Avon Murder Mystery Monthly No. 41 — page 157: what you’re looking at

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

A. MERRITT 159 fortification thrust up. The city itself I estimated covered about ten square miles. It ran up- ward in broad terraces. It was very fair, decked with blossoming gar- dens and green groves. Among the clustering granite houses, red and yellow roofed, thrust skyward tall spires and towers. Upon the mount’s top was a broad, flat plaza on which were great buildings, marble white and golden roofed; temples I thought, or palaces, or both. -. Running to the city out of the grain fields and steads that surrounded it, were scores of little figures, rat-like. Here and there among them I glimpsed horsemen, arms and armor glittering. All were racing to the gates and the shelter of the battlements. | Nearer we drew. From the walls came now a faint sound of gongs, of drums, of shrill, flutelike pipings. Upon them I could see hosts gather- ing; hosts of swarming little figures whose bodies glistened, from above whom came gleamings—the light striking upon their helms, their spear and javelin tips. | — “Ruszark!” breathed Norhala, eyes wide, red lips cruelly smiling. “Lo rt = before your gates. Lo—I am here—and was there ever joy like t isl”? . : _ The constellations in her eyes blazed. Beautiful, beautiful was Nor- hala—as Isis punishing Typhon for the murder of Osiris; as avenging Diana; shining from her something of the spirit of all wrathtul God- desses. The flaming hair whirled and snapped. From all her sweet body came white-hot furious force, a withering perfume of destruction. She pressed against me, and I trembled at the contact. Lawless, wild imaginings ran through me. Life, human life, dwin- dled. The City seemed but a thing of toys. On—let us crush it! On—on! Again the monster shook beneath us. Faster we moved. Louder grew the clangor of the drums, the gongs, the pipes. Nearer came the walls; and ever more crowded with the swarming human ants that manned them. : | We were close upon the heels of the last fleeing stragglers, The Thing slackened in its-stride; waited patiently until they were close to the gates. Before they could reach them I heard the brazen clanging of their valves. Those shut out beat frenziedly upon them; dragged them- selves close to the base of the battlements, cowered there or crept along them ‘seeking some hole in which to hide. | With a slow lowering of its height the Thing advanced. Now its form was that of a spindle a full mile in length on whose bulging center we three stood. ECOMC OOO (GO)