Abraham Merritt

“ His eyes were bright, dream filled; she shrank a little from him, faint pallor on the perfect skin.
"And they could make as well as destroy, those men of Ireland," he said. "I say to you, Yolara, that these things were and are—in Ireland." His voice rang strong. "And I have seen men as many as those that are in your great chamber this many times over, blasted into nothingness before your Keth could even have touched them. Yea—and rocks as mighty as those through which we came lifted up and shattered before the lids could fall over your blue eyes. And this is truth, Yolara—all truth! ”

“ YOLARA'S face was white, her eyes strained. But her voice was unshaken as she called to the clamoring guards:
"It is nothing. Go to your places!"
But when the sound of their return had ceased she stared tensely at the Irishman. Then she looked again at the shattered vase.
"It is true!" she cried, "but see, the Keth is alive!"
I followed her pointing finger. Each broken bit of the crystal was vibrating, shaking its particles out into space. Broken it the bullet of Larry's had—but not released it from the grip of the disintegrating force. The priestess's face was triumphant. ”

“ Yolara considered all this with manifest doubt.
"Hell?" she inquired at last. "I know not the word."
"Well," answered O'Keefe. "Say Muria then. In many ways they are, I gather, O heart's delight, one and the same."
Now the doubt in the blue eyes was strong indeed. She shook her head.
"None of our men can do that!" she answered, at length. "Nor do I think you could, Larree."
"Oh, no," said Larry easily. "I never tried to be that strong. I fly," he added, casually.
The priestess rose to her feet, gazing at him with startled eyes.
"Fly!" she repeated incredulously. "Like a zilia? A bird?" ”

“ You, Goodwin, go with Rador about our city and increase your wisdom. But you, Larree, await me here in my garden." She smiled at him, provocatively. Maliciously, too. "For shall not one who has resisted a world of goddesses be given all chance to worship when at last he finds his own?"
She laughed whole-heartedly and was gone. And at that moment I liked Yolara better than ever I had before and—alas—better than ever I was to in the future.
AS LARRY and I reached Rador, who was standing outside, I looked at my watch, which I had taken the precaution to wind before preparing for sleep. ”

“ She leaned her chin upon her hands and regarded us, whole fountains of questions brimming up in her eyes.
"How is it, Larree, that you have two countries and Goodwin but one?" she asked, at last unable to keep silent longer.
"I was born in Ireland; he in America. But I have dwelt long in his land and my heart loves each," he said.
She nodded, understandingly.
"Are all the men of Ireland like you, Larree? As all the men here are like Lugur or Rador? I like to look at you," she went on with naïve frankness. "I am tired of men like Lugur and Rador. But they are strong," she added, swiftly. ”

“ They darted in and out of the gardens; within them the fair haired, extraordinarily beautiful women on their cushions were like princesses of Elfland, caught in gorgeous fairy webs, resting within the hearts of flowers. In some shells were flaxen-haired, dwarfish men of Lugur's type. Sometimes black-polled brother officers of Rador. Often raven-tressed girls, plainly handmaidens of the women. ”

“ The Irishman flushed; it was touché for Yolara!
"Fear not for me with Lugur," he said, grimly. "Rather fear for him!"
The laughter died; she looked at him searchingly; approval again in her eyes; a little enigmatic smile about her mouth— so sweet and so cruel.
"Well, we shall see," she murmured. "You say you battle in your world. With what?"
"Oh, with this and that," answered Larry, airily. "We manage."
"Have you the Keth—I mean that with which I sent Songar into the nothingness?" she asked swiftly.
"See what she's driving at?" O'Keefe spoke to me, swiftly. "Well, I do! ”

“ We could not understand her numerals and she raised white, fingers to illustrate.
"That is little, O lady, to the men of Ireland," replied O'Keefe. "Lo, I have seen one of my race hold up ten times twenty of our—what you call that swift thing in which Rador brought us here?"
"Corial," she said.
"Hold up ten times twenty of our corials with but two fingers, and these corials of ours—"
"Coria," said she.
"And these coria of ours are each greater in weight than ten of yours. Yea, and I have seen another with but one blow of his hand raise hell! ”

“ Somewhat grimly I asked Rador why they did not use the green ray to disintegrate the rock, as it had the body of Songar. He answered that they did use it, but sparingly.
There were two reasons for this, he went on to explain; first that, in varying degrees, all the rock walls resisted it; the shining cliffs on the opposite side of the White Waters completely. And, second, that when it was used it was at the risk of very dangerous rock falls. There were, it appeared, lines of non-resistance in the cliffs—faults, I suppose—which, under the Keth, disintegrated instantaneously. ”

“ Within was a small cube of black crystal, through whose sides I saw, dimly, a rapidly revolving, glowing ball, not more than two inches in diameter. Beneath the cube was a curiously shaped, slender cylinder winding down into the lower body of the nautilus whorl.
"Watch!" said Rador. He motioned me into the vehicle and took a place beside me. The driver touched the lever; a stream of coruscations flew from the ball into the cylinder. The shell started smoothly, and as the tiny torrent of shining particles increased it gathered speed.
"The corial does not touch the road," explained Rador. ”

“ An hour of our time is the equivalent of an hour and five-eighths in Muria. For further information upon this matter of relativity the reader may consult any of the numerous books upon the subject.
"Two va we have before the council sits," Rador said, thrusting the disk back in his girdle. "As a man of learning you are to be shown whatever of ours may interest you. While the Afyo Maie sits with that of yours which certainly interests her," he said, maliciously. "But this I warn you—how are you named, stranger?"
"Goodwin," I answered.
"Goodwin!" he repeated as excellently as had Yolara. ”

“ I answered. "Still, neither Yolara nor Lugur did know. Perhaps the hidden road was made by the earliest of their buried kind, and the secret lost. Or it may be it was built by some of that race they found"—I had a flash of intuition—"to keep watch upon them and upon the Shining One, who may have escaped some way, somehow, their own control!"
Larry shook his head, perplexedly.
"There's some sort of scrap brewing all right," he observed. "Maybe you're right. What the devil are the 'Silent Ones'? And where is that Golden Girl who led us? Lakla, the handmaiden." His eyes grew soft and far away. ”

“ No more miraculous than is glass, which, inversely, admits the vibrations of light, but shuts out those coarser ones we call air and, partly, those others which produce upon auditory nerves the effects which we call sound. ”

“ This action, to my mind, being linked either with the effect of the light-streaming globes upon the Moon Pool, whose source was in the shining cliffs, or else upon some mysterious affinity of their radiant element with the flood of moon- light on earth. ”