Page:Weird Tales Volume 5 Number 4 (1925-04).djvu/60

Rh All eyes were riveted upon the lawyer. Hargrove's relatives were trying to digest what had just happened. A fortune had been burned before their very eyes.

The attorney smiled not sadly.

"The accident was unfortunate," he said blandly. "According to the law of this state regarding lost and destroyed wills, the entire property, both real and personal, descends to John Hargrove's wife, Mrs. Anne Hargrove."

With the attorney's last words Hargrove felt himself lifted up out of the open window. He felt cool breezes play about him. The odor of fresh green fields came to him. Warm, friendly hands touched him. He heard soft, soothing music in the distance. His heart was light and his soul was finally at rest.



''The Wolves Were Howling at the Door, but Far Off Across the Snow-Covered Steppes the old Russian Peasant Heard the Tinkling of''

By HASAN VOKINE

T WAS cold in the fierce, heartless way of Siberia. A desert of snow stretched on every side beyond a lonely little muzhik hut. Within, covered by a sheepskin, lay Andrey Taranof. His son, kneeling at his side, listened anxiously to his heart beats.

For many days they had endured the cold with even no food, and now the father was about to cross the border. Painfully he spoke: "Dmitri—good-bye."

The son was unable to answer. He kissed his father and arose. Moving from the pile of straw he slid aside a block of wood, and exposed a small hole in the door. The moon shone down on a silver carpet, crossed and recrossed by the sinister shadows of wolves. He studied the glistening fur which covered their lithe bodies, beautiful despite the shudder they caused.

They seldom congregated in such numbers around a solitary hut save when a man was dead or dying. What strange thing told them of Andrey’s condition? Now a long, restless howl made his hand tremble as he replaced the shutter. Turning, he said in a low voice, "Father, let me open the door. You see that we shall die in the end. It would be better than this long waiting."

There was no answer.

His hand rested on the bolt. It turned!