A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, October 1950 — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

46 A. MERRITT’S FANTASY to turn it off. Then, after a moment, he set the switch at the lowest contact-point. The dull red, he found, he could endure without any great discomfort. And, now able to see, he found everything had re- sumed its normal, natural position, just as he had seen it the day before—here the sink, there the little safe-door in the wall, yonder the table over which I! Vecchio had :been flung. Dennison stood gazing about him, blink- ing, shading his eyes with his hollow palm. Strange were his emotions as he gazed upon. that place once more, where only a few hours ago—though it seemed a week —the robbery of the Alkahest had taken place. He noted that Il Vecchio had evi- dently been there since; for now, save the filtration process in the sink, no activities were going on. An air of deser- tion, of profound abandonment, lay upon the laboratory. It seemed as though, with that master-treason, the life and interest and energy of the strange room had all gone from it. And Dennison shuddered a little, partly with reminiscence, partly be- cause the underground chamber was cold, and he was now beginning to feel it. “Well, this won’t do at all!” he thought. ‘“‘Some way or other, I’ve got to get out of this. Some way I’ve got to keep Il Vecchio from even knowing I’ve been here. Upon my word if he detects that, if he knows I’ve come all the way up through those cursed caverns of his, if he even suspects I’ve seen that Bluebeard- room, down below, my life won’t be worth a pin! I’ve got to cover all my tracks!” At: first he could see no way. Even had he been able to escape by means of the door into the study, that would be- tray him. He dared not pound upon the door or wall and cry for help; he dared not stay there. The only possible plan was a retreat via the way he had come, and from this plan he at first shrank in terror. Yet he saw at once that he must come to it, so like the man of action he now was, he began making preparations. | Ciect he hastily gathered up every shred and fragment of the broken glass resulting from the bottle he had knocked off the bench. With a spunge in the sink he washed up the spilled liquid. Then he squeezed the spunge carefully and re- placed it. The bits of glass he dropped behind a heavy packing-case in one corner. Next he set to work to find a light for his guidance back through the labyrinth. At first he could discover nothing that would serve but presently the idea oc- curred to him that one of the alcohol lamps might do. “The only trouble,” he reflected, ‘“‘is that this sort of lamp gives a flame al- most without light. What shall I do to improve it?” Turning to I! Vecchto’s shelves, he searched and found a bottle of sodium. With this he made a saturated solution in the alcohol of one of the little lamps. Lighting it with a match from I Vecchio’s holder on the work-bench, he rejoiced to see that the flame burned yellow. Ghastly the effect was, but after all it was a light. He carefully set everything in order, took a score of matches in case of accident, then stepped to the switch and once more extinguished the vacuum-lights. Guided now by the eery sodium-flame, he went to the cabinet which concealed the exit. Here he shoved the lamp underneath, and followed it at once. Through the door he found his clothing, which he hastily put on. He closed the door behind him, and again stood there in the upper cor- ridor of the maze. The idea occurred to him that he ought to shoot the bolt again, but he instantly dismissed it. “For,” thought he, “if the old chap sees the door at all, by any chance, he'll know well enough what's happened. The wreck- age will give me away, bolt or no bolt. My best chance is simply that he won't happen to come this way. Not till I’m some thousands of miles west of the Medi- terranean, anyhow! After that, no mat- ter!’ Thus saying, he finished dressing him- self, and now with the alcohol lamp in hand started back the way he had come. To his surprise, as he followed the irregularly excavated passage, he noted on the right-hand wall a dull red line, about two inches wide, painted at a dis- tance of three feet from the floor. Here and there, as he progressed, side- runways led off on either hand, but the nn) (C 6)(0)©) S (C(O)