At last I could feel a real shiver run through Manton, who had moved very near. But his curiosity was undeterred.
“And what about the window-panes?”
“They were all gone. One window had lost its entire frame, and in all the others there was not a trace of glass in the little diamond apertures. They were that kind – – the old lattice windows that went out of use before 1700. I don’t believe they’ve had any glass for a hundred years or more – – maybe the boy broke ’em if he got that far; the legend doesn’t say.”
Manton. was reflecting again.
“I’d like to see that house, Carter. Where is it? Glass or no glass, I must explore ft a little. And the tomb where you put those bones, and the other grave without an inscription – – the whole thing must be a bit terrible.”
“You did see it – – until it got dark.”
My friend was more wrought upon than I had suspected, for at this touch of harmless theatricalism he started neurotically away from me and actually cried out with a sort of gulping gasp which released a strain of previous repression. It was an odd cry, and all the more terrible because it was answered. For as it was still echoing, I heard a creaking sound through the pitchy blackness, and knew that a lattice window was opening in that accursed old house beside us. And because all the other frames were long since fallen, I knew that it was the grisly glassless frame of that demoniac attic window.
Then came a noxious rush of noisome, frigid air from that same dreaded direction, followed by a piercing shriek just beside me on that shocking rifted tomb of man and monster. In another instant I was knocked from my gruesome bench by the devilish threshing of some unseen entity of titanic size but undetermined nature; knocked sprawling on the root-clutched mold of that abhorrent graveyard, while from the tomb came such a stifled uproar of gasping and whirring that my fancy peopled the rayless gloom with Miltonic legions of the misshapen damned. There was a vortex of withering, ice-cold wind, and then the rattle of loose bricks and plaster; but I had mercifully fainted before I could learn what it meant.
Manton, though smaller than I, is more resilient; for we opened our eyes at almost the same instant, despite his greater injuries. Our couches were side by side, and we knew in a few seconds that we were in St. Mary’s Hospital. Attendants were grouped about in tense curiosity, eager to aid our memory by telling us how we came there, and we soon heard of the farmer who had found us at noon in a lonely field beyond Meadow Hill, a mile from the old burying ground, on a spot where an ancient slaughterhouse is reputed to have stood. Manton had two malignant wounds in the chest, and some less severe cuts or gougings in the back. I was not so seriously hurt, but was covered with welts and contusions of the most bewildering character, including the print of a split hoof. It was plain that Manton knew more than I, but he told nothing to the puzzled and interested physicians till he had learned what our injuries were. Then he said we were the victims of a vicious bull – – though the animal was a difficult thing to place and account for.
After the doctors and nurses had left, I whispered an awe struck question:
“Good God, Manton, but what was it? Those scars – – was It like that?”
And I was too dazed to exult when he whispered back a thing I had half expected – –
“No – – it wasn’t that way at all. It was everywhere – – a gelatin – – a
slime yet it had Shapes, a thousand shapes of horror beyond all memory.
There were eyes – – and a blemish. It was the pit – – the maelstrom – – the
ultimate abomination. Carter, it was the unnamable!”