The Moon Pool

rst Va

old her what had happened and what we had found. She listened

he outer court silently-and stood before the rock. She touched it, drew back her hand as I had; thru

me-'David, would you be very, very disappointed if we went fro

learn what that rock concealed. Nevertheless, I tried to master m

ack toward the grey rock. I saw a shiver pass

exclaimed,

he quoted. 'No, after all it may be just fancy. At any rate

decision. As we neared the ot

ight-something that seems-too dangerous-will you promise to go back to

o stay and see what came with th

hundred feet away from the ste

view of the stairs and the gateway. We settled down just before dusk to wait for whateve

ill, and the orb peeped over the sea; swam into full sight. I glanced at Edith and then at Thora. My wife was int

and fall upon my eyes, closing them-closing them inexorably. Edith's hand in mine relaxed. Stanton's head fell upon his b

finite despair in her face-and expectancy. I tried again to rise-and a surge of sleep rushed over me. Di

ht, was standing at t

very own-swept me int

and out toward Edith; touched her and my heart gave a great leap of thankfulness. She st

ly. 'Heavens! What sleep!' s

whispered. 'What mad

ton a

claimed. 'You look as thoug

caught

efore I could answer she had r

reat stone steps, looking up fearfully at the gateway into the terraces. There I told them what I had seen

reached toward something lying at its foot. It was a little piece of gay silk. I knew it for part of the kerchief Thora wore about her hair. She lifted the fragment. It

! And it had opened and T

ittle insane. We beat upon that portal with our hands,

k resisted our drills. We tried explosions at the base with charges covered by rock. They made not the slightes

had reached there it would be impossible to persuade our men to return with us that night, if at all. What then was left? Clearly only one of two choices: to go back to our camp, wait for our

to wait for the rock to open as it had the night before, and to

re us. We had to spend t

hat the slumber had been produced by them, perhaps by vapours-you know as well as I, what extraordinary knowledge these Pacific peoples have of such things. Or the sleep might have been simply a coincidence

ar side of the stairway and I would place myself opposite him on the side near Edith. The place I picked out was less than two hundred feet from her, and I could reassure myself now and then as to her

ur places. The moon dawn increased rapidly; the disk swam up, an

nd from the inner terrace. Stanton straightened up

ook at Edith. A shock ran through me. She lay upon her side. Her face, grotesque with its nose and

-there; and through it ran little gleams and veins of shimmering white fire. A languor passed through me. It was not the ineffable drowsiness of the precedi

up the steps and move toward the gateway. The curdled radiance

ice-and ringing through them Stanton's voice from the courtyard-a great cry-a scream-filled with ecstasy insupportable and horror unimaginable! And onc

and its basalt portals, rough and broken, rising to the top of the wall forty feet above, shattered, ruined porta

ut-God! Wha

shook him. I