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The Face in the Abyss
The Face in the Abyss
A. E. Merritt
The Face in the Abyss
Table of Contents
The Face in the Abyss. ........................................................................................................................................1
A. E. Merritt. ............................................................................................................................................1
CHAPTER I. Suarra.. ...............................................................................................................................1
CHAPTER II. The Unseen Watchers. .....................................................................................................8
CHAPTER III. The White Llama. ........................................................................................................13
CHAPTER IV. The Thing That Fled. ....................................................................................................21
CHAPTER V. The Elfin Horns. ............................................................................................................26
CHAPTER VI. The Face in the Abyss. .................................................................................................35
CHAPTER VII. The Guarded Frontier. .................................................................................................42
CHAPTER VIII. The Lizard Men. ........................................................................................................49
CHAPTER IX. In the Lair of Huon. ......................................................................................................52
CHAPTER X. Outlaws of Yu−Atlanchi. ...............................................................................................59
CHAPTER XI. The Deathless People ...................................................................................................63
CHAPTER XII. The Secret Ancient City. .............................................................................................69
CHAPTER XIII. Cavern of the Frog−Woman. ....................................................................................73
CHAPTER XIV. Shadow of the Lizard Mask. .....................................................................................79
CHAPTER XV. "Lend Me Your Body, Graydon!". ............................................................................85
CHAPTER XVI. The Painted Chamber. ...............................................................................................93
CHAPTER XVII. Taking of Huon's Lair. .............................................................................................97
CHAPTER XVIII. The Arena of the Dinosaurs. ................................................................................104
CHAPTER XIX. The Snake Mother. ..................................................................................................107
CHAPTER XX. Wisdom of the Serpent Mother. ...............................................................................115
CHAPTER XXI. The Cavern of the Lost Wisdom.. ...........................................................................122
CHAPTER XXII. The Feast of the Dream Makers. ...........................................................................126
CHAPTER XXIII. The Taking of Suarra. ...........................................................................................134
CHAPTER XXIV. Bride of the Lizard−Man. ....................................................................................141
CHAPTER XXV. The Collar of Nimi.. ..............................................................................................149
CHAPTER XXVI. Ragnarok in Yu−Atlanch. ...................................................................................153
CHAPTER XXVII. Farewell of the Snake Mother. ...........................................................................164
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The Face in the Abyss
A. E. Merritt
This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
http://www.blackmask.com
CHAPTER I. Suarra
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CHAPTER I. Suarra
NICHOLAS GRAYDON ran into Starrett in Quito. Rather, Starrett sought him out there. Graydon had often
heard of the big West Coast adventurer, but their trails had never crossed. It was with lively curiosity that he
opened his door to his visitor.
Starrett came to the point at once. Graydon had heard the legend of the treasure train bringing to Pizarro the
ransom of the Inca Atahualpa? And that its leaders, learning of the murder of their monarch by the
butcher−boy Conquistador, had turned aside and hidden the treasure somewhere in the Andean wilderness?
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The Face in the Abyss
Graydon had heard it, hundreds of times; had even considered hunting for it He said so. Starrett nodded.
"I know where it is," he said.
Graydon laughed.
In the end Starrett convinced him; convinced him, at least, that he had something worth looking into.
Graydon rather liked the big man. There was a bluff directness that made him overlook the hint of cruelty in
eyes and jaw. There were two others with him, Starrett said, both old companions. Graydon asked why they
had picked him out. Starrett bluntly told himbecause they knew he could afford to pay the expenses of the
expedition. They would all share equally in the treasure. If they didn't find it, Graydon was a first−class
mining engineer, and the region they were going into was rich in minerals. He was practically sure of making
some valuable discovery on which they could cash in.
Graydon considered. There were no calls upon him. He had just passed his thirty−fourth birthday, and since
he had been graduated from the Harvard School of Mines eleven years ago he had never had a real holiday.
He could well afford the cost. There would be some excitement, if nothing else.
After he had looked over Starrett's two comrades Soames, a lanky, saturnine, hard−bitten Yankee, and
Dancret, a cynical, amusing little Frenchmanthey had drawn up an agreement and he had signed it.
They went down by rail to Cerro de Pasco for their outfit, that being the town of any size closest to where
their trek into the wilderness would begin. A week later with eight burros and six arrieros, or packmen, they
were within the welter of peaks through which, Starrett's map indicated, lay their road.
It had been the map which had persuaded Graydon. It was no parchment, but a sheet of thin gold quite as
flexible. Starrett drew it out of a small golden tube of ancient workmanship, and unrolled it. Graydon
examined it and. was unable to see any map upon itor anything else. Starrett held it at a peculiar angleand
the markings upon it became plain.
It was a beautiful piece of cartography. It was, in fact, less a map than a picture. Here and there were curious
symbols which Starrett said were signs cut upon the rocks along the way; guiding marks for those of the old
race who would set forth to recover the treasure when the Spaniards had been swept from the land.
Whether it was clew to Atahualpa's ransom hoard or to something elseGraydon did not know. Starrett said it
was. But Graydon did not believe his story of how the golden sheet had come into his possession.
Nevertheless, there had been purpose in the making of the map, and stranger purpose in the cunning with
which the markings had been concealed. Something interesting lay−at the end of that trail.
They found the signs cut in the rocks exactly as the sheet of gold had indicated. Gay, spirits high with
anticipation, three of them spending in advance their share of the booty, they followed the symbols. Steadily
they were led into the uncharted wilderness.
At last the arrieros began to murmur. They were approaching, they said, a region that was accursed, the
Cordillera de Carabaya, where only demons dwelt Promises of more money, threats, pleadings, took them
along a little further. One morning the four awakened to find the arrieros gone, and with them half the burros
and the major portion of their supplies.
They pressed on. Then the signs failed them. Either they had lost the trail, or the map which had led them
truthfully so far had lied at the last.
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The Face in the Abyss
The country into which they had penetrated was a curiously lonely one. There had been no sign of Indians
since more than a fortnight before, when they had stopped at a Quicha village and Starrett had gotten mad
drunk on the fiery spirit the Quichas distill. Food was hard to find. There were few animals and fewer birds.
Worst of all was the change which had come over Graydon's companions. As high as they had been lifted by
their certitude of success, just so deep were they in depression. Starrett kept himself at steady level of
drunkenness, alternately quarrelsome and noisy, or brooding in sullen rage.
Dancret was silent and irritable. Soames seemed to have come to the conclusion that Starrett, Graydon and
Dancret had combined against him; that they had either deliberately missed the trail or had erased the signs.
Only when the pair of them joined Starrett and drank with him the Quicha brew with which they had laden
one of the burros did the three relax. At such times Graydon had the uneasy feeling that all were holding the
failure against him, and that his life might be hanging on a thin thread.
The day that Graydon's great adventure really began, he was on his way back to the camp. He had been
hunting since morning. Dancret and Soames had gone off together on another desperate search for the
missing marks.
Cut off in mid−flight, the girl's cry came to him as the answer to all his apprehensions; materialization of the
menace toward which his vague fears had been groping since he had left Starrett alone at the camp, hours
ago. He had sensed some culminating misfortune closeand here it was! He broke into a run, stumbling up
the slope to the group of gray−green algarrobas, where the tent was pitched.
He crashed through the thick undergrowth to the clearing.
Why didn't the girl cry out again, he wondered. A chuckle reached him, thick, satyr−toned.
Half crouching, Starrett was holding the girl bow fashion over one knee. A thick arm was clenched about her
neck, the fingers clutching her mouth brutally, silencing her; his right hand fettered her wrists; her knees were
caught in the vise of his bent right leg.
Graydon caught him by the hair, and locked his arm under his chin. He drew his head sharply back.
"Drop her!" he ordered.
Half paralyzed, Starrett relaxedhe writhed, then twisted to his feet.
"What the hell are you butting in for?"
His hand struck down toward his pistol. Graydon's fist caught him on the point of the jaw. The half−drawn
gun slipped to the ground and Starrett toppled over.
The girl leaped up, and away.
Graydon did not look after her. She had gone, no doubt, to bring down upon them her people, some tribe of
the fierce Aymara whom even the Incas of old had never quite conquered. And who would avenge her in
ways that Graydon did not like to visualize.
He bent over Starrett. Between the blow and the drink he would probably be out for some time. Graydon
picked up the pistol. He wished that Dancret and Soames would get back soon to camp. The three of them
could put up a good fight at any rate... might even have a chance to escape... but they would have to get back
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