He stared into the glowing coals left by the nearly consumed wood, his briar now dead in his hand, then tossed another small log onto the dwindling fire. A faint chill seemed to be in the dwelling.
“You ask what I think about all of this,” responded Alan, shifting his eyes from the glowing embers to the gaunt face of the professor, “and I must reply that your analysis is possibly correct.”
It had come to Alan that the fantastic idea which had occurred to him earlier might not be so impossible as he first had judged. Now, it seemed to him, it was a very real, very deadly possibility.
“I’ve seen enough to know that something utterly beyond the knowledge of man is on the loose. But… tell me more. Just what is this mist and just how did you come to be responsible for its presence?”
Fletcher stuffed tobacco into the minute orifice left by the carbon in the pipe’s bowl and began to pace the carpet restlessly.
“I don’t know what it is, but I’m sure it’s something utterly unnatural, a form of life created perhaps when the earth was in its infancy which should have perished long epochs before the stone age; certainly, it is nothing of which archaeology or paleontology could offer any hint!”
“Perhaps,” mused Alan, “it is not even of this earth, but rather some unspeakable cosmic malevolence from an another, unknown section of the universe.”
Dr. Fletcher stopped and nodded slowly. “That, too. After what I’ve seen I’m willing to believe nearly anything. I just don’t know. But I can tell you how I found it, discovered it under conditions which make it seem that it must have been sealed in its rocky prison long, long ago, to be held there until I unintentionally broke in and left the way open for its escape.
“It happened a little more than a month ago, on the afternoon of one of those drowsy Indian summer days we were enjoying here at the time. I’ve always maintained an interest in geology; made it a sort of spare-time hobby when I wasn’t tied down with strictly paleontological pursuits. Well… on this particular day, I’d knocked off work on my latest book—it was such lazy weather I thought I’d do myself more good outdoors—and gone for a ramble with my hammer.
“I’d circled about half the marsh behind us and was climbing the shrub-tangled bluff which overlooks the Miskatonic River on the other side, when I tripped on a root and rolled back halfway down the incline. That started things! I crashed through a growth of bushes into the mouth of a cave which they concealed. It’s typical of the formations one sometimes finds around here; they’re not uncommon, but because of its natural concealment I’d never known of this one.
“If only destiny had grabbed my ankles and prevented me from entering that cave! But no such intervention occurred and I pressed through the opening into a hidden cavern that perhaps had not been entered by man for many thousands of years—if ever! I took a large flashlight from my knapsack and played its rays over the ceiling and floor. Presently I advanced still further, making my way to the rear wall, tapping occasionally at projections of the rough rock as I examined it. It was only a very common variety of granite, but it was incredibly old—very, very ancient rock.
“Water, oozing from a spring in the rock above, trickled down the face of the blank wall at the back and dropped to the cavern’s floor with an endless drip-drip-drip. I’m mentioning this to explain what happened next. I took another step towards the wall and, in the uncertain footing of the slippery, pebble-covered floor, I slipped. My ankle turned; I teetered wildly for balance, twisted half around, and crashed against the rear wall. And my elbow went through that rock as if it had been a pane of window glass! The water, evidentally dripping for eons, must have eroded the stone to paper-thinness.
“The flashlight was fortunately undamaged. I got up with a throbbing ankle and elbow and played the light on the hole I had made in the wall; it was as big as my head. Extending the light through it, I saw beyond a cell-like chamber, perhaps ten feet square, from which dead, musty air seeped into the larger cavern.
“I stood back for a minute or two until the air in the smaller enclosure had improved. Then I inserted the light again and moved its rays over the uneven walls and rubble-covered floor. I was viewing a place which I now confidently believe had been sealed for perhaps countless thousands of years.
“And then I saw, almost at once, a huge flat stone, shaped—if you can credit this—in the perfect form of a conventional five-pointed star! The circular part I judged to be approximately three feet in diameter and lay on the floor near the center of the inner chamber. Mr. Hasrad, you can understand my astonishment and my determination to investigate more closely.
“I went outside and after a little search returned with a thick branch that made a fairly effective crowbar. With the leverage it provided I broke down the rotting wall ’till I could squeeze through the opening. Inside, I found myself in a naturally vaulted chamber; and just a few feet away was that star-shaped stone I mentioned. God, how I wish I had left it alone! Even now I don’t know what prompted me to move it. Just a sudden inspiration, I guess. Well, I had been studying some curious symbols engraved on its surface which I suspected might be ancient writing of some sort—though I could not even begin to identify it let alone decipher it—when it occurred to me to turn it over to inspect the other side. And that, of course, fool that I am, is just what I proceeded to do. I found the slab, however, too heavy for me to lift, but during the attempt managed to slide it over a little. Mr. Hasrad, that star-shaped stone was covering a pit!
“I moved the covering over until more than half the opening to that nightmarish shaft was exposed! I knelt at its edge and, as though I were looking down a well, peered at smooth walls that descended as far as the light would reach. It was nearly three feet in diameter, and from my vantage point I could see the walls run down and down in a manner suggesting the inside of a telescopic tube, which lost itself at a lower level, giving no hint as to just how deep it was.
“As I lay on the rock floor peering over the rim it occurred to me that the smooth polished roundness of the sides was at odd variance with the crudely hewn walls and ceiling of the chamber itself. My next observation was that the sides of this shaft were not made of rock at all but were composed of what might be a metallic substance which I was unable to identify.
“But speculation was purposeless. I selected a good-sized stone, tossed it over the brink, then waited second after second ’till a faint thudding noise was returned to me. Judging from the time elapsed by the fall, that hole was incredibly deep! I don’t believe the sound would have been audible at all had not the walls of the pit magnified it and carried it upwards to me. That shaft, I decided, must be hideously deep, and I backed away from it.
“At that point, my curiosity far from satiated, I resumed my inspection of those insane scribblings on the slab, unaware that the stone I had dropped had disturbed something that lived far below. Several minutes passed before I again felt the urge to examine the shaft, and as I did so my eyes focused upon a most astonishing sight.”
Alan shifted his position in the easy chair. “And just what was it you saw, Dr. Fletcher?” he asked.
“What I saw, far down in the depths, was movement where none should have been. Up into the glare of the light came a swirling whitish mass that filled the pit from side to side. It seemed as though amorphous pseudopodian filaments stretched forth cautiously, writhing insanely; incredible feelers that contracted and heaved in a curiously obscene manner as they rose higher and higher. They were still far below, understand, and I had plenty of time to replace the stone slab had the thought occurred to me; but instead I knelt there watching its rapid ascent with an awe and fascination which seemed to render me immobile.