The Boats of the Glen Carrig

by William Hope Hodgson

  XIII

  The Weed Men

  Now, on that night, when I came to my watch, I discovered that there wasno moon, and, save for such light as the fire threw, the hill-top was indarkness; yet this was no great matter to trouble me; for we had beenunmolested since the burning of the fungi in the valley, and thus I hadlost much of the haunting fear which had beset me upon the death of Job.Yet, though I was not so much afraid as I had been, I took allprecautions that suggested themselves to me, and built up the fire to agoodly height, after which I took my cut-and-thrust, and made the roundof the camping place. At the edges of the cliffs which protected us onthree sides, I made some pause, staring down into the darkness, andlistening; though this latter was of but small use because of thestrength of the wind which roared continually in my ears. Yet though Ineither saw nor heard anything, I was presently possessed of a strangeuneasiness, which made me return twice or thrice to the edge of thecliffs; but always without seeing or hearing anything to justify mysuperstitions. And so, presently, being determined to give way to nofancifulness, I avoided the boundary of cliffs, and kept more to thatpart which commanded the slope, up and down which we made our journeysto and from the island below.

  Then, it would be near halfway through my time of watching, there came tome out of the immensity of weed that lay to leeward, a far distant soundthat grew upon my ear, rising and rising into a fearsome screaming andshrieking, and then dying away into the distance in queer sobs, and so atlast to a note below that of the wind's. At this, as might be supposed, Iwas somewhat shaken in myself to hear so dread a noise coming out of allthat desolation, and then, suddenly, the thought came to me that thescreaming was from the ship to leeward of us, and I ran immediately tothe edge of the cliff overlooking the weed, and stared into the darkness;but now I perceived, by a light which burned in the hulk, that thescreaming had come from some place a great distance to the right of her,and more, as my sense assured me, it could by no means have been possiblefor those in her to have sent their voices to me against such a breeze asblew at that time.

  And so, for a space, I stood nervously pondering, and peering away intothe blackness of the night; thus, in a little, I perceived a dull glowupon the horizon, and, presently, there rose into view the upper edge ofthe moon, and a very welcome sight it was to me; for I had been upon thepoint of calling the bo'sun to inform him regarding the sound which I hadheard; but I had hesitated, being afraid to seem foolish if nothingshould befall. Then, even as I stood watching the moon rise into view,there came again to me the beginning of that screaming, somewhat like tothe sound of a woman sobbing with a giant's voice, and it grew andstrengthened until it pierced through the roar of the wind with anamazing clearness, and then slowly, and seeming to echo and echo, it sankaway into the distance, and there was again in my ears no sound beyondthat of the wind.

  At this, having looked fixedly in the direction from which the sound hadproceeded, I ran straightway to the tent and roused the bo'sun; for I hadno knowledge of what the noise might portend, and this second cry hadshaken from me all my bashfulness. Now the bo'sun was upon his feetalmost before I had made an end of shaking him, and catching up his greatcutlass which he kept always by his side, he followed me swiftly out onto the hill-top. Here, I explained to him that I had heard a veryfearsome sound which had appeared to proceed out of the vastness of theweed-continent, and that, upon a repetition of the noise, I had decidedto call him; for I knew not but that it might signal to us of some comingdanger. At that, the bo'sun commended me; though chiding me in that I hadhesitated to call him at the first occurrence of the crying, and then,following me to the edge of the leeward cliff, he stood there with me,waiting and listening, perchance there might come again a recurrence ofthe noise.

  For perhaps something over an hour we stood there very silent andlistening; but there came to us no sound beyond the continuous noise ofthe wind, and so, by that time, having grown somewhat impatient ofwaiting, and the moon being well risen, the bo'sun beckoned to me to makethe round of the camp with him. Now, just as I turned away, chancing tolook downward at the clear water directly below, I was amazed to see thatan innumerable multitude of great fish, like unto those which I had seenon the previous night, were swimming from the weed-continent towards theisland. At that, I stepped nearer the edge; for they came so directlytowards the island that I expected to see them close inshore; yet I couldnot perceive one; for they seemed all of them to vanish at a point somethirty yards distant from the beach, and at that, being amazed both bythe numbers of the fish and their strangeness, and the way in which theycame on continually, yet never reached the shore, I called to the bo'sunto come and see; for he had gone on a few paces. Upon hearing my call, hecame running back; whereat I pointed into the sea below. At that, hestooped forward and peered very intently, and I with him; yet neither oneof us could discover the meaning of so curious an exhibition, and so fora while we watched, the bo'sun being quite so much interested as I.

  Presently, however, he turned away, saying that we did foolishly to standhere peering at every curious sight, when we should be looking to thewelfare of the camp, and so we began to go the round of the hill-top.Now, whilst we had been watching and listening, we had suffered the fireto die down to a most unwise lowness, and consequently, though the moonwas rising, there was by no means the same brightness that should havemade the camp light. On perceiving this, I went forward to throw somefuel on to the fire, and then, even as I moved, it seemed to me that Isaw something stir in the shadow of the tent. And at that, I ran towardsthe place, uttering a shout, and waving my cut-and-thrust; yet I foundnothing, and so, feeling somewhat foolish, I turned to make up the fire,as had been my intention, and whilst I was thus busied, the bo'sun camerunning over to me to know what I had seen, and in the same instant thereran three of the men out of the tent, all of them waked by my sudden cry.But I had naught to tell them, save that my fancy had played me a trick,and had shown me something where my eyes could find nothing, and at that,two of the men went back to resume their sleep; but the third, the bigfellow to whom the bo'sun had given the other cutlass, came with us,bringing his weapon; and, though he kept silent, it seemed to me that hehad gathered something of our uneasiness; and for my part I was not sorryto have his company.

  Presently, we came to that portion of the hill which overhung thevalley, and I went to the edge of the cliff, intending to peer over; forthe valley had a very unholy fascination for me. Yet, no sooner had Iglanced down than I started, and ran back to the bo'sun and plucked himby the sleeve, and at that, perceiving my agitation, he came with me insilence to see what matter had caused me so much quiet excitement. Now,when he looked over, he also was astounded, and drew back instantly;then, using great caution, he bent forward once more, and stared down,and, at that, the big seaman came up behind, walking upon his toes, andstooped to see what manner of thing we had discovered. Thus we each of usstared down upon a most unearthly sight; for the valley all beneath uswas a-swarm with moving creatures, white and unwholesome in themoonlight, and their movements were somewhat like the movements ofmonstrous slugs, though the things themselves had no resemblance to suchin their contours; but minded me of naked humans, very fleshy andcrawling upon their stomachs; yet their movements lacked not a surprisingrapidity. And now, looking a little over the bo'sun's shoulder, Idiscovered that these hideous things were coming up out from the pit-likepool in the bottom of the valley, and, suddenly, I was minded of themultitudes of strange fish which we had seen swimming towards the island;but which had all disappeared before reaching the shore, and I had nodoubt but that they entered the pit through some natural passage known tothem beneath the water. And now I was made to understand my thought ofthe previous night, that I had seen the flicker of tentacles; for thesethings below us had each two short and stumpy arms; but the ends appeareddivided into hateful and wriggling masses of small tentacles, which slidhither and thither as the creatures moved about the bottom of the valley,and at their hinder ends, where they should have grow
n feet, there seemedother flickering bunches; but it must not be supposed that we saw thesethings clearly.

  Now it is scarcely possible to convey the extraordinary disgust which thesight of these human slugs bred in me; nor, could I, do I think I would;for were I successful, then would others be like to retch even as I did,the spasm coming on without premonition, and born of very horror. Andthen, suddenly, even as I stared, sick with loathing and apprehension,there came into view, not a fathom below my feet, a face like to the facewhich had peered up into my own on that night, as we drifted beside theweed-continent. At that, I could have screamed, had I been in lessterror; for the great eyes, so big as crown pieces, the bill like to aninverted parrot's, and the slug-like undulating of its white and slimybody, bred in me the dumbness of one mortally stricken. And, even as Istayed there, my helpless body bent and rigid, the bo'sun spat a mightycurse into my ear, and, leaning forward, smote at the thing with hiscutlass; for in the instant that I had seen it, it had advanced upward byso much as a yard. Now, at this action of the bo'sun's, I came suddenlyinto possession of myself, and thrust downward with so much vigor that Iwas like to have followed the brute's carcass; for I overbalanced, anddanced giddily for a moment upon the edge of eternity; and then thebo'sun had me by the waistband, and I was back in safety; but in thatinstant through which I had struggled for my balance, I had discoveredthat the face of the cliff was near hid with the number of the thingswhich were making up to us, and I turned to the bo'sun, crying out to himthat there were thousands of them swarming up to us. Yet, he was gonealready from me, running towards the fire, and shouting to the men in thetent to haste to our help for their very lives, and then he came racingback with a great armful of the weed, and after him came the big seaman,carrying a burning tuft from the camp fire, and so in a few moments wehad a blaze, and the men were bringing more weed; for we had a very goodstock upon the hill-top; for which the Almighty be thanked.

  Now, scarce had we lit one fire, when the bo'sun cried out to the bigseaman to make another, further along the edge of the cliff, and, in thesame instant, I shouted, and ran over to that part of the hill which laytowards the open sea; for I had seen a number of moving things about theedge of the seaward cliff. Now here there was a deal of shadow; for therewere scattered certain large masses of rock about this part of the hill,and these held off both the light of the moon, and that from the fires.Here, I came abruptly upon three great shapes moving with stealthinesstowards the camp, and, behind these, I saw dimly that there were others.Then, with a loud cry for help, I made at the three, and, as I charged,they rose up on end at me, and I found that they overtopped me, and theirvile tentacles were reached out at me. Then I was smiting, and gasping,sick with a sudden stench, the stench of the creatures which I had comealready to know. And then something clutched at me, something slimy andvile, and great mandibles champed in my face; but I stabbed upward, andthe thing fell from me, leaving me dazed and sick, and smiting weakly.Then there came a rush of feet behind, and a sudden blaze, and the bo'suncrying out encouragement, and, directly, he and the big seaman thrustthemselves in front of me, hurling from them great masses of burningweed, which they had borne, each of them, up a long reed. And immediatelythe things were gone, slithering hastily down over the cliff edge.

  And so, presently, I was more my own man, and made to wipe from my throatthe slime left by the clutch of the monster: and afterwards I ran fromfire to fire with weed, feeding them, and so a space passed, duringwhich we had safety; for by that time we had fires all about the top ofthe hill, and the monsters were in mortal dread of fire, else had we beendead, all of us, that night.

  Now, a while before the dawn, we discovered, for the second time since wehad been upon the island, that our fuel could not last us the night atthe rate at which we were compelled to burn it, and so the bo'sun toldthe men to let out every second fire, and thus we staved off for a whilethe time when we should have to face a spell of darkness, and the thingswhich, at present, the fires held off from us. And so at last, we came tothe end of the weed and the reeds, and the bo'sun called out to us towatch the cliff edges very carefully, and smite on the instant that anything showed; but that, should he call, all were to gather by the centralfire for a last stand. And, after that, he blasted the moon which hadpassed behind a great bank of cloud. And thus matters were, and the gloomdeepened as the fires sank lower and lower. Then I heard a man curse, onthat part of the hill which lay towards the weed-continent, his crycoming up to me against the wind, and the bo'sun shouted to us to allhave a care, and directly afterwards I smote at something that rosesilently above the edge of the cliff opposite to where I watched.

  Perhaps a minute passed, and then there came shouts from all parts of thehilltop, and I knew that the weed men were upon us, and in the sameinstant there came two above the edge near me, rising with a ghostlyquietness, yet moving lithely. Now the first, I pierced somewhere in thethroat, and it fell backward; but the second, though I thrust it through,caught my blade with a bunch of its tentacles, and was like to havesnatched it from me; but that I kicked it in the face, and at that,being, I believe, more astonished than hurt, it loosed my sword, andimmediately fell away out of sight. Now this had taken, in all, no morethan some ten seconds; yet already I perceived so many as four otherscoming into view a little to my right, and at that it seemed to me thatour deaths must be very near, for I knew not how we were to cope with thecreatures, coming as they were so boldly and with such rapidity. Yet, Ihesitated not, but ran at them, and now I thrust not; but cut at theirfaces, and found this to be very effectual; for in this wise disposed Iof three in as many strokes; but the fourth had come right over the cliffedge, and rose up at me upon its hinder parts, as had done those otherswhen the bo'sun had succored me. At that, I gave way, having a verylively dread; but, hearing all about me the cries of conflict, andknowing that I could expect no help, I made at the brute: then as itstooped and reached out one of its bunches of tentacles, I sprang back,and slashed at them, and immediately I followed this up by a thrust inthe stomach, and at that it collapsed into a writhing white ball, thatrolled this way and that, and so, in its agony, coming to the edge of thecliff, it fell over, and I was left, sick and near helpless with thehateful stench of the brutes.

  Now by this time all the fires about the edges of the hill were sunkeninto dull glowing mounds of embers; though that which burnt near to theentrance of the tent was still of a good brightness; yet this helped usbut little, for we fought too far beyond the immediate circle of itsbeams to have benefit of it. And still the moon, at which now I threw adespairing glance, was no more than a ghostly shape behind the great bankof cloud which was passing over it. Then, even as I looked upward,glancing as it might be over my left shoulder, I saw, with a suddenhorror, that something had come anigh me, and upon the instant, I caughtthe reek of the thing, and leapt fearfully to one side, turning as Isprang. Thus was I saved in the very moment of my destruction; for thecreature's tentacles smeared the back of my neck as I leapt, and then Ihad smitten, once and again, and conquered.

  Immediately after this, I discovered something to be crossing the darkspace that lay between the dull mound of the nearest fire, and that whichlay further along the hill-top, and so, wasting no moment of time, I rantowards the thing, and cut it twice across the head before ever it couldget upon its hind parts, in which position I had learned greatly to dreadthem. Yet, no sooner had I slain this one, than there came a rush ofmaybe a dozen upon me; these having climbed silently over the cliff edgein the meanwhile. At this, I dodged, and ran madly towards the glowingmound of the nearest fire, the brutes following me almost so quick as Icould run; but I came to the fire the first, and then, a sudden thoughtcoming to me, I thrust the point of my cut-and-thrust among the embersand switched a great shower of them at the creatures, and at that I had amomentary clear vision of many white, hideous faces stretched out towardsme, and brown, champing mandibles which had the upper beak shutting intothe lower; and the clumped, wriggling tentacles were all a-flut
ter. Thenthe gloom came again; but immediately, I switched another and yet anothershower of the burning embers towards them, and so, directly, I saw themgive back, and then they were gone. At this, all about the edges of thehilltop, I saw the fires being scattered in like manner; for others hadadopted this device to help them in their sore straits.

  For a little after this, I had a short breathing space, the brutesseeming to have taken fright; yet I was full of trembling, and I glancedhither and thither, not knowing when some one or more of them would comeupon me. And ever I glanced towards the moon, and prayed the Almightythat the clouds would pass quickly, else should we be all dead men; andthen, as I prayed, there rose a sudden very terrible scream from one ofthe men, and in the same moment there came something over the edge of thecliff fronting me; but I cleft it or ever it could rise higher, and in myears there echoed still the sudden scream which had come from that partof the hill which lay to the left of me: yet I dared not to leave mystation; for to have done so would have been to have risked all, and so Istayed, tortured by the strain of ignorance, and my own terror.

  Again, I had a little spell in which I was free from molestation; nothingcoming into sight so far as I could see to right or left of me; thoughothers were less fortunate, as the curses and sounds of blows told to me,and then, abruptly, there came another cry of pain, and I looked up againto the moon, and prayed aloud that it might come out to show some lightbefore we were all destroyed; but it remained hid. Then a sudden thoughtcame into my brain, and I shouted at the top of my voice to the bo'sun toset the great cross-bow upon the central fire; for thus we should have abig blaze--the wood being very nice and dry. Twice I shouted to him,saying:--"Burn the bow! Burn the bow!" And immediately he replied,shouting to all the men to run to him and carry it to the fire; and thiswe did and bore it to the center fire, and then ran back with all speedto our places. Thus in a minute we had some light, and the light grew asthe fire took hold of the great log, the wind fanning it to a blaze. Andso I faced outwards, looking to see if any vile face showed above theedge before me, or to my right or left. Yet, I saw nothing, save, as itseemed to me, once a fluttering tentacle came up, a little to my right;but nothing else for a space.

  Perhaps it was near five minutes later, that there came another attack,and, in this, I came near to losing my life, through my folly inventuring too near to the edge of the cliff; for, suddenly, there shot upout from the darkness below, a clump of tentacles, and caught me aboutthe left ankle, and immediately I was pulled to a sitting posture, sothat both my feet were over the edge of the precipice, and it was only bythe mercy of God that I had not plunged head foremost into the valley.Yet, as it was, I suffered a mighty peril; for the brute that had myfoot, put a vast strain upon it, trying to pull me down; but I resisted,using my hands and seat to sustain me, and so, discovering that it couldnot compass my end in this wise, it slacked somewhat of the stress, andbit at my boot, shearing through the hard leather, and nigh destroying mysmall toe; but now, being no longer compelled to use both hands to retainmy position, I slashed down with great fury, being maddened by the painand the mortal fear which the creature had put upon me; yet I was notimmediately free of the brute; for it caught my sword blade; but Isnatched it away before it could take a proper hold, mayhaps cutting itsfeelers somewhat thereby; though of this I cannot be sure, for theyseemed not to grip around a thing, but to _suck_ to it; then, in amoment, by a lucky blow, I maimed it, so that it loosed me, and I wasable to get back into some condition of security.

  And from this onwards, we were free from molestation; though we had noknowledge but that the quietness of the weed men did but portend afresh attack, and so, at last, it came to the dawn; and in all thistime the moon came not to our help, being quite hid by the clouds whichnow covered the whole arc of the sky, making the dawn of a verydesolate aspect.

  And so soon as there was a sufficiency of light, we examined the valley;but there were nowhere any of the weed men, no! nor even any of theirdead for it seemed that they had carried off all such and their wounded,and so we had no opportunity to make an examination of the monsters bydaylight. Yet, though we could not come upon their dead, all about theedges of the cliffs was blood and slime, and from the latter there cameever the hideous stench which marked the brutes; but from this wesuffered little, the wind carrying it far away to leeward, and fillingour lungs with sweet and wholesome air.

  Presently, seeing that the danger was past, the bo'sun called us to thecenter fire, on which burnt still the remnants of the great bow, and herewe discovered for the first time that one of the men was gone from us. Atthat, we made search about the hilltop, and afterwards in the valley andabout the island; but found him not.