Avon Fantasy Reader No. 8 — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

78 ALGERNON BLACKWOOD passed to and fro behind the shuttered windows, he had not known exactly: He had called these occupants “they,” and the most important among them was “The Ruler.” The Ruler of the Other Wing was a kind of deity, powerful, far away, ever present yet never seen. And about this Ruler he had a wonderful conception for a little boy; he connected her, somehow, with deep thoughts of his own, the deepest of all. | When he made up adventures to the moon, to the stars; or to the bottom of the sea, adventures that he lived inside himself, as it were—to reach them he must invariably pass through the chambers of the Other Wing. Those corri- dors and halls, the Nightmare Passage among them, lay along the route; they were the first stage of the journey. Once the green baize doors swung to behind him and the long dim passage stretched ahead, he was well on his way into the adventure of the moment; the Nightmare Passage once passed, he was safe from capture; but once the shutters of a window had been flung open, he was free of the gigantic wofld that lay beyond. For then light poured in and he could see his way. The conception, for a child, was curious. It established a correspondence between the mysterious chambers of the Other Wing and the occupied, but. unguessed chambers of his Inner Being. Through these chambers, through these darkened corridors, along a passage, sometimes dangerous, or at least of questionable repute, he must pass to find all adventures that were real. The light—when he pierced far enough to take the shutters down—was discovery. Tim did not actually think, much less say, all this. He was aware of it, how- ever. He felt it. The Other Wing was inside himself as well as through the green baize doors. His inner map of wonder included both of them. But now, for the first time in his life, he knew who lived there and who the Ruler was, A shutter had fallen of its own accord; light poured in; he made a guess, and Mother had confirmed it. Sleep and her Little Ones, the host of dreams, were the daylight occupants. They stole out when the dark- ness fell. All adventures in life began’and ended by a dream—discoverable by first passing through the Other Wing. 2 And, having settled this, his one desire now was to travel over the map upon journeys of exploration and discovery. The map inside himself he knew ~ already, but the map of the Other Wing he had not seen. His mind knew it, he had a clear mental picture of rooms and halls and passages, but his feet had never trod the silent floors where dust and shadows hid the flock of dreams by day. The mighty chambers where Sleep ruled he longed to stand in, to see the Ruler face to face. He made up his mind to get into the Other Wing. T'o accomplish this was difficult; but Tim was a determined youngster, and ee icom A