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- Стр. 31/38
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At
any
rate
,
the
thing
we
did
was
to
study
the
terrible
sketches
--
which
quite
perfectly
confirmed
our
own
--
and
start
back
over
the
indicated
course
to
the
circular
place
;
the
course
which
our
nameless
predecessors
must
have
traversed
twice
before
us
.
The
other
neighboring
gate
to
the
abyss
would
lie
beyond
that
.
I
need
not
speak
of
our
journey
--
during
which
we
continued
to
leave
an
economical
trail
of
paper
--
for
it
was
precisely
the
same
in
kind
as
that
by
which
we
had
reached
the
cul-desac
;
except
that
it
tended
to
adhere
more
closely
to
the
ground
level
and
even
descend
to
basement
corridors
.
Every
now
and
then
we
could
trace
certain
disturbing
marks
in
the
debris
or
litter
underfoot
;
and
after
we
had
passed
outside
the
radius
of
the
gasoline
scent
,
we
were
again
faintly
conscious
--
spasmodically
--
of
that
more
hideous
and
more
persistent
scent
.
After
the
way
had
branched
from
our
former
course
,
we
sometimes
gave
the
rays
of
our
single
torch
a
furtive
sweep
along
the
walls
;
noting
in
almost
every
case
the
well-nigh
omnipresent
sculptures
,
which
indeed
seem
to
have
formed
a
main
aesthetic
outlet
for
the
Old
Ones
.
About
9:30
P.M.
,
while
traversing
a
long
,
vaulted
corridor
whose
increasingly
glaciated
floor
seemed
somewhat
below
the
ground
level
and
whose
roof
grew
lower
as
we
advanced
,
we
began
to
see
strong
daylight
ahead
and
were
able
to
turn
off
our
torch
.
It
appeared
that
we
were
coming
to
the
vast
circular
place
,
and
that
our
distance
from
the
upper
air
could
not
be
very
great
.
The
corridor
ended
in
an
arch
surprisingly
low
for
these
megalithic
ruins
,
but
we
could
see
much
through
it
even
before
we
emerged
.
Beyond
there
stretched
a
prodigious
round
space
--
fully
two
hundred
feet
in
diameter
--
strewn
with
debris
and
containing
many
choked
archways
corresponding
to
the
one
we
were
about
to
cross
.
The
walls
were
--
in
available
spaces
--
boldly
sculptured
into
a
spiral
band
of
heroic
proportions
;
and
displayed
,
despite
the
destructive
weathering
caused
by
the
openness
of
the
spot
,
an
artistic
splendor
far
beyond
anything
we
had
encountered
before
.
The
littered
floor
was
quite
heavily
glaciated
,
and
we
fancied
that
the
true
bottom
lay
at
a
considerably
lower
depth
.
But
the
salient
object
of
the
place
was
the
titanic
stone
ramp
which
,
eluding
the
archways
by
a
sharp
turn
outward
into
the
open
floor
,
wound
spirally
up
the
stupendous
cylindrical
wall
like
an
inside
counterpart
of
those
once
climbing
outside
the
monstrous
towers
or
ziggurats
of
antique
Babylon
.
Only
the
rapidity
of
our
flight
,
and
the
perspective
which
confounded
the
descent
with
the
tower
's
inner
wall
,
had
prevented
our
noticing
this
feature
from
the
air
,
and
thus
caused
us
to
seek
another
avenue
to
the
subglacial
level
.
Pabodie
might
have
been
able
to
tell
what
sort
of
engineering
held
it
in
place
,
but
Danforth
and
I
could
merely
admire
and
marvel
.
We
could
see
mighty
stone
corbels
and
pillars
here
and
there
,
but
what
we
saw
seemed
inadequate
to
the
function
performed
.
The
thing
was
excellently
preserved
up
to
the
present
top
of
the
tower
--
a
highly
remarkable
circumstance
in
view
of
its
exposure
--
and
its
shelter
had
done
much
to
protect
the
bizarre
and
disturbing
cosmic
sculptures
on
the
walls
.
As
we
stepped
out
into
the
awesome
half
daylight
of
this
monstrous
cylinder
bottom
--
fifty
million
years
old
,
and
without
doubt
the
most
primally
ancient
structure
ever
to
meet
our
eyes
--
we
saw
that
the
ramp-traversed
sides
stretched
dizzily
up
to
a
height
of
fully
sixty
feet
.
This
,
we
recalled
from
our
aerial
survey
,
meant
an
outside
glaciation
of
some
forty
feet
;
since
the
yawning
gulf
we
had
seen
from
the
plane
had
been
at
the
top
of
an
approximately
twenty-foot
mound
of
crumbled
masonry
,
somewhat
sheltered
for
three-fourths
of
its
circumference
by
the
massive
curving
walls
of
a
line
of
higher
ruins
.
According
to
the
sculptures
,
the
original
tower
had
stood
in
the
center
of
an
immense
circular
plaza
,
and
had
been
perhaps
five
hundred
or
six
hundred
feet
high
,
with
tiers
of
horizontal
disks
near
the
top
,
and
a
row
of
needlelike
spires
along
the
upper
rim
.
Most
of
the
masonry
had
obviously
toppled
outward
rather
than
inward
--
a
fortunate
happening
,
since
otherwise
the
ramp
might
have
been
shattered
and
the
whole
interior
choked
.
As
it
was
,
the
ramp
showed
sad
battering
;
whilst
the
choking
was
such
that
all
the
archways
at
the
bottom
seemed
to
have
been
recently
cleared
.
It
took
us
only
a
moment
to
conclude
that
this
was
indeed
the
route
by
which
those
others
had
descended
,
and
that
this
would
be
the
logical
route
for
our
own
ascent
despite
the
long
trail
of
paper
we
had
left
elsewhere
.
The
tower
's
mouth
was
no
farther
from
the
foothills
and
our
waiting
plane
than
was
the
great
terraced
building
we
had
entered
,
and
any
further
subglacial
exploration
we
might
make
on
this
trip
would
lie
in
this
general
region
.
Oddly
,
we
were
still
thinking
about
possible
later
trips
--
even
after
all
we
had
seen
and
guessed
.
Then
,
as
we
picked
our
way
cautiously
over
the
debris
of
the
great
floor
,
there
came
a
sight
which
for
the
time
excluded
all
other
matters
.
It
was
the
neatly
huddled
array
of
three
sledges
in
that
farther
angle
of
the
ramp
's
lower
and
outward-projecting
course
which
had
hitherto
been
screened
from
our
view
.
There
they
were
--
the
three
sledges
missing
from
Lake
's
camp
--
shaken
by
a
hard
usage
which
must
have
included
forcible
dragging
along
great
reaches
of
snowless
masonry
and
debris
,
as
well
as
much
hand
portage
over
utterly
unnavigable
places
.
They
were
carefully
and
intelligently
packed
and
strapped
,
and
contained
things
memorably
familiar
enough
:
the
gasoline
stove
,
fuel
cans
,
instrument
cases
,
provision
tins
,
tarpaulins
obviously
bulging
with
books
,
and
some
bulging
with
less
obvious
contents
--
everything
derived
from
Lake
's
equipment
.
After
what
we
had
found
in
that
other
room
,
we
were
in
a
measure
prepared
for
this
encounter
.
The
really
great
shock
came
when
we
stepped
over
and
undid
one
tarpaulin
whose
outlines
had
peculiarly
disquieted
us
.
It
seems
that
others
as
well
as
Lake
had
been
interested
in
collecting
typical
specimens
;
for
there
were
two
here
,
both
stiffly
frozen
,
perfectly
preserved
,
patched
with
adhesive
plaster
where
some
wounds
around
the
neck
had
occurred
,
and
wrapped
with
care
to
prevent
further
damage
.
They
were
the
bodies
of
young
Gedney
and
the
missing
dog
.
