A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, February 1950 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

THE SMOKING LAND 17 .Isn’t that enough? For one night,® at 2 least ?” A tremor went through him, and the sight of it made me shake, too, because whatever else he was, Cleve was not the jittery sort. Nerves of iron he had, I remembered. Once. “Franklin and you, Smoky,” he said, “if I’m right, what I’ve done so far to- night is only the first step. What follows is so much more important that I can’t mention it in the same breath!” “What on earth can it be?” asked Dr. Franklin, and I was comforted to see that even his mathematical brain found Cleve foundering on logarithms in a deep sea. “T can’t tell you, Franklin,” said Dar- rell. “In a sense, I daresay that it’s not on earth. But I can’t tell you. There are no words to fit the idea. Mind you, it’s only a dream. I have to go about the resolution of it or the scattering of it all by myself. Not a soul can be with me. And that’s why I say I’m glad to have someone to watch the door for me.”’ ‘ This atmosphere was growing so spooky that I would have called it a practical joke in any other place, but jokes don’t breed very fast around a scientific laboratory. So I simply said, “Well, show me the door,” He took the pair of us at once, and the door he brought us to was a door. It was ten feet high and nearly as broad. It was opened by a purring machine that gave me the willies, and I rappied it on both sides with my knuckles. It was six inches, at least, of tool-proof steel— enough to break the heart of any egg; and beyond it there was a very long, narrow room, with heavily shaded electric lamps hanging from the ceiling at the farther end and throwing down brilliant funnels of light. There was the usual laboratory litter of glass test tubes and such stuff ranged on the long sink affair under the lights, and big glass vases along shelves, filled with powders or liquids bright and gray enough, some of them, to stand beside the candy containers in a country store. Filling most of the rest of the space were several big iron cases that might have contained dynamos, ugly round heads they were that might have fitted monstrous bodies to scare grown men with by the light of midday. The rest didn’t look menacing. Said Darrell—and I hope you will take what he said to heart, because it has a bearing on what follows—This is the place where I spend the rest of the night, Before morning, I shall either be dead or else life—”’ He stopped. I heard a strangling cry behind me and looked around—my gun in my hand. It was only Dr, Franklin. He was gripping his throat with both hands as though he were trying to strangle himself and making a pretty good job of it. His face looked like the face of a drowning man, 66)\7OT that, Darrell!” said he. “Not that—in mercy’s name,” “Yes,” said Darrell, white and grim- mer than ever. “In mercy’s name—in the name of mankind—I have to make my try before morning. Smoky, I want you to watch that door. I’ve shown you the key that opens it. And no one must turn that key. You understand ?” “T understand,” said I, “What if some callers drop in through another door, eh?” “There’s no other door,” said he. “I’ve been planning for this night for three long years. This room was specially built, Blasted, I should say—blasted out of the naked rock.” “What about the windows?” said I. “Look for yourself,” said he. I looked, and one look was enough. Far away below me was the dull sheen of water. I wanted to drop something and count the long seconds before it splashed, “T'm satisfied,” said I, turning back, “No one is to approach the door, eh?” “No one,” said he. “And if somebody insists?” “Warn ’em solemnly, twice, three times if you can, And then—” “Well?” said I, beginning to feel really serious. “Well,” said he, “you have a gun, and not many people shoot straighter than you do, Smoky.” “You mean me to shoot ‘em down?” said I. “Damnation,” said Darrell, through his teeth. “D'you understand the English language?” NS rd PAN CATR Sr OE AEE Oh EO TeR eh Lu Rey P| fe DEE a BEE ENF LS Oe RE >