The Metal Monster

ted when our gaze had risen above the fog, glided the block that bore Ruth and Norhala. In the strange light of the place int

d a shielding intent, guardianship-the first really huma

trous, but shining as though cut from blue and polished steel. They-marched-

the Metal Things, darting through like divers through a wave. And as they drew into our wake an

ned-I looked about me. The walls of the cleft or tunnel were perp

carried a sense of the infinitely minute-of electrons, it came to me, rather than atoms. Their irra

rison, like colloids within the illuminated field of the ultramicroscope; and like these latter

puscular, was crystalline clear. High above us-five hundred,

e-but rock cut and planed, sm

eservoir of luminosity and from which, it came to me, pulsed the force that ligh

struck over my nerves as no rasp could, stirring a vague resen

ten those who must share with me my dou

n get my feet loose from this da

y, startled out of my pr

other cube; it was now a scant twenty paces ahead; it seemed to b

led. "Ruth-are

ame unearthly tranquillity which was Norhala's; in her brown eyes was a shadow of that passionless spirit brooding

; "yes, Martin-ha

forward once more with the

een? Then I knew they had seen, for Ventnor's face was white to the lips,

-you saw her face," he gr

was anguish in

n. It was as though s

from the shining surface, making ready to leap when they should draw close enough. His grea

's like trying to lift yourself by your b

ied Ventno

k darted forward, resuming the distance

With an incredible speed they fled into, were lo

lew faster and faster onward. And as swiftly our own

ing over a broad ledge. This ledge was, I judged, all of a hundred

slowly drawing closer. Afte

nd the character of the cliffs was changing. Veins of quartz shone under the metallic plating like cut crysta

exact center of the falling floor. So black was it tha

s seemed to well up from within it, blackness that was the very essence of the depths. Ste

lf had opened, an abyss, striking down d

steed of sorcery and racing along

g us; in a long column of twos they flashed by, raced ahead. Far in front of

bbon of wan flame, flicked like a serpent's tongue-held steady. I felt the Thing beneath

in our path was a barricade of the cubes and upon them we were racing like a flying batterin

n which we

ing through the blackness over the shaft of phosphorescence, the ribbon of pale light that I had watched pierce it and knew now was bu

mighty tumult, a vast crashing and roaring. The clangor

eamed what at first glimpse seemed indeed to be the rising sun; a gigantic orb, whose lower limb just t

d to me; told me this g

d in the corridors of the Dead? Or that mocking luminary, the cold phantom of the God of light

light streamed from this orb, light in multicolored, lanced

by the growing light I saw that still beside us ran the a

s pool. Into it, out of the depths, protruded a trem

d; it lifted itself from the abyss,

For an instant it was silhouetted against the smi

spider shape, blackened into sight a cube and on

t beat thinly in my ears ag

orb was indeed a gateway, a

rifting shadows were all beyond it. The suggestion of sphere had been an illu

ngue was a ramp, a slide, d

incredible shape-like a monstrous, armored flat-backed crab; angled spikes

yellow. It hung poised as had that other nightmare shape, standing out jet black and colossal, rearing upon columnar legs, whose outline

ositions. The front and side legs lengthened, the back legs shortened, fit

the Metal Things. I caught again the flashes and thought that they w

re the enigmatic woman and Ruth. Then they were gone a

ted mile away and whose incredible waves streamed thousands of feet in air, flew in gigantic banners, in tr

incandescence took form, became ordered. Within the

s. They shone darkly within the flame-woven dept

flaming levins threaded the shimmering veils, patterned them,

h hammers against the enemies of Odin. As a forge upo

ld? A met

ly all that clamor died; the lightnings ceased; all the flitting radiances paled and the sea of flaming

in length-a broad band of fluorescent amethyst shone. From it dropped curtains, shimmering, n

of those fantastic buttes of our desert Southwest when their castellated tops are silhouetted against the setti

as a

though the man-made cliffs of lower New York were raised scores of times their height, stretched a score of times their length.

e-shadowed walls of the city sparkled out with countless lights. From the cro

shape? An icy hand stretched out of the unknown, stilled my heart. For they were shifting-arches and domes, turret

ose to the curving frame of the portal and not a yard from where upon her block stood Norhala, he

Ruth, the cube glided to the edge

e rode trembled a

ony whinnied, fearfully. Then with awful speed we were flying down a wide, a glistening, a steep

n web of brown and shining veil of red-gold; little clouds of sparkling corpuscles threaded them, like f

again to rumble the coun