Abraham Merritt

“ Swiftly she slipped from his embrace, blushing, glancing at the Three shyly, half-fearfully. And again I saw the tenderness creep into the inky, flame-shot orbs of the woman being; and a tenderness in the others, too—as though they regarded some well-beloved child
"Doc," shouted Larry, catching me by the hand, "what hit me? Say, I've had some dream. Where are we?"
Lakla touched his arm and proceeded to answer his question.
"You lay in the arms of Death, Larry," she said. "And the Silent Ones drew you from him. Do homage to the Silent Ones, Larry, for they are good and they are mighty!" ”

“ The frog-woman crept to her side; gazed down upon Larry; spoke—spoke—to the Golden Girl in a swift stream of the sonorous, reverberating monosyllables; and Lakla answered her in kind. The webbed digits swept over O'Keefe's face, felt at his heart; she shook her head and moved with extraordinary rapidity ahead of us up the passage. The golden gates closed.
STILL borne in the litters we went on, winding, ascending until at last they were set down in a great hall carpeted with soft fragrant rushes and into which from high narrow slits streamed the crimson light from without. ”

“ Lakla's voice was poignant. "He is not dead; and the Three have wondrous healing. They can restore him if they will—and they will, they will!" For a moment she was silent. "Now their gods help Lugur and Yolara," she whispered; "for come what may, whether the Silent Ones be strong or weak, if he dies surely will I fall upon them with my Akka and I will slay those two with the Yekta death—with my own hands— yea, though I too, perish!"
"Yolara and Lugur shall both die," Olaf's eyes were burning. ”

“ I gasped, for the fish had been a ganoid, that ancient, armored form that was perhaps the most intelligent of all life on our planet during the Devonian era. But these for age upon age had vanished, save for their fossils held in the embrace of the stone that once was their soft bottom bed. And the half-globes were Medusae, jellyfish of a size, luminosity, and color unheard of.
Now Lakla cupped her mouth with pink palms and sent a clarion note ringing out. The ledge on which we stood continued a few hundred feet before us, falling abruptly, though from no great height to the Crimson Sea. ”

“ Divans like giants' beds; spaces illuminated by the rubrous light, and spaces in which softer lights held sway.
We paused before a slab of the same crimson stone as that the green dwarf had called the Portal, and upon its polished surface, even as they had upon it, weaved the unnameable symbols. The Golden Girl pressed upon its side; it slipped softly back; a torrent of opalescence gushed out of the opening—and as one in a dream I entered.
We were, I knew, just under the dome; but for the moment, caught in the- flood of radiance, I could see nothing. ”

“ Again I noted that broad, classic brow, with the little tendrils of shining bronze caressing it, the tilted, delicate, nut-brown brows that gave a curious touch of innocent diablerie to the lovely face—flowerlike, pure, high-bred. A touch of roguishness, subtly alluring, sparkling over the maiden Madonna-ness that lay ever like a delicate, luminous suggestion beneath it.
"What is wisdom, O maiden, but clear seeing and understanding?" ”

“ Lakla turned, looked at me anxiously, slipped a soft arm behind me, held me till the vertigo passed.
"Patience," she said. "The bearers come. Soon you shall rest."
I looked; down toward us from the bow's end were leaping swiftly another score of frog-men. Some bore litters, high, handled, not unlike palanquins—
"Asgard!" Olaf stood beside me, eyes burning, pointing to the arch. "Bifrost Bridge, sharp as sword edge, over which souls go to Valhalla. And she—she is a valkyr—a sword maiden, ja!" ”

“ Then as swiftly as she had gone she came through the hangings; tresses braided, a swathing of golden gauze about her.
"Rador," she said, "bear you Larry—for into your heart the Silent Ones would look. And fear nothing," she added at the green dwarf's disconcerted, almost fearful start.
Rador bowed, started to lift O'Keefe; was thrust aside by Olaf.
"No," said the Norseman; "I will carry him."
He lifted Larry like a child against his broad breast. The dwarf glanced quickly at Lakla; she nodded. ”

“ Lakla glanced behind.
"Walk with us," she said to me, "unless you are still weak."
I shook my head, gave a last look at O'Keefe; there was nothing I could do; I stepped beside her. She thrust a white arm into mine protectingly, the wonderfully chiseled hand with it long, tapering fingers catching about my wrist; my heart glowed toward her.
"Soon we walk no more," she said. "When the Portal called, we sped back, my Akka and I, leaving the bearers behind. They wait for us, not far ahead. Are you strong enough?" ”

“ I leaped to the side of the Irishman. He lay limp, with a disquieting, abnormal sequacity, as though every bone and muscle were utterly flaccid. The flesh was stone cold; the pulse barely perceptible, long intervaled; the respiration undiscoverable. There were no nervous reflexes or reactions; the pupils of the eyes were enormously dilated; it was as though life had been drawn from every nerve.
"What did this?" I asked.
Lakla shook her head, looking at Rador, the trouble in her eyes deepening. ”

“ Long, thick strands of gleaming, yellow, feathered scales, thin as sequins! Sharp, curving noses like the beaks of the giant condors; mouths thin, austere; long, powerful, pointed chins. The—flesh—of the faces white, as whitest marble; and wreathing up to them, covering all their bodies, the shimmering, curdled, misty fires of opalescence!
Olaf stood rigid ”

“ A blush burned over her. "It is a strange road?" she went on hurriedly. "Many times have I followed it and watched the Shining One bear back its prey to the blue pool; seen the woman he seeks"—she made a quick gesture toward Olaf—"and a babe cast from her arms in the last pang of her mother love; seen another woman throw herself into the Shining One's embrace to save a man she loved ”

“ I added in Larry's best manner.
Her eyes danced, trouble flying.
"Now, that was well spoken for such a man of wisdom as Rador tells me you are." She laughed, and a little pang shot through me. Could not a lover of science present a compliment without it always seeming to be as unusual as plucking a damask rose from a cabinet of fossils? Ah, well, as I have said, those who swear allegiance to Minerva must expect the suspicion of Aphrodite. ”