"But all that lies in the future, and Satan concerns himself only with the present. And at present not all debts are paid, and not all wrongs are righted. So there is much work yet to be done, eh, Kerio? Much work—and I must be off to attend to it.
"Farewell, comrade—and may life bring you joy in half the measure that it has brought sorrow to me. Lu'ul sholem!"
Then, almost before I was aware of it, he was gone, like the whisper of a fleeting memory.
I sprang to my balcony and looked out, but I could distinguish naught in the uncertain light of dawn. Shivering, not alone from the early morning chill, I re-turned to the warmth of my rooms. Presently, hearing the roar of thrumming space-motors, I glanced quickly out at the dreary sky, to glimpse the slender black shape of the Space Waif just before she vanished spaceward in a tiny puff of light.
Wearily I sought my couch, but could not sleep. As I lay, wide awake in the stillness, there was constantly pictured in my mind the sad, grim face of Prince Satan, lonely exile of the void. And my heart, brimming with pity, went out to that heroic, melancholy mortal with the gleaming metal arm and the horribly mutilated face, as he nosed his phantom ship through the all-enveloping Great Blackness that is infinity. . . .
[The End]
Vampires
By Dorothy Quick
The old books tell of how the werewolf came
With white fangs gleaming redly in the night,
Of evil things that haven't any name,
That cannot bear the searching rays of light.
They tell of unknown horrors, deadly deeds;
Of vampires, who can leave their coffin bed
And fly abroad to satisfy their needs
With human blood. So age-old books have said.
There still are vampires walking on our ways,
Not creatures from the grave, but men who live
On someone else's heart's blood all their days,
Men who take all they can but never give;
Strange men who ever striving for their goals
Achieve their way by crushing human souls.
