MAY

Tatar

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"Tell
SEABURY QUINN Your Fortune"
W. F. TEMPLE ROBERT BLOCK
 COlD threa,ens ,0 run """ugh " * nmtt, l
Mien

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FOR EVERYBODY!

period of 12 years showed that those

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twice daily had fewer colds and usu-
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all too easy for a cold, once starts, to did not gargle . . . and fewer sore throats.
r"S
spread from one member
it
of the family to So, whenever there's a cold in your family,
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why it's so (sensible to enlist the aid of the a wise thing to do, Lambert Pharmacal Co.
Listerine Antiseptic gargle early and often!
This pleasant antiseptic reaches way back on
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Although many colds may be started by a germs that can cause so much of the
virus, it is these "secondary invaders," say misery of a cold when they invade the
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of the misery you know so well. Listerine Anti-
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hour period of "incubation" when a cold may
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Tests showed germ reductions on mouth and
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This germ-killing power, we believe, accounts
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TESTS SHOWED LISTERINE ANTISEPTIC REDUCED GERMS UP TO 98.79c

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Well of the Unicorn — Fletcher H. Princess of tAan
—
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B. The Mislaid Chorm Phillips

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t. Chess it n of Mar
M. Flghtin Mar
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BEST OP 1949 ANTHOLOGY.

JULIUS UNGER Box 35, Brooklyn 4, Now York

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 eii-d Tale*j
ALL STORIES NEW — NO REPRINTS
MAY, 1950 Cover by Boris Dolgov

NOVELETTES
TELL YOUR FORTUNE Robert Bloch 6
It looked tike an ordinary barroom scales; but the little professor
had trafficked with darkness to bring it into being.

DJTNN AKB BITTERS Harold Lawlor 22

Fancy being married at ten o'clock and having —
a dj'mm com* out of a bottle by afternoon!

SHORT STORIES
TELE ROUND TOWER Stanton A, Coblentz 36
The ghostly voice pleaded for the stranger to come on: tome
counter votce* maybe an inward devil, warned him back.

THE LAST MAN Seabnry Quinn 44

KI hare been told you can bring back the spirits of the dead.
Is that true?" . . . "Of course" was the reply.
THE TRIANGLE OP TERROR William F. Temple 50
The words w/j anybody there?" died in my mouth — for it was
manifest titers was nobody. Yet I had seen. ...

THE MONKEY SPOONS Mary Elizabeth Counselman 63

These three little monkey spoons were surrounded by forces no
—
one could combat. Forces older than time older than logic
THE LAST THREE SHIPS Margaret St. Clair 70
Fifteen deserted ships at night might give a graveyard, eerie effect;
but it was all right if one kept away from those last three hulls.

AT THE END OF THE CORRIDOR Evangeline Walton 7-4

A story of the Greek undead—if dead men could walk because they had reason
for revenge, a lot of them would hare done it these last few years.

THE MAN ON B-17 Stephen Grendon 82

The cinder bull couldn't see the man on the trestle —nor the woman —
either
but the engineer and the fireman and die conductor, they all did.
MS. HYDE—AND SEEK Malcolm M. Ferguson 86
Country doctors are supposed to be able to cope with anything.
How about the supernatural?
THE EYRIE 4

VERSE
LONA AETERNALIS Clark Asbton Smith 43

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 The Editor
WEIRD TALES
9 Rockefeller Plaza
New York 20, N. Y.
I've just finished reading the March is-
sue, and don't know whether to kiss you
or kick you. The stories were good, really
enjoyable, but I want to scream and holler
protests against the best ones. I mean, of
course, Corn Dance, Two Pace, and Home
to Mother. They are three of the best sci-
ence fiction stories I'm read in a long time,
but for Heaven's sake, what are they doing

WE ARE glad that so many readers

glad to have the Eyrie back, and we'll
seem in WEIRD TALES?
less, I've been reading
For 2i
WEIRD.
years, more
I've rejoiced
or

try to print as many letters each issue as in the good years and been patient in the
space will permit. But don't forget that not-so-good ones, to the extent of a base-
even if we can't print them, we read them! ment full of back numbers which I re-read
We hadn't intended to bear too heavily on from time to time. I know by now what
science fiction. In regard to the Wellman I like and what I've enjoyed most from you
story, "Home to Mother" in March, for in- in the past. Ghosties, ghoulies, unseen ter-
stance, it seemed to us more of a horror rors, warlocks, witches, succubi, and bane-
story than sf —
but we could be wrong. ful doom are all OK
by me, but anti-gravs.
blasters, and characters that have to learn
The Editor, WEIRD TALES all over again how to build a fire because
9 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N. Y. they are so super-efficient they never knew
"THE SHADOW OF SATURN." how—Uh uh! Not for WEIRD TALES
March hsue. By E. Hoffmann Price. . .even when they're good / don't want
—
.

1 like it a good yarn for a number of them!

reasons —
it's intriguing and it makes sense. I'm very glad to see you reviving The
"Wishing is an emotional muddle. Will is Eyrie. I enjoy the comments of some of my
pure force." So much food for thought fellow fen, that is, when they have some-
rtsts in the story. A whole way of life has thing to say. I agree about these plus and
been projected by Price. minus lists, they make the fellows who sub-
It is the type of yarn from which the mitted them sound so stuffed-shirty.' Who
reader, each reader will experience in ac' gives a hoot anyway whether they think
cordance with his capacity for penetration one story is an imaginary two points better
into his own personality and thought pat- than another! Either you like 'em or you
terns. "One can't ever escape from oneself don't. And I like 'em, especially The Tree's
and from what one has made." How true. Wife, Shadow of Saturn, and Stay With
"You can't run away from what you've Me.
made for yourself." Thai is Wisdom. Gertrude M. Carr,
I like what Price has to say about 5200 Harvard Avenue No.
CHOICE. "The stars shape your personality Seattle 2, Wash.
and the pattern of your moods, your peaks
of vitality and your depths of depression. The Editor
But whether your mood will rule you, or WEIRD TALES
you will rule it is a matter of choice." 9 Rockefeller Plaza
In a way, this little yarn is a GREAT New York 20, N. Y.
story. WEIRDTALES for January, 1950 is
(Mrs.) Ruth Dennis Pancera, generally poor. I liked "The Smiling Face"
Susanville, California. (Continued on page 94)
 copyrighted «*4afafafa>flaV9a*9afHBBfafafaffl«£
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jtsncci &irtn.

• "ATOMIC WARFARE"-**" e/ lit next World

War.
• "BETURN OF HITLER "-«/•*/ time when bt
iiiUt return alive.
. Boary C
SabarH Ik a • "FATE OF THE }EWS"-C*piut **J L*l3*:
Ml American axpanaAt of ttta taJab ra f*
SofaJ BIM
maitr 01 Nottiodamui r«u«i*ui. • "CATACLYSMIC DESTRUCTION
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> You a^s /T oiN6 on a iow<; OQM.RNey.

5«/« co*W tell your weight; could they read your soull
 ^ ell

Eu
Your Fortune
'?/
Robert ELck
THE scales aren't here any more.
Look, Buster, I don't want any
trouble. I run a nice quiet little
guy they'd have to bury with a corkscrew,
too. But a very smart apple.
He come here about three years ago when
place here, no rough stuff. T'm telling you this pitch was nothing but a combination

the scales aren't here. You must be the tavern and bowling alley. A Mom and Pop
twentieth guy this week who come in setup, strictly for Saturday nights and a beer
looking for those scales. But they're gone. license. He made his deal with the county
Damned good you
thing, too, if me. ask boys and tore out the bowling alley. Put
No, I'm not the bouncer. I'm the mana- in this layout downstairs here and hired a
ger. So help me, I am. If you're looking for couple of sticks to run tables. Crap games
Big Pete Mosko, he's gone. Tarelli's gone only, at first. A fast operation.
too, and the girl. But Mosko was a smart apple, like I say.
Didn't you read about it in the papers? The suckers come downstairs here and
I thought everybody knew it by now, but dropped their bundles on*-two- three. Mosko,
like I said, guys keep coming in. The heat he stayed upstairs in the bar and made like
was on here for a month before I bought your genial host. Used to sit there in a big
the place and made the fix. Now I run it chair with a ten-dollar smile plastered all
strictly on the percentages; I level with the over his ugly mush. Offering everybody
customers. Not like Mosko, with his crooked drinks on the house when they come up
wheels and the phoney cubes. Look the from the cleaners. Let everybody kid him
house over. No wires, no gimmicks. You about how fat he was and how ugiy he was
want to make a fast buck at the table, you and how dumb he was. Mosko dumb? Let
get your chance. But the sucker stuff is me tell you, -he knew what he was doing.
out. And I wouldn't be caught dead with Way he worked it, he didn't even need
those scales in here, after what has hap- to keep a bouncer on the job. Never any
pened. strong-arm stuff, even though business got
No, I don't think you're nosey. I'll take good and some of the Country Club gang
that drink, sure. Might as well tell you used to come out here and drop maybe s
about it. Like I say, it was in the papers G or so at a time on Saturdays. Mosko saw
but only part of it. Screwiest thing you to that. He was the buffer. A guy got a
ever heard of. Matter of fact, a guy needs rimming on Mosko's" tables, but he never
a drink or two if he wants to finish the got sore at Mosko. Mosko stayed upstairs
story. and kidded him along.
If you come En here in the old days, then Show you how smart he was, Mosko
you probably remember Big Pete Mosko all played up his fatness. Played it up so he
right. Six feet four, three hundred pounds, could be ribbed. Did it on purpose wear- —
built like a brick backhouse, with that ing those big baggy suits to make him look
Polack haircut and the bashed-in nose. —
even heavier and putting that free lunch
Don't like to give anyone the finger, but in front of himself when he sat in his chair
it looks like Pete Mosko had to be that big at the end of the bar. Mosko wasn't really
to hold all the meanness in him. Kind of a what you call a big eater, but he kept nib-

Heading by John Giant*

 WEIRD TALES
bling away at the food all evening, when- never talked about his little private deals
ever somebody was around to look. Suf- handling hot characters in the back room,
fered something awful from indigestion, and I clammed up whenever I was with
and he used to complain in private, but he —
him it was strictly business between us.
put on a good show for the marks. But even though I kept my mouth shut, I
That's why he got a scale put in the kept my eyes open, and I saw plenty.
tavern, to begin with. All a part of Mosko's Like I say, I saw Tarelli arrive. He got
smart act. He used to weigh himself in off the five-spot bus right in front of the
front of the suckers. Made little bets fin — tavern, just at twilight. I was out front
—
or a sawbuck on what he weighed. Lost switching on the neon when he ambled up,
them on purpose, too, just to make the tapped me on the shoulder, and said,
marks feel good. "Pardon. Can you inform me if this is the
But that was an ordinary scale, under- establishment of Signor Mosko?"
stand. And M&sko was running an ordinary I give him a checkup, a fastie. Funny
place, too —
until Tarelli came.
_

little guy, about the size of a watch-charm,

Seems like Masko wasn't content Just to wearing a set of checkered threads. He
rim suckers on the dice tables. If his ap- carried a big black suitcase, holding it stiff-
petite for food wasn't so good, he made up armed in a way that made it easy to tell
for it in his appetite for a fast buck. Any- he had a full load. He wasn't wearing a
how, when he had the bowling alleys ripped hat, and his gray hair was plastered down
out downstairs, the carpenters built him a on head with some kind of perfume or
his
couple of little rooms, way in back. Rooms tonic on it which smelled like DDT and
to live in. was probably just as deadly.
Of course Mosko himself lived upstairs, "Inside, Buster," I told him.
over the tavern. These rooms weren't for "Pardon?"
him. They were for any of Mosko's private "Mosko's inside. Wait, I'll take you." I
pals. steered him towards the door.
Ke had a lot of private pals. Old buddies "Thank you," He gave me the big grin
from Division Street in Chi. Fraternity full 32-tooth salute —and lugged the keister
brothers from Joliet. Any lamster was a pal inside after me, mumbling to himself.
of Mosko's when the heat was on if he —
had the moola to pay for hiding out in one
of those private rooms downstairs. Mosko
WHAT
Mosko
he could possibly want with
I didn't know, but I wasn't
picked up a nice hunk of pocket money hid- being paid to figure it out. I just led him
—
ing hot items and I guess he had visitors up to Big Pete behind the bar and pointed.
from all over the country staying a week Then I went outside again.
or a month in his place. Never asked about Of course, I couldn't help hearing some
it; you didn't ask Mosko about such things stuffthrough the screen door. Mosko had a
if you wanted to keep being a good insur- voice that could kill horse-flies at five hun-
ance risk. dred feet. He talked and Tarelli mumbled.
Anyhow, it was on account of those rooms Something like this;
that Tarelli come here. He was out of made it, huh? Rico
"Finally fly you in?"
—
Havana illegal entry, of course but he — "Mumble-mumble-mumble."
wasn't a Cuban. Eytie, maybe, from the "All set. Where's the cash?"
looks of him. Little dark customer with gray "Mumble-mumble."
hair and big brown eyes, always grinning "Okay. Stay as long as you want. Rico
and mumbling to himself. Funny to see a tells me you can do a few jobs for me, too."
squirt like him standing next to a big tub "Mumble-mumble-mumble."
of lard like Mosko. "Brought your own equipment, eh?
I saw him the day he arrived. I was That's fine. We'll see how good you are,
working for Big Pete Mosko then, bounc- then. Come on, I'll show you where you'll
ing and keeping the customers quiet. Mosko book. But remember, Tarelli —you stay out
 TELL YOUR FORTUNE
of sight when customers are here. Don't I made it my business to steer shy of
want you to show your profile to any Tarelli, too. There was no sense asking for
strangers. Just stick downstairs and do what trouble.
you're told and we'll get along fine."
That told me all I needed to know, ex- MUST have been of ten days before I
all
cept what Tarelli was going to do for Big saw him again. This was just after
Pete Mosko while he hid out from the law the wheels were operating. Mosko brought
in the basement back rooms. But I found in two more sharpies to run them, and he
out the rest soon enough. was taking them into town one afternoon,
Couple of days later, I'm downstairs leaving me and the day bartender on dory.
stashing liquor in the storage room and I I went downstairs to clean up, and I swear

come back through the crap table layout. I wasn't getting my nose dirty. It was
First thing I see is a couple of roulette Tarelli who started it.

wheels, some big new tables, and little He heard me walking around, and he
Tarelli. come out from his room. "Pardon," he said.
Tarelliis sitting on an orange crate, right "Pardon, signor."
in the middle of the wheels and furniture, "Sure," I said. "What's the pitch?"
and he's having himself a ball. Got a mess "Ees no pitch. Ees only that I weesh to
of tools laying around, and a heap more in explain that I am sorry I make trouble be-
his big black suitcase. He's wiring the un- tween you and Signor Mosko."
dersides of the tables and using instruments "You mean when he caught me watch-
on the wheels, squatting on this crate and ing you? That's all right, Tarelli. He loses
grinning like a gnome in Santy Claus's his temper —I'm used to it. Guess I should-
workshop. 1 hear him mumbling to himself, n't have butted into his business."
and I figure it's only sociable I should stop "Ees dirty business. Dirty."
by and maybe case the job a little. I stared at him. He was grinning and
He pays me no attention at all, just keeps nodding, but he wasn't kidding.
right on with his wiring, soldering con- "Feelthy!" He grinned harder. "I hate of
nections and putting some small batteries myself that I do thees for Signor Mosko. For
under the wheels. Even though he grins and cheating people. Ees feelthy! That I, An-
mumbles, I can tell when I watch his hands tonio Tarelli, would come to such an
that Tarelli knows what he is doing. The end
—
little foreign character is a first-class "Take it easy, Buster. We all gotta live."
mechanic. "You call thees living?" He shrugged at
I watch him slip some weights under the me, the tables, at the cellar, at the whole
at
rims of the three roulette wheels and it's damned world. "I come to thees country to
easy to see that he's bored holes through make new life. Rico, he tells me I can do
them for an electric magnet below the Zero good here. Signor Mosko, I pay him the
and Double-Zero, and then wham! — monies, he weel arrange. Ees no good. I
Something smacks me in the back of the — —
am how you say? without help. I must
neck and I hear Big Pete Mosko yelling, do as Signor Mosko tells. He discovers I
"Whaddya think you're doing here? Get am craftsman, he makes me do thees dirty
out before I break your lousy neck!" work."
I took the hint and ducked, but I "Why don't you blow out of here, then?
learned something, again. Big Pete Mosko I mean, it's none of my business, but why
was putting in three crooked roulette don't you just scram right this afternoon?
wheels, and business was picking up. Even if Mosko plays it below the belt and
Sure enough, less than a week later the hollers copper, you can get away into town
tables were installed and ready for action. and take a room. Nobody would find you.
I kept out of the basement as much as pos- Lotsa guys in this country on illegal entry:
sible, because I could see Mosko didn't they make out. Like I say, Tarelli, I'm not
want anybody around or asking questions, I trying to advise you. But if you don't like
10 WEIRD TALES
crooked dealing, better leave and leave fast. then met Big Pete Mosko's pal, Rico. Rico
How abeut it?" got him into this country, which is wli \t he
wanted, and now he was looking for a way
TARELLI cocked his head up at me and to latch onto a bundle.
grinned again. Then he squeezed my "I am what you call financial embarr,i:;s,"

arm. he said. "Rico, for breenging me here Like

"You know sometheeng? I like you. You all Ihave save up."
are honest man." This I could understand. Any pal of Big
That was a laugh. But who was I to Pete Mosko would be apt to be like that.
argue with a dumb foreigner? I just grinned A grabber.
back. "So now I work. Mosko employs the
"Look," he mumbled. "Come, I show you physicist, the most eminent of meta-
why I not leave here right away now." physicians, to — rig, they say it?
—game:: of
He took me down to his little room—an chance. Ha! But weel do anytheeng to earn
I

ordinary ittle room, with a rickety old bed,

1
money, to have Rosa here."
a straight chair, a second-hand dresser, and The deal was all set, I gathered. All
a dirty rug on the floor. "Come een," he Tarelli needed to do was scrape together a
said, and I stepped inside. G-note and Rico would fetch Rosa on the
I wish somebody had cut my legs off, in- plane. Easy as goniffing candy from a br.it.

stead. "So you're saving your pennies, huh?" I

Tarelli went to the closet and dragged out said, taking another look at Rosa's picture.

his big black suitcase. He opened it up and "What's Mosko paying you for this machine
pulled something out — a little picture, in a job?"
frame. "Twenty dollar."
"Look," he said, and I looked. Twenty dollars for a piece of work Mosko
I wish somebody had torn my eyes out, would have to pay easy two-three gr.md for
instead. if he got it done by any profession;!!. Twen-

"Rosa," he mumbled. "Ees my daughter. ty dollars for three crooked wheels tint
Eighteen years. You like?" would pay off maybe a grand or more a
I liked, and I said so. week clear profit. Big-hearted guy, Mister
I wish somebody had cut my tongue off, Mosko. And at that rate, Tarelli would have
instead. his Rosa over here just in time to collect
But I walked into his little room and on her old-age pension.
looked at the girl with the black hair and I took another look at Rosa's picture and

the black eyes, and I told him she was beau- decided it wasn't fair to make poor old
tiful and I sat there staring at her and he Tarelli wait that long. Matter of fact, I
grinned and he spilled it all out to me. didn't want to wait that long, either.
Everything. It wouldn't do much good to tell Tarelli
I can remember almost every word, just that Mosko was playing him for a sucker.
as I can remember almost everything that The thing to do was figure an angle, and
happened from that afternoon on until the fast.

end. put Rosa's picture away. "We'll work

I

Yeah, I learned a lot. Too much. something out," I said. "We got to."

Let me boil it down, though. About "Thank you," said Tarelli.

Tarelli —
he wasn't a lamster, in the old Which was a funny thing for him to say,
country. He was a Professor. Sounds screwy, because I was talking to the picture.
but the way he pitched it, I knew he was
levelling with me. He was a Professor in II

some big college over there, university, I

don't know what they call it. Had to blow DIDN'T have much time to talk to pic-
during the war, got as far as Cuba, got I tures the next couple weeks. Because
mixed up in some mess down there, and Mosko had his roulette wheels operating.
 TELL YOUR FORTUNE 11

and the take was good. I kept busy quieting "Gambling device?"
the squawkers, hustling out the phonies, "Perhaps."
and handling the guys who were sauced up. "Cost money to make?"
The two hotshots he hired to handle the "A few pennies."
wheels kept rolling, "New, huh?"
Mosko was busy, too — just sitting in his
and counting the take. Must have been
office
"Special."
"All right, go ahead. We'll see."
about two-three weeks after the wheels went "Then you weel send for Rosa?"
in that I happened to pass his little private "Well see."
back office when Tarelli went in and gave Mosko let it go at that, and I didn't butt
him a pitch. in. I was willing to see, too. And in an-
I couldn't help but hear what they were other couple of weeks, I saw.
saying, because both of them were yelling I was there the morning Tarelli took the
pretty loud. wraps off his big secret. It was on a Sun-
"But you promise," Tarelli was saying. day, and Mosko and the four sharpies who
"Rosa, she ees all alone. Ees not good for worked his wheels for him were down-
young girl to be alone. She must come stairs, divvying up the take from the big

here." Saturday night play.

"That's your worry. Blow now, I got Me and Al, the bartender, were sitting
things to do." around in the tavern upstairs all alone, chop-
"Theengs to do like counteeng monies? ping the heads off a couple glasses of beer.
Monies you make from the crooked wheels There weren't any customers never were—
I feex?" —
on Sunday so Al looked kind of surprised
"Never mind. Get outta here before I when he saw this little truck drive up and
lose my temper." stop outside.
"Ees worth plenty, thees job I do for "We got company," he said.
you. Get Rosa for me. I pay you back. I "Company? Why, it's Tarelli," I told
work long, hard. Anytheeng you say." him.
"Blow."
"You must do sometheeng. You must!" SURE enough, little hopped out
Tarelli
Tarelli was almost bawling, now. "How you of the truck and made some motions to
like, I tell somebody about crooked the big lug who was driving it. The lug
wheels?" went around back and then he and Tarelli
"Listen. One peep outta you and I tell lifted down a big weighing machine. Before
somebody," said Big Pete Mosko. "I tell I knew what was happening, they dragged
somebody about a guy who sneaked into it into the tavern and set it up right in the
this country without a passport. Get me?" corner.
"You would not de thees!" "Hey," says Al. "Whatsa big idea?"
"Wait and see." "Ees no idea. Ees scales. For weighing,"
Everything was quiet for a minute. "Way Tarelli said, turning on his grin.
I figured it, things would stay quiet. Mosko "Who ordered scales around here?"
had Tarelli, but good. If the little guy didn't Al come around the bar and we walked
watch his step, Mosko could turn him up to the weighing machine.
over to the Feds. There was nothing any- "I order," Tarelli told him. "I promise
body could do about it. Except
"One theeng more — " Tarelli said.
Mistair Mosko to find sometheeng won-
derful."
"Blow." "Don't see anything wonderful about a
"No. Leesten. Suppose I construct for penny scale machine," I said, giving it a
you something very special?" fast case.
"How special?" And there wasn't anything wonderful to
"Sometheeng how can — I tell you?—no see. It was just a regular weighing machine
one ever has before." with a round clock-face glass front, and a
12 WEIRD TALES
pointer that spun up to 400 pounds, depend- "Right. Thees ees of the most wonder-
ing on who stood on it and dropped a ful.Wait until I feex."
penny in the slot. It was made by the Uni- waved at me and went downstairs.
Tarelli
versal Scale Company of Waterville, Indi- Al and I got back to our beers. Every once
ana, and the decal on the back said, "This in a while Al would look over at the big,
machine property of Acme Coin Machine ugly white scales in the corner and shake
Distributors." his head. Neither of us said anything,
though.
NOTICED all this stuff kind of quick, In a little while Tarelli come upstairs
I without paying too much attention —but again. This time he was lugging his suitcase
later, I memorizedChecked up on it, too,
it. and a big canvas tarp. He set his suitcase
when the time came, and it was all true. down right next to the scales and then he
Just an ordinary weighing machine, made got out a hammer and nailed up the tarp,
at the factory and rented out to Mosko for right across the corner. It hid the scales and
ten bucks a month plus 30 per cent of the it hid Tarelli and his suitcase.
take in pennies. "Hey, now what you up to?" Al yelled.
Oh, one other thing. Besides the big "No questions. I feex. You cannot see."
glass front over the dial showing the "Lissen, you sawed-off little jerk who —
weight, there was another little hunk of you giving orders to around here?" Al hol-
glass and a spinner knob you turned when lered.
you dropped your penny. This knob turned He got up, but held his arm. "Take
I

about 20 slides up, for fortune-telling. You it easy," I said. "Give the little guy a
know, the regular questions you always find chance. He's doing tin's for Mosko, remem-
on scales. Like, "WILL I MARRY RICH?" ber? Maybe he's got some angle. Look what
Then when you dropped your penny, out he did for the wheels."
comes a card with a gag answer on it, like "AH right. But what's the big Idea of
"NO, YOU WONT MARRY RICH. the tarpaulin?"
YOU'LL MARRY EDDIE." Corny stuff. "Secret," Tarelli called out. "Nobody
And on top of the machine it said, must know. Three weeks I work to do. Ees
"TELL YOUR FORTUNE— 1<§. HONEST miracle. You see."
WEIGHT, NO SPRINGS." We didn't see anything. We didn't even
Al and I looked at the scales and the guy hear much of anything; some banging and
driving the truck went away from there. clanking around, but not much. I guessed
Tarelli kept grinning up at us and at last Tarelli was working on the weighing-ma-
he said, "How you like?" chine with special tools from his suitcase,
"Phooey!" said Al. "Whatsa matter with but I couldn't figure the angle. All I know
you, Tarelli? You oughtta know better'n is he worked on and on, and Al and I kept

to louse up the joint with a penny machine. drinking beers and waiting for Big Pete
We got customers come in here to drop a Mosko to come upstairs and bust up the
big wad at the tables; you think they gonna act.
fish out pennies to get their weight told?" But Mosko must have been plenty busy
"Yeah," I said. "Does Mosko know you counting the take. He didn't show. And
ordered this?" the fidgeting went on behind the curtain
"No," Tarelli answered. "But he find until Al and I were going screwy trying to
out fast." figure things out.
"And
he'll get sore faster," I told him. "I got it!" Al says, at last. "Sure, I got
"No he don't. You see." it. Plain as daylight. Tarelli fixed the wheels

"I'm gonna hate to see, Tarelli. When downstairs for the big-time marks, diden'
Big Pete sees this phoney fortune-telling he? Well, this is for the little sucker Mr. —
gimmick he'll go through the roof. He Bates, who comes in upstairs for a drink.
thought you were coming through with We work the old routine on him, see? Plant
something big." a steerer at the bar, get him into an argu*
 TELL YOUR FORTUNE 13

ment about what be weighs, work him into disk behind the glass. It kind of moved
a bet. Five, tea, twenty bucks. I hold the when you got up close to it, as though it

dough, get it? Then we take him over to was a mirror, only black.
the scales. Mr. Bates knows what he weighs, I know that sounds screwy and it was
because before the showdown the steerer goes screwy; but that's the only way I can de-
away to wash his hands, and I say to Mr. scribe it It was a little black disk that sort
Bates, 'Quick, hop on the he
scales before of caught your reflection when you stood
gets back. Then we'll know what you weigh on the scales, only of course you can't get
for sure.' So the chump weighs himself and a reflection off something dull and black.
lets say he weighs 165. The steerer comes But it was as if the scales were looking at
back and this time Mr. Bates offers to dou- you.
ble or triple the bet. He can't lose, see? I hopped up and fished around for a

So the steerer falls for it and we have Mr. penny. Closer I stood, the more I felt like
Bates for fifty or a hundred bucks. Then we something or somebody inside the scales
weigh him official. And of course the scales was giving me a cold, fishy stare. Yes, and
says 170 or 175 —whatever I want. Be- there was, come to think of it, a soft hum-
cause I got my foot down on the pedal ming noise when I stood on the platform,
that fixes the scales.Get it? A natural!" Deep down humming from inside.
Somehow it didn't seem like such a natu- Al went around back and said, "Little
ral to me. In the first place, no Mr. Bates jerkopened up the machinery here, all right.
was going to be dumb enough not to see Soldered the back on tight again, though.
through the routine with the crooked scales, Wonder what he was up to? Coin com-
and he'd raise a holy stink about being pany's sure gonna squawk when they see
cleaned. Secondly, Tarelli had promised this."
Mosko something really wonderful. And I found my penny and got ready to drop
for some funny reason I had faith in Tarelli. it in. I could see my reflection in the big
I knew he was working to get Rosa over glass dial where the weight pointer was.
here —and he'd do anything for her. After I had a kind of funny grin, but I guess that
seeing her picture, I could understand that. came from looking at the black disk below
No, Iexpected Tarelli to come through. A and listening to the humming and won-
big scientist, physicist or whatever kind of dering about the wonderful thing Tarelli
Professor he was in the old country, would had done.
do better than fix a weighing machine. I held my penny over the slot, and —
Big Pete Mosko come running up the
I WAITED to see what would hap-
SOpen when Tarelli finished and took the
stairs. Tarelli was right behind him, and
right behind Tarelli were the four sharpies.
tarp down. "What's the pitch?" Mosko yelled. "Get
Finally he did, and I saw —
exactly noth- off thatmachine and throw it out of here."
ing. Tarelli ripped down the canvas, car- I got off the machine, fast. If I hadn't,
ried his bag back downstairs, and left the Mosko would of knocked me off.
scales standing there, exactly like before. I "Wait," Tarelli chattered. "Wait—you
know, because AI and I rushed up to look at see— ees what I promise you. Wonderful."
the machine. "Scales!" Mosko grabbed Tarelli by the
Only two things were changed, and you collar and shook him until his hair flopped
had to look pretty hard to realize that much. all over his face. "What do I need with
First of all, the little selector knob you could

spin to choose your fortune-telling question

scales?"
"But they tell fortunes
—
just didn't spin any more. And second, the "Tell fortunes?" Mosko began to shakc
smali glass-covered opening above it which it looked like his hair would be
Tarelli until
gave the questions was now blank. Instead torn right out of his head. "What do I
of printed questions like "WILL I MARRY need with phoney fortunes?"
RICH?" there was now a sort of black —
"Ees ees not phoney fortunes like you
14 WEIRD TALES
say.That ees the wonderful. The fortunes, "What kind of a bargain? With who?"
they are true!" "I not say. My business, eh? But eet
"True?" work. So I can build what I need for ma-
Mosko was still yelling, but the shaking chine. Ees not science work here. Ees
stopped. He put Tarelli down and stared magic."
at him, hard. "What the—
Tarelli managed another one of his grins. Mosko was yelling again, but Tarelli's
"Yes, true. get on machine. You put
You soft voice cut him right off. "Magic," he
eert penny. Fortune card comes out. Ees repeated. "Black magic. I don' care who you
really true fortune. Tell your future." are, what you are. You get on scales. Scales
"Malarkey!" read your soul, your past, see you like you
One of the sharpies, character named really are. Drop penny, scales tell your
Don, started to laugh. He was a lanky fortune. Read your future. Here, try eet
blond guy with buck teeth, and he looked you see."
minute we were all laugh-
like a horse. In a Then Don cut loose with his horse-laugh.
ing. All but Tarelli. Only this time he laughed alone. And when
"Take it easy, Tarelli," said Don, grin- he shut up, Tarelli turned to Mosko again.
ning and sticking out his big yellow teeth. "Understan' what I tell you? Thees scale
He walked over to the little old man and read the future. Tell anybody's fortune. Ees
stood looking down at him. It was funny worth much money to have here. You can
to see the two of them together; Tarelli in make beeg business from thees. Now you
his old overalls, and this sharpie Don in a get Rosa for me?"
handsome set of threads; new blue pinstripe "Sure," said Mosko. "1*11 get Rosa. If it
job that matched the color of his convertible works. Hey, Tarelli, whyn-cha get on the
parked outside in the driveway. It was machine and see if it tells your fortune
funny, and then it wasn't so funny, because about Rosa? Maybe it'll say she's coming.
the grin on Don's face was mean, and I Ha!"
knew he was just working up to something Mosko was ribbing him, but Tarelli did-
nasty. n't know it. He turned kind of pale and
"Look, Tarelli," Don said, still-grinning. stepped back.
"Maybe you're a big scientist back in the "Oh no, Meestair Mosko. Not me! I not
University of Boloney or wherever you come get on thees machine for anytheenn.
from. But for my money, over here, you're cursed, black magic. I do it only for Rosa
just a schmoe, see? And I never heard that but I fear."
any scientist could invent a machine that "Well, what we all wasting time stand-
really reads a person's future." Don reached ing around for?" Don snickered. "Tarelli's
down and patted Tarelli on the shoulder. chicken. Afraid he'll get on the scales and
"Now you know Mister Mosko here is a nothing will happen, so we boot him out.
busy man," he said. "So if you got anything Well, I'm not scared. Here, gimme that."
it out fast-like. Then I won't
else to say, spit He snatched the penny out of my hand,
waste any more time before I kick you out hopped on the scales, and slid the penny
in the road." down. I could hear the faint humming, and
"Huh!" Mosko grunted. "I got no time then when the penny disappeared I could
Don. Telling what's hear the humming a little louder. The black
for screwballs
gonna happen
at
to you by science
all,
— disk on the scales got cloudy for a second.
"Ees not science." Tarelli talked real soft The pointer on the big dial behind the
and looked at the floor. swung over to 182. Don stood on the soles,
"Not science?" 182 pounds of what the well-dressed man
"No. do anytheeng to get Rosa here,
I will wear, including his nasty grin.
remember, I tell you that? I do what sci- "So?" he shrugged "Nothing happens."
ence cannot do. I make pact. Make vow. There was a click, and a little white card
Make bargain." slid out of the slot below the black disk.
 TELL YOUR FORTUNE 15

Don picked it up and read it. He shook his brand new suit under the weight of that
head and passed the card to Mosko and the wrecked convertible. Wc never saw Don's
others. Eventually it got to me. grin again, and we never saw the cat again,
It was a plain white card with plain let- either.
tering —
on it but it wasn't regular print- But Tarelli pointed at the fortune-telling
ing, more like a mimeograph in black ink card and smiled. And that afternoon, Big
that was still damp. I read it twice. Pete Mosko phoned Rico to bring Rosa to
America.
WHEN THE BLACK CAT CROSSES
YOUR PATH YOU DIE. Ill

That's all it said. The old superstition. SHE arrived on Saturday night. Rico
Kid stuff. brought her from the plane; big Rico
"Kid stuff!" Don "Tell you
sneered. with his waxed mustache and plastered-
what. This faker musta gummed up the down hair, with his phoney diamond ring
machinery in this scale and put in a lot and his phoney polo coat that told every-
of phoney new fortune-telling cards of his body what he was, just as if he had a post
own. He's crazy." office reader pinned to his back.

Tarelli shook his head. "Please," he said. But I didn't pay any attention to Rico. I was
"You no like me. Well, I no like you, looking at Rosa. There was nothing phoney
much. But even so, I geev you the warn- about her black hair, her white skin, her red
—
ing watch out for black cats. Scales say mouth. There was nothing phoney about the
black cat going to breeng you death. Watch way she threw herself into Tarelli's arms,
out." kissing the little man and crying for joy.
Don shrugged. "You handle this deal, It was quite a reunion downstairs in the
Mosko," he said. "I got no more time to back room, and even though she paid no
waste. Heavy date this afternoon." attention when she was introduced to me,
Mosko nodded at him. "Just make sure I felt pretty good about it all. It did some-
you don't get loaded. I need you at the thing to me just to watch her smiling and
tables tonight." laughing, a few minutes later, while she
"I'll be here," Don said, from the door- talked to her old man. Al, the bartender,
way. "Unless some mangy alley-cat sneaks and the sharpies stood around and grinned
up and conks me over the head with a club." at each other, too, and I guess they felt the
For a little while nobody said anything, same way I did.
Tarelli tried to smile at me, but it didn't But Big Pete Mosko felt different. He
go over. He tugged at Mosko's sleeve but looked at Rosa, too, and he did his share of
Mosko ignored him. He stared at Don. We grinning. But he wasn't grinning at her
Don.
all stared at he was grinning at something inside him-
We watched him climb into his convert- self. Something came alive in Mosko, and
ible and back oat of the driveway. We I could see it —
something that waited to
watched him give it the gun and he hit the grab and paw and rip and tear at Rosa.
road. We watched him race by towards "It's gonna be nice having you here," he
town. We watched the black cat come out told her. "We gotta get acquainted."
of nowhere and scoot across the highway, "I must thank you for making this pos-
watched Don yank the wheel to swerve out sible," she said, in her soft little voice
of its path, watched the car zoom off to one the kid spoke good English, grammar and
side towards the ditch, watched it crash into everything, and you could tell she had class.
the culvert, then turn a somersault and go "My father and I are very, very grateful. I
rolling over and over and over into the gully. don't know how we are going to repay you."
There was running and yelling and swear- "We'll talk about that later," said Big
ing and tugging and hauling, and finally we Pete Mosko, licking his lips and letting his
found all that was left of 182 pounds and t hands curl and uncurl into fists. "But right
16 WEIRD TALES
now you gotta excuse me. Looks like a those scales for a million bucks, brother,"
heavy night for business." Mosko told him.
Tarelli and Rosa disappeared into his "Maybe so. But I'm not scared of any
room, to have supper off a tray Al brought machine in the world," Rico snorted. "Here,
down. Mosko went out to the big down- watch me."
stairs pitch to case the tables for the night's And he walked over to the scales and
play. Rico hung around for a while, kid- dropped a penny. The pointer went up. 177.
ding with the wheel operators. I caught him The black disk gleamed. I heard the.-hum-
mumbling in the corner and dragged him ming and the click, and out came the white
upstairs for a drink. card. Rico looked at it and grinned. I did-

That's where Mosko found us a couple n't crack a smile. I was thinking of Don.

minutes later. Rico gave him the office. But Rico chuckled and handed the card
"How's about the dough?" he said. around for all of us to see. It said:
"Sure, sure. Justa minute." Mosko hauled
out a roll and peeled off a slice for Rico. YOU WILL WIN WITH RED
I saw it —
five Cs. And it gave me a bad
time to watch Rico take the money because "Good enough," he said, waving the card
I knew Mosko wouldn't hand out five hun- under Mosko's nose. "Now if I was a sucker,
dred bucks without getting plenty in re- I'd go downstairs and bet this five hundred
turn. smackers on one of your crooked wheels,
And I knew what he wanted in return. red to win. If I was a superstitious jerk,
Rosa. that is."
"Hey, what's the big idea of this?" Rico Mosko shrugged. "Suit yourself," he
asked, pointing over at the scales in the said. "Look, customers. I gotta get busy."
corner. He walked away.
I didn't say anything, and I wondered if I got busy myself, then. The marks started
Mosko would spill. All week long the to arrive and it looked like a big Saturday
weighing machine had stood there with a night. I didn't get downstairs until after
sign on it, "OUT OF ORDER." Mo?ko midnight and that was the first time I
had it lettered the day after Don got killed, noticed that Rico must have kidded himself
and he made sure nobody got their for- into believing the card after all.

tune told. Nobody talked about the scales, Because he was playing the wheel. And
and I kept wondering if Mosko was going playing it big. A
new guy, name of Spencer,
to yank the machine out of the place or had come in to replace Don, and he was
use it, or what he had in the back of his handling the house end on this particular
head. setup. A big crowd was standing around
But Mosko must have figured Rico was the rig, watching Rico place his bets. Rico
one of the family, seeing as how he flew had a stack of chips a foot high and he
in illegal immigrants and all, because he was playing them fast.
told Rico the whole story. There wasn't And winning.
many around the bar yet that early cur — I must have watched him for about fifteen

Saturday night players generally got in about minutes, and during that time he raked
ten or so —
and Mosko yapped without wor- in over three Gs, cold. Played odds, played
rying about listeners. numbers. Played red, and played black too.
"So help me, it'sa truth," he told Rico. Won almost every spin.
"Machine'll tell just what's gonna happen Mosko was watching, too. I saw him
to your future. For a stinkin' penny." signal Spencer the time Rico put down a
Rico laughed. full Gin blue chips on black to win. I saw
"Don't give me that con," he said. "Busi- Spencer wink at Mosko. But I saw the wheel
ness with Don and the cat was just a what- stop on black.
chacallit — coincidence." Mosko was ready to bust, but what could
"Yeah? Well, you couldn't get me on he do? A crowd of marks was watching,
 TELL YOUR FORTUNE 17

it had to look legit. Three more spins and couldn't afford that.Mosko went back to the
Rico had about six or seven Gs in chips in tables and took the suckers for a couple
front of him. Then Mosko stepped in and hours straight, but it didn't make him any
took the table away from Spencer. happier.
"See you in my office," he mumbled, and He was still in a lousy temper the next
Spencer nodded. He stared at Rico but Rico morning when he cut up the week's take.
only smiled and said, "Excuse me, I'm cash- Itwas probably the worst time in the world
ing in." Mosko looked at me and said, to talk to him about anything and that's, —
"Tail him." Then he shook his head. "Don't of course, where Tarelli made his mistake.
get it," he said. He was working the wire I was sitting downstairs when Tarelli
now, finding everything in order. came in with Rosa and said, 'Please, '

Meestair Mosko."
OUT of the corner of my eye saw Rico I "Whatcha want?" Mosko would have
over the at window, count-
cashier's yelled Rosa hadn't been there, look-
it if

ing currency and stuffing it into his pocket. ing cool and sweet in a black dress that
Spencer had disappeared. Rico began walk- curved in and out and in again.
ing upstairs, his legs scissoring fast. I fol- "I want to know if Rosa and I, we can
lowed, hefting the brass knucks in my go now?"
pocket. "Go?"
Rico went outside. I went outside. He "Yes. Away from here. Into town, to
heard my feet behind him on the gravel For Rosa to get job, go to school nights
stay.
and turned around. maybe."
"Hey," I said. "What's your hurry?" "You ain't goin* no place, Tarelli."
Rico just laughed. Then he winked. That "But you have what you weesh, no? I
wink was the last thing I saw before every- feex machines. I make for you the marvelous
thing exploded. scale of fortune, breeng you luck
—
went down on the gravel, and I didn't
I "Luck?" Rosa or no Rosa, Mosko began
getup for about a minute. Then I was just to yell. He stood up and shoved his purple
in time to see the car pull away with Rico face against Tarelli's button nose.
right
waving at me, still laughing. The guy who "Luck, huh? You and your lousy machine
had sapped me was now at the wheel of the in one week it kills my best wheel man,
car. I recognized Spencer. and lets another one frame me with Rico
"It's aframe, is it?" Big Pete Mosko had for over seven grand! That's the kind of
come up from downstairs and was standing luck you bring me with your magic! You're
behind me, spitting out pieces of his cigar. gonna stick here, Tarelli, like I say, unless
"If I'da know what those dirty rats would you want Uncle Sam on your tail, but fast!"
pull on me —
—
he was working with Spencer "Please, Meestair Mosko —
you let Rosa
to trim me go alone, huh?"
"You did know," I reminded him. "Not on your life!" He grinned, then. "I
"Did I?" wouldn't let a nice girl like Rosa go up into
"Sure. Remember what the fortune-telling town without nobody to protect her. Don't
card said? Told Rico, 'YOU WILL WIM you worry about Rosa, Tarelli. I got plans
WITH RED', didn't it?" for her. Lotsa plans."
"But Rico was winning with both colors," Mosko turned back to the table and his
Mosko yelled. "It was that dog Spencer who money. "Now, blow and lemme alone," he
lethim win." said.
"That's what the card said," I told him. They left. I went along, too, because I
"What you and I forget is that 'Red' is didn't like to leave Rosa out of my sight
•'s nickname." now.
went back inside because there wis "What is Father?" Rosa
this all about,
—
nothing else to do no way of catching Rico asked the question softly as we all three
or Spencer without rough stuff and Mosko of us sat in Tarelli's little room.
IS WEIRD TALES
mc and shrugged.
Tarelli looked at she said. "It is a brave thing you propose.
'Tell her," I said. "You must." But I cannot go. Not yet. Not while that
So Tarelli explained about being here il- machine of evil still exists. It wiil bring
legally and about the phoney roulette harm into the world, for my father did a
wheels. wicked thing when he trafficked with dark-
—
"But the machine the scales of fortune, ness to bring it into being. He did it for
what do you mean by this?" me, so I am in a way responsible. And I
Again Tarelli looked at me. I didn't say must destroy it."
anything. He sighed and stared down at the "But how? When?
floor. But at last, he told her. "Tonight," Rosa said. "Tomorrow we
A lot of it I didn't understand. About will order a new scale brought in. But we
photo-electric cells and mirrors and a trip- must remove the old one tonight."
ping lever he was supposed to have in- "Tarelli," I said. "Could you put the
vented. About books with funny names and regular parts back in this machine if you
drawing circles in rooster blood and some- take out the new stuff?"
thing called evocations or invocations or "Yes."
whatever they call it. And about a bargain "Then that's what we'll do. Too dan-
with Sathanas, whoever that is. That must gerous to try a switch. Just stick the old
have been the magic part. fortune-telling gimmick back in and may-
I guessed it was, because of the way Rosa be we can get by for a while without Mosko
acted when she heard it. She turned pale and noticing. He won't be letting anybody near
began to stare and breathe funny, and she it now for a while, after what happened."
stood up and shook Tarelli's shoulders. "Good," said Tarelli. "We find a time."
—
"No you did not do this thing! You
couldn't! It is evil, and you know the
"Tonight," Rosa repeated. "There must
be no more cursed fortunes told."
price
— But she was wrong.
"Nigromancy, that ees all I can turn to
to get you here," Tarelli said. "I do any- IV
theeng for you, Rosa. No cost too much/'
"It is evil," Rosa said. "It must not be SHE was wrong about a lot of things. Like
permitted. I will destroy it." Mosko not having any use for the for-
He
You cannot
—
"But Mosko, he owns the machine now.
*'
tune-telling
when he
scales,
told Tarelli the
for instance.
machine was
lied
use-
"He said himself it brought bad luck. less.

And he will never know. I will replace it I found that outthe same afternoon,
later
with another scale, an ordinary one from the when Mosko cornered me upstairs in the
same place you got this. But your secret, bar. He'd been drinking a little and trying
the fortune-telling mechanism, must go." to get over his grouch about the stolen
"Rosa," I said, "you can't. He's a dan- money.
gerous customer. Look, why don't you and "I'll get it back," he said. "Got a gold
your old man scram out of here today? I'll mine here. Bigges' gold mine inna country.
handle Mosko, somehow. He'll be sore, Only nobody knows it yet but you and
sure, but I'll cool him off. You can hide me." He laughed, and the bottles rattled
out in town, and I'll join you later. Please, behind the bar. "If that dumb guy only
Rosa, listen to me. Look, kid, I'll level with could figure it, he'd go crazy."
you. I'm crazy about you. I'll do anything "Something worked up for the fortune-
for you, that's why I want you to go. Leave telling?" I needled.
Mosko to me." "Sure, Look, now. I get rich customers in
She smiled, then, and stared up into my here, plenty of 'em. Lay lotsa dough onna
eyes.She stood very close and I could smell line downstairs. Gamblers, plungers, super-
her hair. Almost she touched me. And then stitious. You see 'em come in. Rattling
the shook hex head. "You are a good man," lucky charms and rabbits-foots and four leaf
 TELL YOUR FORTUNE 19

clovers. Playin* numbers Like 7 and 13 on of trouble. You saw what it did to Don,
hunches. What you think? Wouldn't they and what happened to you when Rico had
pay plenty for a chance to know what's his fortune told. Why don't you get rid
gonna happen to them tomorrow or next of it before something else happens? Why
year? Why it's a natural, that's what — don't you let Tareili and Rosa go and for-
can charge plenty to give 'em a fortune from get about it?"
the scales. Tell you what, I'm gonna have "You going soft inna head?" Mosko
a whole new setup just for this deal. To- grabbed my shoulder and I almost went off
morrow we build a new special room, way the road again. "Leave go of a million bucks
in back. I got a pitch figured out, how to and a machine that tells the truth about
work it. We'll set the scales up tomorrow, the future? Not me, buddy! And I want
lock the door of the new room, and then we Tarelli, too. But most of all I want Rosa.
really operate." And I'm gonna get her. Soon. M.iybe
I listened and nodded, thinking about tonight."
how there wasn't going to be any tomor- What I wanted to do to Big Pete Mosko
row. Just tonight, would have pinned a murder rap on me for
I did my part. I kept pouring the drinks sure. I had to have time to think, to figure
into Mosko, and after supper he had me out some other angle. So I kept driving,
drive him into town. There wasn't any play kept driving until we pulled up outside the
on the wheels on Monday, and Mosko usu- dark entrance to the tavern.
ally hit town on his night off to relax. His Everything was quiet, and I couldn't see
idea of relaxation was a little poker game any light, so I figured whatever Rosa and
with the boys from the City Hall and to- — Tarelli had done was finished. We got out
night I was hot to join him. and Mosko unlocked the front door. We
We played until almost one, and I kept walked in.
him interested as long as I could, knowing Then everything happened at once.
that Rosa and Tarelli would be working I heard the clicking noise from the cor-

on the machine back at the tavern. But it ner. Mosko heard it, too. He yelled and
couldn't last forever, and then we were grabbed at something in the dark. I heard a
driving back and Big Pete Mosko was crash, heard Tarelli curse in Italian. Mosko
mumbling next to me in the dark. stepped back.
"Only the beginning, boy," he said. "No you don't!" he hollered. He had a
"Gonna make Talk
a million off that scales. gun, the gun had a bullet, the bullet had a
about fortunes —
I got one when I got hold target.
of Tarelli! A
million smackers and the that's all.

girl.Hey, watch it!" Mosko shot, there was a scream and a

I almost drove the car off the road when thud, and then I got the lights on and I
he mentioned the girl. I wish I had, now. could see.
"Tarefli's a brainy apple," Mosko I could see Tarelli standing there next

mumbled. "Dumb, but brainy you know

what I mean. I betcha he's got some other
— to the scales. I could see the tools scattered
around and I could see the queer- looking
cute tricks up his sleeve, too. Whatcha hunk of flashing mirrors that must have
think? You believe that stuff about magic, been Tarelli's secret machinery. I could see
or is it just a machine?" the old back of the scales, already screwed
"I don't know," I told him. "I don't into place again.
know nothing about science, or magic, But I didn't look at these things, and
either. All know is, it
I works. And it gives neither did Mosko and neither did Tarelli.
me the creeps just to think about it the — We looked at Rosa, lying on the floor.
scales sort of look at you, size you up, and Rosa looked back, but she didn't see us,
then give you a payoff. And always comes
it because she had a bullet between her eyes.
true." I began to pitch, then. "Mosko, that "Dead!" Tarelli screamed. "You mur-
thing's dangerous. It can make you a lot der her!"
20 WEIRD TALES
Mosko blinked, but he didn't move. the wrench from the tools at his feet. He
"}iow was I to know?" he said. "Thought lifted it —
and swung and then Mosko let
somebody was busting into the place. What's him have it. Three slugs in a row.
the big idea, anyhow?" Tarelli toppled over next to Rosa. 1
"Ees no idea. You murder her." stepped forward. I don't know what I'd of
Mosko had his angle figured, now. He
sneered down at Tarelli. "You're a fine one
—
done next jumped Mosko, tried to kill him
with his own gun. I was in a daze.
to talk, you lousy little crook! I caught you Mosko turned around and barked. "Quit
in the act, didn't I — tryin* to steal the works, staring," he said. "Help me clean up this
that's what you was doing. Now get busy mess and get rid of them, fast. Or do you
and put that machinery back into the scales wanna get tied in as an accessory for mur-
before I blow your brains out." der?"
Tarelli looked at Mosko, then at Rosa. That word, "murder"—it stopped me
All at once he shrugged and picked the lit- cold. Mosko was right. I'd be in on the
tle box of mirrors and flashing disks from deal if they found the bodies. Rosa was
the floor. It was small, but from the way he dead, Tarelli was dead, the scales and their
hefted it I could tell it was heavy. When secret was gone.
he held k, k hummed and the mirrors be- So I helped Mosko.
gan to slide every which way, and it hurt I helped him clean up, and I helped him
my eyes to look at it. load the bodjes into the car. He didn't ask
Tarelli lifted the box full of science, the me to go along with him on the trip, and
box full of magic, whatever it was; the box that was good.
of secrets, the box of the future. Then he Because it gave me a chance, after he'd
smiled at Mosko and opened his arms. gone, to go to the phone and ring up the
The box smashed to the floor. Sheriff. It gave me a chance to tell the
There was a crash, and smoke, and a Sheriff and the two deputies the whole
bright light. Then the noise and smoke and story when they came out to the tavern
light went away, and there was nothing but early in the morning. It gave me a chance
old Tarelli standing in a little pile of to see Big Pete Mosko's face when he
twisted wires and broken glass and tubes. walked in and found us waiting for him
Mosko raised his gun. Tarelli stared there.
straight into themuzzle and grinned.
"You murder me too now, eh? Go 'head, THEY collared him and accused him and
Meestair Mosko. Rosa dead, the fortune- he denied everything. He must of hid
telling maching dead, too, and I do not the bodies in a good safe place, to pull a
weesh to stay alive either. Part of me dies front act like that, but he never cracked.
—
with Rosa, and the rest the rest was ma- He denied everything. My
story, the mur-
chine." ders, the works.
"Machine?" I whispered undei my "Look at him," he told the Sheriff, point-
breath, but he heard me. ing me. "He's shakin' like a leaf. Outta
at
"Yes. Part of me went to make machine. his head. Everybody knows he's punchy.
What you call the soul." Why the guy's off his rocker spilling a—
Mosko tightened his finger on the trig- yarn like that! Magic scales that tell your
ger. "Never mind you crummy little
that, fortune! Ever hear of such a thing? Why
tat! You me
with none of that
can't scare that alone ought to show you the guy's slug-
phoney talk about magic." nutty."
"I don't scare you. You are too stupid Funny thing is, I could see him getting
to un'rstand. But before I die I tell you one The Sheriff and his buddies began
to them.
theeng more. I tell your fortune. And your to give me a look out of the corner of their
fortune is —
death. You die too, Meestair eyes.
Mosko. You die, too!" "First of all," said Mosko, "There never
Like a flash Tarelli stooped and grabbed was no such person and he never
as Tarelli,

r
 TELL YOUR FORTUNE
had a daughter. Look around — -see if you and grinned at all of us. "You see?" he
can find anything that looks like we had said.
a fight in here, let alone a double murder. Then it happened. Maybe he was clumsy,
All you'll see is the scales here. The rest maybe there was oil on the platform,
maybe there was a ghost and it pushed him,
this guy made up out of
— his cracked head."
"About those scales " the Sheriff began. I don't know. All I know is that Mosko

Mosko walked over and put his hand on slipped, leaned forward to catch himself,
the side of the big glass dial on top of the and rammed his head against the glass top.
scales, bold as you please. "Yeah, what He gurgled once and went down, with a
about the scales?" he asked. "Look 'em two-foot razor of glass ripping across his
over. Just ordinary scales. See for your- throat. As he fell he tried to smile, and
self. Drop a penny, out comes a fortune. one pudgy hand fumbled at the side of the
Regular stuff. Wait, I'll show you." scales, grabbing out the printed slip that
told Big Pete Mosko's fortune.
We had to pry that slip out of his hands
WE ALL up on
looked at Mosko as he climbed
the scales and fumbled in his — pry it out and read the dead man's
pocket for a penny. I saw the deputies edge future.

closer tome, just waiting for the payoff. Maybe it was just an ordinary scale now,
And I gulped. Because I knew the magic but it told Mosko's fortune, for sure. You
was gone. Tarelli had put the regular works figure it I know is what I read, all
out. All
back into the scales and it was just an I know what Tarelli's scale told Mosko
is

ordinary weighing machine, now. HONEST about what was going to happen, and what
WEIGHT, NO SPRINGS. Mosko would did happen.
dial a fortune and one of the regular printed The big white scale stood grinning down
cards would come out. on the dead man, and for a minute the
We'd hidden the bodies, cleaned up cracked and splintered glass sort of fell
TarelH's room, removed his clothes, the into a pattern and
had the craziest feeling
I
tools, everything. No evidence left, and no- that I could see Tarelli's face. He was grin-
body would talk except me. And who ning, the scale was grinning, but we didn't
would believe me, with my crazy guff about grin.
a magic scales that told the real future? We just pried the little printed slip out
They'd lock me up in the nut-house, fast, of Big Pete Mosko's hand and read his fu-
when Mosko got off the scales with his for- ture written there. It was just a single sen-
tune told for a penny. tence, but it said all there was tobe said. ...:

I heard the click when the penny

dropped. The dial behind the glass went "YOU ARE GOING ON A LONG
up to 297 pounds. Big fat Mosko turned JOURNEY."
// it wasn't a djinn, it certainly was a reasonable facsimile thereof.
 <£>*
jinn and Bitters
05m. ^hrcirold cJUctwior*

I we found the bottle of amethyst glass? And

wasn't it after we found the amethyst glass

BY SOME process of feminine logic

that I cannot figure out to this day,
Connie has decided that the whole
bottle with its surprising contents that all
our troubles began?
"Well, then!" Connie has a way of say-
weird episode in which we were involved ing, ending the argument.
at Alamosa Beach is entirely the fault of Surely you can see that such logic is ir-
Bill Hastings. refutable? Particularly if you're a married
Now Bill is a nice guy, one of the best, man yourself?
and Connie does that everything
to insist as I'm afraid Connie will never forgive Bill
that went wrong can he laid at his door, for blacking my eye at the ushers* dinner
when he obviously plays no real part in this
story at all, as you can judge for yourself
if you'll only read, is to extend the ridicu-
lous to the uttermost limit.
But, Connie says in rebuttal, didn't Bill
lend us his cottage *at the shore for oux
honeymoon? And wasn't it at the shore that

Heading by Jon Arfstrora

24 WEIRD TALES
the night before the wedding, though per- her hands. First she'd plunge them in,
sonally I never held it against him for it was palms down, and then she'd turn them,
purely and simply an accident, and we were bringing up palmsful of the golden grains
all shellacked at the time. Besides, he no only to let them spill in drifts through her
more meant to black my eye, I'm sure, than slightly spread fingers.
I intended to tear his ear, which after all, And that was how she found the bottle.
did no great harm except that it didn't im- Her fingers encountered something hard,
prove his looks any, and he was going to be and she burrowed deeper into the sand,
the best man. But then, come to think of dredging up at last a bottle. It was of
it, his looks weren't anything to write home amethyst glass with little air-bubbles em-
about to begin with. bedded in the crystal. But though the air-
I tried to point this out to Connie after- bubbles showed up plainly when you held
ward. the bottle up against the light, it wasn't
"Keep still, Pete Bartlett!" she said. "I possible to see into it. It bore no labei, and
was never so mortified in all my life as I it was very tightly corked.
was this morning when I came moseying up "Dear me," Connie said thoughtfully,
the aisle and saw you standing in the chan- holding the thing aloft. "The Morton luck."
cel. What a sight for the eyes of a blushing "You're a Bartlett now," I reminded her
bride! Tsk, tsk!"At the memory, her brows fondly.
swooped toward the bridge of her nose. "Why, so I am. But my luck still holds."
"That drunken bum, Bill Hastings!" "You mean it's got Scotch in it?"
"But, honey. 1 hit him first." "Try to climb onto a spiritual plane, dear,
"That's it! Stick up for him!" for once in your life," Connie said. "Scotch,
Ah, well. What was the use? indeed! No. But there'll be a djinn in it, of
"Let's not fight on the first day of our course, who'll have to '^rant me whatever I
honeymoon, baby," I said tenderly. wish for. Wait and see. I've always been
lucky, haven't I? Remember the time I
WE'D been
morning,
married at ten o'clock that
the reception at two, and
left
found the purse with seventy-nine cents in
it on the park bench? And the night I
now two hours later we were both lying on —
found the woman's slipper in the Bijou
the warm sands of deserted Alamosa Beach, Theater? And
basking in the late afternoon sun. It had
"
— this morning, when you got me up to
been a popular vacation spot in its day, but the altar?"
that day was long since past. Except for "Which live to regret, no doubt,"
I'll

Bill's cottage where we were staying, the Connie smiled. "Weil, anyway, A djinn.
few other shacks high on the dunes behind Think of it, dear."
us were deserted. There were still a few I didn't think much of it.

guests, we had been told, in the rkkety old "Suppose you pull the cork out?" I
hotel at the far end of the beach. But that yawned. "And then we can both relax
was around a bend in the shore, and the again."
hotel and its guests were out of our sight "I've married a man with no imagination
and we were out of theirs. whatever," complained Connie to the sad
This made it convenient whenever I felt sea waves.
like kissing Connie, which I'm bound to say But she proceeded to withdraw the cork
was often. For she detests love-making in as I'd told her, and so help me, there really
public. was something in the bottle. I felt a pe-
But now, in the intervals between kisses, culiar sensation that wasn't entirely pleasant
we were lying'flat on our backs, with Connie in the small of my back and all along the
at right angles to me, her bright-penny held channel of my spine as I watched a thin
resting none too comfortably on my stom- trickle of gray vapor emerge from the bottle,
ach. We were talking of this and that, and and slowly begin to rise above it.
she was letting the sands drift idly through The thick mist rose higher still till it was
 ©JINN AND BITTERS 25

hovering above us, grew denser, and began with your wish for a moment, will you, until
to form into a shape resembling something I pull myself together?" he asked crankily,
—
remotely human something like that of his eyes squinted shut, seemingly with pain.
the rubber man in the old Michelin tire Connie sat up, hugging her satiny knees.
advertisements. I sat up, too, bracing myself with backward-

It was no thing of great beauty, but if it thrust arms. I would have fallen down,
wasn't a djinn, I thought dazedly, it was otherwise, for I assure you it's startling to
certainly a reasonable facsimile thereof. I learn that you have unwittingly released a
stared at the thing, open-mouthed. I was djinn. I should have doubted the evidence
speechless, I'll admit. of my senses, but the sun blazed brightly
But Connie wasn't. Connie never is. so that I was forced to squint against it,
"See, Pete?" she said. "Your sneer, and and there came the sharp salt fishy smell of
your cheap cynicism!" the sea to sting my nostrils, and the sand
was hot beneath my legs.

NOW I want to stop here a moment

indulge myself in a seemingly point-
to Yes, I told myself, I
right, difficult though I
was conscious, all
found it to believe
less digression, though I assure you that it — with a djinn hanging heavy over our
really isn't. I have a confession to make, heads like a forfeit in a game that children
and it is this: I'd had serious qualms about play.
marrying Connie.
Much as I loved her, the Bartlett head is
never so completely overruled by its heart
that I couldn't see Connie was flippant and
frivolous and flutter-brained, with the emo-
THE silence that followed could only be
described as pregnant, unbroken save
tions, undoubtedly shallow, of a child. You for the soft wash of the sea against the
are please not to believe that I'm trying to shore. You may judge for yourself of the
set myself up here as her superior. I've had effect that the djinn had upon us when I
my bird-brained moments, too, and plenty tell you that even Connie was silent, for a
of them. You have only to consider my be- change.
havior on the eve of our marriage, as an "What a life!" the djinn said gloomily,
illustration of that. after a moment. He seemed to ruminate,
But with marriage, I'd always known lost in depression.
that I wanted to settle down, to mature, to Deep within me I found my voice. I
grow serious —
and wiser, too, if possible. dragged it out with an effort. I sought to
Many's the time after I had proposed to cheer him. "You think you've got it
Connie that I'd wake up in the small gray tough? You should try living in the post-
hours of the morning, beset by serious war world."
doubts. I knew I'd never be happy for long This seemed to nettle him. He reared back
with Connie if she didn't change. In the as it stung, regarded me with some dudgeon.
beginning I'd be willing to take it slowly, "Z have a nice life, you're telling me? Hah!
to match her flippancies, to be as light- Bottled up like a pickled onion till I ask
hearted and light-minded as she. But would myself, am I working for Heinz?" He held
she mature? Could I change her? up a smoky hand to forestall interruption.
Certainly it would have been a slow "And he went on, warming
that isn't all,"
process. Certainly I owe a debt to the djinn. to the task ashe recited the litany of his
For it was a djinn, all right, that the grievances. "Now
I'll have to work my
bottle had contained. silly head which is
off to grant the wish,
He yawned and stretched now, and al- sure to be foolish and unreasonable, of
most immediately winced. whomever it was that released me."
"Ouch!" he said, in a voice like the mut- "Poor you!" Connie said softly. '7 re-
ter of distant thunder. "Am I cramped! Oof, leased you."
my lumbago! Just keep your shirt on there The djinn seemed to see her for the first
26 WEIRD TALES
time, and it must be recorded that even in "The wish, stupid, the wish!"
his depression his eyes visibly brightened. "Business, always business," the djinn
I'm afraid any masculine eyes would bright- said,gloomy once more. "Well let's get
en at the vision of Connie tastefully girbed on with it then. The sooner I grant your
in a brief blue-and-white polka-dotted Bi- wish, the faster can take a powder. What
I

kini bathing suit. Indeed, I've had trouble can I do for you? Seeing it's you, it'll be a
with this angle before. pleasure almost, despite my griping."
"Well, wed, well!" said the djinn, shak- And he looked almost amiable, even in-
ing his head in seeming despond, though dulgent.
it was plain to be seen that he was not real- Connie thanked him, but she was not to
ly distressed. "What'll they be taking off be hurried. She likes to talk over all sides
next?" of a question before acting, Connie does.
This was a rhetorcial cjuestion, purely, I In fact, she likes to talk, period. She sat
gathered. But as it seemed to be addressed there in the sand now, her hands absently
more or less in my direction, I thought it caressing the satiny skin of her knees, the
would do no great harm to straighten him while a dreamy look came into her large
out immediately on a few salient facts. turquoise eyes. And I knew that when she
"This little lady happens to be my wife, did speak at last, whatever it was she would
repeat wife," I said. say would be the end-product of no little
"Oh!" For a the disappointment
minute musing and considered thought. And Con-
seemed almost more than the djinn could nie has a talent for the bizarre.
bear. But he must have been a philosopher The djinn felt this, too, I am sure. I
of sorts for after a minute he said, though confess to a feeling of no little apprehension
somewhat obscurely, "Ah well. That's life as we both waited on the well known ten-
for you." terhooks.
I settled back into my former state of "You know," Connie began at last con-
uneasy calm, my suspicions not entirely al- versationally, "I've often read stories about
layed. This was one humbre, I warned my- people who'd released djinns from bottles,
self, who would probably bear watching. and it really does seem to me that they're
incredibly stupid. The releasers, I mean,
CONNIE my scowl, and proceeded
noted not the stories or the djinns or the bottles.
to pour oilon troubled waters. For consider! What do the releasers do?
"The djinn was only being complimen- Do they consider even the minimum of in-
tary," she said. "No need for you to be telligence in wish for the
selecting their
jealous all the time, Petey-weetie-sweelie." djinn to grant? They do not!" She answered
"If there's one thing I can't abide," I herself, before we could open our mouths.
said fretfully, my nerves quivering like the "They wish for some silly thing like a
fringe on a bubble-dancer's G-string, "it's million dollars, or something like that."
being called Petey-weetie- sweetie in front of "A million dollars is silly?" I croaked.
strangers." "Well, now, here's news!"
"Oh, come, now!" the djinn protested, Even the djinn looked somewhat taken
looking somewhat hurt. "Don't look upon aback. "I can think of sillier things," he
me as a stranger, I implore you! Until I said defensively.
grant your wife's wish, which automati- "Well, perhaps a million dollars isn't so
cally releases me, I'm practically one of the very silly," Connie hedged.
family." "You're tootin', baby," I said. "For a
"Not this family," I said sullenly. minute there I thought you'd gone crazy in
Connie said, not displeased with all this, a big way."
"Now, boys Let's leave this silly argument "But the point I'm trying to make is this,"
liefor a moment, while we consider the Connie went on, patient with my levity.
main question." "These people just wish for something sil
"What main question? " I asked- something like that, and they neglect to wish
 DJINN AND BITTERS 27

forwhat seems to me to be the most obvious if they're so brilliant, why didn't any of
wish of all. One that should occur to any- them ever wish for a wish like this?"
body immediately, with little or no thought. I looked at the djinn. "Well, I guess
Anybody, that is with even a grain of com- we've postponed the evil moment as long
mon-sense," as we could. Shall we proceed?"
I didn't getdon't think the djinn did,
it. I "Where do you get that \ve' stuff?" the
either, though he must have had his mis- djinn asked coldly, "This is my headache,
givings, for: just in case anybody rides up on a white
"Something tells me this wish is going horse to ask you. Well, I've tried to steel
to be a stinker," he said dolorously. "You myself, sogo ahead, Connie. I only hope I
should forgive the expression." can stand it."
"Cheer up, man, for heaven's sake!" I "Yes, dear. Tell us," I said.
"What have you got to be bleat- " "Us/ " quoted the djinn witheringly.
barked.
ing about? Have a thought for me! Allah Connie moistened her red lips with her
only knows what Connie will wish for, and littlepink tongue. I waited, breath in abey-
I've just elected to spend the rest of my ance. The sun shone, the sea smelled, the
Hfe with her." sand burned, just as I've told you. I was
"She makes you nervous, eh?" the djinn surely conscious.
asked, with a trace of commiseration in his Connie drew a deep breath. "Well, the
booming voice. wish is merely and simply this. I merely
"Highly," I said. "Highly." I wiped the wish you to grant me all the wishes I wish
perspiration that had seeped out on my to wish!"
brow. "Now listen, Connie," I warned.
"I can feel my arteries hardening by the in
second. All I ask is, if you love me, have a
care what you wish for." THE djinn leaped like a startled gazelle.
"There's nothing to get into such a The howl he emitted was really ear-
turmoil and hurly-burly about," Connie piercing. Almost could I find it in my heart
said. "I'm merely going to wish a wish. A to feel sorry for the man.
quite reasonable, logical wish that would oc- merely and simply say nix!" he
"I
cur to any woman. All the men who've bawled. "Good Gad! I never heard of such
opened djinn bottles, with all their fine a thing! It's enough to make reason totter
masculine blather about logic, poor tilings, on its throne! It's unethical, that's what it

have never wished a wish like this." is! It's unconstitutional!

bly even communistic, even!"
Why, it's
—proba-
THE djinn sucked air through his teeth He was waxing incoherent, and who
He said to me, "You take
reflectively. could blame him?
a woman, now. You never can tell which "Oh, nonsense!" Connie said.
way she'll jump next." "I tell you I won't do it!" the djinn said
"I need to learn about women from you?" with considerable asperity.
I asked bitterly. **My life has been clut- Connie's eyes narrowed until the irises
tered with 'em, clattered." were only slivers of turquoise beneath her
"Oh, it has, eh?" Connie said, sitting up breath-taking lashes. "Just tell me one thing,
straight. djinn. Do you or do you not positively have
For a minute I didn't notice the danger to grant me any wish I wish to wish?"
signal, but plunged on recklessly, "And He couldn't meet her eyes. "I I guess I —
haven't I driven behind them on the public And he murmured
do," he said reluctantly.
highways, which alone would be edu- something else about an old Arabian law.
cational enough?" I asked. "Okay." Connie dusted her palms. "You
"I've made a mental note of all this, heard me, bud. I wish you to. grant me all
never fear," Connie said ominously. "Su- the wishes I wish to wish."
perior, beasts, men. Lords of creation. But "I been takeaJ" moaned the djinn.
 28 WEIRD TALES
"In any future battle of the sexes," Con- tuitively, that she was speaking with the
nie said smugly, "I give you both leave voice of a prophet, and no minor one, at
to remember this day." that. But what did I do?"
"And rue it," said the djinn sadly. "Why, "Women have cluttered your life, huh?
be hanging around here forever, like
I'll We can't drive, huh?"
a grape on the vine." And yet, despite his She prolonged the "huhs" nastily like a
complaints, he must have felt an unwilling cop in the movies giving someone the third
admiration for Connie, for he looked at me degree. I can't say that I liked it.

and said, albeit dolefully, "That's one Still it wasn't serious. I said, with some-
smart-type tomato you got there, fella. Mar- what more assurance, "Now honey. You
hang onto my gold teeth with
ried to her, I'd know I didn't mean a thing by it. I was
both hands, if I were you."
wish all
just — just
"Why didn't
being witty."
I laugh?" Connie asked
I had been considering Connie's
this while, and it seemed to me that even reasonably.
for her it made sense. I felt happiness and I'm afraid the sound the djinn made at

a deep contentment welling within me. that could only be described as a giggle. A
I smiled complacently. "It seems to me hoarse, muttering, mumbling, rumbling,
that this is between the djinn and you, Con- rasping racket, if you like, but a giggle fat
nie. I swear my nervousness is all gone. No all that.
need for me to get upset. No skin off my I withered him with a look before turn-

nose, that I can see. You ask me, I'm sitting ing back to Connie. "This isn't like you,
pretty with a wife who can get me anything dear. Give me some sign that you forgive
I wish for. I have only to relay them to her, me."
and then
— But if I were attempting to appeal to her
"You're babbling," Connie said, in an better instincts, she apparently didn't have
odd tone of voice. any.
This gave me pause. I looked at her. She "You don't even begin to know what I'm
was eyeing me in a very strange, reflective like, but oh, brother! are you going to
sort of way. Even the djinn must have no- learn!" Connie said. "However, show
just to
ticed it, for he looked momentarily diverted you my heart's in the right place, would you
from his own woes. like a drink?"
"One thing I can't stand," the djinn said, "I wish I had one right now," I said.
"is a winner who gloats. You're planning And God knows I needed it.

to give Pete his come-uppance, Connie?" Connie looked at the djinn. "I wish Pete
I still didn't like that thoughtful look on could have his wish."
Connie's face. I cleared my throat nervously. "Work, work, work," grumbled the
"I did something, maybe?" I asked. "I said djinn. "A body can't have a minute's rest."
something?" I felt something cold and wet in my
"The time to train a husband," said Con- hand. It was like touching a dog's nose un-
nie at a tangent, "is right from the very expectedly in the dark. I looked down, un-
beginning of the marmge." nerved.
The djinn began gleefully snortling and
snufflingto himself in a manner that I
found altogether revolting.
ITlyWAS a crystal glass,
dew-beaded,
sides becoming-
contents
its

its smelling de-

"You have something in mind, Connie?" lightfully of something pungently alcoholic.
asked the djinn. I blinked at it stupidly. There was a mo-
"Oh, nothing definite. But I do have a ment's pause while manfully I pulled to-
hopeful feeling that something about all gether my reflexes, sadly scattered long
this business will cause Pete more than a since, before I could lift the glass to my lips
spot or two of mental anguish." and take a snort.
"Constance Bartletr," I said, aghast. I My Adam's-apple hobbled in delightful
shivered. I must have known even then, in- surprise. I rolled my eyes beautifully.
 DJINN AND BITTERS 29

Scotch, by Gad! Good Scotch, too. know," he said, "there must be tougher
"How is asked the djinn profession-
it?" ways than this of earning a living, at that.
ally, with the air of a man beginning to I take it all back."
take a little pride in his work. The effrontery of the man! The effrontery
"Delectable, delectable!" I muttered ab- of both of them, come to think of it!
sently, my mind spinning tike a waltzing "By Jupiter!" I cried. "This is insupport-
mouse. I looked at Connie with awe. "You able! And on our honeymoon, too! Con-
—
wish
—
know, life could be beautiful, dear. I stance Bartlett,
"Now, wait
I positively forbid you
a minute," the djinn inter-
"Don't go running a good thing into the rupted me smoothly. "There's no real need
ground," Connie warned maliciously. for all this heat and passion, this deplorable
My heart sank. She had not yet really for- running off at the mouth. Really, I marvel at
given me for my ili-chosen remarks about you, Pete! You, too, Connie! Where is the
women. She was merely demonstrating her famous Bartlett logic, the Bartlett <juick
powers tantalizingly in a way to make them wit?"
stick in my memory. To think that I thought "You mean?"
then that the situation was grave! Had I but "I mean there's a very easy, simple,
known, as they say in the mystery novels! quick way out of this difficulty," the djinn
For worse was yet to come. "Pshaw! I'm disappointed in both
said slyly.
of you! Thinkl"

ITofBEGAN at once with the flashing speed

an attack from a coiled rattlesnake. I
Connie looked wary, but I said recklessly,
"Name it!"

was not forewarned. The thing was upon me "All Mrs. B. has to do," the djinn said,
before I knew it. spreading his hands expressively, "is wish
"Well," Connie said, rising, "I suppose for me to go away from here promptly."
I'd better go in and dress. It's getting late." I would have leaped unwittingly at the
The djinn rose too, and hovered over her. suggestion, but Connie forestalled me.
This brought me up with a jerk. "Oh-ho, no you don't!" she cried. "Was
"Where do you think you're going?" I I born yesterday? Don't think you can teach

asked him. your grandmother how to suck eggs, djinn!

"Until I'm released, I have to hover at I should tell you to go away before I've even

Connie's beck and call, don't I?" he whined. wished a single profitable wish! Get tost
"You don't have to hover at her beck and with that idea, chump!"
call while she's changing her clothes, oaf!" The djinn lapsed into sullen impotence.
"Did I make the rules?'* he asked me. I groaned aloud in my frustration. We
Connie giggled. seemed to have reached an impasse.
"Now, listen!" I said, dropping my glass
as I scrambled hastily to my feet. "Now hold IV
on here a minute! Connie! Have you taken
leave of your senses?" "OUT like many difficult problems, once
"Why, no." Connie paused, eyes demure- -»-' attacked, the solutionitself was so
ly cast down, appearing to give this some simple that it would have occurred to a
thought. "I believe I'm in my right mind." Mongolian idiot.
"You are like h — you are not in your "I'm- getting hungry," Connie said plain-
right mind if you think for one minute that tively. "We can't hang around here all day.
I propose to allow you to change your This discussion must end right now. I'm
clothes in front of this — —
this
!"
going up to the cottage and change my
"I can't spend the rest of my life in a clothes, and I dare anybody to try to stop
Bikini bathing suit, either, can I?" Connie me!"
asked reasonably. And this time she didn't wait for further
For the first time since I'd met him, the argument. She trudged through the sand as
djinn looked completely happy. 'You * swiftly as may be, the djinn hovering
30 WEIRD TALES
tenaciously and smokily above her, while I People started coughing and gasping, and
perforce brought up the rear of this weird waving their hands in front of their faces,
caravan, moaning unhappily to myself, and trying futilely to dispel the gray vapor that
grimly determined to leave neither of them the place and seemed willfully bent
filled

out of my sight if it killed me. upon choking them.

But the sensibilities of even the most "Did you ever see such a fog?" they kept
modest would never have been wounded. asking each other. They even asked us, thus
In the cottage, Connie merely slit a hole confirming us in our belief that they sus-
in a blanket, slipped it eoshroudingly over pected nothing.
her shoulders so that only her head pro- I daresay we looked, to the naked eye, like

truded, and demurely proceeded to change a perfectly normal young couple, though
her clothes within the shelter of its en- closely accompanied by a persistent and
veloping folds. overhanging thunder-cloud. However, its
"Shucks!" said the djinn sulkily. proximity to us, while mystifying, seemed
It had been shameful of me to suspect for to arouse no suspicion among the others.
even a moment that I couldn't trust Connie. We settled ourselves at a table, and
Scarcely containing my relief, I went to looked about us, and I must confess that our
change my own clothes. When I came out of hearts sank.
the bedroom, dressed in slacks and sport Connie regarded with a lacklustre eye the
shirt, Connie suggested we go down to the sagging walls, the splintered floor, the dirty
hotel dining room for dinner. streamers hanging from the ceiling in a
It wasn't much of a place, and Duncan ghastly travesty of gaiety. The orchestra, if
Hines would certainly never recommend it, such it could be called by courtesy, made
but as the French say, what would you? It weirdly unrecognizeable sounds and wheez-
was impossible to cook dinner in the cot- ings that only assailed the ear-drums, and
tage for, as Connie pointed out, the djinn the few couples circling the floor in some
was large and the cottage was small, and as grisly gavotte of their own devising could
a result he seemed to fill the place with best be described by saying that they were
smoke and fog, both elderly and unprepossessing.
"What do you think he's going to do to Through the open French doors, flowers
the hotel dining room?" I wondered. and vines had withered in the boxes al-
"Don't cross your bridges until they're legedly decorating the dilapidated terrace,
hatched," Connie said gayly. and the dusk outside seemed alien and un-
"But how are we ever going to explain friendly. Even the sea looked gray and sul-
the djinn?" I wanted to know. len, and now that the sun had gone down,
" 'Who excuses, accuses,' " Connie quoted the sky was only a shade lighter than the
airily. "We simply won't say a word about water.
him. We can recognize him because we let No setting for romance, this.
him out of the bottle, but to anyone else "Oh, I wish there was a beautiful moon,
he'll justiook like a mass of smoke or fog, at least," Connie said wistfully, sighing. "A
for you'll have to concede that he isn't very honeymoon, Pete, just for us."
shapely." It hung in the sky immediately, a great
"Is that so!" roared the djinn, stung. golden ball.
"So you see?" Connie said, ignoring his Connie apparently didn't see it at once,
hurt. "We don't have to know any more for her face was rapt with the picture she
about it than anyone else, do we?" was blissfully regarding in her mind's eye.
This was true enough, so I made no She went on, "And I wish these people were
all young and handsome and beautifully
further demur.
Still and all, Tm afraid our entrance into dressed
—
the dining room was as unobtrusive as a They were. At once.
platinum blonde at an Abyssinian hoe- " — dancing to the strains of a wonder-
—
down. ful orchestra
 DJINN AND BITTERS 31

would ever The

The music was suddenly marvelous.
"
—over a floor like satin, in a gorgeous haps
— call you Jersey Lily, per-

room, hung with brilliantly-lighted crystal "Thank you," I said, somewhat stiffly.

chandeliers!"'
" —
but still, you have your points."
The glare was blinding. Connie roused "Thank you again," I said, unbending a
from her dream. I leaned forward to kiss her then,
little.

"Look!" I said needlessly. but Connie turned her head aside, embar-
For a minute she seemed nonplussed as rassed.
she saw her vision of beauty had come true. "Not now, Pete!" she protested. "You
And then she smiled, and said aloud, "Dear know I don't likelove-making in front of
me, I keep forgetting! Thank you, djinn." others."
"For you, Connie, anything!" the djinn "No one's looking," I said.

said. She pointed upward at the djinn. "Don't

Connie looked hungrily, feasting her forget him."
beauty-starved eyes, before turning to me. I looked up. He was chuckling and
" 'Every prospect pleases, and only man is rumbling to himself, enjoying himself
vile,"' she quoted prettily. hugely. "You have only to wish that Til
"Do you have to look at me when you go away," he reminded us silkily.
say that?" I asked peevishly. "I will not!" Connie said.
Connie dimpled. "It's just that the room "Now here's a pretty kettle of fish!" I
is so beautiful now I can't help wishing
that you combined the charm of Charles
said,
me — beside myself. "Connie, if you love

Boyer, the physique of Victor Mature, and "I am

not getting rid of the djinn!" Con-
the looks of Tyrone Power, just to go with nie said "Why I haven't even begun
flatly.

it." to wish for anything really good yet. And

Before either of us knew what was hap- I won't be rushed. After all, I'm young,

pening, every woman in the place was with my whole life before me. I want to
swarming all over me, running their fingers get used to the idea first. And, in the mean-
through my hair, smearing my face with time, I'm having fun, just wishing for in-
lip-sticky kisses, and so forth and so on. consequential things."
I'm not complaining, mind! It wasn't really "But think of what you'll be missing!"
disagreeable, just startling. The din was ter- I cried unthinkingly.

rific but loud above the cries of the mad- "Why, you conceited thing, you!" Con-
dened women came Connie's voice almost nie said.
instantly, clarion-clear: "So help me, I wish "It really is edifying," broke in the djinn
I'd kept my big mouth shut before I ever at this point, "to meet a woman like Con-
wished a wish as silly as that one!" nie. Not a bit greedy. Not a bit mercenary.
I might have known it was too good to None of this wishing for money or jewels
last. Before you could say Jack Robinson, I or furs or cars or sordid stuff like that."
was back in the old body, battered but still I regarded hrm with a jaundiced eye.
serviceable, and no woman in the room was There were times when the djinn's stuffy
giving me even a second glance. smugness would have been well-nigh in-
Connie was fanning herself. She looked But he wasn't fooling me. I knew
tolerable.
cjuite distraught. "Good heavens, what a he was just rubbing it in, laughing up his
sight!" she murmured. "I'll have to watch sleeve at me. He was being suavely ob-
what I wish for, after this." noxious, skillfully doing his best to goad
The djinn was grinning. me into action. For he knew as well as I
"You might have given me five minutes did that Connie would never release him of
more, Connie, before calling it off," I said, her own accord. If the djinn were to be
and to save myself I couldn't keep a querul- dismissed, I'd have to do it somehow.. I
ous note from creeping into my voice. didn't know how, but I'd find a way.
**I like you better as you are, dear. No one I glanced again at the djinn and I think
32 WEIRD TALES
he must have been reading my mind, and The look she threw at me was hostile in
sought to strengthen my resolve, for under the extreme.
cover of the music he whispered: "Are you "You're going to let me steal your hus*
man or mouse?" closing one of his eyes in a band for just one teentsy dance, aren't you,
knowing wink. Mrs. Bartlett?" Gloria asked, without listen-
And why not? Atter all, we were really ing for an answer.
allies in a way. He was as anxious to take "I don't feel like dancing, Gloria," I
off as I was to see him do it. muttered.
Yes, Connie, and Connie alone, was the "Oh, go right ahead! Don't consider me!"
real stumbling block. I must think of a Connie said. And she added murderously,
way to alter her point of view. I must! "Petey-weetie-sweetiel"
And musing thus, I fell into a brown I never realized before what an unpleas-

study. ant laugh Gloria had. "Is that what she

calls you! Dear God, wait'll the gang hears
tli is!"

I still didn't like the glint in Connie's

TTNFORTUNATELY, it was rudely in- eyes, but I was too dazed to do anything
*— ' terrupted. but suffer Gloria to drag me to my tottering
I don't know what brought Gloria feet and pull me out onto the dance floor.
Sbayne to that particular hotel at that par- She was talking incessantly, as usual, but it

ticular time. I don't even want to know. I was all just a vague roaring in my ears.
prefer to remain in ignorance of a grim and Now I'm not one for making excuses for
unrelenting Fate that holds these things in myself, as a general rule. But after all, I'd
store for a man to tantalize him to the point had a strenuous day. I honestly think I
of madness. must have been barely conscious for the next
To indulge in a little ancient history, I few minutes, and that must have been why I
knew Gloria when she was a show-girl, and was the last to discover the peculiar thing
I was press-agenting one of her shows, Let's that happened next.
Do It! She is blonde, with a face and a fig- The first hint I had of anything wrong
ure that are out of this world. I don't know was that I noticed people were beginning to
how she does it, but put a Mother Hub- edge away from us and eye us askance. This
bard on Gloria and she'd still manage to intrigued me faintly, for my dancing isn't

look like Gypsy Rose Lee just before the so bad as all that. And then, too, there
curtain comes down. Her personality is vola- seemed to be some weird metamorphosis go-
tile, and she extremely vivacious.
is ing on under my hands.
I could tell you, too, that she has an I. Q. Lightly though I'd been holding Gloria,
of .0005, but why should I try to flatter I couldn't be uncognizant of the fact, in the

her? beginning, that her bare back was soft and

She appeared now from nowhere, and smooth to the touch. But now the fingers
draped herself inextricably around me. of my right hand were encountering strange
"Pete Bartlett, you ole son-of-a-gun! Last bony protuberances. And my left hand
time I saw you, BoBo was trying to drag seemed to be holding within it an eagle's
you out from under her grand piano, but you talon.
wouldn't let go of Marilyn's ankle!" I was really puzzled. But before I could

"Uh," I said. draw back to look down at Gloria, she must

"Indeed?" Connie said, all ears. have caught a glimpse of herself in one of
"Uh, Gloria. This is my wife, Connie," I the gilded mirrors adorning the walls of the
said, hurling myself into the breach. "We room. For she started screaming like a
were married this morning." squad-car siren.
"I give it a year!" cried Gloria, turning on I did look down at her then, and had all

the charm. I could do to keep from ululating wildly

"Indeed?" Conoie said again. myself.
 DJINN AND BITTERS 33

That wasn't Gloria Shayne I was hold- VI

ing! It was a withered crone, a snaggle-
toothed hag! And those bony projections I'd WELL, I'd had all that any mortal man
been feeling under my hand were the ver- could be reasonably expected to
tebrae of her bent spine. stand.
I knew the reason for this at once, of "We'll go back to the cottage, Connie,
course. I directed a glare at Connie, still right now," I said grimly. "There's a thing
sitting demurely at our table with that un- or two I want to talk about with you."
seemly fog hanging low over her head. She could have the djinn, or she could
Gloria had fainted after that one piercing have me. I meant to show her she couldn't
scream, so I picked her up in my arms, and have both.
made my way across the dance floor to Con- Connie's eyes widened at this new note
nie. of determination in my voice. Troubled, she
"You know what that was?" I asked. looked up at the djinn. He was watching
"What?" me expectantly, almost encouragingly, I
"The last straw," I said. "Don't you thought.
k you've done enough damage al- Connie said, "Very well."
ready?" We picked our way carefully back in the
One thing about Connie, she isn't vin- dark along the splintered, sand -strewn
dictive once she has made her point. She boards of the deserted beach walk. To our
could very well have left Gloria just as she left the sea washed quietly against the
was, a5 a lesser, more spiteful, woman shore,and the great golden moon that Con-
would have done. But instead she said, "I nie had wished for still hung low in the
wish Gloria to be returned to her natural sky.
state at once!" It was a beautiful world, I thought sadly,
And, of course, the djinn obliged. Gloria but a troubled one. And here Connie and
opened her eyes almost immediately, and I had been frivoling the hours away with
seemed considerably bemused to find her- nonsense. I was ashamed. Perhaps Connie
self attractive once more. felt something of this, too, for she was very
"Good heavens!" she said. "I must have quiet.
been dreaming. Though how I could have As for the djinn, he justtrailed smckily
possibly been dreaming while I was danc- behind us, like the wake from a funnel.
ing—" Back in the cottage once more, I asked
"Pete has that effect on all women," Con- Connie to sit in a chair. From its depth she
nie murmured. regarded me silently while I paced the strip
Now Gloria may be a fool, but she isn't a of carpet before her, marshalling my argu-
damned fooi, as my Grandpa used to say. ments. The djinn hovered above her, quiet
"You ask me," she said now, "there's some- too.
thing mighty fishy going on around here." "Connie," I said at last, "I'm going to
She stood up to go. be very, very serious. In the months since
"In the future, my dear," Connie said, we've known each other, I've never shown
bidding her good-bye, "it might be very this side of myself to you before. Almost
much wiser to leave other women's hus- it will seem to you as if I'm stepping out

bands alone." of character."

Gloria paled. "You did have a hand in She waited.
in whatever it was that happened to me!" "Today," I went on, "you had something
She looked at me then, her brown eyes happen to you that could happen not just
soft with pity. "I don't know what it is once in a lifetime, but once in a millennium.
you've married, Pete, but you sure picked a You were given the power to have every
dilly!" wish of yours gratified immediately. So far,
"It couldn't have happened to a nicer you've just amused yourself indiscreetly, but
guy," Connie agreed smoothly. no doubt you believe that you can ask of the
34 WEIRD TALES
djinn a number of things which he will could ask for an end of needless suffering?
immediately see that you get?" A cure for incurable diseases?"
"Of course," Connie said. "But, Connie," I objected, "you believe
"Of course," said the djinn. "It his al- in some Greater Power, don't you?"
ways been my policy to give the customer "Yes, of course."
just a little bit mote than the next man." He "Then perhaps you'll concede that It —
was jesting again, but his heart wasn't in has an overall plan; that It, at least, knows i

it. He too had fallen under the spell of there's a meaning to every terrible thing in
this strangely sobered mood that was upon life —a meaning that our small minds can't
us. fathom?"
Before I could go on, Connie said, "Peter, "Y— yes."
I want to say something. It has always been "Then who among us can say that any
obvious to me that you considered me a suffering is needless?"
mental and emotional lightweight. No, Oh, call my
arguments specious! Oil this
don't bother to deny it," she said, when I sophistry, you will! I was on shaky
if
would have protested. "I've always known ground, and no one knew it better than I.
—
it here." And she touched her heart. "But, But I was desperate, I tell you, desperate!
Peter, perhaps I'm really not so shallow as Before we could resume, the djinn
you feared. These wishes now, need not al- cleared his throat apologetically.
ways be for my personal gratification, as you He said, "These wishes of the spirit are
seem to fear. I could ask for the larger beside the point anyway, I think. I shouldn't
things, the things of the spirit. I could ask care to arrogate to myself powers that be-
for peace, Peter, an end of war." long more properly to what Pete calls a
She looked up at me pleadingly, begging Greater Power. After all, I am not " He
—
to be understood. How I wanted to take her, broke off, bowing his head reverently.
then and there, into my arms! But I waited, "You mean," Connie said, "there ate
holding myself back. Again I tried to muster some wishes that even you could not grant?"
my arguments. The djinn shrugged. "I do not know. I
"An end of war?" I echoed slowly. "But. should not care, in any case, to put it to
Connie, after every war hasn't the world the test." And he said, with a cynicism that
been just a little bit better? Oh, not right was tragic in its connotations, "Why can't
away, but eventually? Man has always built you be like other humans? Contented with
from destruction. He seems to learn no other wishes for material things?"
way. Even the atomic age was ushered in on For a minute, I think Connie was too
a wave of destruction." shocked to answer. And then her little chin
lifted stubbornly.
CONNIE looked shocked. "But, Pete, "Very well, then. Let's say for the
surely you're not advocating war as a moment that the djinn is right." She
desirable thing!" looked defiantly at me. "I can still wish for
"No, of course not! But man seems to be the material things." *

a funny animal, Connie. He never appre- But I was ready- for that. "To what pur-
ciates something handed him on a silver pose?" I asked.
platter. could be wrong, but I think
I "But, Pete! You said yourself, only this
^
wishing peace for him would only be afternoon, that a million dollars wasn't
like repairing a leak in a broken hose. silly!"
He'll only break out some place else. "I spoke without thought." I went on to
Peace is something he will have to earn mention the names of three of the wealthiest
for himself, or it will never mean any- people in the world. "You've seen their pic-
thing to him." tures in the papers recently, Connie. With
"Whether that's true or not," Connie all their money, did they look like happy
said, "let's put that question aside for the people to you?"
moment. There are other things. Surely I "They had the unhappiest faces I've ever
 DJINN AND BITTERS 35

seen!" Connie cried. "I told you at the Peter! Forgive me! We
haven't been really
time I couldn't understand it." happy since! I wish it were this afternoon
I nodded. "The silver platter again." again before I'd found the bottle!"
—
"But then " Connie began doubtfully. The djinn seemed to smile just before he
"Oh, Pete! You make it sound as though dissolved.
there were absolutely nothing in life to wish The sun blazed brightly so that I was
for!" forced to squint against it, and there came
"Well, isthere anything to wish for that the sharp salt fishy smell of the sea to sting
we don't have already? Or that we can't my nostrils, and the sand was hot beneath
earn for ourselves if we want it so badly?" me.
I paused a minute, holding my breath. This Connie raised her head from my stomach,
was the moment. But I was on dangerous and looked about in bewilderment. She dug
ground again, and I knew it. Everything furiously into the sand for a moment, but
depended on the answer Connie would there was nothing there. She turned then,
make to my next question. "Connie, answer and saw me watching her with quizzical
me this honestly. What were the happiest eyes.
moments you've ever spent in your life?" "Sorry?" I asked.
I waited, breath held. The djinn watched Perhaps there was fleeting regret in her
anxiously, too, sensing the crisis. face,but only for an instant, really. "Oh,
Connie didn't even have to stop to think, Pete!You know I'm not!"
bless her! She smiled and said softly, "How She nuzzled her face against mine. There
can you ask, Pete? This afternoon, of was no one on the beach. No hovering,
course. On the beach. Just before I found eavesdropping djinn. I kissed her linger-
the bottle." ingly. It was wonderful. But after she

waited again, gladness now in my heart.

I caught her breath, she stared out at the sea
It was the answer I'd hoped for, the an- for a long moment. And then she looked
swer I would have given myself had the back at me.
same question been asked of me. "Just the same," she said grimly, "I will
"Just before I found the bottle!" Connie never, never, never forgive Bill Hastings
repeated softly, her eyes widening. "And for it all!"
we've been squabbling ever since!" She rose Now I ask you!
then, and threw herself into my arms. "Oh, Aren't women the darnedest?

m.
 . warning, warning, warning" came the ghostly echo.

The

4 ound Tower
BY
STANTON A. COBLENTZ

OF ALL the shocking and macabre

experiences of my life, the one
that I shall longest remember oc-
curred a few years ago in Paris.
Like hundreds of other young Americans,
I was then an art student in the French
metropolis. Having been there several years,
I had acquired a fair speaking knowledge of
the language, as well as an acquaintance
with many odd nooks and corners of the
city, which I used to visit for my own
amusement. I did not foresee that one of my
strolls of discovery through the winding an-
cient streets was to involve me in a dread
adventure.
One rather hot and sultry August eve-
ning, just as twilight was softening the hard
stone outlines of the buildings, I was mak-
ing a random pilgrimage through an old
part of the city. I did not know just where
I was; but suddenly I found myself in a
district I did not remember ever having
seen before. Emerging from the defile of a
cra£y twisted alley, I found myself in a large
stone court opposite a grim but imposing
edifice.
Four or five stories high, it looked like
the typical medieval fortress. Each of its Heading by Vincent Napoli
 THE ROUND TOWER 37

four corners was featured by a round tower woman's melodious tones. "Monsieur! Mon-
which, with its mere slits of windows and sieur!"
its pointed spear-sharp peak, might have "Qu'est que c'est que (a? Qu'est que c'est
come straight from the Middle Ages. The que $a?" I called back, almost automatically
central structure also rose to a sharp spire, ("What is ic? What is it?").
surmounting all the others; its meagre win- But the chill along my spine deepened.
dows, not quite so narrow as those of the More of that clammy sweat came out on my
towers, were crossed by iron bars on the brow. I am sorry to own it, but I had no
two lower floors. But what most surprised wish except to dash out through the three
me were the three successive rows of stone gates, past the stone ramparts, and on to
ramparts, each higher than the one before the known, safe streets.
it, which separated me from the castle; and Yet within me some resisting voice cried
the musket-bearing sentries that stood in out, "Jim. you crazy fool! What are you
front. scared of?" And so, though shuddering, I
"Strange," I thought, "I've never run held my ground.
across this place before, nor even heard it "Will you come up, monsieur?" the voice
mentioned." invited, in the same soft feminine tones,
But curiosity is one of my dominant which yet had an urgency that I could not
traits; I wouldn't have been true to my own miss. Frankness compels me to admit that
nature if I had not started toward the castle. there was nothing 1 desired less than to
I will admit til at I did have a creepy sensa- ascend those winding old stone stairs in the
tion as I approached; something within me semi-darkness. But here was a challenge to
seemed to pull me back, as if a voice were my manliness. If I dashed away like a trem-
crying, "Keep away! Keep away!" But a bling rabbit, I'd never again be able to look
counter-voice
me
— me forward.
—was urging
probably some devil inside myself in the face. Besides, mightn't some-
one really be needing my help?
I fully expected to be stopped by the
guards; but they stood sleepily at their posts, WHILE my mind traveled romantically
and appeared not even to notice me. So between hopes of rescuing maiden in-
stiff and motionless they seemed that a fleet- nocence and fears of being trapped into
ing doubt came over me as to whether they some monstrous den, I took my way slowly
were live men or dummies. Besides, there up the spiral stairs. Through foot-deep slits
•was something peculiar about their uni- in the rock -walls, barely enough light was
forms; in the gathering twilight, it was hard admitted to enable me to stumble up in a
to observe details, but their clothes seemed shadowy sort of way. Nevertheless, some-
rather like museum pieces —
almost what thing within me still seemed to be pressing
you would have expected of guards a hun- my reluctant feet forward, at the same time
dred years ago. as a counter-force screamed that I was the
Not being challenged, I kept on. I knew world's prize fool, and would race away if
that it was reckless of me; but I passed I valued my skin.

through a first gate, a second, and a third, That climb up the old stairway seemed
and not a hand or a voice was lifted to stop never-ending, although actually I could not
me. By the time I was in the castle itself, have mounted more than two or three
and saw its gray stone walls enclosing me in flights. Once or twice, owing to some irregu-
a sort of heavy dusk, a chill was stealing; larity in the stone, I stumbled and almost
along my spine despite the heat. A musty fell. "Here, Mister, here!" the woman's
smell, as if from bygone centuries, was in voice kept encouraging. And if it hadn't
my nostrils; and a cold sweat burst out on been for that repeated summons, surely my
my brows and the palms of my hands as I courage would have given out. Even so, I
turned to leave. noted something a little strange about the
It was then that I first heard the voice voice, the tones not quite those of the Pa-
fiom above. It was a plaintive voice, in a risian French I had learned to speak; the
38 WEIRD TALES
speaker apparently had a slight foreign ac- years just beyond thirty-five there was —
cent. something extraordinarily appealing and
At last, puffing a little, I found myself sweet in the smile which she flashed upon
in a tower room —
a small chamber whose me, a plaintive smile as of one who looks at
round stone walls were slitted with just you from depths of unbearable suffering. At
windows enough to make the outlines of ob- the same time, there was something that
jects mistily visible. The place was without drew me to her; held me spellbound with a
furniture, except for a bare table and sev- magnetic compulsion. I could have imag-
eral chairs near the further wall; but what ined men easily and willingly enslaved to
drew my attention, what held me galva- that woman.
nized, were the human occupants. "Monsieur," she pleaded and for the —
So as to see them more clearly, I flashed sake of convenience I give tlie English
—
on my cigarette lighter at which they drew equivalent of her words "monsieur, they
back in a wide-mouthed startled sort of way, have ringed us around. What are we to do?
as if they had never seen such a device be- In the name of the good Lord, what are we
fore. But in that glimpse of a few seconds, to do?"
before I let the flame die out, I clearly saw "They permit us not even a newspaper,
the faces; the fat, stolid-looking man, with monsieur," rumbled the heavy voice of the
double chins and a beefy complexion; the man, as his portly form slouched forward.
alert, bright-eyed boy of seven or eight, and "They stand over us all the time. We
a girl of fourteen or fifteen; and the two have no privacy except in our beds," put in
women, the younger of a rather common- the younger woman, with a despairing ges-
place appearance, but the elder of a striking ture of one bony hand.
aspect, almost regal in the proud tilt of the "They inspect all our food—every bit of
shapely head, the lovely contours of the bread and meat, suspecting it may contain
cheeks and lips, and the imperious flash of secret papers," the elder woman lamented.
eyes that seemed made to command. "Worse still — our doors are all locked from
"Oh, monsieur" she exclaimed. "Thank outside. We can hardly move a step without
you, sir, thank you very much." being trailed by a guard. We cannot read,
All at once it struck me that there was we can hardly think without being in-
something unutterably sad about the tones; spected. Oh, was ever any one tormented
something unspeakably sad, too, in the with such vile persecution?"
looks of the two women and the man, some- "Was anyone ever tormented with such
thing bleak that seemed to pervade the at- vile persecution?" the second lady took up
mosphere like a dissolved essence, until I the cry, in a thin wailing voice that sent the
caught its contagion and felt as if a whole shudders again coursing down my spine.
world's sorrow were pressing down upon As if by instinct, I was backing toward
my head. the door. I wondered if I were not the vic-
Now, as never before, I wanted to flee. tim of some frightful hallucination.
But something held me rooted to the spot. I "But what do you want me to do?" I
was like a man in a dread dream, who blurted out, as with one hand I groped be-
knows he is dreaming and yet cannot hind me for the doorknob.
awaken; repelled and at the same time fasci- "Do? What do we want you to do, man*
nated, I watched the elder woman approach sieur?" groaned the elder woman. "Speak
with outflung arms. with them! Plead with them! Beg them to
treat us like human beings—-not hke beasts
II in cages!"
"But who am I to speak to? Who are
THERE was, let me not deny it, a seduc- they? What do you mean, Madam?"
charm about her glowing feminin-
tive "Who but oar persecutors—our oppres-
ity. Although she was no longer young sors?"
% took her to be somewhere in the nether "Who but our persecutors — our oppres-
 THE ROUND TOWER 39

sors?" echoed the other woman, with a self next to me; between me and the door.
ghostly repetition of the words. I could see her big sad eyes, not a foot from

By this time it was so dark that the five mine, glowing as if from immense hollow
persons made but shadows indistinctly seen depths; I could see her long, pale proud
against the dungeon-like gloom. There w as f
face alternately brightening and darkening
no arguing now with my fear; it was taking by the flickers of the changeable unearthly
command of me; the next instant, had the light. And once more she exercised thai
man not surmised my thoughts by some strange, that magical compulsion upon me.
clairvoyant perception, I would have left the My limbs were frozen. I could merely stare
dolorous strangers to their fate and dashed — and wonder.
pellmell down the tower stairs. "It is not for our own sakes, monsieur,"
"Hold, monsieur," his voice detained me. she resumed, in a voice that shook and
"It is —
growing late we need a light." wavered even more than did the light. "It
And then, with startled eyes, I witnessed is not for our own sakes that I beg your aid,

one of the eeriest, one of the most inex- but for our poor, innocent children. For
plicable incidents of all. Suddenly, though their sakes, in the name of heaven's mercy,
I had seen no lantern, there was a light in go out and plead with our oppressors, mon-
the room! It was a sort of gray-white phos- sieur. Rush forth —
rush forth and summon
phorescence, midway between the hue of a help, before it is too late!"
light fog and that of pewter; and it seemed "Before it is too late!" came a low sob-
to come from nowhere in particular, but bing echo.
filled the room with a fluctuating radiance, "But you —who
are you?" I demanded,
at times bright enough to reveal every ob- growing more mystified from minute to
ject, at times permitting everything to sink minute.
back almost into invisibility. By this illu- "We? Who are we? Is there anyone in
—
mination all things even the man's beefy all Paris that does not know?"
face —
took on a ghastly pallor; my own anyone in all Paris that does not
"Is there
hand, outstretched in a gesture of spontane- know?" there sounded a sobbing refrain.
ous horror, startled me with its pale, spec- But they seemed not to hear, or at least
tral quality. not to believe my denials.
1
"Do not be afraid, monsieur, ' one of the "Look at me! Do you not recognize me?"
women spoke reassuringly. "They will not the man demanded, thrusting his face
find you. The guards were sleeping; else within inches of mine. "Who in all the land
you could not have come up. You were could help recognizing me?"
heaven-sent to help us in our need." Observing the round, commonplace fea-
My knees quivering beneath me, I did not tures, the paunchy cheeks, the sensual lips
feel heaven-sent to help anyone. In that un- and dull eyes, I failed to recognize anyone I
canny wavering light, which struck my dis- had ever known.
ordered imagination as almost sepulchral, I "Ah, monsieur, you must be a stranger in
was more frightened than in the darkness. the land."
I was just a little relieved, however, to see "I ——
I yes, I am a stranger —from Cali-
how the small boy, curled up near the wall fornia," I managed to grasp at a straw.

with some straw for a pillow, was sleeping "From where do you say, monsieur?" he
an apparently normal childhood sleep. asked, as he had never heard of my native
if
Nevertheless, I had found the doorknob, state. And
then dismally he went on, half
and was drawing it toward me.. A blast of to himself, "Am I then so changed by my
chilly air, contrasting weirdly with the heat hardships that I cannot be recognized? Ah,
of the summer evening, swept up the tower no doubt I had a different look in the old
stairs. times, when I went forth daily in the hunt.
A second more, and I would have been Yes, that was a sport worthy of a king
gone. But the elder woman, crossing the chasing the antlered stag. A sport worthy
loom like a flash of light, had placed her- of a king!"
40 WEIRD TALES
"And 1," bewailed the elder woman, her HI
eyes downcast, her whole form seeming in-
"perhaps I also am changed
distinctly to sag, MAY have been only the wind; but the
ITdoor,
— oh, how changed from the days when I which I had opened slightly, sud-
denly closed with a dull thudding jar. Yet
led in gay revels and frolics, and banquets
and masked balls, and was merry the whole how could it have been the wind, since the
—
day long and the whole night long, too! door opened inward, and hence a breeze
Little did I suspect, in those old happy from below would have pushed the door
times, what a bitter blow was in store for wider open? And from inside the closed
me!" room, how could an air current originate?
"Little did I suspect," moaned the second But I was sure that no hand, and least of all
woman. "Little did we all suspect!" mine, had touched the door.
Had I chanced upon a band of lunatics? Even as I struggled to regain my com-
Was thisold tower the hospital where these ptoure, I reached again for the door handle,
poor deranged wretches were kept? This more determined than ever to leave. But, as
seemed to me, all in all, the most plausible I did so, my shaken nerves were shattered
solution. Nevertheless, it did not explain by another shock. With a series of high-
the weird light, which still pervaded the pitched yipping barks, a small creature ran
grim round tower room from some unseen out as if from nowhere and began cavort-
source. Nor account for various other
did it ing about my knees. Where had the little
incidents, which I report even now with a dog come from? I was certain it had not
tingling sensation along the spine and a been in the room before. I was equally con-
numbing clutch at the heart. vinced that there was rio way for it to enter.

ONLY A CONNOISSEUR of horrors would have

appreciated the window dummy.

^^
. . .

"The Weird Tailor" Prisoners

ROBERT BLOCK in rose quartz!

'Shallafai"
"The CiSy"
Verses by
ARTHUR J. BURKS
H. P.
LOVEZCRAFT AUGUST DERLETH
H. RUSSELL WAKEFIELD
SEABURY OUINN
Treasure Trove

In the

next
WEIRD TAI.ES
 THE ROUND TOWER 41

By the flickering grayish-white light, it had now have we? At noon we have three soups,
a sort of half-solid appearance as I reached two entrees, two roasts, fruit, cheese, claret,
down to pet it; and somehow I was not —
and champagne it is not all we have
quite able to place a hand upon it. Eluding known in our better days, monsieur, but it

my touch, it ran over to the elder woman, is not bad. It is not bad. Then the boy and
who bent down and caressed it. And then, allowed to walk in the
as suddenly as it had come, it was gone. But
I, on
court below
—
fine days, are

—
from someone's throat the adolescent "You can walk there, but not I!" broke
girl's, I believe —
there burst a spasm of un- out the elder woman, who was evidently his
canny hollow laughter. wife. "You can submit yourself to the star-
Then, as I pulled at the doorknob, the ing insolence of those beasts of guards
elder woman was again at my side, her not I! You can console yourself with your
lovely sad eyes fixing me with a stare of fine meals —
not I, not I! I —
I think of the

such terrible intensity that I was gripped fate that is in store for us all. I I think—
powerless in my place. My hand dropped of the future of our poor children!"
from the doorknob; for the first time, I "I —
think of the future of our poor chil-
knew myself to be a prisoner. dren!" came the inevitable echo.
"What is to happen to us, monsieur?" The boy, slumbering against the wall,
she lamented, not hysterically, but with an chose this particular moment to turn over
air of dignified restraint beneath which I in his sleep and moan.
could feel the hot passion smoldering.
"What is to happen to us all? Time after IFOR my part would have left then and
time we hear the tocsin sounding below us there —
had this been possible. But even
on the streets. We
hear the crowds shout- if Ihad not already been riveted to the
ing. But we can only guess what it all spot, Iwould have been held by the woman's
means. Can you not tell us, monsieur, what anguished cry.
it means?" —
"Think of our friends our poor friends
"Can you not tell us, monsieur?" echoed — the ones who did not escape, or came
the younger woman. —
back out of loyalty to us those tigers in
I shook my head, helplessly. human form have cut their heads from their
"Ah, monsieur, you are like them all," —
bodies torn them limb from limb!"
the speaker sighed. "Like the guards-
first "Have cut their heads from their bodies
like that monsterwho has charge of us. — torn them limb from limb!"
You know, yet you will tell us nothing." "Come, come, my dear," interposed the
"You know, yet you will tell us nothing," man, still in a placating voice, "we cannot
came the unfailing repetition. always think of these horrible tilings. Come,
"I feel it in my bones, a worse fate is in come, play for me at the clavecin, as of old
store for us," the woman moaned, while — sing to me, my dear."
one pale hand moved significantly across As if from nowhere, an old-fashioned
her neck. "My sainted mother, who was far musical instrument—a clavecin, or harpsi-
wiser than I, foresaw it all long ago; but chord—appeared before us. It could not
then I was too young and giddy to listen. have been there before without being seen,
Now that she is in her grave -monsieur, for it was a huge thing on legs, nearly as
sometimes at night I can see her before me, large as a modern piano. Yet there it was,
"
warning, warning, warning clearly visible in the wavering grayish light;
"
"Warning, warning, warning with a stool before it, at which the elder

took up the other woman. woman seated herself.

"Come, come now. Things are not al- As my lips opened in a half-uttered cry
ways so bad, are they?" the rumbling voice of horror, the player began plucking at the
of the man broke out in incongruous, sooth- strings —
and the strangest melodies I had
ing contrast. " We have no complaints about ever heard began coming forth, while she
many things— least of all, about the food, accompanied them in a quivering sad ?oice
42 WEIRD TALES
of a subdued loveliness. The music was Sorbonne, whose specialty was Parisian his-
low, almost ghostly faint; and was charged tory.
with such a deep, throbbing sorrow that, at He looked at me sharply as I finished.
die first note, the tears began coursing down "Just where did you say this happened?"
my cheeks. As the woman went on and on I mentioned the exact street location, of

with her song, its melancholy increased, which I had taken note after the adventure.
though it still had the same eerily distant "So?" he answered, significantly. "So?
quality; it seemed that I was listening to a Well, this is strange. Do you know you
plaint from across countless years and re- were walking on the exact site of the old
motest places. Now everyone in the room Temple?"
appeared to have forgotten my presence; the "What in thunder was the Temple?"
younger woman, the man and the girl gath- "It was the old castle of the Knights
ered about the player, as if to drink in every Templars, which was torn down in 1811, at
note; even the small boy arose and joined the age of almost six hundred years."
the group; and as they did so the light, as if "Torn down in 1811?" I repeated, dully.
condensed by some unseen reflector, sud- "It's famous as the scene of many historic
denly concentrated upon them, leaving the episodes," Jacques warmed to his theme,
rest of the room in shadow. And then the "not the least notable being the imprison-
illumination, wavering and flickering more ment of a king and queen of France, along
than ever, began to dwindle until sud-
. . . . with their two children, and Madame Eliza-
denly, without warning, it went out and I beth, the king's sister. That was back in
found myself in blackness. 1792. You know, of course, what king and
But still, from amid the coaly gloom, that queen I refer to."
phantom-thin music continued to sound, the I could only mumble something inco-
voice of the singer blended with the notes herent.
of the instrument, unspeakably sad, im- "Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoi-
mensely distant, fading like the wind-borne nette were both lodged there before being
tones of receding minstrels. sent to the guillotine. The old castle, from
Only then did all my concentrated dread all I can make out, was exactly as you have
and horror find expression in one tremen- described it, even to the small dog that kept
dous scream. Fumbling and groping, some- the prisoners company."
how I found the door; somehow I forced "But why
my limbs free of the spell that had gripped
that doesn't explain
persons, and at this particular time
— of
I, all

them, and started down the twisted stairs. "Don't you recall the date?"
And then all at once everything went blank. "Let's see. Today's the fourteenth, isn't
it?"

WHEN I came to myself,

to that sad, faint music, I was lying on
still listening "And
on August
yesterday was the thirteenth. It
thirteenth, just at about sunset,
was

a Paris street. The glowof late twilight was that Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoi-
in the air; a small crowd had gathered about nette were imprisoned in the Temple. Per-
me.
"Does monsieur need help?" a man's event
—
haps every year, on the anniversary of that

voice sympathetically asked. "He stumbled But I did not hear the remainder of
and and has been many minutes coming
fell, Jacques' speech. I was not interested in his
to. No
doubt it was only the heat." explanations. In my ears a thin, sorrowful
—
"No doubt it was the heat," I agreed, music seemed to be playing; I was back in a
as I struggled to my feet. But in my ears tower room, in a wavering fog-gray light,
that phantom music still made a dismal re- where five shadowy figures were gathered,
frain. among them a woman whose deep pleading
Next day I reported my experience to my tragic eyes seemed to call and call across an
friend Jacques Chervier, a student at the immeasurable gulf.
 Luna Aeternalis E|ji

BY an
bjr CLARK ASHTON SMITH
alien dream despatched and driven
SI
In a land to strange stars given,
Stars that summoned forth the moon,
Singing a strange red eldritch rune,
'

I heard the coming of the moon 5p>

With tremulus rim that ciomb and rang,
Whose rondure on the horizon rang
A gong distinct with silvern clang,
rip
Re-echoing distantly, until,
Arisen soon,
In silent silver stood the moon
Above the horizon ringing still.

Half-waned and hollow was her brow,

And caverned by the night; but now
Her twilight turned the stars' loud rune
To muted music in a swoon,
Her low light lulled the stars to drowse.
Flicker and fail, and vaguely rouse:
I felt the silence come and go
As the red stars muttered low . . .

^w Wr^^EM^svBM
1

Oid with moonlight lay the night,

And on the desert lay
B£e\ \"' ^^^^Hf Ancient and unending light
That assured not of the day;
For the half -moon stood to stay
Fixed at the heavens" height

vxc/^B^BJiH And eternal ere the day.

Triumphant stood the moon
In a false and cold and constant noon:
EM^jRuRn Surely in conflict fell

Rs^SI The true, lost sun of noon;

The golden might of Uriel
Met some white demon of the moon.

By an alien dream despatched and driven,

1 JjltK —? Ja^JBMfc
I found a land to demons given,
To silvern, silent demons given
That flew and fluttered from out the moon,
|TOf|j^|§» Weaving about her tomb-white face
With mop and mow and mad grimace,
And circling down from the semilune
In a dim and Saturnalian dance,
To pirouette and pause and prance,
To withdraw and advance,
All in a, wan eternal dance.
 ast Man
BY SEABURY QUINN
One cup to the dead already—
Hurrah for the next that dies!
—Bartholomew Dowling, The Revel.

MYCROFT before
paused self-consciously
the little bronze plate
marked simply TOUSSAINT
above the doorbell of the big brownstone
house in East One Hundred and Thirty-
sixth Street. He felt extraordinarily foolish,
like acostumed adult at a child's masquerade
party, or as if he were about to rise and
"speak a piece." People his kind of peo- —
ple — simply didn't do this sortof thing.
Then his resolution hardened. "What
1

can I lose? '

he muttered cynically, and
pressed the button.
A Negro butler, correct as a St. John's
Wood functionary in silver-buttoned dress
suit and striped waistcoat, answered his
ring. "Mister —
Monsieur Toussaint?" asked Heading by Vincent Napoli
Mycroft tentatively.
"Who iss calling?" asked the butler with
the merest trace of accent on his words. at thecorners of the young Negro's mouth.
— —
"Uh Mr. Smith no, Jones," Mycroft "One minute, if ycu plee2," he returned,
replied, and the shadow of a sneer showed stepped back into the hall and closed the
44
 THE LAST MAN 45

door. In a moment he was back and held head of an old Roman Emperor, or perhaps
the door open. 'This way, if you pleez," he a statesman of the Golden Age of the Re-
invited. public, carved in basalt.
Mycroft was not quite certain what he He had planned his introduction, humor-
would find; what he did find amazed him.
Vaguely he had thought the place would
ous, and a little patronizing, but as he stared
at the other Mycroft felt stage fright. "I
—
reek with incense, possibly be hung with he began, then gulped and stumbled in his
meretricious tapestries and papier-mache speech. —uh— heard about
"I I've you.
Mister— Monsieur Toussaint. Some
me—
weapons, perhaps display a crystal ball or friends
two against cheap cotton-velvet table covers. of mine told
He was almost awe-struck by the somber "Yes?" prompted Toussaint as Mycroft's
magnificence of the room into which he voice frayed out like a pulledwoolen thread.
was ushered. Deep-piled rugs from "What is it that you want of me?"

Hamadan and Samarkand lay on the floor, "I've heard you're able to do remark-
the furniture was obviously French, dull able things
—
" once more he halted, and a
matte-gold wood upholstered in olive-green look of irritation crossed his host's calm
brocade, on the walls were either Renoir
and Picasso originals or imitations good
features.
Mr. Mycroft
"Really,
—
enough to fool a connoisseur; somewhat in- you have power to raise
"I've heard that
congruously, above the fireplace where spirits!"Mycroft blurted confusedly. "I'm
on polished andirons hung a
logs blazed
square of rather crudely woven cotton stuff
told
—
you can bring spirits of the dead
back " Once again he halted, angry with
bordered in barbaric black and green. On himself for the fear he felt clawing at
second look the border proved to be a highly his throat. "Can it be done? Can you
conventionalized but still disturbingly realis- do it?"
tic serpent. More in character was the "Of course," Toussaint replied, quite as
enormous black Persian cat that crouched if he had been asked if he could furnish
upon a lustrous Bokhara prayer rug before musicians for a party. "Whose spirit is it
the fire, paws tucked demurely under it, that you want called? When—and how
great plumy tail curled round it, and stared did he die?"
at him with yellow, sulphurous eyes. Mycroft felt on surer ground now. There
"Good evening, Mr. Mycroft, you wished was no nonsense about this Toussaint, no
to see me?" Mycroft started as if he had hint of the charlatan. He was a businessman
been stung by a wasp. He had not heard discussing business. "There are several of
the speaker enter, and certainly he was not —
them twenty-five or -six. They died in
prepared to be greeted by name. er— different
— ways. You i
see, they served
with me in

AT THE entrance of the drawing

stood his host, smiling faintly at his
room "Very well, Mr. Mycroft. Come here
night after tomorrow at precisely ten min-
discomfiture. He was a tall man of uncer- utes to twelve. Everything will be in readi-
tain age, dressed with a beautiful attention ness, and you must on no account be late.
to detail in faultless evening clothes. The Leave your telephone and address with the
studs of his immaculate white shirt were butler, in case I have to get in touch with
star sapphires, so were his cuff links, in his you."
lapelshowed the red ribbon of the Legion "And the fee?"
d'Honneur, and he was very black. But not "The fee will be five hundred dollars,
comic, not "dressed up," not out of char- payable after the seance, if you're satisfied.
acter. He wore his English -tailored dress Otherwise there will be no charge. Good
clothes as one to the manner born, and there evening, Mr. Mycroft."
was distinction, almost a nobility, about The impulse had come to him that eve-
his features that made Mycroft think of the ning as he walked across the Park from
46 WEIRD TALES
bis apartment to his club in East Eighty- young New Yorkers had never seen or even
sixth Street. Spring had come to New York, heard of and his cellars seemed inexhaust-
del icately as a bal lerina dancing sur les ible. Lads who had known only beer, or, in
pohites, every tree was veiled in scarves more reckless moments, gin and whiskey,
of green chiffon, every park was jeweled were introduced to St. Estephe, Johannes-
with crocus-gold, but he had found no com- burg and Nuites St. Georges. Madeira and
fort in awakening nature, nor any joy in Majorca flowed like water, champagne was
the sweet softness of the air. That morning common as soda pop at home.
as he unfurled his Times in the subway on But more intoxicating than the strong-
his way downtown he had seen the notice est, headiest vintage in Don Jose's caves

of Roy Hardy's death. Roy had been the was Dona Juanita Maria, his daughter. She
He was the last man.
twenty-sixth. was a rubia, a Spanish blonde, with hair as
More than fifty years ago they had lustrous as the fine-drawn wires of the gold
marched down the Avenue, eager, bright- filigree cross at her throat. Little,
crowds cheer-
faced, colors flying, curbside tiny, she walked with a sort of lilting, quest-
ing. Off to Cuba, off to fight for Liberty. ing eagerness, her every movement graceful
Remember the Maine! as a grain-stalk in the wind. Her voice had
that sweet, throaty, velvety quality found
"When you hear that bell go ding- only in southern countries, and when she
a-ling, played the guitar and sang cancions the
And we all join in and sweetly we songs were fraught with yearning sadness
will sing, my baby, and passionate longing that made those
When you hear that bell go ding- hearing her catch their breath.
a-ling, Every man-jack of them was in love with
There'll be a hot time in the old town her, and not a one of them but polished up
tonight! his Spanish to say, "Yo te amo, Juan/la —
Juanita, I love you!" And there was not a
the band had blared. He could still hear the one of them who did not get a sweet, tender
echo of Max Schultz's cornet as he triple- refusal and, by way of consolation, a chaste,
tongucd the final note. sisterly kiss on the cheek.
They didn't look too much like soldiers,
those ribbon-counter clerks and bookkeep- IT^HE night before their transport sailed
and stock exchange messengers. The -*- Don
ers Jose gave a party, a celebration
supercilious French and British correspond- grande. The patio of the house was almost
ents and observers smiled tolerantly at their bright as noon with moonlight, and in the
efforts to seem military; the Germans narrow Saracenic arches between the pillars
laughed outright, and the German-armed, of the ambulatory Chinese lanterns hung,
German-trained Spanish veterans disdained glowing golden-yellow in the shadows. A
them. But after El Caney and San Juan Hill long table clothed with fine Madeira
tfi e tu ne ch anged Astounded and de-
. drawnwork and shining silver and crystal
moralized, the Spaniards surrendered in was laid in the center of the courtyard, at its
droves, the foreigners became polite, the center was a great bouquet of red roses.
Cubans took the valiant Americans to their Wreathed in roses a fat wine cask stood on
col ective
1 hearts, and no one was more wooden sawhorses near the table's head.
gracious in his hospitality than Don Jose "It is Pedro Ximenes, a full hundred years
Resales y MonL\dvo, whose house in the old," Don Jose explained pridefully, "I
Calle O'Brien became an informal head- have kept it for some great occasion. Surely
quarters for the officers and noncoms of this is one. What
greater honor could
it

the company. have than be served to Cuba's gallant

to
Don Jose's table creaked and groaned be- liberators on the eve of their departure?"
neath a load of delicacies such as those After dinner toasts were drunk. To Cuba
 THE LAST MAN 47

Libre, to Don Jose, to the lovely Nona product bore the name of one of their num-
Juanita. Then, blushing very prettily, but in ber. But time took his fee, also. Each time
nowise disconcerted, she consented to sing there were more vacant chairs about the
them a farewell. table when they met, and those who re-
mained showed gray at the temples, thick-
"Preguntale a las estrellas, ening at the waist, or shining patches of
Si no de noche me venllovar, bald scalp. Last year there had been only
Preguntale si no busco, three of them: Mycroft, Rice and Hardy.
Para adorarie la soledad . .
." Two months ago he and Hardy had acted as
pallbearers for Rice, now Hardy was gone.
she sang, He hardly knew what made him decide
to consult Toussaint. The day before he'd
"O ask of the stars above you met Dick Prior at luncheon at the India
If I did not weep all the night, House and somehow talk had turned on
O ask if I do not love you, mediums and spiritism. "I think they're all
Who of you dreamt till the a lot of fakes," Mycroft had said, but Prior
dawn-light ." . shook his head in disagreement.
—
.

"Some of 'em most, probably are, but —

Sabers flashed in the moonlight, blades there aresome things hard to explain, Roger.
Take this Negro, Toussaint. He may be a
beat upon the table. "Juanita! Juanita!" they
cried fervently. "We
love you, Juanita!" faker, but
— '*

—
"And I love you all of you senores "What about him?"
"Well, it seems he's a Haitian; there's
amados," she called gaily back. "Each one
of you I love so much I could not bear to a legend he's descended from Christophe,
give my heart to him for fear of hurting the Black Emperor. I wouldn't know about

all the others. So" ——

her throaty, velvet whether what they say about his hav-
that, or
voice was like a caress "here is what I —
ing been a papaloi a voodoo priest, you
promise." Her tone sank to a soft ingratiat- —
know has any basis. He's highly educated,
ing pizzacato and her words were delicately graduate of Lima and the Sorbonne and all
spaced, so that they shone like minted silver that—"
as she spoke them. "I shall belong to the "What's he done?" Mycroft demanded
"You say he's done remarkable
lastone of you. Surely one of you will out-
and to him I shall give my
live all the rest,
testily.
things
—
heart, myself, all of me. I swear it!" She "He has. Remember Old Man Meson,
put both tiny hands against her lips and Noble Meson, and the way his first wife
blew them a collective kiss. made a monkey out of her successor?"
And so, because they all were very young, Mycroft shook his head. "Not very well.
and very much in love, and also slightly I recall there was a will contest
—
drunk, they formed the Last Man Qub, and say there was. Old Meson got bit
"I'll
every year upon the anniversary of that by the love-bug sometime after sixty. Huh,
night they met, talked over old times, drank love-bug me eye, it was that gold dig-
little
a little more than was good for them, and ger Suzanne Langdon. The way she took
dispersed to meet again next year. him away from wife was nothing less
his
than petty He
didn't last long after
larceny.*

TrIE years slipped by unnoticed as the cur- he divorced Dorothy and married Suzanne.
rent of a placid river. And time was Old men who marry young wives seldom do.
good to them. Some of them made names When he finally pegged out everybody
for themselves in finance, the court rooms thought he was intestate, and that meant
echoed to the oratory of others; the first Mrs. Meson number two would take the
World Wax brought rank and glory to jackpot, but just as she was all set to rake
jome; more than one nationally advertised in the chips Dorothy came up with a last
48 WEIRD TALES
will and testament, signed, sealed, published As his eyes became accustomed to the
and declared, and unassailable as Gibraltar. semi-darkness he saw that a hexangular
Seems the old goof got wise to himself, and, design had been drawn on the bare floor in
what was more to the point, to Suzanne, red chalk, enclosing the altar and a spare
before he kicked the bucket, and made a some eight feet square each side, and in
will that disinherited her, leaving the whole each of the six angles of the figure stood a
works to Dorothy. littledish filled with black powder. Before
"They found it in the pocket of an old the altar, at the very center of the hexagon,
coat in his shooting cabin out on the island, was placed a folding chair of the kind used
and found the men who'd witnessed it, a in funeral parlors.
Long Island clam-digger and a garage Annoyed, he looked about the room for
mechanic out at Smithtown." some sign of Toussaint, and as the big
"How?"asked Mycroft. clock in the hall struck the first stave of its
"Through this fellow Toussaint. Dorothy hour -chime a footstep sounded at the door.
had heard of him somehow and went up to Toussaint entered with an attendant at each
Harlem to consult him. She told my Aunt elbow. All three wore cassocks of bright
Matilda Mrs. Truxton Sturdivant, you scarlet, and over these were surplices of
know— all about it. Seems Toussaint called white linen. In addition each wore a red,
old Meson's spook up —
or maybe down, pointed cap like a miter on his head.
I wouldn't know —
and it told them all about "Be seated," Toussaint whispered, point-
the will, gave 'em minute directions where ing to the folding chair before the altar
to look for it, and told 'em who and where and speaking quickly, as if great haste were
the witnesses were. He charged her a stiff necessary. "On no account, no matter what
fee, but he delivered. She's satisfied." you see or hear, are you to put so much
Mycroft had dismissed the story from as a finger past the confines of the hexagon.
his mind that afternoon, but next day If you do you are worse than a dead man—
when he read Roy Hardy's death notice you are lost. You understand?"
it recurred to him. That evening as he Mycroft nodded, and Toussaint ap-
walked across the Park he reached a deci- proached the altar with his attendants close
sion. Of course, it was all nonsense. But beside him. They did not genuflect, merely
Prior's story hung in his mind like a burr bowed deeply, then Toussaint took two
in a dog's fur. candles from beneath his surplice, lit them
Oh, well .he'd have a go at this
, . at the tapers burning on the altar and
Toussaint. nothing more it would be
If handed them to his attendants.
amusing to see him go through his bag Fairly running from one point of the
of tricks. hexagon to another the acolytes set fire to
the black powder in the little metal saucers
THE furniture and rugs had been moved with their candles, then rejoined Toussaint
from the drawing room when he reached at the altar.
Toussaint's house ten minutes before The big hall clock had just completed
twelve two nights later. Before the empty, striking twelve as Toussaint called out
cold fireplace a kind of altar had been set sharply:
up, clothed with a faircloth and surmounted "Papa Legba, keeper of the gate, open
by a silver cross, like any chapel sanctuary. for us!"
But there were other things on it. Before Like a congregation making the responses
the cross there coiled a great black snake, at a litany the acolytes repeated:
whether stuffed or carved from black wood "Papa Legba, keeper of the gate, open
he could not determine, and each side of the for us!"
coiling serpent was a gleaming human skull. "Papa Legba, open wide the gate that
Tall candles flickered at each end of the they may pass!" intoned Toussaint, and once
altar, giving off the only light in the room. again his attendants repeated his invocation.
 THE LAST MAN 49

It might have been the rumble of a sub- a fairy from Tinania's court as she laughed
way train, or one of those strange, inex- at them, promising . . .

plicable noises that the big city knows at "Juanita, where is Juanita?" he asked
"She promised she would give her-
night, but Mycroft could have sworn that
he heard the rumble of distant thunder.
thickly.
self to the last man
—
Again and again Toussaint repeated his "Estoy aqiii, querido!"
petition that "the gate" be opened, and his In fifty years and more he had not heard
dants echoed it. This was getting to that voice, but he remembered it as if it
be tiresome. Mycroft shifted on his uncom- —
had been yesterday or ten minutes since
fortable seat and looked across his shoulder. when he last heard it. "Juanita!" he
His heart contracted suddenly and the blood breathed, and the breath choked in his
churned in his ears. About the chalk-marked throat as he pronounced her name.
hexagon there seemed to cluster in the
smoke cast off by the censers a rank of dim, SHE came toward him quickly, passing
indistinct forms, forms not quite human, through the ranks of misty shades like
yet resembling nothing else. They did not one who walks through swirling whorls
move, they did not stir as fog stirs in a of silvery fog. Both her hands reached to-
breath of wind, they simply hung there mo- ward him in a pretty haste. All in white
tionless in the still air. she was, from the great carved ivory comb
in her golden hair to the little white sandals
"Papa Legba, open wide the gate that cross- strapped over her silken insteps. Her
those this man would speak with may white mantilla had been drawn across hec
come through!" face coquettishly, but he could see it flutter
with the breath of her impatience.
shouted Toussaint, and now the silent "Rog-ger," she spoke his name with the
shadow-forms seemed taking on a kind of same hesitation between syllables he remem-
substance. Mycroft could distinguish fea- bered so well. "Rog-ger, querido be- —
tures —
Willis Dykes, he'd been the top loved!"
kick, and Freddie Pyle, the shavetail, Curtis He leaped from the chair, stretched
Sackett, Ernie Proust —
one after another of reaching hands to her outstretched gloved
his old comrades he saw in the silent circle fingers past the boundary of the chalk-
as a man sees images upon a photographic drawn hexagon. "Juanita! Juanita, I have
when he holds it up to the light. waited so long ... so long ."
negative . .

Now Toussaint's chant had changed. No Her mantilla fell back as his fingers al-
longer was it a reiterated pica, but a great most touched hers There was something
shout of victory. "Dambaila Oueddo, wrong with her face. This was not the
Master of the Heavens! Dambalh, thou art image he had carried in his heart for more
here! Open wide the dead ones' mouths, than fifty years. Beneath the crown of
Damballa Oueddo. Give them breath to gleaming golden hair, between the folds of
speak and answer questions; give this one the white lace mantilla a bare, fieshless
his heart's desire!" skull looked at him. Empty eye-holes stared
Turning from the altar he told Mycroft, into his eyes, lipless teeth grinned at him.
"Say what you have to say quickly. The Hestumbled like a man hit with a black-
power will not last long!" jack, spun half-way round, then went down
Mycroft shook himself like a dog emerg- so quickly that the impact of his limpness
ing from the water. For an instant he saw on the polished floor made the candles on
in his mind's eye the courtyard of Don the altar flicker.
Jose's house, saw the eager, flush-faced "Maitre," one of the attendants plucked
youths grouped about the table, saw Juanita Toussaint's white surplice, "Ma*tre t the
in the silver glow of moonlight, lovely as man is dead."
We 67
c/rriangle &9
illiam ~j/. ZJeemple
V*
of Terror
 The things our terror dreams are built on.

HAD written nearly three thousand forwardly and sensibly, will you! I can
words that day, and in the after-glow make more sense out of my income tax
I of self-satisfaction I decided that there
was certainly something in his life of rural
correspondence than I can out of you."
When you did make sense out of him,
seclusion after all. it was invariably worth the trouble. He had
In Bloomsbury far too many people were more odd knowledge tucked away inside
acquainted with me and my address. They his head than Ripley ever dreamed upon,
were "just dropping in" on me at all hours and he was full of surprising little tit-bits
of the night and day with complete disre- that made me exclaim, "That gives me an
."
gard for my work. In their assumption a idea for a story! . .

writer was a person who never worked I made quite a lot of money out of

anyway; his stories were things he just Spencer in this way. Maybe that was why
dashed off in odd moments now and again, I looked upon him as my best friend.

with no particular thought, as one dashes In fact, the main reason that I elected to
off letters. keep in touch with him from my lonely
After a string of nights on short rations cottage among the gorse and pines of Sur-
of sleep, trying to recover some of the time rey was because my novel dealt with medi-
thus stolen from me during the day, I eval witchcraft and I anticipated difficulty
dashed off myself, away from London and over one or two chapters. I might need to
these vampires of my attention —
my friends. dig in Spencer's fund of knowledge about
I took care that none of them —
none but such things. Also, he had the best library
Spencer, that is —
should know my address of books on the occult that I had ever come
until I was good and ready for them. And across. It was through a previous search for
that meant when I had finished my novel. out-of-the-way information that I originally
It was safe to tell Spencer. He never saw encountered him.
any of my other friends. They avoided him But about that evening when I was wan-
because he was —odd. Eccentric. In his dering alone across the Surrey heath so com-
musty bed-sitting-room in Mecklenburgh fortably satisfied with the day's work
Square he lived in a world of his own. You
sensed the strangeness as soon as you
stepped into the room, and it was certainly
IT WAS an evening in midsummer when
the atmosphere was close and still, and
enhanced by his presence. the going of the sun had seemed to leave
—
He was fattish why, I don't know, for it more warm and oppressive than noon-
I never saw him eat anything —
and, I be- day.
lieve, older than he looked. He looked in The was a thick, almost liquid sub-
air
his early sixties. Trying to maintain a con- stance, from which your lungs were hard
versation with him was indeed trying. You pressed to draw oxygen, almost as thick as
felt that quite two-thirds of his attention the blood which pumped at your temples
was somewhere else all the time, and he and made your head throb heavily. Head-
only intermittently remembered that you achey weather, and you longed for a storm
were there. to come and break it up.
And most of what he said to you he Somewhere this night there was a storm,
deliberately made cryptic. He had a tortuous for along the horizon the sheet lightning
mind that loved to puzzle and mystify. flickeredand jumped and revealed silently
Many times I had remonstrated with him: weird-lit glimpses of an unsuspected cloud-
"For God's sake, Spencer, speak straight- land that lay out rhere in the darkness.

Heading by Fred Humistou

52 'WEIRD TALES
I don't know whether it is peculiar to I had literally to feel my way along the
me, but these strange tense evenings of path.
summer always set my imagination work-
ing more actively than the chilly autumn THEN all of a sudden 1 stopped in sur-
and winter nights beloved of the gorhicaUy prise, my hand on the bole of a pine.
romantic poets. Somewhere ahead of me glimmered a faint
Keafc. would begin "In a drear-nigh ted
December .," and Poe's Ulalume would
. .
patch of light —
green light.
As I watched it, it moved back and forth
be carried to her tomb in "the ghoul- with a sort of dreadful deliberate slowness.
baunted woodland of Weir" on a "night in Then it stood still, and as I peered at it I
the lonesome October" and as for the same discovered a black cross, as it were, inter-
gentleman's Raven who quoth "Never- secting it. Abruptly the light disappeared,
more!" "Ah, distinctly I remember it was and left me with the realization that the
in the bleak December" . . . black cross had been the silhouette of the
No, the winter was merely physically center of the cottage window's frame.
uncomfortable. A
hot thundery night like Somebody — or something —was in the
this made me mentally uncomfortable. Un- cotttage. My
heart started going like a two-
easily, I sensed the imminence of some- — stroke engine.
thing. I felt the electric charge slowly but Then the human habit of rationalizing
unrelentingly building itself up in the air unaccountable things came to the fore. It
afbout me, forming something unknown but had been a firefly or a jack-o'-lantern of
black and inimical, growing both in power marsh gas from the stagnant pond not far
and in consciousness of its power, awaiting —
beyond the cottage. Or again this was the
with evil excitement the hour of its un- sort of weather that generated those globes
leashing. of ball lightning which sometimes pop
Damn it, thought, I have been think-
I down chimneys and float around inside
ing too much upon these things. This was rooms. Or maybe a tramp was searching
the last novel I would write about the oc- either for a bed for the night or for the
cult. The trouble with such an occupation —
money for one. But with a green light?
was that the story becomes real to you as I waited a while, but there was no re-
you write it, and you are disposed to picture turn of the phenomenon. I hoped that,
warlocks and werewolves as things you whatever it was, it had gone away. Then I
might find in a dark corner of the coal- fumbled my way through the last few yards
cellar at some unlucky moment. Especially to the door and let myself in.
when you have deliberately retired to soli- In the darkness within I lit a match and
tude to "get into" your book. by its feeble light surveyed the room. The
The glow of my self-esteem had now words "Is anybody there?" died in my
died somewhere among these unhealthy mouth, for it was manifest that there was
thoughts. I had walked too far and become nobody.
over-tired. The haven of my cottage I conveyed the flame to the oil lamp, and
seemed suddenly desirable, and I forced the room became bright and cheerful; the
my heavy feet to quicken their lagging shelves of books still in their original col-
pace. ored dust jackets gladdened my eye, as the
Here now was the pinewood, like a blot sight of them always did, and the model
of India ink on the lesser darkness of the galleon, the vase of marigolds, the shining
night. One hundred yards within it lay the pewter tankards were all familiar and re-
cottage, but despite my impatience they assuring things.
were the slowest hundred yards I traversed Nevertheless, I poured myself a scotch
that night. Charon himself would have and soda before I settled down in the arm-
tripped over something in the pitch-black- chair by the tireless hearth to read over and
ness of the wood. Nothing of the distant polish the thousands of words I had scrib-
flickering of the lightning penetrated here. bled that day.
 THE TRIANGLE OF TERROR 53

In the midst of my immersion in my own opposite side of the room to it was an as-
story of the burning of a particularly malig- semblage of objects of ornament and util-
nant witch, I suddenly noticed that the scalp ity. Prominent among them were two
muscles at the back of my head were taut ebony candlesticks, top-heavy things with
and contracted and that my hair must be round, bulbous sockets for the candles. It
bristling. And I felt what
in my mind my was plain to me that the eyes of the face
body must have been aware of for some were simply the reflection of these two
—
time that there was some creature behind black balls, the nose a partial and distorted
me and watching me with no friendly re-
gard.
reflection of a vase, and the mouth
ably a dent in the pan which caught and
—
prob-

Without seeming to divert my attention held a content of shadow at this particular

from my manuscript, I gazed up from under angle.
my brows at the mirror hanging above the I dismissed the matter, and returned
fireplace. It showed the wall behind me again to my scribbled pages.
empty, save for a framed water color of the In a little while I came to a passage that
Devil's Punchbowl at Hindhead, which was I judged needed wholly re-writing, and I
just as it should be. stared thoughtfully before me while I en-
With a relaxing of tenseness I returned deavored to cast it afresh in my mind.
to mywork. But only for a few moments. Subconsciously at first, and then with a
Some words I had written earlier in the start of realization, I became cognizant that
story recurred to me: "Vampires cast no I was gazing straight at another face!
refection hi mirrors." It was in the carving of one of the pil-

Alittle cold tremor passed over me. Then lars of the fireplace. From the coils of raised
a spasm of fear-inspired anger at my child- stone ostensibly representing climbing
ish timidity. Good Lord, to give a moment's vines, a demoniac little visage regarded me
credence to that Dracula clap-trap! I swung with sharp, slanting, spiteful eyes, a vul-
round and positively glared behind me. pine face, like that of a fox cornered and
There were no fearful fiends treading snarling. So alive and venomous did it seem
close behind me. There was nothing that that I instinctively moved back a little with
had not been there before. confused ideas of defensive measures.
"Fool!" I addressed myself bitterly, and That slight movement was enough to
began to turn slowly back. En route, as it make the illusion vanish. For it was an
were, my eye fiickered*past a brass warming illusion, another trick of light. Yet though
pan hanging on the side wall, and then I experimented by changing my attitude in
abruptly flicked back to it. For I had the my chair, I could not get the effect to re-
impression of a dim and shapeless sort of peat itself. Indeed, I even became uncertain
face staring from its bright round surface. of the spot amid the intricacies of the carv-
I sat and regarded it. ings where it had seemed to appear.
Yes, there was certainly the effect of a Not very surely, I returned to my busi-
face. An immobile, dead sort of face like ness.But it was a long while before I could
that of the Man in the Moon and scarcely put those two faces from my mind.
better defined.
HAD almost finished when that sicken-
GOT up to examine it, and it faded as I ing feeling of being watched came over
I I approached it, and quite disappeared me again. For a little while I dared not
when I got my nose within a yard of it, raise my eyes from the papers that trembled
leaving just the empty surface of the pan. in my hands. In my imagination it seemed
Yet when I sat back again in my chair, to me that I was surrounded by a host of
there it was once more: two round black evil and silently threatening faces —
that
holes of eyes, a beaky nose, a twisted gash they leered and glowered not only from the
of a mouth. dark corners but also from the brigh*: sur-
Along the top of the sideboard on the faces of the things I had thought so homely
54 WEIRD TALES
and reassuring when I had come In from had deliberately withheld my address from
the outer darkness. all but Spencer.
With a sudden resolution to face them Nevertheless, I groped irrationally in the
all and be damned to them, I looked up. I dark interior and felt a little thrill of
caught a fleeting impression of a huge face pleasure when my fingers encountered a
filling the whole wall of the empty alcove letter, the only one. I felt something else,
beside the fireplace, but the patches of dis- too— a mild shock which made those fin-
coloration from dampness that had appar- gers tingle a bit. It was almost as if the
ently formed it seemed almost to shift apart letter had contained an electrical charge. I
in that instant and become wholly innocent put it down to the atmosphere.
and of no significance. The letter was from Spencer, as I might
I threw my papers down and jumped up have guessed. It wasn't very helpful looked
with an oath. at from any point of view. He was in his
"What is this?" I demanded of myself. most cryptic mood.
"Am I going mad? Or is something trying It was in neat type-script and began with-
to drive me mad?" out any preamble. It was signed ("Yours
I went determinedly round the room, faithfully") by Spencer, and that seemed
gazing straightly at all its contents in turn, to me almost the only comprehensible part
but I saw nothing in the least out of the —
of it. As for the rest well, here it is, word
ordinary. Then I stood in the middle of for word, as I remember it.

the hearthrug and debated upon my state

of affairs. "ACLE.
Firstly, I had no further inclination to
The composer, Robert Schumann, long
do any more work on my book tonight. I heard voices and saw things that were not
had had enough of pondering upon the
there. He went mad.
sinister.
Secondly, I wished either that I had ANGLE.
company or was in some less lonely spot in
the countryside than I was. But outside the As did, in like manner, the author of
cottage was the wood, and outside the wood Gtdliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift.
stretched the wide heath under the night
—
sky miles of black mystery between me
AGRAM.
and the nearest glow of humanity. The poet, Shelley, was tormented all his
Thirdly, despite my day's unusual mental life with dreams and visions. Once, in a
and physical effort, I no longer felt tired. waking vision, he encountered a figure
Nor did the thought of bed lure me I felt — shrouded in a dark cloak. It was himself. —
that if I did sleep now, bad dreams, if
On another occasion he heard a noise out-
nothing worse, would come. side the country cottage where he was stay-
I decided that I would write some letters. ing. He opened the door, and was struck
Just to hold, as I wrote them, the mental
image of some of those exuberant friends
unconscious by —something invisible.

of mine in London (from whom I had AGERON.

fled!) would provide something of a sense
of company. It would give me a link with When young, John Bunyan had 'fearful
that pleasant world of everyday from which dreams and visions.' Pestilent spirits and
I was so utterly cut off on this stifling, devils appeared tohim until he reached the
electrically ominous night. age of seventeen. Then they disappeared
The thought of letters caused me to for two years, during which time he gave
wonder whether any had been delivered in himself up to every evil passion and led a
the evening post while I had been out. I corrupt life.
was already opening the door of the
little In 1651 his visions came again, and he
letter cage wjien it occurred to me that I said that he was hounded by the devil. He
 THE TRIANGLE OF TERROR 55

swore that he sometimes 'felt the tempter Wait a moment — Pent-ACLE, Pent-
pull my clothes' and sometimes the devil AGRAM . . . ?
'took the form of a bull, bush, or besom.' I seized upon a volume of my encyclo-
All the demons in the Pilgrim's Progress pedia, and sought what I soon found — this
came out of his memories of these experi- entry:
ences.
"PENTACLE, PENTANGLE, PENTA-
ALPHA. GRAM, PENTAGERON, or PENT-
William Blake, the poet and artist, had
ALPHA.
dreams and visions all his life. He left a
"These various names all belong to the
record of not only how he saw the devil
design of a 5-pointed star, composed of 5
but also how he drew him. He wrote: 'I was
straight lines, which may be formed com-
going downstairs in the dark, when sud-
plete without severance of the tracing me-
denly a light came streaming at my feet. I
dium from the recording medium, i.e., it
turned around, and there he was, looking
may be drawn without the pen being lifted
fiercely at me through the iron grating of
from the paper, for the tip of the pen re-
my staircase window. As he appeared, so
turns to its starting point. Possibly for
I drew him.'
some such oddity as this the sign has long
Blake's sketch showed a horrible phan-
been used as a mystic symbol, first by the
tom glaring through a grated window
Pythagoreans and later by the astrologers
with burning eyes, long teeth, and claws
and necromancers of the Middle Ages. It is
like talons.
found frequently in early ornamental art,
William Blake went mad.
and is still sometimes used, in superstitious
SO, my friend, remember while you are regions of the world, on doorways to keep
Pent up in your little cottage, to
"
BEWARE away witches and evil spirits."
of 'dreams and visions.' There followed representations of the
Pentacle, etc., and
'

The Hexagram two ' —

DECIDEDLY not a cheering com-
NO,munication. interlaced equilateral triangles with which —
cursed the man for his
I it isoften confused."
perverted sense of humor —
if this was sup- WhileI had the "P" volume in my hand,

—
posed to be humor and his maddening I thought I might as well look up Pytha-
obscurantism. goras, of whom I knew nothing except that
But it struck me as strange that the ar- he had been a Greek philosopher with a
rival of such an effort as this should co- theorem.
incide with a time at which I was seeing His time, it appeared, was the sixth cen-

things. tury B.C., and he travelled around quite a

I sat down and studied the typed sheet lot, passing through Egypt among other
witii a frown. places, and went to Italy in 529 B.C. and
"ACLE, AGRAM, AGERON . .
." What founded there a religious brotherhood for
gibberish words were these? What connec- the reformation of mankind, through prac-
tion was there between them? tising certain rites. Reaction against him
If I guessed Spencer's twisted mind began in his life-time and reached a head
right, therewas some link. Quite possibly in the middle of the fifth century B.C. His
he had put a clue in the wording. He was movement was violently trampled out, meet-
always searching for some such cra2y but ing houses of Pythagoreans were every-
deliberate clues in the writingsof Shake- where sacked and burned and Pythagoreans
speare to indicate that the plays were actu- persecuted and slain.
ally written by Francis Bacon. Well, all that was fairly interesting, I
I went slowly through the wordage supposed, but I still didn't see any point to
again. Why, I pondered, a capital "P" for the letter. Yet there was still the coincidence
"Pent"? of its arrival and my fit of the willies.
56 WEIRD TALES
I lay back in my chair with half-closed a mere glimmer, reflected like a star in the
eyes, pondering on the dreams and visions black opacity of the window before me. For
of the illustrious people Spencer had listed. there was no trace left of my frightful visi-
I was a writer of sorts —
-an artist in my own tant. The night outside was as dark as a
particular line, I prided myself but I had — cavern deep in the earth, and no shape of
no illusions about my name living any anything, not even the adjacent pines, could
longer than I did. A
hundred years hence be discerned.
no one would be the slightest bit interested I got up, shaking like an ancient car, and
to learn that I had died in a mad-house or had to lean on the table for a few moments
had regular bouts of delirium tremens. while I cured my knees of their curious
For some time my mind dwelt upon the tendency to give. Then in a trembling but
ephemerality of the second-rate writer's swift manner I became urgent with action.
little fame, and then began to work in its First, I slammed home the bolts of the
usual way of putting two ideas together and door. I didn't now why the thing hadn't
fashioning from them something fresh. The come in after me that way, but I wasn't
slow shaping of a new story about a bril- going to give it the advantage of any second
liant writer who went mad at the height of thoughts.
his fame -went on in my imagination. I was
lost in it.
THEN I pulled the thick curtain over the
Detachedly I became aware that the il- window. I was afraid to go near the
lumination of the room appeared to be window to do this; I might suddenly find
slowly changing in its quality. The normal myself literally face to face with the thing,
yellowy-white light of the oil lamp was and I didn't think my heart would stand it.
taking on a faint tinge of green. I was still So I hooked the curtain over with the end
deep in abstraction, and paid little heed to of a broomstick, and I was holding myself
it at first, but presently it became so pro- well away from the other end of it.
nounced that I took an absent-minded look Then I laid the poker on the table ready
at the lamp. It was very low. I remembered for emergencies. It was a comfortably heavy
in a vague sort of way that I had forgotten length of iron.
to get any more paraffin. The greenish light And then I had a couple of neat whiskies.
was coming from somewhere on my left, There was nothing I could do about the
wiere the window was, and I thought it lamp. There wasn't any more oil and I
was some queer effect of the moonlight wasn't going out to search for any at this
shining in. I glanced over at the window, time of night. The very thought of feeling
and my heart gave a bound that I thought about among the unseen trees out there
had displaced it. A sort of silent screaming again made me shudder. I found a stub of
horror held me paralyzed. candle and lit it, but it wasn't going to last
The window was a square of greenly long.
translucent light, as though it were the side So I built a huge fire. On that sultry
of an artificially illumimiated aquarium, and summer night I had a blaze going that
glaring through it at me was William near melted me. But I didn't mind feeling
Blake's nightmare vision of the devil. warm so long as I could feel more secure.
The eyes burned into mine, the fangs And bright firelight was a sight better than
were revealed in a tiger's grin— the whole absolute darkness.
effect was that of a monster aflame with I sat close by the fire, streaming with
sadistic appetitemeasuring its distance for sweat, my poker at hand, and I resolved
a pounce at my throat. not to let that light fail nor myself sleep
I'm afraid I fainted. It's a weakness no until dawn and the blessed daylight came.
man likes to admit to, but it does happen. My eye fell on Spencer's letter on the
It happened to me, and I'm very iiiankful table. I had had enough of that sort of
it did. thing. I reached over and grabbed it, and
When I came to, the oil lamp was but was about to drop it into the fire when I
 THE TRIANGLE OF TERROR 57

noticed for the first time a diagram traced got no answer when I knocked, so I
I

do the back of it. let myself in.

It was a pentagram, executed with ex- There was his desk in the far corner, lit-
tremely neat draughtmanship in very thin tered with books and papers as usual, and
lines of what appeared to be green ink. .
there was his old-fashioned wing armchair,
As I studied it, it seemed to stand out in which he spent more time asleep than in
from the paper as though it were embossed. his bed, but there was no sign of him.
And then the paper appeared to fade away Of course, he might be doing some re-
from around it, leaving the pentagram like search in the Museum Reading Room. On
a green wire frame. And the wire began to the other hand he might be out eating in
glow untilthe center nf my vision was noth- one of the neighboring cafes. I presumed
ing but a blankness in which the pentagram he did eat sometimes, though I had never
glowed like a green neon sign, which grew seen him at it. But those were the only
bigger and bigger. reasons that I could imagine would ever
The friendly firelight was being blotted take him out of this room.
-

out. And now there were faces, faces, grin- He took no exercise and had no use for
ning and leering faces pressing all about fresh air. How he managed to find the
me, an increasing crowd, and a green light oxygen to breathe in this place I could
brightening and glowing over everything. never understand. The door and window
The last dwindling remnant of my will were always shut. I walked over to and had
just managed to snap the spell, like the a struggle with the window, but it was quite
wrench with which one sometimes breaks immovable; through years of neglect, win-
out of the hypnosis of a nightmare. And in dow and frame had amalgamated.
that snap, the horrors vanished, and there I sat myself in his armchair glancing idly

I was sitting in the firelight with just an about the room. Every available wall space,
ordinary piece of paper in my hand. from floor to ceiling, was taken up with
But not for long. In a spasm of fear and —
laden bookshelves the famous library on
rage I screwed it into a ball and threw it the black art, demonology, spiritualism, and
into the heart of the fire. There was a brief every aspect of the supernatural. There was
spurt of green flame. It might have been his large double bed in the corner, unmade
a pinch of some chemical in one of the as always, its tangled clothes draping down
logs. on the carpet. The stained old coffee pot
I stayed awake all night, but I was not stood on the hearth, and there were ciga-
troubled further by visions. rette stubs thrown anywhere about the floor.
Standing like a rock in the sea of docu-
THEmorning, I packed my things and ments, letters, files, clippings, pamphlets
rjfled back to London. Dear old dirty and allied paper matter which flowed over
—
but safe Bloomsbury, with the shabby the desk was Spencer's typewriter. There
temple of the British Museum, and the little was a sheet of paper in it half filled with
streets full of foreign dining-rooms and typescript. Curious to learn what Spencer
bookshops, and the captive trees in the was working on now, I got up and had a
grimy squares! look at it.

As soon as I had got resettled in my I found it was page four of a letter ob-
apartment, I marched round to Mecklen- viously addressed to me, so I looked on the
burgh Square to demand of Spencer what desk for the previous sheets and found
the hell? them. As far as the letter went, I read it
Though callers for him were few and with absorption:
far between, he had fitted a Yale lock to
the door of his big bed-sitting-room at the "Dear Bill,
top of the gray house, and he kept the door "1 suppose when this reaches you, you
shut and himself on the other side of it. will be cursing me for a sleepless night.
But he had long trusted me with a key. Probably you will have found the immediate
58 WEIRD TALES
cause of it. If not, this letter will enlighten occupant was a spectroscopist until he—
you, so that you can destroy the said cause went mad and was put away). On a couple
and sleep the sleep of the innocent. of occasions when the spooks were about to
"Consider the humble pentagram. It's appear, I noticed that this prism took on a
become a jolly little figure of fun now palely translucent quality of green. Pro-
good luck, and all that sort of thing. You ceeding according to scientific method, I
might get it in the form of a lucky charm found that the cottage was not haunted if
from a Christmas cracker or see a dozen of the prism was taken away from it. But the
it representing stars in the illustrations to vicinity of the prism was, wherever one
children's fairy story books. took it. I had a rather unpleasant time dis-
"Business men who like playing at secret covering that —
I must tell you about it
societies (which are also good for business) sometime.
use it for a secret recognition symbol be-
tween one member and another. They "T TNFORTUNATELY, I dropped the
copied that trick from the Pythagoreans. I—J prism one day and broke a corner off.
But the Pythagoreans were alive to the And it was never the same again. It became

dread secret they shared, and which they just another piece of glass. But I had taken
kept from the ordinary people. Yet even exact measurements of it, and I kept them.
these philosopher-geometricians were a bit "Years later, I traced, by exhaustive trial
astray upon one point. and error, the cause of another haunting
"Because they traced manifestations to in a residential house on Putney Common
the presence of a pentagram of a certain — to the presence of (of all things!) a
size and shape, they thought that the secret paper-fastener. A triangular one. I took
lay in that certain size and shape. And cer- careful measurements of this, and compared
tainly the same effects were brought about them with the dimensions of that remem-
through using exact duplicates of that orig- bered prism. I knew I had hit upon some-
inal pentagram. thing when I found that its angles —
though
"But the whole secret really lies in just
one triangle of that figure. The surface size
not the area enclosed by them —
corre-
sponded absolutely exactly with the angles
isirrelevant, and the rest of the pentagram of one of the (naturally) triangular ends of
frame redundant. It's the angles of that one the prism, the end I had broken.
triangle which are important. Fashion a "I'm afraid I didn't keep my evidence
triangle with its three angles of sizes I long. I was so troubled by 'dreams and vi-
could give you (though an error amount- sions' as long as it was in my possession that
ing to a second will suffice to make it im- I was finally driven to bending it out of
potent) and you will have a triangle of shape. That made it harmless. A
simple
terror indeed. little action like that.
you that one angle is 36° 47' 29"
"I'll tell "But I found plenty of confirmatory evi-
if you want to play games with trial and dence. That haunted riverside bungalow at
error. When you hit upon the right one Teddington: I removed and destroyed one
and leave it about, you'll start seeing things of those common triangular shelf brackets,
sooner or later. But your chances are small. and got the credit for exorcising the spirits!
It is not an isosceles triangle, but a scalene. Do you know why Burlham Rectory is still
The original pentagram was a very rough known as 'the most haunted house in Bri-
effort, far from symmetrical, and only by tain"? Because I couldn't get permission to
a fluke did it contain this dangerous tri- attack a beam completing a triangle of one
angle. of the gables!
"How did I discover all this? It began "I tell you, you've only got to look around
with my investigation of the haunting of a any of these 'haunted' houses, and know
cottage in Norfolk. connected the phe-
I what you're looking for, and you'll find the
nomena with a small glass
prism which had cause of the trouble sooner or later. It may
been lying about the place (the former be a fortuitous triangle of scratches on the
 THE TRIANGLE OF TERROR 59

-hanger, or even the side of a I repeat — like artists, poets, composers . . .

pepper-pot! But it's always there. like Blake, Shelley, Schumann. You
"When I was making researches into the the idea? 'The musk-
history of the Pythagoreans, I found the tbe dreamers of dreams.'
secret was known to them centuries before "Far more strongly than extrove: .

the time of Christ, only they mistook the terialistic people— I can't imagine
pentagram for the cause and not just the business men having much troubl
triangle contained therein. They used to their pentagrams, even if by a remote chance
practice the rites of raising these unpleasant they hit upon a Pythagorean one —
they re-
apparitions, and then conquering them by act to this touchstone of a triangle. It acts
destroying the sign. They felt purified by as a sort of gateway through which seep
the struggle with evil and uplifted by the ever more strongly the images and ;

symbolic victory over it. I'm not sure, waves of the unconscious, until they tlood
though, that they always had the victory . . . over and submerge the conscious mind al-
And when
c

Naturally, they kept these dark secrets together. that happens to a man
from common men, but the people gradu- we say he is mad. The conscious mind
ally got wind of it, feared and hated them weighs and judges, it is our critical faculty,
as sorcerers and tried to expunge them. it keeps us in balanced relation to the mate-

The persecution reached its height in the rial world. But when it is gone, we are help-
middle of the 5th century B.C.; everywhere less. We will believe in anything that our

the meeting houses of the Pythagoreans unconscious mind believes in, for that
were burned down and any Pythagoreans wholly possesses us now.
found there slain. "Why haven't all great men, like Bee-
"You're probably wondering why a par- thoven, Shakespeare, da Vinci, gone mad?
ticular kind of triangle should cause such Why only a small proportion? I anticipate
phenomena, anyway. So am I. I'm still in- your questions. Well, simply because they
vestigating. never happened to come into juxtaposition
"My own theory at the moment goes like with one of these triangles. But the ones I
this: Firstly, these devils and demons which have listed, and many others that I have
appear have no material existence, and, in not, must have had that triangle somewhere
fact, no existence at all outside your otw about their houses. Or, quite conceivably,
mind! They exist in our unconscious mind, within their own physical body a bone —
memories we are born with, handed down structure or vein formation or some such
from our most primitive ancestors. freak effect.
"Do you remember when you were a "It seems that physical vision of the tri-
child, alone in your own bedroom, trying to angle is not necessary. Extra-sensory per-
sleep, those uneasy times when you imagined ception is pretty firmly established, and I
you saw faces — nasty, glare-eyed, frighten- am inclined to believe that the design is
ing faces — in the darkness of your room? perceived extra-sensorily if it is close at
And when you shut your eyes to escape hand. It seems to exert an hypnotic effect
them, there they were behind your eyelids, on the subject's mind, but in just what man-
clearer than ever? They are the things our ner is yet to be discovered. What are
terror dreams are built upon. thought-waves, anyway, and may not they
"Children see them more than we do, for react only against certain designs, as a cer-
the imagination is so much more active in tain design of antenna? is needed to catch
childhood. In adults it gradually grows television waves? Come to that, what is
moribund and we become creatures of habit. imagination?
But very sensitive and imaginative people, "It is because you are a writer and there-
who live more in their unconscious mind fore have some amount of imagination that
than their conscious one, the introverts, still I sent you my little pu22le —
and pentagram.
see them. It should have had some amusing results,
"Very sensitive and imaginative people, However, I don't think they will have been
60 WEIRD TALES
harmful I had read your books and as- —
him out there was a sort of horrible lu-
sessed the quality of your imagination, and dicrousness about those efforts.
I don't think you need fear the fate of the But when I saw his face I didn't think
writers have mentioned.
I therewas anything in the least funny about
all, once you fully realize that
"After it.Both mouth and eyes were wide open.
these phantoms only emerge from your own (Something about the countenance re-
mind, it should minded me of the cast in the Pompeii
Museum of the poor unfortunate who was
THE
which
letter
I
ended there, in mid-sentence,
thought a little odd.
suffocated in terror beneath the ashes of
the eruption which buried his city.) And
This was the first I had heard of Spencer the irises of the eyes were turned slightly
carrying out practical investigation of haunt- in and upwards like those of a man in an
ings —any sort of action seemed so unlike apoplectic fit. It was a ghastly effect.

him. Had he been called away to one now, And I knew he had been seeking refuge
I wondered? in a blinding animal fear from something
If Spencer had judged the quality of my which had literally scared the life out of
imagination solely from my books, he was —
him. Poor Spencer what an impossible
at fault. I'm not nearly so matter-of-fact as and ridiculous refuge he had flown to! What
the style of those books suggests. That style awful presence had unbalanced such a
is a pose to cover up an almost morbid scholarly mind, broken such a firm char-
sensitivity. I may not be as highly-strung acter, made a tragic clown out of such a
as were any of the writers Spencer had mature and wise man?
listed, but I certainly didn't think last Of course, according to his own theory
night's results "amusing," and I shouldn't he would be very susceptible to these fright-
have lied to predict the outcome if I ening visions from the unconscious, because
hadn't destroyed the pentagram in time. he lived so largely in the recesses of his own
No, when Spencer returned, he was go- mind and was usually more than semi-
ing to find that in me he had reaped a oblivious to his surroundings and his com-
whirlwind. pany.
Meanwhile, I would give him another Yes, his own discovery must have de-
half-hour before I went and had lunch. stroyed him.
I sat down pondering upon the incredible And then I was struck by an appalling
revelations of the letter. Yet from my in- realization. This couldn't have happened
dependent experience, I could not doubt without the imminent presence of that ter-
the truth of them. rible triangle. It must still be somewhere
I wondered whether it was possible to about, in all probability somewhere in this
cure cases of madness caused that way. room.
There was a chance of If I weren't careful Panic thoughts
. . , !

At that moment I caught sight of some- chased about in my brain. I attempted to

thing that sent an electric shock through get a grip upon myself. I stood up. It was
me. The sole of a shoe, just under Spencer's quite obvious what I must do I must go —
large bed, partially hidden by the carelessly straight away and inform the police.
flung bedclothes. And this sole was bal- Was that something moving over there
ancing upright on its toe, a position im- by the door?
possible unless that shoe contained a human
foot. There was somebody lying face-down- TT7HETHER was or not, fear suddenly
it

wards under the bed. VV closed in upon my soul. I felt sick in

I had to force myself to go over and the stomach, and my whole body began to
investigate. It was Spencer, as I had feared, tremble. A
secondary reaction from last
and he was dead. He had forced himself night's horror now joined forces with the
under the bed as far as his bulk would shocks of these fresh discoveries. Images of
allow, and I had a strenuous time getting the triangle I feared kept trying to shape
 THE TRIANGLE OF TERROR 61

in my too lively imagination. I fought to and now I could see details of it that I
keep out of my mind.
it wished I could not. Its dead-white hands
"I must get out of here, I must get out were reaching out ready to clutch and grip.
of here," I was muttering to myself. I It seemed inexorably sure of itself. And,
essayed a rather shaky step towards the adding to my terror, it moved with absolute
door, and then stopped with an indrawn soundlessness. If it breathed, I could not
gasp as though a bucket of very cold -water hear it. It approached me like an image
had been thrown over me. from an old silent nln% a moving shadow.
Between the door and myself stood a "It is a shadow," said one part of my
tall, yet slightly hunched, creature out of mind. "Only a shadow that you are throw-
the worst of my childhood nightmares. A ing."
mad drooling thing, with a face rotten with And another voice was shouting, "The
corruption, with dead blinkless eyes that window! Escape by the window!"
seemed to be gazing past me and yet I knew And another voice was saying, "The
that they were not: in reality, the thing's window is jammed. You can't open it."
whole attention was upon me. But it was My mind was a roaring confusion of
not an intelligent attention. It was the un- divided impulses, all overridden by the
thinking, unreflecting, but blindly eager dominating rush of fear.
attention of the slavering and snuffling vil- I knew that it was disintegrating. That
lage idiot who slowly and deliberately pulls my conscious mind was going to pieces un-
the legs off a spider or takes a knife to a der the strain, and when that salivating
captive sparrow and works unimaginable horror got me I should go screaming mad.
cruelties upon it. As others had gone mad.
And this thing was after me. I made one last desperate effort to clear
Cold sweat broke out upon me. a space in that chaos in which to think
My conscious mind was hammering connectedly.
away: "It isn't real. It isn't real. It won't The This was all happening
triangle.
hurt you. your
It's just own imagination. through the medium of the triangle. I must
You're becoming hypnotized. Break the find it. There was not a moment to lose.
spell.Look away." I must destroy it.
dragged my eyes from it, and my gaze
I Quick, where what —could it be?

fell full upon Spencer lying dead at my Was it a bracket of that pipe rack? I
feet, on his back, his queer eyes seeming tore it down and smashed it. But without
to strive to see his own a
forehead. With looking, I knew that I was still pursued.
sob, I stumbled across him and gained the
,
God, there were a thousand things in
fireplace. I dung to the mantel-shelf, still this room that might contain it!
keeping my gaze averted from the direction I went through a biief fury of breaking

of the door. every suspicious thing I could lay my hands

The stained coffee pot on the hearth was upon, within my limited radius. But still I
—looking up at me. It had become a face, was forced to retreat, until I was pressing
with a grotesque spout of a nose it was — against the desk in the far corner from the
one of the leering faces I had seen last door and, shaking like a paralytic, I could
night. retreat no further.
With a quite uncalculated action, like a I I was beginning to scream voice-
think
reflex kick, I lifted it violently with the toe lessly I scrabbled in mad desperation
as
of my shoe and it went smashing into frag- among the books and papers on the desk,
against the farther wall. my eyes literally bulging with anxiety in
That was an unexpected relief. In sud- their baffled search for something triangu-
den hope I dared a glance towards the door. lar.

But the slobbering, staring thing was as In one convulsive sweep I shot a whole
real and as potentially murderous as ever. heap of the clutter from the desk. It re-
It had advanced considerably towards me, vealed the blotting pad that pile had cov-
62 WEIRD TALES
ered. In the center of the blotting pad was old Spencer had drawn so carefully that
a familiar outline in green ink. The penta- representation of the pentagram he sent me,
gram. he had blotted it on his pad, and never
I knew it was what I sought. I pounced noticed that he had left a perfect reproduc-
on it like a wild animal and ripped it across. tion of those dangerous angles among his
And ripped again. Then I turned around papers.
weakly with the pieces in my hand. That was his undoing. I suppose. I sup-
The thing which had almost had its pose he was frightened to death.
fingers on my throat was gone. The doctor diagnosed coronary throm-
I began to chuckle feebly, and kept tear- bosis, and the coroner saw fit to agree with
ing the blotting pad across and across again, him. Sometimes these days I catch myself
tossing the small pieces in the air; they trying to agree with him, too. It is human
fluttered to the floor like a miniature stage to rationalize.
snowstorm. But I do know that I am never under any
Like Wellington after Waterloo, I kept conditions, going to play about with any tri-
saying to myself: "A near run thing! A angles that include one angle of 36° 47' 29".
near run thing!" In fact, I am allergic to triangles of any
And all because of the fact that when kind.

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 1h t
Amnkey Spoons
BY MARY ELIZABETH COUNSELMAN

faS&i

w
m

THE little shop seemed to have taken "Funeral spoons. . . . What a gift

—g^——^———
the musty, worm-eaten <]uality of
f or a ma „ to his bride!"
furniture and relics it offered for
sale.There was an all-pervasive odor of ^—^——
mildew and decaying wood. Dust motes
whirled in a shaft of sunlight as the street bell above the sedate gold letters: JONA-
door opened, with the hushed tinkle of a THAN SPROULL, ANTIQUES.

Beading by Boris Dolgor

 64 WEIRD TALES
The three young people who entered, crow's-nest tables, hammered brass fire-dogs,
arm in arm, looked as out of place in such old spinning wheels, and a hundred other
a shop as three children at a board meeting. reminders of generations past. Idly they
The girl, a vivacious brunette with a large wandered over to a showcase of antique sil-
diamond solitaire on her left hand, linked —
verware ornate gold-and-silver sugar
—
the two men together one a tall, easy- shells, pickle forks with tiny demons on
going Norse blond, the other small, wiry, the handle, little salt spoons, and graceful
and dark, with sensitive features that re- kris-shaped butter knives. The girl strolled
sembled those of the girl. They stood for away by herself, poking about with quiet
a moment, laughing and chattering together fascination. Presently her eyes fell on a
— but in lowered tones, somewhat subdued small, worn, black velvet case pushed half
by the atmosphere of the old shop. out of sight on a shelf. She leaned to open
"No, no; not three rings, Bob. Rings are it, and called out eagerly:

so trite," the girl was protesting. "What "Look! Oh, Alan—Bob, look! I found
we want is something unusual eh, Alan? — some monkey spoons!" She beckoned to her
Something distinctive to link us three to- brother and fiance, then smiled across the
gether always, like the Three Musketeers,
."
shop at the old proprietor whose sudden —
and remind us of our undying . . look of agitation she failed to notice. "These
She broke off with a stifled gasp as a are monkey spoons, aren*t they, Mr. Sproull?
stooped, wrinkled gnome of a man, a hunch- I've never seen any with a drinking mon-
; back, scuttled out from the shadowy re- key perched on the knop— it's always some-
.
cesses at the rear of the place. There was tiling stylized, a faun or a skull. These must
something spider-like about his appearance, be very old."
until he smiled. Large luminous brown eyes The two men moved to her side, fondly
beamed upon each of them in turn. amused her excitement. The blond one,
at
"I overheard," he murmured in a mellow Bob, looked at the dark one, Alan, and
friendly voice that matched his eyes. "You spread his hands humorously.
1
"
are looking for some little memento?" His "What on earth, he drawled, "are mon-
eyes drifted keenly to the girl. "Soon is key spoons? Alan, if we're going to open
your
"And you and your
—
wedding day yes?" he hazarded.
your brother?
. . . . . .
that antique shop of ours, with my backing
and Marcia's and your experience, you'll
and your fiance wish to buy some antique just have to brief me on these . .
."

curio, in (revolting term!) triplicate? As a

bond of love and remembrance?" rpHE brother and sister started explaining,
The trio glanced at one another, jaws J- both at once, interrupting each other.
dropping. They gave up, laughing. Then suddenly
"Why — yes!"
must be psychic!"
the girl laughed. "You Mr. Sproull stepped forward, edging unob-
trusively between the three young people
"Observation, merely observation and and the black velvet box.
deduction," the old proprietor chuckled "Monkey spoons," he explained diffident-
pleasantly. "I have very little trade here, ly, "were presented by the old Dutch pa-
worse luck, and much time to meditate! . . . troons to honored guests and relatives, as
Now, what did you have in mind? Three late as the 17th Century. They were memen-
identical snuffboxes, 17th Cen-
perhaps? toes of —
some occasion a funeral, most
tury? Or what about lockets, Renaissance often. As you can see from these very fine
Italian, with your pictures in each? I have specimens —
." Skillfully, he steered the trio

some that fold open in three sections. Two away to another showcase, shutting the black
of them could be worn as watchfobs, of velvet box behind him with a furtive ges-
course," he smiled at the two utterly unlike ture. "These," he pointed out one set of
but congenial young men. five, "are typical. Note the wide, shallow,

They grinned back at him, wandering fluted bowl of the spoon —

very thin silver
curiously among the cluttered displays of — bearing a hammered-out picture symbolic
 THE MONKEY SPOONS 65

of funerals: a man on horseback delivering drinking monkey are very rare aren't they, —
the invitations, with a churchyard in the Mr. Sproull? There are only three of
background. These bear a likeness of St. these
Michael, weigher of souls on Judgment Her face lighted, and she whirled about
Day. This one has a picture of a mourner at a sudden idea.
weeping over a cinerary urn ."
. . "Oh! Why don't we choose these for
"Br-r! Cheerful little trinkets, aren't our keepsakes? I could have mine made into
they?" Bob laughed, resting one hand on a scarf pin, Bob. Yours and Alan's could
Alan's shoulder and sliding his other arm be watchfobs, or you could have them
about his fiancee's waist. "Mean to say they welded on silver cigarette cases! Some
passed out these tilings at funerals, like old Dutchman's funeral spoons! Wouldn't
flowers at a party?" that be just too gruesome and clever? And,"
"Not exactly." Mr. Sproull smiled. "They she added eagerly, "we can call our antique
were hung around the rim of the punch shop The Three Spoons and people
—
bowl at the Dood Feest 'dead feast.' Some- will drop in by the droves just to ask us
. . .

thing like the Irishman's wake. small sil- A why! .Bob, darling, please buy them!"
. .

ver lozenge, the seal, was always welded Her fiance grinned at her fondly, winked
at the center of the handle, engraved with at her discomforted brother, and reached
the name of the deceased, and the dates of for his checkbook with a light shrug.
his birth and death. The handles are quite "All right, my precious, all right! Any-
slender, as you see. They curl backwards thing your foolish little heart desires. . . .

like the end of a violin to form the knop But, funeral spoons!" He roared with
—on which is mounted a silver faun, or a amusement. "What a gift from the groom
skull, or . .
." to the bride! Mr. Sproull, how much are
"Or a monkey?" the girl asked eagerly. you asking for . . .
?"
"Why 'monkey' spoons, Mr. Sproull?" She He broke off, caught by the expression
drifted over to the black box again and on the face of the hunchbacked antique
picked up one spoon. "I've always won- dealer. Mr. Sproull looked frightened. There
dered why they're called that." was no mistaking that quiver about his
"That," the old dealer shrugged his mouth, or the agitation in his kindly old
humped shoulders, "is an enigma among eyes.
antique experts. One theory is that the mon- "I . . . I . . Wouldn't you prefer some-
.

key was simply a symbolic invitation to come thing less expensive?" he blurted. "Those
and be gay at the Dood Feest. 'Eat, drink, particular spoons are . almost a collector's
. .
.'
and be merry,' you know, 'for tomorrow . . item. Besides," he added in an oddly loud
Zuiging der monkey was an old Dutch ex- tone, "they are not mine to sell, really.
pression meaning 'to get drunk' ." . . They are not mine!"
"Ugh!" Marcia's delicate nose wrinkled in He emphasized the words queerly, and
distaste. "I certainly wouldn't want every- glanced toward the dark rear of the shop
body getting soused at my funeral! They'll as though he were speaking for the benefit
just have to sit around and cry soberly, or of some skulking eavesdropper whom they
they'll get no monkey spoons from me! Re- could not see.
member that, now, Bob!" She laughed and "The former owner," he lowered his
planted a kiss on her fiance's cheek. voice again in apology, "was a Mrs. Haver-
"Hush!" Her brother, the more sensitive sham, an elderly widow. Her heirs have
of the two men, shuddered visibly. "Marcia, not yet been located. She . she died in- . .

don't be so morbid! People shouldn't joke testate about a month ago, shortly after buy-
." ing the set of four monkey spoons at an
about . .

"Who's morbid?" the girl laughed more auction. She kept one spoon, and left three
gaily, winking at Bob. "Oh, Alan, you're of them with me to sell for her at a profit.
a sissy! Do come and look at these darling Merely as her agent," he emphasized sharp-
monkey spoons over here. Those with the ly, with another odd glance toward a pax-
66 WEIRD TALES
iicularly dark corner. "She kept a fourth hundred for the set, if you insist on buying
spoon, not wanting to part with her entire it . But I must tell you this, although
. .

collection. She . . she was asphixiated in . I am sure you young people will laugh at

her garage," he added with apparent ir- —

me or perhaps be even more intrigued by
relevance. "Carbon monoxide gas from her these these devilish spoons! You see,
. . .

car. An accidental death, of course!" he said they . ,

" Mr. Sproull gulped. "They are
quickly, again with that nervous glance into supposed to be cursed."
the shadows. The two men did laugh, but the girl's
face lighted up. She clapped her hands, as

THE girl Marcia, her fiance Bob, and her pleased as a child with its first jack-o-lan*
brother Aian looked at one another sig- tern.
nificantly. The old hunchback was certainly "Oh — a curse! How marvelous! Why
peculiar, to say the least! borderline men- A didn't you tell us before? Now I simply
tal Bob's raised eyebrows suggested.
case, must have them!"
With a glance at his fiancee's disappointed The old hunchback nodded, and shrugged.
expression, he became brisk and business- "As I predicted," he murmured, then
like. doggedly: "The spoons are mementoes of
—
"Well you have the legal right to sell
the spoons, though. And collect your com-
the funeral of an old Dutch patroon
Schuyler Van Grooten; you'll see his name
mission," he pointed out shrewdly. "How —
on the seals who owned and tenant-farmed
much?" about half of the Connecticut Valley in the
"Ah . . . five hundred dollars," Mr. 1600's. Mrs. Haversham had an old Dutch
Sproull murmured, then added with a man- diary written by one of his ancestors; I was
ner of pleading: "That's exorbitant, of able to translate only a few pages when I
course, and I can find you something much called at her home, but ... It seems there
more attractive for the price!" were thirteen spoons originally. Rather a
"Exorbitant—you can say that again! For significant unlucky number, as the patroon
three little spoons?" the blond young man was secretly murdered by friends and rela-
whislled good-humoredly, but uncapped his tives who would inherit his estate. One by
fountain pen. one, the story goes, he caused six guilty
"Er .that's five hundred dollars
. . —
ones to die exactly as he himself had died.
apiece." Mr. Sproull said hurriedly. "For The remaining owners of the monkey
each spoon. . Now, I'm sure you wouldn't
. . spoons became frightened finally and gave
care to pay so much for a ... a whim! theirs away, thereby escaping his vengeance.
Let me just show you ...*'" But .
." .

Bob set his jaw stubbornly, giving the "But anybody who owns the spoons in*
old dealer an oblique look. herits the curse? Is that it?" Marcia cried
"Mr. Sproull, don't you want to make delightedy. "Alan, isn't it exciting? Oh
this sale? Look. If you're trying to run up Bob, do give Mr. Sproull a check before
the price," he snapped, "just because my somebody comes in and buys our haunted
fiancee has taken such a fancy to .
." He . spoons right out from under our noses!"
broke off, grinned abruptly, and spread his The antique dealer looked at her, and
hands in rueful defeat. "All right, you old sighed. He saw the girl's brother bite his
pirate! Fifteen hundred it is!" He smiled lips, frowning. But the blond young man

indulgently at the girl beside him, who was grinned at his fiancee, and wrote out a check
shaking her head violently. "If it's some- for the three Opening the
monkey spoons.
thing you really want, darling, you shall black velvet box, he presented one of the
have it." spoons to Marcia with an exaggerated bow.
Old Mr. Sproull sighed deeply, with a The second he gave to Alan, holding it over
tone of resignation rather than of satisfac- his wrist like a proffered rapier. The third
tion. spoon he thrust carelessly into the pocket
"The price," he said heavily, "is five of his tweed coaL
 THE MONKEY SPOONS 67

Then, laughing at his horse-play, Marcia drowned yesterday —November 3rd, 1949!
offered an arm to each of the two young The death-date engraved on that damned
men, and they marched out together, whis- . . How the devil did you get hold of
.

tling in harmony, into the sunlit street. Alan's spoon?" He towered over the old
Behind them, old Mr. Sproull although — cripple threateningly. "You . sadistic old . .

he was not a very devout Catholic crossed — . . You took that seal off, didn't you?
. !

himself. He ran a finger around under his And welded the new one on, just to . . .

collar and inhaled noisily, aware all at once to stir up some freak publicity and boom
of the extreme stuffiness of his little shop. trade for your crumby little shop! But,
It was unusually close in here today, he Alan!" he ground out through clenched
thought; almost stifling. He scurried to a teeth. "Why did you have to pick on Alan?
window and flung it open, gulping in lung- Because you knew he was moody and sus-
fuls of cool autumn air . . . as if, for some ceptible to suggestion? Because you knew
reason, he found it terribly bard to breath. he'd brood over your little hoax, not telling
us? His painting wasn't going well lately

IT WAS almost closing time, about a week

later, when the bell over his door tinkled
... so you thought it would be a cinch to
drive him to suicide! Out there in the lake
again and two of the attractive young three- he ... he just stopped swimming
yesterday,
some walked into his shop. Mr. Sproull and went under. When I got his clothes
scuttled forward to meet them, beaming in I found this damned
from the locker room,
recognition. But his smile faded at sight of spoon you changed! Like a death-sen-
!"
the grim expression on the blond man's face, tence . . .

and the stunned, swollen-eyed look of the Mr. Sproull gasped, looking first at the
pretty girl. She had been crying, the old dead youth's angry friend, then at his griev-
dealer saw —
and Bob, her fiance, was tight- ing sister.

lipped and cold with anger. "Oh! Oh nol" he protested. "My dear
"Yes?" Mr. Sproull murmured hesitantly. young people, you surely don't accuse me
"You . . were not satisfied with your pur-
. of ... ? You're upset. Who wouldn't be?
chase?" An odd look of hope leaped into It's the curse," he said quietly. "Remember,

his eyes. "You wish to return the spoons, I did my best to warn you .
."
.

perhaps? Of course, I shall be glad to re- "To plant your story, you mean!" the
fund your . . ." young man snarled. Glaring at him furious-
For answer, the blond young man thrust ly, he lead the girl toward the door. "Come

one of the delicate little monkey spoons on, darling, I might have known we'd get
under his nose, pointing to the tiny silver no satisfaction out of this this cold- . . .

seal welded at the center of the handle. blooded old ghoul! But let me tell you," . . .

"Is this your idea of a joke?" he snapped. he threw back furiously at the antique
The antique dealer blinked, and, putting dealer, "when I locate the engraver who
on an old-fashioned pair of square lensed changed that inscription, or find out how
spectacles, peered at the spoon. The blood you learned Alan's birth date ... I'll come
ebbed slowly from his face. back here and kill you!"
"I ... I don't understand," he stam- The door slammed with an agitated jingle
mered. "When I sold them to you, the in- of the little bell. Mr. Sproull stood for a
scriptions read: Schuyler Van Grooten, Born moment, wringing his hands miserably. He
August 3, 1586, Died June 8, 1631. But had liked those three light-hearted young
now . , . now it reads Alan Fentress, Born people on sight, and would not for the
Sept. 14, 1924; Died Nov. 5, 1949 . . . world have wished harm to befall any of
Why," he broke off, "that's yesterday!" them. But there were forces a crippled
. . .

A sob burst from the girl, and she buried old man could not combat! Forces older
her face against her fiance's shoulder, weep- than any item in his musty little shop. Older
ing wildly. Bob glared at Mr. Sproull. than logic. Older than time . . .

"Yes!" he said harshly. "And Alan was "Oh, dear heaven!" the hunchback
68 WEIRD TALES
moaned, "Why
didn't I tell them to give rowed. He said not a word, but the ominous
those other two spoons away? Melt them click of the safety catch on his gun was
—
down, bury them anything! If that diary eloquent enough. Yet there was more pity
had only told how Van Grooten died, per- than terror in Mr. Sproull's face.
haps I could have warned them to avoid. "Ohhl" His murmur of shocked sym-
. .But there were only hints! The writer
. pathy had a genuine ring. "H-how did
never did come out and say. But that . . . she .
.?" .

young man is intelligent. Perhaps lie could "My fiancee," the young man grated
come to some conclusion that I've bitterly, "was terribly grief-stricken at her
missed
He
. .
.!"

turned and ran for the telephone

brother's death
didn't you? You insane, twisted
— you figured on
.1" His .
that, too,
.

directory, leafing through it hastily to find voice broke on a sob of impotent rage.
the names Fentress or Milam, the signature "Alan and Marcia were inseparable; we
on the young man's check. For an hour he three were, in fact. Marcia couldn't sleep,
clung to the phone, calling every Fentress so last night she took a big dose of sleep-
and Milam in the book but there was no — ing pills. While . .
." He gulped, then
"Robert" Milam. Mr. Sproull tried the plunged on miserably, "While she was
hotels, then the funeral homes to trace the drugged, a ... a very large beauty pillow
dead brother, Alan. Finally he hung up, on her bed fell over her face, somehow.
defeated, concluding that they were all She ... It wasn't the sleeping pills; she
from out of town. He sat staring at the . .smothered to death! The coroner called
.

telephone then, wringing his wrinkled old it an accident," he lashed out. "But I call

hands in the helpless anguish of one who it murder! You murdered Alan, too! I can't

cm only wait wait ... for disaster.

. . . prove it, but I surely as hell can .!" . .

But the period of waiting was not long. With a sob he leveled the gun at the old
antique dealer's heart, his mouth working
THREE days noon, the door-
later, just at with hate and grief. At sight of his tor-
bell tinkled again. Mr. Sproull looked tured young face, Mr. Sproull dabbed at
up from a six-branched candelabra he was his eyes, oblivious to his own danger.
polishing, to see a disheveled figure sway- "My poor, unfortunate young friend!"
ing a few feet from him. It was Bob he murmured pityingly. "You can't believe
Milam, his face drawn and covered with I would cause such tragedy, for a few
a stubble of beard, his eyes bloodshot and paltry dollars? I did not change those seals
puffy from drinking. In his hand he held — but I can not hope to persuade anyone
an ugly little automatic. as matter-of-fact as yourself to believe in
Mr. Sproull caught his breath, and stood ... in the supernatural. The diary recounts
very still. Then, despite his own fear, he that that, when each guest at Van
. . .

burst out: Grooten's Dood Feest died, their spoons

"Oh, my poor young friend! The . . . changed, too! Mrs. Haversham's seal altered
tbe second spoon? Your fiancee?" . . . also —
the lawyer found it later among her
The blond man's mouth twisted with effects, but assumed it to be the grim jest
."
pain and bitterness. For reply, he flung an- of some house-servant . .

other of the monkey spoons at the old Bob Milam snorted derisively. But the
dealer's feet. Mr, Sproull stooped to pick murderous anger in his eyes ebbed slowly,
it up. He paled, and nodded. The tiny oval and the gun in his hand wavered.
seal on the handle was engraved to read: "You're insane," he said heavily. "May-
be you don't even realize you changed those
Marcia Fentress seals. Maybe your twisted mind really be-
Born April 17, 1927 lieves all that silly guff about some old . . .

Died November 6, 1949 Dutchman who ..."

His shoulders slumped all at once. He
At the old man's nod, Bob's eyes nar- swayed, passing one hand over his bleary
 THE MONKEY SPOONS 69

eyes. The gun in his other hand clattered had whistled down a passing cab and was
to (he floor. Suddenly he snatched the mori- climbing into it. The old hunchback hur-
on and flung it down the furnace ried to the curb and strained to catch the
grating. address. But the young man was only tell-
"Insane," he mumbled. "I ... I can't ing the driver, wearily:
shoot a crazy, crippled old man in cold "Drive around. Just drive. Anywhere
blood! But . . . Oh, why did you do it?" ... I don't care."
he groaned, staring at the hunchback. The antique dealer's arms dropped to
"Why, Mr. Sproull? Why? My best friend, his sides limply in defeat. He watched the
and then my fiancee? I'd gladly have signed tixi speed out of sight, then turned slowly
over my whole bank account to you, if it and walked slowly, thoughtfully, back into
was money you . . .!" his shop.
"Oh, please!" the antique dealer cried
out in despair. "You must believe that I THE evening paper, left under his door
had no part in to phone you,... I tried as usual, carried the story. A taxi was
to warn you! Triedto figure out the man- ambling along 187th Street, where wreck-
ner cti you could avoid
death, so But . . . ers were busy razing an old warehouse.
they all died so differently! Mrs. Haver- Somehow the dynamite charge went off
sham, asphyxiated. Your friend, drowned. sooner than was intended and a crum- . . .

And your lovely fiancee ." The old man's . . bling wall of bricks and mortar fell on
eyes widened suddenly. "Ah! Now I un- the cab as it passed. The cabby managed
derstand! It's true! It all ties together . . . to dig his way out. But the single passenger,
Listen to me!" an intoxicated young man identified as one
Bob Milam had turned unsteadily to- Robert Milam of New Jersey, could not be
ward the door, but Mr. Sproull sidled after pulled out of the wreckage for almost an
him like a small persistent crab and seized hour. He was dead when frantic workmen
him by the arm. did finally reach him not crushed, but—
"No, no! Wait! You must listen!" he trapped without air in the rear seat of the
gasped. "The diary mentioned that Schuy- taxi cab . . .

ler Van Grooten was subject to 'sleeping And in his pocket the police found a
fits' — and
a cataleptic. His intimate friends peculiar-looking spoon, inscribed with his
relatives must have known that, but . . . name, the date of his birth and the very —
but they wait!" he begged. "Your mon-
. . . date of his death!
key spoon, where is it? You must give it Mr. Sproull finished reading, then took
away! At ttnce!" the old dealer insisted off his square-Icnsed glasses and polished
excitedly. "To ... to some impersonal them with a hand that trembled. There was
agency. The Scrap-metal Drive yes, that's — nothing, he mused philosophically, really
nothing at all that he could have done to
it! Get it out of your possession, or you,

too, will So much hate, such hunger

. . . ! save those three nice young people, who
for revenge hovers about them! Like a had all three died the same way fighting —
piece of metal that has been magnetized, for breath; smothered to death by one
they can actually draw disaster to anyone agency or another. Just exactly as Mrs.
who ..." Haversham had died, in her exhaust- filled
But at that moment the blond young garage.
man jerked his arm loose and plui And just as, centuries ago, an old Dutch
into the street, wanting only to get away patroon, one Schuyler Van Grooten, had
from this crazy old man who had caused died —clawing and screaming and gasping
him so much grief in the space of a few for breath in his coffin, awakened from one
short days. Mr. Sproull pattered after him, of his cataleptic trances to find that his
calling excitedly for him to wait. But by greedy heirs had deliberately buried him
the time he reached the curb, Bob Milam alive . . .
^^*
/k the End of _the Corridor i

Heading by John Giunta

BY
EVANGELINE WALTON

WHENEVER Philip Martin felt

like being funny he would say
that he was & professional grave- "Some day you may rob
tet^t. If people looked properly shocked one grave too many."
 AT THE END OF THE CORRIDOR 75

he would add, "I began with a king's while he was alive, what he knew and be-
grave," and then grin. A
mild joke, not in lieved. On what his background was.
the best of taste perhaps, but then every- Among simple yet ancient peoples, who are
thing about Philip was mild; his nearsighted
brown eyes, his tall, shambling frame, his survivals
—
still near the source of things, there are

" He rambled on, learnedly yet

face that never had been quite young. Even drunkenly, about primeval man, about vi-
his shy way of showing off, of hoping, a sion and gifts that his modern descendants
little wistfully, that he could shock people had lost. Until Philip got very bored, and
or make them laugh. took too many drinks.
As a matter of fact, His Majesty the King He had a headache next morning, when
had been dead about 3,000 years when he boarded the plane for Athens. But it was
Philip and his father, the late and distin- only the beginning of his headaches. For
guished James K. Martin, Ph.D., had dug when he reached the little seaside village
him up. It is generally considered respect- that had been the site of Dragoumis' work
able to rob a man's grave if he has been he found — nothing. Only the few tholoi
dead long enough. The Martins, father and that the great Greek had first found and
son, had always made a most correct and explored were still visible. The bulk of that
respectable thing of grave-robbing, just as underground collection of mysterious My-
they had of everything else they turned cenean tomb-chambers had vanished as if
their well-kept, somewhat dry Bostonian the hills out of whose sides they had been
hands to. That anything could ever change carved had swallowed them up again.
this (or indeed his own prim, proper per- It seemed strange, in spite of the disaster
sonal life) Philip never dreamed when he that had come upon Dr. Dragoumis and his
setout for Greece to carry on the work of co-workers; the guerrilla warfare that had
the late Dr. Kimon Dragoumis. He was raged for years afterward through this grim
contemptuously amused when, at a farewell land, of sea and mountains, and was still
dinner, a slightly tipsy Parisian savant said uncomfortably near. So near, in fact, that it
to him: had taken Philip years to get his own per-
"Some day you may rob one grave too mit to dig.
many, my friend." A landslide had covered the excavations;
Philip grinned. "You mean curses? That that was all he could learn. Though some
old tripe about ancient tombs having in- of the villagers must have known the ap-
visible guardians?" proximate location of the buried sites they
M. de Lesseps smiled. "You think me a would tell him nothing. They acted either
foolish old man, hem? Not all ancient sullen or blandly ignorant — too ignorant.
things are toothless. Yet you may be wise, He had a queer and unreasonable feeling
my young friend. Perhaps it -is safer to rob that they were afraid.
the tombs of the ancient dead, of those Sophoulis, the local school-teacher, ad-
who have had time to forget their wrongs. vised him to go to Mme. Dragoumis, "She
When I was young I too went to Greece, to may still have some of her husband's papers,
Maina where the old blood is purest, to kyrie."
write a book. But I saw what I dared not "You mean she still lives here?" Philip
write. There are dead there who need no asked in surprise. He had heard of Mme.
curses —they can act\" He shuddered and Dragoumis as one of the famous beauties
crossed himself. of the Balkans, a very gay and fashionable
Philip said indulgently, "If dead men woman, much younger than her husband.
could walk because they had reason for re- "In of
that island villa theirs?"
venge, a lot of them would have done it "She will not leave it, kyrie. Not for an
these last few years. The men who died in hour. Not once since that night the doctor
concentration camps, for instance." died has she set foot on the mainland. She
The savant said seriously, "That depends says that her husband is still alive —
that she
on the man, my friend. On what he studied must be there to greet him if he returns,"
76 WEIRD TALES
"She dares not leave it," Mrs. Sophoulis by moonlight, pacing the cliffs above the
said with a hard little smile. "Her family sea, and looking out toward his home across
has been worried about her, and once they the waters."
even sent doctors to take her away, but she Her husband laughed a littie uneasily.
locked herself in her room and said she "Our peasants hereabouts are still very
would kill herself if they broke the doors They can see anything."
superstitious, kyrie.
down — that it would be better to die that "So it seems," said Philip dryly. "You
way than to go ashore." think that Mine. Dragoumis might be able
Philip felt a little apprehensive. The lady to help me then?"
might not be sane enough to be of any help "Shewouldnot!"Mrs. Sophoulis snorted.
to him. "She never knew anything about it; she
"Ithought the Nazis shot Dr. Dra- took no interest in it. Or in anything but
goumis," he said. parties and young men. She stays on the
"So it is said. None knows," Sophoulis island now only because she is afraid not —
said heavily. "They suspected him of hiding for love of her dear dead husband, poofl
arms, arms smuggled in from British sub- Keep away from her, kyrie; she is bad luck,
marines; and perhaps he was. Or perhaps that one."
he had found tombs in which there were Sophoulis' fist pounded the table. "Be
precious tilings —
treasures that he feared still, woman! None has any right to speak

the Nazis might carry off to Germany. Cer- against Kyria Dragoumis; I have told you
tainly he was doing something that he that I will have no idiotic women's gossip
wished to keep secret. He was a giant who in my house."
could outdig any of his men, and toward There was evidently some local feeling
the last he dug oftenest by moonlight and — against Mme. Dragoumis, Philip thought as
alone." he left. Possibly only among the women;
"It must have been the tombs themselves Sophoulis was clearly either too fair-minded
that he wished to protect," Philip said or too cautious to lend himself to it. Yet
stiffly. "No true scientist would risk such what fear could they possible think kept
monuments of tiie past by storing arms in Mme. Dragoumis on the island surely —
them." government guards could have kept her safe
"Who knows, kyrie? A true patriot will from any guerrilla ambush? The whole bus-
risk anything. At was talk. Too
least there iness was a puzzle. Why should Dragoumis
much talk. Perhaps even someone who have been fool enough, that night, to at-
wished to talk too much. So the Nazis tempt escape? He could not have hidden
waited for him, that night at the villa. anything incriminating in the tombs. "At-
Kyria Dragoumis says that they shot him tempted escape" was an age-old, trite pre-
as he was escaping through the French win- text to cover murder; but why should
dows, but that so great was his strength anybody have wanted to murder Dragoumis,
that he ran on, with their bullets in him. a scientist who had surely had too much
And later, when they searched the tholo't sense to take any interest in anything but
where they thought he might be hiding, the his work?
mountain itself slid forward and covered Well, it was none of his business. What
—
them yes, the very mountains seemed
angry that the invaders should dare go pok-
concerned him was to find a way into those
lost Mycenean vaults without blasting holes
ing about among their bowels. It took them in their sides while he was at it. He took a
two days to dig out the bodies of their boat and had himself rowed out to the
Gestapo men, kyrie." island. To the little landing-stage from
which broad steps led up to a white villa
MRS. SOPHOULIS cut in excitedly, her above the sea; a villa set like a pearl upon
dark eyes bright, "But they never a terrace made green and silver by the foli-
found the doctor, kyrie! And some of our age of orange and olive trees.
people say that they have seen him since, Or so he thought until he saw Anthi
 AT THE END OF THE CORRIDOR
Dragoumis and knew the difference be- "Then why would he stay away from
tween pearl and setting. Between life and you?" Philip muttered.
mere existence. She looked up at him very seriously then,
She was a beauty. She was delight, and her eyes gone grave. "Because, that last
—
wonder, and youth the youth that Philip night, he accused me of betraying him to
had never had. She set fire to the dry man the Nazis. Because the officer who came to
as flame fires tinder. arrest him was young and very handsome
And she was gracious to him, she was a man I had danced with several times in
kind. Yes, she still had some of her hus- Athens." She shivered. "But he was not
band's papers, she would show them to him, handsome when they dug him out from
and search for more. He could help her under the mountain, after he had tried to
search if he liked. He did. He went again follow my husband into the ancient tombs."
and again to that villa on the island. He Philip stared at her in horror. "You don't
rilled his eyes and ears with her; with the mean that Dragoumis did have explosives
soft music of her voice, with the curves of in there set them off
and deliberately that —
her body, that made softer music whenever he'd have destroyed tholoi just to kill a
she moved. With the warm red of her lips, few men?"
and the depths of her shining eyes. She laughed. "Not a few men, no. One
And then one day she let him fill his man —
the man he thought had taken me
arms . . . from him. You would not do that, would
He tried, after that, to get her to marry you, my archaeologist, my ruin-lover? After
him and go away with him. "Your husband all,it was Kimon, my poor, aging Kimon,

is He has been dead these five

dead, Anthi. who loved me best."
years. Itcannot hurt you to accept that now. Suspicion stabbed him suddenly, like a
You do not love him any more." knife twisting in his flesh. He shook her.
But she shook her head. "He was not too "Did you love the German then, Anthi? He
badly hurt that night; he rowed himself was younger than your husband, too and —
back to the mainland. He was a peasant, so handsome!"
—
born in a hut in Maina not civilized, like But that insulted her. She stormed at
you and me, for all his learning. He was him, she raged and wept until he practi-
very strong, Philip; strong like the men of cally had to go down on his knees and
an earlier world. It would be hard for him apologize to her. Until suspicion faded,
to die" became a shameful outrage that he dared
not even remember.
JEALOUSY leapt in him. So that was When she was quiet again lie tried once
it — Dragoumis' brute strength had daz- more to persuade her that her husband must
zled her, his hard peasant heritage! That be dead. "No living man could have stayed
was what she liked in a man. He said away from you so long. Whatever he was
roughly, "If he's alive, why hasn't he come fool or mad enough to believe for the
back to you? What
could he have been
afraid of, after the Nazis left? Afraid
moment he could not
ful,
—
you are so beauti-
Anthi!" But she only wept again and
enough to make him stay away from a wife shivered.
like you?" He kissed her, hard and savagely. "You did not know Kimon, my Philip.
He strained her close, trying to hurt her, to I did." She peered nervously over her
prove that he too was strong. shoulder, at the shadows that seemed to
She laughed up into his face and stroked have grown, blacker, over the bed. "He was
his cheek. "You would not stay away from so strong, Philip. He was like the giant
me, would you, my Philip? Don't worry; who could not die so long as he could touch
I love you more than I ever loved him. You his mother, the earth. Nothing could ever
are much younger than he was. Though he kill him completely, here in his own hills.
loved me very much; as much as you could I think that he is still waiting somewhere,
ever do." inside the mountain, in his tholoi —
waiting.
78 WEIRD TALES
watching for me. That is why I never dare thing not so simple as a stake, he thought
set foot on the mainland. Why I never can —something horrible
unless he is found —
and laid." She pressed herself closer against him.
Philip stared at her blankly. "But even She whispered, "It will not be so hard. I
if he were there, Anthi —
a madman, in can tell you where to find the last tomb he
hiding, getting food somehow —
he'd have —
found the greatest, the royal tholos, the
stolen a boat arid come out here long ago. one he said he kept secret for fear the Nazis
You must see that." would loot it."

She looked very straight at him then. "You think he would have gone there,
Her eyes were pits of blackness, blacker knowing that you knew the place?" Philip
than the shadows. Her voice was hushed, laughed harshly.
almost a whisper: "There are those who "He would have, to save what he could.
cannot cross water." He loved it more than anything, even me.
For a minute he did not understand. Night after night he used to tell me of it,

Then his face went whiter, than hers. With to describe his precious day's work when I

an incredulous, yet comprehending horror. wanted to sleep. But now at last that will
For now at last he knew. Evil things could be useful. It will help you to find him, and
—
not cross water the unalive yet undead then you will cut off his arms and legs
could not, the terrible vrykolakes of Greek so that he will have no feet to follow us,
belief. no hands to strike us!"
All these years she had been lying, all Philip said bitterly, "Do you want to tie
these years she had believed her husband them under his armpits, as murderers used
dead! A man no longer, but a thing of to do in Solon's time? Are you mad, Anthi?
supernatural evil, an avenger who was seek- I am, to listen to you."
ing her. She flung back her head, her eyes hard
Why? About what else had she lied? with suspicion, "No, I do not want them
But she had risen, she was coming toward tied under his armpits. I want them brought
him. Her eyes held his. Their warm bright- here to me, tonight! There arc signs by
ness was all around him, and her arms were —
which I shall know them do not think that
round his neck. you can deceive me. If I do not get them
"You will do that for me, my Philip?
You will find him and lay him, so that we
I will never marry you
touch me again!"
—
you shall never

can go away together and be married? So

that we can forget him and love each other, NIGHT found Philip on the mountain-
always?" She pressed her cheek against his. side; high above the lights of the
"You will set me free from fear. You w ill r
village. He had one man with him, a big
do that for your Anthi, Philip? For me?" fellow with the brawn of an ox and almost
Her lips moved along his cheek softly, as few brains. He came from another vil-
touched his ear. lage, and if by any unlucky chance he
He stood quite still in her arms. He said should see Dr. Dragoumis' body he would
hoarsely, "How could I find him, even if not recognize it. He had said nothing, only
he were there?" looked scared and crossed himself when
She said softly, almost crooning, "You Philip had explained the need for this
will find him. You will lay him. For your secret digging by night.
Anthi. For me." "There may be treasures in this tomb,
He did not answer. He stood there hor- Costa, golden things that it would be risky
rified, trying to think. In England and in to let the guerrillas hear of. Though there
Poland they used to bury the unquiet dead is probably nothing but pottery and old
with stakes through their hearts. To keep stones. And perhaps fragments of some old
them down, to keep them from walking. king's —
body if it is not well-preserved I
What had been done to such dead men in mav bring them up."
Greece? He could not remember. Some- Costa would not be surprised, now, if
 AT THE END OF THE CORRIDOR 79

he saw pieces of a corpse. Philip gagged at But then she would laugh at his weak-
the thought, It would hardly look human ness. And she would be right. Was it not
now, after so many years in the musty dark. weakness?
Or would it? Philip did not know. He He answered Costa's proposition shortly:
shuddered. How could Anthi be afraid of "No." He set his teeth and plunged his
such a thing, lying there helpless, horrible spade into the earth. Hard, with renewed
in its rottenness and decay; pitiful because vigor. And suddenly the spade struck hol-
of the very hideousness that cancelled its lowness; sank into the earth as if hands had
onetime humanity? readied up from below and seized it. A
She was waiting for him now, below, in dislodged pebble went rattling on down
a boat about a hundred yards offshore. She inside the hole, down, down, into gulf-like
had to come so far to show him which par- space.
ticular cragcovered the buried entrance to Costa crossed himself again and gasped,
the dromos, to that great passageway lead- —
"May the Panagia may the Virgin and all
ing into the mountain's heart. He had ex- the blessed saints preserve us!"
pected her to go back after that, but she was Earth and massive stones fell together
still there, her boat a tiny dark speck upon with a great thud. A
pit opened, almost
the moonlit waters. Waiting vulture-like, beneath their feet. The Greek cried out and
eager for her prey. jumped back. But Philip laughed. His eyes
She was grimly thorough, he thought. were shining. He forgot Anthi; he forgot
Ancient murderers were supposed to have Dragoumis. This was what he had come to
been satisfied with cutting off their victims' Greece to find; the discovery he had
hands and feet, but she could imagine the dreamed for years of making; this was tri-
corpse running after her fleetly on the umph and fulfilment!
stumps of footless legs, catching and crush- He dug feverishly; he urged Costa on
ing her in handless arms, in an embrace that with both praise and curses. Until the hole
would break the bones lay like a wide-open mouth at their feet, a
He shuddered again, mopped his fore- mouth blacker, more thickly solid, than the
head. Easy for a man to have fancies here, blackness of the night.
amid all this bleak wilderness of rock. Philip tied a rope to the lantern. He
"What is it? Are you tired, kyrie?" asked lowered it into the pit and leaned over,
Costa hopefully. "We have been digging watching course after course of great stone
almost four hours now. You could go down blocks appear and disappear as its golden
to the boat, to the lady. Did she bring wine eye sank deeper, farther into the dark. At
for us, kyrie?" last it came upon a rock floor many
to rest
Philip hesitated. He was tired, and the feet below, making a tiny brilliant island
light was very bad. He had expected the there.
moon be bright tonight, to make the
to Philip took an axe, a flashlight, and some
mountain almost as light as day. But in- cloths, set another rope around his waist
stead, though it shone clear and bright upon and prepared to follow the lantern.
the sea, some trick of cloud-shadows cut it "Wait here, Costa. When I jerk the
off from the slopes, shrouded them in pitch. rope raise me."
He and Costa had to work by lantern-light, He wondered fleetingly why he had said
and they kept the lantern muffled, for feat that. Surely it would have been simpler to
it might be seen from the village below. say that he would shout up from the depths?
The shadows all around them were dancing, Then he forgot it as he swung dowwatd
dancing, like immense black cats playing into space.
with two trapped mice.
What if he were to assert himself, to go
down to Anthi and tell her that he would
HE LOOKED
To
landed.
about him eagerly as he
his right, within a few
do her work another night, when the light feet of his descent, the passageway was
was better—? blocked by rough masses of earth and rock.
80 WEIRD TALES
Probably these covered the real entrance to for ages. There he had found bones, and
the dromost that which had been hidden there, perhaps, be had left his own.
for tens of centuries until Dragoumis And there, at last, fear took Philip. It
pierced its age-old seals; on that fatal night closed round his throat like an icy hand. In
itmust have been crushed by the landslide his inner ears a far-off voice seemed to cry:
that had buried his pursuers. But to the left "Do not disturb the dead! Do not disturb
the passage stretched on, seemingly endless, the dead!"
into the mountain's heart. For a little way He shrugged. That voice came out of his
only the lantern s light pierced it, breaking childhood, out of superstitions and conven-
the darkness into pieces, into dancing tional moralities engraved upon the young
shadows. mind as a phonograph record is engraved
Did one of those shadows dart back as upon wax. He thought, "I am being foolish
he looked, one a little thicker, a little as Anthi. I have handled many mummies,
blacker, than its fellows? I have felt their dry, withered flesh slough
He did not heed it. His heart felt light, off my hands. What difference is there, what
exultant, ashe levelled his flashlight and real difference? A man can be as dead in
walked on, toward the blackness that looked three minutes as he will be in three thou-
solid as a wall. He no longer even felt sand years."
horror of the axe beneath his arm. If He swung the flashlight forward, toward
Dragoumis could have chosen, surely he the inner chamber.
would have had his dead body dismembered He saw the gleam of gold, he saw
a thousand times rather than let his great strange, grotesque shapes of stone. He saw
discovery be lost again, hidden from man- carved stone larnak't, and, in the far corner,
kind, perhaps for more centuries. For on no a table of red marble. Its legs gleamed un-
other terms would Anthi ever have disclosed der the light, like blood.
the secret. Poor girl! Later, when her hyster- Was there something on top of the table,
ical, superstitious obsession was over, she among the shadows? Something long and
would regret this, she would be kind and dark and still, like the outstretched form of
gentle and fastidious again, as a woman a man?
should be. Now he must do whatever was Once againfear took him. He could not
necessary to bring her peace. bear to throw the flashlight upon the table-
He went on into the shadows, and they top, to see. He edged slowly into the cham-
retreated before him slowly, steadily. He ber, moving cautiously, laboriously, as if
followed them down that stone corridor through invisible barriers. There were no
that led through the earth's bowels. more echoes. In the deathly silence he heard
Once or twice it seemed to him that he nothing but the fierce, hard pounding of
heard a faint curious rustling among those his heart.
dark, wavering shapes that recoiled before Suddenly he stopped. He could not bear
his flashlight. As if someone were walking to go farther, to come within touching dis-
ahead of him, stealthily. He decided that it tance of that thing that might be lying
must be some trick of echoes, reverberating there.
oddly in that subterranean place. It could He set his teeth and his will. Slowly, as
not be bats, for there was never anything if it were a rock too heavy for him to move,
where the light came; throw his flashlight the flashlight came up. Its beams touched
where he would, its beams found only something; something upon the table-top.
great, bare blocks of stone. A
man's hand that lay, lax and brown
Then he came at last to the black rectangle and leathery, upon red marble. A large
of the inner portal, the opening into that hand, larger than most men's. Firm and
great, circular chamber Anthi had told him sleek as leather it looked; and yet, in some

of. There Dragoumis had found golden curious and subtle way, as lifeless. None
vessels and golden filigree-work, and im- could have mistaken it for the hand of a
ages of gods that no man had worshipped living man. Philip's brain reeled; through it
 AT THE END OF THE CORRIDOR 81

ran dizzily words he had heard among the wrappings something dark was seeping,
Greek peasants and never heeded the ; something that stained the white linen.
bodies of the walking dead—of those whom He dropped farther behind, when they
the earth had not loosed were incorrup-— came within sight of the shore and his
: undecaying! master spurted suddenly, running out with
And as he looked the hand changed. The daemonic speed onto the white sands. The
lingers tensed, the long tendons on the back clouds had left the moon; the beach was
of it rose and stiffened, as if that dark re- almost as bright as day.
cumbent form were bracing itself to rise! A cry came from the boat. The waiting
With a strangled cry of horror Philip woman tugged at the oars and swung it in,
hurled himself forward, the axe gleaming closer. She leaped out upon the sands. Her
voice pealed out, a song of gladness:
"You You have
COSTA shivered. The night wind was them
— have them, Philip!

and once a cry had seemed to

cold, She ran forward, her arms outstretched,
drift up from the depths below. He had her face bright with triumph. The man
listened closely after that, but he had not waited for her. He had stopped and stood
been able to tell whether the cry was re- very still; he made no move, either to meet
peated, whether a faint horrible screaming, or welcome her. And when she reached him
muffled by distance, had come up from the she did not even look at him. She only
earth. clutched, with hands as terribly eager as
The rope at his feet jerked suddenly, her eyes, at those packages he carried.
convulsively, like a great snake. He cried Silently, he let her take them. Silently, he
out and jumped bade, then remembered and stood over her as she unwrapped them. As
gasped with relief. their ugly, stained contents fell from her
The signal! paralyzed hands to the earth
Gladly he hauled his master up. "The And then she screamed. Terribly and
be thanked, kyrie! You are safe!
saints
I thought I heard something
— horribly she screamed. For the first time
she looked up into his face, and saw it. He
The tall man did not answer. He turned took off his hat, Philip Martin's hat, and
and strode off down the mountainside, with moved toward her, and in that clear moon-
long, swift strides. "He goes very fast," light, for all the distance, Costa saw that
Costa thought, "as if there were something his head was not Philip Martin's head.
before —
or behind him for which he — After that Costa's eyes closed and he
could not bear to wait. He does not even knelt and prayed. He did not see what made
stop to give me any of the bundles the lady scream again. Her cries kept on
he carries." He followed with the lan- for quite a long time, but at last the beach
tern, looking curiously at those bundles. was silent. There was no sound on it, even
They were long and narrow, they looked the sound of a retreating footstep. And
like human arms and legs. When he saw a then, and only then, did Costa find the
limp hand dangling from one of them he strength to run away.
crossed himself. Later, the Athenian newspapers carried
"The old king must have come all to feature headlines: fresh guerrilla out-
pieces. Who would have thought he would rages! MUTILATED BODY OF AMERICAN
stillhave looked so human?" ARCHAEOLOGIST FOUND IN MYCENEAN
He gained a little on his master. The tomb! On a nearby beach had been found
lantern rays fell on those packages, and the bodies of Kyria Anthi Dragoumis and
Costa's eyes grew large and round. After of a man who must have been one of the
that he walked more slowly, and let the guerrilla murderers. A giant of a man,
distance widen between himself and the whose body, unaccountably, crumbled and
tall figure ahead. For through the cloth fell apart when it was touched.
Mr.
jffyde- BY
MALCOLM M. FERGUSON
and Seek

A New England farmhouse,

could it shelter a poltergeist,

\ ROM the way you describe it, more readily said than settled. For how
doctor, the Orne Place does in- does one cope with such a critter? Assum-
deed sound as if it had a polter- —
ing that Eliza Blaine is host- or hostess,
geist bouncing around inside it," Thomas rather —
for this manifestation, should she
Chadwick reflected, turning the nutmeg and it be treated according to the concepts
grounds about in the tumbler in his gaunt, which the psychologists use when they so
weatherstained hand. "Which is, of course gingerly deal with such a phenomenon, or

Heading by Matt Fox

 MR. HYDE—AND SEEK 87

in terms of the specialists in psychic af- worked in many parts of the world, and
fairs?" exercised common on plenty of prob-
sense
"For my part, sir, if I were more deeply lems which v, ould stump a young country
involved, I'd try neither, but record any doctor like myself."
phenomena in simple terms and try to settle Chadwick cut my eulogy with an ephithet
in my own mind enough of their nature to of mock contempt, and turned inquiringly
it an attempt to break them up." to Orne.
"Good. Good. Now can we start from "Well, what I came for is this. Eliza went
beginning, with some idea what the up to bed about nine, while my wife and I
means to you?" sat in the kitchen listening to the radio. Just
'Yes. Sometimes strange supernormal after Eliza went upstairs the radio began
cnings occur in the vicinity of an to static badly, so I turned it off. I went on
adolescent which come to be attributed to reading the newspaper, but noticed that
the operation of an alien power, dir: everything was real quiet; the sounds Eliza
agent, elemental force, or what you will, made getting ready for bed sounding miles
upon his victim's personality. The picture is away. Suddenly she screamed. Then we
that of a hermit crab in the shell of a peri- heard scraping noises ending in a loud
winkle—only here the same skull quarters crash. I ran upstairs as fast as I could, and
are shared simultaneously by an alternately found the kid fainted across her bed, with
dominant and dormant power and victim. all the furniture drawn in a heap around
The psychologist is on a spot, since this —
her the dresser, chairs, the heavy linen
set-up would be duck soup for a Freudian chest. I don't seehow St happened."
explanation if it weren't for the recorded We sat quietly for a minute or so, then
hell-raisings outside of the subject's accum- he turned to me.
plishrnents —
such unaccountable but recur- "Dr. Huntley, I want you to come stay
rent pranks as a deluge of stones, strange with us until we can find some way to stop
pc-Uings which explain the German name these goings-on."
poltergeist —
pelting ghost and a variety of— "Why, I'd be glad to, only I don't know
caprices worthy of a Puck or a Kobold." about such things. Doctors don't Perhaps —
I refilled Chadwick's glass and my own, wc can find some psychologist " I stam-
taking the hot water with which to dilute mered.
the rum from a kettle in a chimney niche "No. I don't want an outsider," Orne
built a century back for this purpose. replied. "Maybe we can cook up some ar-
"But the hell of it is, the symptoms are rangement for you to stay at the house with-
external to the subject," Chadwick argued. out arousing any suspicion. That would be
"And the creditability of such evidence best."
must be tested before we can establish a After some discussion I agreed to this
satisfactory attitude regarding the polter- arrangement, with the excuse that repairs
geist." to my house made boarding out easier for
I was agreeing with my elderly friend
just me. As I could promise no results, I made
when a car's headlights swept Chadwick's my fee low, and only chargeable if some-
window. thing favorable were achieved. So that eve-
"That's probably Oliver Orne now," I ning I started a case daybook, carefully
commented, going to the door. avoiding technical terms which would in-
Orne was a strong, wiry man in his late fluence diagnosis. I give you herewith an
forties. He greeted Chadwick and explained abridged version of this case history, day
that he had learned of my whereabouts by day:
from the switchboard operator, who habitu-
ally rerouted the calls of my practice at my DISTURBANCE AT THE ORNE PLACE
request.
"Mr. Chadwick and I were just talking June 3, 1949 —The homestead is a two-
about your ward's case. He has lived and and-a-half story frame building, with an
88 WEIRD TALES
ell —a typical New England fannhouse. Oliver stood dumbfounded, turning over
Built a century and a half ago, it appears in his mind whether Eliza had somehow
to be in sound condition. The hand-hewn prankishly skipped upstairs, but was unable
timbers, tenon and mortice and trunnel- to fit this deviltry with her character. So he
fitted, the pine panelling throughout down- ended up, staring gape-jawed until she
stairs acknowledge this antiquity, and turned, snapping off the light and proceed-
conceivably help provide whatever suscepti- ing in the dark to the next light switch just
bility may be needed for psychic manifesta- inside her room. When Oliver turned back
tions. It is neither extremely isolated or into the kitchen, his wife looked up, non-
otherwise, though it would appear so to a plussed, from her darning. Their discussion
city-dweller, for seventy-five yards separate made no headway with the matter, partly
it from the nearest neighbors. The location perhaps since Oliver somehow omitted tell-
on the edge of Whittaker Intervale, against ing his wife of Eliza's strange expression.
the wooded slopes of Dawn Mountain They concluded that this might have been
would be agreeable, though lonely in winter a freak of sound involving the wood frame
when the sun goes down early in the after- of the old house, and called to mind reports
noon. of similar happenings.
Anne Orne, Oliver's wife, is a small,
energetic woman who does a great deal of THE latter part of May on a rainy
INafternoon,
work, though with all the stir of a wren in the minister, Mr. Brainerd,
a dust-bath. Oliver also is a worker, running came to call. Mrs. Orne was in the kitchen
his own extensive farm and hiring out with frying doughnuts, while Eliza was washing
his tractor and other farm and lumbering clothes, using set-tubs and a washing ma-
machinery. Eliza Blaine is an attractive, chine in the ell, also connected to the
well-bred girl of fifteen, with large brown kitchen by a door. Mrs. Orne naturally ex-
eyes and brown hair. Judging by her voice claimed regarding the condition of the
and manners she would appear to be of an house, her hair and dress while Mr. Brain-
even, genial disposition, without perceptible erd climbed from his car. Nevertheless,
neurotic tendencies surely. She had been after shedding these fluttering preliminaries
adopted the summer before, following the of a parishional call, she had settled Mr.
death of her father, a distant relative of Brainerd, a young, easygoing fellow, over
Mrs. Orne. Before coming to Whittaker coffee, fresh doughnuts and discreet gossip.
Intervale she had lived in Portsmouth, New He sat facing the open eil door, where
Hampshire, where her father had given her Eliza was continuing her work. His coffee
ft number of benefits in education and up- cup was halfway to his lips, which were
bringing. pursed with intent to retract if the liquid
The first occurrence prior to my arrival proved too hot, when a cake of soap floated
at the Orne Place, was in April. Eliza had through the air coming from the ell and
just bidden her foster parents good night swinging in a near ninety degree arc, to
at the door leading from the kitchen which settle in the soap dish by the kitchen sink.
shuts off the back stairs and prevents drafts That was one cup of coffee Mr. Brainerd
from dispelling the heat in winter. Oliver did not drink.
saw the door shut, and heard the girl's foot- Several minutes later, when Mr. Brain-
steps ascending the stairs. Then, half a erd and Anne Orne looked into the ell they
beat behind them another footstep started found Eliza caught by nervous laughter,
up. Eliza was nearly at the top of the stairs badly convulsed, apparently from the effort
before Oliver gathered his wits and opened of her performance. Indeed the two mysti-
the door. She was alone there, turning to fied witnesses had to put her on the front
look down at him beneath the bare light room couch and minister to her with damp
bulb. Her face wore a strange, devilish cloths, smelling salts, or whatever they
smile, compounded of mockery, yet fear- thought best. There was no trace of the
fully, terribly alien. diabolical about her expression then. On
 MR. HYDE—AND SEEK
recovering she claimed she knew nothing of Eliza thrust the very tip of her tongue
the episode, being quite unable to explain briefly between her teeth, and in doing so
her attack of hysteria. seemed to be released to herself and regain
With this episode the story took form and her own personality. Seeing the three of us
spread through the community. I was called watching her (rather than the blank wall
in, though my examination brought nothing behind which was a still mouse) she shook
positive to light. For the record, the story her head slightly.
that the doughnuts in the bowl on the "Gosh, I must nave dozed off. I feel
kitchen table flew onto the coat hangers awfully tired. I didn't snore, did I?"
against the kitchen wall is the invention and I assured her that she hadn't, that wc
whole cloth embroidery of some absent were merely looking up because we thought
party —
a village loafer, probably, —
for both we had heard a mouse in the wall.
Mr. Brainerd and Anne Orne deny any such "Yes, I guess I must have heard him
occurrence. scampering around. Funny, you hear a noise
—
June 6, 1949 In return for a couple of like that and hardly realize it."
weeks with a limited practice, I had to put Shortly after that she retired for the
in more time at the hospital. Evenings were night
more apt to be free, and so far I have man-
aged to be on hand most evenings, though JUNE 7, 1949 —
I've been thinking a
nothing has yet happened during my stay. good deal today about the human brain
This evening the four of us were seated at as an organ. Now the heart is fairly plainly
the kitchen table reading —
or in Eliza's case, a —
pump one can comprehend its function
writing a letter to a Portsmouth chum. upon inspecting it, as in dissection. And so
A
mouse had been scampering in the on with all the other organs, their functions
walls, though I had not been particularly can be readily comprehended upon exam-
conscious of it until I happened to notice ination. But the mass of gray matter which
Eliza reflecting a moment over her letter. I comprises the brain cannot be thus compre-
could almost see her attention caught by hended as the source of thought process.
the creature's slight scuttlings and squeak- One cannot see where or how this viscera-
ings. Perhaps a sudden muffling of the like mass permits one to pilot an airplane
atmosphere was responsible, as if a focus of and carry on a conversation at the same
attention of some sort were being estab- time, or to cope with a novel problem such
lished. Then all at once Eliza's face changed, as the present one of conjecture concerning
taking on the wholly tense preoccupied ex- poltergeists. Since we cannot yet look into
pression of a cat about to spring. full,A the brain and get very far by induction, all
taut minute thus, and then she gave a slight we know about it is what we feel and ex-
forward thrust, just the shadow of a lunge perience ourselves, or what we observe in
I would call it. From the wall a shrill, others. Therefore, I conclude, if phenom-
agonized mouse-cry piped. The Ornes enal accomplishments are directed by the
looked up in surprise at the blank wall, and brain, of which the brain's possessor is
its hidden, strangely-racked victim. Neither wholly unaware, the fact that these func-
Eliza nor I turned a heeding head; I of tions were directed by the brain would defy
course being concerned with her reaction. detection.
—
While she well, I think I must yield my Thus, for example, the recent experi-
medical judgment and say she acted as one ments at Duke University with cards, re-
possessed, as if the "person within her per- garding "mental telegraphy," or the
sonality" were supplanted, her mind being age-old business of making a divining rod
temporarily tenanted by a diabolical force. indicate the subterrene presence of water
No, this poltergeist is no mere prankster's —
-
these in the human brain —
or the hom-
connivance. ing instinct in the pigeon's brain, suggest
A moment following the mouse's last that certain functions of the brain may ex-
cry, soon reached in rapid diminuendo, ceed anything we have yet ascertained.
 WEIRD TALES
Putting it another way, if we say, "I think,
therefore I am," the "I am" cannot directly
challenge or enlarge upon the "I think."
And if an unaccounted relationship be-
tween forces of the mind and external
objects,and conjecturably forces in the
environment exists, there's simply no tell-

ing of it.

June 11, 1949 —

Whatever it is, it's getting
stronger, growing like a malignant tumor.
Each successful exercise of dominance over
Eliza's mind increases the power of the
next manifestation, which may be less
capricious, and not content with a mouse
for a victim. That Eliza is possessed by a
malevolent entity or grotesque preternatu-
ral schism of split personality —
or what-
ever in hell it can be called, for it is surely
—
spawned of hell, is apparent to me,
whether my terms fit the textbooks or not.

KNOWLEDGE of Eliza and I started the evening with a

game of checkers. This would prove di*
verting while keeping me posted on her
YOUR INNER POWERS mental state. She sat in the chair Rev.
Gi¥£S YQl/ffi££00M Brainerd had occupied, facing the ell, the
kitchen sink (this is from the chair oc-
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 MR. HYDE—AND SEEIC

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I turned back at once to find Oliver Orne
just catching the fainting Eliza.
I think 1 did right, I say, because if I
had turned and slapped the face or shaken
the shoulders of the creature across the
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jkthod.
-. .,„- !--.
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:,.j bi-'i : t h- i i? .. ..-..- :-: ::' .- * mn- " V .' T" '-L~A>-
of psychic trauma for Eliza, with negative
.
r. I '

results as far as the poltergeist went.

h-'. -V-Y.-'-'"-'" 'KnHV-C V..- ..]J pptw'tWHOEaPEai--

—
June 12, 1949 This morning I visited
rtat "Tour (MUXxl ia vonictlul! An .

Chad wick, telling him what appears here. no wabtiPra

His advice to me was: »»»» lona up «swl«

"Your best bet is to find some action SENDNO MONEY!" ;.??"ASTT0DAY!

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You must apply this action when the pol-
tergeist is dominant, and in such a way that
Eliza is done neither bodily nor mental
harm. You must surprise the poltergeist,
confronting him as strongly as possible at
the moment of his greatest aggression. And
RUPTURED?
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92 WEIRD TALES

OUTDOOR WORK tations took place while I was completing

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my dental technician had produced (using
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Love, wonlth, happiness and saying that I could do better with more
roars. Carry the
Talisman practice, I put the object on the mantel
amaz-
of tlie Orient. Try this
ing charm for one week. with my tobacco jar and smoking appara-
Satisfaction goaranteed or tus. Since it seemed highly improbable that
money refunded. Semi only
$1.00 TO the poltergeist would appear in the pres-
DEL MONTE. Wlv Ditmors Blvd.
Suite 7 A, Long Islcnd City 5. New York ence of any object which it knew to be
inimical, I hoped that this candlestick
B*~ PRICE ERROR -w would not appear so.
It had been a hot day, with thunder-
THE WORLD BELOW 5. Fowler Wright showers likely to break the oppressively
Advertised in this magazine % $1.95 muggy air. Shortly after supper I was
Correct price of this title is #3.50 standing up, filling my pipe, as is my
I.EI: HI, ATT 5131 Walnut St. » Phlta. SO. Pa.
custom. I was reaching for a wooden match
from the wall receptacle and idly looking
into the mirror in front of me. My gaze
GASH FOR WEIRD TALES rested on the image of Eliza, or what dis-
I will buy any itiuet of WEIRD TALES i»u«d before 1933.
I alio wont to buy HORROR STORIES, STRANGE TALES, placed it. The face was turned as she talked
TERROR TALES, and any collection* of Fanlaitic Maoa-
ninet and Book*. Detcriba condition and avola price to Mrs. Ornc. But the mirror reflected the

CLAUDE HELD abhorrent satyr's head, self-confident with

372 DODGE STREET BUFfALO B. N. Y. the myriad abominations of hell itself.
—
As I watched, Eliza or this horror
saw me staring at the mirror, and broke
FANTASY FAN'S BOOK CLUB into a Sardonian smile. I turned from the
Two MORE free books than any other club
offers you. Write for details and free cata- mirror to El 12a. Her features were nearly
log of weird and science-fiction books and normal, though the alterations were even
back-dated magazines.
Werewolf Uookshop now taking place, as if challenging me for
1S0W-H Riverside Drive Verona, Pennsylvania my looking-glass view.
I was not idle either, for the time had

THE KELLEK ANTHOLOGY — $3.5*

come. And yet my mind continued turning
over the matter of mirrors, the lore of the
• LIFE EVERLASTING *
and ten other tales of speculum of Mage Merlin, the Devil's
Science, Fantasy, and Horror Looking Glass of Dr. Lee, of katoptro-
By DAVID H. KELLER, M.D.
mancy and vampirism. I had picked up the
3.."ifi postpaid from Fantasy -News, Boob Dent.,
Box 4. Stein way, Lou* Island City, N. Y. candlestick and advanced slowly, with a
show of irresolution, to the stove. Doctors
and acrobats, bull-fighters and actors must
WEIRD TALES
— FANTASY
SCIENCE-FICTION
have a sense of timing; it is often ex-
tremely important. Here the poltergeist
Brand new. cloth-bound, library-size sample must think me uncertain, or bent upon
book. $3.00. Illustrated catalogues, 10# (refunded).

HOUSE OF STONE
hurting Eliza —
at which misdirected aim
he could laugh, exult and grow stronger.
LlNKMipiiG 24 MASSACHUSETTS
So I advanced to the stove as the transfor-
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 MR. HYDE—AND SEEK
mation, unabated, reached its completion. iiigh, School Course
Mr. and Mrs. Orne sat still, as 1 lifted at Home j
Mors* Finish in 2 Veers
the lid of the hot kettle. I had to trust them r
—
time and abilities permit. Coun»
' —
prepares forcollego
to heed my injunction not to stir. !
.
lean milled. I>ii>!n ma.

Then the lights went out. The electricity

On BO nqtHl. *W< lHi|l»l«|»
in this part of the country sometimes does > American F.c !>"«!, Dept. H .439, Drrxnl atSBtlt, Chicago 37

cut out when

there are thunderstorms. But
this was too opportune to be chance.
From Eliza's figure sprouted mushroom
Don't Neglect Piles
blobs of static light like St. Elmo's Fires, Colon Troubles
and
shining yet not igniting, forming at the
hem of her skirt, her waist, the nape of her FREE BOOK — Explains Dangers
of Associated Ailments
neck, swamp fire of the fiend's finding.
With the room thus weirdly illumined, the
poltergeist held both hands alcft with VI Avoid
palms taut and fingers rad iating, out- \ Dangers
f'.of Detay
stretched to tlit- area above my head.
Shrilly Eliza's strained vocal cords emitted
ed piles, Brtala and colon troubles
the fiend's curses and evocations. often spread infection. Learn about dteuxna
tip ami other associated chronic condition*.
All around me stones fell, yet I was Wrltfl tod&y for lC-l-pH^e FREE BOOK,
unhurt. I drew from the kettle the acrylic ttcQeary Clinic * Hospital. 421 Elms Blvd..
KxiwiKiur Springs. Mo.
plastic figure. The action of the boiling
water had fulfilled our anticipations by in-
voking the peculiar properties of the can-
RUPTURE!
An amazing Air-Coshion
dlestick's substances, reshaping it into the Invention allows body
freedom at work or play.
form of a crucifix. U eht, ikm t, cool , scni tary
Durablo, cheap. Day and
As I walked forward with the talisman 'latareaupportwpskeucdK - -

_ lo risk. S«it o» THall Write NOW for free Booklet nod

upraised, the demoniac creature emitted a Proof uf RhuI ta. AH correspojuier.ee confidential.
hell-rending cry as if a bottomless pit gaped Brooks Company, 153H Stat* St., H
beneath him. His hands lowered spasmodi- OWN A PIECE OF
cally to clutch idiotically about his face. His THE GOOD EARTH
features withered and writhed, revealed as AT A TOKI YOU CAM AFFORD I
California and Oregon ranch,
the electricity came on again when, pre- timber, hunting ond fiihing land.
sumably, the fiend's will power dissolved at $1.25 la $5 acre full price,
Wriia today (endow 10t coin) lor
its damning block. In a moment the strug- circulon, photos, outline mopi,
I'AUIHU LANDS
gle was over. Eliza, released, collapsed P. 0. Box 23S0-JH
HcNywood 23
into her chair, and but for my free hand
would have fallen to the floor.
— $uff*£j£!l£l£££9
June 15, 1949 Chadwick explains the
matter by calling the poltergeist a virulent
mass and the crucifix an all-healing antibi-
LEG SORES?
»' p yoa tuSerpaln and misery of Varicose
otic which is an interesting way of putting i. (Jleerw.
or Open Lea Sores, send away at once for FREE
it. Since the crucifix was dormant in the
Booklet —THE LIEPE METHODS FOR
Tells al! about this 40-year-old method, praised *nd en-
HOME USB."
dorsed by thousands. Lleoa MatHods, Dant. IS-F)
plastic (the acrylic being peculiar in that 3150 H. Grean Bay Ate., MthnuKM, Wiico.-isin,

once fixed —
in the form of a crucifix it —
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94 WEIRD TALES
WEIRD # SCIENCE # FANTASY ted policy of omitting tabulated story pref-
BOOK BARGAINS
BEST GHOST STORIES Cltosen by A. Ridler SI. 55
erences. For if rt is the editor whom, toe
author must please, and the readers be
IS excellent til"
THE DOGE'S RING-
A tlniu- travel -lury. I'olored illua.
_ Denlele Vore S1.7S —
hanged; ultimately it is the readers whom
The Man Who Are the Pboe.-iix... Lord Ounsany SI. 95 the editor must please.
40
AYESHSA
fan;.,

The return
H. Rider Haggard 51.53 I missed the last WT it seems, but merely
,

>! "She"
The Supernatural Omnibus. Ed, by M. Summers 31.75
because I have to journey a couple of miles
liJU paei'S of II. e iltidHt in "Weird Stnrfei" to get it. However, I was surprised at the
THE TREMBLING WORLD A. Del Mortin \3 p«ntr-hscfc«a
THE GHOST BOOK
THE LOST WORLD
Ed. by C. AHUIHl
Sir A. Conaii Doyle J
i
bQ<ik» 40* «siclt
3 (or $1.00
March WT. Extremely surprised. I enjoyed
all of the stories I read, which is all but
All books brand new and shipped day order is receU
one. Not one, astonishingly, bored me.
SPECIAL PRICE (8 books) S9.00
Booki ami Mainlines • Buuiih.1. & ISictumiccd W
Paul Gatdey,
.

LEE BLATT • 5734 WHnut Street * Philadelphia 39. North Tonawanda, N. Y.

WEIRD REPRODUCTION we don't favor hanging our

(Naturally
FREE
m tamou* book cover by Hnnues Bok. Suitunle readers; alsowe keep an eye on circulation
for framing. Free lists ot Weird. Fantasy,
Science- Fiction books. Friendly, appreciative
figures.—Editor, WEIRD TALES.)
service.
COCHECO LIBRARY
Dover, N. H.
The Editor
WEIRD TALES
9 Rockefeller Plaza
THE NIGHT SIDE Edited by AUGUST DERLETH
New York, N. Y.
U. S. A.
A collection of 23 weird ttoriot. Included are the belter
tol« by tuch authors at H. P. Lsvecrafr. H. R. Wakefield, In the latest issue of your excellent maga-
Nelson Bond, John Metcalfe and many other*,
zine (January 1950) to reach me, I was
Price: (2:50 postpaid. (Free Fantcuy Price Lilt Included)
L TIC.-V JEFF BOOKSHOP surprised and delighted to ?iotice several
307 E. Vtica Street, Buffalu S. New Tork letters in the "Eyrie." Does this mean, that
you are restoring this excellent feature of
THE EYRIE your magazine, and will, in future, print
hope so. I don't
readers' letters? I sincerely
{Continued from page 4)
think many of your readers would object
and "Dark Rosaleen" was fair (I); beyond if yon were to publish one short story less
that there wasn't much. each issue, in order to make space for read-
However there were two features which ers' opinion.
gave me some hope: "The Eyrie" and the I regard WT as the greatest publication
Wellman. I've always regretted that you of its kind in the world. Since the change
dropped "The Eyrie." Your reasons didn't of editorship, the greatest story you have
seem worth much either. January, 1950, published has been Robert Block's "The
gives hopes of a possible return. Cheaters" (Nov. 1947). Please keep on giv-
W. H. Baxter. ing us plenty of Coye illustrations in WT,
also some by Boris Dolgov, and Matt Fox's
The Editor covers are swell too.
WEIRD TALES Roger Dard,
9 Rockefeller Plaza 232 fames Street,
New York 20, N. Y. Perth, Western Australia,
Let me tell you frankly J disagree with —
you. I've got enough letters published in (We do not hold with omitting a story
other magazines so that I don't care too to make room for a reader's opinion of it.

much whether this one is published par- — Perhaps this comment will also take care
tiallyor wholly —
in the "Eyrie," but I do of one reader who hoped for "Irish myth."
disagree with you in regard to your admit- —Editor, WEIRD TALES.)
Please mention Newsstand Fiction Unit when answering advertisements
 THE EYRIE 95
NCU/I
C™. SENSATIONAL DEVICE ENABLES
ANY ONETO ypc>r
The Editor
U 'BIRD TALES
9 Rockefeller Plaza
OWN
Kew York 20, N. Y. EYES
Thanks for bawling me out about my RIGHT AT HOME
mathematical non-weird scoreboard. Happy SAVE up to 315.00 On Glasses
Tit* Newa to the Million" at 8p#ctwl
i am to see a revival of "The Eyrie." Espe- Wearers and Prospects. Menu Fieedoc
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IftTI B*Bg fnr I'ree Sample at ones, enow i
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iviii
Now for the gripe department; Day ritci. , fr en(i , Ma others. Let them use 1
]

Pl«e and n-stdi their aniuempnt otbi thii new iy«lem of Self-Testing
Hero la a great new onportuniw In a tremendous new Bald of un-
Keene's story in March was a good story, limited possibilities. Spare or full-time. No experience or capita
but a good story that did not belong in Mark Optical Ofc, Daft A-132. f 148 W. Chitaso Ave.. Chicago 22. lit
v
n ElRD TALES. Yes, I knou^-vari&fs
the spice and all that. How about more
stories from the old-timers?
jr.
Seattle,
N, Austin.
Washington.
DRUNKENNESS DO YOU WANT RELIEF?
Drunkenness ruina H^It!., Happiness.
HKEAK THE DRINKING CVOLE
QUICKLY. Use the ALCOREM,
n maxim liquid that in ten da to pro-
mote aversion {di alike) toward ALL
intoxicating drinks. Not classed aa a
Received for Weird Talcs Bookshelf

THE THRONE OF SATURN. S. Fowler ALCOREM

permanent "cere," but it IS a recognized
method of withdrawal of alcohol. Inter-
rupta drinking cycle and causes many to
CUET. A
eUmlnateseles ire for more
:
few drops of thin wonderful
: .

Wright, Arkham House, S3.

GUASANTEEU I'nre and Effective. Aversion treat-
ment is re cognized l>y Medical Authority. ALCt IK

S. Fowler Wright is widely acknowledged

rrrarty
READ— need
to Oat —
simple instruction)? included BOOK.-;
not cause excessive time out from work or social
— NO TO
duties. One happy ALCOK KM uner writes "PL-EASE
::. ; SEND ME:
as one of the masters of the modern science- WHO IS A HEAVY DP SHT FROM YOU BE-
'
. .
. :

fiction story. This collection of his tales con- FORE AND HAD WONDERFUL RESULTS. "Aon additional

tains "The Rat," "Automata," "Barin" and

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.. :)=:j[f- in
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U.T.1-.L.-? v svstem also.
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.
i
•

"Original Sin" as well as other stories which drinker to proper weight.

appear as a collection in this country for the SEND NO IH ON EY — ORDER NOW

SATISFACTION OR MONEY BACK.
....... Send same and address.
first His great science fiction novels,
time. Mailed in plain wrapper. Pay postman only J4.»5 and small C.O.D.
charge.TO SAVEC.O.D. CHARGE SEND $4.95 WITH ORDER.
such as "Deluge" and "The World Below"
©MIDWEST HEALTH Al 3S • DEPT. P-l
ire enjoying a new vogue in England, and 603 SO. DEARBORN STREET • CHICAGO 5, ILL.
this new collection from Arkham House
ought to appeal to WEIRD TALES readers
who always can be counted on to like stories :tie cowif, for Utaco is Aoesaadi

in this genre— the inimitable "The Rat" ap- mlti Tobacco Redeemer. Wfile lot ires book
Id letting o! injurious (fleet of tobacco ml
peared in our pages in 1929. el » tieatmcfii. which hsJ relieved many wca.

la Biisinsss Since 1909,

FREE
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PEBBLE IN THE SKY. Isaac Asimov. THE HEWEU COMPANY
BOOK
Doubleday, $2.50. 600 CiTjtsn Sta., SL Locis 5. Mo,

Here is a full-length science-fiction novel

which has not appeared serially before book
publication,though Dr. Asimov's name has
meant a good deal to magazine readers. The
Free for Asthma
If you suffer with attacks of Asthma and choke fine
g&ep fin- breath, if restful sleep is difficult becaise o!
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it's a good one.

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/V^^ ^tlCP^rrC*

soszwm
iS HAH A SHALL UNIVERSE?
IT HAS BEEN SAID that everything m the universe
has its counterpart in man. What of your solar plexus?
Does it link you with the world beyond the vast
. . .

cosmos of which earth is but a speck? Centuries ago,

man observed that something in the center of his torso
responded to his emotional excitements— joy, fear,
elation, fright, sudden experiences. In seeking an ex-
planation, there followed many more amazing discov-
cries.'What did these ancient searchers for trudi uncover?
Did they learn how to draw energy to their emotional
centers — for performing miracles and accomplishing
feats that seemed impossible to the uninitiated?
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Are you perfectly satisfied with your position in life?
Are you enjoying life to its fullest extent? truly —
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life, you are not using the powers that reside within you,

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I am a sincere seeker. Please send me a copy of Tie Mattery of
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The ROSICRUCIANS (amobc) San Jose, California

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