Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-11-16

away from he portals. bScween rOws
Of dwellings, palaces Of marble and
stone, tombstones and m~ausolSunh
with meaner houses Of sun-dried brick
and rubble. roofless all and disinte-
grating In the slow, terrible process
Of the years.
AS Amber moved forward small,
alert ghosts rose from the under
growth and scurried silently thence;
a circumstance which made him very
unhappy.
The way was difficult and Amber
tired. After a while, having seen
nothing but the jackals, an owl or
two, several thousand bats and a
crawling thing which had lurched
along in the shadow of a wall some
distance away, giving an admirable
imitation of a badly wounded man
pulling himself over the ground, and
making strange cultural noises-Am-
Der concluded to wait for the guide
Naraini had promised him. He turned
aside and seated himself upon the
edge OF q broken sandstone tomb. The
silence was appalling and for relief
he took refuge in cheap irreverence'
Home" he observed, aloud, never
was like this"
A heart-rending sigh from the tomb
behind him was followed by a rattle
of dislodged rubbish. Amber found
himself Unexpectedly in the middle OF
the street, and, without stopping to de-
bate the method of his getting there
with such unprecedented rapidity,
looked back hopefully to the tomb. At
the same moment a black-shrouded
figure swept out of 1t and moved a few
PAGES down the street, then paused
and beckoned him with a gaunt arm.
II WISH" said Amber, earnestly, y
had that gun"
The figure was apparently that of a
native swathed in black from his head
to his heels and seemed the more
strikingly peculiar in view Of the fact
that, as far as Amber could deter
, mine, he had neither eyes nor features
although his head was without any
sort of covering. He gulped over the
proposition for an instant, ther
stepped forward.
Evidently my appointed cicerone,'
he considered. "Unquestionably thit
ghost-dance is excellently stage-man
aged. . . Though, OF course, | nat
to pick out that particular tomb"
He followed In the wake of the fig
ure, which sped on with a singulal
motion, something between a wall
, and a glide. conscious that his equa
nimity had been restored rather thai
shaken by the incident.
He held on in pursuit Of the blacl
shadow, passing forsaken temples AM
| lordly pleasure houses, all marbl
tracery and fretwork, standing apar
in what had once been noble gardens
sunken tanks all weed-grown an
rank with slime, humber dooryard
and cots on whose hearthstones tn
fires for centuries had been cold-hi
destination evidently the temple @
the ~unspeakable Eye.
AS they drew nearer the leadin
shadow forsook the shade of the wall
which he seemed to favor, swaepin
hastily across a plaza white wit
m~oonglare and without pause on int
the black, gaping hole beyond tn
marble arch.
Here for the first time Amber hun
back, stopping a score of feet fro
the door, his nerves a-jangle, He d
not falter In his purpose; he was g
ing to enter the inky portal, b.
. would he ever leave it? Al
the world was sweet to him. H.
He took firm hold of his reason ar
went on across the dark threshol
took three uncertain strides into Il
limitless unknown, and pulled l
short, hearing nothing, unable to sc
a yard before him. Then with a tie
rife crash like a thunder-clap ii
great doors swung to behind him. Il
whirled about with a stifed cry, CO
scious of a mad desire to find tt
doors again, took a step or two t
ward them, paused to wonder II l
were moving In the right directio
f. moved a little to the left, half turnt
re and was lost. Reverberating, Il
in echoes of the crash rolled far awt
le until they were no more than as
whisper adrift in the silence, uni
that vas gone. .
. Digging his nails into his palms,
- waited; and in the suspense Of dre'
~ began to count the seconds.
One minute two . .
three . four
He shifted his weight from one TO
% to the other. 49,.
j. Seven
% He passed a hand across his ia
80 and brought 1t away, wet with pr
spiration. .
~ In some remote spot a bell began
e. toll; at first s~lowly-clang!
III clang, clang!-then mo
quickly, until the roar of its sonorol
&C. gong.like tones seemed to fill all t
world and to set 1t a-tremble. The
a insensibly, the tempo became
n date, the first clamor Of it moderate
Ia, and Amber abruptly was alive to t
w fact that the bell was speaking-th
m its voice, deep, clear, sound. metal
was rolling forth again and again
ed question couched in the purest Sal
lis krit:
d; "Who is there? Who