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But
within
an
hour
and
a
half
interest
again
rose
to
banish
disappointment
.
Lake
,
sending
more
messages
,
told
of
the
completely
successful
transportation
of
the
fourteen
great
specimens
to
the
camp
.
It
had
been
a
hard
pull
,
for
the
things
were
surprisingly
heavy
;
but
nine
men
had
accomplished
it
very
neatly
.
Now
some
of
the
party
were
hurriedly
building
a
snow
corral
at
a
safe
distance
from
the
camp
,
to
which
the
dogs
could
be
brought
for
greater
convenience
in
feeding
.
The
specimens
were
laid
out
on
the
hard
snow
near
the
camp
,
save
for
one
on
which
Lake
was
making
crude
attempts
at
dissection
.
This
dissection
seemed
to
be
a
greater
task
than
had
been
expected
,
for
,
despite
the
heat
of
a
gasoline
stove
in
the
newly
raised
laboratory
tent
,
the
deceptively
flexible
tissues
of
the
chosen
specimen-a
powerful
and
intact
one
-
lost
nothing
of
their
more
than
leathery
toughness
.
Lake
was
puzzled
as
to
how
he
might
make
the
requisite
incisions
without
violence
destructive
enough
to
upset
all
the
structural
niceties
he
was
looking
for
.
He
had
,
it
is
true
,
seven
more
perfect
specimens
;
but
these
were
too
few
to
use
up
recklessly
unless
the
cave
might
later
yield
an
unlimited
supply
.
Accordingly
he
removed
the
specimen
and
dragged
in
one
which
,
though
having
remnants
of
the
starfish
arrangements
at
both
ends
,
was
badly
crushed
and
partly
disrupted
along
one
of
the
great
torso
furrows
.
Results
,
quickly
reported
over
the
wireless
,
were
baffling
and
provocative
indeed
.
Nothing
like
delicacy
or
accuracy
was
possible
with
instruments
hardly
able
to
cut
the
anomalous
tissue
,
but
the
little
that
was
achieved
left
us
all
awed
and
bewildered
.
Existing
biology
would
have
to
be
wholly
revised
,
for
this
thing
was
no
product
of
any
cell
growth
science
knows
about
.
There
had
been
scarcely
any
mineral
replacement
,
and
despite
an
age
of
perhaps
forty
million
years
,
the
internal
organs
were
wholly
intact
.
The
leathery
,
undeteriorative
,
and
almost
indestructible
quality
was
an
inherent
attribute
of
the
thing
's
form
of
organization
,
and
pertained
to
some
paleogean
cycle
of
invertebrate
evolution
utterly
beyond
our
powers
of
speculation
.
At
first
all
that
Lake
found
was
dry
,
but
as
the
heated
tent
produced
its
thawing
effect
,
organic
moisture
of
pungent
and
offensive
odor
was
encountered
toward
the
thing
's
uninjured
side
.
It
was
not
blood
,
but
a
thick
,
dark-green
fluid
apparently
answering
the
same
purpose
.
By
the
time
Lake
reached
this
stage
,
all
thirty-seven
dogs
had
been
brought
to
the
still
uncompleted
corral
near
the
camp
,
and
even
at
that
distance
set
up
a
savage
barking
and
show
of
restlessness
at
the
acrid
,
diffusive
smell
.
Far
from
helping
to
place
the
strange
entity
,
this
provisional
dissection
merely
deepened
its
mystery
.
All
guesses
about
its
external
members
had
been
correct
,
and
on
the
evidence
of
these
one
could
hardly
hesitate
to
call
the
thing
animal
;
but
internal
inspection
brought
up
so
many
vegetable
evidences
that
Lake
was
left
hopelessly
at
sea
.
It
had
digestion
and
circulation
,
and
eliminated
waste
matter
through
the
reddish
tubes
of
its
starfish-shaped
base
.
Cursorily
,
one
would
say
that
its
respiration
apparatus
handled
oxygen
rather
than
carbon
dioxide
,
and
there
were
odd
evidences
of
air-storage
chambers
and
methods
of
shifting
respiration
from
the
external
orifice
to
at
least
two
other
fully
developed
breathing
systems
-
gills
and
pores
.
Clearly
,
it
was
amphibian
,
and
probably
adapted
to
long
airless
hibernation
periods
as
well
.
Vocal
organs
seemed
present
in
connection
with
the
main
respiratory
system
,
but
they
presented
anomalies
beyond
immediate
solution
.
Articulate
speech
,
in
the
sense
of
syllable
utterance
,
seemed
barely
conceivable
,
but
musical
piping
notes
covering
a
wide
range
were
highly
probable
.
The
muscular
system
was
almost
prematurely
developed
.
The
nervous
system
was
so
complex
and
highly
developed
as
to
leave
Lake
aghast
.
Though
excessively
primitive
and
archaic
in
some
respects
,
the
thing
had
a
set
of
ganglial
centers
and
connectives
arguing
the
very
extremes
of
specialized
development
.
Its
five-lobed
brain
was
surprisingly
advanced
,
and
there
were
signs
of
a
sensory
equipment
,
served
in
part
through
the
wiry
cilia
of
the
head
,
involving
factors
alien
to
any
other
terrestrial
organism
.
Probably
it
has
more
than
five
senses
,
so
that
its
habits
could
not
be
predicted
from
any
existing
analogy
.
It
must
,
Lake
thought
,
have
been
a
creature
of
keen
sensitiveness
and
delicately
differentiated
functions
in
its
primal
world
-
much
like
the
ants
and
bees
of
today
.
It
reproduced
like
the
vegetable
crytogams
,
especially
the
Pteridophyta
,
having
spore
cases
at
the
tips
of
the
wings
and
evidently
developing
from
a
thallus
or
prothallus
.
But
to
give
it
a
name
at
this
stage
was
mere
folly
.
It
looked
like
a
radiate
,
but
was
clearly
something
more
.
It
was
partly
vegetable
,
but
had
three-fourths
of
the
essentials
of
animal
structure
.
That
it
was
marine
in
origin
,
its
symmetrical
contour
and
certain
other
attributes
clearly
indicated
;
yet
one
could
not
be
exact
as
to
the
limit
of
its
later
adaptations
.
The
wings
,
after
all
,
held
a
persistent
suggestion
of
the
aerial
.
How
it
could
have
undergone
its
tremendously
complex
evolution
on
a
new-born
earth
in
time
to
leave
prints
in
Archaean
rocks
was
so
far
beyond
conception
as
to
make
Lake
whimsically
recall
the
primal
myths
about
Great
Old
Ones
who
filtered
down
from
the
stars
and
concocted
earth
life
as
a
joke
or
mistake
;
and
the
wild
tales
of
cosmic
hill
things
from
outside
told
by
a
folklorist
colleague
in
Miskatonic
's
English
department
.
Naturally
,
he
considered
the
possibility
of
the
pre-Cambrian
prints
having
been
made
by
a
less
evolved
ancestor
of
the
present
specimens
,
but
quickly
rejected
this
too-facile
theory
upon
considering
the
advanced
structural
qualities
of
the
older
fossils
.
If
anything
,
the
later
contours
showed
decadence
rather
than
higher
evolution
.
The
size
of
the
pseudofeet
had
decreased
,
and
the
whole
morphology
seemed
coarsened
and
simplified
.
Moreover
,
the
nerves
and
organs
just
examined
held
singular
suggestions
of
retrogression
from
forms
still
more
complex
.
Atrophied
and
vestigial
parts
were
surprisingly
prevalent
.
Altogether
,
little
could
be
said
to
have
been
solved
;
and
Lake
fell
back
on
mythology
for
a
provisional
name
-
jocosely
dubbing
his
finds
"
The
Elder
Ones
.
"
At
about
2:30
A.M.
,
having
decided
to
postpone
further
work
and
get
a
little
rest
,
he
covered
the
dissected
organism
with
a
tarpaulin
,
emerged
from
the
laboratory
tent
,
and
studied
the
intact
specimens
with
renewed
interest
.
The
ceaseless
antarctic
sun
had
begun
to
limber
up
their
tissues
a
trifle
,
so
that
the
head
points
and
tubes
of
two
or
three
showed
signs
of
unfolding
;
but
Lake
did
not
believe
there
was
any
danger
of
immediate
decomposition
in
the
almost
subzero
air
.
He
did
,
however
,
move
all
the
undissected
specimens
close
together
and
throw
a
spare
tent
over
them
in
order
to
keep
off
the
direct
solar
rays
.
That
would
also
help
to
keep
their
possible
scent
away
from
the
dogs
,
whose
hostile
unrest
was
really
becoming
a
problem
,
even
at
their
substantial
distance
and
behind
the
higher
and
higher
snow
walls
which
an
increased
quota
of
the
men
were
hastening
to
raise
around
their
quarters
.
