Page:Weird Tales volume 33 number 04.djvu/97

the distance, and a flickering of colored lights. Beyond, Scott told me, was Azathoth.

"I can't do it. I don't dare—not with that piping, and those Shapes I saw moving far down. If I look in that direction when I'm at the Veil it will mean — but Scott is insanely angry with me. He says I was the cause of it all. I had an almost uncontrollable impulse to let the suction draw me back, and then to smash the Gateway — the crystal thing. Maybe if I find myself unable to keep looking away from the Veil when next I go through I'll do just that. I told Scott if he let me come back to earth for one more breathing-space I'd finish the job this next time. He agreed, but said to hurry. His vitality is going fast. He said if I didn't come through the Gateway in ten minutes he'd come after me. He won't, though. The life that keeps him going Outside wouldn't be any use on earth, except for a second or two.

"My ten minutes is up. Scott is calling from the Gateway. I'm not going! I can't face it — not the last horror Outside, with those things moving behind the Veil and that awful piping screaming out——

"I won't go, I tell you! No, Scott—I can't face it! You can't come out—like that. You'd die—I tell you I won't go! You can't force me—I'll smash the Gateway first! . . . what? No! No, you can't . . . you can't do it! . . . Scott! Don't, don't . . . God—he's coming out ——"

That was the last entry in the diary, which police found open on Edmond's desk. A hideous screaming and subsequently a stream of red liquid seeping out sluggishly from beneath the door of Edmond's apartment had resulted in the arrival of two radio patrol officers.

The body of Paul Edmond was found near the door, the head and shoulders lying in a widening crimson pool.

Near by was an overturned brass brazier, and a flaky white substance, granular in nature, was scattered over the carpet. Edmond's stiff fingers still tightly gripped the object which has since been the cause of so much discussion.

This object was in an incredible state of preservation, in view of its nature. Part of it was coated with a peculiar grayish slime, and its jaws were clamped tightly, the teeth having horribly mangled Edmond's throat and severed the carotid artery.

There was no need to search further for the missing head of Kenneth Scott.