e great buildings, marble white
and golden roofed; temples I thought, or palaces, or both.

Running to the city out of the grain fields and steads that surrounded
it, were scores of little figures, rat-like. Here and there among them
I glimpsed horsemen, arms and armor glittering. All were racing to the
gates and the shelter of the battlements.

Nearer we drew. From the walls came now a faint sound of gongs, of
drums, of shrill, flutelike pipings. Upon them I could see hosts
gathering; hosts of swarming little figures whose bodies glistened, from
above whom came gleamings--the light striking upon their helms, their
spear and javelin tips.

"Ruszark!" breathed Norhala, eyes wide, red lips cruelly smiling. "Lo--I
am before your gates. Lo--I am here--and was there ever joy like this!"

The constellations in her eyes blazed. Beautiful, beautiful was
Norhala--as Isis punishing Typhon for the murder of Osiris; as avenging
Diana; shining from her something of the spirit of all wrathful
Goddesses.

The flaming hair whirled and snapped. From all her sweet body came
white-hot furious force, a withering perfume of destruction. She pressed
against me, and I trembled at the contact.

Lawless, wild imaginings ran through me. Life, human life, dwindled. The
City seemed but a thing of toys.

On--let us crush it! On--on!

Again the monster shook beneath us. Faster we moved. Louder grew the
clangor of the drums, the gongs, the pipes. Nearer came the walls; and
ever more crowded with the swarming human ants that manned them.

We were close upon the heels of the last fleeing stragglers. The Thing
slackened in its stride; waited patiently until they were close to the
gates. Before they could reach them I heard the brazen clanging of their
valves. Those shut out beat frenziedly upon them; dragged themselves
close to the base of the battlements, cowered there or crept along them
seeking some hole in which to hide.

With a slow lowering of its height the Thing advanced. Now its form was
that of a spindle a full mile in length on whose bulging center we three
stood.

A hundred feet from the outer wall we halted. We looked down upon it not
more than fifty feet above its broad top. Hundreds of the soldiers were
crouching behind the parapets, companies of archers with great bows
poised, arrows at their cheeks, scores of leather jerkined men with
stands of javelins at their right hands, spearsmen and men with long,
thonged slings.