The Equinox (Volume I, Number VI)

THE EQUINOX It was a faint tinkle, like a distant cow—bell, or like a chime heard far off, heard from the snow. There was an icy quality in the note. “ Where are you ? " " I—I—” she broke off. His eyes lit with joy. “I am in the sand; I am buried to the waist in the sand. I see nothing but sand." His face {ell again. ”What is sand?” he asked. " Oh—just sand, you know. Leagues and leagues of sand; like a great bowl of sand." “ But what is sand ? " " Sand—oh! sand is God, I suppose." There was a patience and weariness in her voice, as of one who has suffered long and is at rest, or convalescent. “And who are you ? " She did not answer the question. “ Now I see sky,” she said. " Sky is God, too, I think." “ Then do you see God ? " "Oh no! Ithink I am God, somehow. It is all like it was before, long ago. I was once a spider in the sand. God is a spider; the Universe is flies. Iam a fly, too. . . . And now the desert is full of flies.” Rolles bit his lip; his face was drawn with pain. At that moment he looked an old man. “Black flies," she went on. " Horrible white maggots. And now there are corpses. The maggots play about their mouths and eyes. There are three corpses that were God when they were alive. I killed Him. That was 130