“You can’t understand!” he lashed out. “No one can! Morris, you saw me panic-stricken a little while ago when that tremor shook the city. Did it surprise you?”
“Frankly, it did,” I said slowly. “But I can understand how that first quake would have unnerved you—and the ones you’ve chanced to be in since.”
“It wasn’t chance that I was in them,” he said astonishingly, and then leaned to clutch my arm. “Morris, can you conceive of such a thing as earthquakes following one person across the face of this earth, seeking him out no matter where he may go, riving the earth and razing cities and killing tens of thousands, to kill that one fugitive? Earthquakes that deliberately pursue one fleeing man with deadly purpose?”
“Earthquakes following a man?” I repeated. “Why, the idea’s mad! You surely don’t think because you have been by coincidence in all these quakes of the last two years—”
“I don’t think,” he said, “I know. I know that the quakes you speak of have pursued me across earth in the last two years with deadly purpose! Even today, two hours after I landed in this city, they have shown me that they are still after me!”
“Landon, you can’t believe this!” I expostulated. “Be reasonable, man—an earthquake is simply a movement of the earth’s mass. How could such movements follow you deliberately?”
“I know how,” he said, his eyes strange. “Travis and Skeel knew, too, before they died. But I know and I still live, if only for a time.
“And I am going to tell you the thing, Morris. I know before the telling that you will find it impossible to believe, just as I would have two years ago. But in your unbelief remember this—that of all things in the universe the one we men know least really of is this earth we live upon.
“It has been over two years since Travis and Skeel and I started north on that trip of ours. We left St. John’s in a sturdy Canadian schooner built for arctic work, with a Canadian crew. The ship was to take us as far as northern Grant Land, and from there we three were going to work north ourselves on the last lap. Our objective was a great ice-mountain, its rock visible through openings in its icy sides, that was supposed to exist in the polar region some three hundred miles or more this side of the pole.
“We had heard of this polar mountain from several sources. It had been a matter of minor dispute between two different aeroplane expeditions that had flown over the pole. One claimed to have sighted the big ice-clad peak and the other claimed that it didn’t exist. Travis and Skeel and I were going north to see if it did exist.
“If you know anything at all of geology you will know what such a polar mountain—a mountain in that icy desolation at the earth’s top—would mean to geologists. It would prove beyond doubt the existence of a polar continent beneath the ice and might throw a flood of light on things that have puzzled geological science. The three of us were afire to find out if such a peak did exist in the north polar region.
“The north pole, you know, like the south one, is more a region than a point. The earth is oblate, flattened at top and bottom, and that flat region around the northern pole is in fact the top or forefront of earth. In that great icy expanse the mountain was supposed to exist, and Travis and Skeel and I were bent on finding it. So we sailed north from St. John’s with our schooner loaded with equipment.
“The schooner crept northward for two months through icy channels toward the northern tip of Grant Land. Travis and Skeel and I were busy making ready our equipment. At North Devon we picked up two Eskimos who were to make the final trip with us, two sturdy fellows named Noskat and Shan. Our sledges and dogs were ready, and when the ship reached the icy coast of Grant Land we were ready to start north on the final lap as soon as the freeze came.
“It came soon, and we started. Travis and Skeel and I, and Noskat and Shan, with the two sledges and dogs, headed north over the frozen wastes. We carried felt tents, special chemical fuel of small bulk and weight, food and instruments, and an automatic apiece. Travis and Skeel and Noskat took the lead-sledge, Shan and I the other.
“For ten days we pushed north over endless ice-fields, making thirty miles a day. Ten days—three hundred miles—it doesn’t sound so much, does it? Well, it was a cross-section of icy hell. Can you imagine a world in which all has turned to glittering ice that stretches to the horizon in eye-aching whiteness? A world in which the sickly polar day never ceases to shine? A world in which the polar cold closes down upon you like a hand, gripping through your numbed flesh to your bones?
“That was the kind of world we were moving through. Ten days—and they each seemed weeks long. We would wake, would eat half-warmed food and limber our stiffened muscles, then fold the tent and harness the dogs. And then north again, north over the ice desert’s hummocks and ridges like pigmies traversing that vast white expanse. North, until on the tenth day we sighted the mountain.
“At first we could not believe our eyes. We had been pushing onward so mechanically that in the sheer struggle we had almost forgotten our mission. Then as our eyes took in that huge peak towering into the steely sky far ahead, ice-sheathed and with the dark openings in its sides, our exclamations came with a rush.
“We pushed on, little heeding difficulties then. In another day we were at the mountain’s foot, a thousand feet below the lowest of the dark openings in its icy bulk.
“We camped there that night, exultant at reaching our goal. And there trouble began. The dogs had been whining strangely as we approached the mountain, needing the lash to make them go forward at all, and our two Eskimos had been muttering to themselves. Then no sooner had we pitched camp than there came a slight earth-tremor, a shock as of earth stirring underneath that made our tent quiver and the ice-fields round it crackle.
“To us it was somewhat surprising to encounter an earth-tremor in this region, but that was all. But on Noskat and Shan, the two Eskimos, the tremor’s effects were tremendous. Their swart faces grew positively livid with fear, they jabbered in their tongue for minutes, looking fearfully up toward the mountain’s huge icy bulk, and then approached us in panic. By then the dogs had begun yelping strangely as though in terror.
“‘We cannot stay here!’ Noskat told us excitedly. ‘This is the forbidden mountain at the earth’s top—shunned by all our race! We knew not that this was your goal!’
“‘Forbidden mountain?’ repeated Travis. ‘Forbidden by whom?’
“‘Forbidden by the earth!’ was Noskat’s answer. ‘The earth is living as we are living—it cares not how men move upon its vast living body as long as they do not approach this mountain!’
“‘The earth living? What the devil is all this about?’ Travis demanded. Skeel intervened.
“‘It’s an Eskimo belief, Travis,’ he said. ‘I’ve heard of it before—they think earth is a great living thing and that we humans are mere insects or the like living on its body.’
“‘What a crazy belief!’ Travis commented. He turned back to Noskat. ‘Why does your living earth forbid anyone to come near this mountain, then?’
“‘Because this mountain holds earth’s mind—earth’s brain,’ said Noskat solemnly, Shan nodding corroboration. ‘Earth likes us not to come this near its brain, and so it has moved its great body beneath us to warn us away.’
“‘Rot!’ said Travis. ‘That tremor just now wasn’t any warning, but a slight earthquake like any other earthquake.’
“‘All earthquakes are but movements of earth’s great body,’ asserted Noskat stubbornly. ‘Earth can move its body as it wishes.’
“‘That sounds logical enough, Travis,’ I said, grinning.
“He turned toward me. ‘Don’t encourage them, Landon,’ he said sharply. ‘We’ll have trouble enough with them as it is.’
“He swung back on Noskat and Shan. ‘That tremor was just an ordinary tremor and this stuff about a living earth is nonsense,’ he said forcibly. ‘We are going to stay here two days at least and you two are going to camp down here while we explore and examine this
mountain.’
“‘But you must not try to explore the mountain!’ Noskat said excitedly. ‘You dare not approach earth’s brain! If you do—’
“‘That’s enough!’ snapped Travis. ‘You and Shan are going to wait here while we do explore the mountain, and there’ll be no more talk about it!’
“When Noskat and Shan had gone to their own tent Travis turned to us with a disgusted expression.
“‘This would be just our luck,’ he said, ‘to have those two, just as we get here, break loose with their superstitions.’
“‘I wonder if they’re only superstitions,’ said Skeel thoughtfully.
“We stared at him. ‘What the devil!’ I exclaimed. ‘Do you believe that stuff about earth being a living and intelligent being?’
“Skeel’s face was serious. ‘I’ve heard of stranger things, Landon. Why couldn’t earth be a living organism instead of just a mass of inanimate matter? It seems an inanimate mass to us, it is true, but so must a human being seem an inanimate mass to the microbes that live on and in that being. Earth might be a living organism, all the planets might be organisms, of scale and nature so different from us that we mites who swarm upon it cannot even comprehend it. And if it is living it could possess consciousness and intelligence, perhaps intelligence operating on planes and for ends entirely alien to us.’
“‘And you think, then, that, as Noskat said, earth’s brain is somewhere in this mountain?’ Travis demanded incredulously.
“Skeel smiled. ‘I don’t say that. Though as a matter of fact if earth were a living and intelligent organism it would have to have the seat of its intelligence somewhere, and as likely up here at earth’s top as anywhere.’
“‘I’ll say you’re a cuckoo geologist!’ I exclaimed. ‘You’re as bad as those two Eskimos!’
“Travis stretched. ‘Well, whether or not earth’s brain is inside that mountain, we’re going to do some climbing on it tomorrow morning.’
“‘And some climb it’s going to be,’ I told him. ‘If we can get up far enough to get a look at that uncovered rock we’ll be lucky.’
“We turned in, huddling in our furs, and though the dogs were still whining in a panicky fashion now and then, we fell almost instantly to sleep.
“We were awakened when our watches told us it was morning by a sensation of someone shaking us, and found that it was another earth-tremor that was rocking the tent, one as strong as or stronger than that of the night before. It was over almost before we were awake, the grinding crackle of ice dying away.
“We struggled rapidly into our outer clothes and heard the dogs, who had yelped with terror when the tremor began, become silent as though cowed by utter fear. The tent still quivered from the tremor’s last vibrations.
“Travis cursed. ‘Another damned tremor! This will make those two swarthy sons of perdition harder than ever to handle, if I’m right.’
“His surmise proved correct, for we had not emerged from the tent into the polar cold and glare when Noskat and Shan were upon us. They were quite evidently in an extreme state of terror.
“According to them, the tremor was another and stronger sign that the earth was uneasy at our presence near its brain, and a warning for us to turn and head southward at all possible speed before earth destroyed us. They even went so far in their panic as to say that if we did not they would start south without us with one of the sledges.
“Travis’s cold voice whipped to them through their terror. ‘You’ll stay here, all right,’ he told them. ‘You know too well what would happen to you if you showed up back down there at the ship without us.’
“‘But if you try to explore the mountain, earth’s brain will be very wroth!’ wailed Shan. ‘All earth will be wroth against you!’
“‘I’ve had enough of this crazy talk about earth and its brain,’ Travis told them impatiently. ‘You two will stay here until we come back, or you’ll go with us.’
“At that alternative both Noskat and Shan became silent out of sheer terror. I told them to see to the dogs, which were still acting strangely, and then with Travis and Skeel prepared for our climb up the icy mountain’s side.
“As we could not hope to bring back any specimens, even if we succeeded in reaching one of the openings in the mountain’s ice-sheath, we took only our ice-axes and a single rock-axe. We wore our automatics in our belts with the idea of impressing the two Eskimos if they still harboured ideas of flight, and we were roped together.
“With a final admonition and warning to Noskat and Shan from Travis, we started up the icy mountainside. A thousand feet above us was the dark circle in the ice we wanted to reach, an opening through the peak’s frozen sheath, we were sure, to its inner rock. If we could make even a cursory examination of the mountain’s rock-strata, we felt our trip would be worthwhile.
“From the first our climb was tremendously difficult. Travis led, cutting steps where needed with his ice-axe, taking advantage of ledges and cracks in the ice, moving tortuously up with Skeel and me close behind. Our heavy fur clothing was a hindrance to us in climbing, though even through it the polar cold penetrated.
“We were forced to rest every few yards, clinging against the icy slope like three strange furry animals. At such halts I looked down and for a time could see Noskat and Shan, down by the tents and sledges, watching our progress. Then an inward slant of the icy slope hid them from view for a time.
“This slant inward made climbing a little easier, and now we could plainly see the round opening in the ice above, and could make out that it opened through the ice to the dark bare rock of the mountain itself. That was a spur to our efforts and we struggled on, Travis’s axe chipping, steadily ahead of us, until at last Travis pulled himself up into the opening in the ice and then jerked us up beside him.
“We were hardly in that opening, lying panting for the moment, when there came another earth-tremor, much more violent.
“It seemed that the whole mountain and the ice-fields around it were swaying and shaking, and there came as though from far beneath a crackling roar. We lay still and in a moment it ceased.
“‘Good Lord!’ exclaimed Travis as we stood up then. ‘If that had happened a moment ago when we were climbing it would have been bad for us.’
“‘Damn these tremors anyway!’ I said, ‘If that one has succeeded in scaring off Noskat and Shan I won’t be surprised.’
“We peered down and saw them on the ice near the tents. They were on their knees, gesticulating in terror up toward us and the mountain. They made frantic motions for us to return.
“We shook our heads and Travis gestured sharply to them, ordering them to remain where they were. Their terror subsided a little, and he turned to us.
‘“They’ll stay there, I think—they’re more afraid to go back to the ship without us than to stay. But we’d best not stay up here too long ourselves.’
“Skeel had turned and was staring into the opening in the mountain’s side, at whose edge we stood. ‘Lord, look at this!’ he exclaimed.
“We looked and were petrified with astonishment. The opening in which we stood was the mouth of a round tunnel that slanted straight back and downward into the mountain’s mighty mass.
“This tunnel was thirty feet in diameter and ran inward toward the mountain’s centre in a slight downward grade, as straight as though it had been gouged by a huge punch.
“There was no ice in the tunnel, though a steady current of air rushed down it. We examined the black rock of its walls quickly, then again with mounting excitement. It was a geologist’s nightmare. This mountain’s rock was stratumless, a smooth black rock that might have come from earth’s innermost mass!
“‘I’ll say we’ve found something here!’ cried Travis excitedly. ‘Why, this rock is pre-igneous even—it’s a kind of rock geology’s not even heard of!’
“‘But this opening, this tunnel leading down into the mountain?’ I asked. ‘What could have formed it?’
“‘God kn
ows, Landon. But the other openings we saw in the mountain’s ice-sides must be the mouths of similar tunnels! And they must lead down to some central opening or space, for there are air-currents in this one!’
“Travis unhooked from his belt his flat metal electric torch and sent its ray down the dark tunnel’s length. The quivering little beam wavered down through the next few hundred feet of the tunnel but showed only the same smooth, black rock sides.
“‘The only way we’ll find out what this tunnel leads to down there is to follow it and see,’ said Travis. ‘Come on, you two.’
“We started down the tunnel. Its grade was not steep enough to make it perilous, though its floor, like its sides, was so smooth as to make footing difficult. We had a hard time to keep our footing when, a moment or so later, there came another tremor that swayed the mountain so that the tunnel’s floor seemed to pitch beneath us.
“By then we were too excited over the geological strangeness of the tunnel and the black rock and the whole mountain to mind the tremor. We pressed on, Travis’s quivering beam preceding us, with the circle of white light that was the tunnel’s mouth dwindling and disappearing behind and above us. We paid no more attention to another tremor that shook us a few moments later, or to still another that followed that one closely.
“Within a quarter of an hour we had followed the tunnel downward for a half-mile and had found that it curved slightly now instead of running straight as heretofore, but led still in a general direction down toward the mountain’s centre. By then, too, the tremors and quakings of the mountain and earth around it had become practically continuous.
“The tunnel’s walls were swaying unceasingly around us, not violently but noticeably, and the sound of these continued earth-movements was now a tremendous monotone of rumblings and mutterings from far beneath. The strangeness of these continued tremors penetrated through even our excitement and we stopped in the tunnel’s curve we were passing through, Travis flashing his beam ahead and behind.
Acolytes of Cthulhu Page 15
