Page:Weird Tales Volume 36 Number 06 (1942-07).djvu/26

though it seemed, was only his effort to conform with a new state of affairs. Perhaps his original impulses had been influenced by the worship paid him, and by the expectations of the worshippers. Perhaps he had thought of himself as neither good nor evil, but doing something which partook of neither quality. He might have been the least proper item by which to judge that stranger universe.

But I had no desire to visit such a place, or to encounter others of its creatures.

"Of morals to be drawn from our experience, there are perhaps a thousand," Jaeger resumed. "One, however, I shall build into a sermon. My text shall be, 'He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.'"

"From Ecclesiastes," I said.

"What I shall say is that a fascinating study can sometimes do more harm than good, especially to the careless. What hopes must that poor fellow have had, who drew a diagram and clumsily performed a ceremony he could not understand—thereby opening a trapdoor to another sphere and admitting the Flying Horned One to ours!"

"He went to the Flying Horned One's sphere, and his knowledge is painfully increased," I reminded.

"Can you say for certain to what sphere they went? Perhaps they have blundered into yet another manner of living, bringing strangeness and pain with them."

We had finished our digging. Jaeger looked toward the house.

"Smoke is coming up the chimney. Susan has made some sort of breakfast for us. After that, to bury the dead."

"And after that?" I prompted. "I am too tired to move on just yet."

Jaeger smiled.

"Why move on at all? There are empty acres here. Nobody will discourage a young man who wants to settle down, work, and rebuild his fortune. If you are lonely, notice that Susan Dole is beautiful and helpful."

But I had already noticed that.

"Come into My Parlor". . . .

Said the spider to the fly! The fly hesitated; but soon the temptation proved too much for him—and he was trapped!

And in your next issue of Weird Tales is a story of a horrible house that will lure you as the fly was lured!

What was the terrible, terrifying rustling which haunted that house? And why did naked Fear itself squat everywhere—in every corner?

Vile indeed was the secret that lorded over this house of monstrous growth and forbidden secrets . . . this—