Avon Murder Mystery Monthly No. 41 — page 170: what you’re looking at

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

172 THE METAL MONSTER racked by his sobbing, he watched the passing of his people and his city. And relentlessly, coldly, Norhala watched him—as though loath to lose the faintest shadow of his agony. , | Now I saw we were close to the top of the mount. Packed between us and the immense white structures that crowned it were thousands of the people. They fell on their knees before us, prayed to us. They tore at each other, striving to hide themselves from us in the mass. that was themselves. They beat against the barred doors of the sanctuaries; they climbed the pillars; they swarmed over the golden roofs. a There was a moment of chaos—a chaos of which we were the heart. Then temple and palace cracked, burst; were shattered; fell. I caught glimpses of gleaming sculptures, glitterings of gold and of silver, flash- ing of gems, shimmering of gorgeous draperies—under them a welter- ing of men and women. We closed down upon them—over them! The dreadful sobbing ceased, I saw the head of Cherkis swing heav- ily upon a shoulder; the eyes closed. | The Destroying Things touched. Their flailing arms coiled back, withdrew into their bodies. They joined, forming for an instant a tremendous hollow pillar far down in whose center we stood.. They parted; shifted in shape; rolled down the mount over the ruins like a widening wave—crushing into the stone all over which they passed. Afar away I saw the gleaming serpent still at play—still writhing among, still obliterating the few score scattered fugitives that some way, somehow, had slipped by the Destroying Things. | We halted. For one long moment Norhala looked upon the drooping body of him upon whom she had let fall this mighty vengeance. . Then the metal arm that held Cherkis whirled. Thrown from it, the cloaked form flew like a great blue bat. It fell upon the flattened mound that had once been the proud crown of his city. A blue blot upon deso- lation the broken body of Cherkis lay. | A black speck appeared high in the sky; grew fast—the lammergeier. “I have left carrion for you—after all!” cried Norhala. _ | With an ebon swirling of wings the vulture dropped beside the blue heap—thrust in it its beak. GOGO .S (GO)