Avon Fantasy Reader No. 14 — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

something that you say in the United States. Ja! That is it: you say ‘I am from Missouri.’ Well, I was from Amsterdam, and I wanted to be shown too.” Again the black ape called to the naturalist. Kromhout hoisted himself frou the chair and burried to comfort her. As T listened, I detected a whis- pertng accompaniment to his words. Other simall captives knew of the condi- tion of the black ape, and were troubled. “On the fourth day that Sundanese got over his bout with hashish,” con- tinued Krombout, as he returned. “He did not like me. He said the place was kramat; that meant it was too sacred and magical for me to put my big feet inside it. Ilvin swore at him. At last the Sundanese gave way. “First we entered the temple proper. That was only an antechamber to the real place. But we entered quick, so that not much fresh air could get in, and that nov old air could escape. It was quite dark, but the Sundanese took my hand and led me. I would sooner have had the little hand of the girl, but that Russian had grabbed her as a guide. ““Why not a flashlight! I asked. * “There is no need for one,’ said Ilyia. “Phere is light in the vault where we are going.’ “That puzzled me, but [ said nothing. We came to the far end of the temple and climbed down a stone stairway. I could see nothing, but I under- stood that we were in front of a stone doorway. Ilyin spoke to me. ’It is neces- sary to enter quick,’ he said. ‘When the old man pulls the lever, the stone will swing back. It will be light then. Sava, the girl, will go first, then you, then I and the old man. But move quick! Poskorée! Poskorée!’ He was all excited. “T could not understand how it would be light when the stone door opened, but I said nothing. Then the door swung back, and I found that Ilyin had spoken the truth. Through the lighted space hopped the girl; I stumbled after her, and after me came [lyin and the old man. “We were twenty feet underground, and there was no opening to that vault except the door through which we had come, but the place was il- luminated. It was lit up like a phosphorescent sea. ] thought for a moment that the light came from millions of fireflies, or the luminous beetles of the Lampyrida that are related to glow-worms. I was wrong. The light came from a type of lichen that I had never seen. A variety of Lecanora calacarea that is mentioned by Engler and Prantl in their book ‘Die nattirlichen Pflan- zenfamilien.’ It sweats in the dark places where it grows, and its sweat is phosphorescent. “That lichen covered the walls and the roof of that big vault—covered them like a silver tapestry. Lichen is strange stuff. Some day when the world dies, the lichen will make a death shroud. Ja, ja. And it will be very pretty. The blue-green algz, the red and yellow Agyrium, and the phosphorescent Leca- nora that covered the walls and roof of that great vault. Lichen is the beard of death. “Alter I got over the shock from that growing stuff, I noticed the air. It was heavy, very heavy. It was so thick that you thought you could chew it, but it was not unpleasant. Not at all. It was soothing. Have you ever tried enium? Neen? Well, the air of that place brought to me the nice loosening 45 conmiclibooks.conn