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The
torch
,
flashing
over
the
grotesquely
carved
walls
of
the
blocked
corridor
in
which
we
stood
,
showed
several
doorways
in
various
states
of
obstruction
;
and
from
one
of
them
the
gasoline
odor
--
quite
submerging
that
other
hint
of
odor
--
came
with
especial
distinctness
.
As
we
looked
more
steadily
,
we
saw
that
beyond
a
doubt
there
had
been
a
slight
and
recent
clearing
away
of
debris
from
that
particular
opening
.
Whatever
the
lurking
horror
might
be
,
we
believed
the
direct
avenue
toward
it
was
now
plainly
manifest
.
I
do
not
think
anyone
will
wonder
that
we
waited
an
appreciable
time
before
making
any
further
motion
.
And
yet
,
when
we
did
venture
inside
that
black
arch
,
our
first
impression
was
one
of
anticlimax
.
For
amidst
the
littered
expanse
of
that
sculptured
crypt
--
a
perfect
cube
with
sides
of
about
twenty
feet
--
there
remained
no
recent
object
of
instantly
discernible
size
;
so
that
we
looked
instinctively
,
though
in
vain
,
for
a
farther
doorway
.
In
another
moment
,
however
,
Danforth
's
sharp
vision
had
descried
a
place
where
the
floor
debris
had
been
disturbed
;
and
we
turned
on
both
torches
full
strength
.
Though
what
we
saw
in
that
light
was
actually
simple
and
trifling
,
I
am
none
the
less
reluctant
to
tell
of
it
because
of
what
it
implied
.
It
was
a
rough
leveling
of
the
debris
,
upon
which
several
small
objects
lay
carelessly
scattered
,
and
at
one
corner
of
which
a
considerable
amount
of
gasoline
must
have
been
spilled
lately
enough
to
leave
a
strong
odor
even
at
this
extreme
superplateau
altitude
.
In
other
words
,
it
could
not
be
other
than
a
sort
of
camp
--
a
camp
made
by
questing
beings
who
,
like
us
,
had
been
turned
back
by
the
unexpectedly
choked
way
to
the
abyss
.
Let
me
be
plain
.
The
scattered
objects
were
,
so
far
as
substance
was
concerned
,
all
from
Lake
's
camp
;
and
consisted
of
tin
cans
as
queerly
opened
as
those
we
had
seen
at
that
ravaged
place
,
many
spent
matches
,
three
illustrated
books
more
or
less
curiously
smudged
,
an
empty
ink
bottle
with
its
pictorial
and
instructional
carton
,
a
broken
fountain
pen
,
some
oddly
snipped
fragments
of
fur
and
tent
cloth
,
a
used
electric
battery
with
circular
of
directions
,
a
folder
that
came
with
our
type
of
tent
heater
,
and
a
sprinkling
of
crumpled
papers
.
It
was
all
bad
enough
but
when
we
smoothed
out
the
papers
and
looked
at
what
was
on
them
,
we
felt
we
had
come
to
the
worst
.
We
had
found
certain
inexplicably
blotted
papers
at
the
camp
which
might
have
prepared
us
,
yet
the
effect
of
the
sight
down
there
in
the
prehuman
vaults
of
a
nightmare
city
was
almost
too
much
to
bear
.
A
mad
Gedney
might
have
made
the
groups
of
dots
in
imitation
of
those
found
on
the
greenish
soapstones
,
just
as
the
dots
on
those
insane
five-pointed
grave
mounds
might
have
been
made
;
and
he
might
conceivably
have
prepared
rough
,
hasty
sketches
--
varying
in
their
accuracy
or
lack
of
it
--
which
outlined
the
neighboring
parts
of
the
city
and
traced
the
way
from
a
circularly
represented
place
outside
our
previous
route
--
a
place
we
identified
as
a
great
cylindrical
tower
in
the
carvings
and
as
a
vast
circular
gulf
glimpsed
in
our
aerial
survey
--
to
the
present
five-pointed
structure
and
the
tunnel
mouth
therein
.
He
might
,
I
repeat
,
have
prepared
such
sketches
;
for
those
before
us
were
quite
obviously
compiled
,
as
our
own
had
been
,
from
late
sculptures
somewhere
in
the
glacial
labyrinth
,
though
not
from
the
ones
which
we
had
seen
and
used
.
But
what
the
art-blind
bungler
could
never
have
done
was
to
execute
those
sketches
in
a
strange
and
assured
technique
perhaps
superior
,
despite
haste
and
carelessness
,
to
any
of
the
decadent
carvings
from
which
they
were
taken
--
the
characteristic
and
unmistakable
technique
of
the
Old
Ones
themselves
in
the
dead
city
's
heyday
.
There
are
those
who
will
say
Danforth
and
I
were
utterly
mad
not
to
flee
for
our
lives
after
that
;
since
our
conclusions
were
now
--
notwithstanding
their
wildness
--
completely
fixed
,
and
of
a
nature
I
need
not
even
mention
to
those
who
have
read
my
account
as
far
as
this
.
Perhaps
we
were
mad
--
for
have
I
not
said
those
horrible
peaks
were
mountains
of
madness
?
But
I
think
I
can
detect
something
of
the
same
spirit
--
albeit
in
a
less
extreme
form
--
in
the
men
who
stalk
deadly
beasts
through
African
jungles
to
photograph
them
or
study
their
habits
.
Half
paralyzed
with
terror
though
we
were
,
there
was
nevertheless
fanned
within
us
a
blazing
flame
of
awe
and
curiosity
which
triumphed
in
the
end
.
Of
course
we
did
not
mean
to
face
that
--
or
those
--
which
we
knew
had
been
there
,
but
we
felt
that
they
must
be
gone
by
now
.
They
would
by
this
time
have
found
the
other
neighboring
entrance
to
the
abyss
,
and
have
passed
within
,
to
whatever
night-black
fragments
of
the
past
might
await
them
in
the
ultimate
gulf
--
the
ultimate
gulf
they
had
never
seen
.
Or
if
that
entrance
,
too
,
was
blocked
,
they
would
have
gone
on
to
the
north
seeking
another
.
They
were
,
we
remembered
,
partly
independent
of
light
.
Looking
back
to
that
moment
,
I
can
scarcely
recall
just
what
precise
form
our
new
emotions
took
--
just
what
change
of
immediate
objective
it
was
that
so
sharpened
our
sense
of
expectancy
.
We
certainly
did
not
mean
to
face
what
we
feared
--
yet
I
will
not
deny
that
we
may
have
had
a
lurking
,
unconscious
wish
to
spy
certain
things
from
some
hidden
vantage
point
.
Probably
we
had
not
given
up
our
zeal
to
glimpse
the
abyss
itself
,
though
there
was
interposed
a
new
goal
in
the
form
of
that
great
circular
place
shown
on
the
crumpled
sketches
we
had
found
.
We
had
at
once
recognized
it
as
a
monstrous
cylindrical
tower
figuring
in
the
very
earliest
carvings
,
but
appearing
only
as
a
prodigious
round
aperture
from
above
.
Something
about
the
impressiveness
of
its
rendering
,
even
in
these
hasty
diagrams
,
made
us
think
that
its
subglacial
levels
must
still
form
a
feature
of
peculiar
importance
.
Perhaps
it
embodied
architectural
marvels
as
yet
unencountered
by
us
.
It
was
certainly
of
incredible
age
according
to
the
sculptures
in
which
it
figured
--
being
indeed
among
the
first
things
built
in
the
city
.
Its
carvings
,
if
preserved
,
could
not
but
be
highly
significant
.
Moreover
,
it
might
form
a
good
present
link
with
the
upper
world
--
a
shorter
route
than
the
one
we
were
so
carefully
blazing
,
and
probably
that
by
which
those
others
had
descended
.
