Weird Tales/Volume 30/Issue 6

Weird Tales December 1937

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KNOWLEDGE THAT HAS ENDURED WITH THE PYRAMIDS

A SECRET METHOD FOR
THE MASTERY OF LIFE

WHENCE came the knowledge that built the Pyramids and the mighty Temples of the Pharaohs? Civilization began in the Nile Valley centuries ago. Where did its first builders acquire their astounding wisdom that started man on his upward climb? Beginning with naught they overcame nature's forces and gave the world its first sciences and arts. Did their knowledge come from a race now submerged beneath the sea, or were they touched with Infinite inspiration? From what concealed source came the wisdom that produced such characters as Amenhotep IV, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and a host of others?

Today it is known that they discovered and learned to interpret certain Secret Methods for the development of their inner power of mind. They learned to command the inner forces within their own beings, and to master life. This secret art of living has been preserved and handed down throughout the ages. Today it is extended to those who dare to use its profound principles to meet and solve the problems of life in these complex times.

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Has life brought you that personal satisfaction, the sense of achievement and happiness that you desire? If not, it is your duty to yourself to learn about this rational method of applying natural laws for the mastery of life. To the thoughtful person it is obvious that everyone cannot be entrusted with an intimate knowledge of the mysteries of life, for everyone is not capable of properly using it. But if you are one of those possessed of a true desire to forge ahead and wish to make use of the subtle influences of life, the Rosicrucians (not a religious organization) will send you A Sealed Book of explanation without obligation. This Sealed Book tells how you, in the privacy of your own home, without interference with your personal affairs or manner of living, may receive these secret teachings. Not weird or strange practices, but a rational application of the basic laws of life. Use the coupon, and obtain your complimentary copy.

AMENHOTEP IV
FOUNDER OF EGYPT'S
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SCRIBE: R. L. F.

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A vampiress approaches from the fog of a graveyard, shrouded in burial wraps

And ere the tomb-thrown echoings have ceased,
The blue-eyed vampire, sated at her feast,
Smiles bloodily against the leprous moon.

—Sterling: A Wine of Wizardry.

A MAGAZINE OF THE BIZARRE AND UNUSUAL

Weird Tales

REGISTERED IN U.S. PATENT OFFICE

Volume 30

CONTENTS FOR DECEMBER, 1937

Number 6

Cover Design	Virgil Finlay
Illustrating "The Sea-Witch"
The Vampire	Virgil Finlay	641
Picture illustrating a passage from "A Wine of Wizardry"
The Sea-Witch	Nictzin Dyalhis	643
A saga of Heldra the lovely, Heldra the wicked, who came from the sea to compass a weird revenge
Fane of the Black Pharaoh	Robert Bloch	665
Terrible was the destiny revealed on the walls of the red-litten corridors
The Black Stone Statue	Mary Elizabeth Counselman	677
The story of a weird deception practised by an obscure sculptor
The Old House on the Hill	Winona Montgomery Gilliland	685
Verse
Flames of Vengeance	Seabury Quinn	686
A dread horror spawned in India menaced young Pemberton with a strange doom
Child of Atlantis	Edmond Hamilton	708
What brooding shape of horror dwelt in the black castle that topped the sinister island?
The Voyage of the Neutralia (part 2)	B. Wallis	726
An epic of weird adventures and a strange voyage to other planets
Uneasy Lie the Drowned	Donald Wandrei	740
A stark, hideous horror crept over the side of Morse's canoe
The Keen Eyes and Ears of Kara Kedi	Claude Farrere	744
An odd little story about a cat that was telepathic—by a member of the French Academy
Fragment	Robert E. Howard	748
Posthumous verse, by a late great master of weird literature
Polaris	H. P. Lovecraft	749
The star-watcher could not tell which was dream and which was reality—a brief weird fantasy
Weird Story Reprint: Laocoon	Bassett Morgan	751
A story from an old number of WEIRD TALES, reprinted by request
The Eyrie		760
A department in which the readers discuss weird tales

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Published monthly by the Popular Fiction Publishing Company, 2457 East Washington Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Entered as second-class matter March 20, 1923, at the post office at Indianapolis, Ind., under the act of March 3, 1879. Single copies, 25 cents. Subscription rates: One year in the United States and possessions, Cuba, Mexico, South America. Spain, $2.50; Canada, $2.75; elsewhere, $3.00. English office: Otis A. Kline, c/o John Paradise, 86 Strand, W. C. 2, London. The publishers are not responsible for the loss of unsolicited manuscripts, although every care will be taken of such material while in their possession. The contents of this magazine are fully protected by copyright and must not be reproduced either wholly or in part without permission from the publishers.

NOTE—All manuscripts and communications should be addressed to the publishers' Chicago office at 840 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill.

FARNSWORTH WRIGHT, Editor.

Copyright, 1937, by the Popular Fiction Publishing Company,

COPYRIGHTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

WEIRD TALES ISSUED 1st OF EACH MONTH

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COMING NEXT MONTH

KLAUS kicked aside the curtain at the doorway and looked into the darkness of the little house. A woman crouched cross-legged on the earthen floor, her hair unbound, her gown ripped open to expose her breasts. On her knees, very quiet, but not sleeping, lay a baby boy, and on the little breast there flowered a crimson wound. Klaus recognized it—a gladiator knew the trademark of his calling!—a sword-cut. Half a hands-span long, ragged at the edges, sunk so deep into the baby flesh that the glinting white of breastbone showed between the raw wound's gaping, bloody lips.

"Who hath done this thing?" The Northman's eyes were hard as fjord-ice, and a grimness set upon his bearded lips like that they wore when he faced a Cappadocian nerman in the circus. "Who hath done this to thee, woman?"

The young Jewess looked up from her keening. Her eyes were red and swollen with much weeping, and the tears had cut small rivulets into the dust with which her face was smeared, but even in her agony she showed some traces of her wonted beauty.

"The soldiers," she replied between breath-breaking sobs. "They came and smote and slew; there is not a man-child left alive in all the village. Oh, my son, my little son, why did they do this thing to thee, thou who never did them any harm? Oh, woe is me; my firstborn, only son is slain——"

"Thou liest, woman!" Klaus's words rang sharp as steel. "Soldiers do not do things like this. They war with men, they make no war on babes."

The mother rocked her body to and fro and beat her breast with small clenched fists. "The soldiers did it," she repeated doggedly. "They came and went from house to house, and slew our sons——"

"Romans?" Klaus asked incredulously. Cruel the Romans were at times, but never to his knowledge had they done a thing like this. Romans were not baby-killers.

"Nay, the soldiers of the King. Romans only in the armor that they wore. They came marching into town, and——"

"The soldiers of the King? Herod?" . . .

You cannot afford to miss this mystic story of the Yuletide and a barbarian from the North in the Roman army; a reverent tale of the Crucifixion, and Pontius Pilate, and a hetæra from the house of Mary the Magdalene. This fascinating and unusual novelette will be published complete in the next issue of Weird Tales:

ROADS

By Seabury Quinn

——Also——

THE HAIRY ONES SHALL DANCE

By Gans T. Field

A novel of a hideous, stark horror that struck during a spirit séance—a tale of terror and sudden death, and the frightful thing that laired in the Devil's Croft.

THE WITCH'S MARK

By Dorothy Quick

Shamus O'Brien risked his very soul for the red, red lips of Cecily Maltby—a strange and curious Story about a beautiful, evil woman with red-gold hair.

TOEAN MATJAN

By Vennette Herron

It happened in the island of Java, that strange, weird, incredible thing that the natives fully believe, but the white man refuses to credit—the story of a tiger and a woman.

THE HOUSE OF LIVING MUSIC

By Edmond Hamilton

A strange weird-scientific story with a tragic denouement—about a great composer who could recreate all visible things in sound.

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January Issue Weird Tales . . Out December 1

Special Bargain Offer

YOURS

While They Last

At Reduced Price

Only Fifty Cents

Beautifully bound in rich blue cloth with attractive orange-colored cover jacket.

THE MOON TERROR, by A. G. Birch, is a stupendous weird-scientific novel of Oriental intrigue to gain control of the world.

ALSO—OTHER STORIES

In addition to the full-length novel, this book also contains three shorter stories by well-known authors of thrilling weird-scientific fiction:

OOZE, by Anthony M. Rud, tells of a biologist who removed the growth limitations from an amoeba, and the amazingcatastrophe that ensued.

PENELOPE, by Vincent Starrett, is a fascinating tale or the star Penelope, and the fantastic thing that happened when the star was in perihelion.

AN ADVENTURE IN THE FOURTH DIMENSION, by Farnsworth Wright, is an uproarious skit on the four-dimensional theories of the mathematicians, and inter-planetary stories in general.

LIMITED SUPPLY

Make sure of getting your copy now before the close-out supply is exhausted. Send your order today for this book at the special bargain price of only 50c.

Note: This book for sale from the publishers only. It cannot be purchased in any book store.

WEIRD TALES, Book Dept.
⟨840⟩ N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill., U. S. A.

Enclosed find 50c for cloth-bound copy of THE MOON TERROR as per your special offer.

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