,the ,case of ,charles ,dexter ,ward ,by ,h4 ,p4 ,,lovecraft ,transcriber's ,note3 ,this etext was produced from ,weird ,tales ,may1 ,july #aida ,extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the ,u4,s4 copyright on this publication was renewed4 ,here is ,,the ,,case ,,of ,,charles ,,dexter ,,ward--the last1 and many think the best1 the most exciting--of all ,h4 ,p4 ,lovecraft's superb weird fantasies4 ,discovered after years of difficult search--and pieced together with as much careful patience as ,charles ,ward puts into his terrifying researches in the story--,august ,derleth and ,donald ,wandrei at long last had all the scattered pages of ,lovecraft's novel complete4 ,the manuscript1 gathered over the course of many years from attics1 forgotten strong boxes and old bureaus1 is published now--in ,,weird ,,tales4 ,in it you are going to read again of ,cthulhu and the fearful ,necronomicon2 in these pages you will also find a perfect wealth of new thrills4 ,in ,charles ,ward you will read 444 but why go on1 when you're just raring to get ahead with the story8 ,so just turn the page--and on with the show6 99 99 99 99 99 ,the essential ,saltes of ,animals may be so prepared and preserved1 that an ingenious ,man may have the whole ,ark of ,noah in his owne ,studie and raise the fine shape of an ,animal out of its ,ashes at his ,pleasure2 and by the lyke method from the essential ,saltes of humane ,dust1 a ,philosopher may1 without any criminal ,necromancy1 call up the ,shape of any dead ,ancestour from the ,dust whereinto his ,bodie has been incinerated4 ,,borellus4 #a4 ,a ,result and a ,prologue ,from a private hospital for the insane near ,providence1 ,rhode ,island1 there recently disappeared an exceedingly singular person4 ,he bore the name of ,charles ,dexter ,ward1 and was placed under restraint most reluctantly by his grieving father4 ,the patient seemed oddly older than his twenty-six years would warrant2 his face had taken on a subtle cast which only the very aged usually acquire4 ,while his organic processes showed a certain queerness of proportion which nothing in medical experience can parallel4 ,respiration and heart action had a baffling lack of symmetry1 the voice was lost1 so that no sounds above a whisper were possible1 digestion was incredibly prolonged and minimized4 ,the skin had a morbid chill and dryness1 and the cellular structure of the tissue seemed exaggeratedly coarse and loosely-knit4 ,even a large olive birthmark on his right hip had disappeared1 whilst there had formed on his chest a very peculiar mole or blackish spot of which no trace existed before4 ,psychologically1 too1 ,charles ,ward was unique4 ,his madness held no affinity to any sort recorded in even the latest and most exhaustive of treatises1 and was conjoined to a mental force which would have made him a genius or a leader had it not been twisted into strange and grotesque forms4 ,only ,dr4 ,willett1 who brought ,charles ,ward into the world and watched his growth of body and mind ever since1 seemed frightened at the thought of his future freedom4 ,he had had a terrible experience and had made a terrible discovery which he dared not reveal to his skeptical colleagues4 ,willett1 indeed1 presents a minor mystery all his own in his connection with the case4 ,he was the last to see the patient before his flight1 and emerged from that final conversation in a state of mixed horror and relief which several recalled when ,ward's escape became known three hours later4 ,that escape itself is one of the unsolved wonders of ,dr4 ,waite's hospital4 ,a window open above a sheer drop of sixty feet could hardly explain it1 yet after that talk with ,willett the youth was undeniably gone4 ,he had found ,ward in his room1 but shortly after his departure the attendants knocked in vain4 ,when they opened the door the patient was not there1 and all they found was the open window with a chill ,april breeze blowing in a cloud of fine bluish-gray dust that almost choked them4 ,true1 the dogs had howled some time before2 but that was while ,willett was still present1 and they had caught nothing and shown no disturbance later on4 ,ward's father was told at once over the telephone1 but he seemed more saddened than surprised4 ,by the time ,dr4 ,waite called in person1 ,dr4 ,willett had been talking with him1 and both disavowed any knowledge or complicity in the escape4 ,only from certain closely confidential friends of ,willett and the senior ,ward have any clues been gained1 and even these are too wildly fantastic for general credence4 ,the one fact which remains is that up to the present time no trace of the missing madman has been unearthed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,charles ,ward was an antiquarian from infancy1 no doubt gaining his taste from the venerable town around him1 and from the relics of the past which filled every corner of his parent's old mansion in ,prospect ,street on the crest of the hill4 ,with the years his devotion to ancient things increased2 so that history1 genealogy1 and the study of ,colonial architecture1 furniture1 and craftsmanship at length crowded everything else from his sphere of interests4 ,these tastes are important to remember in considering his madness4 ,one would have fancied the patient literally transferred to a former age through some obscure sort of auto-hypnosis4 ,the odd thing was that ,ward seemed no longer interested in the antiquities he knew so well4 ,he had1 it appears1 lost his regard for them through sheer familiarity2 and all his final efforts were obviously bent toward mastering those common facts of the modern world which had been so totally and unmistakably expunged from his brain4 ,his whole program of reading and conversation was determined by a frantic wish to imbibe such knowledge of his own life and of the ordinary practical and cultural background of the twentieth century as ought to have been his by virtue of his birth in #aijb and his education in the schools of our own time4 ,alienists are of the dominant opinion that the escaped patient is lying low in some humble and unexacting position till his stock of modern information can be brought up to the normal4 ,the beginning of ,ward's madness is a matter of dispute among alienists4 ,dr4 ,lyman1 the eminent ,boston authority1 places it in #aiai or #aibj1 during the boy's last year at the ,moses ,brown ,school1 when he suddenly turned from the study of the past to the study of the occult1 and refused to qualify for college on the ground that he had individual researches of much greater importance to make4 ,it is1 broadly speaking1 undeniable that the winter of #aiai-bj saw a great change in ,ward2 whereby he abruptly dropped his general antiquarian pursuits and embarked on a desperate delving into occult subjects both at home and abroad1 varied only by this strangely persistent search for his fore-father's grave4 ,from this opinion1 however1 ,dr4 ,willett substantially dissents1 basing his verdict on his close and continuous knowledge of the patient1 and on certain frightful investigations and discoveries which he made toward the last4 ,those investigations and discoveries have left their mark upon him2 so that his voice trembles when he tells them1 and his hand trembles when he tries to write of them4 ,the true madness1 he is certain1 came with a later change2 after the ,curwen portrait and the ancient papers had been unearthed2 after a trip to strange foreign places had been made1 and some terrible invocations chanted under strange and secret circumstances2 after certain answers to these invocations had been plainly indicated1 and a frantic letter penned under agonizing and inexplicable conditions2 after the wave of vampirism and the ominous ,pawtuxet gossip2 and after the patient's memory commenced to exclude contemporary images whilst his voice failed and his physical aspect underwent the subtle modification so many subsequently noticed4 ,it was only about this time1 ,willett points out with much acuteness1 that the nightmare qualities became indubitably linked with ,ward1 and the doctor feels shudderingly sure that enough solid evidence exists to sustain the youth's claim regarding his crucial discovery4 ,there were the mysteries and coincidences of the ,orne and ,hutchinson letters1 and the problem of the ,curwen penmanship and of what the detectives brought to light about ,dr4 ,allen2 these things1 and the terrible message in mediaeval minuscules found in ,willett's pocket when he gained consciousness after his shocking experience4 ,and most conclusive of all1 there are the two hideous results which the doctor obtained from a certain pair of formulae during his final investigations2 results which virtually proved the authenticity of the papers and of their monstrous implications at the same time that those papers were borne for ever from human knowledge4 99 99 99 99 99 ,one must look back at ,charles ,ward's earlier life as at something belonging as much to the past as the antiquities he loved so keenly4 ,his home was a great ,georgian mansion atop the well-nigh precipitous hill that rises just east of the river1 and from the rear windows of its rambling wings he could look dizzily out over all the clustered spires1 domes1 roofs and skyscraper summits of the lower town to the purple hills of the countryside beyond4 ,here he was born1 and from the lovely classic porch of the double-bayed brick faade his nurse had first wheeled him in his carriage2 past the little white farmhouse of two hundred years before that the town had long ago overtaken1 and on toward the stately colleges along the shady1 sumptuous street1 whose old square brick mansions and smaller wooden houses with narrow1 heavy-columned ,doric porches dreamed solid and exclusive amidst their generous yards and gardens4 ,he had been wheeled1 too1 along sleepy ,congdon ,street1 one tier lower down on the steep hill1 and with all its eastern houses on high terraces4 ,the small wooden houses averaged a greater age here1 for it was up this hill that the growing town had climbed4 ,one of the child's first memories is of the great westward sea of hazy roofs and domes and steeples and far hills which he saw one winter afternoon from that great railed embankment1 all violet and mystic against a fevered1 apocalyptic sunset of reds and golds and purples and curious greens4 ,the vast marble dome of the ,state ,house stood out in massive silhouette1 its crowning statue haloed fantastically by a break in one of the tinted stratus clouds that barred the flaming sky4 ,when he was larger his famous walks began2 first with his impatiently dragged nurse and then alone in dreamy meditation4 ,one may picture him yet as he was in those days2 tall1 slim1 and blond1 with studious eyes and a slight stoop1 dressed somewhat carelessly1 and giving a dominant impression of harmless awkwardness rather than attractiveness4 ,he would seek for vivid contrasts2 spending half a walk in the crumbling colonial regions northwest of his home1 where the hill drops to the lower eminence of ,stampers ,hill with its ghetto and ,negro quarter clustering round the place where the ,boston stagecoach used to start before the ,revolution1 and the other half in the gracious southerly realm about ,george1 ,benevolent1 ,power1 and ,williams ,streets1 where the old slope holds unchanged the fine estates and bits of walled garden and steep green lane in which so many fragrant memories linger4 ,dr4 ,willett is certain that1 up to this ill-omened winter of first change1 ,charles ,ward's antiquarianism was free from every trace of the morbid4 ,graveyards held for him no particular attraction beyond their quaintness and historic value1 and of anything like violence or savage instinct he was utterly devoid4 ,then1 by insidious degrees1 there appeared to develop a curious sequel to one of his genealogical triumphs of the year before2 when he had discovered among his maternal ancestors a certain very long-lived man named ,joseph ,curwen1 who had come from ,salem in ,march of #afib1 and about whom a whispered series of highly peculiar and disquieting stories clustered4 99 99 99 99 99 ,ward's great-great-grandfather ,welcome ,potter had in #aghe married a certain ,ann ,tillinghast1 daughter to ,mrs4 ,eliza1 daughter to ,capt4 ,james ,tillinghast1 of whose paternity the family had preserved no trace4 ,late in #aiah1 whilst examining a volume of original town records in manuscript1 the young genealogist encountered an entry describing a legal change of name1 by which in #aggb a ,mrs4 ,eliza ,curwen1 widow of ,joseph ,curwen1 resumed1 along with her seven-year-old daughter ,ann1 her maiden name of ,tillinghast2 on the ground that her ,husband's name was become a public ,reproach by ,reason of what was knowne after his ,decease2 the which confirming antient common ,rumour1 tho' not to be credited by a loyall ,wife till so proven as to be wholely past ,doubting4 ,this entry came to light upon the accidental separation of two leaves which had been carefully pasted together and treated as one by a labored revision of the page numbers4 ,it was at once clear to ,charles ,ward that he had indeed discovered a hitherto unknown great-great-great-grandfather4 ,having discovered his own relationship to this apparently hushed-up character1 he at once proceeded to hunt out as systematically as possible whatever he might find concerning him4 ,in this excited quest he eventually succeeded beyond his highest expectations1 for old letters1 diaries and sheaves of unpublished memoirs in cobwebbed ,providence garrets and elsewhere yielded many illuminating passages which their writers had not thought it worth their while to destroy4 ,one important sidelight came from a point as remote as ,new ,york1 where some ,rhode ,island colonial correspondence was stored in the ,museum at ,fraunces' ,tavern4 ,the really crucial thing1 though1 and what in ,dr4 ,willett's opinion formed the definite source of ,ward's undoing1 was the matter found in ,august1 #aiai1 behind the panelling of the crumbling house in ,olney ,court4 ,it was that1 beyond a doubt1 which opened up those black vistas whose end was deeper than the pit4 #b4 ,an ,antecedent and a ,horror ,joseph ,curwen1 as revealed by the rambling legends embodied in what ,ward heard and unearthed1 was a very astonishing1 enigmatic1 obscurely horrible individual4 ,he had fled from ,salem to ,providence--that universal haven of the odd1 the free1 and the dissenting--at the beginning of the great witchcraft panic2 being in fear of accusation because of his solitary ways and queer chemical or alchemical experiments4 ,he was a colorless-looking man of about thirty1 and was soon found qualified to become a freeman of ,providence2 thereafter buying a home lot just north of ,gregory ,dexter's at about the foot of ,olney ,street4 ,his house was built on ,stampers ,hill west of the ,town ,street1 in what later became ,olney ,court2 and in #agfa he replaced this with a larger one1 on the same site1 which is still standing4 ,now the first odd thing about ,joseph ,curwen was that he did not seem to grow much older than he had been on his arrival4 ,he engaged in shipping enterprises1 purchased wharfage near ,mile-,end ,cove1 helped rebuild the ,great ,bridge in #agac1 and in #agbc was one of the founders of the ,congregational ,church on the hill2 but always did he retain the nondescript aspect of a man not greatly over thirty or thirty-five4 ,as the decades mounted up1 this singular quality began to excite wide notice2 but ,curwen always explained it by saying that he came of hardy forefathers1 and practiced a simplicity of living which did not wear him out4 ,how such simplicity could be reconciled with the inexplicable comings and goings of the secretive merchant1 and with the queer gleamings of his windows at all hours of night1 was not very clear to the townsfolk2 and they were prone to assign other reasons for his continued youth and longevity4 ,it was held1 for the most part1 that ,curwen's incessant mixings and boilings of chemicals had much to do with his condition4 ,at length1 when over fifty years had passed since the stranger's advent1 and without producing more than five years' apparent change in his face and physique1 the people began to whisper more darkly2 and to meet more than halfway that desire for isolation which he had always shown4 ,private letters and diaries of the period reveal1 too1 a multitude of other reasons why ,joseph ,curwen was marvelled at1 feared1 and finally shunned like a plague4 ,his passion for graveyards1 in which he was glimpsed at all hours and under all conditions1 was notorious2 though no one had witnessed any deed on his part which could actually be termed ghoulish4 ,on the ,pawtuxet ,road he had a farm1 at which he generally lived during the summer1 and to which he would frequently be seen riding at various odd times of the day or night4 ,here his only visible servants1 farmers1 and caretakers were a sullen pair of aged ,narragansett ,indians2 the husband dumb and curiously scarred1 and the wife of a very repulsive cast of countenance1 probably due to a mixture of ,negro blood4 ,in the lean-to of this house was the laboratory where most of the chemical experiments were conducted4 ,curious porters and teamers who delivered bottles1 bags or boxes at the small rear door would exchange accounts of the fantastic flasks1 crucibles1 alembics1 and furnaces they saw in the low-shelved room2 and prophesied in whispers that the close-mouthed chymist--by which they meant alchemist--would not be long in finding the ,philosopher's ,stone4 ,the nearest neighbors to this farm--the ,fenners1 a quarter of a mile away--had still queerer things to tell of certain sounds which they insisted came from the ,curwen place in the night4 ,there were cries1 they said1 and sustained howlings2 and they did not like the large number of livestock which thronged the pastures4 ,then1 too1 there was something very obnoxious about a certain great stone outbuilding with only high narrow slits for windows4 ,great ,bridge idlers likewise had much to say of ,curwen's town house in ,olney ,court2 not so much the fine new one built in #agfa1 when the man must have been nearly a century old1 but the first low gambrel-roofed one with the windowless attic and shingled sides1 whose timbers he took the peculiar precaution of burning after its demolition4 ,here there was less mystery1 it is true2 but the hours at which lights were seen1 the secretiveness of the two swarthy foreigners who comprised the only manservants1 the hideous indistinct mumbling of the incredibly aged ,french housekeeper1 the large amounts of food seen to enter a door within which only four persons lived1 and the quality of certain voices often heard in muffled conversation at highly unseasonable times1 all combined with what was known of the ,pawtuxet farm to give the place a bad name4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in choicer circles1 too1 the ,curwen home was by no means undiscussed2 for as the newcomer had gradually worked into the church and trading life of the town1 he had naturally made acquaintances of the better sort1 whose company and conversation he was well fitted by education to enjoy4 ,his birth was known to be good1 since the ,curwens or ,carwens of ,salem needed no introduction in ,new ,england4 ,it developed that ,joseph ,curwen had traveled much in very early life1 living for a time in ,england and making at least two voyages to the ,orient2 and his speech1 when he deigned to use it1 was that of a learned and cultivated ,englishman4 ,there seemed to lurk in his bearing some cryptic1 sardonic arrogance1 as if he had come to find all human beings dull through having moved among stranger and more potent entities4 ,in #agdf ,mr4 ,john ,merritt1 an elderly ,english gentleman of literary and scientific leanings1 came from ,newport to the town which was so rapidly overtaking it in standing1 and built a fine country seat on the ,neck in what is now the heart of the best residence section where he lived in considerable style and comfort4 ,hearing of ,curwen as the owner of the best library in ,providence1 ,mr4 ,merritt early paid him a call1 and was more cordially received than most other callers at the house had been4 ,curwen suggested a visit to the farmhouse and laboratory whither he had never invited anyone before2 and the two drove out at once in ,mr4 ,merritt's coach4 ,mr4 ,merritt maintained that the titles of the books in the special library of thaumaturgical1 alchemical1 and theological subjects which ,curwen kept in a front room were alone sufficient to inspire him with a lasting loathing4 ,this bizarre collection1 besides a host of standard works which ,mr4 ,merritt was not too alarmed to envy1 embraced nearly all the cabalists1 demonologists1 and magicians known to man2 and was a treasure-house of lore in the doubtful realms of alchemy and astrology4 ,hermes ,trismegistus in ,mesnard's edition1 the ,turba ,philosophorum1 ,geber's ,liber ,investigationis1 and ,artephous' ,key of ,wisdom all were there2 with the cabalistic ,zohar1 ,peter ,jammy's set of ,albertus ,magnus1 ,raymond ,lully's ,ars ,magna et ,ultima in ,zetzner's edition1 ,roger ,bacon's ,thesaurus ,chemicus1 ,fludd's ,clavis ,alchimiae1 and ,trithemius' ,de ,lapide ,philosophico crowding them close4 ,mediaeval ,jews and ,arabs were represented in profusion1 and ,mr4 ,merritt turned pale when1 upon taking down a fine volume conspicuously labeled as the ,qunoon-e-,islam1 he found it was in truth the forbidden ,necronomicon of the mad ,arab ,abdul ,al-hazred1 of which he had heard such monstrous things whispered some years previously after the exposure of nameless rites at the strange little fishing village of ,kingsport1 in the ,province of the ,massachusetts-,bay4 ,but the worthy gentleman owned himself most impalpably disquieted by a mere minor detail4 ,on the huge mahogany table there lay face downward a badly worn copy of ,borellus1 bearing many cryptical marginalia and interlineations in ,curwen's hand4 ,the book was open at about its middle1 and one paragraph displayed such thick and tremulous pen-strokes beneath the lines of mystic black-letters that the visitor could not resist scanning it through4 ,he recalled it to the end of his days1 writing it down from memory in his diary and once trying to recite it to his close friend ,dr4 ,checkley1 till he saw how greatly it disturbed that urbane rector4 ,it read3 ,the essential ,saltes of ,animals may be so prepared and preserved1 that an ingenious ,man may have the whole ,ark of ,noah in his owne ,studie1 and raise the fine ,shape of an ,animal out of its ,ashes at his ,pleasure2 and by the lyke ,method from the essential ,saltes of humane ,dust1 a ,philosopher may1 without any criminal ,necromancy1 call up the ,shape of any dead ,ancestour from the ,dust whereinto his ,bodie has been incinerated4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it was near the docks along the southerly part of the ,town ,street1 however1 that the worst things were muttered about ,joseph ,curwen4 ,sailors are superstitious folk2 and all made strange furtive signs of protection when they saw the slim1 deceptively young-looking figure with its yellow hair and slight stoop entering the ,curwen warehouse in ,doubloon ,street or talking with captains and supercargos on the long quay where the ,curwen ships rode restlessly4 ,curwen's own clerks and captains hated and feared him1 and all his sailors were mongrel riff-raff from ,martinique1 ,st4 ,eustatius1 ,havana1 or ,port ,royal4 ,it was1 in a way1 the frequency with which these sailors were replaced1 which inspired the acutest and most tangible part of the fear in which the old man was held1 and in time it became exceedingly difficult for ,curwen to keep his oddly assorted hands4 ,by #agfj ,joseph ,curwen was virtually an outcast1 suspected of vague horrors and daemoniac alliances which seemed all the more menacing because they could not be named1 understood1 or even proved to exist4 ,meanwhile the merchant's worldly affairs were prospering4 ,he had a virtual monopoly of the town's trade in saltpetre1 black pepper1 and cinnamon1 and easily led any other one shipping establishment save the ,browns in his importation of brassware1 indigo1 cotton1 woollens1 salt1 rigging1 iron1 paper and ,english goods of every kind4 ,curwen was1 in fact1 one of the prime exporters of the ,colony4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the sight of this strange1 pallid man1 hardly middle-aged in aspect yet certainly not less than a full century old1 seeking at last to emerge from a cloud of fright and detestation too vague to pin down or analyze1 was at once a pathetic1 a dramatic1 and a contemptible thing4 ,such is the power of wealth and of surface gestures1 however1 that there came indeed a slight abatement in the visible aversion displayed toward him2 especially after the rapid disappearances of his sailors abruptly ceased4 ,he must likewise have begun to practice an extreme care and secrecy in his graveyard expeditions1 for he was never again caught at such wanderings2 whilst the rumors of uncanny sounds and maneuvers at his ,pawtuxet farm diminished in proportion4 ,but the effect of all this belated mending was necessarily slight4 ,curwen continued to be avoided and distrusted1 as indeed the one fact of his continued air of youth at a great age would have been enough to warrant2 and he could see that in the end his fortunes would be likely to suffer4 ,so about this time the crafty scholar hit upon a last desperate expedient to regain his footing in the community4 ,hitherto a complete hermit1 he now determined to contract an advantageous marriage2 securing as a bride some lady whose unquestioned position would make all ostracism of his home impossible4 ,it may be that he also had deeper reasons for wishing an alliance2 reasons so far outside the known cosmic sphere that only papers found a century and a half after his death caused anyone to suspect them2 but of this nothing certain can ever be learned4 ,naturally he was aware of the horror and indignation with which any ordinary courtship of his would be received1 hence looked about for some likely candidate upon whose parents he might exert a suitable pressure4 ,such candidates1 he found1 were not at all easy to discover2 since he had very particular requirements in the way of beauty1 accomplishments1 and social security4 ,at length his survey narrowed down to the household of one of his best and oldest ship-captains1 a widower of high birth and unblemished standing named ,dutie ,tillinghast1 whose only daughter ,eliza seemed dowered with every conceivable advantage save prospects as an heiress4 ,captain ,tillinghast was completely under the domination of ,curwen2 and consented1 after a terrible interview in his cupolaed house on ,power's ,lane hill1 to sanction the blasphemous alliance4 99 99 99 99 99 ,eliza ,tillinghast was at that time eighteen years of age1 and had been reared as gently as the reduced circumstances of her father permitted4 ,her arguments with her father concerning the proposed ,curwen marriage must have been painful indeed2 but of these we have no record4 ,certain it is that her engagement to young ,ezra ,weeden1 second mate of the ,crawford packet ,enterprise1 was dutifully broken off1 and that her union with ,joseph ,curwen took place on the seventh of ,march1 #agfc1 in the ,baptist church1 in the presence of one of the most distinguished assemblages which the town could boast2 the ceremony being performed by the youngest ,samuel ,winson4 ,the ,gazette mentioned the event very briefly1 and in most surviving copies the item in question seems to be cut or torn out4 ,ward found a single intact copy after much search in the archives of a private collector of note1 observing with amusement the meaningless urbanity of the language3 ,monday evening last1 ,mr4 ,joseph ,curwen1 of this ,town1 ,merchant1 was married to ,miss ,eliza ,tillinghast1 ,daughter of ,captain ,dutie ,tillinghast1 a young ,lady who has real ,merit1 added to a beautiful ,person1 to grace the connubial ,state and perpetuate its ,felicity4 ,the social influence of the ,tillinghasts1 however1 was not to be denied2 and once more ,joseph ,curwen found his house frequented by persons whom he could never otherwise have induced to cross his threshold4 ,his acceptance was by no means complete1 and his bride was socially the sufferer through her forced venture2 but at all events the wall of utter ostracism was somewhat worn down4 ,in his treatment of his wife the strange bridegroom astonished both her and the community by displaying an extreme graciousness and consideration4 ,the new house in ,olney ,court was now wholly free from disturbing manifestations1 and although ,curwen was much absent at the ,pawtuxet farm which his wife never visited1 he seemed more like a normal citizen than at any other time in his long years of residence4 ,only one person remained in open enmity with him1 this being the youthful ship's officer whose engagement to ,eliza ,tillinghast had been so abruptly broken4 ,ezra ,weeden had frankly vowed vengeance2 and though of a quiet and originally mild disposition1 was now gaining a hate-bred1 dogged purpose which boded no good to the usurping husband4 ,on the seventh of ,may1 #agfe1 ,curwen's only child ,ann was born2 and was christened by the ,reverend ,john ,graves of ,king's ,church1 of which both husband and wife had become communicants shortly after their marriage1 in order to compromise between their respective ,congregational and ,baptist affiliations4 ,the record of this birth1 as well as that of the marriage two years before1 was stricken from most copies of the church and town annals where it ought to appear2 and ,charles ,ward located both with the greatest difficulty after his discovery of the widow's change of name had apprised him of his own relationship1 and engendered the feverish interest which culminated in his madness4 ,the birth entry1 indeed1 was found very curiously through correspondence with the heirs of the loyalist ,dr4 ,graves1 who had taken with him a duplicate set of records when he left his pastorate at the outbreak of the ,revolution4 ,ward had tried this source because he knew that his great-great-grandmother1 ,ann ,tillinghast ,potter1 had been an ,episcopalian4 ,shortly after the birth of his daughter1 an event he seemed to welcome with a fervor greatly out of keeping with his usual coldness1 ,curwen resolved to sit for a portrait4 ,this he had painted by a very gifted ,scotsman named ,cosmo ,alexander1 then a resident of ,newport1 and since famous as the early teacher of ,gilbert ,stuart4 ,the likeness was said to have been executed on a wall-panel of the library of the house in ,olney ,court1 but neither of the two old diaries mentioning it gave any hint of its ultimate disposition4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in #agff came the final change in ,joseph ,curwen4 ,it was very sudden1 and gained wide notice amongst the curious townsfolk2 for the air of suspense and expectancy dropped like an old cloak1 giving instant place to an ill-concealed exaltation of perfect triumph4 ,it was after this transition1 which appears to have come early in ,july1 that the sinister scholar began to astonish people by his possession of information which only their long-dead ancestors would seem to be able to impart4 ,but ,curwen's feverish secret activities by no means ceased with this change4 ,on the contrary1 they tended rather to increase2 so that more and more of his shipping business was handled by the captains whom he now bound to him by ties of fear as potent as those of bankruptcy had been4 ,he altogether abandoned the slave trade1 alleging that its profits were constantly decreasing4 ,every possible moment was spent at the ,pawtuxet farm2 though there were rumors now and then of his presence in places which1 though not actually near graveyards1 were yet so situated in relation to graveyards that thoughtful people wondered just how thorough the old merchant's change of habits really was4 ,ezra ,weeden1 though his periods of espionage were necessarily brief and intermittent on account of his sea voyaging1 had a vindictive persistence which the bulk of the practical townsfolk and farmers lacked2 and subjected ,curwen's affairs to a scrutiny such as they had never had before4 ,smuggling and evasion were the rule in ,narragansett ,bay1 and nocturnal landings of illicit cargoes were continuous commonplaces4 ,but ,weeden1 night after night1 following the lighters or small sloops which he saw steal off from the ,curwen warehouses at the ,town ,street docks1 soon felt assured that it was not merely ,his ,majesty's armed ships which the sinister skulker was anxious to avoid4 ,the lighters were wont to put out from the black silent docks1 and they would go down the bay some distance1 perhaps as far as ,namquit ,point1 where they would meet and receive cargo from strange ships of considerable size and widely varied appearance4 ,curwen's sailors would then deposit this cargo at the usual point on the shore1 and transport it overland to the farm2 locking it in the same cryptical stone building which had formerly received the ,negroes4 ,the cargo consisted almost wholly of boxes and cases1 of which a large proportion were oblong and heavy1 and disturbingly suggestive of coffins4 ,weeden always watched the farm with unremitting assiduity1 visiting it each night for long periods1 and seldom letting a week go by without a sight except when the ground bore a footprint-revealing snow4 ,finding his own vigils interrupted by nautical duties1 he hired a tavern companion named ,eleazar ,smith to continue the survey during his absences2 and between them the two could have set in motion some extraordinary rumors4 ,that they did not do so was only because they knew the effect of publicity would be to warn their quarry and make further progress impossible4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is gathered that ,weeden and ,smith became early convinced that a great series of tunnels and catacombs1 inhabited by a very sizable staff of persons besides the old ,indian and his wife1 underlay the farm4 ,the house was an old peaked relic of the middle seventeenth century with enormous stack chimney and diamond-paned lattice windows1 the laboratory being in a lean-to toward the north1 where the roof came nearly to the ground4 ,this building stood clear of any other2 yet judging by the different voices heard at odd times within1 it must have been accessible through secret passages beneath4 ,these voices ran the gamut betwixt dronings of dull acquiescence and explosions of frantic pain or fury1 rumblings of conversation and whines of entreaty1 pantings of eagerness and shouts of protest4 ,they appeared to be in different languages1 all known to ,curwen1 whose rasping accents were frequently distinguishable in reply1 reproof1 or threatening4 ,weeden had many verbatim reports of overheard scraps in his notebook1 for ,english1 ,french1 and ,spanish1 which he knew1 were frequently used2 but of these nothing has survived4 ,he did1 however1 say that besides a few ghoulish dialogues in which the past affairs of ,providence families were concerned1 most of the questions and answers he could understand were historical or scientific2 occasionally pertaining to very remote places and ages4 ,once1 for example1 an alternately raging and sullen figure was questioned in ,french about the ,black ,prince's massacre at ,limoges in #acgj1 as if there were some hidden reason which he ought to know4 ,curwen asked the prisoner--if prisoner it were--whether the order to slay was given because of the ,sign of the ,goat found on the altar in the ancient ,roman crypt beneath the cathedral1 or whether ,the ,dark ,man of the ,haute ,vienne ,coven had spoken the ,three ,words4 ,failing to obtain replies1 the inquisitor had seemingly resorted to extreme means2 for there was a terrific shriek followed by silence and muttering and a bumping sound4 ,none of these colloquies was ever ocularly witnessed1 since the windows were always heavily draped4 ,later1 no more conversations were ever heard in the house1 and ,weeden and ,smith concluded that ,curwen had transferred his field of action to regions below4 ,that such regions in truth existed1 seemed amply clear from many things4 ,faint cries and groans unmistakably came up now and then from what appeared to be the solid earth in places far from any structure2 whilst hidden in the bushes along the river-bank in the rear1 where the high ground sloped steeply down to the valley of the ,pawtuxet1 there was found an arched oaken door in a frame of heavy masonry1 which was obviously an entrance to caverns within the hill4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it was in ,january1 #aggj1 whilst ,weeden and ,smith were still debating vainly on what1 if anything1 to think or do about the whole bewildering business1 that the incident of the ,fortaleza occurred4 ,exasperated by the burning of the revenue sloop ,liberty at ,newport during the previous summer1 the customs fleet under ,admiral ,wallace had adopted an increased vigilance concerning strange vessels2 and on this occasion ,his ,majesty's armed schooner ,cygnet1 under ,captain ,charles ,leshe1 captured after a short pursuit one early morning the scow ,fortaleza of ,barcelona1 ,spain1 under ,captain ,manuel ,arruda1 bound according to its log from ,grand ,cairo1 ,egypt1 to ,providence4 ,when searched for contraband material1 this ship revealed the astonishing fact that its cargo consisted exclusively of ,egyptian mummies1 consigned to ,sailor ,a4 ,b4 ,c41 who would come to remove his goods in a lighter just off ,namquit ,point1 and whose identity ,captain ,arruda felt himself in honor bound not to reveal4 ,the ,vice-,admiralty ,court at ,newport1 at a loss what to do in view of the non-contraband nature of the cargo on the one hand and of the unlawful secrecy of the entry on the other hand1 compromised on ,collector ,robinson's recommendation by freeing the ship but forbidding it a port in ,rhode ,island waters4 ,there were later rumors of its having been seen in ,boston ,harbor1 though it never openly entered the ,port of ,boston4 ,this extraordinary incident did not fail of wide remark in ,providence and there were not many who doubted the existence of some connection between the cargo of mummies and the sinister ,joseph ,curwen2 it did not take much imagination to link him with a freakish importation which could not conceivably have been destined for anyone else in the town4 ,weeden and ,smith1 of course1 felt no doubt whatsoever of the significance of the thing2 and indulged in the wildest theories concerning ,curwen and his monstrous labors4 ,the following spring1 like that of the year before1 had heavy rains2 and the watchers kept careful track of the river-bank behind the ,curwen farm4 ,large sections were washed away1 and a certain number of bones discovered2 but no glimpse was afforded of any actual subterranean chambers or burrows4 ,something was rumored1 however1 at the village of ,pawtuxet about a mile below1 where the river flows in falls over a rocky terrace to join the placid landlocked cove4 ,the fisherfolk about the bridge did not like the wild way that one of the things stared as it shot down to the still water below1 or the way that another half cried out although its condition had greatly departed from that of objects which normally cry out4 ,that rumor sent ,smith--for ,weeden was just then at sea--in haste to the river-bank behind the farm2 where surely enough there remained the evidences of an extensive cave-in4 ,smith went to the extent of some experimental digging1 but was deterred by lack of success--or perhaps by fear of possible success4 ,it is interesting to speculate on what the persistent and revengeful ,weeden would have done had he been ashore at the time4 99 99 99 99 99 ,by the autumn of #aggj ,weeden decided that the time was ripe to tell others of his discoveries2 for he had a large number of facts to link together1 and a second eye-witness to refute the possible charge that jealousy and vindictiveness had spurred his fancy4 ,as his first confidant he selected ,captain ,james ,mathewson of the ,enterprise1 who on the one hand knew him well enough not to doubt his veracity1 and on the other hand was sufficiently influential in the town to be heard in turn with respect4 ,the colloquy took place in an upper room of ,sabin's ,tavern near the docks1 with ,smith present to corroborate virtually every statement2 and it could be seen that ,captain ,mathewson was tremendously impressed4 ,like nearly everyone else in the town1 he had had black suspicions of his own anent ,joseph ,curwen2 hence it needed only this confirmation and enlargement of data to convince him absolutely4 ,at the end of the conference he was very grave1 and enjoined strict silence upon the two younger men4 ,the right persons to tell1 he believed1 would be ,dr4 ,benjamin ,west1 whose pamphlet on the late transit of ,venus proved him a scholar and keen thinker2 ,reverend ,james ,manning1 ,president of the ,college2 ex-,governor ,stephen ,hopkins1 who had been a member of the ,philosophical ,society at ,newport1 and was a man of very broad perceptions2 ,john ,carter1 publisher of the ,gazette2 all four of the ,brown brothers1 ,john1 ,joseph1 ,nicholas and ,moses1 who formed the recognized local magnates2 old ,dr4 ,jabez ,bowen1 whose erudition was considerable1 and who had much first-hand knowledge of ,curwen's odd purchases2 and ,captain ,abraham ,whipple1 a privateersman of phenomenal boldness and energy who could be counted on to lead in any active measures needed4 ,the mission of ,captain ,mathewson prospered beyond his highest expectations2 for whilst he found one or two of the chosen confidants somewhat skeptical of the possible ghostly side of ,weeden's tale1 there was not one who did not think it necessary to take some sort of secret and cordinated action4 ,curwen1 it was clear1 formed a vague potential menace to the welfare of the town and ,colony2 and must be eliminated at any cost4 ,late in ,december1 #aggj1 a group of eminent townsmen met at the home of ,stephen ,hopkins and debated tentative measures4 ,weeden's notes1 which he had given to ,captain ,mathewson1 were carefully read2 and he and ,smith were summoned to give testimony anent details4 ,something very like fear seized the whole assemblage before the meeting was over1 though there ran through that fear a grim determination which ,captain ,whipple's bluff and resonant profanity best expressed4 ,they would not notify the ,governor1 because a more than legal course seemed necessary4 ,with hidden powers of uncertain extent apparently at his disposal1 ,curwen was not a man who could safely be warned to leave town4 ,he must be surprised at his ,pawtuxet farm by a large raiding party of seasoned privateersmen and given one decisive chance to explain himself4 ,if he proved a madman1 amusing himself with shrieked and imaginary conversations in different voices1 he would be properly confined4 ,if something graver appeared1 and if the underground horrors indeed turned out to be real1 he and all with him must die4 ,it could be done quietly1 and even the widow and her father need not be told how it came about4 99 99 99 99 99 ,while these serious steps were under discussion there occurred in the town an incident so terrible and inexplicable that for a time little else was mentioned for miles around4 ,in the middle of a moonlit ,january night with heavy snow underfoot there resounded over the river and up the hill a shocking series of cries which brought sleepy heads to every window2 and people around ,weybosset ,point saw a great white thing plunging frantically along the badly cleared space in front of the ,turk's ,head4 ,there was a baying of dogs in the distance1 but this subsided as soon as the clamor of the awakened town became audible4 ,parties of men with lanterns and muskets hurried out to see what was happening1 but nothing rewarded their search4 ,the next morning1 however1 a giant1 muscular body1 stark naked1 was found on the jams of ice around the southern piers of the ,great ,bridge1 where the ,long ,dock stretched out beside ,abbott's distil-house1 and the identity of this object became a theme for endless speculation and whispering4 ,it was not so much the younger as the older folk who whispered1 for only in the patriarchs did that rigid face with horror-bulging eyes strike any chord of memory4 ,they1 shaking as they did so1 exchanged furtive murmurs of wonder and fear2 for in those stiff1 hideous features lay a resemblance so marvelous as to be almost an identity--and that identity was with a man who had died full fifty years before4 ,ezra ,weeden was present at the finding2 and remembering the baying of the night before1 set out along ,weybosset ,street and across ,muddy ,dock ,bridge whence the sound had come4 ,he had a curious expectancy1 and was not surprised when1 reaching the edge of the settled district where the street merged into the ,pawtuxet ,road1 he came upon some very curious tracks in the snow4 ,the naked giant had been pursued by dogs and many booted men1 and the returning tracks of the hounds and their masters could be easily traced4 ,they had given up the chase upon coming too near the town4 ,weeden smiled grimly1 and as a perfunctory detail traced the footprints back to their source4 ,it was the ,pawtuxet farm of ,joseph ,curwen1 as he well knew it would be2 and he would have given much had the yard been less confusingly trampled4 ,as it was1 he dared not seem too interested in full daylight4 ,dr4 ,bowen1 to whom ,weeden went at once with his report1 performed an autopsy on the strange corpse1 and discovered peculiarities which baffled him utterly4 ,the digestive tracts of the huge man seemed never to have been in use1 whilst the whole skin had a coarse1 loosely-knit texture impossible to account for4 ,impressed by what the old man whispered of this body's likeness to the long-dead blacksmith ,daniel ,green1 whose great-grandson ,aaron ,hoppin was a supercargo in ,curwen's employ1 ,weeden asked casual questions till he found where ,green was buried4 ,that night a party of ten visited the old ,north ,burying ,ground opposite ,herrenden's ,lane and opened a grave4 ,they found it vacant1 precisely as they had expected4 ,illustration3 ,they found the grave vacant--precisely as they had expected4 99 99 99 99 99 ,meanwhile arrangements had been made with the post riders to intercept ,joseph ,curwen's mail1 and shortly before the incident of the naked body there was found a letter from one ,jedediah ,orne of ,salem which made the coperating citizens think deeply4 ,parts of it1 copied and preserved in the private archives of the ,smith family where ,charles ,ward found it1 ran as follows3 ,i delight that you continue in ye getting at ,olde ,matters in your ,way1 and doe not think better was done at ,mr4 ,hutchinson's in ,salem-,village4 ,certainly1 there was ,noth'g butt ye liveliest ,awfulness in that which ,h4 rais'd upp from what he cou'd gather onlie a part of4 ,what you sente1 did not ,worke1 whether because ,any ,thing miss'g1 or because ye ,wordes were not ,righte from my ,speak'g or yr copy'g4 ,alone am at a ,loss4 ,i have not ye ,chymicall art to followe ,borellus1 and owne my ,selfe confounded by ye ,,vii4 ,booke of ye ,necronomicon that you recommende4 ,but ,i wou'd have you ,observe what was tolde to us aboute tak'g ,care whom to calle up1 for you are ,sensible what ,mr4 ,mather writ in ye ,magnalia of ----1 and can judge how truely that ,horrendous thing is reported4 ,i say to you againe1 doe not call upp ,any that you can not put downe2 by the ,which ,i meane1 ,any that can in ,turne call up somewhat against you1 whereby your ,powerfullest ,devices may not be of use4 ,ask of the ,lesser1 lest the ,greater shall not wish to ,answer1 and shall commande more than you4 ,i was frighted when ,i read of your know'g what ,ben ,zariatnatmik hadde in his ,ebony ,boxe1 for ,i was conscious who must have told you4 ,and againe ,i ask that you shalle write me as ,jedediah and not ,simon4 ,in this ,community a ,man may not live too long1 and you knowe my ,plan by which ,i came back as my ,son4 ,i am desirous you will ,acquaint me with what ye ,blacke ,man learnt from ,sylvanus ,cocidius in ye ,vault1 under ye ,roman wall1 and will be oblig'd for ye ,lend'g of ye ,,ms4 you speak of4 ,another and unsigned letter from ,philadelphia provoked equal thought1 especially for the following passage3 ,i will observe what you say respecting the sending of ,accounts only by yr ,vessels1 but can not always be certain when to expect them4 ,in the ,matter spoke of1 ,i require only one more thing2 but wish to be sure ,i apprehend you exactly4 ,you inform me1 that no ,part must be missing if the finest ,effects are to be had1 but you can not but know how hard it is to be sure4 ,it seems a great ,hazard and ,burthen to take away the whole ,box1 and in ,town 7i4 e4 ,st4 ,peter's1 ,st4 ,paul's1 ,st4 ,mary's1 or ,christ ,church7 it can scarce be done at all4 ,but ,i know what ,imperfections were in the one rais'd up ,october last1 and how many live ,specimens you were forced to imploy before you hit upon the right ,mode in the year #agff2 so will be guided by you in all ,matters4 ,i am impatient for yr ,brig1 and inquire daily at ,mr4 ,biddle's ,wharf4 ,a third suspicious letter was in an unknown tongue and even an unknown alphabet4 ,in the ,smith diary found by ,charles ,ward a single oft-repeated combination of characters is clumsily copied2 and authorities at ,brown ,university have pronounced the alphabet ,amharic or ,abyssinian1 although they do not recognize the word4 ,none of these epistles was ever delivered to ,curwen1 though the disappearance of ,jedediah ,orne from ,salem as recorded shortly afterward showed that the ,providence men took certain quiet steps4 ,curwen1 despite all precautions1 apparently felt that something was in the wind2 for he was now remarked to wear an unusually worried look4 ,his coach was seen at all hours in the town and on the ,pawtuxet ,road1 and he dropped little by little the air of forced geniality with which he had latterly sought to combat the town's prejudice4 ,the nearest neighbors to his farm1 the ,fenners1 one night remarked a great shaft of light shooting into the sky from some aperture in the roof of that cryptical stone building with the high excessively narrow windows2 an event which they quickly communicated to ,john ,brown in ,providence4 ,mr4 ,brown had become the executive leader of the select group bent on ,curwen's extirpation1 and had informed the ,fenners that some action was about to be taken4 ,to them ,mr4 ,brown had entrusted the duty of watching the ,curwen farmhouse1 and of regularly reporting every incident which took place there4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the probability that ,curwen was on guard and attempting unusual things1 as suggested by the odd shaft of light1 precipitated at last the action so carefully devised by the band of serious citizens4 ,according to the ,smith diary a company of about one hundred men met at ten ,p4,m4 on ,friday1 ,april twelfth1 #agga1 in the great room of ,thurston's ,tavern at the ,sign of the ,golden ,lion on ,weybosset ,point across the ,bridge4 ,of the guiding group of prominent men in addition to the leader1 ,john ,brown1 there were present ,dr4 ,bowen1 with his case of surgical instruments1 ,president ,manning without the great periwig 7the largest in the ,colonies7 for which he was noted1 ,governor ,hopkins1 wrapped in a dark cloak and accompanied by his seafaring brother ,eseh whom he had initiated at the last moment with the permission of the rest1 ,john ,carter1 ,captain ,mathewson1 and ,captain ,whipple1 who was to lead the actual raiding party4 ,these chiefs conferred apart in a rear chamber1 after which ,captain ,whipple emerged to the great room and gave the gathered seamen their last oaths and instructions4 ,eleazar ,smith was with the leaders as they sat in the rear apartment awaiting the arrival of ,ezra ,weeden1 whose duty was to keep track of ,curwen and report the departure of his coach for the farm4 ,about ten-thirty a heavy rumble was heard on the ,great ,bridge1 followed by the sound of a coach in the street outside2 and at that hour there was no need of waiting for ,weeden in order to know that the doomed man had set out for his last night of unhallowed wizardry4 ,a moment later1 as the receding coach clattered faintly over the ,muddy ,dock ,bridge1 ,weeden appeared2 and the raiders fell silently into military order in the street1 shouldering the firelocks1 fowling-pieces1 or whaling harpoons which they had with them4 ,weeden and ,smith were with the party1 and of the deliberating citizens there were present for active service ,captain ,whipple1 the leader1 ,captain ,eseh ,hopkins1 ,john ,carter1 ,president ,manning1 ,captain ,mathewson1 and ,dr4 ,bowen2 together with ,moses ,brown1 who had come up at the eleventh hour though absent from the preliminary session in the tavern4 ,all these freemen and their hundred sailors began the long march without delay1 grim and a trifle apprehensive as they left the ,muddy ,dock behind and mounted the gentle rise of ,broad ,street toward the ,pawtuxet ,road4 ,an hour and a quarter later the raiders arrived1 as previously agreed1 at the ,fenner farmhouse2 where they heard a final report on their intended victim4 ,he had reached his farm more than half an hour before1 and the strange light had soon afterward shot once into the sky4 ,there were no lights in any visible windows1 but this was always the case of late4 ,even as this news was given another great glare arose toward the south1 and the party realized that they had indeed come close to the scene of awesome and unnatural wonders4 ,captain ,whipple now ordered his force to separate into three divisions2 one of twenty men under ,eleazar ,smith to strike across to the shore and guard the landing-place against possible reinforcements for ,curwen until summoned by a messenger for desperate service2 a second of twenty men under ,captain ,eseh ,hopkins to steal down into the river valley behind the ,curwen farm and demolish with axes or gunpowder the oaken door in the high1 steep bank2 and the third to close in on the house and adjacent buildings themselves4 ,of this last division one third was to be led by ,captain ,mathewson to the cryptical stone edifice with high narrow windows1 another third to follow ,captain ,whipple himself to the main farmhouse1 and the remaining third to preserve a circle around the whole group of buildings until summoned by a final emergency signal4 ,the river party would break down the hillside door at the sound of a single whistle-blast1 waiting and capturing anything which might issue from the regions within4 ,at the sound of two whistle blasts it would advance through the aperture to oppose the enemy or join the rest of the raiding contingent4 ,the party at the stone building would accept these respective signals in an analogous manner2 forcing an entrance at the first1 and at the second descending whatever passage into the ground might be discovered1 and joining the general or focal warfare expected to take place within the caverns4 ,a third or emergency signal of three blasts would summon the immediate reserve from its general guard duty2 its twenty men dividing equally and entering the unknown depths through both farmhouse and stone building4 ,captain ,whipple's belief in the existence of catacombs was absolute1 and he took no alternative into consideration when making his plans4 ,he had with him a whistle of great power and shrillness and did not fear any mistaking or misunderstanding of signals4 ,the final reserve at the landing1 of course1 was nearly out of the whistle's range2 hence1 would require a special messenger if needed for help4 ,moses ,brown and ,john ,carter went with ,captain ,hopkins to the river-bank1 while ,president ,manning was detailed with ,captain ,mathewson to the stone building4 ,dr4 ,bowen1 with ,ezra ,weeden1 remained in ,captain ,whipple's party which was to storm the farmhouse itself4 ,the attack was to begin as soon as a messenger from ,captain ,hopkins had joined ,captain ,whipple to notify him of the river party's readiness4 ,the leader would then deliver the loud single blast1 and the various advance parties would commence their simultaneous attack on three points4 ,shortly before one ,a4,m4 the three divisions left the ,fenner farmhouse2 one to guard the landing1 another to seek the river valley and the hillside door1 and the third to subdivide and attend to the actual buildings of the ,curwen farm4 99 99 99 99 99 ,eleazar ,smith1 who accompanied the shore-guarding party1 records in his diary an uneventful march and a long wait on the bluff by the bay2 broken once by what seemed to be the distant sound of the signal whistle and again by a peculiar muffled blend of roaring and crying and a powder blast which seemed to come from the same direction4 ,later on one man thought he caught some distant gunshots1 and still later ,smith himself felt the throb of titanic thunderous words resounding in upper air4 ,it was just before dawn that a single haggard messenger with wild eyes and a hideous unknown odor about his clothing appeared and told the detachment to disperse quietly to their homes and never again think or speak of the night's doings or of him who had been ,joseph ,curwen4 ,something about the bearing of the messenger carried a conviction which his mere words could never have conveyed2 for though he was a seaman well known to many of them1 there was something obscurely lost or gained in his soul which set him for evermore apart4 ,it was the same later on when they met other old companions who had gone into that zone of horror4 ,most of them had lost or gained something imponderable and indescribable4 ,they had seen or heard or felt something which was not for human creatures1 and could not forget it4 ,from them there was never any gossip1 for to even the commonest of mortal instincts there are terrible boundaries4 ,and from that single messenger the party at the shore caught a nameless awe which almost sealed their own lips4 ,very few are the rumors which ever came from any of them1 and ,eleazar ,smith's diary is the only written record which has survived from that whole expedition which set forth from the ,sign of the ,golden ,lion under the ,stars4 99 99 99 99 99 ,charles ,ward1 however1 discovered another vague sidelight in some ,fenner correspondence which he found in ,new ,london1 where he knew another branch of the family had lived4 ,it seems that the ,fenners1 from whose house the doomed farm was distantly visible1 had watched the departing columns of raiders2 and had heard very clearly the angry barking of the ,curwen dogs1 followed by the first shrill blast which precipitated the attack4 ,this blast had been followed by a repetition of the great shaft of light from the stone building1 and in another moment1 after a quick sounding of the second signal ordering a general invasion1 there had come a subdued rattle of musketry followed by a horrible roaring cry which the correspondent ,luke ,fenner had represented in his epistle by the characters ,waaaahrrrrr--,r'waaahrrr4 ,this cry1 however1 had possessed a quality which no mere writing could convey1 and the correspondent mentions that his mother fainted completely at the sound4 ,it was later repeated less loudly1 and further but more muffled evidences of gunfire ensued2 together with a loud explosion of powder from the direction of the river4 ,about an hour afterward all the dogs began to bay frightfully1 and there were vague ground rumblings so marked that the candlesticks tottered on the mantelpiece4 ,a strong smell of sulphur was noted2 and ,luke ,fenner's father declared that he heard the third or emergency whistle signal1 though the others failed to detect it4 ,muffled musketry sounded again1 followed by a deep scream less piercing but even more horrible than those which had preceded it2 a kind of throaty1 nastily plastic cough or gurgle whose quality as a scream must have come more from its continuity and psychological import than from its actual acoustic value4 ,then the flaming thing burst into sight at a point where the ,curwen farm ought to lie1 and the human cries of desperate and frightened men were heard4 ,muskets flashed and cracked1 and the flaming thing fell to the ground4 ,a second flaming thing appeared1 and a shriek of human origin was plainly distinguished4 ,fenner wrote that he could even gather a few words belched in frenzy3 ,almighty1 protect thy lamb6 ,then there were more shots1 and the second flaming thing fell4 ,after that came silence for about three-quarters of an hour2 at the end of which time little ,arthur ,fenner1 ,luke's brother1 exclaimed that he saw a red fog going up to the stars from the accursed farm in the distance4 ,no one but the child can testify to this1 but ,luke admits the significant coincidence implied by the panic of almost convulsive fright which at the same moment arched the backs and stiffened the fur of the three cats then within the room4 ,five minutes later a chill wind blew up1 and the air became suffused with such an intolerable stench that only the strong freshness of the sea could have prevented its being noticed by the shore party or by any wakeful souls in ,pawtuxet village4 ,this stench was nothing which any of the ,fenners had ever encountered before1 and produced a kind of clutching1 amorphous fear beyond that of the tomb or the charnel-house4 ,close upon it came the awful voice which no hapless hearer will ever be able to forget4 ,it thundered out of the sky like a doom1 and windows rattled as its echoes died away4 ,it was deep and musical2 powerful as a bass organ1 but evil as the forbidden books of the ,arabs4 ,what it said no man can tell1 for it spoke in an unknown tongue1 but this is the writing ,luke ,fenner set down to portray the daemoniac intonations3 ,,deesmees--,,jeshet--,,bonedosefeduvema --,,enitemoss4 ,not till the year #aiai did any soul link this crude transcript with anything else in mortal knowledge1 but ,charles ,ward paled as he recognized what ,mirandola had denounced in shudders as the ultimate horror among black magic's incantations4 ,an unmistakably human shout or deep chorused scream seemed to answer this malign wonder from the ,curwen farm1 after which the unknown stench grew complex with an added odor equally intolerable4 ,a wailing distinctly different from the scream now burst out and was protracted ululantly in rising and falling paroxysms4 ,at times it became almost articulate1 though no auditor could trace any definite words2 and at one point it seemed to verge toward the confines of diabolic and hysterical laughter4 ,then a yell of utter1 ultimate fright and stark madness wrenched from scores of human throats2 a yell which came strong and clear despite the depth from which it must have burst2 after which darkness and silence ruled all things4 ,spirals of acrid smoke ascended to blot out the stars1 though no flames appeared1 and no buildings were observed to be gone or injured on the following day4 ,toward dawn two frightened messengers with monstrous and unplaceable odor saturating their clothing knocked at the ,fenner door and requested a keg of rum for which they paid very well indeed4 ,one of them told the family that the affair of ,joseph ,curwen was over1 and that the events of the night were not to be mentioned again4 ,arrogant as the order seemed1 the aspect of him who gave it took away all resentment and lent it a fearsome authority2 so that only these furtive letters of ,luke ,fenner1 which he urged his ,connecticut relative to destroy1 remain to tell what was seen and heard4 ,the non-compliance of that relative1 whereby the letters were saved after all1 has alone kept the matter from a merciful oblivion4 ,charles ,ward had one detail to add as a result of a long canvass of ,pawtuxet residents for ancestral traditions4 ,old ,charles ,slocum of that village said that there was known to his grandfather a queer rumor concerning a charred1 distorted body found in the fields a week after the death of ,joseph ,curwen was announced4 ,what kept the talk alive was the notion that this body1 so far as could be seen in its burnt and twisted condition1 was neither thoroughly human nor wholly allied to any animal which ,pawtuxet folk had ever seen or read about4 99 99 99 99 99 ,not one man who participated in that terrible raid could ever be induced to say a word concerning it1 and every fragment of the vague data which survives comes from those outside the final fighting party4 ,there is something frightful in the care with which these actual raiders destroyed each scrap which bore the least allusion to the matter4 ,eight sailors had been killed1 but although their bodies were not produced their families were satisfied with the statement that a clash with customs officers had occurred4 ,the same statement also covered the numerous cases of wounds1 all of which were extensively bandaged and treated only by ,dr4 ,jabez ,bowen1 who had accompanied the party4 ,hardest to explain was the nameless odor clinging to all the raiders1 a thing which was discussed for weeks4 ,of the citizen leaders1 ,captain ,whipple and ,moses ,brown were most severely hurt1 and letters of their wives testify the bewilderment which their reticence and close guarding of their bandages produced4 ,psychologically every participant was aged1 sobered1 and shaken4 ,it is fortunate that they were all strong men of action and simple1 orthodox religionists1 for with more subtle introspectiveness and mental complexity they would have fared ill indeed4 ,president ,manning was the most disturbed2 but even he outgrew the darkest shadow1 and smothered memories in prayers4 ,every man of those leaders had a stirring part to play in later years1 and it is perhaps fortunate that this is so4 ,little more than a twelve-month afterward ,captain ,whipple led the mob who burnt the revenue ship ,gaspee1 and in this bold act we may trace one step in the blotting out of unwholesome images4 ,there was delivered to the widow of ,joseph ,curwen a sealed leaden coffin of curious design1 obviously found ready on the spot when needed1 in which she was told her husband's body lay4 ,he had1 it was explained1 been killed in a customs battle about which it was not politic to give details4 ,more than this no tongue ever uttered of ,joseph ,curwen's end1 and ,charles ,ward had only a single hint wherewith to construct a theory4 ,this hint was the merest thread--a shaky underscoring of a passage in ,jedediah ,orne's confiscated letter to ,curwen1 partly copied in ,ezra ,weeden's handwriting4 ,the copy was found in the possession of ,smith's descendants2 and we are left to decide whether ,weeden gave it to his companion after the end1 as a mute clue to the abnormality which had occurred1 or whether1 as is more probable1 ,smith had it before1 and added the underscoring himself from what he had managed to extract from his friend by shrewd guessing and adroit cross-questioning4 ,the underlined passage is merely this3 ,i say to you againe1 doe not call up ,any that you cannot put downe2 by the which ,i meane1 ,any that can in turn calle up somewhat against you1 whereby your powerfullest ,devices may not be of use4 ,ask of the ,lesser1 lest the ,greater shall not wish to ,answer1 and shall commande more than you4 ,in the light of this passage1 and reflecting on what last unmentionable allies a beaten man might try to summon in his direst extremity1 ,charles ,ward may well have wondered whether any citizen of ,providence killed ,joseph ,curwen4 ,the deliberate effacement of every memory of the dead man from ,providence life and annals was vastly aided by the influence of the raiding leaders4 ,they had not at first meant to be so thorough1 and had allowed the widow and her father and child to remain in ignorance of the true conditions2 but ,captain ,tillinghast was an astute man1 and soon uncovered enough rumors to whet his horror and cause him to demand that his daughter and grand-daughter change their name1 burn the library and all remaining papers1 and chisel the inscription from the slate slab above ,joseph ,curwen's grave4 ,he knew ,captain ,whipple well1 and probably extracted more hints from that bluff mariner than anyone else ever gained respecting the end of the accursed sorcerer4 ,from that time on the obliteration of ,curwen's memory became increasingly rigid1 extending at last by common consent even to the town records and files of the ,gazette4 ,it can be compared in spirit only to the hush that lay on ,oscar ,wilde's name for a decade after his disgrace1 and in extent only to the fate of that sinful ,king of ,runagur in ,lord ,dunsany's tale1 whom the gods decided must not only cease to be1 but must cease ever to have been4 ,mrs4 ,tillinghast1 as the widow became known after #aggb1 sold the house in ,olney ,court and resided with her father in ,power's ,lane till her death in #ahag4 ,the farm at ,pawtuxet1 shunned by every living soul1 remained to molder through the years2 and seemed to decay with unaccountable rapidity4 ,by #aghj only the stone and brickwork were standing1 and by #ahjj even these had fallen to shapeless heaps4 ,none ventured to pierce the tangled shrubbery on the river-bank behind which the hillside door may have lain1 nor did any try to frame a definite image of the scenes amidst which ,joseph ,curwen departed from the horrors he had wrought4 ,only robust old ,captain ,whipple was heard by alert listeners to mutter once in awhile to himself1 ,pox on that ----1 but he had no business to laugh while he screamed4 ',twas as though the damn'd ---- had some 'at up his sleeve4 ,for half a crown ,i'd burn his ---- house4 #c4 ,a ,search and an ,evocation ,charles ,ward1 as we have seen1 first learned in #aiah of his descent from ,joseph ,curwen4 ,that he at once took an intense interest in everything pertaining to the bygone mystery is not to be wondered at2 for every vague rumor that he had heard of ,curwen now became something vital to himself1 in whom flowed ,curwen's blood4 ,in his first delvings there was not the slightest attempt at secrecy2 he talked freely with his family--though his mother was not particularly pleased to own an ancestor like ,curwen--and with the officials of the various museums and libraries he visited4 ,in applying to private families for records thought to be in their possession he made no concealment of his object1 and shared the somewhat amused skepticism with which the accounts of the old diarists and letter-writers were regarded4 ,when he came across the ,smith diary and archives and encountered the letter from ,jedediah ,orne he decided to visit ,salem and look up ,curwen's early activities and connections there1 which he did during the ,easter vacation of #aiai4 ,at the ,essex ,institute1 which was well known to him from former sojourns in the glamorous old town of crumbling ,puritan gables and clustered gambrel roofs1 he was very kindly received1 and unearthed there a considerable amount of ,curwen data4 ,he found that his ancestor was born in ,salem-,village1 now ,danvers1 seven miles from town1 on the eighteenth of ,february 7,o4 ,s47 #affb-c2 and that he had run away to sea at the age of fifteen1 not appearing again for nine years1 when he returned with the speech1 dress1 and manners of a native ,englishman and settled in ,salem proper4 ,at that time he had little to do with his family1 but spent most of his hours with the curious books he had brought from ,europe1 and the strange chemicals which came for him on ships from ,england1 ,france1 and ,holland4 ,certain trips of his into the country were the objects of much local inquisitiveness1 and were whisperingly associated with vague rumors of fires on the hills at night4 ,curwen's only close friends had been one ,edward ,hutchinson of ,salem-,village and one ,simon ,orne of ,salem4 ,hutchinson had a house well out toward the woods1 and it was not altogether liked by sensitive people because of the sounds heard there at night4 ,he was said to entertain strange visitors1 and the lights seen from his windows were not always of the same color4 ,the knowledge he displayed concerning long-dead persons and long-forgotten events was considered distinctly unwholesome1 and he disappeared about the time the witchcraft panic began1 never to be heard from again4 ,at that time ,joseph ,curwen also departed1 but his settlement in ,providence was soon learned of4 ,simon ,orne lived in ,salem until #agbj1 when his failure to grow visibly old began to excite attention4 ,he thereafter disappeared1 though thirty years later his precise counterpart and self-styled son turned up to claim his property4 ,the claim was allowed on the strength of documents in ,simon ,orne's known hand1 and ,jedediah ,orne continued to dwell in ,salem till #agga1 when certain letters from ,providence citizens to the ,reverend ,thomas ,barnard and others brought about his quiet removal to parts unknown4 99 99 99 99 99 ,certain documents by and about all of these strange matters were available at the ,essex ,institute1 the ,court ,house1 and the ,registry of ,deeds1 and included both harmless commonplaces such as land titles and bills of sale1 and furtive fragments of a more provocative nature4 ,there were four or five unmistakable allusions to them on the witchcraft trial records2 as when one ,hepzibah ,lawson swore on ,july sixteenth1 #afib1 at the ,court of ,oyer and ,terminen under ,judge ,hathorne1 that fortie ,witches and the ,blacke ,man were wont to meete in the ,woodes behind ,mr4 ,hutchinson's house1 and one ,amity ,how declared at a session of ,august eighth before ,judge ,gedney that ,mr4 ,g4 ,b4 7,george ,burroughs7 on that ,nighte put the ,divell his ,marke upon ,bridget ,s41 ,jonathan ,a41 ,simon ,o41 ,deliverance ,w41 ,joseph ,c41 ,susan ,p41 ,mehitable ,c41 and ,deborah ,b4 ,then there was a catalogue of ,hutchinson's uncanny library as found after his disappearance1 and an unfinished manuscript in his handwriting1 couched in a cipher none could read4 ,ward had a photostatic copy of this manuscript made1 and began to work casually on the cipher as soon as it was delivered to him4 ,after the following ,august his labors on the cipher became intense and feverish1 and there is reason to believe from his speech and conduct that he hit upon the key before ,october or ,november4 ,he never stated1 though1 whether or not he had succeeded4 ,but of greatest immediate interest was the ,orne material4 ,it took ,ward only a short time to prove from identity of penmanship a thing he had already considered established from the text of the letter to ,curwen2 namely1 that ,simon ,orne and his supposed son were one and the same person4 ,as ,orne had said to his correspondent1 it was hardly safe to live too long in ,salem1 hence he resorted to a thirty-year sojourn abroad1 and did not return to claim his lands except as a representative of a new generation4 ,orne had apparently been careful to destroy most of his correspondence1 but the citizens who took action in #agga found and preserved a few letters and papers which excited their wonder4 ,there were cryptic formulae and diagrams in his and other hands which ,ward now either copied with care or had photographed1 and one extremely mysterious letter in a chirography that the searcher recognized from items in the ,registry of ,deeds as positively ,joseph ,curwen's4 ,providence1 #a ,may ,brother3 ,my honour'd ,antient friend1 due ,respects and earnest ,wishes to ,him whom we serve for yr ,eternall ,power4 ,i am just come upon ,that ,which you ought to knowe1 concern'g the ,matter of the ,laste ,extremite and ,what to doe regard' yt4 ,i am not dispos'd to followe you in go'g ,away on acct4 of my yeares1 for ,providence hath not ye ,sharpeness of ye ,bay in hunt'g oute uncommon ,things and bringinge to ,tryall4 ,i am ty'd up in ,shippes and ,goodes1 and cou'd not doe as you did1 besides the ,whiche my ,farme1 at ,pawtuxet hatht under it ,what you ,knowe1 that ,wou'd not ,waite for my com'g ,backe as an ,other4 ,but ,i am not unreadie for harde fortunes1 as ,i have tolde you1 and have longe ,work'd upon ye ,way of get'g ,backe after ye ,laste4 ,i laste ,night strucke on ye ,wordes that bringe up ,,yogge-,,sothothe1 and sawe for ye ,firste ,time that face spoke of by ,ibn ,schacabac in ye ----4 ,and ,,it said1 that ye ,,iii ,psalme in ye ,liber-,damnatus holdes ye ,clavicle4 ,with ,sunne in ,v ,house1 ,saturne in ,trine1 drawe ye ,pentagram of ,fire1 and saye ye ninth ,verse thrice4 ,this ,verse repeate eache ,roodemas and ,hallow's ,eve1 and ye thing will brede in ye ,outside ,spheres4 ,and of ye ,sede of ,olde shal ,one be borne who shal looke ,backe1 tho' know'g not what he seekes4 ,yett will this availe ,nothing if there be no ,heir1 and if the ,saltes1 or the ,way to make the ,saltes1 bee not ,readie for his ,hande2 and here ,i will owne1 ,i have not taken needed ,stepps nor founde ,much4 ,ye ,process is plaguy harde to come neare1 and it uses up such a ,store of ,specimens1 ,i am harde putte to it to get ,enough1 notwithstand'g the ,sailors ,i have from ye ,indies4 ,ye ,people aboute are become ,curious1 but ,i can stande them off4 ,ye gentry are worse than ye ,populace1 be'g more ,circumstantiall in their ,accts4 and more believ'd in what they tell4 ,that ,parson and ,mr4 ,merritt have talk'd some1 ,i am fearfull1 but no ,thing soe far is ,dangerous4 ,ye ,chymical substances are easie of get'g1 there be'g ,,ii4 goode ,chymists in ,towne1 ,dr4 ,bowen and ,sam4 ,carew4 ,i am foll'g oute what ,borellus saith1 and have ,helpe in ,abdool ,al-,hazred his ,,vii4 ,booke4 ,whatever ,i gette1 you shal have4 ,and in ye meane ,while1 do not neglect to make use of ye ,wordes ,i have here given4 ,i have them ,righte1 but if you ,desire to see ,,him1 imploy the ,writinge on ye ,piece of ----1 that ,i am putt'g in this ,packet4 ,saye ye ,verses every ,roodmas and ,hallow's ,eve2 and if yr ,line runn not out1 one shal bee in yeares to come that shal looke backe and use what ,saltes or stuff for ,salte you shal leave him4 ,job ,,xiv4 ,,xiv4 ,i rejoice you are again at ,salem1 and hope ,i may see you not longe hence4 ,i have a goode ,stallion1 and am think'g of get'g a ,coach1 there be'g one 7,mr4 ,merritt's7 in ,providence already1 tho' ye ,roades are bad4 ,if you are disposed to travel1 doe not pass me bye4 ,from ,boston take ye ,post ,road1 thro' ,dedham1 ,wrentham1 and ,attleborough1 goode ,taverns be'g at all these ,townes4 ,stop at ,mr4 ,bolcom's in ,wrentham1 where ye ,beddes are finer than ,mr4 ,hatch's1 but eate at ye other ,house for their cooke is better4 ,turne into ,prov4 by ,patucket falls1 and ye ,rd4 past ,mr4 ,sayles's ,tavern4 ,my ,house opp4 ,mr4 ,epenetus ,olney's ,tavern off ye ,towne ,street1 #ast on ye ,n4 side of ,olney's ,court4 ,distance from ,boston ,stone abt4 ,,xliv miles4 ,sir1 ,i am yr olde and true friend and ,servt4 in ,almonsin-,metraton4 ,josephus ,c4 ,to ,mr4 ,simon ,orne1 ,william's-,lane1 in ,salem4 ,this letter1 oddly enough1 was what first gave ,ward the exact location of ,curwen's ,providence home2 for none of the records encountered up to that time had been at all specific4 ,the place was indeed only a few squares from his own home on the great hill's higher ground1 and was now the abode of a ,negro family much esteemed for occasional washing1 housecleaning1 and furnace-tending services4 ,to find1 in distant ,salem1 such sudden proof of the significance of this familiar rookery in his own family history1 was a highly impressive thing to ,ward2 and he resolved to explore the place immediately upon his return4 ,the more mystical phases of the letter1 which he took to be some extravagant kind of symbolism1 frankly baffled him2 though he noted with a thrill of curiosity that the ,biblical passage referred to--,job #ad1 #ad--was the familiar verse1 ,if a man die1 shall he live again8 ,all the days of my appointed time will ,i wait1 till my change come4 99 99 99 99 99 ,young ,ward came home in a state of pleasant excitement1 and spent the following ,saturday in a long and exhaustive study of the house in ,olney ,court4 ,the place1 now crumbling with age1 had never been a mansion2 but was a modest two-and-a-half story wooden town house of the familiar ,providence ,colonial type1 with plain peaked roof1 large central chimney1 and artistically carved doorway with rayed fan-light1 triangular pediment1 and trim ,doric pilasters4 ,it had suffered but little alteration externally1 and ,ward felt he was gazing on something very close to the sinister matters of his quest4 ,the present ,negro inhabitants were known to him1 and he was very courteously shown about the interior by old ,asa and his stout wife ,hannah4 ,here there was more change than the outside indicated1 and ,ward saw with regret that fully half of the fine scroll-and-urn overmantels and shell-carved cupboard linings were gone1 whilst much of the fine wainscotting and bolection moulding was marked1 hacked1 and gouged1 or covered up altogether with cheap wall-paper4 ,it was exciting to stand within the ancestral walls which had housed such a man of horror as ,joseph ,curwen2 he saw with a thrill that a monogram had been very carefully effaced from the ancient brass knocker4 ,from then until after the close of school ,ward spent his time on the photostatic copy of the ,hutchinson cipher and the accumulation of local ,curwen data4 ,the former still proved unyielding2 but of the latter he obtained so much1 and so many clues to similar data elsewhere1 that he was ready by ,july to make a trip to ,new ,london and ,new ,york to consult old letters whose presence in those places was indicated4 ,this trip was very fruitful1 for it brought him the ,fenner letters with their terrible description of the ,pawtuxet farmhouse raid1 and the ,nightingale-,talbot letters in which he learned of the portrait painted on a panel of the ,curwen library4 ,this matter of the portrait interested him particularly1 since he would have given much to know just what ,joseph ,curwen looked like2 and he decided to make a second search of the house in ,olney ,court to see if there might not be some trace of the ancient features beneath peeling coats of later paint or layers of mouldy wall-paper4 ,early in ,august that search took place1 and ,ward went carefully over the walls of every room sizeable enough to have been by any possibility the library of the evil builder4 ,he paid especial attention to the large panels of such overmantels as still remained2 and was keenly excited after about an hour1 when on a broad area above the fireplace in a spacious ground-floor room he became certain that the surface brought out by the peeling of several coats of paint was sensibly darker than any ordinary interior paint or the wood beneath it was likely to have been4 ,a few more careful tests with a thin knife1 and he knew that he had come upon an oil portrait of great extent4 ,with truly scholarly restraint the youth did not risk the damage which an immediate attempt to uncover the hidden picture with the knife might have done1 but just retired from the scene of his discovery to enlist expert help4 ,in three days he returned with an artist of long experience1 ,mr4 ,walter ,c4 ,dwight1 whose studio is near the foot of ,college ,hill2 and that accomplished restorer of paintings set to work at once with proper methods and chemical substances4 ,old ,asa and his wife were duly excited over their strange visitors1 and were properly reimbursed for this invasion of their domestic hearth4 ,as day by day the work of restoration progressed1 ,charles ,ward looked on with growing interest at the lines and shades gradually unveiled after their long oblivion4 ,dwight had begun at the bottom2 hence since the picture was a three-quarter-length one1 the face did not come out for some time4 ,it was meanwhile seen that the subject was a spare1 well-shaped man with dark-blue coat1 embroidered waistcoat1 black satin small-clothes1 and white silk stockings1 seated in a carved chair against the background of a window with wharves and ships beyond4 ,when the head came out it was observed to bear a neat ,albemarle wig1 and to possess a thin1 calm1 undistinguished face which seemed somehow familiar to both ,ward and the artist4 ,only at the very last1 though1 did the restorer and his client begin to gasp with astonishment at the details of that lean1 pallid visage1 and to recognize with a touch of awe the dramatic trick which heredity had played4 ,for it took the final bath of oil and the final stroke of the delicate scraper to bring out fully the expression which centuries had hidden2 and to confront the bewildered ,charles ,dexter ,ward1 dweller in the past1 with his own living features in the countenance of his horrible great-great-great-grandfather4 99 99 99 99 99 ,ward brought his parents to see the marvel he had uncovered1 and his father at once determined to purchase the picture despite its execution on stationary panelling4 ,the resemblance to the boy1 despite an appearance of rather greater age1 was marvelous2 and it could be seen that through some trick of atavism the physical contours of ,joseph ,curwen had found precise duplication after a century and a half4 ,mrs4 ,ward's resemblance to her ancestor was not at all marked1 though she could recall relatives who had some of the facial characteristics shared by her son and by the bygone ,curwen4 ,she did not relish the discovery1 and told her husband that he had better burn the picture instead of bringing it home4 ,there was1 she averred1 something unwholesome about it2 not only intrinsically1 but in its very resemblance to ,charles4 ,mr4 ,ward1 however1 was a practical man of power and affairs--a cotton manufacturer with extensive mills at ,riverpoint in the ,pawtuxet ,valley--and not one to listen to feminine scruples4 ,the picture impressed him mightily with its likeness to his son1 and he believed the boy deserved it as a present4 ,in this opinion1 it is needless to say1 ,charles most heartily concurred2 and a few days later ,mr4 ,ward located the owner of the house--a small rodent-featured person with a guttural accent--and obtained the whole mantel and overmantel bearing the picture at a curtly fixed price which cut short the impending torrent of unctuous haggling4 ,it now remained to take off the panelling and remove it to the ,ward home1 where provisions were made for its thorough restoration and installation with an electric mock-fireplace in ,charles' third-floor study or library4 ,to ,charles was left the task of superintending this removal1 and on the twenty-eighth of ,august he accompanied two expert workmen from the ,crooker decorating firm to the house in ,olney ,court1 where the mantel and portrait-bearing overmantel were detached with great care and precision for transportation in the company's motor truck4 ,there was left a space of exposed brickwork marking the chimney's course1 and in this young ,ward observed a cubical recess about a foot square1 which must have lain directly behind the head of the portrait4 ,he found1 beneath the deep coatings of dust and soot some loose yellowed papers1 a crude1 thick copy-book1 and a few moldering textile shreds which may have formed the ribbon binding the rest together4 ,blowing away the bulk of the dirt and cinders1 he took up the book and looked at the bold inscription on its cover4 ,it was in a hand which he had learned to recognize at the ,essex ,institute1 and proclaimed the volume as the ,journall and ,notes of ,jos4 ,curwen1 ,gent41 of ,providence-,plantations1 ,late of ,salem4 ,excited beyond measure by his discovery1 ,ward showed the book to the two curious workmen beside him4 ,their testimony is absolute as to the nature and genuineness of the finding1 and ,dr4 ,willett relies on them to help establish his theory that the youth was not mad when he began his major eccentricities4 ,all the other papers were likewise in ,curwen's handwriting1 and one of them seemed especially portentous because of its inscription3 ,to ,him ,who ,shal ,come ,after1 ,how ,he ,may ,gett ,beyonde ,time and ,ye ,spheres4 ,another was in a cipher2 the same1 ,ward hoped1 as the ,hutchinson cipher which had hitherto baffled him4 ,a third1 and here the searcher rejoiced1 seemed to be a key to the cipher2 whilst the fourth and fifth were addressed respectively to ,edw4 ,hutchinson1 ,armiger and ,jedediah ,orne1 ,esq41 or ,their ,heir or ,heirs1 or ,those ,represent'g ,them4 ,the sixth and last was inscribed3 ,joseph ,curwen his ,life and ,travells ,bet'n ye yeares #afgh and #afhg3 of ,whither ,he ,voyag'd1 ,where ,he ,stay'd1 ,whom ,he ,sawe1 and ,what ,he learnt4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we have now reached the point from which the more academic school of alienists date ,charles ,ward's madness4 ,upon his discovery the youth had looked immediately at a few of the inner pages of the book and manuscripts1 and had evidently seen something which impressed him tremendously4 ,upon returning home he broke the news with an almost embarrassed air1 as if he wished to convey an idea of its supreme importance without having to exhibit the evidence itself4 ,he did not even show the titles to his parents1 but simply told them that he had found some documents in ,joseph ,curwen's handwriting1 mostly in cipher1 which would have to be studied very carefully before yielding up their true meaning4 ,it is unlikely that he would have shown what he did to the workmen1 had it not been for their unconcealed curiosity4 ,as it was he doubtless wished to avoid any display of peculiar reticence which would increase their discussion of the matter4 ,that night ,charles ,ward sat up in his room reading the new-found book and papers1 and when day came he did not desist4 ,his meals1 on his urgent request when his mother called to see what was amiss1 were sent up to him2 and in the afternoon he appeared only briefly when the men came to install the ,curwen picture and mantelpiece in his study4 ,the next night he slept in snatches in his clothes1 meanwhile wrestling feverishly with the unraveling of the cipher manuscript4 ,in the morning his mother saw that he was at work on the photostatic copy of the ,hutchinson cipher1 which he had frequently showed her before2 but in response to her query he said that the ,curwen key could not be applied to it4 ,that afternoon he abandoned his work and watched the men fascinatedly as they finished their installation of the picture with its woodwork above a cleverly realistic electric log1 setting the mock-fireplace and overmantel a little out from the north wall as if a chimney existed1 and boxing in its sides with panelling to match the room's4 ,after the workmen went he moved his work into the study and sat down before it with his eyes half on the cipher and half on the portrait which stared back at him like a year-adding century-recalling mirror4 ,his parents subsequently recalling his conduct at this period1 give interesting details anent the policy of concealment which he practiced4 ,before servants he seldom hid any paper which he might be studying1 since he rightly assumed that ,curwen's intricate and archaic chirography would be too much for them4 ,with his parents1 however1 he was more circumspect2 and unless the manuscript in question were a cipher1 or a mere mass of cryptic symbols and unknown ideographs 7as that entitled ,to ,him ,who ,shal ,come ,after etc4 seemed to be7 he would cover it with some convenient paper until his caller had departed4 ,at night he kept the papers under lock and key in an antique cabinet of his1 where he also placed them whenever he left the room4 ,he soon resumed fairly regular hours and habits1 except that his long walks and other outside interests seemed to cease4 ,the opening of school1 where he now began his senior year1 seemed a great bore to him2 and he frequently asserted his determination never to bother with college4 ,he had1 he said1 important special investigations to make1 which would provide him with more avenues toward knowledge and the humanities than any university which the world could boast4 ,during ,october ,ward began visiting the libraries again1 but no longer for the antiquarian matter of his former days4 ,witchcraft and magic1 occultism and daemonology1 were what he sought now2 and when ,providence sources proved unfruitful he would take the train for ,boston and tap the wealth of the great library in ,copley ,square1 the ,widener ,library at ,harvard1 or the ,zion ,research ,library in ,brookline1 where certain rare works on ,biblical subjects are available4 ,he bought extensively1 and fitted up a whole additional set of shelves in his study for newly acquired works on uncanny subjects2 while during the ,christmas holidays he made a round of out-of-town trips including one to ,salem to consult certain records at the ,essex ,institute4 99 99 99 99 99 ,about the middle of ,january1 #aibj1 there entered ,ward's bearing an element of triumph which he did not explain1 and he was no more found at work upon the ,hutchinson cipher4 ,instead1 he inaugurated a dual policy of chemical research and record-scanning2 fitting up for the one a laboratory in the unused attic of the house1 and for the latter haunting all the sources of vital statistics in ,providence4 ,local dealers in drugs and scientific supplies1 later questioned1 gave astonishingly queer and meaningless catalogues of the substances and instruments he purchased2 but clerks at the ,state ,house1 the ,city ,hall1 and the various libraries agree as to the definite object of his second interest4 ,he was searching intensely and feverishly for the grave of ,joseph ,curwen1 from whose slate slab an older generation had so wisely blotted the name4 ,little by little there grew upon the ,ward family the conviction that something was wrong4 ,his school work was the merest pretence2 he had other concernments now2 and when not in his new laboratory with a score of obsolete alchemical books1 could be found either poring over old burial records downtown or glued to his volumes of occult lore in his study1 where the startlingly--one almost fancied increasingly--similar features of ,joseph ,curwen stared blandly at him from the great overmantel on the north wall4 ,late in ,march ,ward added to his archive-searching a ghoulish series of rambles about the various ancient cemeteries of the city4 ,his quest had suddenly shifted from the grave of ,joseph ,curwen to that of one ,naphthali ,field2 and this shift was explained when1 upon going over the files that he had been over1 the investigators actually found a fragmentary record of ,curwen's burial which had escaped the general obliteration1 and which stated that the curious leaden coffin had been interred #aj ft4 ,s4 and #e ft4 ,w4 of ,naphthali ,field's grave in ye----4 ,hence the rambles--from which ,st4 ,john's 7the former ,king's7 churchyard and the ancient ,congregational burying ground in the midst of ,swan ,point ,cemetery were excluded1 since other statistics had shewn that the only ,naphthali ,field 7obit4 #agbi7 whose grave could have been meant had been a ,baptist4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it was toward ,may when ,dr4 ,willett1 at the request of the senior ,ward1 and fortified with all the ,curwen data which the family had gleaned from ,charles in his non-secretive days1 talked with the young man4 ,the interview was of little value or conclusiveness1 for ,willett felt at every moment that ,charles was thoroughly master of himself and in touch with matters of real importance2 but it at least forced the secretive youth to offer some rational explanation of his recent demeanor4 ,of a pallid1 impassive type not easily showing embarrassment1 ,ward seemed quite ready to discuss his pursuits1 though not to reveal their object4 ,he stated that the papers of his ancestor had contained some remarkable secrets of early scientific knowledge4 ,to take their vivid place in the history of human thought they must first be correlated by one familiar with the background out of which they evolved1 and to this task of correlation ,ward was now devoting himself4 ,he was seeking to acquire as fast as possible those neglected arts of old which a true interpreter of the ,curwen data must possess1 and hoped in time to make a full announcement and presentation of the utmost interest to mankind and to the world of thought4 ,as to his graveyard search1 whose object he freely admitted1 but the details of whose progress he did not relate1 he said he had reason to think that ,joseph ,curwen's mutilated headstone bore certain mystic symbols--carved from directions in his will and ignorantly spared by those who had effaced the name--which were absolutely essential to the final solution of his cryptic system4 ,curwen1 he believed1 had wished to guard his secret with care2 and had consequently distributed the data in an exceedingly curious fashion4 ,when ,dr4 ,willett asked to see the mystic documents1 ,ward displayed much reluctance and tried to put him off with such things as the photostatic copies of the ,hutchinson cipher and ,orne formulae and diagrams2 but finally showed him the exteriors of some of the real ,curwen finds--the ,journal and ,notes1 the cipher 7title in cipher also7 and the formula-filled message ,to ,him ,who ,shal ,come ,after--and let him glance inside such as were in obscure characters4 ,he also opened the diary at a page carefully selected for its innocuousness and gave ,willett a glimpse of ,curwen's connected handwriting in ,english4 ,the doctor noted very closely the crabbed and complicated letters1 and the general aura of the seventeenth century which clung round both penmanship and style despite the writer's survival into the eighteenth century1 and became quickly certain that the document was genuine4 ,the text itself was relatively trivial1 and ,willett recalled only a fragment4 ,but when ,dr4 ,willett turned the leaf1 he was quickly checked by ,ward1 who almost snatched the book from his grasp4 ,all that the doctor had a chance to see on the newly opened page was a brief pair of sentences2 but these1 strangely enough1 lingered tenaciously in his memory4 ,they ran3 ,ye ,verse from ,liber-,damnatus be'g spoke ,v ,roodmasses and ,,iv ,hallows-,eves1 ,i am ,hopeful ye ,thing is breed'g ,outside ye ,spheres4 ,it will drawe ,one who is to ,come if ,i can make sure he shal bee1 and he shall think on ,past thinges and looke back thro' all ye yeares1 against ye which ,i must have ready ye ,saltes or ,that to make 'em with4 ,willett saw no more1 but somehow this small glimpse gave a new and vague terror to the painted features of ,joseph ,curwen which stared blandly down from the overmantel4 ,ever after that he entertained the odd fancy--which his medical skill of course assured him was only a fancy--that the eyes of the portrait had a sort of tendency to follow young ,charles ,ward as he moved about the room4 ,he stopped before leaving to study the picture closely1 marveling at its resemblance to ,charles and memorizing every minute detail of the cryptical1 colorless face1 even down to a slight scar or pit in the smooth brow above the right eye4 ,assured by the doctor that ,charles' mental health was in no danger1 but that on the other hand he was engaged in researches which might prove of real importance1 the ,wards were more lenient than they might otherwise have been when during the following ,june the youth made positive his refusal to attend college4 ,he had1 he declared1 studies of much more vital importance to pursue2 and intimated a wish to go abroad the following year in order to avail himself of certain sources of data not existing in ,america4 ,the senior ,ward1 while denying this latter wish as absurd for a boy of only eighteen1 acquiesced regarding the university2 so that after a none too brilliant graduation from the ,moses ,brown ,school there ensued for ,charles a three year period of intensive occult study and graveyard searching4 99 99 99 99 99 ,coming of age in ,april1 #aibc1 and having previously inherited a small competence from his maternal grandfather1 ,ward determined at last to take the ,european trip hitherto denied him4 ,of his proposed itinerary he would say nothing save that the needs of his studies would carry him to many places1 but he promised to write his parents fully and faithfully4 ,when they saw he could not be dissuaded1 they ceased all opposition and helped as best they could2 so that in ,june the young man sailed for ,liverpool with the farewell blessings of his father and mother1 who accompanied him to ,boston and waved him out of sight from the ,white ,star pier in ,charlestown4 ,letters soon told of his safe arrival1 and of his securing good quarters in ,great ,russell ,street1 ,london2 where he proposed to stay1 shunning all family friends1 till he had exhausted the resources of the ,british ,museum in a certain direction4 ,of his daily life he wrote but little1 for there was little to write4 ,study and experiment consumed all his time1 and he mentioned a laboratory which he had established in one of his rooms4 ,that he said nothing of antiquarian rambles in the glamorous old city with its luring skyline of ancient domes and steeples and its tangles of roads and alleys whose mystic convolutions and sudden vistas alternately beckon and surprise1 was taken by his parents as a good index of the degree to which his new interests had engrossed his mind4 ,in ,june1 #aibd1 a brief note told of his departure for ,paris1 to which he had before made one or two flying trips for material in the ,bibliotheque ,nationale4 ,for three months thereafter he sent only postal cards1 giving an address in the ,rue ,st4 ,jacques and referring to a special search among rare manuscripts in the library of an unnamed private collector4 ,he avoided acquaintances1 and no tourists brought back reports of having seen him4 ,then came a silence1 and in ,october the ,wards received a picture card from ,prague1 ,czecho-,slovakia1 stating that ,charles was in that ancient town for the purpose of conferring with a certain very aged man supposed to be the last living possessor of some very curious mediaeval information4 ,he gave an address in the ,newstadt1 and announced no move till the following ,january2 when he dropped several cards from ,vienna telling of his passage through that city on the way toward a more easterly region whither one of his correspondents and fellow-delvers into the occult had invited him4 ,the next card was from ,klausenburg in ,transylvania1 and told of ,ward's progress toward his destination4 ,he was going to visit a ,baron ,ferenczy1 whose estate lay in the mountains east of ,rakus2 and was to be addressed at ,rakus in the care of that nobleman4 ,another card from ,rakus a week later1 saying that his host's carriage had met him and that he was leaving the village for the mountains1 was his last message for a considerable time2 indeed1 he did not reply to his parents' frequent letters until ,may1 when he wrote to discourage the plan of his mother for a meeting in ,london1 ,paris1 or ,rome during the summer1 when the elder ,wards were planning to travel in ,europe4 ,his researches1 he said1 were such that he could not leave his present quarters2 while the situation of ,baron ,ferenczy's castle did not favor visits4 ,it was on a crag in the dark wooded mountains1 and the region was so shunned by the country folk that normal people could not help feeling ill at ease4 ,moreover1 the ,baron was not a person likely to appeal to correct and conservative ,new ,england gentlefolk4 ,his aspect and manners had idiosyncrasies1 and his age was so great as to be disquieting4 ,it would be better1 ,charles said1 if his parents would wait for his return to ,providence2 which could scarcely be far distant4 ,that return did not1 however1 take place until ,may1 #aibe1 when after a few heralding cards the young wanderer quietly slipped into ,new ,york on the ,homeric and traversed the long miles to ,providence by motor coach eagerly drinking in the green rolling hills1 the fragrant1 blossoming orchards1 and the white steepled towns of ,connecticut in spring2 his first taste of ancient ,new ,england in nearly four years4 ,old ,providence6 ,it was this place and the mysterious forces of its long1 continuous history which had brought him into being1 and which had drawn him back toward marvels and secrets whose boundaries no prophet might fix4 ,here lay the arcana1 wondrous or dreadful as the case might be1 for which all his years of travel and application had been preparing him4 ,a taxicab whirled him through ,post ,office ,square with its glimpse of the river1 and up the steep curved slope of ,waterman ,street to ,prospect4 ,then eight squares past the fine old estates his childish eyes had known1 and the quaint brick sidewalks so often trodden by his youthful feet4 ,and at last the little white overtaken farmhouse on the right1 and on the left the classic ,adam porch and stately bayed faade of the great brick house where he was born4 ,it was twilight1 and ,charles ,dexter ,ward had come home4 ,ward was now visibly aged and hardened1 but was still normal in his general reactions2 and in several talks with ,willett displayed a balance which no madman--even an incipient one--could feign continuously for long4 ,what elicited the notion of insanity at this period were the sounds heard at all hours from ,ward's attic laboratory1 in which he kept himself most of the time4 ,there were chantings and repetitions1 and thunderous declamations in uncanny rhythms2 and although these sounds were always in ,ward's own voice1 there was something in the quality of that voice and in the accents of the formulae it pronounced1 which could not but chill the blood of every hearer4 ,it was noticed that ,nig1 the venerable and beloved black cat of the household1 bristled and arched his back perceptibly when certain of the tones were heard4 ,the odors occasionally wafted from the laboratory were likewise exceedingly strange4 ,sometimes they were very noxious1 but more often they were aromatic1 with a haunting1 elusive quality which seemed to have the power of inducing fantastic images4 ,people who smelled them had a tendency to glimpse momentary mirages of enormous vistas1 with strange hills or endless avenues of sphinxes and hippogriffs stretching off into infinite distance4 ,his older aspect increased to a startling degree his resemblance to the ,curwen portrait in his library2 and ,dr4 ,willett would often pause by the latter after a call1 marvelling at the virtual identity1 and reflecting that only the small pit above the picture's right eye now remained to differentiate the long-dead wizard from the living youth4 ,frequently he noted peculiar things about2 little wax images of grotesque design on the shelves or tables1 and the half-erased remnants of circles1 triangles1 and pentagrams in chalk or charcoal on the cleared central space of the large room4 ,and always in the night those rhythms and incantations thundered1 till it became very difficult to keep servants or suppress furtive talk of ,charles' madness4 ,in ,january1 #aibg1 a peculiar incident occurred4 ,one night about midnight1 as ,charles was chanting a ritual whose weird cadence echoed unpleasantly through the house below1 there came a sudden gust of chill wind from the bay1 and a faint1 obscure trembling of the earth which everyone in the neighborhood noted4 ,at the same time the cat exhibited phenomenal traces of fright1 while dogs bayed for as much as a mile around4 ,this was the prelude to a sharp thunderstorm1 anomalous for the season1 which brought with it such a crash that ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,ward believed the house had been struck4 ,they rushed upstairs to see what damage had been done1 but ,charles met them at the door to the attic2 pale1 resolute1 and portentous1 with an almost fearsome combination of triumph and seriousness on his face4 ,he assured them that the house had not really been struck1 and that the storm would soon be over4 ,the thunder sank to a sort of dull mumbling chuckle and finally died away4 ,stars came out1 and the stamp of triumph on ,charles ,ward's face crystallized into a very singular expression4 99 99 99 99 99 ,for two months or more after this incident ,ward was less confined than usual to his laboratory4 ,he exhibited a curious interest in the weather1 and made odd inquiries about the date of the spring thawing of the ground4 ,one night late in ,march he left the house after midnight1 and did not return till almost morning2 when his mother1 being wakeful1 heard a rumbling motor draw up the carriage entrance4 ,muffled oaths could be distinguished1 and ,mrs4 ,ward1 rising and going to the window1 saw four dark figures removing a long1 heavy box from a truck at ,charles' direction and carrying it within by the side door4 ,she heard labored breathing and ponderous footfalls on the stairs1 and finally a dull thumping in the attic2 after which the footfalls descended again1 and the four men reappeared outside and drove off in their truck4 ,the next day ,charles resumed his strict attic seclusion1 drawing down the dark shades of his laboratory windows and appearing to be working on some metal substance4 ,he would open the door to no one1 and steadfastly refused all proffered food4 ,about noon a wrenching sound followed by a terrible cry and a fall were heard1 but when ,mrs4 ,ward rapped at the door her son at length answered faintly1 and told her that nothing had gone amiss4 ,the hideous and indescribable stench now welling out was absolutely harmless and unfortunately necessary4 ,solitude was the one prime essential1 and he would appear later for dinner4 ,that afternoon1 after the conclusion of some odd hissing sounds which came from behind the locked portal1 he did finally appear2 wearing an extremely haggard aspect and forbidding anyone to enter the laboratory upon any pretext4 ,this1 indeed1 proved the beginning of a new policy of secrecy2 for never afterward was any other person permitted to visit either the mysterious garret workroom or the adjacent storeroom which he cleared out1 furnished roughly1 and added to his inviolably private domain as a sleeping apartment4 ,here he lived1 with books brought up from his library beneath1 till the time he purchased the ,pawtuxet bungalow and moved to it all his scientific effects4 ,in the evening ,charles secured the paper before the rest of the family and damaged part of it through an apparent accident4 ,later on ,dr4 ,willett1 having fixed the date from statements by various members of the household1 looked up an intact copy at the ,journal office and found that in the destroyed section the following small item had occurred3 ,nocturnal ,diggers ,surprised in ,north ,burial ,ground ,robert ,hart1 night watchman at the ,north ,burial ,ground1 this morning discovered a party of several men with a motor truck in the oldest part of the cemetery1 but apparently frightened them off before they had accomplished whatever their object may have been4 ,the discovery took place at about four o'clock1 when ,hart's attention was attracted by the sound of a motor outside his shelter4 ,investigating1 he saw a large truck on the main drive several rods away2 but could not reach it before the sound of his feet on the gravel had revealed his approach4 ,the men hastily placed a large box in the truck and drove away toward the street before they could be overtaken2 and since no known grave was disturbed1 ,hart believes that this box was an object which they wished to bury4 ,the diggers must have been at work for a long while before detection1 for ,hart found an enormous hole dug at a considerable distance back from the roadway in the lot of ,amosa ,field1 where most of the old stones have long ago disappeared4 ,the hole1 a place as large and deep as a grave1 was empty2 and did not coincide with any interment mentioned in the cemetery records4 ,sergeant ,riley of the ,second ,station viewed the spot and gave the opinion that the hole was dug by bootleggers rather gruesomely and ingeniously seeking a safe cache for liquor in a place not likely to be disturbed4 ,in reply to questions ,hart said he thought the escaping truck had headed up ,rochambeau ,avenue1 though he could not be sure4 ,during the next few days ,charles ,ward was seldom seen by his family4 ,having added sleeping quarters to his attic realm1 he kept closely to himself there1 ordering food brought to the door and not taking it in until after the servant had gone away4 ,the droning of monotonous formulae and the chanting of bizarre rhythms recurred at intervals1 while at other times occasional listeners could detect the sound of tinkling glass1 hissing chemicals1 running water1 or roaring gas flames4 ,odors of the most unplaceable quality1 wholly unlike any before noted1 hung at times around the door2 and the air of tension observable in the young recluse whenever he did venture briefly forth was such as to excite the keenest speculation4 ,once he made a hasty trip to the ,athenaeum for a book he required1 and again he hired a messenger to fetch him a highly obscure volume from ,boston4 ,suspense was written portentously over the whole situation1 and both the family and ,dr4 ,willett confessed themselves wholly at a loss what to do or think about it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,then on the fifteenth of ,april a strange development occurred4 ,while nothing appeared to grow different in kind1 there was certainly a very terrible difference in degree2 and ,dr4 ,willett somehow attaches great significance to the change4 ,the day was ,good ,friday1 a circumstance of which the servants made much1 but which others quite naturally dismiss as an irrelevant coincidence4 ,late in the afternoon young ,ward began repeating a certain formula in a singularly loud voice1 at the same time burning some substance so pungent that its fumes escaped over the entire house4 ,the formula was so plainly audible in the hall outside the locked door that ,mrs4 ,ward could not help memorizing it as she waited and listened anxiously1 and later on she was able to write it down at ,dr4 ,willett's request4 ,it ran as follows1 and experts have told ,dr4 ,willett that its very close analogue can be found in the mystic writings of ,eliphas ,levi1 that cryptic soul who crept through a crack in the forbidden door and glimpsed the frightful vistas of the void beyond3 ,per ,adonai ,eloim1 ,adonai ,jehova1 ,adonai ,sabaoth1 ,metraton ,ou ,agla ,methon1 verbum pythonicum1 mysterium salamandrae1 conventus sylvorum1 antra1 gnomorum1 daemonia ,coeli ,god1 ,almonsin1 ,gibor1 ,jehosua1 ,evam1 ,zariatnatmik1 veni1 veni1 veni4 ,this had been going on for two hours without change or intermission when over all the neighborhood a pandemoniac howling of dogs set in4 ,the extent of this howling can be judged from the space it received in the papers the next day1 but to those in the ,ward household it was over-shadowed by the odor which instantly followed it2 a hideous1 all-pervasive odour which none of them had ever smelt before or have ever smelt since4 ,in the midst of this mephitic flood there came a very perceptible flash like that of lightning1 which would have been blinding and impressive but for the daylight around2 and then was heard the voice that no listener can ever forget because of its thunderous remoteness1 its incredible depth1 and its eldritch dissimilarity to ,charles ,ward's voice4 ,it shook the house1 and was clearly heard by at least two neighbors above the howling of the dogs4 ,mrs4 ,ward1 who had been listening in despair outside her son's locked laboratory1 shivered as she recognized its hellish import2 for ,charles had told her of its evil fame in dark books1 and of the manner in which it had thundered1 according to the ,fenner letters1 above the doomed ,pawtuxet farmhouse on the night of ,joseph ,curwen's annihilation4 ,there was no mistaking that nightmare phrase1 for ,charles had described it too vividly in the old days when he had talked frankly of his ,curwen investigations4 ,and yet it was only this fragment of an archaic and forgotten language3 ,,dies ,,mies ,,jeschet ,,boene ,,doesef ,,douvema ,,enitemaus4 ,close upon this thundering there came a momentary darkening of the daylight1 though sunset was still an hour distant1 and then a puff of added odor1 different from the first but equally unknown and intolerable4 ,charles was chanting again now and his mother could hear syllables that sounded like ,yi-ngah-,yog-,sothoth-he-lglb-fi-throda g--ending in a ,yah6 whose maniacal force mounted in an ear-splitting crescendo4 ,a second later all previous memories were effaced by the wailing scream which burst out with frantic explosiveness and gradually changed form to a paroxysm of diabolic and hysterical laughter4 ,mrs4 ,ward1 with the mingled fear and blind courage of maternity1 advanced and knocked affrightedly at the concealing panels1 but obtained no sign of recognition4 ,she knocked again1 but paused nervelessly as a second shriek arose1 this one unmistakably in the familiar voice of her son1 and sounding concurrently with the still bursting cachinnations of that other voice4 ,presently she fainted1 although she is still unable to recall the precise and immediate cause4 ,memory sometimes makes merciful deletions4 99 99 99 99 99 ,mr4 ,ward returned from the business section at about quarter past six2 and not finding his wife downstairs1 was told by the frightened servants that she was probably watching at ,charles' door1 from which the sounds had been far stranger than ever before4 ,mounting the stairs at once1 he saw ,mrs4 ,ward stretched at full length on the floor of the corridor outside the laboratory2 and realizing that she had fainted1 hastened to fetch a glass of water from a set bowl in a neighboring alcove4 ,dashing the cold fluid in her face1 he was heartened to observe an immediate response on her part1 and was watching the bewildered opening of her eyes when a chill shot through him and threatened to reduce him to the very state from which she was emerging4 ,for the seemingly silent laboratory was not as silent as it had appeared to be1 but held the murmurs of a tense1 muffled conversation in tones too low for comprehension1 yet of a quality profoundly disturbing to the soul4 ,it was not1 of course1 new for ,charles to mutter formulae2 but this muttering was definitely different4 ,it was so palpably a dialogue1 or imitation of a dialogue1 with the regular alternation of inflections suggesting question and answer1 statement and response4 ,one voice was undisguisedly that of ,charles1 but the other had a depth and hollowness which the youth's best powers of ceremonial mimicry had scarcely approached before4 ,there was something hideous1 blasphemous1 and abnormal about it1 and but for a cry from his recovering wife which cleared his mind by arousing his protective instincts1 it is not likely that ,theodore ,howland ,ward could have maintained for nearly a year more his old boast that he had never fainted4 ,as it was1 he seized his wife in his arms and bore her quickly downstairs before she could notice the voices which had so horribly disturbed him4 ,even so1 however1 he was not quick enough to escape catching something himself which caused him to stagger dangerously with his burden4 ,for ,mrs4 ,ward's cry had evidently been heard by others than he and there had come in response to it from behind the locked door the first distinguishable words which that hushed and terrible colloquy had yielded4 ,they were merely an excited caution in ,charles' own voice1 but somehow their implications held a nameless fright for the father who overheard them4 ,the phrase was just this3 ,sshh6--write6 ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,ward conferred at some length after dinner1 and the former resolved to have a firm and serious talk with ,charles that very night4 ,no matter how important the object1 such conduct could no longer be permitted2 for these latest developments transcended every limit of sanity and formed a menace to the order and nervous well-being of the entire household4 ,the youth must indeed have taken complete leave of his senses1 since only downright madness could have prompted the wild screams and imaginary conversations in assumed voices which the present day had brought forth4 ,all this must be stopped1 or ,mrs4 ,ward would be made ill and the keeping of servants become an impossibility4 99 99 99 99 99 ,mr4 ,ward rose at the close of the meal and started upstairs for ,charles' laboratory4 ,on the third floor1 however1 he paused at the sounds which he heard proceeding from the now disused library of his son4 ,books were apparently being flung about and papers wildly rustled1 and upon stepping to the door ,mr4 ,ward beheld the youth within1 excitedly assembling a vast armful of literary matter of every size and shape4 ,charles' aspect was very drawn and haggard1 and he dropped his entire load with a start at the sound of his father's voice4 ,at the elder man's command he sat down1 and for some time listened to the admonitions he had so long deserved4 ,there was no scene4 ,at the end of the lecture he agreed that his father was right1 and that his noises1 mutterings1 incantations1 and chemical odors were indeed inexcusable nuisances4 ,for the fright and fainting of his mother he expressed the keenest contrition1 and explained that the conversation later heard was part of an elaborate symbolism designed to create a certain mental atmosphere4 ,his use of abstruse chemical terms somewhat bewildered ,mr4 ,ward1 but the parting impression was one of undeniable sanity and poise1 despite a mysterious tension of the utmost gravity4 ,mr4 ,ward hardly knew what to make of the entire business4 ,it was as mysterious as the death of poor old ,nig1 whose stiffening form had been found an hour before in the basement1 with staring eyes and fear-distorted mouth4 ,driven by some vague detective instinct1 the bewildered parent now glanced curiously at the vacant shelves to see what his son had taken up to the attic4 ,the youth's library was plainly and rigidly classified1 so that one might tell at a glance the books or at least the kind of books which had been withdrawn4 ,on this occasion ,mr4 ,ward was astonished to find that nothing of the occult or the antiquarian1 beyond what had been previously removed1 was missing4 ,these new withdrawals were all modern items2 histories1 scientific treatises1 geographies1 manuals of literature1 philosophic works1 and certain contemporary newspapers and magazines4 ,it was a very curious shift from ,charles ,ward's recent run of reading1 and the father paused in a growing vortex of perplexity and an engulfing sense of strangeness4 ,the strangeness was a very poignant sensation1 and almost clawed at his chest as he strove to see just what was wrong around him4 ,something was indeed wrong1 and tangibly as well as spiritually so4 ,on the north wall rose still the ancient carved overmantel from the house in ,olney ,court1 but to the cracked and precariously restored oils of the large ,curwen portrait disaster had come4 ,time and unequal heating had done their work at last1 and at some time since the room's last cleaning the worst had happened4 ,peeling clear of the wood1 curling tighter and tighter1 and finally crumbling into small bits with what must have been malignly silent suddenness1 the portrait of ,joseph ,curwen had resigned for ever its staring surveillance of the youth it so strangely resembled1 and now lay scattered on the floor as a thin coating of fine bluish-gray dust4 #d4 ,a ,mutation and a ,madness ,in the week following that memorable ,good ,friday1 ,charles ,ward was seen more often than usual1 and was continually carrying books between his library and the attic laboratory4 ,his actions were quiet and rational1 but he had a furtive1 hunted look which his mother did not like1 and developed an incredibly ravenous appetite as gauged by his demands upon the cook4 ,dr4 ,willett had been told of those ,friday noises and happenings1 and on the following ,tuesday had a long conversation with the youth in the library where the picture stared no more4 ,the interview was1 as always1 inconclusive2 but ,willett is still ready to swear that the youth was sane and himself at the time4 ,he held out promises of an early revelation1 and spoke of the need of securing a laboratory elsewhere4 ,at the loss of the portrait he grieved singularly little considering his first enthusiasm over it1 but seemed to find something of positive humor in its sudden crumbling4 ,about the second week ,charles began to be absent from the house for long periods1 and one day when good old black ,hannah came to help with the spring cleaning she mentioned his frequent visits to the old house in ,olney ,court1 where he would come with a large valise and perform curious delvings in the cellar4 ,he was always very liberal to her and to old ,asa1 but seemed more worried than he used to be2 which grieved her very much1 since she had watched him grow up from birth4 ,another report of his doings came from ,pawtuxet1 where some friends of the family saw him at a distance a surprising number of times4 ,he seemed to haunt the resort and canoe-house of ,rhodes-on-the-,pawtuxet1 and subsequent inquiries by ,dr4 ,willett at that place brought out the fact that his purpose was always to secure access to the rather hedged-in river-bank1 along which he would walk toward the north1 usually not reappearing for a very long while4 ,later in ,may came a momentary revival of ritualistic sounds in the attic laboratory which brought a stern reproof from ,mr4 ,ward and a somewhat distracted promise of amendment from ,charles4 ,it occurred one morning1 and seemed to form a resumption of the imaginary conversation noted on that turbulent ,good ,friday4 ,the youth was arguing or remonstrating hotly with himself1 for there suddenly burst forth a perfectly distinguishable series of clashing shouts in differentiated tones like alternate demands and denials1 which caused ,mrs4 ,ward to run upstairs and listen at the door4 ,she could hear no more than a fragment whose only plain words were must have it red for three months1 and upon her knocking all sounds ceased at once4 ,when ,charles was later questioned by his father he said that there were certain conflicts of spheres of consciousness which only great skill could avoid1 but which he would try to transfer to other realms4 ,about the middle of ,june a queer nocturnal incident occurred4 ,in the early evening there had been some noise and thumping in the laboratory upstairs1 and ,mr4 ,ward was on the point of investigating when it suddenly quieted down4 ,that midnight1 after the family had retired1 the butler was nightlocking the front door when according to his statement ,charles appeared somewhat blunderingly and uncertainly at the foot of the stairs with a large suitcase and made signs that he wished egress4 ,the youth spoke no word1 but the worthy ,yorkshireman caught one sight of his fevered eyes and trembled causelessly4 ,he opened the door and young ,ward went out1 but in the morning he presented his resignation to ,mrs4 ,ward4 ,there was1 he said1 something unholy in the glance ,charles had fixed on him4 ,it was no way for a young gentleman to look at an honest person1 and he could not possibly stay another night4 ,mrs4 ,ward allowed the man to depart1 but she did not value his statement highly4 ,to fancy ,charles in a savage state that night was quite ridiculous1 for as long as she had remained awake she had heard faint sounds from the laboratory above2 sounds as if of sobbing and pacing1 and of a sighing which told only of despair's profoundest depths4 ,mrs4 ,ward had grown used to listening for sounds in the night1 for the mystery of her son was fast driving all else from her mind4 ,the next evening1 much as on another evening nearly three months before1 ,charles ,ward seized the newspaper very early and accidentally lost the main section4 ,this matter was not recalled till later1 when ,dr4 ,willett began checking up loose ends and searching out missing links here and there4 ,in the ,journal office he found the section which ,charles had lost1 and marked two items as of possible significance4 ,they were as follows3 ,more ,cemetery ,delving ,it was this morning discovered by ,robert ,hart1 night watchman at the ,north ,burial ground1 that ghouls were again at work in the ancient portion of the cemetery4 ,the grave of ,ezra ,weeden1 who was born in #agdj and died in #ahbd according to his uprooted and savagely splintered slate headstone1 was found excavated and rifled1 the work being evidently done with a spade stolen from an adjacent tool shed4 ,whatever the contents may have been after more than a century of burial1 all was gone except a few slivers of decayed wood4 ,there were no wheel tracks1 but the police have measured a single set of footprints which they found in the vicinity1 and which indicate the boots of a man of refinement4 ,hart is inclined to link this incident with the digging discovered last ,march1 when a party in a motor truck were frightened away after making a deep excavation2 but ,sergeant ,riley of the ,second ,station discounts this theory and points to vital differences in the two cases4 ,in ,march the digging had been in a spot where no grave was known2 but this time a well-marked and cared-for grave had been rifled with every evidence of deliberate purpose and with a conscious malignity expressed in the splintering of the slab which had been intact up to the day before4 ,members of the ,weeden family1 notified of the happening1 expressed their astonishment and regret2 and were wholly unable to think of any enemy who would care to violate the grave of their ancestor4 ,hazard ,weeden of #eih ,angell ,street recalls a family legend according to which ,ezra ,weeden was involved in some very peculiar circumstances1 not dishonourable to himself1 shortly before the ,revolution2 but of any modern feud or mystery he is frankly ignorant4 ,inspector ,cunningham has been assigned to the case1 and hopes to uncover some valuable clues in the near future4 ,dogs ,noisy in ,pawtuxet ,residents of ,pawtuxet were aroused about three ,a4,m4 today by a phenomenal baying of dogs which seemed to centre near the river just north of ,rhodes-on-the-,pawtuxet4 ,the volume and quality of the howling were unusually odd1 according to most who heard it2 and ,fred ,lemdin1 night watchman at ,rhodes1 declares it was mixed with something very like the shrieks of a man in mortal terror and agony4 ,a sharp and very brief thunderstorm1 which seemed to strike somewhere near the bank of the river1 put an end to the disturbance4 ,strange and unpleasant odours1 probably from the oil tanks along the bay1 are popularly linked with this incident2 and may have had their share in exciting the dogs4 ,the aspect of ,charles now became very haggard and hunted1 and all agree in retrospect that he may have wished at this period to make some statement or confession from which sheer terror withheld him4 ,the morbid listening of his mother in the night brought out the fact that he made frequent sallies abroad under cover of darkness1 and most of the more academic alienists unite at present in charging him with the revolting cases of vampirism which the press so sensationally reported about this time1 but which have not yet been definitely traced to any known perpetrator4 ,these cases1 too recent and celebrated to need detailed mention1 involved victims of every age and type and seemed to cluster around two distinct localities2 the residential hill and the ,north ,end1 near the ,ward home1 and the suburban districts across the ,cranston line near ,pawtuxet4 ,both late wayfarers and sleepers with open windows were attacked1 and those who lived to tell the tale spoke unanimously of a lean1 lithe1 leaping monster with burning eyes which fastened its teeth in the throat or upper arm and feasted ravenously4 ,illustration3 ,these cases of ,vampirism involved victims of every age and type4 ,dr4 ,willett1 who refuses to date the madness of ,charles ,ward as far back as even this1 is cautious in attempting to explain these horrors4 ,he has1 he declares1 certain theories of his own2 and limits his positive statements to a peculiar kind of negation4 ,i will not1 he says1 state who or what ,i believe perpetrated these attacks and murders1 but ,i will declare that ,charles ,ward was innocent of them4 ,i have reason to be sure he was ignorant of the taste of blood1 as indeed his continued anaemic decline and increasing pallor prove better than any verbal argument4 ,ward meddled with terrible things1 but he has paid for it1 and he was never a monster or a villain4 ,as for now1 ,i don't like to think4 ,a change came1 and ,i'm content to believe that the old ,charles ,ward died with it4 ,his soul did1 anyhow1 for that mad flesh that vanished from ,waite's hospital had another4 ,willett speaks with authority1 for he was often at the ,ward home attending ,mrs4 ,ward1 whose nerves had begun to snap under the strain4 ,her nocturnal listening had bred some morbid hallucinations which she confided to the doctor with hesitancy1 and which he ridiculed in talking to her1 although they made him ponder deeply when alone4 ,these delusions always concerned the faint sounds which she fancied she heard in the attic laboratory and bedroom1 and emphasized the occurrence of muffled sighs and sobbings at the most impossible times4 ,early in ,july ,willett ordered ,mrs4 ,ward to ,atlantic ,city for an indefinite recuperative sojourn1 and cautioned both ,mr4 ,ward and the haggard and elusive ,charles to write her only cheering letters4 ,it is probably to this enforced and reluctant escape that she owes her life and continued sanity4 99 99 99 99 99 ,not long after his mother's departure ,charles ,ward began negotiating for the ,pawtuxet bungalow4 ,it was a squalid little wooden edifice with a concrete garage1 perched high on the sparsely settled bank of the river slightly above ,rhodes1 but for some odd reason the youth would have nothing else4 ,he gave the real-estate agencies no peace till one of them secured it for him at an exorbitant price from a somewhat reluctant owner1 and as soon as it was vacant he took possession under cover of darkness1 transporting in a great closed van the entire contents of his attic laboratory1 including the books both weird and modern which he had borrowed from his study4 ,he had this van loaded in the black small hours1 and his father recalls only a drowsy realization of stifled oaths and stamping feet on the night the goods were taken away4 ,after that ,charles moved back to his own old quarters on the third floor1 and never haunted the attic again4 ,to the ,pawtuxet bungalow ,charles transferred all the secrecy with which he had surrounded his attic realm1 save that he now appeared to have two sharers of his mysteries2 a villainous-looking ,portuguese half-caste from the ,south ,main ,street ,waterfront who acted as a servant1 and a thin scholarly stranger with dark glasses and a stubbly full beard of dyed aspect whose status was evidently that of a colleague4 ,neighbors vainly tried to engage these odd persons in conversation4 ,the mulatto1 ,gomes1 spoke very little ,english1 and the bearded man who gave his name as ,dr4 ,allen voluntarily followed his example4 ,ward himself tried to be more affable1 but succeeded only in provoking curiosity with his rambling accounts of chemical research4 ,before long queer tales began to circulate regarding the all-night burning of lights2 and somewhat later1 after this burning had suddenly ceased1 there rose still queerer tales of disproportionate orders of meat from the butcher's and of the muffled shouting1 declamation1 rhythmic chanting1 and screaming supposed to come from some very deep cellar below the place4 ,most distinctly the new and strange household was bitterly disliked by the honest bourgeoisie of the vicinity1 and it is not remarkable that dark hints were advanced connecting the hated establishment with the current epidemic of vampiristic attacks and murders2 especially since the radius of that plague seemed now confined wholly to ,pawtuxet and the adjacent streets of ,edgewood4 ,ward spent most of his time at the bungalow1 but slept occasionally at home and was still reckoned a dweller beneath his father's roof4 ,twice he was absent from the city on week-long trips1 whose destinations have not yet been discovered4 ,he grew steadily paler and more emaciated even than before1 and lacked some of his former assurance when repeating to ,dr4 ,willett his old1 old story of vital research and future revelations4 ,willett often waylaid him at his father's house1 for the elder ,ward was deeply worried and perplexed1 and wished his son to get as much sound oversight as could be managed in the case of so secretive and independent an adult4 ,the doctor still insists that the youth was sane even as late as this1 and adduces many a conversation to prove his point4 ,about ,september the vampirism declined1 but in the following ,january1 ,ward almost became involved in serious trouble4 ,for some time the nocturnal arrival and departure of motor trucks at the ,pawtuxet bungalow had been commented upon1 and at this juncture an unforeseen hitch exposed the nature of at least one item of their contents4 ,in a lonely spot near ,hope ,valley had occurred one of the frequent sordid waylayings of trucks by hi-jackers in quest of liquor shipments1 but this time the robbers had been destined to receive the greater shock4 ,for the long cases they seized proved upon opening to contain some exceedingly gruesome things2 so gruesome1 in fact1 that the matter could not be kept quiet amongst the denizens of the underworld4 ,the thieves had hastily buried what they discovered1 but when the ,state ,police got wind of the matter a careful search was made4 ,a recently arrested vagrant1 under promise of immunity from prosecution on any additional charge1 at last consented to guide a party of troopers to the spot2 and there was found in that hasty cache a very hideous and shameful thing4 ,it would not be well for the national--or even the international--sense of decorum if the public were ever to know what was uncovered by that awestruck party4 ,there was no mistaking it1 even by these far from studious officers2 and telegrams to ,washington ensued with feverish rapidity4 ,the cases were addressed to ,charles ,ward at his ,pawtuxet bungalow1 and ,state and ,federal officials at once paid him a very forceful and serious call4 ,they found him pallid and worried with his two odd companions1 and received from him what seemed to be a valid explanation and evidence of innocence4 ,he had needed certain anatomical specimens as part of a program of research whose depth and genuineness anyone who had known him in the last decade could prove1 and had ordered the required kind and number from agencies which he had thought as reasonably legitimate as such things can be4 ,of the identity of the specimens he had known absolutely nothing1 and was properly shocked when the inspectors hinted at the monstrous effect on public sentiment and national dignity which a knowledge of the matter would produce4 ,in this statement he was firmly sustained by his bearded colleague ,dr4 ,allen1 whose oddly hollow voice carried even more conviction than his own nervous tones2 so that in the end the officials took no action1 but carefully set down the ,new ,york name and address which ,ward gave them as a basis for a search which came to nothing4 ,it is only fair to add that the specimens were quickly and quietly restored to their proper places1 and that the general public will never know of their blasphemous disturbance4 99 99 99 99 99 ,on ,february #i1 #aibh1 ,dr4 ,willett received a letter from ,charles ,ward which he considers of extraordinary importance1 and about which he has frequently quarreled with ,dr4 ,lyman4 ,lyman believes that this note contains positive proof of a well-developed case of dementia praecox1 but ,willett on the other hand regards it as the last perfectly sane utterance of the hapless youth4 ,he calls especial attention to the normal character of the penmanship2 which though shewing traces of shattered nerves1 is nevertheless distinctly ,ward's own4 ,the text in full is as follows3 #ajj ,prospect ,st41 ,providence1 ,r4 ,i41 ,march #h1 #aibh4 ,dear ,dr4 ,willett-- ,i feel that at last the time has come for me to make the disclosures which ,i have so long promised you1 and for which you have pressed me so often4 ,the patience you have shewn in waiting1 and the confidence you have shewn in my mind and integrity1 are things ,i shall never cease to appreciate4 ,and now that ,i am ready to speak1 ,i must own with humiliation that no triumph such as ,i dreamed of can ever be mine4 ,instead of triumph ,i have found terror1 and my talk with you will not be a boast of victory but a plea for help and advice in saving both myself and the world from a horror beyond all human conception or calculation4 ,you recall what those ,fenner letters said of the old raiding party at ,pawtuxet4 ,that must all be done again1 and quickly4 ,upon us depends more than can be put into words--all civilisation1 all natural law1 perhaps even the fate of the solar system and the universe4 ,i have brought to light a monstrous abnormality1 but ,i did it for the sake of knowledge4 ,now for the sake of all life and nature you must help me thrust it back into the dark again4 ,i have left that ,pawtuxet place forever1 and we must extirpate everything existing there1 alive or dead4 ,i shall not go there again1 and you must not believe it if you ever hear that ,i am there4 ,i will tell you why ,i say this when ,i see you4 ,i have come home for good1 and wish you would call on me at the very first moment that you can spare five or six hours continuously to hear what ,i have to say4 ,it will take that long--and believe me when ,i tell you that you never had a more genuine professional duty than this4 ,my life and reason are the very least things which hang in the balance4 ,i dare not tell my father1 for he could not grasp the whole thing4 ,but ,i have told him of my danger1 and he has four men from a detective agency watching the house4 ,i don't know how much good they can do1 for they have against them forces which even you could scarcely envisage or acknowledge4 ,so come quickly if you wish to see me alive and hear how you may help to save the cosmos from stark hell4 ,any time will do--,i shall not be out of the house4 ,don't telephone ahead1 for there is no telling who or what may try to intercept you4 ,and let us pray to whatever gods there be that nothing may prevent this meeting4 ,in utmost gravity and desperation1 ,charles ,dexter ,ward4 ,p4 ,s4--,shoot ,dr4 ,allen on sight and dissolve his body in acid4 ,don't burn it4 ,dr4 ,willett received this note about ten-thirty a4m41 and immediately arranged to spare the whole late afternoon and evening for the momentous talk1 letting it extend on into the night as long as might be necessary4 ,he planned to arrive about four o'clock1 and through all the intervening hours was so engulfed in every sort of wild speculation that most of his tasks were very mechanically performed4 ,maniacal as the letter would have sounded to a stranger1 ,willett had seen too much of ,charles ,ward's oddities to dismiss it as sheer raving4 ,that something very subtle1 ancient1 and horrible was hovering about he felt quite sure1 and the reference to ,dr4 ,allen could almost be comprehended in view of what ,pawtuxet gossip said of ,ward's enigmatical colleague4 ,willett had never seen the man1 but had heard much of his aspect and bearing1 and could not but wonder what sort of eyes those much-discussed dark glasses might conceal4 ,promptly at four ,dr4 ,willett presented himself at the ,ward residence1 but found to his annoyance that ,charles had not adhered to his determination to remain indoors4 ,the guards were there1 but said that the young man seemed to have lost part of his timidity4 ,he had that morning done much apparently frightened arguing and protesting over the telephone1 one of the detectives said1 replying to some unknown voice with phrases such as ,i am very tired and must rest awhile1 ,i can't receive anyone for some time1 you'll have to excuse me1 ,please postpone decisive action till we can arrange some sort of compromise1 or ,i am very sorry1 but ,i must take a complete vacation from everything2 ,i'll talk with you later4 ,then1 apparently gaining boldness through meditation1 he had slipped out so quietly that no one had seen him depart or knew that he had gone until he returned about one o'clock and entered the house without a word4 ,he had gone upstairs1 where a bit of his fear must have surged back2 for he was heard to cry out in a high terrified fashion upon entering his library1 afterward trailing off into a kind of choking gasp4 ,when1 however1 the butler had gone to inquire what the trouble was1 he had appeared at the door with a great show of boldness1 and had silently gestured the man away in a manner that terrified him unaccountably4 ,then he had evidently done some rearranging of his shelves1 for a great clattering and thumping and creaking ensued2 after which he had reappeared and left at once4 ,willett inquired whether or not any message had been left1 but was told that there was none4 ,the butler seemed queerly disturbed about something in ,charles' appearance and manner1 and asked solicitously if there was much hope for a cure of his disordered nerves4 ,for almost two hours ,dr4 ,willett waited vainly in ,charles ,ward's library1 watching the dusty shelves with their wide gaps where books had been removed1 and smiling grimly at the paneled overmantel on the north wall1 whence a year before the suave features of old ,joseph ,curwen had looked mildly down4 ,after a time the shadows began to gather1 and the sunset cheer gave place to a vague growing terror which flew shadow-like before the night4 ,mr4 ,ward finally arrived1 and showed much surprise and anger at his son's absence after all the pains which had been taken to guard him4 ,he had not known of ,charles' appointment1 and promised to notify ,willett when the youth returned4 ,in bidding the doctor good night he expressed his utter perplexity at his son's condition1 and urged his caller to do all he could to restore the boy to normal poise4 ,willett was glad to escape from that library1 for something frightful and unholy seemed to haunt it2 as if the vanished picture had left behind a legacy of evil4 ,he had never liked that picture2 and even now1 strong-nerved though he was1 there lurked a quality in its vacant panel which made him feel an urgent need to get out into the pure air as soon as possible4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the next morning ,willett received a message from the senior ,ward1 saying that ,charles was still absent4 ,mr4 ,ward mentioned that ,dr4 ,allen had telephoned him to say that ,charles would remain at ,pawtuxet for some time1 and that he must not be disturbed4 ,this was necessary because ,allen himself was suddenly called away for an indefinite period1 leaving the researches in need of ,charles' constant oversight4 ,charles sent his best wishes1 and regretted any bother his abrupt change of plans might have caused4 ,in listening to this message ,mr4 ,ward heard ,dr4 ,allen's voice for the first time1 and it seemed to excite some vague and elusive memory which could not be actually placed1 but which was disturbing to the point of fearfulness4 ,faced by these baffling and contradictory reports1 ,dr4 ,willett was frankly at a loss what to do4 ,the frantic earnestness of ,charles' note was not to be denied1 yet what could one think of its writer's immediate violation of his own expressed policy8 ,young ,ward had written that his delvings had become blasphemous and menacing1 that they and his bearded colleague must be extirpated at any cost1 and that he himself would never return to their final scene2 yet according to latest advices he had forgotten all this and was back in the thick of the mystery4 ,common sense bade one leave the youth alone with his freakishness1 yet some deeper instinct would not permit the impression of that frenzied letter to subside4 ,willett read it over again1 and could not make its essence sound as empty and insane as both its bombastic verbiage and its lack of fulfilment would seem to imply4 ,its terror was too profound and real1 and in conjunction with what the doctor already knew evoked too vivid hints of monstrosities from beyond time and space1 to permit of any cynical explanation4 ,there were nameless horrors abroad2 and no matter how little one might be able to get at them1 one ought to stand prepared for any sort of action at any time4 ,for over a week ,dr4 ,willett pondered on the dilemma which seemed thrust upon him1 and became more and more inclined to pay ,charles a call at the ,pawtuxet bungalow4 ,no friend of the youth had ever ventured to storm this forbidden retreat1 and even his father knew of its interior only from such descriptions as he chose to give2 but ,willett felt that some direct conversation with his patient was necessary4 ,mr4 ,ward had been receiving brief and non-committal typed notes from his son1 and said that ,mrs4 ,ward in her ,atlantic ,city retirement had had no better word4 ,so at length the doctor resolved to act2 and despite a curious sensation inspired by old legends of ,joseph ,curwen1 and by more recent revelations and warnings from ,charles ,ward1 set boldly out for the bungalow on the bluff above the river4 ,willett had visited the spot before through sheer curiosity1 though of course never entering the house or proclaiming his presence2 hence knew exactly the route to take4 ,driving out ,broad ,street one early afternoon toward the end of ,february in his small motor1 he thought oddly of the grim party which had taken that selfsame road a hundred and fifty-seven years before1 on a terrible errand which none might ever comprehend4 ,the ride through the city's decaying fringe was short1 and trim ,edgewood and sleepy ,pawtuxet presently spread out ahead4 ,willett turned to the right down ,lockwood ,street and drove his car as far along that rural road as he could1 then alighted and walked north to where the bluff towered above the lovely bends of the river and the sweep of misty downlands beyond4 ,houses were still few here1 and there was no mistaking the isolated bungalow with its concrete garage on a high point of land at his left4 ,stepping briskly up the neglected gravel walk he rapped at the door with a firm hand1 and spoke without a tremor to the evil ,portuguese mulatto who opened it to the width of a crack4 ,he must1 he said1 see ,charles ,ward at once on vitally important business4 ,no excuse would be accepted1 and a repulse would mean only a full report of the matter to the elder ,ward4 ,the mulatto still hesitated1 and pushed against the door when ,willett attempted to open it2 but the doctor merely raised his voice and renewed his demands4 ,then there came from the dark interior a husky whisper which somehow chilled the hearer through and through1 though he did not know why he feared it4 ,let him in1 ,tony1 it said1 we may as well talk now as ever4 ,but disturbing as was the whisper1 the greater fear was that which immediately followed4 ,the floor creaked and the speaker hove in sight--and the owner of those strange and resonant tones was seen to be no other than ,charles ,dexter ,ward4 ,the minuteness with which ,dr4 ,willett recalled and recorded his conversation of that afternoon is due to the importance he assigns to this particular period4 ,for at last he concedes a vital change in ,charles ,dexter ,ward's mentality1 and believes that the youth now spoke from a brain hopelessly alien to the brain whose growth he had watched for six and twenty years4 ,controversy with ,dr4 ,lyman has compelled him to be very specific1 and he definitely dates the madness of ,charles ,ward from the time the typewritten notes began to reach his parents4 ,those notes are not in ,ward's normal style2 not even in the style of that last frantic letter to ,willett4 ,instead1 they are strange and archaic1 as if the snapping of the writer's mind had released a flood of tendencies and impressions picked up unconsciously through boyhood antiquarianism4 ,there is an obvious effort to be modern1 but the spirit and occasionally the language are those of the past4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the past1 too1 was evident in ,ward's every tone and gesture as he received the doctor in that shadowy bungalow4 ,he bowed1 motioned ,willett to a seat1 and began to speak abruptly in that strange whisper which he sought to explain at the very outset4 ,i am grown phthisical1 he began1 from this cursed river air4 ,you must excuse my speech4 ,i suppose you are come from my father to see what ails me1 and ,i hope you will say nothing to alarm him4 ,willett was studying these scraping tones with extreme care1 but studying even more closely the face of the speaker4 ,something1 he felt1 was wrong2 and he thought of what the family had told him about the fright of that ,yorkshire butler one night4 ,he wished it were not so dark1 but did not request that any blind be opened4 ,instead1 he merely asked ,ward why he had so belied the frantic note of little more than a week before4 ,i was coming to that1 the host replied4 ,you must know1 ,i am in a very bad state of nerves1 and do and say queer things ,i cannot account for4 ,as ,i have told you often1 ,i am on the edge of great matters2 and the bigness of them has a way of making me light-headed4 ,any man might well be frighted of what ,i have found1 but ,i am not to be put off for long4 ,i was a dunce to have that guard and stick at home2 for having gone this far1 my place is here4 ,i am not well spoke of by my prying neighbors1 and perhaps ,i was led by weakness to believe myself what they say of me4 ,there is no evil to any in what ,i do1 so long as ,i do it rightly4 ,have the goodness to wait six months1 and ,i'll show you what will pay your patience well4 ,you may as well know ,i have a way of learning old matters from things surer than books1 and ,i'll leave you to judge the importance of what ,i can give to history1 philosophy1 and the arts by reason of the doors ,i have access to4 ,my ancestor had all this when those witless peeping ,toms came and murdered him4 ,i now have it again1 or am coming very imperfectly to have a part of it4 ,this time nothing must happen1 and least of all through any idiot fears of my own4 ,pray forget all ,i writ you1 ,sir1 and have no fear of this place or any in it4 ,dr4 ,allen is a man of fine parts1 and ,i owe him an apology for anything ill ,i have said of him4 ,i wish ,i had no need to spare him1 but there were things he had to do elsewhere4 ,his zeal is equal to mine in all those matters1 and ,i suppose that when ,i feared the work ,i feared him too as my greatest helper in it4 ,ward paused1 and the doctor hardly knew what to say or think4 ,he felt almost foolish in the face of this calm repudiation of the letter2 and yet there clung to him the fact that while the present discourse was strange and alien and indubitably mad1 the note itself had been tragic in its naturalness and likeness to the ,charles ,ward he knew4 ,willett now tried to turn the talk on early matters1 and recall to the youth some past events which would restore a familiar mood2 but in this process he obtained only the most grotesque results4 ,it was the same with all the alienists later on4 ,important sections of ,charles ,ward's store of mental images1 mainly those touching modern times and his own personal life1 had been unaccountably expunged2 while all the massed antiquarianism of his youth had welled up from some profound subconsciousness to engulf the contemporary and the individual4 ,the youth's ultimate knowledge of elder things was abnormal and unholy1 and he tried his best to hide it4 ,when ,willett would mention some favorite object of his boyhood archaistic studies he often shed by pure accident such a light as no normal mortal could conceivably be expected to possess1 and the doctor shuddered as the glib allusion glided by4 ,it was not wholesome to know so much about the way the fat sheriff's wig fell off as he leaned over at the play in ,mr4 ,douglass' ,histrionick ,academy in ,king ,street on the eleventh of ,february1 #agfb1 which fell of a ,thursday2 or about how the actors cut the text of ,steele's ,conscious ,lover so badly that one was almost glad the ,baptist-ridden legislature closed the theater a fortnight later4 ,that ,thomas ,sabin's ,boston coach was damn'd uncomfortable old letters may well have told2 but what healthy antiquarian could recall how the creaking of ,epenetus ,olney's new signboard 7the gaudy ,crown he set up after he took to calling his tavern the ,crown ,coffee ,house7 was exactly like the first few notes of the new jazz piece all the radios in ,pawtuxet were playing8 ,ward1 however1 would not be quizzed long in this vein4 ,modern and personal topics he waved aside quite summarily1 whilst regarding antique affairs he soon shewed the plainest boredom4 ,what he wished clearly enough was only to satisfy his visitor enough to make him depart without the intention of returning4 ,to this end he offered to shew ,willett the entire house1 and at once proceeded to lead the doctor through every room from cellar to attic4 ,willett looked sharply1 but noted that the visible books were far too few and trivial ever to have filled the wide gaps on ,ward's shelves at home1 and that the meager so-called laboratory was the flimsiest sort of a blind4 ,clearly1 there were a library and a laboratory elsewhere2 but just where1 it was impossible to say4 ,essentially defeated in his quest for something he could not name1 ,willett returned to town before evening and told the senior ,ward everything which had occurred4 ,they agreed that the youth must be definitely out of his mind1 but decided that nothing drastic need be done just then4 ,above all1 ,mrs4 ,ward must be kept in as complete an ignorance as her son's own strange typed notes would permit4 99 99 99 99 99 ,mr4 ,ward now determined to call in person upon his son1 making it wholly a surprise visit4 ,dr4 ,willett took him in his car one evening1 guiding him to within sight of the bungalow and waiting patiently for his return4 ,the session was a long one1 and the father emerged in a very saddened and perplexed state4 ,his reception had developed much like ,willett's1 save that ,charles had been an excessively long time in appearing after the visitor had forced his way into the hall and sent the ,portuguese away with an imperative demand2 and in the bearing of the altered son there was no trace of filial affection4 ,the lights had been dim1 yet even so the youth had complained that they dazzled him outrageously4 ,he had not spoke out loud at all1 averring that his throat was in a very poor condition2 but in his hoarse whisper there was a quality so vaguely disturbing that ,mr4 ,ward could not banish it from his mind4 ,now definitely leagued together to do all they could toward the youth's mental salvation1 ,mr4 ,ward and ,dr4 ,willett set about collecting every scrap of data which the case might afford4 ,pawtuxet gossip was the first item they studied1 and this was relatively easy to glean since both had friends in that region4 ,dr4 ,willett obtained the most rumors because people talked more frankly to him than to a parent of the central figure1 and from all he heard he could tell that young ,ward's life had become indeed a strange one4 ,common tongues would not dissociate his household from the vampirism of the previous summer1 while the nocturnal comings and goings of the motor trucks provided their share of dark speculation4 ,local tradesmen spoke of the queerness of the orders brought them by the evil-looking mulatto1 and in particular of the inordinate amounts of meat and fresh blood secured from the two butcher shops in the immediate neighborhood4 ,for a household of only three1 these quantities were quite absurd4 ,then there was the matter of the sounds beneath the earth4 ,reports of these things were harder to pin down1 but all the vague hints tallied in certain basic essentials4 ,noises of a ritual nature positively existed1 and at times when the bungalow was dark4 ,they might1 of course1 have come from the known cellar2 but rumor insisted that there were deeper and more spreading crypts4 ,recalling the ancient tales of ,joseph ,curwen's catacombs1 and assuming for granted that the present bungalow had been selected because of its situation on the old ,curwen site as revealed in one or another of the documents found behind the picture1 ,willett and ,mr4 ,ward gave this phase of the gossip much attention2 and searched many times without success for the door in the river bank which old manuscripts mentioned4 ,as to popular opinions of the bungalow's various inhabitants1 it was soon plain that the ,brava ,portuguese was loathed1 the bearded and spectacled ,dr4 ,allen feared1 and the pallid young scholar disliked to a profound extent4 ,during the last week or two ,ward had obviously changed much1 abandoning his attempts at affability and speaking only in hoarse but oddly repellent whispers on the few occasions that he ventured forth4 ,such were the shreds and fragments gathered here and there2 and over these ,mr4 ,ward and ,dr4 ,willett held many long and serious conferences4 ,they strove to exercise deduction1 induction1 and constructive imagination to their utmost extent2 and to correlate every known fact of ,charles' later life1 including the frantic letter which the doctor now shewed the father1 with the meager documentary evidence available concerning old ,joseph ,curwen4 ,they would have given much for a glimpse of the papers ,charles had found1 for very clearly the key to the youth's madness lay in what he had learned of the ancient wizard and his doings4 ,and yet1 after all1 it was from no step of ,mr4 ,ward's or ,dr4 ,willett's that the next move in this singular case proceeded4 ,the father and the physician1 rebuffed and confused by a shadow too shapeless and intangible to combat1 had rested uneasily on their oars while the typed notes of young ,ward to his parents grew fewer and fewer4 ,then came the first of the month with its customary financial adjustments1 and the clerks at certain banks began a peculiar shaking of heads and telephoning from one to the other4 ,officials who knew ,charles ,ward by sight went down to the bungalow to ask why every cheque of his appearing at this juncture was a clumsy forgery1 and were reassured less than they ought to have been when the youth hoarsely explained that his hand had lately been so much affected by a nervous shock as to make normal writing impossible4 ,he could1 he said1 form no written characters at all except with great difficulty2 and could prove it by the fact that he had been forced to type all his recent letters1 even those to his father and mother1 who would bear out the assertion4 ,what made the investigators pause in confusion was not this circumstance alone1 for that was nothing unprecedented or fundamentally suspicious2 nor even the ,pawtuxet gossip1 of which one or two of them had caught echoes4 ,it was the muddled discourse of the young man which nonplussed them1 implying as it did a virtually total loss of memory concerning important monetary matters which he had had at his fingertips only a month or two before4 ,something was wrong2 for despite the apparent coherence and rationality of his speech1 there could be no normal reason for this ill-concealed blankness on vital points4 ,moreover1 although none of these men knew ,ward well1 they could not help observing the change in his language and manner4 ,they had heard he was an antiquarian1 but even the most hopeless antiquarians do not make daily use of obsolete phraseology and gestures4 ,altogether1 this combination of hoarseness1 palsied hands1 bad memory1 and altered speech and bearing must represent some disturbance or malady of genuine gravity1 which1 no doubt1 formed the basis of the prevailing odd rumors2 and after their departure the party of officials decided that a talk with the senior ,ward was imperative4 99 99 99 99 99 ,so on the sixth of ,march1 #aibh1 there was a long and serious conference in ,mr4 ,ward's office1 after which the utterly bewildered father summoned ,dr4 ,willett in a kind of helpless resignation4 ,willett looked over the strained and awkward signatures of the cheques1 and compared them in his mind with the penmanship of that last frantic note4 ,certainly1 the change was radical and profound1 and yet there was something damnably familiar about the new writing4 ,it had crabbed and archaic tendencies of a very curious sort1 and seemed to result from a type of stroke utterly different from that which the youth had always used4 ,it was strange--but where had he seen it before8 ,on the whole1 it was obvious that ,charles was insane4 ,of that there could be no doubt4 ,and since it appeared unlikely that he could handle his property or continue to deal with the outside world much longer1 something must quickly be done toward his oversight and possible cure4 ,it was then that the alienists were called in1 ,drs4 ,peck and ,waite of ,providence and ,dr4 ,lyman of ,boston1 to whom ,mr4 ,ward and ,dr4 ,willett gave the most exhaustive possible history of the case1 and who conferred at length in the now unused library of their young patient1 examining what books and papers of his were left in order to gain some further notion of his habitual mental cast4 ,after scanning this material and examining the meaningless note to ,willett1 they all agreed that ,charles ,ward's studies had been enough to unseat or at least to warp any ordinary intellect1 and wished most heartily that they could see his more intimate volumes and documents2 but this latter they knew they could do1 if at all1 only after a scene at the bungalow itself4 ,willett now reviewed the whole case with febrile energy2 it being at this time that he obtained the statements of the workmen who had seen ,charles find the ,curwen documents1 and that he collated the incidents of the destroyed newspaper items1 looking up the latter at the ,journal office4 ,on ,thursday1 the eighth of ,march1 ,drs4 ,willett1 ,peck1 ,lyman and ,waite1 accompanied by ,mr4 ,ward1 paid the youth their momentous call2 making no concealment of their object and questioning the now acknowledged patient with extreme minuteness4 ,charles1 though he was ordinately long in answering the summons and was still redolent of strange and noxious laboratory odors when he did finally make his agitated appearance1 proved a far from recalcitrant subject2 and admitted freely that his memory and balance had suffered somewhat from close application to abstruse studies4 ,he offered no resistance when his removal to other quarters was insisted upon2 and seemed1 indeed1 to display a high degree of intelligence as apart from mere memory4 ,his conduct would have sent his interviewers away in bafflement had not the persistently archaic trend of his speech and the unmistakable replacement of modern by ancient ideas in his consciousness marked him out as one definitely removed from the normal4 ,of his work he would say no more to the group of doctors than he had formerly said to his family and to ,dr4 ,willett1 and his frantic note of the previous month he dismissed as mere nerves and hysteria4 ,he insisted that the shadowy bungalow possessed no library or laboratory beyond the visible ones1 and waxed abstruse in explaining the absence from the house of such odors as now saturated all his clothing4 ,neighborhood gossip he attributed to nothing more than the cheap inventiveness of baffled curiosity4 ,of the whereabouts of ,dr4 ,allen he said he did not feel at liberty to speak definitely1 but assured his inquisitors that the bearded and spectacled man would return when needed4 ,in paying off the stolid ,brava who resisted all questioning by the visitors1 and in closing the bungalow which still seemed to hold such nighted secrets1 ,ward shewed no sign of nervousness save a barely noticed tendency to pause as though listening for something very faint4 ,he was apparently animated by a calmly philosophic resignation1 as if his removal were the merest transient incident which would cause the least trouble if facilitated and disposed of once and for all4 ,it was clear that he trusted to his obviously unimpaired keenness of absolute mentality to overcome all the embarrassments into which his twisted memory1 his lost voice and handwriting1 and his secretive and eccentric behavior had led him4 ,his mother1 it was agreed1 was not to be told of the change2 his father supplying typed notes in his name4 ,ward was taken to the restfully and picturesquely situated private hospital maintained by ,dr4 ,waite on ,conanicut ,island in the bay1 and subjected to the closest scrutiny and questioning by all the physicians connected with the case4 ,it was then that the physical oddities were noticed2 the slackened metabolism1 the altered skin1 and the disproportionate neural reactions4 ,dr4 ,willett was the most perturbed of the various examiners1 for he had attended ,ward all his life and could appreciate with terrible keenness the extent of his physical disorganization4 ,even the familiar olive-mark on his hip was gone1 while on his chest was a great black mole or cicatrice which had never been there before1 and which made ,willett wonder whether the youth had ever submitted to any of the witch markings reputed to be inflicted at certain unwholesome nocturnal meetings in wild and lonely places4 ,the doctor could not keep his mind off a certain transcribed witch-trial record from ,salem which ,charles had shewn him in the old non-secretive days1 and which read3 ,mr4 ,g4 ,b4 on that ,nighte putt ye ,divell his ,marke upon ,bridget ,s41 ,jonathan ,a41 ,simon ,o41 ,deliverance ,w41 ,joseph ,c41 ,susan ,p41 ,mehitable ,c41 and ,deborah ,b4 ,ward's face1 too1 troubled him horribly1 till at length he suddenly discovered why he was horrified4 ,above the young man's right eye was something which he had never previously noticed--a small scar or pit precisely like that in the crumbled painting of old ,joseph ,curwen1 and perhaps attesting some hideous ritualistic inoculation to which both had submitted at a certain stage of their occult careers4 ,while ,ward himself was puzzling all the doctors at the hospital1 a very strict watch was kept on all mail addressed either to him or to ,dr4 ,allen1 which ,mr4 ,ward had ordered delivered at the family home4 ,willett had predicted that very little would be found1 since any communications of a vital nature would probably have been exchanged by messenger2 but in the latter part of ,march there did come a letter from ,prague for ,dr4 ,allen which gave both the doctor and the father deep thought4 ,it was in a very crabbed and archaic hand2 and though clearly not the effort of a foreigner1 shewed almost as singular a departure from modern ,english as the speech of young ,ward himself4 ,it read3 ,kleinstrasse #aa1 ,altstadt1 ,prague1 #aath ,feby4 #aibh4 ,brother in ,almousin-,metraton6-- ,i this day receiv'd yr mention of what came up from the ,salts ,i sent you4 ,it was wrong1 and meanes clearly that ye ,headstones had been chang'd when ,barnabas gott me the ,specimen4 ,it is often so1 as you must be sensible of from the ,thing you gott from ye ,king's ,chapell ground in #agfi and what ,h4 gott from ,olde ,bury'g ,point in #afij1 that was like to ende him4 ,i gott such a ,thing in ,aegypt #ge yeares gone1 from the which came that ,scar ye ,boy saw on me here in #aibd4 ,as ,i told you longe ago1 do not calle up ,that which you can not put downe2 either from dead ,saltes or out of ye ,spheres beyond4 ,have ye ,wordes for laying at all times readie1 and stopp not to be sure when there is any ,doubte of ,whom you have4 ,stones are all chang'd now in ,nine groundes out of #aj4 ,you are never sure till you question4 ,i this day heard from ,h41 who has had ,trouble with the ,soldiers4 ,he is like to be sorry ,transylvania is pass'd from ,hungary to ,roumania1 and wou'd change his ,seat if the ,castel weren't so fulle of ,what we ,knowe4 ,but of this he hath doubtless writ you4 ,in my next ,send'g there will be ,somewhat from a ,hill tomb from ye ,east that will delight you greatly4 ,meanwhile forget not ,i am desirous of ,b4 ,f4 if you can possibly get him for me4 ,you know ,g4 in ,philadelphia better than ,i4 ,have him up firste if you will1 but doe not use him soe hard he will be ,difficult1 for ,i must speake to him in ye ,ende4 ,yogg-,sothoth ,neblod ,zin ,simon ,o4 ,to ,mr4 ,j4 ,c4 in ,providence4 ,mr4 ,ward and ,dr4 ,willett paused in utter chaos before this apparent bit of unrelieved insanity4 ,only by degrees did they absorb what it seemed to imply4 ,so the absent ,dr4 ,allen1 and not ,charles ,ward1 had come to be the leading spirit at ,pawtuxet8 ,that must explain the wild reference and denunciation in the youth's last frantic letter4 ,and what of this addressing of the bearded and spectacled stranger as ,mr4 ,j4 ,c48 ,there was no escaping the inference1 but there are limits to possible monstrosity4 ,who was ,simon ,o42 the old man ,ward had visited in ,prague four years previously8 ,perhaps1 but in the centuries behind there had been another ,simon ,o4--,simon ,orne1 alias ,jedediah1 of ,salem1 who vanished in #agga1 and whose peculiar handwriting ,dr4 ,willett now unmistakably recognized from the photostatic copies of the ,orne formulae which ,charles had once shewn him4 ,what horrors and mysteries1 what contradictions and contraventions of nature1 had come back after a century and a half to harass ,old ,providence with her clustered spires and domes8 ,the father and the old physician1 virtually at a loss what to do or think1 went to see ,charles at the hospital and questioned him as delicately as they could about ,dr4 ,allen1 and the ,prague visit1 and about what he had learned of ,simon or ,jedediah ,orne of ,salem4 ,to all these inquiries the youth was politely non-committal1 merely barking in his hoarse whisper that he had found ,dr4 ,allen to have a remarkable spiritual rapport with certain souls from the past1 and that any correspondent that the bearded man might have in ,prague would probably be similarly gifted4 ,when they left1 ,mr4 ,ward and ,dr4 ,willett realized to their chagrin that they had really been the ones under catechism2 and that without imparting anything vital himself1 the confined youth had adroitly pumped them of everything the ,prague letter had contained4 ,drs4 ,peck1 ,waite1 and ,lyman were not inclined to attach much importance to the strange correspondence of young ,ward's companion2 for they knew the tendency of kindred eccentrics and monomaniacs to band together1 and believed that ,charles or ,allen had merely unearthed an expatriated counterpart--perhaps one who had seen ,orne's handwriting and copied it in an attempt to pose as the bygone character's reincarnation4 ,allen himself was perhaps a similar case1 and may have persuaded the youth into accepting him as an avatar of the long-dead ,curwen4 ,such things had been known before1 and on the same basis the hard-headed doctors disposed of ,willett's growing disquiet about ,charles ,ward's present handwriting1 as studied from unpremeditated specimens obtained by various ruses4 ,willett thought he had placed its odd familiarity at last1 and that what it vaguely resembled was the bygone penmanship of old ,joseph ,curwen himself2 but this the other physicians regarded as a phase of imitativeness only to be expected in a mania of this sort1 and refused to grant it any importance either favorable or unfavorable4 ,recognizing this prosaic attitude in his colleagues1 ,willett advised ,mr4 ,ward to keep to himself the letter which arrived for ,dr4 ,allen on the second of ,april from ,rakus1 ,transylvania1 in a handwriting so intensely and fundamentally like that of the ,hutchinson cipher that both father and physician paused in awe before breaking the seal4 ,this read as follows3 ,castle ,ferenczy1 #g ,march #aibh4 ,dear ,c4-- ,hadd a ,squd of #bj ,militia up to talk about what the ,country ,folk say4 ,must digg deeper and have less ,hearde4 ,these ,roumanians plague one damnably1 being officious and particular where you cou'd buy a ,magyar off with a ,drinke and food4 ,last ,monthe ,m4 got me ye sarcophagus of ye ,five ,sphinxes from ye ,acropolis where ,he whome ,i call'd up say'd it wou'd be1 and ,i have hadde #c ,talkes with ,what was therein inhum'd4 ,it will go to ,s4 ,o4 in ,prague directly1 and thence to you4 ,it is stubborn but you know ye ,way with ,such4 ,you shew ,wisdom in having lesse about than ,before2 for there was no ,neede to keep the ,guards in ,shape and eat'g off their ,heades1 and it made much to be founde in case of ,trouble1 as you too welle know4 ,you can now move and ,worke elsewhere with no ,kill'g ,trouble if nedful1 though ,i hope no ,thing will soon force you to so ,bothersome a ,course4 ,i rejoice that you traffick not so much with ,those ,outside2 for there was ever a ,mortall ,peril in it1 and you are sensible what it did when you asked ,protection of ,one not dispos'd to give it4 ,you excel me in gett'g ye formulae so another may saye them with ,success1 but ,borellus fancy'd it wou'd be so if just ye right ,wordes were hadd4 ,does ye ,boy use 'em often8 ,i regret that he growes squeamish1 as ,i fear'd he wou'd when ,i hadde him here nigh fiften ,monthes1 but am sensible you knowe how to deal with him4 ,you can't saye him down with ye ,formula1 for that will ,worke only upon such as ye other ,formula hath call'd up from ,saltes2 but you still have strong ,handes and ,knife and ,pistol1 and ,graves are not harde to digg1 nor ,acids loth to burne4 ,o4 sayes you have promis'd him ,b4 ,f4 ,i must have him after4 ,b4 goes to you soone1 and may he give you what you wishe of that ,darke ,thing belowe ,memphis4 ,imploy care in what you calle up1 and beware of ye ,boy4 ,it will be ripe in a yeare's time to have up ye ,legions from ,underneath1 and then there are no ,boundes to what shal be oures4 ,have ,confidence in what ,i saye1 for you knowe ,o4 and ,i have hadd these #aej yeares more than you to consulte these ,matters in4 ,nephreu--,ka nai ,hadoh ,edw3 ,h4 ,for ,j4 ,curwen1 ,esq4 ,providence4 ,but if ,willett and ,mr4 ,ward refrained from shewing this letter to the alienists1 they did not refrain from acting upon it themselves4 ,no amount of learned sophistry could controvert the fact that the strangely bearded and spectacled ,dr4 ,allen1 of whom ,charles' frantic letter had spoken as such a monstrous menace1 was in close and sinister correspondence with two inexplicable creatures whom ,ward had visited in his travels and who plainly claimed to be survivals or avatars of ,curwen's old ,salem colleagues2 that he was regarding himself as the reincarnation of ,joseph ,curwen1 and that he entertained--or was at least advised to entertain--murderous designs against a boy who could scarcely be other than ,charles ,ward4 ,there was organized horror afoot2 and no matter who had started it1 the missing ,allen was by this time at the bottom of it4 ,therefore1 thanking ,heaven that ,charles was now safe in the hospital1 ,mr4 ,ward lost no time in engaging detectives to learn all they could of the cryptic bearded doctor2 finding whence he had come and what ,pawtuxet knew of him1 and if possible discovering his current whereabouts4 ,supplying the men with one of the bungalow keys which ,charles had yielded up1 he urged them to explore ,allen's vacant room which had been identified when the patient's belongings had been packed2 obtaining what clues they could from any effects he might have left about4 ,mr4 ,ward talked with the detectives in his son's old library1 and they felt a marked relief when they left it at last2 for there seemed to hover about the place a vague aura of evil4 ,perhaps it was what they had heard of the infamous old wizard whose picture had once stared from the paneled overmantel1 and perhaps it was something different and irrelevant2 but in any case they all half-sensed an intangible miasma which centered in that carven vestige of an older dwelling and which at times almost rose to the intensity of a material emanation4 #e4 ,a ,nightmare and a ,cataclysm ,and now swiftly followed that hideous experience which has left its indelible mark of fear on the soul of ,marinus ,bicknell ,willett1 and has added a decade to the visible age of one whose youth was even then far behind4 ,dr4 ,willett had conferred at length with ,mr4 ,ward1 and had come to an agreement with him on several points which both felt the alienists would ridicule4 ,there was1 they conceded1 a terrible movement alive in the world1 whose direct connection with a necromancy even older than the ,salem witchcraft could not be doubted4 ,that at least two living men--and one other of whom they dared not think--were in absolute possession of minds or personalities which had functioned as early as #afij or before was likewise almost unassailably proved even in the face of all known natural laws4 ,what these horrible creatures--and ,charles ,ward as well--were doing or trying to do seemed fairly clear from their letters and from every bit of light both old and new which had filtered in upon the case4 ,they were robbing the tombs of all the ages1 including those of the world's wisest and greatest men1 in the hope of recovering from bygone ashes some vestige of the consciousness and lore which had once animated and informed them4 ,a hideous traffic was going on among these nightmare ghouls1 whereby illustrious bones were bartered with the calm calculativeness of schoolboys swapping books2 and from what was extorted from this centuried dust there was anticipated a power and a wisdom beyond anything which the cosmos had ever seen concentrated in one man or group4 ,they had found unholy ways to keep their brains alive1 either in the same body or different bodies2 and had evidently achieved a way of tapping the consciousness of the dead whom they gathered together4 ,there had1 it seems1 been some truth in chimerical old ,borellus when he wrote of preparing from even the most antique remains certain ,essential ,saltes from which the shade of a long-dead living thing might be raised up4 ,there was a formula for evoking such a shade1 and another for putting it down2 and it had now been so perfected that it could be taught successfully4 ,one must be careful about evocations1 for the markers of old graves are not always accurate4 ,willett and ,mr4 ,ward shivered as they passed from conclusion to conclusion4 ,things--presences or voices of some sort--could be drawn down from unknown places as well as from the grave1 and in this process also one must be careful4 ,joseph ,curwen had indubitably evoked many forbidden things1 and as for ,charles--what might one think of him8 ,what forces outside the spheres had reached him from ,joseph ,curwen's day and turned his mind on forgotten things8 ,he had been led to find certain directions1 and he had used them4 ,he had talked with the man of horror in ,prague and stayed long with the creature in the mountains of ,transylvania4 ,and he must have found the grave of ,joseph ,curwen at last4 ,that newspaper item and what his mother had heard in the night were too significant to overlook4 ,then he had summoned something1 and it must have come4 ,that mighty voice aloft on ,good ,friday1 and those different tones in the locked attic laboratory4 ,what were they like1 with their depth and hollowness8 ,was there not here some awful foreshadowing of the dreaded stranger ,dr4 ,allen with his spectral bass8 ,yes1 that was what ,mr4 ,ward had felt with vague horror in his single talk with the man--if man it were--over the telephone6 ,what hellish consciousness or voice1 what morbid shade or presence1 had come to answer ,charles ,ward's secret rites behind that locked door8 ,those voices heard in argument--must have it red for three months--,good ,god6 ,was not that just before the vampirism broke out8 ,the rifling of ,ezra ,weeden's ancient grave1 and the cries later at ,pawtuxet--whose mind had planned the vengeance and rediscovered the shunned seat of elder blasphemies8 ,and then the bungalow and the bearded stranger1 and the gossip1 and the fear4 ,the final madness of ,charles neither father nor doctor could attempt to explain1 but they did feel sure that the mind of ,joseph ,curwen had come to earth again and was following its ancient morbidities4 ,was demoniac possession in truth a possibility8 ,allen had something to do with it1 and the detectives must find out more about one whose existence menaced the young man's life4 ,in the meantime1 since the existence of some vast crypt beneath the bungalow seemed virtually beyond dispute1 some effort must be made to find it4 ,willett and ,mr4 ,ward1 conscious of the sceptical attitude of the alienists1 resolved during their final conference to undertake a joint secret exploration of unparalleled thoroughness2 and agreed to meet at the bungalow on the following morning with valises and with certain tools and accessories suited to architectural search and underground exploration4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the morning of ,april sixth dawned clear1 and both explorers were at the bungalow by ten o'clock4 ,mr4 ,ward had the key1 and an entry and cursory survey were made4 ,from the disordered condition of ,dr4 ,allen's room it was obvious that the detectives had been there before1 and the later searchers hoped that they had found some clue which might prove of value4 ,of course the main business lay in the cellar2 so thither they descended without much delay1 again making the circuit which each had vainly made before in the presence of the mad young owner4 ,for a time everything seemed baffling1 each inch of the earthen floor and stone walls having so solid and innocuous an aspect that the thought of a yawning aperture was scarcely to be entertained4 ,willett reflected that since the original cellar was dug without knowledge of any catacombs beneath1 the beginning of the passage would represent the strictly modern delving of young ,ward and his associates1 where they had probed for the ancient vaults whose rumor could have reached them by no wholesome means4 ,the doctor tried to put himself in ,charles' place and see how a delver would be likely to start1 but could not gain much inspiration from this method4 ,then he decided on elimination as a policy1 and went carefully over the whole subterranean surface both vertical and horizontal1 trying to account for every inch separately4 ,he was soon substantially narrowed down1 and at last had nothing left but the small platform before the washtubs1 which he had tried once before in vain4 ,now experimenting in every possible way1 and exerting a double strength1 he finally found that the top did indeed turn and slide horizontally on a corner pivot4 ,beneath it lay a trim concrete surface with an iron man-hole1 to which ,mr4 ,ward at once rushed with excited zeal4 ,the cover was not hard to lift1 and the father had quite removed it when ,willett noticed the queerness of his aspect4 ,he was swaying and nodding dizzily1 and in the gust of noxious air which swept up from the black pit beneath the doctor soon recognized ample cause4 ,in a moment ,dr4 ,willett had his fainting companion on the floor above and was reviving him with cold water4 ,mr4 ,ward responded feebly1 but it could be seen that the mephitic blast from the crypt had in some way gravely sickened him4 ,wishing to take no chances1 ,willett hastened out to ,broad ,street for a taxicab and had soon dispatched the sufferer home despite his weak-voiced protests2 after which he produced an electric torch1 covered his nostrils with a band of sterile gauze1 and descended once more to peer into the new-found depths4 ,the foul air had now slightly abated1 and ,willett was able to send a beam of light down the ,stygian hole4 ,for about ten feet1 he saw1 it was a sheer cylindrical drop with concrete walls and an iron ladder2 after which the hole appeared to strike a flight of old stone steps which must originally have emerged to earth somewhat southward of the present building4 99 99 99 99 99 ,willett freely admits that for a moment the memory of the old ,curwen legends kept him from climbing down alone into that malodorous gulf4 ,he could not help thinking of what ,luke ,fenner had reported on that last monstrous night4 ,then duty asserted itself and he made the plunge1 carrying a great valise for the removal of whatever papers might prove of supreme importance4 ,slowly1 as befitted one of his years1 he descended the ladder and reached the slimy steps below4 ,this was ancient masonry1 his torch told him2 and upon the dripping walls he saw the unwholesome moss of centuries4 ,down1 down1 ran the steps2 not spirally1 but in three abrupt turns2 and with such narrowness that two men could have passed only with difficulty4 ,he had counted about thirty when a sound reached him very faintly2 and after that he did not feel disposed to count any more4 ,it was a godless sound2 one of those low-keyed1 insidious outrages of nature which are not meant to be4 ,to call it a dull wail1 a doom-dragged whine1 or a hopeless howl of chorused anguish and stricken flesh without mind would be to miss its most quintessential loathesomeness and soul-sickening overtones4 ,was it for this that ,ward had seemed to listen on that day he was removed8 ,it was the most shocking thing that ,willett had ever heard1 and it continued from no determinate point as the doctor reached the bottom of the steps and cast his torchlight around on lofty corridor walls surmounted by ,cyclopean vaulting and pierced by numberless black archways4 ,the hall in which he stood was perhaps fourteen feet high to the middle of the vaulting and ten or twelve feet broad4 ,its pavement was of large chipped flagstones1 and its walls and roof were of dressed masonry4 ,its length he could not imagine1 for it stretched ahead indefinitely into the blackness4 ,of the archways1 some had doors of the old six-paneled colonial type1 whilst others had none4 ,overcoming the dread induced by the smell and the howling1 ,willett began to explore these archways one by one2 finding beyond them rooms with groined stone ceilings1 each of medium size and apparently of bizarre uses4 ,most of them had fireplaces1 the upper courses of whose chimneys would have formed an interesting study in engineering4 ,never before or since had he seen such instruments or suggestions of instruments as here loomed up on every hand through the burying dust and cobwebs of a century and a half1 in many cases evidently shattered as if by the ancient raiders4 ,for many of the chambers seemed wholly untrodden by modern feet1 and must have represented the earliest and most obsolete phases of ,joseph ,curwen's experimentation4 ,finally there came a room of obvious modernity1 or at least of recent occupancy4 ,there were oil heaters1 bookshelves and tables1 chairs and cabinets1 and a desk piled high with papers of varying antiquity and contemporaneousness4 ,candlesticks and oil lamps stood about in several places2 and finding a match safe handy1 ,willett lighted such as were ready for use4 ,in the fuller gleam it appeared that this apartment was nothing less than the latest study or library of ,charles ,ward4 ,of the books the doctor had seen many before1 and a good part of the furniture had plainly come from the ,prospect ,street mansion4 ,here and there was a piece well known to ,willett1 and the sense of familiarity became so great that he half forgot the noisomeness and the wailing1 both of which were plainer here than they had been at the foot of the steps4 ,his first duty1 as planned long ahead1 was to find and seize any papers which might seem of vital importance2 especially those portentous documents found by ,charles so long ago behind the picture in ,olney ,court4 ,as he searched he perceived how stupendous a task the final unraveling would be2 for file on file was stuffed with papers in curious hands and bearing curious designs1 so that months or even years might be needed for a thorough deciphering and editing4 ,once he found large packets of letters with ,prague and ,rakus postmarks1 and in writing clearly recognizable as ,orne's and ,hutchinson's2 all of which he took with him as part of the bundle to be removed in his valise4 ,at last1 in a locked mahogany cabinet once gracing the ,ward home1 ,willett found the batch of old ,curwen papers2 recognizing them from the reluctant glimpse ,charles had granted him so many years ago4 ,the youth had evidently kept them together very much as they had been when first he found them1 since all the titles recalled by the workmen were present except the papers addressed to ,orne and ,hutchinson1 and the cipher with its key4 ,willett placed the entire lot in his valise and continued his examination of the files4 ,since young ,ward's immediate condition was the greatest matter at stake1 the closest searching was done among the most obviously recent matter2 and in this abundance of contemporary manuscript one very baffling oddity was noted4 ,that oddity was the slight amount in ,charles' normal writing1 which indeed included nothing more recent than two months before4 ,on the other hand1 there were literally reams of symbols and formulae1 historical notes and philosophical comment1 in a crabbed penmanship absolutely identical with the ancient script of ,joseph ,curwen1 though of undeniably modern dating4 ,plainly1 a part of the latter-day program had been a sedulous imitation of the old wizard's writing1 which ,charles seemed to have carried to a marvelous state of perfection4 ,of any third hand which might have been ,allen's there was not a trace4 ,if he had indeed come to be the leader1 he must have forced young ,ward to act as his amanuensis4 ,in this new material one mystic formula1 or rather pair of formulae1 recurred so often that ,willett had it by heart before he had half finished his quest4 ,it consisted of two parallel columns1 the left-hand one surmounted by the archaic symbol called ,dragon's ,head and used in almanacs to indicate the ascending node1 and the right-hand one headed by the corresponding sign of ,dragon's ,tail or descending node4 ,the appearance of the whole was something like this1 and almost unconsciously the doctor realized that the second half was no more than the first written syllabically backward with the exception of the final monosyllables and of the odd name ,yog-,sothoth1 which he had come to recognize under various spellings from other things he had seen in connection with this horrible matter4 ,the formulae were as follows--exactly so1 as ,willett is abundantly able to testify--and the first one struck an odd note of uncomfortable latent memory in his brain1 which he recognized later when reviewing the events of that horrible ,good ,friday of the previous year4 ,illustration3 ,y',,ai ',,ng',,ngah1 ,,yog-,,sothoth ,h',,ee----,l',,geb ,f',,ai ,,throdog ,,uaaah ,illustration3 ,,ogthrod ,,ai',f ,,geb',l----,,ee',h ,,yog-,,sothoth ',,ngah',,ng ,,ai',y ,,zhro ,so haunting were these formulae1 and so frequently did he come upon them1 that before the doctor knew it he was repeating them under his breath4 ,eventually1 however1 he felt he had secured all the papers he could digest to advantage for the present2 hence resolved to examine no more till he could bring the sceptical alienists en masse for an ample and more systematic raid4 ,he had still to find the hidden laboratory1 so leaving his valise in the lighted room he emerged again into the black noisome corridor whose vaulting echoed ceaselessly with that dull and hideous whine4 ,the next few rooms he tried were all abandoned or filled only with crumbling boxes and ominous-looking leaden coffins2 but impressed him deeply with the magnitude of ,joseph ,curwen's original operations4 ,he thought of the slaves and seamen who had disappeared1 of the graves which had been violated in every part of the world1 and of what that final raiding party must have seen2 and then he decided it was better not to think any more4 ,once a great stone staircase mounted at his right1 and he deduced that this must have reached to one of the ,curwen outbuildings--perhaps the famous stone edifice with the high slitlike windows--provided the steps he had descended had led from the steep-roofed farmhouse4 ,suddenly the walls seemed to fall away ahead1 and the stench and the wailing grew stronger4 ,willett saw that he had come upon a vast open space1 so great that his torchlight would not carry across it2 and as he advanced he encountered occasional stout pillars supporting the arches of the roof4 ,after a time he reached a circle of pillars grouped like the monoliths of ,stonehenge1 with a large carved altar on a base of three steps in the center2 and so curious were the carvings on that altar that he approached to study them with his electric light4 ,but when he saw what they were he shrank away shuddering1 and did not stop to investigate the dark stains which discolored the upper surface and had spread down the sides in occasional thin lines4 ,instead1 he found the distant wall and traced it as it swept around in a gigantic circle perforated by occasional black doorways and indented by a myriad of shallow cells with iron gratings and wrist and ankle bonds on chains fastened to the stone of the concave rear masonry4 ,these cells were empty1 but still the horrible odor and the dismal moaning continued1 more insistent now than ever1 and seemingly varied at times by a sort of slippery thumping4 99 99 99 99 99 ,from that frightful smell and that uncanny noise ,willett's attention could no longer be diverted4 ,both were plainer and more hideous in the great pillared hall than anywhere else1 and carried a vague impression of being far below1 even in this dark nether world of subterrene mystery4 ,before trying any of the black archways for steps leading further down1 the doctor cast his beam of light about the stone-flagged floor4 ,it was very loosely paved1 and at irregular intervals there would occur a slab curiously pierced by small holes in no definite arrangement1 while at one point there lay a very long ladder carelessly flung down4 ,to this ladder1 singularly enough1 appeared to cling a particularly large amount of the frightful odor which encompassed everything4 ,as he walked slowly about1 it suddenly occurred to ,willett that both the noise and the odor seemed strongest directly above the oddly pierced slabs1 as if they might be crude trap-doors leading down to some still deeper region of horror4 ,kneeling by one1 he worked at it with his hands1 and found that with extreme difficulty he could budge it4 ,at his touch the moaning beneath ascended to a louder key1 and only with vast trepidation did he persevere in the lifting of the heavy stone4 ,a stench unnamable now rose from below1 and the doctor's head reeled dizzily as he laid back the slab and turned his torch upon the exposed square yard of gaping blackness4 ,if he had expected a flight of steps to some wide gulf of ultimate abomination1 ,willett was destined to be disappointed2 for amidst that foetor and cracked whining he discerned only the brick-faced top of a cylindrical well perhaps a yard and a half in diameter and devoid of any ladder or other means of descent4 ,as the light shone down1 the wailing changed suddenly to a series of horrible yelps2 in conjunction with which there came again that sound of blind1 futile scrambling and slippery thumping4 ,the explorer trembled1 unwilling even to imagine what noxious thing might be lurking in that abyss2 but in a moment mustered up the courage to peer over the rough-hewn brink2 lying at full length and holding the torch downward at arm's length to see what might lie below4 ,for a second he could distinguish nothing but the slimy1 moss-grown brick walls sinking illimitably into that half-tangible miasma of murk and foulness and anguished frenzy2 and then he saw that something dark was leaping clumsily and frantically up and down at the bottom of the narrow shaft1 which must have been from twenty to twenty-five feet below the stone floor where he lay4 ,the torch shook in his hand1 but he looked again to see what manner of living creature might be immured there in the darkness of that unnatural well2 left starving by young ,ward through all the long month since the doctors had taken him away1 and clearly only one of a vast number prisoned in the kindred wells whose pierced stone covers so thickly studded the floor of the great vaulted cavern4 ,whatever the things were1 they could not lie down in their cramped spaces2 but must have crouched and whined and waited and feebly leaped all those hideous weeks since their master had abandoned them unheeded4 ,but ,marinus ,bicknell ,willett was sorry that he looked again2 for surgeon and veteran of the dissecting-room though he was1 he has not been the same since4 ,it is hard to explain just how a single sight of a tangible object with measurable dimensions could so shake and change a man2 and we may only say that there is about certain outlines and entities a power of symbolism and suggestion which acts frightfully on a sensitive thinker's perspective and whispers terrible hints of obscure cosmic relationships and unnamable realities behind the protective illusions of common vision4 ,in that second look ,willett saw such an outline or entity1 for during the next few instants he was undoubtedly as stark mad as any inmate of ,dr4 ,waite's private hospital4 ,he dropped the electric torch from a hand drained of muscular power or nervous coordination1 nor heeded the sound of crunching teeth which told of its fate at the bottom of the pit4 ,he screamed and screamed and screamed in a voice whose falsetto panic no acquaintance of his would ever have recognized1 and though he could not rise to his feet he crawled and rolled desperately away over the damp pavement where dozens of ,tartarean wells poured forth their exhausted whining and yelping to answer his own insane cries4 ,he tore his hands on the rough1 loose stones1 and many times bruised his head against the frequent pillars1 but still he kept on4 ,then at last he slowly came to himself in the utter blackness and stench1 and stopped his ears against the droning wail into which the burst of yelping had subsided4 ,he was drenched with perspiration and without means of producing a light2 stricken and unnerved in the abysmal blackness and horror1 and crushed with a memory he never could efface4 ,beneath him dozens of those things still lived1 and from one of the shafts the cover was removed4 ,he knew that what he had seen could never climb up the slippery walls1 yet shuddered at the thought that some obscure foothold might exist4 99 99 99 99 99 ,what the thing was1 he would never tell4 ,it was like some of the carvings on the hellish altar1 but it was alive4 ,nature had never made it in this form1 for it was too palpably unfinished4 ,the deficiencies were of the most surprising sort1 and the abnormalities of proportion could not be described4 ,willett consents only to say that this type of thing must have represented entities which ,ward called up from imperfect salts1 and which he kept for servile or ritualistic purposes4 ,if it had not had a certain significance1 its image would not have been carved on that damnable stone4 ,it was not the worst thing depicted on that stone--but ,willett never opened the other pits4 ,at the time1 the first connected idea in his mind was an idle paragraph from some of the old ,curwen data he had digested long before2 a phrase used by ,simon or ,jedediah ,orne in that portentous confiscated letter to the bygone sorcerer3 ,certainly1 there was ,noth'g butt ye liveliest ,awfullness in ,that which ,h4 rais'd upp from ,what he cou'd gather onlie a ,part of4 ,then1 horribly supplementing rather than displacing this image1 there came a recollection of those ancient lingering rumors anent the burned and twisted thing found in the fields a week after the ,curwen raid4 ,charles ,ward had once told the doctor what old ,slocum said of that object2 that it was neither thoroughly human1 nor wholly allied to any animal which ,pawtuxet folk had ever seen or read about4 ,these words hummed in the doctor's mind as he rocked to and fro1 squatting on the nitrous stone floor4 ,he tried to drive them out1 and repeated the ,lord's ,prayer to himself2 eventually trailing off into a mnemonic hodge-podge like the modernistic ,waste ,land of ,mr4 ,t4 ,s4 ,eliot and finally reverting to the oft-repeated dual formula he had lately found in ,ward's underground library3 ,y'ai 'ng-'ngah1 ,yog-,sothoth1 and so on till the final underlined ,zhro4 ,it seemed to soothe him and he staggered to his feet after a time2 lamenting bitterly his fright-lost torch and looking wildly about for any gleam of light in the clutching inkiness of the chilly air4 ,think he would not2 but he strained his eyes in every direction for some faint glint or reflection of the bright illumination he had left in the library4 ,after awhile he thought he detected a suspicion of a glow infinitely far away1 and toward this he crawled in agonized caution on hands and knees amidst the stench and howling1 always feeling ahead lest he collide with the numerous great pillars or stumble into the abominable pit he had uncovered4 ,once his shaking fingers touched something which he knew must be the steps leading to the hellish altar1 and from this spot he recoiled in loathing4 ,at another time he encountered the pierced slab he had removed1 and here his caution became almost pitiful4 ,but he did not come upon the dread aperture after all1 nor did anything issue from that aperture to detain him4 ,what had been down there made no sound nor stir4 ,evidently its crunching of the fallen electric torch had not been good for it4 ,each time ,willett's fingers felt a perforated slab he trembled4 ,his passage over it would sometimes increase the groaning below1 but generally it would produce no effect at all1 since he moved very noiselessly4 ,several times during his progress the glow ahead diminished perceptibly1 and he realized that the various candles and lamps he had left must be expiring one by one4 ,the thought of being lost in utter darkness without matches amidst this underground world of nightmare labyrinths impelled him to rise to his feet and run1 which he could safely do now that he had passed the open pit2 for he knew that once the light failed his only hope of rescue and survival would lie in whatever relief party ,mr4 ,ward might send after missing him for a sufficient period4 ,presently1 however1 he emerged from the open space into the narrower corridor and definitely located the glow as coming from a door on his right4 ,in a moment he had reached it and was standing once more in young ,ward's secret library1 trembling with relief1 and watching the sputterings of that last lamp which had brought him to safety4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in another moment he was hastily filling the burned-out lamps from an oil supply he had previously noticed1 and when the room was bright again he looked about to see if he might find a lantern for further exploration4 ,for racked though he was with horror1 his sense of grim purpose was still uppermost1 and he was firmly determined to leave no stone unturned in his search for the hideous facts behind ,charles ,ward's bizarre madness4 ,failing to find a lantern1 he chose the smallest of the lamps to carry2 also filling his pockets with candles and matches1 and taking with him a gallon can of oil1 which he proposed to keep for reserve use in whatever hidden laboratory he might uncover beyond the terrible open space with its unclean altar and nameless covered wells4 ,to traverse that space again would require his utmost fortitude1 but he knew it must be done4 ,fortunately neither the frightful altar nor the opened shaft was near the vast cell-indented wall which bounded the cavern area1 and whose black mysterious archways would form the next goals of a logical search4 ,so ,willett went back to that great pillared hall of stench and anguished howling2 turning down his lamp to avoid any distant glimpse of the hellish altar1 or of the uncovered pit with the pierced stone slab beside it4 ,most of the black doorways led merely to small chambers1 some vacant and some evidently used as store rooms2 and in several of the latter he saw some very curious accumulations of various objects4 ,one was packed with rotting and dust-draped bales of spare clothing1 and the explorer thrilled when he saw that it was unmistakably the clothing of a century and a half before4 ,in another room he found numerous odds and ends of modern clothing1 as if gradual provisions were being made to equip a large body of men4 ,but what he disliked most of all were the huge copper vats which occasionally appeared2 these1 and the sinister incrustations upon them4 ,he liked them even less than the weirdly figured leaden bowls whose ruins retained such obnoxious deposits and around which clung repellent odors perceptible above even the general noisomeness of the crypt4 ,when he had completed about half the entire circuit of the wall he found another corridor like that from which he had come1 and out of which many doors opened4 ,this he proceeded to investigate2 and after entering three rooms of medium size and of no significant contents1 he came at last to a large oblong apartment whose businesslike tanks and tables1 furnaces and modern instruments1 occasional books and endless shelves of jars and bottles proclaimed it indeed the long-sought laboratory of ,charles ,ward--and no doubt of old ,joseph ,curwen before him4 ,after lighting the three lamps which he found filled and ready1 ,dr4 ,willett examined the place and all its appurtenances with the keenest interest2 noting from the relative quantities of various reagents on the shelves that young ,ward's dominant concern must have been with some branch of organic chemistry4 ,on the whole1 little could be learned from the scientific ensemble1 which included a gruesome-looking dissecting table2 so that the room was really rather a disappointment4 ,among the books was a tattered old copy of ,borellus in black-letter1 and it was weirdly interesting to note that ,ward had underlined the same passage whose marking had so perturbed good ,mr4 ,merritt at ,curwen's farmhouse more than a century and a half before4 ,that older copy1 of course1 must have perished along with the rest of ,curwen's occult library in the final raid4 ,three archways opened off the laboratory1 and these the doctor proceeded to sample in turn4 ,from his cursory survey he saw that two led merely to small storerooms2 but these he canvassed with care1 remarking the piles of coffins in various stages of damage and shuddering violently at two or three of the few coffin-plates he could decipher4 ,there was much clothing also stored in these rooms1 and several new and tightly-nailed boxes which he did not stop to investigate4 ,most interesting of all1 perhaps1 were some odd bits which he judged to be fragments of old ,joseph ,curwen's laboratory appliances4 ,these had suffered damage at the hands of the raiders1 but were still partly recognizable as the chemical paraphernalia of the ,georgian period4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the third archway led to a very sizeable chamber entirely lined with shelves and having in the center a table bearing two lamps4 ,these lamps ,willett lighted1 and in their brilliant glow studied the endless shelving which surrounded him4 ,some of the upper levels were wholly vacant1 but most of the space was filled with small odd-looking leaden jars of two general types2 one tall and without handles like a ,grecian lekythos or oil-jug1 and the other with a single handle and proportioned like a ,phaleron jug4 ,all had metal stoppers1 and were covered with peculiar-looking symbols moulded in low relief4 ,in a moment the doctor noticed that these jugs were classified with great rigidity2 all the lekythoi being on one side of the room with a large wooden sign reading ,custodes above them1 and all the ,phalerons on the other1 correspondingly labeled with a sign reading ,materia4 ,each of the jars or jugs1 except some on the upper shelves that turned out to be vacant1 bore a cardboard tag with a number apparently referring to a catalogue2 and ,willett resolved to look for the latter presently4 ,for the moment1 however1 he was more interested in the nature of the array as a whole2 and experimentally opened several of the lekythoi and ,phalerons at random with a view to a rough generalization4 ,the result was invariable4 ,both types of jar contained a small quantity of a single kind of substance2 a fine dusty powder of very light weight and of many shades of dull neutral color4 ,to the colors which formed the only point of variation there was no apparent method of disposal2 and no distinction between what occurred in the lekythoi and what occurred in the ,phalerons4 ,a bluish-gray powder might be by the side of a pinkish-white one1 and any one in a ,phaleron might have its exact counterpart in a lekythos4 ,the most individual feature about the powders was their non-adhesiveness4 ,willett would pour one into his hand1 and upon returning it to its jug would find that no residue whatever remained on his palm4 ,the meaning of the two signs puzzled him1 and he wondered why this battery of chemicals was separated so radically from those in glass jars on the shelves of the laboratory proper4 ,custodes1 ,materia2 that was the ,latin for ,guards and ,material1 respectively--and then there came a flash of memory as to where he had seen that word ,guards before in connection with this dreadful mystery4 ,it was1 of course1 in the recent letter to ,dr4 ,allen purporting to be from old ,edward ,hutchinson2 and the phrase had read3 ,there was no ,neede to keep the ,guards in shape and eat'g off their ,heades1 and it made much to be founde in ,case of ,trouble1 as you too welle ,knowe4 ,what did this signify8 ,but wait--was there not still another reference to guards in this matter which he had failed wholly to recall when reading the ,hutchinson letter8 ,back in the old non-secretive days ,ward had told him of the ,eleazar ,smith diary recording the spying of ,smith and ,weeden on the ,curwen farm1 and in that dreadful chronicle there had been a mention of conversations overheard before the old wizard betook himself wholly beneath the earth4 ,there had been1 ,smith and ,weeden insisted1 terrible colloquies wherein figured ,curwen1 certain captives of his1 and the guards of those captives4 ,those guards1 according to ,hutchinson or his avatar1 had eaten their heads off1 so that now ,dr4 ,allen did not keep them in shape4 ,and if not in shape1 how save as the salts to which it appears this wizard band was engaged in reducing as many human bodies or skeletons as they could8 ,so that was what these lekythoi contained2 the monstrous fruit of unhallowed rites and deeds1 presumably won or cowed to such submission as to help when called up by some hellish incantation1 in the defense of their blasphemous master or the questioning of those who were not so willing8 ,willett shuddered at the thought of what he had been pouring in and out of his hands1 and for a moment felt an impulse to flee in panic from that cavern of hideous shelves with their silent and perhaps watching sentinels4 ,then he thought of the ,materia--in the myriad ,phaleron jugs on the other side of the room4 ,salts too--and if not the salts of guards1 then the salts of what8 ,god6 ,could it be possible that here lay the mortal relics of half the titan thinkers of all the ages2 snatched by supreme ghouls from crypts where the world thought them safe1 and subject to the beck and call of madmen who sought to drain their knowledge for some still wilder end whose ultimate effect would concern1 as poor ,charles had hinted in his frantic note1 all civilization1 all natural law1 perhaps even the fate of the solar system and the universe8 ,and ,marinus ,bicknell ,willett had sifted their dust through his hands6 ,then he noticed a small door at the farther end of the room1 and calmed himself enough to approach it and examine the crude sign chiseled above4 ,it was only a symbol1 but it filled him with vague spiritual dread2 for a morbid1 dreaming friend of his had once drawn it on paper and told him a few of the things it means in the dark abyss of sleep4 ,it was the sign of ,koth1 that dreamers see fixed above the archway of a certain black tower standing alone in twilight--and ,willett did not like what his friend ,randolph ,carter had said of its powers4 ,but a moment later he forgot the sign as he recognized a new acrid odor in the stench-filled air4 ,this was a chemical rather than animal smell1 and came clearly from the room beyond the door4 ,and it was1 unmistakably1 the same odor which had saturated ,charles ,ward's clothing on the day the doctors had taken him away4 ,so it was here that the youth had been interrupted by the final summons8 ,he was wiser than old ,joseph ,curwen1 for he had not resisted4 ,willett1 boldly determined to penetrate every wonder and nightmare this nether realm might contain1 seized the small lamp and crossed the threshold4 ,a wave of nameless fright rolled out to meet him1 but he yielded to no whim and deferred to no intuition4 ,there was nothing alive here to harm him1 and he would not be stayed in his piercing of the eldritch cloud which engulfed his patient4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the room beyond the door was of medium size1 and had no furniture save a table1 a single chair1 and two groups of curious machines with clamps and wheels which ,willett recognized after a moment as medieval instruments of torture4 ,on one side of the door stood a rack of savage whips1 above which were some shelves bearing empty rows of shallow pedestaled cups of lead shaped like ,grecian kylikes4 ,on the other side was the table2 with a powerful ,argand lamp1 a pad and pencil1 and two of the stoppered lekythoi from the shelves outside set down at irregular places as if temporarily or in haste4 ,willett lighted the lamp and looked carefully at the pad to see what notes young ,ward might have been jotting down when interrupted2 but found nothing more intelligible than the following disjointed fragments in that crabbed ,curwen chirography1 which shed no light on the case as a whole3 ,b4 dy'd not4 ,escap'd into walls and founde ,place below4 ,saw olde ,v4 saye ye ,sabaoth and learnt ye ,way4 ,rais'd ,yog-,sothoth thrice and was ye nexte ,day deliver'd4 ,f4 soughte to wipe out all know'g howe to raise ,those from ,outside4 ,as the strong ,argand blaze lit up the entire chamber the doctor saw that the wall opposite the door1 between the two groups of torturing appliances in the corners1 was covered with pegs from which hung a set of shapeless looking robes of a rather dismal yellowish-white4 ,but far more interesting were the two vacant walls1 both of which were thickly covered with mystic symbols and formulae roughly chiseled in the smooth dressed stone4 ,the damp floor also bore marks of carving2 and with but little difficulty ,willett deciphered a huge pentagram in the center1 with a plain circle about three feet wide halfway between this and each corner4 ,in one of these four circles1 near where a yellowish robe had been flung carelessly down1 there stood a shallow kylix of the sort found on the shelves above the whip-rack2 and just outside the periphery was one of the ,phaleron jugs from the shelves in the other room1 its tag numbered #aah4 ,this was unstoppered1 and proved upon inspection to be empty2 but the explorer saw with a shiver that the kylix was not4 ,within its shallow area1 and saved from scattering only by the absence of wind in this sequestered cavern1 lay a small amount of a dry1 dull-greenish efflorescent powder which must have belonged in the jug2 and ,willett almost reeled at the implications that came sweeping over him as he correlated little by little the several elements and antecedents of the scene4 ,the whips and the instruments of torture2 the dust or salts from the jug of ,materia1 the two lekythoi from the ,custodes shelf1 the robes1 the formulae on the walls1 the notes on the pad1 the hints from letters and legends1 and the thousand glimpses1 doubts1 and suppositions which had come to torment the friends and parents of ,charles ,ward--all these engulfed the doctor in a tidal wave of horror as he looked at that dry greenish powder outspread in the pedestalled leaden kylix on the floor4 ,with an effort1 however1 ,willett pulled himself together and began studying the formulae chiseled on the walls4 ,from the stained and incrusted letters it was obvious that they were carved in ,joseph ,curwen's time1 and their text was such as to be vaguely familiar to one who had read much ,curwen material or delved extensively into the history of magic4 ,one the doctor clearly recognized as what ,mrs4 ,ward heard her son chanting on that ominous ,good ,friday a year before1 and what an authority had told him was a very terrible invocation addressed to secret gods outside the normal spheres4 ,it was not spelled here exactly as ,mrs4 ,ward had set it down from memory1 nor yet as the authority had shewn it to him in the forbidden pages of ,eliphas ,levi2 but its identity was unmistakable1 and such words as ,sabaoth1 ,metraton1 ,almonsin1 and ,zariatnatmik sent a shudder of fright through the searcher who had seen and felt so much of cosmic abomination just around the corner4 ,this was on the left-hand wall as one entered the room4 ,the right-hand wall was no less thickly inscribed1 and ,willett felt a start of recognition as he came upon the pair of formulae so frequently occurring in the recent notes in the library4 ,they were1 roughly speaking1 the same2 with the ancient symbols of ,dragon's ,head and ,dragon's ,tail heading them as in ,ward's scribblings4 ,but the spelling differed quite widely from that of the modern versions1 as if old ,curwen had had a different way of recording sound1 or as if later study had evolved more powerful and perfected variants of the invocations in question4 ,the doctor tried to reconcile the chiseled version with the one which still ran persistently in his head1 and found it hard to do4 ,where the script he had memorized began ,y'ai ',ng'ngah1 ,yog-,sothoth1 this epigraph started out as ,aye1 cngengah1 ,yogge-,sothotha2 which to his mind would seriously interfere with the syllabification of the second word4 ,ground as the later text was into his consciousness1 the discrepancy disturbed him2 and he found himself chanting the first of the formulae aloud in an effort to square the sound he conceived with the letters he found carved4 ,weird and menacing in that abyss of antique blasphemy rang his voice6 its accents keyed to a droning sing-song either through the spell of the past and the unknown1 or through the hellish example of that dull1 godless wail from the pits whose inhuman cadences rose and fell rhythmically in the distance through the stench and darkness4 ,y',,ai ',,ng',,ngah ,,yog-,,sothoth ,h',,ee----,l',,geb ,f',,ai' ,,throdog ,,uaah6 99 99 99 99 99 ,but what was this cold wind which had sprung into life at the very outset of the chant8 ,the lamps were sputtering woefully1 and the gloom grew so dense that the letters on the wall nearly faded from sight4 ,there was smoke1 too1 and an acrid odor which quite drowned out the stench from the far-away wells2 an odor like that he had smelt before1 yet infinitely stronger and more pungent4 ,he turned from the inscriptions to face the room with its bizarre contents1 and saw that the kylix on the floor1 in which the ominous efflorescent powder had lain1 was giving forth a cloud of thick1 greenish-black vapor of surprising volume and opacity4 ,that powder--,great ,god6 it had come from the shelf of ,materia--what was it doing now1 and what had started it8 ,the formula he had been chanting--the first of the pair--,dragon's ,head1 ascending node--,blessed ,saviour1 could it be-- ,the doctor reeled1 and through his head raced wildly disjointed scraps from all he had seen1 heard1 and read of the frightful case of ,joseph ,curwen and ,charles ,dexter ,ward4 ,i say to you againe1 doe not call up ,any that you cannot put downe4444 ,have ye ,wordes for laying at all times readie1 and stopp not to be sure when there is any ,doubte of ,whom you have--,three ,talkes with ,what was therein inhum'd-- ,mercy of ,heaven1 what is that shape behind the parting smoke8 99 99 99 99 99 ,marinus ,bicknell ,willett has no hope that any part of his tale will be believed except by certain sympathetic friends1 hence has made no attempt to tell it beyond his most intimate circle4 ,only a few outsiders have ever heard it repeated1 and of these the majority laugh and remark that the doctor surely is getting old4 ,he has been advised to take a long vacation and to shun future cases dealing with mental disturbance4 ,but ,mr4 ,ward knows that the veteran physician speaks only a horrible truth4 ,did not he himself see the noisome aperture in the bungalow cellar8 ,did not ,willett send him home overcome and ill at eleven o'clock that portentous morning8 ,did he not telephone the doctor in vain that evening1 and again the next day1 and had he not driven to the bungalow itself on that following noon1 finding his friend unconscious but unharmed on one of the beds upstairs8 ,willett had been breathing stertorously1 and opened his eyes slowly when ,mr4 ,ward gave him some brandy fetched from the car4 ,then he shuddered and screamed1 crying out1 ,that beard--those eyes--,god1 who are you8 ,a very strange thing to say to a trim1 blue-eyed1 clean-shaven gentleman whom he had known from the latter's boyhood4 ,in the bright noon sunlight the bungalow was unchanged since the previous morning4 ,willett's clothing bore no disarrangement beyond certain smudges and worn places at the knees1 and only a faint acrid odor reminded ,mr4 ,ward of what he had smelt on his son that day he was taken to the hospital4 ,the doctor's flashlight was missing1 but his valise was safely there1 as empty as when he had brought it4 ,before indulging in any explanations1 and obviously with great moral effort1 ,willett staggered dizzily down to the cellar and tried the fateful platform before the tubs4 ,it was unyielding4 ,crossing to where he had left his yet-unused tool satchel the day before1 he obtained a chisel and began to pry up the stubborn planks one by one4 ,underneath the smooth concrete was still visible1 but of any opening or perforation there was no longer a trace4 ,nothing yawned this time to sicken the mystified father who had followed the doctor downstairs2 only the smooth concrete underneath the planks--no noisome well1 no world of subterrene horrors1 no secret library1 no ,curwen papers1 no nightmare pits of stench and howling1 no laboratory or shelves or chiseled formulae1 no--,dr4 ,willett turned pale1 and clutched at the younger man4 ,yesterday1 he asked softly1 did you see it here--and smell it8 ,and when ,mr4 ,ward1 himself transfixed with dread and wonder1 found strength to nod an affirmative1 the physician gave a sound half a sigh and half a gasp1 and nodded in turn4 ,then ,i will tell you1 he said4 ,so for an hour1 in the sunniest room they could find upstairs1 the physician whispered his frightful tale to the wondering father4 ,there was nothing to relate beyond the looming up of that form when the greenish-black vapor from the kylix parted1 and ,willett was too tired to ask himself what had really occurred4 ,there were futile1 bewildered head-shakings from both men1 and once ,mr4 ,ward ventured a hushed suggestion1 ,do you suppose it would be of any use to dig8 ,the doctor was silent1 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 ,abyss4 ,again ,mr4 ,ward asked1 ,but where did it go8 ,it brought you here1 you know1 and it sealed up the hole somehow4 ,and ,willett again let silence answer for him4 ,but after all1 this was not the final phase of the matter4 ,reaching for his handkerchief before rising to leave1 ,dr4 ,willett's fingers closed upon a piece of paper in his pocket which had not been there before1 and which was companioned by the candles and matches he had seized in the vanished vault4 ,it was a common sheet1 torn obviously from the cheap pad in that fabulous room of horror somewhere underground1 and the writing upon it was that of an ordinary lead pencil--doubtless the one which had lain beside the pad4 ,it was folded very carelessly1 and beyond the faint acrid scent of the cryptic chamber bore no print or mark of any world but this4 ,but in the text itself it did indeed reek with wonder2 for here was no script of any wholesome age1 but the labored strokes of mediaeval darkness1 scarcely legible to the laymen who now strained over it1 yet having combinations of symbols which seemed vaguely familiar4 ,the briefly scrawled message was this1 and its mystery lent purpose to the shaken pair1 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 hill4 99 99 99 99 99 ,at the library it was easy to find good manuals of palaeography1 and over these the two men puzzled till the lights of evening shone out from the great chandelier4 ,in the end they found what was needed4 ,the letters were indeed no fantastic invention1 but the normal script of a very dark period4 ,they were the pointed ,saxon minuscules of the eighth or ninth century ,a4 ,d41 and brought with them memories of an uncouth time when under a fresh ,christian veneer ancient faiths and ancient rites stirred stealthily1 and the pale moon of ,britain looked sometimes on strange deeds in the ,roman ruins at ,caerleon and ,hexhaus1 and by the ,towers along ,hadrian's crumbling wall4 ,the words were in such ,latin as a barbarous age might remember--,corvinus1 necandus est4 ,cadaver aq7ua7 forti dissolvendum1 nec aliq7ui7d retinendum4 ,tace ut potes4--which may roughly be translated1 ,curwen must be killed4 ,the body must be dissolved in aqua fortis1 nor must anything be retained4 ,keep silence as best you are able4 ,willett and ,mr4 ,ward were mute and baffled4 ,they had met the unknown1 and found that they lacked emotions to respond to it as they vaguely believed they ought4 ,with ,willett1 especially1 the capacity for receiving fresh impressions of awe was well-nigh exhausted2 and both men sat still and helpless till the closing of the library forced them to leave4 ,then they drove listlessly to the ,ward mansion in ,prospect ,street1 and talked to no purpose into the night4 ,the doctor rested toward morning1 but did not go home4 ,and he was still there ,sunday noon when a telephone message came from the detectives who had been assigned to look up ,dr4 ,allen4 ,mr4 ,ward1 who was pacing nervously about in a dressing-gown1 answered the call in person2 and told the men to come up early the next day when he heard their report was almost ready4 ,both ,willett and he were glad that this phase of the matter was taking form1 for whatever the origin of the strange minuscule message1 it seemed certain that the ,curwen who must be destroyed could be no other than the bearded and spectacled stranger4 ,charles had feared this man1 and had said in the frantic note that he must be killed and dissolved in acid4 ,allen1 moreover1 had been receiving letters from the strange wizards in ,europe under the name of ,curwen1 and palpably regarded himself as an avatar of the bygone necromancer4 ,and now from a fresh and unknown source had come a message saying that ,curwen must be killed and dissolved in acid4 ,the linkage was too unmistakable to be factitious2 and besides1 was not ,allen planning to murder young ,ward upon the advice of the creature called ,hutchinson8 ,of course1 the letter they had seen had never reached the bearded stranger2 but from its text they could see that ,allen had already formed plans for dealing with the youth if he grew too squeamish4 ,without doubt1 ,allen must be apprehended2 and even if the most drastic directions were not carried out1 he must be placed where he could inflict no harm upon ,charles ,ward4 ,that afternoon1 hoping against hope to extract some gleam of information anent the inmost mysteries from the only available one capable of giving it1 the father and the doctor went down the bay and called on young ,charles at the hospital4 ,simply and gravely ,willett told him all he had found1 and noticed how pale he turned as each description made certain the truth of the discovery4 ,the physician employed as much dramatic effect as he could1 and watched for a wincing on ,charles' part when he approached the matter of the covered pits and the nameless hybrids within4 ,but ,ward did not wince4 ,willett paused1 and his voice grew indignant as he spoke of how the things were starving4 ,he taxed the youth with shocking inhumanity1 and shivered when only a sardonic laugh came in reply4 ,for ,charles1 having dropped as useless his pretense that the crypt did not exist1 seemed to see some ghastly jest in this affair2 and chuckled hoarsely at something which amused him4 ,then he whispered1 in accents doubly terrible because of the cracked voice he used1 ,damn 'em1 they do eat1 but they don't need to6 ,that's the rare part6 ,a month1 you say1 without food8 ,lud1 ,sir1 you be modest6 ,d'ye know1 that was the joke on poor old ,whipple with his virtuous bluster6 ,kill everything off1 would he8 ,why1 damme1 he was half-deaf with the noise from ,outside and never saw or heard aught from the wells4 ,he never dreamed they were there at all6 ,devil take ye1 those cursed things have been howling down there ever since ,curwen was done for a hundred and fifty-seven years gone6 ,but no more than this could ,willett get from the youth4 ,horrified1 yet almost convinced against his will1 he went on with his tale in the hope that some incident might startle his auditor out of the mad composure he maintained4 ,looking at the youth's face1 the doctor could not but feel a kind of terror at the changes which recent months had wrought4 ,truly1 the boy had drawn down nameless horrors from the skies4 ,when the room with the formulae and the greenish dust was mentioned1 ,charles shewed his first sign of animation4 ,a quizzical look overspread his face as he heard what ,willett had read on the pad1 and he ventured the mild statement that those notes were old ones1 of no possible significance to anyone not deeply initiated in the history of magic4 ,but1 he added1 had you but known the words to bring up that which ,i had out in the cup1 you had not been here to tell me this4 ',twas ,number #aah1 and ,i conceive you would have shook had you looked it up in my list in t'other room4 ',twas never raised by me1 but ,i meant to have it up that day you came to invite me hither4 ,then ,willett told of the formula he had spoken and of the greenish-black smoke which had arisen2 and as he did so he saw true fear dawn for the first time on ,charles ,ward's face4 ,it came1 and you be here alive6 ,as ,ward croaked the words his voice seemed almost to burst free of its trammels and sink to cavernous abysses of uncanny resonance4 ,willett1 gifted with a flash of inspiration1 believed he saw the situation1 and wove into his reply a caution from a letter he remembered4 ,no4 #aah1 you say8 ,but don't forget that stones are all changed now in nine grounds out of ten4 ,you are never sure till you question6 ,and then1 without warning1 he drew forth the minuscule message and flashed it before the patient's eyes4 ,he could have wished no stronger result1 for ,charles ,ward fainted forthwith4 99 99 99 99 99 ,all this conversation1 of course1 had been conducted with the greatest secrecy lest the resident alienists accuse the father and the physician of encouraging a madman in his delusions4 ,unaided1 too1 ,dr4 ,willett and ,mr4 ,ward picked up the stricken youth and placed him on the couch4 ,in reviving1 the patient mumbled many times of some word which he must get to ,orne and ,hutchinson at once2 so when his consciousness seemed fully back the doctor told him that of those strange creatures at least one was his bitter enemy1 and had given ,dr4 ,allen advice for his assassination4 ,this revelation produced no visible effect1 and before it was made the visitors could see that their host had already the look of a hunted man4 ,after that he would converse no more1 so ,willett and the father departed presently2 leaving behind a caution against the bearded ,allen1 to which the youth only replied that this individual was very safely taken care of1 and could do no one any harm even if he wished4 ,this was said with an almost evil chuckle very painful to hear4 ,they did not worry about any communications ,charles might write to that monstrous pair in ,europe1 since they knew that the hospital authorities seized all outgoing mail for censorship and would pass no wild or outr-looking missive4 ,there is1 however1 a curious sequel to the matter of ,orne and ,hutchinson1 if such indeed the exiled wizards were4 ,moved by some vague presentiment amidst the horrors of that period1 ,willett arranged with an international press-cutting bureau for accounts of notable current crimes and accidents in ,prague and in eastern ,transylvania2 and after six months believed that he had found two very significant things amongst the multifarious items he received and had translated4 ,one was the total wrecking of a house by night in the oldest quarter of ,prague1 and the disappearance of the evil old man called ,josef ,nadeh1 who had dwelt in it alone ever since anyone could remember4 ,the other was a titan explosion in the ,transylvania mountains east of ,rakus1 and the utter extirpation with all its inmates of the ill-regarded ,castle ,ferenczy1 whose master was so badly spoken of by peasants and soldiery alike that he would shortly have been summoned to ,bucharest for serious questioning had not this incident cut off a career already so long as to antedate all common memory4 ,willett maintains that the hand which wrote those minuscules was able to wield stronger weapons as well2 and that while ,curwen was left to him to dispose of1 the writer felt able to find and deal with ,orne and ,hutchinson itself4 ,of what their fate may have been the doctor strives sedulously not to think4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the following morning ,dr4 ,willett hastened to the ,ward home to be present when the detectives arrived4 ,allen's destruction or imprisonment--or ,curwen's1 if one might regard the tacit claim to reincarnation as valid--he felt must be accomplished at any cost1 and he communicated this conviction to ,mr4 ,ward as they sat waiting for the men to come4 ,they were downstairs this time1 for the upper parts of the house were beginning to be shunned because of a peculiar nauseousness which hung indefinitely about2 a nauseousness which the older servants connected with some curse left by the vanished ,curwen portrait4 ,at nine o'clock the three detectives presented themselves and immediately delivered all that they had to say4 ,they had not1 regrettably enough1 located the ,brava ,tony ,gomes as they had wished1 nor had they found the least trace of ,dr4 ,allen's source or present whereabouts2 but they had managed to unearth a considerable number of local impressions and facts concerning the reticent stranger4 ,allen had struck ,pawtuxet people as a vaguely unnatural being and there was an universal belief that his thick ,vandyke beard was either dyed or false--a belief conclusively upheld by the finding of such a false beard1 together with a heavy pair of dark glasses1 in his room at the fateful bungalow4 ,his voice1 ,mr4 ,ward could well testify from his one telephone conversation1 had a depth and hollowness that could not be forgotten2 and his glance seemed malign even through his smoked and horn-rimmed glasses4 ,one shopkeeper1 in the course of negotiations1 had seen a specimen of his handwriting and declared it was very queer and crabbed2 this being confirmed by penciled notes of no clear meaning found in his room and identified by the merchant4 ,in connection with the vampirism ructions of the preceding summer1 a majority of the gossips believed that ,allen rather than ,ward was the actual vampire4 ,statements were also obtained from the officials who had visited the bungalow after the unpleasant incident of the motor truck robbery4 ,they had felt less of the sinister in ,dr4 ,allen1 but had recognized him as the dominant figure in the queer shadowy cottage4 ,the place had been too dark for them to observe him clearly1 but they would know him again if they saw him4 ,his beard had looked odd1 and they thought he had some slight scar above his dark spectacled right eye4 ,as for the search of ,allen's room1 it yielded nothing definite save the beard and glasses1 and several penciled notes in a crabbed writing1 which ,willett at once saw was identical with that shared by the old ,curwen manuscripts and by the voluminous recent notes of young ,ward found in the vanished catacombs of horror4 ,dr4 ,willett and ,mr4 ,ward caught something of a profound1 subtle1 and insidious cosmic fear from this data as it was gradually unfolded1 and almost trembled in following up the vague1 mad thought which had simultaneously reached their minds4 ,the false beard and glasses1 the crabbed ,curwen penmanship--the old portrait and its tiny scar--and the altered youth in the hospital with such a scar--that deep1 hollow voice on the telephone--was it not of this that ,mr4 ,ward was reminded when his son barked forth those pitiable tones to which he now claimed to be reduced8 ,who had ever seen ,charles and ,allen together8 ,yes1 some officials had once1 but who later on8 ,was it not when ,allen left that ,charles suddenly lost his growing fright and began to live wholly at the bungalow8 ,curwen--,allen--,ward--in what blasphemous and abominable fusion had two ages and two persons become involved8 ,that damnable resemblance of the picture to ,charles--had it not used to stare and stare1 and follow the boy around the room with its eyes8 ,why1 too1 did both ,allen and ,charles copy ,joseph ,curwen's handwriting1 even when alone and off guard8 ,and then the frightful work of those people--the lost crypt of horrors that had aged the doctor overnight2 the starved monsters in the noisome pits2 the awful formula which had yielded such nameless results2 the message in minuscules found in ,willett's pocket2 the papers and the letters and all the talk of graves and salts and discoveries--whither did everything lead8 ,in the end ,mr4 ,ward did the most sensible thing4 ,steeling himself against any realization of why he did it1 he gave the detectives an article to be shewn to such ,pawtuxet shopkeepers as had seen the portentous ,dr4 ,allen4 ,that article was a photograph of his luckless son1 on which he now carefully drew in ink the pair of heavy glasses and the black pointed beard1 which the men had brought from ,allen's room4 ,for two hours he waited with the doctor in the oppressive house where fear and miasma were slowly gathering as the empty panel in the upstairs library leered and leered and leered4 ,then the men returned4 ,yes1 the altered photograph was a very passable likeness of ,dr4 ,allen4 ,mr4 ,ward turned pale1 and ,willett wiped a suddenly dampened brow with his handkerchief4 ,allen--,ward--,curwen--it was becoming too hideous for coherent thought4 ,what had the boy called out of the void1 and what had it done to him8 ,what really had happened from first to last8 ,who was this ,allen who sought to kill ,charles as too squeamish1 and why had his destined victim said in the postscript to that frantic letter that he must be so completely obliterated in acid8 ,why1 too1 had the minuscule message1 of whose origin no one dared think1 said that ,curwen must be likewise obliterated8 ,what was the change1 and when had the final stage occurred8 ,that day when his frantic note was received--he had been nervous all the morning1 then there was an alteration4 ,he had slipped out unseen and swaggered boldly in past the men hired to guard him4 ,that was the time1 when he was out4 ,but no--had he not cried out in terror as he entered his study--this very room8 ,what had he found there8 ,or wait--what had found him8 ,that simulacrum which brushed boldly in without having been seen to go--was that an alien shadow and a horror forcing itself upon a trembling figure which had never gone out at all8 ,had not the butler spoken of queer noises8 99 99 99 99 99 ,willett rang for the man and asked him some low-toned questions4 ,it had1 surely enough1 been a bad business4 ,there had been noises--a cry1 a gasp1 a choking1 and a sort of clattering or creaking or thumping1 or all of these4 ,and ,mr4 ,charles was not the same when he stalked out without a word4 ,the butler shivered as he spoke1 and sniffed at the heavy air that blew down from some open window upstairs4 ,terror had settled definitely upon the house1 and only the businesslike detectives failed to imbibe a full measure of it4 ,even they were restless1 for this case had held vague elements in the background which pleased them not at all4 ,dr4 ,willett was thinking deeply and rapidly1 and his thoughts were terrible ones4 ,now and then he would almost break into muttering as he ran over in his head a new1 appalling1 and increasingly conclusive chain of nightmare happenings4 ,then ,mr4 ,ward made a sign that the conference was over1 and everyone save him and the doctor left the room4 ,it was noon now1 but shadows as of coming night seemed to engulf the phantom-haunted mansion4 ,willett began talking very seriously to his host1 and urged that he leave a great deal of the future investigation to him4 ,there would be1 he predicted1 certain obnoxious elements which a friend could bear better than a relative4 ,as family physician he must have a free hand1 and the first thing he required was a period alone and undisturbed in the abandoned library upstairs1 where the ancient overmantel had gathered about itself an aura of noisome horror more intense than when ,joseph ,curwen's features themselves glanced slyly down from the painted panel4 ,mr4 ,ward1 dazed by the flood of grotesque morbidities and unthinkably maddening suggestions that poured in upon him from every side1 could only acquiesce2 and half an hour later the doctor was locked in the shunned room with the paneling from ,olney ,court4 ,the father1 listening outside1 heard fumbling sounds of moving and rummaging as the moments passed2 and finally a wrench and a creak1 as if a tight cupboard door were being opened4 ,then there was a muffled cry1 a kind of snorting choke1 and a hasty slamming of whatever had been opened4 ,almost at once the key rattled and ,willett appeared in the hall1 haggard and ghastly1 and demanding wood for the real fireplace on the south wall of the room4 ,the furnace was not enough1 he said2 and the electric log had little practical use4 ,longing yet not daring to ask questions1 ,mr4 ,ward gave the requisite orders and a man brought some stout pine logs1 shuddering as he entered the tainted air of the library to place them in the grate4 ,willett meanwhile had gone up to the dismantled laboratory and brought down a few odds and ends not included in the moving of the ,july before4 ,they were in a covered basket1 and ,mr4 ,ward never saw what they were4 ,then the doctor locked himself up in the library once more1 and by the clouds of smoke which rolled down past the windows from the chimney it was known that he had lighted the fire4 ,later1 after a great rustling of newspapers1 that odd wrench and creaking were heard again2 followed by a thumping which none of the eavesdroppers liked4 ,thereafter two suppressed cries of ,willett's were heard1 and hard upon these came a swishing rustle of indefinable hatefulness4 ,finally the smoke that the wind beat down from the chimney grew very dark and acrid1 and everyone wished that the weather had spared them this choking and venomous inundation of peculiar fumes4 ,mr4 ,ward's head reeled1 and the servants all clustered together in a knot to watch the horrible black smoke swoop down4 ,after an age of waiting the vapors seemed to lighten1 and half-formless sounds of scraping1 sweeping1 and other minor operations were heard behind the bolted door4 ,and at last1 after the slamming of some cupboard within1 ,willett made his appearance1 sad1 pale and haggard1 and bearing the cloth-draped basket he had taken from the upstairs laboratory4 ,he had left the window open1 and into that once accursed room was pouring a wealth of pure1 wholesome air to mix with a queer new smell of disinfectants4 ,the ancient overmantel still lingered2 but it seemed robbed of malignity now1 and rose as calm and stately in its white paneling as if it had never borne the picture of ,joseph ,curwen4 ,night was coming on1 yet this time its shadows held no latent fright1 but only a gentle melancholy4 ,of what he had done the doctor would never speak4 ,to ,mr4 ,ward he said1 ,i can answer no questions1 but ,i will say that there are different kinds of magic4 ,i have made a great purgation4 ,those in this house will sleep the better for it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,that ,dr4 ,willett's purgation had been an ordeal almost as nerve-racking in its way as his hideous wandering in the vanished crypt is shewn by the fact that the elderly physician gave out completely as soon as he reached home that evening4 ,for three days he rested constantly in his room1 though servants later muttered something about having heard him after midnight on ,wednesday1 when the outer door softly opened1 and closed with phenomenal softness4 ,servants' imaginations1 fortunately1 are limited1 else comment might have been excited by an item in ,thursday's ,evening ,bulletin which ran as follows3 ,north ,end ,ghouls ,again ,active ,after a lull of ten months since the dastardly vandalism in the ,weeden lot at the ,north ,burial ,ground1 a nocturnal prowler was glimpsed early this morning in the same cemetery by ,robert ,hart1 the night watchman4 ,happening to glance for a moment from his shelter at about two a4m41 ,hart observed a glow of a lantern or pocket torch not far to the northward1 and upon opening the door detected the figure of a man with a trowel very plainly silhouetted against a nearby electric light4 ,at once starting in pursuit1 he saw the figure dart hurriedly toward the main entrance1 gaining the street and losing himself among the shadows before approach or capture was possible4 ,like the first of the ghouls active during the past year1 this intruder had done no real damage before detection4 ,a vacant part of the ,ward lot shewed signs of a little superficial digging1 but nothing even nearly the size of a grave had been attempted1 and no previous grave had been disturbed4 ,hart1 who cannot describe the prowler except as a small man probably having a full beard1 inclines to the view that all three of the digging incidents have a common source2 but police from the ,second ,station think otherwise on account of the savage nature of the second incident1 where an ancient coffin was removed and its headstone violently shattered4 ,the first of the incidents1 in which it is thought an attempt to bury something was frustrated1 occurred a year ago last ,march1 and has been attributed to bootleggers seeking a cache4 ,it is possible1 says ,sergeant ,riley1 that this third affair is of similar nature4 ,officers at the ,second ,station are taking especial pains to capture the gang of miscreants responsible for these repeated outrages4 ,all day ,thursday ,dr4 ,willett rested as if recuperating from something past or nerving himself for something to come4 ,in the evening he wrote a note to ,mr4 ,ward1 which was delivered the next morning and which caused the half-dazed parent to ponder long and deeply4 ,mr4 ,ward had not been able to go down to business since the shock of ,monday with its baffling reports and its sinister purgation1 but he found something calming about the doctor's letter in spite of the despair it seemed to promise and the fresh mysteries it seemed to evoke4 #aj ,barnes ,st41 ,providence1 ,r4 ,i41 ,april #ab1 #aibh4 ,dear ,theodore3 ,i feel that ,i must say a word to you before doing what ,i am going to do tomorrow4 ,it will conclude the terrible business we have been going through 7for ,i feel that no spade is ever likely to reach that monstrous place we know of71 but ,i'm afraid it won't set your mind at rest unless ,i expressly assure you how very conclusive it is4 ,you have known me ever since you were a small boy1 so ,i think you will not distrust me when ,i hint that some matters are best left undecided and unexplored4 ,it is better that you attempt no further speculation as to ,charles's case1 and almost imperative that you tell his mother nothing more than she already suspects4 ,when ,i call on you tomorrow ,charles will have escaped4 ,that is all which need remain in anyone's mind4 ,he was mad1 and he escaped4 ,so don't ask me any questions when ,i call4 ,it may be that something will go wrong1 but ,i'll tell you if it does4 ,i don't think it will4 ,there will be nothing more to worry about1 for ,charles will be very1 very safe4 ,he is now--safer than you dream4 ,you need hold no fears about ,allen1 and who or what he is4 ,he forms as much a part of the past as ,joseph ,curwen's picture1 and when ,i ring your doorbell you may feel certain that there is no such person4 ,and what wrote that minuscule message will never trouble you or yours4 ,but you must steel yourself to melancholy1 and prepare your wife to do the same4 ,i must tell you frankly that ,charles's escape will not mean his restoration to you4 ,he has been afflicted with a peculiar disease1 as you must realize from the subtle physical as well as mental changes in him1 and you must not hope to see him again4 ,he stumbled on things no mortal ought ever to know1 and reached back through the years as no one ever should reach2 and something came out of those years to engulf him4 ,and now comes the matter in which ,i must ask you to trust me most of all4 ,for there will be1 indeed1 no uncertainty about ,charles's fate4 ,in about a year1 say1 you can if you wish devise a suitable account of the end1 for the boy will be no more4 ,you can put up a stone in your lot at the ,north ,burial ground exactly ten feet west of your father's and facing the same way1 and that will mark the true resting-place of your son4 ,nor need you fear that it will mark any abnormality or changeling4 ,the ashes in that grave will be those of your own unaltered bone and sinew--of the real ,charles ,dexter ,ward whose mind you watched from infancy--the real ,charles with the olive-mark on his hip and without the black witch-mark on his chest or the pit on his forehead4 ,the ,charles who never did actual evil1 and who will have paid with his life for his squeamishness4 ,that is all4 ,charles will have escaped1 and a year from now you can put up his stone4 ,do not question me tomorrow4 ,and believe that the honour of your ancient family remains untainted now1 as it has been at all times in the past4 ,with profoundest sympathy1 and exhortations to fortitude1 calmness1 and resignation1 ,i am ever ,sincerely your friend1 ,marinus ,b4 ,willett4 ,so on the morning of ,friday1 ,april #ac1 #aibh1 ,marinus ,bicknell ,willett visited the room of ,charles ,dexter ,ward at ,dr4 ,waite's private hospital on ,conanicut ,island4 ,after the interchange of a few strained formalities1 a new element of constraint crept in1 as ,ward seemed to read behind the doctor's masklike face a terrible purpose which had never been there before4 ,ward actually turned pale1 and the doctor was the first to speak4 ,more1 he said1 has been found out1 and ,i must warn you fairly that a reckoning is due4 ,digging again1 and coming upon more poor starving pets8 was the ironic reply4 ,it was evident that the youth meant to shew bravado to the last4 ,no1 ,willett slowly rejoined1 this time ,i did not have to dig4 ,we have had men looking up ,dr4 ,allen1 and they found the false beard and spectacles in the bungalow6 ,excellent1 commented the disquieted host in an effort to be wittily insulting1 and ,i trust they proved more becoming than the beard and glasses you now have on6 ,they would become you very well1 came the even and studied response1 as indeed they seem to have done4 ,as ,willett said this1 it almost seemed as though a cloud passed over the sun2 though there was no change in the shadows on the floor4 ,then ,ward ventured3 ,and is this what asks so hotly for a reckoning8 ,suppose a man does find it now and then useful to be twofold8 ,no1 said ,willett gravely1 again you are wrong4 ,it is no business of mine if any man seeks duality2 provided he has any right to exist at all1 and provided he does not destroy what called him out of space4 ,ward now started violently4 ,well1 ,sir1 what have ye found1 and what d'ye want with me8 ,the doctor let a little time elapse before replying1 as if choosing his words for an effective answer4 ,i have found1 he finally intoned1 something in a cupboard behind an ancient overmantel where a picture once was1 and ,i have burned it and buried the ashes where the grave of ,charles ,dexter ,ward ought to be4 ,the madman choked and sprang from the chair in which he had been sitting3 ,damn ye1 who did ye tell--and who'll believe it was he after these full two months1 with me alive8 ,what d'ye mean to do8 ,willett1 though a small man1 actually took on a kind of judicial majesty as he calmed the patient with a gesture4 ,i have told no one4 ,this is no common case--it is a madness out of time and a horror from beyond the spheres which no police or lawyers or courts or alienists could ever fathom or grapple with4 ,you cannot deceive me1 ,joseph ,curwen1 for ,i know that your accursed magic is true6 ,i know how you wove the spell that brooded outside the years and fastened on your double and descendant2 ,i know how you drew him into the past and got him to raise you up from your detestable grave2 ,i know how he kept you hidden in his laboratory while you studied modern things and roved abroad as a vampire by night1 and how you later shewed yourself in beard and glasses that no one might wonder at your godless likeness to him2 ,i know what you resolved to do when he balked at your monstrous rifling of the world's tombs1 and at what you planned afterward1 and ,i know how you did it4 ,you left off your beard and glasses and fooled the guards around the house4 ,they thought it was he who went in1 and they thought it was he who came out when you had strangled and hidden him4 ,but you hadn't reckoned on the different contacts of two minds4 ,you were a fool1 ,curwen1 to fancy that a mere visual identity would be enough4 ,why didn't you think of the speech and the voice and the handwriting8 ,it hasn't worked1 you see1 after all4 ,you know better than ,i who or what wrote that message in minuscules1 but ,i will warn you it was not written in vain4 ,there are abominations and blasphemies which must be stamped out1 and ,i believe that the writer of those words will attend to ,orne and ,hutchinson4 ,one of those creatures wrote you once1 'do not call up any that you cannot put down4' ,curwen1 a man can't tamper with ,nature beyond certain limits1 and every horror you have woven will rise up to wipe you out4 99 99 99 99 99 ,but here the doctor was cut short by a convulsive cry from the creature before him4 ,hopelessly at bay1 weaponless1 and knowing that any show of physical violence would bring a score of attendants to the doctor's rescue1 ,joseph ,curwen had recourse to his one ancient ally1 and began a series of cabalistic motions with his forefingers as his deep1 hollow voice1 now unconcealed by feigned hoarseness1 bellowed out the opening words of a terrible formula4 ,,per ,,adonai ,,eloim1 ,,adonai ,,jehova1 ,,adonai ,,sabaoth1 ,,metraton4444 ,but ,willett was too quick for him4 ,even as the dogs in the yard outside began to howl1 and even as a chill wind sprang suddenly up from the bay1 the doctor commenced the solemn and measured intonation of that which he had meant all along to recite4 ,an eye for an eye--magic for magic--let the outcome shew how well the lesson of the abyss had been learned6 ,so in a clear voice ,marinus ,bicknell ,willett began the second of that pair of formulae whose first had raised the writer of those minuscules--the cryptic invocation whose heading was the ,dragon's ,tail1 sign of the descending node-- ,,ogthrod ,,ai',f ,,geb',l----,,ee'',h ,,yog-,,sothoth ',,ngah',,ng ,,ai',y ,,zhro6 ,at the very first word from ,willett's mouth the previously commenced formula of the patient stopped short4 ,unable to speak1 the monster made wild motions with his arms until they too were arrested4 ,when the awful name of ,yog-,sothoth was uttered1 the hideous change began4 ,it was not merely a dissolution1 but rather a transformation or recapitulation2 and ,willett shut his eyes lest he faint before the rest of the incantation could be pronounced4 ,but he did not faint1 and that man of unholy centuries and forbidden secrets never troubled the world again4 ,the madness out of time had subsided1 and the case of ,charles ,dexter ,ward was closed4 ,opening his eyes before staggering out of that room of horror1 ,dr4 ,willett saw that what he had kept in memory had not been kept amiss4 ,there had1 as he had predicted1 been no need for acids4 ,for like his accursed picture a year before1 ,joseph ,curwen now lay scattered on the floor as a thin coating of fine bluish-gray dust4