Avon Murder Mystery Monthly No. 41 — page 44: what you’re looking at

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

46 THE METAL MONSTER “Nonsense,” I muttered. “Nonsense, Ruth. What,do you think she is—a goddess, a spirit of the Himalayas? She’s as human as you or I.” “No.” Even in the darkness I could sense the stubborn shake of her curly head. “Not all human. Or how could she have commanded those things? Or have summoned the lightnings that blasted the tunnel’s mouth? And her skin and hair—they’re too wonderful, Walter. — “Why, she makes me look—look coarse. And the light that hovers about her—why, it is by that light we are making our way. And when she touched me—I—I glowed—all through. | “Human; yes—but there is something else in her—something stronger than humanness, something that—makes it sleep!” she added aston- ishingly. | The ground was level as a dancing floor. We followed the enigmatic glow—emanation, it seemed to me—from Norhala which was as a light for us to follow within the darkness. The high ribbon of sky had van- ished—seemed to be overcast, for I could see no stars. Within the darkness I began again to sense faint movement; soft stirring all about us. I had the feeling that on each side and behind us moved an invisible host. “There’s something moving all about us—going with us,” Ruth echoed my thought. “It’s the wind,” I said, and paused—for there was no wind. From the blackness before us came a succession of curious, muffled clickings, like a smothered mitratlleuse. The luminescence that clothed Norhala brightened, deepening the darkness. “Cross!” She pointed into the void ahead; then, as we started forward, thrust out a hand to Ruth, held her back. Drake and Ventnor drew close to them, questioningly, anxious. But I stepped forward, out of the dim gleaming. | | : | Before me were two cubes; one I judged in that uncertain light to be six feet high, the other half its bulk. From them a shaft of pale-blue phosphorescence pierced the murk. They stood, the smaller pressed against the side of the larger, for all the world like a pair of immense nursery blocks, placed like steps by some giant child. As my eyes swept over them, I saw that the shining shaft was an unbroken span of cubes; not multi-arched like the Lilliputian bridge of the dragon chamber, but flat and running out over an abyss that gaped at my very feet. All of a hundred feet they stretched; a slender, lustrous girder crossing unguessed depths of gloom. From far, far be- low came the faint whisper of rushing waters. | | | I faltered. For these were the blocks that had formed the body of the monster of the hollow, its flailing arms. The thing that. had played GOGO .S (GO)