August Thorp

Derleth Bradbury McClusky

 Me and Buck were having an
argument about them flakes and
scales on my jumper. "Listen,”
says lie, "I’m laying my month’s
pay that if you’ll take my ad-
vice, you’ll get help — pronto!”
I took the bet.

"For all the tea in China,”

Buck says,"you’ve got infec-
tious dandruff-^— germs lots of —
’em! And bugs like
to .fight
'bottle bacillus’ you need anti-
WHEN INFECTION IS PRESENT septic action —
and massage!”

Get After the Germs Soon’s

Antiseptic,
we got our
I
1

went
Listerine
to work and
kept going! Buck was right.
That’s what Listerine Antiseptic does — kills millions Holy Smoke! Could I see an
on scalp and hair. improvement!
Maybe
that is why, in a series of tests where dandruff Listerine Antiseptic and mas-
sufferersused Listerine Antiseptic twice a day, 76% sage really got after those flakes
showed marked improvement in, or complete
either and scales, eased up that itch-
disappearance of, the symptoms of dandruff in 30 days. — ing. -The old- scalp andTiairfelt
like a million —
looked swell!
Just douse Listerine Antiseptic on and follow with Glad I lost that bet! Buck took
vigorous, finger-tip massage. See how those distressing the dough and we made liberty
flakes and scales begin to disappear. Note how itching together. Good guy, Buck!
is relieved. Observe how wonderfully fresh your hair
and scalp feel, smell and look:

This is the treatment that doesn’t fool that has

:

helped thousands. Listerine Antiseptic is the same anti-

septic that has been famous for more than 60 years in
the field of oral hygiene.

Lambert PharmacAl Company, St. Louis, Mo.

The Tested Treatment

LISTERINE ANTISEPTIC for Infectious Dandruff

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 "O VERY important discovery relating to mental as the laws of breathing, eating and
# mind power, sound thinking and cause sleeping. All fixed laws of nature are as fasci-
and effect, as applied to self -advancement, was nating to study as they are vital to understand
known centuries ago, before the masses could for success in life.

read and write.

You can learn to find and follow every basic
Much has been written about the wise men of law of life. You can begin at any time to dis-
old. A. popular fallacy has it that their secrets cover a whole new world of interesting truths.
of personal power and successful living were You can start ~at once to awaken your inner
lost to the world. Knowledge of nature’s laws, powers of self-understanding and self-advance-
accumulated through the ages, is never lost. ment. You can learn from one of the world’s
At times the great truths possessed by the known in America in
oldest institutions, first
sages were hidden from unscrupulous men in 1694. Enjoying the high regard of hundreds
high places, but never destroyed. of leaders, thinkers and teachers, the order is
known as the Rosicructan Brotherhood. Its
Why Were Their Secrets complete name is the “Ancient and- Mystital
Closely Guarded? Order Rosae Crucis,” abbreviated by the ini-
Only recently, as time is measured; not more tials “AMORC.” The teachings of the Order
than twenty generations ago, less than 1/1 00th are not sold, for it is not a commercial organi-
of 1% of the earth’s people were thought zation, nor is ita religious sect. It is a non-
capable of receiving basic knowledge about the profit fraternity, a brotherhood in the true
laws of life, for it is an elementary truism that sense.
knowledge is power- and that power cannot be
entrusted to the ignorant and the unworthy. - Not For General Distribution
Wisdom is not readily attainable by the gen- Sincere men and women, in search of the truth
eral public; nor recognized when right within, —those who wish to fit in with the ways of
reach The average person absorbs a multitude the world—are invited to write for a compli-
of details about things, but goes through life mentary copy of the sealed booklet, “The Mas-
without ever knowing where and how to ac- tery of Life.” It tells how to contact the librarian
quire mastery of the fundamentals of the inner of the archives of AMORC for this rare, knowl-
—
mind that mysterious silent something which edge. This booklet is not intended for general
“whispers” to you from within. distribution; nor is it sent without request. It
is therefore suggested that you write for your
Fundamental Laws of Nature: copy to Scribe K. J. Y
Your accomplishments and weaknesses
habits,
are the effects' of causes. Your thoughts and T, ROSIC RUCIANS
actions are governed by fundamental laws. Ex- {AMORC j
ample: The law of compensation is as funda- San Jose California
 THE EYE /kMB THE
by ©©EraaOdl Wamdreo
This by Donald Wandrei contains 21 tales and an Introduction.
first collection of stories
Among the stories are such classics as The Painted Mirror, It Will Grow- On You, The
Lady m Gray, The Tree-Men of M’Bwa, and The Red Brain, printed here in its entirety
for the first time. Here are both weird talcs and science-fiction adventures in a
selection the author considers his best work. $3.00 the ccpy.
v
JUMBEE AMD ©YHiR UM6AIMNY TALES
by EHiepry S. Wliifeheati
Her© for the first time in book, form are 14 of the outstanding macabre tales from early
issues of Weird Tales, Strange Tales, and Adventure, by a man H. P. Lovecraft hailed
as one of the best writers ever to contribute to Weird Tales. .Stories of Voodoo and
obeahs, tales of the mysterious West Indies, including such masterpieces as Cassius,
Passing of a God,'' Mrs. Lorriquer, The Shadows, The Black Beast, etc. A book
Arkham House is proud to publish I $3.00 the copy.
yr
“
“LOST WORLDS
by (CDark Astofam Sonitta
This second collection of Smith’s tales has 22 stories,, including The Gorgon, The
’[reader in the Dust, The Hunters from Beyond, The Beast of -Averoigne, etc. Splendid
and terrible tales of-Hyperborea, Zothique, Xicca'rph and other vanished worlds, written
as only Smith can write them! $3.00 the copy.

toy Mo Po 'L®veeraiffti
A surprise book, containing prose fragments, revisions, ghost-written pieces among' —
them, Imprisoned with, the Pharaohs, Medusa’s Coil, The Thing in the Moonlight, Notes
on the Writing of Weird Fiction, etc.; here are appreciations of HPL by Frank Belknap
Long, Winfield Townley Scott, and others; and here are too —
photographs of Love-
craft, his study, his script, his drawings, making of this book a “must” book for the fans.
$3.00 the copy.

WARNING TO THE FANS! — It cannot be said too strongly that THE TIME TO
ORDER IS NOW, IN ADVANCE, for all four of our books, and also for SLEEP
NO MORE!, the horror anthology, described in our catalog. The first Lovecraft omnibus
is gone; so is Smith’s OUT OF SPACE AND TIME. There are left ONLY 49 copies
of SOMEONE IN THE DARK, by August Derleth, and 123 copies of BEYOND THE
WALL OF SLEEP, by H. P. Lovecraft. A good many fans missed out on the first
two AH titles, and someone will miss out on these new books also. IF ADVANCE
ORDERS justify, Arkham House will go ahead with plans to publish collections by Rob-
ert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, and two others in 1945! Send for our catalog, and

ARKHAM HOUSE, Sauk City, Wisconsin. .

Please send me the following, for which I enclose payment in full:

........ copies of BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP, at $5.00.
copies of SOMEONE IN' THE DARK, at $2.00.
........ copies of THE EYE AND THE FINGER, at $3.00.
........ copies of JUMBEE AND OTHER UNCANNY TALES, at $3,00,
copies of LOST WORLDS, at $3.00, ^to be delivered on publication.
........ copies of MARGINALIA. .at $3.00, to be delivered on publication.
copies of SLEEP NO MORE, at $2.00.

<'

Address - ;
 teWi
H®pa0s .¥in®j®
,

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 er in
By AUGUST DERLETH
'’Searchers after’ horror haunt strange, far nally, a country where the only sounds are
places. For them are the catacombs of Ptole- the cries of the owls, the whippoorwills,
mais, and the carven mausolea of the night- and the eerie loons at night, and the wind’s
mare countries. They climb to the moonlit voice in the trees, and—but is it always
towers of ruined Rhine castles, and falter
the wind’s voice in the trees?- And who
down black cob webbed -steps beneath the scat-
can say whether the snapped twig is the
tered stones of -forgotten cities in Asia. The
haunted wood and the desolate mountain are —
sign of an animal passing or of some-

their shrines, and they linger around the sinis- thing more, some other creature beyond
ter monoliths on uninhabited islands. But the man’s ken? V

true epicure in the terrible, to whom a new For the forest surrounding the aban-
thrill of unutterable ghastliness is the chief doned lodge at' Rick’s Lake had a curious
end and justification of existence, esteems reputation long Before I myself knew it,
most of all the ancient lonely farmhouses of
*.
,
a reputation which transcended similar
backwoods regions; for there the dark ele-
stories about similar primeval places. There
ments of strength, solitude, grotesqueness and
were odd .rymors about something that
ignorance combine to form, the perfection of
the hideous,” —
Hi P, Lovecraft. ,
dwelt in the depths of the forest’s dark-
—
ness by no means the conventional wild
NTIL whisperings of ghosts —
of something half-

U
recently, if a traveler in
north central Wisconsin took the animal, half-man, fearsomely spoken of by

left fork at the junction of the such natives as inhabited the edges of that
Brule River highway and the Chequamegon region, and referred to. only by stubborn

pike on the way to Pashepaho, he would head-shakings among the Indians who oc-
find himself in country, so primitive that it casionally came out of that country and
would seem remote from all human con- made their way south. The forest had an
tact. If he drove on along the little used evil reputation; it was nothing short of

road, he might in time pass a few tumble- that; and already, before the turn of the
down shacks where presumably people had century, if had a history that gave pause
once lived and which have long ago been even to the most intrepid adventurer.
taken back by the encroaching forest; it is The first record of it was left in the
not desolate country, but an area thick with writings of a missionary on his way through
growth, and over all its expanse there per- that country to come to the aid of a tribe
sists an intangible aura of the sinister, a of Indians reported to the post at Che-
kind of ominous oppression of the spirit quamegon Bay in the north to be starving.
quickly manifest to even the most casual Fr. Piregard vanished, but the Indians later
traveler, for the road he has taken becomes brought in his effects: a sandal, his rosary,
ever more and more difficult to travel, and. and a prayer-book in which he had written
is eventually lost just short of a deserted certain curious words which had been care-
lodge built on the edge of a clear blue lake fully preserved: "I have the conviction that
around which century-old trees brood eter- some creature is following me. I thought at

The forest had an evil reputation. There were^ odd rumors of something
unspeakable that dwelt in the depths of its darkness
Heading by BORIS DOLGOV

9
10 WEIRD TALES
first it was a bear, but I am now compelled thing dreamed of by even the most learned
to believe that something incredibly
-it is archeologist. Only one of them vanished,
more monstrous than anythingof this earth. and no trace of him was ever found. The
Darkness is falling, and I believe I have others came back out of the forest and in
developed a slight delirium, for I persist in the course of time were .lost somewhere
hearing strange music and other curious among other people in the United-States
sounds which can surely not derive from all save a half-breed known as Old Peter,

any natural source. There is also a dis- who waTbbsessed with the idea that there
turbing illusion as of great- footsteps which were mineral deposits in the vicinity of the
actually shake the earth, and Ijhave several woodTand occasionally went to camp on its

times encountered a very large footprint edge, being careful not to venture in.
which varies, in shape. . . was inevitable that the Rick’s Lake
It

legends would ultimately reach the atten-

rgTHE second record is far more sinister. tion of Professor Upton Gardner of the
When Big Bob Hiller, one of the most State University; he had completed collec-
rapacious lumber barons of the entire mid- tions of Paul Bunyan, Whiskey Jack and
west,- began to encroach upon the Rick’s Hodag tales, and was engaged upon a com-
Lake country in the middle of the last cen- pilation of place legends when he first en-
tury, he could not fail to be impressed by countered the curious half-forgotten tales
the stand of pine in the area near the lake;; that emanated from the region of Rick’s
and, though he did not own it, he followed Lake., I discovered later that his first reac-

the usual custom of the lumber barons and tion to them was one of casual interest;
sent, his men in from an adjoining piece he legends abound in out-of-the-way places,
did own, under the intended explanation and there was nothing to indicate that these
that he did not know where his line rah. were of- any more import than others.
Thirteen men failed to return from that True, there was no similarity in the strict-

first work on the edge of the forest

day’s est sense of the word to the more familiar
area surrounding Rick’s Lake; two of their tales; Tor, while the usual legends con-
bodies were never recovered; four were cerned themselves, with ghostly appearances
found — inconceivably— in the lake, several of men and animals, lost treasure, tribal be-
miles from where they had been cutting liefs, and the like, those of Rick’s Lake
timber; the others were discovered at vari- were curiously unusual in their insistence
ous places in the forest. ^Hiller thought he upon utterly outre creatures —or "a crea-
had a lumber war on his" hands; laid his - ture”-- —since no one had ever reported see-
men off to mislead his unknown opponent, -
ing moire than '‘one even vaguely in the
and then suddenly ordered them back to forest’s darkness, half-man, half-beast,
work in the forbidden region. After he with always the hint that this description
had lost five more men, Hiller pulled out, was inadequate in that it did injustice to the
and no hand since his time touched the narrator’s concept of what it was that
forest, save for one or two individuals who lurked there in the vicinity of the lake.
took up land there and moved into the Nevertheless, Professor Gardner would in

area. all probability have done little more than

One and all, these individuals moved out add the legends as he heard them to his
within a short time, saying little, but hint- it had not been for the reports
collection, if
ing much. Yet, the nature of their whis- —seemingly unconnected of two curious —
pered hints was such that they were soon facts, and the, accidental discovery of a
forced to abandon-any explanation; so in- " third.

credible were the tales they told, with over- The two were both newspaper
facts
tones of something too horrible for descrip- accounts by Wisconsin papers
carried ‘

tion, of age-old evil which preceded any- within a week of each other. The first was
 THE DWELLER IN DARKNESS 11
» _
a terse, half-comic report headed: Sea But that. was after- Professor Gardner
Serpent in Wisconsin Lake? and read: vanished.
"Pilot Joseph X. Castleton, on test flight For he did vanish; after sporadic reports
over northern Wisconsin yesterday, re- from Rick’s Lake over a period of three
ported seeing a large animal of some kind months, all word from the lodge ceased en-

bathing by night in a forest lake in the tirely, and nothing further was heard of

vicinity ofChequamegon. Castleton was Professor Upton Gardner.

caught in a thundershower and was flying Laird came to my room at the Univer-
low at the time, when, in an effort to ascer- sity Club one night in October; his
late
tain his whereabouts, he looked down when frank blue eyes were clouded, his lips tense,
lightning flashed, and saw what appeared his brow furrowed, and there was every-
to be a very large animal rising from the thing to show that he' was in a state of
waters of a lake below him, and vanish moderate excitation which did not derive
into the forest. The pilot added no de- from liquor. I assumed that he was work-
tails to his story, but asserts that the crea- ing too hard; the first period tests in his

ture he saw was not the 'Loch Ness mon- University of Wisconsin classes were just
ster.” over;and Laird habitually took tests seri-
The second story was the utterly fan- —
ously even as a student he had done so,
tastic tale of the discovery of the body and now as an instructor, he was doubly
of Fr. Piregard, well-preserved, in the hol- conscientious.
low trunk of a tree along the Brule River. But it was not that. Professor Gardner
At first called a lost member of the Mar- had been missing almost a month now, and_
quette-Joliet Expedition, Fr. Piregard was it was this which preyed on his mind. He
quickly Identified. To this report was ap: said as much in so many words, adding,
pended a frigid statement by the President "Jack, I’ve got to go up there and see what
of the State Historical Society dismissing I can do."
the discovery as a hoax. "Man, if the sheriff and the posse
The discovery Professor Gardner made haven’t discovered anything, what can you
was simply that an old friend was actually do?” I asked.
the owner of the abandoned lodge and "For one thing, I know more than they
most of the shore of Rick’s Lake. do.”
The sequence of events was thus clearly "If so, why didn’t. you tell them?”
inevitable. Professor Gardner instantly "Because it’s not the sort of thing they’d
associated both newspaper accounts with pay any attention to.”
the Rick’s Lake legends; this might not "Legends?”
have been enough to stir him to drop his "No.”
researches into the general mass of legends He was looking at me speculatively, as if
abounding in Wisconsin for specific re- wondering whether he. could trust me. I
search of quite another kind, but the occur- was suddenly conscious of the conviction
rence of something even more astonishing that he did know something which he, at
sent him posthaste to the owner of the least, regarded with the gravest concern;
abandoned lodge for permission to take the and at thesame time I had the curious sen-
place over in the interests of science. What sation of premonition and warning that I
spurred him to take this, action was noth- have ever experienced. In that instant the
ing less than a request from the curator of entire room seemed tense, the air electri-
the state museum to visit his office late one fied.
night and view a new exhibit which had "If I go up there — do you think you
arrived. He went there in the company of could go along?”
Laird Dorgan, and it was Laird who came "I guess I could manage.”
to me. "Good.” He took a turn or two about
fr2 'WEIRD TALES
the room, his eyes brooding, looking at me nestly, "Because when it came in it' had fill

from time to time, still- betraying uncer- the appearance of being completely pre-
tainty and an inability to make up his mind. served, as if by some natural embalming
"Look, Laird—sit down and take it easy. process. It wasn’t. It was frozen. It

That caged lion stuff isn’t good for your began to thaw out that night. And there
nerves.” were certain things about it that indicated
that Fr. Piregard hadn't been dead the

H E TOOK my advice; he sat down, cov-

ered his face with his hands, and
shuddered. For a moment I was alarmed;
three centuries history said he had. The
body began to go to pieces in a dozen ways
— but no crumbling into dust, nothing like
but he snapped out of it in a few seconds, that. Gardner estimated that he hadn’t
leaned back, and lit a cigarette. been dead ov.er five years. Where had" he
"You know those legends about Rick’s been in the meantime?”
Lake, Jack?” He was quite sincere. I would not at
I assured him that I knew them and the first have believed it. But there was a cer-
history of -the place from the beginning tain disquieting earnestness about Laird
as much as had been recorded. that forbade any levity on Tny .part. If I

"And those stories in the papers I men- had treated his story as a joke, as I had the
tioned to you?” impulse to-do, he would have shut up like
The stories, too. I remembered them a clam, and walked out of_.my room to
since Laird had discussed with me their brood about this thing in secret, with Lord
effect on his employer. knows what harm to himself. For a little
"That second one, about Fr. Piregard,” while I said absolutely nothing.
he began, hesitated, stopped. But then, "You don’t believe it.”

taking a deep breath, he began again. "You "I haven’t said SO.”
know, Gardner and I went over to the "I can-feel it.”

curator’s office one night last spring.” "No. It’s, hard to take. 'Let’s say I be-

"Yes, I was east at the time.” lieve in your sincerity.”

"Of course. Well,- we went over there. "That’s fair enough,” he said grimly.
The curator had something to show us. "Do you believe in me sufficiently to go
What do you think it was?” along up to the lodge and find out what
"No idea. What was it?” may have happened there?”
"That body in the tree!” "Yes, I do.”
"No!” "But I think you'd better read these
"Gave us quite a jolt. There it was, excerpts from Gardner’s letters first.” He
hollow trunk and all, just the way it had put them down_on my desk like a chal-
been found. It had been shipped down to lenge. He had copied them off onto a
the museum for exhibition. But it was single sheet of paper, and as I took this up

—
never exhibited, of course for a very good he. went on, talking rapidly, explaining that
the letters Had been those written by Gard-
reason. When Gardner saw it, he thought
it was a waxwork. But it wasn’t.” ner from the lodge.
"You don’t mean that it was the real
_When he finished, I turned to the ex-
thing?” cerpts and read:

Laird nodded. "I know it’s incredible.”

"I cannot deny that there is about the lodge,
"It’s just not possible.”
the lake, even the forest an aura of evil, of

But
"Well,
It was
yes,
so.
I suppose it’s

why it wasn’t ex-

That’s
impossible;
impending —
danger it is. more than that,
Laird, if I could explain it, but archeology is
hibited — out and buried.”
just taken my forte, and not fiction. For it would take
"I don’t quite follow that.” fiction,. I think, to do justice to this thing 1
He leaned forward and said very ear- feel. Yes, there are times when I have
 THE DWELLER IN DARKNESS 13
d _
file distinct someone or something
feeling that more For God’s sake
that rides the wind.
is watching me out of the forest or from the . . those accursed fragments!
. . Something . .

lake —
there does not seem to be a distinction in the lake, too, and at night the sounds!
as I would like to understand it, and while How still; and then suddenly those horrible
it does not make me uneasy nevertheless it is flutes, those watery ululations! Not a bird,
enough to give me pause. I managed the not an animal then —only those ghastly sounds.
other day to make contact with Old Peter, the And the voices! . . Or is it but dream? Is
”
half-breed. He was at the moment a little the it my own voice I hear in the darkness? . . .

worse for firewater, but when I mentioned the

lodge and the forest to him, he drew into I found myself increasingly shaken as I
himself like a clam. But he did put words read those excerpts. Certain implications
to it: he called it the Wendigo you are fa-
miliar with this legend, which properly be-
— and hints lodged between the lines of what
Professor Gardner had written were sug-
longs to the French-Canadian country.”
and I felt
gestive of terrible, ageless evil,
that there was opening up before Laird
rpHAT was the first letter, written about
Dorgan and myself an adventure so in-
a week after Gardner had reached the
-**-

credible, so bizarre, ^and so unbelievably

abandoned lodge on Rick’s Lake. The
dangerous that we might well not return to
second was extremely terse, and had been
tell it.
sent by special delivery.
Yet even then there was a lurking
‘'Will you wire Miskatonic University at doubt in my mind that we would say any-
Arkham s Massachusetts, to ascertain if there thing about whatwe found at Rick’s Lake.
is available for study a photostatic copy of a "What do you say?” asked Laird impa-
book known as the Necronomicon, by an Ara- tiently.
bian writer who signs himself Abdul Alhaz- , "I’m going,”
red? Make inquiry also for the Pnakotic “Good! Everything’s ready. I’ve even
Manuscripts and the Book of Eibon, and de- got a dictaphone and batteries enough to
termine whether it is possible to purchase run it. I’ve arranged for the sheriff of the
through one of the local bookstores a copy of
county at Pashepaho to replace Gardner's
The Outsider and Others by H. P. Lovecraft,
notes, and leave everything just the wUy it
published byArkham House last year. I be-
was.”
lieve that thesebooks individually and col-
"A dictaphone,” I broke in. "What
lectively may be
helpful in determining just
what that haunts this place.
For there is for?”
"Those sounds he wrote about—we can
it is

something; make ho mistake about that; I

am convinced of it, and when I tell you that settle that for once and all._ If they’re
I believe ithas lived here not for years, but for there be heard, the dictaphone will
to
centuries —
perhaps even before the time of record them; if they’re just imagination, it
—
man ypu will understand that I may be on
the threshold of great discoveries.”
won’t.” He paused, his eyes very grave
"You know. Jack, we may not come out of
this thing?”
Startling as this letter was, the third and
"I know.”
last, was even more so. For an interval of
I did not say so, because I knew that
a fortnight went by between the second and
Laird, too/ felt, the same way I did: that
and it was apparent that some-
third letters,
we were going like two dwarfed Davids to
thing had happened to threaten Professor
face an adversary greater than any Goliath,
Gardner's composure, for his third letter
an adversary invisible and unknown, who
was even in this selected excerpt marked by
bore no name and was shrouded in legend
extreme perturbation.
and fear, a dweller not only in the darkness
“Everything evil here. I don’t know
. .
- of the wood but in that greater, darkness
whether it is the Black Goat With a Thousand which the mind of man has sought to ex-
Young or the Faceless One and/or something plore since his dawn.
14 j -WEIRD TALES
1*
II ” TST beside it there wuz two things,
said the half-breed.
HERIFF COWAN was at. the lodge "Don’t pay no attention to him,” said
S when we arrived. Old Peter was with the sheriff then.
him. The sheriff was a tall,' saturnine in- "What two, things?” demanded Laird.
(
\
dividual clearly of Yankee stock; though "Jest things,” replied the half-breed,
representing the fourth generation of his snickering. "Heh, heh! Ain’t no other
family in the area, he spoke with a twang way to tell it—warn’t human, warn’t ani-

which doubtless had persisted from genera- mal, jest things.”

tion to generation. The half-breed was a Cowan was irritated. He became sud-
dark-skinned, ill-kempt fellow; he had a denly brusque; he ordered the half-breed
way of saying little, and. from time to time to keep still, "and went on to say that if
grinned or snickered as at some secret we needed him, he would be at his office in
joke. Pashepaho. He did not explain how we
"I brung up express that come some time were to make contact with him, since there
past for the professor,” said the sheriff. was no telephone at the lodge, but plainly
"From some -place in Massachusetts was he had no high regard for the legends
one of ’em* and the other from Sac Prairie, abounding about the area into which, we
down near Madison. Didn’t seem t’ me had ventured with such determination. The
twas worth sendin’ back. So I took and ^half-breed us with an almost
regarded
brung ’em with the keys. Don’t know that stolid indifference, broken only by his sly
you fellers’ll git anyw’eres. My posse and grin from Time to time, and his dark eyes
me went through the hull woods, didn’t see examined our luggage with keen specula-
a thing.” tion and interest. Laird met his gaze from
"You ain’t tellin’ ’em everything,” put rtime to time, and 'each' time Did Peter
in the half-breed, grinning. shifted his eyes indolently. The sheriff
"Ain’t no more to tell.” went on talking; the notes and drawings
"What about that carvin’?” the missing man had made were on the
The sheriff shrugged irritably. "Damn desk he had used in the big room which
it, Peter, that ain’t got nothin’ to do .with made up almost the entire, ground floor of
the professor’s disappearance.” the lodge, just where he had found them;
"He made a drawin’ of it, didn’t he?" they were the property of the State of Wis-
So pressed, the two
sheriff confided that consin and were to be returned to the
members of had stumbled upon a
his posse sheriff’s office when, we had finished with
great slab of rock. in the center of the wood; them.
it was mossy and overgrown, but there was At the threshold he turned for -a
upon it an odd' drawing, plainly as old- as parting shot to say he hoped we would not
the forest — probably the work of one of
the primitive Indian tribes once known to
be staying too long, because "While
givin’ in to any of' them crazy ideas^— it
I ain’t

inhabit northern Wisconsin before the jest ain’t been so healthy for some of the
Dacotah Sioux. and the Winnebago people who came here.”
Old Peter grunted with contempt. "No "The half-breed knows or suspects some-
Indian drawing.” thing,” said Laird at once. "We’ll have. to
The sheriff shook this off and went on. get in touch with him sometime when the
The drawing represente'd some' kind of not around,”
sheriff’s
creature, but no one could tell what it was; "Didn’t Gardner write that he was pretty
it was certainly not a man, but on the other close-mouthed when it came to concrete
hand, it did not seem to, be hairy, like a data?”
beast. Moreover, the unknown artist had "Yes, but he indicated the way out.
forgotten to put in a face. Firewater.”
 THE DWELLER IN DARKNESS 15

E WENT to work and settled our- side. Indeed, the setting was father the
selves, storing our food supplies, set- opposite;- under the afternoon sunlight, the
ting up the dictaphone, getting things into old lodge, the lake, the high forest all
readiness for a stay of at least a fortnight; around had a pleasant air of seclusion an —
our supplies were sufficient for this length air which made the contrast with the intan-
of time, and if we had to remain longer, gible aura of evil all. the more pointed and
we could always go into Pashepaho for fearsome. The fragrance of the pines, to-
more food. Moreover, Laird had brought gether with the freshness of the water
fully two dozen dictaphone cylinders, so served, too, to emphasize the intangible
that we had plenty of them for an indefinite mood of menace.
time, particularly since we did not intend We turned at last to the material left on
to use them except when we slept and — Professor Gardner’s desk. The express
this would not be often, for we had agreed packages contained,, as expected, a copy of
that one of us would watch while the other The Outsider and Others, by H. P. Love-
took his rest, an arrangement we were not craft,shipped by the publishers, andl photo-
sanguine enough to believe would hold static copies of manuscript and printed

good without fail, hence the machine. It pages taken from the IV lye h Text and Lud-
was not until after we had settled pur be- wig Prinn’s De Vermis My stents appar- —
longings that we turned to the things the ently sent for to supplement the earlier data
sheriffhad brought, and meanwhile, we dispatched to the professor by the librarian
had ample opportunity to become aware of of Miskatonic University, for we found
the very definite aura of the place. among the material brought back by the
For it was not imagination that there sheriff certain pages from the Necronomi-
was a strange aura about the lodge and the con, in the translationby Olaus Wormius,
grounds. It was not alone the brooding, and likewise from the Pnakotic Manu-
almost sinister stillness, not alone the tall scripts. But it was not these pages, which
pines encroaching upon the lodge, not for the most part were unintelligible to us,
alone the blue- black waters of the lake, but which held our attention. It was the frag-
something more than that: a hushed, al- mentary notes left by Professor Gardner.
most menacing air of waiting, a kind of
aloof assurance that was ominous-^as one T WAS had not
quite evident that he
might imagine a hawk might feel leisurely I had time do more than put down
to
cruising above prey it knows will not escape such questions and' thoughts as had oc-
its talons. Nor was this a fleeting impres- curred to him, and, while there was little
sion, for it was obvious almost at' once, and assimilation manifest, yet there was about
it grew with sure steadiness throughout the' what he had written a certain terrible ..sug-
hour or so that we worked there; more- gestiveness which grew to colossal propor-
over, it was so plainly to be felt, that Laird tions as everything he had not put down
commented upon it as if he had long ago became obvious.
accepted it, and knew that I too had done “Is the slab (a) only an ancient ruin,
so! Yet there was nothing primary to (b) a marker similar to a tomb, (c) or
which this could be attributed. There are a focal point for Him? If the latter, from
thousands of lakes like Rick’s in northern outside? Or from beneath? (NB: Noth-
Wisconsin and Minnesota, and while many ing to show that the thing has been dis-
of them are not in forest areas, those which turbed.)
are do not differ greatly in their physical "Cthulhu or Kthulhut. In Rick’s Lake?
aspects from Rick’s; so there was nothing Subterrene passage to Superior and the sea
in the appearance of the place which at all via the St.Lawrence? (NB: Except for the ,

contributed to the brooding sense of hor- aviator’s story, nothing to show that the
ror which seemed to invade us from out- Thing has anything to do with the water.
 16 WEIRD TALES
Probably not one of the water- beings. "It doesn’t register,” I answered, but
"Hastur. But manifestations do not even' as I spoke I remembered the hush-

seem have been of air beings either.

to hush that had- attended the severing of old
"Yog-Sothoth. Of earth certainly but — Professor Partier’s connection with the
he is riot the 'Dweller in Darkness.’ (NB: University of Wisconsin. It had been
The Thing, whatever it is, must be of the given out to the press that the old man had
earth deities, even though it travels in time been somewhat too liberal in his lectures in
and space. It could possibly be more than anthropology—-that is, that he had "Com-
one, of which only the earth being is occa- munistic leanings!” —which everyone who
sionally visible. I thaqua, perhaps?) knew Partier realized far from the
was
'*
'Dweller in Darkness.’ Could He_be facts. But he had said strange things in his
the *same as the Blind, Faceless One? He lectures, he had talked of horrible, forbid-
could be truly said to.be dwelling in dark- den matters, and it had been thought best
ness. Nyarlathotep? Or Shub-Niggurath?
. to let him out quietly. Unfortunately,
v
"What of fire? There must be a deity Partier went out trumpeting in his con-
here, 'too. But no mention. (NB: Pre- temptuous manner, and it had been difficult
sumably, if the Earth and Water Beings op- to hush the matter up satisfactorily.
pose those of Air, then they must oppose "He’s Jiving down in Wausau now,”
those-of-Fire as well.. Yet there is evidence said Laird.
^
here and there to show that there is more "Do you suppose he could translate all
'constant struggle between Air and Water this?” I asked and knew that I had echoed
Beings than between those of Earth and the thought in Laird's mind.
Air. Abdul Alhazred is damnably obscure
in places. There is no due as to the iden-
"He’s almost a day away by car. We’ll
copy these notes, and if nothing happens
—
tity of Cthugha in that terrible footnote. if we can’t discover anything, we’ll go to
"Partier says I am on the wrong track. see him/'
I’m not convinced? Whoever it is that If nothing happened —
plays the music in the^night is a master of s
hellish cadence and rhythm. And, yes, of TF THE lodge by day had seemed brood-
cacophony. ( Cf Bierce and Chambers.”
:
- -L ing in an air of ominousness, by night
)
That was all. it seemed surcharged with menace. More-
"What incredible gibberish!” I ex- over, events began to take place with dis-
claimed. arming and insidious suddenness, begin-
.

And yet —and yet I knew instinctively it ning in mid-evening, when Laird and I
was not gibberish. Strange things had hap- were sitting over those curious photostats
pened here; things which demanded an ex- sent out by Miskatonic University in lieu of
planation which was not terrestrial; and the books _and manuscripts themselves,
here, in Gardner’s handwriting, was evi- which were far too valuable to permit out
dence to show that he had not only arrived of their- haven. The. first manifestation
at the same conclusion, but passed it. Howr was so simple that for some time neither of
ever it might sound, Gardner had written'it us noticed its strangeness. It was simply

in all seriousness, and clearly for his own the sound in the trees as of rising wind, the
use alone, since only the vaguest and most growing song among the pines. The night
suggestive outline seemed apparent. More- was warm, and all the windows of the
over, the notes had had a startling effect on lodge stood open. Laird commented on the
Laird; he had gone quite pale, and now wind, and went on giving voice to his per-
stood looking down as if he could not be- plexity regarding the fragments before us.
lieve- what he had seen. Not until half an hour had gone by and
"What is it?” Tasked. the sound of the wind had risen to the
"Jack —he was in contact with Partier.” -proportions of a gale did it'occur to Laird
 THE DWELLER IN DARKNESS 17

that something was wrong, and he looked even earth itself. And there was always
up, his eyes going from one open window that terror, the ominous sugges-
brooding
to another in growing apprehension. Then tion ofmenace from something far beyond
I, too, became aware. the grasp of such a puny intelligence as
Despite the tumult of the wind, no draft man’s.
of air had circulated in the room, not one
of the light curtains at the window was so
much as trembling!' THUS I
it .was with
prepared for my
some
vigil.
trepidation that
After Laird
With one simultaneous movement, both had gone to his 'room, which was at the
of us stepped out upon the broad veranda head of the stairs, with a door opening
of the lodge. upon a railed-in balcony looking down into
There was no wind, no breath of air stir- the lodge room where I sat with the book
ring to touch our hands and faces. There by Lovecraft, reading here and there in its
was only the sound in the forest. And both pages, I settled down to a kind of appre-
of us looked up to where the pines were hensive waiting. It was ndt"that I was

silhouetted against the star-swept heavens, afraid of what might take place, but rather
expecting their tops would be bending be- that I was afraid that what took place might
fore a high gale; but there was no move- be beyond my understanding. However,
ment whatever; the pines stood still, mo- as the minutes ticked past, I became en-
and the sound as of wind con-
tionless; grossed in The Outsider and Others, with
tinued from all around us. We stood on its hellish suggestions of 'aeon-old evil, of
the veranda for half an hour, vainly at- entities co-existent with all time and con-
tempting to determine the source of the terminous with all spaces, and I began to
—
sound and then, as unobtrusively as it had understand, however vaguely, a relation be-
begun, it stopped! tween the writings of this fantasiste and the
The hour was now approaching mid- curious notes Professor Gardner had made.
night, and Laird prepared for bed; he had The most disturbing factor in this cog"
slept little the previous night, and we had nizance was the knowledge that Professor
agreed that I was to take the first watch Gardner had made his notes independent
until four in the morning. Neither of us of the book I now read, since it had arrived

said much about the sound in the pines, but after his disappearance. Moreover, though
what was said indicated a desire to believe there were certain keys to what Gardner
that there was a natural explanation for had written in the first material he had re-
the phenomenon, if we could establish a ceived from Miskatonic University, there
point of contact for understanding. It was growing now a mass of evidence to in-
was inevitable, I suppose, that even in the dicate that the professor had had access to
face of all the curious facts which had come some other source of information.
to our attention, there should still be an' What was that source? Could he have
earnest wish to find a natural explanation.. learned something from Old Peter? Hardly
Certainly the oldest fear and the greatest likely. Could he have gone to Partier?
fear to which man is prey 'is fear of the It was not impossible that he had done so,
unknown; anything capable of rationaliza- though he had not imparted this informa-
tion and explanation cannot be feared; but tion to Laird. Yet it was not to be ruled
itwas growing hourly more patent that we out that he had made contact with still
were facing something which defied all another source of which there was no hint
known rationales and credos, but hinged among his notes.
upon a system of
belief that antedated even It was while I wa!s engaged in this en-
primitive man, and indeed, as scattered grossing speculation that I became con-
hints within the photostat pages from scious of the music. Itmay actually have
Miskatonic University suggested, antedated been sounding for some time before I
18 WEIRD TALES
heard it, but I do not think so. It was a ah-ah-ah-ngh aaaa-ngb aaa-ya-ya ' ’

curious melody that was being played, be- yaa . .

ginning as something, lulling and harmoni- stood for a minute absolutely frozen to
I

ous, and then subtly becoming cacophonous the veranda. I could not have uttered a

and demoniac, rising in tempo, though all sound if it had been necessary to save my
the time coming as from a great distance. life. The voice had ceased, but the trees
I listened to it with growing astonishment; still seemed to echo, its frightful syllables.
I was not at first aware of that sense of evil I heard Laird tumble from his bed, I heard
which fell upon me the moment I stepped him running down the stairs calling my
outside and became cognizant that the name, but I couldn’t answer. He came out
music emanated from the depths of the on the veranda and caught hold of my arm.
dark forest. There, too, I was sharply con- "Good God! What was that?"
scious of its weirdness; the melody was un- "Did you hear it?”
earthly, utterly bizarre and foreign, and the "I heard enough.”
instruments which were being used seemed We stood waiting for.it to sound again,
to be flutes, or certainly some variation of but there was no repetition of it. Nor was
flutes. there a repetition of the music. We re-

Up to that moment there was no really turned to the sitting room and waited there,
alarming manifestation. That is, there was neither of us able to sleep.
nothing but the suggestiveness of the two But there was not another manifestation
events which had’ taken place to inspire of any kind throughout the remainder of
There was, that night!
fear. in short, always a good
might be a natural ex-
possibility that there
Ill
planation about the sound as of wind and
that of music.
But now, suddenly, there occurred some-
npHE occurrences of that first night more

thing so utterly horrible, something so than anything else decided our direc-
-®-

fraught with terror, that I was at once made

tion on the following day. For, realizing
that we were too ill-informed to cope with
prey to the most terrible fear known to
any understanding with what was taking
man, a surging primitive horror of the un-
known, of something from outside for if — place, Laird set the dictaphone for that sec-
ond night, and we started out for Wausau
I had had doubts about the things sug-
and Professor Partier, planning to return
gested by -Gardner’s notes and the material
on the following day. With forethought,
accompanying them, I knew instinctively
Laird carried with him our copy of the
that they were unfounded, for the sound
notes Gardner had left, skeletal as they
that succeeded the strains of that unearthly
were.
music was of such a nature that it defied
Professor Partier, at first reluctant to see
description, and defies it even now. It was
us, admitted us finally to his study in the
simply a ghastly ululation, made by no
'heart of the Wisconsin city, and cleared
beast known to man, and certainly by no
books and papers from two chairs, so that
man. It rose to an awful crescendo and
we could sit down. Though he had the ap-
fell away into a silence that was the more pearance of an old man, wore a long white
terrible for this soul-searing crying. It beard, and a fringe of white hair straggled
began with a two-note call, twice repeated, from under his black skull cap, he was as
a frightful sound: "Y gnaiib! Ygnaiih!" agile as a young man; he was thin, his fin-
and then became a triumphant wailing cry gers were bony, his face gaunt, with deep,
that ululated out of the forest and info the black eyes, and his features were set in an
dark night like the hideous voice of the pit expression that was one of profound
itself: "Eb -ya-ya-ya-yahaaahaaahaaahaaa- cynicism, disdainful, almost contemptuous.
 THE DWELLER IN DARKNESS 19

and he made no effort to make us com- falter. He had embarked upon this ven-
fortable, beyond providing places for us to and he meant to see it through.
ture,
sit. "These are not forces with which com-
He recognized Laird as Professor Gard- mon men have been accustomed to deal,”
ner’s secretary, said brusquely that he was said the old man then. "We are frankly
a busy man preparing what would doubt- not equipped to do so.” He began then,
less be his last book for his publishers, and without other preamble, to talk of matters
he would be obliged to us if we would state so far removed from the mundane as to
the object of our visit as concisely as pos- be almost beyond conception. Indeed, it
sible. was some time before I began to compre-
"What do you know of Cthuihu?’’ asked hend what he was hinting at, for his con-
Laird bluntly. cept was so broad and breath-taking that
The professor’s reaction was astonish- it was difficult for anyone accustomed to

ing. From an old man whose entire atti- so prosaic an existence as mine to grasp.
tude had been one of superiority and aloof Perhaps it was because Partier began
disdain, he became instantly wary and alert; obliquely by suggesting that it was not
with exaggerated care he put down the Cthuihu or his minions who haunted
pencil he had been holding, his eyes never Rick's Lake, but dearly another; the ex-
once left Laird’s face, arid he leaned for- istence of the slab and what was carved
ward a over his desk.
little upon it clearly indicated the nature of the
"So,” he said, "you come to me.” He being who dwelled there from time to
-
laughed then, a laugh which was like the time. Professor Gardner had in final
cackling of some centenarian. "You come analysis got on to the right path, despite
to me to ask about Cthuihu. Why?” thinking that Partier did not believe it.

Laird explained curtly that we were ben; Who- was the Blind, Faceless One but
upon discovering what had happened to Nyarlathotep? Certainly not Shub-JMig-
Professor Gardner. He told as much as gurath, the Black Goat of a Thousand
he thought necessary, while the old man Young.
/ closed his eyes, picked up his pencil once
more and, tapping gently with it, listened
with marked care, prompting Laird from
time to time. When he had finished. Pro-
H ERE

and then
for something
Laird interrupted him to press
more understandable,
at last, realizing that we knew
fessor Partier opened his eyes slowly and nothing, the professor went on, still in that
looked from one to the other of us with an vaguely oblique manner, to expound
expression that was not unlike one of pity —
mythology a mythology of pre-human
mixed with pain. life not only on the earth, but on the stars
"So he mentioned me, did he? But of all the universe. "We know nothing,”
_I had no contact with him other than he. repeated from time to time. "We
one telephone call.” He pursed his lips. know nothing at all. But there are cer-
"He had more reference to an earlier con- tain signs, certain shunned places. Rick’s
troversy than to his discoveries at Rick’s Lake is one of them.” He spoke of be-
Lake. I would like now to give you a ings- whose very names were awesome —
little advice.” of the Elder Gods who live on Betelguese,
"That’s what we came for.” remote in time and space, who had cast
"Go away from that place, and forget out into space the Great Old Ones, led
all about it.” by Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth, arid num-
Laird shook his head in determina- bering among them the primal spawn of
tion. the amphibious -Cthuihu, the bat-like fol-
Partier estimated him, his dark eyes chal- lowers of Hastur the Unspeakable, of
lenging his decision; but Laird did not Lloigor, Zhar, and Ithaqua, who walked
20 WEIRD TALES
ment in some aspects of science than was
the winds and interstellar space, the earth
beings, Nyarlathotep hitherto believed possible, but of that, of
and Shub-Niggurath
— the evil beings sought always to _ course, nothing was known. The way in
who
triumph once more over the Elder Gods, which he consistently emphasized this in-
who had shut them out 'or imprisoned dicated very clearly that only a fool or an
them — Cthulhu long ago slept in the
as idiot would disbelieve, proof or no proof.
ocean realm of R’lyeh, as Hastur was im-- But in the next sentence, he admitted that
prisoned upon a black star near Aldebaran there was certain proof —
the revolting and
in the Hyades. Long before human be- bestial plaque bearing a representation of
ings walked the. earth, the conflict be-
• a hellish monstrosity walking on the winds
tween the Elder Gods and the Great Old above the earth found in the hand of
Ones had taken place; and from time to Josiah Alwyn when his body was discov-
time the Old Ones had made a resurgence ered on a small Pacific island seven months
toward power, sometimes to be stopped by after his incredible disappearance from
direct interference by the Elder Gods, but hishome in Wisconsin; the drawings made
more often by the agency of huntan or —
by Professor Gardner and, even more
non-human beings serving to bring about a than anything else, that curious slab of
conflict among the-beings of the elements, carven stone in the forest at Rick’s Lake.
for, as Gardner’s notes indicated, the evil "Cthugha,” he murmured then, won-
Old Ones were elemental forces. And deringly, 'Tve not read the footnote to
every time there had been a resurgence, •which he makes reference. And there’s
the mark of it had been left deep upon nothing in Lovecraft.” He shook his head.
—
man’s memory though every attempt was "No, I don’t know.” He looked up.
made to eliminate the (evidence and quiet "Can you frighten something out of the
4
survivors. half-breed?”
"What happened at Innsmouth, Massa- "We’ve thought of that,” admitted
chusetts, for instance?” he asked tensely. Laird.
"What took place at Dunwich? In the "Well, now, I advise a try. It seems
wilds of Vermont? At the old Tuttle house evident that he knows something— it may
on the Aylesbury Pike? What of the mys- be nothing but an exaggeration to which
terious cult of Cthulhu, and the utterly his more or less primitive mind has lent
strange voyage of exploration to the itself; but on the other hand —who can
Mountains of Madness? What beings dwelt say?"
on the hidden and shunned Plateau of
Leng? And what of Kadath in the Cold R /FORE than this Professor Partier- could
Waste? Lovecraft knew! Gardner and not or would not_ tell us. More-
many another have sought to discover those over, Laird was reluctant to ask, for there
secrets, to link the incredible happenings was obviously a damnably disturbing con-
which have taken place here and there nection between what he had revealed,
—
on the face of the planet but it is not de- however incredible it might be, and what
sired by the Old Ones that mere men Professor Gardner had written.
shall know too much. Be warned!” Our visit, however, despite its incon-
He took up Gardner’s notes without giv- clusiveness —
or perhaps because of it —
ing either of us a chance to say anything, had..a curious effect on us. The very in-
and studied them, putting on a pair of definitenessof the professor’s summary
gold-rimmed spectacles which made him and comments-, coupled with such frag-
look more ancient than ever, and going on mentary and disjointed evidence which had
talking, more to himself than to us, say- come to us independently of Partier, so
ing that it was held that the Old Ones bered us and increased Laird’s determina-
had achieved a higher degree of develop- tion to get to the bottom of the mystery
 THE DWELLER IN DARKNESS 21

surrounding Gardner’s disappearance, a it might be dark before they could re-

mystery which had now become enlarged turn.

to encompass the greater mystery of Rick’s But Laird was adamant, and finally the
Lake and the forest around it. half-breed, convinced by Laird’s insistence
On the following day we returned to that they could return to the lodge and
Pashepaho, and, as luck would have it, we even to Pashepaho, if Peter liked, before
passed Old Peter on the road leading from darkness fell, consented to lead us to the
town. Laird slowed down, backed up, and slab. Then, despite his unsteadiness, he
leaned out to meet the old fellow's specu- set off swiftly into the woods along a lane
lative gaze. that could hardly be called a trail, so faint
"Lift?” it was, and loped along steadily for al-

"Reckon so.” most a' mile before he drew up short and,

Old Peter got in and sat on the edge standing behind a tree, as if he were afraid
of the seat until Laird unceremoniously of being seen, pointed shakily to a little
produced a flask and offered it to him; open spot surrounded by high trees at
then his eyes lit up; he took it eagerly and enough of a distance that ample sky was
drank deeply,, while Laird made small visible overhead.
talk about life in the north- woods and "There — that’s it.”
encouraged the half-breed to talk about The slab was only partly visible, for
the mineral deposits he thought he could moss had grown over much of it. Laird,
find in the vicinity of Rick’s Lake. In however, was at the moment only second-
this way some distance was covered, and arily interested in it; it was manifest that
during this time, the half-breed retained the half-breed stood in mortal terror of
the flask, handing it- back at last when it the spot and wished only to escape.
was almost empty. He was not intoxi- "How would you like to spend the
cated in the strictest sense of the word, night there, Peter?” asked Laird.
but he was uninhibited, and fie made no The half-breed shot a frightened glance
protest when we took the lake road with- at him. "Me? Gawd, no!”
out stopping to let him out, though when Suddenly Laird’s voice steeled. "Unless
he saw the lodge and knew where he was, you tell us what it was you saw here, that’s

he said thickly that he was off his route, and what you're going to do.”
had to be getting back before dark. The half-breed was not so much the
He would have started back immedi- worse for liquor that he could not fore-

ately, but Laird persuaded him to come in see events —the possibility that Laird and
with the promise that he would mix him a I might overcome, him and tie him to a
drink. edge of this open space.. Plainly,
tree at the
He did. He mixed him as stiff a drink he considered a bolt for it, but he knew
as he could, and Peter downed it. that in his condition, he could not out-
Not until he had begun to feel its effects run us.
did Laird turn to the subject of what Peter "Don’t make me tell,” he said. "It

knew about the mystery of the Rick’s Lake ain’t supposed to be told. I ain’t never

country, and instantly then the half-breed told no one —

not even the professor.”
became close-mouthed, mumbling that he "We want to know, Peter,” said Laird
would say nothing, he had seen nothing, with no less menace.
it was all a mistake, his eyes shifting from

one to the other of us. But Laird per-

sisted. He had seen the slab of carven THE half-breed began to
turned and looked at the slab as
shake;
he if
he

stone, hadn’t he? Yes —

reluctantly. Would thought at any moment an inimical be-
he take us to it? Peter shook his head ing might rise from it and advance upon
violently. Not now. It was nearly dark. him with lethal intent. "I can’t, I can’t,”
77 , WEIRD TALES
/
he muttered, and then, forcing his blood- intelligence knew full well that machines
shot eyes to meet Laird’s once more, he were far more dependable than men, hav-
said in a low voice, "1 don’t know what ing neither nerves nor imagination, know-
it was. Gawd! it was awful. It was a ing neither fear nor hope. I think that at
Thing — didn’t have no face, hollered there most we counted upon hearing a repetition
till I thought my eardrums’d bust, and of the sounds of the previous night; not
them things that was -with it Gawd!” He — in our wildest dreams did we look for-
shuddered and backed away from the tree, ward To what we did actually hear,, for
toward us. "Honest t’ Gawd, I seen it the record mounted, from the prosaic to the
there one night. It jist come, seems like, incredible, from the incredible to the hor-
out of the air and there it was. a-singin' rible, and at last to a cataclysmic revela-

and a-wailin’ and them things playin’ that tion that left us completely ait away from
damn’ music. I guess I was crazy for a every credo of normal existence.
while afore I got away.” His voice broke,
his vivid memory recreated what he had T BEGAN with the occasional singing
seen; he turned, shouting harshly, "Let’s I of loons and owls, followed by a period
git outa here!” and ran back the way we of silence. Then there was once more
_had come, weaving among the trees. that familiar rushing sound, as of wind
Laird and I ran after him, catching up in the trees, and this was followed by the
easily, Laird reassuring him that we would curious cacophonous piping of flutes. Then
take him out of the woods in the car, and he there was recorded a series of sounds,
would be well away from the forest’s edge which I put down here exactly as we heard
before darkness overtook him. He was as them in that unforgettable evening hour:
convinced as I that there was nothing Ygnaiih! Ygnaiih! EEE-ya-ya-ya-yahaah-
imagined about the half -breed’s account, aaahaaa-ah-ba-.ab-ngh
.

' aaa-ngb ’
aaa-ya-ya-
that he had indeed told us all he knew; yaaa! (In a voice that was neither human
and he was silent all the way back from nor bestial, but yet of both.)
the highway to which we took Old Peter, (An increased tempo in the music, be-
pressing five dollars upon him. so that he coming more wild and demoniac.)
could forget what he had seen in liquor
if he were so inclined. Mighty Messenger Nyarlathotep — . .

"What do you think?” asked Laird when from the world, of Seven Suns to his
we reached the lodge once more. earth place, the Wood of N’gai, whither
shook my head.
I may come Hirh Who Is Not to be
"That wailing night before last,” said Named. There shall be abundance
.

Laird. "The sounds Professor- Gardner of those from the Black Goat of the
—
heard and now this. It ties up -damn- — Woods, the Goat with the Thousand
ably, horribly.’’ He turned on me with Young. (In a voice that was curi-
intense and fixed urgence. "Jack, are you ously human.)
game to visit that slab tonight?”
"Certainly." (A succession of odd sounds, as if
"We’ll do it.” audience-response: a buzzing and hum-
It was not until we were inside the ming, as of telegraph wires.)
lodge that we thought of the dictaphone,' Id! la! Shub-Niggurath! Ygnaiih!
and then Laird prepared at once to play Y gnaiih! EEE-yaa-yaa-haa-haaa-haaaa! (In
whatever had been recorded back to us. the original voice neither human nor beast,
Here at least, he reflected, was nothing yet both.)
dependent in any way upon anyone's
imagination; here was the product of the Ithaqua shall serve thee. Father of
machine, pure and simple, and everyone of the million favored ones, and Zhar shall
 THE DWELLER IN DARKNESS 23

be summoned from Arcturus, by the ''Listen to me! Leave this place. For-
command of "TJmr At-Tawil, Guardian get. But before you go, summon Cthugha.
of the Gate.” Ye shall unite in praise For centuries this has been the place
of Azathoth, of Great Cthulhu, of where evil beings from outermost cosmos
Tsathoggua. (The human voice have touched upon Earth. I know, I

again.) am theirs. They have taken me, as they

Go forth in his form or in whatever took Piregard and many others—all who
form chosen in the guise of man, and came unwarily within their wood and
destroy that which may lead them to whom they did not at once destroy. It
us. (The half -bestial, half -human is His wood —
the Wood of N’gai, the
voice once more.) terrestrial abode of the Blind, Faceless
One, the Howler in the Night, the
(An interlude of furious piping, accom- Dweller in Darkness, Nyarlathotep, who
panied once again by a sound as of the fears only Cthugha. I have been with
flapping of great wings.) him in the star spaces. T have been on
Ygnasih! Y’bthnk h’ ehye-n’ grkdV
. the shunned Plateau of Leng —
to Kadath
Ih . . . Id! Id! la! (Like a chorus.) in the Cold Waste, beyond the Gates, of
the Silver Key, even to Kythamil near
rriHESE sounds had been spaced in such Arcturus and Mnar, to N’kai and the Lake
-I- a way that of Hali, to K’n-yan and fabled Carcosa,
it seemed as if the beings

giving rise to them were moving about to Yaddith and Y’ha-nthlei near Inns-
within or around the lodge, and the last month, to Yoth and Yuggoth, and from
choral chanting faded away, as if the crea- far off I have looked upon Zothique, from
tures were departing. Indeed, there fol- the eye of Algol. When Fomalhaut has
lowed such an interval of silence that topped the trees, call forth to Cthugha in
Laird had actually moved to shut off the these words, thrice repeated: Ph’nglui
machine when once again a voice came mglw’nafb Cthugha Fomalhaut n’gha-
from it. ghaa nafl thagn. Id!- Cthugha! When
But the voice that now emanated from He has come, go swiftly, lest you too be
the dictaphone was one which, simply be- destroyed. For it is fitting that this ac-
cause of its nature, brought to a climax cursed spot be blasted so that Nyarlathotep
all the horror so cumulative in what had comes no more out of interstellar space.
gone before it; for whatever had been in- Do you hear me, Dorgan? Do you hear
ferred by the half-bestial bellowings and me? Dorgan! Laird Dorgan!”
chants, the horribly suggestive conversa- There was a sudden sound of sharp pro-
tion in accented English, that which now test, followed by a scuffling and tearing
came from the dictaphone was unutterably noise, as if Gardner had been forcibly re-
terrible. moved, and then silence, utter and com-
" Dorgan ! Laird Dorgan! Can you hear plete!
me?” For a few moments Laird let the record
A hoarse, urgent whisper calling out to run, but there was nothing more, and
my companion, who sat white-faced now, finally he started it over, saying tensely,
staring at the machine above which his "I think we’d better copy that as best we
hand was still poised. Our eyes met. It can. You take every other speech, and
was not the appeal, it was not everything let’s both copy that formula from Gard-
that had gone before, it was the identity of ner.”
that voice for it teas the, voice of Pro- "Was it . .
.?”
fessor Upton Gardner! But we had no "I’d know his voice anywhere,” he said
time to ponder this, for the dictaphone shortly.
went mechanically on. "He’s alive then?”
24 WEIRD TALES'
He looked at me, his eyes narrowed. I’m not trying it tonight. You’ve forgot-
"We don’t know that” ten the slab. Are you still game to go
"But his voice!” out there — after this?”
He shook his head, for the sounds were I nodded. I did not trust myself to
coming forth once more, and both of us speak, but I was not consumed by any
ha'd to bend to the task of copying, which eagerness whatever to dare the darkness
was easier than it promised, to be for the that lingered like a living entity within the
spaces between speeches were great forest surrounding Rick’s Lake.
enough to enable us to copy without un- Laird looked at his watch, and then at
due haste. The language of the chants me, his eyes burning with a kind of fever-
and the words to Cthugha enunciated by ish determination, as if he were forcing
Gardner’s voice offered extreme difficulty, himself to take this final step to face the
but by means of repeated playings, we unknown being whose manifestations had
managed, to put down the approximate made the wood its own. If he expected me
equivalent of the sounds. When finally to hesitate, he was disappointed; however
we had finished, Laird shut the dicta- beset by fear I might be, I would not show

phone off and looked at me with quiz- it. I got up and went out of the lodge
zical and troubled eyes, grave with con- at his side.-
cern and uncertainty. I said nothing; what

we had just heard, added to everything IV

that had gone before, left us no alterna-
tive. There was room for doubt about COHERE are aspects of hidden life, ex-
legends, beliefs, and the like but the in-— terior as well as of the depths of the
fallible record of the dictaphone was con- mind, that are better kept -secret and away
clusive even if it did no more than verify from the awareness of common man; for
half-heard credos —
for it was true, there there lurk in dark places of the earth ter-
was still nothing definite; it was as if the rible desiderata, horrible revenants belong-
whole was so completely beyond the com- ing to a stratum of the subconscious which-
prehension of man that only in the oblique is mercifully beyond the apprehension of
suggestion of its individual parts could common man — indeed, there are aspects of
something like understanding be achieved, creation so grotesquely shuddersome that
as if the entirety were too unspeakably the very sight of them would blast the
soul-searing for the mind of man to with- •
sanity of the beholder. Fortunately, it is not
stand. possible even to bring back in anything but
"Fomalhaut rises almost at sunset — a lit- suggestion what we saw on the slab in the
tle before, I think," mused Laird — clearly, forest at Rick’s Lake that night in Octo-
like myself, he had accepted what we had ber, for the thing .was so unbelievable,
heard without challenge other than the transcending all known laws of science,
mystery surrounding its meaning. "It that adequate words for its description have
should be above the trees presumably
twenty to thirty degrees above the hori-
— no existence
We
in the language.
arrived at the belt of trees around
zon, because it doesn’t pass near enough to the slab while afterglow yet lingered in the
the zenith in this latitude to appear above western heavens, and by the illumination
these pines —
at approximately an hour of a flashlight Laird carried, we examined
after darkness falls. Say nine-thirty or the face of the slab itself, and the carving
ft
so. on it: of a vast, amorphous creature, drawn

‘You aren’t -thinking of trying it to- by an artist who evidently lacked sufficient
night?’* I asked. "After all —what does
"
imagination to etch the creature's face,
it mean? Who or what is Cthugha?” for it had none, bearing only a curious,
"I don’t know any more than you. And cone-like head which even in stone seemed
 THE DWELLER IN DARKNESS I
25

we
to have a fluidity which was unnerving;
moreover, the creature was depicted as hav- ACCORDING to Laird's

waited exactly an hour and ten min-

sound as of wind began,
watch,

ing both tentacle-like appendages and utes before the

—
hands or growths similar to hands, not and at once there was a manifestation
only two, but several; so that it seemed which had about it all the trappings of the
both human and non-human in its struc- supernatural; for no sooner had the rush-
ture. Beside had been carved two squat
it ing,,sound begun, then the slab we had
squid-like figures from a part of which so quickly quitted began -to glow at first —
presumably the heads, though no outline so indistinguishably that it seemed an illu-

—
was definitive projected what must cer-
tainly have been instruments of some kind,
sion, and then with a phosphorescence of
increasing brilliance, until it gave off such
for the strange, repugnant attendants ap- a glow that it was as if a pillar of light ex-
peared to be playing them. tended upward into the heavens. This was
Our examination was necessarily hur- the second curious circumstance —the light
ried, for we did not want to risk being followed the of the slab, and
outlines
seen here by whatever might come, and it flowed upward; was not diffused and dis-
it

may be that in the circumstances, imagina- persed around the glade and into the
tion got the better of us. But I do not woods, but shone heavenward with the in-
think so. It is difficult to maintain that sistence of a directed beam. Simultane-
consistently sitting here at my desk, re- ously, the very air seemed charged with
moved in space and time from what hap- evil; all around us lay thickly such an aura
pened there; but I maintain it. Despite s. of fearsomeness that it rapidly became im-
the quickened awareness and irrational fear possible to remain free of it. It was appar-
of the unknown which obsessed both of us, ent that by some means unknown to us the
we kept a determined open-mindedness rushing sound as of wind which now filled
about every aspect of the problem we the air was not only associated with the
had chosen to solve. If anything, I have broad beam of light flowing upward, but
erred in this account on the side of science was caused by it; morever, as we watched,
over that of imagination, In the plain light the intensity and color of the light varied
of reason, the carvings on that stone slab constantly, changing from a blinding white
were not only obscene, but bestial and to a lambent green, frofn green to a kind of
frightening beyond measure, particularly lavender; occasionally it was so intensely
in the light of what Partier had hinted, brilliant that it was necessary to avert our
and what Gardner's notes and the material eyes, but for the most part it could be
from Miskatonic University had vaguely looked at without hurt to our eyes.
outlined, and even if time had permitted, As suddenly as it had begun, the rushing
it is doubtful if we could have looked long sound stopped, the light became diffuse
upon them. and dim; and almost immediately the weird
We retreated to a spot comparatively piping as of flutes smote upon our ears. It
near the way we must take to return to the came not from around us, but from above,
lodge, and yet not too far from the open arid with one accord, both of us turned to
place where the slab lay, so that we might look as far into heaven as the now fading
see dearly and still remain hidden in a light would permit.
place easy of access to the return path. Just what took place then before our eyes
There we took our stand and waited in I cannot explain. Was it actually some-
that chilling hush of an October evening, thing that came hurtling down, streaming
while stygian darkness encompassed us, —
down, rather? for the masses were shape-
and only one or two stars twinkled high less— or was it the product of an imagina-
overhead, miraculously visible among the tion that proved singularly uniform when
towering tree-tops. later Laird and I found opportunity to com-
26 WEIRD TALES
pare notes? The illusion of great black And yet, incredible as it may seem, the
things streaking down in .the path of that ultimate horror awaited us.
light was so great that we glanced back at
"
the slab.
What, we saw there sent us screaming FOR we
lodge
had gone but halfway
when we were
to the
simultaneously
voicelessly from that hellish spot. aware of something following; behind us
For, where but eTmomenl before there rose a hideous, horiibly suggestive sloshing
had been nothing, there was now a gigantic sound, as if the amorphous entity had left

protoplasmic mass, a colossal being tv ho the slab which in some remote time must
towered upward toward the stars, and' have been erected by its worshippers, and
whose actual physical being was in constant were pursuing us. Obsessed by abysmal
flux; and flanking it on either side were two fright, w e ran as neither of us has ever run
r

lesser beings, equally amorphous, holding before, and we were almost upon the lodge
pipes or flutes in appendages and making before we were aware that the sloshing
that demoniac music which echoed and re- sound, the trembling and shuddering of the
echoed in the enclosing forest. But the earth —
as if .some gigantic being walked
thing on the slab, the Dweller in Darkness, —
upon it had ceased, and -in their stead
.was the ultimate in horror; for from its came only the calm, unhurried' tread of -
mass of amorphous flesh there grew at will footsteps.
before our eyes tentacles, claws, hands and , But the footsteps were not our own!
withdrew again; the mass itself diminished- And in the aura of unreality, the fearsome
and swelled effortlessly, and where its head outsideness in which we walked and
was and its features should have been there breathed, the terrible suggestiveness of
was only a blank facelessness all the more those footstepswas .almost maddening!
horrible because even as we looked there We reached the lodge, lit a lamp and
rose from its blind mass a low ululation in sank into chairs to await whatever it was
.

that half-bestial, half-human voice so that was coming so steadily, unhurriedly

familiar to us- from the record made in on, mounting the veranda steps, putting its
the night! hand on the knob of the door, swinging
We fled, I say, so shaken that it was only the door open.
by a supreme effort of will that we were It was Professor Gardner who stood
aisle to take flight in the right direction. there!
And behind us the voice rose, the blasphe- For one cataclysmic moment, we sat
mous voice of Nyarlathotep, the Blind, open-mouthed and gazed at him as at a
Faceless One, the Mighty Messenger, .even man returned from the dead.
while there rang in the channels of memory Then Laird sprang up, crying, "Profes-
the frightened words of the half-breed, Old sor Gardner!”
Peter It was a Thing—didn’t have no The professor smiled reservedly and put
face, hollered there till T thought my ear- one hand up to shade his eyes. "If you
drums ’d bust, and them things that was don’t mind, I’d like the light dimmed.
with it —Gawd — echoed there while the I’ve been in the dark for so long.”
voice of that Being from outermost space Laird turned to do his bidding without
shrieked and gibbered to the hellish music question, and he came forward into the
of the hideous attending flute-players, ris- room, walking with the ease and poise of
ing to ululate through the forest and leave a man who is as sure of himself as if he
its mark forever in memory! had never vanished from the face of the
Y gnaiihl Ygnaiih! EEE-yayayayayaaa-
.
earth more than three months before, as if
haaahaaahaaahaaa - ngh 'aaa-ngh’ aaa-ya-ya- he had not made a frantic appeal to us dur-
yaaa! ing the flight just past, as if .

Then all was still.. I glanced at Laird; his hand was still at
 THE DWELLER IN DARKNESS 27

the lamp, but his fingers were no longer Aharsh laugh escaped the professor.
turning down the wick, simply holding to "Entirely natural phenomena, my boy!
it, while he gazed down unseeing. I looked There’s a mineral deposit under that gro-
over at Professor Gardner; he sat with his tesque slab in the woods; it gives off light
head turned from the light, his eyes closed, and also a miasma that is productive of
a little smile playing about his lips; at that hallucinations. It’s as simple as that. As
moment he looked had often
precisely as I for the various disappearances — sheer
seen him look at die University Club in folly, human nothing more, but
failings,
Madison, and it was as if everything that with the air of coincidence. I came here
had taken place here at the lodge were but with high hopes of verifying some of the
an evil dream. nonsense to which old Partier lent himself
But it was not a dre;am! long ago but — —
” He smiled disdainfully,
"You were gone last night?” asked the shook his head, and extended his hand.
professor. "Let me have the record, Laird.”
"Yes. But, of course, we had the dic- Without question, Laird gave Professor
taphone.” — Gardner the record. The older man took
"Ah! You heard something then?” it and was bringing it up before his eyes
"Would you like to hear the record, when he jogged elbow and, "with a
his
sir?” sharp cry of pain, dropped it. It broke into
"Yes, I would.” dozens of pieces on the floor of the lodge.
Laird went over and put it on the ma- "Oh!” cried the professor. "I’m sorry,”
chin° to play it again, and we sat in silence, He turned his eyes on Laird. "'But then
listening to everything upon it, no one say- since I can duplicate it any time for you
ing anything until it had been completed. from what I’ve learned about the lore of
Then the professor slowly turned his head. by way of Partier’s mouth-
"What do you make of it?”
this
ings
— place,
” He shrugged.
"I don’t know what to make of it, sir,” "It doesn’t matter,” said Laird quietly.
answered I^aird. "The speeches are too dis- "Do you mean to say that everything on
jointed —
except for yours. There seems to that record was just your imagination. Pro-
be some coherence there.” fessor?” I broke in. "Even that chant for
?”
the summoning of Cthugha
UDDENLY, without warning, the The older man’s eyes turned on me; his
S room was surcharged with menace; it smile was sardonic. "Cthugha? What
was but a momentary impression, but Laird do you suppose he or that is but the fig-
felt it as keenly as I did, for he started ment of someone’s imagination? And the
noticeably. He was taking the record from inference —my dear boy, use your head.
the machine when the professor spoke You have before you the clear inference
again. thatCthugha has his abode on Fomalhaut
"It doesn’t occur to you that you may be which is twenty-seven light years away, and
the victim of a hoax?” that, if this chant is thrice repeated when
"No.” Fomalhaut has Cthugha will appear
risen,
"And if I told you that I had found it to somehow render this place no longer
possible to make every sound that was habitable by man or outside entity. How
registered on that record?” do you suppose that could be accom-
Laird looked at him for a full minute plished?”
before replying in a low voice that of “Why, by something akin to thought-
course, Professor Gardner had been investi- transference,” replied Laird doggedly. "It’s
gating the phenomena of Rick's Lake- not unreasonable to suppose that if we were
woods for a far longer time than we had, to direct thoughts toward Fomalhaut that
and if he said so . . . something there might receive them
28 WEIRD TALES
granting that there might be light there. would he permit me to put on a light to do
Thought is instant. And that they in turn so, though he carried a small pocket-flash,
may be so highly developed that demate- and used it sparingly. To all my questions,
rialization and rematerialization might be he cautioned me to wait.
as swift as thought.” When I had finished, he led the way out
"My —
are you serious?” The older
boy of the room with a whispered, "Come.”
man’s voice revealed his contempt. He went directly to the room into which
"You asked.” Professor Gardner had disappeared. By
"Well, then, as the hypothetic answer it was evident that the
the light of his flash,
to a theoretical problem, I can overlook bed had not been touched; moreover, in the
that.” faint film of dust that lay on the floor, it
"Frankly,” I said again, disregarding a was clear that Professor Gardner had
curious negative shaking of Laird’s head, walked into the room, over to a chair be-
"I don’t think that what we saw in the side thewindow, and out again.
forest tonight was just hallucination "Never touched the bed, you see,” whis-
caused by a miasma rising out of the earth, pered Laird.
or otherwise.” "But why?”
The effect of this, statement was extraor- Laird gripped my arm, hard. "Do you
dinary. Visibly, the professor made every remember what Partier hinted—what we
effort to control himself; his reactions were —
saw in the woods the protoplasmic,
precisely those of a savant challenged by amorphousness of the. thing? And what
one of his classes. After a few
a cretin in
moments he controlled himself and said
the record said?”
—
"But Gardner told us ” I protested.
only, "You’ve been there then. I suppose Without a further word, he turned. I
it's too late to make you believe other- followed him downstairs, where he paused
wise.” at the table' where we had worked and
’Tve always been open to conviction, flashed the light upon it. I was surprised-
sir, and I lean to the scientific method,” into making a startled exclamation which
said Laird. Laird hushed instantly. For the table was
Professor Gardner put his hand over his bare of everything but the copy of The
eyes and said, "I’m tired. I noticed last Outsider and Others and three copies of
night when I was here that you're in my Weird Tales, a magazine containing stories
old room, Laird —
so I’ll take the room next supplementing those in the book by the
to you, opposite Jack’s.” eccentric Providence genius, Lovecraft; All
He went up the stairs as if nothing had Gardner’s notes, all our own notations, the
happened between the last time he had oc- photostats , from Miskatonic University
cupied the lodge and this. everything was gone!
"He took them,” said Laird. "No one
V else could have done so.”
"Where did he go?”
nPHE rest of the story —and the culmina- "Back to the place from which he
-** tion of that apocalyptic night — are soon came.” He turned on me, his eyes gleam-
told. ing in the reflected glow of the flashlight.
I could not have been asleep for more "Do you understand what that means,
—
than an hour the time was one of the Jack?” ^
morning —whenwas awakened by Laird.
I I shook my head.
He stood beside my
bed fully dressed and "They know we’ve been there, they
in a tense voice ordered me to get up and know we’ve seen and learned too much.”
dress, to pack whatever essentials I had "But how?”
brought, and be ready for anything,. Nor "You told them.”
 THE DWELLER IN DARKNESS 29

”1? Good God, man, are you-mad? How “Now do you believe me?” demanded
could I have told them?” Laird. " They’re coming for us!”
,
He

self
'Here, in this lodge, tonightyou your-
gave the show away, and I hate to
— turned on me. "The chant!’’
"What chant?” I fumbled stupidly.
think of what might happen now. We’ve "The Cthugha chant do you remember—
got to get away.” it?”

For one moment all the events of the "I took it down. I’ve got it here.”
past few days seemed to fuse into an unin- For an instant I was afraid that this, too,
telligible mass; Laird’s urgence was unmis- might have been taken from us; but it was
takable,and yet the thing that he suggested not; it was in my pocket where I had left
was so utterly unbelievable that its con- it.

templation even for so fleeting a moment With shaking hands, Laird tore the
threw my thoughts into the extremest con- paper from my grasp.
fusion. "Ph’nglui mgliv’nafh Cthugha Fomal-
Laird was talking now, quickly. "Don’t haut n’ gha-ghaa nafl thagn. la! Cthugha!”
—
you think it odd how he came back? How he said, running to the veranda, myself at
he came out of the woods after that hellish his heels.
thing we saw there — not before? And the Out of the woods came the bestial voice
questions he asked — the drift of those of the dweller in the dark. "Ee-ya-ya-haa-
!”
questions. And how he managed to break haahaaa! Ygnaiih! Ygnaiih
the —our one
record scientific proof of ,!
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthugha Fomal-
something? And now, the disappearance
:
haut n gha-ghaa nafl thagn! la! Cthugha!”
of all —
the notes of everything that might repeated Laird for the second time.
point to substantiation of what he called ghastly melee of sounds from
Still the
'Partier’s nonsense’?” the woods came on, in no way diminished,
"But if we are to believe what he told rising now to supreme heights of terror-
us?” fraught fury, with the bestial voice of the
He broke in before I could finish. "One thing from the slab added to the wild, mad
of- them was right. Either the voice on the music of the pipes, and the sound as of
record calling to
”
me — or the man who was wings.
here tonight, And then, once more, Laird repeated the
"The man!” primal words of the chant.
But whatever I wanted to say was stilled On the instant that the final guttural,
by Laird’s harsh, "Listen!” sound had left his lips, there began a
sequence of events no human eye was ever
THROM outside, from the depths of that destined to witness. For suddenly the dark-
-L horror-haunted darkness, the earth- ness was gone, giving way to a fearsome
haven of the dweller in dark came once , amber glow; simultaneously the flute-like
more, for the second time that night, the music ceased, and in its place rose cries of
weirdly beautiful, yet cacophonous strains rage and terror. Then, instantaneously,
of flute-like music, rising and falling, ac- there appeared thousands of tiny points of
companied by a kind of chanted ululation, light —not only on and among the trees, but
and by^the sound as of great wings flap- on the earth itself, on the lodge and the car
ping. standing before.it. For still a further mo-
"Yes, I hear,” I whispered. ment, we were rooted to the spot, and then
!”
"Listen closely it was borne in upon us that the myriad
Even as he spoke, I understood. There points of light were living entities of
—
was something more the sounds from the flame! For wherever they touched, fire .

forest were not only rising and falling sprang up, seeing which, Laird rushed into
they were approaching! the lodge for such of our things as he could
30 WEIRD TALES
carry forth before the holocaust made it it was Nyarlathotep, die Mighty Messen-
impossible for us to escape Rick’s Lake. ger, theDweller in Darkness who had gone
He came
running out our bags had — forth and who had returned into the forest
—
been downstairs gasping that it was too to send his minions back to us. It was he
late to take the dictaphone or anything else, who had come from interstellar space even
and together we dashed toward the car, as Cthugha, the fire-being, had come from
shielding our eyes a little from the blinding Fomalhaut. upon the utterance of the com-
light all around. But even though we had mand that woke him from his eon-long
shielded our eyes, it was impossible not to sleep upon that amber star, the command
see the great amorphous shapes streaming that Gardner, the living-dead captive of the
skyward from this accursed^place, nor the terrible Nyarlathotep had discovered in
equally great being hovering like a cloud of those fantastic travelings in space and time;
living lire above the trees. So much we and it was he who returned whence he had
saw, before the frightful struggle to escape come, with his earth-haven now forever
the burning woods forced us to forget mer- rendered useless for him with its destruc-
cifully the other details . of that terrible,'' tion by the minions of Cthugha!
maddened flight. - I know, and Laird knows. We never
speak of it.
IT ORRIBLE as were the things that took If we had had any doubt, despite every-
**• place in the darkness of the forest at thing that had gone before, we could nof
Rick’s Lake, was something more
there forget that final, soul-searing discovery, the
cataclysmic something so blasphe-.
still, thing we saw when we shielded our eyes
mously conclusive that even now I shudder from the flames all around and looked
and tremble uncontrollably to think of it. away from those beings in the heavens, the
For in that brief dash to the car, I saw line of footprints that led away from the
something that explained Laird’s doubt, I lodge in the direction of that hellish slab
saw what had made him take heed of the deep in the black forest, the footprints that
voice on the record and not of the thing began in- the soft soil beyond the veranda in
that came to us as Professor Gardner. The the shape of a man’s footprints, and
keys were there before, but.1 did not under- changed with each step into- a hideously
stand; even Laird had not fully believed. suggestive imprint made by a creature of
Yet it was given to us —we did not know. incredible shape and weight, with varia-
"It is not desired by the Old Ones that tions of outline and size so grotesque as to
mere man shall know too much,” Partier „ have been incomprehensible to anyone who
had said. And that terrible voice on the had' not seen the thing on the slab and—
record had hinted even -more clearly Go : beside them, torn and rent as if by an ex-
forth in his form or in whatever form panding force, the clothing that once be-
chosen in the guise of man, and destroy longed to Professor Gardner, left piece by
that ivhich may lead them to us. De- . . 'piece along the .trail back into the woods,
stroy that which may lead them to us! Our the trail taken by the hellish monstrosity
record, the notes, the photostats from Mis- that had come out of the _ night, the
katonic University, yes, and even Laird and . Dweller 'in Darkness who had visited us in
myself! And the thing had gone forth, for the shape and guise of Professor Gardner!
 By STEPHEN GRENDON

M
it
R. SIMON DEKRUGH inserted
the key into the lock, turned it,
and entered his house. Ah, but
was good to get in out of the rain! And
it was good to be home again after that long

and fatiguing trip across the Continent. The

Though the hour was late, he was put
through readily enough,
"Abel? This is Simon.”
“Ah, you’re back? When?”
"Just now. I’ve something to show you.
I was in Prague.”
channel had been so rough, too. Having —
"You don’t mean not Septimus Halos’!”
turned up the light and shed his outer cloth- "Can you run over for a bit? I daresay
ing, Delaugh put one of his bags up against I shall be able to intrigue you, AbeL”
the wall of the hall and carried die other "I’ll be over, unless I’m caught .in the
frith him into his study. He lost no time in fog.”
going to the telephone. "Walk in. The door is unlocked.”
32 WEIRD TALES
He walked to the bathroom and looked said. Still raining somewhat, though. Beastly
at himself in the glass. A little tired. Per- night
haps a little nervous. He had had those unac- He was a fat, jovial man, pink with well-
countable impressions just before getting on being.
_
_
the boat, and once again on the boat train "Have you really got it, Simon?”
from Dover. Curious! Eyen now he looked Dekrugh patted the little bag .on the table,
involuntarily over his shoulder. He had and smiled.
shaved that morning, and did not need to "How in the devil .did you manage?”
shave again. "Oh, it was quite simple, really,” an-
He came out of the bathroom and turned swered Dekrugh deprecatingly. "I thought
up The B. B. C. newscaster was
the radio. the blasted Germans would be having Prague
on the and he stood for a moment or two
air and everything in it soon enough anyway;
listening. "Failure of theMunich Pact was so there was no good reason why I should
forecast today by no less a personage than not have a go at doing a little well, what —
Mr. David Lloyd-George. The former min- —
do you call it? despoiling?”
ister represented the Pact as but a temporary "Grave-robbing, to put it bluntly.”
stay and expressed the hope that Britain’s Dekrugh made a grimace of distaste.
rearmament would have proceeded to such a "Bluntness has its place, Abel, but spare
point by the time war actually broke out, me. Let us say I decided to get a share of
that .” He turned the dial to another the spoils Chamberlain ought to have assured-
station and got a re-broadcast of a symphony for us if he had made up his mind to sign
concert. Humminga Brahms theme,, he re- his name to that Munich deal.”
turned to the hall, picked up the bag there, "So then you got at Halos’ grave?”
and was on his way to his room when his "Don’t be so infernally impatient, Abel.”
houseman appeared at the head of the He turned to the bag and opened it, talk-
stairs in a flood of light, having been dis- ing as he did so. "Anyway, it wasn’t a grave
turbed by his coming. — just a kind of stone coffin in that old
"Welcome home, Mr. Dekrugh. Let me church. Apart from the heavy lid, it did
take your -things, sir.” not offer too great a problenxT The thing
Dekrugh surrendered his bag, apologizing was right there in the dust and bones. I
for having disturbed him. "How has every- simply reached in and took it out. It's
thing been, Maxon?” genuine twelfth century, I think, with a
"Very good, sir.- Mr. Abel Speers tele- Latin inscription and a rather heavy gold
phoned several times.” chain.”
"I expect him.” He took out ,a rather heavy shaving kit,
"Shall I dress, sir?’” dumped out his razor, pried up the stiff
"No, no—go back to bed.” lining, and revealed a surprisingly sizable
"Thank you, sir. I hope you had a good opening, at the moment filled with a gold
holiday.” chain. Dekrugh took out the gold chain and
"Very satisfactory, Maxon. Very satisfac- laid it, together with the little square of
tory.” jeweled gold to which it was attached, bn
had been, too He returned to his study
It ; the table under the light.
and began to Open the little bag on the table; "Gad, Simon!”
but no, not yet; let wait until Speers got
it "Interesting, eh?”
here. He sat down and drew
over today’s , "The Latin inscription seems to be clear
Times, turning, as was his invariable custom, enough. What does it say?” ^
to the letters columns, which informed him Dekrugh turned the molded plaque
perhaps as accurately as any other source just around. "Read it for yourself. I’m a little
what down-countrymen were concerning rusty on my Humanities." **•

themselves about. " f

What is 'mine, belongs to me’ Hm!”
"Quaint, isn’t. it?”
T WAS only half an hour before Mr. Abel The fat man’s face paled a little. "I don’t
Speers came. He had driven over him- know that I like it, exactly.”
self,not trusting the Underground or the Dekrugh laughed. "My dear fellow, I
omnibuses. A
fog of a sort coming up, he got away scot free. Not a soul suspected
 A GENTLEMAN FROM PRAGUE 33

anything. was quite alone in the church;

I something to drink, and Speers looked at
the padre had gone out to get a light so that the jeweled plaque again. A heavy thing to
I could read the seal better. ...” wear around one’s neck. Made up like some
"What seal?” of the pieces worn by the clergy, though;
Dekrugh shrugged. "I’m afraid I didn’t so much seemed, evident. He had the sud-
pay much attention to the fellow when he den impulse to look over his shoulder; it
came back and read it. I’d got what I came was unaccountable but he could not keep
after, and the only reason I didn’t clear out from doing it. Dekrugh was just Toming
at once was to keep him from getting sus- in with a whiskey and soda.
picious about my visit. The usual curse and Dekrugh laughed. "Now you’ve caught it,
so on —quite a few of those old religious Abel. You’ve got a bad conscience I’ve —
seemed to put a lot of stock in curses. Well, been catching myself doing that ever since I
I got out, nobody suspected anything wrong, left Prague,”
luck was just with me, that’s all. I got the Speers laughed pointedly at the thought
thing hid, and not one of the customs offi- of Dekrugh’s having a conscience.
cers guessed. And here it is.” "Good Scotch, Simon.”
Speers turned it over deliberately, exam- —
"The best. I can afford it even if I have
ining it. "What the devil would Franz Verda to rob graves.”
want with it?” "Funny thing to print on that - piece,
"A curious piece, Abel. With a strange though. What is mine belongs to me.”
,

history.” "Rather obvious, isn’t it?”

”
"But the price he offered us. . . , "I don’t know. Maybe it’s double-talk.”
"Very satisfactory, eh?”~ "That far back in time they had a hard
"The piece isn’t worth it.” enough time just talking —
let alone in
"It is to Verda.” He shrugged. "The man double-talk. There’s fog in your bones,
had some motive in getting hold of it, Abel. Abel.”
He read about it in a book. Very well. I got They made a little more small talk, and
hold of the book. It’s the usual sort of thing Abel Speers, left.
— all about the piece having some psychic Dekrugh put the treasure from Prague
power for its possessor, with the appropriate into a drawer of his library table, and went
mumbo-jumbo said over it. Don’t expect upstairs to bed;
me to argue with one of our clients.'We’re
here to deliver the goods, not quibble about
what we’re being paid unless the figure isn't
high enough.
AT ABOUT
St.
off the
this,

John’s Wood. He was clad

hour, a gentleman got
Underground in the vicinity of
in a long
ulster of inconceivably ancient design, and
PEERS shrugged. "That’s not the trouble wore a curious cocked hat. A scarf was
S this time.” wound around most of his face, and his eyes
"Will you take it with you?” 7 were concealed behind square dark spec-
"I’ll call for it in the morning and take tacles. He stood on the curb looking about
it down to him. Unless you’d rather. He’s him for a cab, unmindful of the rain falling
in Sussex just
.
now.” around him.
"Then I’ll put it away.” "Rum go,” said a fellow, traveler in the
"Who was this fellow, anyway?” compartment he had quitted. "Smelled like
"Septimus Halos? Oh, a priest, or some- something been a long time in a closet, he
thing. Seventh son of a seventh son and did.”
said to have magic powers. People believed "Soap is what he needs,” said another.
in a great deal of superstition in those days, "Soap and water. And good plenty of it.”
of course. It’s a wonder we’ve freed our- The rain came down desultorily, dripping
selves from most of it, even now. Verda from his hat, running down the cane he car-
is just one of those curious people who more ried. He stood quite still, nevertheless, and
than half believe a great, deal of the stuff when at last a cab came driving along, he
they read; only, he has money.” raised his cane, and, when it stopped oppo-
Speers looked around for a decanter, and site him, got in.
Dekrugh took the hint. He went off to get
1
"Where to, sir?”
34 WEIRD TALES
After an annoying interval, he gave an ground.'! Yes,' .thatwas it. Not clean. Like
address. The driver had to ask him’ to repeat I always' sayy. he said to himself as he got
it; the 'old fellow apparently had trouble back intO' his cab, a man can’t _bet on what
!

articulating; he spoke with a suspiciously

. he can find on the streets of London these
foreign accent. When he heard it at last, the rainy nights.
driver shook his head. —
“Oh, he ain’t home. Guvnor. Cousin of
my wife’s works there. He’s on the Con- THE gentleman in the ulster,
stood on the sidewalk contemplating the
meanwhile,

tinent. Holiday.” dark mass of the house which was the object
“Drive there,” said his fare. of his visit.
"If you say so, Guv’nor, there you’ll go. As 'he started his cab again, the driver
But it won’t do you no good unless, he’s — leaned out and called to him. “He ain’t
come home tonight. I ain’t seen Maxon for home, just like I told yer.” Then he drove
two, three days. Mucky night, sir.” away.
No answer. The gentleman in. the ulster was .mo-
"Rain changing to fog, says the B. B. .C. mentarily alone. But not for long.
Channel fog rolling, too.” A bobby on his round came upon him
No answer. \ within a few moments.
Damned surly fare, thought the driver. “Lost, sir?” he asked.
He drove slowly, carefully; no use taking The black spectacles looked at him.
any risks. The distance was not great in "I say — are. you off your bearings, sir?”
any case. He thought of going round about "The house of Mr. Simon Dekrugh,”
by a circuitous way, but there was that about said the gentleman in the ulster.
his passenger which decided him against "Right here. You’ve got it, Mr. Dekrugh
trying any monkey business. expecting you?”
He got the smell of him presently and .No answer.
opened the side window a little, rain not- ..Uncivil chap, thought the bobby. “The
withstanding. TheTain smelled like London; walk’s right there.” He flashed his light,
his fare smelled like something far away. and in the reflected glow saw something odd
Country man, he, thought. Old fellow up in — something white- where nothing white
the city for perhaps the first time in his life. —
should be between the dark spectacles and
“Ever been, in London before?” the scarf. He was oddly startled, but dis-
No answer. missed it as the fellow turned his back as
The driver grew indignant. “I say, sir an illusion; rain and fog played queer tricks
ever been in London before?” with the eyes.
“Yes.” The gentleman in the ulster went up the
“Long ago?” walk, climbed the steps, and rang the bell.
"Not long.” Upstairs, Maxon, who had not yet got
"Queen Victoria’s time,” muttered the back to sleep, stirred and awakened. He lay
driver. listening. The bell rang again. He got up
"Not long,” repeated his fare in his queer, wearily, put on his dressing-robe and slip-
cracked voice. "Four centuries ago.” pers, and went downstairs.
Centuries, thought the driver to himself. He opened the door.'
Centuries! —
why, that’s hundreds of years! "Mr. Dekrugh?”
The bloke’s balmly. Been drinking, prob- “I’m sorry. He’s sleeping. He just got
ably. home from a long trip.”
He drove up before the house in St. “I wish to see him.”
John’s wood. "I’m sorry. I can’t wake him.”
“Here we are, sir.” "Wake him.”
His passenger paid him; the light was Something about the gentleman on the
dim, but it felt like good coin of the realm. stoop chilled Maxon. He backed into the
He was not niggardly, by the feel of it. He hall; the visitor walked in.
touched his hat, though at the moment, as "Wake him,” he said again, planting his
his fare passed him, he wished to hold his cane firmly on the floor.
nose. He smelled like something from the "Whom shall I say is calling?” asked
 A GENTLEMAN FROM PRAGUE 3T,

Maxon, suddenly overcome with an 'over- Dekrugh, lay in the study. He was dead.
powering fright of he knew not what, a The drawer ^of the library table had been
fright which, because he did not know its torn out; 1

origin; was the more terrifying.

all Poor Maxon! What a time he had of it!
"Say to him a gentleman from Prague The Inspector from Scotland Yard put him
wishes to see him.” through such an interrogation that he was
Maxon closed the door and hurried up left, badly shaken. But there was that inex-
the stairs. He knocked on the door of Dek- plicable feature of Dekrugh’s death no one
rugh’s room. The gentleman in the hall be- —
could explain how a piece of bone, the
low heard a colloquy above, and presently terminable bone of an index finger, could
the door of the room was opened. There have become stuck into Dekrugh’s flesh at
were further words. his neck, embedded in one of the marks of
Then Dekrugh came down the stairs, his strangulation. For /Dekrugh had been
face a-scowl with anger. strangled, and, while the marks left on his
"What the devil’s up?” he demanded. neck suggested a pair of hands, they must
"I am,” said the visitor. have been most peculiar hands indeed not —
"In this weather too, and at such an at all soft, but hard —
hard as bone!
hour,” growled Dekrugh. Scotland Yard picked up the trail of the
“You should have thought of that.” gentleman in the ulster a block away from
“I didn't catch your name?” the house, but lost it at the Underground
“I didn't give it.” and did not find it again. Later on, there
They stood facing each other, until the was a report from Dover, and eventually
gentleman in the ulster shifted his cane to someone working in connection with an-
his left hand and' extended his Aght. other matter in Ostend made a routine ref-
“I have come for my property.” erence to a traveler resembling the gentle-
Dekrugh looked at the extended hand man in the ulster whom Scotland Yard
with the black glove fitting so loosely upon sought, on the Berlin train.
it; then his eyes caught sight of something If a German agent, beyond apprehen-
that showed between the rim of the glove sion, sorry.
and the edge of the ulster, and at the same Late that very night, well before any
time he was aware of an overpowering word of Dekrugh’s death was broadcast,
charnel scent. What he saw between the Maxon’s cousin's husband, the taxi-driver,
glove and the ulster was bone. Nothing else. quite unaware of Maxon’s plight, emptied
He gasped and looked up. his pockets and totted up his day’s, take. He
The gentleman in the ulster had shaken found in his possession a very queer coin, of
down his scarf a little, so that Dekrugh got a type which he had never seen before, and
the full benefit of his face —
what there was his father-in-law, who was a numismatist,
of it. pounced upon it with great eagerness.
~
Dekrugh fainted. "I don’t know where I got it,” said the
younger man. "Unless maybe it was from

A FTER
able,
the silence below became
Maxon descended rather hesitantly,
thinking that perhaps Dekrugh had returned
intoler- that stinking old bloke I took around to St.
John’s Wood. Worth' anything?”
"Worth! Coo! A small fortune! Rare as
to bed. But no, the light was still up, and it rune stones. It’s a twelfth century coin
was not like Dekrugh to forget. from Bohemia!”

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 By ALLISON V. HARDING

They said the iron horse on stilts had

to come down —but there are singular
forces beyond our ken that must be
reckoned with first!.

T ACK LARUE sat in the first half- and vibrated along and Larue peered out at
\
empty coach of the elevated. His left the dingy squalor that passed the window
@j? hand was hooked over an old black in' three- and four-story uniformity. The
lunchbox, his right elbow leaned on the slanting rays of. the afternoon sun caught
rust-streaked window sill. The el clattered the train in brilliance, but there was
 nothing left to sparkle or shine and the up the aisle -To the right
toward the front.
1

brightness only served to show up the worn of the aisle-Mn his compartment was
little
seats and the lustreless metal and iron. the motorman. From long familiarity, Jack
The train bent its stiff- jointed rigidity jerked the door open.
around a curve. The wheels groaned and "C’mon, Pete,” he yelled above the clat-
squealed, and the clattering became a wood- ter of the train, "you’re gonna be late pull-
en-like rumbling headed up an
as the cars ing into 109th Street!”
incline onto the West River Bridge. Larue The aged man hunched over the controls
lifted his eyes from the skirling muddy as though a part of them, made a noise that
water that ran beneath to the city beyond. fell unrecognized over the growl and rumble
He never failed to get a kick out of coming of the train.
home from the foundry in the evening and "You got the grumps, eh?” said Larue
seeing the city, before him. His part in con- making as if to playfully push the motor-
struction was .small and humble, yet he man.

never failed to marVel at the shining towers "Don’t do that, Jack,” said the engineer.
and edifices, evidence of the deeper purpose "I tol’ you when I’m running this here
and achievement of a trade he felt a smalt-- train .

part of. "Aw, you’re as old and grouchy as the

Larue got to his feet and started heavily el,” said Jack. "Soon they’ll come along and
38 WEIRD TALES
pull you down. Hie old man stiffened at "Pete;. I see they’re going
~ to
pull down
that. The two said no more for a while. this elRVfiO':
“What would I do?” said Larue half to The old man shook his head and then
himself, peering out over the trades as they turned slightly to look at the foundry
ran up to the train in widening twin lines, worker.
only to fall away under the floor of the Jack went on, "That’s what they say. I
coach, saw it in the paper. They’re going to pull
"What would I do?” Larue repeated. it down and we’ll be talcing busses across.”
"Me, I’d hav.e to find a new way to get over "They’ll never stop the el,” the old mart
to the foundry and back. This has been good rasped. "A thing like this, it ain’t like a
enough for me for ten years. And what dog you can shoot or an old Gar you can
about you?” he turned his head and laughed throw in a junk heap. It’s alive, I tell yosi
at the old man. "You were here when I They can’t kill it!”
started on the run. Guess you’ve been here Jack started at the vehemence in the old
since the el. Take her down and they’d motorman’s voice.
take old Pete Nevers down too, eh?” "Get out of here,” the engineer said sud-
Nevers was sitting like a ramrod. The denly. "Get out of here, ya
train coasted off the bridge and flashed it- Larue, taken aback, stood in the front of
self ungracefully around another curve. the. car for a moment?
"Never mind, Pete,” said the laborer. "Why, you old devil !^ he came back.
"Can't do without the el, can we,’’ and he "What’s got into you? You’re scared, eh?
laughed off down the aisle as the cars slowed You’re scared because they’re going to take
down for the 109th Street station. down this rotten old el. Yeh, because you
know when the el comes down, Nevers,

H
cities
IS words were
little less than prophetic;

forewarning in these days when

a
everywhere were- doing without els.
you’re finished, too. You ain’t no good with-
out it, are you? I know that. Nothing else
you can do!” The laborer slamrhed the com-
For it was at lunch time several weeks partment door and departed.
later that a casually turned paper in the That night in his little room on Nestor
hands of a fellow worker caught Larue’s Street, Larue’s conscience won through the
eye. liquor. He remorseful about old Pete
felt
"Hey, wait a minute! Let me see that, Nevers. After he’d known the old man
all,
Eddie, will yuh?” for years. Nothing too chummy, mind you,
"Huh?” for Nevers kept everybody sort of at arm’s
"Geeze, what do ya. know! They’re go- length, but he had ridden the old man’s
ing to pull down the old West River Bridge train for what seemed like ages. Of course,
eL Now how do they expect me to get to it was tough to have them pulling down the
work!” el, taking away your means of livelihood,
Eddie laughed. "Swim across ya Pete. All of a sudden, Larue got the idea
dope!” he must see Nevers. That was it. He knew
Larue read the article all the way through. the old man lived across the river near the
It seemed they were going to use the rails desolate el yards where the old tired trains
for scrap iron; the cars were to be sent to waited, some for eternity, others newer, for
another part of the country where they were the next day, those next days that now were
needed more. limited. Larue pulled on his jacket and
Bus service across the bridge would be barged down the stairs into the street.
instituted. It was dark as he headed for the el sta-
That evennig coming home on the el, tion. On the platform at 109th he waited,
Jack dug his boot into the door of the engi-' vaguely wondering why he was doing this,
neer’s compartment. He was feeling the and then thinking over a whole, chain of
three drinks in him gulped down since the circumstances, little kindnesses Nevers had/
five o’clock whistle. When there Was no done, money he’d lent Larue and not .

answer to the third knock, he jerked the all of it paid back the foundry worker re-
door open. called guiltily.
 RIDE THE EL TO DOOM . 39,

always amazed Larue. The rest of the

It but you see it’s not so simple as me just
el workers were chronic complainers. changing jobs.. It’s like, well, like -taking
"Hardly enough to keep your face fed,” one of those cars and doing something else
was their line. Nevers was not one to com- with it. I’m kinda the el, that's all.”

plain. Maybe a man like that could find Larue’s glance took in the bare room.
something else. Certainly he was reliable. Poor old fellow, probably didn’t have
Larue considered the opportunities in his enough to eat as it was. There wasn’t a sign
foundry. Watchman, or something. That of food anywhere.
was it! "I just wanted you to know how it was,
A train station and
rumbled into the Pete.”
Larue boarded This wouldn’t be one of
it. He crossed to the motorman and stuck
Nevers’ runs. He’d made his last trip and out his hand. The old man grasped it ap-
was already through. The elevated scraped preciatively in a strong grasp. His hand-
its way out of 109th and poked along be- shake was surprisingly steel-like as he shook
tween the glaringly lighted tenements and his head again and said: ”1 don’t worry.
finally onto the West- River Bridge. The If the el, she goes, my troubles are over
night was warm, and Larue poked his bare all the same.”
forearm out the window, letting the hottish Larue wrinkled his head perplexedly.
breeze nudge it as the train reached the *T’d like to see if we couldn’t do some-
peak of the bridge middle and then started thing for you at the foundry.”
down toward the opposite end. Beyond was The old man disengaged his hand from
the West River stop, and then several min- the laborer’s and put it heavily on Larue’s
utes away was the Fender Street stop. Larue shoulder.
got off. He’d been up to Never’s place once "Thanks, lad,” he said, "thanks, but I
before. won’t be needing anything.”
Larue groped _his way down the stairs
WALKED
H
ing,
E along the still, dark
streets until he came to a dingy build-
even older and more run-down than
and out into the street, feeling that he hadn’t
accomplished very much. There was a chill-
ness that he carried with him as he walked
his own. He mounted the steps to the third toward the Fender Street station. He re-
floor and knocked on the door. membered how very cold the old man’s
"Come in,” said-the old man’s voice, and hand had been. Oh well, he'd done his best.
Larue went inside. He shrugged and mounted the steps to
"Ah, my friend,” motorman.
said the the elevated platform. On the way home,
“Hello, Pete,” said the foundry worker from force of habit he stood in the very
v
nervously. "I had to come over. Sorry about front of the first car as it rocked back across
the river. But Larue found himself more and
*’

getting sore this afternoon. That was very

dumb of me. After all, I know the time more concerned with the old man despite
you’ve been in this business, it’s kinda tough
to have them take away your living, but
— his unsatisfactory visit.His hands felt the
metal sides of the car, and the coldness of
he brightened, “I bet you can find plenty the steel reminded him of the old man’s
else. I was even thinking about the foun- handshake. He shook his head. Nevers prob-
dry. . .
.” ably wasn’t any too well.
"Jack,” said the old motorman raising a
hand, "don’t worry about me or. the el.”
“Damnit, I don’t care about the el,” said
Larue. "I just want to help you tie in to
NOT many days later. Jack boarded the
and saw somebody outside Nevers'
el
compartment at the head of the train.
something else.” Another elderly gentleman, he was, with a
"Nevers shook his head quietly. "I can’t frayed el-line coat and a heavy gold chain
never leave the el,” he stated simply. across his vest. Larue, shrugged to himself.
Larue took some gum out of his pocket, Even the conductors would be in a tough
bit into .a .piece and offered one to the old spot when they pulled down the old struc-
man. ture.As the cars neared Jack’s station, he
"No thanks. Nice of you to come, Larue, pushed forward to say hello to Pete. The
40 WEIRD TALES
other elderly man looked at him closely but never was the kind of fella who brought
seemed to accept him on Nevers’ warm the stuff iri his pockets and munched away
welcome. on the job. I never seen him do that in all
"Well, said the conductor, whose name the years I’ve worked with him. But a man
was Philpot, "looks like we'll all be looking can’t live on nothing, mister. Maybe it’s
for something new.” like I say. It’s the el power that, keeps him
Pete shook his head with that same"" going.”
dogged stiffness that Larue had noticed be- Philpot -waved his hand under Larue’s
fore. face, and Jack noticed the worn blue uni-
"Sure,” the foreman of his foundry told form coat. —
Jack, "sure Larue, we can use a reliable "No sirree, you can tell me about your
old codger around here. Wejust lost two other jobs and I’ll say thank you and per-
men from the watchman detail ” haps I’ll take ’em and perhaps I won’t, but
That night Larue went again to Pete’s it tain’t no use with Pete. He won’t take
lodgings to break the good news. Instead of anything else.”
Nevers, he found the aged conductor, Phil- "But what’ll he do?” persisted Jack. "I
pot. think I can work something over at the
"Haven’t seen him,” said, the old em- foundry. Watchman job. Pretty good pay.”
ployee. "You know, Larue, he spends more Philpot leaned close. “Don’t worry about
and more time down at the yards just sit- him, mister. He’ll get along all right You
ting. Funny, ain’t it? Yup, sitting in know he swears he’ll stay with the el.”
the empty el cars.” "Aw, that’s silly,” said Jade. "What’s
Larue scratched his head: "Well, what the use of bucking the facts. The el’s going
are you doing over here?” to be blasted and pulled down. The paper
"Ohhh,” the old conductor laughed, knows it, I know it, you know it. You fellas
"I’ve kinda moved in here with Pete. You will have to get something else or you’ll
know the el ain’t so high these days, boy. starve.”
Not much money, and looks like even that Old Philpot cackled. "Don’t worry, young
was going to end when they start gouging fella. Pete lives without eating, and any-
and cutting and pulling us all to pieces.” way, he says he’s staying with the el.”
Lame leaned against the door as Philpot jack turned to go.
began reminiscing. “Now don’t get uppity, Larue/ I calcu-
"Yup, the iron horse on stilts they used lated you might tell me a bit more about the
to call us. Those were the days when the job.”
el was the way to go places. Not all your "Weli, I’d really thought about Pete,”
fancy damn underground trains and busses said Jackfrom the" door, "and it doesn’t look
and all that. You took the el, mister, or you like he’s coming in.”
didn’t go.” "Never can tell,” said the conductor. "He
"Yeah,” said Jack, "Yeah, but don’t waste might be here most any time. Watchman,
time worrying about that, Mr. Philpot. You did you say?”
fellows got to get out and get something "Yeah,” said Jack, thinking by now that
new.” the other man was probably a bit touched.
"Mebbe, mebbe not,” said the conductor. "That’s fine,” said Philpot, "I could do
"I don’t mind working, mind you. I never something like that.”
been one to look off center at work, but Jack set his jaw loyally.. "I’m telling you,
Pete, young fella, he worries me. This is Mr. Philpot, I was thinking of- Pete.”
getting him down. Since I moved in here "No, young fellow,” said the conductor,
it’s been a few days now—-he hasn’t et a then lowered his voice. "Here, let me show
thing.” He paused, and then cackled as a you something.”
thought occurred to him.
"I think he’s living on that same juice
as he sucks up into his train. He gets his
nourishment sitting there at the throttle. No
THE old man hobbled to a very old' trunk
with patched leather’ handles at either
end and a lock that was rusted with age.
sir, haven’t seen him et a thing. ’Course he Quickly a nailfile appeared in his hand and
 RIDE THE EL TO DOOM
he dexterously puried at the lock. The trunk nobody knew. That was a damn fool thing
top yielded and he pulled it back. to do!”
"Look," he said. Jack leaned forward and Philpot bristled: "I only wanted to show
peered into the. interior curiously. you. He shouldn’t have got so sore. I meant
"Why,” he exclaimed, "it's a lot of metal no harm.”
—a lot of old metal parts!” "It was your fault,” Larue was stubborn.
"Sure," said Philpot triumphantly. “You The two headed out into the street, and
can see he’s swiped levers and bars and Philpot slowed Larue’s long lanky stride
facings off the el. Now that isn’t the kind down, clutching at his sleeve.
of man you want to be watchman!" “How about that watchman’s job?”
Larue was astonished. "Go to the foundry and find out for your-
"But why? Why would he take all that self,” disgustedly advised the laborer.
useless junk?” . "Aw, be a good fellow!”
"You can sell junk,” suggested Philpot “I didn’t look that up for you,” persisted
waggling his head. Jack.
Just then there was an abrupt thud at the "I don’t know why you should kick. He
door. The metallic rasp of a key, and the doesn’t want it,” digging
hissed Philpot,
next thing Peter Nevers himself stood in his fingers into the young man’s arm. “Now
the entrance. I’ll tell you something, mister. Pete ain't
three men stood silent for a moment,
The quite all right. He isn’t exactly like other
and then the motorman crossed quickly to folks am. Me,” Philpot shrugged again,
the trunk crashing the lid down with his "some folks think I’m getting a bit touched,”
hand. He turned accusing eyes on Philpot and he thum'ped his forehead grinningly.
and Larue, eyes steely black with hatred. "Silly, ain’t it? But Pete, mister,” his face
Larue stood there almost as a spectator. At' became all seriousness again, "Pete is sort of
first it seemed funny and then the vehe- touched all over. I’m telling you, he’s not
mence of the man penetrated. Philpot was the same as us. I wouldn’t want him watch-
evidently in terror and he trembled and ing anything of mine!”
inched his way across to the door. Lame Without another word Jack walked
kept looking at the conductor to do the ex- away, unmindful of the other’s pleas.
plaining, and when none was forthcoming, Larue didn’t notice either of the old el
he turned to Pete himself and said simply: employees again until the momentous day
"We just opened it up, Pete. Sorry. I had when the el was to support its last load, the
last trip through tire stations and across

job
—
something I wanted to tell you about a
the river, for then the old rusting cars were
Nevers raised a long, rigid arm until it to be nuzzled into their final resting place
pointed at the door in semaphore fashion. in the yards and the rails were to be torn up
"Get out!” he ordered. “Get out of here, immediately for other- more vital usages.
both of you. Going through my things!"
He turned on Lame. HE el train that last trip was packed
“And as for your job,” Nevers said, "I T with dignitaries and reporters, the
don’t need it!” Mayor, and other notables, but still Jack
“What’ll you do?” said the foundry managed to get aboard. There was much
worker. excitement, and the Sanitation Department
"Stay with the el,” growled Pete and band played bright, hopeful airs on the
started menacingly toward them, his big old 109th Street platform. This depressed Larue
hands spread with obvious intention. The even more than he had expected to be. af-
two ducked into the hall and headedodown fected by this last trip. He wondered why
the stairs. the death of something should be celebrated
"Whew!” said Philpot, "guess he didn’t by a band, and a poor one at that, playing
like that.” off-key military marches. It seemed unfair.
"It’s your fault,” Lame reproached. "You Taps maybe, like they do over a dead* hero.
shouldn’t have nosed into his things, TTiat’s A bugle and some guns fired off. Damnit,
what bothered him. He probably thought he was going to miss the old rattler.
42 WEIRD TALES
He reached into his hip pocket as best they’d comei Already, like the wake of a
he could in the crowd and felt reassuringly speedy motor launch coming together in the
of the bottle cached there. The train jerked distance, little ants of men had flung them-
to a start and there were huzzahs from the selves from either side upon the track. Even
small crowd on the platform. The Sanita- at the steadily increasing distance, Larue
tion band tooted enthusiastically, its horns could see the morning sun glinting on a
and inexact melody blaring off into the dis- swung pick or raised crowbar. He pulled his
tance as the train put worn ties between head in as the train rattled off the bridge,
itselfand the starting point. ramp. A couple of florid-faced, straw-hatted
Larue cautiously began to edge his way men in the back of thejcar, with construction
forward. Between cars he made himself buttons on, started a few bars of Casey
small, reached into his hip and got the bottle Jones, but the song died a self-conscious
there up to his lips. He took a good enough death. Larue looked at them with contempt.
swig to half empty the precious Scotch, then Construction, bah. Destruction, that’s what
with more elan he shouldered his way for- it was.
ward again. He nodded at an old-time passenger he
Slowly, as though reluctant to complete its knew and lurched forward against Pete’s
last journey, as though clinging to every door. The train was slowing as he leaned
moment, every familiar squeak and rattle, against the compartment and pulled at the^
as" though caressing for the last time each knob.
inch of used and faithful track, the el cars "Hello, Pete,” he mumbled as the door
nosed their way around serpentine bends opened. There was Nevers sitting as ever,
and clickitied out onto the West River hunched and intense over his controls.
Bridge. Pedestrians waved from the bridge Nevers said nothing.-
way, Jack noted as he peered out the side
windows. He also noted that crews were
aJready standing by to begin the work of
demolition. The crowd in the el cars was
THERE
lined'
station.
were more people
Some
up on one
little school'
at the

,side of the platform.

Fender
children were
As
happy and carefree. Here and there, the the train, pulled in, they waved the small
foundry worker recognized a face that had flags in theirhands and started to scream.
crossed back and forth with him many times Larue cursed and turned back to Pete.
in the past. He didn’t know them beyond a "It’s terrible, isn’t it? All this noise!”
nod or a smile, but they were the veterans He, wanted to slap the old man on the
who, he felt, could sense the real tragedy of back, but Nevers stared intently ahead. A
this thing as he did. The others, the petty few more people got on at Fender. A few
officials, the nosing sour reporters, Chief of got off. The run now was to the station in
Police Frost —
a man. Larue recognized by his the yards where the el cars had made their
pictures, large-jowled, blank of expression home for so many years.
despite the smile frozen on his face—all Larue spoke several times to Pete and
these did not belong. The el to them was a still gohno reply. The whiskey fumes in his
source of revenue, or a cause of lack of reve- brain befuddled him. He
knotted his fists
nue, the source of a story, or just a respon- into balls. He became
slowly angry, angri-
For all of them, its iron and steel
sibility. ness that made him want to reach over and
frame and heart and guts could be wrenched shake the imperturbable Nevers.
and torn asunder and hauled elsewhere' to “Whazza matter, Pete? You sore at me
be scalded and molded into "new unrecog- about something? Aw, snap out of it. I’m
nizable forms. even going to pay you that* ten bucks I owe
'Larue finished the rest of his Scotch, you soon.’’ Larue giggled idiotically.
picked up in spirit correspondingly, and The train clattered on at increased speed
reached the front of the foremost car, all and the hubbub of the passengers behind
about the same time. Some of the joy-riding rose and fell.
passengers had pulled open the windows "Now Pete,” said Larue, "you’re not go-
and were looking curiously out. Larue stuck ing to high-hat your old friend, are you?
his head through and looked back the way That’s no way to treat me.”
 RIDE THE EL TO DOOM 43

He reached out and touched). Nevers' the back of.his head and his emotions flamed
shoulder. up in anger; at Pete. His shoulder was sore
The motorman turned at that, and for too where he had- been shoved into the side
the first time spoke, his eyes full on the of the el car by the motorman.
laborer’s face. Larue got laboriously to his feet. He stag-
“Get out," he said between closed teeth. gered uncertainly back across the street and
At that, Larue saw fed. Without think- headed into the tavern again, but as he
ing, he aimed a lusty punch in the direction crossed the threshold, the barkeep spotted
of the engineer’s body. He let fly, and as he him and started lumbering forward with a
connected, felt the shock of impact through meaningful jerk of the head.
the back of his hand and up his arm, but “Look, Bud, I had a hard enough time
Nevers wasn't hurt. With his free hand, the gettin’ you outta here before!”
motorman shoved Larue away viciously. The Larue turned around: “All right, all
foundry worker crashed heavily into the op- right, just wanted to know what time it
posite side of the aisle. Nevers' compart- was.”
ment door slammed and there was the click The barkeep yelled out at him: "Stay out
of a lock. Larue sputtered and pulled him- of here, you bum!”
self upward, helped by one of the old-time The foundry worker trudged along the
passengers and a bored reporter who saw darkstreets. The cool summer air lapped
in the antics of the drunk some release from at his hair and cleared his brain of some of
the monotony of this final el ride. its alcoholic' vagueness. An illuminated
"I’m all right," insisted Larue, shaking clock on a jeweler’s window showed that it
off his helpers. "Lemme alone.” He shook was 9:30. Good lord, he’d been out for
his head; He felt bewildered and dazed by hours! That blow on the head Nevers had
his fall and the liquor. Before him loomed caused him —temper flared up in the man
the unreassuring visage of Chief of Police and his footstepsbecame sure. Even in his
Frost. Larue waved his hand and insisted befuddled state he found Nevers’ place
again: "I'm all right. Lemme alone." quickly and mounted the steps, his anger a
The train docilely began to slow for the hard swollen something within him. His
yard. The last station was ahead. One of the fists knotted into tight balls . mumbling,
. .

reporters tried knocking at the motorman’s he climbed the stairs to Pete Nevers’ room.
compartment, pounding with his fist and He rattled at Nevers' door but there was no
then shaking his head dourly and slapping answer. He was about to turn away when
the pad and pencil he had is his hand back a noise from within attracted his attention.
into his pocket,
“He's a devil,” said Larue. Don't go near O NEVERS was in there, was he, hiding
him, fella.” S from him!. He pounded again at the
The reporter smirked and headed back door. Still no response. Maddened, the
along the aisle. The train came to a shud- laborer put his shoulder to the door and
dering stop and Larue found himself carried forced the cheap lock. The panel flew in-
along with the outpouring passengers. He ward and Larue lurched into the chamber,
noted a foreman of the elevated line and old his hands out in front of him aggressively.
Conductor Philpot standing near the front Then he saw the figure on the floor near
of the train. Walking down the steps was the bed.
a feat. When he reached the bottom, every- "Hey you,” Jack muttered in surprise. He
thing became increasingly hazy. He headed came closer. It was Philpot! The old man
for the nearest bar and threw himself into was white as the plaster wall behind him.
the wooden seat of a little cubicle. Beers There was blood oozing thickly from a cut
added to the Scotch made him sleepy, and on his head.
his last act consisted of waving a five-dollar "Philpot, what happened? You’re hurt!”
bill at the disapproving barkeep. The old man raised a gnarled talon of a
^Unaccountable time later, Jack woke up hand and waved it weakly.
gBjfcgnch across the street from the tavern. “Nevers,” he gasped. "He’s crazy. He
IgguSt gingerly of the thr&bbing lump on ain’t human!"
44 WEIRD TALES
"Nevers!” gritted Larue.. "He hit you tod, head was marked with many blows such as
-huh? Yeah, he swung on me this morning the one Philpot had received.
in the el, the dirty — !”

"Wait, Larue,’’ said the old conductor ARUE got up from his scrutiny. The
weakly, "the man’s gone mad. He’s a killer.
He ain’t human. And he’s headed back to
L
pit of his stomach tingled and his body
felt dampish. That crazy, wicked Nevers!
the yards. Call the police, Larue. He’s going By god, he’d get him. So he was a killer!
back for no good, I tell ya. I tried to stop- He had shoved, him, Jack Lame, and he’d
him and look what it did me!” killed one, maybe two. But where to look
The scene had sobered Larue. Plainly, old in this maze of silent black coaches squatting
Nevers had gone out of his head. everywhere on rusty rails, dreaming of the
“I’ll get him! I’ll go after him myself.” past?
*
"No,” choked the old man, shaking his The problem was solved suddenly for
head painfully. "Won’t do, Larue. Got to him. To his right, several tracks away,' the
get the police right away.” metallic jerk of an el starting shocked him.
"Aw, police,” said Larue disdainfully. The headlamp lit up, and against the light-
’Til find a doctor for you and head to the reflected back, Larue could see a three-car
yards myself. trainmoving slowly along parallel to the
"Larue,” said the old man, "you’ve got to platform he was on, toward the switch that
call the cops right away. Larue, come opened onto the now-condemned line..
closer.” The old man’s voice sunk to a Ghostlike the whole scene was, incredible
whisper. It was plain he was losing strength as some distorted, fevered dream. For there
fast. The foundry worker bent over_the, old seemed no life here but Larue and the re-
el employee, his ear close to the man's mote, twinkling stars above. The train that
mouth. Philpot whispered to him, his words moved could not, should not be real. It was
barely audible. Lame straightened, aghast, a trick of his imagination. It was the liquor
and he wheeled and almost ran from- the he 'had consumed. This yard, these cars were
room. dead, dead as the watchman who lay
"I’ll get a doctor for you,” he called crumpled over the platform.
back. Yet even as he thought these things,
He ran downstairs three at a time and out Larue_j§printed forward. He headed across
into the street. Two and a half blocks of the yard, alternately leaping and stumbling
running brought him to a policeman. He over tracks. Ahead, luring him on with a
told the officer the bare details and then peculiar, horrible, and magical magnetism
took off again in the direction of the. el was The squeaking, rumbling thing gather-
yards. ing speed, its three funereal black cars slid-
Finally he reached the stairs leading to ing wraithlike through the yards. Larue was
the elevated’s burial ground. He sprinted up close by now. He grabbed at a side rail and
the steps and looked around. Everything -'missed. It was Nevers he knew running the
seemed quiet. But where was the watch- train. Nevers who’d killed,* but most of all,
man? As far as he could see were silent who’d pushed him, Jack Larue. People
sentinels of cars, standing in somber lines didn’t pusli Tarue. The anger flowed back
of two and three and four. He cursed his into him and charged blood and energy into
lack of matches or any other light as he his lagging legs. He sprinted mightily and
picked his way along the rotting ties. Gradu- caught the rail at. the end of the last car. He
ally his eyes became more accustomed to pulled himself upward and then lay pant-
the dark. Then, suddenly, he came upon a ing on the back platform. His head still
body sprawled against the base of the plat- throbbed where Nevers had shoved him
form. It was one of the guards. Even to the earlier that day.
inexperienced eye, the man no longer pos- With a series of ominous jerks the train
‘

sessed that indefinable spark called life. The gained speed and Larue watched the blade
feeling of death was here and everywhere ties flash out from under the belly of the
in these yards now. The watchman had car. Not until then did the impossiN^Hfij
been Bludgeoned to death. Lame saw. His of his situation Strike him. The traijgljl
 RIDE THE EL TO DOOM 45

going too fast by now for him to get off . . These people knew the el. They had lived
running a trip that had never been meant,
' with it fof years just as he had, lived with
'

for the el was no more after nooii that day. its noise arid- 'rattle and dirtj and they knew
;

This unscheduled run was^ sheer madness. it had died at noon that day, died forever-

. Suddenly, with horror, the memory of the more, and yet here was this monster ghost
demolition crew on the bridge came back thundering again, this magic symbol of the
to Larue. Good God, by now a lot of those railroad on stilts that refused to die. He
bridge rails would have been pried and could tell from some of the flash glances
ripped and loosened. What was Nevers that they were startled, disbelieving what
thinking of ..if it was Nevers! —
they saw a yellow finger of light and then
Larue got to his feet and started into the the rumbling clattering black train follow-
interior of the coach, feeling his way up ing the thin cone of brilliance,- speeding
the black aisle, his hands guiding him as he through the night on the condemned el. And
touched the worn backs of the seats. The they knew as he knew that the train must
train lurched around a curve and Lame stop, formen had killed the creature called
teetered to keep his balance. Never in his the They had cut at it and torn at it and
el.
years of riding the elevated had it traveled broken structure.
its Larue’s mouth went
so fast, of that he was sure. Lights from dry. Thin factory funnels, gray in the night,
houses they passed flickered feebly through loomed past outside.
the dirty glass windows and the seat backs From that he knew they weren’t many
took on the sepulchral outlines of ghostly blocks from the'ramp that led up onto the
monsters. He forced himself onward and bridge. And the bridge trades, he knew,
gained the division between car number were already in a state of partial demolition.
three and number two. ‘He staggered forward, then again the car
Looking ahead along the aisle, he could swayed beneath him. As he edged closer to
see through the open front the swathe cut the motorman’s compartment at the very
by the headlight. Lord, there was some- front and right of the first car, the fear that
thing eerie about this. He fought back the no one would be within that compartment
whimpering cry that rose in his throat. Sup- took him by the throat and seemed almost
pose no one was aboard! Suppose die train to shakehim in rhythm to the swaying of
were running by itself. Even as the super- the car.
stitions of his ancestors threatened to crowd With a great effort of control, he threw
his mind, Larue’s reason fought them back. himself ahead, wrenching at the motorman’s
Of course there was a man up there. It was door. He pulled it open and the words
Nevers, he thought. Or maybe it wasn’t burst forth then.
Nevers. Could be there was some reason for "Oh, Pete! God, man, I’m glad to see
this trip. An inspector going down the line you! Look, you’ve got to pull this thing
a ways for some purpose. A thin chance, down. You know the tracks are down up
but the idea bolstered him. ahead!”
Gone was the picture of the watchman

H E STUMBLED through the

dle car and came to the first. His steps
slowed, his fears powerful within him again.
silent mid- lying back there in the yards, for here in-
stead of nobody, instead of some ghost, was
old Nevers crouched reassuringly as always
The car grew brighter around him as the ' over his controls.
train thundered into a more brightly lit sec- "Pete,” said Larue again, grabbing the
tion. The Fender Street station loomed man’s craglike shoulder, "slow her down.
ahead. But desolate tonight. No persons The bridge’s not far away.”
watching, no lines of children with flags, But the old man just sat there, his eyes
no band, no dignitaries. Only loneliness. staring ahead.
They flashed tii rough the station and out: *
The moment of relief was gone for Jack
As the el thundered along in its cavern be- Lame. The foundry worker cursed and
tween buildings, here and there Lame fleet- pleaded. He wedged himself into the tiny
dngly glimpsed a face at a tenement win- compartment with the motorman. He
Hli^ person gesticulating. screamed at Nevers.
46 WEIRD TALES
"For God’s sake, man, don'Gyou under- the middle of the West River Bridge, out
stand? There’s no more track up' ahead. I over the swirling dark water dozens of feet
saw them pulling it up myself^Youll wreck below, there were no tracks and the train
her, I tell you, Pete. You’ve got to listen would suddenly be out of its element, help-
,

to me." less, forsaken. The image of this morning

The around the cor-
el jiggled balefuily lighted up in Larue’s mind. Looking back
ner and then Larue sensed rather than saw out of a window as the el rumbled the other
its upward pull. The grade leading toward way across the West River . looking back
. .

the ramp! Larue screamed then and looked and seeing the crews coming together with
ahead. The yellow cone of light fumbled their tools attacking the rails and destroying
through the darkness and then picked out them section by section. That was ahead, he
the ramp far ahead. Larue looked away knew. The incline grew steeper and the
and at Nevers again. echoes- from the ramp fell away to become
"You’re crazy, man/’ he screamed. "Stop deeper, longer. They were on the bridge!
her, Nevers, for God’s sake!” Lame started to back out of the motor-
man’s compartment. He looked ahead, and

BUT the motorrrian sat his seat with steely

determination, The light that fell in ir-
there, oh God, there he could at last see
the shining reflection of the rails was broken,
regular squares in the compartment seemed somewhere out there ahead near center-
to strike and reflect from Nevers. There was bridge. With ghastly suddenness he felt a
a quality about the man that terrified Larue. hand of iron close on his wrist and turned
Suddenly he flung himself across, the motor- away from the sight ahead. Nevers had
man’s body and lurched frantically at the turned his head and was looking at him.
controls. He got one hand on the brake A glinting skull-like visage leering with
and the, other hand closed over the long evilness. The face was like an old carving.
metal lever that controlled the speed. His “Pete, for God’s sake!” Lame screamed.
arms and back strained with the frenzied "We’ve got to jump. It’s our only chance."
effort to move them against Nevers’ strength But the look, from the other man told him
and will. He could not. The old man pos- what Nevers meant to. do, and Larue’s only
sessed a superhuman steel-like strength. The thought desperately was to get free, to hurl
metallic resonance of the steel el structure himself out the front to one side. The
suddenly gave way to the ominous hollow- space he still had to go, the seconds he had
like rumble of the ramp. The wooden cross- to fight with, both were shortening.
beams beneath the ties echoed back the Lame hurled his body backwards, clawing
thumping of the train like evil demons at the arm that imprisoned his own. He
pounding in derision. Larue* redoubled his then realized suddenly what he was up
efforts and each split second seemed an against. This was a monster no creature —
eternity of fear and struggle and decision. of God, of flesh and blood. On either side
He
jerked his hands from the levers and was the blackness of empty air. Somewhere
turned them on Nevers. He struck the man far down there was the water. Ahead, much
with all the strength of his hard workman’s too near now, was the beginning of the de-
body. His hands cracked and bled and broke stroyed sections. Rails pulled aside, twisted
against the 'rocklike unyielding creature be- and bent, missing. Larue charged forward
fore him. His flayings caught the whistle then, straight at the creature who opposed
cord and the banshee hoot of the train
-
him, his hard body rammed against the
joined in mournful discord to Larue’s own other. Every, muscle developed from years
scream. His pleas were incoherent now. He at the foundry came into play. The thing
must kill this man before him or he would before him gave ground slightly to counter
die! this new assault, then Jack’s free hand came
The ramp vibrated hollowly beneath the down in a' wicked slash over the hand that
coach. The laborer shot a fearful glance held him. He reversed his dkeetion and
ahead up the ladder of light that groped lurched backward toward the opening in the
along the ties in the distance. The rails were front of the train. His monster oppong^g
still there as far as he could see, but out in surprised, came with him for a few^BgggS
 RIDE THE EL TO DOOM 47

ing, precious feet. Larue gained the front hypnotized^ with horror, he dropped the
of the car vestibule and levered his t shoulder something; he., had sneaked home with him
around the coping. The guard chain across from the bridge in a corner and hurriedly
the front broke. The thing named Nevers covered it with newspapers. Then he went
groaned. There was a sudden scream of down into -the street again, down to a water-
twisting metal, a distinct snapping sound, front excited and packed now with eager,
and Larue was free. The least horror of the watching people. In addition to the ap-
moment was that Nevers’ hand unaccount- paratus at the wharves, there were police
ably had come with him as though wrenched launches and small craft of ail types cruising
from its very socket. He was staggering, around in the river directly beneath the
flying out onto the side to fall clear in a bridge. On the span itself he could see
somersaulting, bouncing heap along the figures moving. Searchlights were shining
right of way on the bridge. The train rum- down onto the water: Larue watched for
bled on past. hours as people around him came and went,
Jack raised himself up. He was^ still and as dawn finally streaked the sky to the
clutching in his hand the weighty some- east. The boats drifted and crossed in ec-
thing. The train was silhouetted for a splen- centric linesaround the center of the river,
did moment against the lights of the city as their white wakes criss-crossing over the
'

it charged relentlessly onto No Man's Land grave of the el train.

where tracks had been razed. With reeling Full morning came and Larue reluctantly
senses the foundry worker watched the spec- left to have breakfast in a little restaurant
tacle. The train suddenly bucked. The first and then headed for work. Somehow he got
car went up in the air as though it had gone through the day. He bought all the evening
over a gigantic bump. Then it slid side- papers. "A mentally deranged emplpyee of
ways at incredible speed, dragging the other the el line,” it is stated, “stole a train last
two along. All this seemed soundless to evening after fatally beating his roommate
Larue. The el glided sideways then and and a guard, both employees of the el, and
tumbled off the bridge. Only then did he. ran the train of three cars off the West River
become aware of the sounds. The awful Bridge where demolition of the tracks had
shrieking and grinding of iron upon iron, already started. Police stated that they ex-
the crash of impact, the rending noise of pected Nevers’ body would be recovered
nibbing, protesting metal, the bump and when wreckage of the el could be raised.”
whining, and then from below a long-drawn Larue worked his time at the foundry in
out splash and silence!
. . . a daze. For him, the river had a morbid,
For a time he lay there too stunned to fateful fascination. He was on hand when
do other than look weakly around him on the smashed cars of the el train began to
the ghost-like bridge. Then he got to his come, up, caught and drawn up laboriously
feet. He forced himself to the side of the with grappling hooks. But Nevers was not
structure and looked over. The water below found. Still the police trawled the river,
was running silently, covering its loot with- for, as was pointed out in the newspapers,
out trace. Trembling violently Jack stumbled the engines were supplied with an automatic
on across the bridge and found his way home, device that caused the train to stop of itself
still clutching a bulky weight in his hand. if the motorman left the controls. Some-
—
This horror something he was too dazed how, the press speculated, Nevers’ body
to look at and appraise, afraid that it was might have wedged itself through a window
what he most feared, no more incredible and was even now somewhere at the bottom
than anything else this evening —Nevers’ of the river.
hand! Larue knew at last, and he lived with his
terrible secret, not wishing to confirm it,
Y NOW, were sounding in the
sirens clinging to the doubt, slim though it was,
B streets below and Larue knew that res-
cue squads were on the way to the piers.
that he was crazy, that his memory of that
night was wrong. A
nightmare delusion,
So much had happened that evening that although the livid bruises still apparent on
j^ie foundry worker’s mind was numb. Still his body testified otherwise. Days passed.
48 WEIRD TALES
and the foundry worker shunned the corner found there in trembling hands, horror-
of his room. After several weeks, the police stricken, and headed through the foggy
and press admitted grudgingly that possibly darkness for the wharves, the bundle under
Nevers had escaped on the bridge just be- his arm. He got to the water’s edge and
fore the train went off. Police nets were stood for a moment looking around to see
spread for the deranged murderer and Larue if he was observed. Satisfied, he took the
watched the papers closely. More time paper covering off and held Nevers’ arm in
passed and nothing new was uncovered. his hands. Something the dead Philpot had
Finally, desperately, the foundry worker said came back to him poignantly. No, the
went to the corner of his room one night motorman hadn’t been human.
and dug out the object which had rested And Larue dropped the metal throttle
there for so many weeks under an increas- lever he’d been holding into the water to
ing pile of newspapers. He took what he join the rest of Pete Nevers of the el.
TT WAS' one of .those things they keep Charlie stared back at it for a long
in a jar in the tent of a sideshow on time.
the. outskirts of a little, drowsy town. A long time, his big raw hands, hairy on
One of those pale .tilings drifting in alcohol the roofs of them, clenching the rope that
plasma, forever dreaming and circling, with kept back curious people. He had paid his
its peeled dead eyes staring out at you-and dime and now he stared.
never seeing you. It went with the noise- It was getting late. The merry-go-round
lessness of late night, and only the crickets drowsed down to a lazy mechanical tinkle.
chirping, the frogs sobbing off in the moist Tentpeggers back of a canvas smoked and
swampland. One of those things in a big cursed over a poker game. Lights switched
jar that makes your stomach jump like it out, putting a summer gloom over the carni-
does when you see an amputated arm in a val. People streamed homeward in cliques
laboratory vat. and queues. Somewhere, a radio flared up.
. — TB

Everything and anything it was . . . death and the night, and the pallid
moist things of the sea . . ,
50 WEIRD TALES
then cut, leaving Louisiana sky wide and si- pression of, almost, relief. "I was tired of
lent with stars peppering it. seeing the thing around. Don’t thank me.
There was nothing in the world for Char- LatelyI been thinking things about it, funny
lie but that pale thing sealed in its universe things —
don’t mind me, I’m just a' big-
of serum. Charlie’s loose mouth hung open mouth. S’long, farmer!”
in a pink weal, teeth showing, eyes puzzled, Charlie drove off. The naked blue light
admiring, wondering. bulbs withdrew like dying stars, the open
Someone trotted in the shadows behind dark country night of Louisiana swept in
him, small beside Charlie's giant tallness. around wagon and horse. The brass merry-
“Oh,” said the shadow', coming into the go-round clanking faded. There was just
light-bulb glare. "You still here, bud?’* Charlie, the horse timing its gray hoofs,
"Yeah,” said Xharlie, irritated, his and the crickets.
thoughts were touched. And the jar behind the high seat.
The camy-boss appreciated Charlie’s curi- It sloshed back and forth, back and forth.
osity. He nodded old acquaintance
at his Sloshed wet. And the,cold gray thing drows-
in the jar. "Everybody likes it; in a pecu- ily slumped against the glass, looking out,
liar kinda way, I mean.” looking out, but seeing nothing, nothing,
Charlie rubbed his long jawbone. “You nothing.
—
uh ever consider selling it?” Charlie leaned back to pet the lid. Smell-
The carny boss’ eyes dilated, then closed. ing of strange liquor his hand returned,
He snorted. "Naw. It brings customers. changed and cold and trembling, excited.
They like seeing stuff like that. Sure.” He was bright scarlet happy about this. Yes,
Charlie made a disappointed, "Oh.” sir!
"Well,” considered the carny-boss, "if a
guy had money, maybe
— Slosh, slosh, slosh.

“How much money?”

— N THE Hollow numerous grass-green
“If a guy had ” the carny-boss esti- I and blood-red lanterns tossed dusty light
mated, squinting eyes, counting on fingers, over men huddled, chanting, spitting, sit-
watching Charlie as he tacked it out one ting on General Store property.
finger after another.
four, say,
“If a guy had three,
maybe seven or eight
— They knew the creak -bumble of Charlie’s
vehicle and did not shift their rav., drab-
Charlie nodded with each motion; expect- haired skulls as he rocked to a halt. Their
antly. Seeing this, the carny-boss raised his cigars were nicotine glow-worms crawling
total,
teen
— —maybe ten
“
dollars, or maybe fif- from
turn-trip.
and re-
political lips to knee-perches
Their voices were frog mutter-
Charlie scowled, worried. The carny-boss
retreated, “Say a guy has twelve dollars
— irigs in summer night.
Charlie leaned at an eager angle. "Hi,
Charlie grinned. "Why, he could buy that Clem. Hi, Milt.”
thing in that jar,” concluded the carny- "Lo, Charlie. Lo, Charlie,” they mur-
boss. mured. The political conflict continued.
"Funny thing,” said Charlie, “I got just, Charlie cut it down the seam:
twelve bucks in my denims. And I been "I got somethin’ here. I got somethin’
reckoning how looked up to I’d be back you might wanna see!”
down at Wilder’s Hollow if I brung home Tom Carmody’s eyes glinted, green in the
something like this set on my shelf
to lamp-light, from the General Store porch.
over the table. The guys would sure look It seemed to Charlie 'that Tom Carmody
up me
to
"Well, now,
then, I bet.”
listen here
— ” said the carny-
was forever installed under porches in
shadow, or under trees in shadow, or if in
boss. a room in the farthest niche, showing his
The sale was completed with the
jar put eyes out at you from his dark. You never
on the -back seat of Charlie’s wagon. The knew what his face was doing, "and his eyes
horse skittered its hoofs when it saw it, and were always funning you. And every time
whinnied. they looked at you they laughed a different
The carny-boss glanced up with an ex- way:
 THE JAR 51

"You got nothin' we wants ta see,

ain't faded like the gingham. "Well,” she re-
you dumb sheebaw!” peated. "What is it?”
Charlie made a fist with a blunt-knuckle "What does it look like to you, Thedy?”
fringe: "Somethin' in a jar," he went on. She took a thin step forward, making a
"Looks kine a like a brain, kine a like a slow indolent pendulum of hips. Her eyes
pickled wolf, kine a like —
well come look were intent upon the jar, her lips drawing
yourself!” back to show feline milk teeth.
Somebody snicked their cigar into a fall The dead pale thing hung in its seriim.
of pink ash and ambled over to look. Char- Thedy- snapped a dull-blue glance at
lie grandly elevated the jar-lid,and in the Charlie, then back to the jar, and. swept
uncertain lantern-light the man’s face
— around quickly to clutch the wall. "It it —
changed. "Hey, now, what in hell is this looks just like YOU— Charlie!” she
It was the first thaw of the night. Others shouted hoarsely.
shifted lazily upright, leaned forward; grav- The door slammed behind her!
ity pulled them into walking. They made The reverberation did not disturb the jar's
no effort, except to keep one shoe afore the contents. But Charlie stood there, longing
other, to keep from collapsing upon their after her, neck muscles long, taut, heart
unusual faces. They circled the jar and con- pounding frantically, and then after his
tents. And Charlie, first time in his life, heart slowed a bit, he talked to the thing
seized upon some strategy and clapped the in the jar:
lid down with a glass clatter: "I work the bottom-land to the buttbone
"You want to see more, drop around to ever’ year, and she takes the money and
my house. It’ll be there,” he declared, gen- rushes off down home visitin’ her folks,
erously. nine weeks at a stretch. I can’t keep holt
Tom Garmody spat from out his porch of her. She and the men from the store
eyrie. "Ha!” make fun of me. I can't help it if I’m not
"Lemme see thet again,” cried Gramps whip smart.”
Medknowe. "Is it a brain?” Philosophically, the contents of the jar
Charlie flapped the reins and the horse gave no advice.
stumbled into action. "Charlie?”
"Come on around! You’re^welcome!” Someone stood in the door.
"What’ll your wife say?” Charlie turned, startled, then broke out
"She’ll kick the tar off our heels!” a grin.
But Charlie and wagon were gone over It was some of the men from the General
the hill. They stood around, all of them, Store.
chewing tongues, squinting after. Tom Car- —
"Uh- —we— is—we thought
Charlie that
mody swore^ softly from the porch. . . „ —well—we came up~to have look— a at that
— —you got
stuff in that there jar

A S CHARLIE climbed the steps of his

shack, carrying the jar to its throne in
the living room, he thought that from now
ULY passed warm, and it was August.
For the first time in years, Charlie
on the place would be a palace. The incum- was happy as tall corn growing after a
bent king swam without moving in his pri- drought. It was gratifying of an evening to
vate pool, raised, elevated upon his shelf hear boots shushing through the tall grass,
over the table. the sound of men spitting into the ditch
This jar was the one thing that dispelled prior to setting foot on the porch, the sound
the gray sameness that hung over the place of heavy bodies creaking across it, and the
on the swamp -rim. groan of the house as yet another shoulder
"What’ve you got there?” leaned against its frame door and another
Thedy’s thin soprano turned him from voice said, as a hairy arm wiped dean the
his admiration. She stood in the bedroom questioning mouth
door glaring out, heif thin body clothed in "Kin I come in?”
faded blue gingham, her hair drawn to a With elaborate casualness, Charlie’d in-
drab knot behind red ears. Her eyes were vite the arrivals in. There’d be chairs, soap-
52 WEIRD TALES
boxes for all, or at least carpets to squat were set as seven-day concrete and she spoke
on. And by the time crickets were itching not a civil word to nobody.
their legs into a summertime hummings, After a period of proper silence, some-
and frogs were throat swollen like ladies one, maybe old Gramps Medknowe from
with goiters belching in the great night, Creek Road, would clear the phlegm from
the room would be full to bursting with his old throat’s cavern, lean forward, blink-
people from all the bottom lands. '
ing, wet his lips, maybe, and there’d be a
first nobody would say nothing. The
At curious tremble in his calloused fingers.
firsthalf hour of such an evening, while This would cue everyone to get ready for
people came in and got settled, was spent the talking to -come. Ears were primed.
in carefully rolling cigarettes. Putting tobac- People settled as much as sows in warm mud
co neatly into the rut of brown paper, load- after the rain.
ing it, tamping it, as they loaded and
tamped and rolled their thoughts and fears
and amazement for the evening. It gave
them time to think. You could see their
GRAMPS looked a long while, measured
his with a lizard tongue, then
lips
settled back and said, like always, in a high
brain working behind their eyes as they fin- thin old man’s tenor:
gered the cigarettes into smoking order. "Wonder what it is? Wonder if it’s a he
It was kind of a rude church gathering.... or a she or just a plain old it? Sometimes I
They sat, squatted, leaned on plaster walls, wake up nights, twist on my corn-matting,
and one by one, with reverent awe, they think about that jar setting here in the long
stared at the jar upon its shelf. dark. Think about it hangin’ in liquid,
They wouldn’t stare sudden like. That peaceful and pale like an animal -oyster.
would’ve been irreverent. No, they kind of Sometimes I wake Maw
and we both think
did it slow, casual, as if they were glancing of it . .
.”

around the room—letting eyes fumble over While talking, Gramps moved his fingers
just any old object that happened into their in -a quavering pantomime. Everybody
consciousness. watched his thick thumb weave, and the
—
And just by ^ accident, of course the — other heavy-nailed fingers undulate.
focus of their wandering eyes would occur ". we both lay there, thinkin’. And we
. .

always at the same place. After awhile all shivers.May be a hot night, trees sweatin’,
eyes in the room would be fastened to it, mosquitoes too hot to fly, but we shivers jest
like pins stuck in some incredible pin- the same, and turn over, tryin’ to sleep
cushion. And
the only sound would be Gramps lapsed back into silence, as if
some one sucking a corn-cob. Or the chil- his speech was enough from him, let some
dren’s barefooted scurry on the porch planks other voice talk the wonder, awe and
outside. Maybe some woman’s voice would strangeness.
come, "You kids git away, now! Git!” And Juke Marmer, from Willows Road, wiped
with a giggle, like soft, quick water, the sweat off his palms on the round of his
bare feet would rush off to scare the bull- knees and softly said:
frogs. "I remember when I was a runnel-nosed
Charlie would be up front, naturally, on gawk, we had a cat who was all the time
his rocking chair, a plaid quilt under his makin’ kittens. Lordamighty, she’d a litter
lean rump, rocking slow, enjoying the fame ever time she turned around and skipped a
and looked-up'-toedness that came with fence
—
” Juke spoke in a kind of
holy soft-
keeping the jar. ness, benevolent. "Well, we usually gave
Thedy, she’d be seen way back of the the kittens away, but when this one particu-
room with the women folks in a bunch like lar litter busted out, everybody within walk-
grey grapes, abiding their menfolk. in’ distance had one-two our cats by gift,
Thedy looked like she was ripe for jeal- already.
ous screaming. But she said nothing, just
watched men tromp into her living room
"
—So Ma busied on the back porch with
a big gallon glass jar, filling it to the brim

and set at the jeet of Charlie staring at this with water. It slopped in the sunlight. Ma
here Holy Grail-like thing, and her lips said, ‘Juke, you drown them kittens!’ I
 THE JAR 53

“member I stood, there, the kittens mewed, il ap. Then a frog with a bulge-throat fit ta
running around, blind, small, helpless and bust! Yah!" He cracked knuckles. "It slob-
snugly:Just beginning to get their eyes ber on up to itsgummy.- joints and it it —
open. I looked at Ma, I said, 'Not ros Ma! AM A MAN! That am the center of crea-
You do it!’ But Ma turned pale and said tion. That am Middibamboo Mama, -from
it had to be done and I was the only one which we all come ten thousand year ago*
handy. And she went 'off to stir gravy and fix Believe it!"
chicken. I
I
—
picked up one kitten. I held — “Ten thousand year ago!” reiterated
it. It was warm, it made a mewing sound. Granny Carnation.
I felt like running away, not ever coming “It am old! Looky it! It donn worra no
back.” more. It know better. It hang like pork chop
Juke nodded his head now, eyes bright, in fryin’ fat. It got. eye to see with, but it
young, seeing into the past, making it donn blink ’em, they donn look fretted, does
stark, chiseling it out with hammer and they?No, man! It know betta. It know thet
knife of words, smoothing it into horrible we done come from it, and we is going back
bas-relief with his tongue: TO it!”
dropped the kitten into the water.
"I "What color eyes has it got?”
"He
closed his eyes, opened his mouth, "Grey.”
gasping for air. I remember how the little “Naw, green!”
white fangs showed, the pink tongue came "What color hair? Brown?”
out, and bubbles with it, in a line, to the "Black!”
top of the water! "Red!”
"I remember to this day the way that "No, grey!”
kitten floated after 'it was all over, drifting Then Charlie would give his drawling
around, around, slow and not worrying, opinion. Some nights he’d say the same
-

looking out at me, not condemnin’ me for thing, some nights not. It didn’t matter.
what I done. But not likin’ me, either.
”
When you said the same thing night after
Ahhhhh night in the deep summer, it always sounded
Hearts beat fast. Eyes shifted quickly different. The crickets changed it. The frogs
_from Juke to the shelved jar, back to him, changed it. The thing in the jar changed it.
up again, a spectators’ game, as one sees at Charlie said:
a tennis tournament, interest changing "What if an old man went back into the
from moment to moment, apprehensively. swamp, or maybe a young child, and wan-
A pause. dered around for years and years lost in the
Jahdoo,.the black man from Swamp Crick drippin’ trails and gullies, the wet ravines,
Road, tossed his ivory eyeballs like a dusky in the nights, skin a turnin’ pale, and makin’
juggler in his head. His dark knuckles knot- cold and shrivelin’ up. Bein’ away from the
ted and flexed —
grasshoppers alive.
"You know what thet is? You know, you
sun he’d keep witherin’ away up and up and
finally sink into a muck -hole and lay in a
know ? That am thee center of Life, sure —
kind of solution, like the maggot mosquito
’nuff! Lord believe me, it am soj” sleepin’ in liquid. Why, why — for all we
know, this might be someone we know.
WAYING in a tree-like rhythm, Jahdoo Someone we passed words with once on a
S was blown by some swamp wind no- time. For all we know . .

body could see, hear or feel, but himself. A

hissing from among the women folks
His eyeballs went around again, as if loos- back in the shadows. One woman standing,
ened from all mooring. His voice needled a eyes shining black, fumbling for words. Her
dark thread pattern picking up each person name was Mrs. Tridden. She said:
by the lobes of their ears and sewing them "Lots of little kids run stark naked into
into one unbreathing design: the swamp ever year. They runs around and
"From that, lyin’ back in the Middibam- they never comes back. I almost got lost
boo Sump, all sort o’ thing crawl. It put out maself. I — I my
lost little boy, Foley, that
hand;
horn an’
it put out feet, it put out tongue an’
it grow. little bitty amoeba, per-
way. You —you DON’T SUPPOSE!!”
Breaths were taken snatched through
in,
54 WEIRD TALES
nostrils, constricted, tightened. Mouths magic tricks them magicians do at the show.
turned down at corners, bent by grim facial Once you find the feke, it ain’t no more
muscles.Heads turned on celery stalk necks, funn’ the innards of a jackbob. come We
and eyes read her horror and hope. It was collecting around here every ten nights or
in Mrs. Tridden’s body, wire-taut, holding so, talking, social like, with something,
onto the .wall back of her with straight fin- always something, to talk about. Stands to
gers stiff. reason if we found out what the damn thing
"My baby,” she whispered. She breathed is there’d be nothing to talk about, so
it out."My baby. My Foley! Foley! Foley, is ..there!”
that you? Foley! Foley, tell me, baby, is that "Well, damn it to hell!” rumbled a bull
YOU!” voice. "I don’t think it’s nothin’!”
Everybody held their breath, turning to Torn Carmody.
see the jar. Tom Carmody standing, as always, in
shadow. Out on the porch, just his eyes

THE thing in the jar said nothing.

stared blind-white out
It just

upon the multi-

staring in, his lips laughing at you dimly,
mocking. His daughter got inside Charlie
tude. And raw-boned bodies a secret
deep in like a hornet sting. Thedy had put him up
fear juice ran like spring thaw, and the reso- to it, Thedy was trying to undermine-Char-
lute ice of calm life and belie'f and easy lie's social life, she was!
humbleness was cracked down the middle "Nothing,” joked Carmody, Jiarshly, "in
by that juice and melted away in a gigan- bunch of old
that jar but ji. jelly-fish from
v
tic torrent! Sea Cove, a rottin’ and a stinkin' fit to
"Itmoved!” someone screamed. whelp!”
"No, no, it didn’t move. Just your eyes "You mightn’t be jealous,. Cousin Car-
playin’ tricks!” mody?” asked Charlie slow.
"Hones’ ta God,” cried Juke. "I saw it “Haw!” snorted Carmody. "I jest come
shiftslow like a dead kitten!” around ta watch. you dumb nitwits jaw about
"Hush
up, now! It’s been dead a long, nuthin’. I gits a kick out of it. You notice
long time. Maybe since before you was I never set foot insideor took part. I’m goin'
born!” home right now. Anybody wanna come
"He made a sign!” screamed Mrs. Trid- along with me?”
den, the mother woman. "That’s my baby, He got no offer of company. He laughed
my Foley! My baby you got there! Three again, as if this were a bigger joke, how so
year old, he was! My
baby lost and white many people could be so dumb, and Thedy
in the swamp!” was raking her palms with angry nails back
The sobbing broke out of her, then. of the room. Charlie felt a twinge of unex-
"Now, now, there now, Mrs. Tridden. pected fear at this.
There now. Set down and stop shakin’. Ain’t Carmody, still laughing, --rapped off the
no more your child'n mine. There, there.” porch .with his high-heeled boots and the
One of the women-folk held her and sound of crickets took him away.
faded out the sobbing into jerked breathing Granny Carnation' gummed her pipe.
and a fluttering of her lips in butterfly "Like I was saying before the storm; that
quickness as the breath stroked over them, thing on the shelf, why couldn’t it be sort
afraid. —
of all things? Lots of things. What they
—
tion,
When all was quiet again,’
with a withered pink flower in her
Granny Carna- call a —gimmle
"Symbol?”
1

shoulder-length grey hair, sucked the pipe "That’s it. Symbol. Symbol of all the
in her trap mouth and talked around -it, nights and days in the dead canebrake.
shaking her head to make the hair dance Why’s it have to be one thing? Maybe it’s
in the light: lots.”
"All this talking and shoving arouna And the_ talking went on for another
words. Hah. Like as not we’ll never know hour, and Thedy slipped away into the
what it is. Like as not if we could find out, night on the track of Tom Carmody, and
we wouldn't want to know. It’s like them Charlie began to sweat. They were up to
 THE JAR 5*

something, those two. They were planning all! Got a metal-framework inside That’s
it!

something. Charlie sweated warm all the all! That’s all it is, Charlie! That’s all,” she
rest of the evening. . . . shrilled in triumph.
He sat up swiftly^ ripping sheets apart in
big fingers, roaring, tears coming bright on
his cheeks:
The meeting had gone off well, but what "I don’t wanna hear! Don’t wanna hear!”
about Thedy and Tom Carmody? he bellowed over and over.
Very late, with certain star coveys shuttled She teased, "Wait’ll everyone hears how
down the sky marking the time as late, Char- fake it is! Won’t they laugh! Won’t they
lie heard the shushing of the tall grass flap their lungs!”
parted by her penduluming hips. Her heels
tacked soft across the porch. tell
He caught her wrists.
them?”
"You ain’t —gonna
She lay soundlessly in bed, cat eyes star- "Ouch, you hurt me!”
ing at him. He couldn’t see them, but he "You ain’t gonna tell them.”
could feel them staring. "Wouldn’t want me known as a liar,
"Charlie?” would you, Charles?”
He waited. He flung her wrists like white sticks into
Then he said, "I’m awake.” 'a well:
Then she waited. "Whyncha leave alone? You’re dirty!
"Charlie?” Dirty jealous of everything I do. I took shine
"What?” off your nose when I brung the jar home.
"Bet you don’t know where I been, bet You didn’t sleep right until you ruined
you don’t know where I been.” It was a' things!”
faint, derisive sing-song in the night. She laughed nastily. "Then I won’t tell
He waited. everybody,” she said.
She waited again. She couldn’t bare wait- He caught on to her. "You spoiled my
ing long, though, and continued: fun. That’s all that counted. It don’t matter
"I been to the carnival over in Cape City. if you tell the rest. 1 know. And I’ll never
Tom Carmody drove me. We we talked to — have no more fun. You and that Tom Car-
the carny-boss, Charlie, we did, we did, we mody. Him laughin’. I wish I could stop
sure did.” And she sort of giggled to her- him from laughin’. He’s been laughin’ for
self, secretly. years at me! Well, you just go tell the rest,
Charlie stirred upright on an elbow.
— —
the other people now might as well have
"We out what
She
your
said,
jar, Charlie
—found
” insinuatingly.
it is in your fun
Hestrode angrily, grabbed the jar so it
Charlie flumped over, hands to ears. "I sloshed, and would have flung it on the
don’twanna hear." floor, but he stopped, trembling, and let it
"Oh, but you gotta hear, Charlie. It’s down softly on the rickety table.. He leaned
a good joke. Oh, it’s rare, Charlie,” she over sobbing. If he lost this, the world
it,

hissed. was gone. And he was losing Thedy, too.

—
"Go away,” he said in a low firm voice. Every month that passed she danced further
"Unh-unh. No. No, sir, Charlie,- Honey. away, sneering at him, funning him. For too
Not until I tell. We talked to the carny-boss many years her hips had been the pendulum
and he —he almost died laughin’, he said by which he reckoned the time of his living.
he sold it to some
hick — —
for twelve bucks. But other men, Tom Carmody, for one,
And it ain’t worth more than two dollars were reckoning time from the same source.,
at most!” Thedy was standing, waiting for him to
Laughter bloomed in the dark, right out smash the jar. Instead, he petted it thought-
of her mouth, an awful kind of flower with fully. He thought of the long good evenings
her breath as its perfume. in the past month, those rich evenings of
She finished it, snapping, quick: comraderie, conversation woven into the
"It’s just junk, Charlie! Liquid rubber, fabric of the room. That, at least, was good,
paper-mache, silk, cotton, chemicals! That’s if nothing else.
56 WEIRD TALES
He turned slowly to Thedy, She was lost smiling. His lips wet and slack, not smiling.
forever to him, His face pale as chalk, as if it had been
"Thedy, you didn’t go to the carnival.” kicked with a boot.
"Yes, I did.” Gramps looked up at the jar, cleared his
"You're lyin’!" throaty and said, "Why, I never noticed so
"No, I'm not." definite before. It’s got blue eyes.”
"They, this jar HAS to have somethin’ "It always had blue eyes,” said Jahdoo.
in Somethin’ besides the junk you say.
it-. "No,” whined Gramps. "No, it didn’t.
Too many people believe there’s somethin’ It was brown last time we was here.” He
in it, Thedy. You can't change that. The blinked upward. "And anutther thing it’s —
carny-man, if you talked with him, lied. got brown hair. Didn’t have brown hair be-
Come Here, Thedy.” fore.”
’**

’What you want?” she asked, sullenly. "Yes, yes it did,” sighed Mrs. Tridden.
'
'Come over here.” v "No, it didn’t!”
"Keep away from me, Charlie." "Yes, it did!”
"I just want to show you something, Tom Carmody, shivering in the summer
Thedy.” His voice was soft, low and insist- niglit, staring at the jar. Charlie, glancing
ing. "Here, kittie, kittie, kittie HERE — up at it, rolling a cigarette, casually, at peace
KITTIE!” and calm, very certain of his life and world
and thoughts.^Torh Carmody' alone; seeing
T WAS another night, about a. week later. things about the jar he never saw before.
I Cramps Medknowe and Granny Carna- Everybody seeing what they wanted to see;
tion came, followed by young Juke and Mrs. all thoughts running in a tide of quick rain:
Tridden and Jahdoo, the colored man. Fol- "My-baby! My little baby!” screamed the
lowed by all the others, young and old, thought of Mrs. Tridden.
creaking into chairs, each with his or her "A grain!” thought Gramps.
symbol, though hope, fear and wonder in . The colored man jigged his fingers.
mind. Each not looking at the shrine, but "Middibamboo Mama!”
saying hello softly to Charlie. A fisherman pursed his lips. "Jellyfish!”
They waited for the others to gather. "Kitten! Here kittie, kittie^ kittie!” the
From the shine of their eyes one could see thoughts drowned clawing in Juke's skull.
that each saw something different in the jar, "Kitten!” ~
:
^
something of the life and the pale life after "Everything and anything!" shrilled
life, and the life in death and the death in Granny’s weazened thought. "The night, the
life, each with his story, his cue, his lines, swamp, the death, the pallid moist things
familiar, old but new. of' the sea!”
Charlie sat alone ; Silence, and then Gramps said, "I won-
"Hello, Charlie.” A glance around, into der. I wonder. Wonder if it’s a he or a —
the empty bedroom. "Where’s your wife? —
she or just a plain old //?” (

Gone off again to visit her folks?” Charlie glanced up, satisfied, tampering
"Yeah, she run off again to Tennessee. Be his cigarette, shaping it to his mouth. Then
back in a couple weeks. She's the darndest he looked at Tom Carmody, who would
one for running off. You know Thedy.” never smile again, in the door. "I reckon
Great one for ganntin’ off, that woman,” we ll never know. Yeah, I reckon we
Soft voices talking, getting settled, and won’t.” Charlie smiled.
then, quite suddenly, like a black leopard It was just one of those things they keep
—
moving from the dark Tom Carmody. in a jar in the tent of a sideshow on the out-
Tom Carmody standing outside the door, skirts of a little drowsy town. One of those
knees sagging and trembling, arms hanging pale things drifting in plasma, forever
and shaking at his side, staring into the dreaming, circling, with its peeled, dead
room. Tom Carmody not daring to enter. eyes staring out at you and never seeing
Tom Carmody with his mouth open, but not you.
 <g)ELF /V\UTIL ATlON
WAS A FORM OF DEVOTION
AMONG THE MAYAS - .

BLOODLETTING BY PIERCING
THE. BAR LOBES WA^
COMMON, BUT ONE OF
THE SEVEREST FORMS
OF SELF TORTURE WAS
FOR A PENITENT VlAYA

TR°SS AND „
TOADS HAVE
ALWAYS HAD A
r^J
=^
k53
r

WIDESPREAD
RE ROTATION AS
.

CUSTODIANS OF
RAIN BECAUSE OF C _ __
THE\R INTIMATE
" ~ :
ASSOCIATION WITH WATER.
Some of the Indians of the Orinoco believed
THE TOAD To BE THE (SOD OR LORD OF THE
WATERS AND ALTHOUGH THEY FEARED KILLING IT,
THEY D\D NOT HESITATE CONFINING AND BEATING
n WITH A ROD WHEN THERE VS/AS A @R©U@HTL
 Have, you ever wondered why there are not more vampires — for every victim
of a vampire becomes one in turn

T BEGAN in —a
twilight twilight
—
I’ and felt the cheap lining of the casket, arid
could not see, I knew that this nightmare was real.
My opened on darkness, and for
eyes I scream, but who can hear
wanted to
a moment I wondered if I were still asleep screams through six feet of earth above a
and dreaming. Then I slid my hands down grave?
58
 THE BAT IS MY BROTHER 59

Better to save mybreath and try to save I remember how it began, but
can’t
my sanity. I fell back, and the darkness you’ll help me?”
rose all around me. The darkness, the cold, A head moved in silent assent.
clammy darkness of death. I halted, regaining composure, striving for

I could not remember how I had come coherency.

here, or what hideous error had brought "This is awkward, ”"I said, more quietly.
about my premature interment. All I knew "I’ve really no right to ask you for assistance.
was that I lived —but unless I managed to I don’t even know who you are.”
escape, I would soon be in a condition, hor- The voice from the shadows was only a
ribly appropriate to my surroundings. whisper, but each word thundered in my
Then began that which I dare not re- brain.
member in detail. The splintering of wood, "I am a vampire,” said the stranger.
the burrowing struggle through loosely- Madness. I turned to flee, but the voice
packed grave earth; the gaspiog hysteria ac- pursued me.
companying my clawing, suffocated progress "Yes, I am a vampire,” he said. "And
to the sane surface of the world above. so are you!”
It is enough that I finally emerged. I can
only thank poverty for my deliverance—the II
poverty which had placed me in a flimsy, un-
sealed coffin and a pauper’s shallow grave. MU ST
have fainted, then. I must have
Clotted with sticky clay, drenched with I fainted, and he must have carried me out
cold perspiration, racked by utter revulsion, of the cemetery, for when I opened my eyes
I crawled forth from betwixt the gaping once more I lay on a sofa in his house.
jaws of death. The panelled walls loomed.. high, and
Dusk crept between the tombstones, and shadows crawled across the ceiling beyond
somewhere to my left the moon leered down the candlelight. I sat up, blinked, and
to watch the shadowy legions that conquered stared at the stranger who bent over me.
in the name of Night, I could see him now, and I wondered. He
The moon saw me, and a wind whispered was of medium, height, gray-haired, clean-
furtively to brooding trees, and the trees shaven, and clad discreetly in a dark busi-
bent low to' mumble a message to all. those ness suit. At first glance he appeared nor-
sleeping below their shade. mal enough.
I grew restless beneath the moon’s glaring As his face glided. towards me, I stared
eye, and I wanted to leave this spot before closer, trying to pierce the veil of his seem-
the trees had told my secret- to the nameless, ing sanity, striving to see the madness be-
numberless dead. neath the prosaic exterior of dress and flesh.
Despite my desire, several minutes passed I stared and saw that which was worse
before I summoned strength to stand erect, than any madness.
without trembling. At close glance his countenance was
Then I breathed deeply of fog and faint cruelly illumined by the light. I saw the
putridity; breathed, and turned away along waxen pallor of his skin, and what was
the path. worse than that, the peculiar corrugation.
It at that moment the, figure appeared.
was For his entire face and throat was covered
Itglided like a shadow from the deeper by a web of tiny wrinkles, and when he
shadows haunting the trees, and as the smiled it was with a mummy’s grin.
moonlight fell upon a human face I felt Yes, his face was white and wrinkled;
my heart surge in exultation. white, wrinkled, and long dead. Only his
I raced towards the waiting figure, words lips and eyes were alive, and they were red
choking in my throat as they fought for . too red.
. A
face as white as corpse-flesh,
prior utterance. holding lips and eyes as red as blood.
"You’ll help me, won't you?” I. babbled. He smelled musty.
"You can see they buried me down
. All these impressions came to me before
there I was trapped alive in the . . he spoke. His voice was like the rustle of
grave . out now
. . you’ll understand .
. . . . the wind through a mortuary wreath.
60 WEIRD TALES-
."You are awake? It is well." "Yes, on the wall.”
"Where am I? And who are you?" I I stared.
asked the questions but dreaded an answer. "I don’t see anything."
The answer came.
"You are in my house. You will be safe "But
—
"Exactly.”

here, I think. As for me, I am your guar- " Where is your shadow?”
dian."
"Guardian?" 'LOOKED again. There was no shadow,
He smiled. I saw his teeth. Such teeth I I no silhouette. For a moment my sanity
had never seen, save in the maw of a carniv- wavered. Then I "You have
stared at him.
orous beast. And yet — wasn’t that the an- no shadow either,” ,1 exclaimed, trium-
swer? phantly. "What does that prove?”
"You are bewildered, my friend. Under- "That am
a vampire,” he said, easily.
I
standably so. And that is why you need a "And so are you.”
guardian. Until you learn the~ways of your "Nonsense. It’s just a trick of the light,”
new life, I shall protect you.” He nodded. I scoffed.
"Yes, Graham Keene, I shall protect you.” "Still skeptical? Then explain this optical
"Graham Keene.” illusion.” .A bony hand proffered a shining
"It was my name. Tknew it now. But object.
how did he know it? I took it, held it. It was a simple pocket
“In the name of mercy,” I groaned, "tell mirror.
me what has happened to me!” "Look.”
He patted my shoulder. Even through the I ..looked.
cloth could feel the icy weight^of his pallid
I The mirror dropped from my fingers and
fingers. They crawled across my neck like' splintered on the floor.
worms, like wriggling white worms murmured.
"There’s no reflection!” I
"You must be calm,” he told me. "This "Vampires have no reflections.” His voice
is a great shock, I know. Your confusion was soft. He might have been reasoning
is understandable. If you will just relax a with a child.
bit and listen, I think I can explain every- "If you still doubt,” he persisted, "I ad-
thing.” vise you to feel your pulse. Try to detect
I listened. a heartbeat.”
"To begin with, you must accept certain Have, you ever listened for the faint voice
obvious facts. The first being — that you of hope to sound within you knowing . .

are a vampire.”' that it alone can save you? Have you ever
- "But—” listened and heard nothing? Nothing- but
He pursed his lips, his too red lips, and the silence of death?
nodded. I knew it then, past all doubt. I was of
"There is no doubt about it, unfortu- the Undead . the Undead who cast no
nately. Can you tell me how you happened shadows, whose images do not reflect in mir-
to“15e emerging from a grave?” rors,whose hearts are forever stilled, but
"No. I don’t rremember. I must have whose bodies live on live, and walk abroad,—
suffered a cataleptic seizure. The shock gave and take nourishment.
me partial amnesia. But it will come back Nourishment!
to me. I'm all right, I must be.” I thought of my companion’s red lips and

The words rang hollowly even as they his pointed teeth. I thought of the light
gushe_d_from my throat. blazing in his eyes. A light of hunger. Hun-
"Perhaps. But I think not.” He sighed ger for what?
and pointed. How soon must I share that hunger?
'
"I can prove your condition to you easily -He must have sensed the question,- for
enough. Would you be so good as to tell lie began to speak once more.
me what you see behind you,. Graham "You are satisfied that I speak the truth,
Keene?” — I see. That is well. You must accept your
"Behind me?” condition and then prepare to make the
 THE BAT IS MY BROTHER 61

necessary adjustments. For there is much awoke at sunset. Suppose you had remained
you have to learn in order to face the cen- there, inside that coffin, nevermore to
turies to come. awaken! Dead-dead for all eternity!”
"To begin with, I will tell you that many He shook his head. “You can thank your
of the common superstitions about
like us —
are false.
—people condition for an escaper It gives you a new
life, not just for a few paltry years, but for
He might have
been discussing the centuries. —
Perhaps forever!
weather, for ,all the emotion his face be- "Yes, think and give thanks! You need
trayed.- But I could not restrain a shudder never die, now. Weapons cannot harm you,
of revulsion at his words. nor disease, nor the workings of age. You
"They say we cannot abide garlic. That is are immortal —
and I shall show you how to
a lie. They say we cannot cross running live like a god!”
water. Another lie. They say that we must He sobered. "But that can wait. ''First we
lie by day in the earth of our own graves. must attend to our needs. I want you to
That’s picturesque nonsense. listen carefully now. Put aside your silly
"These things, and these alone, are true. prejudices and hear me out. I will tell you
Remember them, for they are important to that which needs be told regarding our
your future. We
must sleep by day and rise nourishment.
only at sunset. At dawn an overpowering "It isn’t easy, you know.
lethargy bedrugs our senses, and we fail into "There aren’t any schools' you can attend
a coma until dusk. We need not sleep in to learrf what to do. There are no corre-
coffins— that is sheer melodrama, I assure spondence courses or books of helpful in-
you! —but it is best to sleep in darkness, and formation. You must learn everything
away from any chance of discovery by men. through your own efforts. Everything.
"I do not know why this is so, any more "Even so simple and vital a matter as bit-
than I can account for other phenomena rela- —
ing the neck using the incisors properly
tive to the disease. For vampirism is a. is entirely a matter of personal judgment.
disease, you know.” "Take that little detail, just as an ex-
ample. You must choose the classic trinity
TJIE SMILED when he said it. I didn't to begin with —the time, the place, and the
_q/ smile. I groaned. girl,
"Yes, it is i Contagious, of
disease. "When you are ready, you must' pretend
course, and transmissible in the classic man- that you are about to kiss her. Both hands
ner, through a bite. Like rabies. What reani- go under her ears. That is important, to
mates the body after death no one can say. hold her neck steady, and at the proper
And why it is necessary to take certain forms - angle.
of nourishment to sustain existence, I ,do "You must keep smiling all the while,
not know. The daylight coma is a more without allowing a betrayal of intent to creep
easily classified medical phenomenon. Per- into your features or your eyes. Then you
haps an allergy to the direct actinic rays of bend your head. You kiss her throat. If
the sun. she relaxes, you turn your mouth to the
"I am interested in these matters, and I base of her neck, open it swiftly and place
have studied them. the incisors in position.
"In the centuries to come I shall endeavor "Simultaneously —
it must be simultane-

to do some intensive research on the prob-

lem. It will prove valuable in perpetuating
ously —
you bring your left hand up to cover
her mouth. The right hand must find, seize,
my existence, and yours." and pinion her hands behind her back. No
The voice was harsher now. The slim need to hold her throat now. The teeth are
fingers clawed the air in excitement. doing that. Then, and only then, will in-
"Think of that, for a moment, Graham stinct come to your aid. It must come then,
Keene," he whispered. “Forget your morbid because once you begin, all else is swept
superstitious dread of this condition and away in the red, swirling blur of fulfill-
look at the reality. ment.”
"Picture yourself as you were before you I cannot describe his intonation as he
62 WEIRD TALES
spoke, or the unconscious pantomime which "That is the fate you escaped. But it is
accompanied the incredible instructions. But still the fate that awaits you unless you dine
it is simple to name the look that came into with me.
his eyes. "Besides, it isn’t something to avoid, be-
-

Hunger. lieveme. And I am sure, my friend, that

"Come, Graham “Keene,” he whispered. —
you already feel the pangs of appetite.”
"We must go now.” I could not, dared- not answer.
"Go? Where?” ~
For it was true. Even as he spoke, I felt
"To dine,”, he told me. "To dine!” hunger. A
hunger greater than any I had
ever known. Call it a craving, call it a
Ill desire — call it lust. I felt it, gnawing deep
within me. Repugnance was'nibbled away

H E LED me from

The moon was

the house, and down a
garden pathway through a hedge.
high, and as we .walked
by the terrible teeth of growing need,
"Follow me,” he said, and I followed.
Followed along the bluff and down a lonely
along a windswept bluif, flying figures spun country road.
a moving web across the moon’s bright face. Wehalted abruptly on the highway. A
My companion shrugged. blazing neon sign winked incongruously
"Bats,” he said. And smiled. ahead:
— —
"They say that we have the power of I read the absurd legend.
changing shape. That we become bats, or "DANNY’S DRIVE-IN.”
wolves. only another supersti-
Alas, it’s Even as I watched, the sign blinked out.
tion. Would that it were true? For then "Right,” whispered my guardian. "It’s
our life would be easy. As it is, the search closing time. They will be leaving now.”
for sustenance in mortal form is hard. But_ "Who?”
you will soon understand.” __ "Mr. Danny and his waitress. She serves
I drew back. His hand rested on my customers in theircars. They always leave
shoulder in cold command. together, know. They are locking up for
I

"Where are you taking me?” I asked. the night' now. Come along and do as you
"To food.” are told.” N
Irresolution left me. I emerged from I followed him down the road. His feet
nightmare, shook myself into sanity,
—
"No I won’t!” I murmured, "I can't
— crunched gravel as he stalked towards the
now darkened drive-in stand. My stride
"You must,” he told me. "Do you want quickened in excitement. I moved forward
to go back to the grave?” as though pushed by a gigantic hand. The’
"I’d rather,” I whispered. "Yes, I’d rather hand of hunger
die.” He reached the side door of the shack.
His teeth gleamed in the moonlight. His fingers rasped the screen.
"That’s the pity of it,” he said. "You An irritable voice sounded.
can’t die. You’ll weaken _ without suste- "What do you want? We’re closing.”
nance, yes. And you will appear to be dead. "Can’t you serve any more customers?”
Then, whoever finds you will put you in the "Nah. Too late. Go away.”
grave. '"But we’re very hungry.”
"But be alive down there. How
you’ll I almost grinned. Yes, we were very hun-
would you undying in the
like to lie there gry-'
darkness . writhing as you decay "Beat it!” Danny was in no mood for
suffering the torments of red hunger as you hospitality.
suffer the pangs of dissolution? _ "Can’t we get anything?”
"How long do you think that goes on?. Danny was silent for a moment. He was
How long before the brain itself is rotted evidently debating the point. Then he called
away? How long must one endure the char- to someone inside the stand.
nal consciousness of the devouring worm? "Marie! Couple customers outside. Think
Does the very, dust still billow in agony?” we can fix ’em up in a hurry?”
His voice held horror. "Oh, I guess so.” The girl’s voice was
 THE BAT IS MY BROTHER 63

soft,complaisant. Would she be soft and "Tell me it isn’t true,” I pleaded. "Tell
complaisant, too? me I was dreaming.”
"Open up. You guys mind eating out- "You were,” he answered. “When I
side?" came out of the shack you lay under the
"Not at all." trees, unconscious. I carried you home be-
"Open the door, Marie.” fore dawn and placed you here to rest. You
- Marie’s high heels clattered across the have been dreaming from sunrise to sunset,
wooden floor. She opened the screen door, Graham Keene.”
blinked out into the darkness.
My
"But last night
?”
—
companion stepped inside the door- "Was real.”
way. Abruptly, he pushed the girl forward. "You mean took that girl and
I — ?”

"Now!" he rasped. "Exactly.” He nodded. “But come, we

I lunged her in darkness. I didn’t re-
at must go upstairs and talk. There are certain
member his instructions about smiling at questions I must ask.”
her, or placing my hands beneath her ears. We climbed the stairs slowly and emerged
Ail I knew was that her throat was ''white, on ground level. Now I could observe my
and smooth, except where a tiny vein surrounding with a more objective eye. This
throbbed in her neck. house was large, and old. Although com-
I wanted to touch her neck there with pletely furnished, it looked somehow un-
—
my fingers with my mouth with my teeth. — tenanted. It was as though nobody had
So. I dragged her into the darkness, and
' lived here for a long time.
my hands were oyer her mouth, and I could Then I remembered who my host was,
hear her heels scraping through the gravel and what he was. I smiled grimly. It was
as I pulled her along. From inside the shack true. Nobody was living in this house now.
I heard a single long moan, and then noth- Dust lay thickly everywhere, and the
ing. spiders had spun patterns of decay in the
Nothing except the rushing white
. corners. Shades were drawn against the
blur of her neck, as my face swooped to- darkness, but still it crept in through the
wards the throbbing vein. cracked walls. For darkness and decay be-
longed here.
IV We entered the study where I had awak-
ened last night, and as I was seated, my
TT WAS cold in the cellar—cold, and dark. guardian cocked his head towards me in an
A I stirred uneasily on my couch and my attitude of inquiry.
eyes blinked open on blackness. I strained "Let us speak frankly,” he began. "I
to see, raising myself to a sitting position want you to answer an important question.”
as the chili slowly faded from my bones. "Yes?”
I felt sluggish, heavy with reptilian con- "What did you do with her?"
tentment. I yawned, trying to grasp a thread “Her?”
of memory from the red haze cloaking my —
"That girl last night. What did you
thoughts. do with her body?”
Where was I? How had I come here? I put my hands to my 'temples. "It was
What had I been doing? all a blur. I can’t seem to remember.”
I yawned. One hand went to my mouth. His head darted towards me, eyes blaz-
My Hps were caked with a dry, flaking sub- ing. "I’ll tell you what you did with her,”
'
stance. he rasped. "You threw her body down the
I felt it —and then remembrance flooded well. I saw it floating there.”

me. “Yes,” I groaned. "I remember now.”

Last night, at the drive-in, I had feasted. —
"You fool why did you do that?”
And then
"No!” I gasped. never know
—
“I wanted to hide it. ... I thought they’d

"You have slept? Good." "You thought!” Scorn weighted his voice.
My host stood before me. I arose hastily “You didn’t think for an instant. Don’t
and confronted him. you see, now she will never rise?”
 64 \ WEIRD -TALES
"Rise?” torted, bowing slightly in mock deprecation,
"Yes, as you rose. Rise to become one “And so it is that my real name is unknown.
of us.” Apparently I perished far from my native
“But I don’t understand," heath, for diligent research on my part has
“That is -painfully evident.” He paced the failed to uncover my paternity, or any con-
floor, then wheeled towards me. temporaries who recognized me at the time
“I see that I shall have to explain certain of my — —
er resurrection.
things to you. Perhaps you are not to blame, "And so it have no name; of
is that I

because you don’t realize the situation. Come rather, I. have- many pseudonyms. During
with me.” the past sixteen decades I have traveled far,
He beckoned. I followed. walked We and have been all things to all men. I shall
down the hall, entered a large, shelf-lined not endeavor to recite -my history.
room. It was obviously a library. He lit "It is enough to^say that slowly, gradu-
. a lamp, halted. ally, I have grown wise in the ways of the
"Take a look around,” he invited. “See - world. And I have evolved a plan. To this
what you make of it, my friend." end I have amassed wealth, and brought to-
gether a library as a basis for my opera-
SCANNED the on the shelves
titles — tions.
I .titles stamped in gold on thick, hand- "Those operations propose will interest' I
some bindings; titles worn to illegibility on you. And they will explain my anger when
ancient, raddled leather.^The latest in scien- I think of you throwing the girl’s body into
tific and medical treatises stood on these the well.”
shelves, flanked by age-encrusted incunabula. He sat down. I followed suit. I felt antici-
Modern volumes dealt with psycopathol- pation crawling along my spine. He was
ogy. Theancient lore was' frankly con- about to reveal something something I —
.cerned with black magic. wanted to hear, yet dreaded. The revela-
“Here is the collection,” he whispered. tion came, slyly, slowly.
“Here is gathered together all that is known, “Have you ever wondered,” he began,
all that has ever been written about us." — "why there are not more vampires in the'
“A library on vampirism?” world?”
“Yes. It took me decades to assemble it "What do you mean?”
completely.” "Consider. It is said, and it- is true, that
“But why?” every victim of a vampire becomes a vampire
"Because knowledge is power. And it is in turn. The new vampire finds other vic-
power I seek,” tims. Isn’t it reasonable to suppose, there-
Suddenly a resurgent sanity impelled me. fore, that in a short time through sheer —
I shook off the nightmare enveloping me mathematical progression the virus of vam- —
and sought an objective viewpoint. A ques- pirism would run epidemic throughout the
tion crept into my mind, and I did not try world? In other words, have you ever won-
to hold it back. dered why the world is not filled with vam-
"Just who are you, anyway?” I demanded. pires by this time?”
"What is your name?” —
“Well, yes I never thought of it that
My host smiled. way. What is the reason?” I asked.
no name,” he answered.
“I have He glared and raised a white finger. It
“No name?” stabbed forward at my chest a rapier of —
“Unfortunate, not? isWhen I was
it accusation.
'
buried, there were no loving friends, appar- "Because of fools like you. Fools who
ently, to erect a tombstone. And when I cast their victims into wells; fools whose vic-
arose from the grave, I had no mentor to tims are buried in sealed coffins, who hide
guide me back to a memory
of the past. the bodies or dismember them so no one
Those were barbaric times in the East Prus- would suspect their work.
sia of 1777.” "As a result, few new recruits join the
“You died in 1777?” I muttered. ranks. And the old ones myself included —
“To the best of my knowledge,” he re- — are constantly subject to tl!e ravages of
 THE BAT IS MY BROTHER 65

the centuries. We eventually disintegrate, "It is so simple, really. Sweep aside your
you know. To my knowledge, there are foolish concepts' of Dracula and the other
only a few hundred vampires today. And superstitious confectionery that masquerades
yet, if new victims all were given the oppor- in the public mind as an authentic picture.
tunity to rise —
we would have a vampire I admit that we are — unearthly. But there
army within a year. Within three years there is no reason for us to be stupid, impractical
would be millions of vampires! Within ten figures of fantasy. There is more for us
years we could rule earth! than crawling around in black cloaks and re-
"Can't you see that? If there was no cre- coiling at the sight of crucifixes!
mation, no careless disposal of bodies, no "After all, we are a life-form, a race of
bungling, we could end our hunted existence our own. Biology has not yet recognized
as creatures of the night —
brothers of the us, but we exist. Our morphology and
bat! No longer would- we be a legendary, 'metabolism has not been evaluated or
cowering minority, living each a law unto charted; our actions and reactions never
himself! studied. But we exist. And we are superior
"All that is needed is a plan. And I to ordinary mortals.Let us assert this supe-
•I have evolved that plan!” riority! human
cunning, coupled with
Plain
His voice rose. So did the hairs upon my our super-normal powers, can create fpr us
neck. I was beginning to comprehend, a mastery over all living things. For we
now — are greater than Life we are Life-in- —
"Suppose we started with the humble in- Death!”
struments of destiny,” he suggested. "Those I half-rose. He waved me back, breath-
forlorn, unnoticed, ignorant Tittle old men — lessly.
night watchmen of graveyards and ceme- "Suppose we band together and make,
teries.” plans? Suppose we go about, first of all,
VC selecting our victims on the basis of value

A
Took
SMILE
nance.
over their jobs?
creased his corpse-like counte-
"Suppose we eliminated them?
Put vampires in their
to our ranks? Instead of regarding them as
sources of easy nourishment, let’s think in
terms of an army seeking recruits. Let us
places —
men who would go to the fresh select keen brains, youthfully strong bodies.
graves and dig up the bodies of each victim Let us prey upon the best earth has to offer.
they had bitten while those bodies were still Then we shall wax strong and no man shall
warm and pulsing and undecayed? stay our hand or teeth!” —
"We could save the lives of most of the He crouched like a black spider, spinning
recruits we make. Reasonable, is it not?” his web of words to enmesh my sanity. His
To me'it was madness, but I nodded. eyes glittered. It was absurd somehow to see
"Suppose that we made victims of those this creature of superstitious terror calmly
attendants? Then carried them off, nursed creating a super-dictatorship of the dead.
them back to reanimation, and allowed them And yet, I was one of them. It was real.
to resume their posts as-, our allies? They The nameless one would do it, too.
—
work only at night no one would know. "Have you ever stopped to wonder why
"Just a little suggestion, but so obvious! I tell you this? Have you ever stopped to
And it would mean so much!” wonder why you are my confidant in this
His smile broadened. venture?” he purred.
"All that it takes is organization on our I shook my head.

part. I know many of my brethren. It is "It because you are young. I am old.
is

my desire soon to callthem together and For years I have labored only to this end.
present this plan. Never before have we Now my plans are perfected, I need as-
that
worked cooperatively, but when I show them- sistance. Youth, a modern viewpoint. I

the possibilities, they cannot fail to respond. know of you, Graham Keene, I watched
"Can you imagine it? An earth which we you before . you became one of us.
You
—
.

could control and terrorize

1

a world in were selected for this purpose.”

which human beings become “our property, "Selected?” Suddenly it hit home. I

our cattle? fought down a stranglehold gasp as I asked

66 WEIRD TALES
the question. "Then you know who — did coffin and quick burial at Everest tomorrow.
this to me? You know who bit me?” Tomorrpw night we can go there.”
Rotting fangs gaped in a smile. He My companion nodded.
nodded slowly. ^ "You have done well,” he said.
"Of course,” he^ whispered. "Why — We spent the remainder of the night in
did!” perfecting our plans. We
would go to
Everest, locate the night watchman and put
V him out of the way, then seek the new grave
of Professor Garrat.
WAS probably prepared
H E
except the calmness with which
cepted this revelation.
for anything
I ac-
And so it was that
tery on the following evening:
we re-entered the. ceme-

Once again a midnight moon glared from

Certainly he was pleased. And the rest the Cyclopean socket of the sky. Once more
of that night, and all the next night, were the wind whispered to us on our way, and
spent in going over the plans, in detail. I the trees bowed in black obeisance along the
learned that he had not yet communicated path.
with —others —
in regard to his ideas. We crept up to the shanty of the grave-
A meeting would be arranged soon. Then yard watchman and peered through the win-
we would begin the campaign. As he said, dow at his stooping figure.
"I’ll knock,” I suggested.^ "Then when
the times were' ripe. War, a world in un-
rest —we would be able to move unchal- he comes to the door
—
lenged and find unusual opportunities. My companion shook his gray head. "No
I agreed. I was even able to add certain teeth,” he whispered, "The man is old,
suggestions as to detail. He was pleased useless to us. I shall resort to more mun-
with my cooperation.. dane weapons.”
Then, on the third, night, came hunger. I shrugged. knocked. The old man
Then I

He offered to serve as my guide, but I opened the door, blinked out at me with
brushed him aside. rheumy eyes.
"Let me try my own wings,” I smiled. "What is it?” he wheezed, querulously.
"After all, I must learn sooner or later. And "Ain’t nobuddy suppose’ tuh be in uh ceme-
I promise you, I, shall be very careful. This tery this time uh night
—
time I will see to it that the body remains Lean fingers closed around his windpipe.
intact. Then I shall discover the place of My companion dragged him forth towards
burial and we
can perform an experiment. nearby shrubbery. His free arm rose and
I we shall go~
will Select a likely recruit, fell,and a silver arc stabbed down. He
forth to open the grave, and thus will we, had used a knife.
test our" plan in miniature.” Then we made haste along the path,, be-
He fairly beamed at that. And I went fore the scent of blood could divert us from
forth that night, alone. —
our mission and far head, on the hillside
I returned only as dawn welled out of dedicated to the last slumbers of Poverty,
the eastern sky —
returned to slumber I saw the raw, gaping edges of a new-made
through the day. grave.
That night we spoke, and I confided my He ran back £o the hut, then, and pro-
success to his eager ears. cured the spades we had neglected in our
"Sidney J. Garrat is the name," I said. haste. The moon was our lantern and the
"A college professor, about 45. 1 found him grisly work began amidst a whistling wind.
wandering along a path near the campus. No one saw us, no one heard us, for
The trees form a dark, deserted avenue. He only empty eyes and shattered ears lay far
offered no resistance. I left him There. I beneath the earth.
don’t think they’ll bother with an autopsr 'We toiled, and then we stooped and
for the marks on his throat are invisible and tugged. The grave was deep, very deep.
he is known to have a weak 'heart. At the-bottom the coffin lay, J||d we dragged
"He lived alone without relatives. He forth the pine box.
had no money. That means a wooden "Terrible job,” confided my companion.
 THE BAT IS MY BROTHER 67

"Not a professionally dug grave at all, in his wooden prison face down. He’d claw
my opinion. Wasn’t filled in right. And his way to hell, not to earth.
this coffin is pine, but very thick. He’d never But he was past escape. Let him lie there,
daw his own way out. Couldn’t break as he had described it to me—not dead, not
through the boards. And the earth was alive. Let him be conscious as he decayed,
packed too tightly. Why would they waste and as the wood decayed and the worms
so much time on a pauper’s grave?” crawled in to- feast. Let him suffer until
"Doesn’t matter,” I whispered. "Let’s the maggots at last reached his corrupt brain
open it up. If he’s revived, we must hurry.” "and ate away his evil consciousness.
We’d brought a hammer from the care- I could have driven a stake through his
taker’s shanty, too, and he went down into heart. But his ghastly desire deserved de-
the pit itself to pry the nails free. I heard feat in this harsher fate.
the board covering move, and peered down Thus it was ended, and I could return
over the edge of the grave. now before discovery and the coming of
He
bent forward, stooping to’ peer into dawn —return to his great house which was
the face a mask of livid death in
coffin, his the only home I .knew on the face of the
the moonlight. I heard him hiss. earth.
—
"Why the coffin is empty!” he gasped. Return I did, and for the past hours I
"Not for long!” have been writing this that all might know
I drew the wrench from my pocket, raised the truth'.
it, brought it down with every ounce of am not skilled with words, and what I
I

strength I possessed until it shattered read here smacks of mawkish melodrama.

through his skull. For the world is superstitious and yet cyni-
cal —
and this account will be deemed the

AND then I leaped

and pressed the writhing, mewing
down

shape down into the coffin, slammed the lid

into the pit ravings of a fool or madman; worse still, as
a practical joke.
So I must implore you; if you seek to test
on, and drove the heavy nails into place. the truth of what I’ve set down, go to
I could hear his whimperings rise to muffled Everest tomorrow and search out the newly-
screams, but the screams grew faint as I be- dug grave on the hillside. Talk to the po-
gan to heap the clods of earth upon the lice when they find the dead watchman,
coffin-lid. make them go to the well near Danny's road-
worked and panted there
I until no sound side stand.
came from the coffin below. I packed the Then, you must, dig up the grave and
if
earth —
down hard harder than I had last find thatwhich must still writhe and crawl
night when I dug the grave in the first within. When you see it, you’ll believe
place. and in justice, you will not relieve the tor-
And then, at last, the task was over. ment of that monstrous being by driving a
He lay there, the nameless one, the death- stake through his heart.
less one; lay six feet underground in a stout For that stake represents release and
wooden coffin. peace.
He could not claw his way free, I knew. - wish you’d come here, after that
I —and
And even if he did, I’d pressed him into bring a stake for me. , » .
 By THORP McCLUSKY
r- yisjXJL die early spring of 1939 the Bradley Merrills. How long ago that
I I had never entered a reputedly seems now!
|
iL J "haunted” house, nor had I ever I looked forward to a truly delightful
met anyone who had done so. weekend; I already knew, or at least was
It all came about in rather a rambling sort —
acquainted with, several of the guests Bob
of way, starting off with twelve or fifteen of Mansfield, who paints for art’s sake but de-
us driving down to Phipps’ Cove on a Satur- signs fanciful and expensive' apartments for
day afternoon, to spend the weekend with the very wealthy for a living; Rebikoff, who

Beware of a "reputedly” haunted home. The reputation may be well earned

 'DARK MUMMERY .69

has a marionette show; Gladys Sugden, the Let’s snoop over there tonight. There’s a
caustic, hoydenish novelist; and three or four lovely moon. .
!”

others. Merrill, by the way, was and still is Well, we took a vote. The "Ayes” won, of
an Illustrator. course, overwhelmingly.
The afternoon was very casual and de- I think suspected trickery from the very
I

lightful; we played a sort of haphazard start. As a matter of fact, I learned after-

tennis on the lawn, swam —
those of us with ward that I was right, and who the ring-
Polar Bear instincts —
in the freezing surf, leaders were —
Bradley, Bob Mansfield, and
and just talked and wandered about. Dinner a meek-looking little cartoonist named
was at seven, in a high-ceilinged, creamy- Gregory. ^Gladys was in it, too.
white room with a huge black marble fire- My certainty that we were in for some
place at one end in which a driftwood fire ghostly amateur theatricals was clinched
snapped, showering multicolored sparks when I noticed, as we were getting ready to
against the heavy screen. The meal was leis- leave the house, that Mansfield and Gregory
urely; it was already dark outside as we , had unobtrusively disappeared. I suspected
finally assembled in the big, gracious living that they were to be the ghosts of the evening.
room for brandies and highballs.

no
As usual, Bradleyand Elsa had prepared
routine for the evening; Vladimir
set
Lessoff started things off by wandering over
W E PILED into three or four cars
drove the six or seven miles to the
Phipps mansion. In the moonlight it looked
and

to the Chickering and treating us to an even more ancient, more forbidding than in
impromptu concert. Then Clevedore put on daylight, with its gaunt exterior chimneys
some of his magic, and following Clevedore and its deeply-recessed, many-paned win-
we danced. dows. As we swarmed toward its black pile
The evening passed swiftly; it was. with I looked in the shadows cast by the house,
incredulous surprise that I saw Bradley by the trees, for Mansfield’s car, but there
glance at the tall walnut clock in the hall were a hundred pools of inky shadow where
and dramatically raise his hand. a car could be hidden.
"In ten seconds, my pious friends and I Bradley did not have to unlock or force
hope not-too-drunken companions, .it will be the door; it was unlocked and opened easily.
exactly midnight, Eastern Standard Time.” That seemed significant to me. I was surer
He had hardly finished speaking when the than ever that some one had gone ahead
old clock whirred and rasped, and bonged and was already hidden inside.
out twelve slow strokes. We
all listened When we were all in the hallway, Bradley
gravely, and immediately the brazen clangor closed the door behind us with a creaking
had ceased Gladys Sugden made the inevi- of ponderous hinges, a rusty click of the
table suggestion. wrought iron latch, and turned on a flash-
"Ghost story! Who’ll tell a ghost story?” light. He led the way, with an assurance
Drily, Bob Mansfield applied the sophis- that led pie to believe he had been there
ticated squelch. "Why, Gladys! You of all before, .into a large room at the front of
people! We
don’t have to do anything as the house. I glimpsed briefly a long stair-
tame as that. Not when there’s a haunted case leading up into the darkness at the end
house right here at the Cove!” of the hallway; I sensed rather than saw
I had heard of that house. few miles A the ornate mouldings surmounting, cold,
distant along the shore road, it had stood vaultlike spaces, a shrouding of heavy fine
empty for a half century or more. It was dust over everything. But I noticed too that
popularly supposed to have been built by Bradley' had been careful to keep the beam
Jeremiah Phipps, one of New England’s of his flashlight turned upward until we
more successful privateersmen, or, too fre- were all inside that huge parlor, and I felt
quently, pirates. sure he had done that to keep us from
Gladys, with just a too much eager-
trifle noticing the fresh footprints of Mansfield
ness—so it seemed me —
fell in with the
to and Gregory in the dust underfoot.
idea. "Perfect.1 . What
could be better for Except for the light from the flashlight,
Saturday nighHiigh jinks? I’ve always had the parlor was almost totally dark. Heavy
a sneaking longing to go inside that house. wooden shutters over the windows per-
 WEIRD TALES
mitted no moonlight to enter, except through me as yet from
case into the hall, invisible to
two or three narrow cracks in the warped where I stood.
panels. The light was too faint to reveal I acknowledged unwillingly, then, that
more than the presence and position of the Bradley was putting on his show with utter
people in the room; certainly it was not artistry. No hollow groans or clanking
strong enough to permit us to identify each chains, none of those too-theatrical effects
other. that defeat their own purpose. It was the
"Well, Brad, we’re here,’’ Gladys Sugden very absence of effect that left our imagina-
chirped perkily. "Bring on your ghosts. Or tions unhampered and built up an eerie ap-
shall we go looking for them? Who’s prehension in us. I wondered how Bradley
afraid of the big bad ghosts, anyway?” would produce his ghosts without spoiling
Bradley parried that one. "This is sup- the effect. Perhaps he didn’t intend to actu-
posed to be a haunted house, isn’t it, Gladys? ally produce them at all, perhaps he intended
Can’t a ghost appear in this room as well as to get his effect in some other, less obvious
upstairs or in the cellar? T
for one am for way.
staying here and waiting for whatever hap- I don’t know how long we stood there in
pens. I don't want any rotten floors col- that empty room —it may have been several
lapsing under me. This place isn’t any minutes, while no person spoke or changed
Palace of Mirth.” position, while we strained our eyes trying
I suspected he was afraid that we might to see in the light that was hardly less than
stumble onto' his ghosts before they had a blackness—the light, I told myself with
chance to get into their phosphorous paint. admiration of my own cleverness, that must
He won his point; he turned off the flash- be made by the slow uncovering of a stained
light —
to make it seem more realistic, he glasswindow, letting the moonlight in.
said — and we waited. „

Once or twice I heard someone’s breathing

- I don’t know just what I expected to sharply indrawn, then released in a half-
happen. admit the uncertainty of waiting
I g*sp-
made me feel creepy, and it must have •Then I saw the figures, standing in the
affected the others who did not suspect any unearthly, purplish gloom.
funny business much more powerfully. Again a queer unwilling approba-
flash of
There was unreality in the whole adventure, tion swept me. Those figures were not
there was unreality in the shadowy vague- skeletoned in phosphorous paint, or any-
ness of our figures, there was unreality in thing as crude as that; they were merely
the cold stillness of the long-shuttered room. vague blotches in human shape, standing
I caught myself wondering how a bunch of silently in the almost non-existent visibility
supposedly intelligent adults could act so in the hallway.
downright foolish. I have wondered, since, just how few of
Then I began to notice the light. At first, us did not, at that moment, really believe
it was just the faintest, vaguest glow, hardly that they were ghosts!
more than a lessening of the total blackness Gradually, then, in much the same man-
beyond the open hallway door. I seemed to ner as indirect lighting is controlled, the
feel the outlines of the hallway growing purplish glow began to brighten. With the
into visibility without actually seeing them increase in illumination, I began to feel sure
as yet, limned in a sort of purplish absence that I recognized those two motionless fig-
of complete darkness. That strange light ures.
was so vague that it might almost have been The one on the right, tall, slightly
imagined. stooped, was certainly Mansfield, The dark
But the sudden creeping shriveling down blotch hiding the lower part of his face was
my spine was real enough! The others felt a false beard, those baggy trousers, that hint-
it too; I could sense that they were shrink- ing of a cutlass at the waist,' were all parts
ing away from the doorway. of the pirate costume Bradley had considered
most appropriate for the occasion. The other
HE faint light grew strongdr,*ahd tension fellow, standing to the left and slightly be-
T gripped me with the certainty that some- hind Mansfield was Gregory^allj right. He’d
thing was creeping silently down that stair- put a great daub of paint on his breast to
 DARK MUMMERY
simulate blood; he kept his hands folded Almost Bradley kept' edging
stealthily,
over it. forward. He was within six feet of Mans-
The figures neither moved nor spoke. The field, his torch shining blindingly in Mans-
light was too' dim for me to distinguish de- field’s face. I was only a pace or two behind,
tails of their features, and as it became and I could see Mansfield’s face clearly.
slightly stronger something of a nervous There was an uncanny fixity in his gaze that
shock swept over me as I sensed, rather than gave me, despite myself, a feeling of dis-
saw, that their lips were moving, as though comfort that was very close to horror. The
they were trying to speak, that their hands thought came to me abruptly, "Is this
were outthrust toward us, as though warning damned place really haunted, after all?
us back. It was an effect, undeniably; Brad- Have these fellows seen something that
ley was putting his show over well, after all! drove them out of their minds?”
Splitting the silence, a woman screamed, a Bradley cursed again, sharply. The unex-
high-pitched, keening note. In an instant the pected, brutal sound jarred against my ear-
hypnotic tension that had gripped us all was drums with the force of an explosion. With
broken. Bradley cursed and flipped on the the curse Bradley leaped forward. His right
flashlight; with a quick rushing of anxious hand, furiously outstretched, clutched at
footsteps Gladys Sugden was at the side of Mansfield.
the girl, who was sobbing violently. Brad- Mansfield and Bradley glided, yes, glided,
ley’s voice boomed out reassuringly, "That’s back, swiftly, yet effortlessly. The sudden,
all, that’s enough. It's just been a joke, relatively violent motion of all three re-
folks. For God’s sake, make her understand minded me bizarrely of the quick shifting
that it’s just a joke, Gladys! A joke that of scenes thrown on a screen by an old-
wasn’t in very good I’m sorry.”
taste. fashioned magic lantern. Then the tableau
He swung the light on the two figures was resumed, but now Bradley was standing
standing in the doorway. in the center of the hallway, holding his
"All right. Bob, Gregory. Fun’s fun, a right hand out before him, looking at it with
joke's a joke, enough’s enough. Come on in. a strange intentness, Mansfield and Gregory
Break it up.” had halted at the foot of the staircase, their
But the two figures did not move. They hands still outthrust, thrusting us back.
still stood there, holding their hands out- Bradley spoke like a drunken person.
stretched toward us, their lips moving. "Bob? Bob?”
Then Bradley swore, viciously, horribly, His shoulders hunched, he shuffled
without mirth. "You pigheaded fools! Can’t doggedly, unsteadily forward, and as he ap-
you see that you’re scaring one of the girls proached Mansfield and Gregory turned and
half to death? Get in here and take off that leaped up the staircase, the light from the
junk!” flashlight shining full on them, on the stair-
case and the wall above and behind them.
TILL the figures stood there motionless, Then that thing happened which is be-
S tableauesque. I think that we were all yond normal human experience. Instan-
beginning to be afraid that they had entered taneously, suddenly as a bolt, of lightning,
so fully into the spirit of the deception that two strangers were also there at the top of
they were temporarily crazed; even Bradley the staircase, two sun-swarthed, lithe-mus-
had no knowledge of what they might do cled men, men with flashing teeth beneath
next; what further macabre jest they might heavy mustaches, with the glint of gold in
have planned was as unknown to him as to their ears and the glitter of cutlasses in their
us. Curiously, though I was watching them hands.
with single-minded attention, I noticed other It was like a silent motion picture, run-
things too; I noticed with a sort of detached ning at top speed. There was no sound, only
interest that there really was, as I had sus- an utter violence of motion. There should
pected, a stajned glass window high above have been the thudding of bare feet on the
the staircase, ^window which dispelled that staircase, but I heard no such sound; there
unearthly gjfijv over the hallway, now should hav.e. been the heavy panting of those
stronger, now weaker as the moon was men and the harsh burst of their curses, but
bright or obscured by clouds. I heard only silence.
.72 WEIRD TALES
Mansfield and Gregory plunged upward ulted across the landing from the staircase
to the head of the staircase. Mansfield was elow.
slightly in the lead; his right arm swung Bradley moaned, and I felt the balustrade
up in a chopping blow that seemed to go shudder as he sagged heavily against it. I
through one of the men as through a mirage; was trembling, uncontrollably.
his body, tensed to meet resistance that was The body was the body of Gregory!
not there, spun crazily around and plunged
over the low balustrade; I listened for the OMEHOW we found the courage, after
crash of his fall and heard no sound. I saw S a moment, to look down. With photo-
Gregory catapult against the other stranger, graphic clarity our eyes saw, and our. numbed
hurtle through that man in the instant a cut- minds recorded automatically, the staring
i

lass flashed, and disappear beyond my range horror in Gregory’s wide-open, glazing eyes,
of vision on the staircase landing. the smear of crimson paint over his heart.
Abruptly, no one was there, no one at all. Without speaking, we turned away and
The head of the staircase gaped down at us, staggered down that staircase. As though
blank, barren, deserted! urged by a Fate beyond human capacity to
I heard Gladys Sugden screaming. She resist, I turned .the flashlight beam into the
was trying to call Mansfield’s name, but the dark recess behind the staircase, beneath the
sounds that came from her lips were unrec- balustrade across which Mansfield had
ognizable. My body was trembling violently, seemed to -plunge.
and spasms of hot and cold swept over me. Without surprise I saw that Mansfield’s
I think that horror gripped us all then like body was there, spreadeagled as though he
a mighty fist, squeezed us until we were in- had put out his arms to break the fall,
capable of thought, until we could only crushed against the naked floor, his neck
stand there and feel it engulfing us in beat- broken.
ing waves. . .
. I remember little of what else happened
I knew then that those two strangers were that night. I do*not know if among. us there
the ghosts —
the true ghosts of old Jeremiah were hysterical outbursts or a more terrible,
Phipps’ mansion! controlled silence. I- do not remember how
What, in the Name of the Almighty, had or when we left that house. Memory grows
we just seen re-enacted? The experience clearer with the next day, with the begin-
through which Mansfield and Gregory had nings of the grinding police investigation,
passed early in the evening —
an experience the certainty with which the police believed
so mind-shattering thap it had driven them that we had trumped up a fantastic story to
mad? cover a double murder in our "fast set,” the
Where were
they? newspaper headlines.
"Bradley!” My
voice was a whispered rat- It was a long time before that night in the
tle. "Where are they? Mansfield and old Phipps house was forgotten by the pub-
Gregory? Where are they?” lic. But it was forgotten at last, and for years
Bradley looked at me, his eyes enormous, it remained as no more than an area of night-

mare in the recesses of my memory, until

‘
his lips trembling.
"Where are they?” he repeated slowly. last summer, when the old house was finally
He moved his hands in an odd, uncontrolled torn down, to save taxes, somebody told me.
way, helplessly. About that time I chanced to meet Brad-
While he stared at me, I took the flash- ley in town one day.- He looked more dis-
light from him. Somehow, I started up the tinguished than ever, with his prematurely
staircase, and Bradley followed. white hair, and he looked at my graying
At the top, on the landing where, like temples with wry understanding.
uplifted arms, narrower flights continued "They’re either too young or too old.” He
upward into thegloom, we halted. softly saog a phrase from the hit song and
There, beneath the stained glass window, made a quick, angry gesture with his right
huddled far back against the wall and hid- hand. "We’re too told, and that's that. How
den from view from below by the pitch of about lunch?”
the staircase, lay the twisted body of a man, In the quiet, around the comer off the
fallen' as if death had come as he had cata- Avenue restaurant to which he took me, he
 DARK MUMMERY 73

told methose things which drew all the rings and the cutlasses they dug up with
threads together, wrote "Finis” -to the story those skeletons,” I said.
of Phipps’ mansion, Bradley looked at me thoughtfully.
"I couldn’t stay away —
after (hey started “Funny about those cutlasses. Remember
to raze that house,” he said slowly, quietly. that Gregory’s body was unmarked, and that
"I went down there almost every day; I he died of heart failure?”
knew that they would find something — call I picked up my cup again; once again I
it premonition, intuition, what you will. .
. put it down.
—
.

'I knew that they would find something, "Gregory Mansfield,” I whispered.
some explanation, in that staircase. I watched "What a horrible way to die! Think of it;
them take up the flooring on that landing, they went up that staircase the second time,
rip up the rubble, the stone and mortar, after they had already seen the ghosts! That
beneath. . . . was a re-enactment, wasn’t it, Bradley? We
"That house was built to endure. Old could have saved them then; they were
Phipps, when he built it, was ready to set- crazy with fear, but not crazy enough not to
tle down, all right. try to yarn us. We should have knocked
"But first he had to get rid of his past. —
them down, tied them up anything only —
He must have had a couple of his men who we should have saved them, somehow.”
wanted to stay on shore with him,- even Slowly Bradley shook his head. A curious,
though he’d split his bloody plunder with —
faraway look the look of one who gazed
them, with his crew. But old Phipps knew
that those two fellows we saw at the top
into the depths of the infinite —came into
his eyes.
of that staircase weren’t the kind he wanted ,
"No, my friend. We couldn’t have saved
around him in his respectability. them. It was too late for that. For they
"This must have been what happened. were already dead when we saw them in that
When the masons had just about finished — yes, it was a re-enactment. They were dead
filling in that staircase, old Phipps just before we entered the house. We saw, not
bashed in the heads of those two sailors of two, but jour ghosts that night. When I
his and dumped the bodies in the mortar and tried to grasp Mansfield, there in that hall-
covered them up. They found the skeletons way, my hand went through him as though
just the other day, you know.”
I picked up my coffee, put it down again.
—
through a nothingness a nothingness that
was cold and empty and terrible as the black
I read in the paper about the gold ear- dead space beyond the farthest stars!”
 By MANLY WADE WELLMAN
Now open lock To the Dead Man’s knock! Monroe’s. Must be the one who bought the
Fly bar and bolt and band place.’’
Nor move nor swerve Joint, muscle or nerve More which the latecomer
laughter, in
To the spell of the Dead Man's Hand joined. Berna’s father turned grim and
—
Sleep, all who sleep Wake, all who wake
!
dangerous enough to counterbalance all
But be as the Dead
for Dead Man's the sake! their mockery. He was hard and gaunt in
—Thomas Ingoldsby, "Tbe Hand of Glory.” his seersucker suit, with-a long nose, a long
chin, and a foxtrap mouth between them.
^T^he men in front of the store were "I knowthe joke,” he said, leaning over
I all laughing in the sunset, but not his steering wheel. "You think the place is
JL one of them sounded cheerful. haunted.”
"YTiear this, Sam?” someone asked a "No,” cackled a dried little gaffer on an
latecomer. "Stranger askin’ the way to Old upturned nail-keg. "Haunted ain’t the word.

Heading by A. R. TILBURNE
— > ! .
1
.
—
The Shonokins took ibis'
[

country from creaturesftoo terrible to^^yiagine —

they themselves are none less evil •

74
 THE DEAD MAN’S HAND 75

Curst,more like it. Me, I ain’t got many "No. Just curious."
more nights to live, and I wouldn’t spend "It’s the sort of yarn that’s pinned on
none of ’em at Old Monroe’s.” some house in every district where history's
"1 know all about that silly story,” an- old enough, and ghost-believing gawks are
nounced Berna’s father. plentiful enough. What I heard was that
"All?” teased someone else. "Silly story?” the farmer owner, the one they called Old
"And I’m thankful it’s so well believed. Monroe, came here eighty years ago and
That's how I was able to buy the farm so took a piece of land that seemed worth-
cheap.” less. By working and planning he made
"I wonder,” mumbled the little old man, itpay richly. He never got married, never
"if you bought it from who owns it right- mixed with his neighbors, never spent much
ful. 'Fter all, way I heard it, Old Monroe’s of what he took in, and he lived to be more
deal was only for his lifetime —long enough than a hundred. Knowing so little about
in all conscience.” He spat at a crack in him, the corn-.crackers hereabouts made up
"When it comes to that, own That Old Monroe made a
—well—
the boardwalk. their story.
whoever bargained for Old Monroe’s soul sort of bargain with
made a fool trade, for Old Monroe’s soul
was a sure shot anyway to go to
— "With
"Maybfc.
the devil?”
Of anyway some old Indian
"If you’re all through laughing,” inter- spirit of evil. They said the bargain in-
N
rupted Berna’s father savagely, "maybe cluded a magic-built house, the richest of
someone will remember enough manners to crops, and more money than anyone for
direct us.” miles around. Old Monroe got the last
"Please, gentlemen,” added Berna tim- named, anyway. When he died, he died rav-
from -beside her father. She was slen-
idly ing. Most hermits and misers are crazy.
der where he was gaunt, appealing where Since then nobody goes near the place. A
he was grim. Her dark wide eyes sought a second cousin up in Richmond inherited,
loiterer, who removed his palmleaf hat. and sold to us for a song.”
"If you’re set on k,” said this one, "you "A. bargain with devils,” mused Berna.
follow the street out, along the pavement. "It sounds like Hawthorne
Miss the turn into Hanksviile, then go left "It sounds like foolishness,” snapped
on a sand road. Watch for a little stone Conley^ ”Any devils come bargaining
bridge over a run, with a big bunch of
. around, I’m enough of a business man to
willows. Across, the run, beyond them wil- give them the short end of the deal.”
lows, is a private road. All grown up, and
not even rabbit hunters go there. Well, at NA CITY to the north, big John Thun-
the other end is your new house, and I wish I stone listened earnestly as he leaned
you luck.” He fiddled with the hat. "You’ll across .a desk.
need it.” "You don’t mean to tell me, Mr. Thun-
"Thank you kindly,” said Berna’s father. stone,” said the professor opposite, "that
"My name’s Ward Conley. HI be your you’re really serious about the Shonokin
neighbor at the Old Monroe farm. And myths?”
if you think you’ll play any ghost jokes "I discount nothing until I know enough
around there at night, remember I'm mov- to judge,” replied Thunstone. "The hint
ing in with a shotgun, which I can use toler- I picked up today is shadowy. And you’re
ably well.” the only man who has made an intelligent
He started the car. Berna heard the men study of the subject.”
start talking again,not laughing now. "Only the better to finish my American
"I didn’t think,” she ventured as they folkways encyclopedia,” deprecated the
drove out of the little town in the last red other. "Well the Shonokins are supposed
sunglow, "that the story we heard was taken to be a race of magicians that peopled
so seriously.” She looked at her father. America before the Red Indians migrated
"I didn’t even pay attention when the farm —
from wherever they migrated from. One
broker mentioned it. Tell me all of it.” or two commentators insist that Shonokin
"Nervous, B&ria?” demanded Ward wizardry and 'enmity is the basis for most of
Conley. the Indian stories of supernatural evils.
76 WEIRD TALES
everything from the Wendigo to those nasty studied a window. “We'll have' to break
little tales about singing snakes and the the glass.”
Pukwitchee dwarfs. All mention we get of "May I help?” inquired a gentle voice,
—
Shonokins today and it’s mighty slim and into view, perhaps from the massed
we get third or fourth hand. From old bushes at the porch-side, strolled a man.
Indians to recent ones, through them by He did not stand in the full moonlight,
way of first settlers to musty students like and Berna would wonder how she
later
me. There’s an amusing suggestion that knew he was handsome. Slim white-clad
Shonokins, or their descendants, actually ex- elegance, face of a healthy pallor under a
ist today here and there. Notably in the wide hat, clear-cut features, deep eyes and
neighborhood of-^-” brows both heavy and graceful these im- —
"I wonder,” broke in John Thunstone, pressions she received. Conley came down
rather mannerlessly for him, "if that isn’t off the porch.
the neighborhood I’m so curious about.” "I’m Ward Conley, the new owner of this
farm,” he introduced himself briskly. "This
T THEdusk the Conley car passed the is my daughter, Berna.”
r Hanksville turn, gained the sand road The stranger bowed. “I am a Shonokin,”
and crossed the stone bridge. Beyond the "Glad to know you, Mr. Shannon.”
willows showed a dense-grown hedge of. "Shonokin,” corrected the man.
thorny trees, with a gap closed by a single "People in town said that nobody dared
hewn timber on forked stakes. The timber come here,” went on Coftky.
bore a signboard, and by the glow of the "They lied. They usually lie,” The
headlights Berna could read the word ''Pri- man's deep eyes studied Berna, they may
vate.” Conley, got out, unshipped the bar- have admired. She did not know whether
rier, then returned to drive them along a to feel confused or resentful. "Mr. Con-
brush-lined road with ruts full of rank, ley,” continued the. gentle voice, "you are
squelchy grass. having difficulty?”
A first journey over a strange trail always "Yes. The door’s jammed or locked.”
seems longer than it is. Berna felt that ages "Let me help.” The graceful figure
had passed before her father stepped on the stepped up on the porch, bending over
brake. "There’s our home,” he said. something. A
light glared. He seemed to
At almost the same moment the moon be holding a little sheaf of home-dipped
rose, pale and sheeny as a disk of clean, tapers, such as Berna had seen in very old-
fresh bone. fashioned farmhouses. They looked knobby
The pale light showed them a house, built and skimpy, but their light was almost blind-
squarely like old plantation manors, but ing. He held It close to the lock as he
smaller. It had once been painted gray, and stooped. He did not seem to move, but after
still looked well kept and clean. No' win- a moment he turned.
dows were broken, the pillars of the porch "Now your door is open,” he told them.
were still sturdy. Around it clung dark, And so it was, swinging gently inward.
plump masses iff shrubbery and, farther "Thanks, Mr, Shonokin,” said Conley,
back, tall -flourishing trees. A
flagged path more warmly than he had spoken all eve-
led up to the broad steps. Berna knew she' ning. "Won’t you step inside with us?”
should be pleased. But she was not. "Not now.” Bowing again, the man
From the rear seat Conley dug their suit- swept he held,
his fingertips over the lights
cases and rolls of bedding. Berna rum- snuffing them out. Descending the steps
maged for the hamper that held their sup- lithely,he walked along the stone flags. At
per. the far end he paused and lifted his hat.
She followed her father up the flag- Berna saw his' hair, long, wavy and black
stone way, wondering why the night seemed as soot. He was gone.
so cool for this season. Conley set down "Seems like a nice fellow,”grunted Con-
his burdens, then mounted the porch to try ley. "How about some candles of our own,
the door. Berna?” ;I ,*
L.

"Locked,” he grumbled. "The broker She -gave him one from hamper, and
said there was never a key.” He turned and he lighted it and led her inside.
 TOE DEAD MAN’S HAND 77

"I know thata considerable journey,

it’s while he was at the important business of
and that the evidence is slim,” John Thun- eating. When Berna had brushed up the
stone was telephoning at Pennsylvania Sta- crumbs, he yawned.
tion. "But I'll get the full story, on the "Bed now,” he decreed, and again took
exact spot. I’m sorry you and Dr. Trow- up the candle. Walking through the front
bridge can’t come. I’ll report when I get room, he drew down the lamp and blew
back.” He listened a moment, then chuckled it out. Berna kept close to his heels as
in his trim mustache. "Haven’t I always they monuted the stairs. The little moving
returned. Now, goodbye, or I'll miss my flame that Conley held up made a host
train/’ !
of strange and stealthy shadows around
them.

W ARD CONLEY lifted his

overhead and grunted approvingly.
"I was a little worried, Bema, about buy-
wax candle

ALONE in the room assigned her, Berna

drew back the bedclothes. They were
ing the place sight unseen, even at a figure so chilly within as to seem damp, but she
that would make the worst land profitable.'* had brought up a blanket roll from the car.
.
His eyes gleamed. "But this is worth com- She made the bed afresh, and before creep-
ing home to, hah?” ing in she knelt down. Her prayer was the
The old furniture looked comfortable one taught her as a child, while her mother
and in good shape. Berna wondered if still lived:
the rich carpet in the hall was not valuable.
In the room beyond was a table of dark "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
wood, with sturdy chairs around it, and Bless the bed 1 lie upon.
farther on glass-doored closets with china There are jour corners to my bed,
and silver and the white of folded linen. There are four saints around my head —
Conley dragged down a hanging lamp. One to watch and one to pray,
"Oil in it, and the wick ready trimmed,” And two to bear my soul away ”
he announced. With his candle he lighted
the lamp and drew it up to the ceiling. She remembered her flutter of dread at
"Berna, someone’s put this place in apple- the last two lines. Though serious and
Even swept and dusted.
pie order for us. thoughtful, Berna was young. She did not
Might it have been Mr. Shonokin’s family? want her soul to be bprne away yet. And
Neighborly, I call it.” His stern face was she felt a close silence about her, as of many
relaxing. They walked into a kitchen, well lurking watchers.
appointed but cool. There was firewood in
. Of a sudden, there popped into her mind
the box. Berna set down her hamper. Then a tag of another bedtime prayer, heard in
they mounted to the upper floor. the long ago from a plantation mammy.
“The beds are made,” Conley exulted. She repeated that, too:
"This front room will be yours, Berna. I’ll
take the next one. Suppose we eat now, "Keep me from hoodoo and witch,
and poke around more tomorrow. I want And lead my path from the poorhouse
to be, up early, out at the barn and in the gate.
” .
.

fields.”
Returning to. the kitchen, they brought The tenseness seemed to evaporate around
out sandwiches and fruit and a jugful of her. Berna got into bed, listened a while
coffee. "It’s getting cold,” pronounced to the sighing of a breeze-shaken tree out-
Conley, peering into the jug. "Let’s fire up side her window, and finally slept soundly
the range and heat it.” until fist on the door told her
her father’s
Berna believed that the coffee was hot that was dawn and time to be up.
it

enough, but she was glad that her father They had fried eggs and bacon in the
had made an excuse for a fire. The kitchen kitchen that remained cool despite the fire
was downright’ L shuddery. Even while the that had smouldered in the range all ^

kindling blazed ,up, she got a sweater from night?

her suitcase afftr put it on. They ate in ' Wiping 1 *
his mouth at the end of the
silence, for Conley disliked conversation meal, Ward Conley tramped to the back
78 WEIRD TALES
door and tugged at the knob. It refused his pocket.And Berna could move again.
to budge, though he -heaved and puffed. Only her eyes moved at first, quartering
"I wish that Shonokin man was back him over. He wore the white suit, beau-
here to open this, too,” he said at last. tifully cut, and of a fabric Berna could not
’’Well, let's use the front door.” identify — it were fabric and not some
if
Out they went together. The
morn- early sort of skin, delicately thin and soft and
ing was bright and dry, and Bern a saw perfectly bleached. His hands, which hung
flowers on the shrubs, blue, red and yel- gracefully at his sides, were long and a
low, that were beyond her knowledge of little strange; perhaps the ring fingers were
garden botany. They walked around the unnaturally long, longer than the middle
side of the house and saw a quiet barn- -fingers. One of them held his wide hat,
yard, with a great red barn and smaller shedsT and the uncovered locks of dead black hair
Beyond these extended rich-seeming fields, fell in soft waves over Mr. Shonokin’s
- "Something’s been planted there,” said broad brow. As Bema’s eyes came to his,
Conley, shading his eyes with his hand. he smiled.
"If anybody thinks he can use my fields "I’ve been talking to your father,” he
well, he’ll lose the crop he put in. Berna, said, "and now I want ta talk to you.”
go back to the house and make a list of the She got to her feet, grateful for the re-
things we need. I’ll drive into town later, stored"power to do so. "Talk?” she echoed.
either Hanksville or that little superstition- "Talk of what?”
ridden rookery we passed through yester- ’This place of yours,” he told herplaying
day.” his hat on the table. "You see, the title
He 'strolled off, hands in pockets, toward isn’t exactly clear.”
the land beyond the barnyard. Berna She shook her head at once. She knew
again walked around the' house and in her father better than that.
through the front door. For the first time "It’s completely clear, Mr. Shonokin.
she was alone in her new home, and fancied All in order, back to the original grant
that her footstepsiechoed loudly, even on the from the Indians.”
rug in the hall. Back in the kitchen she "Ah,” said Shonokin, still gently. "But
—
washed the dishes there was a sink, with where did the Indians get their title? Where?
running water from somewhere or other I’ll tell you. From us, the Shonokins.”
then sat at the kitchen table to list needed Berna was still trembling, from that
articles as her father had directed. strange moment of tranced inaction. She
There was a slight sound at the door, as had been hypnotized, she told herself, like
if a bird had fluttered against it. Berna Trilby in the book. It must not happen
glanced up, wide-eyed. again. She would face this stranger with
That was all. She
where she was,
sat resolution and defiance.
pencil in fingers, eyes starting and unwink- "You don't mean to claim,” she replied,
ing. She did not move. There was no with an attempt at loftiness, "that your
feeling of stiffness or confinement or weight. family was in this part of the country be-
Trying, in the back of her amazed and terri- fore the Indians.”
fied mind, to diagnose, she decided it was "We were everywhere Before the In-
like the familiar grammar-school experi- "he assured her, and smiled.
dians, His
ment
not,
—
I
you clasp your handstand say "I can-
cannot,” until you find yourself un-
teeth were white,
slightly pointed,
perfect, and
even the front teeth' that
ever so,

move your fingers from each other.

able to should be square-edged like chisels.
Berna may have breathed, her heart may "Then you’re Indian yourself,” she sug-
have beaten, She could not be sure, then gested, but he shook fils head.
"Shonokins are not Indians. They are
or later.
not
— ” He paused, as if choosing his words.
nnHE door, that had not budged for her "We are not like any face^ou know. We
-L father’s struggles,was gently swaying are old, even when we are,, young. took We
open. In stepped Mr. Shonokin, smiling this country from creature^ too terrible for
over the glow of his peculiar little sheaf of you to imagine, even thoiigfi' they are. dead
tapers. He snuffed them, slid the sheaf into and leave only their fossil bones. We. ruled
 THE DEAD MAN’S HAND 79

well, in ways you can’t understand.” That "That — — that trick-playing, sneering
that
sounded both sad and superior. "For rea- skunk,” he panted. "No man can try things,
sons that you can’t understand, either, we like that on Ward Conley.” He looked
were once tired of ruling. That is when we around. "Did he come in here? Is he still
allowed the Indians to come, retaining only here? If he is, I’m going to get the shot-
limited domains. This is one of them.” gun”
"This farm?” prompted Berna. She still "He’s gone,” Berna replied. "T made
held the pencil, so tightly that her fingers him go. But who is he? Did he tell you
were bruising against it. that preposterous story?”
"This farm,” said her visitor, "The In-, As she spoke, she knew she had believed
dians never had any right to it. It is ground it all,about the Shonokins who had ruled
sacred to the Shonokins, where their wis- before the Indians, who wanted to rule
dom and rule will continueHForever. And again, and who claimed this land, on which
so any deed dating back to Indians is not nobody could live except as their tenant
lawful. I told your father that, and it’s and vassal.
the truth, however stupid and furious he "He put some sort of a trance or spell
may be.” on me,” said Conley, still breathing hard.
"Suppose,” said Berna, "that you say to "If he hadn’t been able to do it. I’d have
my father that you think he’s stupid. Tell killed him—
there’s a hayfork out there in
him to his face. I’d like to see what he the bam. And he wanted me to believe I’d
does to you then.” do some hokus-pokus for him, to be allowed
"I did tell him,” replied the man they to live here on my own land. Berna,” said
knew as Mr. Shonokin. "And he did noth- Conley suddenly, "I think he’ll be sneaking
He was frozen into silence, as you
ing.
were just now, when I held up ” His
— back here again. And I’m going to be ready
for him.”
strange-shaped hand moved toward his side "Let me go to town when you go,” she
pocket, where he had put that strange sheaf began, but Conley waved the words aside.
of tapers. "You’ll drive in alone and shop for what-
"Suppose," went on Berna, "that you get ever we need. Because I stay right here,
out of this house and off this property.” waiting for Mr. Smart Aleck Shonokin.”
It was bold, fierce talk for a quiet girl like Rising, he walked into the front room,
Berna, but she felt she was managing it where much of the luggage was still stacked.
splendidly. She took a step toward him. He returned with his shotgun, fitting it to-
"Yes, right now.” gether. It was a well-kept repeater. Pon-
His pointed teeth smiled at her again. derously he pumped a shell into the barrel.
-

He backed smoothly toward the open door "We’ll see,” promised Conley balefully,
and paused on the sill. "You’re hasty,” he "how much lead he can carry away with
protested gently. "We want only to be him.”
fair. You may enjoy this place enjoy it — And so Berna drove the car to the village.
very much, as Old Monroe did —
if you sim- At the general store in front of which
ply and courteously make the same agree- loiterers had mocked the evening before,
ment.” she bought flour, potatoes, meat, lard, tinned
"Sell our souls?” Berna snapped, as she goods. Her father had stipulated nails and
had never snapped, at anyone before in all a few household tools, and on inspiration
her life. Berna bought two heavy new locks. When
“The Shonokins,” he said, "do not recog- she returned, Conley approved this last pur-
nize the existence of any such thing as a chase and installed the locks, one at the
soul.” front door and one at the back.
He was gone, as abruptly as he had gone "The windows can all be latched, too,”
from the end of the path last night. he reported. "Let him jimmy his way inside
now. I’ll give a lot to have him try it.”

BERNA sat
inside her.
down, her heart
^
stuttering
After a minute,, her father
When he had finished his - work, Conley
. .

picked up',tne,‘'‘shotgun again, cradling it

came in. He, too, sat down. Berna won- across his Knees! "Now we’re all. ready for
dered if she were as pale as he. a call from Mr. Shonokin.”
80 WEIRD TALES
But he was tense, nervous, jumpy. Berna course, that I’d be glad to give him some-
cut herself peeling vegetables for supper, thing for his trouble. Whatever was fair,
and dreaded the dropping of the sun toward I said. And he out with an idea you’d never
the western horizon. believe — not even though I swear to every
word he said.”

A T HANKSVILLE, townsfolk
several
had ambled out to see the afternoon
train arrive. They stared amiably at the
Shonokin wanted the Conleys
fortably, pleasantly, even richly.
to live

willing to give assurance that there would

He
com-
was

one disembarking passenger, a broad giant never be anything to limit or endanger their
of a man with a small mustache,- who ad- material prosperity. But, here and now,
dressed them in a voice that sounded pur- Conley must admit by signed paper his in-
poseful and authoritative. debtedness and dependency.
"Old- Monroe’s,” they echoed his first "Dependency!” Conley fairly exploded,
question. "Lookee, mister, nobody ever describing the scene to his daughter. "De-
goes there.” —
pendency on that young buck I never even
"Well, I’m going there at once. mat- A saw before last night! I just stood there,
ter of life and death. Will anybody let wondering which word to say first, and he
me rent his automobile?" went on with the idea that he and his bunch
Nobody answered that at all. — whoever the Shonokins might be would —
"How do you get there?” he demanded make themselves responsible for the crops
next, and someone told about the crossing,
-

and the profits of this place, deciding what

the sanded road, the stone bridge, the clump would be raised and see that it succeeded.
of willows, the side trail. Then I blew up.”
"And how far?” He paused, and his face went a shade
Ten miles, opined one. A companion whiter. He looked old.
thought it might be nearer twelve. "I told you what came after that. I
John Thunstone looked up at the sinking grabbed for the hayfork. But he held up
sun. "Then I have no time to waste,” he his hand, that hand he carries that gives off
said; "for I’ll have to walk it.” iight.”
He strode off through Hanksville, Those "The candles?” prompted Berna.
little
who had spoken with him now watched, him hand, I tell you, a sort of skinny
"It’s a
go. Then
they turned to each other, shook hand. has lights on the fingers. I froze
It
their heads, and made clicking sounds with like a wooden Indian in front of a cigar
their tongues. store. And he grinned that ugly way he
has, and told me that I now had time to
T WAS
not easy for Conley to explain to think it over quietly; that I’d better be a
I Berna all that had_passed between him good tenant, and that he and we could be
and Shonokin. In the first place, Conley a wonderful help to each other if we didn’t
had been both furious and alarmed, and was lose any energy by quarreling: I couldn’t
still so. In the second, there was much he move until he walked away out of sight.”
could not understand. Conley shuddered. "What,” he demanded
seemed that the visitor had bobbed up
It savagely, "is he driving at? Why does he
at Conley’s elbow, with that talent he had want to run our affairs?”
for appearing and disappearing so quickly. That question, reflected Berna to herself,
He had courteously admired the growing had been asked countless times in the world’s
fields of corn and beans, and when Conley history by people who could not understand
had repeated his complaint that someone tyranny, Tyrants alone could understand,
'

was making free with the ground, had as- for they lived tormented by the urge and
sured Conley that these things had been appetite and insistence to dominate others.
planted and were growing for the Conleys "He won’t come back,” she said, trying
alone. He, Shonokin, took credit for the to be confident and not succeeding.
putting in and advancement of what looked "Yes, he will,”' replied Conley balefully,
like a prize crop. "and I’ll be ready for him.” He patted
"And then,” Conley told Berna, "he took the shotgun in his lap. "Is supper about
up the question of payment. I said, of
 THls OfciAD MAN’S
0
HAND 81

Itwas, but they had little appetite. After- forefinger quickly. She had opened to Mac-
wards Berna washed the dishes. She thought beth. At the head of the page was printed:
she had never, felt such cold water as "Act I, Scene 3." She stooped to read in
gushed from the faucet. Conley--went into the lamplight:
the front room, and when Berna joined him
he sat in a solid old rocking chair, still hold- "Were such things here as ive do
ing the shotgun. about,
"The furniture’s nice,” said Berna lamely. Or have we eaten on the insane root,
"Reminds me of another thing that skunk That takes the reason prisoner?
said,” rejoined Conley. "That his Shono-
kins had made all the furniture, as well as That was close enough to what fretted her.
the house. —
That it the furniture was — and her 'father. Shakespeare, what she
and would do what they said.
really theirs knew of him, was full of creepy things about
What did he mean?” prophecies, witches, phantoms, and such.
Berna did not know, and did not reply. —
The "insane root”: what was that? It had
"Those new locks weren't made by him,” a frightening sound to it. Anyway, Shono-
Conley went on. "They won’t obey him. kin had momentarily imprisoned their minds
Let him try to get in.” with his dirty tricks of hypnotism. Again
When Conley repeated himself thus aim- she swore to herself not to be caught another
lessly, it meant that he was harassed and time. She had heard that a strong effort of
daunted. They sat in the gathering gloom, will could resist such things. She took hold
that the hanging lamp could not dispel suc- of the book to replace it on the sideboard.
cessfully. Berna wished for a radio. There She could not.
was one in the car, and this was a night for As before, her eyes could not blink, -her
good programs. But she would not have muscles could not stir. She could only watch
ventured into the open to meet the entire as, visiblethrough the hallway beyond, the
galaxy of her radio favorites in person. Later front door slowly moved open and showed
on .perhaps they’d buy a cabinet radio for the dead pale light that Shonokin could
this room, she mused; if they lasted out the evoke.
evening, and the next day and the days and He glided in, white-clad, elegantly slen-
nights to follow, if they could successfully der, grinning. He held his light aloft, and
avoid or defeat the slender dark man" who Conley had been right. It was shaped like
menaced them. a.hand. What had seemed to be a joined
bunch of tapers were the five fingers, each

CONLEY
One
had unpacked their few books.
layon the sideboard near Berna’s
chair, a huge showy volume of Shakespeare’s
sprouting a clear flame.- Berna saw how
shriveled and shrunken those,,fingers were,
-and how bones and tendons showed, through
works that a book agent had sold to Berna’ the coarse skin of their backs. Shonokin set
mother years ago. Berna loved Shakespeare the thing carefully on a stand by the door to
no more and no less than most girls of lim- the hallway. It was flat at the wrist end, it
ited education and experience. But she re- stayed upright like the ugliest of little can-
membered the words of a neighbor, spoken dlesticks.
when the book was bought; Shakespeare Shonokin walked closer, gazing in hushed
could be used, like the Bible, for "casting triumph from the paralyzed Conley to. the
sortes.” It was an old-country custom, still paralyzed Berna.
followed here and there in rural America. "Now we can settle everything,” he said
You opened the book at random and hastily in his gentle voiceband stuck a terrible little
clapped your finger on a passage, which an- laugh on the end of the words. He paused
swered whatever troubled you. Hadn’t the just in front of Berna’s fixed eyes. She
wife of Enoch Arden done something like could study that white suit now, could see
that, or did she remember her high school the tiny pore-openings in the strange integu-
English course rightly? ment from which it was tailored. His slen-
She lifted the volume into her lap. It der hands;" too, with their abnormally long
fell open of itself. Without looking at the ring fingers —
they did not have human nails
fine double-columned type, she put out her but talons, narrow and curved and trimmed
n WEIRD TALES
most carefully to cruel points, as if for better Again he stepped toward Conley. Again
rending. the table kept pace. It was like some squat,
"Mr. Conley is beyond any reasonable obedient farm beast, urged along by its
discussion,” the creature was saying. "He master’s touch on its flank.
is an aging man, harsh and boastful and "You will be crushed, Conley. Berna, do
you hear all this? Make careful note of it,
Berna ”
—
narrow from his youth upwards. But Miss
His eyes slid around to her. and tell it to yourself often; for wheo
Their pupils had a lean perpendicularity, things are all over, you will realize that you
like the pupils* of a cat. "Miss Berna is cannot tell it to others. Nobody will believe
pung,” he went on. "She is not reckless the real nature of your father's death. It
or greedy or violent. She will listen and cannot appear otherwise than a freak acci-
obey, even if she. does not fully understand, —
dent ra heavy table tipped over upon him,
the wise advice of the Shonokins.” crushing him. What narrow-brained sheriff
He rested his hands, fingers spread, on or town marshal would listen if you told
the. heavy table. Itseemed to stir at his the truth?”
touch, like a board on ripply water. Even if she had been able to speak, Berna
"She obey the better,” said their
will could not have denied his logic.
captor, "when she sees how simply we go "And after your father is dead, you will
about removing her father, with his foolish be recognized as mistress here. You will
opposition. Conley,” and the eyes shifted have learned to obey my people and me,
to the helpless man, "you were so manner- recognize our leadership and guidance. This
less today as to doubt many of the things farm is both remote and rich. It will form
Most of all you seemed to scorn our gathering point for what we wish to do
I told you.
the suggestion that this furniture carCtnove in the world again. But first
—
at my bidding. But watch.” Once more his hand shifted. The table:
v_ _ began slowly to rear its end that was closest
HE slender hand was barely touching the
T table-top. Shonokin drew together his
to where Conley sat.
It was long and massive, and it creaked
spread fingertips, the sharp horny talons ominously, like an ancient drawbridge going
scraping softly on the wood. Again the up. The thick legs that rose in air seemed
table creaked; quivered, and moved. to move, like the forefeet of a rearing, paw-
Spiritualism, Berna insisted to herself. ing horse. Or was that a flicker of pale
Mediums did that sort of illusion for cus- light from the candle-hand yonder?
tomers at paid seances. Men like Dr. Dun- "Nearer,” said Shonokin, and the table
ninger and John Mulholland wrote ‘articles pranced forward, its upper legs quivering.
They would fall in a moment like two pile-
Now—
in the newspapers, explaining the trickery.
This Shonokin person must be a professional drivers. "Nearer.
sleight-of-hand performer. He made as if Something moved, Large and broad but
to lift the hand. The table shifted again, noiseless, in at the front door. An arm
actually rising with the gesture, as if it were darted out, more like a snake than an arm.
of no weight and gummed to his fingers. The candle-hand flew from where it had
"You see that it does obey,” the gentle been placed, struck the floor, and a foot
voice pointed out. "It obeys, and now I trod on it. All five of its flames went out
give you the full measure of proof, Con- at once.
ley. This table is going to kill you.” Shonokin whirled, his hand leaving the
Shonokin stepped toward Conley's rock- table. It fell over sidewise, with a crash
ing chair, and the table stepped with that shook the windows. One second later
him. came a crash still louder.
"It heavy, Conley, though I make it
is Conley had risen from his chair, jammed
seem light. Its wood is dark and ancient, the muzzle of the shotgun against Shono-
and almost as solid and hard as metal. This kin’ s ribs, and touched the trigger. The
table can kill you, and nobody can sensibly, charge almost blew the slender man in two.
call the death murder. How could your It took all of John Thunstone’s strain-
law convict or punish an insensible piece ing thews to set the table right again. Then
of- furniture, however weighty?” he sat on its edge, speaking to Conley and
 THE DEAD MAN’S HAND 83

Bema, who sagged in their chairs too ex- stones at the far end -of your walk. His
hausted for anything but gratitude. body will keep other Shonokins from your
"'Die magic used was very familiar,” door. They are a magic-minded lot, and a
Thunstone was saying. "The 'hand of dangerous one, but they fear-very few things
‘
glory’ is known in Europe and in old Mex- more than they fear their o\frn dead.”
ico, too." He glanced at the grisly trodden- "What will the law say?’ quavered Berna.
out thing, still lying on the floor. "You’ll "Nothing, if you do not speak, and how
find it described in Spence’s Encyclopedia can you speak? From outside I heard this
of Occultism, and a rhymed tale about it in one say, very truthfully, that the real story^
Ingoldsby Legends. The hand of a dead would never be believed, even in this super-
—
murderer and trust people like the Shono- stitious district. Let it go with what I sug-
kins to be able to secure that —
is treated gest. Justice has. certainly been done. I
with saltpeter and oils to make it inflam- doubt if you will be bothered by more Sho-
mable.- We needn’t go into the words that nokins, though they may be heard from
are said over it to give it the power. Lighted elsewhere.”
by the proper sorcerer, it makes locks open, "But what are they?” cried Berna.
and all inside the house remain silent as "What?”
death.” Thunstone shook his great head. "My
"You were able to move,”' reminded Con- studies are anything but complete. All I
ley. know is that they are an old people and
"Because I came in after the hand had clever, very sure of .their superiority, and
laid the spell. I wasn't involved, any more that the ways they hope to follow are not
than your visitor himself,” and Thunstone our ways. Mr. Conley, are you ready?”
glanced at the silent, slender body covered Conley departed to fetch spade and pick.
by a blanket on the floor. Alone with Thunstone and the body under
-’Is the hand of glory also Shonokin the blanket, Bema spoke;
magic?” asked Berna. "Did they perhaps "I don’t know how to say how thankful
learn it first, and teach it to those other I am—”
peoples?” "Then don’t try,” he smiled. Berna laid
"About tile Shonokins I know very little her little hand on his huge arm.

more than you yourselves seem to have "I will pray for you always,” she prom-
heard. It seems evident that they do exist, ised.
and that they plan to be active in the world, "Prayers are what I greatly need,” replied
and that they do feel a claim on this land Thunstone, very thankfully on his own part.
of yours, and so on. But the death of one For he remembered how, at the moment
of them may deter the others.” of his leaving New York, he had heard that
"How?” asked Conley. one Rowley Thorne had been discharged as
"You and I will bury him, under the flag- cured from an insane asylum.
 N THIS corner, we have Terry bobbed up, shook his gloves to the yelling
mob, and thumped down on his stool again,
—
Flanagan, contender for the heavy-
weight title hardly aware of what he was doing, because
The announcer was bellowing with two — for the first time in his life, Terry was
voices, his own and the gigantic, hollow echo scared. Scared? Fright had -slapped him
resounding from the stadium’s walls. Terry silly!

Heading by HANNES BOK

Every male Flanagan meets tragedy at the moment of his greatest triumph
the skull-faced hag reminded him
84
 11-iti UMUSI FUIN^Irl 85

"And in this corner,

Big Chief Running Water —
the Battling Redskin, what he was- going to do with the fortune
—
he’d make from his bet 'how he’d set mom
Terry swiped a look at the Indian, who up for the rest of her life in the super-pent-
towered a good six-feet four as he hulked
up to collect his shares of the applause, most
house she deserved. And then pm! —
there was this old harridan’s skull -like face
of which racketed from what seemed to be a grinning evilly at him from the door of
cheering section composed entirely of his one of the lockers, just as if her face was a
tribal brothers, colorfully decked out in piaster mask hung' up on a hook.
feathers and beaded buckskin. Up until a Terry gulped and blinked, but she wasn’t
few minutes ago, Terry hadn’t worried about a trick of his imagination —
she was the Mc-
the redskin in the slightest. The Indian held Coy, the real Irish McCoy, for she was as
a twenty-two pound weight advantage over Irish as Terry himself. A few wisps of dirty
him, but Terry had always known that the white hair straggled over her seamed fore-
right punch at the right time would flatten head, and her eyes sparkled.
him into a card. Had always known, that Terry tried to point her out to Mike, who
is, until now. had looked up indignantly. "Hey, keep your
But now Terry knew .that the Indian was hand still! How can I get this tape wound
going to do the flattening. Well, Terry if you fling your hand around?” He added
would do what he could. sympathetically, “Aw, you can’t be nervous,
He smiled vaguely as he heard the crowd kid! This is a cinch! You’ll knock him for
yelling his name. They were as confident a flock of cuckoo birds!” He patted Terry’s
as he had been! What if they knew what he arm, and was about to resume his taping,
had learned? Would they be as confident when he was stricken by Terry's amazed ex-
then? pression, and he did a double-take. "What’re
He groaned at the thought, and touched you gooping at?” He turned. “What’s so
his forehead with a glove. Mike Mulcaihey, excihn ?
his second, patted his broad shoulders. “Hey, Terry gulped again. “Don’t you see her?”
Terry! What’s eatin’ you? This is no -time Tape trailed from his hand as he pointed.
to get woozy!” —
"See who, kid? Say have you taken to
As Terry didn’t know! But Terry only
if liquor, like your old man?—God rest him!”
smiled again, and so feebly that Mike’s "The old woman!”
mouth dropped open in dismay.
So much depended on this fight! Years
and years of hard work, of sacrifice both on
Terry’s part and his mother’s. And now,
M IKE almost sat on the floor. He
his eyes to the ceiling, and indulged in
conversation with his favorite saint. “You
threw

just as things were going good, just as hear that? He sees an old woman! Holy
Terry had bet every single cent he had in saints!” He gripped Terry’s squared face
the world on himself, this thing had to between his palms. "Look, kid, if you got to
happen! go berserk, do it out in the ring, not in
It all made sense, though. Grandpop here!”
Dennis had fallen downstairs and broken his “But-I see her, plain as day!”
neck the night he was -elected mayor. Pop "Yipe!” Mike sprinted to a closet and re-
had died from a too potent Mickey which turned to wave a bottle under Terry’s nose.
somebody had slipped into his beer. And "Sniff this! You feel better?”
now Terry was going to lose this fight! Terry took a good strong whiff. "Look,
Oh, it wasn’t a jinx. Jinxes could be Mike, she’s on the locker.”
licked. This was far worse, and there was "Yes, and I’m the Queen of Sheba. Cut
no way out of it! out the funny stuff, I got plenty of gray
Yes. Grandpop and pop. Terry hadn’t hairs already!”
thought of their dying as a family curse. But The old hag decided to say something.
that was what the old hag had said, the old Her voice was as tinny and unreal as music
hag who had appeared in the locker room. from an old Edison cylinder-phonograph.
Mike was taping his hands, when she ap- "Of course he can’t see me! And he can’t
peared, Terry had been dreaming about hear me, either. But you can, and you'd bet-
86 WEIRD TALES
ter good!" Her voice sharpened as
listen Terry smiled skkishly, and Mike growled,
Terry stirred. "I’m your family’s curse, and "What’s griping you? You look like a guy
I always make my appearance before a trag- just trying out his first set of store teeth.
edy. You’re not going to win the fight Cheer up, kid! You can’t break down, now!
tonight." —
You got to do it for your ma, and for me!"
"Huh?" Terry asked. "Yeah, I know.” Terry made his. smile
"I didn’t say nothin’!’’ Mike growled, re- more artificial, which persuaded Mike that it
suming his bandaging of Terry’s hands. was authentic. "Say, do me a favor, will
"Look, kid, if you feel dizzy, or something, you?” he asked, as Mike was tying the gloves
you’d better make this straight! I got to on him. "Ring up Father Flaherty for me!"
know. You’re good, all right, but so's the "Want his blessing?” Mike asked, head-
Big Chief. If you’re not up to snuff, he'll ing for the phone.
cut you to ribbons!” "Sort of! Tell him to come over quick as
"I’m. okay,” Terry muttered unconvinc- he can, .and to bring along some holy water.”
ingly. Holy water, that was it! Father Flaherty
“Yeah?” Mike doubted. "Then shut up could get rid of that ghost! Nothing must
with the funny business. Sometimes your stop Terry now.
sense of humor goes a little too far!” But he was afraid, and he didn’t like it.
The hag agreed pleasantly'. "Yes, you Cold' prickles running uphis back, and some-
might as well keep your mouth shut. Talk- thing twisting his- stomach around like a
ing won’t do you any good. Only you can piece of wet wash! Why, Terry’ d faced
see me or hear me. Well, Terence Con- O ’ worse opponents than two Battling Redskins
ner Flanagan, take a good look around yom together, and laughed as he cauliflowered
Enjoy yourself while you may! After the their ears. And that little leprechaun,-dressed
third round —
well, you’ll be seeing your in the uniform of a subway, guard, who’d
father and your grandfather!” tried to push him on the subway tracks! And
—
"Now, wait ” Terry began. v
that pretty girl' he’d met at his last fight,
"What’s the matter, too loose?” Mike de- who’d just looked at him, and then all of
manded. a sudden thrown her arms around him and
"Okay,” .Terry said. kissed himL Terry had always been scared
of women, but not of her. Scared of women,
HE hag went on, "A hundred years ago,
T your great-grandfather fell in
me, and then jilted me. I swore I’d carry my
love with
but not in this goose-pimply way..
Gee, but she had been a pretty girl! And
she hadn't even told him her name! Just
vengeance beyond the. grave, and that’s just kissed him, laughed as if she liked it, and
what I’m doing! Every male Flanagan has scampered lightly away.
died or will die at the moment of his great- Small, and dark —
maybe Eyetalian? May-
est triumph! And this is your triumph, isn’t be a Spic! But boy, she was a honey! Yum —
it?” She tinged her voice with mock sym- Wonder if she’ll be out there, tonight? Won-
pathy. “Your poor little mother will no der if I’ll see her?-
longer need to struggle, all your debts will Aw, what’s the use! If I didn’t dream up

Ha!” She launched some rather .grade-B

—
be paid, and you’ll be champion you think! that family curse business, she" could be
twins, and I still won’t see her! Golly, poor
laughter. mom!
"Like fun you’ll be champion! For I’m Mike came back, shaking his head. "I
going to be in the ring with you! -I’ll de- couldn’t get Father Flaherty. Nobody home.”
flect every blow that you aim —
and in the "Try again, Mike.”
third round, the Battling Redskin will break "We ain’t got much time! Looks "like
your neck with a hook to the chin. And Rizzo is going to bop Kaplan to sleep, any
if you’re thinkings that this is just a bad minute."
dream, don’t fool yourself? It’s not, as "Then get a wiggle on. Mike, this is im-
you’ll find out.” portant!”
And with that she snuffed out like the Mike thought that he understood. There
flame of a windblown candle. had been times when things seemed to fall
 [THE GHOST PUNCH 87

from under his own mental feet. "Sure, But his mind wasn’t on his work. Third
kid!” round
Terry jumped off the table, and strode Well, say! There was a way to beat the old
about, thumping his gloved hands together. hag, at that! Terry had three rounds in which
That ghost was the real thing, all right! As to fight! And what had he told the reporters
real as the cry. of the Flanagan banshee the last night? "I’ll get him in the first round!”
—
night they brought pop home dead though Sure — get him now!
the neighbors swore that it was only a howl- "Oh, no you don't,” the old woman’s face
ing dog. sneered unkindly. "You don’t get him at
”
all while I’m here!
ERRY And
T glanced the locker again, but
at
the hag’s face wasn’t there. Dawgone
seemed that she wasn’t far wrong.
it

Terry had always kept his head clear you —

her, why couldn't she have stayed, and lis- —
had to but now that he was stumbling in a
tened to reason? A
heck of a fine old girl maze of thought, the Redskin took advan-
she was, persecuting people who weren’t re- tage of stabbing lefts to Terry’s face as he
it,

sponsible for her broken heart! It wasn’t circled about. Terry forgot his thinking
fair. Terry would have smashed down any with a jolt, and caught the Indian with a
man who even mentioned hitting an old left-and-righr, then snapped a left hook at
lady, but for once he thought that there his jaw, which the Indian dodged.
might be something in the idea. A foul for a The Indian decided to be discreet for a
foul? No, that wasn’t the way to fight! Gee, while, to study up on Terry’s technique just
if only Father Flaherty would hurry over! a little bit longer. Why, you could tell that
Mike returned. "Still not at home. Better the guy wasn’t any-too certain about him-
take a couple of deep breaths, kid. They’re self! —for he ought to have gotten a pretty
counting Kaplan out.” He firmly knotted the clear idea of Terry after he’d been apprais-
cord of Terry's robe. "Hang onto your coat, ing him at each of his fights!
kid, the goin’s rough. There’s a mob right That thought should have cheered Terry,
outside the door, waiting for a look at you! but it didn't. It was imperative that he slap
Souvenir hunters, I’ll bet you!” the palooka down on the spot, and he nailed
"Is the dark girl there?” him with a right smash on the chin. He
"The one who got fresh with you? No, I followed Jhis with a left hook to the ear,
didn’t see her!” and then hammered him with another right'.
And so, here he was, Terry Flanagan^ soon Why, it seemed that, the guy was dizzy al-
to be the late Terry Flanagan — and no priest ready! The pantywaist! This ought to be
to send away the ghost. Oh, she was pres- easy!
ent, all right, almost too painfully in evi-" The Indian heartily concurred, and did
dence, for she had decided to make things his best to make it dlflicult~by waltzing
easy by roosting her chin on the ropes at around, using a jab to keep out of Terry’s
the Redskin’s left. reach. And that was all of the first round.
She grinned nastily as the bell pealed, and Terry wasn’t even sweating as Ke thunked
for a moment Terry forgot her, as he down on his stool.
snapped off his stool and out toward the In- "Holy smoke!” Mike groaned. "What did
dian, who was advancing with all the charm- you think you were doing, you oaf? Playin’
ing delicacy of a charging elephant. party games? You’re supposed to beat his
The Redskin was evidently not in on the Drains out! Well, go in and do it!”
hag’s secret. He was a sportsman, and he The hag simpered, and let loose with a
wouldn’t have fought if he were tipped off. tee-bee brand of giggle. Terry glared at her,
The hag called with biting tartness, "Don’t and the second round was on.
worry about me, Terence Flanagan! I won’t The mob was yelling good and proper
—
do anything for a while!” now, and Terry meant business. So did the
The Indian was cautious. Most of the Indian. So did the hag. Terry ripped out of
time he employed a jab to stay out of Terry’s his corner and doubled the Indian with a
range. Terry landed a few rather heavy right to the body, then straightened him out
ones on the Redskin’s chest and shoulders. with both hands to the head, and staggered
88 WEIRD TALES
him with a left hook to the jaw. As the In-
dian awkwardly lifted his feet to dance
around the jab, the hag’s face flitted from
W
Redskin!
ELL, what more could he want? Now
he had still another reason to lick the

its perch on the ropes and intervened be' "Enjoying yourself?” the harridan twit-
tween the battlers. tered, balancing herself on the floor at his
"None of You’re not going to upset
that! feet. "This is —and good-by
the third to
my apple-cart, young pup!” you! Maybe I’m being — ought
hasty I to
It was a gruesome sight —
a six-foot four let you get married so -you could have some
body with shoulders like King Kong, and a children for me to torment—but I’ve only
little white-haired old woman’s head atop four years left on earth, and I can’t take
the massive neck. Terry hesitated for an .any risks. You might have retired by then,
umpteenth of a second, and then a glove or some accident might muss you up and
zoomed out of the face and dropped him
with a left hook to the head. Bells rang in
spoil things for
Ting! —
me. So good-by!” —
went the bell, and Terry wabbled
Terry’s ears, but they weren’t signalling the up on shaking legs, the goose-pimples mak-
end of the round. He struggled to one knee, ing his back look as warty as a frog’s. He
shook his head free of the tintinnabulations, heard Mike yelling advice, and groaning
and hurtled against the Redskin, jabbing between every punctuation mark. Poor Mike!
lefts that reddened "the 'Redskin’s- coppery - -
Poor mom!, .Poor creditors! Poor—that girl
face. out there! And poor Terry!
The mob had decided to go insane in a, Well, Terry was going to die trying. He
vocal way, and their shouts scrunched in. swung widely, clouting the Indian a heavy
from all sides like a vise of sound. Terry one to the body, and the. Redskin lurched
and the Indian played see-saw with some back, hardly daring to throw a punch. The
useless throws, and then—the bell! old woman? N^rts to her! Terry raked the
Holy cats! The Indian was still lively as Indian time and again.
ever, and the old hag was making for the Then he heard the hag grumble, "This
kill! has gone far enough. Now’s my inning!”
Mike wiped a tear from his eye, "You Terry would have liked to correct her on the
phoney! You
unmentionable phoney! differences between baseball and fighting,
Phooey, whatever did I see in you? Kid stuff! but he hadn’t a chance. He was going to
Holy Saint Bridget!” finish right now!
He staggered the Redskin with two

H E didn’t have to yell, for Terry

feeling bad enough for the two of them.
.He’d had a demonstration of what the- hag
was rights,
will.
made him cover up, and punched at
The Indian" seemed to wake up to the
fact that things were happening, and he put
could do. Well, let her! Next time he up a good resistance.. He feinted by drop-
wouldn’t 'be so startled. Let her put her face ping forward as though he were out cold,
wherever she liked, but let her look out that then zipped up on spring-like knees and
it didn’t get pasted! slammed a terrific body punch. Terry said
The throng was yelling as if it had lungs "Oof!” then involuntarily sighed as he
from the stadium to the West Coast. Terry dragged some wind back into his lungs, and
had always liked the sound, but now it got this time he let go for certain.
him. He glared over at the Indian section, But the hag kept getting in the way. At
which was yelling like a billion bagpipes first she plastered herself all over the In-
with cat attachments. And there, if you dian’s body, and when Terry wouldn’t hit
please, was the girl who’d given him that heir, she was careful to hide the Indian’s
soul-searing kiss —
and waving at him as she more tender points. Terry couldn’t last long
jumped excitedly up and down. Her crowd at that rate, for the Indian was quick to
was giving her dirty looks, but she didn’t grasp his opportunity. Probably figured that
seem to mind. Terry couldn’t believe it. Terry was blinded by sweat. In the next
He pointed his glove to his chest. "Me?” he few seconds, his stomach blows made Terry
pantomimed. She nodded happily, and blew feel as if he’d eaten someT. N. T. and you-
him a kiss. / know-what had happened.
 THE GHOST PUNCH 89

Terry came, out of it, and disregarded the

hag entirely. She had an answer for that,
and floated her ugly face right against his
own, her nose clammily touching his, blind-
ing him completely. The Indian embroi-
dered the situation by sending a clout to
Terry’s chin that threw him back against
the ropes, while the crowd howled like a
competition between hurricanes trying to
outshout tornadoes.
The face wasn’t very adept at
ghost’s
quick travel, appeared, for Terry’s back-
it

ward lurch her floating in mid-air. Terry

left
prayed for the bell to ring so he’d have a
chance to think. That’s a vital question for you to answer soon.
For postwar adjustment will change many things.
Think! That’s what he had to do! Jobs that are good now may be different then. War
He wasn’t the cursing type, being the sort emphasis is on production in the plant peace may
shift it to the office, store,
—
management and sales.
who said, "Hello Mom— was a good fight
it
Overalls
collars
and slacks may,
and dresses.
for many, give way to white

and I’m glad I won it” and meant it. But —

Now is the time to plan and prepare to get ready
for the new opportunities. By training now in spare
now he said, "Damn!” time, you can get In on the ground floor when peace
Yes, damn that ghost! comes.
LaSalle —
home study training complete, authori-
Ghosts! tative, —
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There was that Redskin closing in on him! In our 35 years, over a million ambitious men and
'This was going to be the kill! Terry lashed women have found it interesting and helpful in secur-
ing promotions or better jobs.
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—
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save himself by clinching. He hugged Terry
as if he had discovered a longdost relative,
—
and suddenly an idea too wild for anyone
but an Irishman —
dive-bombed Terry’s
brain.
Sure, let the Indian hug him! The hag
was coming around for her share, and Terry
swung himself and the Indian about, fend-
ing her off. He kept the Redskin interested
in the possibilities of clinches while he
waltzed the hag_al ways at the Indian’s back.
Funny, but she couldn’t push her face against
his, now! Well, his theory worked 'then! QL^SAELLE EJmiversot^
The referee yanked' them apart*, and M Cmiresp^srB^enticeSsBstiMmirB
though the hag’s face traveled swiftly, she 417 S. Dearborn St., Dept. 1075-R, Chicago 5. Ilf.
I am interested in preparing myself for postwar sue-’'
was not a fighter with Terry’s superior agil- cess. Please send me your free 48-page booklet on the
ity. He
aimed a snake-like left hook at the training course I have checked below.
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Business English Effective Speaking
the Rerskin bit the dust. Law:LL.B.Degree Business Correspondence
Business Law Stenotypy
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HERE
was hardly any need of counting.
T Mike was frankly weeping, his tears
splashing in the water-bucket.- The crowd
Name... .... Age

Present Position, ........ %

screamed itself hoarse. The referee yanked

Address.
up Terry's arm and that was that.
Or so, Terry thought at, the time. But Cify..._ ................ .... State,, ........
after he had showered, and was putting on
90 •WEIRD TALES

muEBT him mwitEm

HAVE COMPLETE FACTS ON THE OTHER
I'LL
,
the last of his clothes, the hag appeared.
Mike was in the door, yelling to the meto
FELLOW TONIGHT! that was trying to ram itself in, "Get bade!
Secret Service Operator No. 38 Is <ro
the iob • . . FOIJjOW HIM through Get.back! He’s got to have quiet!"
&U the excitement of hia chase after
the counterfeit gong. Write NOW
for So Mike didn’t have to be worried by the.
IE* V? ConUldentSaJ conversation which Terry held with a face
mr k «5c B«g»onsj
No. SB Mad® to His Chios t that nobody could see.
It may open soar eyes to the great
opportunity for YOU as a well paid "Thought you were smart, eh?” the har-
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1920 Sunnyside Ave„ Dept. 1567, Chicago 40, Illinois
die Battling Redskin’s name!’’
"Ha, ha!” she snickered wickedly. "You
were right!” _
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plus postage. Write for free list. WEREY/OLF LENDING- "Sure I was right! And I hope it teaches
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you a lesson not to try to hurt people who
-'haven’t hurt-youL Now I’ve, got the money,
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and mom’s~all right, and I’m champ!”
Fistula Sufferers "But not for long,” she prophesied.
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"Your mother’s well off now, yes but you
Dangers of Delay won’t be! I’d shake the house down on your
’head if I could, but Thy not allowed to harm
anyone but Flanagans, and I can’t dislodge
QqquWaY
the plaster in here! But I’ll get you yet
you’ll see!
a push in front of a taxi
—
Perhaps tonight in the street

"You won’t get me," Terry said. "Not if

I have to build a portable moat and carry 'it

around wherever I go.”.

1
"You can’t carry an inner tube filled with
Illustrated, authentic 40-page book
on Fistula, Piles (Hemorrhoids), re-
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lated ailments and colon disorders "So I’ll retire!”
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Thornton & Minor Clinic, Suite C1002,
926 McGee St. Kansas City. Mo. "Well, you haven’t got the inner tube on
you, yet!” -
SET RIO OF

or your money back

Smdno mtmty. Send os your
H
bumps
ER
ished,
face twisted with fury as she van-
and suddenly Terry was all duck-
again. He sighed. Well, he’d done
name and address. We will
Bend bottle of Beutalure, what he could! Maybe he'd think of some-
scientific preparation for
coloring gray hair, used like thing.
hair tonic. If satisfied with
.
improvement after 3 weeks, send os $1.80 Mike should have had more than two
uncludes tax) in full payment. If not satisfied, re-
turn unused portion of Beutalurc at our expense. arms, for he couldn’t prevent the dark
B__ 14 Ashley PI., Dept. N-18 beauty from slipping under them and dash-
InCt Wilmington, Delaware
!

/ ing to Terry. She was a dream! Her dark

eyes were misty with rapture as she knocked
away Terry’s hands from knotting his neck-
fflaof Finish in 2-Teora tie, and delivered a kiss that was like sugar-
Go as rapidly as your time and abilities permit. Coureo
equivalent to resident school work— prepares forcollego coated lightning.
entrance exams. Standard H.8. texts supplied. Diploma.
Credit for H. 3. aubjects already completed. Single subjects If tfa*
sited. High school education Is very important for advancement fa
"My dream man!” she cooed. "My great
i?? a“aindnstry and Bocially. Don't bo handicapped all yoor
6
“’a*1 School graduate. Start your traini ng now. Fro© big Tarzan! Oh, Terry, I love you, you great
Bulletin on request. No obligation.
American School, Dept. K-739, OraxeUtseth.ChicaiioW big monster of a man you! I’ve dreamed
 ’THE GHOST PUNCH 91

of you for weeks! If you don’t marry me,

I shall die!”
It was rather abrupt, but if-- she hadn’t
proposed, Terry would have saved her the
trouble.
“Sure, I’ll marry you, Alanna, whenever

you
— say. But I’m a doomed man there's —
a
"Marry me right now, before some other
lucky girl grabs you!”

I
He grinned, "Well,
—why,
But, honey
live long.
She didn’t
I
—
You
I’ve got to
dawgone
thought I’d never see you
warn you.
see, there’s a curse -on
trouble her. She kissed
let it
it,

I
I will!
.again!
mayn’t
me—•”
m yr
clally
CLEANEB
preparation to keep your plates
com©
.vho
Plates will wel-

CBOWN DENTAL
this free offer.

prepared antiseptic
Is
wears

an eape-

clean and help eliminate bad

him whole chain of. the~ candied
again, a breath anti foreign substances that
collectand cause discomfort.
thunderbolts. Mike was vanquished at last _

by the battering of the mob, and it torrented

in, banging him against the two and spoil-
ing kiss number twenty-three or was it — Wmm TEET(K3 ©rW C®SH
twenty-seven? it ml; l new araozing mouth comfort without risking a single cent ..
enjoy that feellog of haring your own teeth agttirr Sa.tl3fy_your deeire
"Good grief!” Mike moaned in dismay. for .food eat what you want.
:
RFILI NER TIGHTENS CROWN
FALSE TEETH OB NO COST, PERFECT FOB PARTI ALS, LOW-
. .

"Who’s this?” BBS AND UPPERS. Don't suff or embarrassment and discomfortCROWN
caused
by loose dental plates. Apply
“My future bride,” Terry said, his eyes CT) „ ~n RELINER. In a jiffy your plate fits like
JllUlS If SS new and stays that way up to 4 months.
C/taieiU Cry Sin?
•
<yUl5lTc' jc dd-fashloned heating to burn yottt
glowing Christmas tree ornaments.
like
‘Yeah? But who is she?”
Terry whispered, "I didn’t get your name, „ , #
/ f
t-vV
W
}^W\ —V B
0
mouth, Just squeeze CROWN from tube
and put your teeth hack in. 'They'll fit os
snugly 03 ever. Inventor Is a recognized
authority tn dental held. A patent has been
CROWN
RELINER. to protect
Ctel [
|
I applied lor
».enMV-~5sN2!3yi' you from Imitators, After you reline your
darling." tCltt&H Vrs.-' plate with CROWN, take your false teeth
My name? WEU, V
MU, out for cleaning without affecting the
Oh!” she blushed and CROWN BEUNER. CROWN REIJNER la
guaranteed It’s barm Ic.w. It's taste-
laughed shyly. "I'm Running Water’s little ful es /T M
less Das
.

that
. .

natural pink color. NOT

Babbling Brook!”
sister.
Terry hugged her enthusiastically.
“Baby, put your arms around me, and
A/raMiMsitii?
.n-npan
J Y SV-
V
Of
j
V S BURN OS
- I R R I -
~— -

v>
-

TATE. If l.Zjtl—. „
promise to keep them there for the next four ^rfT^V fv'en
„ fiod
after 4
years at least!” r3©.3

She didn’t seem to mind —not in the very

mm 11
ffiTWte MONEY
B
BAC^m '

slightest.
l
V / tuba* for ! i

-® 'm
\„/ fuL refund. r&i
,

YUBf,

ATMiW
,

.
PlAYf Jz&f
«M W9UTH JsSy/
SA 75 STEARI N
3, Clements of Algcmac writes: "Alf
plat 03were 90 bad they rattled
Now
can eat
if ( y Y kVvKjxy/J

when I talked. 1
jjr
steaks, corn on the cob," E. JT oil Zip
W. W„ of Virginia, wnW»:
BUY "I found Crown Rellner to
A
//?*'
be all you claim. Many ’
K;-~'/ P Jtfh, c “ kfe
moro attest to same hI^ Jr* Jf fl fe
»•

excellent results. Re- (tgsJJi wIv/TY^rlY^

JgTjW MJ
WAR
line your plates with
CROWN
today,
SEND NO MONEY
You must bo 100% de-
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BRUNER
%£r
”
mfcl • I 1 1 k. l

BONDS If not satisfied. AT YOUR DRUGGIST OS ORDER

___
DIRECT.

r CROWN PLASTIC COMPANY. DEPT. 5010 T

W.
4358 Philadelphia Ave., Detroit 4, Mich. i

[
Send your wonderful Crown Dental Plate Kellner and include th© |
and I
free Crown Cleaner. I will pay postman one dollar pluB approii-
mately 24c. postage on arrival. If 1 am not eatisfled after four I
months, I may return partly used tube for full refund. i
|
1 ’(
I am enclosing one dollar in -payment, same guarantee.) ,
*

I ' |
Name
STAMPS |
^Address
|
i

ft
92 iWEIRB TALES

Why ^orry and suffeP any*

longerif we can help you?
Try a Brooks Patented Air
Cushion. This marvelous-
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• Shonokin Lore

Our FREE BOOK

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W
a long
E WANTED to know more
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shadow of menace in Manly Wade Well-,
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McMGRROW & BERMAN, Patent Attorneys Here’s what we found out:
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What can. I say about the Shonokins? In the-

Banish the craving for tobacco ns

brief appearance of a single member of the
thousands have. Make yourself free
and happy with Tobacco Redeemer. clan, chronicled elsewhere in this issue of
Write for free booklet telling of In-
'nrlous effect of tobacco and of a Weird Tales, is told more about them than
Ireatment which has re-
lieved many men. ever before, anywhere.
80 Years in BusSnesa
THE NEWELL COMPANY One may theorize. After all, there are many
600 Clayton Sta* St, Usuis, Mo. different conditions and breeds of men. Must
all of them be of the same immediate ancestry
as ourselves? The bulk of scientific opinion is
Place your song with us. Melodies supplied human-
against the theory of multiple origin of
WITHOUT CHARGE by well known Hollywood com- Yet do not forget what the fossil bones of
ity.
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Write for details. us.
CINEMA SONG CO. • Dept. 8-0 • P. O. BOX 670 We may be sure that, many milleniums ago,
BEVEELT HELDS, CALIF.
Europe was dominated by certain strange and

*
“Facts about EPILEPSY" terrible creatures, burly and shaggy, with the
hand-brain-speech combination that makes man
This most interesting and helpful Booklet will be They used
supreme. fire, made stone tools,
mailed to anyone while the supply lasts. I will send
lived in communities, understood social organ-
a free copy to anyone who writes for it.
ization, and worshipped supernatural beings
C. M. SIMPSON this last is shown by the fact that they buried
Address Dept. F-29, 1840 W. 44th Street, Cleveland, Ohio
their dead, with weapons and food for the life
to come. —
But men? No. Not quite. Not as
we. are men. They had come up from the beast
MEN AND WOMEN. 18 TO SO Many Swedish along another trail than we, were destined for
Massaco graduates ntalto 550, $73 or oven more por
week. .Large full time Incomes from doctors, hospitals,
sanatorium s, clubs or private practice. Olliers raako a vastly different' development than we. Our
gmxi raonoy in spare time. You can win inde-
pendence and prepare for futuro security by ancestors, the splendid savages that were the
At *} training at home and ouaJ ify ng for Diploma.
first true men of which remains survive, wiped
I

:Anatomy Chart® and 3 2-pasoTUust rated Book

...hKHHH-No-.t-' THE College of Swedish Mas.
-1 ease. Dpt, 712, 100 E, Ohio8t,,Chisaco 1 1, III. them out. It must have been the weirdest and
most desperate of wars. Our side won, by ex-
 'THE EYRIE /
93

terminating those abhorrent enemies- Or what

would they be today?
Maybe something like that happened in
America. Maybe sons of another line than our
Father Adam have survived, like- us in many
ways and terrifyingly Tinlike in others. Love-
craft's cycle of stories suggests that he knew
something, and guessed more. But the specific
truth about the Shonokins has only been touched
by John Thunstone.
He will try to find out more, and send it
along to be told to the world. Let all who are
on his side wish him the best of luck. For —
Midwest Radio Corn a ration- since 1920, famous for fine
radios, and their factory-to-you selling plan with savings up
without luck he may be destroyed in finding to 50%— loos to the post-war future.-- To build the liimi
of radio you want, they ask you now to submit a letter on
Out. Manly Wade Wellman. the subject: “What I Want In My Post-War Radio." For the
IX best letters. Midwest will give $1,000.00 in War Bonds.
Letters must not exceed 200 words and you may send as
many entries as you wish. Letters will be Judged on the
Bloch Looks at Bats practical value of the ideas contained therein and the deci-
sion of the Judges will be final. In case of ties, duplicate
OBERT BLOCH,
R
ries and outlandish situations, is
into strange
whose searching mind
has carried his fictional characters and sto-
prizes will be awarded. Ail entries must be postmarked not
later than midnight December 31, 1944. Contest is open to
all except employees of Midwest Radio Corporation, their
advertising agency, and members of their families. Winners
will be notified on (January 31, 1945. Prices will to
awarded as follows: r-
currently taking up that most perplexing"of
minority questions —
the vampire problem.
First Prize ........
Second Prize ...... $200
.$590 In Wear Bands

$100
In War Bands!
War Bonds
Writes Bloch, in a "good Samaritan” mood: Third Prize In

"v.

It occurs to me that I have never been repre-

sented with a vampire story in Weird Tales
. .an error of omission I hasten to rectify
with "The Bat Is My Brother.”
I recently asked myself "What would you do

if you were a vampire ?” The only answer I could

think of was, "Go out and get a bite to., eat.”
So I sat down and began to consider the
question. What are a vampire's personal prob-
lems ? How does he adapt himself to his pecu-
liar limitations? How far is his nocturnal ex-
istence allied to that of the swing-shift worker? TOY PETOY®
How does a vampire regard his own condition ? Size 8 Jf 2® 0 socles
Why is it that vampires, in weird fiction, ate m DOUBLE-WEIGHT PAPER
Same prioe for full length
or bust form, groups, land-
invariably lonevampirism is
operators? If scapes, pel animals, etc.,
or enlargements of any
transmissible, why don’t the rank of the Un- part of group picture. * A
Original returned with 3 for $1.25
dead increase in mathematical progression ? your enlargement.

With centuries to live, why aren’t vampires SEN© NO MONEY Just maul
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and plan dominion? —

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You won’t find the answers to these questions STANDARD ART STUDIOS
100 East Ohio Street Dept. 604- S3 Chicago (ID. IlL
in "Dracula.” I don’t know if all of them are
in "The Bat Is My Brother.” But I’ve tried to
deal with these interesting little matters in my STUDY AT HOME for Personal
Success and Larger Earnings. 3$
usual delicate style, and 1 hope the readers (in- years expert Instruction over —
cluding the vampires arnongshthemrof course) 108,000 students enrolled. I-L.B.
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always glad to give
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a vampire something he can get his teeth into. Send for FREE BOOK—“Law and
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Hoping you are the same.
AMERICAN EXTENSION SCHOOL OF LAW
Robert Bloch Dipt, 46-N, 640 N. Michigan Avo., Chicago II, UIL
 WEIRD TALES
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IN SICKNESS AND ACCIDENT

$tOO a month for sickness
You can collect
or accident.$3000 for loss of limbs or sight.
$3000 for accidental death. 8£ a day insures
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without risking a penny. Send coupon below.
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0 Tel) d» bow to get your policy for 10-day tospec- 1
- tion. No Agent wlu call. WRITE TO MARTIN WARE, SECRETARY
® This is your club —
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get together with other fantasy and science-fiction
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they wrote in telling
us how much they .would enjoy meeting others
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® Membership is very simple: "“just ’drop'" us a v
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This Horseshoe
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A
Hand engraved,
- sign —
personal token "of 'your fellowship with the
weird and the fantastic —
will be sent on request.
inlaid with simu-
lated pearl, is a (A stamped, addressed envelope should be en-
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Shoe and shank of
everlasting Monel iiiimiiiiiimiiiiminiiieittiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiEBiiiiiiii
Metal is

Supply
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la limited — m TEARS
act now SEND NO MONEY with
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PILE PREPARATIONS Mr. B. L. Hurt, 340 Lewis St., Memphis, Tenn.
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„
111.

>)iiiiiiiiTiti!i)iiMiiigiiiiiiiifiiiiiiiiiiiinon(nBiiiMBiiBii9iiguai]aM9)iniiDHDiioi)Qli£

READERS’ VOTE
THE DWELLER IN THE JAR
DARKNESS THE BAT IS MV
BROTHER
A GENTLEMAN FROM DARK MUMMERY
PRAGUE THE DEAD MAN'S
RIOE THE EL TO HAND
• Fop Mosfeaf Setting
Mother, Home, Love, Sacred, Patriotic, Comic
«= DOOM THE GHOST PUNCH'
Here's a list of eight stories In.thle Issue. Won’t you
aiiininiuiiiiiiiMtiiiiiintngiiBiiinaniiiiuiM!

let us knosv which three you consider the best? Just

or any subject. Don’t Delay
Original Poem at once
Send us your
— — place- the numbers; 1, 2, and 3, respectively against yesur
—
then clip it out and mail it
for immediate ex- three favorite tales
FREE
amination. and Rhyming Dictionary. in to us.

Richard Brothers 27 WEDRD TALES

New
9 Rockefeller Plaza York City
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A. J. Sanders, 217 W. Hill ave., Valdosta, Gn.
Francis W, Gardner, 1409 Argyle. Chicago, HI.
Count Victor L. vom Tobnthy, Room 30-L, Box 300, LEARN TO
Bismarck, N. Dak. PLAY THE
Mrs. Lacy Mann, Mnxwelton, W, Va. the Hawaiian way. Surprise and entertain
Kent Cooper, 1212 Flatbusb Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y.
Michael Wolf son, 610 West End Ave,, New York 25,
N, Y.
*

^ your friends. Our simple method makes

learning to play music as fascinating as a
game. Shows you in pictures how to do it.
Eugene Carlson, 50 Atlantic Ave., Hawthorne, N. Y. W Previous musical training unnecessary. Earn
John Natalzia, 867 Putnam Ave., Brooklyn, N, Y. while learning by new plan. You pay for lessons
aa they ore received. Write today for freo infor-
mation. A postcard will do. (Fine
25c guitars supplied $7.50 and up.)
We’re sorry that lack of space prevents the inclusion
the. names of all Nets Members. The rest vnll appear
PER HAWAIIAN GUITAR INSTRUCTION
of LESSON P. O. Box 163, Dept. K-4 Maywood, 111.
next time.
 Your Intuitive Impressions
Are you ever a host to ings mean? Should we Interpret these
strange ideas? Do amak- impressions as originating in an intelli-
ing thoughts suddenly enter your mind —
gence outside of us or are they merely
in thestill of night? Have you ever ex- organic, the innate functioning of our
perienced a curtain seeming to rise in own mental processes? Do not labor
your mind and then, for the flash of a under superstition nor disregard what
second — on the stage of your con- truly may be Cosmic Guidance. Learn the
sciousness — is portrayed a dramatic "facts about these common experiences.
event? Perhaps at such times you see
yourself in a strange role surrounded by *ytccept This Free Book
unknown personalities. Who has not Every inclination of self, which you sense, has
awakened some morning with a partial a purpose. Nature is not extravagant. Every
recollection of a provoking dream which faculty you possess was intended to be exer-

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cised— to be used for the mastery of life. There
are no mysteries in life— except those which
There are also times when we are in- prejudice, fear and ignorance keep men from
clined by an inexplicable feeling to cast understanding. Let the Rosicrucians (not a
,

off our obligations and to journey to a religion), a world-wide fraternity of men and
distant city or to visit a_ friend. Only women, reveal astounding and useful facts
t

sheer will prevents us from submitting about _y<?ar.Write for the free, fascinating book,
"The Mastery of Life.” It tells how you may
to these urges. What do these intuitive
share in this age-old helpful knowledge.
impressions, these impelling strange feel- Address Scribe: Q. L. C.

Woe Rosicrucians * amorc san jose, California

 I Can i^Oalk® Y@y A Mew B^aira*
in ©rally IS Mn&jjttes A ©ayl
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men of than
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