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41
Jones
scarcely
knew
how
to
reply
,
but
managed
to
mumble
out
a
few
inquiries
about
the
day
after
his
last
visit
.
Orabona
seemed
greatly
amused
by
the
questions
,
and
took
considerable
care
in
framing
his
replies
.
"
Oh
,
yes
,
Mr.
Jones
--
the
twenty-eighth
of
last
month
.
I
remember
it
for
many
reasons
.
In
the
morning
--
before
Mr.
Rogers
got
here
,
you
understand
--
I
found
the
workroom
in
quite
a
mess
.
There
was
a
great
deal
of
--
cleaning
up
--
to
do
.
There
had
been
--
late
work
,
you
see
.
Important
new
specimen
given
its
secondary
baking
process
.
I
took
complete
charge
when
I
came
.
"
It
was
a
hard
specimen
to
prepare
--
but
of
course
Mr.
Rogers
has
taught
me
a
great
deal
.
He
is
,
as
you
know
,
a
very
great
artist
.
When
he
came
he
helped
me
complete
the
specimen
--
helped
very
materially
,
I
assure
you
--
but
he
left
soon
without
even
greeting
the
men
.
As
I
tell
you
,
he
was
called
away
suddenly
.
There
were
important
chemical
reactions
involved
.
They
made
loud
noises
--
in
fact
,
some
teamsters
in
the
court
outside
fancy
they
heard
several
pistol
shots
--
very
amusing
idea
!
"
As
for
the
new
specimen
--
that
matter
is
very
unfortunate
.
It
is
a
great
masterpiece
--
designed
and
made
,
you
understand
,
by
Mr.
Rogers
.
He
will
see
about
it
when
he
gets
back
.
"
Again
Orabona
smiled
.
"
The
police
,
you
know
.
We
put
it
on
display
a
week
ago
,
and
there
were
two
or
three
faintings
.
One
poor
fellow
had
an
epileptic
fit
in
front
of
it
.
You
see
,
it
is
a
trifle
--
stronger
--
than
the
rest
.
Larger
,
for
one
thing
.
Of
course
,
it
was
in
the
adult
alcove
.
42
The
next
day
a
couple
of
men
from
Scotland
Yard
looked
it
over
and
said
it
was
too
morbid
to
be
shewn
.
Said
we
'd
have
to
remove
it
.
It
was
a
tremendous
shame
--
such
a
masterpiece
of
art
--
but
I
did
n't
feel
justified
in
appealing
to
the
courts
in
Mr.
Rogers
'
absence
.
He
would
not
like
so
much
publicity
with
the
police
now
--
but
when
he
gets
back
--
when
he
gets
back
--
"
For
some
reason
or
other
Jones
felt
a
mounting
tide
of
uneasiness
and
repulsion
.
But
Orabona
was
continuing
.
"
You
are
a
connoisseur
,
Mr.
Jones
.
I
am
sure
I
violate
no
law
in
offering
you
a
private
view
.
It
may
be
--
subject
,
of
course
,
to
Mr.
Rogers
'
wishes
--
that
we
shall
destroy
the
specimen
some
day
--
but
that
would
be
a
crime
.
"
Jones
had
a
powerful
impulse
to
refuse
the
sight
and
flee
precipitately
,
but
Orabona
was
leading
him
forward
by
the
arm
with
an
artist
's
enthusiasm
.
The
adult
alcove
,
crowded
with
nameless
horrors
,
held
no
visitors
.
In
the
farther
corner
a
large
niche
had
been
curtained
off
,
and
to
this
the
smiling
assistant
advanced
.
"
You
must
know
,
Mr.
Jones
,
that
the
title
of
this
specimen
is
'
The
Sacrifice
to
Rhan-Tegoth
'
.
"
Jones
started
violently
,
but
Orabona
appeared
not
to
notice
.
"
The
shapeless
,
colossal
god
is
a
feature
in
certain
obscure
legends
which
Mr.
Rogers
has
studied
.
All
nonsense
,
of
course
,
as
you
've
so
often
assured
Mr.
Rogers
.
It
is
supposed
to
have
come
from
outer
space
,
and
to
have
lived
in
the
Arctic
three
million
years
ago
.
It
treated
its
sacrifices
rather
peculiarly
and
horribly
,
as
you
shall
see
.
Mr.
43
Rogers
had
made
it
fiendishly
life-like
--
even
to
the
face
of
the
victim
.
"
Now
trembling
violently
,
Jones
clung
to
the
brass
railing
in
front
of
the
curtained
niche
.
He
almost
reached
out
to
stop
Orabona
when
he
saw
the
curtain
beginning
to
swing
aside
,
but
some
conflicting
impulse
held
him
back
.
The
foreigner
smiled
triumphantly
.
"
Behold
!
"
Jones
reeled
in
spite
of
his
grip
on
the
railing
.
"
God
!
--
great
God
!
"
Fully
ten
feet
high
despite
a
shambling
,
crouching
attitude
expressive
of
infinite
cosmic
malignancy
,
a
monstrosity
of
unbelievable
horror
was
shewn
starting
forward
from
a
Cyclopean
ivory
throne
covered
with
grotesque
carvings
.
In
the
central
pair
of
its
six
legs
it
bore
a
crushed
,
flattened
,
distorted
,
bloodless
thing
,
riddled
with
a
million
punctures
,
and
in
places
seared
as
with
some
pungent
acid
.
Only
the
mangled
head
of
the
victim
,
lolling
upside
down
at
one
side
,
revealed
that
it
represented
something
once
human.The
monster
itself
needed
no
title
for
one
who
had
seen
a
certain
hellish
photograph
.
That
damnable
print
had
been
all
too
faithful
;
yet
it
could
not
carry
the
full
horror
which
lay
in
the
gigantic
actuality
.
The
globular
torso
--
the
bubble-like
suggestion
of
a
head
--
the
three
fishy
eyes
--
the
foot-long
proboscis
--
the
bulging
gills
--
the
monstrous
capillation
of
asp-like
suckers
--
the
six
sinuous
limbs
with
their
black
paws
and
crab-like
claws
--
God
!
the
familiarity
of
that
black
paw
ending
in
a
crab-like
claw
!
...
Orabona
's
smile
was
utterly
damnable
Отключить рекламу
44
Jones
choked
,
and
stared
at
the
hideous
exhibit
with
a
mounting
fascination
which
perplexed
and
disturbed
him
.
What
half-revealed
horror
was
holding
and
forcing
him
to
look
longer
and
search
out
details
?
This
had
driven
Rogers
mad
...
Rogers
,
supreme
artist
...
said
they
were
n't
artificial
...
.
Then
he
localised
the
thing
that
held
him
.
It
was
the
crushed
waxen
victim
's
lolling
head
,
and
something
that
it
implied
.
This
head
was
not
entirely
devoid
of
a
face
,
and
that
face
was
familiar
.
It
was
like
the
mad
face
of
poor
Rogers
.
Jones
peered
closer
,
hardly
knowing
why
he
was
driven
to
do
so
.
Was
n't
it
natural
for
a
mad
egotist
to
mould
his
own
features
into
his
masterpiece
?
Was
there
anything
more
that
subconscious
vision
had
seized
on
and
suppressed
in
sheer
terror?The
wax
of
the
mangled
face
had
been
handled
with
boundless
dexterity
.
Those
punctures
--
how
perfectly
they
reproduced
the
myriad
wounds
somehow
inflicted
on
that
poor
dog
!
But
there
was
something
more
.
On
the
left
cheek
one
could
trace
an
irregularity
which
seemed
outside
the
general
scheme
--
as
if
the
sculptor
had
sought
to
cover
up
a
defect
of
his
first
modelling
.
The
more
Jones
looked
at
it
,
the
more
mysteriously
it
horrified
him
--
and
then
,
suddenly
,
he
remembered
a
circumstance
which
brought
his
horror
to
a
head
.
That
night
of
hideousness
--
the
tussle
--
the
bound
madman
--
and
the
long
,
deep
scratch
down
the
left
cheek
of
the
actual
living
Rogers
...
.
Jones
,
releasing
his
desperate
clutch
on
the
railing
,
sank
in
a
total
faint.Orabona
continued
to
smile
.