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341
And
now
,
when
Danforth
and
I
saw
the
freshly
glistening
and
reflectively
iridescent
black
slime
which
clung
thickly
to
those
headless
bodies
and
stank
obscenely
with
that
new
,
unknown
odor
whose
cause
only
a
diseased
fancy
could
envisage
--
clung
to
those
bodies
and
sparkled
less
voluminously
on
a
smooth
part
of
the
accursedly
resculptured
wall
in
a
series
of
grouped
dots
--
we
understood
the
quality
of
cosmic
fear
to
its
uttermost
depths
.
It
was
not
fear
of
those
four
missing
others
--
for
all
too
well
did
we
suspect
they
would
do
no
harm
again
.
Poor
devils
!
After
all
,
they
were
not
evil
things
of
their
kind
.
They
were
the
men
of
another
age
and
another
order
of
being
.
Nature
had
played
a
hellish
jest
on
them
--
as
it
will
on
any
others
that
human
madness
,
callousness
,
or
cruelty
may
hereafter
dig
up
in
that
hideously
dead
or
sleeping
polar
waste
--
and
this
was
their
tragic
homecoming
.
They
had
not
been
even
savages
--
for
what
indeed
had
they
done
?
That
awful
awakening
in
the
cold
of
an
unknown
epoch
--
perhaps
an
attack
by
the
furry
,
frantically
barking
quadrupeds
,
and
a
dazed
defense
against
them
and
the
equally
frantic
white
simians
with
the
queer
wrappings
and
paraphernalia
...
poor
Lake
,
poor
Gedney
...
and
poor
Old
Ones
!
Scientists
to
the
last
--
what
had
they
done
that
we
would
not
have
done
in
their
place
?
God
,
what
intelligence
and
persistence
!
What
a
facing
of
the
incredible
,
just
as
those
carven
kinsmen
and
forbears
had
faced
things
only
a
little
less
incredible
!
Radiates
,
vegetables
,
monstrosities
,
star
spawn
--
whatever
they
had
been
,
they
were
men
!
342
They
had
crossed
the
icy
peaks
on
whose
templed
slopes
they
had
once
worshipped
and
roamed
among
the
tree
ferns
.
343
They
had
found
their
dead
city
brooding
under
its
curse
,
and
had
read
its
carven
latter
days
as
we
had
done
.
They
had
tried
to
reach
their
living
fellows
in
fabled
depths
of
blackness
they
had
never
seen
--
and
what
had
they
found
?
All
this
flashed
in
unison
through
the
thoughts
of
Danforth
and
me
as
we
looked
from
those
headless
,
slime-coated
shapes
to
the
loathsome
palimpsest
sculptures
and
the
diabolical
dot
groups
of
fresh
slime
on
the
wall
beside
them
--
looked
and
understood
what
must
have
triumphed
and
survived
down
there
in
the
Cyclopean
water
city
of
that
nighted
,
penguin-fringed
abyss
,
whence
even
now
a
sinister
curling
mist
had
begun
to
belch
pallidly
as
if
in
answer
to
Danforth
's
hysterical
scream
.
Отключить рекламу
344
The
shock
of
recognizing
that
monstrous
slime
and
headlessness
had
frozen
us
into
mute
,
motionless
statues
,
and
it
is
only
through
later
conversations
that
we
have
learned
of
the
complete
identity
of
our
thoughts
at
that
moment
.
It
seemed
aeons
that
we
stood
there
,
but
actually
it
could
not
have
been
more
than
ten
or
fifteen
seconds
.
That
hateful
,
pallid
mist
curled
forward
as
if
veritably
driven
by
some
remoter
advancing
bulk
--
and
then
came
a
sound
which
upset
much
of
what
we
had
just
decided
,
and
in
so
doing
broke
the
spell
and
enabled
us
to
run
like
mad
past
squawking
,
confused
penguins
over
our
former
trail
back
to
the
city
,
along
ice-sunken
megalithic
corridors
to
the
great
open
circle
,
and
up
that
archaic
spiral
ramp
in
a
frenzied
,
automatic
plunge
for
the
sane
outer
air
and
light
of
day
.
345
The
new
sound
,
as
I
have
intimated
,
upset
much
that
we
had
decided
;
because
it
was
what
poor
Lake
's
dissection
had
led
us
to
attribute
to
those
we
had
judged
dead
.
It
was
,
Danforth
later
told
me
,
precisely
what
he
had
caught
in
infinitely
muffled
form
when
at
that
spot
beyond
the
alley
corner
above
the
glacial
level
;
and
it
certainly
had
a
shocking
resemblance
to
the
wind
pipings
we
had
both
heard
around
the
lofty
mountain
caves
.
346
At
the
risk
of
seeming
puerile
I
will
add
another
thing
,
too
,
if
only
because
of
the
surprising
way
Danforth
's
impressions
chimed
with
mine
.
Of
course
common
reading
is
what
prepared
us
both
to
make
the
interpretation
,
though
Danforth
has
hinted
at
queer
notions
about
unsuspected
and
forbidden
sources
to
which
Poe
may
have
had
access
when
writing
his
Arthur
Gordon
Pym
a
century
ago
.
It
will
be
remembered
that
in
that
fantastic
tale
there
is
a
word
of
unknown
but
terrible
and
prodigious
significance
connected
with
the
antarctic
and
screamed
eternally
by
the
gigantic
spectrally
snowy
birds
of
that
malign
region
's
core
.
"
Tekeli-li
!
Tekeli-li
!
"
That
,
I
may
admit
,
is
exactly
what
we
thought
we
heard
conveyed
by
that
sudden
sound
behind
the
advancing
white
mist
--
that
insidious
musical
piping
over
a
singularly
wide
range
.
347
We
were
in
full
flight
before
three
notes
or
syllables
had
been
uttered
,
though
we
knew
that
the
swiftness
of
the
Old
Ones
would
enable
any
scream-roused
and
pursuing
survivor
of
the
slaughter
to
overtake
us
in
a
moment
if
it
really
wished
to
do
so
.
We
had
a
vague
hope
,
however
,
that
nonaggressive
conduct
and
a
display
of
kindred
reason
might
cause
such
a
being
to
spare
us
in
case
of
capture
,
if
only
from
scientific
curiosity
.
After
all
,
if
such
an
one
had
nothing
to
fear
for
itself
,
it
would
have
no
motive
in
harming
us
.
Concealment
being
futile
at
this
juncture
,
we
used
our
torch
for
a
running
glance
behind
,
and
perceived
that
the
mist
was
thinning
.
Would
we
see
,
at
last
,
a
complete
and
living
specimen
of
those
others
?
Again
came
that
insidious
musical
piping
--
"
Tekeli-li
!
Tekeli-li
!
"
Then
,
noting
that
we
were
actually
gaining
on
our
pursuer
,
it
occurred
to
us
that
the
entity
might
be
wounded
.
We
could
take
no
chances
,
however
,
since
it
was
very
obviously
approaching
in
answer
to
Danforth
's
scream
,
rather
than
in
flight
from
any
other
entity
.
Отключить рекламу
348
The
timing
was
too
close
to
admit
of
doubt
.
Of
the
whereabouts
of
that
less
conceivable
and
less
mentionable
nightmare
--
that
fetid
,
unglimpsed
mountain
of
slime-spewing
protoplasm
whose
race
had
conquered
the
abyss
and
sent
land
pioneers
to
recarve
and
squirm
through
the
burrows
of
the
hills
--
we
could
form
no
guess
;
and
it
cost
us
a
genuine
pang
to
leave
this
probably
crippled
Old
One
--
perhaps
a
lone
survivor
--
to
the
peril
of
recapture
and
a
nameless
fate
.
349
Thank
Heaven
we
did
not
slacken
our
run
.
The
curling
mist
had
thickened
again
,
and
was
driving
ahead
with
increased
speed
;
whilst
the
straying
penguins
in
our
rear
were
squawking
and
screaming
and
displaying
signs
of
a
panic
really
surprising
in
view
of
their
relatively
minor
confusion
when
we
had
passed
them
.
Once
more
came
that
sinister
,
wide-ranged
piping
--
"
Tekeli-li
!
Tekeli-li
!
"
We
had
been
wrong
.
The
thing
was
not
wounded
,
but
had
merely
paused
on
encountering
the
bodies
of
its
fallen
kindred
and
the
hellish
slime
inscription
above
them
.
We
could
never
know
what
that
demon
message
was
--
but
those
burials
at
Lake
's
camp
had
shown
how
much
importance
the
beings
attached
to
their
dead
.
Our
recklessly
used
torch
now
revealed
ahead
of
us
the
large
open
cavern
where
various
ways
converged
,
and
we
were
glad
to
be
leaving
those
morbid
palimpsest
sculptures
--
almost
felt
even
when
scarcely
seen
--
behind
.
Another
thought
which
the
advent
of
the
cave
inspired
was
the
possibility
of
losing
our
pursuer
at
this
bewildering
focus
of
large
galleries
.
There
were
several
of
the
blind
albino
penguins
in
the
open
space
,
and
it
seemed
clear
that
their
fear
of
the
oncoming
entity
was
extreme
to
the
point
of
unaccountability
.
If
at
that
point
we
dimmed
our
torch
to
the
very
lowest
limit
of
traveling
need
,
keeping
it
strictly
in
front
of
us
,
the
frightened
squawking
motions
of
the
huge
birds
in
the
mist
might
muffle
our
footfalls
,
screen
our
true
course
,
and
somehow
set
up
a
false
lead
.
350
Amidst
the
churning
,
spiraling
fog
,
the
littered
and
unglistening
floor
of
the
main
tunnel
beyond
this
point
,
as
differing
from
the
other
morbidly
polished
burrows
,
could
hardly
form
a
highly
distinguishing
feature
;
even
,
so
far
as
we
could
conjecture
,
for
those
indicated
special
senses
which
made
the
Old
Ones
partly
,
though
imperfectly
,
independent
of
light
in
emergencies
.
In
fact
,
we
were
somewhat
apprehensive
lest
we
go
astray
ourselves
in
our
haste
.
For
we
had
,
of
course
,
decided
to
keep
straight
on
toward
the
dead
city
;
since
the
consequences
of
loss
in
those
unknown
foothill
honeycombings
would
be
unthinkable
.