Latest / Weird Fiction Audiobooks: Cosmic Horror, Strange Realities & Uncanny Tales / 🟡 Shadow Over Innsmouth (Full Audiobook) | H. P. Lovecraft

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🟡 Shadow Over Innsmouth (Full Audiobook) | H. P. Lovecraft · Weird Fiction Audiobooks: Cosmic Horror, Strange Realities & Uncanny Tales

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Speaker 1: CHAPTER I During the winter of 1927-28, federal government officials
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Speaker 1: made a strange and secret investigation into of certain conditions
0:31
Speaker 1: in the ancient Massachusetts seaport of Innsmouth. The public first
0:36
Speaker 1: learned of it in February, when a vast series of
0:38
Speaker 1: raids and arrests occurred, followed by the deliberate burning and dynamiting,
0:42
Speaker 1: under suitable precautions, of an enormous number of crumbling, worm-eaten,
0:46
Speaker 1: and supposedly empty houses along the abandoned waterfront. Uninquiring souls
0:52
Speaker 1: like this occurrence pass as one of the major clashes
0:55
Speaker 1: in a spasmodic war on liquor, Keener news followers, however,
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Speaker 1: wondered at the prodigious number of arrests, the abnormally large
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Speaker 1: force of men used in making them, and the secrecy
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Speaker 1: surrounding the disposal of the prisoners. No trials or even
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Speaker 1: definite charges were reported, nor were any of the captives
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Speaker 1: seen thereafter in the regular jails of the nation. There
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Speaker 1: were vague statements about disease and concentration camps, and later
1:19
Speaker 1: about dispersal in various naval and military prisons, but nothing
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Speaker 1: positive ever developed. Complaints from many liberal organizations were met
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Speaker 1: with long confidential discussions, and representatives were taken on trips
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Speaker 1: to certain camps and prisons. As a result, these societies
1:35
Speaker 1: became surprisingly passive and reticent. Newspaper men were harder to manage,
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Speaker 1: but seemed largely to cooperate with the government in the end.
1:43
Speaker 1: Only one paper, a tabloid always discounted because of its
1:46
Speaker 1: wild policy, mentioned the deep-diving submarine that discharged torpedoes downward
1:52
Speaker 1: in the marine abyss just beyond Devil Reef. That item,
1:55
Speaker 1: gathered by chance in a haunt of sailors, seemed indeed
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Speaker 1: rather far-fetched, since the low black reef lies a full
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Speaker 1: mile and a half out from Innsmouth Harbor. But at
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Speaker 1: last I am going to defy the ban on speech
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Speaker 1: about this thing. Results, I am certain, are so thorough
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Speaker 1: that no public harm save a shock of repulsion could
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Speaker 1: ever accrue from a hinting of what was found by
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Speaker 1: those horrified raiders at Innsmouth. For my contact with this
2:20
Speaker 1: affair has been closer than that of any other layman,
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Speaker 1: and I have carried away impressions which are yet to
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Speaker 1: drive me to drastic measures. It was I who fled
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Speaker 1: frantically out of Innsmouth in the early morning hours of
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Speaker 1: July 16, 1927, and whose frightened appeals for government inquiry
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Speaker 1: and action brought on the whole reported episode. I was
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Speaker 1: willing enough to stay mute while the affair was fresh
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Speaker 1: and uncertain, but now that it is an old story
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Speaker 1: with public interest and curiosity gone, I have an odd
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Speaker 1: craving to whisper about those few frightful hours in that
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Speaker 1: ill-rumored an evilly shadowed seaport of death and blasphemous abnormality.
2:56
Speaker 1: I never heard of Innsmouth till the day before I
2:58
Speaker 1: saw it for the first time, and, so far, last time.
3:02
Speaker 1: I was celebrating my coming of age by a tour
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Speaker 1: of New England, sightseeing, antiquarian, and genealogical, and had planned
3:09
Speaker 1: to go directly from ancient Newburyport to Arkham, whence my
3:12
Speaker 1: mother's family was derived. I had no car, but was
3:16
Speaker 1: travelling by train, trolley, and motor-coach, always seeking the cheapest
3:20
Speaker 1: possible route. In Newburyport, they told me that the steam
3:23
Speaker 1: train was the thing to take to Arkham, and it
3:25
Speaker 1: was only at the station ticket office when I demurred
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Speaker 1: at the high fare that I learned about Innsmouth. The stout,
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Speaker 1: shrewd-faced agent whose speech showed him to be no local
3:35
Speaker 1: man seemed sympathetic toward my efforts at economy, and made
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Speaker 1: a suggestion that none of my other informants had offered.
3:43
Speaker 1: You could take that old bus, I suppose, he said
3:46
Speaker 1: with a certain hesitation, but it ain't thought much of hereabouts.
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Speaker 1: It goes through Innsmouth. You may have heard about that.
3:54
Speaker 1: And so the people don't like it. Run by an
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Speaker 1: Innsmouth fella, Joe Sargent, but never gets any custom from here.
4:00
Speaker 1: Or Arkham, either, I guess. Leaves the square, front of
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Speaker 1: Hammond's drugstore at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., unless they've
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Speaker 1: changed lately. Looks like a terrible rattle trap. I've never
4:10
Speaker 1: been on it. That was the first I ever heard
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Speaker 1: of shadowed Innsmouth. Any reference to a town not shown
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Speaker 1: on common maps or listed in recent guidebooks would have
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Speaker 1: interested me. and the agent's old manner of allusion roused
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Speaker 1: something like real curiosity. So I asked the agent to
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Speaker 1: tell me something about it. He was very deliberate and
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Speaker 1: spoke with an air of feeling slightly superior to what
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Speaker 1: he said.
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Speaker 2: Innsmouth?
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Speaker 1: Well, it's a queer kind of town, down at the
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Speaker 1: mouth of the Manic Set. Used to be almost a city,
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Speaker 1: quite a port before the War of 1812, but all
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Speaker 1: gone to pieces in the last hundred years or so.
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Speaker 1: No railroad now. B & M never went through. and
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Speaker 1: the branch line from Rowley was given up years ago.
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Speaker 1: More empty houses than there are people, I guess, and
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Speaker 1: no business to speak of except fishing and lobstering. Everybody
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Speaker 1: trades mostly either here in Arkham or Ipswich. Once they
5:04
Speaker 1: had quite a few mills, but nothing left now except
5:07
Speaker 1: one gold refinery, running on the leanest kind of part-time.
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Speaker 1: That refinery, though, used to be a big thing. An
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Speaker 1: old man Marsh who owns it must be Richard and Crocius.
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Speaker 1: A queer old duck, though, and sticks mighty close in
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Speaker 1: his home. He's supposed to have developed some skin disease
5:22
Speaker 1: or deformity late in life that makes him keep out
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Speaker 1: of sight. Grandson of Captain Obed Marsh, who founded the business.
5:30
Speaker 1: His mother seems to have been some kind of foreigner.
5:32
Speaker 1: They say a South Sea Islander, so everybody raised cane
5:35
Speaker 1: when he married an Ipswich girl 50 years ago. They
5:39
Speaker 1: always do that about Innsmouth people, and folks here and
5:42
Speaker 1: hereabouts always try to cover up any Innsmouth blood they
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Speaker 1: have in them. But Marsh's children and grandchildren look just
5:48
Speaker 1: like anybody else so far as I can see. I've
5:51
Speaker 1: had them pointed out to me here, though come to
5:53
Speaker 1: think of it, the elder children don't seem to be
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Speaker 1: around lately. Never saw the old man. And why is
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Speaker 1: everybody so down on Innsmouth? Well, young fella, you mustn't
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Speaker 1: take too much stock in what people around here say.
6:05
Speaker 1: They're hard to get started, but once they do get started,
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Speaker 1: they never let up. They've been telling things about Innsmouth,
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Speaker 1: whispering and mostly, for the last hundred years, I guess,
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Speaker 1: and I gather they're more scared than anything else. Some
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Speaker 1: of the stories would make you laugh. about old Captain
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Speaker 1: Marsh driving bargains with the devil and bringing imps out
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Speaker 1: of hell to live in Innsmouth, or about some kind
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Speaker 1: of devil worship and awful sacrifices in some place near
6:30
Speaker 1: the wharves that people stumbled on around 1845 or thereabouts.
6:35
Speaker 1: But I come from Panton, Vermont, and that kind of
6:37
Speaker 1: story don't go down with me. You ought to hear, though,
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Speaker 1: what some of the old-timers tell about the Black Reef
6:43
Speaker 1: off the coast. Devil Reef, they call it. It's well
6:46
Speaker 1: above water a good part of the time and never
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Speaker 1: much below it. but at that you could hardly call
6:51
Speaker 1: it an island. The story is that there's a whole
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Speaker 1: legion of devils seen sometimes on that reef, sprawled about
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Speaker 1: or darting in and out of some kind of caves
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Speaker 1: near the top. It's a rugged, uneven thing, a good
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Speaker 1: bit over a mile out, and toward the end of
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Speaker 1: shipping days, sailors used to make big detours just to
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Speaker 1: avoid it. That is, sailors that didn't hail from Innsmouth.
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Speaker 1: One of the things they had against old Captain Marsh
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Speaker 1: was that he was supposed to land on it sometimes
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Speaker 1: at night when the tide was right. Maybe he did,
7:20
Speaker 1: for I dare say the rock formation was interesting. And
7:23
Speaker 1: it's just barely possible he was looking for a pirate loot,
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Speaker 1: and maybe finding it. But there was talk of his
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Speaker 1: dealing with demons there. Fact is, I guess on the whole,
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Speaker 1: it was really the captain that gave the bad reputation
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Speaker 1: to the reef. That was before the big epidemic of 1846,
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Speaker 1: when over half the folks in Innsmouth was carried off.
7:42
Speaker 1: They never did quite figure out what the trouble was,
7:45
Speaker 1: but it was probably some foreign kind of disease brought
7:48
Speaker 1: from China or somewhere by the shipping. It surely was
7:51
Speaker 1: bad enough. There was riots over it and all sorts
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Speaker 1: of ghastly doings that I don't believe ever got outside
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Speaker 1: of town. And it left the place in awful shape.
8:01
Speaker 1: Never came back. There can't be more than three or
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Speaker 1: four hundred people living there now. But the real thing
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Speaker 1: behind the way folks feel is simply race prejudice, and
8:09
Speaker 1: I don't say I'm blaming those folks that hold it.
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Speaker 1: I hate those Innsmouth folks myself, and I wouldn't care
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Speaker 1: to go to their town. I suppose you know, though
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Speaker 1: I can see you're a Westerner by your talk, what
8:20
Speaker 1: a lot of New England ships used to have to
8:22
Speaker 1: do with queer ports in Africa, Asia, South Seas, and
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Speaker 1: everywhere else, and what queer kinds of people they sometimes
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Speaker 1: brought back with them. Probably heard about the Salem Man
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Speaker 1: that came home with a Chinese wife, and maybe you
8:35
Speaker 1: know there's still a bunch of Fiji Islanders somewhere around
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Speaker 1: Cape Cod. Well, there must be something like that back
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Speaker 1: of the Innsmouth people. The place always was badly cut
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Speaker 1: off from the rest of the country by marshes and creeks,
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Speaker 1: and we can't be sure about the ins and outs
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Speaker 1: of the matter. But it's pretty clear old Captain Marsh
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Speaker 1: must have brought home some odd specimens when he had
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Speaker 1: all three of his ships in commission back in the
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Speaker 1: 20s and 30s. There certainly is a strange kind of
9:00
Speaker 1: a streak in the Innsmouth folks today. I don't know
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Speaker 1: how to explain it, but it sort of makes you crawl.
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Speaker 1: You'll notice a little bit in Sergeant if you take
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Speaker 1: his bus. Some of them have queer, narrow heads with
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Speaker 1: flat noses and bulgy, starry eyes that never seem to shut.
9:15
Speaker 1: And their skin ain't quite right. Rough and scabby. And
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Speaker 1: the sides of their necks are all shriveled or creased up.
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Speaker 1: Get bald, too, very young. The older fellas look the worst.
9:25
Speaker 1: Fact is, I don't believe I've ever seen a very
9:27
Speaker 1: old chap of that kind. Guess they must die looking
9:30
Speaker 1: in the glass. Animals hate them. They used to have
9:33
Speaker 1: lots of horse trouble before autos came in. Nobody can
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Speaker 1: ever keep track of those people, and State school officials
9:39
Speaker 1: and census men have a devil of a time. You
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Speaker 1: can bet that praying strangers ain't welcome around Innsmouth. I've
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Speaker 1: heard personally of more than one business or government man
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Speaker 1: that's disappeared there. And there's loose talk of one who
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Speaker 1: went crazy and is out at Danvers now. They must
9:54
Speaker 1: have fixed up some awful scare for that fellow. That's
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Speaker 1: why I wouldn't go at night if I was you.
10:00
Speaker 1: I've never been there and have no wish to go,
10:02
Speaker 1: but I guess a daytime trip couldn't hurt you, even
10:05
Speaker 1: though the people hereabouts will advise you not to make it.
10:08
Speaker 1: If you're just sightseeing and looking for some old-time stuff,
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Speaker 1: Innsmouth ought to be quite a place for you. And
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Speaker 1: so I spent part of that evening at the Newburyport
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Speaker 1: Public Library, looking up data about Innsmouth. The Essex County
10:20
Speaker 1: histories on the library shelves had very little to say,
10:23
Speaker 1: except that the town was founded in 1643, noted for
10:27
Speaker 1: shipbuilding before the Revolution, a seat of great marine prosperity
10:31
Speaker 1: in the early 19th century, and later a minor factory
10:34
Speaker 1: center using the Manuxet as power. The epidemic and riots
10:39
Speaker 1: of 1846 were very sparsely treated, as if they formed
10:42
Speaker 1: a discredit to the country. References to decline were few,
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Speaker 1: though the significance of the later record was unmistakable, After
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Speaker 1: the Civil War, all industrial life was confined to the
10:52
Speaker 1: Marsh Refining Company, and the marketing of gold ingots formed
10:56
Speaker 1: the only remaining bit of major commerce aside from the
10:59
Speaker 1: eternal fishing. Most interesting of all was a glancing reference
11:03
Speaker 1: to the strange jewelry vaguely associated with Innsmouth. It had
11:07
Speaker 1: evidently impressed the whole countryside more than a little, for
11:10
Speaker 1: mention was made of specimens in the Museum of Miskatonic
11:13
Speaker 1: University at Arkham, and in the display room of the
11:16
Speaker 1: Newburyport Historical Society. I resolved to see the local sample,
11:21
Speaker 1: set to be a large, queerly-proportioned thing evidently meant for
11:24
Speaker 1: a tiara, if it could possibly be arranged. The librarian
11:29
Speaker 1: gave me a note of introduction to the curator of
11:31
Speaker 1: this society, a Miss Anna Tilton, who lived nearby, and
11:35
Speaker 1: after a brief explanation, that ancient gentlewoman was kind enough
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Speaker 1: to pilot me into the closed building, since the hour
11:42
Speaker 1: was not outrageously late. The collection was a notable one, indeed.
11:46
Speaker 1: but in my present mood I had eyes for nothing
11:48
Speaker 1: but the bizarre object which glistened in a corner cupboard
11:51
Speaker 1: under the electric lights. It took no excessive sensitiveness to
11:56
Speaker 1: beauty to make me literally gasp at the strange, unearthly
11:59
Speaker 1: splendor of the alien, opulent fantasy that rested there on
12:03
Speaker 1: a purple velvet cushion. The longer I looked, the more
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Speaker 1: the thing fascinated me, and in this fascination there was
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Speaker 1: a curiously disturbing element hardly to be classified or accounted for.
12:14
Speaker 1: I decided that it was the queer, otherworldly quality of
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Speaker 1: the art which made me uneasy. It was as if
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Speaker 1: the workmanship were that of another planet. The patterns all
12:24
Speaker 1: hinted of remote secrets and unimaginable abysses in time and space,
12:29
Speaker 1: and the monotonously aquatic nature of the reliefs became almost sinister.
12:33
Speaker 1: Among these reliefs were fabulous monsters of abhorrent grotesqueness and malignity,
12:38
Speaker 1: wholly primeval and awesomely ancestral. At times I fancied that
12:43
Speaker 1: every contour of these blasphemous fish-frogs was overflowing with the
12:47
Speaker 1: ultimate quintessence of unknown and inhuman evil. An odd contrast
12:53
Speaker 1: to the tiara's aspect was its brief and prosy history,
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Speaker 1: as related by Miss Tilton. It had been pawned for
12:59
Speaker 1: a ridiculous sum at a shop in State Street in
13:01
Speaker 1: 1873 by a drunken Innsmouth man shortly afterward killed in
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Speaker 1: a brawl. Miss Tilton was inclined to believe that it
13:08
Speaker 1: formed part of some exotic pirate horde discovered by old
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Speaker 1: Captain Obed Marsh. This view was surely not weakened by
13:15
Speaker 1: the insistent offers of purchase at a high price which
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Speaker 1: the Marshes began to make as soon as they knew
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Speaker 1: of its presence, and which they repeated to this day
13:24
Speaker 1: despite the Society's unvarying determination not to sell. As the
13:28
Speaker 1: good lady showed me out of the building, she assured
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Speaker 1: me that the rumors of devil-worship were partly justified by
13:34
Speaker 1: a peculiar secret cult which had gained force there, and
13:38
Speaker 1: engulfed all the Orthodox churches. It was called, she said,
13:42
Speaker 1: the Esoteric Order of Dagon, and was undoubtedly a debased
13:46
Speaker 1: quasi-pagan thing imported from the East a century before, at
13:50
Speaker 1: a time when Innsmouth fisheries seemed to be going barren.
13:54
Speaker 1: Its persistence among a simple people was quite natural in
13:56
Speaker 1: view of the sudden and permanent return of abundantly fine fishing,
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Speaker 1: and it soon came to be the greatest influence on
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Speaker 1: the town. All this, to the pious Miss Tilton, formed
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Speaker 1: an excellent reason for shunning the ancient town of decay
14:09
Speaker 1: and desolation. But to me it was merely a fresh incentive,
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Speaker 1: and I could scarcely sleep in my small room at
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Speaker 1: the Y as the night wore away. The Slibberbox recording
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Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker. Chapter
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Speaker 1: Two Shortly before ten the next morning, I stood with
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Speaker 1: my one small valise in front of Hammond's Drugstore in
14:43
Speaker 1: Old Market Square, waiting for the Innsmouth bus. In a
14:47
Speaker 1: few moments a small motor coach of extreme decrepitude and
14:50
Speaker 1: dirty gray color rattled down State Street, made a turn,
14:54
Speaker 1: and drew up at the curb beside me. I felt
14:56
Speaker 1: immediately that it was the right one, a guess which
14:59
Speaker 1: the half-illegible sign on the windshield, Arkham Innsmouth Newburyport, soon verified.
15:05
Speaker 1: There were only three passengers, dark, unkempt man of sullen
15:09
Speaker 1: visage and somewhat youthful cast, and when the vehicle stopped
15:12
Speaker 1: they clumsily shambled out and began walking up State Street
15:15
Speaker 1: in a silent, almost furtive fashion. The driver also alighted. This,
15:20
Speaker 1: I reflected, must be the Joe Sargent mentioned by the
15:23
Speaker 1: ticket agent. And even before I had noticed any details,
15:26
Speaker 1: there spread over me a wave of spontaneous aversion which
15:30
Speaker 1: could be neither checked nor explained. He was a thin,
15:34
Speaker 1: stoop-shouldered man, not much under six feet tall, dressed in
15:37
Speaker 1: shabby blue civilian clothes and wearing a frayed gray golf cap.
15:41
Speaker 1: His age was perhaps thirty-five, but the odd deep creases
15:44
Speaker 1: in the sides of his neck made him seem older
15:47
Speaker 1: when one did not study his dull, expressionless face. He
15:50
Speaker 1: had a narrow head, bulging, watery blue eyes that seemed
15:54
Speaker 1: never to wink, a flat nose, a receding forehead and chin,
15:58
Speaker 1: and singularly undeveloped ears. As he walked toward the bus,
16:02
Speaker 1: I observed his peculiarly shambling gait and saw that his
16:05
Speaker 1: feet were inordinately immense. The more I studied them, the
16:08
Speaker 1: more I wondered how he could buy any shoes to
16:10
Speaker 1: fit them. A certain greasiness about the fellow increased my dislike.
16:16
Speaker 1: He was evidently given to working or lounging around the
16:18
Speaker 1: fish docks and carried with him much of their characteristic smell.
16:22
Speaker 1: Just what foreign blood was in him, I could not
16:24
Speaker 1: even guess. I was sorry when I saw that there
16:27
Speaker 1: would be no other passengers on the bus. Somehow I
16:29
Speaker 1: did not like the idea of riding alone with this driver.
16:32
Speaker 1: But as the leaving time obviously approached, I conquered my
16:35
Speaker 1: qualms and followed the man aboard, extending him a dollar
16:38
Speaker 1: bill and murmuring the single word, Innsmouth. At length the
16:42
Speaker 1: decrepit vehicle started with a jerk and rattled noisily past
16:45
Speaker 1: the old brick buildings of State Street amidst a cloud
16:48
Speaker 1: of vapor from the exhaust. The day was warm and sunny,
16:52
Speaker 1: but the landscape of sand, sedge grass, and stunted shrubbery
16:56
Speaker 1: became more and more desolate as we proceeded. Out the
16:59
Speaker 1: window I could see the blue water in the sandy
17:01
Speaker 1: line of Plum Island, and we presently drew very near
17:04
Speaker 1: the beach as our narrow road veered off from the
17:07
Speaker 1: main highway to Rowley and Ipswich. At last we lost
17:10
Speaker 1: sight of Plum Island and saw the vast expanse of
17:12
Speaker 1: the open Atlantic on our left. Our narrow course began
17:16
Speaker 1: to climb steeply, and I felt a singular sense of
17:19
Speaker 1: disquiet in looking at the lonely crest ahead where the
17:22
Speaker 1: rutted roadway met the sky. It was as if the
17:25
Speaker 1: bus were about to keep on its ascent, leaving the
17:27
Speaker 1: sane earth altogether. and merging with the unknown arcana of
17:31
Speaker 1: upper air and cryptical sky. The smell of the sea
17:35
Speaker 1: took on ominous implications, and the silent driver's bent, rigid
17:39
Speaker 1: back and narrow head became more and more hateful. As
17:43
Speaker 1: I looked at him, I saw the back of his
17:45
Speaker 1: head was almost as hairless as his face, having only
17:48
Speaker 1: a few straggling yellow strands upon a gray, scabrous surface.
17:52
Speaker 1: Then we reached the crest and beheld the outspread valley beyond,
17:56
Speaker 1: where the manic set joins the sea just north of
17:58
Speaker 1: the long line of cliffs that culminate in Kingsport Head.
18:03
Speaker 1: All my attention was captured by the nearer panorama just
18:06
Speaker 1: below me. I had, I realized, come face to face
18:09
Speaker 1: with rumor-shadowed Innsmouth. It was a town of wide extent
18:14
Speaker 1: and dense construction, yet one with a portentous dearth of
18:17
Speaker 1: visible life. The vast huddle of sagging, gambrel roofs and
18:21
Speaker 1: peaked gables conveyed with offensive clearness the idea of wormy decay.
18:25
Speaker 1: and as we approached along the now descending road I
18:28
Speaker 1: could see that many roofs had wholly caved in. Stretching
18:32
Speaker 1: inland I saw the rusted, grass-grown line of the abandoned railway,
18:36
Speaker 1: with leaning telegraph poles now devoid of wires. Here and
18:40
Speaker 1: there the ruins of wharves jutted out from the shore
18:43
Speaker 1: to end in indeterminate rottenness, those farther south seeming the
18:46
Speaker 1: most decayed. And far out at sea, despite a high tide,
18:50
Speaker 1: I glimpsed a long black line, scarcely rising above the water.
18:54
Speaker 1: yet carrying a suggestion of odd latent malignancy. This, I knew,
18:58
Speaker 1: must be Devil Reef. As I looked, a subtle, curious
19:02
Speaker 1: sense of beckoning seemed super-added to the grim repulsion, and
19:06
Speaker 1: oddly enough I found this overtone more disturbing than the
19:09
Speaker 1: primary impression. As the bus reached a lower level I
19:13
Speaker 1: began to catch the steady note of a waterfall through
19:15
Speaker 1: the unnatural stillness. The leaning, unpainted houses grew thicker, lined
19:21
Speaker 1: both sides of the road, and displayed more urban tendencies
19:24
Speaker 1: than did those we were leaving behind. The panorama ahead
19:27
Speaker 1: had contracted to a street scene, and in spots I
19:30
Speaker 1: could see where a cobblestone pavement and stretches of brick
19:34
Speaker 1: sidewalk had formerly existed. All the houses were apparently deserted,
19:39
Speaker 1: and there were occasional gaps where tumble-down chimneys and cellar
19:42
Speaker 1: walls told of buildings that had collapsed. Pervading everything was
19:46
Speaker 1: the most nauseous fishy odor imaginable. And I was not
19:50
Speaker 1: to reach my destination without one other very strong impression
19:54
Speaker 1: of poignantly disagreeable quality. The bus had come to a
19:58
Speaker 1: sort of open concourse or radial point with churches on
20:02
Speaker 1: two sides and the bedraggled remains of a circular green
20:06
Speaker 1: in the center. and I was looking at a large
20:08
Speaker 1: pillared hall on the right-hand junction ahead. The structure's once-white
20:13
Speaker 1: paint was now gray and peeling, and the black-and-gold sign
20:16
Speaker 1: on the pediment was so faded that I could only
20:19
Speaker 1: with difficulty make out the words, Esoteric Order of Dagon.
20:24
Speaker 1: The door of the church basement was open, revealing a
20:26
Speaker 1: rectangle of blackness inside, and as I looked a certain
20:30
Speaker 1: object crossed or seemed to cross that dark rectangle. burning
20:34
Speaker 1: into my brain a momentary conception of nightmare which was
20:37
Speaker 1: all the more maddening because analysis could not show a
20:39
Speaker 1: single nightmarish quality in it. It was a living object,
20:44
Speaker 1: the first except the driver that I had seen since
20:46
Speaker 1: entering the compact part of the town, and had I
20:49
Speaker 1: been in a steadier mood I would have found nothing
20:52
Speaker 1: whatever of terror in it. Clearly, as I realized a
20:55
Speaker 1: moment later, it was the past her. clad in some
20:58
Speaker 1: peculiar vestments doubtless introduced since the Order of Dagon had
21:02
Speaker 1: modified the ritual of the local churches. The thing which
21:06
Speaker 1: had probably caught my first subconscious glance and supplied the
21:09
Speaker 1: touch of bizarre horror was the tall tiara he wore,
21:13
Speaker 1: an almost exact duplicate of the one Miss Tilton had
21:15
Speaker 1: shown me the previous evening. This, acting on my imagination,
21:20
Speaker 1: had supplied namelessly sinister qualities to the indeterminate face and
21:24
Speaker 1: robed shambling form beneath it. A very thin sprinkling of
21:28
Speaker 1: repellent-looking youngish people now became visible on the sidewalks, lone
21:33
Speaker 1: individuals in silent knots of two or three. The lower
21:37
Speaker 1: floors of the crumbling houses sometimes harbored small shops with
21:40
Speaker 1: dingy signs, and I noticed a parked truck or two
21:44
Speaker 1: as we rattled along. The sound of waterfalls became more
21:48
Speaker 1: and more distinct, and presently I saw a fairly deep
21:51
Speaker 1: river gorge ahead, spanned by a wide, iron-railed highway bridge
21:55
Speaker 1: beyond which a large square opened out. Then we rolled
21:59
Speaker 1: into the large semicircular square across the river, and drew
22:02
Speaker 1: up on the right-hand side in front of a tall,
22:05
Speaker 1: Coppola-crowned building with remnants of yellow paint, and with a
22:09
Speaker 1: half-effaced sign proclaiming it to be the Gilman House. I
22:13
Speaker 1: was glad to get out of that bus, and at
22:15
Speaker 1: once proceeded to check my valise in the shabby hotel lobby.
22:19
Speaker 1: There was only one person in sight, an elderly man
22:22
Speaker 1: without what I had come to call the Innsmouth look,
22:25
Speaker 1: and I decided not to ask him any of the
22:26
Speaker 1: questions which bothered me, remembering that odd things had been
22:30
Speaker 1: noticed in this hotel. Instead, I strolled out on the
22:34
Speaker 1: square from which the bus had already gone and studied
22:37
Speaker 1: the scene minutely and appraisingly. For some reason or other,
22:40
Speaker 1: I chose to make my first inquiries at the chain grocery,
22:44
Speaker 1: whose personnel was not likely to be native to Innsmouth.
22:47
Speaker 1: I found a solitary boy of about seventeen in charge
22:50
Speaker 1: and was pleased to note the brightness and affability which
22:53
Speaker 1: promised cheerful information. He seemed exceptionally eager to talk, and
22:57
Speaker 1: I soon gathered that he did not like the place,
23:00
Speaker 1: its fishy smell, or its furtive people. His family did
23:04
Speaker 1: not like him to work in Innsmouth, but the chain
23:07
Speaker 1: had transferred him there, and he did not wish to
23:09
Speaker 1: give up his job. There was, he said, no public
23:12
Speaker 1: library or chamber of commerce in Innsmouth, but I could
23:15
Speaker 1: probably find my way about. The street I had come
23:18
Speaker 1: down was Federal. West of that were the fine old
23:21
Speaker 1: resident streets, broad Washington, Lafayette, and Adams, and east of
23:25
Speaker 1: it were the shoreward slums. Certain spots were almost forbidden territory,
23:30
Speaker 1: as he had learned at considerable cost. One must not,
23:34
Speaker 1: for example, linger much around the marsh refinery or around
23:37
Speaker 1: any of the still-used churches, or around the pillared order
23:41
Speaker 1: of Dagon Hall at New Church Green. Those churches were
23:45
Speaker 1: very odd, all violently disavowed by their respective denominations elsewhere.
23:50
Speaker 1: and apparently using the queerest kind of ceremonials and clerical vestments.
23:54
Speaker 1: As for the Innsmouth people, the youth hardly knew what
23:57
Speaker 1: to make of them. Their appearance, especially those staring, unwinking
24:02
Speaker 1: eyes which one never saw shut, was certainly shocking enough,
24:05
Speaker 1: and their voices were disgusting. It was awful to hear
24:09
Speaker 1: them chanting in their churches at night, and especially during
24:11
Speaker 1: their main festivals or revivals, which fell twice a year
24:14
Speaker 1: on April 30th and October 31st. They were very fond
24:18
Speaker 1: of the water and swam a great deal in both
24:20
Speaker 1: river and harbor. Swimming races out to Devil Reef were
24:23
Speaker 1: very common, and everyone in sight seemed well able to
24:26
Speaker 1: share in this arduous sport. It would be of no use,
24:29
Speaker 1: my informant said, to ask the natives anything about the place.
24:33
Speaker 1: The only one who would talk was a very aged
24:35
Speaker 1: but normal-looking man who lived at the poorhouse on the
24:37
Speaker 1: north rim of the town and spent his time walking
24:40
Speaker 1: about or lounging around the fire station. This hoary character...
24:45
Speaker 1: Zadok Allen was 96 years old and somewhat touched in
24:48
Speaker 1: the head, besides being the town drunkard. He was a strange,
24:52
Speaker 1: furtive creature who constantly looked over his shoulder as if
24:56
Speaker 1: afraid of something, and when sober could not be persuaded
24:59
Speaker 1: to talk at all with strangers. He was, however, unable
25:03
Speaker 1: to resist any offer of his favorite poison, and once
25:05
Speaker 1: drunk would furnish the most astonishing fragments of whispered reminiscence.
25:10
Speaker 1: After all, though, little useful data could be gained from him.
25:13
Speaker 1: since his stories were all insane, incomplete hints of impossible
25:17
Speaker 1: marvels and horrors which could have no source save in
25:20
Speaker 1: his own distorted fancy. Nobody ever believed him, but the
25:24
Speaker 1: natives did not like him to drink and talk with
25:26
Speaker 1: any strangers, and it was not always safe to be
25:29
Speaker 1: seen questioning him. It was probably from him that some
25:32
Speaker 1: of the wildest popular whispers and delusions were derived. The Marshes,
25:37
Speaker 1: together with the other three gently bred families of the town,
25:40
Speaker 1: the Waits, the Gilmans, and the Elliotts, were all very retiring.
25:44
Speaker 1: They lived in immense houses along Washington Street, and several
25:48
Speaker 1: were reputed to harbor in concealment certain kinsfolk whose personal
25:52
Speaker 1: aspect forbade public view, and whose deaths had been reported
25:55
Speaker 1: and recorded. Warning me that most of the street signs
25:59
Speaker 1: were down, the youth drew for my benefit a rough
26:01
Speaker 1: but ample and painstaking sketch map of the town's salient features.
26:06
Speaker 1: After a moment's study, I felt sure that it would
26:08
Speaker 1: be of great help, and pocketed it with profuse thanks.
26:12
Speaker 1: Thus began my systematic, though half-bewildered, tour of Innsmouth's narrow,
26:16
Speaker 1: shadow-blighted ways. Crossing the bridge and turning toward the roar
26:20
Speaker 1: of the lower falls, I passed close to the marsh refinery,
26:24
Speaker 1: which seemed oddly free from the noise of industry. This
26:27
Speaker 1: building stood on the steep river bluff near a bridge,
26:30
Speaker 1: and an open confluence of streets which I took to
26:32
Speaker 1: be the earliest civic center, displaced after the revolution by
26:36
Speaker 1: the present town square. Recrossing the gorge on the main
26:40
Speaker 1: street bridge, I struck a region of utter desertion which
26:43
Speaker 1: somehow made me shudder. Collapsing huddles of gambrel roofs formed
26:47
Speaker 1: a jagged and fantastic skyline, above which rose the ghoulish,
26:51
Speaker 1: decapitated steeple of an ancient church. Fish Street was as
26:55
Speaker 1: deserted as Maine, though it differed in having many brick
26:58
Speaker 1: and stone warehouses, still in excellent shape. Water Street was
27:02
Speaker 1: almost its duplicate, save that there were great seaward gaps
27:05
Speaker 1: where wharves had been. Not a living thing did I
27:08
Speaker 1: see except for the scattered fishermen on the distant breakwater,
27:12
Speaker 1: and not a sound did I hear save the lapping
27:14
Speaker 1: of the harbor tides and the roar of the falls
27:16
Speaker 1: and the manic set. I kept north along Main to Martin,
27:20
Speaker 1: then turning inland, crossing Federal Street safely north of the Green,
27:24
Speaker 1: and entering the decayed patrician neighborhood of Northern Broad, Washington, Lafayette,
27:28
Speaker 1: and Adams Streets. Following Washington Street toward the river, I
27:32
Speaker 1: now faced a zone of former industry and commerce, noting
27:36
Speaker 1: the ruins of a factory ahead and seeing others with
27:38
Speaker 1: the traces of an old railway station and covered railway
27:41
Speaker 1: bridge beyond up the gorge on my right. The uncertain
27:45
Speaker 1: bridge now before me was posted with a warning sign,
27:48
Speaker 1: but I took the risk and crossed again to the
27:50
Speaker 1: south bank where traces of life reappeared. Furtive, shambling creatures
27:54
Speaker 1: stared cryptically in my direction, and more normal faces eyed
27:58
Speaker 1: me coldly and curiously. Innsmouth was rapidly becoming intolerable, and
28:03
Speaker 1: I turned down Payne Street toward the square in the
28:05
Speaker 1: hope of getting some vehicle to take me to Arkham
28:07
Speaker 1: before the still-distant starting time of that sinister bus. It
28:12
Speaker 1: was then that I saw the tumble-down fire station on
28:14
Speaker 1: my left, and noticed the red-faced, bushy-bearded, watery-eyed old man
28:18
Speaker 1: in nondescript rags who sat on a bench in front
28:21
Speaker 1: of it, talking with a pair of unkempt but not
28:24
Speaker 1: abnormal-looking firemen. This, of course, must be Zadok Allen, the half-crazed,
28:29
Speaker 1: licorice-non-agenarian whose tales of old Innsmouth and its shadow were
28:33
Speaker 1: so hideous and incredible. End of chapter two. Chapter three
28:45
Speaker 1: of The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft. This LibriVox
28:49
Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker.
28:54
Speaker 1: Chapter three. I had been assured that the old man
28:57
Speaker 1: could do nothing but hint at wild, disjointed, and incredible legends,
29:02
Speaker 1: and I had been warned that the natives made it
29:03
Speaker 1: unsafe to be seen talking with him. Yet the thought
29:06
Speaker 1: of this aged witness to the town's decay, with memories
29:09
Speaker 1: going back to the early days of ships and factories,
29:12
Speaker 1: was a lure that no amount of reason could make
29:14
Speaker 1: me resist. Curiosity flared up beyond sense and caution, and
29:19
Speaker 1: in my youthful egotism I fancied I might be able
29:22
Speaker 1: to sift a nucleus of real history from the confused,
29:25
Speaker 1: extravagant outpouring I would probably extract with the aid of whisky.
29:29
Speaker 1: A quart bottle of such was easily, though not cheaply,
29:32
Speaker 1: obtained in the rear of a dingy variety store just
29:35
Speaker 1: off the square in Elliott Street. Re-entering the square, I
29:38
Speaker 1: saw that luck was with me. for, shuffling out of
29:41
Speaker 1: Payne Street around the corner of the Gilman House, I
29:44
Speaker 1: glimpsed nothing less than the tall, lean, tattered form of
29:46
Speaker 1: old Zadok Allen himself. In accordance with my plan, I
29:50
Speaker 1: attracted his attention by brandishing my newly purchased bottles. and
29:54
Speaker 1: soon realized that he had begun to shuffle wistfully after
29:57
Speaker 1: me as I turned them to White Street on my
29:59
Speaker 1: way to the most deserted region I could think of.
30:02
Speaker 1: Before I reached Main Street, I could hear a faint
30:04
Speaker 1: and wheezy,' Hey, mister!' behind me, and I presently allowed
30:09
Speaker 1: the old man to catch up and take copious pulls
30:11
Speaker 1: from the quart bottle. I began putting out feelers as
30:15
Speaker 1: we walked along to Water Street, and turned southward amidst
30:18
Speaker 1: the omnipresent desolation and crazily tilted ruins. but found that
30:21
Speaker 1: the aged tongue did not loosen as quickly as I'd expected.
30:25
Speaker 1: At length I saw a grass-grown opening toward the sea
30:28
Speaker 1: between crumbling brick walls with the weedy length of an
30:31
Speaker 1: earthen masonry wharf projecting beyond. Piles of moss-covered stones near
30:36
Speaker 1: the water promised tolerable seats, and the scene was sheltered
30:40
Speaker 1: from all possible view by a ruined warehouse on the north.
30:44
Speaker 1: About four hours remained for the conversation if I were
30:46
Speaker 1: to catch the eight o'clock coach for Arkham. and I
30:49
Speaker 1: began to dole out more liquor to the ancient tipler,
30:52
Speaker 1: meanwhile eating my own frugal lunch. In my donations I
30:56
Speaker 1: was careful not to overshoot the mark, for I did
30:58
Speaker 1: not wish Zadok's vinous garrulousness to pass into a stupor.
31:04
Speaker 1: After an hour his furtive taciturnity showed signs of disappearing,
31:08
Speaker 1: and something or other had caused his wandering gaze to
31:11
Speaker 1: light on the low distant line of Devil Reef, then
31:14
Speaker 1: showing plainly and almost fascinatingly above the waves Zadok, He
31:17
Speaker 1: bent toward me, took hold of my coat lapel, and
31:20
Speaker 1: hissed out some hints that could not be mistaken. That's
31:24
Speaker 1: what it all begun. That cursed place of all wickedness,
31:27
Speaker 1: what the deep water starts. Gate of hell, sheer drop.
31:32
Speaker 2: Down to a bottom no sound and line can tick.
31:36
Speaker 2: Old Captain Obed done it. Him that found out Morden
31:39
Speaker 2: was good for him in the South Sea Islands. Never
31:44
Speaker 2: was nobody like Captain Obed. O lamb of Satan, I
31:49
Speaker 2: can mind him a-tellin' about furrin' parts and callin' all
31:53
Speaker 2: the folks stupid for goin' to Christian meetin' and bearin'
31:56
Speaker 2: their burdens meek and lowly. Says they ought to get
32:00
Speaker 2: better gods like some of the folk in the Engies.
32:04
Speaker 2: God says it'd bring them good fishin' in return for
32:07
Speaker 2: their sacrifices and it'd really answer folks' prayers. Matt Elliott,
32:13
Speaker 2: his first mate, talked a lot too, only he was
32:16
Speaker 2: against folks doing any heathen things. Told about an island
32:20
Speaker 2: east of Oathite where there was a lot of stone
32:24
Speaker 2: ruins older than anybody knew anything about, kind of like
32:27
Speaker 2: them on Pony in the Carolines, but with carvings of
32:32
Speaker 2: faces that looked like the big statues on East Island.
32:36
Speaker 2: There was a little volcanic island near that too, what
32:39
Speaker 2: there was other ruins with Different carvings, ruins all worn
32:44
Speaker 2: away like they'd been under the sea once, and with
32:47
Speaker 2: pictures of awful monsters all over them.
32:49
Speaker 1: Well, sir, might,' he says,' the natives around our head
32:54
Speaker 1: all the fish they could catch, and sported bracelets and
32:58
Speaker 1: armlets and head-rigs made out of queer kind of gold
33:01
Speaker 1: and covered with pictures of monsters, just like the ones
33:05
Speaker 1: carved over the ruins on the little island.' sort of
33:09
Speaker 1: fish-like frogs or frog-like fishes that was drawed in all
33:12
Speaker 1: kinds of positions like they was human beings. Nobody could
33:16
Speaker 1: get out of them water where they got all the stuff,
33:20
Speaker 1: and all the other natives wondered how they managed to
33:23
Speaker 1: find fish and plenty even when the very next islands
33:26
Speaker 1: had lean pickings. Matt, he got to wandering, too, and
33:31
Speaker 1: so did Captain Obed. Obed, he notices, besides that, lots
33:36
Speaker 1: of hadn't seen some young folks to drop out of
33:39
Speaker 1: sight for good from many year to year, and that
33:42
Speaker 1: they wasn't many folks around. Also, he thinks some of
33:45
Speaker 1: the folks looks darn queer even for Kanakis. It took
33:49
Speaker 1: Obed to get the truth out of them heathens. I
33:52
Speaker 1: don't know how he had done it, but he begun
33:55
Speaker 1: by trading for the gold-like things they wore, asked them
33:58
Speaker 1: what they come from, and if they could get more,
34:01
Speaker 1: and finally wormed the story out of the old chief.
34:05
Speaker 1: While Achaea They called him. Nobody but Obed had ever
34:09
Speaker 1: believed the old yeller devil, but the captain could read
34:12
Speaker 1: folks like they was books. Nobody never believes me now
34:16
Speaker 1: when I tell them, and I don't suppose you will,
34:19
Speaker 1: young feller. They'll come to look at you. You have
34:23
Speaker 1: kind of got them sharp reading eyes like Obed had.
34:27
Speaker 1: The old man's whisper grew fainter, and I found myself
34:30
Speaker 1: shuddering at the terrible and sincere portentousness of his intonation.
34:35
Speaker 1: EVEN THOUGH I KNEW HIS TALE COULD BE NOTHING BUT
34:36
Speaker 1: DRUNKEN FANTASY.' Wild, sir! Oh, but he larked that day's
34:42
Speaker 1: things on this arth as most folks never heard about,
34:46
Speaker 1: and wouldn't believe if they did hear. It seems these
34:50
Speaker 1: Kanakis was sacrificing heaps of their young men and maidens
34:54
Speaker 1: to some kind of god-things that lived under the sea,
34:57
Speaker 1: and getting all kinds of favors in return. They met
35:01
Speaker 1: the things on the little islet with the queer ruins.'
35:04
Speaker 1: and it seems them awful pictures of frogfish monsters was
35:08
Speaker 1: supposed to be pictures of these things. Maybe they was
35:12
Speaker 1: the kind of critters as got all the mermaid stories
35:15
Speaker 1: and such started. They had all kinds of cities on
35:18
Speaker 1: the sea bottom, and this island was heaved up from thar.
35:22
Speaker 1: Seems they was some of the things alive in the
35:24
Speaker 1: stone buildings when the island come up from the sudden
35:27
Speaker 1: to the surface. That's how the Kanakis got when they
35:31
Speaker 1: was down thar. MADE SIGN TALK AS SOON AS THEY
35:34
Speaker 1: GOT OVER BEING SCARED, AND PICKED UP A BARGAIN OF
35:37
Speaker 1: FOUR LONG. THEM THINGS LIKE HUMAN SACRIFICES HAD THEM AGES AFORE,
35:43
Speaker 1: BUT LOST TRACK OF THE UPPER WORLD A HARDER TIME.
35:47
Speaker 1: WHAT THEY DONE TO THE VICTIMS, IT AIN'T FOR ME
35:49
Speaker 1: TO SAY, AND I GUESS OBE HAD WANTED ON TOO
35:52
Speaker 1: SHARP ABOUT ASKING. BUT IT WAS ALL RIGHT WITH THE HEATHENS,
35:56
Speaker 1: BECAUSE THEY HAD BEEN HAVING A HARD TIME AND WAS
35:59
Speaker 1: DESPERATE ABOUT EVERYTHING. They gave a certain number of young
36:04
Speaker 1: folks to the sea things twice every year. May, Eve,
36:08
Speaker 1: and Halloween, regular as could be. Also give someone a
36:12
Speaker 1: car of knick-knacks they made. What the things agreed to
36:15
Speaker 1: give in return was a plenty of fish. They drove
36:18
Speaker 1: them in from all over the sea, and a few
36:20
Speaker 1: gold-like things now and then. When it come to mating
36:24
Speaker 1: with them toad-looking fishes, the Kanakis kind of balked. But
36:27
Speaker 1: finally they learned something has put a new face on
36:30
Speaker 1: the matter. Seems that human folks have got kind of
36:33
Speaker 1: relation to such water beasts, that everything alive come out
36:36
Speaker 1: into water once, and only needs a little change to
36:40
Speaker 1: go back again. Them things told the Kanakis that if
36:43
Speaker 1: they mixed bloods there'd be children, as it looked human
36:46
Speaker 1: at first, but later turned more and more like the
36:49
Speaker 1: things till finally they'd take the water and join the
36:52
Speaker 1: main lot of things down there. And this is the
36:55
Speaker 1: important part, young feller. Them that turned into fish things
36:58
Speaker 1: and went into the water would never die, Them things
37:02
Speaker 1: never died except they was killed violent. Well, sir, it
37:06
Speaker 1: seems by the time Obed know them from Islanders they
37:09
Speaker 1: was all full of fish blood from them deep water things.
37:13
Speaker 1: When they got old and had begun to show it
37:16
Speaker 1: they was kept hidden till they felt like taking to
37:18
Speaker 1: the water and quitting the place. Some was more attached
37:21
Speaker 1: than others and some never did change quite enough to
37:24
Speaker 1: take the water but mostly they turned out just the
37:27
Speaker 1: way them things said. Demas was born more like the
37:30
Speaker 1: things changed early. But Demas was nearly human, sometimes stayed
37:35
Speaker 1: on the island till they was past seventy, though they
37:38
Speaker 1: usually go down under for trial trips afore that. Folks
37:42
Speaker 1: as had took to the water generally come back a
37:45
Speaker 1: good deal to visit, so as a man would often
37:47
Speaker 1: be a-talking to his own five-times-great-grandfather, who had left the
37:51
Speaker 1: dry land a couple hundred years or so before. Everybody
37:55
Speaker 1: got out with the idea of dyin', except in canoe
37:58
Speaker 1: wars with the other islanders, or as sacrifices to the
38:02
Speaker 1: sea gods down below, or from snakebite or plague or
38:05
Speaker 1: sharp galloping ailments or something before they could take to
38:09
Speaker 1: the water. But simply look forward to a kind of
38:12
Speaker 1: change that wasn't a bit horrible after a while. They
38:16
Speaker 1: thought what they got was well with all they had
38:19
Speaker 1: to give up, and I guess Obed kind of come
38:21
Speaker 1: to think the same himself when he chewed over old
38:25
Speaker 1: Wallachia's story a bit. Wallachia, though, was one of the
38:28
Speaker 1: few as hadn't got none of the fish blood, being
38:31
Speaker 1: of a royal line that intermarried with the royal lines
38:34
Speaker 1: on other islands. Wallachia gave them a funny kind of
38:38
Speaker 1: thingamajig made out of lead or something that he said
38:41
Speaker 1: would bring up the fish things from any place in
38:44
Speaker 1: the water, what they might be a nest of them.
38:46
Speaker 1: The idea was to drop it down with the right
38:48
Speaker 1: kind of prayers and such. Wallachia allowed as was the
38:52
Speaker 1: things was scattered all over the world. so as anybody
38:55
Speaker 1: that look about could find a nest and bring them
38:58
Speaker 1: up if they wanted. Matt, he didn't like this business
39:01
Speaker 1: at all, and wanted Obed should keep away from the island,
39:05
Speaker 1: but the cap'n was sharp for gain, and found he
39:08
Speaker 1: could get them gold-like things so cheap it'd pay him
39:11
Speaker 1: to make a specialty of them. Things went on that
39:14
Speaker 1: way for years, and Obed got enough of that gold-like
39:17
Speaker 1: stuff to make him start the refinery in Wait's old
39:20
Speaker 1: run-down fooling mill. Well, come about thirty-eight, When I was seven-year-old, Obed,
39:26
Speaker 1: he found the island people all wipe out between the villages.
39:31
Speaker 1: Seems the other islanders had got wind of what was
39:33
Speaker 1: going on, and had took matters into their own hands.
39:36
Speaker 1: Suppose they must have had, arter all, them old magic signs,
39:40
Speaker 1: as the sea-thing says was the only things they were
39:42
Speaker 1: afeard of. No telling what any of them kind of
39:45
Speaker 1: keys will chance to get a hold of when the
39:47
Speaker 1: sea-bottom throws up some island with ruins older than the deluge.
39:53
Speaker 1: Pious cusses these was, they didn't leave nothing standing on
39:56
Speaker 1: either the main island or the little volcanic islet, except
39:59
Speaker 1: what parts of the ruins was too big to knock down.
40:03
Speaker 1: That naturally hit Obed pretty hard, seeing as his normal
40:06
Speaker 1: trade was doing very poor. It hit the whole town
40:10
Speaker 1: of Innsmouth, too, because in seafaring days what profited the
40:13
Speaker 1: master of a ship generally profited the crew proportionate. Most
40:18
Speaker 1: of the folks around the town took the hard times
40:20
Speaker 1: kind of sheep-like and resigned, but they was in bad
40:23
Speaker 1: shape because the fishing was petering out and the mills
40:26
Speaker 1: wasn't doing none too well. Then the time obeyed, he
40:30
Speaker 1: began a cursing at the folk for being dull sheep
40:33
Speaker 1: and praying to a Christian heaven as didn't help them none.
40:37
Speaker 1: He told them he'd know the folks as prayed to
40:39
Speaker 1: gods that give something you really need and says if
40:42
Speaker 1: a good bunch of men would stand by him, he
40:44
Speaker 1: could maybe get a hold of certain powers and It'd
40:47
Speaker 1: bring plenty of fish and quite a bit of gold.
40:50
Speaker 1: Here the old man faltered, mumbled, and lapsed into a
40:53
Speaker 1: moody and apprehensive silence glancing nervously over his shoulder and
40:57
Speaker 1: then turning back to stare fascinatingly at the distant black reef.
41:01
Speaker 1: When I spoke to him, he did not answer, so
41:03
Speaker 1: I knew I would have to let him finish the bottle.
41:07
Speaker 1: He licked its nose and slipped it into his pocket,
41:09
Speaker 1: then beginning to nod and whisper softly to himself. I
41:14
Speaker 1: bent close to catch any articulate words he might utter,
41:16
Speaker 1: and thought I saw a sardonic smile behind the stained
41:19
Speaker 1: bushy whiskers. Yes, he was really forming words, and I
41:23
Speaker 1: could grasp a fair portion of them. Poor Matt. Matt,
41:27
Speaker 1: he always was, again, tried to line up the folk
41:30
Speaker 1: on his side, and had long talks with the preachers.
41:33
Speaker 1: No use. They run the congregational parson out of town,
41:38
Speaker 1: and the Methodist feller quit. Never did see resolved Babcock
41:42
Speaker 1: the Baptist parson again. Wrath of Jehovah, I was a
41:46
Speaker 1: mighty little critter, but I heard what I heard and
41:49
Speaker 1: seen what I seen. Dagon and Ashtoreth, Belial and Beelzebub,
41:55
Speaker 1: golden calf and idols of Canaan and the Philistines, Babylonish abominations, mene, mene, tekel, ufarsin.
42:06
Speaker 1: He stopped again, and from the look in his watery
42:09
Speaker 1: blue eyes I feared he was close to a stupor
42:11
Speaker 1: after all. but when I gently shook his shoulder, he
42:14
Speaker 1: turned on me with astonishing alertness and snapped out some
42:17
Speaker 1: more obscure phrases.' Don' t believe me, eh? Then just tell me,
42:23
Speaker 1: young feller, why Cap'n Obed and twenty-odd other folks used
42:26
Speaker 1: to roll about the Devil Reef in the dead of
42:28
Speaker 1: night and chant things so loud you could hear them
42:31
Speaker 1: all over town when the wind was right. Tell me that, eh,
42:34
Speaker 1: and tell me why Obed was allus droppin' heavy.' Things
42:38
Speaker 1: down in the deep water. To the other side of
42:40
Speaker 1: the reef where the bottom shoots down like a cliff
42:42
Speaker 1: lower than you can sound. Tell me what he done
42:45
Speaker 1: with that funny-shaped lead thingamajig as well I can't give him.
42:48
Speaker 2: Hey, boy.
42:50
Speaker 1: The watery blue eyes were almost savage and maniacal now,
42:53
Speaker 1: and the dirty white beard bristled electrically. Old Zadok probably
42:57
Speaker 1: saw me shrink back, for he began to cackle evilly.
43:01
Speaker 1: Beginning to see, eh? How about the night I took
43:04
Speaker 1: my par ship glass up to a couple of and
43:07
Speaker 1: see'd the reef a-bristlin' thick with shapes that drove off
43:11
Speaker 1: quick soon's the moon res. Obed and other folks was
43:14
Speaker 1: in the dory, but them shapes dove off the far side,
43:18
Speaker 1: into the deep water and never come up. How'd you
43:20
Speaker 1: like to be a little shaver alone up in a cupolo,
43:23
Speaker 1: a-watchin' shapes as.
43:25
Speaker 2: Wan human shapes, eh?
43:30
Speaker 1: The old man was getting hysterical, and I began to
43:32
Speaker 1: shiver with a nameless alarm. He laid a gnarled claw
43:36
Speaker 1: on my shoulder. and it seemed to me that its
43:39
Speaker 1: shaking was not altogether that of mirth.' Suppose one night
43:43
Speaker 1: you seed something heavy heaved' off an old bed's dory
43:48
Speaker 1: beyond the reef,' and then learn next day a young
43:51
Speaker 1: feller was missing from home.' Nay, did anybody ever seed
43:55
Speaker 1: a hide or hair' of old Hiram Gilman again, did they?'
43:59
Speaker 1: And Nick Pierce, and Llewelly Waite,' and Adoniram Southwick, and
44:06
Speaker 1: Henry Garrison?' Eh? Well, sir, that was the time Obed
44:12
Speaker 1: begun to get on his feet again. Folks see his
44:15
Speaker 1: three daughters are wearing gold-like things as nobody's seen on
44:18
Speaker 1: them before. And smoke start coming out the refinery chimney.
44:22
Speaker 1: Other folks was prospering, too. Fish began to swarm into
44:26
Speaker 1: the harbor, fit to kill. And heaven knows what size
44:29
Speaker 1: cargoes we begun to ship out to Newburyport, Arkham, and Boston.
44:34
Speaker 1: T'was then Obed got the old branch railroad put through. Remember,
44:39
Speaker 1: I ain't saying old Bud was settin' on havin' things
44:42
Speaker 1: just like they was on that Kanacky Owl. I don't
44:45
Speaker 1: think he aimed it for us to do no mixin',
44:48
Speaker 1: nor raise no youngins to take to the water and
44:50
Speaker 1: turn into fishes with eternal life. He wanted them gold
44:54
Speaker 1: things and was willing to pay heavy, and I guess
44:56
Speaker 1: the others was satisfied for a while. Come in forty-six,
45:01
Speaker 1: the town done some lookin' and thinkin' for itself. Too
45:04
Speaker 1: many folks missin', too much wild preachin' at meetin' of
45:08
Speaker 1: a Sunday. Too much talk about that reef. I guess
45:12
Speaker 1: I done a bit by telling Selectman Mallory what I
45:15
Speaker 1: see from the cupolo. There was a party one night
45:18
Speaker 1: as Father Obed's crowd out to the reef, and I
45:22
Speaker 1: heard shots betwixt the dories. Next day Obed and thirty-two
45:26
Speaker 1: others was in jail with everybody a-wondering just what was
45:29
Speaker 1: afoot and just what charge again could be got to hold. God,
45:33
Speaker 1: if anybody'd look ahead. A couple weeks later when nothing
45:36
Speaker 1: had been thrown into the sea for that long, Zadok
45:40
Speaker 1: was showing signs of fright and exhaustion, and I let
45:43
Speaker 1: him keep silent for a while, though glancing apprehensively at
45:45
Speaker 1: my watch. The tide had turned and was coming in now,
45:49
Speaker 1: and the sound of waves seemed to arouse him. That
45:53
Speaker 1: awful night, I seed them. I was up in a
45:57
Speaker 1: couple of hordes of them, swarms of them, all over
46:03
Speaker 1: the reef and swimming up the harbor into the monarch's set. God,
46:09
Speaker 1: what happened in the streets of Innsmouth that night? They
46:12
Speaker 1: rattled our door, but Pa wouldn't open. Then he'd clumb
46:16
Speaker 1: out the kitchen window with his musket to find Selectman
46:19
Speaker 1: Mowry and see what he could do. Mounds of the
46:23
Speaker 1: dead and the dying. Shots and screams. Shouting an old
46:27
Speaker 1: squire and town squire and new church green. Jail throat open.
46:32
Speaker 1: Proclamation treason. Called it the plague when folks come in
46:36
Speaker 1: and found half our people missing Nobody left but them
46:40
Speaker 1: as a joint end with Oban, and them things or
46:43
Speaker 1: else keep quiet, never hear to my paw no more.
46:46
Speaker 1: The old man was panting and perspiring profusely. His grip
46:49
Speaker 1: on my shoulder tightened. Everything cleaned up in the morning.
46:55
Speaker 1: Day was, traces. Oban kinder takes charge and says things
46:59
Speaker 1: is going to be changed. Others will worship with us
47:02
Speaker 1: at meeting time, and certain houses has got to entertain guests.
47:08
Speaker 1: They wanted to mix like they done with the Kanakis,
47:10
Speaker 1: and he for one didn't feel bound to stop them.
47:13
Speaker 1: Far gone was Obed just like a crazy man on
47:16
Speaker 1: the subject. He says they brung us fish and treasure
47:19
Speaker 1: and should have what they hankered after. Nothing was to
47:24
Speaker 1: be different on the outside, only we was to keep
47:27
Speaker 1: shy of strangers if we knowed what was good for us.
47:31
Speaker 1: We all had to take the oath of Dagon, and
47:34
Speaker 1: later on they was second and third oaths that some
47:36
Speaker 1: of us took them as it helped special, get special rewards.
47:43
Speaker 1: Gold and such. No use balking, for they was millions
47:46
Speaker 1: of them down there. They'd rather not start rising and
47:50
Speaker 1: wiping out the humankind, but if they gave way and
47:54
Speaker 1: forced to, they could do a lot toward just that.
47:58
Speaker 1: Yelled up enough sacrifices and savage knick-knacks and arborage in
48:02
Speaker 1: the town when they wanted it, and they'd let well
48:05
Speaker 1: enough alone. all in the band of faithful. Order of Dagon,
48:10
Speaker 1: and the children should never die, but go back to
48:14
Speaker 1: the mother Hydra, and father Dagon, what we all come from, once.
48:31
Speaker 1: Old Zadok began to moan now, and tears were coursing
48:34
Speaker 1: down his channeled cheeks and to the depths of his beard. God,
48:38
Speaker 1: what I seen since I was fifteen year old. Many,
48:42
Speaker 1: many tackle up Harrison. The folks us was missing, and
48:48
Speaker 1: them has killed theirselves. Them has told things in Arkham
48:51
Speaker 1: or Ipswich or such places was all called crazy, like
48:55
Speaker 1: you're calling me right now. But God, what I seen.
48:59
Speaker 1: They'd have killed me long ago, for what I know.
49:02
Speaker 1: Only I took the first and second oaths that they'd
49:04
Speaker 1: gone off on Obed, so I was protected and less
49:07
Speaker 1: than a jury, and proved I told things knowing and deliberate.
49:11
Speaker 1: But I wouldn't take the third oath. I'd die rather
49:14
Speaker 1: than take that. It got worse around Civil War time.
49:19
Speaker 1: When children born since 46 begun to grow up, some
49:22
Speaker 1: of them, that is, I was afeard. Never did no
49:26
Speaker 1: pride in order to die awful not. And never seen
49:30
Speaker 1: one of them close to.
49:31
Speaker 2: In all my life.
49:32
Speaker 1: That is, never no full-blooded one. Barnabas Marsh that run
49:37
Speaker 1: refiner and now was Obed's grandson by his first wife,
49:42
Speaker 1: son of Onesiphorus, his eldest son. But his mother was
49:46
Speaker 1: another of them as want never seed outdoors. Right now
49:51
Speaker 1: Barnabas is about changed, can't shut his eyes no more,
49:55
Speaker 1: and is all out of shape. They say he still
49:57
Speaker 1: wears clothes, but he'll take to the water soon. The
50:01
Speaker 1: sound of the incoming tide was now very insistent. and
50:05
Speaker 1: little by little it seemed to change the old man's
50:07
Speaker 1: mood from maudlin tearfulness to watchful fear. He would pause
50:11
Speaker 1: now and then to renew those nervous glances over his shoulder,
50:14
Speaker 1: or out toward the reef, and despite the wild absurdity
50:18
Speaker 1: of his tale, I could not help beginning to share
50:21
Speaker 1: his vague apprehensiveness. Zadok now grew shriller and seemed to
50:25
Speaker 1: be trying to whip up his courage with louder speech. Hey, you,
50:29
Speaker 1: why don't you say something?
50:31
Speaker 3: How would you like to be living in a town
50:33
Speaker 3: like this, with everything a-rotting and a-dying and boarded up
50:38
Speaker 3: monsters crawling and bleating and barking and hopping around black
50:42
Speaker 3: cellars and attics every way you turn.
50:45
Speaker 1: Hey, Walser, let me tell you that ain't the worst.
50:50
Speaker 1: Zadok was really screaming now, and the mad frenzy of
50:52
Speaker 1: his voice disturbed me more than I care to own.
50:55
Speaker 1: Curse you! Don't sit there staring at me with them eyes!
51:00
Speaker 1: I tell old Ben Marsh he's in hell, and he's
51:02
Speaker 1: got to stay there! In hell, I says. Can't get me.
51:07
Speaker 1: I ain't done nothing nor told nobody nothing. Oh, you
51:12
Speaker 1: young feller. Why, even if I ain't told nobody nothing,
51:16
Speaker 1: I'm a-going to now. You just sit still and listen
51:20
Speaker 1: to me, boy. This is why I ain't never told nobody.
51:23
Speaker 1: I says I didn't get to do no prime after
51:26
Speaker 1: that night, but I found things out just the same.
51:30
Speaker 1: You want to know what the real horror is, eh? Well,
51:34
Speaker 1: it's this. It ain't what them fish devils has done,
51:38
Speaker 1: but what they're a-goin' to do. They're a-bringin' things up
51:41
Speaker 1: out of where they come from in the town. Been
51:45
Speaker 1: doin' it for years. Been slackin' it up lately. Them
51:49
Speaker 1: houses north of the river betwixt water and main streets
51:52
Speaker 1: is full of them. Them devils and what they brung.
51:56
Speaker 1: And when they get ready, I say, when they get ready,
52:01
Speaker 1: ever hear tell of a shoggoth? Hey, do you hear me?
52:06
Speaker 1: I tell you, I know what.
52:07
Speaker 2: Them things be.
52:08
Speaker 1: I seen them one night when... The hideous suddenness and
52:17
Speaker 1: inhuman frightfulness of the old man's shriek almost made me faint.
52:21
Speaker 1: His eyes, looking past me toward the malodorous sea, were
52:24
Speaker 1: positively starting from his head, while his face was a
52:27
Speaker 1: mask of fear worthy of Greek tragedy. His bony claw
52:31
Speaker 1: dug monstrously into my shoulder. and he made no motion
52:35
Speaker 1: as I turned my head to look at whatever he
52:37
Speaker 1: had glimpsed. There was nothing that I could see, only
52:41
Speaker 1: the incoming tide with perhaps one set of ripples more
52:44
Speaker 1: local than the long-flung line of breakers. But now Zadok
52:47
Speaker 1: was shaking me, and I turned back to watch the
52:49
Speaker 1: melting of that fear-frozen face into a chaos of twitching
52:53
Speaker 1: eyelids and mumbling gums. Presently his voice came back, albeit
52:58
Speaker 1: as a trembling whisper. Get out of here. Out of here.
53:05
Speaker 2: They seen us.
53:06
Speaker 1: Get out for your life. Don't wait for nothing. They
53:11
Speaker 1: know now. Run for it. Quick.
53:14
Speaker 2: Out of this town.
53:17
Speaker 1: Another heavy wave dashed against the loosening masonry of the
53:20
Speaker 1: bygone wharf and changed the mad ancient's whisper to another
53:24
Speaker 1: inhuman and blood-curdling scream. Yaaah! Yaaah! Before I could recover
53:33
Speaker 1: my scattered wits, he had relaxed his clutch on my
53:35
Speaker 1: shoulder and dashed wildly inland toward the street, reeling northward
53:40
Speaker 1: around the ruined warehouse wall. I glanced back at the sea,
53:43
Speaker 1: but there was nothing there. And when I reached Water
53:46
Speaker 1: Street and looked along it toward the north, there was
53:48
Speaker 1: no remaining trace of Zadok Allen. End of chapter three.
53:59
Speaker 1: Chapter four of The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft.
54:04
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
54:07
Speaker 1: Ben Tucker. Chapter 4 I can hardly describe the mood
54:14
Speaker 1: in which I was left by this harrowing episode. An
54:17
Speaker 1: episode at once mad and pitiful, grotesque and terrifying. The
54:21
Speaker 1: grocery boy had prepared me for it, yet the reality
54:24
Speaker 1: left me nonetheless bewildered and disturbed. Pure I, although the
54:28
Speaker 1: story was old Zadok's insane earnestness and horror, had communicated
54:32
Speaker 1: to me a mounting unrest which joined with my earlier
54:35
Speaker 1: sense of loathing for the town and its blight of
54:38
Speaker 1: intangible shadow. The hour had grown perilously late. I watched
54:43
Speaker 1: at 7.15 and the Arkham bus left Town Square at 8,
54:46
Speaker 1: so I tried to give my thoughts as neutral and
54:48
Speaker 1: practical a cast as possible, meanwhile walking rapidly through the
54:52
Speaker 1: deserted streets of gaping roofs and leaning houses toward the
54:55
Speaker 1: hotel where I had checked my valise and would find
54:58
Speaker 1: my bus. Studying the grocery youth's map and seeking a
55:02
Speaker 1: route I had not traversed before, I chose Marsh Street
55:05
Speaker 1: instead of State for my approach to Town Square. Near
55:08
Speaker 1: the corner of Fall Street, I began to see scattered
55:10
Speaker 1: groups of furtive whisperers, and when I finally reached the square,
55:13
Speaker 1: I saw that almost all the loiterers were congregated around
55:16
Speaker 1: the door of the Gilman House. It seemed as if
55:19
Speaker 1: many bulging, watery, unwinking eyes looked oddly at me as
55:24
Speaker 1: I claimed my valise in the lobby. and I hoped
55:27
Speaker 1: that none of these unpleasant creatures would be my fellow
55:29
Speaker 1: passengers on the coach. The bus, rather early, rattled in
55:33
Speaker 1: with three passengers somewhat before eight, and an evil-looking fellow
55:36
Speaker 1: on the sidewalk muttered a few indistinguishable words to the driver.
55:41
Speaker 1: I was, it appeared, in very bad luck. There had
55:45
Speaker 1: been something wrong with the engine, despite the excellent time
55:47
Speaker 1: made from Newburyport, and the bus could not complete the
55:51
Speaker 1: journey to Arkham. No, it could not possibly be repaired
55:54
Speaker 1: that night, nor was there any other way of getting
55:57
Speaker 1: transportation out of Innsmouth, either to Arkham or elsewhere. Sergeant
56:01
Speaker 1: was sorry, but I would have to stop over at
56:03
Speaker 1: the Gilman. Probably the clerk would make the price easy
56:06
Speaker 1: for me, but there was nothing else to do. Almost
56:10
Speaker 1: dazed by this sudden obstacle, and violently dreading the fall
56:13
Speaker 1: of night in this decaying and half-unlighted town, I left
56:17
Speaker 1: the bus and re-entered the hotel lobby, where the sullen,
56:20
Speaker 1: queer-looking night clerk told me I could have room 428
56:23
Speaker 1: on next to the top floor. large but without running water,
56:27
Speaker 1: for a dollar. Despite what I had heard of this
56:29
Speaker 1: hotel in Newburyport, I signed the register, paid my dollar,
56:33
Speaker 1: let the clerk take my valise, and followed that sour,
56:36
Speaker 1: solitary attendant up three creaking flights of stairs past dusty corridors,
56:41
Speaker 1: which seemed wholly devoid of life. My room, a dismal
56:45
Speaker 1: rear one with two windows and bare cheap furnishings, overlooked
56:49
Speaker 1: a dingy courtyard otherwise hemmed in by low, deserted brick blocks,
56:54
Speaker 1: and commanded a view of decrepit westward-stretching roofs with a
56:57
Speaker 1: marshy countryside beyond. At the end of the corridor was
57:01
Speaker 1: a bathroom, a discouraging relic with ancient marble bowl, tin tub,
57:06
Speaker 1: faint electric light, and musty wooden paneling around all the
57:09
Speaker 1: plumbing fixtures. As twilight deepened, I turned on the one
57:14
Speaker 1: feeble electric bulb over the cheap iron-framed bed and tried
57:17
Speaker 1: as best I could to read. I felt it advisable
57:20
Speaker 1: to keep my mind wholesomely occupied, for it would not
57:23
Speaker 1: do to brood over the abnormalities of this ancient, blight-shadowed
57:27
Speaker 1: town while I was still within its borders. The insane
57:30
Speaker 1: yarn I had heard from the aged drunkard did not
57:33
Speaker 1: promise very pleasant dreams, and I felt I must keep
57:36
Speaker 1: the image of his wild, watery eyes as far as
57:39
Speaker 1: possible from my imagination. Another thing that disturbed me was
57:43
Speaker 1: the absence of a bolt on the door of my room.
57:46
Speaker 1: One had been there, as marks clearly showed, but there
57:49
Speaker 1: were signs of recent removal. No doubt it had become
57:53
Speaker 1: out of order, like so many other things in this
57:55
Speaker 1: decrepit edifice. In my nervousness, I looked around and discovered
57:59
Speaker 1: a bolt on the clothes press, which seemed to be
58:02
Speaker 1: of the same size, judging from the marks, as the
58:05
Speaker 1: one formerly on the door. To gain a partial relief
58:08
Speaker 1: from the general tension, I busied myself by transferring this
58:11
Speaker 1: hardware to the vacant place, with the aid of a
58:14
Speaker 1: handy three-in-one device, including a screwdriver, which I kept on
58:17
Speaker 1: my keyring. The bolt fitted perfectly, and I was somewhat
58:20
Speaker 1: relieved when I knew that I could shoot it firmly
58:22
Speaker 1: upon retiring. There were adequate bolts on two lateral doors
58:26
Speaker 1: to connecting rooms, and these I proceeded to fasten. I
58:30
Speaker 1: did not undress, but decided to read till I was sleepy,
58:33
Speaker 1: and then lie down with only my coat, collar, and
58:36
Speaker 1: shoes off. Taking a pocket flashlight from my valise, I
58:39
Speaker 1: placed it in my trousers, so that I could read
58:41
Speaker 1: my watch if I woke up later in the dark. Drowsiness, however,
58:45
Speaker 1: did not come. And when I stopped to analyze my thoughts,
58:48
Speaker 1: I found to my disquiet that I was really unconsciously
58:52
Speaker 1: listening for something. Listening for something which I dreaded but
58:55
Speaker 1: could not name. At length, feeling a fatigue which had
58:59
Speaker 1: nothing of drowsiness in it, I bolted the newly outfitted
59:02
Speaker 1: hall door, turned off the light, and threw myself down
59:05
Speaker 1: on the hard, uneven bed. Coat, collar, shoes, and all.
59:10
Speaker 1: In the darkness, every faint noise of the night seemed magnified,
59:14
Speaker 1: and a flood of doubly unpleasant thoughts swept over me.
59:17
Speaker 1: I was sorry I'd put out the light, yet was
59:20
Speaker 1: too tired to rise and turn it on again. Then,
59:23
Speaker 1: after a long, dreary interval, and prefaced by a fresh
59:27
Speaker 1: creaking of stairs and corridors, there came that soft, damnably
59:31
Speaker 1: unmistakable sound which seemed like a malign fulfillment of all
59:35
Speaker 1: my apprehensions. Without the least shadow of a doubt, the
59:40
Speaker 1: lock on my hall door was being tried, cautiously, furtively, tentatively,
59:45
Speaker 1: with a key. The change in the menace from vague
59:48
Speaker 1: premonition to immediate reality was a profound shock, and fell
59:52
Speaker 1: upon me with the force of a genuine blow. It
59:56
Speaker 1: never once occurred to me that the fumbling might be
59:58
Speaker 1: a mere mistake, Malign purpose was all I could think of,
1:00:02
Speaker 1: and I kept deathly quiet, awaiting the would-be intruder's next move.
1:00:07
Speaker 1: After a time the cautious rattling ceased, and I heard
1:00:10
Speaker 1: the room to the north entered with a passkey. Then
1:00:12
Speaker 1: the lock of the connecting door to my room was
1:00:14
Speaker 1: softly tried. The bolt held, of course, and I heard
1:00:17
Speaker 1: the floor creak as the prowler left the room. After
1:00:21
Speaker 1: a moment there came another soft rattling, and I knew
1:00:23
Speaker 1: that the room to the south of me was being entered.
1:00:26
Speaker 1: Again a furtive trying of a bolted connecting door. and
1:00:29
Speaker 1: again a receding creaking. This time the creaking went along
1:00:34
Speaker 1: the hall and down the stairs, so I knew that
1:00:36
Speaker 1: the prowler had realized the bolted condition of my doors
1:00:40
Speaker 1: and was giving up his attempt for a time. The
1:00:43
Speaker 1: one thing to do was to get out of that
1:00:45
Speaker 1: hotel alive as quickly as I could, and through some
1:00:48
Speaker 1: channel other than the front stairs and lobbies. Rising softly
1:00:52
Speaker 1: and throwing my flashlight on the switch, I sought to
1:00:54
Speaker 1: light the bulb over my head in order to choose
1:00:57
Speaker 1: and pocket some belongings for a swift, valiceless flight. Nothing, however, happened,
1:01:03
Speaker 1: and I saw that the power had been cut off.
1:01:06
Speaker 1: So filling my pockets with the flashlight's aid, I put
1:01:09
Speaker 1: on my hat and tiptoed to the windows to consider
1:01:11
Speaker 1: chances of descent. Despite the state's safety regulations, there was
1:01:15
Speaker 1: no fire escape on this side of the hotel, and
1:01:18
Speaker 1: I saw that my windows commanded only a sheer three-story
1:01:20
Speaker 1: drop to the cobbled courtyard. On the right and left, however,
1:01:24
Speaker 1: some ancient brick business blocks abutted on the hotel, their
1:01:28
Speaker 1: slanted roofs coming up to a reasonable jumping distance from
1:01:31
Speaker 1: my fourth-story level. To reach either of these lines of buildings,
1:01:34
Speaker 1: I would have to be in a room two doors
1:01:36
Speaker 1: from my own, in one case on the north and
1:01:38
Speaker 1: in the other case on the south, and my mind
1:01:41
Speaker 1: instantly set to work calculating what chances I had of
1:01:43
Speaker 1: making the transfer. First, I reinforced my own outer door
1:01:47
Speaker 1: by pushing the bureau against it, little by little, in
1:01:50
Speaker 1: order to make a minimum of sound. Then, gathering from
1:01:53
Speaker 1: the grocery boy's map that the best route out of
1:01:55
Speaker 1: town was southward, I glanced first at the connecting door
1:01:58
Speaker 1: on the south side of the room. It was designed
1:02:01
Speaker 1: to open in my direction. Hence, I saw, after drawing
1:02:05
Speaker 1: the bolt and finding other fastenings in place, it was
1:02:08
Speaker 1: not a favorable one for forcing. Accordingly abandoning it as
1:02:12
Speaker 1: a route, I cautiously moved the bedstead against it to
1:02:14
Speaker 1: hamper any attack which might be made on it later
1:02:17
Speaker 1: from the next room. The door on the north was
1:02:19
Speaker 1: hung to open away from me, and this, though a
1:02:22
Speaker 1: test proved it to be locked or bolted from the
1:02:24
Speaker 1: other side, I knew must be my route. If I
1:02:27
Speaker 1: could gain the roofs of the buildings in Payne Street
1:02:29
Speaker 1: and descend successfully to the ground level, I might perhaps
1:02:32
Speaker 1: dart through the courtyard and the adjacent or opposite buildings
1:02:35
Speaker 1: to Washington or Bates, or else emerge in Payne and
1:02:39
Speaker 1: edge around southward into Washington. In any case, I would
1:02:42
Speaker 1: aim to strike Washington somehow and get quickly out of
1:02:45
Speaker 1: the town square region. My preference would be to avoid Payne,
1:02:48
Speaker 1: since the fire station there might be open all night.
1:02:52
Speaker 1: I was irresolutely speculating on when I had better attack
1:02:54
Speaker 1: the northward door, and on how I could least audibly
1:02:57
Speaker 1: manage it, when I noticed that the vague noises underfoot
1:03:00
Speaker 1: had given place to a fresh and heavier creaking of
1:03:02
Speaker 1: the stairs. A wavering flicker of light showed through my transom,
1:03:06
Speaker 1: and the boards of the corridor began to groan with
1:03:08
Speaker 1: a ponderous load. Muffled sounds of possible vocal origin approached,
1:03:13
Speaker 1: and at length a firm knock came at my outer door.
1:03:16
Speaker 1: For a moment I simply held my breath and waited.
1:03:19
Speaker 1: Eternities seemed to elapse, and the nauseous fishy odor of
1:03:22
Speaker 1: my environment seemed to mount suddenly and spectacularly. Then the
1:03:27
Speaker 1: knocking was repeated, continuously, and with growing insistence. I knew
1:03:31
Speaker 1: that the time for action had come, and forthwith drew
1:03:34
Speaker 1: the bolt of the northward connecting door, bracing myself for
1:03:37
Speaker 1: the task of battering it open. The knocking waxed louder,
1:03:41
Speaker 1: and I hoped that its volume would cover the sound
1:03:43
Speaker 1: of my efforts. At last, beginning my attempt, I lunged
1:03:46
Speaker 1: again and again at the thin paneling with my left shoulder,
1:03:49
Speaker 1: heedless of shock or pain. Finally, the connecting door gave,
1:03:53
Speaker 1: but with such a crash that I knew those outside
1:03:55
Speaker 1: must have heard. Instantly, the outside knocking became a violent battering,
1:03:59
Speaker 1: while keys sounded ominously in the hall doors of the
1:04:02
Speaker 1: rooms on both sides of me. Rushing through the newly
1:04:04
Speaker 1: opened connection, I succeeded in bolting the northerly hall door
1:04:08
Speaker 1: before the lock could be turned. Even as I did so,
1:04:10
Speaker 1: I heard the hall door of the third room, the
1:04:12
Speaker 1: one from whose window I had hoped to reach the
1:04:14
Speaker 1: roof below, being tried with a passkey. For an instant
1:04:17
Speaker 1: I felt absolute despair, since my trapping in a chamber
1:04:20
Speaker 1: with no window egress seemed complete. Then, with a dazed automatism,
1:04:25
Speaker 1: I made for the next connecting door and performed the
1:04:27
Speaker 1: blind motion of pushing at it in an effort to
1:04:28
Speaker 1: get through. Sheer fortunate chance gave me my reprieve, for
1:04:33
Speaker 1: the connecting door before me was not only unlocked, but
1:04:35
Speaker 1: actually ajar. In a second, I was through and had
1:04:38
Speaker 1: my right knee and shoulder against a hall door which
1:04:40
Speaker 1: was visibly open inward. My pressure took the opener off
1:04:43
Speaker 1: guard for the thing shut as I pushed, so that
1:04:46
Speaker 1: I could slip the well-conditioned bolt as I had done
1:04:48
Speaker 1: with the other door. As I gained this respite, I
1:04:51
Speaker 1: heard the battering at the two other doors abate, while
1:04:53
Speaker 1: a confused clatter came from the connecting door I had
1:04:55
Speaker 1: shielded with the bedstead. Evidently, the bulk of my assailants
1:04:59
Speaker 1: had entered the southerly room and were massing in a
1:05:01
Speaker 1: lateral attack. but at the same moment a passkey sounded
1:05:04
Speaker 1: in the next door to the north, and I knew
1:05:06
Speaker 1: that a nearer peril was at hand. The northward connecting
1:05:10
Speaker 1: door was wide open, but there was no time to
1:05:12
Speaker 1: think about checking the already turning lock in the hall.
1:05:15
Speaker 1: All I could do was to shut and bolt the
1:05:17
Speaker 1: open connecting door, as well as its mate on the
1:05:19
Speaker 1: opposite side, pushing a bedstead against the one and a
1:05:22
Speaker 1: bureau against the other, and moving a washstand in front
1:05:24
Speaker 1: of the hall door. I must, I saw, trust to
1:05:27
Speaker 1: such makeshift barriers to shield me till I could get
1:05:30
Speaker 1: out of the window, and on the roof of the
1:05:32
Speaker 1: Payne Street block. But even in this acute moment, my
1:05:36
Speaker 1: chief horror was something apart from the immediate weakness of
1:05:38
Speaker 1: my defenses. I was shuddering because not one of my pursuers,
1:05:42
Speaker 1: despite some hideous pantings, gruntings, and subdued barkings at odd intervals,
1:05:47
Speaker 1: was uttering an intelligible vocal sound. As I moved the
1:05:52
Speaker 1: furniture and rushed toward the windows, I heard a frightful
1:05:54
Speaker 1: scurrying along the corridor toward the room north of me,
1:05:58
Speaker 1: and perceived that the southward battering had ceased. Plainly, most
1:06:01
Speaker 1: of my opponents were about to concentrate against the feeble
1:06:04
Speaker 1: connecting door, which they knew must open directly on me. Outside,
1:06:08
Speaker 1: the moon played on the ridge pole of the block below,
1:06:11
Speaker 1: and I saw that the jump would be desperately hazardous
1:06:14
Speaker 1: because of the steep surface on which I must land.
1:06:17
Speaker 1: The clatter at the northerly connecting door was now terrific,
1:06:20
Speaker 1: and I saw that the weak paneling was beginning to splinter. Obviously,
1:06:24
Speaker 1: the besiegers had brought some ponderous object into play as
1:06:27
Speaker 1: a battering ram. The bedstead, however, still held firm, so
1:06:31
Speaker 1: that I had at least a faint chance of making
1:06:33
Speaker 1: good my escape. As I opened the window, I noticed
1:06:36
Speaker 1: that it was flanked by heavy velour draperies, suspended from
1:06:39
Speaker 1: a pole by brass rings, and also that there was
1:06:42
Speaker 1: a large projecting catch for the shutters on the exterior.
1:06:45
Speaker 1: Seeing a possible means of avoiding the dangerous jump, I
1:06:48
Speaker 1: yanked at the hangings and brought them down pole and all,
1:06:51
Speaker 1: then quickly hooking two of the rings in the shutter
1:06:53
Speaker 1: catch and flinging the drapery outside. The heavy folds reached
1:06:57
Speaker 1: fully to the abutting roof, and I saw that the
1:06:59
Speaker 1: rings and catch would be likely to bear my weight.
1:07:02
Speaker 1: So climbing out of the window and down the improvised
1:07:04
Speaker 1: rope ladder, I left behind me forever the morbid and
1:07:07
Speaker 1: horror-infested fabric of the Gilman house. I landed safely on
1:07:11
Speaker 1: the loose slates of the steep roof and succeeded in
1:07:14
Speaker 1: gaining the gaping black skylight without a slip. The place
1:07:17
Speaker 1: inside was ghoulish-looking, but I was past minding such impressions
1:07:21
Speaker 1: and made at once for the staircase revealed by my flashlight.
1:07:25
Speaker 1: after a hasty glance at my watch, which showed the
1:07:27
Speaker 1: hour to be 2 a.m. The steps creaked but seemed
1:07:31
Speaker 1: tolerably sound, and I raced down past a barn-like second
1:07:34
Speaker 1: story to the ground floor. The desolation was complete and
1:07:38
Speaker 1: only echoes answered my footfalls. The hallway inside was black,
1:07:42
Speaker 1: and when I reached the opposite end I saw that
1:07:44
Speaker 1: the street door was wedged immovably shut. Resolved to try
1:07:49
Speaker 1: another building, I groped my way toward the courtyard, but
1:07:52
Speaker 1: stopped short when close to the doorway. for out of
1:07:56
Speaker 1: an opened door in the Gilman house a large crowd
1:07:58
Speaker 1: of doubtful shapes was pouring, lanterns bobbing in the darkness
1:08:02
Speaker 1: and horrible croaking voices exchanging low cries in what was
1:08:06
Speaker 1: certainly not English. Their features were indistinguishable, but their crouching,
1:08:11
Speaker 1: shambling gait was abominably repellent, and worst of all I
1:08:14
Speaker 1: perceived that one figure was strangely robed and unmistakably surmounted
1:08:19
Speaker 1: by a tall tiara of a design altogether too familiar.
1:08:23
Speaker 1: Again groping toward the street, I opened the door off
1:08:25
Speaker 1: the hall and came upon an empty room with closely shuttered,
1:08:29
Speaker 1: but sashless windows. Fumbling in the rays of my flashlight,
1:08:33
Speaker 1: I found that I could open the shutters, and, in
1:08:35
Speaker 1: another moment, had climbed outside and was carefully closing the
1:08:38
Speaker 1: aperture in its original manner. I walked rapidly, softly, and
1:08:43
Speaker 1: closely to the ruined houses. At Bates' streets I drew
1:08:46
Speaker 1: into a yawning vestibule, while two shambling figures crossed in
1:08:50
Speaker 1: front of me. but was soon on my way again
1:08:52
Speaker 1: and approaching the open space where Elliott Street obliquely crosses
1:08:56
Speaker 1: Washington at the intersection of South. Though I had never
1:08:59
Speaker 1: seen this, space, it had looked dangerous to me on
1:09:02
Speaker 1: the grocery youth's map since the moonlight would have free
1:09:04
Speaker 1: play there. There was no use trying to evade it,
1:09:07
Speaker 1: for any alternative course would involve detours of possibly disastrous
1:09:11
Speaker 1: visibility and delaying effect. The only thing to do was
1:09:15
Speaker 1: to cross it boldly and openly, imitating the typical shamble
1:09:18
Speaker 1: of the Innsmouth folk as best I could, entrusting that
1:09:22
Speaker 1: no one, or at least no pursuer of mine, would
1:09:24
Speaker 1: be there. Just how fully the pursuit was organized, and
1:09:28
Speaker 1: indeed just what its purpose might be, I could form
1:09:31
Speaker 1: no idea. There seemed to be unusual activity in the town,
1:09:35
Speaker 1: but I judged that the news of my escape from
1:09:37
Speaker 1: the Gilman had not yet spread. The open space was,
1:09:41
Speaker 1: as I had expected, strongly moonlit, but my progress was unimpeded,
1:09:47
Speaker 1: and no fresh sound arose to hint that I had
1:09:49
Speaker 1: been spied. Glancing about me, I involuntarily let my pace
1:09:53
Speaker 1: slacken for a second to take in the sight of
1:09:55
Speaker 1: the sea, gorgeous in the burning moonlight at the street's end.
1:09:59
Speaker 1: Far out beyond the breakwater was the dim, dark line
1:10:01
Speaker 1: of Devil Reef. Then, without warning, I saw the intermittent
1:10:05
Speaker 1: flashes of light on the distant reef. My muscles tightened
1:10:09
Speaker 1: for panic flight, held in only by a certain unconscious
1:10:12
Speaker 1: caution and half-hypnotic fascination. And to make matters worse... There
1:10:18
Speaker 1: now flashed forth from the lofty cupola of the Gilman house,
1:10:21
Speaker 1: which loomed up to the northeast behind me, a series
1:10:23
Speaker 1: of analogous, though differently spaced gleams which could be nothing
1:10:27
Speaker 1: less than an answering signal. I now bent to the
1:10:30
Speaker 1: left around the ruinous green, still gazing toward the ocean
1:10:33
Speaker 1: as it blazed in the spectral summer moonlight, and watching
1:10:37
Speaker 1: the cryptical flashing of those nameless, unexplainable beacons. It was
1:10:41
Speaker 1: then that the most horrible impression of all was borne
1:10:44
Speaker 1: in upon me. the impression which destroyed my last vestige
1:10:47
Speaker 1: of self-control, and sent me running frantically southward past the
1:10:51
Speaker 1: yawning black doorways and fiscally staring windows of that deserted
1:10:55
Speaker 1: nightmare street. For at a closer glance I saw that
1:10:58
Speaker 1: the moonlit waters between the reef and the shore were
1:11:00
Speaker 1: far from empty. They were alive, with a teeming horde
1:11:03
Speaker 1: of shapes swimming inward toward the town. My frantic running
1:11:08
Speaker 1: ceased before I had covered a block, for at my
1:11:10
Speaker 1: left I began to hear something like the hue and
1:11:12
Speaker 1: cry of organized pursuit. There were footsteps and guttural sounds
1:11:16
Speaker 1: and a rattling motor wheezed south along Federal Street. In
1:11:20
Speaker 1: a second, all my plans were utterly changed, for if
1:11:23
Speaker 1: the southward highway were blocked ahead of me, I must
1:11:26
Speaker 1: clearly find another egress from Innsmouth. I paused and drew
1:11:29
Speaker 1: into a gaping doorway, reflecting how lucky I was to
1:11:32
Speaker 1: have left the moonlit open space before these pursuers came
1:11:35
Speaker 1: down the parallel street. Then I thought of the abandoned
1:11:39
Speaker 1: railway to Rowley. whose solid line of ballasted weed-grown earth
1:11:43
Speaker 1: still stretched off to the northwest from the crumbling station
1:11:46
Speaker 1: on the edge of the river gorge. There was just
1:11:49
Speaker 1: a chance that the townsfolk would not think of that.
1:11:52
Speaker 1: Drawing inside the hall of my deserted shelter, I once
1:11:55
Speaker 1: more consulted the grocery boy's map with the aid of
1:11:58
Speaker 1: the flashlight. The immediate problem was how to reach the
1:12:01
Speaker 1: ancient railway, and I now saw that the safest course
1:12:04
Speaker 1: was ahead to Babson Street, then west to Lafayette, there
1:12:08
Speaker 1: edging around but not crossing an open space homologous to
1:12:11
Speaker 1: the one I'd traversed, and subsequently back northward and westward
1:12:16
Speaker 1: in zigzagging line through Lafayette, Bates, Adams, and Banks streets,
1:12:20
Speaker 1: the latter skirting the river gorge, to the abandoned and
1:12:23
Speaker 1: dilapidated station I'd seen from my window. My reason for
1:12:27
Speaker 1: going ahead to Babson was that I wished neither to
1:12:29
Speaker 1: recross the earlier open space, nor to begin my westward
1:12:32
Speaker 1: course along a cross street as broad as south. I
1:12:35
Speaker 1: crossed the street to the right-hand side in order to
1:12:37
Speaker 1: edge round into Babson, as inconspicuously as possible. In Babson Street,
1:12:43
Speaker 1: I clung as closely as possible to the sagging, uneven buildings,
1:12:46
Speaker 1: twice pausing in a doorway as the noises behind me
1:12:49
Speaker 1: momentarily increased. The open space ahead shone wide and desolate
1:12:53
Speaker 1: under the moon, but my route would not force me
1:12:56
Speaker 1: to cross it. During my second pause, I began to
1:12:59
Speaker 1: detect a fresh distribution of the vague sounds, and upon
1:13:02
Speaker 1: looking cautiously out from cover, beheld a motor car darting
1:13:05
Speaker 1: across the open space, bound outward along Elliott Street. As
1:13:10
Speaker 1: I watched, choked by a sudden rise in the fishy
1:13:13
Speaker 1: odor after a short abatement, I saw a band of
1:13:16
Speaker 1: uncouth crouching shapes, loping and shambling in the same direction,
1:13:20
Speaker 1: and knew that this must be the party guarding the
1:13:23
Speaker 1: Ipswich Road, since that highway forms an extension of Elliott Street.
1:13:28
Speaker 1: Two of the figures I glimpsed were in voluminous robes,
1:13:31
Speaker 1: and one wore a peaked diadem, which glistened whitely in
1:13:34
Speaker 1: the moonlight. The gait of this figure was so odd
1:13:37
Speaker 1: that it sent a chill through me. for it seemed
1:13:40
Speaker 1: to me the creature was almost hopping. When the last
1:13:44
Speaker 1: of the band was out of sight, I resumed my progress,
1:13:47
Speaker 1: darting around the corner into Lafayette Street and crossing Elliott
1:13:50
Speaker 1: very hurriedly, lest stragglers of the party be still advancing
1:13:53
Speaker 1: along that thoroughfare. I did hear some croaking and clattering
1:13:57
Speaker 1: sounds far off toward Town Square, but accomplished the passage
1:14:00
Speaker 1: without disaster. My greatest dread was in recrossing Broad and
1:14:05
Speaker 1: Moonlit South Street with its seaward view, and I had
1:14:08
Speaker 1: to nerve myself for the ordeal. Someone might easily be looking,
1:14:12
Speaker 1: and possibly Elliott Street stragglers could not fail to glimpse
1:14:15
Speaker 1: me from either of two points. At the last moment,
1:14:18
Speaker 1: I decided I had better slacken my trot and make
1:14:20
Speaker 1: the crossing as before in the shambling gait of an
1:14:23
Speaker 1: average Innsmouth native. I had not quite crossed the street
1:14:27
Speaker 1: when I heard a muttering band advancing along Washington from
1:14:30
Speaker 1: the north. As they reached the broad open space where
1:14:33
Speaker 1: I had had my first disquieting glimpse of the moonlit water,
1:14:37
Speaker 1: I could see them plainly only a block away, and
1:14:39
Speaker 1: was horrified by the bestial abnormality of their faces and
1:14:43
Speaker 1: the dog-like sub-humanness of their crouching gait. One man moved
1:14:47
Speaker 1: in a positively simian way, with long arms frequently touching
1:14:51
Speaker 1: the ground, while another figure, robed and tiarad, seemed to
1:14:55
Speaker 1: progress in an almost hopping fashion. I judged this partly
1:14:59
Speaker 1: to be the one I'd seen in the Gilman's courtyard,
1:15:02
Speaker 1: the one, therefore, most closely on my trail. As some
1:15:05
Speaker 1: of the figures turned to look in my direction, I
1:15:07
Speaker 1: was transfixed with fright, yet managed to preserve the casual
1:15:10
Speaker 1: shambling gait I had assumed. To this day I do
1:15:13
Speaker 1: not know whether they saw me or not. If they did,
1:15:16
Speaker 1: my stratagem must have deceived them, for they passed on
1:15:19
Speaker 1: across the moonlit space without varying their course, meanwhile croaking
1:15:23
Speaker 1: and jabbering in some hateful guttural patois I could not identify.
1:15:28
Speaker 1: Once more in shadow, I resumed my former dog-trot past
1:15:31
Speaker 1: the leaning and decrepit houses that stared blankly into the night.
1:15:36
Speaker 1: Having crossed to the western sidewalk, I rounded the nearest
1:15:38
Speaker 1: corner into Bates Street, where I kept close to the
1:15:41
Speaker 1: buildings on the southern side. At last I saw the
1:15:44
Speaker 1: ancient arcaded station, or what was left of it, and
1:15:48
Speaker 1: made directly for the tracks that started from its farther end.
1:15:52
Speaker 1: The rails were rusty but mainly intact, and not more
1:15:55
Speaker 1: than half the ties had rotted away. Walking or running
1:15:58
Speaker 1: on such a surface was very difficult, but I did
1:16:01
Speaker 1: my best, and on the whole made very fair time.
1:16:04
Speaker 1: For some distance, the line kept on along the gorge's brink,
1:16:07
Speaker 1: but at length I reached the long-covered bridge where it
1:16:10
Speaker 1: crossed the chasm at a dizzying height. The condition of
1:16:13
Speaker 1: this bridge would determine my next step. If humanly possible,
1:16:17
Speaker 1: I would use it. If not, I would have to
1:16:19
Speaker 1: risk more street-wandering and take the nearest intact highway bridge.
1:16:23
Speaker 1: The vast, barn-like length of the old bridge gleamed spectrally
1:16:26
Speaker 1: in the moonlight, and I saw that the ties were
1:16:29
Speaker 1: safe for at least a few feet within. Entering, I
1:16:32
Speaker 1: began to use my flashlight, and was almost knocked down
1:16:35
Speaker 1: by the cloud of bats that flapped past me. About
1:16:38
Speaker 1: halfway across there was a perilous gap in the ties,
1:16:42
Speaker 1: which I feared for a moment would halt me, but
1:16:44
Speaker 1: in the end I risked a desperate jump which fortunately succeeded.
1:16:49
Speaker 1: I was glad to see the moonlight again when I
1:16:50
Speaker 1: emerged from that macabre tunnel. The old tracks crossed River
1:16:54
Speaker 1: Street at a grade, and at once veered off into
1:16:56
Speaker 1: a region increasingly rural and with less and less of
1:16:59
Speaker 1: Innsmouth's abhorrent fishy odour. Here the dense growth of weeds
1:17:03
Speaker 1: and briars hindered me and cruelly tore my clothes, but
1:17:07
Speaker 1: I was nonetheless glad that they were there to give
1:17:09
Speaker 1: me concealment in case of peril. I knew that much
1:17:12
Speaker 1: of my route must be visible from the Rowley Road.
1:17:16
Speaker 1: The marshy region began very shortly with a single track
1:17:19
Speaker 1: on a low grassy embankment, then came a sort of
1:17:22
Speaker 1: island of higher ground where the line passed through a
1:17:24
Speaker 1: shallow open cut choked with bushes and brambles. I was
1:17:27
Speaker 1: very glad of this particular shelter since at this point
1:17:30
Speaker 1: the Rowley Road was uncomfortably near according to my window view.
1:17:34
Speaker 1: Just before entering the cut, I glanced behind me, but
1:17:37
Speaker 1: saw no pursuer. The ancient spires and roofs of decaying
1:17:40
Speaker 1: Innsmouth gleamed lovely and ethereal in the magic yellow moonlight,
1:17:44
Speaker 1: and I thought of how they must have looked in
1:17:46
Speaker 1: the old days before the shadow fell. Then, as my
1:17:50
Speaker 1: gaze circled inland from the town, something less tranquil arrested
1:17:53
Speaker 1: my notice and held me immobile for a second. What
1:17:56
Speaker 1: I saw, or fancied I saw, was a disturbing suggestion
1:18:00
Speaker 1: of undulant motion far to the south, a suggestion which
1:18:04
Speaker 1: made me conclude that a very large horde must be
1:18:07
Speaker 1: pouring out of the city along the level Ipswich Road.
1:18:10
Speaker 1: The distance was great, and I could distinguish nothing in detail,
1:18:15
Speaker 1: but I did not at all like the look of
1:18:16
Speaker 1: that moving column. All sorts of unpleasant conjectures crossed my mind.
1:18:21
Speaker 1: I thought of those very extreme Innsmouth types, said to
1:18:24
Speaker 1: be hidden in crumbling, centuried warrens near the waterfront, I
1:18:28
Speaker 1: thought too of those nameless swimmers I had seen, counting
1:18:31
Speaker 1: the parties so far glimpsed as well as those presumably
1:18:34
Speaker 1: covering other roads. The number of my pursuers must be
1:18:37
Speaker 1: strangely large for a town as depopulated as Innsmouth. Who
1:18:41
Speaker 1: were they? Why were they here? And if such a
1:18:44
Speaker 1: column of them was scourging the Ipswich Road, would the
1:18:47
Speaker 1: patrols on the other roads be likewise augment? I had
1:18:51
Speaker 1: entered the brush-grown cut and was struggling along at a
1:18:54
Speaker 1: very slow pace when that damnable fishy odor again waxed dominant.
1:18:59
Speaker 1: There were sounds, too, a kind of wholesale colossal flopping
1:19:02
Speaker 1: or pattering which somehow called up images of the most
1:19:05
Speaker 1: detestable sort. And then both stench and sounds grew stronger
1:19:10
Speaker 1: so that I paused shivering, grateful for the cut's protection.
1:19:13
Speaker 1: It was here, I recalled, that the Rowley Road drew
1:19:15
Speaker 1: so close to the old railway before crossing westward and diverging.
1:19:19
Speaker 1: Something was coming along that road, and I must lie
1:19:22
Speaker 1: low till its passage and vanishment in the distance. Crouched
1:19:26
Speaker 1: in the bushes of that sanded cleft I felt reasonably safe,
1:19:29
Speaker 1: even though I knew the searchers would have to cross
1:19:31
Speaker 1: the track in front of me not much more than
1:19:33
Speaker 1: a hundred yards away. I would be able to see them,
1:19:36
Speaker 1: but they could not, except by a malign miracle, see me.
1:19:41
Speaker 1: All at once I began dreading to look at them
1:19:43
Speaker 1: as they passed. I saw the close moonlit space where
1:19:46
Speaker 1: they would surge by, and had curious thoughts about the
1:19:48
Speaker 1: irredeemable pollution of that space. They would perhaps be the
1:19:52
Speaker 1: worst of all Innsmouth types, something one would not care
1:19:55
Speaker 1: to remember. The stench waxed overpowering, and the noises swelled
1:20:00
Speaker 1: to a bestial babble of croaking, baying, and barking without
1:20:03
Speaker 1: the least suggestion of human speech. Were these indeed the
1:20:06
Speaker 1: voices of my pursuers? That flopping or pattering was monstrous.
1:20:10
Speaker 1: I could not look upon the degenerate creatures responsible for it.
1:20:14
Speaker 1: I would keep my eyes shut till the sounds receded
1:20:16
Speaker 1: toward the west. The horde was very close now, the
1:20:19
Speaker 1: air foul with their hoarse snarlings and the ground almost
1:20:22
Speaker 1: shaking with their alien-rhythmed footfalls. My breath nearly ceased to come,
1:20:26
Speaker 1: and I put every ounce of willpower into the task
1:20:29
Speaker 1: of holding my eyelids down. I am not even yet
1:20:32
Speaker 1: willing to say whether what followed was a hideous actuality
1:20:35
Speaker 1: or only a nightmare hallucination. The latter action of the government,
1:20:39
Speaker 1: after my frantic appeals, would tend to confirm it as
1:20:42
Speaker 1: a monstrous truth, but could not an hallucination have been
1:20:46
Speaker 1: repeated under the quasi-hypnotic spell of that ancient, haunted, and
1:20:49
Speaker 1: shadowed town? But I must try to tell what I
1:20:53
Speaker 1: thought I saw that night under the mocking yellow moon,
1:20:56
Speaker 1: saw surging and hopping down the rowly road in plain
1:20:59
Speaker 1: sight in front of me, as I crouched among the
1:21:01
Speaker 1: wild brambles of that desolate railway cut. Of course my
1:21:05
Speaker 1: resolution to keep my eyes shut had failed. It was
1:21:08
Speaker 1: foredoomed to failure. For who could crouch blindly while a
1:21:12
Speaker 1: legion of croaking, baying entities of unknown source flopped noisomely past,
1:21:18
Speaker 1: scarcely more than a hundred yards away? For I knew
1:21:21
Speaker 1: that a long section of them must be plainly in
1:21:24
Speaker 1: sight where the sides of the cut flattened out and
1:21:26
Speaker 1: the road crossed the track. and I could no longer
1:21:29
Speaker 1: keep myself from sampling whatever horror that leering yellow moon
1:21:32
Speaker 1: might have to show. It was the end for whatever
1:21:36
Speaker 1: remains to me of life on the surface of this earth,
1:21:38
Speaker 1: of every vestige of mental peace and confidence in the
1:21:41
Speaker 1: integrity of nature and of the human mind. Can it
1:21:45
Speaker 1: be possible that this planet has actually spawned such things?
1:21:49
Speaker 1: That human eyes have truly seen, as objective flesh, what
1:21:53
Speaker 1: man has hitherto known only in febrile fantasy and tenuous legend?
1:21:58
Speaker 1: And yet I saw them in a limitless stream, flopping, hopping, croaking, bleeding,
1:22:04
Speaker 1: surging inhumanly through the spectral moonlight in a grotesque malignant
1:22:08
Speaker 1: cerebant of fantastic nightmare. And some of them had tall
1:22:12
Speaker 1: tiaras of that nameless whitish-gold metal, and some were strangely robed.
1:22:18
Speaker 1: And one, who led the way, was clad in a
1:22:21
Speaker 1: ghoulishly humped black coat and striped trousers, and had a
1:22:25
Speaker 1: man's felt hat perched on the shapeless thing that answered
1:22:28
Speaker 1: for a head. I think their predominant color was a grayish-green,
1:22:32
Speaker 1: though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery,
1:22:36
Speaker 1: but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms
1:22:39
Speaker 1: vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads
1:22:42
Speaker 1: of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At
1:22:46
Speaker 1: the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their
1:22:49
Speaker 1: long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two
1:22:53
Speaker 1: legs and sometimes on four. I was somehow glad that
1:22:56
Speaker 1: they had no more than four limbs. Their croaking, baying voices,
1:23:00
Speaker 1: clearly used for articulate speech, held all the dark shades
1:23:04
Speaker 1: of expression which their staring faces lacked. But for all
1:23:07
Speaker 1: their monstrousness they were not unfamiliar to me. I knew
1:23:11
Speaker 1: too well what they must be. For was not the
1:23:14
Speaker 1: memory of that evil tiara at Newburyport still fresh? They
1:23:18
Speaker 1: were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design, living and horrible.
1:23:24
Speaker 1: and as I saw them I knew also of what
1:23:26
Speaker 1: that humped tiara priest in the black church basement had
1:23:29
Speaker 1: so fearsomely reminded me. Their number was past guessing. It
1:23:34
Speaker 1: seemed to me that there were limitless swarms of them,
1:23:37
Speaker 1: and certainly my momentary glimpse could have shown only the
1:23:40
Speaker 1: least fraction. In another instant everything was blotted out by
1:23:45
Speaker 1: a merciful fit of fainting, the first I had ever had.
1:23:50
Speaker 1: End of chapter 4 CHAPTER V. It was a gentle
1:24:12
Speaker 1: daylight rain that awakened me from my stupor in the
1:24:14
Speaker 1: brush-grown railway cut, and when I staggered out to the
1:24:17
Speaker 1: roadway ahead I saw no trace of any prints in
1:24:20
Speaker 1: the fresh mud. Innsmouth's ruined roofs and toppling steeples loomed
1:24:24
Speaker 1: up grayly toward the southeast, but not a living creature
1:24:27
Speaker 1: did I spy in all the desolate salt marshes around.
1:24:31
Speaker 1: My watch was still going and told me that the
1:24:33
Speaker 1: hour was past noon. The reality of what I had
1:24:37
Speaker 1: been through was highly uncertain in my mind, but I
1:24:39
Speaker 1: felt that something hideous lay in the background. I must
1:24:43
Speaker 1: get away from evil-shadowed Innsmouth, and accordingly I began to
1:24:47
Speaker 1: test my cramped, wearied powers of locomotion. Despite weakness, hunger, horror,
1:24:53
Speaker 1: and bewilderment, I found myself after a time able to walk,
1:24:57
Speaker 1: so started slowly along the muddy road to Rowley. Before evening,
1:25:01
Speaker 1: I was in the village, getting a meal and providing
1:25:03
Speaker 1: myself with presentable clothes. I caught the night train to Arkham,
1:25:07
Speaker 1: and the next day talked long and earnestly with government
1:25:09
Speaker 1: officials there, a process I later repeated in Boston. With
1:25:14
Speaker 1: the main result of these colloquies, the public is now familiar.
1:25:18
Speaker 1: and I wish for normality's sake there was nothing more
1:25:20
Speaker 1: to tell. Perhaps it is madness that is overtaking me,
1:25:25
Speaker 1: yet perhaps a greater horror or a greater marvel is
1:25:28
Speaker 1: reaching out. I dared not look for that piece of
1:25:30
Speaker 1: strange jewelry said to be in the Miskatonic University Museum.
1:25:35
Speaker 1: I did, however, improve my stay in Arkham by collecting
1:25:38
Speaker 1: some genealogical notes I long wished to possess. Very rough
1:25:42
Speaker 1: and hasty data, it is true, but capable of good
1:25:44
Speaker 1: use later on when I might have time to collate
1:25:47
Speaker 1: and codify them The curator of the historical society there, Mr. E.
1:25:52
Speaker 1: Lapham Peabody, was very courteous about assisting me and expressed
1:25:55
Speaker 1: unusual interest when I told him I was a grandson
1:25:58
Speaker 1: of Eliza Oren of Arkham, who was born in 1867
1:26:00
Speaker 1: and had married James Williamson of Ohio at the age
1:26:04
Speaker 1: of 17. It seemed that a maternal uncle of mine
1:26:07
Speaker 1: had been there many years before on a quest much
1:26:10
Speaker 1: like my own, and that my grandmother's family was a
1:26:13
Speaker 1: topic of some local curiosity. There had, Mr. Peabody said,
1:26:18
Speaker 1: been considerable discussion about the marriage of her father, Benjamin Orne,
1:26:22
Speaker 1: just after the Civil War, since the ancestry of the
1:26:24
Speaker 1: bride was peculiarly puzzling. That bride was understood to have
1:26:28
Speaker 1: been an orphaned Marsh of New Hampshire, a cousin of
1:26:31
Speaker 1: the Essex County Marshes, but her education had been in
1:26:34
Speaker 1: France and she knew very little of her family. A
1:26:38
Speaker 1: guardian had deposited funds in a Boston bank to maintain
1:26:41
Speaker 1: her and her French governess, but that guardian's name was
1:26:43
Speaker 1: unfamiliar to Arkham people. and in time he dropped out
1:26:46
Speaker 1: of sight so that the governess assumed his role by
1:26:49
Speaker 1: court appointment. The Frenchwoman, now long dead, was very taciturn,
1:26:53
Speaker 1: and there were those who said she could have told
1:26:55
Speaker 1: more than she did. But the most baffling thing was
1:26:59
Speaker 1: the inability of anyone to place the recorded parents of
1:27:01
Speaker 1: the young woman, Enoch and Lydia, Miss Irv Marsh, among
1:27:06
Speaker 1: the known families of New Hampshire. Possibly, many suggested, she
1:27:10
Speaker 1: was the natural daughter of some Marsh of prominence. She
1:27:13
Speaker 1: certainly had the true Marsh eyes, Most of the puzzling
1:27:17
Speaker 1: was done after her early death, which took place at
1:27:19
Speaker 1: the birth of my grandmother, her only child. Having formed
1:27:24
Speaker 1: some disagreeable impressions connected with the name of Marsh, I
1:27:27
Speaker 1: did not welcome the news that it belonged on my
1:27:29
Speaker 1: own ancestral tree, nor was I pleased by Mr. Peabody's
1:27:33
Speaker 1: suggestion that I had the true Marsh eyes myself. However,
1:27:37
Speaker 1: I was grateful for data which I knew would prove valuable,
1:27:41
Speaker 1: and took copious notes and lists of book references regarding
1:27:44
Speaker 1: the well-documented Orne family, I went directly home to Toledo
1:27:48
Speaker 1: from Boston and later spent a month at Mall May
1:27:51
Speaker 1: recuperating from my ordeal. In September, I entered Oberlin for
1:27:55
Speaker 1: my final year, and from then till next June was
1:27:58
Speaker 1: busy with studies and other wholesome activities, reminded of the
1:28:02
Speaker 1: bygone terror only by occasional official visits from government men
1:28:06
Speaker 1: in connection with the campaign which my pleas and evidence
1:28:09
Speaker 1: had started. Around the middle of July, just a year
1:28:12
Speaker 1: after the Innsmouth experience, I spent a week with my
1:28:15
Speaker 1: late mother's family in Cleveland, checking some of my new
1:28:18
Speaker 1: genealogical data with the various notes, traditions, and bits of
1:28:22
Speaker 1: heirloom material in existence there, and seeing what kind of
1:28:25
Speaker 1: a connected chart I could construct. I did not exactly
1:28:29
Speaker 1: relish this task, for the atmosphere of the Williamson home
1:28:32
Speaker 1: had always depressed me. There was a strain of morbidity there,
1:28:36
Speaker 1: and my mother had never encouraged my visiting her parents
1:28:39
Speaker 1: as a child. although she always welcomed her father when
1:28:42
Speaker 1: he came to Toledo. My Arkham-born grandmother had seemed strange
1:28:46
Speaker 1: and almost terrifying to me, and I do not think
1:28:48
Speaker 1: I grieved when she disappeared. I was eight years old then,
1:28:52
Speaker 1: and it was said that she had wandered off in
1:28:54
Speaker 1: grief after the suicide of my Uncle Douglas, her eldest son.
1:28:58
Speaker 1: He had shot himself after a trip to New England,
1:29:00
Speaker 1: the same trip, no doubt, which had caused him to
1:29:02
Speaker 1: be recalled at the Arkham Historical Society. This uncle had
1:29:07
Speaker 1: resembled her, and I had never liked him either. Something
1:29:10
Speaker 1: about the staring, unwinking expression of both of them had
1:29:14
Speaker 1: given me a vague, unaccountable uneasiness. My mother and Uncle
1:29:18
Speaker 1: Walter had not looked like that. They were like their father,
1:29:22
Speaker 1: though poor little cousin Lawrence, Walter's son, had been an
1:29:25
Speaker 1: almost perfect duplicate of his grandmother before his condition took
1:29:28
Speaker 1: him to the permanent seclusion of a sanitarium at Canton.
1:29:32
Speaker 1: I'd not seen him in four years, but my uncle
1:29:34
Speaker 1: once implied that his state, both mental and physical, was
1:29:38
Speaker 1: very bad. This worry had probably been a major cause
1:29:41
Speaker 1: of his mother's death two years before. My grandfather and
1:29:45
Speaker 1: his widowered son, Walter, now comprised the Cleveland household, but
1:29:49
Speaker 1: the memory of older times hung thickly over it. I
1:29:51
Speaker 1: still disliked the place and tried to get my researches
1:29:54
Speaker 1: done as quickly as possible. Williamson records and traditions were
1:29:58
Speaker 1: supplied in abundance by my grandfather, though for Orin material
1:30:02
Speaker 1: I had to depend on my Uncle Walter, who put
1:30:04
Speaker 1: at my disposal the contents of all his files, including notes, letters, cuttings, heirlooms, photographs,
1:30:09
Speaker 1: and miniatures. It was in going over the letters and
1:30:13
Speaker 1: pictures on the Orin side that I began to acquire
1:30:15
Speaker 1: a kind of terror of my own ancestry. As I
1:30:19
Speaker 1: have said, my grandmother and Uncle Douglas had always disturbed me. Now,
1:30:23
Speaker 1: years after their passing, I gazed at their pictured faces
1:30:26
Speaker 1: with a measurably heightened feeling of repulsion and alienation. I
1:30:30
Speaker 1: could not at first understand the change, but gradually, a
1:30:33
Speaker 1: horrible sort of comparison began to obtrude itself on my
1:30:38
Speaker 1: unconscious mind, despite the steady refusal of my consciousness to
1:30:42
Speaker 1: admit even the least suspicion of it. It was clear
1:30:45
Speaker 1: that the typical expression of these faces— now suggested something
1:30:49
Speaker 1: it had not suggested before, something which would bring stark
1:30:52
Speaker 1: panic if too openly thought of. But the worst shock
1:30:56
Speaker 1: came when my uncle showed me the orange jewelry in
1:30:58
Speaker 1: a downtown safe deposit vault. Some of the items were
1:31:02
Speaker 1: delicate and inspiring enough, but there was one box of
1:31:05
Speaker 1: strange old pieces descended from my mysterious great-grandmother, which my
1:31:10
Speaker 1: uncle was almost reluctant to produce. They were, he said,
1:31:13
Speaker 1: of very grotesque and almost repulsive design. As my uncle
1:31:19
Speaker 1: began slowly and grudgingly to unwrap the things, he urged
1:31:22
Speaker 1: me not to be shocked by the strangeness and frequent
1:31:25
Speaker 1: hideousness of the designs. There were two armlets, a tiara
1:31:29
Speaker 1: and a kind of pectoral, the latter having in high
1:31:32
Speaker 1: relief certain figures of almost unbearable extravagance. He seemed to
1:31:37
Speaker 1: expect some demonstration when the first piece, the tiara, became visible,
1:31:42
Speaker 1: but I doubt if he expected quite what actually happened.
1:31:45
Speaker 1: I did not expect it either, for I thought I
1:31:47
Speaker 1: was thoroughly forewarned regarding what the jewelry would turn out
1:31:49
Speaker 1: to be. What I did was to faint silently away,
1:31:53
Speaker 1: just as I had done in that briar-choked railway cut
1:31:57
Speaker 1: a year before. From that day on, my life has
1:32:00
Speaker 1: been a nightmare of brooding and apprehension. Nor do I
1:32:04
Speaker 1: know how much is hideous truth and how much is madness.
1:32:07
Speaker 1: My great-grandmother had been a marsh of unknown source, whose
1:32:10
Speaker 1: husband lived in Arkham. and did not old Zadok say
1:32:14
Speaker 1: that the daughter of Obed Marsh by a monstrous mother
1:32:16
Speaker 1: was married to an Arkham man through a trick? What
1:32:20
Speaker 1: was it the ancient toper had muttered about the likeness
1:32:23
Speaker 1: of my eyes to Captain Obed's? In Arkham 2, the
1:32:27
Speaker 1: curator had told me I had the true Marsh eyes.
1:32:31
Speaker 1: Was Obed Marsh my own great-great-grandfather? Who, or what, then,
1:32:38
Speaker 1: was my great-great-grandmother? but perhaps this was all madness. Those
1:32:45
Speaker 1: whitish-gold ornaments might easily have been bought from some Innsmouth
1:32:49
Speaker 1: sailor by the father of my great-grandmother, whoever he was.
1:32:53
Speaker 1: And that look in the staring-eyed faces of my grandmother
1:32:55
Speaker 1: and self-slain uncle might be sure fancy, bolstered up by
1:33:00
Speaker 1: the Innsmouth shadow which had so darkly colored my imagination.
1:33:04
Speaker 1: But why had my uncle killed himself after an ancestral
1:33:08
Speaker 1: quest in New England? For more than two years, I
1:33:11
Speaker 1: fought off these reflections with partial success. My father secured
1:33:15
Speaker 1: me a place in an insurance office, and I buried
1:33:19
Speaker 1: myself in routine as deeply as possible in the winter
1:33:22
Speaker 1: of 1930-31. However, the dreams began. They were very sparse
1:33:28
Speaker 1: and insidious at first, but increased in frequency and vividness
1:33:31
Speaker 1: as the weeks went by. Great watery spaces opened out
1:33:34
Speaker 1: before me and I seemed to wander through titanic sunken
1:33:37
Speaker 1: porticos and labyrinths of weedy cyclopean walls and grotesque fishes
1:33:42
Speaker 1: as my companions. Then the other shapes began to appear,
1:33:48
Speaker 1: filling me with nameless horror the moment I awoke. But
1:33:51
Speaker 1: during the dreams they did not horrify me at all.
1:33:54
Speaker 1: I was one with them, wearing their unhuman trappings, treading
1:33:58
Speaker 1: their aqueous ways and praying monstrously at their evil sea-bottomed temples.
1:34:03
Speaker 1: There was much more than I could remember, but even
1:34:05
Speaker 1: what I did remember each morning would be enough to
1:34:07
Speaker 1: stamp me as a madman or a genius if I
1:34:10
Speaker 1: ever dared write it down. Some frightful influence, I felt,
1:34:14
Speaker 1: was seeking gradually to drag me out of the sane
1:34:17
Speaker 1: world of wholesome life into unnameable abysses of blackness and alienage.
1:34:23
Speaker 1: And the process told heavily on me. My health and
1:34:26
Speaker 1: appearance grew steadily worse till finally I was forced to
1:34:29
Speaker 1: give up my position and adopt the static, secluded life
1:34:32
Speaker 1: of an invalid Some odd nervous affliction had me in
1:34:36
Speaker 1: its grip, and I found myself at times almost unable
1:34:39
Speaker 1: to shut my eyes. It was then that I began
1:34:42
Speaker 1: to study the mirror with mounting alarm. The slow ravages
1:34:46
Speaker 1: of disease are not pleasant to watch, but in my
1:34:49
Speaker 1: case there was something subtler and more puzzling in the background.
1:34:54
Speaker 1: My father seemed to notice it too, for he began
1:34:56
Speaker 1: looking at me curiously and almost affrightedly. What was taking
1:35:01
Speaker 1: place in me? Could it be that I was coming
1:35:03
Speaker 1: to resemble my grandmother and Uncle Douglas? One night I
1:35:08
Speaker 1: had a frightful dream in which I met my grandmother
1:35:11
Speaker 1: under the sea. She lived in a phosphorescent palace of
1:35:14
Speaker 1: many terraces, with gardens of strange leprous corals and grotesque
1:35:19
Speaker 1: brachiate efflorescences, and welcomed me with a warmth that may
1:35:23
Speaker 1: have been sardonic. She had changed, as those who take
1:35:26
Speaker 1: to the water change, and told me she had never died. Instead,
1:35:30
Speaker 1: she had gone to a spot her dead son had
1:35:32
Speaker 1: learned about, and had leaped to a realm whose wonders,
1:35:36
Speaker 1: destined for him as well, he had spurned with a
1:35:39
Speaker 1: smoking pistol. This was to be my realm, too. I
1:35:43
Speaker 1: could not escape it. I would never die, but would
1:35:47
Speaker 1: live with those who had lived since before man ever
1:35:50
Speaker 1: walked the earth. I met also that which had been
1:35:54
Speaker 1: her grandmother. For eighty thousand years, Pith Thaya Lai had
1:35:59
Speaker 1: lived in Yaha Nithile, and thither she had gone back
1:36:03
Speaker 1: after Obed Marsh was dead. Yaha Nithile was not destroyed
1:36:08
Speaker 1: when the upper earth men shot death into the sea.
1:36:11
Speaker 1: It was hurt but not destroyed. The deep ones could
1:36:15
Speaker 1: never be destroyed, even though the Paleogean magic of the
1:36:18
Speaker 1: forgotten old ones might sometimes check them. For the present
1:36:22
Speaker 1: they would rest, but someday if they remembered they would
1:36:25
Speaker 1: rise again for the tribute great Cthulhu craved. It would
1:36:29
Speaker 1: be a city greater than Innsmouth next time. They had
1:36:32
Speaker 1: planned to spread, and had brought up that which would
1:36:35
Speaker 1: help them, but now they must wait once more. For
1:36:38
Speaker 1: bringing the upper earth men's death I must do a penance,
1:36:41
Speaker 1: but that would not be heavy. This was the dream
1:36:44
Speaker 1: in which I saw a Shoggoth for the first time,
1:36:47
Speaker 1: and the sight set me awake in a frenzy of screaming.
1:36:51
Speaker 1: That morning the mirror definitely told me I had acquired
1:36:54
Speaker 1: the Innsmouth look. So far I have not shot myself
1:36:58
Speaker 1: as my Uncle Douglas did. I bought an automatic, and
1:37:02
Speaker 1: almost took the step, but certain dreams deterred me. The
1:37:06
Speaker 1: tense extremes of horror are lessening, and I feel queerly
1:37:09
Speaker 1: drawn toward the unknown sea-deeps instead of fearing them. I
1:37:14
Speaker 1: hear and do strange things in sleep and awake with
1:37:17
Speaker 1: a kind of exaltation instead of terror. I do not
1:37:20
Speaker 1: believe I need to wait for the full change, as
1:37:23
Speaker 1: most have waited. If I did, my father would probably
1:37:26
Speaker 1: shut me up in a sanitarium as my poor little
1:37:28
Speaker 1: cousin shut up. Stupendous and unheard-of splendors await me below,
1:37:33
Speaker 1: and I shall seek them soon. No, I shall not
1:37:42
Speaker 1: shoot myself. I cannot be made to shoot myself. I
1:37:45
Speaker 1: shall plan my cousin's escape from that Canton madhouse, and
1:37:48
Speaker 1: together we shall go to marvel-shadowed Innsmouth. We shall swim
1:37:51
Speaker 1: out to that brooding reef in the sea. and dive
1:37:54
Speaker 1: down through black abysses to Cyclopean and many-columned Yahe Nintli,
1:37:59
Speaker 1: and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall
1:38:01
Speaker 1: dwell amidst wonder and glory forever. End of chapter 5
1:38:06
Speaker 1: End of The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft