Argosy All-Story Weekly — "The Purple Limited" — page 123: what you’re looking at

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

THE METAL MONSTER. ‘““We have with us food of our own, Norhala,” I explaingd. ‘‘ He goes to get it.” She nodded, indifferently; clapped her hands. Yuruk shrank back, and out strode Drake. “I am weary,” sighed Norhala. ‘“ The way was long. I will.refresh myself—” She stretched out a slender foot toward Yuruk; he knelt, unlaced the turquoise bands, drew off the sandals. Her hands sought her breast, dwelt for an instant there. Down slipped her silken veils, clingingly. slowly, as though reluctant to unclasp her; whispering they fell from the high and ten- der breasts, the delicate rounded hips, and clustered about her feet in soft petalings as of some flower of pale amber foam; out of the calyx of that flower arose the gleam- ing miracle of her body crowned with the glowing glory of her cloudy hair! Naked she was, yet clothed with an un- earthly purity, the purity of the far-flung, serene stars, of the eternal snows upon some calm, high-flung peak, the tranquil, silver dawns of spring; protected by some spell of divinity which chilled and slew the flame of desire. A maiden Ishtar, a vir- ginal Isis; a woman—yet with no more of woman’s lure than if she had been some exquisite and breathing statue of mingled ivory and milk of pearls. So she stood for a breath, indifferent to us who gazed upon ‘her, withdrawn. mu- sing, as though she had forgotten us. And that serene indifference, with its entire ab- sence of what we term sex consciousness, revealed to me how great was the abyss be- tween us and her; as great, nay greater, perhaps, than that between her and her metal servitors, her metal master! Slowly she raised her arms, wound the floating tresses into a coronal. I saw Drake enter with the saddle-bags; saw them drop from hands relaxing under the shock of this amazing tableau; saw his eyes widen and fill with wonder and half-awed admiration. Now she stepped out of her fallen robes and moved toward the further wall, Yuruk following her. He stooped, raised an ewer of silver and began gently t to pour over her SA 689 shoulders its contents. Again and again he bent and filled the vessel, dipping it into a Shallow basin from which came the bub- bling and chuckling of a little spring. And again I marveled at the marble smoothness and fineness of her skin on which the ca- ressing water left tiny silvery globules, gemming it. The eunuch slithered to one side, drew from a quaint chest clothes of white floss; patted her dry with them; threw over her shoulders a silken robe of blue. Back she floated to us; hovered over ' Ruth, crouching with the pale head upon her knees. A motion she made as though to draw the girl to her; hesitated as Ruth’s face set in a passion of denial. A shadow of kindness drifted through the wide, mys- terious eyes; a shadow of pity joined it as she looked curiously down on Ventnor. ‘‘ Bathe,” she murmured, and pointed to the pool. “ And rest. No harm shall come toeany of you here. And you—”’ A hand rested for a moment lightly on the girl’s curly head, ‘‘ if you desire it—I will again . give you—peace!”’ She. parted the curtains, and the eunuch sull following, was bidden beyond them. CHAPTER XXI. ‘fA VOICE FROM THE VOID!” other. Then called forth perhaps by what she saw in Drake’s eves, perhaps by another thought, Ruth’s cheeks crimsoned, her head drooped; the web of her hair hid the warm rose of her face, the frozen pallor of Ventnor’s. There came a faint rustling from behind those curtains through which Norhala had vanished. They swayed. From beneath them spun and glided a score or more of the smallest of the metal things—the little ones as she had called them. Among them was none of the spheres, only the cubes and pyramids. They ran about us, circled and leaped Hes we looked at each like playful children, peering at us, their myriads of tiny sparkling eyes. twinkling mischievously! Suddenly they raced to- ward the oval doorway, swept into a circle COMMIC 6)(0)O) <SHGOI