Project Gutenberg's The Chamber of Life, by Green Peyton Wertenbaker

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Title: The Chamber of Life

Author: Green Peyton Wertenbaker

Illustrator: Austin Briggs

Release Date: June 21, 2008 [EBook #25862]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHAMBER OF LIFE ***

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+-------------------------------------------------------+
|This etext was produced from Amazing Stories July 1962,|
|a reprint from Amazing Stories October 1929. Extensive |
|research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. |
|copyright on this publication was renewed. |
+-------------------------------------------------------+

A Classic Reprint from AMAZING STORIES, October, 1929

Illustrated by BRIGGS

[Illustration]

The CHAMBER of LIFE

By G. PEYTON WERTENBAKER

_Copyright 1929 by E. P. Inc._

A Strange Awakening

My first sensation was one of sudden and intense cold--a chill that shot
through my body and engulfed it like a charge of electricity. For a
moment I was conscious of nothing else. Then I knew that I was sinking
in cold water, and that I was fighting instinctively against the need to
gasp and breathe fresh air. I kicked weakly and convulsively. I opened
my eyes, and squeezed them as the bright green water stung them. Then I
hung for an instant as if suspended over the depths, and began to rise.
It seemed hours before I shot up into the open air again, and was
drinking it deeply and thankfully into my tortured lungs. The sun
touched my head warmly like the hand of a benign god.

Floating gently, I lay there for a long while before I even looked about
me. There was a vague confusion in my head, as if I had just awakened
from a long sleep. Some memory seemed to be fading away, something I
could still feel but couldn't understand. Then it was gone, and I was
alone and empty, riding on the water.

I glanced about, puzzled. Only a few yards away rose the gray stone side
of the embankment, with its low parapet, and behind that the Drive.
The