Part 12 (1/2)

CHAPTER VII THE SHAPES IN THE MIST

Mutely we faced each other, white and wan in the ghostly light

The valley was very still; as silent as though sound had been withdrawn fro it had thickened perceptibly; hovered over the valley floor faintly sparkling mists; hid it

Like a shroud was that silence Beneath itever stronger Silently we repacked the saddlebags; girthed the pony; silently aited for Norhala's return

Idly I had noted that the place on which we stood atheringcrest a half score feet below us

Abruptly out of their dim nebulosity a faintly phosphorescent square broke It lifted, slowly; then swept, a dully lustrous six-foot cube, up the slope and came to rest almost at our feet It dwelt there; conte striations

In its wake swa fro backs of sea led submarines from phosphorescent seas One by one they skie to edge and alternately, against the cube which had gone before

In a crescent, they stretched before us Back from them, a pace, ten paces, twenty, we retreated

They lay i thewide, unearthly eyes lambent, floated up behind them--Norhala For an instant she was hidden behind their bulk; suddenly was upon theht; stood before us

Her veils were again about her; golden girdle, sandals of gold and turquoise in their places Pearl white her body glea marred it

She walked toward us, turned and faced the watching cubes She uttered no sound, but as at a signal the central cube slid forward, halted before her She rested a hand upon its edge

”Ride with me,” she said to Ruth

”Norhala” Ventnor took a step forward ”Norhala, we o with her

And this”--he pointed to the pony--”o with us”

”I meant--you--to coht of--that”

Acubes Again as at a cos moved, swirled in toward each other with a weird precision, with a monstrous martial mimicry; joined; stood before us, a platforhed Norhala

Ventnor looked helplessly at the sheer front facing hi iht Ruth by the waist and with the sa swiftness hich she had vanished froirl, upon the top of the single cube It was as though the two had been lifted, had been levitated with an incredible rapidity

”Mount,” she an to bandage the pony's eyes I placedA ht me, raised me, set me instantaneously on the upward surface

”Lift the pony to me,” I called to Ventnor

”Lift it?” he echoed, incredulously

Drake's grin cut like a sunray through the nightmare dread that shrouded my mind