Avon Fantasy Reader No. 8 — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

34 | _ALGERNON BLACKWOOD He looked at it. It was a bulrush. He did not laugh; the absurdity was so distressingly unnatural. The horror of finding a bulrush where he had expected a polished cane—this hideous _ and appalling detail held the nameless horror of the nightmare. It betrayed him utterly. Why had he not always known really that the stick was not a stick, but a thin and hollow reed . . .} | | . ) Then the cane was safely in his hand, unbroken. He stood looking at it. The Nightmare was in full swing. He heard another door opening behind his back, a door he had not touched. There was just time to see a hand thrust- ing and waving dreadfully, familiarly, at him through the narrow crack—just time to realise that this was another Nightmare acting in atrocious concert with the first, when he saw closely beside him, towering to the ceiling, the protective, kindly Figure that visited his bedroom. In the turning movement he made to meet the attack, he became aware of her. And his terror passed. It was a nightmare terror merely. The infinite horror vanished. Only the comedy remained. He smiled. He saw her dimly only, she was so vast, but he saw her, the Ruler of the Other Wing at last, and knew that he was safe again. He gazed with a tre- mendous love and wonder, trying to see her clearly; but the face was hidden far,aloft and seemed to melt into the sky beyond the roof. He discerned that ° she was larger than the Night, only far, far softer, with wings that folded above him more tenderly even than his mother’s arms ; that there were points of light like stars among the feathers, and that she was vast enough to cover millions and millions of people all at once. Moreover, she did not fade or go, so far as he could see, but spread herself in such a way that he lost sight of her. She spread over the entire Wan oe 2% * And Tim remembered that this was all quite natural really. He had often and often been down this corridor before: the Nightmare Corridor was no new experience; it had to be faced as usual. Once knowing what hid inside the rooms, he was bound to tempt them out. They drew, enticed, attracted him; this was their power. It was their special strength that they could suck him helplessly towards them, and that he was obliged to go. He understood exactly why he was tempted to tap with the cane upon their awful doors, but, having done so, he had. accepted the challenge and could now continue his journey quietly and safely. The Ruler of the Other Wing had taken him in charge. : ' A delicious sense of carelessness came on him. There was softness as of water in the solid things about him, nothing that could hurt or bruise. Hold- ing the cane firmly by its ivory. handle, he went forward along the corridor, walking as on air. : ; 7 The end was quickly reached: He stood upon the threshold of the mighty chamber where he knew the owner of the cane was waiting; the long corri- dor lay behind him, in front he saw the spacious dimensions of a lofty hall ” CORMCOO<S.COz a or