roovings; noted the same appearances at the outlines of
the Stars. Seen sidewise, the body of the Metal Emperor showed as a
convexity; its surface smooth, with a suggestion of transparency.

The Keeper was bending; its oblong upper plane dropping forward as
though upon a hinge. Lower and lower this flange bent--in a grotesque,
terrifying obeisance; a horrible mockery of reverence.

Was this mountain of Cones then actually a shrine--an idol of the Metal
People--their God?

The oblong that was the upper half of the cruciform Shape extended now
at right angles to the horizontal arms. It hovered, a rectangle forty
feet long, as many feet over the floor at the base of the crystal
pedestal. It bent again, this time from the hinge that held the
outstretched arms to the base. And now it was a huge truncated cross, a
T-shaped figure, hovering only twenty feet above the pave.

Down from the Keeper writhed and flicked a tangle of tentacles;
serpentine, whiplike. Silvery white, they were dyed with the scarlet and
orange flaming of the surface now hidden from my eyes; reflected those
sullen and angry gleamings. Vermiceous, coiling, they seemed to drop
from every inch of the overhanging planes.

Something there was beneath them--something like an immense and luminous
tablet. The tentacles were moving over it--pressing here, thrusting
there, turning, pushing, manipulating--

A shuddering passed through the crowding cones. I saw the tremor shake
their bristling hosts, oscillate the great spire, set the faceted disks
quivering.

The trembling grew; a vibration in every separate cone that became even
more rapid. There was a faint, curiously oppressive humming--like the
distant echo of a tempest in chaos.

Faster, ever faster grew the vibration. Now the sharp outlines of the
cones were dissolving.

And now they were--gone.

The mount of the cones had become a mighty pyramid of pale green
radiance--one tremendous, pallid flame, of which the spire was the
tongue. Out from the disked wheel at its shorn tip gushed a flood of
light--light that gathered itself from the leaping radiance below it.

The tentacles of the Keeper moved more swiftly over the enigmatic
tablet; writhing cloudily; confusedly rapid. The faceted disks wavered;
turned upward; the wheel began to whirl--faster--faster--

Up from that flaming circle, out into the sky leaped a thick, pale green
column of intensest light.

With prodigious speed, as compact as w