Argosy All-Story Weekly — "The Purple Limited" — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

690 which revolved with swiftly increasing ra- pidity. There was a small wailing, weirdly in- fantile; a shifting of shape too quick to catch; a blue brilliancy, a tiny crackling. An arrow of phosphorescence flashed up and through the portal. The little things were gone! We sprang to the doorway, stared out. Something like a tiny azure meteor was speeding through the air toward the gate- way of the cliffs; passed them and vanished like a shooting star into the radiance be- yond! “A messenger, ”” grunted Drake. ‘ Prob- ably sent to tell the boss she reached home all right with her new—toys! She’s—”’ He paused, gripped my arm, pointed. ‘“‘ Goodwin—what’s that?”’ Out of the vaporous distance another meteor was speeding—toward us. Larger it grew and larger; now it was a wingless dragon streaming sapphire flames. It left behind a trail of violet luminescence! Forgetful of peril we ran from the por- tal, staring upward to watch its passing. Almost overhead its line of flight changed; _ it spiraled, then shot vertically downward. A hundred feet away there was a dazzling flash of blue incandescence. Yet before that flare blinded me I saw that the flying thing had not crashed as it fell; that it had instead struck with a terrifying catlike soft- . hess. And down its upright side I thought a great sphere dropped and rolled toward Norhala’s dwelling! My darkened sight cleared. Where the radiance had gushed forth.a gigantic square column stood, black, like a headless obe- lisk. Suddenly it swayed, bowed forward And back; upon the motionless pedestal of half its height the upper half spun in a wide circle like a teetering top. Then from its base blaze® again the blue incandes- cence; came the noise of the shattering of hundreds of great panes of glass. The pillar soared; it cleared the air with an incredible swiftness, darted like a wing- less dragon back whence it had come, flashed like a blue meteor through the gate- way of the cliffs and vanished as had the other in the vapors. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. We ran toward where it had towered, half dn the lush gras@and half on the pol- ished roadway. Upon-the latter there was no trace of it, but in the green mat at the side was a blackened imprint, an oblong twenty feet in length and five wide, with two triangular, spreading claws! And its edges were die cut, grass and flowerets were damascened within it as had been tree and twig and poppy within the mark of the valley, as had been dust and débris of the mark in the dragoned chamber; stamped into a matrix of earth compressed by un- imaginable force into stone! “ But if that’s what does it,’ Drake was clearly thinking aloud, his voice dazed—_ “if it’s that—how the hell big must have been the Thing that stamped the poppy valley? Why—why it must have been like a mountain—a mountain of metal hurtling down there. Goodwin!” he turned to me. f Goodwin — what was it? Why did it come—”’ “Quick! To Ruth!” I set off at a run to the house, cursing myself for my forget- fulness, heart beating wildly; for his ques- tions had recalled to me the Shape I thought I had seen slip down the Flying Thing when it had struck. We raced through the door—and with a sob of relief I saw her still there as we had left her, . brooding over her brother. “ Ruth,” I panted, “‘ did anything come in?” “No.” She raised surprised eyes. —I saw nothing. There was a strange noise, and light flashed coues the door—- that was all.” “What was it?” asked Drake. him. ~“ An ambassador—or a friend who just happened in for a bit of a chat on his ’plane,” he said sardonically. .‘‘ Anything’s possible in this joint, Doc.” I told He beckoned me to the saddle-bags, out . of ear-shot of Ruth. “We're in a hell of a hole, Goodwin,” he whispered grimly. ‘I'll say that we are. It’s a fact that sticks up like a sore thumb out of a sea of lassitude and latsez fatre—if you get what I mean. It’s time for a powwow—”’ ” “Walter! Dick!” There was panic ‘No . (C(O) nn) (C 6)(0)O) S (C(O) nn