A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 35: what you’re looking at

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

THE NINTH LIFE 35 arrange for me to be driven to the sta- tion ?”’ - “Tf you must go, Sarah,” Cleo said, “Tonv is being driven to Cheltenham in half an hour or a little less. Perhaps you could go with him—or would that be too soon ?”’ “It would suit me admirably—the soon- er I can get back, the better. I’m so sorry to leave you here alone,. darling.” “Why not come back with us?” Tony asked, rather eagerly. ‘Being alone in a place like this in the middle of winter is not too” good.” €leo shook her head. “I shall stay,” she said. “You can come down again for next weekend, Sarah?” “IT hope so,” Lady Benderneck said dubiously. “I will let you know, dear, as soon as | know myself. But must you stay here?” “T shall not go back with you,” Cleo answered, a trifle coldly. When they were alone, Tony gazed out from the window at the stretch of moat, which extended all around the old house. Its surface was blackly sullen in the light of the clouded morning. = “You can’t stay alone in a place like this, Cleo,” he said. 3 “T have to, Tony,” she said, and _ shivered. “When you come back Fri- _. day, I may be able to answer the ques- - _ tion you ask so persistently.” “You mean it, Cleo?’ He faced about and took her in his arms. “IT may. I am not sure.” “Darling, I love you so terribly!” | “Ts it terrible, my Tony? Now let me _ go—I must dress to see you off. Five | minutes—ten minutes at most, and IJ shall be with you again.” ~» HALF hour later, with baggage loaded on the car, Tony sat in be- side Lady Benderneck and heard her sigh of relief as Sahel, wizened and brown and competent, drove over the bridge that spanned the moat. “Why she chose such a place I cannot think,’’ Lady Benderneck remarked rather acidly. ‘Such an eerie, ghostly place. And those cats!”’ “Cats?” he asked, surprised. “I didn't see any cats.” “Two—more like small tigers than cats, except that they were not striped. Big, tawny things—I heard a noise outside my room last night, and looked out— - they were in the corridor. I shut the door at once. The one that I saw clearly had china-blue eyes, like a Siamese, but they were too large for Siamese. Much too large!” “T must ask Cleo about them,”’ he said. “7 never saw any cats.” Leaning forward, he slid open the glass partition separating them from the driver. “Saleh, her lady- ship tells me she saw two big cats out- side her room last night. Are they yours?” Momentarily, the car swayed, as if for an instant the man had let the steering wheel swing in his hands. Then _ it steadied. . “There are no cats, sir,” he said. “But I saw them, outside my room!” Lady Benderneck insisted. “Then they must have been prowling in the night and got in, your ladyship,”’ he answered her, without looking around, “for Miss Kefra has no cats at the Grange, nor have I, nor the maids.” “Tt’s very mysterious,” Lady Bender- neck said with emphatic disapproval. “I saw two—large, dangerous-looking cats, Today more people than ever be- fore use Bromo-Seltzer. Because this time-proved product gives fast help. Not only for headache __ pain, butalso for the upset stom. @ = ach and jumpy nerves that often = gO with it. ~ Quick! Pleasant! Bromo-Seltzer effervesces with split-second ac- once. And as directed. tion, ready to go to work at it is so refreshing! You must be satisfied or your money back! Caution: Use only Get Bromo-Seltzer at your drug store fountain or counter today. It’s a product of the Emerson Drug Co. since 1887. cComicbooks.com