Weird Tales volume 30 number 04 by Wright Farnsworth 1888-€“1940

Author:Wright, Farnsworth, 1888-€“1940
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: pulp; pulps; pulp magazine; horror; fantasy; weird fiction; weird tales
Publisher: Popular Fiction
Published: 1937-10-27T16:00:00+00:00

"She whirled and undulated to the baibaric rush of the music."

Vhe

ake of Life

By EDMOND HAMILTON

T A weird-scientific tbrill-tale of adventure, mystery and romance — of the waters

of immortality, the strange Red and Black cities, and the dread Guardians that Matched eternally over th.tt terribly glowing lake

and it is guarded by unhuman, terrible beings, the Guardians. And anyone who drinks of those shining waters becomes immortal!"

That is the legend of many African tribes. Asa Brand, senile American millionaire morbidly afraid of death, believes

The Story Thus Far

EEP in the unexplored jungles of equatorial Africa lies the Lake of Life. It is a lake of shining waters that contain the pure essence of life, the origin of life on earth,

D

This 94017 began in WEIRD TALES fur September

WEIRD TALES

that legend and thinks if he drinks of those waters his life will be vastly extended. So he has offered Clark Stannard, young adventurer, a half-million dollars if he procures for him a flask of waters from the Lake of Life.

Clark Stannard does not himself believe the shining waters will confer immortality, but has undertaken the quest. His five hard-bitten followers are Blacky Cain, gangster; Mike Shinn, former heavyweight prizefighter; Lieutenant John Morrow, disgraced army officer; Link Wilson, a Texan cowboy; and Ephraim Quell, former Yankee sea captain.

The quest has brought the six into a hidden land surrounded by the Mountains of Death, mountains which it is death to tread upon. They have gained entrance to the prisoned land by floating down a wild river that flows in through a chasm in the mountains.

In this hidden land they find two cities of white people, at war with each other. They are K'Lamm, city of the Reds, and Dordona, city of the Blacks. Clark and his five men repel a band of black war- -riors who attack them, and capture their leader. The leader is Lurain, wildcat daughter of the ruler of Dordona.

Then they are surrounded by a large force of Red warriors from the near-by city K'Lamm. Clark learns that the Lake of Life exists somewhere near the city Dordona. The Dordonans hold it is sacrilege for anyone to try to drink of the Lake of Life. But the people of K'Lamm thirst to drink of it and become immortal; so that there is war between the two peoples.

Clark Stannard believes that his only chance of reaching the lake is to join Thargo, king of K'Lamm, as an ally. He agrees to go to the Red city, but stipulates that the girl Lurain is his prisoner, not anyone else's, The six American ad-

venturers and their prisoner and escort of Red warriors are now riding into the city K'Lamm.

The story continues:

6. The King of K'Lamm

The city K'Lamm was circular in outline and more than two miles in diameter, surrounded by a forty-foot wall. The wall and buildings and cobbled streets were all of quarried stone, stained bright red by some secret of pigmentation. The buildings were mostly flat-roofed, one-story ones, shops and stalls and dwellings. The inhabitants were swarming excitedly out of them as the cavalcade rode down the street.

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