The Metal Monster

ng hours; it was of course only minutes-seconds, perhaps. Then I w

ing within some high borderland of light; a region in which that rapid vibration we call the violet was mingled with a still more rapid vibration whose quick pulsing was felt by the brain

lieving. And that at which I stared was-a skeleton hand. Every bone a grayish black, sharply silhouetted, clean as some m

etched out to grasp a steed that Death himself might have ridd

ostly sight-and swiftly the clutching bony hand

nd so acute was my relief, so reassuring was it to have in the midst of t

y. And when I looked again I knew what I would see-and see them I did-two tall sk

the surface of the glistening cube, we

mly awful as materialization of a scene of

ght about us that did it; a vibration that even as I conjectured, was within the only pa

d the bones, the flesh which the X-rays cannot render wholly invisible.

er, spoke

. We're going through a queer light. It has an X-r

as the spectacle had been before, fully understanding it as I did, I could not restrain my

rested by the sight of the flitting pair ahead. I

the flesh dropped back. Girl and woman

it smacked of necromancy. The next instant the three of us stood looking at each other, clothed once

with yellow gleamings like fugitive sunbeams. We were passing through a

my absorption in our surroundings. "And I hope to God it's as differ

e're in?" I asked, a

y to treat them in this place-if we li

ted to their action long enou

amber that was vaster than ten score of the Great Halls of Karnac in one; great as that fabled hall in dread Amenti wher

k now crumbling under the weight of time had I ever sensed a shadow of the strangeness with which this was instinct. No-nor in the shattered fan

umanity as science believes, or creators of humanity as their wo

filled this place had in it

felt a something akin to this, as inhuman; a brooding spirit stony, stark, un

uary built by a

p from its floor arose hundreds of tremendous, square pilla

mathematical. From their massiveness distilled a sense of power, mysterious, mechanical

ns. Great and small, through all the upper levels these strange luminaries gleamed, fixed and motionless, hanging unsupported in space. Ou

Christmas-tree sta

"Of course they are. They're

ricity," Ventnor's voice was calm; now that it was plain we were nearing the heart of this mystery

sed close. In the unfolding of enigmatic happening after happening the mind had deserted speech and crouche

ght that we seemed to be standing still, the tremendous columns flitting past us, turning

king me. "Look. What

ing curtain of green luminescence. High, high up past the pale gilt suns

indeed, as though woven of the auroral rays. And all about it played shifting, tremulou

la-and stopped. From it leaped the woman, and drew Rut

the magnetic grip drop from me, angle downward and leave me free. Shakily I arose fr

the clustered cubes. There came a curious pushing motion drivi

s stood beside it on the floor, we two men gaping at it in renewed wonder, and t

en our steed broke from each other; that

o place behind it an

with his fear. "Ruth! What is wrong

ere wide, unseeing, dream filled. Upon her face the calm and stillness, whic

oubled space, an echo of Norhala's golden chimings-"Brother, the

ed the woman, tall figure tense, d

her?" he whispered in

rbed by his anger save for the faint

was troubled within her-have lifted her above sorrow. I

then, his passion breaking through all restraint-"Y

id understand. Her serenity quivered, broke. The strange stars within her eyes began to glitter forth as they had when s

, I say!" he cried.

the strange stars blazed; upon her face was something of

uding Ruth were torn; swiftly the girl we knew looked out fr

arms, held them tight; "that

man saw it, too, even though dimly; envisioned it humanly. For, under the shock of human passion, that which I thought then as utterly unknown to her

their dreadfulness; softened. She turned them upon Ventnor, they broode

sfiguring it, touching with tenderness the sweet and sleepi

mirror, I watched that same slow,

he passed, an arm around Ruth's neck, I saw the marks of Ventnor's fingers

sts I was conscious of a pleasant tingling, an acceleration of the pulse, an increase of that sense of well-being which, I grew su

drew close to the others, overtaking them in a dozen paces