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441
The
doctor
reeled
,
and
through
his
head
raced
wildly
disjointed
scraps
from
all
he
had
seen
,
heard
,
and
read
of
the
frightful
case
of
Joseph
Curwen
and
Charles
Dexter
Ward
.
"
I
say
to
you
againe
,
doe
not
call
up
Any
that
you
can
not
put
downe
...
Have
ye
Wordes
for
laying
at
all
times
readie
,
and
stopp
not
to
be
sure
when
there
is
any
Doubte
of
Whom
you
have
...
3
Talkes
with
What
was
therein
inhum
'd
...
"
Mercy
of
Heaven
,
what
is
that
shape
behind
the
parting
smoke
?
442
Marinus
Bicknell
Willett
has
not
hope
that
any
part
of
his
tale
will
be
believed
except
by
certain
sympathetic
friends
,
hence
he
has
made
no
attempt
to
tell
it
beyond
his
most
intimate
circle
.
Only
a
few
outsiders
have
ever
heard
it
repeated
,
and
of
these
the
majority
laugh
and
remark
that
the
doctor
surely
is
getting
old
.
He
has
been
advised
to
take
a
long
vacation
and
to
shun
future
cases
dealing
with
mental
disturbance
.
But
Mr.
Ward
knows
that
the
veteran
physician
speaks
only
a
horrible
truth
.
Did
not
he
himself
see
the
noisome
aperture
in
the
bungalow
cellar
?
Did
not
Willett
send
him
home
overcome
and
ill
at
eleven
o'clock
that
portentous
morning
?
Did
he
not
telephone
the
doctor
in
vain
that
evening
,
and
again
the
next
day
,
and
had
he
not
driven
to
the
bungalow
itself
on
that
following
noon
,
finding
his
friend
unconscious
but
unharmed
on
one
of
the
beds
upstairs
?
Willett
had
been
breathing
stertorously
,
and
opened
his
eyes
slowly
when
Mr.
Ward
gave
him
some
brandy
fetched
from
the
car
.
Then
he
shuddered
and
screamed
,
crying
out
,
'
That
beard
...
those
eyes
...
God
,
who
are
you
?
'
A
very
strange
thing
to
say
to
a
trim
,
blue-eyed
,
clean-shaven
gentleman
whom
he
had
known
from
the
latter
's
boyhood
.
443
In
the
bright
noon
sunlight
the
bungalow
was
unchanged
since
the
previous
morning
.
Willett
's
clothing
bore
no
disarrangement
beyond
certain
smudges
and
worn
places
at
the
knees
,
and
only
a
faint
acrid
odor
reminded
Mr.
Ward
of
what
he
had
smelt
on
his
son
that
day
he
was
taken
to
the
hospital
.
Отключить рекламу
444
The
doctor
's
flashlight
was
missing
,
but
his
valise
was
safely
there
,
as
empty
as
when
he
had
brought
it
.
Before
indulging
in
any
explanations
,
and
obviously
with
great
moral
effort
,
Willett
staggered
dizzily
down
to
the
cellar
and
tried
the
fateful
platform
before
the
tubs
.
It
was
unyielding
.
Crossing
to
where
he
had
left
his
yet
unused
tool
satchel
the
day
before
,
he
obtained
a
chisel
and
began
to
pry
up
the
stubborn
planks
one
by
one
.
Underneath
the
smooth
concrete
was
still
visible
,
but
of
any
opening
or
perforation
there
was
no
longer
a
trace
.
Nothing
yawned
this
time
to
sicken
the
mystified
father
who
had
followed
the
doctor
downstairs
;
only
the
smooth
concrete
underneath
the
planks
--
no
noisome
well
,
no
world
of
subterrene
horrors
,
no
secret
library
,
no
Curwen
papers
,
no
nightmare
pits
of
stench
and
howling
,
no
laboratory
or
shelves
or
chiseled
formulae
,
no
...
Dr.
Willett
turned
pale
,
and
clutched
at
the
younger
man
.
'
Yesterday
,
'
he
asked
softly
,
'd
id
you
see
it
here
...
and
smell
it
?
'
And
when
Mr.
Ward
,
himself
transfixed
with
dread
and
wonder
,
found
strength
to
nod
an
affirmative
,
the
physician
gave
a
sound
half
a
sigh
and
half
a
gasp
,
and
nodded
in
turn
.
'
Then
I
will
tell
you
'
,
he
said
.
445
So
for
an
hour
,
in
the
sunniest
room
they
could
find
upstairs
,
the
physician
whispered
his
frightful
tale
to
the
wondering
father
.
There
was
nothing
to
relate
beyond
the
looming
up
of
that
form
when
the
greenish-black
vapor
from
the
kylix
parted
,
and
Willett
was
too
tired
to
ask
himself
what
had
really
occurred
.
446
There
were
futile
,
bewildered
head-shakings
from
both
men
,
and
once
Mr.
Ward
ventured
a
hushed
suggestion
,
'D
o
you
suppose
it
would
be
of
any
use
to
dig
?
'
The
doctor
was
silent
,
for
it
seemed
hardly
fitting
for
any
human
brain
to
answer
when
powers
of
unknown
spheres
had
so
vitally
encroached
on
this
side
of
the
Great
Abyss
.
Again
Mr.
Ward
asked
,
'
But
where
did
it
go
?
It
brought
you
here
,
you
know
,
and
it
sealed
up
the
hole
somehow
.
'
And
Willett
again
let
silence
answer
for
him
.
447
But
after
all
,
this
was
not
the
final
phase
of
the
matter
.
Reaching
for
his
handkerchief
before
rising
to
leave
,
Dr.
Willett
's
fingers
closed
upon
a
piece
of
paper
in
his
pocket
which
had
not
been
there
before
,
and
which
was
companioned
by
the
candles
and
matches
he
had
seized
in
the
vanished
vault
.
It
was
a
common
sheet
,
torn
obviously
from
the
cheap
pad
in
that
fabulous
room
of
horror
somewhere
underground
,
and
the
writing
upon
it
was
that
of
an
ordinary
lead
pencil
--
doubtless
the
one
which
had
lain
beside
the
pad
.
It
was
folded
very
carelessly
,
and
beyond
the
faint
acrid
scent
of
the
cryptic
chamber
bore
no
print
or
mark
of
any
world
but
this
.
But
in
the
text
itself
it
did
indeed
reek
with
wonder
;
for
here
was
no
script
of
any
wholesome
age
,
but
the
labored
strokes
of
medieval
darkness
,
scarcely
legible
to
the
laymen
who
now
strained
over
it
,
yet
having
combinations
of
symbols
which
seemed
vaguely
familiar
.
Отключить рекламу
448
The
briefly
scrawled
message
was
this
,
and
its
mystery
lent
purpose
to
the
shaken
pair
,
who
forthwith
walked
steadily
out
to
the
Ward
car
and
gave
orders
to
be
driven
first
to
a
quiet
dining
place
and
then
to
the
John
Hay
Library
on
the
hill
.
449
Cover
450
At
the
library
it
was
easy
to
find
good
manuals
of
paleography
,
and
over
these
the
two
men
puzzled
till
the
lights
of
evening
shone
out
from
the
great
chandelier
.
In
the
end
they
found
what
was
needed
.
The
letters
were
indeed
no
fantastic
invention
,
but
the
normal
script
of
a
very
dark
period
.
They
were
the
pointed
Saxon
minuscules
of
the
eighth
or
ninth
century
A.D.
,
and
brought
with
them
memories
of
an
uncouth
time
when
under
a
fresh
Christian
veneer
ancient
faiths
and
ancient
rites
stirred
stealthily
,
and
the
pale
moon
of
Britain
looked
sometimes
on
strange
deeds
in
the
Roman
ruins
of
Caerleon
and
Hexham
,
and
by
the
towers
along
Hadrian
's
crumbling
wall
.
The
words
were
in
such
Latin
as
a
barbarous
age
might
remember
--
'
Corvinus
necandus
est.
.
Cadaver
aq
(
ua
)
forti
dissolvendum
,
nec
aliq
(
ui
)
d
retinendum
.
Tace
ut
potes
.
'
--
which
may
roughly
be
translated
,
"
Curwen
must
be
killed
.
The
body
must
be
dissolved
in
aqua
fortis
,
nor
must
anything
be
retained
.
Keep
silence
as
best
you
are
able
.
"