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In the excitement
he forgot to stammer. "I heard him call out and went down after him. I had only just time to drag him out." Herrick wiped his hand on the grass. "Cut his head open," he said briefly. "I think there's an arm
broken. Give me a hand, Austin. We must get him up to the top." "Compound fracture and a broken... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
They had prepared a room upstairs, and there we got Freeman to
bed and did all that was possible for him. Unconsciousness spared
him the pain of our handling; the fracture was as ugly a one as I
have seen. The concussion was graver even than we had supposed; it
would be days certainly, possibly weeks, before he would b... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
"You mean Crowfoot himself?" "Crowfoot wasn't here at the time of the ghost scare, and he didn't
know of Freeman's appointment tonight. Moreover, I don't think he
had even an idea who the man was till you flashed your lamp on him. Remember it was pretty dark there. But two people might have known
of it. They were both ... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
He was frightened by someone or
something that sprang out at him from that tree as he passed, and
Crowfoot, depend upon it, was merely trying to find out whether that
jump was within the limits of an ordinarily active man." We were both tired that evening and we turned in early after supper. I had left instructions to ... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
"The blame thing might have held out a bit longer! We
ain't far from Dutchman's Hill, by all accounts." "This is Dutchman's Hill," I said. "It is, eh?" He glanced at the inspector; who was holding the lamp
for him. "Well, they say one cuss leads to another, and be darned if
I don't give this place a worse name than it'... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
Mary Lessing was on the porch, and while the others went
indoors I stayed outside to smoke a cigarette in the open air and
watch the road in case Jackson turned up. "I'm glad it was Menning's house, if it had to be somebody's," said
Mary, with really feminine lucidity. "I wanted to go, but Dick
wouldn't let me. I guess... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
He was
certainly only half related to Aaron, and the wide difference between
them was in curious contrast to their strong physical resemblance, a
result in both cases of the virile persistence of the mother's
peasant type. Jakey was mentally deficient, but not enough to debar
him from ordinary tasks. He occupied himsel... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
The
face of the dead man was swollen both by the manner of death and the
partial immersion in mud. Remember that there were no intimate
relatives to impose upon, for the mother undoubtedly knew the truth. The farmer who found the body identified it as that of a huckster
named Menning who had called upon him the week be... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
"It seems to me," I said, grappling with an idea which had somehow
forced itself upon me all through Lennox's narrative, "that--I don't
want to criticize unduly--but I do feel that Lennox's tale has been
more evolved to fit existing facts than suggested by them. He seems
to me to be trying to convince himself just as m... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
"If there was ever call for a place to be burned," she declared, "it
was that one, though I ain't one for wishing ill to my neighbours
without cause. But there's a bad streak in that family an' always
has been. The old woman's grown feeble of late and I'm sorry enough
for her, poor soul, by all I hear, but there was a ... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
But it was something more than that, I feel
certain, to have thrown him into the state he was in." "I shall ask him tonight," I said. "If he's keeping anything
back----"
"Ask him!" said Mary. "Ask him, and get the truth! You can tell him
just what I said." I had promised to look in at the Sliefers' again, later in the... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
Frogs
croaked in monotonous chorus from the weeds at the edge and the
midges were thick. In the end Mary had to give in ignominiously, and
I carried the pail while she fought their attacks off with a
handkerchief. It was here that Rebecca and her sweetheart used to walk of an
evening, and I wondered at their choice of ... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
As I reached the point where the road dipped to the hollow it seemed
to me that I could smell once more that queer unplaceable odour of
which Mary had spoken. XX
WHAT WE FOUND IN THE SAW-MILL
Herrick had not yet returned when I reached the house. Lennox was
just sitting down to supper, in which I joined him. While we... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
Except for the cow and a
couple of pigs there wasn't the sign of any animal round the place
bigger than a cat. And there was no opening in that shed except the
window and the door Menning came out by. "So now you know the whole thing--all Mary Lessing claimed I was
keeping back from you--and I imagine you're about as w... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
But I got enough I think to throw some interesting
light on what has happened since." "Did you get any idea," Lennox asked, "of Jakey's make-up when he was
with these people?" "No. Why?" "Tell him your story, Lennox," I said. He repeated briefly what he had already told me. Herrick listened,
his face intent. "So that w... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
The
worrying had ceased; we could hear the broken rapid breathing of two
bodies, there, unseen, somewhere within a few feet of us in the
darkness. I made a step forward, but Herrick clutched my arm, and as
he did so the fight broke out again with renewed fury, somewhere it
seemed up in the far corner, among the drifted... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
Nor he ain't none too friendly to Menning, either, that's
one reason we've kep' him tied up, most of the time. Now I guess
I'll step up an' leave word with Mother." He opened the stairway door and tip-toed up, curiously noiseless on
his heavy feet. We heard whispering, a smothered exclamation; then
he came down, gently... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
If we'd had time to head him off,
now." I glanced at Herrick. He was staring straight at that narrow
closed-in gorge, his eyes keen and fixed. "Is there any other outlet there?" "Not easy. It's straight-up rock at the far end and the woods are
pretty thick. A man would have to make slow going, either way he
took it. If... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
We were within a few steps of the saw-mill
clearing, but the dog was there before us. He was circling the
ground, barking furiously as he had done in the gorge, his attention
divided between the mill itself and the group of trees, with an old
dead chestnut among them, that stood within a dozen feet of the
building and ... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
She made no sign of having heard me, only kept up that faint
unintelligible muttering. Herrick went over and shook her gently by
the shoulder. "Where is Miss Lessing? You got to tell us." She twisted her shoulder from his grasp and sunk lower into the
chair, her eyes averted. My ears had caught a sound overhead. There
... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
Whatever
it was, it was something that gave such a shock to the
proprietor--who, remember, had originally conceived the idea of the
wild-man stunt himself, so wasn't likely to have been taken in by
acting--that he sacrificed his best drawing card then and there
sooner than have Jakey remain another night with the show.... | Williams, Harper - The thing in the woods |
The Mark of the Monster
By JACK WILLIAMSON
_A vivid thrill-tale of the black altar
on the hill-top, and the dark doom that
hung over two lovers like a living
horror--by the author of "Golden Blood".... | Williamson, Jack - The mark of the monster |
"Clay, is it really you? Oh, help me----"
Through the twilight under the trees, I saw the gigantic shape
lumbering after her. I ran to meet a great, bearded hulk of a man. His
faded overalls were dark with dried blood. His broad face, dark above
the rusty beard, was twitching with lust. His eyes were bulging and
glaze... | Williamson, Jack - The mark of the monster |
Valyne opened the heavy,
iron-studded oaken door, and we entered. How often have I wished that we had slammed that accursed door, and
fled into the haunted night! _2. "Fear Is Calling for You, Clay! "_
The stone house was old. It had been old when I was a child; but now it
had changed. Now it seemed to me that namele... | Williamson, Jack - The mark of the monster |
Jud is late, today." His dark, brilliant eyes looked across at me. "I must beg your pardon for this mystery, Clay. Please finish your
supper. Later you will understand." Then he asked, as if to launch a
conversation, "Have you any collection of Chinese art?" "No," I said jerkily. "Yes, a few pieces of good jade." I had... | Williamson, Jack - The mark of the monster |
"Doesn't matter what you
say. Just use a firm, friendly tone----"
As I hesitated, some fiend of fortuity thrust into my mind Poe's
macabre lines:
They are neither man nor woman--
They are neither brute nor human--
They are Ghouls. As I spoke it, a stronger wave of that feral effluvium came through the... | Williamson, Jack - The mark of the monster |
Psychically, you are also, save for the shadow of strangeness that you
feel, and for the waking of the demon when you fight. "But I'm afraid for you, Clay!" The terrible voice sank lower. "Passion will awake that slumbering demon. It will transmute that
shadow into reality. You must walk with care, my son, or you will ... | Williamson, Jack - The mark of the monster |
Promise me that
you will never again surrender to that horror! Just promise. And we
will go away from Creston, in the morning, as we planned. Perhaps
we can find a way to happiness. At least we can be together for a
while--and together when we die!" I promised. I thought we might consult some psychiatrist or
occultist.... | Williamson, Jack - The mark of the monster |
It must have taken Valyne there. And may she die before the
demon-child is born!" _5. The Beast in the Beast_
I think that Sarah Kyle tried to follow me up Blue Squaw Mountain. But
desperation had lent me frantic wings. Her shrill voice fell behind,
screaming:
"Wait for me, Clay! I can calm it! It always understood-... | Williamson, Jack - The mark of the monster |
And I strode on, away from the twin red fires of the blood-stained
altar, through the tall silent stones, toward the dark forest waiting
to drink my blood. I was reaching again for the cold, comforting grip
of the automatic. Its swift flame would burn all the horror and the
madness from my brain. When I was dead, I tho... | Williamson, Jack - The mark of the monster |
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