A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, December 1949 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

~ “That's all right, Bill.” I hoped I said it easily, because deep S25 ‘me was anger, wondering how long it had been that “remember” of the De- moiselle’s and the overturning of my so When she said it, the tingling ___ warmth of her had seemed to concentrate --__ itself into a point of fire, a spark that shot up my arm into my brain. And instead of the pleasant candle-lighted : Sa huge ‘stones arranged in ordered aisles -__ all marching to a central circle of mono- -_ liths within which was a gigantic cairn. Se “mystery of the Druids and before them of ee for np Beige people, from: which my famliy ~~ = >. e ( Caranac I had known when in Brittany. : This place was younger; its standing stones upright, in place; not yet gnawed oe the teeth of untold centuries. There were people, hundreds of them, march- a circle. And although I knew it was day- light, a blackness seemed to hover over = the crypt that was the circle’s heart. Nor = could I see the ocean. Where it should have been, and far away, were tall towers a of grey and red stone, misty outlines = of walls as of a great city. And as I stood _ there, long and long it seemed to me, slowly the fear crept up my heart like a rising tide. Witi it crept, side by side, = - cold, implacable hatred and rage. I had heard Bill speaking—and was | <back in the room. The fear was gone. = _ The wrath had remained. Bec 2h looked into the face of the Demoiselle = ~ Dahut. I thought I read triumph there, a and: a subtle amusement. Bill, Lowell and de Keradel were talk- ee - ing, Helen listening and watching me out of the corner of her eye. | whispered to the Demoiselle : — “I knew a witch-doctor down in Zulu- land who could do that same thing, De- om - on * -/ a a moiselle de Keradel. He called the trick _ beautiful as you are; perhaps that is why a he had to take so mitch more time to do p= < ad, 2 se was about to add that she had been room, I saw a vast plain covered with - [ knew it to be Caranac, that place of . rived its name. But it was not the ing along the avenues to the fmonolithed 4 — ‘sending out the soul.’ He was not so. as swift as the striking of a deadly snake, but held that back. She did not trouble to deny. She asked: a “Ts that all you think—Alain de Car- anac?”’ I laughed again: “No, I think that your voice is also of the sea.” And so it was; the softest, sweetest contralto I’d ever heard; low and mur- murous and lulling, like the whisper of waves on a long smooth beach. She said: “But is that a compliment then? Many ‘times you have compared me to the sea tonight. Is not the sea—treacherous?” “Yes,” 1 said, and let her make what she would of that answer. She did not seem offended. HE dinner went on with talk of this and that. It was a good dinner, and so was the wine. The butler kept my glass filled so ge pe that I won- dered whether Bill-had given him orders. The Demoiselle was co Sancliog in her points of view, witty, undeniably charm- ing—to use that much misused word. She had the gift of being able to be what her conversation implied she was. There was nothing exotic, nothing myster- ious about her now. She was only a modern, well-informed, cultivated young woman of extraordinary beauty. Helen was delightful. There wasn’t a_ single thing for me to grow unpleasantly argu- mentative about, nor discourteous, nor. insulting. -I thought Bill was looking a bit puzzled; disconcerted—like a prohpet who has foretold some happening which shows not the slightest sign of ma- terializing. If de Kerade] was interested in Dick’s death, there was nothing to show it. For some time Lowell and he had been absorbed in low-toned discus- sion to the exclusion of the rest of us. Suddenly I heard Lowell say: “But surely you do not believe in the | objective reality of such beings?” ~ The question brought me sharply to at- tention. I remembered Dick’s torn note —he had wanted Bill to consider some- thing as objective instead of subjective. I saw that Bill was listening intently. The Demoiselle’s eyes were upon Lowell, /