Part 27 (2/2)

The Domain of the Metal Monster--it was filled like a chalice with Its will; was the visible expression of that will

We stood at the very rie We looked down into an ith I judged, and half that as wide, and rimmed with colossal precipices We were at the upper end of this deep valley and on the tip of its axis; Ithe line of greatest length

Five hundred feet beloas the pit's floor Gone were the clouds of light that had obscured it the night before; the air crystal clear; every detail standing out with stereoscopic sharpness

First the eyes rested upon a broad band of fluorescent airdled the cliffs at a height of ten thousand feet, and froh it clutched the vapors

But now I saw that all of these veils were not h which we had just passed To the northwest they were pulsing like the aurora, and like the aurora they were shot through with swift iridescences, spectrueo swiftly to the very edges of the veils, then darting as swiftly back

Froaze leaped to the incredible City towering not two , sharply cut as though froh!

How great it was I could not tell, for the height of its precipitous walls barred the vision The frowning facade turned toward us was, I estith Its colossal scarp struck the eyes like a blow; its shadow, falling upon us, checked the heart It was overpowering--dreadful as thatup from another pit

It was a metal city, mountainous

Featureless, smooth, the immense wall of it heaved heavenward It should have been blind, that vast oblong face--but it was not blind Froaze toward us as though every foot were uardians invisible to the eyes whose concentration of watchfulness was caught by soht

It was a metal city, s Through and around these portals swirled hordes of the Metal People; in units and in co as they cas like the fretted spu froaps in some iron-bound coast

From the immensity of the City the eyes dropped back to the Pit in which it lay Its floor was plaquelike, a great plane sh turned by potter's wheel, broken by no mound nor hillock, slope nor terrace; level, horizontal, flawlessly flat On it was no green living thing--no tree nor bush, meadow nor covert

It was alive with movement A ferment that was as purposeful as it was eo of the Metal Hordes

There they s, in a countless host They ilimpsed a company of colossal shapes like , weaving about each other with incredible rapidity--like scores of great pyra Froht--on their wake the rolling echoes of faraway thunder

Out of the north sped a squadron of obelisks fro wheels, appearing at this distance like fiery whirling disks

Up fro the Metal People lifted thelobed and spiked and shi+fting swiftly into other thousands as incredible I saw a mass of them draw theh; hang so for an instant, then writhe into a s that strode away like a gigantic headless and bodiless tarantula in steps two hundred feet long I watchedlines of thees and pentagons--then lift in great colue

Through all this incessant movement I sensed plainly purpose, knew that it was definite activity toward a definite end, caught the clear suggestion of drill, of s of the Metal Hordes permittedthat all the flat floor of the valley was stripped and checkered, stippled and tessellated with every color, patterned with enorraons and diamonds, lunettes, circles and spirals; harlequined yet harestion of a super-Futuris was ordered, always COHERENT As though it were a page on which was spelled soe

Fourth Dimensional revelations by some Euclidean deity! Co across the vale, e folds of the southern veils of the easternhtly but with manifold convolutions and flourishes It was like a sentence in Arabic

It wascourse two broad bands of jet ined the cerulean shore It was spanned by scores of flashi+ng crystal arches Nor were these bridges--even froes Fros

Jade? This streaht its swift and polished rushi+ng! It was no jade It was in truth a river; a river running like a writing across a patterned plane

I looked upward--up to the circling peaks They were a stupendous coronet thrusting lasses, swept theated floith countlessof fortresses built by fantastic unknown Gods

Up they thrust--doed and needled Here were palisades of burning orange with barbicans of incandescent bronze; there aiguilles of azure rising from bastions of cinnabar red; turrets of royal purple, obelisks of indigo; titanic forts whose walls were splashed with vermilion, with citron yellows and with rust of rubies; watch towers of fla scarlet