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Then
he
decided
on
elimination
as
a
policy
,
and
went
carefully
over
the
whole
subterranean
surface
both
vertical
and
horizontal
,
trying
to
account
for
every
inch
separately
.
He
was
soon
substantially
narrowed
down
,
and
at
last
had
nothing
left
but
the
small
platform
before
the
washtubs
,
which
he
tried
once
before
in
vain
.
Now
experimenting
in
every
possible
way
,
and
exerting
a
double
strength
,
he
finally
found
that
the
top
did
indeed
turn
and
slide
horizontally
on
a
corner
pivot
.
Beneath
it
lay
a
trim
concrete
surface
with
an
iron
manhole
,
to
which
Mr.
Ward
at
once
rushed
with
excited
zeal
.
The
cover
was
not
hard
to
lift
,
and
the
father
had
quite
removed
it
when
Willett
noticed
the
queerness
of
his
aspect
.
He
was
swaying
and
nodding
dizzily
,
and
in
the
gust
of
noxious
air
which
swept
up
from
the
black
pit
beneath
the
doctor
soon
recognized
ample
cause
.
In
a
moment
Dr.
Willett
had
his
fainting
companion
on
the
floor
above
and
was
reviving
him
with
cold
water
.
Mr.
Ward
responded
feebly
,
but
it
could
be
seen
that
the
mephitic
blast
from
the
crypt
had
in
some
way
gravely
sickened
him
.
Wishing
to
take
no
chances
,
Willett
hastened
out
to
Broad
Street
for
a
taxicab
and
had
soon
dispatched
the
sufferer
home
despite
his
weak-voiced
protests
;
after
which
he
produced
an
electric
torch
,
covered
his
nostrils
with
a
band
of
sterile
gauze
,
and
descended
once
more
to
peer
into
the
new-found
depths
.
The
foul
air
had
now
slightly
abated
,
and
Willett
was
able
to
send
a
beam
of
light
down
the
Stygian
hold
For
about
ten
feet
,
he
saw
,
it
was
a
sheer
cylindrical
drop
with
concrete
walls
and
an
iron
ladder
;
after
which
the
hole
appeared
to
strike
a
flight
of
old
stone
steps
which
must
originally
have
emerged
to
earth
somewhat
southwest
of
the
present
building
.
Willett
freely
admits
that
for
a
moment
the
memory
of
the
old
Curwen
legends
kept
him
from
climbing
down
alone
into
that
malodorous
gulf
.
He
could
not
help
thinking
of
what
Like
Fenner
had
reported
on
that
last
monstrous
night
.
Then
duty
asserted
itself
and
he
made
the
plunge
,
carrying
a
great
valise
for
the
removal
of
whatever
papers
might
prove
of
supreme
importance
.
Slowly
,
as
befitted
one
of
his
years
,
he
descended
the
ladder
and
reached
the
slimy
steps
below
.
This
was
ancient
masonry
,
his
torch
told
him
;
and
upon
the
dripping
walls
he
saw
the
unwholesome
moss
of
centuries
.
Down
,
down
,
ran
the
steps
;
not
spirally
,
but
in
three
abrupt
turns
;
and
with
such
narrowness
that
two
men
could
have
passed
only
with
difficulty
.
He
had
counted
about
thirty
when
a
sound
reached
him
very
faintly
;
and
after
that
he
did
not
feel
disposed
to
count
any
more
.
It
was
a
godless
sound
;
one
of
those
low-keyed
,
insidious
outrages
of
Nature
which
are
not
meant
to
be
.
To
call
it
a
dull
wail
,
a
doom-dragged
whine
,
or
a
hopeless
howl
of
chorused
anguish
and
stricken
flesh
without
mind
would
be
to
miss
its
quintessential
loathsomeness
and
soul-sickening
overtones
.
Was
it
for
this
that
Ward
had
seemed
to
listen
on
that
day
he
was
removed
?
It
was
the
most
shocking
thing
that
Willett
had
ever
heard
,
and
it
continued
from
no
determinate
point
as
the
doctor
reached
the
bottom
of
the
steps
and
cast
his
torchlight
around
on
lofty
corridor
walls
surmounted
by
Cyclopean
vaulting
and
pierced
by
numberless
black
archways
.
The
hall
in
which
he
stood
was
perhaps
fourteen
feet
high
in
the
middle
of
the
vaulting
and
ten
or
twelve
feet
broad
.
Its
pavement
was
of
large
chipped
flagstone
,
and
its
walls
and
roof
were
of
dressed
masonry
.
Its
length
he
could
not
imagine
,
for
it
stretched
ahead
indefinitely
into
the
blackness
.
Of
the
archways
,
some
had
doors
of
the
old
six-paneled
colonial
type
,
whilst
others
had
none
.
Overcoming
the
dread
induced
by
the
smell
and
the
howling
,
Willett
began
to
explore
these
archways
one
by
one
;
finding
beyond
them
rooms
with
groined
stone
ceilings
,
each
of
medium
size
and
apparently
of
bizarre
used
.
Most
of
them
had
fireplaces
,
the
upper
courses
of
whose
chimneys
would
have
formed
an
interesting
study
in
engineering
.
Never
before
or
since
had
he
seen
such
instruments
or
suggestions
of
instruments
as
here
loomed
up
on
every
hand
through
the
burying
dust
and
cobwebs
of
a
century
and
a
half
,
in
many
cases
evidently
shattered
as
if
by
the
ancient
raiders
.
For
many
of
the
chambers
seemed
wholly
untrodden
by
modern
feet
,
and
must
have
represented
the
earliest
and
most
obsolete
phases
of
Joseph
Curwen
's
experimentation
.
Finally
there
came
a
room
of
obvious
modernity
,
or
at
least
of
recent
occupancy
.
There
were
oil
heaters
,
bookshelves
and
tables
,
chairs
and
cabinets
,
and
a
desk
piled
high
with
papers
of
varying
antiquity
and
contemporaneousness
.
Candlesticks
and
oil
lamps
stood
about
in
several
places
;
and
finding
a
match-safe
handy
,
Willett
lighted
such
as
were
ready
for
use
.
In
the
fuller
gleam
it
appeared
that
this
apartment
was
nothing
less
than
the
latest
study
or
library
of
Charles
Ward
.
Of
the
books
the
doctor
had
seen
many
before
,
and
a
good
part
of
the
furniture
had
plainly
come
from
the
Prospect
Street
mansion
.
Here
and
there
was
a
piece
well
known
to
Willett
,
and
the
sense
of
familiarity
became
so
great
that
he
half
forgot
the
noisomeness
and
the
wailing
,
both
of
which
were
plainer
here
than
they
had
been
at
the
foot
of
the
steps
.
His
first
duty
,
as
planned
long
ahead
,
was
to
find
and
seize
any
papers
which
might
seem
of
vital
importance
;
especially
those
portentous
documents
found
by
Charles
so
long
ago
behind
the
picture
in
Olney
Court
.
As
he
search
he
perceived
how
stupendous
a
task
the
final
unraveling
would
be
;
for
file
on
file
was
stuffed
with
papers
in
curious
hands
and
bearing
curious
designs
,
so
that
months
or
even
years
might
be
needed
for
a
thorough
deciphering
and
editing
.
Once
he
found
three
large
packets
of
letters
with
Prague
and
Rakus
postmarks
,
and
in
writing
clearly
recognizable
as
Orne
's
and
Hutchinson
's
;
all
of
which
he
took
with
him
as
part
of
the
bundle
to
be
removed
in
his
valise
.
At
last
,
in
a
locked
mahogany
cabinet
once
gracing
the
Ward
home
,
Willett
found
the
batch
of
old
Curwen
papers
;
recognizing
them
from
the
reluctant
glimpse
Charles
had
granted
him
so
many
years
ago
.
The
youth
had
evidently
kept
them
together
very
much
as
they
had
been
when
first
he
found
them
,
since
all
the
titles
recalled
by
the
workmen
were
present
except
the
papers
addressed
to
Orne
and
Hutchinson
,
and
the
cipher
with
its
key
.
Willett
placed
the
entire
lot
in
his
valise
and
continued
his
examination
of
the
files
.
Since
young
Ward
's
immediate
condition
was
the
greatest
matter
at
stake
,
the
closest
searching
was
done
among
the
most
obviously
recent
matter
;
and
in
this
abundance
of
contemporary
manuscript
one
very
baffling
oddity
was
noted
.
The
oddity
was
the
slight
amount
in
Charles
's
normal
writing
,
which
indeed
included
nothing
more
recent
than
two
months
before
.
On
the
other
hand
,
there
were
literally
reams
of
symbols
and
formulae
,
historical
notes
and
philosophical
comment
,
in
a
crabbed
penmanship
absolutely
identical
with
the
ancient
script
of
Joseph
Curwen
,
though
of
undeniably
modern
dating
.
Plainly
,
a
part
of
the
latter-day
program
had
been
a
sedulous
imitation
of
the
old
wizard
's
writing
,
which
Charles
seemed
to
have
carried
to
a
marvelous
state
of
perfection
.
Of
any
third
hand
which
might
have
been
Allen
's
there
was
not
a
trace
.
If
he
had
indeed
come
to
be
the
leader
,
he
must
have
forced
young
Ward
to
act
as
his
amanuensis
.
