A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

A. MERRITT’S FANTASY Gees observed casually as he halted. “Nec- essary, after the dinner they gave me.’ “It’s a wonderful night,” Perry said, rather constrainedly. “It is,” Gees assented, out to enjoy it,” “IT wasn’t exactly enjoying it,” Perry confessed. “I came along here to save myself trouble tomorrow, pace the dis- tance between the road and the spot where Willis found the body. I’m still asking myself why the child went all that dis- tance off the road, when she was obvi- ously hurrying home for tea, by what the other children had to say.” “Running away from what attacked her, possibly,” Gees surmised. “Tt may have been—what was that?” He swung abruptly to face toward the crest of the rise over which Gees had come. Both men gazed in that direction, and Gees, putting his hand in his coat pocket, got a grip on the pistol and slid the safety catch off with his thumb. Something or somebody had appeared for a fraction of a second, either on or be- side the wall, and too far off for them to note it as more than an indistinct move- ment, since neither had been looking in that direction. Perry relaxed after a few seconds. ie caught it out of the corner of my eye,” he said. ‘Something—” “Have you seen anyone about here?” Gees asked. “Only that little foreigner from the Grange, going down the hill a few minutes ago, Perry answered. ‘Coming from Hedlington.” Saleh returning, after delivering the envelope at the inn, Gees thought. And Kefra, who had meant to meet him here, and seen the police inspector as she as- cended the hill—was she waiting, out of sight beyond the curve? Or had she gone back— “and only us E SHOUTED: “Look out, man!” and Perry, who had turned his back to the wall again, half turned his head and sprang aside as Gees’ hand came out from his pocket. On top of the wall a cat crouched to spring, its back undulating, its eyes dull red—a shot crashed and the echoes. went bellowing simultaneously with the ani- mal’s leap, and it fell within a yard of Gees’ feet, wriggling convulsively, A mo- ment’s pause, and he stepped forward, put the pistol to the beast’s ear, and fired again. One final convulsion in which it stretched to full length, and then it lay still. Reaching down, Gees lifted the car- cass by the tail. “My God!” Perry almost whispered. “So there were two!” “Enormous,” Gees said. ‘Ten or twelve pounds weight.” The smooth fur was a dirty yellow, cov- ering a gaunt, starved-looking form. Perry said—“Look at those claws!” and sud- denly shivered as if stricken by intense cold. He put his hands to his face mo- mentarily. “Man,” he muttered, “if it hadn’t been for you and that revolver of yours, it'd have got me. And a brute that size—” “A Webley automatic, not a revolver,” Gees. observed. “And there were two—that girl at the Grange saw two!” “It looks as if there were two,” Gees agreed quietly. Quietly, but within him was black rage. The card in his pocket said: “At the top of the hill, on the road by which you came to me today.” if Perry had not been here at the top of the hill, and if he, Gees, had not thought to slip the Webley in his pocket before coming to meet her —if a beast like that had caught him un- aware— “J don’t know how to thank you,” Perry said. “It looks as if Providence sent you to save me.”’ Gees reflected that another agency than Providence had sent him to this spot. But, since Perry appeared rather un- strung, he put aside his own deductions, and asked, ‘“‘Where are you staying?” “Stayin? Oh, Mrs. Willis is putting me up for the night: Why—yes, there's no object in stopping here. But I'll take this along.”” He grasped the tail of the dead beast and lifted it.. “J believe it’s heavier than the one they shot in the woods today! I’ve never seen cats this size before.” : “T believe wild cats grow as big,” Gees remarked, as they started to ascend the rise toward Hedlington. “But I never heard of wild cats south of the Tweed, ‘comi Eboo SS (a)