Part 44 (1/2)

Out rang the hter

”Tchai!” she cried ”Tchai! Fat fool there Tchai--you Cherkis! Toad whose wits have sickened with your years!

”Did you think to catch me, Norhala, in your filthy web? Princess!

Queen! Empress of Earth! Ho--old fox I have outplayed and beaten, what now have you to trade with Norhala?”

Mouth sagging open, eyes glaring, the tyrant slowly raised his arroohed ”Take him, then”

Doept the metal arm that held Kulun The arh Kulun had been a grape--it crushed him!

Before those who had seen could stir fro down at the horror that had been his son

It did not strike hinet draws a pin

And as the pin swings froreat body of Cherkis fro so he was carried toward us, came to a stop not ten feet fro was that scene--and would I had the power toShape of metal on which we stood, with its forest of ha itswith the armored hosts; the terraces of that fair and ancient city, their gardens and green groves and clustering red and yellow-roofed houses and teross body of Cherkis in the clutch of the unseen grip of the tentacle, his grizzled hair touching the side of the pyraes of a jeweled bat, his white,slits fla hell's own blackest hatred; and beyond the city, from which pulsed al column--and over all this the palely radiant white sky under whose light the encircling cliffs were trehter had ceased Somberly she looked upon Cherkis, into the devil fires of his eyes

”Cherkis!” she half whispered ”Now comes the end for you--and for all that is yours! But until the end's end you shall see”

The hanging body was thrust forward; was thrust up; was brought down upon its feet on the upper plane of the prostrate pyra the led to escape; I think he meant to hurl himself down upon Norhala, to kill her before he himself was slain

If so, after one frenzied effort he realized the futility, for with a certain dignity he drew hiht, turned his eyes toward the city

Over that city a dreadful silence hung It was as though it cowered, hid its face, was afraid to breathe

”The end!” h the Metal Thing Doung its forest of sledges Beneath the blon fell the s like shi+ning flies in a dust storh that liain I say it--they were no cowards, those men of Cherkis Froe stones--as uselessly as before

Then out froireatfiercely as they drove down upon each end of the Metal Shape Under cover of their attack I saw cloaked riders spurring their ponies across the plain to shelter of the cliff walls, to the chance of hiding places within the for safety; after therain a multitude on foot

The ends of the spindle drew back before the horse as they went--like the heads ofinto their hoods Abruptly, with a lightning velocity, these broadenings expanded into i and crablike claws Their tips flung thean to contract

Of no avail noas it for the horse their mounts on their haunches, or to turn to fly The ends of the lunettes had met, the pincer tips had closed The mounted men were trapped within half- walls an a frantic --I shutof horses, a shrieking of , I looked Where the ? There were two great circular spaces whose floors were glistening, wetly red Fragments of man or horse--there was none

They had been crushed into--as it Norhala had promised--had been stamped into the rock beneath the feet of her--servants