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- Говард Лавкрафт
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- Стр. 15/38
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Death
,
so
far
as
we
could
judge
,
had
in
each
case
come
from
strangulation
or
laceration
.
The
dogs
had
evidently
started
the
trouble
,
for
the
state
of
their
ill-built
corral
bore
witness
to
its
forcible
breakage
from
within
.
It
had
been
set
some
distance
from
the
camp
because
of
the
hatred
of
the
animals
for
those
hellish
Archaean
organisms
,
but
the
precaution
seemed
to
have
been
taken
in
vain
.
When
left
alone
in
that
monstrous
wind
,
behind
flimsy
walls
of
insufficient
height
,
they
must
have
stampeded
--
whether
from
the
wind
itself
,
or
from
some
subtle
,
increasing
odor
emitted
by
the
nightmare
specimens
,
one
could
not
say
.
But
whatever
had
happened
,
it
was
hideous
and
revolting
enough
.
Perhaps
I
had
better
put
squeamishness
aside
and
tell
the
worst
at
last
--
though
with
a
categorical
statement
of
opinion
,
based
on
the
first-hand
observations
and
most
rigid
deductions
of
both
Danforth
and
myself
,
that
the
then
missing
Gedney
was
in
no
way
responsible
for
the
loathsome
horrors
we
found
.
I
have
said
that
the
bodies
were
frightfully
mangled
.
Now
I
must
add
that
some
were
incised
and
subtracted
from
in
the
most
curious
,
cold-blooded
,
and
inhuman
fashion
.
It
was
the
same
with
dogs
and
men
.
All
the
healthier
,
fatter
bodies
,
quadrupedal
or
bipedal
,
had
had
their
most
solid
masses
of
tissue
cut
out
and
removed
,
as
by
a
careful
butcher
;
and
around
them
was
a
strange
sprinkling
of
salt
--
taken
from
the
ravaged
provision
chests
on
the
planes
--
which
conjured
up
the
most
horrible
associations
.
The
thing
had
occurred
in
one
of
the
crude
aeroplane
shelters
from
which
the
plane
had
been
dragged
out
,
and
subsequent
winds
had
effaced
all
tracks
which
could
have
supplied
any
plausible
theory
.
Scattered
bits
of
clothing
,
roughly
slashed
from
the
human
incision
subjects
,
hinted
no
clues
.
It
is
useless
to
bring
up
the
half
impression
of
certain
faint
snow
prints
in
one
shielded
corner
of
the
ruined
inclosure
--
because
that
impression
did
not
concern
human
prints
at
all
,
but
was
clearly
mixed
up
with
all
the
talk
of
fossil
prints
which
poor
Lake
had
been
giving
throughout
the
preceding
weeks
.
One
had
to
be
careful
of
one
's
imagination
in
the
lee
of
those
overshadowing
mountains
of
madness
.
As
I
have
indicated
,
Gedney
and
one
dog
turned
out
to
be
missing
in
the
end
.
When
we
came
on
that
terrible
shelter
we
had
missed
two
dogs
and
two
men
;
but
the
fairly
unharmed
dissecting
tent
,
which
we
entered
after
investigating
the
monstrous
graves
,
had
something
to
reveal
.
It
was
not
as
Lake
had
left
it
,
for
the
covered
parts
of
the
primal
monstrosity
had
been
removed
from
the
improvised
table
.
Indeed
,
we
had
already
realized
that
one
of
the
six
imperfect
and
insanely
buried
things
we
had
found
--
the
one
with
the
trace
of
a
peculiarly
hateful
odor
--
must
represent
the
collected
sections
of
the
entity
which
Lake
had
tried
to
analyze
.
On
and
around
that
laboratory
table
were
strewn
other
things
,
and
it
did
not
take
long
for
us
to
guess
that
those
things
were
the
carefully
though
oddly
and
inexpertly
dissected
parts
of
one
man
and
one
dog
.
I
shall
spare
the
feelings
of
survivors
by
omitting
mention
of
the
man
's
identity
.
Lake
's
anatomical
instruments
were
missing
,
but
there
were
evidences
of
their
careful
cleansing
.
The
gasoline
stove
was
also
gone
,
though
around
it
we
found
a
curious
litter
of
matches
.
We
buried
the
human
parts
beside
the
other
ten
men
;
and
the
canine
parts
with
the
other
thirty-five
dogs
.
Concerning
the
bizarre
smudges
on
the
laboratory
table
,
and
on
the
jumble
of
roughly
handled
illustrated
books
scattered
near
it
,
we
were
much
too
bewildered
to
speculate
.
This
formed
the
worst
of
the
camp
horror
,
but
other
things
were
equally
perplexing
.
The
disappearance
of
Gedney
,
the
one
dog
,
the
eight
uninjured
biological
specimens
,
the
three
sledges
,
and
certain
instruments
,
illustrated
technical
and
scientific
books
,
writing
materials
,
electric
torches
and
batteries
,
food
and
fuel
,
heating
apparatus
,
spare
tents
,
fur
suits
,
and
the
like
,
was
utterly
beyond
sane
conjecture
;
as
were
likewise
the
spatter-fringed
ink
blots
on
certain
pieces
of
paper
,
and
the
evidences
of
curious
alien
fumbling
and
experimentation
around
the
planes
and
all
other
mechanical
devices
both
at
the
camp
and
at
the
boring
.
The
dogs
seemed
to
abhor
this
oddly
disordered
machinery
.
Then
,
too
,
there
was
the
upsetting
of
the
larder
,
the
disappearance
of
certain
staples
,
and
the
jarringly
comical
heap
of
tin
cans
pried
open
in
the
most
unlikely
ways
and
at
the
most
unlikely
places
.
The
profusion
of
scattered
matches
,
intact
,
broken
,
or
spent
,
formed
another
minor
enigma
--
as
did
the
two
or
three
tent
cloths
and
fur
suits
which
we
found
lying
about
with
peculiar
and
unorthodox
slashings
conceivably
due
to
clumsy
efforts
at
unimaginable
adaptations
.
The
maltreatment
of
the
human
and
canine
bodies
,
and
the
crazy
burial
of
the
damaged
Archaean
specimens
,
were
all
of
a
piece
with
this
apparent
disintegrative
madness
.
In
view
of
just
such
an
eventuality
as
the
present
one
,
we
carefully
photographed
all
the
main
evidences
of
insane
disorder
at
the
camp
;
and
shall
use
the
prints
to
buttress
our
pleas
against
the
departure
of
the
proposed
Starkweather
--
Moore
Expedition
.
Our
first
act
after
finding
the
bodies
in
the
shelter
was
to
photograph
and
open
the
row
of
insane
graves
with
the
five-pointed
snow
mounds
.
We
could
not
help
noticing
the
resemblance
of
these
monstrous
mounds
,
with
their
clusters
of
grouped
dots
,
to
poor
Lake
's
descriptions
of
the
strange
greenish
soapstones
;
and
when
we
came
on
some
of
the
soapstones
themselves
in
the
great
mineral
pile
,
we
found
the
likeness
very
close
indeed
.
The
whole
general
formation
,
it
must
be
made
clear
,
seemed
abominably
suggestive
of
the
starfish
head
of
the
Archaean
entities
;
and
we
agreed
that
the
suggestion
must
have
worked
potently
upon
the
sensitized
minds
of
Lake
's
overwrought
party
.
For
madness
--
centering
in
Gedney
as
the
only
possible
surviving
agent
--
was
the
explanation
spontaneously
adopted
by
everybody
so
far
as
spoken
utterance
was
concerned
;
though
I
will
not
be
so
naive
as
to
deny
that
each
of
us
may
have
harbored
wild
guesses
which
sanity
forbade
him
to
formulate
completely
.
Sherman
,
Pabodie
,
and
McTighe
made
an
exhaustive
aeroplane
cruise
over
all
the
surrounding
territory
in
the
afternoon
,
sweeping
the
horizon
with
field
glasses
in
quest
of
Gedney
and
of
the
various
missing
things
;
but
nothing
came
to
light
.
The
party
reported
that
the
titan
barrier
range
extended
endlessly
to
right
and
left
alike
,
without
any
diminution
in
height
or
essential
structure
.
On
some
of
the
peaks
,
though
,
the
regular
cube
and
rampart
formations
were
bolder
and
plainer
,
having
doubly
fantastic
similitudes
to
Roerich-painted
Asian
hill
ruins
.
The
distribution
of
cryptical
cave
mouths
on
the
black
snow-denuded
summits
seemed
roughly
even
as
far
as
the
range
could
be
traced
.
In
spite
of
all
the
prevailing
horrors
,
we
were
left
with
enough
sheer
scientific
zeal
and
adventurousness
to
wonder
about
the
unknown
realm
beyond
those
mysterious
mountains
.
As
our
guarded
messages
stated
,
we
rested
at
midnight
after
our
day
of
terror
and
bafflement
--
but
not
without
a
tentative
plan
for
one
or
more
range-crossing
altitude
flights
in
a
lightened
plane
with
aerial
camera
and
geologist
's
outfit
,
beginning
the
following
morning
.
It
was
decided
that
Danforth
and
I
try
it
first
,
and
we
awaked
at
7
A.M.
intending
an
early
flight
;
however
,
heavy
winds
--
mentioned
in
our
brief
bulletin
to
the
outside
world
--
delayed
our
start
till
nearly
nine
o'clock
.
