Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 18, 1928 — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

872 my sharpened fancy, that in every one some horrible lurking thing was waiting to spring upon us. Sonya was leading. She was taking us through a back way to her home, to get the vehicle which would transport us to the island. We were nearing the end of the alley; it opened ahead of us into a street with a dim glow of light illumining it. To our right, just ahead, was a court- yard entrance—a yawning cave-mouth of blackness. We had almost reached it, when Sonya abruptly halted, checked our advance as though she had struck some invisible bar- rier; stopped, and shrank backward, press- ing against us. And her hand in terror was over her mouth to stifle a scream. I saw it then—what she was seeing. A thing, something monstrous, lurking in the blackness of that cavelike house entrance, a thing huge, of vague, grotesque outline, an upright thing, with a great, balloon- like head, bobbing from side to side, two eyes glowing in the darkness; and below them, where a neck might have been—two other smaller eyes, green, blazing points of fire. In all my veins the blood seemed {reez- ing; prickling needle-points of ice exuding through my pores; my scalp prickling at the hair-roots. I was stricken with fright and horror; but an instinct, so that I scarcely realized what I was doing, made me pull Sonya soundlessly backward; sweep all three of the girls behind me and down- ward. And as they sank to the pavement, T crouched tense in front of them. The thing seemingly had not heard us, ox seen us. It advanced out of the dark- ness of the doorway; and in the dimness of the outside light I saw it more clearly, a thing like a great upright animal—ten feet tall, perhaps—monstrously cast in hu- man mold, with thick, bent legs; a long, thick trunk, with wide, powerful shoulders and a deep, bulging chest; and arms that dangled nearly to its knees. Its head, no wider than its powerful neck, was small, round, and flat on top. There seemed a face; its tiny blazing eyes were plain in the darkness. A two-headed thing! The small head was ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. bent forward; behind it, as though astride of the shoulders, was another head, balloon- like; huge—wider than the shoulders—a head seemingly inflated, distended; a large, flat face. The thing took a step; its large head wabbled as it moved. I could feel Sonya clinging to me, trem- bling; but none of the girls had made a sound. We were in deep shadow; the thing evidently did not see us. It stood in an attitude as though listening—far away, dimly, the shouts of the crowd at the king’s castle were audible—then the thing turned; with a noiseless swinging stride and dan- gling arms, it moved away from us, on along the alley. My hand behind me kept the girls mo- tionless. The thing came to the end of the narrow street, emerged into the glow of light there. It did not pause—the light obviously was not to its liking—it bounded sidewise, noiseless on padded feet, and was gone into the shadows. But in that instant under the light, I had seen it more clearly. A giant, gorilla- like figure. A man! Black hair seemed upon its body; but the body was partially clothed; and I fancied I had seen a belt strapped about its waist, with dangling weapons. The bobbling head astride upon its shoulders was very different from the rest of the thing. A bloated membrane? I got that impression. It seemed a smooth, dead- white skin; I thought I had seen distended veins on it. And»as the powerful body leaped, I fancied I saw thin little arms, four of them, hanging inert from the bloated head. It was gone. I breathed again. Be- hind me the huddled girls were shuddering. At my ear, Sonya was whispering: ‘The Nameless Horror!” CHAPTER X. THE FLIGHT TO THE VIRGINS’ ISLAND E did not continue down that street. Sonya took us back; we turned an- other corner, and another; and soon were near her home. She had not swerved from her purpose to take us to JOO com (E cS (Eo)