiftestLakla's

are of the slowest. With Lakla scarce a _va_ ahead we can reach her before she enters the Portal. Lift you the

"Why not go alone, Rador, leaving the strangers here with me?" he askedand I thought not unreasonably.

"Nay, then." The green dwarf was brusk. "Lakla will not return unless I carry to her these men as evidence of

our good faith. Comewe will speak to Yolara and she shall judge you" He started awaybut Serku

"No, Rador, no!" he whispered, again panicstricken. "Go youas you will. But bring her back! Speed,

Into the green dwarf's poise crept a curious, almost a listening, alertness. He leaped to Serku's side.

"Fine work!" muttered Larry. "Nominated for a citizen of Ireland when we get out of this, one Rador of"

The Shadow trembledshuddered into nothingness; the obelisked outposts that had held it framed a ribbon

And then from the portal sped a shriek, a death cry! It cut through the silence of the ebon pit like a

whimpering arrow. Before it had died, down the stairways came pouring the guards. Those at the threshold

raised their swords and peered within. Abruptly Rador was between them. One dropped his hilt and gripped

himthe green dwarf's poniard flashed and was buried in his throat. Down upon Rador's head swept the

second blade. A flame leaped from O'Keefe's hand and the sword seemed to fling itself from its wielder's

grasp another flash and the soldier crumpled. Rador threw himself into the shell, darted to the high

There came a crackling, a darkness of vast wings flinging down upon us. The _corial's_ flight was checked as

by a giant's hand. The shell swerved sickeningly; there was an oddly metallic splintering; it quivered; shot

The Shadow had fallenbut too late, a bare instant too late. And shrinking as we fled from it, still it seemed

to strain like some fettered Afrit from Eblis, throbbing with wrath, seeking with every malign power it

possessed to break its bonds and pursue. Not until long after were we to know that it had been the dying hand

of Serku, groping out of oblivion, that had cast it after us as a fowler upon an escaping bird.

"Snappy work, Rador!" It was Larry speaking. "But they cut the end off your bus all right!"

A full quarter of the hindward whorl was gone, sliced off cleanly. Rador noted it with anxious eyes.

"That is bad," he said, "but not too bad perhaps. All depends upon how closely Lugur and his men can follow

"But to you, _Larree_, I owe my lifenot even the _Keth_ could have been as swift to save me as that death

"Serku"the green dwarf drew from his girdle the bloodstained poniard"Serku I was forced to slay. Even

as he raised the Shadow the globe gave the alarm. Lugur follows with twice ten times ten of his best" He

hesitated. "Though we have escaped the Shadow it has taken toll of our swiftness. May we reach the Portal

before it closes upon Lakla but if we do not" He paused again. "WellI know a way but it is not one

He snapped open the aperture that held the ball flaming within the dark crystal; peered at it anxiously. I crept

to the torn end of the _corial_. The edges were crumbling, disintegrated. They powdered in my fingers like

dust. Mystified still, I crept back where Larry, sheer happiness pouring from him, was whistling softly and

polishing up his automatic. His gaze fell upon Olaf's grim, sad face and softened.

"Buck up, Olaf!" he said. "We've got a good fighting chance. Once we link up with Lakla and her crowd I'm

betting that we get your wifenever doubt it! The baby" he hesitated awkwardly. The Norseman's eyes

"The _Yndling_she is of the _de Dode_," he half whispered, "of the blessed dead. For her I have no fear

and for her vengeance will be given me. _Ja!_ But my Helmashe is of the deadalivelike those we saw

whirling like leaves in the light of the Shining Deviland I would that she too were of _de Dode_and at

"Olaf," Larry's voice was gentle. "We'll come out on top I know it. Remember one thing. All this stuff that

seems so strange andand, well, sort of supernatural, is just a lot of tricks we're not hep to as yet. Why,

Olaf, suppose you took a Fijian when the war was on and set him suddenly down in London with autos

rushing past, sirens blowing, Archies popping, a dozen enemy planes dropping bombs, and the searchlights

shooting all over the skywouldn't he think he was among thirtythird degree devils in some exclusive

circle of hell? Sure he would! And yet everything he saw would be naturaljust as natural as all this is, once

we get the answer to it. Not that we're Fijians, of course, but the principle is the same."

"_Ja!_" he answered at last. "And at least we can fight. That is why I have turned to Thor of the battles, _Ja!_

And ONE have I hope in for mine Helmathe white maiden. Since I have turned to the old gods it has been

made clear to me that I shall slay Lugur and that the _Heks_, the evil witch Yolara, shall also die. But I would

"All right," said Larry, "but just don't be afraid of what you don't understand. There's another thing"he

hesitated, nervously"there's another thing that may startle you a bit when we meet up with

"Yes," went on Larry, rapidly. "It's this wayI figure that the frogs grow rather large where she lives, and

they're a bit different too. Well, Lakla's got a lot of 'em trained. Carry spears and clubs and all that junkjust

like trained seals or monkeys or so on in the circus. Probably a custom of the place. Nothing queer about that,

Olaf. Why people have all kinds of petsarmadillos and snakes and rabbits, kangaroos and elephants and

Remembering how the frogwoman had stuck in Larry's mind from the outset, I wondered whether all this

But I listened no more, for now I was sure of my surmise. The road had begun to thrust itself through

highflung, sharply pinnacled masses and rounded outcroppings of rock on which clung patches of the amber

The trees had utterly vanished, and studding the mosscarpeted plains were only clumps of a willowy shrub

from which hung, like grapes, clusters of white waxen blooms. The light too had changed; gone were the

dancing, sparkling atoms and the silver had faded to a soft, almost ashen greyness. Ahead of us marched a

rampart of coppery cliffs rising, like all these mountainous walls we had seen, into the immensities of haze.

Something long drifting in my subconsciousness turned to startled realization. The speed of the shell was

slackening! The aperture containing the ionizing mechanism was still open; I glanced within, The whirling

ball of fire was not dimmed, but its coruscations, instead of pouring down through the cylinder, swirled and

eddied and shot back as though trying to reenter their source. Rador nodded grimly.

"Look!" he cried, and pointed. Far, far behind us, so far that the road was but a glistening thread, a score of

Rador looked about him. The coppery ramparts were close, not more than three or four miles distant; in front

of us the plain lifted in a long rolling swell, and up this the _corial_ essayed to gowith a terrifying

lessening of speed. Faintly behind us came shootings, and we knew that Lugur drew close. Nor anywhere was

Now we were halfway to the crest; the shell barely crawled and from beneath it came a faint hissing; it

quivered, and I knew that its base was no longer held above the glassy surface but rested on it.

"One last chance!" exclaimed Rador. He pressed upon the control lever and wrenched it from its socket.

Instantly the sparkling ball expanded, whirling with prodigious rapidity and sending a cascade of coruscations

into the cylinder. The shell rose; leaped through the air; the dark crystal split into fragments; the fiery ball

dulled; diedbut upon the impetus of that last thrust we reached the crest. Poised there for a moment, I

caught a glimpse of the road dropping down the side of an enormous mosscovered, bowlshaped valley

Then down the steep, powerless to guide or to check the shell, we plunged in a meteor rush straight for the

Now the quick thinking of Larry's air training came to our aid. As the rampart reared close he threw himself

upon Rador; hurled him and himself against the side of the flying whorl. Under the shock the finely balanced

machine swerved from its course. It struck the soft, low bank of the road, shot high in air, bounded on

through the thick carpeting, whirled like a dervish and fell upon its side. Shot from it, we rolled for yards, but

"Quick!" cried the green dwarf. He seized an arm, dragged me to my feet, began running to the cliff base not

a hundred feet away. Beside us raced O'Keefe and Olaf. At our left was the black road. It stopped

abruptlywas cut off by a slab of polished crimson stone a hundred feet high, and as wide, set within the

coppery face of the barrier. On each side of it stood pillars, cut from the living rock and immense, almost, as

those which held the rainbow veil of the Dweller. Across its face weaved unnameable carvingsbut I had no

At the right of the Portal ran a low wall of shattered rock. Over this we raced like rabbits. Hidden behind it

was a narrow path. Crouching, Rador in the lead, we sped along it; three hundred, four hundred yards we

racedand the path ended in a _cul de sac_! To our ears was borne a louder shouting.

The first of the pursuing shells had swept over the lip of the great bowl, poised for a moment as we had and

"A little closer and I'll get him!" whispered Larry viciously. He raised his pistol.

"No!" rasped the green dwarf. He heaved a shoulder against one of the boulders that formed the pocket. It

"In!" ordered he, straining against the weight of the stone. O'Keefe slipped through. Olaf at his back, I

following. With a lightning leap the dwarf was beside me, the huge rock missing him by a hair breadth as it

We were in Cimmerian darkness. I felt for my pocketflash and recalled with distress that I had left it behind

with my medicine kit when we fled from the gardens. But Rador seemed to need no light.

"Grip hands!" he ordered. We crept, single file, holding to each other like children, through the black. At last

FOR a small eternityto me at leastwe waited. Then as silent as ever the green dwarf returned. "It is

well," he said, some of the strain gone from his voice. "Grip hands again, and follow."

"Wait a bit, Rador," this was Larry. "Does Lugur know this side entrance? If he does, why not let Olaf and

me go back to the opening and pick them off as they come in? We could hold the lotand in the meantime

"Lugur knows the secret of the Portalif he dare use it," answered the captain, with a curious indirection.

"And now that they have challenged the Silent Ones I think he WILL dare. Also, he will find our tracksand

"Well, for God's sake!" O'Keefe's appalled bewilderment was almost ludicrous. "If HE knows all that, and

"_Larree_," the green dwarf was oddly humble. "It seemed good to me, tooat first. And then I heard a

command, heard it clearly, to stop youthat Lugur die not now, lest a greater vengeance fail!"

"Command? From whom?" The Irishman's voice distilled out of the blackness the very essence of

"Superstition!" groaned O'Keefe in utter exasperation. "Always superstition! What can you do against it!

"Never mind, Rador." His sense of humour came to his aid. "It's too late now, anyway. Where do we go from

"We tread the path of one I am not fain to meet," answered Rador. "But if meet we must, point the death

tubes at the pale shield he bears upon his throat and send the flame into the flower of cold fire that is its

"It's getting too deep for me, Doc," he muttered dejectedly. "Can you make head or tail of it?"

"No," I answered, shortly enough, "but Rador fears something and that's his description of it."

"Sure," he replied, "only it's a code I don't understand." I could feel his grin. "All right for the flower of cold

fire, Rador, and I won't look into his eyes," he went on cheerfully. "But hadn't we better be moving?"

"Flower of cold fire! Don't look into his eyes! Some joint! Damned superstition." Then he chuckled and

"Sh!" Rador was warning; he began whispering. "For half a _va_ we go along a way of death. From its peril

we pass into another against whose dangers I can guard you. But in part this is in view of the roadway and it

may be that Lugur will see us. If so, we must fight as best we can. If we pass these two roads safely, then is

the way to the Crimson Sea clear, nor need we fear Lugur nor any. And there is another thing that Lugur

does not knowwhen he opens the Portal the Silent Ones will hear and Lakla and the _Akka_ will be swift

"Uncle," he remarked casually in English, "meet the man who's going to be your nephew!" cept by the

avuncular title, which Rador, humorously enough, apparently conceived to be one of respectful endearment.

For me a light broke. Plain now was the reason for his foreknowledge of Lakla's appearance at the feast

where Larry had so narrowly escaped Yolara's spells; plain the determining factor that had cast his lot with

ours, and my confidence, despite his discourse of mysterious perils, experienced a remarkable quickening.

Speculation as to the marked differences in pigmentation and appearance of niece and uncle was dissipated

by my consciousness that we were now moving in a dim halflight. We were in a fairly wide tunnel. Not far

ahead the gleam filtered, pale yellow like sunlight sifting through the leaves of autumn poplars. And as we

drove closer to its source I saw that it did indeed pass through a leafy screen hanging over the passage end.

It appeared to be a tunnel cut through soft green mould. Its base was a flat strip of pathway a yard wide from

which the walls curved out in perfect cylindrical form, smoothed and evened with utmost nicety. Thirty feet

wide they were at their widest, then drew toward each other with no break in their symmetry; they did not

close. Above was, roughly, a tenfoot rift, ragged edged, through which poured light like that in the heart of

pale amber, a buttercup light shot through with curiously evanescent bronze shadows.

Now, my eyes accustomed to the strange light, I saw that the tunnel's walls were of moss. In them I could

trace fringe leaf and curly leaf, pressings of enormous bladder caps (Physcomitrium), immense splashes of

what seemed to be the scarletcrested Cladonia, traceries of huge moss veils, crushings of teeth (peristome)

gigantic; spore cases brown and white, saffron and ivory, hot vermilions and cerulean blues, pressed into an

He quickened the pace to a halfrun; we were climbing; panting. The amber light grew stronger; the rift

above us wider. The tunnel curved; on the left a narrow cleft appeared. The green dwarf leaped toward it,

thrust us within, pushed us ahead of him up a steep rocky fissurewellnigh, indeed, a chimney. Up and up

this we scrambled until my lungs were bursting and I thought I could climb no more. The crevice ended; we

crawled out and sank, even Rador, upon a little leafcarpeted clearing circled by lacy tree ferns.

Gasping, legs aching, we lay prone, relaxed, drawing back strength and breath. Rador was first to rise. Thrice

Dimly I wondered what he meant. Something about the fern leaf at which I had been staring aroused me. I

leaped to my feet and ran to its base. This was no fern, no! It was fern MOSS! The largest of its species I had

ever found in tropic jungles had not been more than two inches high, and this wastwenty feet! The

scientific fire I had experienced in the tunnel returned uncontrollable. I parted the fronds, gazed out

My outlook commanded a vista of milesand that vista! A _Fata Morgana_ of plantdom! A land of

Forests of treehigh mosses spangled over with blooms of every conceivable shape and colour; cataracts and

clusters, avalanches and nets of blossoms in pastels, in dulled metallics, in gorgeous flamboyant hues; some

of them phosphorescent and shining like living jewels; some sparkling as though with dust of opals, of

sapphires, of rubies and topazes and emeralds; thickets of convolvuli like the trumpets of the seven

archangels of Mara, king of illusion, which are shaped from the bows of splendours arching his highest

And moss veils like banners of a marching host of Titans; pennons and bannerets of the sunset; gonfalons of

Springing up through that polychromatic flood myriads of pediclesslender and straight as spears, or

soaring in spirals, or curving with undulations gracile as the white serpents of Tanit in ancient Carthaginian

grovesand all surmounted by a fantasy of spore cases in shapes of minaret and turret, domes and spires and

cones, caps of Phrygia and bishops' mitres, shapes grotesque and unnameableshapes delicate and lovely!

They hung high poised, nodding and swayinglike goblins hovering over _Titania's_ court; cacophony of

Cathay accenting the _Flower Maiden_ music of "Parsifal"; _bizarrerie_ of the angled, fantastic beings that

people the Javan pantheon watching a bacchanal of houris in Mohammed's paradise !

Down upon it all poured the amber light; dimmed in the distances by huge, drifting darkenings lurid as the

And through the light, like showers of jewels, myriads of birds, darting, dipping, soaring, and still other

A sound came to us, reaching out like the first faint susurrus of the incoming tide; sighing, sighing, growing

stronger now its mournful whispering quivered all about us, shook usthen passing like a Presence, died

He, too, parted the fronds and peered back along our path. Peering with him we saw the barrier through

which we had come stretching verdurecovered walls for miles three or more away. Like a mole burrow in a

garden stretched the trail of the tunnel; here and there we could look down within the rift at its top; far off in

From the rift in the tunnel's continuation, nigh a mile beyond the cleft through which we had fled, lifted a

crown of hornsof tentacleserect, alert, of mottled gold and crimson; lifted higherand from a

monstrous scarlet head beneath them blazed two enormous, obloid eyes, their depths wells of purplish

phosphorescence; higher stillnoseless, earless, chinless; a livid, worm mouth from which a slender scarlet

tongue leaped like playing flames! Slowly it rose its mighty neck cuirassed with gold and scarlet scales

from whose polished surfaces the amber light glinted like flakes of fire; and under this neck shimmered

something like a palely luminous silvery shield, guarding it. The head of horror mountedand in the shield's

centre, full ten feet across, glowing, flickering, shining outcoldly, was a rose of white flame, a "flower of

Now swiftly the Thing upreared, standing like a scaled tower a hundred feet above the rift, its eyes scanning

that movement I had seen along the course of its lair. There was a hissing; the crown of horns fell, whipped

"Quick!" gasped Rador and through the fern moss, along the path and down the other side of the steep we

Behind us for an instant there was a rushing as of a torrent; a faraway, faint, agonized screamingsilence!

"Sainted St. Patrick!" O'Keefe gazed ruminatively at his automatic. "An' he expected me to kill THAT with

this. Well, as Fergus O'Connor said when they sent him out to slaughter a wild bull with a potato knife: 'Ye'll

"There you go again" blazed Larry; but the green dwarf was hurrying down the path and swiftly we

The green dwarf was signalling us for caution. He pointed through a break in a grove of fiftyfoot cedar

mosseswe were skirting the glassy road! Scanning it we found no trace of Lugur and wondered whether he

too had seen the worm and had fled. Quickly we passed on; drew away from the _coria_ path. The mosses

began to thin; less and less they grew, giving way to low clumps that barely offered us shelter. Unexpectedly

another screen of fern moss stretched before us. Slowly Rador made his way through it and stood hesitating.

The scene in front of us was oddly weird and depressing; in some indefinable waydreadful. Why, I could

not tell, but the impression was plain; I shrank from it. Then, selfanalyzing, I wondered whether it could be

the uncanny resemblance the heaps of curious mossy fungi scattered about had to beast and birdyes, and to

manthat was the cause of it. Our path ran between a few of them. To the left they were thick. They were

viridescent, almost metallic hued verdantique. Curiously indeed were they like distorted images of dog

and deerlike forms, of birdsof DWARFS and here and there the simulacra of the giant frogs! Spore cases,

yellowish green, as large as mitres and much resembling them in shape protruded from the heaps. My

Rador turned to us a face whiter far than that with which he had looked upon the dragon worm.

"Now for your lives," he whispered, "tread softly here as I doand speak not at all!"

He stepped forward on tiptoe, slowly with utmost caution. We crept after him; passed the heaps beside the

pathand as I passed my skin crept and I shrank and saw the others shrink too with that unnameable

loathing; nor did the green dwarf pause until he had reached the brow of a small hillock a hundred yards

The green dwarf stretched a hand; stiffened; gazed over to the left of us beyond a lower hillock upon whose

broad crest lay a file of the moss shapes. They fringed it, their mitres having a grotesque appearance of

watching what lay below. The glistening road lay thereand from it came a shout. A dozen of the _coria_

clustered, filled with Lugur's men and in one of them Lugur himself, laughing wickedly!

There was a rush of soldiers and up the low hillock raced a score of them toward us.

"Not much!" grunted Larryand took swift aim at Lugur. The automatic spat: Olaf's echoed. Both bullets

went wild, for Lugur, still laughing, threw himself into the protection of the body of his shell. But following

the shots, from the file of moss heaps on the crest, came a series of muffled explosions. Under the pistol's

concussions the mitred caps had burst and instantly all about the running soldiers grew a cloud of tiny,

glistening white sporeslike a little cloud of puffball dust many times magnified. Through this cloud I

The spore cloud drifted and eddied about them; rained down on their heads and half bare breasts, covered

their garmentsand swiftly they began to change! Their features grew indistinctmerged! The glistening

white spores that covered them turned to a pale yellow, grew greenish, spread and swelled, darkened. The

eyes of one of the soldiers glinted for a momentand then were covered by the swift growth!

Where but a few moments before had been men were only grotesque heaps, swiftly melting, swiftly rounding

into the the semblance of the mounds that lay behind usand already beginning to take on their gleam of

The Irishman was gripping my arm fiercely; the pain brought me back to my senses.

"Olaf's right," he gasped. "This IS hell! I'm sick." And he was, frankly and without restraint. Lugur and his

others awakened from their nightmare; piled into the _coria_, wheeled, raced away.

"On!" said Rador thickly. Two perils have we passed the Silent Ones watch over us!"

Soon we were again among the familiar and so unfamiliar moss giants. I knew what I had seen and this time

Larry could not call mesuperstitious. In the jungles of Borneo I had examined that other swiftly developing

fungus which wreaks the vengeance of some of the hill tribes upon those who steal their women; gripping

with its microscopic hooks into the flesh; sending quick, tiny rootlets through the skin down into the

capillaries, sucking life and thriving and never to be torn away until the living thing it clings to has been

sapped dry. Here was but another of the species in which the development's rate was incredibly accelerated.

Again I explained, patiently. But he seemed to derive no comfort at all from my assurances that the

phenomena were entirely natural and, aside from their more terrifying aspect, of peculiar interest to the

"I know," was all he would say. "But suppose one of those things had burst while we were going

I was wondering how I could with comparative safety study the fungus when Rador stopped; in front of us

There was a flash from the road. It passed me like a little lariat of light. It struck Larry squarely between the

"Down!" cried Rador, and hurled me to the ground. My head struck sharply; I felt myself grow faint; Olaf fell

beside me; I saw the green dwarf draw down the O'Keefe; he collapsed limply, face still, eyes staring. A

shoutand from the roadway poured a host of Lugur's men; I could hear Lugur bellowing.

There came a rush of little feet; soft, fragrant draperies brushed my face; dimly I watched Lakla bend over the

She straightenedher arms swept out and the writhing vine, with its tendrilled heads of ruby bloom, five

flames of misty incandescence, leaped into the faces of the soldiers now close upon us. It darted at their

throats, striking, coiling, and striking again; coiling and uncoiling with incredible rapidity and flying from

leverage points of throats, of faces, of breasts like a spring endowed with consciousness, volition and

hatredand those it struck stood rigid as stone with faces masks of inhuman fear and anguish; and those still

Another rush of feetand down upon Lugur's forces poured the frogmen, their booming giant leading,

thrusting with their lances, tearing and rending with talons and fangs and spurs.

Against that onslaught the dwarfs could not stand. They raced for the shells; I heard Lugur shouting,

"Go, Lugur!" she cried. "Gothat you and Yolara and your Shining One may die together! Death for you,

There was a great noise within my headno matter, Lakla was hereLakla herebut too lateLugur had

outplayed us; moss death nor dragon worm had frightened him awayhe had crept back to trap usLakla

had come too lateLarry was deadLarry! But I had heard no banshee wailingand Larry had said he

could not die without that warningno, Larry was not dead. So ran the turbulent current of my mind.

A horny arm lifted me; two enormous, oddly gentle saucer eyes were staring into mine; my head rolled; I

The noise in my head grew thunderouswas carrying me away on its thunderswept me into soft, blind

I WAS in the heart of a rose pearl, swinging, swinging; no, I was in a rosy dawn cloud, pendulous in space.

Consciousness flooded me, in reality I was in the arms of one of the man frogs, carrying me as though I were

a babe, and we were passing through some place suffused with glow enough like heart of pearl or dawn cloud

Just ahead walked Lakla in earnest talk with Rador, and content enough was I for a time to watch her. She

had thrown off the metallic robes; her thick braids of golden brown hair with their flame glints of bronze

were twined in a high coronal meshed in silken net of green; little clustering curls escaped from it, clinging to

the nape of the proud white neck, shyly kissing it. From her shoulders fell a loose, sleeveless garment of

shimmering green belted with a high golden girdle; skirt folds dropping barely below the knees.

She had cast aside her buskins, too, and the slender, higharched feet were sandalled. Between the buckled

edges of her kirtle I caught gleams of translucent ivory as exquisitely moulded, as delectably rounded, as

Something was knocking at the doors of my consciousness some tragic thing. What was it? Larry! Where

was Larry? I remembered; raised my head abruptly; saw at my side another frogman carrying O'Keefe, and

behind him, Olaf, step instinct with grief, following like some faithful, wistful dog who has lost a loved

master. Upon my movement the monster bearing me halted, looked down inquiringly, uttered a deep,

Lakla turned; the clear, golden eyes were sorrowful, the sweet mouth drooping; but her loveliness, her

gentleness, that undefinable synthesis of all her tender self that seemed always to circle her with an

Its contents were aromatic, unfamiliar but astonishingly effective, for as soon as they passed my lips I felt a

He tightened his hold; round eyes upon the Golden Girl. She spokein sonorous, reverberating

monosyllablesand I was set upon my feet; I leaped to the side of the Irishman. He lay limp, with a

disquieting, abnormal sequacity, as though every muscle were utterly flaccid; the antithesis of the _rigor

mortis_, thank God, but terrifyingly toward the other end of its arc; a syncope I had never known. The flesh

was stone cold; the pulse barely perceptible, long intervalled; the respiration undiscoverable; the pupils of the

eyes were enormously dilated; it was as though life had been drawn from every nerve.

"A light flashed from the road. It struck his face and seemed to sink in," I said.

"I saw," answered Rador; "but what it was I know not; and I thought I knew all the weapons of our rulers."

He glanced at me curiously. "Some talk there has been that the stranger who came with you, Double Tongue,

Marakinoff! The Russian at work already in this storehouse of devastating energies, fashioning the weapons

"He is not dead." Lakla's voice was poignant. "He is not dead; and the Three have wondrous healing. They

can restore him if they willand they will, they WILL!" For a moment she was silent. "Now their gods help

Lugur and Yolara," she whispered; "for come what may, whether the Silent Ones be strong or weak, if he

dies, surely shall I fall upon them and I will slay those twoyea, though I, too perish!"

"Yolara and Lugur shall both die." Olaf's eyes were burning. "But Lugur is mine to slay."

That pity I had seen before in Lakla's eyes when she looked upon the Norseman banished the white wrath

I shook my head, gave a last look at O'Keefe; there was nothing I could do; I stepped beside her. She thrust a

white arm into mine protectingly, the wonderfully moulded hand with its long, tapering fingers catching

"Your medicine is potent, handmaiden," I answered. "And the touch of your hand would give me strength

"Now, that was well spoken for such a man of wisdom as Rador tells me you are," she laughed; and a little

pang shot through me. Could not a lover of science present a compliment without it always seeming to be as

Mustering my philosophy, I smiled back at her. Again I noted that broad, classic brow, with the little tendrils

of shining bronze caressing it, the tilted, delicate, nutbrown brows that gave a curious touch of innocent

_diablerie_ to the lovely faceflowerlike, pure, highbred, a touch of roguishness, subtly alluring, sparkling

over the maiden Madonnaness that lay ever like a delicate, luminous suggestion beneath it; the long, black,

"I have always liked you," she murmured naively, "since first I saw you in that place where the Shining One

goes forth into your world. And I am glad you like my medicine as well as that you carry in the black box

"Oft and oft I came to him there, and to you, while you lay sleeping. How call you HIM?" She paused.

I bowed quite as though I were being introduced to some charming young lady met in that old life now

"YesGoodwin." she said. "Oft and oft I came. Sometimes I thought you saw me. And HEdid he not

"He did." I said, "and watched for you." Then amazement grew vocal. "But how came you?" I asked.

"By a strange road," she whispered, "to see that all was well with HIMand to look into his heart; for I

feared Yolara and her beauty. But I saw that she was not in his heart." A blush burned over her, turning even

the little bare breast rosy. "It is a strange road," she went on hurriedly. "Many times have I followed it and

watched the Shining One bear back its prey to the blue pool; seen the woman HE seeks" she made a quick

gesture toward Olaf"and a babe cast from her arms in the last pang of her mother love; seen another

woman throw herself into the Shining One's embrace to save a man she loved; and I could not help!" Her

voice grew deep, thrilled. "The friend, it comes to me, who drew you here, Goodwin!"

She was silent, walking as one who sees visions and listens to voices unheard by others, Rador made a

warning gesture; I crowded back my questions, glanced about me. We were passing over a smooth strand,

hard packed as some beach of longthrustback ocean. It was like crushed garnets, each grain stained deep

red, faintly sparkling. On each side were distances, the floor stretching away into them bare of vegetation

stretching on and on into infinitudes of rosy mist, even as did the space above.

Flanking and behind us marched the giant batrachians, fivescore of them at least, black scale and crimson

scale lustrous and gleaming in the rosaceous radiance; saucer eyes shining circles of phosphorescence green,

purple, red; spurs clicking as they crouched along with a gait at once grotesque and formidable.

Ahead the mist deepened into a ruddier glow; through it a long, dark line began to appearthe mouth I

thought of the caverned space through which we were going; it was just before us; over uswe stood bathed

A sea stretched before usa crimson sea, gleaming like that lost lacquer of royal coral and the Flame

Dragon's blood which Fu S'cze set upon the bower he built for his stolen sun maidenthat going toward it

she might think it the sun itself rising over the summer seas. Unmoved by wave or ripple, it was placid as

It seemed moltenor as though some hand great enough to rock earth had distilled here from conflagrations

A fish broke through, large as a shark, bluntheaded, flashing bronze, ridged and mailed as though with

serrate plates of armour. It leaped high, shaking from it a sparkling spray of rubies; dropped and shot up a

Across my line of vision, moving stately over the sea, floated a half globe, luminous, diaphanous, its

iridescence melting into turquoise, thence to amethyst, to orange, to scarlet shot with rose, to vermilion, a

translucent green, thence back into the iridescence; behind it four others, and the least of them ten feet in

diameter, and the largest no less than thirty. They drifted past like bubbles blown from froth of rainbows by

pipes in mouths of Titans' young. Then from the base of one arose a tangle of shimmering strands, long,

slender whiplashes that played about and sank slowly again beneath the crimson surface.

I gaspedfor the fish had been a _ganoid_that ancient, armoured form that was perhaps the most

intelligent of all life on our planet during the Devonian era, but which for age upon age had vanished, save

for its fossils held in the embrace of the stone that once was their soft bottom beds; and the halfglobes were

Now Lakla cupped her mouth with pink palms and sent a clarion note ringing out. The ledge on which we

stood continued a few hundred feet before us, falling abruptly, though from no great height to the Crimson

Sea; at right and left it extended in a long semicircle. Turning to the right whence she had sent her call, I saw

rising a mile or more away, veiled lightly by the haze, a rainbow, a gigantic prismatic arch, flattened, I

thought, by some quality of the strange atmosphere. It sprang from the ruddy strand, leaped the crimson tide,

and dropped three miles away upon a precipitous, jagged upthrust of rock frowning black from the lacquered

And surmounting a higher ledge beyond this upthrust a huge dome of dull gold, Cyclopean, striking eyes and

mind with something unhumanly alien, baffling; sending the mind groping, as though across the deserts of

space, from some farflung star, should fall upon us linked sounds, coherent certainly, meaningful surely,

vaguely familiaryet never to be translated into any symbol or thought of our own particular planet.

The sea of crimson lacquer, with its floating moons of luminous colourthis bow of prismed stone leaping

to the weird isle crowned by the anomalous, aureate excrescence the half human batrachiansthe elfland

through which we had passed, with all its hidden wonders and terrors I felt the foundations of my

cherished knowledge shaking. Was this all a dream? Was this body of mine lying somewhere, fighting a

fevered death, and all these but images floating through the breaking chambers of my brain? My knees shook;

Lakla turned, looked at me anxiously, slipped a soft arm behind me, held me till the vertigo passed.

I looked; down toward us from the bow's end were leaping swiftly another score of the frogmen. Some bore

"Asgard!" Olaf stood beside me, eyes burning, pointing to the arch. "Bifrost Bridge, sharp as sword edge,

I gripped the Norseman's hand. It was hot, and a pang of remorse shot through me. If this place had so shaken

me, how must it have shaken Olaf? It was with relief that I watched him, at Lakla's gentle command, drop

into one of the litters and lie back, eyes closed, as two of the monsters raised its yoke to their scaled

shoulders. Nor was it without further relief that I myself lay back on the soft velvety cushions of another.

The cavalcade began to move. Lakla had ordered O'Keefe placed beside her, and she sat, knees crossed

Orient fashion, leaning over the pale head on her lap, the white, tapering fingers straying fondly through his

Presently I saw her reach up, slowly unwind the coronal of her tresses, shake them loose, and let them fall

Her head bent low; I heard a soft sobbingI turned away my gaze, lorn enough in my own heart, God knew!

THE ARCH was closerand in my awe I forgot for the moment Larry and aught else. For this was no

rainbow, no thing born of light and mist, no Bifrost Bridge of myth no! It was a flying arch of stone,

stained with flares of Tyrian purples, of royal scarlets, of blues dark as the Gulf Stream's ribbon, sapphires

soft as midday May skies, splashes of chromes and greensa palette of giantry, a bridge of wizardry; a

hundred, nay, a thousand, times greater than that of Utah which the Navaho call Nonnegozche and worship,

It sprang from the ledge and winged its prodigious length in one low arc over the sea's crimson breast, as

though in some ancient paroxysm of earth it had been hurled molten, crystallizing into that stupendous span

Closer we came and closer, while I watched spellbound; now we were at its head, and the litterbearers swept

upon it. All of five hundred feet wide it was, surface smooth as a city road, sides low walled, curving inward

as though in the jettingout of its making the edges of the plastic rock had curled.

On and on we sped; the high thrusting precipices upon which the bridge's far end rested, frowned close; the

enigmatic, dully shining dome loomed ever greater. Now we had reached that end; were passing over a

smooth plaza whose level floor was enclosed, save for a rift in front of us, by the fanged tops of the black

From this rift stretched another span, half a mile long, perhaps, widening at its centre into a broad platform,

continuing straight to two massive gates set within the face of the second cliff wall like panels, and of the

same dull gold as the dome rising high beyond. And this smaller arch leaped a pit, an abyss, of which the

We were rapidly approaching; now upon the platform; my bearers were striding closely along the side; I

leaned far out a giddiness seized me! I gazed down into depth upon vertiginous depth; an abyss

indeedan abyss dropping to world's base like that in which the Babylonians believed writhed Talaat, the

Now, what was thatdistance upon unfathomable distance below? A stupendous glowing like the green fire

of life itself. What was it like? I had it! It was like the corona of the sun in eclipsethat burgeoning that

makes of our luminary when moon veils it an incredible blossoming of splendours in the black heavens.

And strangely, strangely, it was like the Dweller's beauty when with its dazzling spirallings and writhings it

The abyss was behind us; we had paused at the golden portals; they swung inward. A wide corridor filled

with soft light was before us, and on its threshold stoodbizarre, yellow gems gleaming, huge muzzle wide

in what was evidently meant for a smile of welcomethe woman frog of the Moon Pool wall.

Lakla raised her head; swept back the silken tent of her hair and gazed at me with eyes misty from weeping.

The frogwoman crept to her side; gazed down upon Larry; spoke SPOKEto the Golden Girl in a swift

stream of the sonorous, reverberant monosyllables; and Lakla answered her in kind. The webbed digits swept

over O'Keefe's face, felt at his heart; she shook her head and moved ahead of us up the passage.

Still borne in the litters we went on, winding, ascending until at last they were set down in a great hall

carpeted with soft fragrant rushes and into which from high narrow slits streamed the crimson light from

I jumped over to Larry, there had been no change in his condition; still the terrifying limpness, the slow,

infrequent pulsation. Rador and Olafand the fever now seemed to be gone from himcame and stood

"I go to the Three," said Lakla. "Wait you here." She passed through a curtaining; then as swiftly as she had

gone she returned through the hangings, tresses braided, a swathing of golden gauze about her.

"Rador," she said, "bear you Larryfor into your heart the Silent Ones would look. And fear nothing," she

He lifted Larry like a child against his broad breast. The dwarf glanced quickly at Lakla; she nodded.

Of that journey I have few memories. I only know that we went through corridor upon corridor; successions

of vast halls and chambers, some carpeted with the rushes, others with rugs into which the feet sank as into

deep, soft meadows; spaces illumined by the rubrous light, and spaces in which softer lights held sway.

We paused before a slab of the same crimson stone as that the green dwarf had called the portal, and upon its

polished surface weaved the same unnameable symbols. The Golden Girl pressed upon its side; it slipped

softly back; a torrent of opalescence gushed out of the openingand as one in a dream I entered.

We were, I knew, just under the dome; but for the moment, caught in the flood of radiance, I could see

nothing. It was like being held within a fire opalso brilliant, so flashing, was it. I closed my eyes, opened

them; the lambency cascaded from the vast curves of the globular walls; in front of me was a long, narrow

opening in them, through which, far away, I could see the end of the wizards' bridge and the ledged mouth of

the cavern through which we had come; against the light from within beat the crimson light from

A hundred paces away was a dais, its rim raised a yard above the floor. From the edge of this rim streamed

upward a steady, coruscating mist of the opalescence, veined even as was that of the Dweller's shining core

and shot with milky shadows like curdled moonlight; up it stretched like a wall.

Over it, from it, down upon me, gazed three facestwo clearly male, one a woman's. At the first I thought

them statues, and then the eyes of them gave the lie to me; for the eyes were alive, terribly, and if I could

They were thrice the size of the human eye and triangular, the apex of the angle upward; black as jet,

Over them were foreheads, not as ourshigh and broad and visored; their sides drawn forward into a vertical

ridge, a prominence, an upright wedge, somewhat like the visored heads of a few of the great lizardsand

the heads, long, narrowing at the back, were fully twice the size of mankind' s!

Upon the brows were capsand with a fearful certainty I knew that they were NOT capslong, thick

strands of gleaming yellow, feathered scales thin as sequins! Sharp, curving noses like the beaks of the giant

condors; mouths thin, austere; long, powerful, pointed chins; theFLESH of the faces white as the

whitest marble; and wreathing up to them, covering all their bodies, the shimmering, curdled, misty fires of

I forced myself to look againand from their gaze streamed a current of reassurance, of good willnay, of

intense spiritual strength. I saw that they were not fierce, not ruthless, not inhuman, despite their strangeness;

no, they were kindly; in some unmistakable way, benign and sorrowfulso sorrowful! I straightened, gazed

back at them fearlessly. Olaf drew a deep breath, gazed steadily too, the hardness, the despair wiped from his

Now Lakla drew closer to the dais; the three pairs of eyes searched hers, the woman's with an ineffable

tenderness; some message seemed to pass between the Three and the Golden Girl. She bowed low, turned to

She pointed into the radiant mist; Olaf started, hesitated, stared from Lakla to the Three, searched for a

moment their eyesand something like a smile drifted through them. He stepped forward, lifted O'Keefe, set

him squarely within the covering light. It wavered, rolled upward, swirled about the body, steadied

Again the mist wavered, shook, and seemed to climb higher, hiding the chins, the beaked noses, the brows of

that incredible Trinitybut before it ceased to climb, I thought the yellow feathered heads bent; sensed a

And groping out of the radiance, pausing at the verge of the dais, leaping down from it, came Larry, laughing,

filled with life, blinking as one who draws from darkness into sunshine. He saw Lakla, sprang to her, gripped

"Lakla!" he cried. "Mavourneen!" She slipped from his embrace, blushing, glancing at the Three shyly,

halffearfully. And again I saw the tenderness creep into the inky, flameshot orbs of the woman being; and

"You lay in the arms of Death, Larry," she said. "And the Silent Ones drew you from him. Do homage to the

She turned his head with one of the long, white hands and he looked into the faces of the Three; looked

long, was shaken even as had been Olaf and myself; was swept by that same wave of power and

Then for the first time I saw real awe mount into his face. Another moment he staredand dropped upon one

knee and bowed his head before them as would a worshipper before the shrine of his saint. AndI am not

And with a long, deep, joyous sigh Lakla took Larry's hand, drew him to his feet, and silently we followed

But why, in going, did the thought come to me that from where the Three sat throned they ever watched the

cavern mouth that was the door into their abode; and looked down ever into the unfathomable depth in which

glowed and pulsed that mystic flower, colossal, awesome, of green flame that had seemed to me fire of life

I HAD SLEPT soundly and dreamlessly; I wakened quietly in the great chamber into which Rador had

ushered O'Keefe and myself after that culminating experience of crowded, nerveracking hoursthe facing

"They look like birds." Evidently he was thinking of the Three; a silencethen: "Yes, they look like

BIRDSand they look, and it's meaning no disrespect to them I am at all, they look like LIZARDS"and

another silence"they look like some sort of gods, and, by the good swordarm of Brian Boru, they look

human, too! And it's NONE of them they are either, so whatwhat thewhat the sainted St. Bridget are

they?" Another short silence, and then in a tone of awed and absolute conviction: "That's it, sure! That's what

"Wake up!" shouted Larry. "Wake up, ye seething caldron of fossilized superstitions! Wake up, ye

Under pillow and insults I bounced to my feet, filled for a moment with quite real wrath; he lay back, roaring

"Yes?" he mimicked. "Yes! Yeye" He paused under the menace of my look, grinned. "Yes, I know," he

continued. "They're of the Tuatha De, the old ones, the great people of Ireland, THAT'S who they are!"

I knew, of course, of the Tuatha De Danann, the tribes of the god Danu, the halflegendary, halfhistorical

clan who found their home in Erin some four thousand years before the Christian era, and who have left so

"Yes," said Larry again, "the Tuatha Dethe Ancient Ones who had spells that could compel Mananan, who

is the spirit of all the seas, an' Keithor, who is the god of all green living things, an' even Hesus, the unseen

god, whose pulse is the pulse of all the firmament; yes, an' Orchil too, who sits within the earth an' weaves

with the shuttle of mystery and her three looms of birth an' life an' deatheven Orchil would weave as they

"They are of themthe mighty oneswhy else would I have bent my knee to them as I would have to the

spirit of my dead mother? Why else would Lakla, whose goldbrown hair is the hair of Eilidh the Fair, whose

mouth is the sweet mouth of Deirdre, an' whose soul walked with mine ages agone among the fragrant green

"I haven't thought about that," he replied somewhat testily. "But at once, me excellent man o' wisdom, a

number occur to me. One of them is that this little party of three might have stopped here on their way to

Ireland, an' for good reasons of their own decided to stay a while; an' another is that they might have come

here afterward, havin' got wind of what those rats out there were contemplatin', and have stayed on the job till

the time was ripe to save Ireland from 'em; the rest of the world, too, of course," he added magnanimously,

"I think," I said cautiously, "that we face an evolution of highly intelligent beings from ancestral sources

radically removed from those through which mankind ascended. These halfhuman, highly developed

batrachians they call the _Akka_ prove that evolution in these caverned spaces has certainly pursued one

different path than on earth. The Englishman, Wells, wrote an imaginative and very entertaining book

concerning an invasion of earth by Martians, and he made his Martians enormously specialized cuttlefish.

There was nothing inherently improbable in Wells' choice. Man is the ruling animal of earth today solely by

reason of a series of accidents; under another series spiders or ants, or even elephants, could have become the

"I think," I said, even more cautiously, "that the race to which the Three belong never appeared on earth's

surface; that their development took place here, unhindered through aeons. And if this be true, the structure of

their brains, and therefore all their reactions, must be different from ours. Hence their knowledge and

command of energies unfamiliar to usand hence also the question whether they may not have an entirely

different sense of values, of justiceand that is rather terrifying," I concluded.

"That last sort of knocks your argument, Doc," he said. "They had sense of justice enough to help ME

outand certainly they know lovefor I saw the way they looked at Lakla; and sorrowfor there was no

"No," he went on. "I hold to my own idea. They're of the Old People. The little leprechaun knew his way

here, an' I'll bet it was they who sent the word. An' if the O'Keefe banshee comes herewhich save the

mark!I'll bet she'll drop in on the Silent Ones for a social visit before she an' her clan get busy. Well, it'll

make her feel more at home, the good old body. No, Doc, no," he concluded, "I'm right; it all fits in too well

"Is there anything anywhere in Ireland that would indicate that the Tuatha De ever looked like the Three?" I

"Is there?" he shouted. "Is there? By the kilt of Cormack MacCormack, I'm glad ye reminded me. It was

worryin' me a little meself. There was Daghda, who could put on the head of a great boar an' the body of a

giant fish and cleave the waves an' tear to pieces the birlins of any who came against Erin; an' there was

How many more of the metamorphoses of the Old People I might have heard, I do not know, for the curtains

"You have rested well," he smiled, "I can see. The handmaiden bade me call you. You are to eat with her in

Down long corridors we trod and out upon a gardened terrace as beautiful as any of those of Yolara's city;

bowered, blossoming, fragrant, set high upon the cliffs beside the domed castle. A table, as of milky jade,

was spread at one corner, but the Golden Girl was not there. A little path ran on and up, hemmed in by the

mass of verdure. I looked at it longingly; Rador saw the glance, interpreted it, and led me up the stepped

Here I was above the foliage, and everywhere the view was clear. Below me stretched the incredible bridge,

with the frog people hurrying back and forth upon it. A pinnacle at my side hid the abyss. My eyes followed

the cavern ledge. Above it the rock rose bare, but at the ends of the semicircular strand a luxuriant vegetation

began, stretching from the crimson shores back into far distances. Of browns and reds and yellows, like an

autumn forest, was the foliage, with here and there patches of darkgreen, as of conifers. Five miles or more,

I turned and faced an immensity of crimson waters, unbroken, a true sea, if ever there was one. A breeze

blew the first real wind I had encountered in the hidden places; under it the surface, that had been as

molten lacquer, rippled and dimpled. Little waves broke with a spray of rosepearls and rubies. The giant

Far down, peeping around a jutting tower of the cliff, I saw dipping with the motion of the waves a floating

garden. The flowers, too, were luminousindeed sparklinggleaming brilliants of scarlet and vermilions

lighter than the flood on which they lay, mauves and odd shades of reddishblue. They gleamed and shone

It was a shy Lakla who came slowly around the end of the path and, blushing furiously, held her hands out to

Larry. And the Irishman took them, placed them over his heart, kissed them with a tenderness that had been

lacking in the halfmocking, halffierce caresses he had given the priestess. She blushed deeper, holding out

"I like the touch of your lips, Larry," she whispered. "They warm me here"she pressed her heart

again"and they send little sparkles of light through me." Her brows tilted perplexedly, accenting the

nuance of diablerie, delicate and fascinating, that they cast upon the flower face.

"Do you?" whispered the O'Keefe fervently. "Do you, Lakla?" He bent toward her. She caught the amused

"Rador," she said, "is it not time that you and the strong one, Olaf, were setting forth?"

"Truly it is, handmaiden," he answered respectfully enoughyet with a current of laughter under his words.

"But as you know the strong one, Olaf, wished to see his friends here before we were goneand he comes

even now," he added, glancing down the pathway, along which came striding the Norseman.

As he faced us I saw that a transformation had been wrought in him. Gone was the pitiful seeking, and gone

too the just as pitiful hope. The set face softened as he looked at the Golden Girl and bowed low to her. He

"There is to be battle," he said. "I go with Rador to call the armies of these frog people. As for meLakla

has spoken. There is no hope forfor mine Helma in life, but there is hope that we destroy the Shining Devil

and give _mine_ Helma peace. And with that I am well content, _ja!_ Well content!" He gripped our hands

again. "We will fight!" he muttered. "_Ja!_ And I will have vengeance!" The sternness returned; and with a

"Not even the Silent Ones can heal those the Shining One has taken," she said. "He asked meand it was

better that I tell him. It is part of the Three'sPUNISHMENTbut of that you will soon learn," she went on

hurriedly. "Ask me no questions now of the Silent Ones. I thought it better for Olaf to go with Rador, to busy

Up the path came five of the frogwomen, bearing platters and ewers. Their bracelets and anklets of jewels

were tinkling; their middles covered with short kirtles of woven cloth studded with the sparkling ornaments.

And here let me say that if I have given the impression that the _Akka_ are simply magnified frogs, I regret

it. Froglike they are, and hence my phrase for thembut as unlike the frog, as we know it, as man is unlike

the chimpanzee. Springing, I hazard, from the stegocephalia, the ancestor of the frogs, these batrachians

followed a different line of evolution and acquired the upright position just as man did his from the

The great staring eyes, the shape of the muzzle were froglike, but the highly developed brain had set upon the

head and shape of it vital differences. The forehead, for instance, was not low, flat, and retreatingits frontal

arch was well defined. The head was, in a sense, shapely, and with the females the great horny carapace that

stood over it like a fantastic helmet was much modified, as were the spurs that were so formidable in the

male; colouration was different also. The torso was upright; the legs a little bent, giving them their crouching

*1 The _Akka_ are viviparous. The female produces progeny at fiveyear intervals, never more than two at a

time. They are monogamous, like certain of our own _Ranidae_. Pending my monograph upon what little I

had time to learn of their interesting habits and customs, the curious will find instruction and entertainment in

Brandes and Schvenichen' s _Brutpfleige der Schwanzlosen Bat rachier_, p. 395; and Lilian V. Sampson's

"Things!" The handmaiden arose, eyes flashing with indignation. "You call my _Akka_ things!"

"My _Akka are a PEOPLE," she retorted. "As much a people as your race or mine. They are good and loyal,

and they have speech and arts, and they slay not, save for food or to protect themselves. And I think them

Beautiful! These? Yet, after all, they were, in their grotesque fashion. And to Lakla, surrounded by them,

from babyhood, they were not strange, at all. Why shouldn't she think them beautiful? The same thought must

"I think them beautiful, too, Lakla," he said remorsefully. "It's my not knowing your tongue too well that

Lakla dimpled, laughedspoke to the attendants in that strange speech that was unquestionably a language;

they bridled, looked at O'Keefe with fantastic coquetry, cracked and boomed softly among themselves.

"Did I ever think I'd be swapping compliments with lady frogs!" he murmured to me. "Buck up, Larrykeep

"Rador goes to meet one of the _ladala_ who is slipping through with news," said the Golden Girl as we

addressed ourselves to the food. "Then, with Nak, he and Olaf go to muster the _Akka_for there will be

battle, and we must prepare. Nak," she added, "is he who went before me when you were dancing with

Yolara, Larry." She stole a swift, mischievous glance at him. "He is headman of all the _Akka_."

"Just what forces can we muster against them when they come, darlin'?" said Larry.

"It's a little word that means Lakla," he answered. "It doesthat is, when I say it; when you say it, then it

"Larry darlin'!" said Lakla. "When they come we shall have first of all my _Akka_"

"Can they fight! My _Akka_!" Again her eyes flashed. "They will fight to the last of themwith the spears

that give the swift rotting, covered, as they are, with the jelly of those _Saddu_ there" She pointed through

a rift in the foliage across which, on the surface of the sea, was floating one of the moon globesand now I

know why Rador had warned Larry against a plunge there. "With spears and clubs and with teeth and nails

and spursthey are a strong and brave people, Larrydarlin', and though they hurl the _Keth_ at them, it is

slow to work upon them, and they slay even while they are passing into the nothingness!"

"No"she shook her head"none of their weapons have we here, although it wasit was the Ancient Ones

"No," she said slowly. "Nothere is something you must knowand soon; and then the Silent Ones say you

"Then," said Larry, "we have the _Akka_; and we have the four men of us, and among us three guns and

about a hundred cartridgesan'an' the power of the Threebut what about the Shining One,

"I do not know." Again the indecision that had been in her eyes when Yolara had launched her defiance crept

"Well, we'd better get busy good and quick!" the O'Keefe's voice rang. But Lakla, for some reason of her

own, would pursue the matter no further. The trouble fled from her eyes they danced.

"You do?" he whispered, all thought flying of anything but the beautiful, provocative face so close to his.

"Then, _acushla_, you're goin' to get acquainted with 'em! Turn your head, Doc!" he said.

And I turned it. There was quite a long silence, broken by an interested, soft outburst of gentle boomings

from the serving frogmaids. I stole a glance behind me. Lakla's head lay on the Irishman's shoulder, the

golden eyes misty sunpools of love and adoration; and the O'Keefe, a new look of power and strength upon

his clearcut features, was gazing down into them with that look which rises only from the heart touched for

the first time with that true, allpowerful love, which is the pulse of the universe itself, the real music of the

spheres of which Plato dreamed, the love that is stronger than death itself, immortal as the high gods and the

Then Lakla raised her hands, pressed down Larry's head, kissed him between the eyes, drew herself with a

She turned to the boomingsmilingfrogmaids; gave them some command, for they filed away down the

"If you don't mind," I said, "I think I'll go up the path there again and look about."

But they were so engrossed with each other that they did not even hear meso I walked away, up to the

embrasure where Rador had taken me. The movement of the batrachians over the bridge had ceased. Dimly at

the far end I could see the cluster of the garrison. My thoughts flew back to Lakla and to Larry.

If we won, if we were able to pass from this place, could she live in our world? A product of these caverns

with their atmosphere and light that seemed in some subtle way to be both food and drinkhow would she

react to the unfamiliar foods and air and light of outer earth? Further, here so far as I was able to discover,

there were no malignant bacilli what immunity could Lakla have then to those microscopic evils without,

which only long ages of sickness and death have bought for us a modicum of protection? I began to be

oppressed. Surely they bad been long enough by themselves. I went down the path.

"It's a green land, _mavourneen_. And the sea rocks and dimples around itblue as the heavens, green as the

isle itself, and foam horses toss their white manes, and the great clean winds blow over it, and the sun shines

At last we turned to goand around the corner of the path I caught another glimpse of what I have called the

"Those are lovely flowers, Lakla," I said. "I have never seen anything like them in the place from whence we

She ran down an intersecting way, we following; came out of it upon a little ledge close to the brink, three

feet or more I suppose about it. The Golden Girl's voice rang out in a highpitched, tremulous, throbbing call.

The lake of jewels stirred as though a breeze had passed over it; stirred, shook, and then began to move

swiftly, a shimmering torrent of shining flowers down upon us! She called again, the movement became more

rapid; the gem blooms streamed closercloser, wavering, shifting, winding at our very feet. Above them

hovered a little radiant mist. The Golden Girl leaned over; called softly, and up from the sparkling mass shot

a green vine whose heads were five flowers of flaming rubyshot up, flew into her hand and coiled about

It was the thing Lakla had called the _Yekta_; that with which she had threatened the priestess; the thing that

Larry sworeI looked at the thing more closely. It was a hydroid, a development of that strange

animalvegetable that, sometimes almost microscopic, waves in the sea depths like a cluster of flowers

paralyzing its prey with the mysterious force that dwells in its blossom heads!1

*1 The _Yekta_ of the Crimson Sea, are as extraordinary developments of hydroid forms as the giant

_Medusae_, of which, of course, they are not too remote cousins. The closest resemblances to them in outer

water forms are among the _Gymnoblastic Hydroids_, notably _Clavetella prolifera_, a most interesting

ambulatory form of six tentacles. Almost every bather in Southern waters, Northern too, knows the pain that

contact with certain "jelly fish" produces. The _Yekta's_ development was prodigious and, to us, monstrous.

It secretes in its five heads an almost incredibly swiftly acting poison which I suspect, for I had no chance to

verify the theory, destroys the entire nervous system to the accompaniment of truly infernal agony; carrying

at the same time the illusion that the torment stretches through infinities of time. Both ether and nitrous oxide

gas produce in the majority this sensation of time extension, without of course the pain symptom. What Lakla

called the _Yekta_ kiss is I imagine about as close to the orthodox idea of Hell as can be conceived. The

secret of her control over them I had no opportunity of learning in the rush of events that followed.

Knowledge of the appalling effects of their touch came, she told me, from those few "who had been kissed so

lightly" that they recovered. Certainly nothing, not even the Shining One, was dreaded by the Murians as

"Put it down, Lakla," the distress in O'Keefe's voice was deep. Lakla laughed mischievously, caught the real

fear for her in his eyes; opened her hand, gave another faint call and back it flew to its fellows.

She sighed, gave another sweet, prolonged call. The lake of gemsrubies and amethysts, mauves and

scarlettinged blueswavered and shook even as it had beforeand swept swiftly back to that place

Then, with Larry and Lakla walking ahead, white arm about his brown neck; the O'Keefe still expostulating,

the handmaiden laughing merrily, we passed through her bower to the domed castle.

Glancing through a cleft I caught sight again of the far end of the bridge; noted among the clustered figures of

its garrison of the frogmen a movement, a flashing of green fire like marshlights on spear tips; wondered

idly what it was, and then, other thoughts crowding in, followed along, head bent, behind the pair who had

"NEVER was there such a girl!" Thus Larry, dreamily, leaning head in hand on one of the wide divans of the

"An', by the faith and the honour of the O'Keefes, an' by my dead mother's soul may God do with me as I do

I walked about the room, examining itthe first opportunity I had gained to inspect carefully any of the

rooms in the abode of the Three. It was octagonal, carpeted with the thick rugs that seemed almost as though

woven of soft mineral wool, faintly shimmering, palest blue. I paced its diagonal; it was fifty yards; the

ceiling was arched, and either of pale rose metal or metallic covering; it collected the light from the high,

Around the octagon ran a low gallery not two feet from the floor, balustraded with slender pillars, close set;

broken at opposite curtained entrances over which hung thick, dullgold curtainings giving the same

suggestion of metallic or mineral substance as the rugs. Set within each of the eight sides, above the balcony,

were colossal slabs of lapis lazuli, inset with graceful but unplaceable designs in scarlet and sapphire blue.

There was the great divan on which mused Larry; two smaller ones, half a dozen low seats and chairs carved

Most curious were tripods, strong, pikelike legs of golden metal four feet high, holding small circles of the

lapis with intaglios of one curious symbol somewhat resembling the ideographs of the Chinese.

There was no dustnowhere in these caverned spaces had I found this constant companion of ours in the

world overhead. My eyes caught a sparkle from a corner. Pursuing it I found upon one of the low seats a flat,

clear crystal oval, remarkably like a lens. I took it and stepped up on the balcony. Standing on tiptoe I found I

commanded from the bottom of a window slit a view of the bridge approach. Scanning it I could see no trace

of the garrison there, nor of the green spear flashes. I placed the crystal to my eyesand with a disconcerting

abruptness the cavern mouth leaped before me, apparently not a hundred feet away; decidedly the crystal was

I peered closely. Nothing! But now against the aperture I saw a score or more of tiny, dancing sparks. An

optical illusion, I thought, and turned the crystal in another direction. There were no sparklings there. I turned

it back again and there they were. And what were they like? Realization came to methey were like the

little, dancing, radiant atoms that had played for a time about the emptiness where had stood Sorgar of the

Lower Waters before he bad been shaken into the nothingness! And that green light I had noticed the

A cry on my lips, I turned to Larryand the cry died as the heavy curtainings at the entrance on my right

undulated, parted as though a body had slipped through, shook and parted again and againwith the dreadful

He leaped to his feet, gazed about wildlyand disappeared ! Yesvanished from my sight like the snuffed

flame of a candle or as though something moving with the speed of light itself had snatched him away!

Then from the divan came the sounds of struggle, the hissing of straining breaths, the noise of Larry cursing.

I leaped over the balustrade, drawing my own pistolwas caught in a pair of mighty arms, my elbows

crushed to my sides, drawn down until my face pressed close to a broad, hairy breastand through that

obstacleformless, shadowless, transparent as air itselfI could still see the battle on the divan!

Now there were two sharp reports; the struggle abruptly ceased. From a point not a foot over the great couch,

as though oozing from the air itself, blood began to drop, faster and ever faster, pouring out of nothingness.

And out of that same air, now a dozen feet away, leaped the face of Larrybodyless, poised six feet above

the floor, blazing with ragefloating weirdly, uncannily to a hideous degree, in vacancy.

His hands flashed outarmless; they wavered, appearing, disappearingswiftly tearing something from

him. Then there, feet hidden, stiff on legs that vanished at the ankles, striking out into vision with all the

dizzy abruptness with which he had been stricken from sight was the O'Keefe, a smoking pistol in hand.

And ever that red stream trickled out of vacancy and spread over the couch, dripping to the floor.

I made a mighty movement to escape; was held more firmlyand then close to the face of Larry, flashing

out with that terrifying instantaneousness even as had his, was the head of Yolara, as devilishly mocking as I

had ever seen it, the cruelty shining through it like delicate white flames from helland beautiful!

"Stir not! Strike notuntil I command!" She flung the words beyond her, addressed to the invisible ones

who had accompanied her; whose presences I sensed filling the chamber. The floating, beautiful head,

crowned high with cornsilk hair, darted toward the Irishman. He took a swift step backward. The eyes of the

"So," she said. "So, _Larree_you thought you could go from me so easily!" She laughed softly. "In my

hidden hand I hold the _Keth_ cone," she murmured. "Before you can raise the death tube I can smite

youand will. And consider, _Larree_, if the handmaiden, the _choya_ comes, I can vanish so"the

mocking head disappeared, burst forth again "and slay her with the _Keth_or bid my people seize her

Tiny beads of sweat stood out on O'Keefe's forehead, and I knew he was thinking not of himself, but of

"Nay," came the mocking voice. "Not Yolara to you, _Larree_call me by those sweet names you taught

"Ah, you are afraid, _Larree_." There was diabolic jubilation in the words. "What should I want but that you

return with me? Why else did I creep through the lair of the dragon worm and pass the path of perils but to

ask you that? And the _choya_ guards you not well." Again she laughed. "We came to the cavern's end and,

there were her _Akka_. And the _Akka_ can see usas shadows. But it was my desire to surprise you with

my coming, Larree," the voice was silken. "And I feared that they would hasten to be first to bring you that

message to delight in your joy. And so, _Larree_, I loosed the _Keth_ upon themand gave them peace and

"What do you want with me?" There was wrath in his eyes, and plainly he strove for control.

"Want!" the silver voice hissed, grew calm. "Do not Siya and Siyana grieve that the rite I pledged them is but

half doneand do they not desire it finished? And am I not beautiful? More beautiful than your _choya_?"

The fiendishness died from the eyes; they grew blue, wondrous; the veil of invisibility slipped down from the

neck, the shoulders, half revealing the gleaming breasts. And weird, weird beyond all telling was that

exquisite head and bust floating there in airand beautiful, sinisterly beautiful beyond all telling, too. So

"And perhaps," she said, "perhaps I want you because I hate you; perhaps because I love youor perhaps for

"Then shall I spare the handmaidenandwho knows? take back my armies that even now gather at the

portal and let the Silent Ones rot in peace in their abodefrom which they had no power to keep me," she

"You will swear that, Yolara; swear to go without harming the handmaiden?" he asked eagerly. The little

"Is that devil in front of you or behind you, old man?" he asked quietly, eyes never leaving the priestess. "If

he's in front I'll take a chance and wing himand then you scoot and warn Lakla."

But I could not answer; nor, remembering Yolara's threat, would I, had I been able.

The curtains toward which O'Keefe had slowly, step by step, drawn close, opened. They framed the

handmaiden! The face of Yolara changed to that gorgon mask that had transformed it once before at sight of

the Golden Girl. In her blind rage she forgot to cast the occulting veil. Her hand darted like a snake out of the

But before it was wholly poised, before the priestess could loose its force, the handmaiden was upon her.

Swift as the lithe white wolf hound she leaped, and one slender hand gripped Yolara's throat, the other the

wrist that lifted the quivering death; white limbs wrapped about the hidden ones, I saw the golden head bend,

the hand that held the _Keth_ swept up with a vicious jerk; saw Lakla's teeth sink into the wristthe blood

spurt forth and heard the priestess shriek. The cone fell, bounded toward me; with all my strength I wrenched

free the hand that held my pistol, thrust it against the pressing breast and fired,

The clasp upon me relaxed; a red rain stained me; at my feet a little pillar of blood jetted; a hand thrust itself

Now Yolara was down, Lakla meshed in her writhings and fighting like some wild mother whose babes are

serpent menaced. Over the two of them, astride, stood the O'Keefe, a pike from one of the high tripods in his

handthrusting, parrying, beating on every side as with a broadsword against poniardclutching hands that

thrust themselves out of vacancy striving to strike him; stepping here and there, always covering, protecting

Lakla with his own body even as a caveman of old who does battle with his mate for their lives.

The swordclub struckand on the floor lay the half body of a dwarf, writhing with vanishments and

reappearings of legs and arms. Beside him was the shattered tripod from which Larry had wrenched his

weapon. I flung myself upon it, dashed it down to break loose one of the remaining supports, struck in

midfall one of the unseen even as his dagger darted toward me! The seat splintered, leaving in my clutch a

golden bar. I jumped to Larry's side, guarding his back, whirling it like a staff; felt it crunch

At the door was a booming. Into the chamber rushed a dozen of the frogmen. While some guarded the

entrances, others leaped straight to us, and forming a circle about us began to strike with talons and spurs at

unseen things that screamed and sought to escape. Now here and there about the blue rugs great stains of

blood appeared; heads of dwarfs, torn arms and gashed bodies, half occulted, half revealed. And at last the

priestess lay silent, vanquished, white body gleaming with that uncannyfragmentarinessfrom her torn

robes. Then O'Keefe reached down, drew Lakla from her. Shakily, Yolara rose to her feet. The handmaiden,

face still blazing with wrath, stepped before her; with difficulty she steadied her voice.

"Yolara," she said, "you have defied the Silent Ones, you have desecrated their abode, you came to slay these

men who are the guests of the Silent Ones and me, who am their handmaiden why did you do these

"Because he is pledged to me," replied Yolara, all the devils that were hers in her face. "Because he wooed

"That is a lie!" The handmaiden's voice shook with rage. "It is a lie! But here and now he shall choose,

Yolara. And if you he choose, you and he shall go forth from here unmolested for Yolara, it is his

happiness that I most desire, and if you are that happinessyou shall go together. And now, Larry, choose!"

Swiftly she stepped beside the priestess; swiftly wrenched the last shreds of the hiding robes from her.

There they stoodYolara with but the filmiest net of gauze about her wonderful body; gleaming flesh

shining through it; serpent womanand wonderful, too, beyond the dreams even of Phidiasand hellfire

And Lakla, like a girl of the Vikings, like one of those warrior maids who stood and fought for dun and babes

at the side of those old heroes of Larry's own green isle; translucent ivory lambent through the rents of her

torn draperies, and in the wide, golden eyes flaming wrath, indeednot the diabolic flames of the priestess

but the righteous wrath of some soul that looking out of paradise sees vile wrong in the doing.

"Lakla," the O'Keefe's voice was subdued, hurt, "there IS no choice. I love you and only youand have from

the moment I saw you. It's not easythis. God, Goodwin, I feel like an utter cad," he flashed at me. "There is

"Well would I like to," her face grew dreaming; "but the Silent Ones sayNO; they bid me let you go,

"The Silent Ones," the priestess laughed. "YOU, Lakla! You fear, perhaps, to let me tarry here too close!"

"No," she answered, the Silent Ones so commandand for their own purposes. Yet do I think, Yolara, that

you will have little time to feed your wickednesstell that to Lugur and to your Shining One!" she added

Mockery and disbelief rode high in the priestess's pose. "Am I to return alonelike this?" she asked.

"Nay, Yolara, nay; you shall be accompanied," said Lakla; "and by those who will guardand

The priestess met the fierce hatred and contempt in the eyes of the Norsemanand for the first time lost her

"He goes with you," said Lakla, and threw about Yolara a swathing that covered the exquisite, alluring body.

She bent to Rador, whispered to him; he nodded; she had told him, I supposed, the secret of its opening.

"Come," he said, and with the iceeyed giant behind her, Yolara, head bent, passed out of those hangings

through which, but a little before, unseen, triumph in her grasp, she had slipped.

Then Lakla came to the unhappy O'Keefe, rested her hands on his shoulders, looked deep into his eyes.

"I did not," he said. "I was pleasant to her, of course, because I thought it would bring me quicker to you,

"I think you must have been VERYpleasant!" was all she saidand leaning, kissed him forgivingly

straight on the lips. An extremely direct maiden was Lakla, with a truly sovereign contempt for anything she

might consider nonessentials; and at this moment I decided she was wiser even than I had thought her.

He stumbled, feet vanishing; reached down and picked up something that in the grasping turned his hand to

"One of the invisible cloaks," he said to me. "There must be quite a lot of them aboutI guess Yolara

brought her full staff of murderers. They're a bit shopworn, probably but we're considerably better off with

There was a choking rattle at my feet; half the head of a dwarf raised out of vacancy; beat twice upon the

floor in death throes; fell back. Lakla shivered; gave a command. The frogmen moved about; peering here

and there; lifting unseen folds revealing in stark rigidity torn form after form of the priestess's men.

She called, and to her came the frogwoman who was her attendant. To her the handmaiden spoke, pointing

to the batrachians who stood, paws and forearms melted beneath the robes they had gathered. She took them

and passed out more grotesque than ever, shattering into streaks of vacancies, reappearing with flickers of

shining scale and yellow gems as the tattered pennants of invisibility fluttered about her.

The frogmen reached down, swung each a dead dwarf in his arms, and filed, booming triumphantly away

And then I remembered the cone of the _Keth_ which had slipped from Yolara's hand; knew it had been that

for which her wild eyes searched. But look as closely as we might, search in every nook and corner as we did,

we could not find it. Had the dying hand of one of her men clutched it and had it been borne away with them?

With the thought Larry and I raced after the scaled warriors, searched every body they carried. It was not

there. Perhaps the priestess had found it, retrieved it swiftly without our seeing.

Whatever was truethe cone was gone. And what a weapon that one little holder of the shaking death would

IT IS WITH marked hesitation that I begin this chapter, because in it I must deal with an experience so

contrary to every known law of physics as to seem impossible. Until this time, barring, of course, the mystery

of the Dweller, I had encountered nothing that was not susceptible of naturalistic explanation; nothing, in a

word, outside the domain of science itself; nothing that I would have felt hesitancy in reciting to my

colleagues of the International Association of Science. Amazing, unfamiliarADVANCEDas many of

the phenomena were, still they lay well within the limits of what we have mapped as the possible; in regions,

it is true, still virgin to the mind of man, but toward which that mind is steadily advancing.

But thiswell, I confess that I have a theory that is naturalistic; but so abstruse, so difficult to make clear

within the short confines of the space I have to give it, so dependent upon conceptions that even the

I can only say that the thing occurred; that it took place in precisely the manner I am about to narrate, and that

Yet, in justice to myself, I must open up some paths of preliminary approach toward the heart of the

perplexity. And the first path is the realization that our world WHATEVER it is, is certainly NOT the world

as we see it! Regarding this I shall refer to a discourse upon "Gravitation and the Principle of Relativity," by

the distinguished English physicist, Dr. A. S. Eddington, which I had the pleasure of hearing him deliver

*1 Reprinted in full in _Nature_, in which those sufficiently interested may peruse it.W. T. G.

I realize, of course, that it is not true logic to argue "The world is not as we think it istherefore

everything we think impossible is possible in it." Even if it BE different, it is governed by LAW. The truly

impossible is that which is outside law, and as nothing CAN be outside law, the impossible CANNOT exist.

The crux of the matter then becomes our determination whether what we think is impossible may or may not

I hope that you will pardon me for this somewhat academic digression, but I felt it was necessary, and it has,

We had watched, Larry and I, the frogmen throw the bodies of Yolara's assassins into the crimson waters.

As vultures swoop down upon the dying, there came sailing swiftly to where the dead men floated, dozens of

the luminous globes. Their slender, varicoloured tentacles whipped out; the giant iridescent bubbles

CLIMBED over the cadavers. And as they touched them there was the swift dissolution, the melting away

into putrescence of flesh and bone that I had witnessed when the dart touched fruit that time I had saved

Radorand upon this the Medusae gorged; pulsing lambently; their wondrous colours shifting, changing,

glowing stronger; elfin moons now indeed, but satellites whose glimmering beauty was fed by death;

Sick, I turned awayO'Keefe as pale as I; passed back into the corridor that had opened on the ledge from

which we had watched; met Lakla hurrying toward us. Before she could speak there throbbed faintly about us

a vast sighing. It grew into a murmur, a whispering, shook usthen passing like a presence, died away in far

"The Portal has opened," said the handmaiden. A fainter sighing, like an echo of the other, mourned about us.

"Yolara is gone," she said, "the Portal is closed. Now must we hasten for the Three have commanded that

you, Goodwin, and Larry and I tread that strange road of which I have spoken, and which Olaf may not take

"Come!" said Lakla, and we walked on; down and down through hall after hall, flight upon flight of

stairways. Deep, deep indeed, we must be beneath the domed castleLakla paused before a curved, smooth

breast of the crimson stone rounding gently into the passage. She pressed its side; it revolved; we entered; it

The room, thehollowin which we stood was faceted like a diamond; and like a cut brilliant its sides

glistened though dully. Its shape was a deep oval, and our path dropped down to a circular polished base,

roughly two yards in diameter. Glancing behind me I saw that in the closing of the entrance there had been

left no trace of it save the steps that led from where that entrance had beenand as I looked these steps

TURNED, leaving us isolated upon the circle, only the faceted walls about usand in each of the gleaming

faces the three of us reflecteddimly. It was as though we were within a diamond egg whose graven angles

But the oval was not perfect; at my right a screen cut it a screen that gleamed with fugitive, fleeting

luminescences stretching from the side of our standing place up to the tip of the chamber; slightly convex

and crisscrossed by millions of fine lines like those upon a spectroscopic plate, but with this differencethat

within each line I sensed the presence of multitudes of finer lines, dwindling into infinitude, ultramicroscopic,

traced by some instrument compared to whose delicacy our finest tool would be as a crowbar to the needle of

A foot or two from it stood something like the standee of a compass, bearing, like it a cradled dial under

whose crystal ran concentric rings of prisoned, lambent vapours, faintly blue. From the edge of the dial jutted

Within these cups the handmaiden placed her tapering fingers. She gazed down upon the disk; pressed a

"Put your arm around my waist, Larry, darlin', and stand close," she murmured. "You, Goodwin, place your

Wondering, I did as she bade; she pressed other fingers upon the shelf's indentationsthree of the rings of

vapour spun into intense light, raced around each other; from the screen behind us grew a radiance that held

within itself all spectrumsnot only those seen, but those UNSEEN by man's eyes. It waxed brilliant and

ever more brilliant, all suffusing, passing through me as day streams through a window pane!

The enclosing facets burst into a blaze of coruscations, and in each sparkling panel I saw our images, shaken

and torn like pennants in a whirlwind. I turned to lookwas stopped by the handmaiden's swift command:

The radiance behind me grew; was a rushing tempest of light in which I was but the shadow of a shadow. I

heard, but not with my earsnay with MIND itselfa vast roaring; an ORDERED tumult of sound that

came hurling from the outposts of space; approachingrushinghurricane out of the heart of the

The faceted walls dimmed; in front of me they melted, diaphanously, like a gelatinous wall in a blast of

flame; through their vanishing, under the torrent of driving light, the unthinkable, impalpable tornado, I

Still the roaring grew; the radiance streamedever faster we went. Cutting down through the length, the

EXTENSION of me, dropped a wall of rock, foreshortened, clenched close; I caught a glimpse of the elfin

gardens; they whirled, contracted, into a thinsliceof colour that was a part of me; another wall of rock

shrinking into a thin wedge through which I flew, and that at once took its place within me like a card slipped

Flashing around me, and from Lakla and O'Keefe, were nimbuses of flickering scarlet flames. And always

Another barrier of rocka gleam of white waters incorporating themselves into myDRAWING

OUTeven as were the flowered moss lands, the slicing, rocky wallsstill another rampart of cliff,

dwindling instantly into the vertical plane of those others. Our flight checked; we seemed to hover within,

A mist danced ahead of mea mist that grew steadily thinner. We stopped, waveredthe mist cleared.

I looked out into translucent, green distances; shot with swift prismatic gleamings; waves and pulsings of

luminosity like midday sun glow through green, tropic waters: dancing, scintillating veils of sparkling atoms

And Lakla and Larry and I were, I saw, like shadow shapes upon a smooth breast of stone twenty feet or

more above the surface of this placea surface spangled with tiny white blossoms gleaming wanly through

creeping veils of phosphorescence like smoke of moon fire. We were shadows and yet we had substance;

we were incorporated with, a part of, the rockand yet we were living flesh and blood; we stretchednor

will I qualify thiswe STRETCHED through mile upon mile of space that weirdly enough gave at one and

the same time an absolute certainty of immense horizontal lengths and a vertical concentration that contained

nothing of length, nothing of space whatever; we stood THERE upon the face of the stoneand still we were

"Steady!" It was Lakla's voiceand not beside me THERE, but at my ear close before the screen. "Steady,

The sparkling haze cleared. Enormous reaches stretched before me. Shimmering up through them, and as

though growing in some medium thicker than air, was mass upon mass of verdurefruiting trees and trees

laden with pale blossoms, arbours and bowers of pallid blooms, like that sea fruit of obliviongrapes of

Through them, beyond them, around and about them, drifted and eddied a hordegreat as that with which

Tamerlane swept down upon Rome, vast as the myriads which Genghis Khan rolled upon the califsmen

and women and childrenclothed in tatters, half nude and wholly naked; slanteyed Chinese, sloeeyed

Malays, islanders black and brown and yellow, fiercefaced warriors of the Solomons with grizzled locks

fantastically bedizened; Papuans, feline Javans, Dyaks of hill and shore; hooknosed Phoenicians, Romans,

straightbrowed Greeks, and Vikings centuries BEYOND their lives: scores of the blackhaired Murians;

white faces of our own Westernersmen and women and children drifting, eddyingeach stamped with

that mingled horror and rapture, eyes filled with ecstasy and terror entwined, marked by God and devil in

Soulsick, I gazed. They lifted to us visages of dread; they swept down toward us, glaring upwarda bank

against which other and still other waves of faces rolled, were checked, paused; until as far as I could see, like

billows piled upon an evergrowing barrier, they stretched beneath usstaringstaring!

Now there was a movementfar, far away; a concentrating of the lambency; the deadalive swayed,

oscillated, separated forming a long lane against whose outskirts they crowded with avid, hungry

First only a luminous cloud, then a whirling pillar of splendours through the lane camethe Shining One. As

it passed, the deadalive swirled in its wake like leaves behind a whirlwind, eddying, twisting; and as the

Dweller raced by them, brushing them with its spirallings and tentacles, they shone forth with unearthly,

awesome gleamingslike vessels of alabaster in which wicks flare suddenly. And when it had passed they

Out of the drifting ruck swam the body of Throckmartin! Throckmartin, my friend, to find whom I had gone

to the pallid moon door; my friend whose call I had so laggardly followed. On his face was the Dweller's

dreadful stamp; the lips were bloodless; the eyes were wide, lucent, something like pale, phosphorescence

He stared straight up at me, unwinking, unrecognizing. Pressing against his side was a woman, young and

gentle, and lovelylovely even through the mask that lay upon her face. And her wide eyes, like

Throckmartin's, glowed with the lurking, unholy fires. She pressed against him closely; though the hordes

kept up the faint churning, these two kept ever together, as though bound by unseen fetters.

And I knew the girl for Edith, his wife, who in vain effort to save him had cast herself into the Dweller's

But then I waitedhope striving to break through the nightmare hands that gripped my heart.

Their wide eyes never left me. There was another movement about them, others pushed past them; they

Vainly I strained my gaze to find them again, to force some sign of recognition, some awakening of the clean

life we know. But they were gone. Try as I would I could not see themnor Stanton and the northern woman

named Thora who had been the first of that tragic party to be taken by the Dweller.

"Steady," she commanded, pitifully. "Steady, Goodwin. You cannot help themnow! Steady andwatch!"

Below us the Shining One had pausedspiralling, swirling, vibrant with all its transcendent, devilish beauty;

had paused and was contemplating us. Now I could see clearly that nucleus, that core shot through with

flashing veins of radiance, that evershifting shape of glory through the shroudings of shimmering, misty

plumes, throbbing lacy opalescences, vaporous spirallings of prismatic phantom fires. Steady over it hung the

seven little moons of amethyst, of saffron, of emerald and azure and silver, of rose of life and moon white.

They poised themselves like a diadem calm, serene, immobileand down from them into the Dweller,

piercing plumes and swirls and spirals, ran countless tiny strands, radiations, finer than the finest spun thread

of spider's web, gleaming filaments through which seemed to runPOWERfrom the seven globes;

likeyes, that was it miniatures of the seven torrents of moon flame that poured through the

Both of man and of woman it waslike some ancient, androgynous deity of Etruscan fanes long dust, and

yet neither woman nor man; human and unhuman, seraphic and sinister, benign and maleficand still no

more of these four than is flame, which is beautiful whether it warms or devours, or wind whether it feathers

the trees or shatters them, or the wave which is wondrous whether it caresses or kills.

Subtly, undefinably it was of our world and of one not ours. Its lineaments flowed from another sphere, took

fleeting familiar formand as swiftly withdrew whence they had come; something amorphous,

unearthlyas of unknown unheeding, unseen gods rushing through the depths of starhung space; and still of

our own earth, with the very soul of earth peering out from it, caught within itand in some

It had eyeseyes that were now only shadows darkening within its luminosity like veils falling, and falling,

OPENING windows into the unknowable; deepening into softly glowing blue pools, blue as the Moon Pool

itself; then flashing out, and this only when thefacebore its most human resemblance, into twin stars

large almost as the crown of little moons; and with that same baffling suggestion of peepholes into a world

I gripped myself, my brain steadied, I looked again. And I saw that of body, at least body as we know it, the

Shining One had nonenothing but the throbbing, pulsing core streaked with lightning veins of rainbows;

and around this, never still, sheathing it, the swirling, glorious veilings of its hell and heaven born radiance.

Under my hand Lakla's shoulder quivered; DeadAlive and their master vanishedI danced, flickered,

WITHIN the rock; felt a swift sense of shrinking, of withdrawal; slice upon slice the carded walls of stone, of

silvery waters, of elfin gardens slipped from me as cards are withdrawn from a pack, one by oneslipped,

wheeled, flattened, and lengthened out as I passed through them and they passed from me.

Gasping, shaken, weak, I stood within the faceted oval chamber; arm still about the handmaiden's white

The roaring, impalpable gale from the cosmos was retreating to the outposts of spacewas still; the intense,

"Now have you beheld," said Lakla, "and well you trod the road. And now shall you hear, even as the Silent

WE REACHED what I knew to be Lakla's own boudoir, if I may so call it. Smaller than any of the other

chambers of the domed castle in which we had been, its intimacy was revealed not only by its faint fragrance

but by its high mirrors of polished silver and various oddly wrought articles of the feminine toilet that lay

here and there; things I afterward knew to be the work of the artisans of the _Akka_ and no mean metal

workers were they. One of the window slits dropped almost to the floor, and at its base was a wide,

comfortably cushioned seat commanding a view of the bridge and of the cavern ledge. To this the

handmaiden beckoned us; sank upon it, drew Larry down beside her and motioned me to sit close to him.

"Now this," she said, "is what the Silent Ones have commanded me to tell you two: To you Larry, that

knowing you may weigh all things in your mind and answer as your spirit bids you a question that the Three

will askand what that is I know not," she murmured, "and I, they say, must answer, tooand itfrightens

The great golden eyes widened; darkened with dread; she sighed, shook her head impatiently.

"Not like us, and never like us," she spoke low, wonderingly, "the Silent Ones say were they. Nor were those

from which they sprang like those from which we have come. Ancient, ancient beyond thought are the

_Taithu_, the race of the Silent Ones. Far, far below this place where now we sit, close to earth heart itself

were they born; and there they dwelt for time upon time, _laya_ upon _laya_ upon _laya_with others, not

like them, some of which have vanished time upon time agone, others that still dwellbelowin their

"It is hard"she hesitated"hard to tell thisthat slips through my mindbecause I know so little that

even as the Three told it to me it passed from me for lack of place to stand upon," she went on, quaintly.

"Something there was of time when earth and sun were but cold mists in the the heavenssomething of

these mists drawing together, whirling, whirling, faster and fasterdrawing as they whirled more and more

of the mistsgrowing larger, growing warmforming at last into the globes they are, with others spinning

around the sunsomething of regions within this globe where vast fire was prisoned and bursting forth tore

and rent the young orbof one such bursting forth that sent what you call moon flying out to company us

and left behind those spaces whence we now dwelland ofof life particles that here and there below grew

into the race of the Silent Ones, and those othersbut not the _Akka_ which, like you, they say came from

I noddedfor what she had related so fragmentarily was in reality an excellent approach to the

ChamberlainMoulton theory of a coalescing nebula contracting into the sun and its planets.

Astonishing was the recognition of this theory. Even more so was the reference to the life particles, the idea

of Arrhenius, the great Swede, of life starting on earth through the dropping of minute, life SPORES,

propelled through space by the driving power of light and, encountering favourable environment here,

developing through the vast ages into man and every other living thing we know.1

*1 Professor Svante August Arrhenius, in his _Worlds in the Making_ the conception that life is

universally diffused, constantly emitted from all habitable worlds in the form of spores which traverse space

for years and ages, the majority being ultimately destroyed by the heat of some blazing star, but some few

finding a restingplace on globes which have reached the habitable stage.W. T. G.

Nor was it incredible that in the ancient nebula that was the matrix of our solar system similar, or rather

DISSIMILAR, particles in all but the subtle essence we call life, might have become entangled and, resisting

every cataclysm as they had resisted the absolute zero of outer space, found in these caverned spaces their

proper environment to develop into the race of the Silent Ones andonly THEY could tell what else!

"They say," the handmaiden's voice was surer, "they say that in theircradlenear earth's heart they grew;

grew untroubled by the turmoil and disorder which flayed the surface of this globe. And they say it was a

place of light and that strength came to them from earth heartstrength greater than you and those from

"At last, ancient, ancient beyond all thought, they say again, was this timethey began to know,

totorealize themselves. And wisdom came ever more swiftly. Up from their cradle, because they did

"When all the face of earth was covered with waters in which lived only tiny, hungry things that knew naught

save hunger and its satisfaction, THEY had attained wisdom that enabled them to make paths such as we

have just travelled and to look out upon those waters! And _laya_ upon _laya_ thereafter, time upon time,

they went upon the paths and watched the flood recede; saw great bare flats of steaming ooze appear on

which crawled and splashed larger things which had grown from the tiny hungry ones; watched the flats rise

higher and higher and green life begin to clothe them; saw mountains uplift and vanish.

"Ever the green life waxed and the things which crept and crawled grew greater and took ever different

forms; until at last came a time when the steaming mists lightened and the things which had begun as little

more than tiny hungry mouths were huge and monstrous, so huge that the tallest of my _Akka_ would not

"But in none of these, in NONE, was thererealization of themselves, say the Three; naught but hunger

"So for time upon time the race of the Silent Ones took the paths no more, placing aside the halfthought that

they had of making their way to earth face even as they had made their way from beside earth heart. They

turned wholly to the seeking of wisdomand after other time on time they attained that which killed even

the faintest shadow of the halfthought. For they crept far within the mysteries of life and death, they

mastered the illusion of space, they lifted the veils of creation and of its twin destruction, and they stripped

the covering from the flaming jewel of truthbut when they had crept within those mysteries they bid me

tell YOU, Goodwin, they found ever other mysteries veiling the way; and after they had uncovered the jewel

of truth they found it to be a gem of infinite facets and therefore not wholly to be read before eternity's

"And for this they were gladbecause now throughout eternity might they and theirs pursue knowledge over

"They conquered lightlight that sprang at their bidding from the nothingness that gives birth to all things

and in which lie all things that are, have been and shall be; light that streamed through their bodies cleansing

them of all dross; light that was food and drink; light that carried their vision afar or bore to them images out

of space opening many windows through which they gazed down upon life on thousands upon thousands of

the rushing worlds; light that was the flame of life itself and in which they bathed, ever renewing their own.

They set radiant lamps within the stones, and of black light they wove the sheltering shadows and the

"Arose from this people those Threethe Silent Ones. They led them all in wisdom so that in the Three

grew pride. And the Three built them this place in which we sit and set the Portal in its place and withdrew

from their kind to go alone into the mysteries and to map alone the facets of Truth Jewel.

"Then there came the ancestors of the_Akka_; not as they are now, and glowing but faintly within them

the spark of selfrealization. And the _Taithu_ seeing this spark did not slay them. But they took the

ancient, long untrodden paths and looked forth once more upon earth face. Now on the land were vast forests

and a chaos of green life. On the shores things scaled and fanged, fought and devoured each other, and in the

green life moved bodies great and small that slew and ran from those that would slay.

"They searched for the passage through which the _Akka_ had come and closed it. Then the Three took them

and brought them here; and taught them and blew upon the spark until it burned ever stronger and in time

"The Three took counsel after this and said'We have strengthened life in these until it has become

articulate; shall we not CREATE life?'" Again she hesitated, her eyes rapt, dreaming. "The Three are

And certainly, with an ease and rapidity as though she were but a voice through which minds far more facile,

"Yea," the golden voice was vibrant. "We said that what we would create should be of the spirit of life itself,

speaking to us with the tongues of the farflung stars, of the winds, of the waters, and of all upon and within

these. Upon that universal matrix of matter, that mother of all things that you name the ether, we laboured.

Think not that her wondrous fertility is limited by what ye see on earth or what has been on earth from its

beginning. Infinite, infinite are the forms the mother bears and countless are the energies that are part of her.

"By our wisdom we had fashioned many windows out of our abode and through them we stared into the faces

of myriads of worlds, and upon them all were the children of ether even as the worlds themselves were her

"Watching we learned, and learning we formed that ye term the Dweller, which those without namethe

Shining One. Within the Universal Mother we shaped it, to be a voice to tell us her secrets, a lamp to go

before us lighting the mysteries. Out of the ether we fashioned it, giving it the soul of light that still ye know

not nor perhaps ever may know, and with the essence of life that ye saw blossoming deep in the abyss and

that is the pulse of earth heart we filled it. And we wrought with pain and with love, with yearning and with

"There is an energy beyond and above ether, a purposeful, sentient force that laps like an ocean the

furthestflung star, that transfuses all that ether bears, that sees and speaks and feels in us and in you, that is

incorporate in beast and bird and reptile, in tree and grass and all living things, that sleeps in rock and stone,

that finds sparkling tongue in jewel and star and in all dwellers within the firmament. And this ye call

"We crowned the Shining One with the seven orbs of light which are the channels between it and the

sentience we sought to make articulate, the portals through which flow its currents and so flowing, become

"But as we shaped, there passed some of the essence of our pride; in giving will we had given power,

perforce, to exercise that will for good or for evil, to speak or to be silent, to tell us what we wished of that

which poured into it through the seven orbs or to withhold that knowledge itself; and in forging it from the

immortal energies we had endowed it with their indifference; open to all consciousness it held within it the

pole of utter joy and the pole of utter woe with all the arc that lies between; all the ecstasies of the countless

worlds and suns and all their sorrows; all that ye symbolize as gods and all ye symbolize as devilsnot

negativing each other, for there is no such thing as negation, but holding them together, balancing them,

So THIS was the explanation of the entwined emotions of joy and terror that had changed so appallingly

The handmaiden's eyes grew bright, alert, again; the brooding passed from her face; the golden voice that had

"I listened while the Three spoke to you," she said. "Now the shaping of the Shining One had been a long,

long travail and time had flown over the outer world _laya_ upon _laya_. For a space the Shining One was

content to dwell here; to be fed with the foods of light: to open the eyes of the Three to mystery upon mystery

and to read for them facet after facet of the gem of truth. Yet as the tides of consciousness flowed through it

they left behind shadowings and echoes of their burdens; and the Shining One grew stronger, always stronger

of ITSELF WITHIN ITSELF. Its will strengthened and now not always was it the will of the Three; and the

pride that was woven in the making of it waxed, while the love for them that its creators had set within it

"Not ignorant were the _Taithu_ of the work of the Three. First there were a few, then more and more who

coveted the Shining One and who would have had the Three share with them the knowledge it drew in for

"There came a time when its will was now ALL its own, and it rebelled, turning its gaze to the wider spaces

beyond the Portal, offering itself to the many there who would serve it; tiring of the Three, their control and

"Now the Shining One has its limitations, even as we. Over water it can pass, through air and through fire;

but pass it cannot, through rock or metal. So it sent a messagehow I know notto the _Taithu_ who

desired it, whispering to them the secret of the Portal. And when the time was ripe they opened the Portal and

the Shining One passed through it to them; nor would it return to the Three though they commanded, and

when they would have forced it they found that it had hived and hidden a knowledge that they could not

"Yet by their arts the Three could have shattered the seven shining orbs; but they would not becausethey

"Those to whom it had gone built for it that place I have shown you, and they bowed to it and drew wisdom

from it. And ever they turned more and more from the ways in which the _Taithu_ had walkedfor it

seemed that which came to the Shining One through the seven orbs had less and less of good and more and

more of the power you call evil. Knowledge it gave and understanding, yes; but not that which, clear and

serene, lights the paths of right wisdom; rather were they flares pointing the dark roads that lead toto the

"Not all of the race of the Three followed the counsel of the Shining One. There were many, many, who

would have none of it nor of its power. So were the _Taithu_ split; and to this place where there had been

none, came hatred, fear and suspicion. Those who pursued the ancient ways went to the Three and pleaded

"Stronger grew the Dweller and less and less did it lay before its worshippersfor now so they had

becomethe fruits of its knowledge; and it grewrestlessturning its gaze upon earth face even as it had

turned it from the Three. It whispered to the _Taithu_ to take again the paths and look out upon the world.

Lo! above them was a great fertile land on which dwelt an unfamiliar race, skilled in arts, seeking and finding

wisdommankind! Mighty builders were they; vast were their cities and huge their temples of stone.

"They called their lands Muria and they worshipped a god Thanaroa whom they imagined to be the maker of

all things, dwelling far away. They worshipped as closer gods, not indifferent but to be prayed to and to be

propitiated, the moon and the sun. Two kings they had, each with his council and his court. One was high

"The mass of this people were blackhaired, but the sun king and his nobles were ruddy with hair like mine;

and the moon king and his followers were like Yolaraor Lugur. And this, the Three say, Goodwin, came

about because for time upon time the law had been that whenever a ruddyhaired or ashentressed child was

born of the blackhaired it became dedicated at once to either sun god or moon god, later wedding and bearing

children only to their own kind. Until at last from the blackhaired came no more of the lightlocked ones,

SHE PAUSED, running her long fingers through her own bronzeflecked ringlets. Selective breeding this,

with a vengeance, I thought; an ancient experiment in heredity which of course would in time result in the

stamping out of the tendency to depart from type that lies in all organisms; resulting, obviously, at last, in

three fixed forms of blackhaired, ruddyhaired, and silverhairedbut this, with a shock of realization it

came to me, was also an accurate description of the darkpolled _ladala_, their fairhaired rulers and of the

Howquestions began to stream through my mind; silenced by the handmaiden's voice.

"Above, far, far above the abode of the Shining One," she said, "was their greatest temple, holding the shrines

both of sun and moon. All about it were other temples hidden behind mighty walls, each enclosing its own

space and squared and ruled and standing within a shallow lake; the sacred city, the city of the gods of this

"Out upon all this looked the _Taithu_ who were now but the servants of the Shining One as it had been the

messenger of the Three," she went on. "When they returned the Shining One spoke to them, promising them

dominion over all that they had seen, yea, UNDER IT dominion of all earth itself and later perhaps of other

"In the Shining One had grown craft, cunning; knowledge to gain that which it desired. Therefore it told its

_Taithu_ and mayhap told them truththat not yet was it time for THEM to go forth; that slowly must

they pass into that outer world, for they had sprung from heart of earth and even it lacked power to swirl

unaided into and through the above. Then it counselled them, instructing them what to do. They hollowed the

chamber wherein first I saw you, cutting their way to it that path down which from it you sped.

"It revealed to them that the force that is within moon flame is kin to the force that is within it, for the

chamber of its birth was the chamber too of moon birth and into it went the subtle essence and powers that

flow in that earth child: and it taught them how to make that which fills what you call the Moon Pool whose

"When this was done it taught them how to make and how to place the seven lights through which moon

flame streams into Moon Poolthe seven lights that are kin to its own seven orbs even as its fires are kin to

moon firesand which would open for it a path that it could tread. And all this the _Taithu_ did, working so

secretly that neither those of their race whose faces were set against the Shining One nor the busy men above

"When it was done they moved up the path, clustering within the Moon Pool Chamber. Moon flame streamed

through the seven globes, poured down upon the pool; they saw mists arise, embrace, and become one with

the moon flameand then up through Moon Pool, shaping itself within the mists of light, whirling,

"Again it counselled them, and they pierced the passage whose portal you found first; set the fires within its

stones, and revealing themselves to the moon king and his priests spake to them even as the Shining One had

"Now was the moon king filled with fear when he looked upon the _Taithu_, shrouded with protecting mists

of light in Moon Pool Chamber, and heard their words. Yet, being crafty, he thought of the power that would

be his if he heeded and how quickly the strength of the sun king would dwindle. So he and his made a pact

"When next the moon was round and poured its flames down upon Moon Pool, the _Taithu_ gathered there

again, watched the child of the Three take shape within the pillars, speed awayand out! They heard a

mighty shouting, a tumult of terror, of awe and of worship; a silence; a vast sighingand they waited,

wrapped in their mists of light, for they feared to follow nor were they near the paths that would have enabled

"Another tumultand back came the Shining One, murmuring with joy, pulsing, triumphant, and clasped

within its vapours a man and woman, ruddyhaired, goldeneyed, in whose faces rapture and horror lay side

by sidegloriously, hideously. And still holding them it danced above the Moon Pool andsank!

"Now must I be brief. _Lat_ after _lat_ the Shining One went forth, returning with its sacrifices. And stronger

after each it grewand gayer and more cruel. Ever when it passed with its prey toward the pool, the

_Taithu_ who watched felt a swift, strong intoxication, a drunkenness of spirit, streaming from it to them.

And the Shining One forgot what it had promised them of dominionand in this new evil delight they too

"The outer land was torn with hatred and open strife. The moon king and his kind, through the guidance of

the evil _Taithu_ and the favour of the Shining One, had become powerful and the sun king and his were

darkened. And the moon priests preached that the child of the Three was the moon god itself come to dwell

"Now vast tides arose and when they withdrew they took with them great portions of this country. And the

land itself began to sink. Then said the moon king that the moon had called to ocean to destroy because wroth

that another than he was worshipped. The people believed and there was slaughter. When it was over there

was no more a sun king nor any of the ruddyhaired folk; slain were they, slain down to the babe at breast.

"As it shrank multitudes of the fleeing people were led through Moon Pool Chamber and carried here. They

were what now are called the _ladala_, and they were given place and set to work; and they thrived. Came

many of the fairhaired; and they were given dwellings. They sat beside the evil _Taithu_; they became drunk

even as they with the dancing of the Shining One; they learnednot all; only a little part but little

enoughof their arts. And ever the Shining One danced more gaily out there within the black amphitheatre;

"Nor did the _Taithu_ who clung to the old ways check this they could not. By the sinking of the land

above, their own spaces were imperilled. All of their strength and all of their wisdom it took to keep this land

from perishing; nor had they help from those others mad for the poison of the Shining One; and they had no

"At last came a slow, vast flood. It rolled even to the bases of the walled islets of the city of the godsand

"I am of those people," she paused, looking at me proudly, "one of the daughters of the sun king whose seed

"This tide did not recede," she went on. "And after a time the remnant, the moon king leading them, joined

those who had already fled below. The rocks became still, the quakings ceased, and now those Ancient Ones

who had been labouring could take breath. And anger grew within them as they looked upon the work of their

evil kin. Again they sought the Threeand the Three now knew what they had done and their pride was

humbled. They would not slay the Shining One themselves, for still they loved it; but they instructed these

others how to undo their work; how also they might destroy the evil _Taithu_ were it necessary.

"Armed with the wisdom of the Three they went forth but now the Shining One was strong indeed. They

"Nay, it knew and was prepared; they could not even pass beyond its Veil nor seal its abode. Ah, strong,

strong, mighty of will, full of craft and cunning had the Shining One become. So they turned upon their kind

who had gone astray and made them perish, to the last. The Shining One came not to the aid of its

servantsthough they called; for within its will was the thought that they were of no further use to it; that it

would rest awhile and dance with themwho had so little of the power and wisdom of its _Taithu_ and

therefore no reins upon it. And while this was happening blackhaired and fairhaired ran and hid and were

"The Ancient Ones took counsel. This was their decision; that they would go from the gardens before the

Silver Waters leaving, since they could not kill it, the Shining One with its worshippers. They sealed the

mouth of the passage that leads to the Moon Pool Chamber and they changed the face of the cliff so that none

might tell where it had been. But the passage itself they left openhaving foreknowledge I think, of a thing

that was to come to pass in the far future perhaps it was your journey here, my Larry and Goodwin

verily I think so. And they destroyed all the ways save that which we three trod to the Dweller's abode.

"For the last time they went to the Threeto pass sentence upon them. This was the doomthat here they

should remain, alone, among the _Akka_, served by them, until that time dawned when they would have will

to destroy the evil they had createdand even nowloved; nor might they seek death, nor follow their

judges until this had come to pass. This was the doom they put upon the Three for the wickedness that had

sprung from their pride, and they strengthened it with their arts that it might not be broken.

"Then they passedto a far land they had chosen where the Shining One could not go, beyond the Black

"Since then time upon time had passed," she went on, unheeding. "The people called this place Muria after

their sunken land and soon they forgot where had been the passage the _Taithu_ had sealed. The moon king

became the Voice of the Dweller and always with the Voice is a woman of the moon king's kin who is its

"And many have been the journeys upward of the Shining One, through the Moon Poolreturning with still

"And now again has it grown restless, longing for the wider spaces. It has spoken to Yolara and to Lugur

even as it did to the dead _Taithu_, promising them dominion. And it has grown stronger, drawing to itself

power to go far on the moon stream where it will. Thus was it able to seize your friend, Goodwin, and Olaf's

wife and babeand many more. Yolara and Lugur plan to open way to earth face; to depart with their court

Breathlessly I had listened to the stupendous epic of a longlost world. Now I found speech to voice the

question ever with me, the thing that lay as close to my heart as did the welfare of Larry, indeed the whole

object of my quest the fate of Throckmartin and those who had passed with him into the Dweller's lair;

"Lakla," I said, "the friend who drew me here and those he loved who went before himcan we not save

"The Three say no, Goodwin." There was again in her eyes the pity with which she had looked upon Olaf.

"The Shining OneFEEDSupon the flame of life itself, setting in its place its own fires and its own will.

Its slaves are only shells through which it gleams. Death, say the Three, is the best that can come to them; yet

"But they have souls, _mavourneen_," Larry said to her. "And they're alive stillin a way. Anyhow, their

I caught a hope from his wordssceptic though I am holding that the existence of soul has never been

proved by dependable laboratory methodsfor they recalled to me that when I had seen Throckmartin, Edith

"It was days after his wife was taken, that the Dweller seized Throckmartin," I cried. "How, if their wills,

their life, were indeed gone, how did they find each other mid all that horde? How did they come together in

"I do not know," she answered, slowly. "You say they lovedand it is true that love is stronger even than

"One thing I DON'T understand"this was Larry again "is why a girl like you keeps coming out of the

blackhaired crowd; so frequently and one might say, so regularly, Lakla. Aren't there ever any redheaded

"That, Larry, I cannot answer," she said, very frankly. "There was a pact of some kind; how made or by

whom I know not. But for long the Murians feared the return of the _Taithu_ and greatly they feared the

Three. Even the Shining One feared those who had created itfor a time; and not even now is it eager to

face themTHAT I know. Nor are Yolara and Lugur so SURE. It may be that the Three commanded it: but

how or why I know not. I only know that it is truefor here am I and from where else would I have come?"

"From Ireland," said Larry O'Keefe, promptly. "And that's where you're going. For 'tis no place for a girl like

you to have been brought upLakla; what with people like frogs, and a halfgod three quarters devil, and

red oceans, an' the only Irish things yourself and the Silent Ones up there, bless their hearts. It's no place for

Larry! Larry! If it had but been trueand I could see Lakla and you beside me now!

LONG had been her tale in the telling, and too long, perhaps, have I been in the repeatingbut not every day

are the mists rolled away to reveal undreamed secrets of earthyouth. And I have set it down here, adding

nothing, taking nothing from it; translating liberally, it is true, but constantly striving, while putting it into

ideaforms and phraseology to be readily understood by my readers, to keep accurately to the spirit. And this,

I must repeat, I have done throughout my narrative, wherever it has been necessary to record conversation

Rising, I found I was painfully stiffas musclebound as though I had actually trudged many miles. Larry,

"Faith, _mavourneen_," he said to Lakla, relapsing unconsciously into English, "your roads would never wear

She understood our plight, if not his words; gave a soft little cry of mingled pity and selfreproach; forced us

"Oh, but I'm sorry!" mourned Lakla, leaning over us. "I had forgottenfor those new to it the way is a weary

She ran to the doorway, whistled a clear high note down the passage. Through the hangings came two of the

frogmen. She spoke to them rapidly. They crouched toward us, what certainly was meant for an amiable

grin wrinkling the grotesque muzzles, baring the glistening rows of needleteeth. And while I watched them

with the fascination that they never lost for me, the monsters calmly swung one arm around our knees, lifted

"Put me down! Put me down, I say!" The O'Keefe's voice was both outraged and angry; squinting around I

saw him struggling violently to get to his feet. The _Akka_ only held him tighter, booming comfortingly,

"But, Larrydarlin'!" Lakla's tones werewell, maternally surprised"you're stiff and sore, and Kra

"I WON'T be carried!" sputtered the O'Keefe. "Damn it, Goodwin, there are such things as the unities even

here, an' for a lieutenant of the Royal Air Force to be picked up an' carted around like alike a bundle of

ragsit's not discipline ! Put me down, ye _omadhaun_, or I'll poke ye in the snout!" he shouted to his

bearerwho only boomed gently, and stared at the handmaiden, plainly for further instructions.

"But, Larrydear!"Lakla was plainly distressed"it will HURT you to walk; and I don't WANT you to

"Holy shade of St. Patrick!" moaned Larry; again he made a mighty effort to tear himself from the

frogman's grip; gave up with a groan. "Listen, _alanna_!" he said plaintively. "When we get to Ireland, you

and I, we won't have anybody to pick us up and carry us about every time we get a bit tired. And it's getting

"Oh, YES, we will, Larry!" cried the handmaiden, "because many, oh, many, of my _Akka_ will go with us!"

"Will you tell thisBOOB!to put me down!" gritted the now thoroughly aroused O'Keefe. I couldn't help

"Yes, booooob!" said O'Keefe, "an' I have no desire to explain the word in my present position, light of my

The handmaiden sighed, plainly dejected. But she spoke again to the _Akka_, who gently lowered the

"I don't understand," she said hopelessly, "if you want to walk, why, of course, you shall, Larry." She turned

"Well, then," murmured Lakla, "go you, Larry and Goodwin, with Kra and Gulk, and let them minister to

you. After, sleep a littlefor not soon will Rador and Olaf return. And let me feel your lips before you go,

Larrydarlin'!" She covered his eyes caressingly with her soft little palms; pushed him away.

Unashamed I lay back against the horny chest of Gulk; and with a smile noticed that Larry, even if he had

rebelled at being carried, did not disdain the support of Kra's shining, blackscaled arm which, slipping

They parted a hanging and dropped us softly down beside a little pool, sparkling with the clear water that had

heretofore been brought us in the wide basins. Then they began to undress us. And at this point the O'Keefe

"Whatever they're going to do we can't stop 'em, Doc!" he moaned. "Anyway, I feel as though I've been

When we were stripped we were lowered gently into the water. But not long did the _Akka_ let us splash

about the shallow basin. They lifted us out, and from jars began deftly to anoint and rub us with aromatic

I think that in all the medley of grotesque, of tragic, of baffling, strange and perilous experiences in that

underground world none was more bizarre than thisvaleting. I began to laugh, Larry joined me, and then

Kra and Gulk joined in our merriment with deep batrachian cachinnations and gruntings. Then, having

finished apparelling us and still chuckling, the two touched our arms and led us out, into a room whose

circular sides were ringed with soft divans. Still smiling, I sank at once into sleep.

How long I slumbered I do not know. A low and thunderous booming coming through the deep window slit,

"Sounds as though the bass drums of every jazz band in New York were serenading us!" he observed.

We were a little above the level of the bridge, and its full length was plain before us. Thousands upon

thousands of the _Akka_ were crowding upon it, and far away other hordes filled like a glittering thicket both

sides of the cavern ledge's crescent strand. On black scale and orange scale the crimson light fell, picking

Upon the platform from which sprang the smaller span over the abyss were Lakla, Olaf, and Rador; the

handmaiden clearly acting as interpreter between them and the giant she had called Nak, the Frog King.

Out of the open portal we ran; over the World Heart Bridgeand straight into the group.

"See here, _mavourneen_!" Indignation thrilled in the Irishman' s voice. "I'm not going to be done up with

babyribbons and laid away in a cradle for safekeeping while a fight is on; don't think it. Why didn't you

"You needed rest!" There was indomitable determination in the handmaiden's tones, the eternal maternal

shining defiant from her eyes. "You were tired and you hurt! You shouldn't have got up!"

"You're all I have," said that maiden firmly, "and I'm going to take care of you, Larrydarlin'! Don't you

"Well, pulse of my heart, considering my delicate health and general fragility, would it hurt me, do you think,

"Not at all, Larry!" answered the handmaiden serenely. "Yolara went through the Portal. She was very,

"Rador met the messenger," went on the Golden Girl calmly. "The _ladala_ are ready to rise when Lugur and

Yolara lead their hosts against us. They will strike at those left behind. And in the meantime we shall have

disposed my _Akka_ to meet Yolara's men. And on that disposal we must all take counsel, you, Larry, and

"Did the messenger give any idea when Yolara expects to make her little call?" asked Larry.

"Yes," she answered. "They prepare, and we may expect them in" She gave the equivalent of about

"But, Lakla," I said, the doubt that I had long been holding finding voice, "should the Shining One

"I do not know," she said at last, frankly. "You have heard their story. What they promise is that they will

I looked up at the dome beneath which I knew the dread Trinity stared forth; even down upon us. And despite

"Well," said Larry, "you and I, uncle," he turned to Rador, "and Olaf here had better decide just what part of

"Lead!" the handmaiden was appalled. "YOU lead, Larry? Why you are to stay with Goodwin and with

"Heart's beloved," O'Keefe was stern indeed. "A thousand times I've looked Death straight in the face, peered

into his eyes. Yes, and with ten thousand feet of space under me an' bursting shells tickling the ribs of the

boat I was in. An' d'ye think I'll sit now on the grandstand an' watch while a game like this is being pulled?

And so we started toward the golden opening, squads of the frogmen following us soldierly and

disappearing about the huge structure. Nor did we stop until we came to the handmaiden's boudoir. There we

"Now," said Larry, "two things I want to know. First how many can Yolara muster against us; second, how

Rador gave our equivalent for eighty thousand men as the force Yolara could muster without stripping her

city. Against this force, it appeared, we could count, roughly, upon two hundred thousand of the _Akka_.

"And they're some fighters!" exclaimed Larry. "Hell, with odds like that what're you worrying about? It's

"But, _Larree_," objected Rador to this, "you forget that the nobles will have the _Keth_and other things;

also that the soldiers have fought against the _Akka_ before and will be shielded very well from their spears

and clubsand that their blades and javelins can bite through the scales of Nak's warriors. They have many

"Uncle," interjected O'Keefe, "one thing they have is your nerve. Why, we're more than two to one. And take

LAKLA had taken no part in the talk since we had reached her bower. She had seated herself close to the

O'Keefe. Glancing at her I had seen steal over her face that brooding, listening look that was hers whenever

in that mysterious communion with the Three. It vanished; swiftly she arose; interrupted the Irishman without

"The time is now," she saidand hesitated. "Larry dear, put your arms about me," she faltered, "for there is

Without another word he bent and kissed her; in silence we passed on, his arm still about her girdled waist,

golden head and black close together. Soon we stood before the crimson slab that was the door to the

sanctuary of the Silent Ones. She poised uncertainly before it; then with a defiant arching of the proud little

head that sent all the bronzeflecked curls flying, she pressed. It slipped aside and once more the opalescence

Dazzled as before, I followed through the lambent cascades pouring from the high, carved walls; paused, and

my eyes clearing, looked upstraight into the faces of the Three. The angled orbs centred upon the

handmaiden; softened as I had seen them do when first we had faced them. She smiled up; seemed to listen.

We moved, pausing at the very base of the dais. The sparkling mists thinned; the great heads bent slightly

over us; through the veils I caught a glimpse of huge columnar necks, enormous shoulders covered with

I came back to attention with a start, for Lakla was answering a question only heard by her, and, answering it

aloud, I perceived for our benefit; for whatever was the mode of communication between those whose

Did I see a shadow of pain flit across the flickering eyes? Wondering, I glanced at Lakla's face and there was

a dawn of foreboding and bewilderment. For a little she held her listening attitude; then the gaze of the Three

"Thus speak the Silent Onesthrough Lakla, their handmaiden," the golden voice was like low trumpet

notes. "At the threshold of doom is that world of yours above. Yea, even the doom, Goodwin, that ye

dreamed and the shadow of which, looking into your mind they see, say the Three. For not upon earth and

"They say, the Silent Ones," she went on, "that they know not whether even they have power to destroy.

Energies we know nothing of entered into its shaping and are part of it; and still other energies it has gathered

to itself"she paused; a shadow of puzzlement crept into her voice "and other energies still, forces that ye

DO know and symbolize by certain nameshatred and pride and lust and many others which are forces real

as that hidden in the _Keth_; and among themfear, which weakens all those others" Again she paused.

"But within it is nothing of that greatest of all, that which can make powerless all the evil others, that which

"I'd like to be the one to put a little more FEAR in the beast," whispered Larry to me, grimly in our own

English. The three weird heads bent, ever so slightlyand I gasped, and Larry grew a little white as Lakla

"They say, Larry," she said, "that there you touch one side of the heart of the matterfor it is through the

way of fear the Silent Ones hope to strike at the very life of the Shining One!"

The visage Larry turned to me was eloquent of wonder; and mine reflected itfor what REALLY were this

Three to whom our minds were but open pages, so easily read? Not long could we conjecture; Lakla broke

"This, they say, is what is to happen. First will come upon us Lugur and Yolara with all their host. Because of

fear the Shining One will lurk behind within its lair; for despite all, the Dweller DOES dread the Three, and

only them. With this host the Voice and the priestess will strive to conquer. And if they do, then will they be

strong enough, too, to destroy us all. For if they take the abode they banish from the Dweller all fear and

"Then will the Shining One be all free indeed; free to go out into the world, free to do there as it wills!

"But if they do not conquerand the Shining One comes not to their aid, abandoning them even as it

abandoned its own _Taithu_then will the Three be loosed from a part of their doom, and they will go

through the Portal, seek the Shining One beyond the Veil, and, piercing it through fear's opening, destroy it."

"That's quite clear," murmured the O'Keefe in my ear. "Weaken the moralethen smash. I've seen it happen

a dozen times in Europe. While they've got their nerve there's not a thing you can do; get their nerveand

Lakla had been listening again. She turned, thrust out hands to Larry, a wild hope in her eyesand yet a

"They say," she cried, "that they give us choice. Remembering that your world doom hangs in the balance,

we have choicechoice to stay and help fight Yolara's armiesand they say they look not lightly on that

help. Or choice to go and if so be you choose the latter, then will they show another way that leads into

A flush had crept over the O'Keefe's face as she was speaking. He took her hands and looked long into the

golden eyes; glancing up I saw the Trinity were watching them intently imperturbably.

"What do you say, _mavourneen_?" asked Larry gently. The handmaiden hung her head; trembled.

"Your words shall be mine, O one I love," she whispered. "So going or staying, I am beside you."

"And you, Goodwin?" he turned to me. I shrugged my shouldersafter all I had no one to care.

The O'Keefe straightened, squared his shoulders, gazed straight into the flameflickering eyes.

Shamefacedly I recall now that at the time I thought this colloquialism not only irreverent, but in somewhat

bad taste. I am glad to say I was alone in that bit of weakness. The face that Lakla turned to Larry was radiant

with love, and although the shamed hope had vanished from the sweet eyes, they were shining with adoring

pride. And the marble visages of the Three softened, and the little flames died down.

"Wait," said Lakla, "there is one other thing they say we must answer before they will hold us to that

She listened, and then her face grew whitewhite as those of the Three themselves; the glorious eyes

widened, stark terror filling them; the whole lithe body of her shook like a reed in the wind.

"Not that!" she cried out to the Three. "Oh, not that! Not Larrylet me go even as you willbut not him!"

She threw up frantic hands to the womanbeing of the Trinity. "Let ME bear it alone," she wailed.

The Three bent their heads toward her, their faces pitiful, and from the eyes of the woman One rolledtears!

He glared up at the Silent Ones, his hand twitching toward the highhung pistol holster.

The handmaiden swung to him; threw white arms around his neck; held her head upon his heart until her

"This theysaythe Silent Ones," she gasped and then all the courage of her came back. "O heart of mine!"

she whispered to Larry, gazing deep into his eyes, his anxious face cupped between her white palms. "This

they saythat should the Shining One come to succour Yolara and Lugur, should it conquer its

fearanddo thisthen is there but one way left to destroy itand to save your world."

"But one wayyou and I must gotogetherinto its embrace! Yea, we must pass within itloving each

other, loving the world, realizing to the full all that we sacrifice and sacrificing all, our love, our lives,

perhaps even that you call soul, O loved one; must give ourselves ALL to the Shining One gladly, freely,

our love for each other flaming high within usthat this curse shall pass away! For if we do this, pledge the

Three, then shall that power of love we carry into it weaken for a time all that evil which the Shining One has

The blood rushed from my heart; scientist that I am, essentially, my reason rejected any such solution as this

of the activities of the Dweller. Was it not, the thought flashed, a propitiation by the Three out of their own

weakness and as it flashed I looked up to see their eyes, full of sorrow, on mineand knew they read the

thought. Then into the whirling vortex of my mind came steadying reflectionsof history changed by the

power of hate, of passion, of ambition, and most of all, by love. Was there not actual dynamic energy in these

"Dear love o' mine," said the O'Keefe quietly, "is it in your heart to say YES to this?"

"Larry," she spoke low, "what is in your heart is in mine; but I did so want to go with you, to live with

"If the world IS at stake," he whispered, "why of course there's only one thing to do. God knows I never was

afraid when I was fighting up thereand many a better man than me has gone West with shell and bullet for

the same idea; but these things aren't shell and bulletbut I hadn't Lakla thenand it's the damned DOUBT

He turned to the Threeand did I in their poise sense a rigidity, an anxiety that sat upon them as alienly as

"Tell me this, Silent Ones," he cried. "If we do this, Lakla and I, is it SURE you are that you can slay

For the first and the last time, I heard the voice of the Silent Ones. It was the manbeing at the right who

"We are sure," the tones rolled out like deepest organ notes, shaking, vibrating, assailing the ears as strangely

as their appearance struck the eyes. Another moment the O'Keefe stared at them. Once more he squared his

Over the visages of the Trinity fell benignity that was awesome; the tiny flames in the jet orbs vanished,

leaving them wells in which brimmed serenity, hopean extraordinary joyfulness. The woman sat upright,

tender gaze fixed upon the man and girl. Her great shoulders raised as though she had lifted her arms and had

drawn to her those others. The three faces pressed together for a fleeting moment; raised again. The woman

bent forwardand as she did so, Lakla and Larry, as though drawn by some outer force, were swept upon

Out from the sparkling mist stretched two hands, enormously long, sixfingered, thumbless, a faint tracery of

golden scales upon their white backs, utterly unhuman and still in some strange way beautiful, radiating

They stretched forth; they touched the bent heads of Lakla and the O'Keefe; caressed them, drew them

together, softly stroked themlovingly, with more than a touch of benediction. And withdrew!

The sparkling mists rolled up once more, hiding the Silent Ones. As silently as once before we had gone we

passed out of the place of light, beyond the crimson stone, back to the handmaiden's chamber.

"Cheer up, darlin'," he said to her, "it's a long way yet before the finish. An' are you thinking that Lugur and

IT IS NOT my intention, nor is it possible no matter how interesting to me, to set down _ad seriatim_ the

"After all, Doc," be said to me, "it's a beautiful scrap we're going to have. At the worst the worst is no more

than the leprechaun warned about. I would have told the Taitha De about the banshee raid he promised me;

but I was a bit taken off my feet at the time. The old girl an' all the clan'll be along, said the little green man,

"I have other tidings that I am afraid will please you little, Larrydarlin'. The Silent Ones say that you must

not go into battle yourself. You must stay here with me, and with Goodwinfor ififthe Shining One

does come, then must we be here to meet it. And you might not be, you know, Larry, if you fight," she said,

"That's about the hardest yet," he answered slowly. "Still I see their point; the lamb corralled for the altar

has no right to stray out among the lions," he added grimly. "Don't worry, sweet," he told her. "As long as

Olaf took fierce joy in the coming fray. "The Norns spin close to the end of this web," he rumbled. "_Ja!_

And the threads of Lugur and the Heks woman are between their fingers for the breaking! Thor will be with

me, and I have fashioned me a hammer in glory of Thor." In his hand was an enormous mace of black metal,

At the end of the _coria_ road where the giant fernland met the edge of the cavern's ruby floor, hundreds of

the _Akka_ were stationed in ambush, armed with their spears tipped with the rotting death and their

nailstudded, metalheaded clubs. These were to attack when the Murians debauched from the _corials_. We

had little hope of doing more here than effect some attrition of Yolara's hosts, for at this place the captains of

the Shining One could wield the _Keth_ and their other uncanny weapons freely. We had learned, too, that

every forge and artisan had been put to work to make an armour Marakinoff had devised to withstand the

natural battle equipment of the frogpeopleand both Larry and I had a disquieting faith in the Russian's

Next, under the direction of the frogking, levies commanded by subsidiary chieftains had completed rows of

rough walls along the probable route of the Murians through the cavern. These afforded the _Akka_ a fair

protection behind which they could hurl their darts and spearscuriously enough they had never developed

At the opening of the cavern a strong barricade stretched almost to the two ends of the crescent strand;

almost, I say, because there had not been time to build it entirely across the mouth.

And from edge to edge of the titanic bridge, from where it sprang outward at the shore of the Crimson Sea to

a hundred feet away from the golden door of the abode, barrier after barrier was piled.

Behind the wall defending the mouth of the cavern, waited other thousands of the _Akka_. At each end of the

unfinished barricade they were mustered thickly, and at right and left of the crescent where their forest began,

Rank upon rank they manned the bridge barriers; they swarmed over the pinnacles and in the hollows of the

island's ragged outer lip; the domed castle was a hive of them, if I may mix my metaphorsand the rocks

She led us out through her bower and up the little path that ran to the embrasure.

Through the quiet came a sound, a sighing, a halfmournful whispering that beat about us and fled away.

"They come!" cried Lakla, the light of battle in her eyes. Larry drew her to him, raised her in his arms, kissed

With the cry of the Portal there was movement among the _Akka_, the glint of moving spears, flash of

And we waitedwaited it seemed interminably, gaze fastened upon the low wall across the cavern mouth.

Suddenly I remembered the crystal through which I had peered when the hidden assassins had crept upon us.

Mentioning it to Lakla, she gave a little cry of vexation, a command to her attendant; and not long that

faithful if unusual lady had returned with a tray of the glasses. Raising mine, I saw the lines furthest away

leap into sudden activity. Spurred warrior after warrior leaped upon the barricade and over it. Flashes of

intense, green light, mingled with gleams like lightning strokes of concentrated moon rays, sprang from

At the far ends of the crescent a terrific milling had begun. Here it was plain the _Akka_ were holding.

Faintly, for the distance was great, I could see fresh force upon force rush up and take the places of those who

Over each of these ends, and along the whole line of the barricade a mist of dancing, diamonded atoms began

"God, but it's hard to stay here like this!" groaned the O'Keefe; Olaf's teeth were bared, the lips drawn back in

such a fighting grin as his ancestors berserk on their raven ships must have borne; Rador was livid with rage;

Suddenly, while we looked, the rocky wall which the _Akka_ had built at the cavern mouthwas not! It

vanished, as though an unseen, unbelievably gigantic hand had with the lightning's speed swept it away. And

Then down upon the ledge, dropping into the Crimson Sea, sending up geysers of ruby spray, dashing on the

bridge, crushing the frogmen, fell a shower of stone, mingled with distorted shapes and fragments whose

"That which makes things fall upward," hissed Olaf. "That which I saw in the garden of Lugur!"

The fiendish agency of destruction which Marakinoff had revealed to Larry; the force that cut off gravitation

And now over the debris upon the ledge, striking with long sword and daggers, here and there a captain

flashing the green ray, moving on in ordered squares, came the soldiers of the Shining One. Nearer and nearer

the verge of the ledge they pushed Nak's warriors. Leaping upon the dwarfs, smiting them with spear and

club, with teeth and spur, the _Akka_ fought like devils. Quivering under the ray, they leaped and dragged

That last thin line of the _Akka_ was going; yet they fought to the last, and none toppled over the lip without

My gaze dropped to the foot of the cliffs. Stretched along their length was a wide ribbon of beautya

shimmering multitude of gleaming, pulsing, prismatic moons; glowing, glowing ever brighter, ever more

Across the waters, faintly, came a triumphant shouting from Lugur's and Yolara's men!

Was the ruddy light of the place lessening, growing paler, changing to a faint rose? There was an exclamation

from Larry; something like hope relaxed the drawn muscles of his face. He pointed to the aureate dome

Out of it, through the long transverse slit through which the Silent Ones kept their watch on cavern, bridge,

and abyss, a torrent of the opalescent light was pouring. It cascaded like a waterfall, and as it flowed it spread

whirling out, in columns and eddies, clouds and wisps of misty, curdled coruscations. It hung like a veil over

all the islands, filtering everywhere, driving back the crimson light as though possessed of impenetrable

The radiance was marchingMARCHINGdown the colossal bridge. It moved swiftly, in some

unthinkable way INTELLIGENTLY. It swathed the _Akka_, and closer, ever closer it swept toward the

From their ranks came flash after flash of the green ray aimed at the abode! But as the light sped and

struck the opalescence it was blotted out! The shimmering mists seemed to enfold, to dissipate it.

"The Silent Ones forgive me for doubting them," she whispered; and again hope blossomed on her face even

The frogmen were gaining. Clothed in the armour of that mist, they pressed back from the bridgehead the

invaders. There was another prodigious movement at the ends of the crescent, and racing up, pressing against

the dwarfs, came other legions of Nak's warriors. And reenforcing those out on the prodigious arch, the

frogmen stationed in the gardens below us poured back to the castle and out through the open Portal.

So quickly I could not follow the movement his automatic leaped to his handspoke, once and again and

again. Rador leaped to the head of the little path, sword in hand; Olaf, shouting and whirling his mace,

For up that path were running twoscore of Lugur's men, while from below Lugur's own voice roared.

"Quick! Slay not the handmaiden or her lover! Carry them down. Quick! But slay the others!"

The handmaiden raced toward Larry, stopped, whistled shrillyagain and again. Larry's pistol was empty,

but as the dwarfs rushed upon him I dropped two of them with mine. It jammedI could not use it; I sprang

to his side. Rador was down, struggling in a heap of Lugur's men. Olaf, a Viking of old, was whirling his

Larry was down, Lakla flew to him. But the Norseman, now streaming blood from a dozen wounds, caught a

glimpse of her coming, turned, thrust out a mighty hand, sent her reeling back, and then with his hammer

A cry from Laklathe dwarfs had seized her, had lifted her despite her struggles, were carrying her away.

One I dropped with the butt of my useless pistol, and then went down myself under the rush of another.

Through the clamour I heard a booming of the _Akka_, closer, closer; then through it the bellow of Lugur. I

made a mighty effort, swung a hand up, and sunk my fingers in the throat of the soldier striving to kill me.

Writhing over him, my fingers touched a poniard; I thrust it deep, staggered to my feet.

The O'Keefe, shielding Lakla, was battling with a long sword against a half dozen of the soldiers. I started

toward him, was struck, and under the impact hurled to the ground. Dizzily I raised myselfand leaning

upon my elbow, stared and moved no more. For the dwarfs lay dead, and Larry, holding Lakla tightly, was

staring even as I, and ranged at the head of the path were the _Akka_, whose booming advance in obedience

And at what we all stared was Olaf, crimson with his wounds, and Lugur, in bloodred armour, locked in

each other's grip, struggling, smiting, tearing, kicking, and swaying about the little space before the

"Can't hit him without hitting Olaf," he whispered. Lakla signalled the frogmen; they advanced toward the

twobut Olaf saw them, broke the red dwarf's hold, sent Lugur reeling a dozen feet away.

"No!" shouted the Norseman, the ice of his paleblue eyes glinting like frozen flames, blood streaming down

his face and dripping from his hands. "No! Lugur is mine! None but me slays him! Ho, you Lugur" and

cursed him and Yolara and the Dweller hideouslyI cannot set those curses down here.

They spurred Lugur. Mad now as the Norseman, the red dwarf sprang. Olaf struck a blow that would have

killed an ordinary man, but Lugur only grunted, swept in, and seized him about the waist; one mighty arm

"'Ware, Olaf!" cried O'Keefe; but Olaf did not answer. He waited until the red dwarf's hand was close to his

shoulder; and then, with an incredibly rapid movement once before had I seen something like it in a

wrestling match between Papuanshe had twisted Lugur around; twisted him so that Olaf's right arm lay

across the tremendous breast, the left behind the neck, and Olaf's left leg held the Voice's armoured thighs

viselike against his right knee while over that knee lay the small of the red dwarf's back.

For a second or two the Norseman looked down upon his enemy, motionless in that paralyzing grip. And

Lakla gave a little cry; made a motion toward the two. But Larry drew her head down against his breast,

Slowly, ever so slowly, proceeded Olaf. Twice Lugur moaned. At the end he screamedhorribly. There was

Huldricksson stooped, silently. He picked up the limp body of the Voice, not yet dead, for the eyes rolled, the

lips strove to speak; lifted it, walked to the parapet, swung it twice over his head, and cast it down to the red

THE NORSEMAN turned toward us. There was now no madness in his eyes; only a great weariness. And

"Helma," he whispered, "I go a little before! Soon you will come to meto me and the Yndling who will

We looked down upon him; nor did Lakla, nor Larry, nor I try to hide our tears. And as we stood the _Akka_

brought to us that other mighty fighter, Rador; but in him there was life, and we attended to him there as best

"We will bear him into the castle where we may give him greater care," she said. "For, lo! the hosts of Yolara

We looked over the parapet. It was even as she had said. Neither on ledge nor bridge was there trace of living

men of Muriaonly heaps of slain that lay everywhereand thick against the cavern mouth still danced the

"The Silent Ones recall their veils," she said, pointing to the dome. Back through the slitted opening the

radiance was streaming; withdrawing from sea and island; marching back over the bridge with that same

ordered, intelligent motion. Behind it the red light pressed, like skirmishers on the heels of a retreating army.

"And yet" faltered the handmaiden as we passed into her chamber, and doubtful were the eyes she turned

What was that sound beating into the chamber faintly, so faintly? My heart gave a great throb and seemed to

stop for an eternity. What was itcoming nearer, ever nearer? Now Lakla and O'Keefe heard it, life ebbing

Nearer, nearera music as of myriads of tiny crystal bells, tinkling, tinklinga storm of pizzicati upon

violins of glass! Nearer, nearernot sweetly now, nor luring; noraging, wrathful, sinister beyond words;

We leaped to the narrow window; peered out, aghast. The bell notes swept through and about us, a hurricane.

The crescent strand was once more a ferment. Back, back were the _Akka_ being swept, as though by

brooms, tottering on the edge of the ledge, falling into the waters. Swiftly they were finished; and where they

had fought was an eddying throng clothed in tatters or naked, swaying, drifting, arms tossing like

They swayed and tossed, and then, like water racing through an opened dam, they swept upon the

bridgehead. On and on they pushed, like the bore of a mighty tide. The frogmen strove against them,

clubbing, spearing, tearing them. But even those worst smitten seemed not to fall. On they pushed, driving

forward, irresistiblea battering ram of flesh and bone. They clove the masses of the _Akka_, pressing them

to the sides of the bridge and over. Through the open gates they forced themfor there was no room for the

Then those of the _Akka_ who were left turned their backs and ran. We heard the clang of the golden wings

of the portal, and none too soon to keep out the first of the Dweller's dreadful hordes.

Now upon the cavern ]edge and over the whole length of the bridge there were none but the deadalive, men

and women, blackpolled _ladala_, sloeeyed Malays, slanteyed Chinese, men of every race that sailed the

The bell notes became sharper, more insistent. At the cavern mouth a radiance began to growa gleaming

from which the atoms of diamond dust seemed to try to flee. As the radiance grew and the crystal notes rang

nearer, every head of that hideous multitude turned stiffly, slowly toward the right, looking toward the far

bridge end; their eyes fixed and glaring; every face an inhuman mask of rapture and of horror!

A movement shook them. Those in the centre began to stream back, faster and ever faster, leaving motionless

deep ranks on each side. Back they flowed until from golden doors to cavern mouth a wide lane stretched,

The far radiance became brighter; it gathered itself at the end of the dreadful lane; it was shot with sparklings

and with pulsings of polychromatic light. The crystal storm was intolerable, piercing the ears with countless

The Dweller paused, seemed to scan the island of the Silent Ones half doubtfully; then slowly, stately, it

drifted out upon the bridge. Closer it drew; behind it glided Yolara at the head of a company of her dwarfs,

and at her side was the hag of the Council whose face was the withered, shattered echo of her own.

Slower grew the Dweller's pace as it drew nearer. Did I sense in it a doubt, an uncertainty? The

crystaltongued, unseen choristers that accompanied it subtly seemed to reflect the doubt; their notes were

not sure, no longer insistent; rather was there in them an undertone of hesitancy, of warning ! Yet on came

the Shining One until it stood plain beneath us, searching with those eyes that thrust from and withdrew into

unknown spheres, the golden gateway, the cliff face, the castle's rounded bulkand more intently than any

Behind it each face of the deadalive turned toward it, and those beside it throbbed and gleamed with its

Yolara crept close, just beyond the reach of its spirals. She murmuredand the Dweller bent toward her, its

seven globes steady in their shining mists, as though listening. It drew erect once more, resumed its doubtful

scrutiny. Yolara' s face darkened; she turned abruptly, spoke to a captain of her guards. A dwarf raced back

"Ye are done, ye Three! The Shining One stands at your door, demanding entrance. Your beasts are slain and

your power is gone. Who are ye, says the Shining One, to deny it entrance to the place of its birth?"

"Ye do not answer," she cried again, "yet know we that ye hear! The Shining One offers these terms: Send

forth your handmaiden and that lying stranger she stole; send them forth to usand perhaps ye may live. But

We waited, silent, even as did Yolaraand again there was no answer from the Three.

Over the bridge was marching a long double file of the dwarfs. They bore a smoothed and handled treetrunk

whose head was knobbed with a huge hall of metal. Past the priestess, past the Shining One, they carried it;

He drew his pistol, took careful aim. Even as he pressed the trigger there rang through the abode a

tremendous clanging. The ram was battering at the gates. O'Keefe's bullet went wild. The Russian must have

heard the shot; perhaps the missile was closer than we knew. He made a swift leap behind the guards; was

Lakla drew herself erect; down upon her dropped the listening aloofness. Gravely she bowed her head.

"It is time, O love of mine." She turned to O'Keefe. "The Silent Ones say that the way of fear is closed, but

For a hundred heartbeats they clung to each other, breast to breast and lip to lip. Below, the clangour was

increasing, the great trunk swinging harder and faster upon the metal gates. Now Lakla gently loosed the

arms of the O'Keefe, and for another instant those two looked into each other's souls. The handmaiden smiled

"I would it might have been otherwise, Larry darlin'," she whispered. "But at leastwe pass together, dearest

"Yolara!" the golden voice rang out sweetly. The clanging ceased. "Draw back your men. We open the Portal

"Come, then, quickly," she jeered. "For surely both the Shining One and I yearn for you!" Her maliceladen

laughter chimed high once more. "Keep us not lonely long!" the priestess mocked.

"It's goodby, I guess, Doc." His voice was strained. "Goodby and good luck, old boy. If you get out, and

you WILL, let the old _Dolphin_ know I'm gone. And carry on, pal and always remember the O'Keefe

I squeezed his hands desperately. Then out of my balanceshaking woe a strange comfort was born.

"Come!" she said to Larry. Hand in hand they moved away, into the corridor that led to the door outside of

And unseen by them, wrapped as they were within their love and sacrifice, I crept softly behind. For I had

determined that if enter the Dweller's embrace they must, they should not go alone.

They paused before the Golden Portals; the handmaiden pressed its opening lever; the massive leaves rolled

Heads high, proudly, serenely, they passed through and out upon the hither span. I followed.

On each side of us stood the Dweller's slaves, faces turned rigidly toward their master. A hundred feet away

the Shining One pulsed and spiralled in its evilly glorious lambency of sparkling plumes.

Unhesitating, always with that same high serenity, Lakla and the O'Keefe, hands clasped like little children,

drew closer to that wondrous shape. I could not see their faces, but I saw awe fall upon those of the watching

dwarfs, and into the burning eyes of Yolara crept a doubt. Closer they drew to the Dweller, and closer, I

following them step by step. The Shining One's whirling lessened; its tinklings were faint, almost stilled. It

seemed to watch them apprehensively. A silence fell upon us all, a thick silence, brooding, ominous,

palpable. Now the pair were face to face with the child of the Threeso near that with one of its misty

Yes, drew backand back with it stepped Yolara, the doubt in her eyes deepening. Onward paced the

handmaiden and the O'Keefeand step by step, as they advanced, the Dweller withdrew; its bell notes

And back it drew, and back until it had reached the very centre of that platform over the abyss in whose

depths pulsed the green fires of earth heart. And there Yolara gripped herself; the hell that seethed within her

As at a signal, the Shining One flamed high; its spirals and eddying mists swirled madly, the pulsing core of

it blazed radiance. A score of coruscating tentacles swept straight upon the pair who stood intrepid,

Through me swept a mighty exaltation. It was the end thenand I was to meet it with them.

Something drew us back, back with an incredible swiftness, and yet as gently as a summer breeze sweeps a

bit of thistledown! Drew us back from those darting misty arms even as they were a hairbreadth from us! I

Between the three of us and them was a ring of curdled moon flames, swirling about the Shining One and its

And within it I glimpsed the faces of the Threeimplacable, sorrowful, filled with a supernal power!

Sparks and flashes of white flame darted from the ring, penetrating the radiant swathings of the Dweller,

Now the Shining One's radiance began to dim, the seven orbs to dull; the tiny sparkling filaments that ran

from them down into the Dweller's body snapped, vanished! Through the battling nebulosities Yolara's face

The ranks of the deadalive quivered, moved, writhed, as though each felt the torment of the Thing that had

enslaved them. The radiance that the Three wielded grew more intense, thicker, seemed to expand. Within it,

suddenly, were scores of flaming trianglesscores of eyes like those of the Silent Ones!

And the Shining One's seven little moons of amber, of silver, of blue and amethyst and green, of rose and

white, split, shattered, were gone! Abruptly the tortured crystal chimings ceased.

Dulled, all its soulshaking beauty dead, blotched and shadowed squalidly, its gleaming plumes tarnished, its

dancing spirals stripped from it, that which had been the Shining One wrapped itself about Yolarawrapped

and drew her into itself; writhed, swayed, and hurled itself over the edge of the bridgedown, down into the

green fires of the unfathomable abysswith its priestess still enfolded in its coils!

From the dwarfs who had watched that terror came screams of panic fear. They turned and ran, racing

The serried ranks of the deadalive trembled, shook. Then from their faces tied the horror of wedded ecstasy

And as fields of wheat are bent and fall beneath the wind, they fell. No longer deadalive, now all of the

Abruptly from the sparkling mists the cloud of eyes was gone. Faintly revealed in them were only the heads

of the Silent Ones. And they drew before us; were before us! No flames now in their ebon eyesfor the

flickering fires were quenched in great tears, streaming down the marble white faces. They bent toward us,

over us; their radiance enfolded us. My eyes darkened. I could not see. I felt a tender hand upon my

Upon Larry's breast the handmaiden was sobbingsobbing out her heartbut this time with the joy of one

"MY HEART, Larry" It was the handmaiden's murmur. "My heart feels like a bird that is flying from a

We were pacing down the length of the bridge, guards of the _Akka_ beside us, others following with those

companies of _ladala_ that had rushed to aid us; in front of us the bandaged Rador swung gently within a

litter; beside him, in another, lay Nak, the frogkingmuch less of him than there had been before the battle

first task had been to search for Throckmartin and his wife among the fallen multitudes strewn thick as

autumn leaves along the flying arch of stone, over the cavern ledge, and back, back as far as the eye could

At last, Lakla and Larry helping, we found them. They lay close to the bridgeend, not partedlocked tight

in each other's arms, pallid face to face, her hair streaming over his breast! As though when that unearthly life

the Dweller had set within them passed away, their own had come back for one fleeting instantand they

"Love is stronger than all things." The handmaiden was weeping softly. "Love never left them. Love was

stronger than the Shining One. And when its evil fled, love went with themwherever souls go."

Of Stanton and Thora there was no trace; nor, after our discovery of those other two, did I care to look more.

We buried Throckmartin and Edith beside Olaf in Lakla's bower. But before the body of my old friend was

placed within the grave I gave it a careful and sorrowful examination. The skin was firm and smooth, but

cold; not the cold of death, but with a chill that set my touching fingers tingling unpleasantly. The body was

bloodless; the course of veins and arteries marked by faintly indented white furrows, as though their walls

had long collapsed. Lips, mouth, even the tongue, was paper white. There was no sign of dissolution as we

know it; no shadow or stain upon the marble surface. Whatever the force that, streaming from the Dweller or

impregnating its lair, had energized the deadalive, it was barrier against putrescence of any kind; that at

But it was not barrier against the poison of the Medusae, for, our sad task done, and looking down upon the

waters, I saw the pale forms of the Dweller's hordes dissolving, vanishing into the shifting glories of the

While the frogmen, those late levies from the farthest forests, were clearing bridge and ledge of cavern of

the litter of the dead, we listened to a leader of the _ladala_. They had risen, even as the messenger had

promised Rador. Fierce had been the struggle in the gardened city by the silver waters with those Lugur and

Yolara bad left behind to garrison it. Deadly had been the slaughter of the fairhaired, reaping the harvest of

hatred they had been sowing so long. Not without a pang of regret did I think of the beautiful, gaily malicious

The ancient city of Lara was a charnel. Of all the rulers not twoscore had escaped, and these into regions of

peril which to describe as sanctuary would be mockery. Nor had the _ladala_ fared so well. Of all the men

and women, for women as well as men had taken their part in the swift war, not more than a tenth remained

And the dancing motes of light in the silver air were thick, thickthey whispered.

They told us of the Shining One rushing through the Veil, cometlike, its hosts streaming behind it, raging

Of the massacre of the priests and priestesses in the Cyclopean temple; of the flashing forth of the

summoning lights by unseen handsfollowed by the tearing of the rainbow curtain, by colossal shatterings

of the radiant cliffs; the vanishing behind their debris of all trace of entrance to the haunted place wherein the

Then, when the tempest of hate had ended in seething Lara, how, thrilled with victory, armed with the

weapons of those they had slain, they had lifted the Shadow, passed through the Portal, met and slaughtered

But of Marakinoff they had seen nothing! Had the Russian escaped, I wondered, or was he lying out there

"I don't want to, Larry darlin'," she told him. "I want to go out with you to Ireland. But for a timeI think the

"If they've killed off all the priests, who's to marry us, heart of mine?" he worried. "None of those Siya and

"Marry!" cried the handmaiden incredulously. "Marry us? Why, Larry dear, we ARE married!"

The O'Keefe's astonishment was complete; his jaw dropped; collapse seemed imminent.

"Why, when the Mother drew us together before her; when she put her hands on our heads after we had made

He looked at her, into the purity of the clear golden eyes, into the purity of the soul that gazed out of them; all

"Enough?" The handmaiden's puzzlement was complete, profound. "Enough? Larry darlin', what MORE

"Kiss the bride, Doc!" cried the O'Keefe. And for the third and, soul's sorrow! the last time, Lakla dimpling

Quickly were our preparations for departure made. Rador, conscious, his immense vitality conquering fast his

wounds, was to be borne ahead of us. And when all was done, Lakla, Larry, and I made our way up to the

scarlet stone that was the doorway to the chamber of the Three. We knew, of course, that they had gone,

following, no doubt, those whose eyes I had seen in the curdled mists, and who, coming to the aid of the

Three at last from whatever mysterious place that was their home, had thrown their strength with them

against the Shining One. Nor were we wrong. When the great slab rolled away, no torrents of opalescence

came rushing out upon us. The vast dome was dim, tenantless; its curved walls that had cascaded Light shone

A little time we stood, heads bent, reverent, our hearts filled with gratitude and loveyes, and with pity for

that strange trinity so alien to us and yet so near; children even as we, though so unlike us, of our same

And what I wondered had been the secret of that promise they had wrung from their handmaiden and from

Larry. And whence, if what the Three had said had been all true whence had come their power to avert the

Was it that they had needed, must have, the force which dwells within love, within willing sacrifice, to

strengthen their own power and to enable them to destroy the evil, glorious Thing so long shielded by their

own love? Did the thought of sacrifice, the will toward abnegation, have to be as strong as the eternals,

unshaken by faintest thrill of hope, before the Three could make of it their key to unlock the Dweller's guard

Here was a mysterya mystery indeed! Lakla softly closed the crimson stone. The mystery of the red

dwarf's appearance was explained when we discovered a halfdozen of the water _coria_ moored in a small

cove not far from where the _Sekta_ flashed their heads of living bloom. The dwarfs had borne the shallops

with them, and from somewhere beyond the cavern ledge had launched them unperceived; stealing up to the

farther side of the island and risking all in one bold stroke. Well, Lugur, no matter what he held of

The cavern was paved with the deadalive, the _Akka_ carrying them out by the hundreds, casting them into

the waters. Through the lane down which the Dweller had passed we went as quickly as we could, coming at

last to the space where the _coria_ waited. And not long after we swung past where the shadow had hung and

Upon Lakla's insistence we passed on to the palace of Lugur, not to Yolara'sI do not know why, but go

there then she would not. And within one of its columned rooms, maidens of the blackhaired folks, the

There came to me a huge desire to see the destruction they had told us of the Dweller's lair; to observe for

myself whether it was not possible to make a way of entrance and to study its mysteries.

I spoke of this, and to my surprise both the handmaiden and the O'Keefe showed an almost embarrassed haste

"I said I wish we were sitting in our home in Ireland, watching the sun go down," he whispered to her.

But now I must hasten. We went to the temple, and here at least the ghastly litter of the dead had been

cleaned away. We passed through the bluecaverned space, crossed the narrow arch that spanned the rushing

sea stream, and, ascending, stood again upon the ivoried pave at the foot of the frowning, towering

Across the Silver Waters there was sign of neither Web of Rainbows nor colossal pillars nor the templed lips

that I had seen curving out beneath the Veil when the Shining One had swirled out to greet its priestess and

its voice and to dance with the sacrifices. There was but a broken and rent mass of the radiant cliffs against

Long I lookedand turned away saddened. Knowing even as I did what the irised curtain had hidden, still it

was as though some thing of supernal beauty and wonder had been swept away, never to be replaced; a

I dropped a little behind them to examine a bit of carving and, after all, they did not want me. I watched

them pacing slowly ahead, his arm around her, black hair close to bronzegold ringlets. Then I followed. Half

were they over the bridge when through the roar of the imprisoned stream I heard my name called softly.

Amazed, I turned. From behind the pedestal of a carved group slunkMarakinoff! My premonition had been

right. Some way he had escaped, slipped through to here. He held his hands high, came forward cautiously.

"I am finished," he whispered"Done! I don't care what THEY'LL do to me." He nodded toward the

handmaiden and Larry, now at the end of the bridge and passing on, oblivious of all save each other. He drew

closer. His eyes were sunken, burning, mad; his face etched with deep lines, as though a graver's tool had cut

A grin, like the grimace of a fiend, blasted the Russian's visage. He threw himself upon me, his hands

"Larry!" I yelledand as I spun around under the shock of his onslaught, saw the two turn, stand paralyzed,

My foot, darting out behind me, touched vacancy. The roaring of the racing stream deafened me. I felt its

I was fallingfallingwith the Russian's hand strangling me. I struck water, sank; the hands that gripped

my throat relaxed for a moment their clutch. I strove to writhe loose; felt that I was being hurled with

dreadful speed onfull realization cameon the breast of that racing torrent dropping from some far ocean

cleft and rushingwhere? A little time, a few breathless instants, I struggled with the devil who clutched

A brilliant light was glowing through my closed lids. It hurt. I opened my eyes, closed them with swords and

needles of dazzling pain shooting through them. Again I opened them cautiously. It was the sun!

I staggered to my feet. Behind me was a shattered wall of basalt monoliths, hewn and squared. Before me

He lay there, broken and dead indeed. Yet all the waters through which we had passednot even the waters

of death themselvescould wash from his face the grin of triumph. With the last of my strength I dragged

the body from the strand and pushed it out into the waves. A little billow ran up, coiled about it, and carried it

away, ducking and bending. Another seized it, and another, playing with it. It floated from my sightthat

which had been Marakinoff, with all his schemes to turn our fair world into an undreamedofhell.

My strength began to come back to me. I found a thicket and slept; slept it must have been for many hours,

for when I again awakened the dawn was rosing the east. I will not tell my sufferings. Suffice it to say that I

found a spring and some fruit, and just before dusk had recovered enough to writhe up to the top of the wall

The place was one of the farther islets of the NanMatal. To the north I caught the shadows of the ruins of

NanTauach, where was the moon door, black against the sky. Where was the moon doorwhich, someway,

At dawn of the next day I got together driftwood and bound it together in shape of a rough raft with fallen

creepers. Then, with a makeshift paddle, I set forth for NanTauach. Slowly, painfully, I crept up to it. It was

late afternoon before I grounded my shaky craft on the little beach between the ruined seagates and,

And at its opening I stopped, and the tears ran streaming down my cheeks while I wept aloud with sorrow and

For the great wall in which had been set the pale slab whose threshold we had crossed to the land of the

Shining One lay shattered and broken. The monoliths were heaped about; the wall had fallen, and about them

Dazed and weeping, I drew closer, climbed upon their outlying fragments. I looked out only upon the sea.

There had been a great subsidence, an earth shock, perhaps, tilting downward all that sidethe echo, little

The little squared islet called Tau, in which were hidden the seven globes, had entirely disappeared. Upon the

The moon door was gone; the passage to the Moon Pool was closed to meits chamber covered by the sea!