Avon Fantasy Reader No. 8 — page 102: what you’re looking at

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

98 HP. LOVECRAPT pression of light amidst the darkness of dead batteries, and I seemed to see SO a sort of phosphorescent glow in the water through the porthole which opened toward the temple. This aroused my curiosity, for I knew of no deep-sea organism capable of emitting such luminosity. But before I could investigate there came a third impression which because of its irrationality caused me to doubt the objectivity of anything my senses might record. It was an aural delusion, a sensation of rhythmic, melodic sound as of some wild yet beau- | tiful chant or choral hymn, coming from the outside through the absolutely 4 soundproof hull of the U-29. ( oe ee Convinced of my psychological and nervous abnormality, I lighted some matches and poured a stiff dose of sodium bromide solution, which seemed to calm me to the extent of dispelling the illusion of sound. But the phos- phorescence remained, and I had difficulty in repressing a childish impulse: to go to the porthole and seek its source. It was horribly realistic, and I could soon distinguish by its aid the familiar objects around me, as well as the empty sodium bromide glass of which I had had no former visual impres- sion in its present location. This last circumstance made me ponder, and I crossed the room and touched the glass. It was indeed in the place where I - had seemed to see it. Now I knew that the light was either real or part of an hallucination so fixed and consistent that I could not hope to dispel it; so abandoning all resistance I ascended to the conning-tower to look for the luminous agency. Might it not actually be another U-boat, offering possibili- ties of rescue? It is well that the reader accept nothing which follows as objective truth; for since the events transcend natural law, they are necessarily the subjective and unreal creations of my overtaxed mind. When I attained the conning- tower I found the sea in general far less luminous than I had expected. There was no animal or vegetable phosphorescence about, and the city that sloped down to the river was invisible in blackness. What I did see was not spec- tacular, not grotesque or terrifying, yet it removed my last vestige of trust in my consciousness. For the door and windows of the undersea temple hewn from the rocky hill were vividly aglow with a flickering radiance, as from a mighty altar-flame far within. Later incidents are chaotic. As I stared at the uncannily lighted door and -windows, I became subject to the most extravagant visions—visions so ex- travagant that I can not even relate them. I fancied that I discerned objects in the temple; objects both stationary and moving; and seemed to hear again | the unreal chant that had floated to me when first I awaked. And over all rose thoughts and fears which centered in the youth from the sea and the ivory image whose carving was duplicated in the frieze and columns of the temple before me. I thought of poor Klenze, and wondered where his body | rested with the image he had carried back into the sea. He had warned me > books:com) (enn)