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After
a
time
he
reached
a
circle
of
pillars
grouped
like
the
monoliths
of
Stonehenge
,
with
a
large
carved
altar
on
a
base
of
three
steps
in
the
center
;
and
so
curious
were
the
carvings
on
that
altar
that
he
approached
to
study
them
with
his
electric
light
.
But
when
he
saw
what
they
were
he
shrank
away
shuddering
,
and
did
not
stop
to
investigate
the
dark
stains
which
discolored
the
upper
surface
and
had
spread
down
the
sides
in
occasional
thin
lines
.
Instead
,
he
found
the
distant
wall
and
traced
it
as
it
swept
round
in
a
gigantic
circle
perforated
by
occasional
black
doorways
and
indented
by
a
myriad
of
shallow
cells
with
iron
gratings
and
wrist
and
ankle
bonds
on
chains
fastened
to
the
stone
of
the
concave
rear
masonry
These
cells
were
empty
,
but
still
the
horrible
odor
and
the
dismal
moaning
continued
,
more
insistent
now
than
ever
,
and
seemingly
varied
at
time
by
a
sort
of
slippery
thumping
.
From
that
frightful
smell
and
that
uncanny
noise
Willett
's
attention
could
no
longer
be
diverted
.
Both
were
plainer
and
more
hideous
in
the
great
pillared
hall
than
anywhere
else
,
and
carried
a
vague
impression
of
being
far
below
,
even
in
this
dark
nether
world
of
subterrene
mystery
.
Before
trying
any
of
the
black
archways
for
steps
leading
further
down
,
the
doctor
cast
his
beam
of
light
about
the
stone-flagged
floor
.
It
was
very
loosely
paved
,
and
at
irregular
intervals
there
would
occur
a
slab
curiously
pierced
by
small
holes
in
no
definite
arrangement
,
while
at
one
point
there
lay
a
very
long
ladder
carelessly
flung
down
.
To
this
ladder
,
singularly
enough
,
appeared
to
cling
a
particularly
large
amount
of
the
frightful
odor
which
encompassed
everything
.
As
he
walked
slowly
about
it
suddenly
occurred
to
Willett
that
both
the
noise
and
the
odor
seemed
strongest
above
the
oddly
pierced
slabs
,
as
if
they
might
be
crude
trap-doors
leading
down
to
some
still
deeper
region
of
horror
.
Kneeling
by
one
,
he
worked
at
it
with
his
hands
,
and
found
that
with
extreme
difficulty
he
could
budge
it
.
At
his
touch
the
moaning
beneath
ascended
to
a
louder
key
,
and
only
with
vast
trepidation
did
he
persevere
in
the
lifting
of
the
heavy
stone
.
A
stench
unnameable
now
rose
up
from
below
,
and
the
doctor
's
head
reeled
dizzily
as
he
laid
back
the
slab
and
turned
his
torch
upon
the
exposed
square
yard
of
gaping
blackness
.
If
he
had
expected
a
flight
of
steps
to
some
wide
gulf
of
ultimate
abomination
,
Willett
was
destined
to
be
disappointed
;
for
amidst
that
fetor
and
cracked
whining
he
discerned
only
the
brick-faced
top
of
a
cylindrical
well
perhaps
a
yard
and
a
half
in
diameter
and
devoid
of
any
ladder
or
other
means
of
descent
.
As
the
light
shone
down
,
the
wailing
changed
suddenly
to
a
series
of
horrible
yelps
;
in
conjunction
with
which
there
came
again
that
sound
of
blind
,
futile
scrambling
and
slippery
thumping
.
The
explorer
trembled
,
unwilling
even
to
imagine
what
noxious
thing
might
be
lurking
in
that
abyss
,
but
in
a
moment
mustered
up
the
courage
to
peer
over
the
rough-hewn
brink
;
lying
at
full
length
and
holding
the
torch
downward
at
arm
's
length
to
see
what
might
lie
below
.
For
a
second
he
could
distinguish
nothing
but
the
slimy
,
moss-grown
brick
walls
sinking
illimitably
into
that
half-tangible
miasma
of
murk
and
foulness
and
anguished
frenzy
;
and
then
he
saw
that
something
dark
was
leaping
clumsily
and
frantically
up
and
down
at
the
bottom
of
the
narrow
shaft
,
which
must
have
been
from
twenty
to
twenty-five
feet
below
the
stone
floor
where
he
lay
.
The
torch
shook
in
his
hand
,
but
he
looked
again
to
see
what
manner
of
living
creature
might
be
immured
there
in
the
darkness
of
that
unnatural
well
;
left
starving
by
young
Ward
through
all
the
long
month
since
the
doctors
had
taken
him
away
,
and
clearly
only
one
of
a
vast
number
prisoned
in
the
kindred
wells
whose
pierced
stone
covers
so
thickly
studded
the
floor
of
the
great
vaulted
cavern
.
Whatever
the
things
were
,
they
could
not
lie
down
in
their
cramped
spaces
;
but
must
have
crouched
and
whined
and
waited
and
feebly
leaped
all
those
hideous
weeks
since
their
master
had
abandoned
them
unheeded
.
But
Marinus
Bicknell
Willett
was
sorry
that
he
looked
again
;
for
surgeon
and
veteran
of
the
dissecting-room
though
he
was
,
he
has
not
been
the
same
since
.
It
is
hard
to
explain
just
how
a
single
sight
of
a
tangible
object
with
measurable
dimensions
could
so
shake
and
change
a
man
;
and
we
may
only
say
that
there
is
about
certain
outlines
and
entities
a
power
of
symbolism
and
suggestion
which
acts
frightfully
on
a
sensitive
thinker
's
perspective
and
whispers
terrible
hints
of
obscure
cosmic
relationships
and
unnameable
realities
behind
the
protective
illusions
of
common
vision
.
In
that
second
look
Willett
saw
such
an
outline
or
entity
,
for
during
the
next
few
instants
he
was
undoubtedly
as
stark
raving
mad
as
any
inmate
of
Dr.
Waite
's
private
hospital
.
He
dropped
the
electric
torch
from
a
hand
drained
of
muscular
power
or
nervous
co-ordination
,
nor
heeded
the
sound
of
crunching
teeth
which
told
of
its
fate
at
the
bottom
of
the
pit
.
He
screamed
and
screamed
and
screamed
in
a
voice
whose
falsetto
panic
no
acquaintance
of
his
would
ever
have
recognized
;
and
though
he
could
not
rise
to
his
feet
he
crawled
and
rolled
desperately
away
from
the
damp
pavement
where
dozens
of
Tartarean
wells
poured
forth
their
exhausted
whining
and
yelping
to
answer
his
own
insane
cries
.
He
tore
his
hands
on
the
rough
,
loose
stones
,
and
many
times
bruised
his
head
against
the
frequent
pillars
,
but
still
he
kept
on
.
Then
at
last
he
slowly
came
to
himself
in
the
utter
blackness
and
stench
,
and
stopped
his
ears
against
the
droning
wail
into
which
the
burst
of
yelping
had
subsided
.
He
was
drenched
with
perspiration
and
without
means
of
producing
a
light
;
stricken
and
unnerved
in
the
abysmal
blackness
and
horror
,
and
crushed
with
a
memory
he
never
could
efface
.
Beneath
him
dozens
of
those
things
still
lived
,
and
from
one
of
those
shafts
the
cover
was
removed
.
He
knew
that
what
he
had
seen
could
never
climb
up
the
slippery
walls
,
yet
shuddered
at
the
thought
that
some
obscure
foot-hold
might
exist
.
What
the
thing
was
,
he
would
never
tell
.
It
was
like
some
of
the
carvings
on
the
hellish
altar
,
but
it
was
alive
.
Nature
had
never
made
it
in
this
form
,
for
it
was
too
palpably
unfinished
.
The
deficiencies
were
of
the
most
surprising
sort
,
and
the
abnormalities
of
proportion
could
not
be
described
.
Willett
consents
only
to
say
that
this
type
of
thing
must
have
represented
entities
which
Ward
called
up
from
imperfect
salts
,
and
which
he
kept
for
servile
or
ritualistic
purposes
.
If
it
had
not
had
a
certain
significance
,
its
image
would
not
have
been
carved
on
that
damnable
stone
.
It
was
not
the
worst
thing
depicted
on
that
stone
--
but
Willett
never
opened
the
other
pits
.
At
the
time
,
the
first
connected
idea
in
his
mind
was
an
idle
paragraph
from
some
of
the
old
Curwen
data
he
had
digested
long
before
;
a
phrase
used
by
Simon
or
Jedediah
Orne
in
that
portentous
confiscated
letter
to
the
bygone
sorcerer
:
'
Certainely
,
there
was
Noth
'
g
but
ye
liveliest
Awfulness
in
that
which
H.
rais
'd
upp
from
What
he
cou
'd
gather
onlie
a
part
of
.
'
