Page:Weird Tales Volume 7 Number 2 (1926-02).djvu/69

Rh bling, her fine nostrils dilated, and her deep brown eyes wide with apprehension.

Not knowing why nor even wondering, she ran to her door, snatched it open, and raced down the hall toward her husband's bedroom. The door there was not locked, so she had no trouble in gaining speedy entrance. On the threshold she halted as though struck suddenly to stone.

The room was empty save for the form of Lord Aleys, which stood in its exact center. His head was raised so that his face, expressionless as a sphinx, was presented to the ceiling. In his right hand he grasped an open razor which he lifted slowly and with inexorable certainty toward his throat!

Lady Helen stood transfixed with fright until the glittering blade was about to touch his skin, then she rushed forward. With one sweep of her arm she dashed the deadly instrument from his hand, so that it bounded clear across the room and was lost in the darkness. With all her strength she shook her husband's body.

"Allen! Allen!" she cried hysterically.

He opened his eyes, fumbled at his throat, then covered his face with his hands.

"God!—I—Helen! Where are you? Oh! I've seen them! They were here!"

"There has been no one here," she assured him. "You have had a terrible dream, but everything is all right now."

"Yes, I've had a most terrible dream," he replied, "but everything is all right, now."

next morning she replaced the razor in its cabinet, so that Lord Aleys never knew what awful effect the vision had had upon him, and it is said that peace unbroken descended upon Hadley Hall and that the brothers returned no more, since their pleasure was destroyed and their evil desire had been robbed of its fruits.



VERYTHING was irksome for Alexandra Ivanovna in the workship of this out-of-the-way town. It was the shop in which she had served as apprentice and now for several years as seamstress. Everything irritated Alexandra Ivanovna; she quarreled with everyone and abused the apprentices. Among others to suffer from her tantrums was Tanechka, the youngest of the seamstresses, who had only recently become an apprentice.

In the beginning Tanechka submitted to her abuse in silence. In the end she revolted, and, addressing her assailant, said quite calmly and affably, so that everyone laughed, "Alexandra Ivanovna, you are a dog!"

Alexandra Ivanovna scowled.

"You are a dog yourself!" she exclaimed.

Tanechka was sitting sewing. She