Page:Weird Tales Volume 2 Number 2 (1923-09).djvu/57

56 Very silent in that lifeless place, the five returned to the stairfoot and bent above the withered dead thing there. The starry diamonds in its hideous hair gleamed with a cold, wicked luster. Where was the mournful, innocent child who had entrapped them? She who had-dwelt, perhaps, in this tomb- like lair? SUNFIRE Young Sigsbee felt very strange and old and uncertain about it all. Yet if at any time that night a light had flashed in the dark mass, or a voice had called, he would not have roused the others. He would have taken his life and his soul in his hands and gone back alone to the pyramid. "I am going away from here," an- SUNRISE, and the castward stair a nounced Tellifer abruptly. "I don't like this place! It is-ugly!" No one objected. Despite cave-man costumes, they were civilized men who did not believe in vampires, demons, or hideous night-hags that dwelt in under- ground vaults and issued forth to trap victims with a false illusion of loveliness. Yet they felt that further investigation of the pyramid might wait for a later time. The chill atmosphere was sicken- ing. They wanted open air-wanted it badly. Due to this need, their return to the upper level was marked with a certain haste. The gardened court held nothing to keep them lingering. Only a very few minutes were needed to reach the rim and negotiate the outer descent. The traveling-canoe-exceptional among the derelicts-received its return- ing crew. There was something consol- ing, something sane and homelike in the very feel of its deck-planks. But it oc- curred to them that the night would be passed more pleasantly at a distance from the pyramid. Then, having paddled out a way, some- body suggested that if anything-any- one, that is, of course-were inclined to be dissatisfied with their escape and come after them, the rest of the fleet offered a too-convenient means. Despite fatigue and starvation, they found strength to paddle back and at- tend to this potential menace. In con- sequence, it was nearly midnight when they at last dropped anchor. By the time they had finished supper, cooked on the vapor-stove, three of them were past recking of perilous pyramids and sus- picions that diabolical philosophy might have more reason in it than they had believed. Sleep gripped these three like a heavy drug. Tellifer, who, having slept all afternoon was elected watch- man, gave characteristic respect to duty by drowsing off soon afterward. Sigsbee, however, did not sleep. On the foredeck, he lay for hours, staring at the mountainous black mass outlined by humid starshine. There was no faint luminescence hovering above it now. Tata Quarahy-Fire of the Sun-was destroyed. Its monstrous guardian lay dead. Its priestess―? flaming height of red and orange and gold. The reflected splendor, beating on He Tellifer's face, awakened him. opened his eyes, recalled that he was a watchman, sat up and viewed the pyramid in conscientious scrutiny. comes now to offer his congratulations on our escape!" But no one was paying attention to Tellifer. Sigsbee, in turn, had annexed the glasses. What he saw through them caused him to give a kind of choking gasp, and thereafter, on the selfish score that they were his, he kept the binocu- lars. The figure, however, soon came near enough so that even with the naked eye. its costume, at least, was unmistakable. The goggles were pushed up visor-like on the close-fitting hood. A trifle awkward- ly in the loose, heavily lined suit, the mysterious air-pilot whom they had once thought to rescue, accomplished the full descent. He walked slowly forward on the broad stone landing stage. Reaching the edge, he contemplated the canoe, turned his gaze to the airplane, returned it to It was still there, and its loveliness in this early morning light atoned in a measure, he decided, for the ugly things that had gone on inside of it. Those things seemed very dreamlike and re- mote this morning. As for a vampirish night-hag who could appear at will as a beautiful girl-Tellifer considered the idea with interest. Last night he had the latter. The voice was slightly tremu- wanted nothing save to get away from it, but this morning his fanciful taste dealt with it more kindly. Then he Sunrise is a bad hour, however, to be- lieve in ghosts and vampires. Tellifer regretfully shook his head. uttered a sharp ejaculation, shot to his feet, dived into the cabin and was back an instant later, a pair of binoculars in his hand. En route, he had given a rousing kick to the correspondent and Otway. Stumbling forth, they found their alert night-watchman with binoculars focused on the head of the sun-lit stair. Far up there, against the background of flaming stone, a small, dark figure was moving. Waring ruthlessly appropriated the binoculars by force, while the equally curious Otway squeezed against his shoulder as if trying to get at least one eye to the glasses. Sigsbee, who had dropped asleep just before dawn, roused, took in the scene, and reached the group in a bound. His boyish voice broke and crackled. "Is it she? Is she alive? Is she com- ing down?" Waring shook his head. "Somebody's coming down. But it isn't a 'she,' Sig. It's Yet how can that be? The cells were empty-and we saw-" "I know," Tellifer cut in. "We saw his clothing down there with that of all the other dead men. But this pyramid, Alcot, is not limited as are less distin- guished haunts of the un-dead. Night, noon or sunrise, its ghosts may walk as they please. The ghost of the air-pilot the canoe. Then he called across to those aboard lous! "I beg your pardon! After all that has happened, I dislike so much to trou- ble you! But you've taken all the boats away. Would you mind very much if I asked you to just-just push one in where I can reach it and paddle out to my 'plane?" Sigsbee dropped his binoculars. They splashed unheeded in the lake. His com- panions were in pajamas, blanket-draped but Sigsbee's blindly devotional fore- sight had led him to shave and dress be- fore retiring the night before. Ere any of the others could move, he had made a fly- ing leap from the canoe to the nearest derelict, a crudely hollowed native dug- out. "I told you!" he flung back as he hauled in the dugout's mooring-stone. "Didn't I tell you I'd seen that girl be- fore? And I know where, now! Just as I said. Everything absolutely all right, but you fellows-Never mind! Coming, Miss Enid!" Oars splashed, and the dugout fairly shot across toward the landing stage. Of those left on the canoe, Tellifer was the first to find voice. "He has seen her before," said he solemnly. "Ah, yes! Her name is Miss Enid, she is an air-pilot, and these facts make everything absolutely all right. Naturally. But do you know, Alcot, de- spite my love for the beautiful and mys- terious, I have had about enough of that pyramid? By all means, let Sig have it! I suggest that the rest of us go away now, while we are still able, and leave that pair in possession!"