The Argosy, April 1912 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

AS THE DICE FELL. o then that I had shouted and dashed for- ward. For the face, half disclosed in the flare, was the face of mine enemy. It was Forgeron, who had bested and flouted me in the foreign wars, and from whom I had never yet been able to wring the satisfaction which should draw the rankling thorn from mine honor. And now here he was, scarce a hundred feet away, this man I had crossed the Chan- nel to find. I had expected a long and tedious search for him. I had found him almost at once and by sheer chance. Wherefore, with drawn blade, I rushed toward the house into which he had vanished. In a few seconds I had cleared the inter- vening space, well-nigh falling headlong more than once over cobbles and rubbish- heaps, and so gained the house. Up the two steps I sprang at a bound. Still gripping my sword, I pushed open the door, which yielded readily enough to the pressure of my shoulder and swung shut be- hind me. I found myself in a long passageway, at whose farther end was another closed door. From under this door flowed a stream of light, and behind the closed panels came the sound of many voices. The passage- way itself was dimly lit by a lanthorn that swung from the raftered ceiling. Now, I had for years lived and fought in hostile lands where my quick wits and quicker sword-blade alone stood between me and death. I had learned to dodge a trap as cleverly as can any wild animal. And if ever man was rushing into a trap, it was I at that very moment. Here was I, alone, friendless, helpless, save for my sword. And I was pushing my way into a strange house in a rough quarter of London in pursuit of a man who, from his apparent familiarity with the place, was well at home there and was among friends. In that day it was no safe thing at best to venture into unknown parts of London after nightfall. And in the case of armed intruders intora house the inmates were apt to kill first and to ask questions afterward. Had I been in my senses I should have heeded all this, and should have kept clear of a mess that was to alter my whole future. But what angry man is in his full senses? And the sight of mine enemy had fanned my rage to white-heat. Into the house I burst. Now, down the passageway I was striding toward that far- ther door with the light and the many voices behind it. On I went at top speed. Then, half-way down the passageway, I halted as though a cannon-ball had struck my chest. There I stood, shaking, my mouth open, my gaze fixed, the sword dangling inert in my loosening grip. For ‘the very first time in all my thirty-five years I was afraid. Yes. Afraid! For from the shadows of the passageway, where it had been crouching, arose a terri- ble thing. | It was a monster—a demon. Such a be- ing as I had heard tell of in old wives’ tales, but infinitely more horrible than the most daring imagination had ever con- ceived. I had heard and I had read about demons; but up to then I had secretly doubt- ed that such things existed. Now I knew. Slowly from its crouching position on a floor-mat in the passageway arose the thing. How shall I describe it as it appeared be- fore me there in the half light? It was half naked. Its body was of a coppery brown, and was painted with weird designs in red and blue and yellow. Such few garments as it wore were of fantastically beaded and fringed wild-beast skins. Growing from the crown of its otherwise shaven head was a tuft of nod- ding feathers. Its eyes gleamed wickedly through the gloom. In one brown claw it gripped a decorated hatchet, which it raised with a slow, majestic movement, as if to bar my progress. And I, not ten minutes agone, had been telling Will Shakespeare that I had never actually seen any of the spirits or fiends that were then supposed to people the waste places of the earth. I stared blankly at the thing, my knees almost knocking together. For a full half- minute we stood thus, we two, in the gloom of the passageway. And the more I stared, the more unearthly the creature seemed. It was like a figment of some fever-dream. Little by little my amazement permitted me to grasp certain details in its appear- ance. I saw it was shaped like a man, slender and wiry, yet powerful—yet unbe- lievingly tall. I myself stand well over six feet in height. Yet this apparition was a full head taller than I. The features, too, were human, though cast in a mold I had never before seen. The comiclaoolks