and waters filled earth and sky, and peering under his hand through the dust and sleet to windward, he saw by the play of the lightnings a vast wall of water pouring towards him.
"Maydig!" screamed Mr. Fortheringay's feeble voice amid the elemental uproar. "Here!—Maydig!
"Stop!" cried Mr. Fotlieringay to the advancing water. "Oh, for goodness sake, stop!
"Just a moment," said Mr. Fotheringay to the lightnings and thunder, "Stop jest a moment while I collect my thought. . . And now what shall I do?" he said. "What shall I do? Lord! I wish Maydig was about.
"I know," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And for goodness sake let's have it right this time."
He remained on all fours, leaning against the wind, very intent to have everything right.
"Ah!" he said. "Let nothing what I'm going to order happen until I say "Off!" . . . Lord! I wish I'd thought of that before!"
He lifted his little voice against the whirlwind, shouting louder and louder in the vain desire to hear himself speak. "Now then!—here goes! Mind about that what I said just now. In the first place, when all I've got to say is done, let me lose my miraculous power, let my will become just like anybody's else's will, and all these dangerous miracles be stopped. I don't like them. I'd rather I didn't work 'em. Ever so much. That's the first thing. And the second is—let me be back just before the miracles begin; let everything be just as it was before that blessed lamp turned up. It's a big job, but it's the last. Have you got it? No more miracles, everything as it was—me back in the Long Dragon just before I drank my half-pint. That's it! Yes."
He dug his fingers into the mould, closed his eyes, and said "Off!"
Everything became perfectly still. He perceived the he was standing erect.
CHAPTER X.
Back in the Long Dragon
SO you say," said a voice.
He opened his eyes. He was in the bar of the Long Dragon, arguing about miracles with Toddy Beamish. He had a vague sense of some great thing forgotten that instantaneously passed. You see that, except for the loss of his miraculous powers, everything was back as it had been, his mind and memory therefore were now just as they had been at the time when this story began. So that he knew absolutely nothing of all that is told here—knows nothing of all that is told here to this day. And among other things, of course, he still did not believe in miracles.
"I tell you that miracles, properly speaking, can't possibly happen," he said, "whatever you like to hold. And I'm prepared to prove it up to the hilt."
"That's what you think," said Toddy Beamish, and "Prove it if you can."
"Looky here, Mr. Beamish," said Mr. Fotheringay, "Let us clearly understand what a miracle is. It's something contrariwise to the course of nature done by power of Will. . . ."
The End.
Experts Join Staff of "Amazing Stories"
IT will come as good news that two scientifiction experts have joined the staff as Literary Editors of Amazing Stories.
The name of Wilbur C. Whitehead, the greatest Auction Bridge expert in the United States, will come as a surprise to many. Nevertheless, this famous man is a scientification fan of the first rank. There are few works of scientifiction with which he is not familiar, and he is just as much an expert in this type of literature as in his native Bridge. Mr. Whitehead is the author of the following books on Bridge, and also editor of the "Work- Whitehead Auction Bridge Bulletin": "Auction Bridge Standards", "Auction Bridge Summary", "Complete Auction Bridge", and "Authoritative Leads and Conventions of Playing."
Every great man has a hobby, and Mr. Whitehead is no exception. His hobby happens to be scientifiction and all that goes with it. We congratulate our readers upon the acquisition of Mr. Whitehead. It means a great deal to the future editorial policy of Amazing Stories. It means, in short, the best.
Mr. C. A. Brandt, who has also joined the editorial staff, is, in our opinion, the greatest living expert on scientifiction. At least we do not know of any one else who has practically every piece of scientifiction that was ever published, in his library. Mr. Brandt has on his book shelves, complete volumes, and short stories, taken from many publications—all scientifiction. We believe that this collection of this type of literature can not be equalled by any one, because he made a study, not only of works in the English language, but also in the German, French, and Scandinavian languages.
There is not a work of this kind that has appeared during the last fifty years, with which Mr. Brandt is not fully conversant. This is, of course, a tremendous asset to a publication of the type of Amazing Stories, and one which assures you of getting the best that can be had at all times.
By having the advantage of such an expert editorial board, Amazing Stories is convinced that whenever new stories from new writers are received they will have expert treatment, and that, of course, is very necessary when dealing with a new literature of this kind.
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