Collected Fiction Volume 3 (1931-1936): A Variorum Edition

by H. P. Lovecraft

  Chapter XI

  The Mystery unveiled.

  “Why did the late J. Burns, ask you to put the ball there”? (at “A”?) queried the Judge? “To get me into trouble” replied Dobson “He, and Francis Burns, (his brother) have plotted against me for years, and I knew not, in what way they would harm me”. “Sieze Francis Burns”! yelled the Judge.

  Chapter XII

  Conclusion.

  Francis Burns, and John Bell, were sent to prison for life. Mr Dobson was cordially welcomed by his daughter, who, by the way had become Mrs King John. “Lindy” and her accomplice were sent to Newgate for 30 days as aidors and abbettors of a criminal escape.

  The End.

  Price 25¢

  The Mysteriovs Ship [short version]

  BY

  HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT.

  THE ROYAL PRESS.

  1902.

  Chapter 1.

  In the spring of 1847, the little village of Ruralville was thrown into a state of exitement by the arrival of a strange brig in the harbour. It carried no flag, & everything about it was such as would exite suspicion. It had no name. Its captain was named Manuel Ruello. The exitement increased however when John Griggs dissapeared from his home. This was Oct. 4. on Oct. 5 the brig was gone.

  Chapter 2.

  The brig, in leaving, was met by a U. S. Frigate and a sharp fight ensued. When over, they[3] missed a man named Henry Johns.

  Chapter 3.

  The brig continued its course in the direction of Madagascar, upon its arrival, The natives fled in all directions. When they came together on the other side of the island, one was missing. His name was Dahabea.

  Chapter 4.

  At length it was decided that something must be done. A reward of £5,000 was offered for the capture of Manuel Ruello, When startling news came, a nameless brig was wrecked on the Florida Keys.

  Chapter 5.

  A ship was sent to Florida, and the mystery was solved. In the exitement of the fight they would launch a sub-marine boat and take what they wanted. there it lay, tranquilly rocking on the waters of the Atlantic when someone called out “John Brown has dissapeared.” And sure enough John Brown was gone.

  Chapter 6.

  The finding of the sub-marine boat, and the dissapearance of John Brown, cause renewed exitement amongst the people, when a new discovery was made. In transcribing this discovery it is necessary to relate a geographical fact. At the N. Pole there exists a vast continent composed of volcanic soil, a portion of which is open to explorers. It is called “No-Mans Land.”

  Chapter 7.

  In the extreme southern part of No-Mans Land, there was found a hvt, and several other signs of human habitation. they promptly entered, and, chained to the floor, lay Griggs, Johns, & Dahabea. They, upon arriving in London, separated, Griggs going to Ruralville, Johns to the Frigate, & Dahabea to Madagascar.

  Chapter 8.

  But the mystery of John Brown was still unsolved, so they kept strict watch over the port at No-Mans Land, and when the sub-marine boat arrived, and the pirates, one by one, and headed by Manuel Ruello, left the ship, they were met by a rapid fire. After the fight brown was recovered.

  Chapter 9.

  Griggs was royally received at Ruralville, & a dinner was given in honour of Henry Johns, Dahabea was made King of Madagascar, & Brown was made Captain of his ship.

  THE END.

  The Mysterious Ship [long version]

  by Anonymus

  In the Spring of 1847, the little village of Ruralville was thrown into a state of excitement by the landing of a strange Brig in the harbour. It carried no flag, and no name was painted on its side, and everything about it was such as would excite suspicion. It was from Tripoli, Africa, and the captain was named Manuel Ruello. The Excitement increased, however; when John Griggs, (The magnate of the villiage) suddenly disappeared from his home. This was the night of October 4th—on October 5th the Brig left.

  Chapter II

  It was 8 bells on the U.S. Frigate “Constitution” when Commander Farragut sighted a strange brig to the westward. It carried no flag, and no name was painted on its side, and everything about it was such as would excite suspicion. On hailing it put up the Pirates Flag. Farragut ordered a gun fired and no sooner did he fire, than the pirate ship gave them a broadside when the Fight was over Commander Farragut Missed one man named Henry F. Johns.

  Chapter III

  It was Summer on the Island of Madagascar. And Natives were picking corn, when one cried “Companions! I sight a ship! with no flag and with no name printed on the side and with eveything about it such as would excite Suspicion!” And The Natives fled in all directions when They came together on The other side of The Island one was missing his name was Dahabea.

  Chapter IV

  At length it was Decided Something must be done, Notes were compared. Three abductions were found to have taken place Dissapearance of John Griggs, Henry John, & Dahabea, were recalled. Finally Advertisements were issued offering £5000 reward for the capture of Manuel Ruello, Ship, Prisoners, & crew. When exciting News reached London! An unknown Brig with no name was wrecked of The Florida Keys in America!

  Chapter V

  The People Hurried to Florida and Beheld———. A steel spindle shaped object Lay placidly on the water Beside the shattered wreck of The brig. “A Submarine Boat”! shouted one “Yes!” shouted another “The mystery is cleared” said a wise looking man. “In the excitement of the fight they launch the submarine boat and take as many as they wish, unseen. And———.” “John Brown has dissapeared”! shouted a voice from the deck. Sure enough John Brown was gone!

  Chapter VI

  The Finding of The Submarine boat and the dissapearance of John Brown caused renewed excitement among the People. and a new discovery was made. In relating this discovery It is necessary to relate a geographical Fact:—At the North Pole there is supposed to exist a vast continent composed of volcanic soil, a portion is open to travellers and explorers but it is barren and unfruitful. and thus absolutely Impassable. It is called “No-Mans Land”.

  Chapter VII

  In the Extreme southern part of No-Mans Land There was found a wharf and a hut &c and every sign of former human habitation. A rusty door-plate was nailed to the hut inscribed in old English “M. Ruello”. This, then, was the home of Manuel Ruello. the house brought to light a note book belonging to John Griggs, and The Log of the “Constitution” taken from Henry Johns, and the Madagascar Reaper belong To Dahabea.

  Chapter VIII

  When about to leave, they Observed a spring on the side of the hut. They pressed it.—A hole appeared in the side of the hut which they promptly entered. They were in a subterranean cavern. the beach ran down to the edge of a black, murky, sea. on the sea lay a dark oblong object—viz another Submarine boat which they entered. There bound to the cabin Floor Lay Griggs, Johns, and Dahabea, all alive and well. They, when arriving in London, separated, Griggs going to Ruralville, Johns, To the Constitution and Dahabea to Madagascar.

  Chapter IX

  But The mystery of John Brown lay still unsolved. So They Kept strict watch over the port at no-mans Land, Hoping The Submarine Boat would arrive. At length, however, it did arrive bearing with it John Brown. They Fixed upon the 5th of October For the Attack. They ranged along the shore and Formed Bodies. Finally one by one and Headed by Manuel Ruello The Pirates left the Boat. They were (to their astonishment) Met By a Rapid Fire.

  Chapter X Conclusion

  The Pirates were at Length defeated and a search was made for Brown. At Length he (the aforesaid Brown) was found. John Gregg was royally received at Ruralville and a dinner was

  Dahabea was made King of Madagascar, and Manuel Ruello was Executed at Newgate Prison.

  The End

  Notes

  1. Editor’s Note: “The Little Glass Bottle,” “The Secret Cave,” “The Mystery of the Grave-Yard,” and “The Mysterious Ship” (short version), all written in the period
1897–1902, exist in A.Mss. at JHL. These stories were first published in The Shuttered Room and Other Pieces (Arkham House, 1959); a corrected text was printed in my edition of Juvenilia: 1895–1905 (West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 1984). The long version of “The Mysterious Ship” exists only in a typed transcript in the Arkham House Transcripts; the original is presumably lost. It was first published in H. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2008). It does not seem profitable to present textual variants for these texts.

  2. King John.

  3. (The Frigate.)

  The Very Old Folk[1]

  I have myself been carried back to Roman times by my recent perusal of James Rhoades’ Æneid, a translation never before read by me, & more faithful to P. Maro than any other version I have ever seen—including that of my late uncle Dr. Clark, which did not attain publication. This Virgilian diversion, together with the spectral thoughts incident to All Hallows’ Eve with its Witch-Sabbaths on the hills, produced in me last Monday night a Roman dream of such supernal clearness & vividness, & such titanic adumbrations of hidden horror, that I verily believe I shall some day employ it in fiction. Roman dreams were no uncommon features of my youth—I used to follow the Divine Julius all over Gallia as a Tribunus Militum o’nights—but I had so long ceased to experience them, that the present one impressed me with extraordinary force.

  It was a flaming sunset or late afternoon in the tiny provincial town of Pompelo, at the foot of the Pyrenees in Hispania Citerior. The year must have been in the late republic, for the province was still ruled by a senatorial proconsul instead of a praetorian legate of the Augustus, & the day was the first before the Kalends of November. The hills rose scarlet & gold to the north of the little town, & the westering sun shone ruddily & mystically on the crude new stone & plaster buildings of the dusty forum & the wooden walls of the circus some distance to the east. Groups of citizens—broad-browed Roman colonists & coarse-haired Romanised natives, together with obvious hybrids of the two strains, alike clad in cheap woollen togas—& sprinklings of helmeted legionaries & coarse-mantled, black-bearded tribesmen of the circumambient Vascones—all thronged the few paved streets & forum; moved by some vague & ill-defined uneasiness. I myself had just alighted from a litter, which the Illyrian bearers seemed to have brought in some haste from Calagurris, across the Iberus to the southward. It appeared that I was a provincial quaestor named L. Caelius Rufus, & that I had been summoned by the proconsul, P. Scribonius Libo, who had come from Tarraco some days before. The soldiers were the fifth cohort of the XIIth legion, under the military tribune Sex. Asellius; & the legatus of the whole legion, Cn. Balbutius, had also come from Calagurris, where the permanent station was. The cause of the conference was a horror that brooded on the hills. All the townsfolk were frightened, & had begged the presence of a cohort from Calagurris. It was the Terrible Season of the autumn, & the wild people in the mountains were preparing for the frightful ceremonies which only rumour told of in the towns. They were the very old folk who dwelt higher up in the hills & spoke a choppy language which the Vascones could not understand. One seldom saw them; but a few times a year they sent down little yellow squint-eyed messengers (who looked like Scythians) to trade with the merchants by means of gestures, & every spring & autumn they held the infamous rites on the peaks, their howlings & altar-fires throwing terror into the villages. Always the same—the night before the Kalends of Maius & the night before the Kalends of November. Townsfolk would disappear just before these nights, & never be heard of again. And there were whispers that the native shepherds & farmers were not ill-disposed toward the very old folk—that more than one thatched hut was vacant before midnight on the two hideous Sabbaths. This year the horror was very great, for the people knew that the wrath of the very old folk was upon Pompelo. Three months previously five of the little squint-eyed traders had come down from the hills, & in a market brawl three of them had been killed. The remaining two had gone back wordlessly to their mountains—and this autumn not a single villager had disappeared. There was a menace in this immunity. It was not like the very old folk to spare their victims at the Sabbath. It was too good to be normal, & the villagers were afraid. For many nights there had been a hollow drumming on the hills, & at last the aedile Tib. Annaeus Stilpo (half native in blood) had sent to Balbutius at Calagurris for a cohort to stamp out the Sabbath on the terrible night. Balbutius had carelessly refused, on the ground that the villagers’ fears were empty, & that the loathsome rites of hill folk were of no concern to the Roman People unless our own citizens were menaced. I, however, who seemed to be a close friend of Balbutius, had disagreed with him; averring that I had studied deeply in the black forbidden lore, & that I believed the very old folk capable of visiting almost any nameless doom upon the town, which after all was a Roman settlement & contained a great number of our citizens. The complaining aedile’s own mother Helvia was a pure Roman, the daughter of M. Helvius Cinna, who had come over with Scipio’s army. Accordingly I had sent a slave—a nimble little Greek called Antipater—to the proconsul with letters, & Scribonius had heeded my plea & ordered Balbutius to send his fifth cohort, under Asellius, to Pompelo; entering the hills at dusk on the eve of November’s Kalends & stamping out whatever nameless orgies he might find—bringing such prisoners as he might take to Tarraco for the next propraetor’s court. Balbutius, however, had protested, so that more correspondence had ensued. I had written so much to the proconsul that he had become gravely interested, & had resolved to make a personal inquiry into the horror. He had at length proceeded to Pompelo with his lictors & attendants; there hearing enough rumours to be greatly impressed & disturbed, & standing firmly by his order for the Sabbath’s extirpation. Desirous of conferring with one who had studied the subject, he ordered me to accompany Asellius’ cohort—& Balbutius had also come along to press his adverse advice, for he honestly believed that drastic military action would stir up a dangerous sentiment of unrest among the Vascones both tribal & settled. So here we all were in the mystic sunset of the autumn hills—old Scribonius Libo in his toga praetexta, the golden light glancing on his shiny bald head & wrinkled hawk face, Balbutius with his gleaming helmet & breastplate, blue-shaven lips compressed in conscientiously dogged opposition, young Asellius with his polished greaves & superior sneer, & the curious throng of townsfolk, legionaries, tribesmen, peasants, lictors, slaves, & attendants. I myself seemed to wear a common toga, & to have no especially distinguishing characteristic. And everywhere horror brooded. The town & country folk scarcely dared speak aloud, & the men of Libo’s entourage, who had been there nearly a week, seemed to have caught something of the nameless dread. Old Scribonius himself looked very grave, & the sharp voices of us later comers seemed to hold something of curious inappropriateness, as in a place of death or the temple of some mystic god. We entered the praetorium & held grave converse. Balbutius pressed his objections, & was sustained by Asellius, who appeared to hold all the natives in extreme contempt while at the same time deeming it inadvisable to excite them. Both soldiers maintained that we could better afford to antagonise the minority of colonists & civilised natives by inaction, than to antagonise a probable majority of tribesmen & cottagers by stamping out the dread rites. I, on the other hand, renewed my demand for action, & offered to accompany the cohort on any expedition it might undertake. I pointed out that the barbarous Vascones were at best turbulent & uncertain, so that skirmishes with them were inevitable sooner or later whichever course we might take; that they had not in the past proved dangerous adversaries to our legions, & that it would ill become the representatives of the Roman People to suffer barbarians to interfere with a course which the justice & prestige of the Republic demanded. That, on the other hand, the successful administration of a province depended primarily upon the safety & good-will of the civilised element in whose hands the local machinery of commerce & prosperity reposed, & in whose veins a large mixture of our own Italian blood coursed. These, though in numbers th
ey might form a minority, were the stable element whose constancy might be relied on, & whose coöperation would most firmly bind the province to the Imperium of the Senate & the Roman People. It was at once a duty & an advantage to afford them the protection due to Roman citizens; even (& here I shot a sarcastic look at Balbutius & Asellius) at the expense of a little trouble & activity, & of a slight interruption of the draught-playing & cock-fighting at the camp in Calagurris. That the danger to the town and inhabitants of Pompelo was a real one, I could not from my studies doubt. I had read many scrolls out of Syria & Ægyptus, & the cryptic towns of Etruria, & had talked at length with the bloodthirsty priest of Diana Aricina in his temple in the woods bordering Lacus Nemorensis. There were shocking dooms that might be called out of the hills on the Sabbaths; dooms which ought not to exist within the territories of the Roman People; & to permit orgies of the kind known to prevail at Sabbaths would be but little in consonance with the customs of those whose forefathers, A. Postumius being consul, had executed so many Roman citizens for the practice of the Bacchanalia—a matter kept ever in memory by the Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus, graven upon bronze & set open to every eye. Checked in time, before the progress of the rites might evoke anything with which the iron of a Roman pilum might not be able to deal, the Sabbath would not be too much for the powers of a single cohort. Only participants need be apprehended, & the sparing of a great number of mere spectators would considerably lessen the resentment which any of the sympathising country folk might feel. In short, both principle & policy demanded stern action; & I could not doubt but that Publius Scribonius, bearing in mind the dignity & obligations of the Roman People, would adhere to his plan of despatching the cohort, me accompanying, despite such objections as Balbutius & Asellius—speaking indeed more like provincials than Romans—might see fit to offer & multiply. The slanting sun was now very low, & the whole town seemed draped in an unreal & malign glamour. Then P. Scribonius the proconsul signified his approval of my words, & stationed me with the cohort in the provisional capacity of a centurio primipilus; Balbutius & Asellius assenting, the former with better grace than the latter. As twilight fell on the wild autumnal slopes, a measured, hideous beating of strange drums floated down from afar in terrible rhythm. Some few of the legionarii shewed timidity, but sharp commands brought them into line, & the whole cohort was soon drawn up on the open plain east of the circus. Libo himself, as well as Balbutius, insisted on accompanying the cohort; but great difficulty was suffered in getting a native guide to point out the paths up the mountain. Finally a young man named Vercellius, the son of pure Roman parents, agreed to take us at least past the foothills. We began to march in the new dusk, with the thin silvern sickle of a young moon trembling over the woods on our left. That which disquieted us most was the fact that the Sabbath was to be held at all. Reports of the coming cohort must have reached the hills, & even the lack of a final decision could not make the rumour less alarming—yet there were the sinister drums as of yore, as if the celebrants had some peculiar reason to be indifferent whether or not the forces of the Roman People marched against them. The sound grew louder as we entered a rising gap in the hills, steep wooded banks enclosing us narrowly on either side, & displaying curiously fantastic tree-trunks in the light of our bobbing torches. All were afoot save Libo, Balbutius, Asellius, two or three of the centuriones, & myself, & at length the way became so steep & narrow that those who had horses were forced to leave them; a squad of ten men being left to guard them, though robber bands were not likely to be abroad on such a night of terror. Once in a while it seemed as though we detected a skulking form in the woods nearby, & after a half-hour’s climb the steepness & narrowness of the way made the advance of so great a body of men—over 300, all told—exceedingly cumbrous & difficult. Then with utter & horrifying suddenness we heard a frightful sound from below. It was from the tethered horses—they had screamed . . . . not neighed, but screamed . . . . . . & there was no light down there, nor the sound of any human thing, to shew why they had done so. At the same moment bonfires blazed out on all the peaks ahead, so that terror seemed to lurk equally before & behind us. Looking for the young Vercellius, our guide, we found only a crumpled heap weltering in a pool of blood. In his hand was a short sword snatched from the belt of D. Vibulanus, a subcenturio, & on his face was such a look of terror that the stoutest veterans turned pale at the sight. He had killed himself when the horses screamed . . . . he, who had been born & lived all his life in that region, & knew what men whispered about the hills. All the torches now began to dim, & the cries of frightened legionaries mingled with the unceasing screams of the tethered horses. The air grew perceptibly colder, more suddenly so than is usual at November’s brink, & seemed stirred by terrible undulations which I could not help connecting with the beating of huge wings. The whole cohort now remained at a standstill, & as the torches faded I watched what I thought were fantastic shadows outlined in the sky by the spectral luminosity of the Via Lactea as it flowed through Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, & Cygnus. Then suddenly all the stars were blotted from the sky—even bright Deneb & Vega ahead, & the lone Altair & Fomalhaut behind us. And as the torches died out altogether, there remained above that stricken & shrieking cohort only the noxious & horrible altar-flames on the towering peaks; hellish & red, & now silhouetting the mad, leaping, & colossal forms of such nameless beasts as had never a Phrygian priest or Campanian grandam whispered of in the wildest of furtive tales. And above the nighted screaming of men & horses that daemoniac drumming rose to louder pitch, whilst an ice-cold wind of shocking sentience & deliberateness swept down from those forbidden heights & coiled about each man separately, till all the cohort was struggling & screaming in the dark, as if acting out the fate of Laocoön & his sons. Only old Scribonius Libo seemed resigned. He uttered words amidst the screaming, & they echo still in my ears. “Malitia vetus—malitia vetus est . . . . . venit . . . . tandem venit. . . .”