The Moon Pool

he Moo

. He radiated light; was filled with light; overflowed with it. A shining cloud whirled thro

n remoulded by the hand of God and the hand of Satan, working together and in harmony. You have seen that seal upon my own. But you have

itself, whirled through and beyond him and back again. And as its shining nucleus passed through him Stanton's whole body pulsed radian

w faded from the moonlight, the tinkling music grew fainter. I tried again to move. The t

re that was Stanton. Far away he was-on the gigantic wall. But still I could see the shining spirals whirling jubilantly around and through him; felt rather than saw his tranced face beneath the seven moons. A swir

ound; the second, and last, cry of Stanton, like an echo of his firs

r the steps, rushed up them, through the gateway and straight to the grey rock. It was closed-as I knew it wou

h she wakened; looked at me wand

the despair on my face and leaped to her feet. '

for the balance of that night we sat before the flame

in held his hands o

were mad. It's truth, absolute truth. Wait-" I comforted him

he walls whereon I had seen Stanton were black and silent. The terraces were as they had been. The grey slab was in its pl

d. We could not abandon these two; could not go as long as there was the faintest hope of finding them-and yet for lov

night,' she pleaded. 'B

alter. We

she said. And it was thus a

ed, Throckmartin," I interrup

eve then?" h

ressed my hand with a gri

not fear. If I-fail, yo

rom

d passed between its full lifting and the strange sighing sound from the inner terrace. I went back in memory over the happenings of the night before. At least ten minutes had intervened between the first heralding sigh and the intensification of the moonlight in the co

gher, or else it must come from a distance. The thing to do is not to wait for it, but to surprise it before it passes out the door. We will go into the inner court early. You will take

her that it was better for her to stand guard without, prepared to hel

e at the side of the grey rock. Edith crouched behind a broken pillar twenty f

softly lighten. With the first pale flush the silence of the place intensified. It deepened; became unbeara

ht sprang out. They gleamed, glimmered, grew brighter-shone. The gigantic slab before me glowed with them, silver wav

It glowed with the same faint silvery radiance. Down it I raced. The passage turned abru

pace; a space filled with lambent, coruscating, many-coloured mist whose bright

t ran a low, softly curved lip of glimmering silvery stone. Its water was pales

wn upon the blue eye like cylindrical torrents; they were

n of pale amber; a beam of amethyst; a shaft of molten silver. Such are the colours of the seven lights that stream upon the Moon Pool. I drew closer

rkles and coruscations of pale incandescence. And far, far below I s

om these that the rays poured. Even as I watched their brightness grew. They were like seven moons set high in some

gushing into it seemed to be filling it; it was alive with sparklings, scintillations,

corpuscles, tiny rosy spiralings. The mist absorbed the rays, was strengthened by them, gained substance. Another swirl sprang into the amber shaft, clung and fed there, moved swiftly tow

drawing within it life from the seven beams falling upon it; drawing to it from below the darting, incandescent atoms of the Pool. Into its

h had walked with Stanton, which had t

d threw up the pistol and I fired sh

the roof. From thence I knew came the force that shaped this Dweller in the Pool-from the pouring rays came its strength. If I could destroy them I could check it

ursting bubbles of glass, swarmed the tinkling sound

Inexplicable swept

ry atom of me quivered with delight and shrank with despair. There was nothing loathsome in it. But it was as thou

s though a being of another sphere should assume what it might of human semblance, but was not able to conceal that what human eyes saw was but a part of it. It was neither man nor woman; it was unearthly and androgynous. Even as I found

seven little lights. Each was the colour of the beam beneat

wed me. I felt every faculty concentrate into a mighty effort. I wrenched myself free from th

wiftly-and straight into it raced Edith, a

self around her. The crystal tinklings burst forth jubilantly. The light filled her, ra

she fell-with the radiance still holding her, still swirling and winding aroun

coloured nebulous cloud descending; out of it peered Edith's

d again. 'Edith,

into the courtyard. Reason had left me. When it returned I was far out at sea in our boat wholly est

his berth. I bent over him. Exhaustion and the relief of telli

wn broke I went to my room to get a little

Throckmartin came to me at lunch. He

his shirt from him. "Something is happening," he

e'll see who'll win! For, Walter, I'm not at all sure that Edith is dead-as we know death

y he talked to

ing agency. When the light strikes them they release the mechanism that opens the slab, just as you can open doors with sun or electric light by an ingenious arrangement of selenium-cells. Apparently it takes the strength of the full moon both to do this a

n duplicate for you in the event-of something happening-to me. A

in I pr

complained of incr

other drowsiness. It's an hour till moonrise still," he

my deep preoccupation. What time was it? I looked at my watch and jumped to the port-hole. It was full moonli

and I looked, in amazement, at the white band around his chest. Even under th

e. He looked down at his breast, s

it's coming-to take me bac

" I cried. "Wa

id. "No use; c

road path of light straight to the ship. Under its rays the band around his

; evidently also throughout the

n path toward us. Through the window cascaded a blinding radiance. It gathered Throckmartin to it, clothe

e in blackness. When consciousness came ba

martin there