All-Story Weekly, March 1, 1919 — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

a forget. THE “CONQUEST OF THE MOON POOL. Rador. barriers into the dwelling-place of the — ladala, And here I felt the atmosphete of hos- tility, of brooding calamity, stiffen into He nodded. “ Just as the Aztecs picked up some, but not nearly all, of the art and science of the Mayans—so_ these may have done from that great people who preceded them here, Larry. That they knew nothing of the existence of the passage from the Chamber of the Moon Pool proves that they have lost much of the ancient knowledge—if, indeed, they ever possessed it. On the other hand, Yolara, it was clear, knows of the sinister excursions of the Dweller into the outer world—” “ But knowing that, she must also know how the thing you saw comes out,” he ob- jected. ‘“ Besides, the place of the Moon Pool was clearly known to the builders of Nan-Fauach, who were, apparently, the forefathers of these.” ‘“T admit that it is puzzling,” I answered. ‘« Still—meither Yolara nor Lugur did know. Perhaps the hidden road was made by the earliest of their buried kind, and the secret lost. Or it may be it was built by some of that race they found ’’—I had a flash of intuition—“ to keep watch upon them and upen the Shining One, who may have es- caped some way, somehow, their own con- trol!” Larry shook his head, perplexedly. ‘“There’s some sort of scrap brewing all right,” he observed. ‘‘ Maybe you’re right. What the devil are the ‘ Silent. Ones ’?—and where is that Golden Girl who led us— Lakla, the handmaiden.” His eyes grew soft and far away. -“ Ask rather where is Throckmartin and his—and where the wife of Olaf;’ I an- swered, a little bruskly. “Ym going to bed,” he said abruptly. “ Keep an eye on the wall, Doc!” CHAPTER XVIII. ‘“ALLONS, ENFANTS DE LA PATRIE!”’ ETWEEN the seven sleeps that fol- B lowed, Larry and I saw but little of each other. Yolara sought him more and more. Thrice we were called before the council; once we were at a great feast, whose splendors and surprises J can never Largely I was in the company of Pageilier we two passed the green a definitely unpleasant reality. among them, but never could I force my mind through the armor of their patent hate for Rador, or at least, for what he peace sented. They lived in homes—if homes the pa- vilions could be called—that were lesser replicas of those within the city. Those — who supplied the necessities and luxuries of their rulers worked in what were, in a fashion, community houses of wood and stone. They seemed provided with everything needful for life. But everywhere was an oppressiveness, a gathering together of hate, sits vty f We went. that was spiritual rather than material— | as tangible as the latter and far, far more menacing! “They do not like to dance with the Shining One,” was Rador’s constant and only reply to my efforts to find the cause. Qnce I had concrete evidence of the mood. Glancing behind me, I saw a white, = vengeful face peer from behind a tree-trunk, a hand lift, a shining dart speed from it straight toward Rador’s back. Instinctively I thrust him aside.» He turned upon me — angrily. I pointed to where the little mis- sile lay, still quivering, on the ground. He gripped my hand. “That some day I will repay!” he said. I looked again at the thing. At its end was ‘a tiny cone covered with a glistening, gela- tinous substance. Rador pulled from a trée beside us a fruit somewhat like an apple. “Look!” he said. He dropped it upon the dart—and at once, before my eyes, in less than ten seconds, the fruit had rotted away! ‘“That’s what would have happened to | Rador but for you, friend!” he said. Still another curious incident I must record here. I had been commenting upon the scarcity of bird-life. The only avian species I had seen so far had been a few gaily colored, tiny, songless creatures. I ‘ Seas) SE oh Nth Fe VP) a hes y A iva eh ocatca a } A f i ft Ay , f we iy a 4 chi 4 4 vib ue + 7 a AL RS, S = — mt net Ab AY Ae) } WALLA DAV Ia Vpn ane Ney Loti ke NG, LSA Ve Sale ee bit i A vi, vy WA '¢ FEY Pvare CE Pee Ce, ‘ be 7 rad = a = =. << — ee = oe a S35 rc ie a —s — oe — vib x —— aay _s =~ mentioned, unthinkingly, the golden-eyed = = Comic : a= = * s <2 See gee eas es ebooks.com —