Avon Murder Mystery Monthly No. 41 — page 198: what you’re looking at

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

200 THE METAL MONSTER | Twice, as a matter of fact, we tried; but the smooth roadway was a torrent, and, drenched even through our oils to the skin, we at last abandoned the attempt. Ruth and Drake drifted away together among the other chambers of the globe; they were absorbed in themselves, and we did not thrust ourselves upon them, All the day the torrents fell. We sat down that night to what was well-nigh the last of Ventnor’s stores. Seemingly Ruth had forgotten Norhala; at least; she spoke no more of her. | | | “Martin,” she said, “can’t we start back tomorrow? I want to get away. I want to get back to our own world.” | “Ags soon as the storm ceases, Ruth,” he answered, “we start. Little sister—I too want you to get back quickly.” . ‘The next morning the storm had gone. We awakened soon after dawn into clear and brilliant light. We had a silent and hurried break- fast. The saddlebags were packed and strapped upon the pony. Within them were what we could carry of souvenirs from Norhala’s home—a suit of lacquered armor,.a pair of cloaks and sandals, the jeweled combs. Ruth and Drake at the side of the pony, Ventnor and I leading, we set forth toward the Pit. | “We'll probably have to come back, Walter,” he said. “I don’t be- lieve the place is passable.” | I pointed—we were then just over the threshold of the elfin globe. Where the veils had stretched between the perpendicular pillars of the cliffs was now a wide and ragged-edged opening. The roadway which had run so smoothly through the ‘scarps was blocked by a thousand foot barrier. Over it, beyond it, I could see through the crystalline clarity of the air the opposing walls. “We can climb it,” Ventnor said. We passed on and reached the base of the barrier. An avalanche had dropped there; the barricade was the . débris of the torn cliffs, their dust, their pebbles, their boulders. We toiled up; we reached the crest; we looked down upon the valley. When first we had seen it we had gazed upon a sea of radiance pierced with lanced forests, swept with gigantic gonfalons of flame; we had seen it emptied of its fiery mists—a vast slate covered. with the chirography of a mathematical god; we had seen it filled with the symboling of the Metal Hordes and dominated by the colossal integrate hieroglyph of the living City; we had seen it as a radiant lake over which brooded weird suns; a lake of yellow flame froth upon which a sparkling hail fell, within which reared islanded towers and a drown- ing mount running with cataracts of sun fires; here we had watched a goddess woman, a being half of earth, half of the unknown immured within a living tomb—a dying tomb—of flaming mysteries; had seen‘a cross-shaped metal Satan, a sullen flaming crystal Judas betray—itself. GOGO .S (GO)