Avon Fantasy Reader No. 13 — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

ee ee Oe ere he eheht hear There was a long pause, and then in the same ghastly voice as before came - the words: “Nothing matters now!” _ I sat down on the piano bench, and turning, caught a glimpse of the passive, livid face on the pillow, and Dr. Johns bending over it. “What is all so useless?” he repeated. There was no answer, though we waited a long time, with our beating hearts audible it seemed in the heaviness of the silence. Then Dr. Johns signed me to go on playing, and for perhaps ten minutes I went over and over the themes, elaborating them at times as fancy led me. “Stop!” called the doctor sharply; I ceased abruptly, my hands poised above the keyboard. “Play slowly, very softly,* he commanded, and as I obeyed I heard his voice in the gentle tones one uses toward a child, asking, ° ‘Can you speak now, Norton?” A long pause and then came the answer: “Ves “What can we do to help you?” There was no answer. “What can we do to help you, Norton?” repeated Dr. Johns. “Play louder,” he added aside to me. “Tt 1s all so useless,” said the voice, louder and stronger than before. I lect my playing die down a little. “Why is it all so useless? Why is it, Norton?” asked Dr. Johns firmly and yet almost tenderly. There was a longer pause than usual, and then came the words. “So useless. So useless, because she 1s not here—you must not make me live.” I do not know whether I played wrongly at this point or that it was merely from some other cause, but immediately after uttering these words the body was seized with a convulsion horrible to witness. I heard Dr. Johns’s sharply indrawn breath and his muttered exclamation. top playing!” he commanded. 3 I did so, and hurried again to the bedside. The convulsion had ceased; the contorted face was relaxing. “Why must we not make you live? Why, Norton?” Dr. Johns spoke almost - in a whisper. Standing directly over the bed I could see the muscles of the face : as the lips _ parted and the words came forth. “Because. she has gone. 1 cannot reach her now.” And then a shudder seemed to pass over the entire body, and with more 3 power than ever before the voice said: “The desk. Look in the desk. Use it, for God's sake use it.” The body abruptly relaxed into immobility; we waited and waited, but there came nothing more. That was the first we knew about the girl. On the desk stood a photograph —we had not noticed it before—in a small silver frame. It was the picture of a girl perhaps twenty-five years of age—a shy, beautiful face, with very large . ae 5‘ comicoooks