Page:Frank Owen - The Wind That Tramps the World (1929).djvu/23

 in a sad monotone. For perhaps ten minutes or it might have been longer, he remained thus. Then he rose to his feet. Without a word he walked across the room. He threw open a great heavily draped window. Then he did the same to a window on the other side of the room.

Instantly pandemonium broke loose. It was as though all the winds of earth had congregated outside that window and now came crashing through. They shrieked and laughed in a thousand fantastic tongues. It was frightful because it was so intense, so unrestrained. Sometimes Steppling imagined he detected a low moan in the wind, almost a sob, but at once it was drowned by the awful fiendish laughter.

The wind came crashing madly through as though it would wreck the very building. It caught up the fragrant perfume from the musk-scented air and bore it off into measureless distances. The yellow moon-lantern swayed back and forth as ceaselessly as a pendulum. Only the jade vase remained stationary. The entire building shuddered but still the vase did not move.

Steppling gripped Hi Ling's arm. "What does it mean?" he cried. He pitched his voice to the highest key possible and even then it seemed as weak as a whisper. "Is it a tornado, a cyclone?"

Hi Ling shook his head. His ghastly brown face looked more like that of a mummy than ever.