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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Castle of Terror, by E.J. Liston
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Castle of Terror
+
+Author: E.J. Liston
+
+Release Date: June 18, 2010 [EBook #32876]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CASTLE OF TERROR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h1>CASTLE OF TERROR</h1>
+
+<h2>By E. J. LISTON</h2>
+
+<p>[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories November
+1948. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="sidenote">What strange dimension was this where giants, gangsters,
+Lucretia Borgia, dwarfs and Rip Van Winkle lived at the same time?</div>
+
+
+<p>"Too bad, Griffin," Hale Jenkins said to the man alongside. "Now if
+you'd have just stuck to bank stick-ups, you'd have been all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Nah!" Bud Griffin said, his mouth twisted in a wry grin. "I'd have been
+all right if you'd have just stuck to being a traffic cop. But you had
+to show the Commissioner you were on the ball, so he sent you after me.
+That's all."</p>
+
+<p>The light suddenly flashed over the pilot's compartment with its warning
+to fasten safety belts. A few seconds later, the stewardess came around
+with a smiling warning that they were coming over some bad pockets, and
+that there was no need to worry.</p>
+
+<p>Both men fastened their belts, as did all the other passengers on the
+giant airliner, and after a while the elevator began its ride. Griffin
+reached up and pulled the air vent down, so that the cold air of the
+upper reaches at which they were flying could send its refreshing drafts
+of air down the vent. Jenkins had been airsick once and didn't want any
+more of the same. He followed Griffin's gaze, and looked into the grey
+fog of a huge cloud bank.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins, to get his mind off the possibility of getting sick again, took
+up where the other had left off: "Yeah. But like I say, you shoulda
+stuck to robbin' banks."</p>
+
+<p>His lean, strong face with the unusual bone structure which made it a
+face of highlights and plane surfaces, broke into a wide-angled grin. He
+threw the shock of black hair from his eyes, and continued: "Guys like
+you never learn. Gotta work with a heater."</p>
+
+<p>Griffin's opaque eyes shifted from the greyness which had encircled the
+plane, and met the dancing grey ones of the detective beside him.
+Griffin's lips mimicked the grin of the other. But his words were not so
+light-hearted: "Look, copper! You just got lucky. If it weren't for that
+dame.... Aah! I shoulda been smart. I shoulda known she'd of sung. No
+dame can keep her yap shut! But get this. We ain't in yet! So be smart
+and don't think Bud Griffin's fryin'. Not yet he ain't."</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins was, for a detective, a rather amiable sort. In Griffin's case,
+however, he could not help but give an occasional needle. The hoodlum
+and murderer's bragging rasped on Jenkins' nerves.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, don't blame the girl," Jenkins said. "She was just the last step
+in my trail. The guy who really talked was Bud Griffin. There's a
+character who'll never stop talkin'. If you hadn't talked to the
+bartender in that joint on the waterfront, I'd have never found out
+about Myrtle. But he knew Myrtle and the kind of girl she was; he knew
+she only went for the hoods who had dough, and no guy who drinks beer
+like you do and leaves no tips ought to have dough. So when Myrtle walks
+in with a platina fox jacket and says you bought it, he gets mighty
+suspicious.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a cinch then, Bud. All I had to do was tell the girl she was
+going to be named as an accessory after the fact, and she spilled her
+load."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Pin points of flame suddenly danced in Griffin's eyes. His hands, lying
+quiescent on his lap, curled into balls of bone and muscle. Griffin had
+many weaknesses; of them all, anger was his greatest. For in the heat of
+anger he would do anything, and not care about the consequences. It had
+proved his undoing many times. His last surge of anger had resulted in
+murder during a robbery. The victim had resisted Griffin and had been
+shot in cold blood. As always, that anger showed in visible signs: there
+came the pin points of flame to the eyes, the clenching of fists, and an
+odd curling of the mouth. But Jenkins, either because he did not know of
+these signs, or because he was so wrapped in his own glory, did not
+notice the other's shifting movement.</p>
+
+<p>When Griffin struck, it was with electric speed. Certainly, he had
+nothing to gain by his attack on Jenkins. For had he thought it out
+logically, he would have realized there was no way of escape. Even a
+fool would have realized that there was no way of getting out of a plane
+which was flying at ten thousand feet, and coming down alive, unless one
+had a chute. So it was sheer berserk anger which prompted the attack.</p>
+
+<p>Griffin's right elbow shot up and sideways, and landed with telling
+force against Jenkins' jaw. At almost the same instant, he slipped loose
+of his safety belt, whirled on his companion and struck him two savage
+blows with his fists. Those blows stunned the detective. And like a
+snake in movement, Griffin's hand reached for the pistol in Jenkins'
+holster and drew it.</p>
+
+<p>Dazed as Jenkins was, he tried to stop Griffin. The barrel of the gun
+slashed a furrow in his cheek for the try. The blow rocked the
+detective's head back, and allowed him to get out of his seat. In an
+instant he was in the aisle, leaping for the pilot's compartment. He had
+no plan; he wasn't even thinking. In the background of his mind he knew
+the panic he had created; he could see it reflected in the face of the
+woman in the front seat, in the wide, suddenly terror-stricken eyes of
+the man at her side. But what he was going to do when he reached the
+closed door that was his goal, he did not know.</p>
+
+<p>There were screams and hoarse commands. From the rear, the stewardess
+shouted for him not to go beyond the door. Griffin reached it, whirled
+and faced the length of the plane, a snarl on his lips, and the .38 in
+his hand, a small-barreled threat of death to whoever was fool enough to
+attempt to stop him.</p>
+
+<p>And there was one who was going to be a fool.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Whether Jenkins was just dazed by the last blow, or whether he really
+thought he could stop the other, is a matter of conjecture. But he rose
+to his feet and started forward in a stumbling run.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, copper," Griffin grunted, a terrible smile of anticipation on
+his lips. "I been wantin' to knock you off."</p>
+
+<p>Everyone on the plane froze in horror as the gun muzzle came up. The
+finger on the trigger tightened in a sort of slow-motion action until it
+seemed as if the smallest pressure would set it off. And still Jenkins
+stumbled forward, until only a couple of feet separated the two. Then
+the grin became a snarl on Griffin's lips, and all knew the instant of
+death had arrived.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins must have felt it also, for he took the last few steps in a
+shambling, wide-armed leap, as if he were welcoming it. It was at that
+instant that the co-pilot decided to step through the door. The steel
+door slammed against the bent figure of the gunman just as he pulled the
+trigger. The gun went off with a roar, and Jenkins hit Griffin like a
+tackler slamming into a ball carrier.</p>
+
+<p>But louder than the pistol's sound, was the sound from without the
+plane. It was as if all the fury of hell had exploded out there. The
+plane became a straw licked upward and outward, sucked downward and
+inward, in some vortex of sound and fury which was completely
+unrecognizable. It was as if some external force was venting its spleen
+on the craft. In the space of split seconds, in the time a picture forms
+in a mind, the plane and all its occupants lost their meaning.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great rending sound and, following, the disintegration of
+the great ship into space.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Hale Jenkins felt himself spinning, whirling, falling into a vast empty
+fog. There was peace and contentment in that fog, and a sort of
+forgetfulness. There was nothing above and nothing below, just the grey
+murk. For a last instant of awareness, Jenkins saw not far from him the
+body of Griffin describing the same gyrations as his own. Then there was
+a wrenching at his bowels, a tearing at his brain, and unconsciousness
+slipped over him like the noose over the hanged man.</p>
+
+<p>Odd piping voices penetrated into Jenkins' brain. He stirred and rolled
+over, and after a few seconds got his hands under him and pushed himself
+erect. He felt rather than saw the tree close to him, and put one hand
+out to its friendly trunk, steadying himself against it. His head came
+up after a second and his eyes cleared of the fog before them. He stared
+in disbelief as he looked out over a great valley.</p>
+
+<p>In the distance, made plain by the brilliant light of the sun, he saw a
+tremendous castle with many-turreted immense sides. It shimmered and
+danced in the brilliant light, like a mirage conjured by a fevered mind.
+Yet he knew, without being told, that it was real&mdash;as real as the three
+tiny men who regarded him with passionately intent though oddly
+frightened eyes from a few feet off.</p>
+
+<p>But sight was not the only sense of which Jenkins had the full use. He
+was aware of an odd, rumbling sound in the distance, as of thunder, yet
+not quite thunder. He noticed that the gnomes had also heard the sound,
+for their eyes turned from their intent regard of him, to the castle
+perched on the mesa in the distance. He could not see their eyes now,
+yet he was aware that they held fear&mdash;cold, numbing fear&mdash;fright so
+great it binds the entrails, makes a stone statue of a man, even a
+dwarf.</p>
+
+<p>They held their poses even after the dying sounds of the strange rumble
+had passed in the distance. When Jenkins spoke, it took several seconds
+for them to bring their attention to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Where am I and who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>Their answering voices were childish pipings, making even less sense of
+a confused situation:</p>
+
+<p>"I am Loti ..." said the smallest, who wore a fringe of beard from his
+forehead all the way around a pointed, slat-like chin.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Gaino," said the second. He had a hooked nose so long it almost
+touched his chin.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Mikas," said the third, who had a round face, a bulbous nose whose
+color was that of a ripe tomato, flapping pointed ears too large for his
+face, and a pair of perfectly round eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yeah? But where am I?" Jenkins persisted.</p>
+
+<p>"In the land of Gnat," all three piped in unison.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the brain-fog was clearing for Jenkins. The miracle of his
+landing safely was still not quite clear, nor could he understand the
+presence of these odd beings. But as reason returned to Jenkins, it told
+him something had happened which would perhaps be unexplainable.</p>
+
+<p>He pointed toward the castle and said: "Who lives there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lucretia ..." they answered again in unison.</p>
+
+<p>Now there's a familiar name, Jenkins thought, while at the same time a
+horrifying idea occurred to him. If it were Lucretia Borgia, he thought,
+then he might be dead. Suddenly, there was a spine-chilling roar, a vast
+crashing in the underbrush close by, and a tremendous boulder sailed by
+and disappeared over the lip of the chasm. Its crashing echoes could be
+heard for a long time afterward. When Jenkins recovered his balance, the
+gnomes had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins' eyes narrowed in search of them, but after one look at the
+thick underbrush, he turned aside and began to search for a path leading
+either through the brush or down the steep sides of the cliff. There
+wasn't much choice, he discovered. In fact, there was no choice at all.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>"Ho-ho!" a stentorian voice bellowed, seemingly from at his very heels.
+"Look what we have here!"</p>
+
+<p>Once more Jenkins did a pirouette. Facing him were three men. They
+seemed to come in series of threes in this screwy place, he thought. But
+these were quite different than the gnomes he had first seen.</p>
+
+<p>These were giants, all dressed in the same manner. Each wore the skin of
+a wild animal draped about him. Only their middles were covered, and
+their immensely broad and hairy chests and legs, which were like
+tree-trunks, stood out in naked and unpretty relief. They had not known
+the touch of a razor for a very long time. Their beards reached almost
+to their waists, while their heads were crowned with a tangled growth of
+wiry brush.</p>
+
+<p>Each man was armed with a spiked club, on which he was resting as he
+regarded the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"He's mine," one said suddenly. "I saw him first."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" the second said. "You're the youngest. I'm the oldest. I get him."</p>
+
+<p>"And I'm the strongest," said the third. "I'll take him." The last one
+didn't wait for a reply, but leaped for Jenkins in a clumsy jump.</p>
+
+<p>Only Jenkins didn't wait for him. He stepped aside as the giant came on,
+and as he went past Jenkins tripped him by simply putting out his leg.
+The giant went sailing off into space and as he stumbled over the lip of
+the chasm, his scream of fear was drowned in the roars of rage which
+came from the other two. They came at him on splay feet, their clubs
+raised high, their mouths opened and their eyes slitted in rage. But
+they were slow and clumsy, and Jenkins danced out of range.</p>
+
+<p>The giants recovered their balance, turned and came at him again, this
+time from opposite sides. Jenkins waited until they were almost upon him
+before moving. The two had their clubs raised as they ran, and just as
+Jenkins leaped, they swung their murderous weapons. If it weren't for
+the deadly seriousness of the situation, Jenkins would have found vast
+humor in it. For in the swinging, both missed him, but one, the
+youngest, caught his partner squarely on the skull with the spiked club.
+The stricken one fell like an ox at the slaughter.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Slobbering sounds of rage came from the remaining giant. His beady eyes
+were red-rimmed, and his voice shook in passion as he charged again. And
+once more Jenkins danced away. But this time the smile was wiped from
+the Earthman's lips, as his moving steps struck against a protruding
+root, and he went sprawling backward.</p>
+
+<p>Rage turned to triumph! The club came on high and began its descent. And
+Jenkins could only watch it in horror. The terrible club gained speed,
+size, terror in its immensity, as it descended. And Jenkins seemed
+chained to the earth by a power greater than his will. The club was
+inches away, and Jenkins closed his eyes to it and made a silent prayer.</p>
+
+<p>There was a dull thud as the club dropped from the giant's hand to the
+ground. And another thud as the body of the giant landed with
+breath-taking force across that of the Earthman. Jenkins grunted in
+pain. He shoved at the inert figure sprawled across him and rolled it to
+one side. His breath whistled through his nostrils as he arose and
+brushed the dirt from him and he wondered dully how he had been saved.</p>
+
+<p>"They are as children," a voice replied to his unspoken question. "And
+like children, they can't reason ..."</p>
+
+<p>The whistle came from his lips this time, as he did a double-take at the
+figure which confronted him. She was standing not three feet from him, a
+tall, lissome figure, dressed in a sheer costume which hid her figure,
+yet left enough to be seen to entrance the eye. Midnight black hair, a
+beautifully carved throat, perfection for nose and lips, and eyes
+haughty as a queen's, made up the rest of her. He could only stare,
+open-mouthed in admiration, lost in her beauty.</p>
+
+<p>A faint smile touched her lips as she advanced toward him. He caught the
+movement of others, also, and from the corners of his eyes saw that she
+had not come alone. Attending her were mailed bodyguards wearing
+sixteenth century armor.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought the other came alone," Lucretia said, "but now I see I was
+wrong. He is up there. You will be there, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Up there?" Jenkins asked somewhat foolishly, pointing to the castle in
+the distance.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Up there. Come along, now." She turned and moved away from him,
+and the mailed men took her place.</p>
+
+<p>This time Jenkins made no move of protest. The long swords and small
+knives these men carried in their belts made foolish any attempt to
+fight them.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>It took a great deal less time to reach the castle than Jenkins would
+have thought possible. Yet, there were no means of transportation other
+than walking. The castle was much like one Jenkins remembered in a movie
+he had seen. A huge drawbridge swung down over the wide and deep moat
+before the perpendicular walls of the castle, trumpets sounded and
+mailed guards ran to appointed places at the castle's entrance. The
+beautiful creature nodded in acknowledgment of their salute as she
+stepped past them, Jenkins at her side and the eight bodyguards, two
+abreast, walking behind. Thus they proceeded up the long and narrow
+courtyard through another entrance, and into an inner courtyard which
+preceded the entrance hall proper to the castle.</p>
+
+<p>Things happened at a greater pace from then on. At her signal men came
+forward, took Jenkins with them and, from then until his return to the
+woman, he was bathed, shaved, and dressed in a wondrously brocaded gown.
+When he returned, it was to find her in the immense banquet hall.</p>
+
+<p>She motioned him forward and bade him sit at her right. His eyes went
+wide when he saw who was at her left&mdash;Griffin. And dressed in a gown
+similar to his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi, chum," Griffin said. "Nice layout, huh?"</p>
+
+<p>"I like him," Lucretia said, as she signalled for the food to be brought
+in. "He has such ill manners and such a boorish way of expressing
+himself."</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins swallowed in haste as his eyes took in the rest of the company
+around the table. Never in all his days of police work had he seen such
+a collection of cutthroats. Yet they, as he, were dressed in finery that
+was worth a fortune. They saw his stare and answered him with wide
+grins, which somehow had the power to make his blood run cold.</p>
+
+<p>"Aah!" she continued. "They like you, I see. Ah, well. It's company fit
+for a Borgia."</p>
+
+<p>Borgia&mdash;Lucretia Borgia&mdash;the infamous poisoner&mdash;the most hated woman of
+her time. He turned for another quick look and wondered how a woman with
+such beauty could.... He shook his head violently. And again she seemed
+to read his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"My beauty is something I had nothing to do with. Perhaps you may come
+to hate it."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Suddenly a vast anger filled Jenkins' breast. His nostrils dilated in
+passion, and when he spoke his voice was hoarse with it: "Look! I don't
+know what's going on. But whatever it is, I don't like it. Now get this!
+I'm a cop, and the character sitting alongside of you is my prisoner.
+And I'm going to take him come hell or high water!"</p>
+
+<p>A ripple of laughter began which swelled to a roar as he finished. And
+the one who laughed the loudest was Lucretia.</p>
+
+<p>"Now tell me, my valorous warder," she said in dulcet tones, "how will
+you do this?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," Jenkins answered darkly and somewhat foolishly. "But
+I'll manage. And another thing," he went on after a few seconds, "what's
+with this rigmarole you're playing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rigmarole?" Her voice broke into tinkling laughter. "Oh, come now! We
+don't play games here. I'm really Borgia. So let us sup. Talk will come
+later."</p>
+
+<p>A servant had placed a dish before Jenkins from which the most
+appetizing odors arose. Saliva formed in his mouth, and his empty belly
+reminded him he hadn't eaten for a long time. He raised his fork and
+started to dig in, but the gesture was never completed. For suddenly he
+became aware that every eye was on him and that every mouth was twisted
+in a grin, that laughter hung silently on the air ready to explode at
+the right second. They were but waiting for him to taste the food.</p>
+
+<p>Nerveless fingers dropped the fork, and Jenkins' gulp was audible. He
+knew why the grins and stares. <i>The food was poisoned!</i> Yet the others
+were eating, loudly, gaspingly, tearing at the food with fingers and
+jaws, eating as though it was the last meal they were ever to have.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, man! Eat!" the woman said between mouthfuls. She, like the rest,
+held little regard for manners.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I'm not hungry," Jenkins said lamely.</p>
+
+<p>"Too bad. It's so good!" Lucretia remarked. Her eyes were daring him.</p>
+
+<p>There seemed to be dozens of courses, and Jenkins' hunger grew with each
+serving. More than hunger seethed in his breast, however. Anger also
+gnawed at him. Anger got the better at last. He shoved his chair from
+the table, and it clattered backward on stumbling legs. All eyes turned
+to him as he stood, his hands on his hips, his head shoved forward, chin
+jutting out like a rock.</p>
+
+<p>"I've had just about enough of this!" Jenkins announced loudly. "I'm
+going. And you, Griffin, are coming with me."</p>
+
+<p>Gone now were the smiles; gone the laughter. The eyes were cold and
+oddly expectant. Jenkins grew aware of the tense silence. He grinned,
+and began to withdraw slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Okay," he said softly, "so I'll go alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even that way," Lucretia said. "My guests leave only at <i>my</i>
+bidding."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>As though her words were a command, two of the men at opposite ends of
+the table rose and started for Jenkins. Their hands were wrapped about
+the hilts of the short swords stuck in their belts. Jenkins continued to
+retreat slowly, though, until his foot struck against the chair which
+he'd shoved back. Then he moved like greased lightning.</p>
+
+<p>His right hand swept around, gathered up the chair and flung it skidding
+across the floor, so that it wound up among the folds of the robe worn
+by one of the men. At the same time Jenkins leaped toward his other
+would-be attacker and chopped a right hook to his whiskered chin.</p>
+
+<p>It was the signal for a general rush in Jenkins' direction, but Jenkins
+wasn't waiting. He hadn't even waited to see the effect of his hook. The
+instant the blow was delivered, he had turned and leaped for the wide
+entrance. He ran with all speed, his mind busy trying to remember the
+turns and danger points which might lie before him.</p>
+
+<p>There was no need of that, he discovered. The shouting voices which
+bayed the alarm brought other guards to the chase. Jenkins came to a
+sliding halt as he made a turn in the corridor. The grin was still wide
+on his lips when his capturers brought him back to face Lucretia.</p>
+
+<p>"I find it unseemly," she said as the guards forced him into a chair,
+"that a guest should feel so strongly about not wanting my hospitality.
+Surely, I have not been amiss in my attentions? If so, I must remedy
+that."</p>
+
+<p>A roar of laughter went up at the words.</p>
+
+<p>"Therefore," she went on, "we will do more than we have. Take him below
+and make him feel as welcome as he should have felt from the beginning."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Sweat streamed from the dank walls. Feeble light came from a pair of
+torches set into wall brackets, light which was offset by the heavy
+smoke the resinous torches gave forth. A dozen cloaked figures stood
+around the almost naked figure of a man chained wrists, ankles, and neck
+to the wall. Standing directly in front of the chained man, and facing
+him, was another man, with a look of cunning cruelty on his face. The
+one chained to the wall was Jenkins; and the man facing him was Griffin.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Look, my friend," Lucretia Borgia said to Griffin, "all about you are
+the implements of the trade. Here," she pointed with daintily gesturing
+fingers to a many-thonged whip, "is a tickler to make this fool dance.
+And when he tires, why here," she pointed to something which looked like
+a coal scuttle, "we have a bucket in which he can rest his wearied feet.
+Of course you may have to heat it a trifle, but I'm sure he won't mind."</p>
+
+<p>The others shouted in glee at the humor they found in her remark.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins listened in bitter silence. The only visible sign of his
+desperate feelings was a tiny trickle of blood which seeped from one
+corner of his mouth and ran down to the side of his chin. He had given
+up straining against the steel chains which bound him. They had been set
+too strongly into the wall. He prayed that he could take the physical
+tortures to be inflicted on him without weakening.</p>
+
+<p>Then Griffin was reaching for the steel-tipped whip, and Jenkins braced
+himself for the pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Make him dance!" Lucretia commanded. "Pride needs music...." She
+stopped suddenly and her head came up. The others also froze into
+listening attitudes.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins had been aware of the odd sound for several minutes. He had
+presumed that the others were too interested in what was going on down
+in the cold, dank dungeon to be disturbed by sounds from the upper
+world. The sound had a rumbling vibration, the rumble grew louder and
+louder, and suddenly there was an ear-splitting crash. Dust and chips
+flew from the walls.</p>
+
+<p>"The giants!" Lucretia screamed in wild terror. "They are bowling
+again."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>As one, everybody turned and began a pell-mell race for the stairs,
+until there was only the chained man left. And hard at their heels came
+another of the ear-splitting crashes. More chips flew, and now tiny
+streamers of water leaped from cracks which appeared in the stone. Again
+there was the roar, another crash, and Jenkins moaned in pain as a large
+chunk of rock struck his side and tore the flesh.</p>
+
+<p>He strained against the steel chains which bound him until he thought
+his blood would burst the bounds of his veins. He pulled again and again
+and until he could strain no more, until he could only fall limply
+against his prison-links.</p>
+
+<p>His mind was fevered and his thoughts jumbled. He had to escape somehow.
+Again there was heard that terrorizing crash. He gasped, and turned his
+head aside, as a torrent of water poured from a fissure in the rock
+close to his head and shot into his face.</p>
+
+<p>He turned his head and felt the metal tear from the wall. His head was
+free. Like a madman, Jenkins tried again to loose himself. This time he
+succeeded. And where the chains pulled free, water dribbled from that
+spot.</p>
+
+<p>With a desperate intensity, Jenkins made a superhuman effort and pulled
+at the chains binding his wrists. The chains came apart, tearing the
+flesh and leaving raw wounds. Wincing at the pain, he placed his fingers
+behind his neck and felt of the steel. After a few seconds of probing,
+he twisted at the nut, which separated from the bolt with a single easy
+twist. He did the same with the chain binding his ankles&mdash;and Jenkins
+was free!</p>
+
+<p>The last length of chain fell into the water, which by now had formed a
+foot-deep puddle on the floor, and splashed loudly, as Jenkins raced
+against a new danger. Whatever was causing those crashing sounds was
+also weakening the foundations of the castle. Water was beginning to
+pour in a perfect torrent from many cracks. The stairs to the floor
+above was but twenty feet from where he had been chained, but even in
+that short distance the water rose another foot.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Jenkins took the wide stone steps three at a time, and raced like wild
+around the short curves. He had oriented himself as they brought him
+down, and he knew exactly where he was going. Danger lay at the very top
+of the stairs, for here they were heavily guarded. Yet, when he reached
+the head of the stairs, not a soul was to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>He became cautious, then. Being weaponless, Jenkins knew he would have
+to rely on stealth. Slowly he advanced, until he was at the very
+threshold of the large banquet hall. Now he heard voices, voices raised
+in anger.</p>
+
+<p>The loudest, most shrill of these voices, the one who commanded
+attention, was that of Lucretia Borgia: "You fools! Dolt heads! When
+this is over I shall have you all flayed alive. Did not any of you
+recognize the king of the giants as the one who was fighting the
+stranger? Now they are <i>bowling</i> against us. And who among us can
+challenge them?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can, baby." Jenkins recognized that voice. It belonged to Griffin.
+"Duck pins, ten pins or any other kind. I'll match my hook with the best
+of them."</p>
+
+<p>There was a short interval of silence. When Lucretia broke it, she spoke
+in more natural tones: "It isn't the giants I'm worried about. I have
+seen them bowl. They rely on strength only. The dwarfs are the ones I'm
+worried about. We beat them the last time because they used the man from
+Earth and we got him drunk. They are cunning little men. Are you sure,
+my friend, that you have the skill?"</p>
+
+<p>But Jenkins didn't wait to hear the answer. He knew Griffin had the
+skill. For Griffin, in his varied and checkered career, had once won an
+A.B.C. tournament. It was the clue by which he had been able to trace
+Griffin in his chase across the continent.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins peered into the hall. The men were all clustered around the
+woman, listening intently to her words. Silently, he fled from the
+banquet hall, and in a single leap crossed the open courtyard. From
+there on he threw caution to the winds. Oddly enough he could have
+walked, for not a single guard was to be seen even at the gate to the
+drawbridge. Although the bridge was up, Jenkins didn't hesitate for an
+instant. He dived in, and the waters of the moat closed over him.</p>
+
+<p>But the moat was not wide, nor was it too deep. Ten strokes and he was
+across. The moon flooded the night with light, and his path was clear
+before him. After reaching the opposite bank, Jenkins started for the
+depths of the forest. But just as he reached it an odd procession
+marched out.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>At the head were the three dwarfs Jenkins had first met upon recovering
+consciousness. Behind them streamed a host of other dwarfs. And from
+what was evidently another path into the forest came another procession.
+Although this group was not as large in number, in size the men were
+gigantic. The two processions saw Jenkins at the same time, and both
+groups started toward him. Had it not been for the three little men,
+Jenkins couldn't imagine what fate might have befallen him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ho!" shouted the dwarf called Loti. "It is the one who was taken to the
+castle. Come, my friend, we go to the castle. To bowl. For the <i>good
+woman</i> who rules there has made the mistake which might free us of her
+rule.</p>
+
+<p>"She permitted one of our giant brethren to be killed by one of her men.
+And now we go to bowl against her champions. See, Mikas carries our
+ball."</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins looked at the one to whom Loti had gestured, and saw that in
+truth the little man was carrying a bowling ball, a ball which was in no
+way different from those Jenkins had himself used in his world.</p>
+
+<p>"Aye," Loti continued. "Now we have again the chance to rid ourselves of
+her shackles."</p>
+
+<p>The leaders of the giants had joined them while they were talking. One
+of them interrupted: "Aye. Loti is right. We sent the boulders down
+against them from the heights. Now we go to bowl."</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins grinned as he started back for that castle of terror which he'd
+just quitted. He blinked in surprise when he saw that the drawbridge had
+been lowered. The dwarfs and the giants were apparently expected, but
+they would certainly be amazed to see him.</p>
+
+<p>"You!" Lucretia exclaimed when she saw him. "How did you escape?"</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders and stared coldly into her beautiful eyes. She
+frowned back at him, then turned and motioned for her men to follow.
+Their way was lit by torchbearers, and led up a winding path which ended
+on a level bit of highland directly behind the castle. Here was grass
+land smooth as velvet; here were the grounds of combat, bloodless but
+just as decisive.</p>
+
+<p>There was a single alley, at the far end of which stood ten pins.
+Jenkins measured the alley with his eyes and figured it to be just about
+the length of a conventional bowling alley. The backstop was built up of
+earth and was soft enough so that the pins would not splinter on
+striking it.</p>
+
+<p>"We all know the rules," Lucretia said. "To the victor goes the rule of
+our land. To the loser, slavery. Therefore, let us begin. Since I hold
+title, I choose to have my champion bowl last."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The giant's man bowled first against Loti. Just as Lucretia had said, he
+had speed but that was all. Loti had a much slower ball, but one that
+knocked down more pins on his hits. The giant got too many splits and
+railroads to be able to beat the little man.</p>
+
+<p>Then, after a short wait, Griffin took the alley against Loti. And from
+the first ball, Jenkins saw that the little man stood no chance.
+Griffin's hook worked beautifully on the velvet grass lawn. He literally
+swamped Loti, whose shoulders slumped in weariness and discouragement as
+Griffin struck out.</p>
+
+<p>"And so we remain slaves once more," Loti said, as the pin setter set up
+the last rack. "Once, when the man called Rip Van Winkle bowled, I
+thought we had a chance. But she got him drunk and we lost that match.
+Now this."</p>
+
+<p>Lucretia was elated. As the last strike scattered the pins, she ran up
+to Griffin and planted a kiss on his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"My champion!" she crowed. "Now we will take care of these big and
+little creatures once and for all. Once I was generous. Now I will be
+otherwise."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe!" Jenkins suddenly spoke. "But we're not through bowling. I am
+now of the people here, and I challenge the winner of the two matches."</p>
+
+<p>Loti caught up the other's words:</p>
+
+<p>"He speaks true. He has the right to challenge."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true," Jenkins asked, "that the winner has the right to give
+terms?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye," Loti said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then let's bowl," Jenkins said.</p>
+
+<p>He tried the grip of the ball Loti passed to him. It was a two-fingered
+grip, and just a little small. As the challenger, Jenkins had to bowl
+first. He measured the distance carefully, tried to figure the angle
+into the pocket, took a three-step run and let his ball go in a medium
+swing. The ball hooked in neatly, and left a four-seven split. A laugh
+arose from Lucretia's followers. But silence fell among them as Jenkins
+made the pickup.</p>
+
+<p>"Nice shot, copper," Griffin said, as he stepped up to bowl, and made a
+strike. From then on, they matched strikes to the eighth frame when
+Griffin hit the head pin directly and got a seven-ten railroad. He
+picked up the ten-pin. Jenkins had gotten a nine count and made the
+spare.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>In the ninth frame, Jenkins struck. Griffin stepped up, wiped his right
+hand carefully against the trousers he had donned, took aim with great
+care, and sent the ball down the side of the alley. It hooked in nicely
+and again hit the head pin directly, only this time the six, ten, four
+and seven pins were left standing. So badly shot was he by the bad
+break, that he fumbled the ball as he started for his second shot. But
+he recovered quickly and neatly made the spare, the four pin barely
+grazing the ten.</p>
+
+<p>The score as they started the tenth frame was 206 for Griffin and 209
+for Jenkins.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins knew he had to mark at the least to win, and a double to make it
+close if Griffin got a double. Minutes went by while Jenkins made his
+last sight. Then he took three quick steps and let the ball go. But just
+as he reached the foul line, Jenkins slipped. The grass had become slick
+with all the running being done on its surface. And the ball, instead of
+hooking, went straight in, and left a very bad railroad, the four-ten.</p>
+
+<p>Griffin's sigh of relief was the only sound to break the silence, as
+Jenkins stepped up for his second shot. He knew there was but one chance
+to make it, one chance alone.</p>
+
+<p>If he could but get the ball over just right, it could make the four
+slide over against the ten.</p>
+
+<p>Thunderous roars rent the air, and piping screams of delight, as the
+giants and the dwarfs saw the dreaded four-ten split made! The strike
+Jenkins hit for his last shot was an anti-climax. The score stood at 249
+for Jenkins.</p>
+
+<p>"Nice shot," Griffin said as he stepped up. "But all I need is a
+double." He threw, and the ten pins fell. His second ball was also a
+strike.</p>
+
+<p>"And just to show you how good I am," Griffin declared, as he held the
+ball for the last throw, "I'm going to make just four pins so you won't
+feel too bad."</p>
+
+<p>Only he didn't! For what had happened to Jenkins, happened to him. His
+foot also slipped on the grass, and this time he got three pins. The
+score was tied.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Jenkins sat down, removed his shoes and stood erect. He wasn't
+going to take a chance on his last ball, for that was the rule on a tie.
+One ball until the tie was broken, and a strike was just a strike. There
+was no question of what Jenkins threw the instant he released the ball.
+Right in the pocket!</p>
+
+<p>Griffin's ball left the hard one, the ten pin. Griffin was still
+stooped, his hands on his hips and his face forlorn, when Jenkins' hand
+fell on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"I said I was taking you in, Griffin," Jenkins said. "And come hell or
+high water, I'm going to."</p>
+
+<p>Griffin shrugged the hand off as he whirled on the other. "Don't be a
+fool!" he spat. "Do you think we're alive?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rip Van Winkle was," Jenkins said, cryptically. "And I think we are,
+too."</p>
+
+<p>"He is quite right, my friend," Loti said, as he stepped up to them. "I
+can send you back, both of you, back to the time and place of your
+leavetaking. This instant...."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Jenkins felt a wave of blackness wash over him, a terrible wrenching at
+his innards, and a sudden thrust. He opened his eyes and looked about.
+There was a pain in his left shoulder, and he could feel a sticky
+wetness running down his arm. Griffin stood before him, and in Griffin's
+eyes was a dazed look. Behind Griffin, the door to the pilot's cabin
+swung crazily. Before Griffin knew what hit him, Jenkins had leaped upon
+him. It took one blow, a terrific hook to the man's jaw, and Griffin
+slumped to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"What happened?" Jenkins asked as the stewardess bandaged his shoulder
+where Griffin's shot had caught him.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," she said, "he shot, you went backward. Then, and it's the only
+way I can describe it, you both seemed to freeze up for an instant. The
+next thing I knew, you had recovered and the fight was over."</p>
+
+<p>But Jenkins knew better. He knew that in those few seconds, space and
+time had changed for himself and Griffin, and it was a lucky bowling
+match which had brought them back.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Castle of Terror, by E.J. Liston
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Castle of Terror, by E.J. Liston
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Castle of Terror
+
+Author: E.J. Liston
+
+Release Date: June 18, 2010 [EBook #32876]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CASTLE OF TERROR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                            CASTLE OF TERROR
+
+                            By E. J. LISTON
+
+[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories November
+1948. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+copyright on this publication was renewed.]
+
+
+[Sidenote: What strange dimension was this where giants, gangsters,
+Lucretia Borgia, dwarfs and Rip Van Winkle lived at the same time?]
+
+
+"Too bad, Griffin," Hale Jenkins said to the man alongside. "Now if
+you'd have just stuck to bank stick-ups, you'd have been all right."
+
+"Nah!" Bud Griffin said, his mouth twisted in a wry grin. "I'd have been
+all right if you'd have just stuck to being a traffic cop. But you had
+to show the Commissioner you were on the ball, so he sent you after me.
+That's all."
+
+The light suddenly flashed over the pilot's compartment with its warning
+to fasten safety belts. A few seconds later, the stewardess came around
+with a smiling warning that they were coming over some bad pockets, and
+that there was no need to worry.
+
+Both men fastened their belts, as did all the other passengers on the
+giant airliner, and after a while the elevator began its ride. Griffin
+reached up and pulled the air vent down, so that the cold air of the
+upper reaches at which they were flying could send its refreshing drafts
+of air down the vent. Jenkins had been airsick once and didn't want any
+more of the same. He followed Griffin's gaze, and looked into the grey
+fog of a huge cloud bank.
+
+Jenkins, to get his mind off the possibility of getting sick again, took
+up where the other had left off: "Yeah. But like I say, you shoulda
+stuck to robbin' banks."
+
+His lean, strong face with the unusual bone structure which made it a
+face of highlights and plane surfaces, broke into a wide-angled grin. He
+threw the shock of black hair from his eyes, and continued: "Guys like
+you never learn. Gotta work with a heater."
+
+Griffin's opaque eyes shifted from the greyness which had encircled the
+plane, and met the dancing grey ones of the detective beside him.
+Griffin's lips mimicked the grin of the other. But his words were not so
+light-hearted: "Look, copper! You just got lucky. If it weren't for that
+dame.... Aah! I shoulda been smart. I shoulda known she'd of sung. No
+dame can keep her yap shut! But get this. We ain't in yet! So be smart
+and don't think Bud Griffin's fryin'. Not yet he ain't."
+
+Jenkins was, for a detective, a rather amiable sort. In Griffin's case,
+however, he could not help but give an occasional needle. The hoodlum
+and murderer's bragging rasped on Jenkins' nerves.
+
+"Now, don't blame the girl," Jenkins said. "She was just the last step
+in my trail. The guy who really talked was Bud Griffin. There's a
+character who'll never stop talkin'. If you hadn't talked to the
+bartender in that joint on the waterfront, I'd have never found out
+about Myrtle. But he knew Myrtle and the kind of girl she was; he knew
+she only went for the hoods who had dough, and no guy who drinks beer
+like you do and leaves no tips ought to have dough. So when Myrtle walks
+in with a platina fox jacket and says you bought it, he gets mighty
+suspicious.
+
+"It was a cinch then, Bud. All I had to do was tell the girl she was
+going to be named as an accessory after the fact, and she spilled her
+load."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Pin points of flame suddenly danced in Griffin's eyes. His hands, lying
+quiescent on his lap, curled into balls of bone and muscle. Griffin had
+many weaknesses; of them all, anger was his greatest. For in the heat of
+anger he would do anything, and not care about the consequences. It had
+proved his undoing many times. His last surge of anger had resulted in
+murder during a robbery. The victim had resisted Griffin and had been
+shot in cold blood. As always, that anger showed in visible signs: there
+came the pin points of flame to the eyes, the clenching of fists, and an
+odd curling of the mouth. But Jenkins, either because he did not know of
+these signs, or because he was so wrapped in his own glory, did not
+notice the other's shifting movement.
+
+When Griffin struck, it was with electric speed. Certainly, he had
+nothing to gain by his attack on Jenkins. For had he thought it out
+logically, he would have realized there was no way of escape. Even a
+fool would have realized that there was no way of getting out of a plane
+which was flying at ten thousand feet, and coming down alive, unless one
+had a chute. So it was sheer berserk anger which prompted the attack.
+
+Griffin's right elbow shot up and sideways, and landed with telling
+force against Jenkins' jaw. At almost the same instant, he slipped loose
+of his safety belt, whirled on his companion and struck him two savage
+blows with his fists. Those blows stunned the detective. And like a
+snake in movement, Griffin's hand reached for the pistol in Jenkins'
+holster and drew it.
+
+Dazed as Jenkins was, he tried to stop Griffin. The barrel of the gun
+slashed a furrow in his cheek for the try. The blow rocked the
+detective's head back, and allowed him to get out of his seat. In an
+instant he was in the aisle, leaping for the pilot's compartment. He had
+no plan; he wasn't even thinking. In the background of his mind he knew
+the panic he had created; he could see it reflected in the face of the
+woman in the front seat, in the wide, suddenly terror-stricken eyes of
+the man at her side. But what he was going to do when he reached the
+closed door that was his goal, he did not know.
+
+There were screams and hoarse commands. From the rear, the stewardess
+shouted for him not to go beyond the door. Griffin reached it, whirled
+and faced the length of the plane, a snarl on his lips, and the .38 in
+his hand, a small-barreled threat of death to whoever was fool enough to
+attempt to stop him.
+
+And there was one who was going to be a fool.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Whether Jenkins was just dazed by the last blow, or whether he really
+thought he could stop the other, is a matter of conjecture. But he rose
+to his feet and started forward in a stumbling run.
+
+"Come on, copper," Griffin grunted, a terrible smile of anticipation on
+his lips. "I been wantin' to knock you off."
+
+Everyone on the plane froze in horror as the gun muzzle came up. The
+finger on the trigger tightened in a sort of slow-motion action until it
+seemed as if the smallest pressure would set it off. And still Jenkins
+stumbled forward, until only a couple of feet separated the two. Then
+the grin became a snarl on Griffin's lips, and all knew the instant of
+death had arrived.
+
+Jenkins must have felt it also, for he took the last few steps in a
+shambling, wide-armed leap, as if he were welcoming it. It was at that
+instant that the co-pilot decided to step through the door. The steel
+door slammed against the bent figure of the gunman just as he pulled the
+trigger. The gun went off with a roar, and Jenkins hit Griffin like a
+tackler slamming into a ball carrier.
+
+But louder than the pistol's sound, was the sound from without the
+plane. It was as if all the fury of hell had exploded out there. The
+plane became a straw licked upward and outward, sucked downward and
+inward, in some vortex of sound and fury which was completely
+unrecognizable. It was as if some external force was venting its spleen
+on the craft. In the space of split seconds, in the time a picture forms
+in a mind, the plane and all its occupants lost their meaning.
+
+There was a great rending sound and, following, the disintegration of
+the great ship into space.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hale Jenkins felt himself spinning, whirling, falling into a vast empty
+fog. There was peace and contentment in that fog, and a sort of
+forgetfulness. There was nothing above and nothing below, just the grey
+murk. For a last instant of awareness, Jenkins saw not far from him the
+body of Griffin describing the same gyrations as his own. Then there was
+a wrenching at his bowels, a tearing at his brain, and unconsciousness
+slipped over him like the noose over the hanged man.
+
+Odd piping voices penetrated into Jenkins' brain. He stirred and rolled
+over, and after a few seconds got his hands under him and pushed himself
+erect. He felt rather than saw the tree close to him, and put one hand
+out to its friendly trunk, steadying himself against it. His head came
+up after a second and his eyes cleared of the fog before them. He stared
+in disbelief as he looked out over a great valley.
+
+In the distance, made plain by the brilliant light of the sun, he saw a
+tremendous castle with many-turreted immense sides. It shimmered and
+danced in the brilliant light, like a mirage conjured by a fevered mind.
+Yet he knew, without being told, that it was real--as real as the three
+tiny men who regarded him with passionately intent though oddly
+frightened eyes from a few feet off.
+
+But sight was not the only sense of which Jenkins had the full use. He
+was aware of an odd, rumbling sound in the distance, as of thunder, yet
+not quite thunder. He noticed that the gnomes had also heard the sound,
+for their eyes turned from their intent regard of him, to the castle
+perched on the mesa in the distance. He could not see their eyes now,
+yet he was aware that they held fear--cold, numbing fear--fright so
+great it binds the entrails, makes a stone statue of a man, even a
+dwarf.
+
+They held their poses even after the dying sounds of the strange rumble
+had passed in the distance. When Jenkins spoke, it took several seconds
+for them to bring their attention to him:
+
+"Where am I and who are you?"
+
+Their answering voices were childish pipings, making even less sense of
+a confused situation:
+
+"I am Loti ..." said the smallest, who wore a fringe of beard from his
+forehead all the way around a pointed, slat-like chin.
+
+"I am Gaino," said the second. He had a hooked nose so long it almost
+touched his chin.
+
+"I am Mikas," said the third, who had a round face, a bulbous nose whose
+color was that of a ripe tomato, flapping pointed ears too large for his
+face, and a pair of perfectly round eyes.
+
+"Yeah? But where am I?" Jenkins persisted.
+
+"In the land of Gnat," all three piped in unison.
+
+Slowly the brain-fog was clearing for Jenkins. The miracle of his
+landing safely was still not quite clear, nor could he understand the
+presence of these odd beings. But as reason returned to Jenkins, it told
+him something had happened which would perhaps be unexplainable.
+
+He pointed toward the castle and said: "Who lives there?"
+
+"Lucretia ..." they answered again in unison.
+
+Now there's a familiar name, Jenkins thought, while at the same time a
+horrifying idea occurred to him. If it were Lucretia Borgia, he thought,
+then he might be dead. Suddenly, there was a spine-chilling roar, a vast
+crashing in the underbrush close by, and a tremendous boulder sailed by
+and disappeared over the lip of the chasm. Its crashing echoes could be
+heard for a long time afterward. When Jenkins recovered his balance, the
+gnomes had disappeared.
+
+Jenkins' eyes narrowed in search of them, but after one look at the
+thick underbrush, he turned aside and began to search for a path leading
+either through the brush or down the steep sides of the cliff. There
+wasn't much choice, he discovered. In fact, there was no choice at all.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Ho-ho!" a stentorian voice bellowed, seemingly from at his very heels.
+"Look what we have here!"
+
+Once more Jenkins did a pirouette. Facing him were three men. They
+seemed to come in series of threes in this screwy place, he thought. But
+these were quite different than the gnomes he had first seen.
+
+These were giants, all dressed in the same manner. Each wore the skin of
+a wild animal draped about him. Only their middles were covered, and
+their immensely broad and hairy chests and legs, which were like
+tree-trunks, stood out in naked and unpretty relief. They had not known
+the touch of a razor for a very long time. Their beards reached almost
+to their waists, while their heads were crowned with a tangled growth of
+wiry brush.
+
+Each man was armed with a spiked club, on which he was resting as he
+regarded the stranger.
+
+"He's mine," one said suddenly. "I saw him first."
+
+"No!" the second said. "You're the youngest. I'm the oldest. I get him."
+
+"And I'm the strongest," said the third. "I'll take him." The last one
+didn't wait for a reply, but leaped for Jenkins in a clumsy jump.
+
+Only Jenkins didn't wait for him. He stepped aside as the giant came on,
+and as he went past Jenkins tripped him by simply putting out his leg.
+The giant went sailing off into space and as he stumbled over the lip of
+the chasm, his scream of fear was drowned in the roars of rage which
+came from the other two. They came at him on splay feet, their clubs
+raised high, their mouths opened and their eyes slitted in rage. But
+they were slow and clumsy, and Jenkins danced out of range.
+
+The giants recovered their balance, turned and came at him again, this
+time from opposite sides. Jenkins waited until they were almost upon him
+before moving. The two had their clubs raised as they ran, and just as
+Jenkins leaped, they swung their murderous weapons. If it weren't for
+the deadly seriousness of the situation, Jenkins would have found vast
+humor in it. For in the swinging, both missed him, but one, the
+youngest, caught his partner squarely on the skull with the spiked club.
+The stricken one fell like an ox at the slaughter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Slobbering sounds of rage came from the remaining giant. His beady eyes
+were red-rimmed, and his voice shook in passion as he charged again. And
+once more Jenkins danced away. But this time the smile was wiped from
+the Earthman's lips, as his moving steps struck against a protruding
+root, and he went sprawling backward.
+
+Rage turned to triumph! The club came on high and began its descent. And
+Jenkins could only watch it in horror. The terrible club gained speed,
+size, terror in its immensity, as it descended. And Jenkins seemed
+chained to the earth by a power greater than his will. The club was
+inches away, and Jenkins closed his eyes to it and made a silent prayer.
+
+There was a dull thud as the club dropped from the giant's hand to the
+ground. And another thud as the body of the giant landed with
+breath-taking force across that of the Earthman. Jenkins grunted in
+pain. He shoved at the inert figure sprawled across him and rolled it to
+one side. His breath whistled through his nostrils as he arose and
+brushed the dirt from him and he wondered dully how he had been saved.
+
+"They are as children," a voice replied to his unspoken question. "And
+like children, they can't reason ..."
+
+The whistle came from his lips this time, as he did a double-take at the
+figure which confronted him. She was standing not three feet from him, a
+tall, lissome figure, dressed in a sheer costume which hid her figure,
+yet left enough to be seen to entrance the eye. Midnight black hair, a
+beautifully carved throat, perfection for nose and lips, and eyes
+haughty as a queen's, made up the rest of her. He could only stare,
+open-mouthed in admiration, lost in her beauty.
+
+A faint smile touched her lips as she advanced toward him. He caught the
+movement of others, also, and from the corners of his eyes saw that she
+had not come alone. Attending her were mailed bodyguards wearing
+sixteenth century armor.
+
+"I thought the other came alone," Lucretia said, "but now I see I was
+wrong. He is up there. You will be there, too."
+
+"Up there?" Jenkins asked somewhat foolishly, pointing to the castle in
+the distance.
+
+"Yes. Up there. Come along, now." She turned and moved away from him,
+and the mailed men took her place.
+
+This time Jenkins made no move of protest. The long swords and small
+knives these men carried in their belts made foolish any attempt to
+fight them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It took a great deal less time to reach the castle than Jenkins would
+have thought possible. Yet, there were no means of transportation other
+than walking. The castle was much like one Jenkins remembered in a movie
+he had seen. A huge drawbridge swung down over the wide and deep moat
+before the perpendicular walls of the castle, trumpets sounded and
+mailed guards ran to appointed places at the castle's entrance. The
+beautiful creature nodded in acknowledgment of their salute as she
+stepped past them, Jenkins at her side and the eight bodyguards, two
+abreast, walking behind. Thus they proceeded up the long and narrow
+courtyard through another entrance, and into an inner courtyard which
+preceded the entrance hall proper to the castle.
+
+Things happened at a greater pace from then on. At her signal men came
+forward, took Jenkins with them and, from then until his return to the
+woman, he was bathed, shaved, and dressed in a wondrously brocaded gown.
+When he returned, it was to find her in the immense banquet hall.
+
+She motioned him forward and bade him sit at her right. His eyes went
+wide when he saw who was at her left--Griffin. And dressed in a gown
+similar to his own.
+
+"Hi, chum," Griffin said. "Nice layout, huh?"
+
+"I like him," Lucretia said, as she signalled for the food to be brought
+in. "He has such ill manners and such a boorish way of expressing
+himself."
+
+Jenkins swallowed in haste as his eyes took in the rest of the company
+around the table. Never in all his days of police work had he seen such
+a collection of cutthroats. Yet they, as he, were dressed in finery that
+was worth a fortune. They saw his stare and answered him with wide
+grins, which somehow had the power to make his blood run cold.
+
+"Aah!" she continued. "They like you, I see. Ah, well. It's company fit
+for a Borgia."
+
+Borgia--Lucretia Borgia--the infamous poisoner--the most hated woman of
+her time. He turned for another quick look and wondered how a woman with
+such beauty could.... He shook his head violently. And again she seemed
+to read his mind.
+
+"My beauty is something I had nothing to do with. Perhaps you may come
+to hate it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Suddenly a vast anger filled Jenkins' breast. His nostrils dilated in
+passion, and when he spoke his voice was hoarse with it: "Look! I don't
+know what's going on. But whatever it is, I don't like it. Now get this!
+I'm a cop, and the character sitting alongside of you is my prisoner.
+And I'm going to take him come hell or high water!"
+
+A ripple of laughter began which swelled to a roar as he finished. And
+the one who laughed the loudest was Lucretia.
+
+"Now tell me, my valorous warder," she said in dulcet tones, "how will
+you do this?"
+
+"I don't know," Jenkins answered darkly and somewhat foolishly. "But
+I'll manage. And another thing," he went on after a few seconds, "what's
+with this rigmarole you're playing?"
+
+"Rigmarole?" Her voice broke into tinkling laughter. "Oh, come now! We
+don't play games here. I'm really Borgia. So let us sup. Talk will come
+later."
+
+A servant had placed a dish before Jenkins from which the most
+appetizing odors arose. Saliva formed in his mouth, and his empty belly
+reminded him he hadn't eaten for a long time. He raised his fork and
+started to dig in, but the gesture was never completed. For suddenly he
+became aware that every eye was on him and that every mouth was twisted
+in a grin, that laughter hung silently on the air ready to explode at
+the right second. They were but waiting for him to taste the food.
+
+Nerveless fingers dropped the fork, and Jenkins' gulp was audible. He
+knew why the grins and stares. _The food was poisoned!_ Yet the others
+were eating, loudly, gaspingly, tearing at the food with fingers and
+jaws, eating as though it was the last meal they were ever to have.
+
+"Come, man! Eat!" the woman said between mouthfuls. She, like the rest,
+held little regard for manners.
+
+"I--I'm not hungry," Jenkins said lamely.
+
+"Too bad. It's so good!" Lucretia remarked. Her eyes were daring him.
+
+There seemed to be dozens of courses, and Jenkins' hunger grew with each
+serving. More than hunger seethed in his breast, however. Anger also
+gnawed at him. Anger got the better at last. He shoved his chair from
+the table, and it clattered backward on stumbling legs. All eyes turned
+to him as he stood, his hands on his hips, his head shoved forward, chin
+jutting out like a rock.
+
+"I've had just about enough of this!" Jenkins announced loudly. "I'm
+going. And you, Griffin, are coming with me."
+
+Gone now were the smiles; gone the laughter. The eyes were cold and
+oddly expectant. Jenkins grew aware of the tense silence. He grinned,
+and began to withdraw slowly.
+
+"Okay," he said softly, "so I'll go alone."
+
+"Not even that way," Lucretia said. "My guests leave only at _my_
+bidding."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As though her words were a command, two of the men at opposite ends of
+the table rose and started for Jenkins. Their hands were wrapped about
+the hilts of the short swords stuck in their belts. Jenkins continued to
+retreat slowly, though, until his foot struck against the chair which
+he'd shoved back. Then he moved like greased lightning.
+
+His right hand swept around, gathered up the chair and flung it skidding
+across the floor, so that it wound up among the folds of the robe worn
+by one of the men. At the same time Jenkins leaped toward his other
+would-be attacker and chopped a right hook to his whiskered chin.
+
+It was the signal for a general rush in Jenkins' direction, but Jenkins
+wasn't waiting. He hadn't even waited to see the effect of his hook. The
+instant the blow was delivered, he had turned and leaped for the wide
+entrance. He ran with all speed, his mind busy trying to remember the
+turns and danger points which might lie before him.
+
+There was no need of that, he discovered. The shouting voices which
+bayed the alarm brought other guards to the chase. Jenkins came to a
+sliding halt as he made a turn in the corridor. The grin was still wide
+on his lips when his capturers brought him back to face Lucretia.
+
+"I find it unseemly," she said as the guards forced him into a chair,
+"that a guest should feel so strongly about not wanting my hospitality.
+Surely, I have not been amiss in my attentions? If so, I must remedy
+that."
+
+A roar of laughter went up at the words.
+
+"Therefore," she went on, "we will do more than we have. Take him below
+and make him feel as welcome as he should have felt from the beginning."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sweat streamed from the dank walls. Feeble light came from a pair of
+torches set into wall brackets, light which was offset by the heavy
+smoke the resinous torches gave forth. A dozen cloaked figures stood
+around the almost naked figure of a man chained wrists, ankles, and neck
+to the wall. Standing directly in front of the chained man, and facing
+him, was another man, with a look of cunning cruelty on his face. The
+one chained to the wall was Jenkins; and the man facing him was Griffin.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Look, my friend," Lucretia Borgia said to Griffin, "all about you are
+the implements of the trade. Here," she pointed with daintily gesturing
+fingers to a many-thonged whip, "is a tickler to make this fool dance.
+And when he tires, why here," she pointed to something which looked like
+a coal scuttle, "we have a bucket in which he can rest his wearied feet.
+Of course you may have to heat it a trifle, but I'm sure he won't mind."
+
+The others shouted in glee at the humor they found in her remark.
+
+Jenkins listened in bitter silence. The only visible sign of his
+desperate feelings was a tiny trickle of blood which seeped from one
+corner of his mouth and ran down to the side of his chin. He had given
+up straining against the steel chains which bound him. They had been set
+too strongly into the wall. He prayed that he could take the physical
+tortures to be inflicted on him without weakening.
+
+Then Griffin was reaching for the steel-tipped whip, and Jenkins braced
+himself for the pain.
+
+"Make him dance!" Lucretia commanded. "Pride needs music...." She
+stopped suddenly and her head came up. The others also froze into
+listening attitudes.
+
+Jenkins had been aware of the odd sound for several minutes. He had
+presumed that the others were too interested in what was going on down
+in the cold, dank dungeon to be disturbed by sounds from the upper
+world. The sound had a rumbling vibration, the rumble grew louder and
+louder, and suddenly there was an ear-splitting crash. Dust and chips
+flew from the walls.
+
+"The giants!" Lucretia screamed in wild terror. "They are bowling
+again."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As one, everybody turned and began a pell-mell race for the stairs,
+until there was only the chained man left. And hard at their heels came
+another of the ear-splitting crashes. More chips flew, and now tiny
+streamers of water leaped from cracks which appeared in the stone. Again
+there was the roar, another crash, and Jenkins moaned in pain as a large
+chunk of rock struck his side and tore the flesh.
+
+He strained against the steel chains which bound him until he thought
+his blood would burst the bounds of his veins. He pulled again and again
+and until he could strain no more, until he could only fall limply
+against his prison-links.
+
+His mind was fevered and his thoughts jumbled. He had to escape somehow.
+Again there was heard that terrorizing crash. He gasped, and turned his
+head aside, as a torrent of water poured from a fissure in the rock
+close to his head and shot into his face.
+
+He turned his head and felt the metal tear from the wall. His head was
+free. Like a madman, Jenkins tried again to loose himself. This time he
+succeeded. And where the chains pulled free, water dribbled from that
+spot.
+
+With a desperate intensity, Jenkins made a superhuman effort and pulled
+at the chains binding his wrists. The chains came apart, tearing the
+flesh and leaving raw wounds. Wincing at the pain, he placed his fingers
+behind his neck and felt of the steel. After a few seconds of probing,
+he twisted at the nut, which separated from the bolt with a single easy
+twist. He did the same with the chain binding his ankles--and Jenkins
+was free!
+
+The last length of chain fell into the water, which by now had formed a
+foot-deep puddle on the floor, and splashed loudly, as Jenkins raced
+against a new danger. Whatever was causing those crashing sounds was
+also weakening the foundations of the castle. Water was beginning to
+pour in a perfect torrent from many cracks. The stairs to the floor
+above was but twenty feet from where he had been chained, but even in
+that short distance the water rose another foot.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jenkins took the wide stone steps three at a time, and raced like wild
+around the short curves. He had oriented himself as they brought him
+down, and he knew exactly where he was going. Danger lay at the very top
+of the stairs, for here they were heavily guarded. Yet, when he reached
+the head of the stairs, not a soul was to be seen.
+
+He became cautious, then. Being weaponless, Jenkins knew he would have
+to rely on stealth. Slowly he advanced, until he was at the very
+threshold of the large banquet hall. Now he heard voices, voices raised
+in anger.
+
+The loudest, most shrill of these voices, the one who commanded
+attention, was that of Lucretia Borgia: "You fools! Dolt heads! When
+this is over I shall have you all flayed alive. Did not any of you
+recognize the king of the giants as the one who was fighting the
+stranger? Now they are _bowling_ against us. And who among us can
+challenge them?"
+
+"I can, baby." Jenkins recognized that voice. It belonged to Griffin.
+"Duck pins, ten pins or any other kind. I'll match my hook with the best
+of them."
+
+There was a short interval of silence. When Lucretia broke it, she spoke
+in more natural tones: "It isn't the giants I'm worried about. I have
+seen them bowl. They rely on strength only. The dwarfs are the ones I'm
+worried about. We beat them the last time because they used the man from
+Earth and we got him drunk. They are cunning little men. Are you sure,
+my friend, that you have the skill?"
+
+But Jenkins didn't wait to hear the answer. He knew Griffin had the
+skill. For Griffin, in his varied and checkered career, had once won an
+A.B.C. tournament. It was the clue by which he had been able to trace
+Griffin in his chase across the continent.
+
+Jenkins peered into the hall. The men were all clustered around the
+woman, listening intently to her words. Silently, he fled from the
+banquet hall, and in a single leap crossed the open courtyard. From
+there on he threw caution to the winds. Oddly enough he could have
+walked, for not a single guard was to be seen even at the gate to the
+drawbridge. Although the bridge was up, Jenkins didn't hesitate for an
+instant. He dived in, and the waters of the moat closed over him.
+
+But the moat was not wide, nor was it too deep. Ten strokes and he was
+across. The moon flooded the night with light, and his path was clear
+before him. After reaching the opposite bank, Jenkins started for the
+depths of the forest. But just as he reached it an odd procession
+marched out.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the head were the three dwarfs Jenkins had first met upon recovering
+consciousness. Behind them streamed a host of other dwarfs. And from
+what was evidently another path into the forest came another procession.
+Although this group was not as large in number, in size the men were
+gigantic. The two processions saw Jenkins at the same time, and both
+groups started toward him. Had it not been for the three little men,
+Jenkins couldn't imagine what fate might have befallen him.
+
+"Ho!" shouted the dwarf called Loti. "It is the one who was taken to the
+castle. Come, my friend, we go to the castle. To bowl. For the _good
+woman_ who rules there has made the mistake which might free us of her
+rule.
+
+"She permitted one of our giant brethren to be killed by one of her men.
+And now we go to bowl against her champions. See, Mikas carries our
+ball."
+
+Jenkins looked at the one to whom Loti had gestured, and saw that in
+truth the little man was carrying a bowling ball, a ball which was in no
+way different from those Jenkins had himself used in his world.
+
+"Aye," Loti continued. "Now we have again the chance to rid ourselves of
+her shackles."
+
+The leaders of the giants had joined them while they were talking. One
+of them interrupted: "Aye. Loti is right. We sent the boulders down
+against them from the heights. Now we go to bowl."
+
+Jenkins grinned as he started back for that castle of terror which he'd
+just quitted. He blinked in surprise when he saw that the drawbridge had
+been lowered. The dwarfs and the giants were apparently expected, but
+they would certainly be amazed to see him.
+
+"You!" Lucretia exclaimed when she saw him. "How did you escape?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders and stared coldly into her beautiful eyes. She
+frowned back at him, then turned and motioned for her men to follow.
+Their way was lit by torchbearers, and led up a winding path which ended
+on a level bit of highland directly behind the castle. Here was grass
+land smooth as velvet; here were the grounds of combat, bloodless but
+just as decisive.
+
+There was a single alley, at the far end of which stood ten pins.
+Jenkins measured the alley with his eyes and figured it to be just about
+the length of a conventional bowling alley. The backstop was built up of
+earth and was soft enough so that the pins would not splinter on
+striking it.
+
+"We all know the rules," Lucretia said. "To the victor goes the rule of
+our land. To the loser, slavery. Therefore, let us begin. Since I hold
+title, I choose to have my champion bowl last."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The giant's man bowled first against Loti. Just as Lucretia had said, he
+had speed but that was all. Loti had a much slower ball, but one that
+knocked down more pins on his hits. The giant got too many splits and
+railroads to be able to beat the little man.
+
+Then, after a short wait, Griffin took the alley against Loti. And from
+the first ball, Jenkins saw that the little man stood no chance.
+Griffin's hook worked beautifully on the velvet grass lawn. He literally
+swamped Loti, whose shoulders slumped in weariness and discouragement as
+Griffin struck out.
+
+"And so we remain slaves once more," Loti said, as the pin setter set up
+the last rack. "Once, when the man called Rip Van Winkle bowled, I
+thought we had a chance. But she got him drunk and we lost that match.
+Now this."
+
+Lucretia was elated. As the last strike scattered the pins, she ran up
+to Griffin and planted a kiss on his lips.
+
+"My champion!" she crowed. "Now we will take care of these big and
+little creatures once and for all. Once I was generous. Now I will be
+otherwise."
+
+"Maybe!" Jenkins suddenly spoke. "But we're not through bowling. I am
+now of the people here, and I challenge the winner of the two matches."
+
+Loti caught up the other's words:
+
+"He speaks true. He has the right to challenge."
+
+"Is it true," Jenkins asked, "that the winner has the right to give
+terms?"
+
+"Aye," Loti said.
+
+"Then let's bowl," Jenkins said.
+
+He tried the grip of the ball Loti passed to him. It was a two-fingered
+grip, and just a little small. As the challenger, Jenkins had to bowl
+first. He measured the distance carefully, tried to figure the angle
+into the pocket, took a three-step run and let his ball go in a medium
+swing. The ball hooked in neatly, and left a four-seven split. A laugh
+arose from Lucretia's followers. But silence fell among them as Jenkins
+made the pickup.
+
+"Nice shot, copper," Griffin said, as he stepped up to bowl, and made a
+strike. From then on, they matched strikes to the eighth frame when
+Griffin hit the head pin directly and got a seven-ten railroad. He
+picked up the ten-pin. Jenkins had gotten a nine count and made the
+spare.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the ninth frame, Jenkins struck. Griffin stepped up, wiped his right
+hand carefully against the trousers he had donned, took aim with great
+care, and sent the ball down the side of the alley. It hooked in nicely
+and again hit the head pin directly, only this time the six, ten, four
+and seven pins were left standing. So badly shot was he by the bad
+break, that he fumbled the ball as he started for his second shot. But
+he recovered quickly and neatly made the spare, the four pin barely
+grazing the ten.
+
+The score as they started the tenth frame was 206 for Griffin and 209
+for Jenkins.
+
+Jenkins knew he had to mark at the least to win, and a double to make it
+close if Griffin got a double. Minutes went by while Jenkins made his
+last sight. Then he took three quick steps and let the ball go. But just
+as he reached the foul line, Jenkins slipped. The grass had become slick
+with all the running being done on its surface. And the ball, instead of
+hooking, went straight in, and left a very bad railroad, the four-ten.
+
+Griffin's sigh of relief was the only sound to break the silence, as
+Jenkins stepped up for his second shot. He knew there was but one chance
+to make it, one chance alone.
+
+If he could but get the ball over just right, it could make the four
+slide over against the ten.
+
+Thunderous roars rent the air, and piping screams of delight, as the
+giants and the dwarfs saw the dreaded four-ten split made! The strike
+Jenkins hit for his last shot was an anti-climax. The score stood at 249
+for Jenkins.
+
+"Nice shot," Griffin said as he stepped up. "But all I need is a
+double." He threw, and the ten pins fell. His second ball was also a
+strike.
+
+"And just to show you how good I am," Griffin declared, as he held the
+ball for the last throw, "I'm going to make just four pins so you won't
+feel too bad."
+
+Only he didn't! For what had happened to Jenkins, happened to him. His
+foot also slipped on the grass, and this time he got three pins. The
+score was tied.
+
+Suddenly Jenkins sat down, removed his shoes and stood erect. He wasn't
+going to take a chance on his last ball, for that was the rule on a tie.
+One ball until the tie was broken, and a strike was just a strike. There
+was no question of what Jenkins threw the instant he released the ball.
+Right in the pocket!
+
+Griffin's ball left the hard one, the ten pin. Griffin was still
+stooped, his hands on his hips and his face forlorn, when Jenkins' hand
+fell on his shoulder.
+
+"I said I was taking you in, Griffin," Jenkins said. "And come hell or
+high water, I'm going to."
+
+Griffin shrugged the hand off as he whirled on the other. "Don't be a
+fool!" he spat. "Do you think we're alive?"
+
+"Rip Van Winkle was," Jenkins said, cryptically. "And I think we are,
+too."
+
+"He is quite right, my friend," Loti said, as he stepped up to them. "I
+can send you back, both of you, back to the time and place of your
+leavetaking. This instant...."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jenkins felt a wave of blackness wash over him, a terrible wrenching at
+his innards, and a sudden thrust. He opened his eyes and looked about.
+There was a pain in his left shoulder, and he could feel a sticky
+wetness running down his arm. Griffin stood before him, and in Griffin's
+eyes was a dazed look. Behind Griffin, the door to the pilot's cabin
+swung crazily. Before Griffin knew what hit him, Jenkins had leaped upon
+him. It took one blow, a terrific hook to the man's jaw, and Griffin
+slumped to the floor.
+
+"What happened?" Jenkins asked as the stewardess bandaged his shoulder
+where Griffin's shot had caught him.
+
+"Why," she said, "he shot, you went backward. Then, and it's the only
+way I can describe it, you both seemed to freeze up for an instant. The
+next thing I knew, you had recovered and the fight was over."
+
+But Jenkins knew better. He knew that in those few seconds, space and
+time had changed for himself and Griffin, and it was a lucky bowling
+match which had brought them back.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Castle of Terror, by E.J. Liston
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 19:58:24 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 19:58:24 -0700
commit	3c33c2bef7d1f31dea3dc393bd735cf7f9e2922d (patch)
tree	4cbf6a8338ba8cb6350f96fbe0900a2a07e415c5