Avon Fantasy Reader No. 13 — page 78: what you’re looking at

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

and Macdonald. You can. easily visualize with what anticipation I looked for a solution to the Stillwater mystery from these two men when once they regained consciousness. “I resolved, in consequence, to keep a bedside watch. The doctors told me that Wentworth showed the best signs of coming out of his uncon- - scious delirium first, and I took my place at his side, one of the nurses ready to take down anything Wentworth might say. Shortly after I had taken my position there, the body of the girl was identified by a resident of Navissa Camp who had already heard of her and had come to look at the body. The girl was Irene Masitte, the only daughter of the Masitte who ran the tavern at Stillwater. This indicated conclusively that the two men had been in Stillwater at the time of the inexplicable tragedy which swept its inhabitants off the face of the earth, and very probably were in the tavern at the moment the tragedy occurred, perhaps talking with this girl. So I thought at the moment. . “Naturally, I was deeply- perplexed as to where the men and the girl might have come from, and also as to why the men were practically unhurt and the girl dead, dead for a great length of time, said Dr. Jamison, perhaps preserved by the cold. And, why and how did the men come gently to the earth, and why was the girl literally dashed to the ground? But all these puzzling questions were for the time being shoved into the background, so eager was I to get at the mystery which surrounded the Stillwater case. “As I have already written, I had taken my place beside the bed of Went- - worth, and listened eagerly for any hint he might drop in his delirium, for as he became warmed, he began to talk a great deal, though not always intelligibly. Some sentences and phrases could be made out, and these the nurse took down in shorthand. I copy a few of the sentences I heard as we bent over the bed: 3 “‘Death-Walker . . . God of the Winds, you who walk on the wind ...adoramus te ...adoramus te... adoramus te. .. . Destroy these faithless ones, you who walk with death, you who pass above the earth, you who have vanquished the sky... . Light gleams from the mosques of Baghdad... stars are born in the Sahara . .. Lhassa, lost Lhassa, worship, worship, worship the Lord of the Winds. , ae “These enigmatic words were followed by a deep and profound silence, during which the man’s breathing struck me as highly irregular. Dr. Jami- son, who was there, noticed it also, commenting on it as a bad sign, though there was no intimation as to what might have brought on this sudden ‘irregularity unless it were some unconscious excitement. The delirious jumble meanwhile continued, even more puzzling than before. “Wind-Walker, disperse the fogs over England... adoramus te.... It is too late to escape ... Lord of the Winds. . . . Fly, fly or He will come. ... Sacrifice, sacrifice . . . a sacrifice must be, yes, must be made. .. Chosen one, Irene. Oh, Wind-Walker, sweep over Italy when the olive trees blossom ... and the cedars of Lebanon, blue in the wind... cold-swept Russian steppes, over wolf-infested Siberia .. . onward to Afri- ca, Africa. ... Blackwood has written of these things ... and there are 76 books: come