All-Story Weekly, Vol. 112, No. 1 — page 69: what you’re looking at

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

LAND OF THE SHADOW PEOPLE. stooped and swung it to his shoulder. It was not heavy. Tomas, when he saw what was coming behind him, needed no further urging to hasten; and so they ascended the spiral stair. They had been in the subterranean temple something less than twenty minutes. At the temple portal Katherine and the Martian watched the lengthening shadows of sunset creep down the sides of the distant cordillera. They had been waiting for a quarter of an hour or more, and Katherine had seated herself on a fallen column, when she thought that she heard a noise as of something scurrying among the ruins in the outer castle court. She looked; but the slant rays of the sun, which made of the court a gorgeously checkered pattern and of the ancient bridge a gilded pathway, disturbed her vision. She was wearing a brown Cholo som- brero. Pulling its brim low over her eyes, she looked again. With the swiftness of a transformation on a cinema screen, the graceful figure of a girl sprang from the shadows of a heap of granite blocks and stood poised in the patch of radiance which the sinking sun cast through the castle gateway. Jones’s description of the girl whom Ar- nold had encountered in the hills was still vivid in Katherine’s mind; and she instantly recognized the figure before her, the dark robe, the floating masses of raven hair, and the gleaming rings of gold on the bare arms. As the girl took a rapid step toward the getaway, Katherine leaped to her feet. ‘“* Nee-Nah!” she called. ‘‘ Nee-Nah!” Like a startled bird, the girl turned on the tips of her toes and glanced up to where the man and woman were watching her. From Katherine her gaze darted to the Martian. She regarded him intently for an instant, and seemed to make a little moue of disappointment. Again she turned, waved a hand in which a glittering object flashed back the light of the sun, and bounded through the gateway. A moment later she appeared on the bridge, running with incredible speed, and van- ished among the rocks of the valley. Behind her the mules picketed at the 59 bridge-head tossed their muzzles and snorted loudly in affright. Katherine and Kelly turned toward each other. Each found the other pale and breathless; and each knew that it was not the apparition of the girl merely which had made them so. ‘* Did—did you—”’ began the Martian. ““T did,” Katherine answered. ‘‘ What—”’ At that moment they heard behind them the voices of Jones and Tomas. When he emerged from the pit into com- parative daylight, Jones lowered the body to the temple floor. Its parti-colored ap- pearance was entirely gone. It was the corpse of a sunburnt white man; otherwise it was as he had seen it by torch-light. “It must have been the light,” he ejacu- lated. | ‘Let us leave it here and go away,” said Tomas. “And, patron, take my advice, which is good, and let nothing be said to the other men of what has happened here to-day. They are Cholos, and therefore cowards; and they would desert you. I am an Aymara and a brave man.”’ While he was saying this, the face of Tomas was as nearly ashen as its copper hue would allow. Yet what he said was true. Within his limitations, there were few braver men than Tomas. “I think the advice excellent,” replied Jones. ‘‘ What lie do you propose to tell the others?’ ‘I shall say that Enrique fell among the rocks and was killed. I shall cast the body from a high place and break it a little more, patron, and so make the tale seem true. Enrique is dead, and he will not mind,” Tomas answered naively. ‘“Do you and the senora and the Senor Kelly go on ahead, leaving me Enrique and one of the mules, and I will attend to the matter. But, for the sake of Maria Santi- stma, do not ask me to touch the dead ghost, patron! That thing I cannot do.” “We will leave it here, and to-morrow I shall ask the Senor de Ulloa to come with me and see it,” agreed Jones. | ‘“Oh, Bob! we have seen Nee-Nah!”’ cried Katherine. ‘She came from some- where among the ruins and crossed the bridge just now. I called to her; but she cCoOmiclbooks C©