Avon Fantasy Reader No. 9 — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

Now this in turn began to contract until it resembled a huge opal lying upon a pedestal of ebony and velvet. Again the atmosphere grew tense to the breaking point. And now my brain began to'throb in unison with the pulsing orb of light from which sprang thin tongues of glowing red flame that struck the blue wall of the barrage and sank into it. Faster and faster the living gem swelled and fell, faster and faster the bombardment of light bathed the wavering wall. Now it no longer sank in at once, but spread and cascaded over the quivering surface, flame devouring flame in a colossal battle of light. Faster, ever faster those rosy hammers beat at the azure wall, until at last it became a seething vortex of purple fire that swirled and danced, then died as a crimson lance struck full upon the unprotected band of orichalcum and blasted it in a ‘chaotic fountain of golden glory. In over: the fallen flame-wall flowed the hosts of the Things, armed with hun- dreds of tiny opals that had been born from the great gem of the battle. An aero rose above the doomed city, melted and fell blazing beneath the caress i of a flame-tongue. We could no longer see the black vapors, for they were invisible against the walls of the city, but we could see the myriad little gems of opalescence, darting their tiny, deadly flame-tongues, as they flowed in a great wave over the city, fusing it into a dead black mound of cold rock, rock upon which a white frost was forming as the Things sucked from it its every drop of energy. As the little lights flashed out, and the great cloud of black vapor rolled toward us, Doc put the aero about and we floated out toward the swamp. Then, with a cry of alarm, he sent the ship at full speed out over the writhing tree-tops. Startled, I looked back. The Things had seen us: Down the narrow gorge and over the steaming waters of the swamp sped the great colorless cloud, crowned with a single mighty ball of light. Before © it, straight out into the marsh, stretched a broad lane of blackened vegeta- tion and boiling waters cut straight through the heart of the living forest by the darting flames that strove to strike us down. Then it was left behind, and Doc slackened our awful pace, for it would not do to miss the opening of the pit and be forever trapped in the wilderness of this inner world. Before, we had skirted the edge of the forest; now we were cutting straight across it to the spot, somewhere on the other side, where lay the crystal valve and safety. More than three hundred miles an hour we dared not attempt and the black cloud, a blot against the pale swamp, was gaining on us at an incredible speed. | Far to the left the trees gave way to a wilderness of giant fungi, scarlet and purple and bilious yellow, that covered all the ground with its huge heaps of rotting color and distorted livid spires. Above it hung the grey spore-clouds that had brought destruction upon the uppper world. And in the very heart of this Devil’s garden rose the Crimson City, the city of the Things. We saw little of it as we hurtled far above and to one side, but we J. : connlichoolks.com: