The Project Gutenberg EBook of Where the World is Quiet, by Henry Kuttner

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Title: Where the World is Quiet

Author: Henry Kuttner

Release Date: February 7, 2010 [EBook #31207]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe May 1954. Extensive
research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this
publication was renewed.

_The life of an anthropologist is no doubt filled much of
the time with the monotonous routine of carefully assembling
powdery relics of ancient races and civilizations. But
White's lone Peruvian odyssey was most unusual. A story
pseudonymously penned by one of the greats in the genre._

where the world is quiet

_by ... C. H. Liddell_

Fra Rafael saw strange things, impossible things. Then there
was the mystery of the seven young virginal girls of
Huascan.

* * * * *

Fra Rafael drew the llama-wool blanket closer about his narrow
shoulders, shivering in the cold wind that screamed down from Huascan.
His face held great pain. I rose, walked to the door of the hut and
peered through fog at the shadowy haunted lands that lifted toward the
sky--the Cordilleras that make a rampart along Peru's eastern border.

"There's nothing," I said. "Only the fog, Fra Rafael."

He made the sign of the cross on his breast. "It is the fog that
brings the--the terror," he said. "I tell you, _Senor_ White, I have
seen strange things these last few months--impossible things. You are
a scientist. Though we are not of the same religion, you also know
that there are powers not of this earth."

I didn't answer, so he went on: "Three months ago it began, after the
earthquake. A native girl disappeared. She was seen going into the
mountains, toward Huascan along the Pass, and she did not come back. I
se