Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 16, 1921 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

18 Zitu it is the light of the spirit which fills the chambers of the brain. May that light be with thee ever and forever, nor be ab- sent from thee again.” Of course I didn’t understand it. It was only afterward when Croft had translated it to me that its inward meaning was plain, but the solemnity of the ritual, the rhythm of well-balanced words, the quiet attention of.the assembled guests and the reverent voice of the priest affected me, who stood unseen with the company on the dais, as he baptized Jason’s son. And then he took the cushion from the kneeling girl of Mazzer and lifted it, turn- ing to face the brilliant assemblage. ‘“‘ Jason, Son of Jason,” he cried, holding the infant toward them. ; “ Hail, Jason, Son of Jason,” the guests responded like a well-drilled chorus, and the thing was done. : Followed a feast, similar I fancied in every detail to those Croft had told me he had witnessed at first and been privileged later to attend. Men and women reclined at the tables on padded divans. Blue servi- tors moved about, filling the golden and crystal goblets with wine, loading the golden plates with food. Once more the harps broke forth. And suddenly from under the farther yellow stairway there broke a band of maidens, clad in garlands of woven flow- ers, and danced to the music of the harps, with a waving of slender arms, a bending of supple, unrestrained bodies, a flashing of whitely roundéd limbs. With dances and music the feast ran to an end. . The guests departed, last of them accord- ing to Tamarizian custom Jadgor, president of the Republic, the guest of honor, and with him Gaya and her husband Robur, governor of Aphur and Jadgor’s son. Naia took the child into her arms from the hands of its Mazzerian attendant.. She and Jason moved toward the stairs. I knew that the hour I had waited had come. I followed up the stairway and along the balcony and to a room—hung here in golden tissues, furnished with wine-red woods and twin couches of inolded copper—with the mirror pool in its center and once more the figure of Azil close beside it as in Jason’s home. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Naia placed the child on.a tiny couch and covered its sleeping form with a bit of silken fabric. She turned to Jason, her blue eyes shining. He drew her into his arms and held her, smiling. _“ There is yet one guest, beloved,” he said in English. “Aye,” she responded softly; “ but— one who understands the heart both of the wife, and the mother of Jason’s son.” “* And awaits a welcome from her,” said Jason. ‘‘ Come, beloved.” He led her to one of the copper couches and sat down with an arm about her white-sheathed form. From it there crept a lovely thing—an exact replica of it—-the very essence of it, as indeed it was and seemed, as the lights in the chamber flooded down upon it. And that shape stretched out its slender hands. It swayed toward me, with Croft’s astral presence close behind it. ‘At last,” said Naia of Aphur, “ I may welcome you, Dr. Murray, as mine and Jason’s friend.” “At last, I may converse with Naia of Aphur, and thrill with the glory of her—a thing I have long desired,” I replied, and took her shadowy hand and raised it to my none less shadowy lips, yet with a distinct sensation of the contact none the less. She smiled, and glanced at Jason. “ Be- loved, are all the men of earth so court- ly? It was even so if you remember that you met me first in the flesh.” Croft chuckled. - “Life is much the same on earth or Palos,” the made answer. ‘“ Well, Murray, what do you think of Palosian life?” “ Babylonian,” I said. ‘ You were right in the simile beyond question. I was think- ing to-night when I watched it that it was almost a pity in one way you should be changing it all with your innovations.” He nodded. “In a way I’ve thought as much myself. I get your meaning. But I’m going to ‘try and preserve it at least in part.” ‘“ Babylonian?” said Naia in a tone of question. Jason and I explained, and she heard us out. “Oh, but—things must change, must they not, Dr. Murray?—and the common COMmIGDOO S C@