By GARRETT P. SERVISS
(Concluded)
The Last Fight of Dr. Syx
"BUT it took me a long time, and I did not reach the rift in the summit until just before sundown. Knowing that it would be impossible for me to descend at night, I bethought me of the enclosure of rocks, supposed to have been made by Indians, on the western pinnacle, and decided that I could pass the night there.
"The perpendicular buttress forming the easternmost and highest point of the Teton's head would have baffled me but for the fact that I found a long crack, probably an effect of the tremendous explosion, extending from bottom to top of the rock. Driving my toes and lingers into this rift, I managed, with a good deal of trouble, and no little peril, to reach the top. As I lifted myself over the edge and rose to my feet, imagine my amazement at seeing Dr. Syx standing within arm's-length of me!
"My breath seemed pent in my lungs, and I could not even utter the exclamation that rose to my lips. It was like meeting a ghost. Notwithstanding the many reports of his having been seen in various parts of the world, it had always been my conviction that he had perished in the explosion.
"Yet there he stood in the twilight, for the sun was hidden by the time I reached the summit, his tall form erect, and his black eyes gleaming under the heavy brows as he fixed them sternly upon my face. You know I never was given to losing my nerve, but I am afraid I lost it on that occasion. Again and again I strove to speak, but it was impossible to move my tongue. So powerless seemed my lungs that I wondered how I could continue breathing.
"The doctor remained silent, but his curious smile, which, as you know, was a thing of terror to most people, overspread his black-rimmed face and was broad enough to reveal the gleam of his teeth. I felt that he was looking me through and through. The sensation was as if he had transfixed me with an ice-cold blade. There was a gleam of devilish pleasure in his eyes, as though my evident suffering was a delight to him and a gratification of his vengeance. At length I succeeded in overcoming the feeling which oppressed me, and, making a step forward, I shouted in a strained voice,
"'You black Satan!'
"I cannot clearly explain the psychological process which led me to utter those words. I had never entertained any enmity towards Dr. Syx, although I had always regarded him as a heartless person, who had purposely led thousands to their ruin for his selfish gain, but I knew that he could not help hating me, and I felt now that, in some inexplicable manner, a struggle, not physical, but spiritual, was taking place between us, and my exclamation, uttered with surprising intensity, produced upon me, and apparently upon him, the effect of a desperate sword thrust which attains its mark.
"Immediately the doctor's form seemed to recede, as if he had passed the verge of the precipice behind him. At the same time it became dim, and then dimmer, until only the dark outlines, and particularly the jet-black eyes, glaring fiercely, remained visible. And still he receded, as though floating in the air, which was now silvered with the evening light, until he appeared to cross the immense atmospheric gulf over Jackson's Hole and paused on the rim of the horizon in the east.
"Then, suddenly, I became aware that the full moon had risen at the very place on the distant mountain-brow where the spectre rested, and as I continued to gaze, as if entranced, the face and figure of the doctor seemed slowly to frame themselves within the lunar disk, until at last he appeared to have quitted the air and the earth and to be frowning at me from the circle of the moon."
While Hall was pronouncing his closing words I had begun to stare at the moon with swiftly increasing interest, until, as his voice stopped, I exclaimed,
"Why, there he is now! Funny I never noticed it before. There's Dr. Syx's face in the moon, as plain as day."
"Yes," replied Hall, without turning round, "and I never like to look at it."
The End.
New Scientifiction Stories
IF you are interested in scientifiction stories, you will find several excellent ones in AMAZING STORIES' sister magazines, RADIO NEWS and SCIENCE AND INVENTION.
RADIO NEWS for July contains "Sam Jones, Radio Tube Bootlegger, by Volney G. Mathison.
A story of the bad old days when there were sharp practices in radio—and how some of the practitioners came to grief in carrying out their designs upon the unwary public. If it is not true, it is well enough invented to convey a moral to radio-set owners in their purchasing of supplies.
In SCIENCE AND INVENTION, "Tarrano the Conqueror" by Ray Cummings, has been running for several months. The author of this story also wrote "The Girl in the Golden Atom," "Around the Universe," and "The Man on the Meteor." "Tarrano the Conqueror" is one of the weirdest and most amazing stories it has ever been our good fortune to read.
Copies of RADIO NEWS and SCIENCE AND INVENTION may be secured at all newsstands, and back numbers can be obtained from the publishers. Address Experimenter Publishing Co., 53 Park Place, New York City.
