The Roof Spaces
: When The Sleeper WakesAs the fans in the circular aperture of the inner room rotated and
permitted glimpses of the night, dim sounds drifted in thereby. And
Graham, standing underneath, wrestling darkly with the unknown powers
that imprisoned him, and which he had now deliberately challenged, was
startled by the sound of a voice.
He peered up and saw in the intervals of the rotation, dark and dim,
the face and shoulders
extended, the swift fan struck it, swung round and beat on with a little
brownish patch on the edge of its thin blade, and something began to
fall therefrom upon the floor, dripping silently.
Graham looked down, and there were spots of blood at his feet. He looked
up again in a strange excitement. The figure had gone.
He remained motionless--his every sense intent upon the flickering patch
of darkness, for outside it was high night. He became aware of some
faint, remote, dark specks floating lightly through the outer air. They
came down towards him, fitfully, eddyingly, and passed aside out of
the uprush from the fan. A gleam of light flickered, the specks flashed
white, and then the darkness came again. Warmed and lit as he was, he
perceived that it was snowing within a few feet of him.
Graham walked across the room and came back to the ventilator again. He
saw the head of a man pass near. There was a sound of whispering. Then
a smart blow on some metallic substance, effort, voices, and the vans
stopped. A gust of snowflakes whirled into the room, and vanished before
they touched the floor. "Don't be afraid," said a voice.
Graham stood under the fan. "Who are you?" he whispered.
For a moment there was nothing but a swaying of the fan, and then the
head of a man was thrust cautiously into the opening. His face appeared
nearly inverted to Graham; his dark hair was wet with dissolving flakes
of snow upon it. His arm went up into the darkness holding something
unseen. He had a youthful face and bright eyes, and the veins of his
forehead were swollen. He seemed to be exerting himself to maintain his
position.
For several seconds neither he nor Graham spoke.
"You were the Sleeper?" said the stranger at last.
"Yes," said Graham. "What do you want with me?"
"I come from Ostrog, Sire."
"Ostrog?"
The man in the ventilator twisted his head round so that his profile was
towards Graham. He appeared to be listening. Suddenly there was a hasty
exclamation, and the intruder sprang back just in time to escape the
sweep of the released fan. And when Graham peered up there was nothing
visible but the slowly falling snow.
It was perhaps a quarter of an hour before anything returned to the
ventilator. But at last came the same metallic interference again; the
fans stopped and the face reappeared. Graham had remained all this time
in the same place, alert and tremulously excited.
"Who are you? What do you want?" he said.
"We want to speak to you, Sire," said the intruder.
"We want--I can't hold the thing. We have been trying to find a way to
you these three days."
"Is it rescue?" whispered Graham. "Escape?"
"Yes, Sire. If you will."
"You are my party--the party of the Sleeper?"
"Yes, Sire."
"What am I to do?" said Graham.
There was a struggle. The stranger's arm appeared, and his hand was
bleeding. His knees came into view over the edge of the funnel. "Stand
away from me," he said, and he dropped rather heavily on his hands and
one shoulder at Graham's feet. The released ventilator whirled noisily.
The stranger rolled over, sprang up nimbly and stood panting, hand to a
bruised shoulder, and with his bright eyes on Graham.
"You are indeed the Sleeper," he said. "I saw you asleep. When it was
the law that anyone might see you."
"I am the man who was in the trance," said Graham. "They have imprisoned
me here. I have been here since I awoke--at least three days."
The intruder seemed about to speak, heard something, glanced swiftly at
the door, and suddenly left Graham and ran towards it, shouting quick
incoherent words. A bright wedge of steel flashed in his hand, and he
began tap, tap, a quick succession of blows upon the hinges. "Mind!"
cried a voice. "Oh!" The voice came from above.
Graham glanced up, saw the soles of two feet, ducked, was struck on the
shoulder by one of them, and a heavy weight bore him to the earth. He
fell on his knees and forward, and the weight went over his head. He
knelt up and saw a second man from above seated before him.
"I did not see you, Sire," panted the man. He rose and assisted Graham
to arise. "Are you hurt, Sire?" he panted. A succession of heavy blows
on the ventilator began, something fell close to Graham's face, and a
shivering edge of white metal danced, fell over, and lay flat upon the
floor.
"What is this?" cried Graham, confused and looking at the ventilator.
"Who are you? What are you going to do? Remember, I understand nothing."
"Stand back," said the stranger, and drew him from under the ventilator
as another fragment of metal fell heavily.
"We want you to come, Sire," panted the newcomer, and Graham glancing
at his face again, saw a new cut had changed from white to red on his
forehead, and a couple of little trickles of blood starting therefrom.
"Your people call for you."
"Come where? My people?"
"To the hall about the markets. Your life is in danger here. We have
spies. We learned but just in time. The Council has decided--this very
day--either to drug or kill you. And everything is ready. The people are
drilled, the wind-vane police, the engineers, and half the way-gearers
are with us. We have the halls crowded--shouting. The whole city shouts
against the Council. We have arms." He wiped the blood with his hand.
"Your life here is not worth--" "But why arms?"
"The people have risen to protect you, Sire. What?"
He turned quickly as the man who had first come down made a hissing
with his teeth. Graham saw the latter start back, gesticulate to them to
conceal themselves, and move as if to hide behind the opening door.
As he did so Howard appeared, a little tray in one hand and his heavy
face downcast. He started, looked up, the door slammed behind him, the
tray tilted sideways, and the steel wedge struck him behind the ear. He
went down like a felled tree, and lay as he fell athwart the floor of
the outer room. The man who had struck him bent hastily, studied his
face for a moment, rose, and returned to his work at the door.
"Your poison!" said a voice in Graham's ear.
Then abruptly they were in darkness. The innumerable cornice lights
had been extinguished. Graham saw the aperture of the ventilator with
ghostly snow whirling above it and dark figures moving hastily. Three
knelt on the fan. Some dim thing--a ladder was being lowered through the
opening, and a hand appeared holding a fitful yellow light.
He had a moment of hesitation. But the manner of these men, their swift
alacrity, their words, marched so completely with his own fears of
the Council, with his idea and hope of a rescue, that it lasted not a
moment. And his people awaited him!
"I do not understand," he said, "I trust. Tell me what to do."
The man with the cut brow gripped Graham's arm.
"Clamber up the ladder," he whispered. "Quick. They will have heard--"
Graham felt for the ladder with extended hands, put his foot on the
lower rung, and, turning his head, saw over the shoulder of the nearest
man, in the yellow flicker of the light, the first-comer astride over
Howard and still working at the door. Graham turned to the ladder again,
and was thrust by his conductor and helped up by those above, and then
he was standing on something hard and cold and slippery outside the
ventilating funnel.
He shivered. He was aware of a great difference in the temperature. Half
a dozen men stood about him, and light flakes of snow touched hands and
face and melted. For a moment it was dark, then for a flash a ghastly
violet white, and then everything was dark again.
He saw he had come out upon the roof of the vast city structure which
had replaced the miscellaneous houses, streets and open spaces of
Victorian London. The place upon which he stood was level, with huge
serpentine cables lying athwart it in every direction. The circular
wheels of a number of windmills loomed indistinct and gigantic through
the darkness and snowfall, and roared with a varying loudness as the
fitful white light smote up from below, touched the snow eddies with a
transient glitter, and made an evanescent spectre in the night; and
here and there, low down! some vaguely outlined wind-driven mechanism
flickered with livid sparks.
All this he appreciated in a fragmentary manner as his rescuers stood
about him. Someone threw a thick soft cloak of fur-like texture about
him, and fastened it by buckled straps at waist and shoulders. Things
were said briefly, decisively. Someone thrust him forward.
Before his mind was yet clear a dark shape gripped his arm. "This way,"
said this shape, urging him along, and pointed Graham across the flat
roof in the direction of a dim semicircular haze of light. Graham
obeyed.
"Mind!" said a voice, as Graham stumbled against a cable. "Between them
and not across them," said the voice. And, "We must hurry."
"Where are the people?" said Graham. "The people you said awaited me?"
The stranger did not answer. He left Graham's arm as the path grew
narrower, and led the way with rapid strides. Graham followed blindly.
In a minute he found himself running. "Are the others coming?" he
panted, but received no reply. His companion glanced back and ran on.
They came to a sort of pathway of open metal-work, transverse to the
direction they had come, and they turned aside to follow this. Graham
looked back, but the snowstorm had hidden the others.
"Come on!" said his guide. Running now, they drew near a little windmill
spinning high in the air. "Stoop," said Graham's guide, and they avoided
an endless band running roaring up to the shaft of the vane. "This
way!" and they were ankle deep in a gutter full of drifted thawing snow,
between two low walls of metal that presently rose waist high. "I will
go first," said the guide. Graham drew his cloak about him and followed.
Then suddenly came a narrow abyss across which the gutter leapt to the
snowy darkness of the further side. Graham peeped over the side once and
the gulf was black. For a moment he regretted his flight. He dared not
look again, and his brain spun as he waded through the half liquid snow.
Then out of the gutter they clambered and hurried across a wide flat
space damp with thawing snow, and for half its extent dimly translucent
to lights that went to and fro underneath. He hesitated at this unstable
looking substance, but his guide ran on unheeding, and so they came to
and clambered up slippery steps to the rim of a great dome of glass.
Round this they went. Far below a number of people seemed to be dancing,
and music filtered through the dome.... Graham fancied he heard a
shouting through the snowstorm, and his guide hurried him on with a new
spurt of haste. They clambered panting to a space of huge windmills, one
so vast that only the lower edge of its vans came rushing into sight and
rushed up again and was lost in the night and the snow. They hurried for
a time through the colossal metallic tracery of its supports, and came
at last above a place of moving platforms like the place into which
Graham had looked from the balcony. They crawled across the sloping
transparency that covered this street of platforms, crawling on hands
and knees because of the slipperiness of the snowfall.
For the most part the glass was bedewed, and Graham saw only hazy
suggestions of the forms below, but near the pitch of the transparent
roof the glass was clear, and he found himself looking sheerly down upon
it all. For awhile, in spite of the urgency of his guide, he gave way
to vertigo and lay spread-eagled on the glass, sick and paralysed. Far
below, mere stirring specks and dots, went the people of the unsleeping
city in their perpetual daylight, and the moving platforms ran on their
incessant journey. Messengers and men on unknown businesses shot along
the drooping cables and the frail bridges were crowded with men. It was
like peering into a gigantic glass hive, and it lay vertically below him
with only a tough glass of unknown thickness to save him from a fall.
The street showed warm and lit, and Graham was wet now to the skin with
thawing snow, and his feet were numbed with cold. For a space he could
not move.
"Come on!" cried his guide, with terror in his voice. "Come on!"
Graham reached the pitch of the roof by an effort.
Over the ridge, following his guide's example, he turned about and slid
backward down the opposite slope very swiftly, amid a little avalanche
of snow While he was sliding he thought of what would happen if some
broken gap should come in his way. At the edge he stumbled to his feet
ankle deep in slush thanking heaven for an opaque footing again. His
guide was already clambering up a metal screen to a level expanse.
Through the spare snowflakes above this loomed another line of vast
windmills, and then suddenly the amorphous tumult of the rotating wheels
was pierced with a deafening sound. It was a mechanical shrilling of
extraordinary intensity that seemed to come simultaneously from every
point of the compass.
"They have missed us already!" cried Graham's guide in an accent of
terror, and suddenly, with a blinding flash, the night became day.
Above the driving snow, from the summits of the wind-wheels, appeared
vast masts carrying globes of livid light. They receded in illimitable
vistas in every direction. As far as his eye could penetrate the
snowfall they glared.
"Get on this," cried Graham's conductor, and thrust him forward to a
long grating of snowless metal that ran like a band between two slightly
sloping expanses of snow. It felt warm to Graham's benurrled feet, and a
faint eddy of steam rose from it.
"Come on!" shouted his guide ten yards off, and, without waiting, ran
swiftly through the incandescent glare towards the iron supports of the
next range of wind-wheels. Graham, recovering from his astonishment,
followed as fast, convinced of his imminent capture.
In a score of seconds they were within a tracery of glare and black
shadows shot with moving bars beneath the monstrous wheels. Graham's
conductor ran on for some time, and suddenly darted sideways and
vanished into a black shadow in the corner of the foot of a huge
support. In another moment Graham was beside him.
They cowered panting and stared out.
The scene upon which Graham looked was very wild and strange. The snow
had now almost ceased; only a belated flake passed now and again across
the picture. But the broad stretch of level before them was a ghastly
white, broken only by gigantic masses and moving shapes and lengthy
strips of impenetrable darkness, vast ungainly Titans of shadow. All
about them, huge metallic structures, iron girders, inhumanly vast as it
seemed to him, interlaced, and the edges of wind-wheels, scarcely moving
in the lull, I passed in great shining curves steeper and steeper up
into a luminous haze. Wherever the snow-spangled light struck down,
beams and girders, and incessant bands running with a halting,
indomitable resolution passed upward and downward into the black. And
with all that mighty activity, with an omnipresent sense of motive and
design, this snow-clad desolation of mechanism seemed void of all
human presence save themselves, seemed as trackless and deserted and
unfrequented by men as some inaccessible Alpine snowfield.
"They will be chasing us," cried the leader. "We are scarcely halfway
there yet. Cold as it is we must hide here for a space--at least until
it snows more thickly again."
His teeth chattered in his head.
"Where are the markets?" asked Graham staring out. "Where are all the
people?"
The other made no answer.
"Look!" whispered Graham, crouched close, and became very still.
The snow had suddenly become thick again, and sliding with the whirling
eddies out of the black pit of the sky came something, vague and large
and very swift. It came down in a steep curve and swept round, wide
wings extended and a trail of white condensing steam behind it, rose
with an easy swiftness and went gliding up the air, swept horizontally
forward in a wide curve, and vanished again in the steaming specks of
snow. And, through the ribs of its body, Graham saw two little men, very
minute and active, searching the snowy areas about him, as it seemed to
him, with field glasses. For a second they were clear, then hazy through
a thick whirl of snow, then small and distant, and in a minute they were
gone.
"Now!" cried his companion. "Come!"
He pulled Graham's sleeve, and incontinently the two were running
headlong down the arcade of ironwork beneath the wind-wheels. Graham,
running blindly, collided with his leader, who had turned back on him
suddenly. He found himself within a dozen yards of a black chasm. It
extended as far as he could see right and left. It seemed to cut off
their progress in either direction.
"Do as I do," whispered his guide. He lay down and crawled to the edge,
thrust his head over and twisted until one leg hung. He seemed to feel
for something with his foot, found it, and went sliding over the edge
into the gulf. His head reappeared. "It is a ledge," he whispered. "In
the dark all the way along. Do as I did."
Graham hesitated, went down upon all fours, crawled to the edge, and
peered into a velvety blackness. For a sickly moment he had courage
neither to go on nor retreat, then he sat and hung his leg down, felt
his guide's hands pulling at him, had a horrible sensation of sliding
over the edge into the unfathomable, splashed, and felt himself in a
slushy gutter, impenetrably dark.
"This way," whispered the voice, and he began crawling along the gutter
through the trickling thaw, pressing himself against the wall. They
continued along it for some minutes. He seemed to pass through a hundred
stages of misery, to pass minute after minute through a hundred degrees
of cold, damp, and exhaustion. In a little while he ceased to feel his
hands and feet.
The gutter sloped downwards. He observed that they were now many feet
below the edge of the buildings. Rows of spectral white shapes like the
ghosts of blind-drawn windows rose above them. They came to the end of
a cable fastened above one of these white windows, dimly visible and
dropping into impenetrable shadows. Suddenly his hand came against his
guide's.
"Still!" whispered the latter very softly.
He looked up with a start and saw the huge wings of the flying machine
gliding slowly and noiselessly overhead athwart the broad band of
snow-flecked grey-blue sky. In a moment it was hidden again.
"Keep still; they were just turning."
For awhile both were motionless, then Graham's companion stood up,
and reaching towards the fastenings of the cable fumbled with some
indistinct tackle.
"What is that?" asked Graham.
The only answer was a faint cry. The man crouched motionless. Graham
peered and saw his face dimly. He was staring down the long ribbon of
sky, and Graham, following his eyes, saw the flying machine small and
faint and remote. Then he saw that the wings spread on either side,
that it headed towards them, that every moment it grew larger. It was
following the edge of the chasm towards them.
The man's movements became convulsive. He thrust two cross bars into
Graham's hand. Graham could not see them, he ascertained their form by
feeling. They were slung by thin cords to the cable. On the cord were
hand grips of some soft elastic substance. "Put the cross between your
legs," whispered the guide hysterically, "and grip the holdfasts. Grip
tightly, grip!"
Graham did as he was told.
"Jump," said the voice. "In heaven's name, jump!"
For one momentous second Graham could not speak. He was glad afterwards
that darkness hid his face. He said nothing. He began to tremble
violently. He looked sideways at the swift shadow that swallowed up the
sky as it rushed upon him.
"Jump! Jump--in God's name! Or they will have us," cried Graham's guide,
and in the violence of his passion thrust him forward.
Graham tottered convulsively, gave a sobbing cry, a cry in spite of
himself, and then, as the flying machine swept over them, fell forward
into the pit of that darkness, seated on the cross wood and holding
the ropes with the clutch of death. Something cracked, something rapped
smartly against a wall. He heard the pulley of the cradle hum on its
rope. He heard the aeronauts shout. He felt a pair of knees digging into
his back.... He was sweeping headlong through the air, falling through
the air. All his strength was in his hands. He would have screamed but
he had no breath.
He shot into a blinding light that made him grip the tighter. He
recognised the great passage with the running ways, the hanging lights
and interlacing girders. They rushed upward and by him. He had a
momentary impression of a great circular aperture yawning to swallow him
up.
He was in the dark again, falling, falling, gripping with aching hands,
and behold! a clap of sound, a burst of light, and he was in a brightly
lit hall with a roaring multitude of people beneath his feet. The
people! His people! A proscenium, a stage rushed up towards him, and his
cable swept down to a circular aperture to the right of this. He felt he
was travelling slower, and suddenly very much slower. He distinguished
shouts of "Saved! The Master. He is safe!" The stage rushed up towards
him with rapidly diminishing swiftness. Then--
He heard the man clinging behind him shout as if suddenly terrified,
and this shout was echoed by a shout from below. He felt that he was no
longer gliding along the cable but falling with it. There was a tumult
of yells, screams and cries. He felt something soft against his extended
hand, and the impact of a broken fall quivering through his arm...
He wanted to be still and the people were lifting him. He believed
afterwards he was carried to the platform and given some drink, but he
was never sure. He did not notice what became of his guide. When his
mind was clear again he was on his feet; eager hands were assisting him
to stand. He was in a big alcove, occupying the position that in his
previous experience had been devoted to the lower boxes. If this was
indeed a theatre.
A mighty tumult was in his ears, a thunderous roar, the shouting of a
countless multitude. "It is the Sleeper! The Sleeper is with us!"
"The Sleeper is with us! The Master--the Owner! The Master is with us.
He is safe."
Graham had a surging vision of a great hall crowded with people. He saw
no individuals, he was conscious of a froth of pink faces, of waving
arms and garments, he felt the occult influence of a vast crowd pouring
over him, buoying him up. There were balconies, galleries, great
archways giving remoter perspectives, and everywhere people, a vast
arena of people, densely packed and cheering. Across the nearer space
lay the collapsed cable like a huge snake. It had been cut by the men
of the flying machine at its upper end, and had crumpled down into the
hall. Men seemed to be hauling this out of the way. But the whole effect
was vague, the very buildings throbbed and leapt with the roar of the
voices.
He stood unsteadily and looked at those about him. Someone supported him
by one arm. "Let me go into a little room," he said, weeping; "a little
room," and could say no more. A man in black stepped forward, took his
disengaged arm. He was aware of officious men opening a door before
him. Someone guided him to a seat. He staggered. He sat down heavily and
covered his face with his hands; he was trembling violently, his nervous
control was at an end. He was relieved of his cloak, he could not
remember how; his purple hose he saw were black with wet. People were
running about him, things were happening, but for some time he gave no
heed to them.
He had escaped. A myriad of cries told him that. He was safe. These were
the people who were on his side. For a space he sobbed for breath,
and then he sat still with his face covered. The air was full of the
shouting of innumerable men.
More
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For some moments none of us spoke. Alice recovered herself first. "What is the matter with him?" she gasped. I was incapable of finding a suitable reply, and stood, tongue-tied, staring foolishly at the old man. He seemed a little surprised at... The Return
There is but little more to add. With the death of Tao and the changing of the law concerning the virgins' wings, my mission on Mercury was over. But I did not think of that then, for with the war ended, my position as virtual ruler of the Light C... The Return To Earth
DuQuesne's first act upon gaining the privacy of his own cabin was to open the leather bag presented to him by the Karfedix. He expected to find it filled with rare metals, with perhaps some jewels, instead of which the only metal present was a he... The Revelation Of Hotep
I was not a little surprised to see that they carried me to the same ante-room in the palace which I had occupied on coming to Kem. But it was now quite stripped of all furnishings, and over each door were hung large, closely-spun fabrics, which c... The Reversion Of The Beast Folk
IN this way I became one among the Beast People in the Island of Doctor Moreau. When I awoke, it was dark about me. My arm ached in its bandages. I sat up, wondering at first where I might be. I heard coarse voices talking outside. Then I saw ... The Revolt Of The Young
Amid all the strife and clamour of the next few days one thing stands out now in my mind with sinister radiance. It is that peculiar form of lawlessness which broke out and had as its object the destruction of the old. There is no doubt that th... The Rift
As he dropped the last grisly fragment of the dismembered and mutilated body into the small vat of nitric acid that was to devour every trace of the horrid evidence which might easily send him to the gallows, the man sank weakly into a chair and t... The Risk Profession
Mister Henderson called me into his office my third day back in Tangiers. That was a day and a half later than I'd expected. Roving claims investigators for Tangiers Mutual Insurance Corporation don't usually get to spend more than thirty-six... The Roaring Abysmal Beast
During the long period of our stay in the refuge, we were kept closely in touch with what was happening in the world without, and we were learning thoroughly the strength of the Oligarchy with which we were at war. Out of the flux of transition th... The Romance Of The Moon
An observer endued with an infinite range of vision, and placed in that unknown center around which the entire world revolves, might have beheld myriads of atoms filling all space during the chaotic epoch of the universe. Little by little, as age... The Roof Spaces
As the fans in the circular aperture of the inner room rotated and permitted glimpses of the night, dim sounds drifted in thereby. And Graham, standing underneath, wrestling darkly with the unknown powers that imprisoned him, and which he had no... The Royal Jujus
ON the fifth day after we had left our canoes the Grand Vizier of Mo had gone far forward along the line of carriers to speak with the head-man, and Omar was walking immediately before me at the rear of the procession. As I pulled him by the sl... The Ruler Of The Light Country
However pleased the newcomer was to see me, I had no difficulty in assuring him with equal truth that my feelings matched his. The first surprise of the meeting over, we took him to the living room, where Lua greeted him with dignified courtesy, a... The Runic Writing Exercises The Professor
"Undoubtedly it is Runic," said the Professor, bending his brows; "but there is a secret in it, and I mean to discover the key." A violent gesture finished the sentence. "Sit there," he added, holding out his fist towards the table. "Sit there,... The Sargasso Sea
That day the Nautilus crossed a singular part of the Atlantic Ocean. No one can be ignorant of the existence of a current of warm water known by the name of the Gulf Stream. After leaving the Gulf of Florida, we went in the direction of Spitzbergen... The Sayers Of The Law
THEN something cold touched my hand. I started violently, and saw close to me a dim pinkish thing, looking more like a flayed child than anything else in the world. The creature had exactly the mild but repulsive features of a sloth, the same lo... The Scarlet Livery
With the destruction of the Granger states, the Grangers in Congress disappeared. They were being tried for high treason, and their places were taken by the creatures of the Iron Heel. The socialists were in a pitiful minority, and they knew that ... The Scavengers Of Space
The casual observer might have been fooled. Tawney's guard was down only for an instant; then the expression of cold fury and determination on his face dropped away as though the shutter of a camera had clicked, and he was all smiles and affabilit... The Scene Shifts
Having returned the rugs to the Callisto, they applied the maximum power of the batteries to rising, closed all openings when the barometer registered thirty, and moved off into space. When Several thousand miles above the pole, they diverted part ... The Scenery Of The Moon's Southern Hemisphere
I now directed M'Allister to steer across the lunar equator into the southern hemisphere, and our attention was soon attracted by a very large walled plain on the eastward side of our course. John asked me what it was called, and I explain... The Sea Monster
Wednesday, August 19th. Fortunately the wind, which for the present blows with some violence, has allowed us to escape from the scene of the unparalleled and extraordinary struggle. Hans with his usual imperturbable calm remained at the helm. My u... The Sea Of Sleep
For a considerable period after the last incident which I have narrated in my diary, I had serious thoughts of leaving this house, and might have done so; but for the great and wonderful thing, of which I am about to write. How well I was advised... The Seance
On a march evening, at eight o'clock, Backhouse, the medium--a fast-rising star in the psychic world--was ushered into the study at Prolands, the Hampstead residence of Montague Faull. The room was illuminated only by the light of a blazing fire. Th... The Searching Of The Gardens
How slowly the time went; and never a thing to indicate that any of the brutes still infested the gardens. It was on the ninth day that, finally, I decided to run the risk, if any there were, and sally out. With this purpose in view, I loaded one ... The Second Letter
On Board the Terror July 15. To the Old and New World, The propositions emanating from the different governments of Europe, as also that which has finally been made by the United States of America, need expect no other answer than thi... The Secret Of The Carets-the Sun As Seen From Mars
The next day, accompanied by Merna and Tellurio, we started off at an early hour on an air-ship trip to the northern edge of the Sinus Titanum. This is really the bed of an ancient sea, from which all water has long since disappeared.... The Secret Of The Queen
AS we were led forward to the space in front of the divan all eyes were directed towards us. The glitter and pomp of the merciless slave-raider's court was dazzling. Before their ruler all men salaamed. His officers surrounding him, watched every ... The Secret Of The Rock
We made exhaustive inquiries everywhere, but no one had seen a yacht anchored or otherwise resting off the point the previous night. One or two vessels had been noticed passing the mouth of Loch Hourn during the evening, but they were mostly recog... The Secret Tower
I have no stomach to narrate the monotonous events of the tedious days that Woola and I spent ferreting our way across the labyrinth of glass, through the dark and devious ways beyond that led beneath the Valley Dor and Golden Cliffs to emerge at ... The Selenite's Face
I found myself sitting crouched together in a tumultuous darkness. For a long time I could not understand where I was, nor how I had come to this perplexity. I thought of the cupboard into which I had been thrust at times when I was a child, and the... The Servant Problem
Selling a whole town, and doing it inconspicuously, can be a little difficult ... either giving it away freely, or in a more normal sense of "selling". People don't quite believe it.... If you have ever lived in a small town... The Shadow Of Scartaris
Our supper was eaten with ease and rapidity, after which everybody did the best he could for himself within the hollow of the crater. The bed was hard, the shelter unsatisfactory, the situation painful lying in the open air, five thousand feet abo... The Shadow Of The Terror
By a curious coincidence which, as events proved, was to have some serious consequences, almost at the same moment that Commander Erskine began to write his report on the strange vision which he and his Lieutenant had seen, Gilbert Lennard came ou... The Shaping Of The Shining One
We reached what I knew to be Lakla's own boudoir, if I may so call it. Smaller than any of the other chambers of the domed castle in which we had been, its intimacy was revealed not only by its faint fragrance but by its high mirrors of polished sil... The Shepherds
For four days Felix remained on the island recovering his strength. By degrees the memory of the scenes he had witnessed grew less vivid, and his nerves regained their tone. The fifth morning he sailed again, making due south with a gentle breeze ... The Shining Devil Took Them!
My colleagues of the Association, and you others who may read this my narrative, for what I did and did not when full realization returned I must offer here, briefly as I can, an explanation; a defense--if you will. My first act was to spring to ... The Siege Of Kemp's House
Kemp read a strange missive, written in pencil on a greasy sheet of paper. "You have been amazingly energetic and clever," this letter ran, "though what you stand to gain by it I cannot imagine. You are against me. For a whole day you have chas... The Siege Of The Lone City
Our losses totaled nearly a hundred and fifty girls. We brought back with us on the platforms but six wounded. I shall never forget that hour we spent searching among the wreckage--those blackened, twisted forms of what had once been men and women... The Silver Whistle Blows
Constans remained motionless at the window. Every instinct of self-preservation urged him onward, but yet he stopped and listened to a girl's laughter. It ceased, and he sprang forward--too late! for already the blood-hounds were upon him. Fang... The Sinister Bonanza
They were taken to a small, drab internment room. A half hour passed and still no word from the Major. From the moment the Patrol crew had boarded them, everything had seemed like a bad dream. The shock of the arrest, the realization that the Capt... The Sisters
A young girl sat before a magnificent fireplace of cut stone gazing into the fire of drift-wood that burned diffidently upon a hearth whose spaciousness would have been more fittingly adorned by Vergil's "no small part of a tree." Out-of-doors the... The Six Tubes
One night, just as I entered my house, the telephone bell in the hall rang sharply. I picked up the receiver impatiently, for I was tired with the long day's work. "Is that Dr. Harden?" "Yes." "Can you come down to Charing Cross Station at... The Sky Trap
Lawton enjoyed a good fight. He stood happily trading blows with Slashaway Tommy, his lean-fleshed torso gleaming with sweat. He preferred to work the pugnacity out of himself slowly, to savor it as it ebbed. "Better luc... The Slowing Rotation
It might have been a million years later, that I perceived, beyond possibility of doubt, that the fiery sheet that lit the world, was indeed darkening. Another vast space went by, and the whole enormous flame had sunk to a deep, copper color. Gra... The Sly One
THE SAGOTHS WERE GAINING ON US RAPIDLY, FOR once they had sighted us they had greatly increased their speed. On and on we stumbled up the narrow canyon that Ghak had chosen to approach the heights of Sari. On either side rose precipitous cliffs ... The Song Of The Sword
It did not take long for Constans to arouse and collect his men; tired of inaction, they were only too glad to respond to the summons. And at the last, Constans, unable to withstand the entreaty in Red Oxenford's eyes, ordered his release. "But...