The Black Mask — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

«, seemed to him a deathless zon of downward steps, he emerged from the winding stairs into a corridor that was half-lit by a flickering oil lamp in a niche in the wall. Upon reaching the end of the hall he found, on one side, huge iron- hinged double-doors, and opposite them, another stair that sank into deep oblivion. Here he halted, un- decided which course to choose. Stairway or doors? The fearsome aspect of the former promised dark revelations. The double-doors could come later. : He stepped into the mouth of the stair. he descent was steep, straight as ne, and when he reached the n he found himself again in a od of sable. The atmosphere was foul—smelled of freshly turned earth. Once more he removed the match- box from his pocket and ignited one. With the small flare, a mere spark in a great void, he strained his eyes. At first he could make out only vague shapes, formless shadows; but soon his vision became accustomed to the poor light and he beheld what was evidently an unused chapel of the Lamaserie—a chapel that- was fast surrendering to ruin, the walls being broken and seamed and grown in places with a loathsome fungi. The floor was strewn with rubbish and broken stones, and along the center of the chapel, placed at regu- lar intervals, were twelve oblong boxes. All this he glimpsed before the match went out. He lit another immediately. This time the twelve wooden boxes claimed his attention; they were all the same size and shape and built dike coffins. To the nearest he moved, aware of a pregnant dread within him. The 7h ‘. * a - - ‘ More Deadly than the Viper lid was half off, thus revealing only a portion of the interior and its con- _ tents; but that was enough to make _ him fall back a step, nauseated. — ; “God !?? ’ The-word left his tongue involun- i tarily. 1 Again he looked—to verify what he had first seen, hoping that some sorcery of the shadows had fashioned _ in ironic jest the Thing that he had — beheld; but no; It was there . The match died, burning his finger- tips. “God!” Again the word was wrung from his lips. : He struck another match and — moved to the next box, peering in. © He repeated this performance until © he had examined the entire twelve— _ and the contents of each proved the 2 same. = “T’su chit ti fang!” The Valley of 4 Vanishing Men! He understood now ~ and the terrible truth spread like a — deadly poison through his brain. Miriam Amber’s words came back a to him— never tasted food . ae The Shining One! And who could ~ The Shining One be but that dark- — eyed priestess of Hell who had bent over him in the room above? The match expired. As darkness shut down upon him he resolved to continue his explorations, to pene- trate the mysteries beyond the double-doors opposite the mouth of — the stairway, and, if possible, exter- minate this monstrous menace to the a world. : The Valley of Vanishing Men! 4 The full horror of it. sent his soul reeling with nausea. That such a Thing existed on this earth he would not have believed before. He groped his way past the oblong