The Black Mask — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

More Deadly than the Viper lect. Her voice held a lure—prom- ised paradise .. . and a sweet hell. She bent lower over him, lower, until the fragrance of bruised sandal- wood dulled his senses into a lassi- tude. “My mummy!” Then she allowed her hand to caress his forehead and at the touch a thousand electric volts sent a charge through his whole body. “O white mummy!’ she crooned, “Thy brow is crowned with the pal- lor of flaming snows! I long to love thee, to smother thee with kisses, to let thee perish in my embrace, but not tonight, O white mummy, an- other time .. .” Her face sank lower .. . until her lips met his ... and in that terrible moment he was possessed of a desire to reach up and crush her to him, to return the pressure of that mouth .. Suddenly she sprang back, retreat- ing intothe full clarity of the moon. The flames of jet in her eyes leaped high; her body grew rigid, tense; she flung back her arms, the shining draperies spread as wings of woven- stars; and thus she stood for a brief instant, like a huge scintillating bat above the throat of prey. “Red—red .. . like burning rubies !” fell from her lips. A look of hellish exultation swept her face—a typhoon of emotion. She took a single step toward him, her eyes upon his arm where the skin was slashed; then conquered herself by sheer force of will—a battle that was evident in her face. He heard her teeth snap together. The typhoon was spent. She whirled; he saw the flash of her draperies ... dust in the wake of a silver tempest .. . and the door clanged shut. @nce more he was alone in the cell of the Lamaserie. com Cop perspiration stood out on Tremaine’s body. How he had been able to master himself while she fawned over him he did not know, but he did realize that he could not endure another such ordeal. For a long time he lay there, his body quivering with reaction; and at length he rose, determined upon a course of action. - Moving to the door, he lifted the latch. The ponderous portal swung inward, revealing the blackness of the corridor—a sable ,flood that swam visibly before his eyes. The black- dark suggested frightful — : hidden horrors. His jaw tight he ground his teeth together. 7 Another step, a whine of unoile hinges and it was done—the door closed and he adrift in the fluid dark- ness. = He still wore the sheepskin coat; the dagger and the automatic rested in his inside pocket; and his hand crept beneath the heavy garment, _closing over the cold steel of the re- volver. Thus armed, his unengaged hand extended to avoid a collision with any objects that might lurk in his path, he started forward. He had advanced not more than five yards when instinct warned him to halt. His unengaged hand slipped into the pocket where the box of matches lay; a mere instant—and following a splutter, a tiny blaze was born in the Cimmerian blackness. What he saw caused a vacant sen- sation in the pit of his stomach. He was at the top of a flight of stairs that wound down into a well of darkest night. He shuddered— and the match expired. One hand slipping over the smooth wall, the other gripping the pistol, he began the descent and after what