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indifference of the trio to our presence made it seem odd that any passing
party of those others should have startled them. Was it possible that those
others had taken some aggressive action or t-ried to increase their meat
supply? We doubted whether that pungent odor which the dogs had hated could
cause an equal antipathy in these penguins, since their ancestors had
obviously lived on excellent terms with the Old Ones - an amicable
relationship which must have survived in the abyss below as long as any of the
Old Ones remained. Regretting
- in a flare-up of the old spirit of pure science - that we could not
photograph these anomalous creatures, we shortly left them to their squawking
and pushed on toward the abyss whose openness was now so positively proved to
us, and whose exact direction occasional penguin tracks made clear.
Not long afterward a steep descent in a long, low, doorless, and peculiarly
sculptureless corridor led us to believe that we were approaching the tunnel
mouth at last. We had passed two more penguins, and heard others immediately
ahead. Then the corridor ended in a prodigious open space which made us gasp
involuntarily - a perfect inverted hemisphere, obviously deep underground;
fully a hundred feet in diameter and fifty feet high, with low archways
opening around all parts of the circumference but one, and that one yawning
cavernously with a black, arched aperture which broke the symmetry of the
vault to a height of nearly fifteen feet. It was the entrance to the great
abyss.
In this vast hemisphere, whose concave roof was impressively though decadently
carved to a likeness of the primordial celestial dome, a few albino penguins
waddled - aliens there, but indifferent and unseeing. The black tunnel yawned
indefinitely off at a steep, descending grade, its aperture adorned with
grotesquely chiseled jambs and lintel. From that cryptical mouth we fancied a
current of slightly warmer air, and perhaps even a suspicion of vapor
proceeded;
and we wondered what living entities other than penguins the limitless void
below, and the contiguous honeycombings of the land and the titan mountains,
might conceal. We wondered, too, whether the trace of mountaintop smoke at
first suspected by poor Lake, as well as the odd haze we had ourselves
perceived around the rampart-crowned peak, might not be caused by the
tortuous-channeled rising of some such vapor from the unfathomed regions of
earth s core.
Entering the tunnel, we saw that its outline was - at least at the start -
about fifteen feet each way - sides, floor, and arched roof composed of the
usual
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ecraft%20-%20At%20the%20Mountains%20of%20Madness.txt megalithic masonry. The
sides were sparsely decorated with cartouches of conventional designs in a
late, decadent style; and all the construction and carving were marvelously
well-preserved. The floor was quite clear, except for a slight detritus
bearing outgoing penguin tracks and the inward tracks of these others. The
farther one advanced, the warmer it became; so that we were soon unbuttoning
our heavy garments. We wondered whether there were any actually igneous
manifestations below, and whether the waters of that sunless sea were hot.
Alter a short distance the masonry gave place to solid rock, though the tunnel
kept the same proportions and presented the same aspect of carved regularity.
Occasionally its varying grade became so steep that grooves were cut in the
floor. Several times we noted the mouths of small lateral galleries not
recorded in our diagrams; none of them such as to complicate the problem of
our return, and all of them welcome as possible refuges in case we met
unwelcome entities on their way back from the abyss. The nameless scent of
such things was very distinct. Doubtless it was suicidally foolish to venture
into that tunnel under the known conditions, but the lure of the unplumbed is
stronger in certain persons than most suspect - indeed, it was just such a
lure which had brought us to this unearthly polar waste in the first place. We
saw several penguins as we passed along, and speculated on the distance we
would have to traverse. The carvings had led us to expect a steep downhill
walk of about a mile to the abyss, but our previous wanderings had shown us
that matters of scale were not wholly to be depended on.
Alter about a quarter of a mile that nameless scent became greatly
accentuated, and we kept very careful track of the various lateral openings we
passed. There was no visible vapor as at the mouth, but this was doubtless due
to the lack of contrasting cooler air. The temperature was rapidly ascending,
and we were not surprised to come upon a careless heap of material
shudderingly familiar to us.
It was composed of furs and tent cloth taken from Lake s camp, and we did not
pause to study the bizarre forms into which the fabrics had been slashed.
Slightly beyond this point we noticed a decided increase in the size and
number of the side galleries, and concluded that the densely honeycombed
region beneath the higher foothills must now have been reached. The nameless
scent was now curiously mixed with another and scarcely less offensive odor -
of what nature we could not guess, though we thought of decaying organisms and
perhaps unknown subterranean fungi. Then came a startling expansion of the
tunnel for which the carvings had not prepared us - a broadening and rising
into a lofty, natural-looking elliptical cavern with a level floor, some
seventy-five feet long and fifty broad, and with many immense side passages
leading away into cryptical darkness.
Though this cavern was natural in appearance, an inspection with both torches
suggested that it had been formed by the artificial destruction of several
walls between adjacent honeycombings. The walls were rough, and the high,
vaulted roof was thick with stalactites; but the solid rock floor had been
smoothed off, and was free from all debris, detritus, or even dust to a
positively abnormal extent. Except for the avenue through which we had come,
this was true of the floors of all the great galleries opening off from it;
and the singularity of the condition was such as to set us vainly puzzling.
The curious new fetor which had supplemented the nameless scent was
excessively pungent here; so much so that it destroyed all trace of the other.
Something about this whole place, with its polished and almost glistening
floor, struck us as more vaguely baffling and horrible than any of the
monstrous things we had previously encountered.
The regularity of the passage immediately ahead, as well as the larger
proportion of penguin-droppings there, prevented all confusion as to the right
course amidst this plethora of equally great cave mouths. Nevertheless we
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resolved to resume our paper trailblazing if any further complexity should
develop; for dust tracks, of course, could no longer be expected. Upon
resuming our direct progress we cast a beam of torchlight over the tunnel [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]