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🟡 Fearful Rock (Full Audiobook) | Manly Wade Wellman · Weird Fiction Audiobooks: Cosmic Horror, Strange Realities & Uncanny Tales

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  Speaker 1: Chapter 1 of Fearful Rock by Manly Wade Wellman This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org.
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  Speaker 1: Read by Ben Tucker. Fearful Rock by Manly Wade Wellman
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  Speaker 1: Chapter 1 The Sacrifice Enid Mandifer tried to stand up
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  Speaker 1: under what she had just heard. She managed it. but
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  Speaker 1: her ears rang, her eyes misted. She felt as if
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  Speaker 1: she were drowning. The voice of Purcell Mandifer came through
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  Speaker 1: the fog, level and slow with the hint of that
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  Speaker 1: foreign accent which nobody could identify. Now that you know
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  Speaker 1: that you are not really my daughter, perhaps you are
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  Speaker 1: curious as to why I adopted you. Curious, was that
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  Speaker 1: the word to use? But this man who was not
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  Speaker 1: her father after all, he delighted in understatements. Enid's eyes
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  Speaker 1: had grown clearer now. She was able to move, to
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  Speaker 1: obey Purcell Mendefor's invitation to seat herself. She saw him,
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  Speaker 1: half sprawling in his rocking chair against the plastered wall
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  Speaker 1: of the parlor, under the painting of his ancient friend
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Burr. Was the rumor true, she mused, that Burr
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  Speaker 1: had not really died, that he still lived and planned
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  Speaker 1: ambitiously to make himself a throne in America? But Aaron
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  Speaker 1: Burr would have to be an old, old man, a
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  Speaker 1: hundred years old or more than a hundred. Purcell Mander
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  Speaker 1: for his own age might have been anything, but probably
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  Speaker 1: he was nearer seventy than fifty. Physically he was the
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  Speaker 1: narrowest of men, and shoulders, hips, and temples, and legs alike,
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  Speaker 1: so that he appeared distorted and compressed. White hair, like
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  Speaker 1: combed thistledown, fitted itself in ordered streaks to his high skull.
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  Speaker 1: His eyes, dull and dark as musket balls, peered expressionlessly
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  Speaker 1: above the nose like a stiletto, the chin like the
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  Speaker 1: pointed toe of a fancy boot. The fleshlessness of his
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  Speaker 1: legs was accentuated by tight trousers, strapped under the insteps.
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  Speaker 1: At his throat sprouted a frill of lace, after a
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  Speaker 1: fashion twenty-five years old. At his left, on a stool,
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  Speaker 1: crouched his enormous son, Larue. Larue's body was a collection
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  Speaker 1: of soft-looking globes and bladders, a tremendous belly, round-kneed short legs,
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  Speaker 1: puffy hands, a gross bald head between fat shoulders. His
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  Speaker 1: white linen suit was only a shade paler than his skin.
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  Speaker 1: and his loose-faded pink lips moved incessantly. Once Enid had
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  Speaker 1: heard him talking to himself, had been close enough to
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  Speaker 1: distinguish the words, over and over he had said, I'll
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  Speaker 1: kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you. These two
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  Speaker 1: men had reared her from babyhood, here in this low,
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  Speaker 1: spacious manor of brick and timber in the Ozark country.
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  Speaker 1: Sixteen or eighteen years ago there had been Indians hereabouts,
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  Speaker 1: but they were gone, and the few settlers were on
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  Speaker 1: remote farms. The Mandifers dwelt alone with their slaves, who
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  Speaker 1: were unusually solemn and taciturn for Negroes. Purcell Mandifer was continuing,
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  Speaker 1: I've brought you up as a gentleman would bring up
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  Speaker 1: his real daughter, for the sole and simple end of
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  Speaker 1: making her a good wife. That explains, my dear, the governess,
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  Speaker 1: the finishing school at St. Louis, the books, the journeys
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  Speaker 1: we have undertaken to New Orleans and elsewhere. I regret
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  Speaker 1: this distressing war between the states. And he paused to
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  Speaker 1: draw from his pocket his enameled snuff-box, which would have
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  Speaker 1: made Recent junkets impracticable. However, the time has come and
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  Speaker 1: you are not to be despised. Your marriage is now
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  Speaker 1: to befall you. Marriage, mumbled LaRue in a voice that
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  Speaker 1: Enid was barely able to hear. His fingers interlaced like
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  Speaker 1: fat white worms in a jumble. His eyes were for Enid,
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  Speaker 1: his ears for his father. Enid saw that she must respond.
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  Speaker 1: She did so. You have chosen a husband for me?
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  Speaker 1: Purcell Mandifer's lips crawled into a smile, very wide on
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  Speaker 1: his narrow blade of a face, and he took a
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  Speaker 1: pinch of snuff. Your husband, my dear, was chosen before
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  Speaker 1: ever you came into this world, he replied. The smile
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  Speaker 1: grew broader, but Enid did not think it cheerful. Does
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  Speaker 1: your mirror do you justice? he teased her. Enid, my
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  Speaker 1: foster daughter, does it tell you truly that you are
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  Speaker 1: a beauty, with a face all lustrous and oval, eyes
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  Speaker 1: full of tender fire? a cascade of golden-brown curls to
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  Speaker 1: frame the whole. His gaze wandered upon her body and
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  Speaker 1: his eyelids drooped. Does it convince you, Enid, that your
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  Speaker 1: figure combines rarely those traits of fragility and wrongdoer that
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  Speaker 1: were never so desirable as when they occurred together? Ah, Enid,
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  Speaker 1: had I myself met you or one like you thirty
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  Speaker 1: years ago. Father, growled LaRue as though at sacrilege. Purcell
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  Speaker 1: Mandifer chuckled, his left hand, white and slender with a
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  Speaker 1: dark cameo upon the forefinger, extended and patted LaRue's repellent
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  Speaker 1: bald pate in superior affection.' Never fear, son,' crooned Purcell Mandifer.'
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  Speaker 1: Innit shall go a pure bride to him who waits her.'
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  Speaker 1: His other hand crept into the breast of his coat
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  Speaker 1: and drew forth something on a chain. It looked like
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  Speaker 1: a crucifix.' Tell me,' pleaded the girl.' Tell me fa—'
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  Speaker 1: She broke off, for she could not call him father.
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  Speaker 1: What is the name of the one I am to marry?
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  Speaker 1: His name? said LaRue, as though aghast at her ignorance.
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  Speaker 1: His name, repeated the lean man in the rocking chair.
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  Speaker 1: The crucifix-like object in his hands began to swing idly
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  Speaker 1: and rhythmically, while he paid out chain to make its
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  Speaker 1: pendulum motion wider and slower. He has no name. Enid
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  Speaker 1: felt her lips grow cold and dry. He has no...
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  Speaker 1: He is the nameless one. said Purcell Mandifer, and she
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  Speaker 1: could discern the capital letters in the last two words
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  Speaker 1: he spoke. Look, said LaRue out of the corner of
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  Speaker 1: his weak mouth that was nearest his father. She thinks
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  Speaker 1: that she is getting ready to run. She will not run,
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  Speaker 1: assured Purcell Mandifer. She will sit and listen, and watch
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  Speaker 1: what I have here in my hand. The object on
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  Speaker 1: the chain seemed to be growing in size and clarity
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  Speaker 1: of outline. Enid felt that it might not be a
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  Speaker 1: crucifix after all. The nameless one is also ageless, continued
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  Speaker 1: Persel Mandifer. My dear, I dislike telling you all about him,
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  Speaker 1: and it is not really necessary. All you need to
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  Speaker 1: know is that we, my fathers and I, have served
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  Speaker 1: him here and in Europe since the days when France
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  Speaker 1: was Gaul. Yes, and before that. The swinging object really
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  Speaker 1: was increasing in her sight, and the basic cross was
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  Speaker 1: no cross, but a three-armed thing like a capital T.
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  Speaker 1: Nor was the body-like figure spiked to it. It seemed
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  Speaker 1: to twine and clamber upon that T-shape, like a monkey
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  Speaker 1: on a bracket. Like a monkey it was grotesque, disproportionate,
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  Speaker 1: a mockery. That climbing creature was made of gold or
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  Speaker 1: of something gilded over. The T-shaped support was as black
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  Speaker 1: and bright as jet. Enid thought that the gold creature
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  Speaker 1: was dull as if tarnished and that it appeared to move,
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  Speaker 1: an effect created perhaps by the rhythmic swinging on the chain.
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  Speaker 1: Our profits from the Association have been great. Purcell Mandifer droned.
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  Speaker 1: Yet we have given greatly. Four times in each hundred
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  Speaker 1: years must a bride be offered. Mist was gathering once
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  Speaker 1: more in Enid's eyes and brain, a thicker mist than
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  Speaker 1: the one that had come from the shock of hearing
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  Speaker 1: that she was an adopted orphan. Yet through it all
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  Speaker 1: she saw the swinging device, the monkey-like climber upon the tee,
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  Speaker 1: and through it all she heard Mandifer's voice. When my
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  Speaker 1: real daughter, the last female of my race, went to
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  Speaker 1: the nameless one, I wondered where our next bride would
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  Speaker 1: come from. And so twenty years ago I took you
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  Speaker 1: from a foundling asylum at Nashville. It was becoming plausible
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  Speaker 1: to her now. There was a power to be worshipped,
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  Speaker 1: to be feared, to be fed with the young women.
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  Speaker 1: She must go. No, this sort of belief was wrong.
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  Speaker 1: It had no clement of decency in it. It was
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  Speaker 1: only beaten into her by the spell of the pendulum
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  Speaker 1: swinging charm. Yet she had heard certain directions, orders, as
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  Speaker 1: to what to do. You will act in the manner
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  Speaker 1: I have described, and say the things I have repeated
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  Speaker 1: tonight at sundown. Mandifer informed her, as though from a
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  Speaker 1: great distance. You will surrender yourself to the Nameless One,
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  Speaker 1: as it was ordained when first you came into my possession. No,
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  Speaker 1: she tried to say, but her lips would not even stir.
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  Speaker 1: Something had crept into her, a will not her own,
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  Speaker 1: which was forcing her to accept defeat. She knew she
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  Speaker 1: must go. Where? To Fearful Rock. said the voice of Mandifer,
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  Speaker 1: as though he had heard and answered the question she
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  Speaker 1: had not spoken. Go there, to that house where once
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  Speaker 1: my father lived and worshipped, that house which, upon the
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  Speaker 1: occasion of his rather mysterious death, I left. It is
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  Speaker 1: now our place of devotion and sacrifice. Go there, Enid,
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  Speaker 1: tonight at sundown, in the manner I have prescribed. End
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  Speaker 1: of chapter 1 Chapter 2. A Fearful Rock by Manly
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  Speaker 1: Wade Wellman. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Read by Ben Tucker. Chapter 2. The Cavalry Patrol. Lieutenant
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  Speaker 1: Kane Lenark was one of those strange and vicious heritage
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  Speaker 1: anomalies of one of the most paradoxical of wars, a
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  Speaker 1: war where a great Virginian was high in northern command
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  Speaker 1: and a great Pennsylvanian stubbornly defended one of the South's
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  Speaker 1: principal strongholds, where the two presidents were both born in
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  Speaker 1: Kentucky and indeed within scant miles of each other, where
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  Speaker 1: father strove against son and brother against brother, even more
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  Speaker 1: frequently and tragically than in all the jangly verses and
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  Speaker 1: Fustian dramas of the day. Lennart's birthplace was a Maryland farm,
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  Speaker 1: moderately prosperous. His education had been completed at the Virginia
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  Speaker 1: Military Institute. where he was one of the very few
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  Speaker 1: who were inspired by a quiet, bearded professor of mathematics
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  Speaker 1: who later became the Stonewall of the Confederacy, perhaps the
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  Speaker 1: continent's greatest tactician. The older Lenarch was strongly for states'
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  Speaker 1: rights and mildly for slavery, though he possessed no Negro chattels. Kane,
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  Speaker 1: the younger of two sons, had carried those same attitudes
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  Speaker 1: with him as much as seven miles past the Kansas border,
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  Speaker 1: whither he had gone in 1861 to look for employment
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  Speaker 1: and adventure. At that lonely point he met with southern guerrillas,
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  Speaker 1: certain loose-shirted, weapon-laden gentry whose leader, a gaunt young man
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  Speaker 1: with large, worried eyes, bore the craggy name of Quantrill
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  Speaker 1: and was to be called by a later historian the
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  Speaker 1: bloodiest man in American history. Young Kane Lenark, surrounded by sudden,
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  Speaker 1: leveled guns, protested his sympathy with the South by birth, education,
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  Speaker 1: and personal preference. Quantrill replied, rather sententiously, that, while this
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  Speaker 1: might be true, Lanark's horse and money belt had a
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  Speaker 1: Yankee look to them and would be taken as prisoners
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  Speaker 1: of war. After the guerrillas had galloped away, with a
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  Speaker 1: derisive laugh hanging in the air behind them, Lanark trudged
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  Speaker 1: back to the border in a little settlement where he
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  Speaker 1: begged a ride by freight wagon to St. Joseph, Missouri.
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  Speaker 1: There he enlisted with a Union cavalry regiment, just then
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  Speaker 1: in the forming, and his starkness of manner with evidences
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  Speaker 1: about him of military education and good sense, caused his
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  Speaker 1: fellow recruits to elect him a sergeant. Late that year,
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  Speaker 1: Lenark rode with a patrol through southern Missouri, where fortune
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  Speaker 1: brought him and his comrades face to face with Quantrill's guerrillas,
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  Speaker 1: the same that had plundered Lenark. The lieutenant in charge
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  Speaker 1: of the Federal Cavalry set a most hysterical example for flight,
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  Speaker 1: and died of six southern bullets placed accurately between his
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  Speaker 1: shoulder blades, but Lenark, as ranking non-commissioned officer, rallied the others,
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  Speaker 1: succeeded in withdrawing them in order before the superior force.
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  Speaker 1: As he rode last of the retreat, he had the
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  Speaker 1: fierce pleasure of engaging and sabering an overzealous guerrilla who
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  Speaker 1: had caught up with him. The patrol rejoined its regiment
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  Speaker 1: with only two lost. The colonel was pleased to voice congratulations,
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  Speaker 1: and Sergeant Lanark became Lieutenant Lanark, vice the slain officer.
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  Speaker 1: In April of 1862, General Curtis, recently the victor in
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  Speaker 1: the desperately fought Battle of Pea Ridge, showed trust and
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  Speaker 1: understanding when he gave Lieutenant Lanark a scouting party of
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  Speaker 1: twenty picked riders, with orders to seek yet another encounter
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  Speaker 1: with the marauding Quantrill. Few Union officers wanted anything to
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  Speaker 1: do with Quantrill, but Lanark, remembering his harsh treatment at
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  Speaker 1: those avaricious hands, yearned to kill the guerrilla chieftain with
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  Speaker 1: his own proper sword. On the afternoon of April 5th,
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  Speaker 1: beneath a sun bright but none too warm, the scouting
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  Speaker 1: patrol rode down a trail at the bottom of a great,
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  Speaker 1: trough-like valley just south of the Missouri-Arkansas border. Two pairs
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  Speaker 1: of men, those with the surest footed mounts, acted as
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  Speaker 1: flanking parties high on the opposite slopes, and a watchful
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  Speaker 1: corporal by the name of Guggen walked his horse well
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  Speaker 1: in advance of the main body. The others rode two
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  Speaker 1: and two, with Lenark at the head, and Sergeant Jaeger,
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  Speaker 1: heavyset and morosely keen of eye, at the rear. A
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  Speaker 1: photograph survives of Lieutenant Kane Lenark as he appeared that
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  Speaker 1: very spring, his breath of shoulder and slimness of waist
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  Speaker 1: accentuated by the snug blue cavalry jacket that terminated at
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  Speaker 1: his sword belt. his ruddy, beak-nosed face shaded by a
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  Speaker 1: wide black hat with a gold cord. He wore a mustache,
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  Speaker 1: trim but not gay, and his long chin alone of
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  Speaker 1: all his command went smooth-shaven. To these details be it
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  Speaker 1: added that he rode his bay gelding easily, with a light,
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  Speaker 1: sure hand on the reins, and that he had the
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  Speaker 1: air of one who knew his present business. The valley
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  Speaker 1: opened at length upon a wide-level platter of land among high,
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  Speaker 1: pine-tufted hills. The flat expanse was no more than half-timbered,
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  Speaker 1: though clever enemies might advance unseen across it, if they
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  Speaker 1: exercised caution and foresight enough, to slip from one belt
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  Speaker 1: or clump of trees to the next. Almost at the
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  Speaker 1: center of the level, a good five miles from where
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  Speaker 1: Lanark now halted his command, stood a single great chimney
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  Speaker 1: or finger of rock, its lean tip more than twice
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  Speaker 1: the height of the tallest tree within view. To this
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  Speaker 1: geologic curiosity, the eyes of Lieutenant Lanark snapped at once. Sergeant,
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  Speaker 1: he called, and Jaeger sidled his horse close. We'll head
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  Speaker 1: for that rock and stop there, Lanark announced. It's a
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  Speaker 1: natural watchtower, and from the top of it we can
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  Speaker 1: see everything, even better than we could if we rode
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  Speaker 1: clear across flat ground to those hills. And if Quantrill
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  Speaker 1: is west of us, which I'm sure he is, I'd
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  Speaker 1: like to see him coming a long way off, so
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  Speaker 1: as to know whether to fight or run. I agree
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  Speaker 1: with you, sir, said Yeager. He peered through narrow puffy
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  Speaker 1: lids at the pinnacle and gnawed his shaggy lower lip.
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  Speaker 1: I shall lift up mine eyes unto the rocks from
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  Speaker 1: whence cometh my help, he misquoted reverently. The sergeant was
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  Speaker 1: full of garbled scripture, and the men called him Bible
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  Speaker 1: Yeager behind that wide back of his. This did not
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  Speaker 1: mean that he was soft, dreamy, or easily fooled. Curtis
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  Speaker 1: had chosen him as sagely as he had chosen Lanark.
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  Speaker 1: Staying in the open as much as possible, the party
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  Speaker 1: advanced upon the rock. They found it standing above a soft,
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  Speaker 1: grassy hollow, which in turn ran eastward from the base
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  Speaker 1: of the rock to a considerable ravine, dark and full
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  Speaker 1: of timber. As they spread out to the approach, they
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  Speaker 1: found something else. A house stood in the hollow, shadowed
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  Speaker 1: by the great pinnacle. It looks deserted, sir, volunteered Jaeger
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  Speaker 1: at Lanark's bridal elbow. No sign of life. Perhaps, said Lanark,
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  Speaker 1: deploy the men, and we'll close in from all sides.
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  Speaker 1: Then you, with one man, enter the back door. I'll
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  Speaker 1: take another and enter the front. Good, sir. The sergeant
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  Speaker 1: kneed his horse into a faster walk, passing from one
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  Speaker 1: to another of the three corporals with muttered orders. Within
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  Speaker 1: sixty seconds the patrol closed upon the house like a
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  Speaker 1: twenty-fingered hand. Lenark saw that the building had once been pretentious.
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  Speaker 1: Two stories, stoutly made of good lumber that must have
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: been carted from a distance, with shuttered windows and a
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: high-peaked roof. Now it was a paint-starved gray with deep
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: veins and traceries of dirty black upon its clapboards. He
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: dismounted before the piazza with its four pillar-like posts and
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  Speaker 1: threw his reins to a trooper. Shugs, he called, inobediently
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  Speaker 1: his own personal orderly, A plump blonde youth dropped out
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  Speaker 1: of the saddle. Together they walked up on the resounding
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  Speaker 1: planks of the piazza. Lenark, his ungloved right hand swinging
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  Speaker 1: free beside his holster, knocked at the heavy front door
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  Speaker 1: with his left fist. There was no answer. He tried
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  Speaker 1: the knob, and after a moment of shoving, the hinges
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  Speaker 1: creaked and the door went open. They walked into a
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  Speaker 1: dark front hall, then into a parlor with dust upon
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  Speaker 1: the rug and the fine furniture, and rectangles of pallor
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  Speaker 1: upon the walls where pictures had once hung for years.
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  Speaker 1: They could hear echoes of their every movement, as anyone
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  Speaker 1: will hear in a house to which he is not accustomed.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Beyond the parlor they came to an ornate chandelier with
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  Speaker 1: crystal pendants, and at the rear stood a sideboard of
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  Speaker 1: dark hard wood. Its drawers all hung half open, as
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: if the silver and linen had been hastily removed. Above
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: it hung plate racks, also empty. Feet sounded in a
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  Speaker 1: room to the rear, and then Jaeger's voice, asking if
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  Speaker 1: his lieutenant were inside. Lenark met him in the kitchen, conferred.
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  Speaker 1: Then together they mounted the stairs in the front hall.
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  Speaker 1: Several musty bedrooms, darkened by closed shutters, occupied the second floor.
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  Speaker 1: The beds had dirty mattresses, but no sheets or blankets.
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  Speaker 1: All clear in the house, pronounced Leonard. Yeager, go and
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  Speaker 1: detail a squad to reconnoiter in that little ravine east
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  Speaker 1: of here. We want no rebel sharpshooters sneaking up on
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  Speaker 1: us from that point. Then leave a picket there, put
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  Speaker 1: a man on top of the rock and guards at
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  Speaker 1: the front and rear of this house, and have some
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: of the others police up to the house itself. We
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  Speaker 1: may stay here for two days, even longer. The sergeant saluted,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: then went to bellow his orders, and troopers dashed hither
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  Speaker 1: and thither to obey. In a moment the sound of
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: sweeping arose from the parlor. Lenark, to whom it suggested
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: spring cleaning, sneezed at the thought of the dust, then
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: gave Shug's directions about the care of his bay. Unbuckling
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: his saber, he hung it upon the saddle, but his
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: revolver he retained. You're in charge, Yeager, he called, and
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: sauntered away toward the wooded cleft. His legs needed the exercise.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: He could feel them straightening by degrees after their long
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: clamping to his saddle flaps. He was uncomfortably dusty, too,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: and there must be water at the bottom of the ravine.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Walking into the shade of the trees, he heard, or
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: fancied he heard, a trickling sound. The slope was steep here,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: and he walked fast to maintain an easy balance upon it,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: for a minute and then two. There was water ahead,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: all right, for it gleamed through the leafage, and something
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: else gleamed, something pink. That pinkness was certainly flesh. His
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: right hand dropped quickly to his revolver butt and he
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: moved forward carefully. Stooping, he took advantage of the bushy cover,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: at the same time avoiding a touch that might snap
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: or rustle the foliage. He could hear a voice now,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: soft and rhythmic. Lenark frowned. A woman's voice? His right hand,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: still at his weapon, his left caught and carefully drew
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: down a spray of willow. He gazed into an open
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: space beyond. It was a woman, all right, within twenty
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: yards of him. She stood ankle-deep in a swift, narrow
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: rush of brook-water. and her fine body was nude, every
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: graceful curve of it, with a cascade of golden-brown hair
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: falling and floating about her shoulders. She seemed to be praying,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: but her eyes were not lifted. They stared at the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: hand-mirror that she held up to catch the last flash
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: of the setting sun. CHAPTER THREE A FEARFUL ROCK by
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Manly Wade Wellman This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Read by Ben Tucker. Chapter 3. The Image in the Cellar. Lanark,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: a young, serious-minded bachelor in an era when women swaddled
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: themselves inches deep in fabric, had never seen such a
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: sight before, and to his credit be it said that
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: his first and strongest emotion was proper embarrassment for the
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: girl in the stream. He had a momentary impulse to
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: slip back and away, then he remembered that he had
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: ordered a patrol to explore the place. It would be
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: here within moments. Therefore, he stepped into the open, wondering
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: at the time as well as later if he did well.' Miss,'
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: he said gently,' Miss, you'd better put on your things.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: My men—' She stared, squeaked in fear, dropped the mirror,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: and stood motionless. Then she seemed to gather herself for flight.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Lanark realized the trees beyond her were thick and might
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: hide enemies, that she was probably a resident of this
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: rebel-inclined region and might be a decoy for such as himself.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: He whipped out his revolver, holding it at the ready
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: but not pointing it. Don't run, he warned her sharply.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Are those your clothes beside you? Put them on at once.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: She caught up a dress of flowered calico and fairly
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: flung it on over her head. His embarrassment subsided a little,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and it came another pace or two into the open.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: She was pushing her feet, very small feet they were,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: and to heal his shoes. Her hands quickly gathered up
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: some underthings and waddled them into a bundle. She gazed
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: at him apprehensively, questioningly. Her hastily donned dress remained unfastened
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: at the throat, and he could see the panicky stir
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: of her heart and her half-bared bosom. I'm sorry, he
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: went on, but I think you'd better come up to
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: the house with me. House? she repeated fearfully, and her
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: dark white eyes turned to look beyond him. Plainly she
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: knew which house he meant. You live there? I'm staying
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: there at this time. You came for me? Apparently she
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: had expected someone to come. But instead of answering, he
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: put a question of his own. To whom were you
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: talking just now? I could hear you. I said the words.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: The words my faith. She broke off wretchedly, and Lenark
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: was forced to think how pretty she was in her confusion.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: The words that Purcell Manderford told me to say. Her
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: eyes on his, she continued softly. I came to meet
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the Nameless One. Are you the Nameless One? I am
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: certainly not nameless, he replied. I am Lieutenant Lanark of
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the Federal Army of the Frontier at your service. He
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: bowed slightly, which made it more formal. Now, come along
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: with me. He took her by the wrist, which shook
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: in his big left hand. Together, they went back eastward
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: through the ravine in the direction of the house. Before
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: they reached it, she told him her name, and that
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the big natural pillar was called Fearful Rock. She also
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: assured him that she knew nothing of Quantrill and his guerrillas,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and a fourth item of news shook Lenark to his
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: spurred heels, the first non-military matter that had impressed him
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: in more than a year. An hour later, Lenark and
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Yeager finished an interview with her in the parlor. They
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: called Shuggs, who conducted the young woman up to one
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: of the bedrooms. Then Lieutenant and Sergeant faced each other.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: The light was dim, but each saw bafflement and uneasiness
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: in the face of the other. Well, challenged Lenark, Yeager
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: produced a clasp knife, opened it, and pared thoughtfully at
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: a thumbnail. I'll take my oath, he ventured, that this
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Miss Enid Mandifer is telling the gospel truth. Truth? Exploded
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Lanark scornfully. Mountain folk ignorance, I call it. Nobody believes
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: in those devil things these days. Oh, yes, somebody does,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: said Yeager, mildly but definitely. I do. He put away
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: his knife and fumbled within his blue army shirt. Look here, Lieutenant.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: It was a small book he held out, little more
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: than a pamphlet in size and thickness. On its cover
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: of gray paper appeared the smudged woodcut of an owl
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: against a full moon, and the title, John George Homan's
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Pow Wows, or Long Lost Friend.' I got it when
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: I was a young lad in Pennsylvania,' explained Yeager, almost reverently.'
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Lots of Pennsylvania people carry this book, as I do.'
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: He opened the little volume and read from the back
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: of the title page.' Whosoever carries this book with him
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: is safe from all enemies,' visible or invisible, and whoever
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: has this book with him cannot die without the holy
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: corpse of Jesus Christ, nor drown in any water, nor
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: burn up in any fire, nor can any unjust sentence
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: be passed upon him. Lenark put out his hand for
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: the book, and Yeager surrendered it somewhat hesitantly. I've heard
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: of supposed witches in Pennsylvania, said the officer. Hexes, I
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: believe they're called. Is this a witch book? No, sir,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: nothing about black magic. See the cross on that page?
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: It's a protection against witches. I thought that only Catholics
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: used the cross, said Lanark. No, not only Catholics. Hmm.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Lanark passed the thing back. Superstition, I call it. Nevertheless,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: you speak this much truth. That girl is in earnest.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: She believes what she told us. Her father, or stepfather,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: or whoever he is, sent her up here on some
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: ridiculous errand, perhaps a dangerous one. He paused. Or I
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: may be misjudging her. It may be a clever scheme, Yeager.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: A scheme to get a spy in among us. The
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: sergeant's big bearded head wagged in negation. No, sir, if
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: she was telling a lie, it'd be a more believable one,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: wouldn't it? He opened his talisman book again. If the
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: lieutenant please, there's a charm in here. Against being shot
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: or stabbed. It might be a good thing, seeing there's
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: a war going on. Perhaps the lieutenant would like me
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: to copy it out? No, thanks. Lenark drew forth his
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: own charm against evil and nervousness. A leather case that
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: contained cheroots. Yeager, who had convictions against the use of tobacco,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: turned away disapprovingly as his superior bit off the end
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: of a fragrant brown cylinder and kindled a match. Let
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: me look at that what-do-you-call-it book again, he requested, and
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: for a second time Yeager passed the little volume over,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: then saluted and retired. Darkness was gathering early, what with
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: the position of the house in the grassy hollow and
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: the pinnacle of fearful rock standing between it and the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: sinking sun to westward. Lenark called for Shuggs to bring
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: a candle, and when the orderly obeyed, directed him to
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: take some kind of supper upstairs to Enid Mandefer. Left alone,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the young officer seated himself in a newly dusted armchair
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: of massive dark wood, emitted a cloud of blue tobacco smoke,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: and opened The Long Lost Friend. It had no publication date,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: but John George Homan, the author, dated his preface from
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Berks County, Pennsylvania, on July 31, 1819. In the secondary preface,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: filled with testimonials as to the success of Hohmann's miraculous cures,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: was included the pious ejaculation, The Lord bless the beginning
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: and the end of this little work, and be with
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: us that we may not misuse it and thus commit
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: a heavy sin. Amen to that, said Lenark to himself
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: quite soberly. Despite his assured remarks to Jaeger, he was
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: somewhat repelled and nervous because of the things Enid Mendefer
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: had told him. Was there then potentiality for such supernatural
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: evil in this enlightened 19th century, even in the pages
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: of the book he held? He read further and came
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: upon a charm to be recited against violence and danger,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: perhaps the very one Yeager had offered to copy for him.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: It began rather sonorously. The peace of our Lord Jesus
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Christ be with me. O shot, stand still! In the
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: name of the mighty prophets, Action and Elias, do not
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: kill me. Lenark remembered the name of Elias from his
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: boyhood Sunday schooling, but action's identity as a prophet or
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: otherwise escaped him. He resolved to ask Jaeger, and as
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: though the thought had acted as a summons, Jaeger came
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: along running into the room. Lieutenant, sir! Lieutenant! he said hoarsely. Yes,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Jaeger. Lenark rose, stared questioningly, and held out the book.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Jaeger took it automatically, and is automatically stowed it inside
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: his shirt. I can prove, sir, that there is a
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: real devil here. He mouthed unsteadily. What? demanded Lanark. Do
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: you realize what you are saying, man? Explain yourself. Come, sir,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Jaeger almost pleaded and led the way into the kitchen.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: It's down in the cellar. From a little heap on
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: a table, he picked up a candle and then opened
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: a door full of darkness. The stairs to the cellar
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: were shaky to Lanark's feet, and beneath him was solid
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: black shadow smelling strongly of damp earth. Jaeger, stamping heavily ahead,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: looked back and upward. That broad-bearded face that had not
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: lost its full-blooded flush in the hottest fighting at Pea
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Ridge had grown so pallid as almost to give off
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: sickly light. Lenark began to wonder if all this theatrical
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: approach would not make the promised devil seem ridiculous, anticlimactic.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: The flutter of an owl, the scamper of a rat,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: or something of that sort. You have the candle, Sergeant,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: he reminded, and the echo of his voice momentarily startled him.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Strike a match, will you? Yes, sir. Yeager had raised
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: a knee to tighten his striped-sided trousers. A snapping scrape,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: a burst of flame, and then the candle glow illuminated
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: them both. It revealed, too, the cellar, walled with stones
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: but floored with clay. As they finished the descent, Lenark
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: could feel the soft grittiness of that clay under his
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: boot soles. All around them lay rubbish, boxes, casks, stacks
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: of broken pots and dishes, bundles of kindling.' Here,' Yeager
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: was saying.' Here is what I found.' He walked around
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: the foot of the stairs. Beneath the slope of the
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: flight lay a long, narrow case made of plain, heavy boards.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: It was unpainted and appeared ancient. As Yeager lowered the
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: light in his hand, Lenark saw that the joinings were
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: secured with huge nails, apparently forged by hand. Such nails
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: had been used in building the older sheds on his
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: father's Maryland estate. Now there was a creak of wooden
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: protest as Yeager pried up the loosened lid of the
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: coffin-like box. Inside lay something long and ruddy, Lanark saw
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: a head and shoulders and started violently. Yeager spoke again.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: An image, sir. A heathen image. The light made grotesque
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: the sergeant's face. One heavy, half fully illumined, the other
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: secret and lost in the black shadow. Look at it. Lanark, too,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: stooped for a closer exam. The form was of human length,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: or rather more, but it was not finished, was neither
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: divided into legs below nor extended into arms at the
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: roughly shaped shoulders. The head, too, had been molded without features,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: though from either side where the ears should have been
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: it sprouted up-curved horns like a bison's. Lanark felt a
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: chill creep upon him, whence he knew not. It's Satan's
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: own image, Jaeger was mouthing deeply. Thou shalt not make
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: unto thee any graven image. With one foot, he turned
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: the coffin box upon its side. Lanark took a quick
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: stride backward, just in time to prevent the ruddy form
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: from dropping out upon his toes. A moment later, Jaeger
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: had spurned the thing. It broke with a crashing sound
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: like crockery. and two more trampling kicks of the sergeant's
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: heavy boots smashed it to bits. Stop! cried Lennart too late.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Why did you break it? I wanted to have a
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: good look at the thing. But it is not good
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: for men to look upon the devil's works, responded Jaeger,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: almost pontifically. Don't advise me, sergeant, said Lennart bleakly. Remember
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: that I am your officer and that I don't need
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: instruction as to what I may look at. He looked
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: down at the fragments. The thing was hollow and quite brittle.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: It seemed to have been stuffed with straw. No, excelsior.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Wood shavings, anyway. He investigated the fluffy inner mass with
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: a toe. Oh, there's something inside of the stuff. I
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: wouldn't touch it, sir, warned Yeager, but this time it
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: was he who spoke too late. Lenark's boot toe had
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: nudged the object into plain sight, and Lenark had put
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: down his gauntleted left hand and picked it up. What
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: is this? he asked himself aloud. Looks rather like some
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: sort of strongbox.' Foreign, I'd say, and quite cold. Come on, Yeager,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: we'll go upstairs.' In the kitchen, with a strong light
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: from several candles, they examined the find quite closely. It
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: was a dark oblong like a small dispatch case, or,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: as Lenark had commented, a strong box. Though as hard
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: as iron, it was not iron, nor any metal either
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: of them had ever known.' How does it open?' was
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Lenark's next question, turning the case over in his hands.'
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: It doesn't seem to have hinges on it. Is this
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: the lid, or this?' I couldn't say, Yeager peered, his
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: eyes growing narrow with perplexity. No hinges, as the lieutenant
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: just said. None visible, nor yet a lock. Lennart thumped
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: the box experimentally and proved it hollow. Then he lifted
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: it close to his ear and shook it. There was
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: a faint rustle as of papers loosely rolled or folded. Perhaps,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: the officer went on, This separate slice isn't a lid
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: at all. There may be a spring to press, or
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: something that slides back and lets another plate come loose.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: But Shuggs was entering from the front of the house. Lieutenant, sir,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: something's happened to Newton. He was watching on the rock.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Will the lieutenant come? And Sergeant Yeager, too? The suggestion
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: of duty brought back the color and self-control that Yeager
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: had lost. What's happened to Newton? He demanded at once
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: and hurried away with Shuggs. Lenark waited in the kitchen
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: for only a moment. He wanted to leave the box,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: but did not want his troopers meddling with it. He spied,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: beside the heavy iron stove, a fireplace, and in its
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: side the metal door to an old brick oven. He
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: pulled that door open, thrust the box in, closed the
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: door again, and followed Shuggs and Yeager. They had gone
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: out upon the front porch. There, with Corporal Gray and
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: a blank-faced trooper on guard, lay the silent form of Newton,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: his face covered with a newspaper. Almost every man of
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: the gathered patrol knew a corpse when he saw one.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: and it took no second glance to know that Newton
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: was quite dead. End of chapter three. Chapter four, A
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Fearful Rock by Manly Wade Wellman. This LibriVox recording is
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker. Chapter four,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: The Mandifers. Yeager, bending, lifted the newspaper and then dropped
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: it back. He said something that, for all his religiosity
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: might have been an oath. What's the matter, Sergeant? demanded Lenark.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Yeager's brows were clamped in a tense frown, and his
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: beard was actually trembling. His face, sir, it's terrible. A wound?
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: asked Lenark, and lifted the paper in turn. He, too,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: let it fall back, and his exclamation of horror and
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: amazement was unquestionably profane. There ain't no wound on him,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Lenark, offered Shuggs. pushing his wan, plump face to
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: the forefront of the troopers. We heard Newton yell, heard
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: him from the top of the rock yonder. All eyes
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: turned gingerly toward the promontory. That's right, sir, added Corporal Gray.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: I just sent Newton up to relieve Josserand. You heard
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: him yell, prompted Lanark. Go on, what happened? I held
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: him back. said the corporal. But he said nothing, so
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: I climbed up. That north side's the easiest to climb.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Newton was standing at the top, standing straight up with
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: his carbine at the ready. He must have been dead
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: right then. You mean he was struck somehow as you watched?
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Gray shook his head. No, sir, I think he was
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: dead as he stood up. He didn't move or speak,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: and when I touched him, he sort of coiled down,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: like an empty coat falling off a clothesline. Gray's hand
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: made a downward-floating gesture in illustration. When I turned him over,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: I saw his face, all twisted and scared-looking, like what
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: the lieutenant had seen. And I sung out for Shuggs
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: and McSween to come and help me bring him down.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Lenark gazed at Newton's body. He was looking which way?
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: Over yonder, eastward, Gray pointed unsteadily. Like it might have
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: been beyond the draw and them trees in it. Lenark
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: and Yeager peered into the waning light that was now dusk.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Yeager mumbled what Lenark had already been thinking, that Newton
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: had died without wounds already. at or near the moment
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: when the horned image had been shattered upon the cellar floor.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Lanark nodded and dismissed several vague but disturbing inspirations. You
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: say he died standing up, Gray? Was he leaning on
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: his gun? No, sir. He stood on his two feet
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: and held his carbine at the ready. Sounds impossible, a
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: dead man standing up like that, but that's how it was.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Bring his blanket and cover him up, said Lanark. Put
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: a guard over him, and we'll bury him tomorrow. Don't
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: let any of the men look at his face. We've
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: got to give him some kind of funeral. He turned
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: to Yeager. Have you a prayer book, Sergeant? Yeager fished
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: out the long-lost friend volume. He was reading something aloud
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: as though it were a prayer. And be and remain
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: with us on the water and upon the land, he
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: patted out. May the eternal Godhead also stop that heathen nonsense,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Lennart almost roared. You're supposed to be an example to
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: the men, Sergeant. Put that book away. Yeager obeyed his
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: big-faced reproachful. It was a spell against evil spirits, he explained,
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: and for a moment Lanark wished that he had waited
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: for the end. He shrugged and issued further orders. I
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: want all lamps lighted in the house and perhaps a
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: fire out here in the yard, he told the men.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: We'll keep guard both here and in that gully to
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: the east. If there is a mystery, we'll solve it.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Pardon me, sir, volunteered a well-bred voice in which one
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: felt rather than heard the tiny touch of foreign accent.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: I can solve the misery for you, though you may
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: not think me. Two men had come into view, were
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: drawing up beside the little knot of troopers. How had
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: they approached? Through the patrolled brush of the ravine? Around
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: the corner of the house? Nobody had seen them coming,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: and Lenark at least started violently. He glowered at this
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: new enigma. The man who had spoken paused at the
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: foot of the porch steps, so that lamplight shone upon
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: him through the open front door. He was skeleton gaunt
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: in face and body, and even his bones were small.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: His eyes burned forth from deep pits in his narrow,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: high skull, and his clothing was that of a dandy
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: of the forties. In his twig-like fingers he clasped bunches
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: of herbs. His companion stood to one side in the shadow,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: and could be seen only as a huge, coarse lump
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: of a man. I am Persil Mandifer, the thin creature
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: introduced himself. I came here to gather from the gardens.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: And he held out his handful of leaves and stalks. You, sir,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: you are in command of these soldiers, are you not?
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: Then know you are trespassing. The expediencies of war, replied
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: Lennart easily, for he had seen Shuggs and Corporal Gray
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: bring their carbines forward in their hands. You'll have to
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: forgive our intrusion. A scornful mouth opened in the emaciated face,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: and a soft, superior chuckle made itself heard. But this
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: is not my estate. I am allowed here, yes, but
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: it is not mine. The real master, the gaunt figure shrugged,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: and the voice paused for a moment. The bright eyes
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: sought Newton's body. From what I can see, and what
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: I heard as I came up to you, there has
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: been some trouble. You have transgressed somehow, and have begun
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: to suffer. To you Southerners, all Union soldiers are trespassers
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: and transgressors, suggested Leonard. But the other laughed, and shook
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: his fleshless white head. You misunderstand, I fear. I care
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: nothing about this war, except that I am amused to
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: see so many people killed. I bear no part in it.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Of course, when I came to pluck herbs and saw
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: your sentry at the top of Fearful Rock—' Purcell Mandifer
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: eyed again the corpse of Newton.' There he lies, eh?
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: It was my privilege and power to project a vision
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: up to him in his loneliness that I think put
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: an end to his part of this puerile strife.' Lennox's
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: own face grew hard.' Mr. Mandifer,' he said bleakly, You
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: seem to be enjoying a quiet laugh at our expense.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: But I should point out that we greatly outnumber you.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: and are armed. I'm greatly tempted to place you under arrest.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Then resist that temptation, advised Mandifer urbanely. It might be
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: disastrous to you if we became enemies. Then be kind
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: enough to explain what you're talking about, commanded Lanark. Something
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: swam into the forefront of his consciousness. You say that
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: your name is Mandifer. We found a girl named Enid
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Mandifer in the Gully Yonder. She told us a very
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: strange story. Are you her stepfather, the one who mesmerized
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: her and... She talked to you? Mandifer's soft voice suddenly
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: shifted to a windy roar that broke Lanark's questioning abruptly
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: in two. She came and did not make the sacrifice
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: of herself? She shall expiate, sir, and you're with her.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Lanark had had enough of this high-handed civilian's airs. He
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: made a motion with his left hand to Corporal Gray,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: whose carbine barrel glinted in the light from the house
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: as it leveled itself at Mendefor's skull head.' You' re under arrest,'
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Lennark informed the two men. The bigger one growled the
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: first sound he had made. He threw his enormous body
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: forward in a sudden leaping stride, his gross hands extended
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: as though to clutch Lennark. Yeager, at the lieutenant's side,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: quickly drew his revolver and fired from the hip. The
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: enormous body fell, rolled over, and subsided.' You have killed
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: my son!' shrieked Mandifer. Take hold of him, you two,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: ordered Lanark, and Shuggs and Jocerund obeyed. The gaunt form
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: of Mandifer achieved one explosive struggle, then fell tautly motionless
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: with the big hands of the troopers upon his elbows. Thanks, Jaeger,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: continued Lanark. That was done quickly and well. Some of
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: you drag this body up on the porch and cover it. Gray,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: tumble upstairs and bring down that girl we found. While
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: waiting for the corporal to return, Lanark ordered further that
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: a bonfire be built to banish a patch of the
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: deepening darkness and It was beginning to shoot up its
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: bright tongues as the corporal ushered Enid Mandifer out upon
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: the porch. She had arranged her disordered clothing, had even
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: contrived to put up her hair somehow, loosely but attractively.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: The firelight brought out a certain strength of line and
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: angle in her face and made her eyes shine darkly.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: She was manifestly frightened at the sight of her stepfather
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: and the blanket-covered corpses to one side, but she faced
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: determinedly a flood of half-understandable invectives from the emaciated man.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: She answered him, too. Lenark did not know what she
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: meant by most of the things she said, but gathered
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: correctly that she was refusing, finally and completely, to do something.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: Then I shall say no more, gritted out the spidery mandifer,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: and his bared teeth were of the flat, chalky white
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: of long-dead bone. I place this matter in the hands
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: of the Nameless One. He will not forgive. Will not forget.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Enid moved a step toward Lenark, who put out a
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: hand and touched her arm reassuringly. The mounting flame of
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: the bonfire lighted up all who watched and listened. The withered,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: glaring mummy that was Purcell Mandifer. The frightened but defiant
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: shapeliness of Enid in her flower-patterned gown. Lanark in his
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: sudden attitude of protection. The ring of troopers in their
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: dusty blue blouses. With the half-lighted front of the weathered
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: old house like a stage set behind them, and alternate
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: red lights and sooty shadows playing over all, they might
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: have been a tableau in some highly melodramatic opera.' Silence!'
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: Lenark was grating. For the last time, Mr. Mandifer, let
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: me remind you that I have placed you under arrest.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: If you don't calm down immediately and speak only when
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: you're spoken to, I'll have my men tie you flat
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: to four stakes and put a gag in your mouth.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Mandifer subsided at once, just as he was on the
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: point of hurling another harsh threat at Enid. That's much better,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: said Lenark. Sergeant Yeager, it strikes me that we'd better
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: get our pickets out to guard this position. Mandifer cleared
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: his throat with actual diffidence. Lieutenant Lenark, That is your name,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: I gather, he said, in the soft voice which he
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: had employed when he had first appeared. Permit me, sir,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: to say but two words. He peered as though to
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: be sure of consent. I have it in my mind
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: that it is too late, useless, to place any kind
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: of guard against surprise. What do you mean? asked Lennart.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: It is all of a piece with your offending of
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: him who owns this house and the land which encompasses it,
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: continued Manderford. I believe that a body of your enemies,
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: mounted men of the southern forces, are upon you. That
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: man who died upon the brow of fearful rock might
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: have seen them coming, but he was brought down sightless
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: and voiceless, and nobody was assigned in his place. He
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: spoke truth. Gray in his agitation had not posted a
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: fresh sentry. Lennart drew his lips tight beneath his mustache.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Once more you feel that it is a time to
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: joke with us, Mr. Mandifer, he growled. I've already suggested
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: gagging you and staking you out. But listen, Mandifer urged him. Suddenly,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: hoofs thundered. Men yelled a double-noted defiance, high and savage. Yee-haw!
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: It was the rebel yell. Quantrill's gorillas rode out of
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: the dark and upon them. End of chapter four. Chapter five.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: A Fearful Rock by Manly Wade Wellman. This LibriVox recording
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker. Chapter
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: 5 Blood in the Night Neither Lenark nor the others
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: remembered that they began to fight for their lives. They
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: only knew all at once that they were doing it.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: There was a prolonged harsh rattle of gunshots like a
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: blast of hail upon hard wood. Lenark, by chance or
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: unconscious choice, snatched at and drew his sword instead of
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: his revolver. A horse's flying shoulder struck him, throwing him
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: backward but not down. As he reeled to save his footing,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: he saved also his own life, for the rider, a
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: form all cascading black beard and slouch hat, thrust a
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: pistol almost into the lieutenant's face and fired. The flash
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: was blinding, the ball ripped Lenark's cheek like a whiplash,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: and then the saber in his hand swung. like a
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: scythe reaping wheat. My luck rather than design, the edge
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: bit the gorilla's gun wrist. Lenark saw the hand fly
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: away as though on wings, its fingers still clutching the pistol,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: all agleam in the firelight. Blood gushed from the stump
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: of the rider's right arm like water from a fountain,
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: and Lenark felt upon himself a spatter as of hot rain.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: He threw himself in, clutched the man's legs with his
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: free arm, and, as the body sagged heavily from above
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: upon his head and shoulder, he heaved it clear out
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: of the saddle. The horse was plunging and whinnying, but
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Lenark clutched its reins and got his foot into the stirrup.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: The bonfire seemed to be growing strangely brighter, and the
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: mounted gorillas were plainly discernible, raging and trampling among his
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: disorganized men. Corporal Gray went down, dying almost under Lenark's feet.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Amid the deafening drumroll of shots, Sergeant Yeager's bull-like voice
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: could be heard.' Stop, thieves and horsemen, in the name
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: of God!' It sounded like an exorcism, as though the
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: Confederate raiders were devils. Lenark had managed to climb into
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: the saddle of his captured mount. He dropped the bridle
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: upon his pommel, reached across his belly with his left hand,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: and dragged free his revolver. At a little distance, beyond
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: the tossing heads of several horses, he thought he saw
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: the visage of Quantrill, clean-shaven and fierce. He fired at it,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: but he had no faith in his own left-handed snap shooting.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: He felt the horse frantic and unguided, shoving and striving
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: against another horse. Quarters were too close for a saber stroke,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: and he fired again with his revolver. The guerrilla spun
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: out of the saddle. Lenark had a glimpse he would
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: never forget, of great bulging eyes and a sharp-pointed mustache.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Again the rebel yell, flying from mouth to bearded mouth,
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: and then an answering shout, deeper and more sustained. Some
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: troopers had run out of the house and, standing on
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: the porch, were firing with their carbines. It was growing
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: lighter with a blue light. Lenark did not understand that.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: Quantrill did not understand it either. He and Lenark had
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: come almost within striking distance of each other, but the
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: guerrilla chief was gazing past his enemy in the direction
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: of the house. His mouth was open with strained lines
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: around it. His eyes glowed. He feared what he saw.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: Remember me, you thieving swine! yelled Lenark and tried to
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: thrust with his saber, but Quantrill had reined back and away,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: not from the sword but from the light that was
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: growing stronger and bluer. He thundered an order, something that
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Lenark could not catch but which the guerrillas understood and obeyed.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: Then Quantrill was fleeing. Some guerrillas dashed between him and Lenark.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: They too were in flight. All the guerrillas were in flight.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: Somebody roared in triumph and fired with a carbine. It
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: sounded like Sergeant Yeager. The battle was over within moments
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: of its beginning. Lenark managed to catch his reins in
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: the tips of the fingers that held his revolver and
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: brought the horse to a standstill before it followed Quantrill's
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: men into the dark. One of his own party caught
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: and held the bits, and Lenark dismounted. At last he
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: had time to look at the house. It was a fire,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: every wall and sill and timber of it, burning all
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: at once, and completely. And it burnt deep blue as
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: though seen through the glass of an old-fashioned bidder's bottle.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: It was falling to pieces with the consuming heat, and
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: they had to draw back from it. Lenark stared around
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: to reckon his losses. Nearest the piazza lay three bodies,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: trampled and broken-looking. Some men ran in and dragged them
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: out of danger. They were Persil Mandifer, badly battered by
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: horse's feet, and the two who had held him, Josserand
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: and Lenark's orderly shugs. Both the troopers had been shot
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: through the head, probably at the first volley from the guerrillas.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: Corporal Gray was stone dead with five or six bullets
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: in him, and three more troopers had been killed while
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: four were wounded, but not critical. Yeager, examining them, pronounced
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: that they could all ride if the lieutenant wished it.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: I wish it all right, said Lenark ruefully. We leave
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: first thing in the morning. Hmm. Six dead and four hurt,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: not counting poor Newton, who's there in the fire. Half
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: my command and The way I forgot the first principles
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: of military vigilance, I don't deserve as much luck as that.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: I think the burning house is what frightened the guerrillas.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: What began it? Nobody knew. They'd all been fighting too
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: desperately to have any idea. The three men who had
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: been picketing the gully, and who had dashed back to
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: assault the guerrillas on the flank, had seen the blue
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: flames burst out, as it were, from a hundred places.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: That was the best view anybody had. All the killing
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: wasn't done by Quantrill. Jaeger comforted his lieutenant. Five dead guerrillas, sir. No. Six.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: One was picked up a little way off, where he'd
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: been dragged by his foot in the stirrup. Others got wounded,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: and I'll be bound. Pretty even thing, all in all.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: And we still have one prisoner, supplemented Corporal Guggen. He
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: jerked his head toward Enid Mandifer, who stood unhurt, unruffled almost,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: gazing rapidly at the great geyser of blue flame that
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: had been the house and temple of her stepfather's nameless deity.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: It was a gray morning. and from the first streaks
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: of it, Sergeant Yeager had kept the unwounded troopers busy,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: making a trench-like grave halfway between the spot where the
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: house had stood and the gully to the east. When
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: the bodies were counted again, there were only twelve. Purcell
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: Mandifers was missing, and the only explanation was that it
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: had been caught somehow in the flames. The ruins of
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: the house, that still smoked with a choking vapor as
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: of sulfur gas, gave up a few crisp bones that
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: apparently had been Newton, the sentry who had died from
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: unknown causes. but no giant skeleton was found to remind
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: one of the passing of Purcell Mandifer's son. No matter,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: said Lenark to Yeager. We know that they were both
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: dead and passed our worrying about. Put the other bodies in.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: Our men at this end, the gorillas at the other.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: The order was carried out. Once again, Lenark asked about
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: a prayer book. A lad by the name of Duckin
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: said that he had owned one, but that it had
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: been burned with the rest of his kit in the
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: blue flame that destroyed the house. Then I'll have to
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: do it from memory. decided Lenark. He drew up the
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: surviving ten men at the side of the trench. Yeager
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: took a position behind him, and just behind the sergeant,
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: Enid Mandefer stood. Lenark self-consciously turned over his clutter of thoughts,
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: searching for odds and ends of his youthful religious teachings.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: Man that is born of woman hath but short time
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: to live, and is full of misery, he managed to repeat.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: As he said the words cut down, he remembered his
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: saber stroke of the night before. and how he had
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: shorn away a man's hand. That man, with his heavy
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: black beard, lay in this trench before them, with the
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: severed hand under him. Lenark was barely able to beat
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: down a shutter. In the midst of laugh, he went on.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: We are in death. There he was obliged to pause.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Yeager, on inspiration, took one pace forward and threw
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: into the trench a handful of gritty earth. Ashes to ashes,
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: dust to dust, remembered Lenark. Unto Almighty God we commit
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: these bodies. He was sure that that was a misquotation
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: worthy of Yeager himself, and made shift to finish with
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: one more tag from his memory. Ensure in certain hope
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: of the resurrection unto eternal life. He faced toward the
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: file of men. Four of them had been told to
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: fall in under arms, and at his order they raised
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: their carbines and fired a volley into the air. After
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: that the trench was filled in. Yeager then cleared his
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: throat and began to give orders concerning horses, saddles, and
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: What possessions had been spared by the fire? Lenark walked
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: aside and found Enid Manderfur keeping pace with him. You
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: were going back to your army? Yes, at once. I
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: was sent here to see if I could find and
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: damage Quantrill's band. I found him and gave at least
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: as good as I got. Thank you, she said, for
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: everything you've done for me. He smiled deprecatingly, and it
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: hurt his bullet-burnt cheek. I did nothing, he protested, and
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: both of them realized that it was the truth All
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: that has happened, it just happened. He drew his eyes
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: into narrow gashes as if brooding over the past twelve hours.
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: I'm halfway inclined to believe what your stepfather said about
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: a supernatural influence here, but what about you, Miss Mandifer?
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: She tried to smile in turn, not very successfully. I
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: can go back home. I'll be alone there. Alone? I
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: have a few servants. You'll be safe? Safe as anywhere.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: He clasped his hands behind him. I don't know how
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: to say it, but I've begun to feel responsible for you.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: I want to know that all will be well. Thank you,
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: she said a second time. You owe me nothing. Perhaps not.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: We do not know each other. We have spoken together
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: only three or four times. Yet, you will be in
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: my mind. I want to make a promise. Yes? They
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: paused in their little stroll, almost beside the newly filled
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: grave trench. Lenark was frowning. Enid Mandifer, nervous and expectant.
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: This war, he said weightily, is going to last much
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: longer than people thought at first. We, the Union, have
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: done pretty well in the West here, but Lee is
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: making fools of our generals back East. We may have
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: to fight for years, and even then we may not win.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: I hope Mr., I mean, Lieutenant Lenart, stammered the girl,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: I hope that you will live safely through it. I
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: hope so, too. And if I am spared, if I
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: am alive and well when peace comes, I swear that
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: I shall return to this place. I shall make sure
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: that you, too, are alive and well. He finished, very
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: certain that he could not have used stiffer, more stupid words.
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: But Enid Mandifer smiled now, radiantly and gratefully. I shall
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: pray for you, Lieutenant Lenark. Now your men are ready
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: to leave. Go, and I shall watch. No. No. He demurred.
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: Go yourself. Get away from this dreadful place. She bowed
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: her head in assent and walked quickly away. At some distance,
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: she paused, turned, and waved her hand above her head.
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: Lenark took off his broad black hat and waved an answer.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: Then he faced about, strode smartly back into the yard
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: beside the charred ruins. Mounting his bay gelding, he gave
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: the order to depart. End of chapter 5 Chapter 6
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: of Fearful Rock by Manly Wade Wellman. This LibriVox recording
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker. Part 2.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: Chapter 6. Return. It was spring again, the warm, bright
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: spring of the year 1866, when Cain Lenark rode again
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: into the Fearful Rock country. His horse was a Roan
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Grey this time. The Bay Gelding had been shot under him,
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: along with two other horses, and during the hard-fought three
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: days at Westport, the Gettysburg of the West, when a
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: few regulars and the Kansas militia turned back General Sterling
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: Price's raid through Missouri. Blanark had been a captain then,
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: and a major thereafter, leading a cavalry expedition into Kentucky.
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: He narrowly missed being at the finish of Quantrill, whose
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: death by the hand of another he bitterly resented. Early
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: in 1865, he was badly wounded in a skirmish with
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: Confederate horsemen under General Basil Duke. Thereafter, he could ride
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: as well as ever, but when he walked, he limped.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: Lenark's uniform had been replaced by a soft hat and
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: black frock coat. His face was browner and his mustache thicker,
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: and his cheek bore the jaggedly healed scar of the
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: guerrilla pistol bullet. He was richer, too. The death of
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: his older brother, Captain Douglas Lenark, of the Confederate artillery
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: at Chancellorville, had left him his father's only heir. Yet
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: he was recognizable as the young lieutenant who had ridden
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: into this district four years gone, Approaching from the east
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: instead of the north, he came upon the plain with
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: its grass levels, its clumps of bushes and trees, from
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: another and lower point. Far away on the northward horizon
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: rose a sharp little finger. That would be Fearful Rock,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: on top of which Trooper Newton had once died, horrified
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: and unwounded. Now then, which way would lie the house
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: he sought for? He idled his roan along the trail
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: and encountered at last an aged, ragged negro on a mule.' Hello, Uncle.'
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: Lenark greeted him, and they both reined up. Which way
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: is the Mandifer place? Mandifer? repeated the slow, high voice
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: of the old man. Mandifer, sir captain? I don't know
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: no Mandifer. Nonsense, uncle, said Lenark, but without sharpness, for
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: he liked Negroes. The Mandifer family has lived around here
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: for years. Didn't you know Mr. Purcell Mandifer and his stepdaughter,
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: Miss Enid? Purcell Mandifer? It was plain that the old
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: fellow had heard and spoken the name before, else he
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: would have stumbled over its unfamiliarities. No, sir, captain, I
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: don't never hear a teller such a gentleman. Lenart gazed
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: past the mule and its tattered rider. Isn't that a
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: little house among those willows? The kinky head turned and peered. Yes, sir, captain,
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: that place belonged to Parson Yeager. Who? demanded Lenart, almost
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: standing up in his stirrups in his sudden interest. Did
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: you say Yeager? What kind of man is he? He
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: just a possum. Yankee possum, replied the negro, a trifle
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: nervous at this display of excitement. Big man, sir. Got
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: a red face. He Yankee. You ain't no Yankee, Captain, sir.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: What for you want possum Jaeger? Never mind, said Lenark,
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: and thrust a silver quarter into the withered brown palm.
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: He also handed over one of his long, fragrant cheroots. Thanks, uncle,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: he added briskly, then spurred his horse and rode on past.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: Reaching the patch of willows, he found that the trees
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: formed an open curve that faced the road, and that
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: within this curve stood a rough but snug-looking cabin, built
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: of sawn, unpainted planks and homesplit shingles. Among the brush
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: to the rear stood a smaller shed, apparently a stable,
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: and a pen for chickens or a pig. Lunark reined
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: up in front, swung out of his saddle, and tethered
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: his horse to a thorny shrub at the trailside. As
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: he drew tight the knot of the halter rope, the
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: door of heavy boards opened with a creak. His old
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: sergeant stepped into view. Jaeger was a few pounds heavier,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: if anything, than when Lenark had last seen him. His
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: hair was longer and his beard had grown to the
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: center of his broad chest. He wore blue jeans tucked
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: into worn old cavalry boots, a collarless checked shirt fastened
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: with big brass studs and leather suspenders. He stared somewhat
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: blankly as Lenark called him by name and walked up
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: the doorstep, favoring his injured leg. It's Captain Lenark, isn't it?
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: Jaeger hazarded. My eyes. He paused, fished in a hip pocket,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: and produced steel-rimmed spectacles. When he donned them, they appeared
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: to aid his vision. Indeed it is, Captain Lenark. Or
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: Major Lenark. Yes, you were promoted. I'm Mr. Lenark now,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: smiled back the visitor. The war's over, Yeager. Only this
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: minute did I hear of you in the country. How
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: does it happen that you settled in this place? Come in, sir,
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: Yeager pushed the door wide open and ushered Lenark into
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: an unfinished front room well lighted by windows on three sides.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: It's not a strange story, he went on as he
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: brought forward a well-mended wooden chair for the guest, and
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: himself sat on a small keg. You will remember, sir,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: that the land hereabouts is under a most unhallowed influence.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: When the war came to an end, I felt strong
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: upon me the call to another conflict, a crusade against evil.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: He turned up his eyes as though to subpoena the
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: power of heaven as witnesses to his devotion. I preach
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: here the gospels and the true godly life. What is
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: your denomination? asked Lenark. Jaeger coughed as though abashed. To
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: my sorrow, I am ordained of no church, yet might
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: this not be part of Heaven's plan? I may be
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: here to lead a strong new movement against Hell's legions.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: Lenark nodded as though to agree with this surmise and
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: studied Jaeger anew. There was nothing left in manner or
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: speech to suggest that here had been a fierce fighter
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: and model soldier, but the old rude power was not gone.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: Lenark then asked about the community. and learned that there
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: were but seven white families within a twenty-mile radius. To these,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: Yeager habitually preached of a Sunday morning, at one farm
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: home or another, and in the afternoon he was wont
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: to exhort the more numerous Negroes. Lenark had by now
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: the opening for his important question. What about the Mandifer place?
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: Remember the girl we met and her stepfather? Eden Mandifer,
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: breathed Yeager huskily, and his right hand fluttered up Lenark
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: remembered that Jaeger had once assured him that not only
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: Catholics warded off evil with the sign of the cross. Yes,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: Enid Mandifer, Lenark leaned forward. Long ago, Jaeger, I made
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: a promise that I would come and make sure that
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: she prospered. Just now I met an old negro who
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: swore that he had never heard the name. Jaeger began
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: to talk, steadily but with a sort of breathless awe,
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: about what went on in the fearful rock country. It
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: was not merely that men died. The death of men
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: was not sufficient to horrify folk around whom a war
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: had raged, but corpses, when found, held grimaces that nobody
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: cared to look upon, and no blood remained in their bodies. Cattle, too,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: had been slain, mangled dreadfully, perhaps by the strange, unidentifiable
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: creatures that prowled by moonlight and chattered in voices that
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: sounded human. One farmer of the vicinity, who had ridden
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: with Quantrill, had twice met strollers after dusk, and had
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: recognized them for comrades whom he knew to be dead.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: On the center of this devil's business, concluded Jaeger, is
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: the farm that belonged to Purcell Mendefer. He drew a deep,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: tired-sounding breath. As the desert and the habitation of dragons,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: so it is with that farm. No trees live, and
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: no grass. From a distance one can see a woman.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: It is Enid Mendefer. Where is the place? asked Lenark directly.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: Yeager looked at him for long moments without answering. When
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: he did speak, it was an effort to change the subject.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: You will eat here with me at noon, he said.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: I have a negro servant, and he is a very
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: good cook. I ate a very late breakfast at a
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: farmhouse east of here, Lenark put him off. Then he repeated,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: Where is the Mandifer place? Let me speak this once,
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: Yeager temporized. As you have said, we are no longer
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: at war. No longer officer and man. We are equals,
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: and I am able to refuse to guide you. Lenart
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: got up from his chair. That is true, but you
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: will not be acting the part of a friend. I
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: will tell you the way, on one condition, Jaeger's eyes
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: and voice pleaded. Say that you will return to this
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: house for supper and a bed, and that you will
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: be within my door by sundown. All right, said Lenart.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: I agree. Now, which way does that farm lie? Jaeger
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: led him to the door. He pointed. This trail joins
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: a road beyond, an old road that is seldom used.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: Turn north upon it, and you will come to a
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: part which has grown up in weeds. Nobody passes that way.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: Follow on until you find an old house, built low,
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: with the earth dry and bare around it. That is
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: the dwelling place of Enid Mandifer. Lenark found himself biting
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: his lip. He started to step across the threshold, but
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: Jaeger put a detaining hand on his arm. Carry this
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: as you go. He was holding out a little book
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: with a gray paper cover. It had seen usage in
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: trouble since Lenark had noticed it in Jaeger's hands. Its
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: back was mended with a pasted strip of dark cloth,
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: and its edges were frayed and gnawed-looking, as though rats
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: had been at it. But the front cover still said plainly,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: John George Homan's pow-wows or long-lost friend. Carry this, said
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: Jaeger again, and then quoted glibly. Whoever carries this book
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: with him is safe from all his enemies, visible or invisible.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: And whoever has this book with him cannot die without
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: the holy corpse of Jesus Christ, nor drown in any water,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: nor burn up in any fire, nor can any unjust
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: sentence be passed upon him. Lenark grinned in spite of
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: himself and his new concern. Is this the kind of
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: protection that a minister of God should offer me? He
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: inquired half-jokingly. I've told you long ago that the long-lost
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: friend is a good book, and a blessed one. Yeager
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: thrusted into Lenark's right-hand coat pocket. His guest let it
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: remain and held out his own hand in friendly termination
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: of the visit.' Good- bye,' said Lenark.' I' ll come back before sundown,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: if that will please you.' He limped out to his horse,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: untied it, and mounted. Then, following Yeager's instructions, he rode
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: forward until he reached the old road, turned north, and
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: proceeded past the point where weeds had covered the unused surface.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: Before the sun had fallen far in the sky, he
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: was come to his destination. It was a squat, spacious house,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: The bricks of its trimming weathered and the dark brown
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: paint of its timbers beginning to crack. Behind it stood
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: unrepaired stables, seemingly empty. In the yard stood what had
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: been wide-branched trees, now leafless and lean as skeleton paws
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: held up to a relentless heaven. And there was no grass.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: The earth was utterly sterile and hard, as though rain
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: had not fallen since the beginning of time. Enid Mandifer
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: had been watching him from the open door. When she
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: saw that his eyes had found her, she called him
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: by name. End of chapter six. Chapter seven, A Fearful
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: Rock by Manly Wade Wellman. This LibriVox recording is in
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker. Chapter seven, The
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: Rock Again. Then there was silence. Lenark sat his tired
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: Roan and gazed at Enid rather hungrily, but only a
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: segment of his attention was for her. The silence crowded
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: in upon him. His unconscious awareness grew conscious, conscious of
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: that blunt, pure absence of sound. There was no twitter
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: of birds, no hum of insects, not a breath of
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: wind stirred in the leafless branches of the trees. Not
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: even echoes came from afar. The air was dead, as
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: water is dead in a still, stale pond. He dismounted then,
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: and the creak of his saddle and the scrape of
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: his boot sole upon the bald earth came sharp and
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: shocking to his quiet-filled ears. A hitching rail stood there,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: old seeming to be in so new a country as this.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: Pausing to touch its nose reassuringly, it too felt uneasy
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: in the thick silence. Then he limped up a gravel-faced
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: path and stepped upon a porch that rang to his
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: feet like a great drum. Enid Mendefer came through the
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: door and closed it behind her. Plainly she did not
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: want him to come inside. She was dressed in brown alpaca, high-necked, long-sleeved,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: tied above the waist and voluminous below. Otherwise, she looked
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: exactly as she had looked when she bade him goodbye
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: beside the ravine, even to the strained, sleepless look that
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: made sorrowful her fine, oval face.' Here I am,' said Lenart.'
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: I promised that I'd come, you remember.' She was gazing
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: into his eyes as though she hoped to discover something there.'
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: You came,' she replied,' because you could not rest in
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: another part of the country.'' That' s right,' he nodded and smiled,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: but she did not smile back.' We are doomed, all
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: of us,' she went on in a low voice.' Mr. Yeager,'
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: The big man who was one of your soldiers? I know.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: He lives not far from here. Yes, he too had
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: to return. And I live here. She lifted her hands
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: a trifle, in hopeless inclusion of the dreary scene. I
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: wonder why I do not run away, or why, remaining,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: I do not go mad. But I do neither. Tell me,
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: he urged and touched her elbow. She let him take
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: her arm and lead her from the porch into the
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: yard that was like a surface of tile. The spring
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: sun comforted them, and he knew that it had been cold,
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: so near to the closed front door of Purcell Mendefor's
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: old house. She moved with him to a little rustic
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: bench under one of the dead trees, still holding her
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: by the arm he could feel at the tips of
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: his fingers the shock of her footfalls, as though she
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: trod stiffly. She, in turn, quite evidently was aware of
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: his limp, and felt distress, but tactfully she did not
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: inquire about it. When they sat down together, she spoke.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: When I came home that day, she began, I made
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: a hunt through all of my stepfather's desks and cupboards.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: I found many papers, but nothing that told me of
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: the things that so shocked us both. I did find money,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: a small chest filled with French and American gold coins.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: In the evening, I called the slaves together and told
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: them that their master and his son were dead. Next morning,
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: when I awakened, I found that every slave had run
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: off except one old woman. She, nearly a hundred years
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: old and very feeble, told me that fear had come
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: to them in the night and that they had run
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: like rabbits. With them had gone the horses and all
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: but one cow. They deserted you? cried Lenart hotly. If
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: they truly felt the fear that came here to make
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: its dwelling place, Enid Manderford smiled sadly, as if in
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: forgiveness of the fugitives. But to resume, the old auntie
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: and I made out here somehow. The war went on,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: but it seemed far away. And indeed it was far away.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: We watched the grass die before June. The leaves fall.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: The beauty of this place vanish. I'm wondering about that
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: death of grass and leaves, put in Lenart. You connect
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: it somehow with the unholiness of Fearful Rock, yet things
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: grow there. Nobody is being punished there, she reminded succinctly. Well,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: we had the chickens and the cow, but no crops
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: would grow. If they had, we needed hands to farm them.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: Last winter, Auntie died, too. I buried her myself in
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: the backyard. With nobody to help you? I found out
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: that nobody cared or dared to help. Enid said that
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: very slowly and did not elaborate upon it. One Negro
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: who lives down the road a mile has had some mercy.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: When I need anything, I carry one of my gold
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: pieces to him. He buys for me, and in a
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: day or so I seek him out and get whatever
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: it is. He keeps the change for his trouble. Lenark,
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: who had thought it cold upon the porch of the house,
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: now mopped his brow as though it were a day
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: in August. You must leave here, he said. I have
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: no place to go, she replied. And if I had,
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: I would not dare. You would not dare? he echoed uncomprehendingly.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: I must tell you something else. It is that my
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: stepfather and LaRue, his son, are still here. What do
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: you mean? They were killed. Lenark protested. I saw them fall.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: I myself examined their bodies. They were killed, yes, but
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: they are here, perhaps within earshot. It was his turn
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: to gaze searchingly into her eyes. He looked for madness,
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: but he found none. She was apparently sane and truthful.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: I do not see them, she was saying, or at
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: most I see only their sliding shadows in the evening.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: But I know of them, just around a corner or
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: behind a chair. Have you never known and recognized someone
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: just behind you before you looked? Sometimes they sneer or smile.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: Have you, she asked, ever felt someone smiling at you,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: even though you could not see him? Lenark knew what
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: she meant. But stop and think, he urged, trying to
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: hearten her, that nothing has happened to you, nothing too dreadful,
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: although so much was promised when you failed to go
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: through with that ceremony. She smiled very thinly. Yes. You
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: think that nothing has happened to me? You do not
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: know the curse of living here, alone and haunted. You
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: do not understand the sense I have of something tightening
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: and thickening about me, tightening and thickening inside of me, too.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: Her hand touched her breast and trembled. I have said
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: that I have not gone mad. That does not mean
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: that I shall never go mad. Do not be resigned
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: to any such idea, said Lenark almost roughly. So earnest
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: was he in trying to win her from the thought.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: Madness may come, in the good time of those who
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: may wish it. My mind will die, and things will
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: feed upon it, as buzzards would feed upon my dead body.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: Her thin smile faded away. Lenark felt his throat growing
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: as dry as lime, and cleared it noisily. Silence was
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: still dense around them. He asked her quite formally what
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: she found to do. My stepfather had many books, most
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: of them old, was her answer. At night I light
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: one lamp, I must husband my oil, and sit well
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: within its circle a lot. Nothing ever comes into that circle.
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: And I read books. Every night I read also a
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: chapter from a Bible that belonged to my old auntie.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: When I sleep, I hold that Bible against my heart.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: He rose nervously and she rose with him. Must you
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: go so soon? she asked like a courteous hostess. Lenark
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: bit his mustache. Enid Mandifer, come out of here with me.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: I can't. You can. You shall. My horse will carry
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: both of us. She shook her head and the smile
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: was back, sad and tender this time. Perhaps you cannot
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: understand and I know that I cannot tell you, but
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: if I stay here, the evil stays here with me.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: If I go, it will follow and infect the world.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: Go away alone. She meant it, and he did not
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: know what to say or do. I shall go, he
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: agreed finally, with an air of bafflement. But I shall
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: be back. Suddenly he kissed her. Then he turned and
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: limped rapidly away, raging at the feeling of defeat that
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: had him by the back of the neck. Then, as
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: he reached his horse, he found himself glad to be
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: leaving the spot, even though Enid Mandifer remained behind alone.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: He cursed with a vehemence that made the roan flinch,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: untied the halter, and mounted. Away he rode to the
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: magnified clatter of hoofs. He looked back not once, but
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: several times. Each time he saw Enid Mandifer, smaller and smaller,
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: standing beside the bench under the naked tree. She was
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: gazing not along the road after him, but at the
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: spot where he had mounted his horse. It was as
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: though he had vanished from her sight at that point.
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: Lenark damned himself as one who retreated before an enemy,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: but he felt that it was not as simple as that. Helplessness,
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: not fear, had routed him. He was leaving Enid Mandefer,
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: but again he promised in his heart to return. Somewhere
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: along the weed-teamed road, the silence fell from him like
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: a heavy garment slipping away, and the world hummed and
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: sighed again. After some time, he drew rein and fumbled
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: in his saddlebag. He had lied to Jaeger about his
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: late breakfast, and now he was grown hungry. His fingers
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: touched and drew out two hardtacks. They were plentiful and cheap,
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: so recently was the war finished and the army demobilized,
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: and a bit of raw bacon. He sandwiched the streaky
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: smoked flesh between the big square crackers and ate without dismounting. Often,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: he considered, he had been content with worse fare. Then
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: his thoughts went to the place he had quitted, the
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: girl he had left there. Finally, he skimmed the horizon
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: with his eye. To the north and east he saw
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: the spire of fearful rock, like a dark, threatening finger
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: lifted against him. The challenge of it was too much
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: to ignore. He turned his horse off the road and
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: headed in that direction. It was a longer journey than
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: he had thought, perhaps because he had to ride slowly
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: through some dark swamp ground with a smell of rotten
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: grass about it. When he came near enough, he slanted
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: his course to the east, and so came to the
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: point from which he first approached the rock in the
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: house that had then stood in its shadow. A crow
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: flapped overhead, cawing lonesomely. Lenark's horse seemed to falter in
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: its stride, as though it had seen a snake on
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: the path, and he had to spur it along toward
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: its destination. He could make out the inequalities of the rock,
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: as clearly as though they had been sketched in with
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: a pen, and the new spring greenery of the brush
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: and the trees and the gully beyond to the westward.
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: But the tumble-down ruins of the house were somehow blurred,
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: as though a gray mist or cloud hung there. Lenark
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: wished that his old command rode with him, at least
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: that he had coaxed Jaeger along. But he was close
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: to the spot now and would go in, however uneasily,
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: for a closer look. The roan stopped suddenly, and Lenark's
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: spur made its sidle without advancing. He scolded it in
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: an undertone, slid out of the saddle, and threaded his
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: left arm through the reins. Pulling the beast along, he
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: limped toward the spot where the house had once stood.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: The sun seemed to be going down. End of chapter
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: 7 Chapter 8 A Fearful Rock by Manly Wade Wellman
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: Ben Tucker Chapter 8 The Grapple by the Grave Lenark
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: stumped for a furlong or more to the yard of
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: the old house, and the horse followed unwillingly. So unwillingly that,
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: had there been a tree or stump at hand, Lenark
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: would have tethered and left it. When he paused at
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: last under the lee of the great natural obelisk that
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: was fearful rock, the twilight was upon him. Yet, he
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: could see pretty plainly the collapsed, blackened ruins of the
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: dwelling that four years gone had burned before his eyes
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: in devil-blue flame. He came close to the brink of
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: the foundation hollow, and gazed narrowly into it. Part of
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: the chimney still stood, broken off at about level with
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: the surface of the ground, the rubbish that had been
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: its upper part lying in jagged heaps about its base.
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: Chill seemed to rise from that littered depression, something like
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: the chill he had guessed at rather than felt when
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: he had faced Enid Mandifer upon her porch. The chill
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: came slowly, almost stealthily, about his legs and thighs, creeping
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: snake-like under his clothing to tingle the skin upon his belly.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: He shuddered despite himself. and the roan nuzzled his shoulder
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: in sympathy. Lenark lifted a hand and stroked the beast's cheek,
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: then moved back from where the house had stood. He
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: gazed westward in the direction of the gully. There, midway
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: between the foundation hollow and the natural one, was a
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: much smaller opening in the earth, a pit filled with shadow.
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: He remembered ordering a grave dug there, a grave for
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: twelve men. Well, it seemed to be open now, or
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: partially open. He plotted toward it. reached it and gazed
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: down in the fading light. He judged that the dead
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: of his own command still lay where their comrades had
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: put them, in a close row of six toward the east.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: It was the westward end of the trench that had
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: been dug up, the place where the guerrillas had been laid.
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: Perhaps the burial had been spied upon, and the southerners
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: had returned to recover their fallen friends. Yet there was
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: something below there, something pallid and flabby-looking. Lenark had come
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: to make sure of things, and he stooped, then climbed down,
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: favoring his old wound. It was darker in the ditch
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: than above, yet he judged by the looseness of earth
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: under his feet that in one spot at least there
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: had been fresh digging, or perhaps some other person walking
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: and examining. And the pallid patch was in reality two
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: pallid patches, like discarded cloaks or jackets. Still holding the
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: end of his horse's bridle, he put down his free
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: hand to investigate. Human hair tickled his fingers, and he
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: snatched them back with an exclamation. Then he dug in
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: his pocket, brought out a match, and snapped at a
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: glow on the edge of his thumbnail. He gazed downward
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: for a full second before he dropped the light. It
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: went out before it touched the bottom of the hole,
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: but Lenark had seen enough. Two human skins lay there, white,
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: empty skins. The legs of them sprawled like discarded court stockings,
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: the hands of them like forgotten gauntlets, and tousled hair
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: covered the collapsed heads of them. He felt lightheaded and sick. Frantically,
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: he struggled up out of that grave, and barely had
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: he come to his knees on the ground above when
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: his horse snorted and jerked its bridle free from his grasp.
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: Lenark sprang up, tingling all over. Across the trench, black
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: and broad, stood a human. Or semi-human figure. Lenark felt
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: a certain draining cold at cheek and brow. Yet his
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: voice was steady as he spoke, challengingly. What do you want?
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: The creature opposite stooped. then bent its thick legs. It
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: was going to jump across the ditch. Lenark took a
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: quick backward step toward his horse. An old Colt's revolver
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: was tucked into his right saddlebag. But the sudden move
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: on his part was too much for the jangled nerves
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: of the beast. It wickered, squealed, and jerked around. A
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: moment later, it bolted away toward the east. At the
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: same time, the form on the other side of the
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: open grave lunged forward, cleared the space, and came at Lenark.
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: But it was attacking one who had been in close
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: fights before, and emerged the victor. Lenark, though partially a cripple,
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: had lost nothing of a cavalryman's toughness and resolution. He
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: sprang backward, let his assailant's charge slow before it reached him,
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: then lashed out with his left fist. His gloved knuckles
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: touched soft flesh at what seemed to be the side
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: of the face, flesh that gave under them. Lenark brought
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: over his right, missed with it, and fell violently against
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: the body of the other. For a moment he smelled corruption,
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: and then found his feet and retreated again. The black
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: shape drew itself stoopingly down, as though to muster and
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: concentrate its volume of vigor. It launched itself at Lenark's legs,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: with two arms extended. The veteran tried to dodge again,
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: this time sideways, but his lameness made him slow. Hands
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: reached and fastened upon him, one clutching his thigh, the
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: other clawing at the left-hand pocket of his coat. But
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: in the moment of capture, the foul-smelling thing seemed to
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: shudder and snatch itself away, as though the touch of
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: Lenark had burned it. A moan came from somewhere in
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: its direction. The crouched body straightened, the arms lifted in
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: cringing protection of the face. Lenark, mystified but desperately glad,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: himself advanced to the attack. As he came close, he
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: threw his weight. It bowled the other backward and over,
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: and he fell hard upon it. His own hands, sinewy
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: and sure, groped quickly upon dank, sticky-seeming garments, found a
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: rumpled collar and then a throat. That throat appeared to
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: be muddy, or at any rate slippery and foul, With
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: an effort, Lenark sank his fingertips into it, throttling grimly
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: and with honest intention to kill. There was no resistance,
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: only a quivering of the body under his knee. The
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: arms that screamed the face fell quivering away to either side.
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: At that moment, a bright moon shimmered from behind a
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: passing veil of cloud. Lenark gazed down into the face
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: of his enemy. A puffy, livid, filth-clotted face. But he
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: knew it. Those spiked mustaches, those bulging eyes, the shape, contour,
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: and complexion. You're one of Quantrill's, accused Lenart between clenched teeth.
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: Then his voice blocked itself and his hands jerked away
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: from their stranglehold. His mouth gaped open. I killed you once,
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: he cried. Between him and the body he had pinned
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: down there drifted a wild whirl of vision. He saw
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: again the fight and the blue fire glow, the assailant
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: who spurred against him, the flash of his own revolver,
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: the limp collapse of the other. He saw, too, the
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: burial next morning. blue-coated troopers shoveling loam down upon a
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: silent row of figures. An air clods hit it, a
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: face peeping through a disarranged blanket, a face with staring
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: eyes and mustaches like twin knife points. Then his eyes
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: were clear again, and he was on his feet and running.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: His stiff leg gave him pain, but he slackened speed
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: no wit. Once he looked back, a strange blueness, like
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: a dim reflection of the fire long ago, hung around
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: the base of fearful rock. In the midst of it
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: he saw not one but several figures, They were not moving,
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: not walking, anyway, but he could swear that they gazed
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: after him. Something tripped him, a root or a fallen branch.
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: He rose neither quickly nor confidently, aching in all his limbs.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: The moon had come up, he took time to realize.
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: Then he suddenly turned dizzy and faint all over, as
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: never in any battle he had seen, not even Pea
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: Ridge and Westport, for something bulky and dark was moving
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: toward and against him. Then it whinnied softly and his
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: heart stole down from his throat. It was his runaway horse.
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: Lenark was fain to stand for long seconds, with his
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: arm across the saddle, before he mounted. Then he turned
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: the animal's head southward and shook the bridle to make
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: it walk. At last he was able to examine himself
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: for injuries. Though winded, he was not bruised or hurt,
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: but he was covered with earth and mold, and his
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: side pocket had been almost ripped from his coat. That
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: had happened when the creature yonder had tried to grapple him.
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: He wondered how it had been forced to retreat so suddenly.
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: He put his hand in the pocket. He touched a
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: little book there and drew it forth. It was Jaeger's
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: long-lost friend. A good hour later, Lenark rode into the
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: yard of his ex-sergeant. The moon was high, and Jaeger
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: was sitting upon the front stoop. Silently, the owner of
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: the little house rose, took Lenark's bridle rein, and held
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: the horse while Lenark dismounted. Then he led the beast
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: around to the rear yard where the little shed stood.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: In front of this he helped Lenark unbridle and unsaddle
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: the roan. A negro boy appeared, diffident in his mute
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: offer of help, and Jaeger directed him to rub the
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: beast down with a wisp of hay before giving it
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: water or grain. Then he led Lenark to the front
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: of the house. Jaeger spoke at the threshold. I thank
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: God you are come back safely. End of chapter 8
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: Chapter 9 A Fearful Rock by Manly Wade Wellman. This
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker.
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: Chapter 9. Debate and Decision Yeager's negro servant was quite
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: as good a cook as promised. Lenark, eating chicken stew
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: and biscuits, reflected that only twice before had he been
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: so ravenous. Upon receiving the news of Lee's surrender at Appomattox,
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: and after the funeral of his mother. When he had finished,
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: he drew forth a cheroot His hand shook as he
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: lighted it. Jaeger gave him one of the old looks
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: of respectful disapproval, but did not comment. Instead, he led
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: Lenark to the most comfortable chair in the parlor and
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: seated himself upon the keg. Then he said,' Tell me,'
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: Lenark told him, rather less coherently than here set down
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: the adventures of the evening. Again and again he groped
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: in his mind for explanations, but not once found any
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: to offer.' It is fit for the devil,' pronounced Jaeger
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: when his old commander had finished Did I not say
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: that you should have stayed away from that woman? You're
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: well out of the business. I'm well into it, you mean,
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: Lenark fairly snapped back. What can you think of me, Yeager,
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: when you suggest that I might let things stand as
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: they are? The frontier preacher massaged his shaggy jowl with
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: thoughtful knuckles. You have been a man of war and
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: an officer of death, he said heavily. God taught your
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: hands to fight, yet your enemies are not those who
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: perish by the sword. He held out his hand. You
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: say you still have the book I lent you? From
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: his torn pocket, Lenark drew Homan's long-lost friend. Jaeger took
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: it and stared at the cover. The marks of fingers,
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: he muttered in something like awe. He examined the smudges closely,
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: putting on his spectacles to do so, then lifted the
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: book to his nose. His nostrils wrinkled as if in distaste,
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: and he passed the thing back. Smell it, he directed.
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: Lenark did so. About the slimy-looking prints on the cover
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: hung a sickening odor of decayed flesh.' The demon that
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: attacked you, that touched this book, died long ago,' went
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: on Jaeger.' You know as much. You killed him with
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: your own hand. Yet he fights you this very night.''
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: Maybe you have a suggestion,' Lenark flung out, impatient at
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: the assured and almost snobbish air of mystery that colored
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: the manner of his old comrade-in-arms.' If this is a
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: piece of hell broke loose,' Perhaps you did the breaking.
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: Remember that image, that idle thing with horns that you
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: smashed in the cellar? You probably freed all the evil
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: upon the world when you did that. Jaeger frowned but
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: pursued his lecture. This very book, this long-lost friend, saved
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: you from the demon's clutch, he said. It is a
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: notable talisman and shield. But with the shield, one must
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: have a sword with which to attack and turn. All right,
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: challenged Lenark. Where is your sword? It is a product
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: of a mighty pen, Jaeger informed him sententiously. He turned
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: in his seat and drew from a box against the
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: wall a book. Like the long-lost friend, it was bound
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: in paper, but of a cream color. Its title stood
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: forth in bold black letters. The Secrets of Albertus Magnus.
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: A translation from the German and the Latin, explained Jaeger. Printed,
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: I think, in New York. This book is full of wisdom.
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: although I wonder if it is evil, unlawful wisdom. I
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: don't care if it is. Lenark almost snatched the book.
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: Any weapon must be used, and I doubt if Albertus
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: Magnus was evil. Wasn't he a churchman, and didn't he
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: teach St. Thomas Aquinas? He leafed through the beginning of
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: the book. Here's a charm, Jaeger, to be spoken in
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: the name of God. That doesn't sound unholy. Satan can
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: recite scripture to his own ends, misquoted Jaeger. I don't
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: remember who said that, but Shakespeare said it, or something
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: very like it, Lenark informed him. Look here, Yeager, farther on.
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: Here's a spell against witchcraft and evil spirits. I have
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: counted at least thirty such in that book, responded the other.
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: Are you coming to believe in them, sir? Lenark looked
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: up from the page. His face was earnest and, in
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: a way, humble. I'm constrained to believe in many unbelievable things.
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: If my experience to not truly befell me, then I
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: must believe in charms of safety. Supernatural evil like that
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: must have its contrary supernatural good. Jaeger pushed his spectacles
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: up on his forehead and smiled in his beard. I
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: have heard it told, he said, that charms and spells
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: work only when one believes in them. You sound confident
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: of that, at least, Lenark smiled back. Maybe you will
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: help me, after all. Maybe I will. The two gazed
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: into each other's eyes, and then their hands came out
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: at the same moment. Lenark's lean fingers crushed Jaeger's coarser ones.
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: Let's be gone, urged Lenark at once, but the preacher
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: shook his head emphatically. Slowly, slowly, he temporized. Cool your
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: spirits and take counsel. He that ruleth his temper is
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: greater than he that taketh a city. Once more he
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: put out his hand for the cream-colored volume of Albertus
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: Magnus and began to search through it. Do you think
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: to comfort me from that book? asked Lenark. It has
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: more than comfort, Yeager assured him. It has guidance. He
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: found what he was looking for, pulled down his spectacles again,
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: and read aloud. Two wicked eyes have overshadowed me, but
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: three other eyes are overshadowing me. The one of the God,
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: the Father. The second of God, the Son. The third
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: of God, the Holy Spirit. They watch my body and soul,
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: my blood and bone. I shall be protected in the
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: name of God. His voice was that of a prayerful
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: man reading scripture, and Lenark felt moved despite himself. Yeager
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: closed the book gently and kept it in his hand.
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: Albertus Magnus has had many such charms and assurances. He volunteered,
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: In this small book, less than two hundred pages, I
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: find a score and more of ways for punishing and
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: thwarting evil spirits, or those who summon evil spirits. He
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: shook his head as if in sudden wrath, and turned
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: up his spectacled eyes. Oh, Lord! He muttered, How long
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: must devils plague us for our sins? Growing calmer once more,
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: he read again from the book of Albertus Magnus. There
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: was a recipe for invisibility, which involved the making of
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: a thumbstall from the ear of a black cat boiled
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: in the milk of a black cow. An invocation to
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: bed goblin and all ye evil spirits. Several strange rituals,
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: similar to those Lenark remembered from The Long Lost Friend,
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: to render one immune to wounds received in battle. and
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: a rhyme to speak while cutting and preparing a forked
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: stick of hazel to use in hunting for water or treasure.
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: As a boy, Lenark had once seen water witched, and
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: now he wondered if the rod-bearer had gained his knowledge
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: from Albertus Magnus. Take an earthen pot, not glazed, Jaeger
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: was reading on, and yarn spun by a girl not
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: seven years old. He broke off abruptly with a little
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: inarticulate gasp. The book slammed shut between his hands. His
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: eyes were bright and hot. and his face pale to
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: the roots of his beard. When he spoke, it was
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: in a hoarse whisper. That was a spell to control witches,
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: in the name of Lucifer, king of hell. Didn't I
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: say this book was evil? You must forget that, Lenark
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: counseled him soberly. I will admit that the book might
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: cause sorrow and wickedness, if it were in wicked hands,
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: but I do not think that you are anything but
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: a good man. Thank you, said Jaeger simply. He rose
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: and went to his table, then returned with an iron
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: inkpot and a stump of a pen. Let me have
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: your right hand. Lenark held out his palm as though
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: to a fortune teller. Upon the skin, Jaeger traced slowly,
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: in heavy capital letters, a square of five words. Sator, Arepo, Tenant, Opera, Rotas.
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: Under this, very boldly, three crosses. X, X, X. A charm.
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: the preacher told Lenark as he labored with the pen.
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: These mystic words and the crosses will defend you in
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: your slumber from all wicked spirits. So says Albertus, Magnus,
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: and Homan as well. What do they mean? I do
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: not know that. Jaeger blew hotly upon Lenark's palm to
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: dry the ink. Will you now write the same thing
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: for me in my right hand? If you wish. Lenark
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: in turn dipped in the ink pot and began to
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: copy the diagram. Opera is a word I know he observed,
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: and tenant is another. Sator may be some form of
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: the old pagan word satyr, a kind of horned human monster.
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: He finished the work in silence, then he lighted another cigar.
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: His hand was as steady as a gunrest this time,
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: and the match did not even flicker in his fingertips.
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: He felt somehow stronger, better, more confident. You'll give me
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: a place to sleep for the night? he suggested. Yes,
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: I have only pallets, but you and I have slept
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: on harder couches before this. Within half an hour, both
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: men were sound asleep. End of chapter 9 Chapter 10
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: A Fearful Rock by Manly Wade Wellman This LibriVox recording
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker Chapter
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: 10 Enid Mandefer Again The silence was not so deadly
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: the following noon as Lenark and Jaeger dismounted at the
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: hitching rack in front of Enid Mandifer's. Perhaps this was
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: because there were two horses to stamp and snort, two
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: bridles to jingle, two saddles to creak, two pairs of
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: boots to spurn the pathway toward the door. Enid Mandifer,
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: with a home-sewn sunbonnet of calico upon her head, came
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: around the side of the house just as the two
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: men were about to step upon the porch. She called
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: out to them, anxiously polite, and stood with one hand
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: clutched upon her wide skirt of brown alpaca mr lennart
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: she ventured i hoped that you would come again i
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: have something to show you it was jaeger who spoke
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: in reply miss mandefer perhaps you may remember me i
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: am parson jaeger i live south of here look he
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: held out something the long-lost friend Did you ever see
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: anything of this sort? She took it without hesitation, gazing
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: interestedly at the cover. Lenark saw her soft pink lips move,
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: silently framing the odd words of the title. Then she
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: opened it and studied the first page. After a moment,
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: she turned several leaves, and a little frown of perplexity
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: touched her bonnet-shaped brow. These are receipts, or recipes, of
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: some kind, she said slowly. Why do you show them
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: to me, Mr. Yeager? The ex-sergeant had been watching her closely,
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: his hands upon his heavy hips, his beard thrust forward
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: and his head tilted back. He put forth his hand
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: and received back the long-lost friend. Excuse me, Miss Mandifer,
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: if I have suspected you unjustly, he said handsomely if cryptically.
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: Then he glanced sidewise at Lenark as though to refresh
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: a memory that needed no refreshing, a memory of a
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: living dead horror that had recoiled at the very touch
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: of the little volume. Enid Mandifer was speaking once more. Mr. Lenark,
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: I had a dreadful night after you left. Dreams, or
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: maybe not dreams. I felt things come and stand by
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: my bed. This morning, on a bit of paper that
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: lay on the floor, from a pocket in the folds
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: of her skirt, she produced a white scrap. Lenark accepted
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: it from her. Yeager came close to look. Writing, growled Yeager.
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: In what language is that? It's English, pronounced Lenark, but
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: set down backward, from right to left, as Leonardo da
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: Vinci wrote. The young woman nodded eagerly at this, as
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: though to say she had already seen as much. Have
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: you a mirror? Yeager asked her, then came to a
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: simpler solution. He took the paper and held it up
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: to the light, written side away from him. Now it
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: shows through. he announced.' Will one of you try to read?
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: I haven't my glasses with me.' Lenark squinted and made
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: shift to read.' Any man may look lightly into heaven,
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: to the highest star, but who dares require of the
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: bowels of earth their abysmal secrets?'' That is my stepfather's handwriting,'
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: whispered Enid, her head close to Lenark's shoulder. He read on.'
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: The rewards of good are unproven, but the revenges of
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: evil are great and manifest on all sides.' Fear will
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: always vanquish love. He grinned slightly, harshly. Jaeger remembered having
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: seen that grin in the old army days, before a battle.
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: I think we're being warned, Lenark said to his old sergeant.
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: It's a challenge, meant to frighten us. But challenges have
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: always drawn me. I can't believe, said Enid, that fear
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: will vanquish love. She blushed suddenly and rosily, as if
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: embarrassed by her own words. That is probably beside the point,
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: she resumed. What I began to say was that the
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: sight of my stepfather's writing, why is it reversed like that?
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: The sight, anyway, has brought things back into my mind.
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: What things? Yeager demanded eagerly. Come into the house, Miss Manderford,
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: tell us. Oh, not into the house, she demurred at once.
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: It's dark in there, damp and cold. Let's go out
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: here to the seat under the tree. She conducted them
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: to the bench whither Lenark had accompanied her the day before. Now,
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: Yeager prompted her, and she began. I remember hearing him,
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: when I was a child, as he talked to his
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: son LaRue, and they thought I did not listen or
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: did not comprehend. He told of these very things, these
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: views he had written. He said, as if teaching LaRue,
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: fear is stronger than love, where love can but plead,
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: fear can command. A devil's doctrine, grunted Yeager, and Lenark
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: nodded agreement. He said more, went on Enid. He spoke
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: of those below and of how they rule by fear
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: and therefore are stronger than those on high who rule
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: by weak love. Blasphemy, commented Jaeger in his beard. Those
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: statements fit what I remember of his talk, Lenark put in.
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: He spoke just before we fought the guerrillas of some
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: great evil to come from flouting those below. I remember,
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: nodded Jaeger. Go on, young woman. Then there was the box.
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: The box? repeated both men quickly. Yes, it was a
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: small case of dark gray metal or stone or something. This, too,
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: was when I was little. He offered it to LaRue
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: and laughed when LaRue could not open it. Jaeger and
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: Lenark darted looks at each other. They were remembering such
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: a box. My stepfather then took it back, Enid related,
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: and said that it held his fate and fortune, that
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: he would live and prosper until the secret writing within
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: it should be taken forth and destroyed. I remember where
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: that box is, Lenark said breathlessly to Jaeger. In the
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: old oven, at... We could not open it either, interrupted
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: the preacher. He spoke of that, too, Enid told them.
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: It would never open, he told LaRue, save in the
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: place of the Nameless One. That must be where the
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: house burned, and at midnight under a full moon. A
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: full moon! exclaimed Lenark. There is a full moon tonight.
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: End of chapter 10 Chapter 11 A Fearful Rock by
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: Manly Wade Wellman This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: Read by Ben Tucker Part 3 Chapter 11 Return of
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: the Sacrifice Through the crosshatching of new-leafed branches, the full
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: moon shone down from its zenith. Lenark and Enid Mandifer
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: walked gingerly through the night-filled timber, in the gully beyond which,
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: they knew, lay the ruins of the house where so
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: much repellent mystery had been born. It's just eleven o'clock,
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: whispered Lenark, looking at his big silver watch. He was
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: dressed in white shirt and dark trousers, without coat, hat,
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: or gloves. His revolver rode in the front of his waistband.
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: and as he limped along, the sheath of Jaeger's old
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: cavalry saber thumped and rasped his left boot top. We
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: must be almost there. We are there, replied Enid. Here's
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: the clearing and the little brook of water. She was right.
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: They had come to the open space where first they
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: had met. The moonlight made the ground and its new
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: grass pallid and struck frosty gold lights from the runlet
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: in the very center of the clearing. Beyond to the
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: west lay menacing shadows. Enid stooped and lay upon the ground,
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: the hand mirror she carried. Stand to one side, she said,
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: and please don't look. Lenark obeyed and the girl began
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: to undress. The young man felt dew at his mustache
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: and a chill in his heart that was not from dew.
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: He stared into the trees beyond the clearing, trying to
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: have faith in Jaeger's plan. We must make the devils
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: come forth and face us, the sergeant preacher had argued.
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: Miss Mandefer shall be our decoy, to draw them out
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: where we can get at them. All is very strange,
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: but this much we know. The unholy worship did go on.
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: Miss Mandefer was to be sacrificed as part of it.
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: And when the sacrifice was not completed, all these evil
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: things happened. We have the hauntings, the blue fire of
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: the house, the creature that attacked Mr. Lanark, and a
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: host of other mysteries to credit to these causes. Let
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: us profit by what little we have found out. and
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: put an end to the devil's rule in this country.
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: It had all sounded logical, but Lenark listening had been
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: hesitant until Enid herself agreed. Then it was that Jaeger,
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: strengthening his self-assumed position of leadership, had made the assignments.
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: Enid would make the journey as before from her house
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: to the gully, there strip and say the words with
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: which her stepfather had charged her four springs ago. Lenark, armed,
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: would accompany her as guard. Jaeger himself would circle far
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: to the east, and approached the ruins from the opposite direction,
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: observing and, if need be, attacking. These preparations Lenark reviewed
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: mentally while he heard Enid's bare feet splashing timidly in
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: the water. It came to him a bit too late
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: that the arms he bore might not avail against supernatural enemies.
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: Yet Jaeger had seemed confident. Enid was speaking, apparently repeating
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: the ritual that was supposed to summon the unnamed god-demon
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: of Persil Mandifer. A maid alone and pure, I stand,
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: not upon water nor on land. I hold a mirror
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: in my hand, in which to see what fate may sand.
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: She broke off and screamed. Lenark whipped around. The girl
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: stood misty pale in the wash of moonlight, all crouched
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: and curved together like a bow. It was coming, she quavered.
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: I saw it in the mirror, over yonder among those trees.
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: Lenark glared across the little strip of water and the
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: moonlit grass beyond. Ten paces away, between two trunks, Something
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: shone in the shadows, shone darkly, like tar, though the
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: filtered moon rays did not touch it. He saw nothing
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: of the shape, save that it moved and lived, and watched.
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: He drew his revolver and fired twice. There was a
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: crash of twigs, as though something had flinched backward at
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: the reports. Lenark splashed through the water and, despite his limp,
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: charged at the place where the presence lurked. End of
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: chapter eleven Chapter 12 A Fearful Rock by Manly Wade
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: Wellman This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: by Ben Tucker. Chapter 12 Jaeger It had been some
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: minutes before I o'clock when Yeager reined in his old
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: black horse at a distance of two miles from Fearful Rock.
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: Most of those alive who knew Yeager personally are apt
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: to describe him as he was when they were young
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: and he was old, a burly graybeard, a notable preacher
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: and exhorter, particularly at funerals. He preferred the New Testament
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: to the old, though he was apt to misquote his
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: texts from either. And he loved children, and at once
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: preached a telling sermon against the proposition of infant damnation.
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: His tombstone at Fort Smith, Arkansas, bears as epitaph a
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: version from the third chapter of the first book of Samuel.
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: Here am I, for thou didst call me. Yeager when
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: young is harder to study and to visualize. However, the
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: diary of a long-dead farmer's wife of Pennsylvania records that
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: the Yeager boy, was dull but serious at school, and
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: that his appetite for mince pie amounted to a passion.
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: In Topeka, Kansas, lives a retired railroad conductor whose father,
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: on the pre-rebellion frontier, once heard Yeager defy southern hoodlums
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: to shoot him for voting free state in a territorial election.
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: Ex-Major Kane Lenark mentioned Yeager frequently, and with admiration in
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: the remarkable pen-and-ink memoir on which the present narrative is based.
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: How he approached Fearful Rock and what he encountered there
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: He himself often described verbally to such of his friends
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: as pretended that they believed him. The moonlight showed him
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: a stunted tree, with one gnarled root looping up out
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: of the earth, and to that root he tethered his animal. Then,
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: like Lenark, he threw off his coat, strapping it to
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: the cantle of his saddle, and unfastened his hickory blue
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: shirt at the throat. From a saddlebag he drew a
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: trusty-looking revolver, its barrel sawed off. Turning its butt toward
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: the moon, he spun the cylinder to make sure that
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: it was loaded. Then he thrust into his belt without
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: benefit of holster, and started on foot toward the rock
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: and its remains of a house. Approaching, he sought by
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 1: instinct the cover of trees and bush clumps, moving smoothly
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: and noiselessly. Yeager had been noted during his service in
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: the Army of the Frontier for his ability to scout
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: at night, an ability which he credited to the fact
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: that he had been born in the darkest hours. He
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: made almost as good progress as though he had been
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 1: moving in broad daylight. At eleven o'clock sharp, as he guessed,
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: Like many men who never carried watches, he had become
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: good at judging the time. He was within two hundred
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: yards of the rock itself, and cover had run out.
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: There he paused, chin deep in a clump of early weeds.
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: Lenark and the girl, as he surmised, must be well
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: into the gully by this time. He, Jaeger, smiled as
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: he remembered with what alacrity Lenark had accepted the assignment
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: of bodyguard to Enid Mandefer. Those two young people acted
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: as if they were on the brink of falling in love.
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: and no mistake. His eyes were making out details of
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: the scene ahead. Was even the full moon so bright
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: as all this? He could not see very clearly the
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: ruined foundations, for they sat in depression of the earth.
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: Yet there seemed to be a clinging blue light at
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: about that point, a feeble but undeniable blue. Mentally he
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: compared it to deep, still water, then to the poorest
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: of skimmed milk. Jaeger remembered the flames that once had
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: burned there, blue as amethyst. But the blue light was
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: not solid, and it had no heat. Within it, dimmed
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: as though by mist, stood and moved figures. They were human,
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: at least they were upright, and they stood in a
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: row like soldiers, all but two. That pair was dark-seeming,
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: and one was grossly thick, the other thin as an
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: exclamation point. The line moved, bent, formed a weaving circle
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: which spread as its units opened their order. Yeager had
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: never seen such a maneuver in four years of Army service.
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: Now the circle was moving, rolling around. The figures were
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: tramping counterclockwise. Withershins was the old-fashioned word for that kind
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: of motion, as Yeager remembered from his boyhood in Pennsylvania.
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: The two darker figures, the ones that had stood separate,
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they were enclosed in
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: the center of the turning circle, the moving shapes of
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: which numbered six. There had been six of Quantrill's guerrillas
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: that died in almost that spot. The ground was bare
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: except for a spring grass, but Yeager made shift to
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: crawl forward on hands and knees, his eyes fixed on
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: the group ahead, his beer bristling nervously upon his set chin.
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: He crept ten yards, twenty yards, forty. Some high stalks
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: of grass, killed but not leveled by winter, afforded him
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: a bit of cover, and he paused again, taking care
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 1: not to rustle the dry stems. He could see the
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: maneuvering creatures more plainly. They were men, all right, standing
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: each upon two legs, waving each two arms. No one
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: of them had only an arm and a stump. Had
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: not one of Quantrill's men? Yes. It came to the
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: back of Jaeger's mind that Lenark himself had cut away
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: an enemy's pistol hand with a stroke of his saber.
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: Again he reflected that there had been six dead guerrillas,
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: and that six were the forms treading so strange a
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: measure yonder. He began to crawl forward again. Sweat made
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: a low, cold trickle along his spine. But the two
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: that had stood separate from the six were not to
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: be seen anywhere inside the circle or out, and Jaeger
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: began to fancy that his first far glimpse had shown
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: him something strange about that pair of dark forms, something
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 1: inhuman or subhuman. Then a shot rang out, clear and sharp.
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: It came from beyond the circle of creatures and the
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: blue-misted ruins. A second shot followed it. Yeager almost rose
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: into plain view in the moonlight, but fell flat a
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: moment later. Indeed, he might well have been seen by
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: those he spied upon had they not all turned in
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: the direction whence the shots had sounded. Yeager heard voices,
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: a murmur of them with nothing that sounded like articulate words.
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: He made bold to rise on his hands for a
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: closer look. The six figures were moving eastward, as though
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: to investigate. Yeager lifted himself to hands and knees, then
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: rose to a crouch. He ran forward, drawing his gun
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: as he did so. The great, uneven shaft that was
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: fearful rock gave him a bar of shadow into which
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: he plunged gratefully, and a moment later he was at
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: the edge of the ruin-filled foundation hole, perhaps at the
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: same point where Lenark had stood the night before. From
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: the pit rose the diluted blue radiance that seemed to
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: involve this quarter. Staring thus closely, Jaeger found the light
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: similar to that given off by rotten wood or fungi,
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: or certain brands of Lucifer matches. It was like an
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: echo of light, he pondered rather absently. and almost grinned
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: at his own malapropism. But he was not here to
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: make jokes with himself. He listened, peered about, then began
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: to move cautiously along the lip of the foundation hole.
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: Another shot he heard, and a loud, defiant yell that
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 1: sounded like Lenark. Then an answering burst of laughter, throaty
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 1: and muffled, that seemed to come from several mouths at once.
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: Yeager felt a new and fiercer chill. He, an earnest
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: Protestant from birth, signed himself with the cross. signed himself
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: with the right hand that clutched his revolver. Yet there
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 1: was no doubt as to which way lay his duty.
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: He skirted the open foundation of the ruined house, moved
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 1: eastward over the trampled earth where the six things had
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: formed their open order circle. Like Lenark, he saw the
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: opened grave trench. He paused and gazed down. Two sack-like
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: blotches of pallor lay there. Lenark had described them correctly.
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: They were empty human skins. Jaeger paused. There was no
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: sound from ahead. He peered and saw the ravine to eastward,
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: filled with trees and gloom. He hesitated at plunging in.
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: The place was so ideal an ambush. Even as he
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: paused his toes at the brink of the opened grave,
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: he heard a smashing, rustling noise. Bodies were returning through
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: the twigs and leafage of the ravine, returning swiftly. Had
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: they met Lenark and vanquished him? Had they spied or
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: sensed Jaeger in the rear? He was beside the grave.
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 1: and since the first year of the war he had
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: known what to do with the enemy approaching in a
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: deep hole at hand. He dived in, headfirst like a
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: chipmunk into its burrow, and landed on the bottom on
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: all fours. His first act was to shake his revolver,
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: lest sand had stopped the muzzle. A charm from the
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 1: Long Lost Friend book whispered itself through his brain, a
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: marksman's charm to bring accuracy with the gun. He repeated it, half-audibly,
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: without knowing what the words might mean. OT NIMO IN
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: SENSE TANTANT At that instant his eyes fell upon the
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: nearest of the two pallid, empty skins, which lay full
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: in the moonlight. He forgot everything else, for he knew
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: that collapsed face, even without the sharp stiletto-like bone of
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: the nose to jut forth in its center. He knew
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: that narrowness through the jowls and temples, that height of brow,
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: that hair white as thistledown. Purcell Mandifer's skull had been inside.
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: It must have been there. and living recently. Yeager's left
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: hand crept out and drew quickly back as though it
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: had touched a snake. The texture of the skin was soft, clammy, moist, fresh,
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: and the other pallidity like a great empty bladder that
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: could have fitted no other body than the gross one
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: of LaRue Mandefer. Thus Yeager realized, had Lenark entered the
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: grave on the night before and found these same two skins.
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: Looking up, Lenark had found a horrid enemy waiting to
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: grapple him. Jaeger, too, looked up. A towering silhouette shut
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: out half the starry sky overhead. End of chapter 12
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: The combination of pluck and common sense is something of
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: a rarity, and men who possess that combination are apt
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: to go far. Cain Lenark was such a man, and
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: though he charged unhesitatingly across the little strip of water
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 1: and at the unknown thing in the trees, he was
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: not outrunning his discretion. He had seen men die in
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: his time, many of them in abject flight, with bullets
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: overtaking them in the spine or the back of the head.
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: It was nothing pleasant to watch, but it crystallized within
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: his mind the realization that dread of death is no
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 1: armor against danger. and that an enemy attacked is far
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: less formidable than an enemy attacking. That brace of maxims
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 1: comforted him and bore him up in more tight places
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 1: than one. And General Blunt of the Army of the Frontier,
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: an officer who was all that his name implies, and
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: who was never given to overstatement, once so unbent as
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: to say in official writing that Captain Kane Lenark was
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: an ornament to any combat force. And so his rush
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: was nothing frantic. All that faltered was his lame leg,
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: He meant to destroy the thing that had showed itself,
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 1: but fully, as definitely as he meant not to be
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: destroyed by it. As he ran, he flung his revolver
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 1: across to his left hand, and dragged free the saber
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 1: that danced at his side. But the creature he wanted
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 1: to meet did not bide his coming. He heard another
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: crash and rattle. It had backed into some shrubs or
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: bushes farther in among the trees. He paused under the
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: branches of the first belt of timber, well aware that
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 1: he was probably a fair mark for a bullet. Yet,
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 1: He did not expect a gun in the hands of
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: whatever lurked ahead, as he was not sure at all
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: that it even had hands. Of a sudden he felt,
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 1: rather than saw, motion upon his left flank. He pivoted
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 1: upon the heel of his sound right foot and, lifting
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: the saber, spat professionally between hilt and palm. He meant killing,
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: did Lenark, but nothing presented itself. A chuckle drifted to him,
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: a contemptuous burble of sound. He thought of what Enid
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: had said about divining her stepfather's mockery. Again the chuckle,
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: dying away toward the left. But up ahead came more
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 1: noise of motion, and this was identifiable as feet, heavy,
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: measured tramping of feet. New and stupid recruits walked like
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: that in their first drills, so did tired soldiers on
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: the march, and the feet were coming his way. Lenark's
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: first reaction to this realization was of relief. Marching men,
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 1: even enemies, would be welcome because he knew how to
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: deal with them. Then he thought of Enid behind him,
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: probably in retreat out of the gully. He must give
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 1: her time to get away. He moved westward toward the
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 1: approaching party, but with caution and silence. The moonlight came
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: patchily down through the lattice-like mass of branches and twigs,
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 1: and again Lenark saw motion. This time it was directly ahead.
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: He counted five, then six figures, quite human. The moonlight,
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: when they moved in it, gave him glimpses of butternut shirts,
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: white faces. One had a great waterfall beard. Lenark drew
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 1: a deep breath.' Stand!' he shouted, and with his left
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 1: hand leveled his pistol. They stood but only for a moment.
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: Each figure's attitude shifted ever so slightly as Lenark moved
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: a pace forward. The trees were sparse around him, and
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: the moon shone stronger through their branches. He recognized the
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: man with the great beard. He did not need to
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 1: see that one arm was hewed away halfway between wrist
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: and elbow. Another face was equally familiar, with its sharp
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: mustaches and wide eyes.' He had stared into it no
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: longer ago than last night. The six gorillas stirred in
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: motion again, approaching and closing in. Lenark had them before
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: him in a semi-circle.' Stand!' he said again, and when
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 1: they did not, he fired, full for the center of
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: that black beard in the forefront. The body of the
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 1: gorilla started and staggered, no more. It had been hit,
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: but it was not going to fall. Lenark knew a
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: sudden damp closeness about him, as though he stood in
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 1: a small room full of sweaty garments. The six figures
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: were converging, like beasts seeking a common trough or manger.
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: He did not shoot again. The man he had shot
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: was not bleeding. Six pairs of eyes fixed themselves upon
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: him with a steadiness that was more than unwinking. He
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: wondered inconsequentially if those eyes had lids. Now they were
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: within reach. He fell quickly on guard with his saber,
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: whirling it to left and then to right, the old
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: moulinets he had learned in the fencing room at the
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: Virginia Military Institute. Again the half-dozen approachers came to an
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: abrupt stop, one or two flinching back from the twinkling
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: tongue of steel. Lenark extended his arm, made a wider,
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 1: horizontal sweep with his point, and the space before him widened.
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: The two forms at the horns of the semicircle began
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: to slip forward and outward, as though to pass him
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 1: and take him in the rear.' That won't do,' Lenark
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: said aloud and hopped quickly forward, then lunged at the blackbeard.
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: His point met flesh, or at least a soft substance.
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: No bones impeded it. A moment later, his basket hilt
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: thudded against the butternut shirt front, the figure reeling backward
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: from the force of the blow. With a practiced wrench,
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 1: Lenark cleared his weapon, cutting fiercely at another who was
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: moving upon him with an unnerving lightness. His edge came home,
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: and he drew it vigorously toward himself, a bread-slicing maneuver
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: that would surely lay flesh open to the bone, disable
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 1: one assailant. But the creature only tottered and came in again.
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 1: and Lenark saw that the face he had hacked almost
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: in two was the one with bulge eyes and spike mustaches.
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 1: All he could do was sidestep and then retreat, retreat
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: eastward in the direction of fearful rock. The black-bearded thing
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: was down, stumbled or swooning, and he sprang across it.
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: As he did so, the body writhed just beneath him,
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: clutching with one hand upward. Hooked by an ankle, Lenark
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: fell sprawling at full length, losing his revolver but not
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: his sword. He twisted over at his left, hacking murderously
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: in the direction of his feet. As once before, he
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: cut away a hand and wrist and was free. He
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: surged to his feet and found the blackbeard also up,
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 1: thrusting its hairy, fishy white face at him. With dark
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 1: rage swelling his every muscle, Lenark carried his right arm
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 1: back across his chest, his right hand with the hilt
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: going over his left shoulder. Then he struck at the
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 1: hairy head with all the power of arm and shoulder and,
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: turning his body... thrust in its weight behind the blow.
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: The head flew from the shoulders as though it had
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: been struck there ever so lightly. Then the others were
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: pushing around and upon him. Lenark smelled blood, rot, dampness, filth.
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: He heard for the first time soft snickering voices that
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: spoke no words but seemed to be sneering at him
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 1: for the entertainment of one another. The work was too
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 1: close to thrust. He hacked and hewed and struck with
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: the curved guard as with brass knuckles. and they fell
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: back from him, all but one form that could not see.
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: It tottered heavily and gropingly toward him, hunching its headless
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: shoulders and holding out its handless arms, as though it
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 1: played with him a game of blind man's bluff. And
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: from that horrid, truncated enemy, Lenark fled, fled like a
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: deer for all his lameness. They followed, but they made slow,
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: stupid work of it. Lenark's sword, which could not kill,
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: had wounded them all. He was well ahead, coming to
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: rising ground, toiling upward and out of the gully, into
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: the open country shadowed by fearful rock. He paused there,
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: clear of the trees, wiped his clammy brow with the
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: sleeve of his left arm. The moon was so bright
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 1: overhead that it almost blinded him. He became aware of
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 1: a kneading, clasping sensation at his right ankle, and looked
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: down to see what caused it. A hand clung there,
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: a hand without arm or body. It was a pale
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: hand that moved and crawled as if trying to mount
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: his bootleg and get at his belly, his heart, his throat.
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: The bright moon showed him the strained tendons of it
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: and the scant coarse hair upon its wide back. Lenark
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 1: opened his lips to scream like any woman, but no
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: sound came. With his other foot he scraped the thing
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: loose and away. Its fingers quitted their hold grudgingly, and
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: under the sole of his boot they curled and writhed upward.
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: like the legs of an overturned crab. They fastened upon
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 1: his instep. When, with the point of his saber, he
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 1: forced the thing free again, still he saw that it
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: lived and groped for a hold upon him. With his
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: lip clenched bloodily between his teeth, he chopped and minced
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: at the horrid little thing, and even then its severed
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: fingers humped and inched upon the ground like worms.' It
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: won't die,' Lenark murmured hoarsely aloud. Often in the past
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: he had thought that speaking thus, when one was alone,
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: presaged insanity. It won't die, not though I chop it
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 1: into atoms until the evil is driven away. Then he wondered,
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: for the first time since he had left Enid, where
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: Jaeger was. He turned in the direction of the rock
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: in the ruined house and walked warily for perhaps twenty paces.
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: He was swimming in sweat and blood throbbed in his ears.
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 1: Then he found himself looking into the open grave where
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: the gorillas had lain, whence they had issued to fight
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: once more. At the bottom he saw the two palenesses
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 1: that were empty skins. He saw something else, a dark
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: form that was trying to scramble out. Once again he
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: tightened his grip upon the hilt of his saber. At
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: the same instant he knew that still another creature was
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: hurrying out of the gully and at him from behind.
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: End of chapter 13 Chapter 14 A Fearful Rock by
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 1: Manly Wade Wellman This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: Read by Ben Tucker Chapter 14 Lenark's guess was wrong.
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: Enid Mandifer had not retreated westward up the gully. She
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: had stared all in a heart-stopping chill as Lenark made
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: for the thing that terrified her, as though of themselves
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 1: her hands reached down to the earth, found her dress,
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: and pulled it over her head. She thrust her feet
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 1: into her shoes. Then she moved, at only a fast walk,
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: after Lenark. There was really nothing else she could have done,
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 1: and Lenark might have known that had he been able
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 1: to take thought in the moments that followed. Had she fled,
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: she would have had no place to go save to
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: the house where once her stepfather had lived. and it
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 1: would be no refuge but a place of whispering horror. Too,
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 1: she would be alone, dreadfully alone. It took no meditation
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: on her part to settle the fact that Lenark was
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: her one hope of protection. As a matter of simple fact,
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: he would have done well to remain with her on
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 1: the defensive, but then he could not have foreseen what
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: was waiting in the shadowed woods beyond. She did carry
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: something that might serve as a weapon, the hand mirror,
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 1: and in a pocket of her dress lay the Bible,
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: of which she had once told Lenark. She had read
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: much in it, driven by terror, and I dare say
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: it was as much a talisman to her as was
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: the long-lost friend to Jaeger. Her lips patterned a verse
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: from it. Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God,
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: for lo, they lie in wait for my soul. It
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: was hard for her to decide what she had expected
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: to find within the rim of trees beyond the clearing.
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: Lenark was not in sight, but a commotion had risen
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: some little distance ahead. Enid moved onward, because she must.
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: She heard Lenark's pistol shot, and then what sounded like
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 1: several men struggling. She tried to peer and see, but
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: there was only a swirl of violent motion, and through
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 1: it the flash of steel. That would be Lenark's saber.
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 1: She crouched behind a wide trunk. That is useless, said
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: an accented voice she knew, close at her elbow. She
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: spun around, stared, and sprang away. It was not her
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 1: stepfather that stood there. The form was human to some degree.
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: It had arms and legs and a featureless head, but
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 1: its nakedness was slimy wet and dark, and about it
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 1: clung a smell of blood. That is useless, muttered once
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 1: more the voice of Persil Mandifer. You do not hide
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: from the power that rules this place. Behind the first
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 1: dark slimness came a second shape, a gross immensity, equally
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: black and foul and shiny. LaRue? You have offered yourself,
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 1: said Persil Mandifer, though Enid could see no lips move
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 1: in the filthy-seeming shadow that should have been a face.
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: I think you will be accepted this time. Of course,
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: it cannot profit me. What I am now, I shall
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 1: be always. Perhaps you too. LaRue's voice chuckled and Enid
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: ran toward where Lenark had been fighting. That would be
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 1: more endurable than this mad dream forced upon her. Anything
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: would be more endurable. Twigs and thorns plucked at her
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 1: skirt like spiteful fingers, but she ripped away from them
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: and ran. She came into another clearing, a small one.
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 1: The moon, striking between the boughs, made her a pool
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: of light and touched up something of metal. It was
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: Lenark's revolver. Enid bent and seized it. A few feet
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 1: away rested something else, something rather like a strangely shabby cabbage.
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: As Enid touched the gun, she saw what that fringed
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: rondeur was. A head, but living, as though its owner
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 1: had been buried to its bearded chin. What? she began
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 1: to ask aloud. It was surely living, its eyebrows arched
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: and scowled and its gleaming eyes moved. Its tongue crawled
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: out and licked grinning, hairy lips. She saw its smile,
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: hard and brief as a knife flashed for a moment
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: from its scabbard. Enid Mandifer almost dropped the revolver. She
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: had become sickeningly aware that the head possessed no body.
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: There is the rest of him, spoke Persil Mandifer, again
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: behind her shoulder, and she saw a heart-shaking terror, staggering
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 1: and groping between the trees, a body without a head
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: or hands. She ran again, but slowly and painfully, as
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: though this were in truth a nightmare. The headless hulk
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: seemed to divine her effort at retreat, for it dragged
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 1: itself clumsily across, as though to cut her off. It
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 1: held out its handless stumps of arms. No use to shoot.
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: came Persil Mandifer's mocking comment. He was following swiftly. That
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: poor creature cannot be killed again. Other shapes were approaching
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: from all sides, shapes dressed in filthy, ragged clothes. The
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: face of one was divided by a dark cleft as
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 1: though Lenark's saber had split it, but no blood showed.
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 1: Another seemed to have no lower jaw. The remaining top
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: of his face jutted forward, like the short visage of
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 1: a snake lifted to strike. These things had eyes turned
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 1: unblinkingly upon her. They could see and approach. The headless
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: torso blundered at her again, went past by inches. It
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 1: recovered itself and turned. It knew somehow that she was there.
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 1: It was trying to capture her. She shrank away, staring
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: around for an avenue of escape.' Be thankful,' droned Purcell
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 1: Mandifer from somewhere.' These are no more than dead men
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 1: whipped into a mockery of life.' They will prepare you
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 1: a little for the wonders to come. But Enid had
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 1: commanded her shuddering muscles. She ran. One of the things
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 1: caught her sleeve, but the cloth tore and she won free.
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: She heard sounds that could hardly be called voices from
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 1: the mouths of such as had mouths, and Persol Mandifer
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: laughed quietly and said something in a language Enid had
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 1: never heard before. The thick voice of his son Leroux
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 1: answered him in the same tongue, then called out in English. Enid!
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 1: You only run in the direction we want you to run.
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 1: It was true, and there was nothing that she could
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 1: do about it. The entities behind her were following, not
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 1: very fast, like herdsmen leisurely driving a sheep in the
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 1: way it should go, and she knew that the sides
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 1: of the gully to north and south could never be climbed.
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: There was only the slope ahead to the eastward, up
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: which Lenark must have gone. The thought of him strengthened her.
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 1: If the two of them found the King Horror, the
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 1: nameless one at the base of fearful rock, they could
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: face it together. She was aware that she had come
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: out of the timber of the ravine. All was moonlight here,
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 1: painted by the soft pallor in grays and silvers and
• 2:14:50
  Speaker 1: shadow blacks. There was the rock lifted among the stars.
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 1: There was the stretch of clump-dotted plain. And here, almost
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 1: before her, Lenark. He stood poised above a hole in
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: the ground, his saber lifted above his head as though
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: to begin a downward sweep. Something burly was climbing up
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: out of that hole, but even as he tightened his
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 1: sinews to strike, Lenark whirled around, and his eyes glared
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: murderously at Enid. End of chapter 14 Chapter 15 of
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: Fearful Rock by Manly Wade Wellman This LibriVox recording is
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker Chapter 15
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 1: Evil's End' Don' t!' Enid screamed.' Don' t! It's only I!' Lenark
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: growled and spun back to face what was now hoisting
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 1: itself above ground level.' And be careful of me, too,'
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: said the object.' It' s Jaeger, Mr. Lenark.' The point of
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: the saber lowered. The three of them were standing close
• 2:15:54
  Speaker 1: together on the edge of the opened grave. Lenark looked down.
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: He saw at the bottom the two areas of loose white.'
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 1: Are those the—'' Yes.' Yeager replied without waiting for him
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: to finish.' Two human skins. They're fresh, soft, and damp.'
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: Enid was listening, but she was past shuddering.' One of them,'
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: continued Yeager,' was taken from Persil Mandifer. I know his face.'
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 1: He made a scuffing kick motion with one boot. Clods
• 2:16:22
  Speaker 1: flew into the grave, falling with a dull plop as
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: upon wet blankets. He kicked more earth down swiftly and savagely.'
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 1: Help me,' he said to the others. Salt should be
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 1: thrown on those skins. That's what the old legends say.
• 2:16:35
  Speaker 1: But we have no salt. Dirt will have to do.
• 2:16:38
  Speaker 1: Don't you see? He almost shrieked. Somewhere near here, two
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 1: bodies are hiding. We're moving about without these skins to
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 1: cover them. Both Lenark and Enid knew they had seen
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: those bodies. In a moment, three pairs of feet were
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: thrusting earth down into the grave. Don't! It was a
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 1: wail from the trees in the ravine. A wail in
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 1: the voice of Persil Mandifer. We must return to those
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 1: skins before dawn. Two black silhouettes, wetly shining in the moonlight,
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 1: had come into the open. Behind them straggled six more,
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: the gorillas. Don't, came the cry again, this time a command.
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: You cannot destroy us now. It is midnight, the hour
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: of the Nameless One. At the word midnight, an idea
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 1: fairly exploded itself in Lenark's brain. He thrust his sword
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 1: into the hands of his old sergeant. Guard against them,
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 1: he said in the old tone of command. That book
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: of yours may serve as a shield and Enid's Bible.
• 2:17:35
  Speaker 1: I have something else to do. He turned and ran
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 1: around the edge of the grave, then toward the hole
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 1: that was filled with ruins of the old house, the
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: hole that emitted a glow of weak blue light. Into
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: it he flung himself, wondering if this diluted gleam of
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 1: the old unearthly blaze Ye evil things, stand and look
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 1: upon me for a moment, while I charm the drops
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: of blood from you which you have forfeited. The first
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: from your teeth, the second from your lungs, the third
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: from your heart's own mane. Louder went his voice and
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 1: higher as though he had to fight to keep down
• 2:18:20
  Speaker 1: his hysteria. God bid me vanquish you all! When Ark
• 2:18:25
  Speaker 1: had reached the upward column of the broken chimney, all
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 1: about his feet lay fragments glowing blue. He shoved at
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 1: them with his toe. There was an oblong of metal.
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: He touched it. Yes, that had been a door to
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 1: an old brick oven. He lifted it. Underneath lay what
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 1: he had hidden four years ago, a case of unknown construction.
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 1: But as he picked it up, he saw that it
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 1: had a lid. What had Enid overheard from her stepfather
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 1: so long ago? That he would live and prosper until
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 1: the secret writing should be taken forth and destroyed. It
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: would never open save at the place of the Nameless One,
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 1: at midnight under a full moon. With his thumbnail, he
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 1: pried at the lid and it came open easily. The
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: box seemed full of darkness, and when he thrust in
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 1: his hands he felt something crumble like paper burned to ashes.
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 1: That was what it was. Ashes. He turned the case
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 1: over and let the flakes fall out like strange black snow.
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 1: From somewhere resounded a shriek, or chorus of shrieks. Then
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 1: a woman weeping. That would be Enid. And a cry of,
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 1: God be thanked! unmistakably from Jaeger. The blue light died
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: away all around Lenark, and his legs were cool. The
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 1: old basement had fallen strangely dark. Then he was aware
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 1: of great fatigue, the trembling of his hands, the ropey
• 2:19:47
  Speaker 1: weakness of his lamed leg, and he could not climb
• 2:19:50
  Speaker 1: out again until Jaeger came and put down a hand.
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 1: At rosy dawn, the three sat on the front stoop
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 1: of Jaeger's cabin. Enid was pouring coffee from a serviceable
• 2:19:59
  Speaker 1: old black pot. We shall never know all that happened
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 1: and portended, said Jaeger, taking a mouthful of homemade bread,
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 1: but what we have seen will tell us all that
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 1: we should know. This much is plain, added Lenark. Persil
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: Mandifer worshipped an evil spirit, and that evil spirit had
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 1: life and power. Perhaps we would know everything if the
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 1: paper in the box had not burned in the fire,
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 1: went on Jaeger. That is probably as well, That it burned,
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 1: I mean. Some secrets are just as well never told.
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: He fell thoughtful, pulled his beard, and went on. Even burned,
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: the power of that document worked. But when the ashes
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 1: fell from their case, all was over. The bodies of
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 1: the gorillas were dry bones on the instant, and as
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 1: for the skinless things that moved and spoke as Mandifer
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 1: and his son. He broke off, for Enid had turned
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 1: deathly pale at memory of that part of the business.
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 1: We shall go back when the sun is well up.
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 1: said Lenark, and put those things back to rest in
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 1: their grave. He sat for a moment, coffee cup in hand,
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 1: and gazed into the brightening sky. To the two items
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 1: he had spoken of, as plainly indicated, he mentally added
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 1: a third, the worship carried on by Purcell Mandifer. Was
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 1: that name French, perhaps? Mandifer was tremendously old. He, Purcell,
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 1: must have received teachings in it from a former votary,
• 2:21:23
  Speaker 1: his father, perhaps. and must have conducted a complex and
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 1: secret ritual for decades. The attempted sacrifice rite for which
• 2:21:31
  Speaker 1: Enid had been destined was something the world would never know,
• 2:21:34
  Speaker 1: not as regards the climax. For a little band of
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 1: Yankee horsemen, with himself at their lead, had blundered into
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 1: the situation, throwing it completely out of order and spelling
• 2:21:43
  Speaker 1: for it the beginning of the end. The end had come,
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 1: Lenark was sure of that. How much of the power
• 2:21:49
  Speaker 1: and motivity of the worship had been exerted by the
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 1: Nameless One that now must continue nameless? How much of
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 1: it was Persil Mandifer's doing? How much was accident of
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: nature and horror hallucination of witnesses? Nobody could now decide.
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 1: As Jaeger had suggested, it was probably as well that
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 1: part of the mystery would remain. Things being as they were,
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 1: one might pick up the threads of his normal human
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 1: existence and be happy and fearless. But he could not
• 2:22:16
  Speaker 1: forget what he had seen. The two Mandifers, able to
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 1: live or to counterfeit life by creeping from their skins
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 1: at night, had perished as inexplicably as they had been resurrected.
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 1: The guerrillas, too, whose corpses had challenged him, must be
• 2:22:30
  Speaker 1: finding a grateful rest now that the awful semblance of
• 2:22:33
  Speaker 1: life had quitted their slack-butchered limbs. And the blue fire
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 1: that had burst forth in the midst of the old battle,
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: to linger ghost-wise for years, the horned image that Jaeger
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: had broken, the seeming powers of the long-lost friend as
• 2:22:47
  Speaker 1: an amulet and as a storehouse of charms, these were
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 1: items in the strange fabric He would remember them forever,
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 1: without rationalizing them. He drank coffee into which someone, probably Enid,
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 1: had dropped sugar while he mused. Rationalization, he decided, was
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 1: not enough, had never been enough. To judge a large
• 2:23:08
  Speaker 1: and dark mystery by what vestigial portions touched one was
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 1: to err like the blind men in the old doggerel who,
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 1: groping at an elephant here and there, called it in
• 2:23:17
  Speaker 1: turn a snake, a spear, a tree, a fan, a wall.
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 1: Better not to brood or ponder upon what had happened,
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 1: Try to be thankful and forget. I shall build my
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 1: church under fearful rock, Jaeger was saying, and it shall
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 1: be called fearful rock no more, but welcome rock. Lenark
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 1: looked up. Enid had come and seated herself beside him.
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 1: He studied her profile. Suddenly he could read her thoughts,
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 1: as plainly as though they were written upon her cheek.
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 1: She was thinking that grass would grow anew in her
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 1: front yard, and that she would soon marry Cain Lenark,
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 1: as soon as he asked her. End of chapter 15
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 1: and End of Fearful Rock by Manly Wade Wellman