A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

THE NINTH LIFE 53 had first heard it. If only he could locate it! : He tried his office, and it was a little louder, but did not emanate from any point in that room, he felt sure. Then, as he came into the corridor again, he knew © it must have come from the one room iti which he had not yet turned on the light, his own bedroom. There was no doubt about it; the sound came from some point beyond that half-opened door. Reaching up -before he went in, he switched on the light, and as he entered the sound ceased altogether. But now he had placed it, recognized it as one thing and one only, unquestionably. The purring of a cat. And he knew there was no cat anywhere in the place; all windows except that in the bedroom were closed and fastened, and, since there was a biting southeast wind blowing, he had allowed that one window only an inch slit of opening at the top. He went all over the flat again, with the negative result he had anticipated. There was no cat. Again, as he entered the bedroom after that second tour, he smelled the scent that was Kefra’s and hers only. Smelt it very faintly—or imagined it. What were the words he had dreamed of hearing? “T come to kiss you in the night—” A sentence broken off, not completed— because the intense ‘mpression of reality the dream had given had wakened him, perhaps. Yet it had been a dream and no more, could have been nothing more. ' The purring had not been a dream; he had heard it. So sure was he that he had heard it, in this room, that he got out his Webley and, placing it under his pillow, left the light BEFORE physician, based on infra-red on when he got back into bed. If any cat showed up, he told himself, purring or yowling, or silent, London would be a cat short in the morning. Not that. he ex- pected— Oh, blast the thing! Some acoustic odd- ity, letting the purr into his room from the flat above or the one below, probably. But just let that cat show itself, long enough for him to get a line on it! It did not. He smoked five cigarettes, and dozed off with the first dawn. His charwoman’s en- trance with tea awakened him, and as he drank the tea he recollected that he had not given Kefra his address, so she could not write to him. Wait a bit, though— she knew the address, somehow, for she had sent that telegram. Perhaps Tony had told her, at some time or other. Yet it was unlikely that Tony had recited: “Thirty-seven Little Oakfield Street, S.W..One,” or that she had memorized it. Anyhow, she had the address, and with that as a certainty he got out of bed and padded barefooted in his pyjamas into Miss Brandon’s office, where the charwoman had already placed the morning’s sheaf of letters on the desk. The top one of all bore the postmark: Hedlington-cum-Carnworth, and, opening it, he took out a single sheet of paper, and read : I will come to kiss you in the night— No signature—none needed, Just the incomplete sentence, and, faintest of ema- nations, the scent that was one with her, He put the telephone receiver to his ear. A woman’s voice asked: Of this Gees’ Confidential Agency, please?” and he an- HOW SLOAN’S uniment AIDS MUSCULAR PAINS Here’s vital news for sufferers from muscular aches and rheu- matic pains. Using infra-red rays, scientists have now succeeded in photographing blood-vessels below the skin-surface. These photos (see pictures at left) prove that, after an application of Sloan’s Liniment, the veins expand - « . evidence that the treated area gets extra supplies of blood, to revitalize tissues and wash away waste matter and poisons faster. When you use Sloan’s Liniment, you know that it is increase ing the all-important flow of blood to the treated area, and that this effect extends below the skin-surface. No wonder Sloan’s helps to bring blessed relief from rheumatic aches, arthritis pains, lumbago, sore muscles. Sloan’s has been called “the greatest name in pain-relieving liniments.” Get a bottle today, O com ecbooks.co