However, I soon saw that my uneasiness had a second and perhaps equally potent source residing in the pictorial and mathematical suggestions of the strange designs. The patterns all hinted of remote secrets and unimaginable abysses in time and s.p.a.ce, and the monotonously aquatic nature of the reliefs became almost sinister. Among these reliefs were fabulous monsters of abhorrent grotesqueness and malignity-half ichthyic and half batrachian in suggestion-which one could not dissociate from a certain haunting and uncomfortable sense of pseudo-memory, as if they called up some image from deep cells and tissues whose retentive functions are wholly primal and awesomely ancestral. At times I fancied that every contour of these blasphemous fish-frogs was overflowing with the ultimate quintessence of unknown and inhuman evil.
In odd contrast to the tiara"s aspect was its brief and prosy history as related by Miss Tilton. It had been p.a.w.ned for a ridiculous sum at a shop in State Street in 1873, by a drunken Innsmouth man shortly afterward killed in a brawl. The Society had acquired it directly from the p.a.w.nbroker, at once giving it a display worthy of its quality. It was labelled as of probable East-Indian or Indo-Chinese provenance, though the attribution was frankly tentative.
Miss Tilton, comparing all possible hypotheses regarding its origin and its presence in New England, was inclined to believe that it formed part of some exotic pirate h.o.a.rd discovered by old Captain Obed Marsh. This view was surely not weakened by the insistent offers of purchase at a high price which the Marshes began to make as soon as they knew of its presence, and which they repeated to this day despite the Society"s unvarying determination not to sell.
As the good lady shewed me out of the building she made it clear that the pirate theory of the Marsh fortune was a popular one among the intelligent people of the region. Her own att.i.tude toward shadowed Innsmouth-which she had never seen-was one of disgust at a community slipping far down the cultural scale, and she a.s.sured me that the rumours of devil-worship were partly justified by a peculiar secret cult which had gained force there and engulfed all the orthodox churches.
It was called, she said, "The Esoteric Order of Dagon", and was undoubtedly a debased, quasi-pagan thing imported from the East a century before, at a time when the Innsmouth fisheries seemed to be going barren. Its persistence among a simple people was quite natural in view of the sudden and permanent return of abundantly fine fishing, and it soon came to be the greatest influence on the town, replacing Freemasonry altogether and taking up headquarters in the old Masonic Hall on New Church Green.
All this, to the pious Miss Tilton, formed an excellent reason for shunning the ancient town of decay and desolation; but to me it was merely a fresh incentive. To my architectural and historical antic.i.p.ations was now added an acute anthropological zeal, and I could scarcely sleep in my small room at the "Y" as the night wore away.
II.
Shortly before ten the next morning I stood with one small valise in front of Hammond"s Drug Store in old Market Square waiting for the Innsmouth bus. As the hour for its arrival drew near I noticed a general drift of the loungers to other places up the street, or to the Ideal Lunch across the square. Evidently the ticket-agent had not exaggerated the dislike which local people bore toward Innsmouth and its denizens. In a few moments a small motor-coach of extreme decrepitude and dirty grey colour rattled down State Street, made a turn, and drew up at the curb beside me. I felt immediately that it was the right one; a guess which the half-illegible sign on the windshield-"Arkham-Innsmouth-Newb"port"-soon verified.
There were only three pa.s.sengers-dark, unkempt men of sullen visage and somewhat youthful cast-and when the vehicle stopped they clumsily shambled out and began walking up State Street in a silent, almost furtive fashion. The driver also alighted, and I watched him as he went into the drug store to make some purchase. This, I reflected, must be the Joe Sargent mentioned by the ticket-agent; and even before I noticed any details there spread over me a wave of spontaneous aversion which could be neither checked nor explained. It suddenly struck me as very natural that the local people should not wish to ride on a bus owned and driven by this man, or to visit any oftener than possible the habitat of such a man and his kinsfolk.
When the driver came out of the store I looked at him more carefully and tried to determine the source of my evil impression. He was a thin, stoop-shouldered man not much under six feet tall, dressed in shabby blue civilian clothes and wearing a frayed grey golf cap. His age was perhaps thirty-five, but the odd, deep creases in the sides of his neck made him seem older when one did not study his dull, expressionless face. He had a narrow head, bulging, watery blue eyes that seemed never to wink, a flat nose, a receding forehead and chin, and singularly undeveloped ears. His long, thick lip and coa.r.s.e-pored, greyish cheeks seemed almost beardless except for some spa.r.s.e yellow hairs that straggled and curled in irregular patches; and in places the surface seemed queerly irregular, as if peeling from some cutaneous disease. His hands were large and heavily veined, and had a very unusual greyish-blue tinge. The fingers were strikingly short in proportion to the rest of the structure, and seemed to have a tendency to curl closely into the huge palm. As he walked toward the bus I observed his peculiarly shambling gait and saw that his feet were inordinately immense. The more I studied them the more I wondered how he could buy any shoes to fit them.
A certain greasiness about the fellow increased my dislike. He was evidently given to working or lounging around the fish docks, and carried with him much of their characteristic smell. Just what foreign blood was in him I could not even guess. His oddities certainly did not look Asiatic, Polynesian, Levantine, or negroid, yet I could see why the people found him alien. I myself would have thought of biological degeneration rather than alienage.
I was sorry when I saw that there would be no other pa.s.sengers on the bus. Somehow I did not like the idea of riding alone with this driver. But as leaving time obviously approached I conquered my qualms and followed the man aboard, extending him a dollar bill and murmuring the single word "Innsmouth". He looked curiously at me for a second as he returned forty cents change without speaking. I took a seat far behind him, but on the same side of the bus, since I wished to watch the sh.o.r.e during the journey.
At length the decrepit vehicle started with a jerk, and rattled noisily past the old brick buildings of State Street amidst a cloud of vapour from the exhaust. Glancing at the people on the sidewalks, I thought I detected in them a curious wish to avoid looking at the bus-or at least a wish to avoid seeming to look at it. Then we turned to the left into High Street, where the going was smoother; flying by stately old mansions of the early republic and still older colonial farmhouses, pa.s.sing the Lower Green and Parker River, and finally emerging into a long, monotonous stretch of open sh.o.r.e country.
The day was warm and sunny, but the landscape of sand, sedge-gra.s.s, and stunted shrubbery became more and more desolate as we proceeded. Out the window I could see the blue water and the sandy line of Plum Island, and we presently drew very near the beach as our narrow road veered off from the main highway to Rowley and Ipswich. There were no visible houses, and I could tell by the state of the road that traffic was very light hereabouts. The small, weather-worn telephone poles carried only two wires. Now and then we crossed crude wooden bridges over tidal creeks that wound far inland and promoted the general isolation of the region.
Once in a while I noticed dead stumps and crumbling foundation-walls above the drifting sand, and recalled the old tradition quoted in one of the histories I had read, that this was once a fertile and thickly settled countryside. The change, it was said, came simultaneously with the Innsmouth epidemic of 1846, and was thought by simple folk to have a dark connexion with hidden forces of evil. Actually, it was caused by the unwise cutting of woodlands near the sh.o.r.e, which robbed the soil of its best protection and opened the way for waves of wind-blown sand.
At last we lost sight of Plum Island and saw the vast expanse of the open Atlantic on our left. Our narrow course began to climb steeply, and I felt a singular sense of disquiet in looking at the lonely crest ahead where the rutted roadway met the sky. It was as if the bus were about to keep on in its ascent, leaving the sane earth altogether and merging with the unknown arcana of upper air and cryptical sky. The smell of the sea took on ominous implications, and the silent driver"s bent, rigid back and narrow head became more and more hateful. As I looked at him I saw that the back of his head was almost as hairless as his face, having only a few straggling yellow strands upon a grey scabrous surface.
Then we reached the crest and beheld the outspread valley beyond, where the Manuxet joins the sea just north of the long line of cliffs that culminate in Kingsport Head and veer off toward Cape Ann. On the far, misty horizon I could just make out the dizzy profile of the Head, topped by the queer ancient house of which so many legends are told; but for the moment all my attention was captured by the nearer panorama just below me. I had, I realised, come face to face with rumour-shadowed Innsmouth.
It was a town of wide extent and dense construction, yet one with a portentous dearth of visible life. From the tangle of chimney-pots scarcely a wisp of smoke came, and the three tall steeples loomed stark and unpainted against the seaward horizon. One of them was crumbling down at the top, and in that and another there were only black gaping holes where clock-dials should have been. The vast huddle of sagging gambrel roofs and peaked gables conveyed with offensive clearness the idea of wormy decay, and as we approached along the now descending road I could see that many roofs had wholly caved in. There were some large square Georgian houses, too, with hipped roofs, cupolas, and railed "widow"s walks". These were mostly well back from the water, and one or two seemed to be in moderately sound condition. Stretching inland from among them I saw the rusted, gra.s.s-grown line of the abandoned railway, with leaning telegraph-poles now devoid of wires, and the half-obscured lines of the old carriage roads to Rowley and Ipswich.
The decay was worst close to the waterfront, though in its very midst I could spy the white belfry of a fairly well-preserved brick structure which looked like a small factory. The harbour, long clogged with sand, was enclosed by an ancient stone breakwater; on which I could begin to discern the minute forms of a few seated fishermen, and at whose end were what looked like the foundations of a bygone lighthouse. A sandy tongue had formed inside this barrier, and upon it I saw a few decrepit cabins, moored dories, and scattered lobster-pots. The only deep water seemed to be where the river poured out past the belfried structure and turned southward to join the ocean at the breakwater"s end.
Here and there the ruins of wharves jutted out from the sh.o.r.e to end in indeterminate rottenness, those farthest south seeming the most decayed. And far out at sea, despite a high tide, I glimpsed a long, black line scarcely rising above the water yet carrying a suggestion of odd latent malignancy. This, I knew, must be Devil Reef. As I looked, a subtle, curious sense of beckoning seemed superadded to the grim repulsion; and oddly enough, I found this overtone more disturbing than the primary impression.
We met no one on the road, but presently began to pa.s.s deserted farms in varying stages of ruin. Then I noticed a few inhabited houses with rags stuffed in the broken windows and sh.e.l.ls and dead fish lying about the littered yards. Once or twice I saw listless-looking people working in barren gardens or digging clams on the fishy-smelling beach below, and groups of dirty, simian-visaged children playing around weed-grown doorsteps. Somehow these people seemed more disquieting than the dismal buildings, for almost every one had certain peculiarities of face and motions which I instinctively disliked without being able to define or comprehend them. For a second I thought this typical physique suggested some picture I had seen, perhaps in a book, under circ.u.mstances of particular horror or melancholy; but this pseudo-recollection pa.s.sed very quickly.
As the bus reached a lower level I began to catch the steady note of a waterfall through the unnatural stillness. The leaning, unpainted houses grew thicker, lined both sides of the road, and displayed more urban tendencies than did those we were leaving behind. The panorama ahead had contracted to a street scene, and in spots I could see where a cobblestone pavement and stretches of brick sidewalk had formerly existed. All the houses were apparently deserted, and there were occasional gaps where tumbledown chimneys and cellar walls told of buildings that had collapsed. Pervading everything was the most nauseous fishy odour imaginable.
Soon cross streets and junctions began to appear; those on the left leading to sh.o.r.eward realms of unpaved squalor and decay, while those on the right shewed vistas of departed grandeur. So far I had seen no people in the town, but there now came signs of a spa.r.s.e habitation-curtained windows here and there, and an occasional battered motor-car at the curb. Pavement and sidewalks were increasingly well defined, and though most of the houses were quite old-wood and brick structures of the early nineteenth century-they were obviously kept fit for habitation. As an amateur antiquarian I almost lost my olfactory disgust and my feeling of menace and repulsion amidst this rich, unaltered survival from the past.
But I was not to reach my destination without one very strong impression of poignantly disagreeable quality. The bus had come to a sort of open concourse or radial point with churches on two sides and the bedraggled remains of a circular green in the centre, and I was looking at a large pillared hall on the right-hand junction ahead. The structure"s once white paint was now grey and peeling, and the black and gold sign on the pediment was so faded that I could only with difficulty make out the words "Esoteric Order of Dagon". This, then, was the former Masonic Hall now given over to a degraded cult. As I strained to decipher this inscription my notice was distracted by the raucous tones of a cracked bell across the street, and I quickly turned to look out the window on my side of the coach.
The sound came from a squat-towered stone church of manifestly later date than most of the houses, built in a clumsy Gothic fashion and having a disproportionately high bas.e.m.e.nt with shuttered windows. Though the hands of its clock were missing on the side I glimpsed, I knew that those hoa.r.s.e strokes were telling the hour of eleven. Then suddenly all thoughts of time were blotted out by an onrushing image of sharp intensity and unaccountable horror which had seized me before I knew what it really was. The door of the church bas.e.m.e.nt was open, revealing a rectangle of blackness inside. And as I looked, a certain object crossed or seemed to cross that dark rectangle; burning into my brain a momentary conception of nightmare which was all the more maddening because a.n.a.lysis could not shew a single nightmarish quality in it.
It was a living object-the first except the driver that I had seen since entering the compact part of the town-and had I been in a steadier mood I would have found nothing whatever of terror in it. Clearly, as I realised a moment later, it was the pastor; clad in some peculiar vestments doubtless introduced since the Order of Dagon had modified the ritual of the local churches. The thing which had probably caught my first subconscious glance and supplied the touch of bizarre horror was the tall tiara he wore; an almost exact duplicate of the one Miss Tilton had shewn me the previous evening. This, acting on my imagination, had supplied namelessly sinister qualities to the indeterminate face and robed, shambling form beneath it. There was not, I soon decided, any reason why I should have felt that shuddering touch of evil pseudo-memory. Was it not natural that a local mystery cult should adopt among its regimentals an unique type of head-dress made familiar to the community in some strange way-perhaps as treasure-trove?
A very thin sprinkling of repellent-looking youngish people now became visible on the sidewalks-lone individuals, and silent knots of two or three. The lower floors of the crumbling houses sometimes harboured small shops with dingy signs, and I noticed a parked truck or two as we rattled along. The sound of waterfalls became more and more distinct, and presently I saw a fairly deep river-gorge ahead, spanned by a wide, iron-railed highway bridge beyond which a large square opened out. As we clanked over the bridge I looked out on both sides and observed some factory buildings on the edge of the gra.s.sy bluff or part way down. The water far below was very abundant, and I could see two vigorous sets of falls upstream on my right and at least one downstream on my left. From this point the noise was quite deafening. Then we rolled into the large semicircular square across the river and drew up on the right-hand side in front of a tall, cupola-crowned building with remnants of yellow paint and with a half-effaced sign proclaiming it to be the Gilman House.
I was glad to get out of that bus, and at once proceeded to check my valise in the shabby hotel lobby. There was only one person in sight-an elderly man without what I had come to call the "Innsmouth look"-and I decided not to ask him any of the questions which bothered me; remembering that odd things had been noticed in this hotel. Instead, I strolled out on the square, from which the bus had already gone, and studied the scene minutely and appraisingly.
One side of the cobblestoned open s.p.a.ce was the straight line of the river; the other was a semicircle of slant-roofed brick buildings of about the 1800 period, from which several streets radiated away to the southeast, south, and southwest. Lamps were depressingly few and small-all low-powered incandescents-and I was glad that my plans called for departure before dark, even though I knew the moon would be bright. The buildings were all in fair condition, and included perhaps a dozen shops in current operation; of which one was a grocery of the First National chain, others a dismal restaurant, a drug store, and a wholesale fish-dealer"s office, and still another, at the eastern extremity of the square near the river, an office of the town"s only industry-the Marsh Refining Company. There were perhaps ten people visible, and four or five automobiles and motor trucks stood scattered about. I did not need to be told that this was the civic centre of Innsmouth. Eastward I could catch blue glimpses of the harbour, against which rose the decaying remains of three once beautiful Georgian steeples. And toward the sh.o.r.e on the opposite bank of the river I saw the white belfry surmounting what I took to be the Marsh refinery.
For some reason or other I chose to make my first inquiries at the chain grocery, whose personnel was not likely to be native to Innsmouth. I found a solitary boy of about seventeen in charge, and was pleased to note the brightness and affability which promised cheerful information. He seemed exceptionally eager to talk, and I soon gathered that he did not like the place, its fishy smell, or its furtive people. A word with any outsider was a relief to him. He hailed from Arkham, boarded with a family who came from Ipswich, and went back home whenever he got a moment off. His family did not like him to work in Innsmouth, but the chain had transferred him there and he did not wish to give up his job.
There was, he said, no public library or chamber of commerce in Innsmouth, but I could probably find my way about. The street I had come down was Federal. West of that were the fine old residence streets-Broad, Washington, Lafayette, and Adams-and east of it were the sh.o.r.eward slums. It was in these slums-along Main Street-that I would find the old Georgian churches, but they were all long abandoned. It would be well not to make oneself too conspicuous in such neighbourhoods-especially north of the river-since the people were sullen and hostile. Some strangers had even disappeared.
Certain spots were almost forbidden territory, as he had learned at considerable cost. One must not, for example, linger much around the Marsh refinery, or around any of the still used churches, or around the pillared Order of Dagon Hall at New Church Green. Those churches were very odd-all violently disavowed by their respective denominations elsewhere, and apparently using the queerest kind of ceremonials and clerical vestments. Their creeds were heterodox and mysterious, involving hints of certain marvellous transformations leading to bodily immortality-of a sort-on this earth. The youth"s own pastor-Dr. Wallace of Asbury M. E. Church in Arkham-had gravely urged him not to join any church in Innsmouth.
As for the Innsmouth people-the youth hardly knew what to make of them. They were as furtive and seldom seen as animals that live in burrows, and one could hardly imagine how they pa.s.sed the time apart from their desultory fishing. Perhaps-judging from the quant.i.ties of bootleg liquor they consumed-they lay for most of the daylight hours in an alcoholic stupor. They seemed sullenly banded together in some sort of fellowship and understanding-despising the world as if they had access to other and preferable spheres of ent.i.ty. Their appearance-especially those staring, unwinking eyes which one never saw shut-was certainly shocking enough; and their voices were disgusting. It was awful to hear them chanting in their churches at night, and especially during their main festivals or revivals, which fell twice a year on April 30th and October 31st.
They were very fond of the water, and swam a great deal in both river and harbour. Swimming races out to Devil Reef were very common, and everyone in sight seemed well able to share in this arduous sport. When one came to think of it, it was generally only rather young people who were seen about in public, and of these the oldest were apt to be the most tainted-looking. When exceptions did occur, they were mostly persons with no trace of aberrancy, like the old clerk at the hotel. One wondered what became of the bulk of the older folk, and whether the "Innsmouth look" were not a strange and insidious disease-phenomenon which increased its hold as years advanced.
Only a very rare affliction, of course, could bring about such vast and radical anatomical changes in a single individual after maturity-changes involving osseous factors as basic as the shape of the skull-but then, even this aspect was no more baffling and unheard-of than the visible features of the malady as a whole. It would be hard, the youth implied, to form any real conclusions regarding such a matter; since one never came to know the natives personally no matter how long one might live in Innsmouth.
The youth was certain that many specimens even worse than the worst visible ones were kept locked indoors in some places. People sometimes heard the queerest kind of sounds. The tottering waterfront hovels north of the river were reputedly connected by hidden tunnels, being thus a veritable warren of unseen abnormalities. What kind of foreign blood-if any-these beings had, it was impossible to tell. They sometimes kept certain especially repulsive characters out of sight when government agents and others from the outside world came to town.
It would be of no use, my informant said, to ask the natives anything about the place. The only one who would talk was a very aged but normal-looking man who lived at the poorhouse on the north rim of the town and spent his time walking about or lounging around the fire station. This h.o.a.ry character, Zadok Allen, was ninety-six years old and somewhat touched in the head, besides being the town drunkard. He was a strange, furtive creature who constantly looked over his shoulder as if afraid of something, and when sober could not be persuaded to talk at all with strangers. He was, however, unable to resist any offer of his favourite poison; and once drunk would furnish the most astonishing fragments of whispered reminiscence.
After all, though, little useful data could be gained from him; since his stories were all insane, incomplete hints of impossible marvels and horrors which could have no source save in his own disordered fancy. n.o.body ever believed him, but the natives did not like him to drink and talk with strangers; and it was not always safe to be seen questioning him. It was probably from him that some of the wildest popular whispers and delusions were derived.
Several non-native residents had reported monstrous glimpses from time to time, but between old Zadok"s tales and the malformed denizens it was no wonder such illusions were current. None of the non-natives ever stayed out late at night, there being a widespread impression that it was not wise to do so. Besides, the streets were loathsomely dark.
As for business-the abundance of fish was certainly almost uncanny, but the natives were taking less and less advantage of it. Moreover, prices were falling and compet.i.tion was growing. Of course the town"s real business was the refinery, whose commercial office was on the square only a few doors east of where we stood. Old Man Marsh was never seen, but sometimes went to the works in a closed, curtained car.
There were all sorts of rumours about how Marsh had come to look. He had once been a great dandy, and people said he still wore the frock-coated finery of the Edwardian age, curiously adapted to certain deformities. His sons had formerly conducted the office in the square, but latterly they had been keeping out of sight a good deal and leaving the brunt of affairs to the younger generation. The sons and their sisters had come to look very queer, especially the elder ones; and it was said that their health was failing.
One of the Marsh daughters was a repellent, reptilian-looking woman who wore an excess of weird jewellery clearly of the same exotic tradition as that to which the strange tiara belonged. My informant had noticed it many times, and had heard it spoken of as coming from some secret h.o.a.rd, either of pirates or of daemons. The clergymen-or priests, or whatever they were called nowadays-also wore this kind of ornament as a head-dress; but one seldom caught glimpses of them. Other specimens the youth had not seen, though many were rumoured to exist around Innsmouth.
The Marshes, together with the other three gently bred families of the town-the Waites, the Gilmans, and the Eliots-were all very retiring. They lived in immense houses along Washington Street, and several were reputed to harbour in concealment certain living kinsfolk whose personal aspect forbade public view, and whose deaths had been reported and recorded.
Warning me that many of the street signs were down, the youth drew for my benefit a rough but ample and painstaking sketch map of the town"s salient features. After a moment"s study I felt sure that it would be of great help, and pocketed it with profuse thanks. Disliking the dinginess of the single restaurant I had seen, I bought a fair supply of cheese crackers and ginger wafers to serve as a lunch later on. My programme, I decided, would be to thread the princ.i.p.al streets, talk with any non-natives I might encounter, and catch the eight o"clock coach for Arkham. The town, I could see, formed a significant and exaggerated example of communal decay; but being no sociologist I would limit my serious observations to the field of architecture.
Thus I began my systematic though half-bewildered tour of Innsmouth"s narrow, shadow-blighted ways. Crossing the bridge and turning toward the roar of the lower falls, I pa.s.sed close to the Marsh refinery, which seemed oddly free from the noise of industry. This building stood on the steep river bluff near a bridge and an open confluence of streets which I took to be the earliest civic centre, displaced after the Revolution by the present Town Square.
Re-crossing the gorge on the Main Street bridge, I struck a region of utter desertion which somehow made me shudder. Collapsing huddles of gambrel roofs formed a jagged and fantastic skyline, above which rose the ghoulish, decapitated steeple of an ancient church. Some houses along Main Street were tenanted, but most were tightly boarded up. Down unpaved side streets I saw the black, gaping windows of deserted hovels, many of which leaned at perilous and incredible angles through the sinking of part of the foundations. Those windows stared so spectrally that it took courage to turn eastward toward the waterfront. Certainly, the terror of a deserted house swells in geometrical rather than arithmetical progression as houses multiply to form a city of stark desolation. The sight of such endless avenues of fishy-eyed vacancy and death, and the thought of such linked infinities of black, brooding compartments given over to cobwebs and memories and the conqueror worm, start up vestigial fears and aversions that not even the stoutest philosophy can disperse.
Fish Street was as deserted as Main, though it differed in having many brick and stone warehouses still in excellent shape. Water Street was almost its duplicate, save that there were great seaward gaps where wharves had been. Not a living thing did I see, except for the scattered fishermen on the distant breakwater, and not a sound did I hear save the lapping of the harbour tides and the roar of the falls in the Manuxet. The town was getting more and more on my nerves, and I looked behind me furtively as I picked my way back over the tottering Water Street bridge. The Fish Street bridge, according to the sketch, was in ruins.
North of the river there were traces of squalid life-active fish-packing houses in Water Street, smoking chimneys and patched roofs here and there, occasional sounds from indeterminate sources, and infrequent shambling forms in the dismal streets and unpaved lanes-but I seemed to find this even more oppressive than the southerly desertion. For one thing, the people were more hideous and abnormal than those near the centre of the town; so that I was several times evilly reminded of something utterly fantastic which I could not quite place. Undoubtedly the alien strain in the Innsmouth folk was stronger here than farther inland-unless, indeed, the "Innsmouth look" were a disease rather than a blood strain, in which case this district might be held to harbour the more advanced cases.
One detail that annoyed me was the distribution of the few faint sounds I heard. They ought naturally to have come wholly from the visibly inhabited houses, yet in reality were often strongest inside the most rigidly boarded-up facades. There were creakings, scurryings, and hoa.r.s.e doubtful noises; and I thought uncomfortably about the hidden tunnels suggested by the grocery boy. Suddenly I found myself wondering what the voices of those denizens would be like. I had heard no speech so far in this quarter, and was unaccountably anxious not to do so.
Pausing only long enough to look at two fine but ruinous old churches at Main and Church Streets, I hastened out of that vile waterfront slum. My next logical goal was New Church Green, but somehow or other I could not bear to repa.s.s the church in whose bas.e.m.e.nt I had glimpsed the inexplicably frightening form of that strangely diademed priest or pastor. Besides, the grocery youth had told me that the churches, as well as the Order of Dagon Hall, were not advisable neighbourhoods for strangers.
Accordingly I kept north along Main to Martin, then turning inland, crossing Federal Street safely north of the Green, and entering the decayed patrician neighbourhood of northern Broad, Washington, Lafayette, and Adams Streets. Though these stately old avenues were ill-surfaced and unkempt, their elm-shaded dignity had not entirely departed. Mansion after mansion claimed my gaze, most of them decrepit and boarded up amidst neglected grounds, but one or two in each street shewing signs of occupancy. In Washington Street there was a row of four or five in excellent repair and with finely tended lawns and gardens. The most sumptuous of these-with wide terraced parterres extending back the whole way to Lafayette Street-I took to be the home of Old Man Marsh, the afflicted refinery owner.
In all these streets no living thing was visible, and I wondered at the complete absense of cats and dogs from Innsmouth. Another thing which puzzled and disturbed me, even in some of the best-preserved mansions, was the tightly shuttered condition of many third-story and attic windows. Furtiveness and secretiveness seemed universal in this hushed city of alienage and death, and I could not escape the sensation of being watched from ambush on every hand by sly, staring eyes that never shut.
I shivered as the cracked stroke of three sounded from a belfry on my left. Too well did I recall the squat church from which those notes came. Following Washington Street toward the river, I now faced a new zone of former industry and commerce; noting the ruins of a factory ahead, and seeing others, with the traces of an old railway station and covered railway bridge beyond, up the gorge on my right.
The uncertain bridge now before me was posted with a warning sign, but I took the risk and crossed again to the south bank where traces of life reappeared. Furtive, shambling creatures stared cryptically in my direction, and more normal faces eyed me coldly and curiously. Innsmouth was rapidly becoming intolerable, and I turned down Paine Street toward the Square in the hope of getting some vehicle to take me to Arkham before the still-distant starting-time of that sinister bus.
It was then that I saw the tumbledown fire station on my left, and noticed the red-faced, bushy-bearded, watery-eyed old man in nondescript rags who sat on a bench in front of it talking with a pair of unkempt but not abnormal-looking firemen. This, of course, must be Zadok Allen, the half-crazed, liquorish nonagenarian whose tales of old Innsmouth and its shadow were so hideous and incredible.
III.
It must have been some imp of the perverse-or some sardonic pull from dark, hidden sources-which made me change my plans as I did. I had long before resolved to limit my observations to architecture alone, and I was even then hurrying toward the Square in an effort to get quick transportation out of this festering city of death and decay; but the sight of old Zadok Allen set up new currents in my mind and made me slacken my pace uncertainly.
I had been a.s.sured that the old man could do nothing but hint at wild, disjointed, and incredible legends, and I had been warned that the natives made it unsafe to be seen talking to him; yet the thought of this aged witness to the town"s decay, with memories going back to the early days of ships and factories, was a lure that no amount of reason could make me resist. After all, the strangest and maddest of myths are often merely symbols or allegories based upon truth-and old Zadok must have seen everything which went on around Innsmouth for the last ninety years. Curiosity flared up beyond sense and caution, and in my youthful egotism I fancied I might be able to sift a nucleus of real history from the confused, extravagant outpouring I would probably extract with the aid of raw whiskey.
I knew that I could not accost him then and there, for the firemen would surely notice and object. Instead, I reflected, I would prepare by getting some bootleg liquor at a place where the grocery boy had told me it was plentiful. Then I would loaf near the fire station in apparent casualness, and fall in with old Zadok after he had started on one of his frequent rambles. The youth said that he was very restless, seldom sitting around the station for more than an hour or two at a time.
A quart bottle of whiskey was easily, though not cheaply, obtained in the rear of a dingy variety-store just off the Square in Eliot Street. The dirty-looking fellow who waited on me had a touch of the staring "Innsmouth look", but was quite civil in his way; being perhaps used to the custom of such convivial strangers-truckmen, gold-buyers, and the like-as were occasionally in town.
Reentering the Square I saw that luck was with me; for-shuffling out of Paine Street around the corner of the Gilman House-I glimpsed nothing less than the tall, lean, tattered form of old Zadok Allen himself. In accordance with my plan, I attracted his attention by brandishing my newly purchased bottle; and soon realised that he had begun to shuffle wistfully after me as I turned into Waite Street on my way to the most deserted region I could think of.
I was steering my course by the map the grocery boy had prepared, and was aiming for the wholly abandoned stretch of southern waterfront which I had previously visited. The only people in sight there had been the fishermen on the distant breakwater; and by going a few squares south I could get beyond the range of these, finding a pair of seats on some abandoned wharf and being free to question old Zadok un.o.bserved for an indefinite time. Before I reached Main Street I could hear a faint and wheezy "Hey, Mister!" behind me, and I presently allowed the old man to catch up and take copious pulls from the quart bottle.
I began putting out feelers as we walked along to Water Street and turned southward amidst the omnipresent desolation and crazily tilted ruins, but found that the aged tongue did not loosen as quickly as I had expected. At length I saw a gra.s.s-grown opening toward the sea between crumbling brick walls, with the weedy length of an earth-and-masonry wharf projecting beyond. Piles of moss-covered stones near the water promised tolerable seats, and the scene was sheltered from all possible view by a ruined warehouse on the north. Here, I thought, was the ideal place for a long secret colloquy; so I guided my companion down the lane and picked out spots to sit in among the mossy stones. The air of death and desertion was ghoulish, and the smell of fish almost insufferable; but I was resolved to let nothing deter me.
About four hours remained for conversation if I were to catch the eight o"clock coach for Arkham, and I began to dole out more liquor to the ancient tippler; meanwhile eating my own frugal lunch. In my donations I was careful not to overshoot the mark, for I did not wish Zadok"s vinous garrulousness to pa.s.s into a stupor. After an hour his furtive taciturnity shewed signs of disappearing, but much to my disappointment he still sidetracked my questions about Innsmouth and its shadow-haunted past. He would babble of current topics, revealing a wide acquaintance with newspapers and a great tendency to philosophise in a sententious village fashion.
Toward the end of the second hour I feared my quart of whiskey would not be enough to produce results, and was wondering whether I had better leave old Zadok and go back for more. Just then, however, chance made the opening which my questions had been unable to make; and the wheezing ancient"s rambling took a turn that caused me to lean forward and listen alertly. My back was toward the fishy-smelling sea, but he was facing it, and something or other had caused his wandering gaze to light on the low, distant line of Devil Reef, then shewing plainly and almost fascinatingly above the waves. The sight seemed to displease him, for he began a series of weak curses which ended in a confidential whisper and a knowing leer. He bent toward me, took hold of my coat lapel, and hissed out some hints that could not be mistaken.
"Thar"s whar it all begun-that cursed place of all wickedness whar the deep water starts. Gate o" h.e.l.l-sheer drop daown to a bottom no saoundin"-line kin tech. Ol" Cap"n Obed done it-him that faound aout more"n was good fer him in the Saouth Sea islands.
"Everybody was in a bad way them days. Trade fallin" off, mills losin" business-even the new ones-an" the best of our menfolks kilt a-privateerin" in the War of 1812 or lost with the Elizy brig an" the Ranger snow-both of "em Gilman venters. Obed Marsh he had three ships afloat-brigantine Columby, brig Hetty, an" barque Sumatry Queen. He was the only one as kep" on with the East-Injy an" Pacific trade, though Esdras Martin"s barkentine Malay Pride made a venter as late as "twenty-eight.
"Never was n.o.body like Cap"n Obed-old limb o" Satan! Heh, heh! I kin mind him a-tellin" abaout furren parts, an" callin" all the folks stupid fer goin" to Christian meetin" an" bearin" their burdens meek an" lowly. Says they"d orter git better G.o.ds like some o" the folks in the Injies-G.o.ds as ud bring "em good fishin" in return for their sacrifices, an" ud reely answer folks"s prayers.
"Matt Eliot, his fust mate, talked a lot, too, only he was agin" folks"s doin" any heathen things. Told abaout an island east of Otaheite whar they was a lot o" stone ruins older"n anybody knew anything abaout, kind o" like them on Ponape, in the Carolines, but with carvin"s of faces that looked like the big statues on Easter Island. They was a little volcanic island near thar, too, whar they was other ruins with diff"rent carvin"s-ruins all wore away like they"d ben under the sea onct, an" with picters of awful monsters all over "em.
"Wal, Sir, Matt he says the natives araound thar had all the fish they cud ketch, an" sported bracelets an" armlets an" head rigs made aout of a queer kind o" gold an" covered with picters o" monsters jest like the ones carved over the ruins on the little island-sorter fish-like frogs or frog-like fishes that was drawed in all kinds o" positions like they was human bein"s. n.o.body cud git aout o" them whar they got all the stuff, an" all the other natives wondered haow they managed to find fish in plenty even when the very next islands had lean pickin"s. Matt he got to wonderin" too, an" so did Cap"n Obed. Obed he notices, besides, that lots of the han"some young folks ud drop aout o" sight fer good from year to year, an" that they wa"n"t many old folks araound. Also, he thinks some of the folks looks durned queer even fer Kanakys.
"It took Obed to git the truth aout o" them heathen. I dun"t know haow he done it, but he begun by tradin" fer the gold-like things they wore. Ast "em whar they come from, an" ef they cud git more, an" finally wormed the story aout o" the old chief-Walakea, they called him. n.o.body but Obed ud ever a believed the old yeller devil, but the Cap"n cud read folks like they was books. Heh, heh! n.o.body never believes me naow when I tell "em, an" I dun"t s"pose you will, young feller-though come to look at ye, ye hev kind o" got them sharp-readin" eyes like Obed had."
The old man"s whisper grew fainter, and I found myself shuddering at the terrible and sincere portentousness of his intonation, even though I knew his tale could be nothing but drunken phantasy.
"Wal, Sir, Obed he larnt that they"s things on this arth as most folks never heerd abaout-an" wouldn"t believe ef they did hear. It seems these Kanakys was sacrificin" heaps o" their young men an" maidens to some kind o" G.o.d-things that lived under the sea, an" gittin" all kinds o" favour in return. They met the things on the little islet with the queer ruins, an" it seems them awful picters o" frog-fish monsters was supposed to be picters o" these things. Mebbe they was the kind o" critters as got all the mermaid stories an" sech started. They had all kinds o" cities on the sea-bottom, an" this island was heaved up from thar. Seems they was some of the things alive in the stone buildin"s when the island come up sudden to the surface. That"s haow the Kanakys got wind they was daown thar. Made sign-talk as soon as they got over bein" skeert, an" pieced up a bargain afore long.
"Them things liked human sacrifices. Had had "em ages afore, but lost track o" the upper world arter a time. What they done to the victims it ain"t fer me to say, an" I guess Obed wa"n"t none too sharp abaout askin". But it was all right with the heathens, because they"d ben havin" a hard time an" was desp"rate abaout everything. They give a sarten number o" young folks to the sea-things twict every year-May-Eve an" Hallowe"en-reg"lar as cud be. Also give some o" the carved knick-knacks they made. What the things agreed to give in return was plenty o" fish-they druv "em in from all over the sea-an" a few gold-like things naow an" then.
"Wal, as I says, the natives met the things on the little volcanic islet-goin" thar in canoes with the sacrifices et cet"ry, and bringin" back any of the gold-like jools as was comin" to "em. At fust the things didn"t never go onto the main island, but arter a time they come to want to. Seems they hankered arter mixin" with the folks, an" havin" j"int ceremonies on the big days-May-Eve an" Hallowe"en. Ye see, they was able to live both in an" aout o" water-what they call amphibians, I guess. The Kanakys told "em as haow folks from the other islands might wanta wipe "em aout ef they got wind o" their bein" thar, but they says they dun"t keer much, because they cud wipe aout the hull brood o" humans ef they was willin" to bother-that is, any as didn"t hev sarten signs sech as was used onct by the lost Old Ones, whoever they was. But not wantin" to bother, they"d lay low when anybody visited the island.
"When it come to matin" with them toad-lookin" fishes, the Kanakys kind o" balked, but finally they larnt something as put a new face on the matter. Seems that human folks has got a kind o" relation to sech water-beasts-that everything alive come aout o" the water onct, an" only needs a little change to go back agin. Them things told the Kanakys that ef they mixed bloods there"d be children as ud look human at fust, but later turn more"n more like the things, till finally they"d take to the water an" jine the main lot o" things daown thar. An" this is the important part, young feller-them as turned into fish things an" went into the water wouldn"t never die. Them things never died excep" they was kilt violent.
"Wal, Sir, it seems by the time Obed knowed them islanders they was all full o" fish blood from them deep-water things. When they got old an" begun to shew it, they was kep" hid until they felt like takin" to the water an" quittin" the place. Some was more teched than others, an" some never did change quite enough to take to the water; but mostly they turned aout jest the way them things said. Them as was born more like the things changed arly, but them as was nearly human sometimes stayed on the island till they was past seventy, though they"d usually go daown under fer trial trips afore that. Folks as had took to the water gen"rally come back a good deal to visit, so"s a man ud often be a-talkin" to his own five-times-great-grandfather, who"d left the dry land a couple o" hundred years or so afore.
"Everybody got aout o" the idee o" dyin"-excep" in canoe wars with the other islanders, or as sacrifices to the sea-G.o.ds daown below, or from snake-bite or plague or sharp gallopin" ailments or somethin" afore they cud take to the water-but simply looked forrad to a kind o" change that wa"n"t a bit horrible arter a while. They thought what they"d got was well wuth all they"d had to give up-an" I guess Obed kind o" come to think the same hisself when he"d chewed over old Walakea"s story a bit. Walakea, though, was one of the few as hadn"t got none of the fish blood-bein" of a royal line that intermarried with royal lines on other islands.
"Walakea he shewed Obed a lot o" rites an" incantations as had to do with the sea-things, an" let him see some o" the folks in the village as had changed a lot from human shape. Somehaow or other, though, he never would let him see one of the reg"lar things from right aout o" the water. In the end he give him a funny kind o" thingumajig made aout o" lead or something, that he said ud bring up the fish things from any place in the water whar they might be a nest of "em. The idee was to drop it daown with the right kind o" prayers an" sech. Walakea allaowed as the things was scattered all over the world, so"s anybody that looked abaout cud find a nest an" bring "em up ef they was wanted.
"Matt he didn"t like this business at all, an" wanted Obed shud keep away from the island; but the Cap"n was sharp fer gain, an" faound he cud git them gold-like things so cheap it ud pay him to make a specialty of "em. Things went on that way fer years, an" Obed got enough o" that gold-like stuff to make him start the refinery in Waite"s old run-daown fullin" mill. He didn"t da.s.s sell the pieces like they was, fer folks ud be all the time askin" questions. All the same his crews ud git a piece an" dispose of it naow and then, even though they was swore to keep quiet; an" he let his women-folks wear some o" the pieces as was more human-like than most.
"Wal, come abaout "thutty-eight-when I was seven year" old-Obed he faound the island people all wiped aout between v"yages. Seems the other islanders had got wind o" what was goin" on, an" had took matters into their own hands. S"pose they musta had, arter all, them old magic signs as the sea-things says was the only things they was afeard of. No tellin" what any o" them Kanakys will chance to git a holt of when the sea-bottom throws up some island with ruins older"n the deluge. Pious cusses, these was-they didn"t leave nothin" standin" on either the main island or the little volcanic islet excep" what parts of the ruins was too big to knock daown. In some places they was little stones strewed abaout-like charms-with somethin" on "em like what ye call a swastika naowadays. Prob"ly them was the Old Ones" signs. Folks all wiped aout, no trace o" no gold-like things, an" none o" the nearby Kanakys ud breathe a word abaout the matter. Wouldn"t even admit they"d ever ben any people on that island.
"That naturally hit Obed pretty hard, seein" as his normal trade was doin" very poor. It hit the whole of Innsmouth, too, because in seafarin" days what profited the master of a ship gen"lly profited the crew proportionate. Most o" the folks araound the taown took the hard times kind o" sheep-like an" resigned, but they was in bad shape because the fishin" was peterin" aout an" the mills wa"n"t doin" none too well.
"Then"s the time Obed he begun a-cursin" at the folks fer bein" dull sheep an" prayin" to a Christian heaven as didn"t help "em none. He told "em he"d knowed of folks as prayed to G.o.ds that give somethin" ye reely need, an" says ef a good bunch o" men ud stand by him, he cud mebbe git a holt o" sarten paowers as ud bring plenty o" fish an" quite a bit o" gold. O" course them as sarved on the Sumatry Queen an" seed the island knowed what he meant, an" wa"n"t none too anxious to git clost to sea-things like they"d heerd tell on, but them as didn"t know what "twas all abaout got kind o" swayed by what Obed had to say, an" begun to ast him what he cud do to set "em on the way to the faith as ud bring "em results."
Here the old man faltered, mumbled, and lapsed into a moody and apprehensive silence; glancing nervously over his shoulder and then turning back to stare fascinatedly at the distant black reef. When I spoke to him he did not answer, so I knew I would have to let him finish the bottle. The insane yarn I was hearing interested me profoundly, for I fancied there was contained within it a sort of crude allegory based upon the strangenesses of Innsmouth and elaborated by an imagination at once creative and full of sc.r.a.ps of exotic legend. Not for a moment did I believe that the tale had any really substantial foundation; but none the less the account held a hint of genuine terror, if only because it brought in references to strange jewels clearly akin to the malign tiara I had seen at Newburyport. Perhaps the ornaments had, after all, come from some strange island; and possibly the wild stories were lies of the bygone Obed himself rather than of this antique toper.
I handed Zadok the bottle, and he drained it to the last drop. It was curious how he could stand so much whiskey, for not even a trace of thickness had come into his high, wheezy voice. He licked the nose of the bottle and slipped it into his pocket, then beginning to nod and whisper softly to himself. I bent close to catch any articulate words he might utter, and thought I saw a sardonic smile behind the stained, bushy whiskers. Yes-he was really forming words, and I could grasp a fair proportion of them.
"Poor Matt-Matt he allus was agin" it-tried to line up the folks on his side, an" had long talks with the preachers-no use-they run the Congregational parson aout o" taown, an" the Methodist feller quit-never did see Resolved Babc.o.c.k, the Baptist parson, agin-Wrath o" Jehovy-I was a mighty little critter, but I heerd what I heerd an" seen what I seen-Dagon an" Ashtoreth-Belial an" Beelzebub-Golden Caff an" the idols o" Canaan an" the Philistines-Babylonish abominations-Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin-"
He stopped again, and from the look in his watery blue eyes I feared he was close to a stupor after all. But when I gently shook his shoulder he turned on me with astonishing alertness and snapped out some more obscure phrases.
"Dun"t believe me, hey? Heh, heh, heh-then jest tell me, young feller, why Cap"n Obed an" twenty odd other folks used to row aout to Devil Reef in the dead o" night an" chant things so laoud ye cud hear "em all over taown when the wind was right? Tell me that, hey? An" tell me why Obed was allus droppin" heavy things daown into the deep water t"other side o" the reef whar the bottom shoots daown like a cliff lower"n ye kin saound? Tell me what he done with that funny-shaped lead thingumajig as Walakea give him? Hey, boy? An" what did they all haowl on May-Eve, an" agin the next Hallowe"en? An" why"d the new church parsons-fellers as used to be sailors-wear them queer robes an" cover theirselves with them gold-like things Obed brung? Hey?"
The watery blue eyes were almost savage and maniacal now, and the dirty white beard bristled electrically. Old Zadok probably saw me shrink back, for he had begun to cackle evilly.
"Heh, heh, heh, heh! Beginnin" to see, hey? Mebbe ye"d like to a ben me in them days, when I seed things at night aout to sea from the cupalo top o" my haouse. Oh, I kin tell ye, little pitchers hev big ears, an" I wa"n"t missin" nothin" o" what was gossiped abaout Cap"n Obed an" the folks aout to the reef! Heh, heh, heh! Haow abaout the night I took my pa"s ship"s gla.s.s up to the cupalo an" seed the reef a-bristlin" thick with shapes that dove off quick soon"s the moon riz? Obed an" the folks was in a dory, but them shapes dove off the far side into the deep water an" never come up. . . . Haow"d ye like to be a little shaver alone up in a cupalo a-watchin" shapes as wa"n"t human shapes? . . . Hey? . . . Heh, heh, heh, heh. . . ."
The old man was getting hysterical, and I began to shiver with a nameless alarm. He laid a gnarled claw on my shoulder, and it seemed to me that its shaking was not altogether that of mirth.
"S"pose one night ye seed somethin" heavy heaved offen Obed"s dory beyond the reef, an" then larned nex" day a young feller was missin" from home? Hey? Did anybody ever see hide or hair o" Hiram Gilman agin? Did they? An" Nick Pierce, an" Luelly Waite, an" Adoniram Saouthwick, an" Henry Garrison? Hey? Heh, heh, heh, heh. . . . Shapes talkin" sign language with their hands . . . them as had reel hands. . . .
"Wal, Sir, that was the time Obed begun to git on his feet agin. Folks see his three darters a-wearin" gold-like things as n.o.body"d never see on "em afore, an" smoke started comin" aout o" the refin"ry chimbly. Other folks were prosp"rin", too-fish begun to swarm into the harbour fit to kill, an" heaven knows what sized cargoes we begun to ship aout to Newb"ryport, Arkham, an" Boston. "Twas then Obed got the ol" branch railrud put through. Some Kingsport fishermen heerd abaout the ketch an" come up in sloops, but they was all lost. n.o.body never see "em agin. An" jest then our folks organised the Esoteric Order o" Dagon, an" bought Masonic Hall offen Calvary Commandery for it . . . heh, heh, heh! Matt Eliot was a Mason an" agin" the sellin", but he dropped aout o" sight jest then.
"Remember, I ain"t sayin" Obed was set on hevin" things jest like they was on that Kanaky isle. I dun"t think he aimed at fust to do no mixin", nor raise no younguns to take to the water an" turn into fishes with eternal life. He wanted them gold things, an" was willin" to pay heavy, an" I guess the others was satisfied fer a while. . . .
"Come in "forty-six the taown done some lookin" an" thinkin" fer itself. Too many folks missin"-too much wild preachin" at meetin" of a Sunday-too much talk abaout that reef. I guess I done a bit by tellin" Selectman Mowry what I see from the cupalo. They was a party one night as follered Obed"s craowd aout to the reef, an" I heerd shots betwixt the dories. Nex" day Obed an" thutty-two others was in gaol, with everbody a-wonderin" jest what was afoot an" jest what charge agin" "em cud be got to holt. G.o.d, ef anybody"d look"d ahead . . . a couple o" weeks later, when nothin" had ben throwed into the sea fer that long. . . ."
Zadok was shewing signs of fright and exhaustion, and I let him keep silence for a while, though glancing apprehensively at my watch. The tide had turned and was coming in now, and the sound of the waves seemed to arouse him. I was glad of that tide, for at high water the fishy smell might not be so bad. Again I strained to catch his whispers.
"That awful night . . . I seed "em . . . I was up in the cupalo . . . hordes of "em . . . swarms of "em . . . all over the reef an" swimmin" up the harbour into the Manuxet. . . . G.o.d, what happened in the streets of Innsmouth that night . . . they rattled our door, but pa wouldn"t open . . . then he clumb aout the kitchen winder with his musket to find Selectman Mowry an" see what he cud do. . . . Maounds o" the dead an" the dyin" . . . shots an" screams . . . shaoutin" in Ol" Squar an" Taown Squar an" New Church Green . . . gaol throwed open . . . proclamation . . . treason . . . called it the plague when folks come in an" faound haff our people missin" . . . n.o.body left but them as ud jine in with Obed an" them things or else keep quiet . . . never heerd o" my pa no more. . . ."
The old man was panting, and perspiring profusely. His grip on my shoulder tightened.
"Everything cleaned up in the mornin"-but they was traces. . . . Obed he kinder takes charge an" says things is goin" to be changed . . . others"ll worship with us at meetin"-time, an" sarten haouses hez got to entertain guests . . . they wanted to mix like they done with the Kanakys, an" he fer one didn"t feel baound to stop "em. Far gone, was Obed . . . jest like a crazy man on the subjeck. He says they brung us fish an" treasure, an" shud hev what they hankered arter. . . .
"Nothin" was to be diff"runt on the aoutside, only we was to keep shy o" strangers ef we knowed what was good fer us. We all hed to take the Oath o" Dagon, an" later on they was secon" an" third Oaths that some on us took. Them as ud help special, ud git special rewards-gold an" sech- No use balkin", fer they was millions of "em daown thar. They"d ruther not start risin" an" wipin" aout humankind, but ef they was gave away an" forced to, they cud do a lot toward jest that. We didn"t hev them old charms to cut "em off like folks in the Saouth Sea did, an" them Kanakys wudn"t never give away their secrets.