The Face in the Abyss by Abraham Merritt (ebook e reader .TXT) đ
- Author: Abraham Merritt
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the girl comes from. I bet those hissinâ devils wouldnât stand up long under machine guns anâ some bombs dropped from the flyinâ crates. Anâ when the smoke clears away weâll lift the loot anâ go back anâ sit on the top of the world. What you say to that?â
Graydon fenced for time.
âHow will you get the stuff now?â he asked. âAnd if you get it, how will you get away with it?â
âEasy,â Soames bent his head closer. âWe got it all planned: Thereâs only the girl anâ that old devil in that tent. They ainât watchinâ, theyâre too sure of us. All right, if youâre with us, weâll just slip over there. Starrett and Daneâ, theyâll take care of the dummy. No shootinâ. Just slip a knifeâ between his ribs. Me anâ youâll attend to the girl. We wonât hurt her. Just tie her up anâ gag her. Then weâll stow the stuff on a couple of burros, anâ beat it.â
âBeat it where?â asked Graydon. He edged a bit closer to Dancret, ready to jerk the automatic from his pocket.
âBeat it out, damn it!â growled Soames. âMe anâ Starrett seen a peak to the west both of us recognized when we come in here. Once we hit it I know where we are. Anâ travelinâ light anâ all night we can be well on our way to it by this time to-morrow. These woods ainât so thick anâ itâs full moon.â
Graydon moved his hand cautiously and touched Dancretâs pocket. The automatic was still there. Before he made that desperate move he would try one last appealâ to fear.
âBut youâve forgotten one thing, Soames,â he said. âThere would be pursuit. What could we do with those hell-beasts on our track? Why, man, theyâd be after us in no time. You couldnât get away with anything like that.â
Instantly he realized the weakness in the argument.
âNot a bit of it,â Soames grinned evilly. âThatâs just the point Nobodyâs worryinâ about that girl. Nobody knows where she is anâ she donât want âem to. She was damned anxious not to be seen this afternoon. No, GraydonâI figure she slipped away from her folks to help you out. I take my hat off to youâyouâre a quick worker anâ you sure got her hooked. The only one that might raise trouble
is the old devil. Heâll get the knife before he knows it. Then thereâs only the girl. Sheâll be damned glad to show us the way out, happen we get lost again. But me anâ Starrett know that peak, I tell you. Weâll carry her along so she canât start anybody after us, anâ when we get where we know the country weâll turn her loose for a walk back home. Anâ none the, worse off eitherâeh, boys?â
Starrett and Dancret nodded.
Graydon feigned to consider. He knew exactly what was in Soamesâ mindâto use him in the cold-blooded murder the three had planned and, once beyond the reach of pursuit, to murder him, too. Nor would they ever allow Suarra to return to tell what they had done. She would be slainâ after they had thrown her to Starrett.
âCome on, Graydon,â whispered Soames, impatiently. âItâs a good scheme, anâ we can work it. Are you with us? If you ainâtââ
His knife glittered in his hand. Simultaneously Starrett and Dancret pressed close. Their movement gave him the one advantage he needed. He thrust his hand into the Frenchmanâs pocket, plucked out the gun and as he did so landed a side kick that caught Starrett in the groin. The big man rolled over, groaning. Graydon leaped to his feet. But before he could cover Soames, Dancretâs hands were around his ankles, his legs jerked from under him.
âSuarra!â shouted Graydon as he fell. At least, his cry might awaken and warn her. A second shout was choked in mid-utterance. Soamesâ bony hands were around his neck.
He reached up, and tried to break the strangling clutch. It gave a little, enough to let him grasp one breath. Instantly he dropped his hold on Soamesâ wrists, hooked the fingers of one hand in the corner of the New Englanderâs mouth, pulling with all his strength. There was a sputtering curse from Soames, and his hands let go. Graydon tried to spring up, but an arm of the gaunt man slipped over the back of his head and held his neck in the vise of bent elbow against shoulder.
âKnife him, Daneâ,â snarled Soames.
Graydon suddenly twisted, bringing the New Englander
on top of him. He was barely in time for, as he did so, . Dancret struck, his blade just missing Soames. Soames locked his legs around his, trying to jerk him over in range of the little Frenchman. Graydon sank his teeth in the shoulder pressing him. Soames roared with pain and rage;
threshed and rolled trying to shake off the grip of Graydonâs jaws. Around them danced Dancret, awaiting a chance to thrust.
There came a bellow from Starrett.
âThe llama! Itâs running away! The llama!â
Involuntarily, Graydon loosed his teeth. Soames leaped - up. Graydon followed on the instant, shoulder lifted to meet the blow he expected from Dancret.
âLook, Soames, look!â the little Frenchman was pointing. âHeâs loose! Christ! There he goesâwitâ the goldâ witâ the jewelsââ
The moon had gathered strength, and under its flood the white sands were a silver lake in which the hillocks stood like tiny islands. Golden hampers gleaming on its sides, the white llama was flitting across that lake of silver, a hundred paces away and headed for the cleft through which they had come.
âStop it!â shouted Soames, forgetting all else. âAfter it, Starrett! That way, Dancâ! Iâll head it off!â
They ran out over the shining barren. The llama changed its pace, trotted leisurely to one of the mounds, and bounded to its top.
âClose in! Weâve got it,â cried Soames. The three ran to the hillock, on which the white beast stood looking calmly around. They swarmed up the mound from three sides.
As their feet touched the sparse grass a mellow note rang out, one of those elfin horns Graydon had heard chorusing so gayly about Suarra that first day. It was answered by others, close and all about. Again the single note. And then the answering chorus swirled toward the hillock of the llama, hovered over it, and dropped like a shower of winged sounds upon it.
Graydon saw Starrett stagger as though under some blow, then whirl knotted arms as though warding off in
visible attack. A moment the big man stood thus, flailing with frantic arms. He cast himself to the ground and rolled down to the sands. The notes of the elfin horns swarmed away from him, to concentrate upon Soames. He had thrown himself face downward on the slope of the mound and was doggedly crawling to the top. He held one arm stiffly, shielding his face.
Shielding his face against what?
All that Graydon could see was the hillock and on it the llama bathed in the moonlight, Starrett at the foot of the mound and Soames now nearly at its crest. Dancret, upon the opposite side, he could not see at all.
The horn notes were ringing in greater volume, scores of them, like the bugles of a fairy hunt. What it was that made those sounds was not visible to him, nor did they cast any shadow in the brilliant moonlight. But he heard a whirring as of hundreds of wings.
Soames had reached the edge of the moundâs flat summit. The llama bent its head, contemplating him. As he scrambled over that edge and thrust out a hand to grasp its bridle, it flicked about, sprang to the opposite side and leaped to the sands.
The clamor of the elfin horns about Soames had never stilled. Graydon watched him wince, strike out, bend his head and guard his eyes as though from a shower of blows. And whatever was that attack of the invisible, it did not daunt him. He leaped across the mound and slid down its side, close behind the llama. As he reached the base, Starrett arose, swaying drunkenly.
The horn notes ceased abruptly, like candles blown out by a sudden blast. Dancret came running around the slope. The three stood arguing, gesticulating. Their clothes were ripped to rags, and as Soames shifted and the moonlight fell full upon him, his face showed streaked with blood.
The llama was walking across the sands, as slowly as though it were tempting them to further pursuit. It was strange how its shape now stood out sharply, and now faded almost to a ghostly tenuity. âWhen it reappeared, it was as if the moonbeams thickened, swirled, wove swiftly, and spun it from themselves. The llama fadedâand then
grew again upon the warp and woof of the rays like a pattern on an enchanted loom.
Starrettâs hand swept down to his belt. Before he could cover the white beast with his automatic, Soames caught his wrist. He spoke wrathfully, peremptorily. Graydon knew he was warning Starrett of the danger of the pistol crack, urging silence.
The three scattered, Dancret and Starrett to the left and right to flank the llama, Soames approaching it cautiously to keep from frightening it into a run. But as he neared it, the animal broke into a gentle lope and headed for another hillock.
For an instant Graydon thought he saw upon the crest of that mound the figure in motley, red staff raised and pointing at the llama. He looked more intently and decided his eyes had played a trick upon him, for the crest was empty. The llama leaped lightly up to it As before, Soames and the two others closed in. They swarmed up the mound.
Instantly the elfin horns rang outâmenacingly. The three hesitated, stopped their climbing. Then Starrett slid down, ran back a few paces, raised his pistol and fired. The white llama fell.
âThe fool! The damned fool!â groaned Graydon.
The silence that followed the shot was broken by a tempest of the elfin horns. It swept down up the three. Dancret shrieked, and ran toward the camp, beating the air as he came. Halfway, he dropped and lay still. And Soames and Starrett they, too, were buffeting the air with great blows, ducking and dodging. The elfin horns were now a raging tumultâdeath creeping into their notes.
Starrett fell to his knees, arose and lurched away. He fell again, not far from Dancret and lay as still as he. And now Soames went down, fighting to the last. The three lay upon the sands, motionless.
Graydon shook himself into action, and leaped forward. He felt a touch upon his shoulder. A tingling numbness ran through his body. With difficulty he turned his head. Behind him was the figure in motley. His red staff it was that had taken from him all power to move, even as it had
paralyzed the spider-man and sent him into the jaws of the dinosaurs.
The red staff pointed to the three bodies. Instantly, as at some command, the clamor of the horns lifted from around them, swirled high in airâand stilled. At the top of the hillock the white llama was struggling to its feet. A band of crimson ran across one silvery flank, the mark of Starrettâs bullet. The llama limped down the mound.
As it passed Soames it nosed him. The New Englanderâs head lifted. He tried to arise, and fell back. The llama nosed him again. Soames squirmed up on hands and knees;
eyes fixed upon the golden panniers, he
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