Avon Murder Mystery Monthly No. 41 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

24 THE METAL MONSTER I shook my head. “Martin could not see you,” she went on. “He was watching the road that leads above. But I ran down—to help.” “Mart watching?” I asked. “Watching for what?” “I” she hesitated oddly. “I think I’d rather tell you before him. It’s so strange—so incredible.” She led us through the broken portal and into the fortress. It was more gigantic even than I had thought. The floor of the vast chamber we had entered was strewn with fragments fallen from the crackling, stone-vaulted ceiling. Through the breaks light streamed from the level above us. We picked our way among the débris to a wide crumbling stairway, crept up it, Ruth flitting ahead. We came out opposite one of the eye- like apertures. Black against it, perched high upon a pile of blocks, I recognized the long, lean outline of Ventnor, rifle in hand, gazing in- tently up the ancient road whose windings were plain through the open- ing. He had not heard us. “Martin,” called Ruth softly. He turned. A shaft of light from a crevice in the gap’s edge struck his face, flashing it out from the semidarkness of the corner in- which he crouched. I looked into the quiet gray eyes, upon the keen face. “Goodwin!” he shouted, tumbling down from his perch, shaking me by the shoulders. “If I had been in the way of praying—you’re the man I’d:have prayed for. How did you get here?” “Just wandering, Mart,” I answered. “But Lord! I’m sure glad to see you.” | “Which way did you come?” he asked, keenly. I threw my hand toward the south. | “Not through that hollow?” he asked incredulously. “And some hell of a place to get through,” Drake broke in, “It cost us-our ponies and all my ammunition.” “Richard Drake,” I said. “Son of old Alvin—you knew him, Mart.” “Knew him well,” cried Ventnor, seizing Dick’s hand. “Wanted me ¢ _ to go to Kamchatka to get some confounded sort of stuff for one of his devilish experiments. Is he well?” | “He’s dead,” replied Dick soberly. “Oh!” said Ventnor. “Oh—I’m sorry. He was a great man.” Briefly I acquainted him with my wanderings, my encounter with Drake. “That place out there—” he considered us thoughtfully. “Damned if I know what it is. Thought maybe it’s gas—of a sort. If it hadn’t been for it we'd-have been out of this hole two days ago. I’m pretty sure it must be gas. And it must be much less than it was this morning, .for ECOMNC OOO (GO)