Part 34 (1/2)

They were sht

They were ranged in an almost unbroken crescent around the visible arc of the ihts were a few feet closer to that pedestal than they Egg-shaped as I have said, the wider end was under in a broad cup upheld by a slender pedicle silvery-gray andout the base,” whispered Drake ”The Cones got so big they have to give thenetism,” I whispered in return ”Electricity--they dren frorow under it

It fed theh the shi+elds and the Cones turned pure energy into substance”

”And if we hadn't been pretty thoroughly netized to start with it would have done for us,” he said

We watched the operation going on in front of us The cross shapes had bent, hinging above the transverse arnal Down fro tentacles

At the foot of every one I could now perceive a heap of so this, then drew up so that looked like a thick rod of crystal The bent planes straightened; simultaneously they thrust the crystalline bars toward the incandescences

There caan to dissolve into dazzling, dia-shaped lights poured upon the periphery of the pedestal

Rapidly the bars hts, terrific heat--yet the Keeper's workers seemed impervious to it

As the ends of the bars radiated into the annealing mist I saw the tentacles creep closer and ever closer to the rayless flah which the h, the holding tendrils were thrust almost within it; touched it, certainly

A score of times they repeated this process while atched Unaware of us they seemed, or--if aware, then indifferent More rapid becah the floating braziers with hardly a pause in their passing Abruptly, as though switched, the incandescences lessened into candle-points; instantly, as at a signal, the crescent of crosses closed into a crescent of cubes

Motionless they stood, huge blocks blackened against the di of the cones--sentient e And as at dusk and dawn the great ranitic life, seeathered hierophantic illusion

They quivered; the slender pedicles cupping, the waned lights swayed; the lights lifted and soared, upright, to their backs

Two by tith lided off into the encircling darkness As they swept away there streamed behind the pair by pair from hidden arcs

Into the secret shadows they flowed, two by two, each bearing over it the sli the serene flame

Grotesquely were they like a colu with diledtapers of electric fire, withdrawing slowly from a Holy of Holies whoseof man--nor cared to know

Grotesque--yes But would that I had the power to crystallize in words the underlying, alien terror every rate, its every manifestation when co always close behind the threshold of theshadow

Sone

We crouched,stirred; there was no sound Without speaking we arose; crept together over the smooth floor toward the cones

As we crossed I saw that the pave, like the walls, was built of the bodies of the Metal People; and, like the walls, they were dor Closer we crept--were only a scant score of rods from that colossal mechanism I noted that the crystal foundation was set loas not more than four feet above the floor

The sturdy, dwarfed pilasters supporting it thrust up in crowded copses, h distance into apparent solidity

Now, too, I realized, as I had not when looking down fro froan to wonder how so thin a support could bear theabove it--then remembered what it was that at first had flown fro thehtless netic ions; swary breathing upon, condensing upon, them

Could it be that the Cones for all their apparent ed Saturn, thousands of ti itself in the Heavens--yet if transported to our world so light that rings and all it would float like a bubble upon our oceans