> chasm opened, among inaccessible peaks. Within, was gloom, deep and

somber, and chilly silence. For a while, I went onward steadily, and

then, at last, I saw, ahead, a deep, red glow, that told me I was near

upon the further opening of the gorge.



A minute came and went, and I was at the exit of the chasm, staring out

upon an enormous amphitheatre of mountains. Yet, of the mountains, and

the terrible grandeur of the place, I recked nothing; for I was

confounded with amazement to behold, at a distance of several miles and

occupying the center of the arena, a stupendous structure built

apparently of green jade. Yet, in itself, it was not the discovery of

the building that had so astonished me; but the fact, which became every

moment more apparent, that in no particular, save in color and its

enormous size, did the lonely structure vary from this house in which

I live.



For a while, I continued to stare, fixedly. Even then, I could scarcely

believe that I saw aright. In my mind, a question formed, reiterating

incessantly: 'What does it mean?' 'What does it mean?' and I was unable

to make answer, even out of the depths of my imagination. I seemed

capable only of wonder and fear. For a time longer, I gazed, noting

continually some fresh point of resemblance that attracted me. At last,

wearied and sorely puzzled, I turned from it, to view the rest of the

strange place on to which I had intruded.



Hitherto, I had been so engrossed in my scrutiny of the House, that I

had given only a cursory glance 'round. Now, as I looked, I began to

realize upon what sort of a place I had come. The arena, for so I have

termed it, appeared a perfect circle of about ten to twelve miles in

diameter, the House, as I have mentioned before, standing in the center.

The surface of the place, like to that of the Plain, had a peculiar,

misty appearance, that was yet not mist.



From a rapid survey, my glance passed quickly upward along the slopes

of the circling mountains. How silent they were. I think that this same

abominable stillness was more trying to me than anything that I had so

far seen or imagined. I was looking up, now, at the great crags,

towering so loftily. Up there, the impalpable redness gave a blurred

appearance to everything.



And then, as I peered, curiously, a new terror came to me; for away up

among the dim peaks to my right, I had descried a vast shape of

blackness, giantlike. It grew upon my sight. It had an enormous equine

head, with gigantic ears, and seemed to peer steadfastly down into the

arena. There was that about the pose that gave me the impression of an

eternal watchfulness--of having warded that dismal place, through

unknown eternities. Slowly, the monster became plainer to me; and then,

suddenly, my gaze sprang from it to something further off and higher

among the crags. For a long minute, I gazed, fearfully. I was strangely

conscious of something not altogether unfamiliar--as though something

stirred in the back of my mind. The thing was black, and had four

grotesque arms. The features showed indistinctly, 'round the neck, I

made out several light-colored objects. Slowly, the details came to me,

and I realized, coldly, that they were skulls. Further down the body was

another circling belt, showing less dark against the black trunk. Then,

even as I puzzled to know what the thing was, a memory slid into my

mind, and straightway, I knew that I was looking at a monstrous

representation of Kali, the Hindu goddess of death.



Other remembrances of my old student days drifted into my thoughts. My

glance fell back upon the huge beast-headed Thing. Simultaneously, I

recognized it for the ancient Egyptian god Set, or Seth, the Destroyer

of Souls. With the knowledge, there came a great sweep of

questioning--'Two of the--!' I stopped, and endeavored to think. Things

beyond my imagination peered into my frightened mind. I saw, obscurely.

'The old gods of mythology!' I tried to comprehend to what it was all

pointing. My gaze dwelt, flickeringly, between the two. 'If--'



An idea came swiftly, and I turned, and glanced rapidly upward,

searching the gloomy crags, away to my left. Something loomed out under

a great peak, a shape of greyness. I wondered I had not seen it earlier,

and then remembered I had not yet viewed that portion. I saw it more

plainly now. It was, as I have said, grey. It had a tremendous head; but

no eyes. That part of its face was blank.



Now, I saw that there were other things up among the mountains. Further

off, reclining on a lofty ledge, I made out a livid mass, irregular and

ghoulish. It seemed without form, save for an unclean, half-animal face,

that looked out, vilely, from somewhere about its middle. And then I saw

others--there were hundreds of them. They seemed to grow out of the

shadows. Several I recognized almost immediately as mythological

deities; others were strange to me, utterly strange, beyond the power of

a human mind to conceive.



On each side, I looked, and saw more, continually. The mountains were

full of strange things--Beast-gods, and Horrors so atrocious and bestial

that possibility and decency deny any further attempt to describe them.

And I--I was filled with a terrible sense of overwhelming horror and

fear and repugnance; yet, spite of these, I wondered exceedingly. Was

there then, after all, something in the old heathen worship, something

more than the mere deifying of men, animals, and elements? The thought

gripped me--was there?



Later, a question repeated itself. What were they, those Beast-gods,

and the others? At first, they had appeared to me just sculptured

Monsters placed indiscriminately among the inaccessible peaks and

precipices of the surrounding mountains. Now, as I scrutinized them with

greater intentness, my mind began to reach out to fresh conclusions.

There was something about them, an indescribable sort of silent vitality

that suggested, to my broadening consciousness, a state of

life-in-death--a something that was by no means life, as we understand

it; but rather an inhuman form of existence, that well might be likened

to a deathless trance--a condition in which it was possible to imagine

their continuing, eternally. 'Immortal!' the word rose in my thoughts

unbidden; and, straightway, I grew to wondering whether this might be

the immortality of the gods.



And then, in the midst of my wondering and musing, something happened.

Until then, I had been staying just within the shadow of the exit of the

great rift. Now, without volition on my part, I drifted out of the

semi-darkness and began to move slowly across the arena--toward the

House. At this, I gave up all thoughts of those prodigious Shapes above

me--and could only stare, frightenedly, at the tremendous structure

toward which I was being conveyed so remorselessly. Yet, though I

searched earnestly, I could discover nothing that I had not already

seen, and so became gradually calmer.



Presently, I had reached a point more than halfway between the House

and the gorge. All around was spread the stark loneliness of the place,

and the unbroken silence. Steadily, I neared the great building. Then,

all at once, something caught my vision, something that came 'round one

of the huge buttresses of the House, and so into full view. It was a

gigantic thing, and moved with a curious lope, going almost upright,

after the manner of a man. It was quite unclothed, and had a remarkable

luminous appearance. Yet it was the face that attracted and frightened

me the most. It was the face of a swine.



Silently, intently, I watched this horrible creature, and forgot my

fear, momentarily, in my interest in its movements. It was making its

way, cumbrously 'round the building, stopping as it came to each window

to peer in and shake at the bars, with which--as in this house--they

were protected; and whenever it came to a door, it would push at it,

fingering the fastening stealthily. Evidently, it was searching for an

ingress into the House.



I had come now to within less than a quarter of a mile of the great

structure, and still I was compelled forward. Abruptly, the Thing turned

and gazed hideously in my direction. It opened its mouth, and, for the

first time, the stillness of that abominable place was broken, by a

deep, booming note that sent an added thrill of apprehension through me.

Then, immediately, I became aware that it was coming toward me, swiftly

and silently. In an instant, it had covered half the distance that lay

between. And still, I was borne helplessly to meet it. Only a hundred

yards, and the brutish ferocity of the giant face numbed me with a

feeling of unmitigated horror. I could have screamed, in the supremeness

of my fear; and then, in the very moment of my extremity and despair, I

became conscious that I was looking down upon the arena, from a rapidly

increasing height. I was rising, rising. In an inconceivably short

while, I had reached an altitude of many hundred feet. Beneath me, the

spot that I had just left, was occupied by the foul Swine-creature. It

had gone down on all fours and was snuffing and rooting, like a

veritable hog, at the surface of the arena. A moment and it rose to its

feet, clutching upward, with an expression of desire upon its face such

as I have never seen in this world.



Continually, I mounted higher. A few minutes, it seemed, and I had

risen above the great mountains--floating, alone, afar in the redness.

At a tremendous distance below, the arena showed, dimly; with the mighty

House looking no larger than a tiny spot of green. The Swine-thing was

no longer visible.



Presently, I passed over the mountains, out above the huge breadth of

the plain. Far away, on its surface, in the direction of the ring-shaped

sun, there showed a confused blur. I looked toward it, indifferently. It

reminded me, somewhat, of the first glimpse I had caught of the

mountain-amphitheatre.



With a sense of weariness, I glanced upward at the immense ring of

fire. What a strange thing it was! Then, as I stared, out from the dark

center, there spurted a sudden flare of extraordinary vivid fire.

Compared with the size of the black center, it was as naught; yet, in

itself, stupendous. With awakened interest, I watched it carefully,

noting its strange boiling and glowing. Then, in a moment, the whole

thing grew dim and unreal, and so passed out of sight. Much amazed, I

glanced down to the Plain from which I was still rising. Thus, I

received a fresh surprise. The Plain--everything had vanished, and only

a sea of red mist was spread far below me. Gradually as I stared this

grew remote, and died away into a dim far mystery of red against an

unfathomable night. A while, and even this had gone, and I was wrapped

in an impalpable, lightless gloom.