A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, December 1949 — page 112: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

(412° golden-green, like the phosphorescence that sometimes clothes a wave moving through darkness. — The shadows flittered and swayed around. us, interlacing, flowing in and out of each other, like shadows cast by some great tree fretted by a fitful wind. The shadows followed us, and flanked us, and swayed before us—but they shrank from ~Dahut; and never was there one between her and me, There was a glow beyond the oaks where were standing stones. It was not the wan gleam of the corposants. It was a steady, ruddy glow, as from still fires. I heard no chanting. She did not go toward the oaks. She took a way that led upward to the ridge of rocks hiding the standing stones from the water. Soon the path topped the ridge, the open sea lay before me. It was a sullen sea and dark, with long, slow swells break- ing sluggishly on the ledges. The path climbed steeply over a cliff which lifted above the waves a full two hundred feet. And suddenly Dahut was on its crest, poised on its verge, arms outstretched to the sea. From her lips came a call, low and inhumanly sweet ; in it the plaintiveness of the gull’s cry, the isinging of waves over unfathomable, un- spoiled deeps, the chant of deep-sea winds. It was a voice of the sea transmuted gol- denly in a woman’s throat, but losing no inhuman quafity and taking on no human ‘one. It seemed to me that the surges stopped me though listening while that cry went h. Again she sent the call . . . and once again. And 4fter that she a ae her hands to mouth and cried a word ...a mame. From far out at sea there came a roar- ing answer. A long white line of foam sped from the darkness, a great comber whose top was the tossing manes of hun- dreds of white horses. It raced shouting against the ridge and broke. A column of spume swept up and touched her outstretched hands. It seemed to me that something passed to it from her hands, and that as the spume fell some- thing within it glittered silver with glint of scarlet. I climbed up to her. There was no hint A. MERRITT’S FANTASY = a of tenderness now in her eyes or face. Only es triumph .. . and eyes were violet a flames. She ‘lifted a fold of her dress, — veiling eyes_and face from me. be bracelet of Ys was gone from her a arm She beckoned, and I followed her. We 4 skirted the ridge, and ever the ruddy glow _ grew brighter. I saw that the surges Be were no longer sullen, but that great 4 waves marched with us, clamoring; white banners of foam, streaming; white manes — of the sea-horses tossing. a The path ran now below the crest of the ridge. Ahead, on the landward side, was ~ another upthrust of rock; and here again — she waited for me. She stood with face. averted, still covered by the fold. She — pointed to the rock, and said: os “Climb—and see.” Once more the — spray-cold fingers touched my eyes... “And hear.” They touched my ears. She was gone. a I climbed the rock. I scrambled over a its top. a Strong hands caught my arms, pinion- ing them behind me, forcing me to my knees. I twisted and looked into the face — of McCann. He was bending, his face — close to mine, peering as though he found — it difficult to see me clearly. I cried, ~ “McCann !” e. He swore, incredulously; released me. Some one else was on the rock—a lean and ~ dark man with thin, ascetic face and snow- white hair. He, too, was leaning and ~ peering at me as though he found it diffi- cult to see me. That was odd, for I could see them both clearly. I knew him...he had been in the old room where my sha- __ dow search for Helen had ended . =a Ricori. = McCann was stammering, “Caranac— my God, boss, Caranac!’’ I whispered, steeling myself against acy blow, “Helen?” “She lives.” It was Ricori who answered. % : My whole body went weak with reac- ~ tion so that I would have fallen had he — not caught me, new fear took me. “But will shia : live?” 3 He said, “She has had a—strange ex- 7 perience. When we left her she was ef 3 conscious. Steadily growing stronger comicbooks:com S i nl es ES SEE ee OOS OR ~~