Page:Weird Tales volume 36 number 01.djvu/87

Rh tied it around my neck so the stones would not be seen.

We searched in the hollow but there was nothing more except some decayed bits of leather, remains of the bag that had held the jewels, probably. We kicked some loose dirt down in the hollow and then climbed out over the debris into the open air. Nothing ever felt so wonderful as the rush of it against me when I finally stepped out on the mountainside.

Harvey poked around to see if he could find a fragment of the picture, but there was nothing, only powdered dust.

"If I could only have preserved her face," he half moaned.

"Then you should have kept her husband's too. Can't you see they were mated, those two glorious beings? Oh, Harvey, forget her—let us be happy together." Even as I said the words, I recognized the futility of what I was urging. I could never forget those faces and I had only seen them once whereas Harvey had been seeing the Dream Woman for years. The outlook for me was pretty bad. Only one thing I could not reconcile—the thought of murder with that pure, austere beauty. Yet she had bidden Harvey kill me. Would she again? What did our finding the picture and the jewels represent? I would have given everything I possessed-except Harvey—to know the answer.

Halfway down the mountain we met Juan and some of our escort. Juan kissed our hands solemnly and after rejoicing over our safety, said: "Ah, Señor, Señora, we feared for you when the Lost Gods spoke."

WO words picked themselves out in my brain. "Lost Gods?" "Si Señora, the Gods of the far far past beyond the knowledge of man, they who ruled the lightnings and dreams." Juan was quite serious.

Harvey started. "Tell us more Juan."

The Mexican made an odd sign with his hand. "We talk little of the Lost Gods Señor; few except the very old keep their memory green against the time when they shall come again."

"Come again?" Once more I echoed his words.

"My great grandfather knows the legend. The Gods—a man-God and the Woman his mate—ruled the world. Something happened that displeased the man-God. What, no one remembers, for it is too far back into the past. The man-God laid waste the land with his lightning and then took his wife away from earth. But he promised to come back again at the proper time and left a link to earth to make a way back."

"How could he?" I asked although I knew the answer.

"He left his mortal attributes and hers—magic stones set in gold, with their likeness in some secret place. When the time comes, they will be found and then the finder will open the road." Juan's face had the mystical expression that only the superstitious ever have.

The necklace lay heavy against me. "But, Juan," I protested, "That's stupid. Suppose anyone did find the magic stones. They wouldn't know what to do to open the way."

Juan smiled pityingly at my ignorance. "Did I not say the Lost God was the master of dreams, Señora? Whoever finds the stones and wears them through the night will be instructed. But they have been hidden hundreds of years, beyond the reach of time; they will not be found in our life, lady." His white teeth flashed as he laughed at his own joke.

He little knew! I could tell by Harvey's rapt expression he believed every word. As for me my thoughts were in chaos. I could not find my way out. Only one thing I knew that at night I would sleep with the necklace about my neck and the girdle around my waist.