And if we do have to go out, we’ll see that banshee bunch clean up before we do, and pass in a blaze of glory. The leprechaun promised that I’d have full warning before anything happened. What this expedition needs is a man without superstition. You talk about paradoxes-why, your scientist, who thinks he is the most skeptical, the most materialistic aggregation of atoms ever gathered at the exact mathematical centre of Missouri, has more blind faith than a dervish, and more credulity, more superstition, than a cross-eyed smoke beating it past a country graveyard in the dark of the moon!” “You scientific people build up whole philosophies on the basis of things you never saw, and you scoff at people who believe in other things that you think they never saw and that don’t come under what you label scientific. “But to use your own phrase, kindly can the repeated references to superstition.”
“Yes, I get you!” I exclaimed testily enough. Nix on the tremolo stop, nix on the superstition! I’m the works. Hereafter one Larry O’Keefe, of Ireland and the little old U. “I’ve all the love and admiration for you in the world but this place has got your nerve. “Listen to me, Goodwin,” He took up his walk impatiently. “Mostly,” I answered dryly, “I have no desire to dance with the Shining One!” “I must admit that I’m a bit uneasy about her threats,” I said, ignoring all this. No excuse for it, Doc and I don’t care what you say or what Lakla may say-it wasn’t my fault, and I don’t hold it up against myself for a damn.” “One jigger of it, and you forget there is a trouble in the world three of them, and you forget there is a world. I don’t know what the stuff was she gave me but, take it from me, if I had the recipe for that brew I could sell it for a thousand dollars a jolt at Forty-second and Broadway. What the hell! she nearly had me- married-to her. But first she played me with a marked deck, and then not only pinched all the chips, but drew a gun on me. “I hate to talk like that to a woman, Doc,” he said, “and a pretty woman, at that. And it was not until we had reached the pillared entrance that Larry spoke. Without another look at the priestess O’Keefe marched beside me, between them, from the chamber. “Take these two to their place,” she commanded, pointing to us. Her hand dropped to the table, and she gave, evidently, a signal, for in marched a dozen or more of the green dwarfs.
Yet fear not-for are we not strong under the Shining One? And now-leave us.” “The ladala are stirring, and the Silent Ones threaten. “Now, friends of mine, and friends of Lugur, must all feud, all rancour, between us end.” She glanced swiftly at Lugur. “What Lakla has said, the Council must consider, and at once.” The priestess was facing the nobles. The wistfulness died out of her eyes, leaving them cold. And if any should have thought to stop us-tell them of that flame that shattered the vase,” he added grimly. And then we follow her, whether you will or not. Here shall we stay until the time she named is come. “Yolara,”-his voice shook with rage, and he threw caution to the wind-”now hear me. She stood silent, regarding O’Keefe with something other now than blind wrath something half regretful, half beseeching. Often cited as an influence on Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, it was first published in All-Story Weekly (1918–19) as two short stories.ĪLL INSTALLMENTS: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36.Ī clamour arose from all the chambers stilled in an instant by a motion of Yolara’s hand. Merritt’s 1919 proto-sf novel The Moon Pool for HILOBROW’s readers.