Page:Weird Tales volume 28 number 03.djvu/39

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DOOM OF THE HOUSE OF DURYEA
305

those eyes go through him, and then he was in his father's embrace.

Later, when these two grown men had regained their outer calm, they closed the door and went into the drawing-room. The elder Duryea held out a humidor of fine cigars, and his hand shook so hard when he held the match that his son was forced to cup his own hands about the flame. They both had tears in their eyes, but their eyes were smiling.

Henry Duryea placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "This is the happiest day of my life," he said. "You can never know how much I have longed for this moment."

Arthur, looking into that glance, realized, with growing pride, that he had loved his father all his life, despite any of those things which had been cursed against him. He sat down on the edge of a chair.

"I—I don't know how to act," he confessed. "You surprize me, Dad. You're so different from what I had expected."

An old, somewhat emaciated man lies in bed, tied by the upper arms to the headboard. A younger man in a dressing gown stands behind the bed, recoiling with one arm over his mouth. An avian or bat-like shadow is cast behind the pair.
An old, somewhat emaciated man lies in bed, tied by the upper arms to the headboard. A younger man in a dressing gown stands behind the bed, recoiling with one arm over his mouth. An avian or bat-like shadow is cast behind the pair.

"He lay like a waxen figure tied to his bed."

W.T.—4