The Ancient Horror (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures)
Author: Hal Grant
Date: 2013-07-26 05:00:00+00:00
Description: This early work by Hal Grant was originally published in 1928 and we are now republishing it as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'The Ancient Horror' is a short story in which a man relays his tale of coming face to face with a monster. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Wh
Publisher: Cryptofiction Classics

Amazing Stories, April, 1928

Amazing Stories, April, 1928

T will be interesting if they happen to about. Also, I believe I have good reason for find the lizard and it turns out to be thinking there are some that resemble no

“I the real thing.”

known species, and, since you won’t take any

“What thing?” I asked. Rutherford had stock in my belief until you have some proof, been reading the paper to himself.

I am going to give you some, provided, of By way of reply, he handed me the
course, that you will accept my unsupported paper, at the same time pointing to a head-line word that what I tell you is true.”

carrying the information that scientists were Rutherford is not one given to making on their way to Africa to search for a “PRE-statements that are not true. If he says he HISTORIC MONSTER SEEN BY HUNTERS
knows a thing to be so, from personal IN NORTHERN AFRICAN SWAMP.”

knowledge, that settles it. He always was that From the writer’s description, I way, even in school. More than once I have gathered the idea that the creature was known him to take a licking when, by simply supposed to belong to one of the species of misstating the facts, he would have saved gigantic saurians that roamed the earth during himself. Knowing him as I did, I told him to the reptilian age, some five hundred millions go ahead and give me the proof, if he wanted of years ago.

to, but, that I’d take his word for the “reason”

I thought the story a hoax and said so.

without any further evidence, I hadn’t the Rutherford didn’t agree with me, calling my slightest idea as to what his “proofs” were, or attention to the fact that the men—whose I should not have taken the chance of missing names were given—were all well known, them. Aside from a tale of fiction, I’ve never which made it unlikely that any writer would heard, or read of anything that approached his use them in connection with anything that story for horror. And the setting was perfect.

savoured of deceit.

Rutherford and I, alone in the hunting lodge

“I believe they have evidence on the shore of a northern lake at night, with warranting such an expedition, or they would the November wind howling through the trees not go. Moreover, I shall not be surprised to that surrounded the house on three sides, and read, at some future date, that they have driving torrents of rain and sleet against the discovered the thing, whatever it is, and that it windows and upon the shakes that covered the furnishes them with some very interesting roof. An eerie night, for an eerie tale.

experiences.”

“I’ve never told this story before,” he Well, every one has a right to his began, “because there is little chance of being opinion, even though he has no foundation thought anything but a liar. I’ve often wanted upon which to base it, so I didn’t argue with to tell it though, and this moment seems very him, beyond saying that I presumed he had opportune. Every word is gospel truth.”

some very good reason for being so positive.

“In this case, as in all others, cause and Perhaps he thought I was a trifle effect are operative,” he began. “If I hadn’t sarcastic. At any rate he looked at me through caught the flu in the winter of nineteen contracted eyes for a moment, as if trying to hundred and five, I should never have known make up his mind about something; then, anything about it.

having filled his pipe, he reached for a match

“I had a pretty bad case of it and, only and, after lighting the tobacco, he said quietly, by the skin of my teeth, did I manage to pull

“Yes, I do believe there are living descendants through. Even at that, I barely missed ‘going of those saurians and that they are, in west,’ for I was left with a lung complication appearance, like the old fellows we read that my doctor thought was a touch of T.B.

The Ancient Horror 3

“As soon as the weather permitted, he reservoir. One beautiful afternoon, just at the ordered me into the mountains for an time the women were getting supper started, indefinite time. ‘Any place,’ he said, ‘where every tap in town went dry. Inside of half an there are lots of pine trees and clean air.’ It hour the water works department was being seems odd that, out of all the familiar places called up and ‘called down’ by indignant on earth, which I might have chosen, I should housewives, who wanted to know what had have selected a place I had never heard of become of their water supply.

before, just because the name, when I read it

“Well, the department found it out
on the route marked out in a railway time almost as soon as the women did, and it table, reminded me of a little girl I used to like wasn’t long before the engineers were loping back in my school days.

along the pipe-line leading to the reservoir,

“Maybe you will remember her, Elsie
followed by a crowd of idlers; being one of Hampton, She went to school with us, back that class, I was with them.

there, in Stowe, Vermont. She lived back on

“There was no break in the pipe and no the hill, beyond the big house that Butler, the cause for the stoppage of the water ways hotel man, built. You remember, he never found until the reservoir was reached. Here finished it? Got killed by being thrown out of they found cause in plenty. The huge, artificial his buggy, while driving a crazy horse. Drunk lake was dry and the creek that fed it was at the time, if I remember correctly.”

pouring into a great hole in the center of the I nodded and, refilling his obnoxious basin, near the dam and, from the roar that pipe, he went on.

issued forth, one could guess that the water

“That’s how I happened to go to was falling some distance.

Hampton and, as it turned out, I would have

“Ordinarily, a hole may be stopped up.

had some trouble finding a better place, every This was more than a hole; a continuous thing considered. It was two thousand feet stream of water of considerable size failed to above sea level, just at the edge of the fill it. Evidently there was a cavern, or a foothills. There were plenty of pines, firs and number of caverns, underneath the surface balsams. Air as clear as crystal. Fishing and with outlets, possibly sufficiently large to hunting ’till you couldn’t rest and, to make it carry away any overflow.

more attractive, it was off the tourist track.

“There were two newspapers in

Nobody ever stopped there (it was before the Hampton. One backed up the ‘Boosters,’

days of ‘Automobile Tramps’ and there was while the other stood with the ‘Conservatives,’

no such thing as a ‘Tourist Camp’).

and the reservoir incident furnished the rival

“But the town was modern and up-to-
papers with a plentiful supply of material for date, provided with gas, electricity and a publication.

plentiful supply of pure water, piped from a

“As might be guessed, the
reservoir ten miles back in the hills. There had conservative organ was mean and caustic. Of been a hot controversy over the construction course, nobody could have foreseen such a of the reservoir, due to the heavy cost, but the catastrophe—for it amounted to that.

‘Boosters’ had won out, and in the end, every

“The other paper tried to explain, and one was happy.

really did explain. The cause was entirely

“I had been there but a short while
obvious. The creek, for at least that part of it when things began to happen that set the town that had passed over the spot where the hole by the ears, particularly that part of the town now was, had flowed over the thin rock cover that had opposed the idea of putting in the of an underground chamber, or chambers, of

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4
huge dimensions. In view of what occurred a astonished and sympathetic. Wilson didn’t year later, I believe there must have been at want sympathy; he wanted damages, which least two, or more. This thin plate, or cover, put an entirely different light on the story. At had been strong enough to support the weight first, the Mayor thought Wilson was crazy, but of the stream, but it was constantly growing he soon changed his mind and, calling in the thinner and it was apparently not strong County Attorney, asked Wilson to tell the enough to bear the greater strain imposed story in detail.

upon it by the water in the reservoir.

“Wilson said he had been aroused

“The conservative paper admitted this from sleep by a strange noise, a sort of tearing but tried to convince its readers that the sound mixed with a great roar and, upon engineers should have known, from the getting up and going to his window, which formation of the rocks, that such an accident faced the reservoir, he had seen a great gush was liable to occur.

of water, spurting up through the hole in its

“And so they went at it, hammer and
bed, and that a few moments later there had tongs, until, like a bolt from the clear blue sky, been another tearing, crashing noise and all came another phenomenal occurrence. This, I his best garden land had broken away from suppose, might have been anticipated, higher and less valuable land, and ‘dropped although I don’t see how.

plum out of sight.’

“He was still standing, open mouthed, MAN by the name of Wilson owned
at the window when there came another a large farm that abutted upon the

“A
explosion, followed by a tearing noise and a creek. In fact, a part of the lake formed by the great chasm appeared in the northern end of reservoir encroached upon Wilson’s property, the depression into which his farm had sunk and would have covered a large part of it, and through this came a rushing volume of were it not for a retaining wall that had been water. By this time, Wilson said, he thought built to keep the water back. This wall ran he’d ‘better put on some clothes and from a point near the upstream end of the investigate.’

reservoir to within a hundred feet of the dam.

“Continuing, he said that, when he

The remaining space was filled by a sort of reached the side of the cave-in, he saw that it mound, rising some fifteen feet, or more, was rapidly being filled with water that came above the surface of the water at high level.

pouring into it through the rent in the upper This mound was very much like a turtle’s end. He had watched until morning when, the shell in shape, a hundred feet in length, about water, having reached a point a few inches fifty feet wide at its base. I mention the mound below the firm edge of his remaining land, had at this point in the story, because it played an ceased to rise, and he concluded it had gone as important part in a later incident, and I want high as it ever would.

you to remember the details.

“At first be was mystified, but at last

“One morning, while the principal decided that his misfortune was due to the topic of conversation was still the reservoir cave-in of the reservoir, the water having cave-in, Wilson came into town, all het up!

washed the underpinning from beneath his Winding up in the Mayor’s office, he sprung a property. Well, both the Mayor and the sensation upon that official by declaring that County Attorney agreed with him—forgetting his farm had ‘sunk out of sight.’ This was, to in the excitement induced by the fantastic be sure, a mean and unusual trick for a farm to story, that Wilson was there to secure play upon its owner and the Mayor was both damages.

The Ancient Horror 5

“Of course the Mayor couldn’t do his place indefinitely. I did succeed in doing anything for Wilson, and the County Attorney, so and, who knows but that I might have met seeing no better way out of the tangle, advised with the same unpleasant experience he did, the man to get a lawyer and bring suit.

had not Fate willed it otherwise.

“The case didn’t come to trial—not

“Adventure, like romance, lies just
then—for the city figured a way out of the around the corner. One does not need to go to trouble into which the cave-in had drawn it.

Africa, as these scientists are doing, in order

“Analysis showed that the water in the to find adventure any more than it is necessary newly formed lake was the same water the to go to Europe for romance, and the city had been getting from the reservoir and so adventure ahead of me that summer day, as I an appraiser fixed a valuation upon the sunken sat in Wilson’s rattling Flivver, en route to his property that satisfied Wilson, and, this place, was very real. No other man ever lived settled, preparations were begun to connect up through an experience more bizarre, more the lake with the pipe line.

horrible than the one that was waiting for me,

“But, the chain of unusual happenings at Wilson’s place.

was not yet at an end. The day before Wilson

“It didn’t take us long to cover the was to receive the money for his land, water distance between Hampton and the farm began to flow through the hundreds of taps which, even with most of the tillable land that had been left open since they ran dry. An under water, was a beautiful place. That part investigation revealed the fact that the of the property covered with the water from reservoir had begun to fill up again and, as the reservoir had been practically the only soon as the news reached the County really flat land in the whole estate; the rest Attorney’s office, payment to Wilson was held was rolling and hilly, and for the most part, up, pending such a time as might be needed to covered with timber. The lake lay almost in show whether or not the reservoir would fill the center of the ‘farm,’ as Wilson called it and remain full.

and, while it completely ruined the farm for

“When it became apparent that there
agriculture, it added immensely to its charm was to be no more trouble with the water and beauty. Roughly oval and nearly a mile in supply, the City called the deal off. Wilson diameter, it twinkled in its bed like a great then took his case into court and lost. He sapphire encircled with emeralds. Owing to its carried it up on an appeal, and lost again, the depth, which, according to Wilson’s estimate, higher court sustaining the lower and was something about five hundred feet, the justifying itself in so doing by stating that water would remain cold always, which made what had occurred was ‘an act of God,’ for it an ideal place for any trout which entered which the city was not liable.

from the creek, to live and breed in.

“During the trial, I became acquainted

“I said as much to Wilson that evening with Wilson and, afterwards he invited me out after supper. Evidently, he had never thought to his place. I was glad to go with him for his of such a thing; his mind was centered upon invitation carried with it the assurance of his loss. He mulled the thing over in his mind better conditions of living for me, for I had for a moment, and as the possibilities of such been unable to secure suitable quarters in any a proposition grew upon him, he said, ‘if that of the farm homes outside of Hampton. I danged lake had fish in it, I wouldn’t take any conjectured that, if Wilson’s place suited my price you could name for it. I could get more fancy, I could very likely make arrangements out of the water then than I ever got out of the with him which would enable me to remain at land and still own it.’ And I knew he was

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6
right. Given fish, he had the world by the tail.

protect them from possible breakage, we It would make a wonderful summer resort, for devoted our time to planning a campaign for cottages could be built along the lake which the Spring.

would bring high rent for the season. He

“Winter passed reluctantly it seemed to surely needed fish.

Wilson and me, but it gave way to Spring at last and shortly after I went to the city. There I ND the fish came, but not until we
had a series of talks with certain dealers in had about given up all hope that they

“A
fish, which resulted, as soon as the fishing would. I had become Wilson’s star boarder, season opened, in a big window display of for he had invited me to stay there as long as I strings of trout that made the disciples of Isaac liked, as his guest. I spent the days helping Walton almost wild to swing a fly over their Wilson keep house. He was a widower for habitat. A carefully worded legend that some years, and wandered about the lake, accompanied the display gave the necessary looking for signs of fish.

information. The season opened with all our

“Then, one afternoon, just at sun-
cottages occupied and we were making down, I saw one leap out of the water. I money.

shouted to Wilson, who answered the call on the run and got there in time to sec another ERY shortly after, we began to hear

“V
one jump up out of the blue depths. He strange noises in the night. If we had gripped my arm and said. ‘Rutherford, I shall been very near a seaport town I should have need some help, financially. If you want to go thought the sound, though rather sharp, was in with me, we’ll split the profits. What do given by a ship’s siren. However, since we you say?’ I thought the matter over for a were better than eighteen hundred miles from moment, then told him I’d furnish the needed the ocean, and a thousand miles from any capital. We stayed there, at the side of the other body of water large enough to float a lake, until dark, talking the matter over and ship, we concluded that it was a particularly watching the ‘dollars,’ as Wilson was pleased awful whistle on the railroad, that ran some to call the trout, jump out of the water. We three miles to the west of us. It bothered us for then went back to the house to make further about a week, then, like all other noises that plans for the next season.

occur at frequent intervals, it ceased to bother

“Two weeks later we had a dozen us much. There was some speculation among summer cottages well on the road toward the cottagers but, when we told them it completion. We expected to build more, later, probably came from some engine, they but we figured a dozen, to start with, would be accepted the statement for fact, and forgot all sufficient, which shows how nearly a couple about it. Besides, what does a little noise of greenhorns can come to making a correct amount to when the fishing is good? And it guess. We could have rented a hundred, if we was.

had them. Later I wished I had never thought

“There was only one fault to he found of building a single cottage. But who could with our lake, or its environment. Owing to have dreamed of such consequence?

the altitude and the added fact that it lay so

“The cottages, which were erected on a deep down among the hills, the nights were sufficiently large, cleared space, on the too chilly to permit of comfort on the lake southeast shore of the lake, were completed after dark. However, there was plenty of before the cold weather set in, and after warmth during the daytime, so it didn’t matter closing the board shutters over the windows to so very much.

The Ancient Horror 7

“Along about the first part of July, neighbor was equally certain that he had dimly however, we had a stretch of very hot weather.

seen the young man stand up in the canoe and, The warmth continued well into the night, and with the paddle, strike at something and then the early evening hours found the lake pretty suddenly pitch forward, out of the canoe, well dotted with boats and canoes, passing screaming as he fell.

back and forth near the shore and pretty well out into the lake.

LL this was told by the two men,

“The first break in the calm order of

“Awhile the four of us, in two boats, our lives came one evening, during this hot were racing toward the spot where the boy spell. Wilson and I were down at the lake, was last seen.

cleaning some trout we had caught. It was

“Although the man who declared the
about eight, or a little later and it was getting accident had been due to the boy’s attempt to dark rapidly. We had practically no twilight.

‘change ends’ still stuck to his opinion, I felt, We had just finished our job when a long, somehow, that he was wrong, Barnaby was, I agonizing scream, as one in mortal anguish, had been told, a crack swimmer and,
came vibrating over the lake, from some point considering that he must have been close to down in the southwestern corner. Dropping shore when he fell into the water, I was our fish, Wilson and I ran down the shore, in convinced that merely being capsized would the direction of the cottages, only to find all hardly have elicited such a cry of agony. No! I the women, and a couple of men huddled in a felt, absolutely, that there had been some sort frightened group, down by the shore. In reply of an attack made upon him and that he had to our queries, one of the men said that the tried to fight off the attacker, whoever, or scream came from young Barnaby who, with whatever it was, with his paddle, and that he his father and mother, occupied one of the had failed in the attempt. And, as I tried to cottages.

guess what sort of danger the unfortunate boy

“As it chanced, no one had been out on had faced, chills of horror went down my the lake, except the young man. All the other spine.

men, with the exception of the two who were

“So thoroughly convinced was I that
on the shore when we got there, were in something terrible had happened to Barnaby, Hampton, laying in more supplies. When his and that he was beyond help, that the sight of mother called to young Barnaby to come in, his overturned canoe, as we drew near it, acted he answered he would be ‘back in a few only as a sickening confirmation. Yet, moments,’ but for some unearthly reason, had knowing that it was useless, I urged a careful started toward the deepening darkness of the search and, with the others, called his name, western shore. The boy’s mother had again and again. They may have hoped; I did remained on the cottage porch, following the not. I merely knew the boy was dead.

lad with a mother’s anxious eyes, as he

“I kept my thoughts to myself,
paddled away into the shadows. The two men, however, since voicing my suspicions would also watching from the shore, commented only make matters worse. It would be bad upon the boy’s ‘whim.’

enough to believe her only son had been

“Up to this point there was perfect
drowned, but, I doubted whether her reason agreement; then started differences of opinion, would bear the shock of the awful thing I had as to what followed. One man said he was in mind. Wilson followed my example.

certain the boy had started to change ends, in

“Having no grappling irons, we would the canoe, and had capsized it in so doing. His not drag the lake that night, but I told Mrs.

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8

Barnaby, who bore up remarkably well, that I

“The Barnaby cottage was vacant the
would get some from Hampton in the day after we ceased to drag the lake, and it morning. Hampton had none, so we had to looked, for a while, as though the others might devise them from clumsily made heavy rods be, too; but, after talking the matter over, the and hooks.

occupants decided that it was only an

“Young Barnaby’s father wanted to go accident, sad, indeed, but only too common with us, but I prevailed upon him to remain and, since going back home would not help with his wife. I felt it was best, because, while these parents to recover their boy, they might I did not expect to recover the body, I realized just as well try to forget it. So they stayed and the possibility of something very sinister, and the vacant cottage was soon rented again.

I felt it would be better for him not to see what

“One thing, however, they didn’t
the irons might bring to the surface. Maybe he forget—that the ‘accident’ happened in the sensed something of my thought, for he evening: so, although the warm spell consented at last to remain behind.

continued, they kept off the lake after

“We loaded the clumsy drag with the
sundown.

rope attached (I had bought eight hundred

“Nearly a month went by with no
feet, in order to make sure we had enough) untoward happening. Even those night noises into the boat and with Wilson at the oars, ceased and I began to think I had let my pulled over to the place where the accident imagination run wild, and that young occurred. We had some trouble getting the Barnaby’s death had been due to a simple drag into the water, owing to its awkward capsize of his canoe. Then, there was another shape and weight, but we finally succeeded in accident and, this time, it was a particularly lowering it. It seemed as if the drag would horrible one. To add to its sinister aspects, it never reach bottom. Five hundred feet is a took, for its victims, the young couple who long way down.

occupied the cottage in which the Barnaby

“When, finally, the drag came to rest, I family had lived.

sat down in the stern of the boat and told

“The young man and his wife,—their

Wilson to row slowly. He did. He did even name was Whipple,—had been married only a better than that; he hardly moved at all. I little over a year. Mrs. Whipple, a rather frail thought the drag might have caught on some woman of the neurotic type, temperamental, snag, but Wilson assured me there was no crochety and stubborn as the Devil, was soon such thing in the whole area of the lake. It to become a mother and her condition, of required the combined efforts of eight men, course, didn’t make her any easier to get along two to a boat, to pull that thing.

with. She was a beauty, though, and Whipple

“We worked all day, dragging every
adored her.

foot of the lake within a radius of several

“But, unreasonable as she was, Mrs.

hundred yards from the spot where the boy Whipple realized that she was in no condition went down. We found nothing that day nor the to risk being tipped into the water, even if she next day, nor any day within the week of had been a good swimmer, so she kept off the heartbreaking labor.

lake, contenting herself with sitting in the bow

“It was labor lost, but it was necessary.

of the boat, which was tied to a stake driven There was no use running the risk of, not only into the ground, a few feet from the edge.

driving a mother and, perhaps, a father crazy, There was absolutely no shore, no beach, and but of ruining our business. And, of course, I the water, at the edge of the lake grew might have been mistaken.

suddenly deep.

The Ancient Horror 9

“No one will ever know what hunch.’ They claim there is nothing to it, that prompted her to insist upon going out on the the ‘feeling’ is due to some trifling nervous lake that night. Probably it was just an disorder, entirely physiological. Some unaccountable whim, common to women. Had attribute it to over-stimulation of the nerves by Whipple been a little more coaxingly alcohol, or tobacco. Well, perhaps it is due to diplomatic, he might have talked her out of the any one, or all of these causes, but I’ve never notion, but, unfortunately, he emphatically known it to fail in my own case, and I’ve had negatived her suggestion that he take her ‘for plenty of chance to test it out. The proof, of a little boat ride’ before they went to bed, and course, is entirely one-sided, for, if I ‘feel’ that the fat was in the fire. What had been, when I’ll be sorry later if I do a certain thing, and I made, just a simple, wheedling request, obey that ‘hunch,’ I never know that became a demand, backed up by evidence of punishment would really have followed had I approaching hysterics.

disregarded the feeling. It is like taking the

“According to Holy Writ, which is Pasteur treatment for suspected rabies accepted by many people as being true, Eve infection. If the treatment is taken before succeeded in getting Adam to eat the apple, rabies develops in the person, it can never be even when he knew the consequences were known, for certain, that there was any need for going to be disastrous, so what could be the treatment. All that is known is, if there is expected of a man, so deeply in love with his an infection and the treatment is not taken, the wife, who only feared the possibility of an person dies, most horribly. So with a ‘hunch.’

unpleasant result of his yielding? Whipple It may be all bunk, as the cold-blooded, held out for a little time but, in the end, she matter-of-fact people claim, but it doesn’t cost deviled him into taking her and, to make the much to play the ‘hunch’ and, as a rule, I do.

matter worse, she insisted upon going,

‘straight across to the opposite shore and STOOD there, on the shore, watching
back.’

“Ithe outline of the boat grow dimmer and

“I was present at the time; that is I was dimmer as it neared the middle of the lake. It within hearing distance, having been, engaged was the second night of the new moon. The in conversation with the man next door to starless sky was like black velvet. And it Whipple. When I heard him, grudgingly, seemed ominously still to me. At the first consent to take his wife across, I had a feeling terrible ululation of a woman in deadly peril, of dread, a premonition of something dreadful which came echoing across the black stretch in connection with it. Using all the tact I of water, I felt, not so much of surprise, as possessed, I tried to dissuade her from going.

confirmation of a previous certainty. None the But it was useless. She listened, politely less, my very soul sickened with dread and enough, for she was well brought up, but she horror and when, an instant later, the hoarser was unshaken and what more could I do?

cry of a man smote my ears, I knew the True, I might have taken hold of the painter tragedy was complete—both Whipple and his and refused to allow Whipple to take the boat, wife were past help.

as I had a ‘hunch’ to do. But that would have

“I must have been very close to
necessitated an explanation, which I could hysteria for, when Wilson, whose teeth were hardly give. So I contented myself with saying chattering, grasped my arm, I shook him off that I wouldn’t do it under the circumstances.

with an oath, and ran for the boat, closely Which helped not at all.

followed by the other men.

“I’ve known people to laugh at ‘a

“As a rule, I am not much bothered by

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10

‘nerves.’ It is not due to any courage of an with us. Although I was ignorant as to what it unusual sort, for I have known fear many was that had brought about the death of three times, but I certainly had them that night, people, I was certain there was something when we pulled across the lake, toward the sinister and terrible in that lake of ours, and I spot from which had come those terrible cries.

was afraid.

Although I have crawled out into the mud and

“When we dragged the lake, we found
filth of ‘No Man’s Land.’ in the blackness of a no bodies—and I knew there would be
rainy night, knowing that death would be my nothing left to find.

portion if I should betray my presence by a

“This ended our enterprise. One week sound, my nerves were steady although fear after the last accident found every cottage was in my heart. I knew in what manner I vacant. And no wonder. Not only were the should die and the knowledge helped. But the women wrought up to the breaking point over awful mystery that lay behind the need for the affair itself, but their nights were made going out on the lake shook me and, had any hideous by their dreams and the infernal sound one touched me, suddenly, I am sure I should of that siren, whistle, or whatever it was which have screamed.

grew increasingly worse. It was a heartshaking

“A hundred yards distant from the sound.

farther shore we came upon the boat and drew

“After the last of our guests had
alongside of it. It was empty. Suddenly my packed up and gone, Wilson and I determined eye caught sight of something white at the to solve the mystery, for we were convinced bottom of the boat, near the stern. Pulling the there was a mystery hidden somewhere in that craft along, I reached for the object. It was a lake.

bit of muslin, torn from a woman’s dress, and

“Fortunately for us, nothing had been remembering that Mrs. Whipple had been said concerning the disappearance to arouse wearing a white dress that night, I turned sick.

suspicion in Hampton. It was known that

“When f lifted my hand from the some people had been drowned, which was, of gunwale of the boat, preparatory to beginning course, unfortunate, but not unusual. And we a search that I knew would be fruitless, I did not further enlighten them.

noticed that it felt sticky. It struck me as

“I have no idea just what it was that strange, since the boat had not been lately suggested a connection between the sounds painted. I was about to dip my hand into the that disturbed our slumber and the happenings lake, to wash it when a thought struck me.

on the lake, but I found myself associating Lighting a match—for it was too dark to see them in my mind. Wilson, when I mentioned anything clearly —I looked to see what had it to him, scoffed at the notion. ‘How,’ he befouled my hand.

asked, ‘could a noise tip a boat over?’ and

“It was blood.

when I tried to explain that the thing that made

“Wilson had been watching me and as
the noise might be the cause, he wanted to I hastily dipped my hand into the lake, with a know how a locomotive could leave its rails shudder I could not prevent, he asked, in the and accomplish such a thing. You see, he had tone of one who dreads the answer, ‘Was accepted as fact, the idea that the sound we that—’ He didn’t finish the question. I nodded had been hearing emanated from a mechanical and I felt the boat quiver as a spasm of contrivance. I told him my idea of the shaking seized him.

situation and I’m inclined to believe that he

“We knew, but we continued to thought I had gone crazy, for when I asked search—we and the others, who had caught up him to put in a night with me, trying to locate

The Ancient Horror 11

the noise, he refused.

have been useless against the creature we were

“In deference to his opinion that the hunting. So, with a packet of lunch and a disturbance could be traced to some engine, I thermos bottle of hot coffee, Wilson and I set made it a point to investigate. The men were out for our point of observation.

very courteous and obliging, and blew the

“The night was clear, when we started whistles of engines that traveled over that from the house, but, after an hour or so, it stretch of the company’s right of way, but began to thicken and a mean, cold drizzle set none of them gave forth the sound, the origin in. We were warmly dressed, however, so, of which I was trying to discover.

aside from the ordinary discomfort of damp

“I told Wilson about my findings, and skin, wherever it was exposed, we suffered when I told him I was convinced the noise none.

came from the lake, he consented to stand

“It was, as nearly as I could judge, (I watch with me, but I could see that he took no didn’t think of looking at my watch) about stock in my belief.

half past ten o’clock when I was aroused from

“For three nights we watched but a half doze by an odd noise that I could not for heard nothing, and Wilson was ready to drop a moment classify. It woke me up, however the matter. I had a hard time getting him to go and now fully alert. I waited for a repetition of out the fourth night, but grudgingly he came the sound, I heard it again presently, and this with me.

time I recognized the sound. It was a grunt, a

“Since the noises seemed always to
regular hog’s grunt. If it differed in any have come from the southwestern shore and, respect from the familiar vocalizations one because it was there the accidents had hears coming from the pig-pens, I didn’t occurred, we had used that as our watching realize it at the moment, although it did seem post. Unlike the eastern shore, which was to be an unusually healthy grunt.

open and fairly flat, the western side dropped

“My only feelings, as I remember,
sharply down to the water. Some of the trees, were those of mild astonishment; not so much their footing broken away by the cave-in, lay because I had heard the grunt of a hog, (which flat in the water, attached to the shore only by might have escaped from its pen and
their roots, their branches obscuring wandered down to the lake), but because the considerably the nearer reaches of the lake.

sound came from the lake, and not from the

“We found one tree which had rooted a land.

little farther back from the line of break, had therefore, partly escaped the fate of its HERE is nothing in the sound of
fellows. Held by its roots, it reached out over

“Tsplashing water to scare one. Yet, the water, at an angle of some twenty degrees.

there by the lake, with the cold drizzle wetting It was a large conifer and its tough branches my hands and face, I shivered when I heard with broken limbs placed across them, that noise.

afforded a safe and comfortable resting place,

“Wilson, his back against a crotched although being out over the lake and with branch, was fairly asleep, (though he swore he nothing to break the wind, it was far from wasn’t) and I was in the act of waking him warm. As I have said already, the nights out when, like a blast from the siren of an ocean there were cold.

liner, the most awful roar I ever beard, tore

“There were no dangerous land through the night air, from out there in the animals about, so we carried no arms and, I darkness, nearly shattering my ear-drums.

feel sure any arms we might have taken would

“It fairly brought me to my feet and, as

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12
for Wilson, if I had not been lucky enough to knew it was enormous and, as I thought of it grab his coat, as he was disappearing in connection with the terrible screams of downward, through the branches of the those unfortunate men and that helpless conifer, what happened to him later, might woman, the muscles of my throat tightened have happened to him that night.

and—I am not ashamed to admit it—tears

“I had only just recovered from my
filled my eyes. Wilson apparently had been mental balance and got Wilson back to safety following the same line of thought. He was when it came again. And I knew it was the almost un-nerved and sat there picking at his same screaming noise we had been hearing all fingers and repealing, over and over, ‘Poor the time. And I knew also that that noise was little woman! Poor little woman!’ When I in some way responsible for the distressing could stand it no longer, I shook him and disappearances of our tenants, and I knew that made him shut up.

the originator of that sound was of enormous

“When the last of the monster’s
size.

shadow had passed, we painfully rose from

“It would be difficult to adequately our cramped position and crawled back to describe my feelings, as I sat crouched there shore and started for home, around the north upon our none too secure platform, peering end of the lake, hoping to get another and, out into the black darkness, trying to discover perhaps clearer view of the monster. But we what manner of creature it was that had given didn’t catch sight of it again. Perhaps it voice to that soul-shaking scream. Fear I changed its course or, more likely, had sought knew, but there was something else beside its hiding place.

fear; something of unrecognized dread;

“I am not a drinking man but when we perhaps a premonition of some dreadful readied the house and Wilson poured a stiff occurrence. And when the splashing sound peg of liquor for himself, I asked him to give came nearer. I had to exercise great self-me one too. And we needed that drink if ever control to keep from backing out of those any drink was needed, for we were pretty branches as quickly as possible and out of the badly shaken up.

neighborhood. And Wilson, I believe, was

“It was long past our usual bed hour, even worse off, for his teeth were chattering but we didn’t feel very sleepy, although and he seemed dumb with fright.

probably from force of habit, I suggested

“Then the splashing noise gave way to turning in. Wilson, however, much to my another sound, this time to a swishing, sucking secret delight, refused to take any chances of sound, like that made by an oar, pulled dreaming about that thing. ‘No, sir!’ he said, forcibly through the water. Whatever that ‘I’m going to keep my clothes on and stay thing was, it was swimming, not like our awake.’ So, after another drink, we filled out ordinary animal swims,—by moving its pipes and prepared to wait for daylight.

legs—but, rather after the manner of a seal—

“‘What kind of a fish was that?’

by paddling with flippers. And it was heading Wilson’s question aroused me from the train toward the north end of the lake.

of thought into which I had wandered and, my

“As the sound of its movements mind engaged, I replied, an aquatic antique.

through the water came from directly in front This did not, of course, make things any of us, I dimly perceived, like a vague, black clearer for him so I asked if he knew anything shadow against a wall of blackness, a vast, about the history of the earth, and the strange undulating body. I could not make out its creatures that had lived upon it, in ages long shape for there was not light enough, but I past. His knowledge was very limited so,

The Ancient Horror 13

drawing on my memory of lessons learned back in those ages had been classified? I years before, I tried to answer his query in wasn’t at all certain that they had been, so this such a manner as to enable him to understand creature might be a direct descendant of some the probable meaning of what we had seen.

distinct and unknown class. Or, I thought it

“So far as repeating what I had read might be possible that reptile might be some was concerned, my task was simple. But any sort of hybrid, bearing a composite
proper answer, that is, one that would cover resemblance to its ancient forebears. Why not?

what we had dimly glimpsed out there on the If you can crossbreed asses and horses and get lake, required something morel and I was offspring which, though unmistakably obliged to resort to deductive reasoning in different from either of its parents, in all order to supply it.

essential features, resembles both, why could

“Briefly I told him that the age of the not some similar sort of crossbreeding have earth was estimated to be between occurred with members of the reptile family?

860,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 years and that,

“All sorts of fossil remains of pre-
according to the age of the rocks, this great historic reptiles have been discovered in North span of years was divided into ages, such as America, and those creatures, when alive, the Azoic, followed by the Palaeozoic, lived here. Moreover, America, it is known, is Mesozoic and Cenozoic. I told him that, fairly honeycombed with caverns, some of accepting the idea that roughly 1,000,000,000
enormous extent. Many have water in them; years represented the earth’s age, the although not sufficient, perhaps, to Mesozoic era lay back of us some accommodate a lizard as large as this 500,000,000 of years. Then I told him, as well particular one. Is it certain that all the caverns as I could, what sort of monsters and giant have been discovered?

reptiles inhabited the earth and its water at the

“Take this particular case for an
time; then, in an effort to account for the example. When the bed of the reservoir caved monster in the lake. I drew upon my in, where did the water go if not into some imagination. Perhaps I guessed wrongly, but I vast cavern, or caverns? And, had there not

“know of no other way. For there is no record, been such a cavern or caverns under the bed of so far as I know, of any creature, except some the creek, would there have been any cave-in?

of the land species possibly, that could equal, Of course not.

in size, the thing whose shadow we had seen.

“Following
this
line of deduction. I

“I am inclined to believe I was not far came to the conclusion that, in the
wrong because it is common geological subterranean depths, this reptile, with perhaps knowledge that vast continental changes were many others, had been born and, since even a taking place at that remote time, and basing lizard cannot live in water that is entirely my conjecture upon that fact, I told him that stagnant, inlets and outlets must have existed, during some of those tremendous upheavals, to keep the water, at least comparatively fresh.

certain ones of the reptile family had probably been caught in some of the great caverns that PACE alone, is limitless, so there must were formed and. unable to escape, had “Shave been a limit to this cavern or adapted themselves to their changed caverns and, when the water broke through environment.

from above, it was filled to the point where

“True it was, that this thing was the rock walls were burst and the earth, having different from any species known, but is it lost its support, fell, forcing the water upward certain that all the reptiles that lived away and forming the lake. When the water reached

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14
a certain level, or was on a plane with the bed way beneath my feet and I soon found myself, of the creek, the reservoir filled up again, in a heap, in the gravel, at the bottom of what underground, the outlet having been too small seemed to me to be an over-sized cistern.

to carry away the flow of the stream. If my

“I was not injured but I was
premise was correct, then the presence of the considerably shaken up, for I had fallen about lizard in our lake was easily accounted for. It ten feet. For a moment I was inclined to laugh simply came up through the same hole at myself, for I cut a funny figure sitting there, through which the water came.

hunched up. But there was nothing to laugh at.

“That was the explanation I gave I found myself in a serious position, for I was Wilson and I thought, and still think, that it imprisoned at the bottom of a hole,
was correct.

surrounded by unscalable walls of loose

“After breakfast I went to the north gravel. Moreover, no one had seen me at or end of the lake, I believed I had hit upon the near this isolated place, so unless a miracle real solution of the reptile’s presence in the happened, no one ever would come in time to lake and wanted to verify it if possible. I had find me alive. Well, sitting there, staring at the an idea that the lizard might take it into its opening through which I had fallen would do head to come up from below, and give me a no good, so I began to take my surroundings chance to see it. I wanted Wilson to into serious consideration.

accompany me but he said he had too much

“It soon became evident that the hole work to do about the place.

had been dug by some one for a definite

“I waited near the hole until about purpose; what that purpose was I had no idea.

noon, but seeing no sign of it, I concluded that The opening at the top, I discovered, had been it had either come up early or, what was more covered with planks which, in the course of a likely, was hiding down there in the darkness, short time had become covered with earth and until nightfall. Instead of turning homeward, vegetable matter; in turn this furnished soil in however, I decided to settle another question.

which had grown the weeds that hid the spot.

For some time now, we had seen no trout None of the boards had fallen into the hole, jumping and I thought they might have been nor was there anything I could use to enable frightened out of the lake and returned to the me to reach the opening. As there was nothing reservoir. Wilson and I, although we did not else I could do, I decided to kick gravel from know until the night before, just what had the walls and heap it up until the pile was high caused the accidents, thought it better to go enough to enable me to reach beyond the without fish than to take any risks out on the broken boards, grasp some bush, or other lake. But if they were in the reservoir again I thing, and get out.

meant to catch a few.

“I knew I had a tedious job ahead, for I

“The knoll, or mound, about which I
had only my hands to use as a shovel. At one told you in the beginning, lay directly between side of the hole, quite a pile of gravel had me and the reservoir and, since it was easy to fallen of its own weight, which gave me a climb, I started up its side. It was covered with good start, I thought. Throwing double low brush and weeds that hid the surface of handfuls into the center of the floor soon the ground from view, but did not greatly proved to be a bad job. My hat also proved too impede my progress. I plowed my way to the slow a method, so I spread my coat, filled it, top and started across the rounded back, then carried it over to the slowly growing toward the reservoir. I had gone only a few mound, on which I dumped these
paces when, without warning, the ground gave accumulations.

The Ancient Horror 15

“I had a heap about three feet high
valuable so, when Wilson saw her heading for when, in scooping up another double handful, the lake he very naturally objected, my fingers came in contact with the surface of considering the sort of tenant that lake a box. I soon had it uncovered fully and found harbored.

it to be about a foot deep, fifteen inches wide,

“I was too far away to be of assistance and the and about two feet long. I was about to kick beast was too much for him alone. Dodging the cover off, in order to find out what, if past his swinging club, she drove, head on, for anything, it contained, when I was moved to the water, her tail, so it seemed, flapping, in examine it a little more closely first. It was a derision. She was still on the gallop when she good thing I obeyed the impulse, because, reached the water, so she went entirely under.

after carefully prying off the cover, which had I saw her come up, a few yards from the bank begun to show signs of dry rot, I discovered a and, cow-wise, start for the farther shore. I two gallon canister of nitro-glycerine.

don’t know why a cow will always, under

“The reason for the hole became similar circumstances, make for the farthest apparent at once. It had been used as a point, unless it is because as I said, they are chamber for explosives while the reservoir just plain fools.

was in process of construction, and this box

“In his anxiety over his cow. Wilson very likely had been overlooked when the forgot something he should have remembered: work was finished.

if the lake was a dangerous place for the

“Very
carefully

I
carried it over and

Holstein, it was even more dangerous for him.

laid it on its side, on top of the little heap of But he may never have thought about the gravel. Digging further I found another box, lizard at all. At any rate he ran to the little and another, until I had found fifteen. I piled dock that projected out into the water, and, these, pyramid fashion, under the hole through getting into the boat that was tied there, began which I had fallen; then holding my breath to row frantically after old bossy.

and taking care not to make a false step, I

“I was too far away to warn him of his climbed to the top and soon found myself in danger, although it didn’t actually seem great the sunshine once more where I could breathe then; the lake, like a great blue gem bathed in freely.

the golden rays of the afternoon sun, suggested nothing further than dimpled HEN I reached the reservoir, I found beauty, made somewhat sinister by the

“W the trout jumping. The fish problem knowledge that, deep down in its sapphire settled, I started back toward the house for my depth there had been, and might at the tackle. I was about half the way to the fence moment be, a nameless and monstrous horror.

when I saw Wilson, a long stick in his hand, I guess I have become a bit of a fatalist; it trying to head off a cow that had broken from seems to me, things are pretty much laid out the corral, and was now headed for the lake.

for us from the beginning. We are supposed to

“Mules are supposed to be, and are,
be ‘free moral agents,’ according to the clergy, stubborn, but when it comes to downright yet I wonder if we really are. Of course,

‘orneryness,’ I think a cow is pretty much of a Wilson did not have to go out on the lake. Nor fool. Added to this, cows are nervous things, would he have gone if he had stopped to think.

ready to stampede at a moment’s notice and But blame can hardly be attached to him for when they get a notion into their heads, you not stopping to think. He never did.

can’t club it out.

“By the time I reached the spot where

“Now, this cow was a Holstein, and
the cow went into the water, the animal was

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16
about a hundred yards from shore, headed anything had taken place.

back, for Wilson had overtaken her and made

“When I regained my senses, I sat
her turn back. There wasn’t a thing to be slumped over in one of the kitchen chairs. I nervous about, so far as appearances went, but felt dazed, like one who has been on a long I was worried, and I urged him to hurry. He drunk. Shadows of strange memories passed waved his hand and nodded and that was the through my mind, suggesting nothing definite.

last thing he ever did. His hand had barely Then another frightful crash swept the cob-grasped the oar again when, silently, from the webs from my brain and I felt memory blue depths, there came into view, just behind coming back with a rush.

Wilson, the awful head and neck of the

“Other things came quickly, and
creature, whose shadow we had dimly seen perhaps fortunately, to occupy my mind, and that night, when we sat crouched on a shaky demand my attention, for one of the worst platform spread over the branches of the fallen storms I had ever witnessed, was brewing fast conifer.

and furiously. The house, stout though it was,

“Up it rose, to a height of seven or trembled and creaked beneath the onslaught of eight feet, while I, gazing upon its utter the elements gone wild.

frightfulness, stood paralyzed and dumb. I saw

“Getting up from the chair I staggered its cavernous mouth, fully three feet from to the window. The sky was overcast with snout to the angle of the jaw; saw it open and heavy clouds, those immediately overhead reveal its gleaming, needle sharp teeth over being a grayish black, while, down in the the head of the unfortunate man; and I was southwest an unearthly, greenish mass of utterly helpless. If my own life had been at whirling cumuli, writhed and twisted, high up stake, I could not have uttered a cry of in the heavens. That there were several warning.

currents of air, coming from as many different

“I think Wilson must have sensed directions was evident, from the manner in something, somehow, for I noticed (I can see which the tops of the trees behaved. They that look even now) a look of fear spread over fairly threshed about. Presently the his rugged features. But it was too late for, just temperature began to drop and great clouds as he was in the act of turning his head to see from the northwest drove past, beneath the what was behind him, the end came. There blackness far overhead, and then the flashes of was a slight working of the terrible jaws, lightning became appalling, as the fire forks perhaps due to some sort of gustatory darted from cloud to cloud, while deafening suggestion of the thing’s instinctive peals of thunder sent every loose thing a-machinery, then, like a flash, down came the rattle.

obscene head, the jaws closed, with a snap and

“Then the rain came; came in torrents Wilson, only his legs protruding beyond the that were veritable cascades of driven water, lizard’s snout, was snatched from his seat with beating in at every crack and crevice. There the speed and ease with which a hen picks up was a blinding flash a hundred yards from the a kernel of corn.

house and a tall tree, splintered into kindling,

“Horror unspeakable overpowered my
flew in all directions; this the gale whirled and mind, and I think I lost consciousness for a tossed about, finally driving it into the lake, moment. Maybe I went mad for a time, for I the surface of which was beaten into froth.

have no remembrance of having gone to the

“I heard a crash overhead and knew
house, nor, until awakened by a terrific crash the chimney had gone by the board. This was of thunder, did I have a realization that followed by a ripping sound, and the roof of

The Ancient Horror 17

the chicken house, looking like the flapping similar predicament, you cannot know the wings of some enormous bird, went sailing comfort of dry clothing of any kind or make.

away across the lake; and when the house

“After wringing out my own, clothes
itself began to slide upon its foundation I and hanging them over the backs of chairs to expected it to follow. It did not, however; dry if the rain ever let up I piled, some things neither did it lose its roof, although, as I on the floor and, upon these, for a bed, I soon discovered later, there wasn’t a whole shingle forgot all about the storm and what had gone left on it.

before it.

“Suddenly the hideous racket was

“A ray of sunlight on my eyes,
augmented by a sound that over-rode all other reflected from a mirror, awoke me. My watch noises. Every window pane was shattered; had stopped, so I didn’t know just what time it every door was driven from its hinges, while was, although I judge it must have been about through the openings, a deluge of water nine o’clock. I was a bit stiff and hungry, but rushed, flooded the house and knocked me otherwise, in pretty good shape. After drawing into a corner.

the chairs, over which my clothes hung, into

“I have heard about the ‘Crack of the sunshine, I went down stairs, dug the wet Doom’ many times, and, if it is going to be ashes out of the stove, made a fire and cooked any worse than that crack, I don’t want to hear some ham and eggs and coffee for myself.

it. However, it seemed to serve one useful Then I started out to learn the extent of the purpose, for after it came, the awful racket damage.

began to subside and, within the hour, only an

“There was plenty. The roof of the
occasional rumble bore evidence of energy barn had fallen in, driving the walls outward.

still at work. The rain continued, however, Luckily the weather had been warm, so the until it seemed the oceans were being drained cattle were still kept outside. I found them at to furnish the water.

last, in a small apple orchard, apparently no

“Wet, cold and weary, I waded worse for having been out in the storm, through the water that swashed back and forth contentedly eating grass. I say had been, through the lower rooms, to the stair leading because practically every one of the trees had to the second floor. I dragged my aching body been ruined, the branches having been torn up the stairs, down which little streams off.

trickled, for the windows, upstairs, also were

“Then, for no particular reason, I
shattered. I went from room to room, seeking strolled down to the lake. Except for a lot of some place of shelter out of the wind, where I floating shingles, branches and boards, it was might perhaps find some dry clothing and lie the same, smiling, beautiful blue body of down. The second floor was pretty well water—the last place in the world, I thought, soaked but I found shelter at last, in a large where such terrible tragedies could take place, closet in the rear. This part of the house was and the most unlikely hiding place for the toward the east and since the storm had come horror that had caused the events. Soon I from the southwest and north, it was became aware of a muffled sound like a comparatively dry there. In this closet I found rushing of water over a fall, and wondered Wilson’s Sunday suit, some shirts and a pair what caused it. A little later, I noticed that the of shoes, together with a few pairs of socks.

floatsam was drifting toward the north end of The suit was too small, and the shoes too the lake. This was odd, since there was no large, but I was in no position to be particular, current and, curious to learn why, I started in so I put them on. Unless you have been in a the same direction. Soon the muffled sound

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18
became louder. It was coming from the lake!

ITTING there, wondering into what

Puzzled for a moment, like a flash the “Sprofound depths the waters of the lake explanation came to me and I started north on and reservoir were plunging, speculating upon the run.

the possible truth of some tales I had read

“I soon reached the place where the
concerning people discovered living in a noise came from—a great rent at the end of

‘World Beneath a World,’ I forgot, for a time, the basin in which the lake lay. I looked what was taking place before my eyes.

toward the mound, or, rather, toward the place

“I was aroused from my reverie by a
where the mound had been, for it was there no snort, and coming back to actualities, I looked longer, and if I had been in doubt as to what to see what had produced it. There was the had caused the rent, I was soon in possession great lizard, from whose throat it had of full knowledge. That unearthly crash had emanated, not fifty yards before me.

been caused by the explosion of those fifteen

“At last I saw the monster, and
cases of nitroglycerine, and there may have monster it truly was. My powers of
been more buried in the sand, when a streak of description are far too limited to adequately lightning found its way into the pit in which describe that monster. Its body, at least the they were.

upper part, was fully exposed. Swan-like in

“The rocky floor of the pit must have shape, it appeared to be nearly sixty feet from been a sort of pot cover, over the subterranean the point where the neck joined the body, to cavern, or caverns, and the force of the the end of its tail, which resembled, in a way, explosion had torn it away rending the rocks the tail of a duck. This body, armed or and earth into a great tear, extending through equipped with flappers, similar to those of a the wall which held the lake. It had done even seal, but enormously larger, was a greenish more; it tore out the wall between it and the black and was covered with what might have reservoir, for I found, upon going around the been, the slime and ooze of ages. Its neck, chasm to the dam, that the water was rapidly flexible as that of the swan, was fully two feet lowering. While I stood there, amazed at the in diameter at its base, tapering slowly to the force of the charge, a large block of concrete head, eight feet from the body. The bead was a from the end of the dam nearest me, broke composite of the crocodile and the
loose and fell with a splash, into water. tyrannosaurus, but much larger, with loosely Evidently, I thought, the whole dam was being articulated jaws, permitting of tremendous undermined and was liable, at any moment, to extension, as is the case with certain snakes.

fall. I made haste to get away from the place, The mouth, armed with teeth fully six inches and I acted wisely, for within ten minutes the in length, was at least three feet long from the whole enormous structure of concrete snout to the angle of the jaws. To add to its crumbled and fell; a part of it going frightfulness, the upper canine teeth, or fangs, completely out of sight in the hole in the bed curved outward and downward over the lower of the reservoir, while the rest went in the jaw, and were, as near as I could judge, at opposite direction.

least ten inches long. A more horrible creature

“It was apparent, since the chasm was I couldn’t imagine, and I wondered whether it enlarging momentarily, that it would not take might be a member of some species that had long to empty both reservoir and lake and never been catalogued, or whether it was what being minded to see the finish, I went back to it appeared to be, a hybrid. I think it was the a point of safety, on the eastern shore, sat latter and, since it was the only one that had down on a rock and waited for the end.

come into the light of modern times, I also

The Ancient Horror 19

wondered if the thing could have begun its engineers were out, and as well as I could, I existence away back there in the Mesozoic explained what had happened. As it chanced, I era. It seemed impossible, and yet, who did most of my talking to the man who had knows. At any rate it certainly looked ancient supervised the construction of the reservoir, enough to have been born long before creation and was therefore the only one who knew began. Doubtless, I thought, there were others about the nitro-glycerine, I realized that my like it, somewhere, for it seemed unlikely that knowledge of its presence in the pit caused only one specimen would have been caught in him some worry, and be explained that he had one of the cataclysms of those ancient days.

given orders for its removal, but they But, whether or not I was right, can never be evidently had been forgotten or disregarded by told.

the workmen, so I told him I would not

“Apparently the lizard was terrified at mention the matter to anyone, for which he something; probably at the idea of being seemed very grateful. Since it could have done sucked into the chasm, into which the water no good to tell about it then, I deemed it best was pouring, for it was making violent efforts to forget about the matter.

to draw away from that end of the lake. It was

“But I mentioned the lizard to no one. I a losing game, however, for the suck of the explained the disappearance of Wilson, by water, powerful as was the reptile, was too telling them that he had fallen into the lake, strong and, thresh the water as it might, and from a rowboat, while trying to drive back to did, it was slowly being drawn back. the shore a cow that had gone into the water.

Whatever else might be said of the lizard, it That also was the story I told the lawyers who was no coward, for, realizing the fact that it settled up the estate.

was a losing game, it suddenly turned and,

“As soon as possible I gathered up my with a terrific bellow, using its flippers to traps and came back to the city. I have tried to accentuate its speed, in a sort of ‘devil daring forget the experience, for it was far from spurt,’ it drove head-long into the vortex.

pleasant, but this story in the paper brought it

“During the day the waters continued up again and, I repeat, I shall not be surprised to enlarge the chasm and, by night the lake to read that those men have found some hold-had nearly vanished, as had also the reservoir.

over from the Mesozoic era, for I believe there

“The following morning the city are specimens still alive. Why not?