| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 1 | 50 | 99 | 149 | 198 |
|
www.freeclassicebooks.com
the crest of the hill, taking advantage of every natural screen that the landscape
afforded to conceal her approach from possible observers ahead, while
momentarily she cast quick glances rearward lest she be taken by surprise from
that quarter.
She came at last to the summit, where, from the concealment of a low bush, she
could see what lay beyond. Beneath her spread a beautiful valley surrounded by
low hills. Dotting it were numerous circular towers, dome-capped, and
surrounding each tower was a stone wall enclosing several acres of ground. The
valley appeared to be in a high state of cultivation. Upon the opposite side of the
hill and just beneath her was a tower and enclosure. It was the roof of the former
that had first attracted her attention. In all respects it seemed identical in
construction with those further out in the valley--a high, plastered wall of
massive construction surrounding a similarly constructed tower, upon whose
gray surface was painted in vivid colors a strange device. The towers were about
forty sofads in diameter, approximately forty earth-feet, and sixty in height to the
base of the dome. To an Earth man they would have immediately suggested the
silos in which dairy farmers store ensilage for their herds; but closer scrutiny,
revealing an occasional embrasured opening together with the strange
construction of the domes, would have altered such a conclusion. Tara of Helium
saw that the domes seemed to be faced with innumerable prisms of glass, those
that were exposed to the declining sun scintillating so gorgeously as to remind
her suddenly of the magnificent trappings of Gahan of Gathol. As she thought of
the man she shook her head angrily, and moved cautiously forward a foot or two
that she might get a less obstructed view of the nearer tower and its enclosure.
As Tara of Helium looked down into the enclosure surrounding the nearest tower,
her brows contracted momentarily in frowning surprise, and then her eyes went
wide in an expression of incredulity tinged with horror, for what she saw was a
score or two of human bodies--naked and headless. For a long moment she
watched, breathless; unable to believe the evidence of her own eyes--that these
grewsome things moved and had life! She saw them crawling about on hands and
knees over and across one another, searching about with their fingers. And she
saw some of them at troughs, for which the others seemed to be searching, and
those at the troughs were taking something from these receptacles and
apparently putting it in a hole where their necks should have been. They were not
far beneath her--she could see them distinctly and she saw that there were the
bodies of both men and women, and that they were beautifully proportioned, and
that their skin was similar to hers, but of a slightly lighter red. At first she had
thought that she was looking upon a shambles and that the bodies, but recently
decapitated, were moving under the impulse of muscular reaction; but presently
she realized that this was their normal condition. The horror of them fascinated
2
4
Page
Quick Jump
|