NEXT MONTH The STAR-STEALERS By EDMOND HAMILTON From outside the bounds of our universe comes a dread menace. The Earth, and the solar system containing it, are threatened with* the prospect of being torn from the universe and dragged out into the abyss of space, beyond even the reach of starlight, there to become the prey of ghastly octopuslike creatures whose uncanny knowledge of science has enabled them to reach out for our sun and the habitable planets surrounding it. Tins fascinating tale, probably the finest interplanetary story ever written, describes events one million years in the future, when travel between the worlds, and between the suns, has become a commonplace. You can not afford to miss this vivid, thrilling and powerful story of a tremendous doom reaching for us from outside the universe, and the attempt of a picked band of heroes to turn aside the finger of destiny. The story will be printed complete in the February issue of WEIRD TALES On Sale January 1 Clip and Mail this coupon today! WEIRD TALES 450 E. Ohio St., Chicago, II!. Enclosed find $1 for spécial 5 months subscription to "Weird Tales" to begin with the. February issue ($1.25 in Canada). Special offer void unless remittance is accom-> panied by coupon. Name—
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The Silver Key
(Continued from page 48)
chief found among the forest rocks on the hillside beyond can not be identified as belonging to the missing man.
There is talk of apportioning Randolph Carter 's estate among his heirs, but I shall stand firmly against this course because I do not believe he is dead. There are twists of time and space, of vision and reality, which only a dreamer can divine; and from what I know of Carter I think he has merely found a way to traverse these mazes. Whether or not he will ever come back, I can not say. He wanted the lands of dreams he had lost, and yearned for the days of his childhood. Then he found a key, and I somehow believe he was able to use it to strange advantage.
I shall ask him when I see him, for I expect to meet him shortly in a certain dream-city we both used to haunt. It is rumored in Ulthar, beyond the River Skai, that a new king reigns on the opal throne of llek-Vad, that fabulous town of turrets atop the hollow cliffs of glass overlooking the twilight sea wherein the bearded and finny Gnorri build their singular labyrinths, and I believe I know how to interpret this rumor. Certainly, I look forward impatiently to the sight of that great silver key, for in its cryptieal arabesques there may stand symbolized all the aims, and mysteries of a blindly impersonal cosmos.
The Vengeance of the Dead
by Eli Colter
