Avon Murder Mystery Monthly No. 41 — page 49: what you’re looking at

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

A. MERRITT 51 In its wake swam, one by one, six others—their tops raising from the vapors like the first, watchfully; like shimmering backs of sea mon- sters; like turrets of fantastic angled submarines from phosphorescent seas. One by one they skimmed swiftly over the ledge; and ‘one by one they nestled, edge to edge and alternately, against the cube which had gone before. _ In a crescent, they stretched betore us. Back from them, a pace, ten paces, twenty, we retreated. | They lay immiobile—staring’ at us. Cleaving the mists, silk of copper hair streaming wide, unearthly eyes lambent, floated up behind thetm—Norhala. For an instant she was hidden behind their bulk; suddenly was upon them; drifted over them like some spirit of light; stood before us. Her veils were again about her; golden girdle, sandals of gold and turquoise in their places. Pearl white her body gleamed; no mark of lightning marred it, She walked toward us, turned and faced the watching cubes.’ She uttered no sound, but as at a signal the central cube slid forward, halted before her. She rested a hand upon its edge. — “Ride with me,” she said to Ruth. “Norhala.” Ventnor took a step forward. “Norhala, we must go with her. And this” —he pointed to the pony—‘“must go with us.” “JT meant—you—to come,” the faraway voice chimed, “but I had not thought of—that.” A moment ‘she considered; then turned to the six waiting cubes. Again as at a command four of the things moved, swirled in toward each other with a weird precision, with a monstrous martial mimicry; joined; stood before us, a platform twelve feet square, six high. | “Mount,” sighed Norhala. Ventnor looked helplessly at the sheer front facing him. “Mount.” There was half-wondering impatience in her command. “See!” | She caught Ruth by the waist and with the same bewildering swift- ness ‘with which she had vanished from us when the aurora beckoned she stood, holding the girl, upon the top of the single cube. It was as ‘though the two had been lifted, had been levitated with an incredible ~ rapidity. | a “Mount,” she murmured again, looking down upon us. | Slowly Ventnor began to bandage the pony’s eyes. I placed my hand upon the edge of the quadruple;,sprang. A myriad unseen hands caught me, raised me, set me instantaneously on the upward surtace. “Lift the pony to me,” I called to Ventnor. “Lift it?” he echoed, incredulously. ECOMC OOO (GO)