The Madness of Cthulhu Anthology (Volume One): 1 (12 page)

“And why would you ask that? Don’t you believe your own eyes?”

“You aren’t Harley.”

Harley turned toward Marissa, lifted a hand to her cheek, and said, “Jerry thinks I’m dead. He thinks that because he remembers killing me. But he didn’t kill me; he only wanted to.” Harley looked at me. “How did you kill me, Jerry?”

I couldn’t speak.

“With a rock hammer,
my
Estwing Supreme rock hammer, in fact. Couldn’t even bring your own murder weapon. And why? Because Marissa loved me, not you.”

“No.”

“The Elder Gods still live here, although this
here
isn’t in a forest on Old Man Turnip’s land. They are not gods, of course, but they might as well be. They are, however, more complicated than earth-made gods. They are in alliance with us because—and this is true symbiosis as I never understood it—they want our defiance, our hatred, and then they
make us love them!”

Harley threw his arms around Marissa, who returned the embrace silently and looked past him to me with an expression beyond my dark-hearted understanding. And there was a noise, like the unfurling of a huge sail in violent weather, and something like vast black wings rose up behind them, and they disappeared in a rush of darkness that rolled out and toward me too fast for me to flee.

And it was gone. I was in a clearing in the forest, and I pushed myself to my knees and rose up and thought,
It’s gone for good.

And I have thought about it and thought about it and haven’t grown any wiser. I still go to my job, and it is no better or worse than it ever was.

And at night when I am trying to sleep, it is not a cosmic question that troubles me. It is what I saw in Marissa’s eyes. Sometimes I think it was simple fear. More often I think it was pride. But most of the time I think it was pity.

E
XCERPTS FROM THE
F
IELD
J
OURNAL OF
A
RTHUR
L
AKES
D
URING
His Explorations for Saurians and Fossil Remains in the Wyoming Territory (June 1879):

May 25th:
I spent the morning in sketching bones in [Quarry] No. 3 and the locality of the
Ichthyosaurus
quarry. Being alone in the tent I had the usual company of the spermophiles. In the evening I walked along RR track to meet men returning in the handcar. Stationmaster Carlin [William Edward] had shot an elk and they were bringing back the hams. Following supper, the tale of the hunt was recounted which set [William Hallow] Reed to the cheerful spinning of many yarns of their hunting misadventures.

May 27th:
Reed discovered portion of saurian jaw poßeßed of herbivorous teeth in it at Quarry No. 3. So we went up on the handcar to see it. Was about six inches of jaw, but rather weathered and portions of skull in exceedingly friable condition attached. Saw couple of deer and fawn near the quarry. Most of the day spent shovelling out dirt.

Had elk meat for our supper which was tender and nice. We fashioned a cabinet for geological specimens from dry goods box. Caught axolotl [tiger salamander,
Ambystoma mexicanum
] in water tank. Reed related story of how he once found a broken fiddle in the old deserted camp of some party in North Park. Broken, the fiddle, but of expert craftsmanship. Also found blankets. Campers supposed, then, to have been wealthy people, likely of a sudden run down by Indians and forced either to beat a hasty retreat, else were maßacred and never heard of thereafter. He also told of finding skeleton of a man and also his gun in a fißure. He believed the man must have frozen to death.

May 28th:
Paßed morning sketching bluffs fr. north shore of the lake [Como]. Great clouds of cliff swallows whirling darting about on ledges or rock forming the bank of the lake or resting basking on sand near to the water. Strata to north belong to same geological horizons and groups as those forming bluffs at the station, viz. Juraßic & Cretaceous.

Reed returned from Quarry No. 3 with report of find of a very large humerus bone. Men discovered enormous claw of carnivorous Dinosaur much curved, sharp and long. Walked out by shore of lake near to sunset and saw muskrat cavorting in the rushes. Couple of ducks flew close in under the bank unconscious of my presence, the female quacking lustily. Could have dropped a stone on them! A wild scene with flaming glare of the sunset so distant and solitary on the desolate Wyoming prairie. As we turned to head back to camp, a most peculiar booming was heard sounding acroß the lake followed by complete silence. Gave us a right start. Reed speculates may be meteorological phenomenon as yet unknown though it sounded to me nothing like thunder. We did not speak of it to the others.

May 29th:
Went to Quarry No. 3 in company of Reed. Uncovered respectable portions of two fused vertebrae [Allosaurus sacral] lying beneath humerus. While digging, Reed had misfortune to tap into a small spring which at once flooded part of the diggings. Water foul and oily, owing poßibly to mineral composition of enclosing strata. A most noisome odor as if from decaying vegetation and it is hoped we shall not be forced to abandon quarry on its account. Reed also found three small and somewhat constricted vertebrae roughly one yard from humerus. In the evening arranged Reed’s cabinet of foßils.

May 30th:
Spent in shovelling earth at No. 3. All signs of flood have drained away, leaving only hole from which it sprung and which I filled in post haste lest we have a repeat of that deluge. Odd sunset.

May 31st:
Spotted antelope herd as we made our way back to camp. Reed the hunter started in pursuit whilst I continued on to the quarry. Soon I heard the report of his rifle, and looking up saw him lying on the prairie firing shot after shot. But not at the herd which had vanished. Puff after puff of white smoke came from his rifle’s barrel, and I could see nothing of his target. I saw dust rise where the bullets struck ground. After twenty shots he remained for a bit lying there in the graß.

On the way home on the handcar asked Reed what had become of the antelope and what he might have been shooting at in their stead. But he was uncharacteristically taciturn and refused to speak on the subject. Minutes later though he did point out to me a distinct trail several feet wide and a half mile long which he said was made by jackrabbits. I saw no sign of their feet but the graß grew up in a defined line as distinct from the prairie turf.

June 1st:
In tent read to Reed from
Vestiges of Creation.
He has spoken little since yesterday and starts at smallest of sounds. Have not asked again about the antelopes.

June 2nd:
Hired another man. Watched coyote creeping along through sage until Reed shot it. Later found small saurian bones 500 yds. west of No. 3. They were small vertebrae hollow but filled with carbonate of lime. Also curved sabre tooth about one inch in length from a carnivorous Dinosaur. In the afternoon I sketched our camp. The last discovery Reed calls Quarry No. 6. He is not so anxious as on yesterday—to my relief.

June 4th:
Profeßor [Othniel Charles] Marsh whom we had been expecting arrived and breakfasted with hands at sectionhouse. Quickly made himself to home with all the men. After breakfast we set forth on the handcar, a large party of us, the “rubbed car” being attached to it for Marsh and my benefit. A lovely morning & Profeßor Marsh much amused by innumerable spermophiles, hares, and rabbits leaping from RR track as we did speed along. Stopped first at Quarry No. 3 only to find worse flooding from Reed’s spring, as if I had not filled in the source! A great disappoint all round, and the odour was many times worse it seemed than previously. Profeßor Marsh dismayed and visibly angered that ilium and caudals of carnivorous dinosaur lost, even after I explained all were too rotten for excavation. In addition to iridescent oily sheen on water’s surface witneßed a yellow form about the periphery of the submerged quarry.

Thence we proceeded to our latest discovery No. 6, in hopes of lifting Profeßor Marsh’s spirits somewhat. After close and careful examination of bones Profeßor M. devolved many of them to destruction as much too imperfect or rotten for preservation and lest Cope’s men come upon them and conclude otherwise. But bones we had taken to be those of a crocodile with scutes of armour deeply pitted proved just so. Profeßor M. thinks one bone to be that of a pterodactyl, a small half-inch jaw to belong to early mammal. The loose teeth were also those of a crocodile of a species long vanished from the globe.

From there again by handcar to Quarry No. 4, which is situated on the slope of a deep ravine washed out by Rock Creek, some four or five miles east of Como. Quarry has been well worked by Reed previous to my arrival at Como. Many large bones plainly were visible. Near this quarry Profeßor Marsh found exceedingly unusual Indian stone fetish or lithic artefact which could be, at a casual glance, taken for the effigy of some winged demon as from the illustrations of Gustave Doré. Reed straightaway grew troubled again and advised the Profeßor to leave it be, as its removal could anger Sioux or Cheyenne with whom we have had no trouble heretofore. But Profeßor Marsh insisted the piece would be a valuable addition to the Peabody collection back in New Haven and all Reed’s effort could not dißuade him. Profeßor M. carried the artefact away in his coat pocket. Also found a foßil snail or helix in concretion between quarry and overlying Dakota sandstone (Cretaceous).

From a nearby ravine a doe elk suddenly sprang from the bushes and dashed up to the top of the ravine. Reed who happened to be on ahead did not see it at first till the Profeßor shouted at him. Hearing us he wheeled round and fired directly. Beast struck him near the hip but wound insufficient to stop him, and Reed got off another shot but without succeß. The elk was lost to sight over the ridge. Reed followed and tracked him [
sic
] for an hour by drips of blood which later he insisted were “not right,” being of a darker hue than proper for any elk and stinking of sulphur. Profeßor Marsh suggests doe may have drunk from befouled pool at No. 6 [
sic
], resulting in contamination of its fluids, but this rational explanation did little if anything to soothe Reed’s nerves. Again, he implored Profeßor M. to leave behind the artefact and again without result, except to set him in an ill humour. He wondered aloud at having employed a superstitious collector given to fear of Indian relics, and this did nothing to settle Reed.

Turning his attention back to the quarry, Profeßor Marsh determined the bones there—a sacrum—to belong to a great sauropod. We returned to the handcar for lunch. Railroad hands and our party made quite a fine picnic arranged around the viands which were spread out upon the rubber car. Afterwards, went to Quarry No. 1 and prospecting on our stomachs or on hands and knees all hunted for small bones in a microscopic manner and were well rewarded finding what Marsh thought might be toe bone of either pterodactyl or bird. Still this did not improve Reed’s disposition I am sad to say.

After supper, Profeßor M. regaled us with stories of his exploits searching for Tertiary bones near to Fort Bridger. Reed, however, did remain in the tent.

June 5th:
Profeßor M. has resolved to stay on another day with us. Immediately upon finishing breakfast we started for the lake and when we had arrived he brought to our attention the small crustaceans [amphipods] to be found amongst the waterweed which grows in such profusion on the lakebed. We stopped at the old quarry situated on the lake’s north shore, and Marsh was much interested in the medium-sized sacrum we have exposed there. He believes it belongs to the Allosauridae, and he wishes to see this quarry expanded further in hopes of additional discoveries of a similar merit. From the lake we walked the RR tracks west to the bridge acroß Rock Creek where desperadoes had last August purposed wrecking the train by the removal of a rail (along with its spikes).

Our party croßed excellent outcroppings of tawny and yellow strata of the Cretaceous and Juraßic group as we climbed down into the selfsame hollow where those desperadoes encamped, and I remarked it was certainly a spot well adapted to their ends. In the shade of the identical cottonwoods that sheltered the thwarted bandits, we sat—Marsh, Reed, [Edward G.] Ashley, and I. As mourning doves, which had nested above, flew about to and fro, I managed a quick sketch of the pastoral scene. We lunched below the trees, and discußion soon turned from the brigand gang’s plot to wreck the Union Pacific Westbound Expreß No. 3 to the jaw of a little mammal (
Dryolestes
) Reed had found at the base of a nearby cliff, about which Profeßor M. is very excited. Soon though Reed steered the conversation back to the matter of the Indian artefact found the previous day at Quarry No. 4. He remains most unaccountably agitated on the subject and insists we are inviting calamity of one sort or another by not returning it.

Unexpectedly he spoke also, but briefly, of that queer episode with the antelope on the last day of May yet refused to provide any details, saying only that there are many perils of the prairie we do not understand and would be wise not to be so reckleß. Profeßor M. listened and asked him what he believed he was shooting at that day but Reed grew tight-lipped and wouldn’t say. Now here is a respected man, a seasoned hunter and guide and RR employee, former infantryman in the Union Army, and always have I held him in high esteem, certainly not regarding him as the sort given to the wild and frankly credulous attitude he seems to have adopted in the past few days. It was he and the stationmaster who first alerted Marsh to the presence of giant saurian bones at Como. It was impoßible not to detect an apprehensive look in the Profeßor’s eyes. In any case it is clear he will do no such thing as part with the curious relic, which I will admit is not a pleasant object to look upon as is the case with many of the redskin’s fetishes, but hardly is it either cause for such behaviour as Reed’s.