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51
Hogs
grew
inordinately
fat
,
then
suddenly
began
to
undergo
loathsome
changes
which
no
one
could
explain
.
Their
meat
was
of
course
useless
,
and
Nahum
was
at
his
wit
's
end
.
No
rural
veterinary
would
approach
his
place
,
and
the
city
veterinary
from
Arkham
was
openly
baffled
.
The
swine
began
growing
grey
and
brittle
and
falling
to
pieces
before
they
died
,
and
their
eyes
and
muzzles
developed
singular
alterations
.
It
was
very
inexplicable
,
for
they
had
never
been
fed
from
the
tainted
vegetation
.
Then
something
struck
the
cows
.
Certain
areas
or
sometimes
the
whole
body
would
be
uncannily
shrivelled
or
compressed
,
and
atrocious
collapses
or
disintegrations
were
common
.
In
the
last
stages
--
and
death
was
always
the
result
--
there
would
be
a
greying
and
turning
brittle
like
that
which
beset
the
hogs
.
There
could
be
no
question
of
poison
,
for
all
the
cases
occurred
in
a
locked
and
undisturbed
barn
.
No
bites
of
prowling
things
could
have
brought
the
virus
,
for
what
live
beast
of
earth
can
pass
through
solid
obstacles
?
It
must
be
only
natural
disease
--
yet
what
disease
could
wreak
such
results
was
beyond
any
mind
's
guessing
.
When
the
harvest
came
there
was
not
an
animal
surviving
on
the
place
,
for
the
stock
and
poultry
were
dead
and
the
dogs
had
run
away
.
These
dogs
,
three
in
number
,
had
all
vanished
one
night
and
were
never
heard
of
again
.
The
five
cats
had
left
some
time
before
,
but
their
going
was
scarcely
noticed
since
there
now
seemed
to
be
no
mice
,
and
only
Mrs.
Gardner
had
made
pets
of
the
graceful
felines
.
52
On
the
nineteenth
of
October
Nahum
staggered
into
Ammi
's
house
with
hideous
news
.
53
The
death
had
come
to
poor
Thaddeus
in
his
attic
room
,
and
it
had
come
in
a
way
which
could
not
be
told
.
Nahum
had
dug
a
grave
in
the
railed
family
plot
behind
the
farm
,
and
had
put
therein
what
he
found
.
There
could
have
been
nothing
from
outside
,
for
the
small
barred
window
and
locked
door
were
intact
;
but
it
was
much
as
it
had
been
in
the
barn
.
Ammi
and
his
wife
consoled
the
stricken
man
as
best
they
could
,
but
shuddered
as
they
did
so
.
Stark
terror
seemed
to
cling
round
the
Gardners
and
all
they
touched
,
and
the
very
presence
of
one
in
the
house
was
a
breath
from
regions
unnamed
and
unnamable
.
Ammi
accompanied
Nahum
home
with
the
greatest
reluctance
,
and
did
what
he
might
to
calm
the
hysterical
sobbing
of
little
Merwin
.
Zenas
needed
no
calming
.
He
had
come
of
late
to
do
nothing
but
stare
into
space
and
obey
what
his
father
told
him
;
and
Ammi
thought
that
his
fate
was
very
merciful
.
Now
and
then
Merwin
's
screams
were
answered
faintly
from
the
attic
,
and
in
response
to
an
inquiring
look
Nahum
said
that
his
wife
was
getting
very
feeble
.
When
night
approached
,
Ammi
managed
to
get
away
;
for
not
even
friendship
could
make
him
stay
in
that
spot
when
the
faint
glow
of
the
vegetation
began
and
the
trees
may
or
may
not
have
swayed
without
wind
.
It
was
really
lucky
for
Ammi
that
he
was
not
more
imaginative
.
Even
as
things
were
,
his
mind
was
bent
ever
so
slightly
;
but
had
he
been
able
to
connect
and
reflect
upon
all
the
portents
around
him
he
must
inevitably
have
turned
a
total
maniac
.
In
the
twilight
he
hastened
home
,
the
screams
of
the
mad
woman
and
the
nervous
child
ringing
horribly
in
his
ears
.
Отключить рекламу
54
Three
days
later
Nahum
lurched
into
Ammi
's
kitchen
in
the
early
morning
,
and
in
the
absence
of
his
host
stammered
out
a
desperate
tale
once
more
,
while
Mrs.
Pierce
listened
in
a
clutching
fright
.
It
was
little
Merwin
this
time
.
He
was
gone
.
He
had
gone
out
late
at
night
with
a
lantern
and
pail
for
water
,
and
had
never
come
back
.
He
'd
been
going
to
pieces
for
days
,
and
hardly
knew
what
he
was
about
.
Screamed
at
everything
.
There
had
been
a
frantic
shriek
from
the
yard
then
,
but
before
the
father
could
get
to
the
door
,
the
boy
was
gone
.
There
was
no
glow
from
the
lantern
he
had
taken
,
and
of
the
child
himself
no
trace
.
At
the
time
Nahum
thought
the
lantern
and
pail
were
gone
too
;
but
when
dawn
came
,
and
the
man
had
plodded
back
from
his
all-night
search
of
the
woods
and
fields
,
he
had
found
some
very
curious
things
near
the
well
.
There
was
a
crushed
and
apparently
somewhat
melted
mass
of
iron
which
had
certainly
been
the
lantern
;
while
a
bent
bail
and
twisted
iron
hoops
beside
it
,
both
half-fused
,
seemed
to
hint
at
the
remnants
of
the
pail
.
That
was
all
.
Nahum
was
past
imagining
,
Mrs.
Pierce
was
blank
,
and
Ammi
,
when
he
had
reached
home
and
heard
the
tale
,
could
give
no
guess
.
Merwin
was
gone
,
and
there
would
be
no
use
in
telling
the
people
around
,
who
shunned
all
Gardners
now
.
No
use
,
either
,
in
telling
the
city
people
at
Arkham
who
laughed
at
everything
.
Thad
was
gone
,
and
now
Merwin
was
gone
.
Something
was
creeping
and
creeping
and
waiting
to
be
seen
and
felt
and
heard
.
Nahum
would
go
soon
,
and
he
wanted
Ammi
to
look
after
his
wife
and
Zenas
if
they
survived
him
.
55
It
must
all
be
a
judgment
of
some
sort
;
though
he
could
not
fancy
what
for
,
since
he
had
always
walked
uprightly
in
the
Lord
's
ways
so
far
as
he
knew
.
56
For
over
two
weeks
Ammi
saw
nothing
of
Nahum
;
and
then
,
worried
about
what
might
have
happened
,
he
overcame
his
fears
and
paid
the
Gardner
place
a
visit
.
There
was
no
smoke
from
the
great
chimney
,
and
for
a
moment
the
visitor
was
apprehensive
of
the
worst
.
The
aspect
of
the
whole
farm
was
shocking
--
greyish
withered
grass
and
leaves
on
the
ground
,
vines
falling
in
brittle
wreckage
from
archaic
walls
and
gables
,
and
great
bare
trees
clawing
up
at
the
grey
November
sky
with
a
studied
malevolence
which
Ammi
could
not
but
feel
had
come
from
some
subtle
change
in
the
tilt
of
the
branches
.
But
Nahum
was
alive
,
after
all
.
He
was
weak
,
and
lying
on
a
couch
in
the
low-ceiled
kitchen
,
but
perfectly
conscious
and
able
to
give
simple
orders
to
Zenas
.
The
room
was
deadly
cold
;
and
as
Ammi
visibly
shivered
,
the
host
shouted
huskily
to
Zenas
for
more
wood
.
Wood
,
indeed
,
was
sorely
needed
;
since
the
cavernous
fireplace
was
unlit
and
empty
,
with
a
cloud
of
soot
blowing
about
in
the
chill
wind
that
came
down
the
chimney
.
Presently
Nahum
asked
him
if
the
extra
wood
had
made
him
any
more
comfortable
,
and
then
Ammi
saw
what
had
happened
.
The
stoutest
cord
had
broken
at
last
,
and
the
hapless
farmer
's
mind
was
proof
against
more
sorrow
.
57
Questioning
tactfully
,
Ammi
could
get
no
clear
data
at
all
about
the
missing
Zenas
.
"
In
the
well
--
he
lives
in
the
well
--
"
was
all
that
the
clouded
father
would
say
.
Отключить рекламу
58
Then
there
flashed
across
the
visitor
's
mind
a
sudden
thought
of
the
mad
wife
,
and
he
changed
his
line
of
inquiry
.
"
Nabby
?
Why
,
here
she
is
!
"
was
the
surprised
response
of
poor
Nahum
,
and
Ammi
soon
saw
that
he
must
search
for
himself
.
Leaving
the
harmless
babbler
on
the
couch
,
he
took
the
keys
from
their
nail
beside
the
door
and
climbed
the
creaking
stairs
to
the
attic
.
It
was
very
close
and
noisome
up
there
,
and
no
sound
could
be
heard
from
any
direction
.
Of
the
four
doors
in
sight
,
only
one
was
locked
,
and
on
this
he
tried
various
keys
on
the
ring
he
had
taken
.
The
third
key
proved
the
right
one
,
and
after
some
fumbling
Ammi
threw
open
the
low
white
door
.
59
It
was
quite
dark
inside
,
for
the
window
was
small
and
half-obscured
by
the
crude
wooden
bars
;
and
Ammi
could
see
nothing
at
all
on
the
wide-planked
floor
.
The
stench
was
beyond
enduring
,
and
before
proceeding
further
he
had
to
retreat
to
another
room
and
return
with
his
lungs
filled
with
breathable
air
.
When
he
did
enter
he
saw
something
dark
in
the
corner
,
and
upon
seeing
it
more
clearly
he
screamed
outright
.
While
he
screamed
he
thought
a
momentary
cloud
eclipsed
the
window
,
and
a
second
later
he
felt
himself
brushed
as
if
by
some
hateful
current
of
vapour
.
Strange
colours
danced
before
his
eyes
;
and
had
not
a
present
horror
numbed
him
he
would
have
thought
of
the
globule
in
the
meteor
that
the
geologist
's
hammer
had
shattered
,
and
of
the
morbid
vegetation
that
had
sprouted
in
the
spring
.
As
it
was
he
thought
only
of
the
blasphemous
monstrosity
which
confronted
him
,
and
which
all
too
clearly
had
shared
the
nameless
fate
of
young
Thaddeus
and
the
livestock
.
60
But
the
terrible
thing
about
this
horror
was
that
it
very
slowly
and
perceptibly
moved
as
it
continued
to
crumble
.