FOREWORD
The publication
of the following narrative of Dr. Walter T. Goodwin has been authorized by the
Executive Council of the International Association of Science.
First:
To
end officially what is beginning to be called the Throckmartin Mystery and to
kill the innuendo and scandalous suspicions which have threatened to stain the
reputations of Dr. David Throckmartin, his youthful wife, and equally youthful
associate Dr. Charles Stanton ever since a tardy despatch from Melbourne,
Australia, reported the disappearance of the first from a ship sailing to that
port, and the subsequent reports of the disappearance of his wife and associate
from the camp of their expedition in the Caroline Islands.
Second:
Because
the Executive Council have concluded that Dr. Goodwin's experiences in his
wholly heroic effort to save the three, and the lessons and warnings within
those experiences, are too important to humanity as a whole to be hidden away
in scientific papers understandable only to the technically educated; or to be
presented through the newspaper press in the abridged and fragmentary form
which the space limitations of that vehicle make necessary.
For these reasons
the Executive Council commissioned Mr. A. Merritt to transcribe into form to be
readily understood by the layman the stenographic notes of Dr. Goodwin's own
report to the Council, supplemented by further oral reminiscences and comments
by Dr. Goodwin; this transcription, edited and censored by the Executive
Council of the Association, forms the contents of this book.
Himself a member
of the Council, Dr. Walter T. Goodwin, Ph.D., F.R.G.S. etc., is without cavil
the foremost of American botanists, an observer of international reputation and
the author of several epochal treaties upon his chosen branch of science. His
story, amazing in the best sense of that word as it may be, is fully supported
by proofs brought forward by him and accepted by the organization of which I have
the honor to be president. What matter has been elided from this popular
presentation - because of the excessively menacing potentialities it contains,
which unrestricted dissemination might develop - will be dealt with in purely
scientific pamphlets of carefully guarded circulation.
THE INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF SCIENCE
Per J. B. K., President
CHAPTER I - The Thing on the
Moon Path
For two months I
had been on the d'Entrecasteaux Islands gathering data for the concluding
chapters of my book upon the flora of the volcanic islands of the South
Pacific. The day before I had reached Port Moresby and had seen my specimens
safely stored on board the Southern Queen. As I sat on the upper deck I
thought, with homesick mind, of the long leagues between me and Melbourne, and
the longer ones between Melbourne and New York.
It was one of
Papua's yellow mornings when she shows herself in her sombrest, most baleful
mood. The sky was smouldering ochre. Over the island brooded a spirit sullen,
alien, implacable, filled with the threat of latent, malefic forces waiting to
be unleashed. It seemed an emanation out of the untamed, sinister heart of
Papua herself - sinister even when she smiles. And now and then, on the wind,
came a breath from virgin jungles, laden with unfamiliar odours, mysterious and
menacing.
It is on such
mornings that Papua whispers to you of her immemorial ancientness and of her
power. And, as every white man must, I fought against her spell. While I
struggled I saw a tall figure striding down the pier; a Kapa-Kapa boy followed
swinging a new valise. There was something familiar about the tall man. As he
reached the gangplank he looked up straight into my eyes, stared for a moment,
then waved his hand.
And now I knew
him. It was Dr. David Throckmartin -”Throck" he was to me always, one of
my oldest friends and, as well, a mind of the first water whose power and
achievements were for me a constant inspiration as they were, I know, for
scores other.
Coincidentally
with my recognition came a shock of surprise, definitely - unpleasant. It was
Throckmartin - but about him was something disturbingly unlike the man I had
known long so well and to whom and to whose little party I had bidden farewell
less than a month before I myself had sailed for these seas. He had married
only a few weeks before, Edith, the daughter of Professor William Frazier,
younger by at least a decade than he but at one with him in his ideals and as
much in love, if it were possible, as Throckmartin. By virtue of her father's
training a wonderful assistant, by virtue of her own sweet, sound heart a - I
use the word in its olden sense - lover. With his equally youthful associate
Dr. Charles Stanton and a Swedish woman, Thora Halversen, who had been Edith
Throckmartin's nurse from babyhood, they had set forth for the Nan-Matal, that
extraordinary group of island ruins clustered along the eastern shore of Ponape
in the Carolines.
I knew that he
had planned to spend at least a year among these ruins, not only of Ponape but
of Lele - twin centres of a colossal riddle of humanity, a weird flower of
civilization that blossomed ages before the seeds of Egypt were sown; of whose
arts we know little enough and of whose science nothing. He had carried with
him unusually complete equipment for the work he had expected to do and which,
he hoped, would be his monument.
What then had
brought Throckmartin to Port Moresby, and what was that change I had sensed in
him?
Hurrying down to
the lower deck I found him with the purser. As I spoke he turned, thrust out to
me an eager hand - and then I saw what was that difference that had so moved
me. He knew, of course by my silence and involuntary shrinking the shock my
closer look had given me. His eyes filled; he turned brusquely from the purser,
hesitated - then hurried off to his stateroom.
"'E looks
rather queer - eh?" said the purser.”Know 'im well, sir? Seems to 'ave
given you quite a start."
I made some reply
and went slowly up to my chair. There I sat, composed my mind and tried to
define what it was that had shaken me so. Now it came to me. The old
Throckmartin was on the eve of his venture just turned forty, lithe, erect,
muscular; his controlling expression one of enthusiasm, of intellectual
keenness, of - what shall I say - expectant search. His always questioning
brain had stamped its vigor upon his face.
But the
Throckmartin I had seen below was one who had borne some scaring shock of
mingled rapture and horror; some soul cataclysm that in its climax had
remoulded, deep from within, his face, setting on it seal of wedded ecstasy and
despair; as though indeed these two had come to him hand in hand, taken
possession of him and departing left behind, ineradicably, their linked
shadows!
Yes - it was that
which appalled. For how could rapture and horror, Heaven and Hell mix, clasp
hands - kiss?
Yet these were
what in closest embrace lay on Throckmartin's face!
Deep in thought,
subconsciously with relief, I watched the shore line sink behind; welcomed the
touch of the wind of the free seas. I had hoped, and within the hope was an
inexplicable shrinking that I would meet Throckmartin at lunch. He did not come
down, and I was sensible of deliverance within my disappointment. All that
afternoon I lounged about uneasily but still he kept to his cabin - and within
me was no strength to summon him. Nor did he appear at dinner.
Dusk and night
fell swiftly. I was warm and went back to my deck-chair. The Southern Queen was
rolling to a disquieting swell and I had the place to myself.
Over the heavens
was a canopy of cloud, glowing faintly and testifying to the moon riding behind
it. There was much phosphorescence. Fitfully before the ship and at her sides
arose those stranger little swirls of mist that swirl up from the Southern
Ocean like breath of sea monsters, whirl for an instant and disappear.
Suddenly the deck
door opened and through it came Throckmartin. He paused uncertainly, looked up
at the sky with a curiously eager, intent gaze, hesitated, then closed the door
behind him.
"Throck,"
I called.”Come! It's Goodwin."
He made his way
to me.
"Throck,"
I said, wasting no time in preliminaries.”What's wrong? Can I help you?"
I felt his body
grow tense.
"I'm going
to Melbourne, Goodwin," he answered.”I need a few things - need them
urgently. And more men - white men -”
He stopped
abruptly; rose from his chair, gazed intently toward the north. I followed his
gaze. Far, far away the moon had broken through the clouds. Almost on the
horizon, you could see the faint luminescence of it upon the smooth sea. The
distant patch of light quivered and shook. The clouds thickened again and it
was gone. The ship raced on southward, swiftly.
Throckmartin
dropped into his chair. He lighted a cigarette with a hand that trembled; then
turned to me with abrupt resolution.
"Goodwin,"
he said.”I do need help. If ever man needed it, I do. Goodwin - can you imagine
yourself in another world, alien, unfamiliar, a world of terror, whose unknown
joy is its greatest terror of all; you all alone there, a stranger! As such a
man would need help, so I need -”
He paused
abruptly and arose; the cigarette dropped from his fingers. The moon had again
broken through the clouds, and this time much nearer. Not a mile away was the
patch of light that it threw upon the waves. Back of it, to the rim of the sea
was a lane of moonlight; a gigantic gleaming serpent racing over the edge of
the world straight and surely toward the ship.
Throckmartin stiffened
to it as a pointer does to a hidden covey. To me from him pulsed a thrill of
horror - but horror tinged with an unfamiliar, an infernal joy. It came to me
and passed away - leaving me trembling with its shock of bitter sweet.
He bent forward,
all his soul in his eyes. The moon path swept closer, closer still. It was now
less than half a mile away. From it the ship fled - almost as though pursued.
Down upon it, swift and straight, a radiant torrent cleaving the waves, raced
the moon stream.
"Good
God!" breathed Throckmartin, and if ever the words were a prayer and an
invocation they were.
And then, for the
first time - I saw - it!
The moon path
stretched to the horizon and was bordered by darkness. It was as though the
clouds above had been parted to form a lane-drawn aside like curtains or as the
waters of the Red Sea were held back to let the hosts of Israel through. On
each side of the stream was the black shadow cast by the folds of the high
canopies And straight as a road between the opaque walls gleamed, shimmered,
and danced the shining, racing, rapids of the moonlight.
Far, it seemed
immeasurably far, along this stream of silver fire I sensed, rather than saw,
something coming. It drew first into sight as a deeper glow within the light.
On and on it swept toward us - an opalescent mistiness that sped with the
suggestion of some winged creature in arrowed flight. Dimly there crept into my
mind memory of the Dyak legend of the winged messenger of Buddha - the Akla
bird whose feathers are woven of the moon rays, whose heart is a living opal,
whose wings in flight echo the crystal clear music of the white stars - but
whose beak is of frozen flame and shreds the souls of unbelievers.
Closer it drew
and now there came to me sweet, insistent tinklings - like pizzicati on violins
of glass; crystal clear; diamonds melting into sounds!
Now the Thing was
close to the end of the white path; close up to the barrier of darkness still
between the ship and the sparkling head of the moon stream. Now it beat up
against that barrier as a bird against the bars of its cage. It whirled with
shimmering plumes, with swirls of lacy light, with spirals of living vapour. It
held within it odd, unfamiliar gleams as of shifting mother-of-pearl.
Coruscations and glittering atoms drifted through it as though it drew them
from the rays that bathed it.
Nearer and nearer
it came, borne on the sparkling waves, and ever thinner shrank the protecting
wall of shadow between it and us. Within the mistiness was a core, a nucleus of
intenser light - veined, opaline, effulgent, intensely alive. And above it,
tangled in the plumes and spirals that throbbed and whirled were seven glowing
lights.
Through all the
incessant but strangely ordered movement of the - thing - these lights held
firm and steady. They were seven - like seven little moons. One was of a pearly
pink, one of a delicate nacreous blue, one of lambent saffron, one of the
emerald you see in the shallow waters of tropic isles; a deathly white; a
ghostly amethyst; and one of the silver that is seen only when the flying fish
leap beneath the moon.
The tinkling
music was louder still. It pierced the ears with a shower of tiny lances; it
made the heart beat jubilantly - and checked it dolorously. It closed the
throat with a throb of rapture and gripped it tight with the hand of infinite
sorrow!
Came to me now a
murmuring cry, stilling the crystal notes. It was articulate - but as though
from something utterly foreign to this world. The ear took the cry and
translated with conscious labour into the sounds of earth. And even as it
compassed, the brain shrank from it irresistibly, and simultaneously it seemed
reached toward it with irresistible eagerness.
Throckmartin
strode toward the front of the deck, straight toward the vision, now but a few
yards away from the stern. His face had lost all human semblance. Utter agony
and utter ecstasy - there they were side by side, not resisting each other;
unholy inhuman companions blending into a look that none of God's creatures
should wear - and deep, deep as his soul! A devil and a God dwelling
harmoniously side by side! So must Satan, newly fallen, still divine, seeing
heaven and contemplating hell, have appeared.
And then - swiftly
the moon path faded! The clouds swept over the sky as though a hand had drawn
them together. Up from the south came a roaring squall. As the moon vanished
what I had seen vanished with it - blotted out as an image on a magic lantern;
the tinkling ceased abruptly - leaving a silence like that which follows an
abrupt thunder clap. There was nothing about us but silence and blackness!
Through me passed
a trembling as one who has stood on the very verge of the gulf wherein the men
of the Louisades says lurks the fisher of the souls of men, and has been
plucked back by sheerest chance.
Throckmartin
passed an arm around me.
"It is as I
thought," he said. In his voice was a new note; the calm certainty that
has swept aside a waiting terror of the unknown.”Now I know! Come with me to my
cabin, old friend. For now that you too have seen I can tell you" - he
hesitated -”what it was you saw," he ended.
As we passed
through the door we met the ship's first officer. Throckmartin composed his
face into at least a semblance of normality.
"Going to
have much of a storm?" he asked.
"Yes,"
said the mate.”Probably all the way to Melbourne."
Throckmartin
straightened as though with a new thought. He gripped the officer's sleeve
eagerly.
"You mean at
least cloudy weather - for" - he hesitated -”for the next three nights,
say?"
"And for
three more," replied the mate.
"Thank
God!" cried Throckmartin, and I think I never heard such relief and hope
as was in his voice.
The sailor stood
amazed.”Thank God?" he repeated.”Thank - what d'ye mean?"
But Throckmartin
was moving onward to his cabin. I started to follow. The first officer stopped
me.
"Your
friend," he said,”is he ill?"
"The
sea!" I answered hurriedly.”He's not used to it. I am going to look after
him."
Doubt and
disbelief were plain in the seaman's eyes but I hurried on. For I knew now that
Throckmartin was ill indeed - but with a sickness the ship's doctor nor any
other could heal.
CHAPTER II -”Dead! All Dead!"
He was sitting,
face in hands, on the side of his berth as I entered. He had taken off his
coat.
"Throck,"
I cried.”What was it? What are you flying from, man? Where is your wife - and
Stanton?"
"Dead!"
he replied monotonously.”Dead! All dead!" Then as I recoiled from him -”All
dead. Edith, Stanton, Thora - dead - or worse. And Edith in the Moon Pool - with
them - drawn by what you saw on the moon path - that has put its brand upon me
- and follows me!"
He ripped open
his shirt.
"Look at
this," he said. Around his chest, above his heart, the skin was white as
pearl. This whiteness was sharply defined against the healthy tint of the body.
It circled him with an even cincture about two inches wide.
"Burn
it!" he said, and offered me his cigarette. I drew back. He gestured - peremptorily.
I pressed the glowing end of the cigarette into the ribbon of white flesh. He
did not flinch nor was there odour of burning nor, as I drew the little
cylinder away, any mark upon the whiteness.
"Feel
it!" he commanded again. I placed my fingers upon the band. It was cold - like
frozen marble.
He drew his shirt
around him.
"Two things
you have seen," he said.”It - and its mark. Seeing, you must believe my
story. Goodwin, I tell you again that my wife is dead - or worse - I do not
know; the prey of - what you saw; so, too, is Stanton; so Thora. How -”
Tears rolled down
the seared face.
"Why did God
let it conquer us? Why did He let it take my Edith?" he cried in utter
bitterness.”Are there things stronger than God, do you think, Walter?"
I hesitated.
"Are there?
Are there?" His wild eyes searched me.
"I do not
know just how you define God," I managed at last through my astonishment
to make answer.”If you mean the will to know, working through science -”
He waved me aside
impatiently.
"Science,"
he said.”What is our science against - that? Or against the science of whatever
devils that made it - or made the way for it to enter this world of ours?"
With an effort he
regained control.
"Goodwin,"
he said,”do you know at all of the ruins on the Carolines; the cyclopean,
megalithic cities and harbours of Ponape and Lele, of Kusaie, of Ruk and
Hogolu, and a score of other islets there? Particularly, do you know of the
Nan-Matal and the Metalanim?"
"Of the
Metalanim I have heard and seen photographs," I said.”They call it, don't
they, the Lost Venice of the Pacific?"
"Look at
this map," said Throckmartin.”That," he went on,”is Christian's chart
of Metalanim harbour and the Nan-Matal. Do you see the rectangles marked
Nan-Tauach?"
"Yes,"
I said.
"There,"
he said,”under those walls is the Moon Pool and the seven gleaming lights that
raise the Dweller in the Pool, and the altar and shrine of the Dweller. And
there in the Moon Pool with it lie Edith and Stanton and Thora."
"The Dweller
in the Moon Pool?" I repeated half-incredulously.
"The Thing
you saw," said Throckmartin solemnly.
A solid sheet of
rain swept the ports, and the Southern Queen began to roll on the rising
swells. Throckmartin drew another deep breath of relief, and drawing aside a curtain
peered out into the night. Its blackness seemed to reassure him. At any rate,
when he sat again he was entirely calm.
"There are
no more wonderful ruins in the world," he began almost casually.”They take
in some fifty islets and cover with their intersecting canals and lagoons about
twelve square miles. Who built them? None knows. When were they built? Ages
before the memory of present man, that is sure. Ten thousand, twenty thousand,
a hundred thousand years ago - the last more likely.
"All these islets,
Walter, are squared, and their shores are frowning seawalls of gigantic basalt
blocks hewn and put in place by the hands of ancient man. Each inner
water-front is faced with a terrace of those basalt blocks which stand out six
feet above the shallow canals that meander between them. On the islets behind
these walls are time-shattered fortresses, palaces, terraces, pyramids; immense
courtyards strewn with ruins - and all so old that they seem to wither the eyes
of those who look on them.
"There has
been a great subsidence. You can stand out of Metalanim harbour for three miles
and look down upon the tops of similar monolithic structures and walls twenty
feet below you in the water.
"And all
about, strung on their canals, are the bulwarked islets with their enigmatic
walls peering through the dense growths of mangroves - dead, deserted for
incalculable ages; shunned by those who live near.
"You as a
botanist are familiar with the evidence that a vast shadowy continent existed
in the Pacific - a continent that was not rent asunder by volcanic forces as
was that legendary one of Atlantis in the Eastern Ocean.[1] My work in Java, in
Papua, and in the Ladrones had set my mind upon this Pacific lost land. Just as
the Azores are believed to be the last high peaks of Atlantis, so hints came to
me steadily that Ponape and Lele and their basalt bulwarked islets were the
last points of the slowly sunken western land clinging still to the sunlight,
and had been the last refuge and sacred places of the rulers of that race which
had lost their immemorial home under the rising waters of the Pacific.
"I believed
that under these ruins I might find the evidence that I sought.
"My - my
wife and I had talked before we were married of making this our great work.
After the honeymoon we prepared for the expedition. Stanton was as enthusiastic
as ourselves. We sailed, as you know, last May for fulfilment of my dreams.
"At Ponape
we selected, not without difficulty, workmen to help us - diggers. I had to
make extraordinary inducements before I could get together my force. Their
beliefs are gloomy, these Ponapeans. They people their swamps, their forests,
their mountains, and shores, with malignant spirits - ani they call them. And
they are afraid - bitterly afraid of the isles of ruins and what they think the
ruins hide. I do not wonder - now!
"When they
were told where they were to go, and how long we expected to stay, they
murmured. Those who, at last, were tempted made what I thought then merely a
superstitious proviso that they were to be allowed to go away on the three
nights of the full moon. Would to God we had heeded them and gone too!"
"We passed
into Metalanim harbour. Off to our left - a mile away arose a massive
quadrangle. Its walls were all of forty feet high and hundreds of feet on each
side. As we drew by, our natives grew very silent; watched it furtively,
fearfully. I knew it for the ruins that are called Nan-Tauach, the 'place of
frowning walls.' And at the silence of my men I recalled what Christian had
written of this place; of how he had come upon its 'ancient platforms and
tetragonal enclosures of stonework; its wonder of tortuous alleyways and
labyrinth of shallow canals; grim masses of stonework peering out from behind
verdant screens; cyclopean barricades,' and of how, when he had turned 'into
its ghostly shadows, straight-way the merriment of guides was hushed and
conversation died down to whispers.'"
He was silent for
a little time.
"Of course I
wanted to pitch our camp there," he went on again quietly,”but I soon gave
up that idea. The natives were panic-stricken - threatened to turn back. 'No,'
they said, 'too great ani there. We go to any other place - but not there.'
"We finally
picked for our base the islet called Uschen-Tau. It was close to the isle of
desire, but far enough away from it to satisfy our men. There was an excellent
camping-place and a spring of fresh water. We pitched our tents, and in a
couple of days the work was in full swing."
[1] For more detailed observations on these
points refer to G. Volkens, Uber die Karolinen Insel Yap, in Verhandlungen
Gesellschaft Erdkunde Berlin, xxvii (1901); J. S. Kubary, Ethnographische
Beitrage zur Kentniss des Karolinen Archipel (Leiden, 1889-1892); De Abrade
Historia del Conflicto de las Carolinas, etc. (Madrid, 1886). - W. T. G.
CHAPTER III - The Moon Rock
"I do not
intend to tell you now," Throckmartin continued,”the results of the next
two weeks, nor of what we found. Later - if I am allowed, I will lay all that
before you. It is sufficient to say that at the end of those two weeks I had
found confirmation for many of my theories.
"The place,
for all its decay and desolation, had not infected us with any touch of
morbidity - that is not Edith, Stanton, or myself. But Thora was very unhappy.
She was a Swede, as you know, and in her blood ran the beliefs and
superstitions of the Northland - some of them so strangely akin to those of
this far southern land; beliefs of spirits of mountain and forest and water
werewolves and beings malign. From the first she showed a curious sensitivity
to what, I suppose, may be called the 'influences' of the place. She said it
'smelled' of ghosts and warlocks.
"I laughed
at her then -
"Two weeks
slipped by, and at their end the spokesman for our natives came to us. The next
night was the full of the moon, he said. He reminded me of my promise. They
would go back to their village in the morning; they would return after the
third night, when the moon had begun to wane. They left us sundry charms for
our 'protection,' and solemnly cautioned us to keep as far away as possible
from Nan-Tauach during their absence. Half-exasperated, half-amused I watched
them go.
"No work
could be done without them, of course, so we decided to spend the days of their
absence junketing about the southern islets of the group. We marked down
several spots for subsequent exploration, and on the morning of the third day
set forth along the east face of the breakwater for our camp on Uschen-Tau,
planning to have everything in readiness for the return of our men the next
day.
"We landed
just before dusk, tired and ready for our cots. It was only a little after ten
o'clock that Edith awakened me.
"'Listen!'
she said. 'Lean over with your ear close to the ground!'
"I did so,
and seemed to hear, far, far below, as though coming up from great distances, a
faint chanting. It gathered strength, died down, ended; began, gathered volume,
faded away into silence.
"'It's the
waves rolling on rocks somewhere,' I said. 'We're probably over some ledge of
rock that carries the sound.'
"'It's the
first time I've heard it,' replied my wife doubtfully. We listened again. Then
through the dim rhythms, deep beneath us, another sound came. It drifted across
the lagoon that lay between us and Nan-Tauach in little tinkling waves. It was music
- of a sort; I won't describe the strange effect it had upon me. You've felt it
-”
"You mean on
the deck?" I asked. Throckmartin nodded.
"I went to
the flap of the tent," he continued,”and peered out. As I did so Stanton
lifted his flap and walked out into the moonlight, looking over to the other
islet and listening. I called to him.
"'That's the
queerest sound!' he said. He listened again. 'Crystalline! Like little notes of
translucent glass. Like the bells of crystal on the sistrums of Isis at
Dendarah Temple,' he added half-dreamily. We gazed intently at the island.
Suddenly, on the sea-wall, moving slowly, rhythmically, we saw a little group
of lights. Stanton laughed.
"'The
beggars!' he exclaimed. 'That's why they wanted to get away, is it? Don't you see,
Dave, it's some sort of a festival - rites of some kind that they hold during
the full moon! That's why they were so eager to have us keep away, too.'
"The
explanation seemed good. I felt a curious sense of relief, although I had not
been sensible of any oppression.
"'Let's slip
over,' suggested Stanton - but I would not.
"'They're a
difficult lot as it is,' I said. 'If we break into one of their religious
ceremonies they'll probably never forgive us. Let's keep out of any family
party where we haven't been invited.'
"'That's
so,' agreed Stanton.
"The strange
tinkling rose and fell, rose and fell -
"'There's
something - something very unsettling about it,' said Edith at last soberly. 'I
wonder what they make those sounds with. They frighten me half to death, and,
at the same time, they make me feel as though some enormous rapture were just
around the corner.'
"'It's
devilish uncanny!' broke in Stanton.
"And as he
spoke the flap of Thora's tent was raised and out into the moonlight strode the
old Swede. She was the great Norse type - tall, deep-breasted, moulded on the
old Viking lines. Her sixty years had slipped from her. She looked like some
ancient priestess of Odin.
"She stood
there, her eyes wide, brilliant, staring. She thrust her head forward toward
Nan-Tauach, regarding the moving lights; she listened. Suddenly she raised her
arms and made a curious gesture to the moon. It was - an archaic - movement;
she seemed to drag it from remote antiquity - yet in it was a strange
suggestion of power, Twice she repeated this gesture and - the tinklings died
away! She turned to us.
"'Go!' she
said, and her voice seemed to come from far distances. 'Go from here - and
quickly! Go while you may. It has called - ' She pointed to the islet. 'It
knows you are here. It waits!' she wailed. 'It beckons - the - the -”
"She fell at
Edith's feet, and over the lagoon came again the tinklings, now with a quicker
note of jubilance - almost of triumph.
"We watched
beside her throughout the night. The sounds from Nan-Tauach continued until
about an hour before moon-set. In the morning Thora awoke, none the worse,
apparently. She had had bad dreams, she said. She could not remember what they
were - except that they had warned her of danger. She was oddly sullen, and
throughout the morning her gaze returned again and again half-fascinatedly,
half-wonderingly to the neighbouring isle.
"That
afternoon the natives returned. And that night on Nan-Tauach the silence was
unbroken nor were there lights nor sign of life.
"You will
understand, Goodwin, how the occurrences I have related would excite the
scientific curiosity. We rejected immediately, of course, any explanation
admitting the supernatural.
"Our - symptoms
let me call them - could all very easily be accounted for. It is unquestionable
that the vibrations created by certain musical instruments have definite and
sometimes extraordinary effect upon the nervous system. We accepted this as the
explanation of the reactions we had experienced, hearing the unfamiliar sounds.
Thora's nervousness, her superstitious apprehensions, had wrought her up to a
condition of semi-somnambulistic hysteria. Science could readily explain her
part in the night's scene.
"We came to
the conclusion that there must be a passage-way between Ponape and Nan-Tauach
known to the natives - and used by them during their rites. We decided that on
the next departure of our labourers we would set forth immediately to
Nan-Tauach. We would investigate during the day, and at evening my wife and
Thora would go back to camp, leaving Stanton and me to spend the night on the
island, observing from some safe hiding-place what might occur.
"The moon
waned; appeared crescent in the west; waxed slowly toward the full. Before the
men left us they literally prayed us to accompany them. Their importunities
only made us more eager to see what it was that, we were now convinced, they
wanted to conceal from us. At least that was true of Stanton and myself. It was
not true of Edith. She was thoughtful, abstracted - reluctant.
"When the
men were out of sight around the turn of the harbour, we took our boat and made
straight for Nan-Tauach. Soon its mighty sea-wall towered above us. We passed
through the water-gate with its gigantic hewn prisms of basalt and landed
beside a half-submerged pier. In front of us stretched a series of giant steps
leading into a vast court strewn with fragments of fallen pillars. In the
centre of the court, beyond the shattered pillars, rose another terrace of
basalt blocks, concealing, I knew, still another enclosure.
"And now,
Walter, for the better understanding of what follows - and - and -” he hesitated.”Should
you decide later to return with me or, if I am taken, to - to - follow us - listen
carefully to my description of this place: Nan-Tauach is literally three
rectangles. The first rectangle is the sea-wall, built up of monoliths - hewn
and squared, twenty feet wide at the top. To get to the gateway in the sea-wall
you pass along the canal marked on the map between Nan-Tauach and the islet
named Tau. The entrance to the canal is bidden by dense thickets of mangroves;
once through these the way is clear. The steps lead up from the landing of the
sea-gate through the entrance to the courtyard.
"This
courtyard is surrounded by another basalt wall, rectangular, following with
mathematical exactness the march of the outer barricades. The sea-wall is from
thirty to forty feet high - originally it must have been much higher, but there
has been subsidence in parts. The wall of the first enclosure is fifteen feet
across the top and its height varies from twenty to fifty feet - here, too, the
gradual sinking of the land has caused portions of it to fall.
"Within this
courtyard is the second enclosure. Its terrace, of the same basalt as the outer
walls, is about twenty feet high. Entrance is gained to it by many breaches
which time has made in its stonework. This is the inner court, the heart of
Nan-Tauach! There lies the great central vault with which is associated the one
name of living being that has come to us out of the mists of the past. The
natives say it was the treasure-house of Chau-te-leur, a mighty king who reigned
long 'before their fathers.' As Chan is the ancient Ponapean word both for sun
and king, the name means, without doubt, 'place of the sun king.' It is a
memory of a dynastic name of the race that ruled the Pacific continent, now
vanished - just as the rulers of ancient Crete took the name of Minos and the
rulers of Egypt the name of Pharaoh.
"And
opposite this place of the sun king is the moon rock that hides the Moon Pool.
"It was
Stanton who discovered the moon rock. We had been inspecting the inner
courtyard; Edith and Thora were getting together our lunch. I came out of the
vault of Chau-te-leur to find Stanton before a part of the terrace studying it
wonderingly.
"'What do
you make of this?' he asked me as I came up. He pointed to the wall. I followed
his finger and saw a slab of stone about fifteen feet high and ten wide. At
first all I noticed was the exquisite nicety with which its edges joined the
blocks about it. Then I realized that its colour was subtly different - tinged
with grey and of a smooth, peculiar - deadness.
"'Looks more
like calcite than basalt,' I said. I touched it and withdrew my hand quickly
for at the contact every nerve in my arm tingled as though a shock of frozen
electricity had passed through it. It was not cold as we know cold. It was a
chill force - the phrase I have used - frozen electricity - describes it better
than anything else. Stanton looked at me oddly.
"'So you
felt it too,' he said. 'I was wondering whether I was developing hallucinations
like Thora. Notice, by the way, that the blocks beside it are quite warm
beneath the sun.'
"We examined
the slab eagerly. Its edges were cut as though by an engraver of jewels. They
fitted against the neighbouring blocks in almost a hair-line. Its base was
slightly curved, and fitted as closely as top and sides upon the huge stones on
which it rested. And then we noted that these stones had been hollowed to
follow the line of the grey stone's foot. There was a semicircular depression
running from one side of the slab to the other. It was as though the grey rock
stood in the centre of a shallow cup - revealing half, covering half. Something
about this hollow attracted me. I reached down and felt it. Goodwin, although
the balance of the stones that formed it, like all the stones of the courtyard,
were rough and age-worn - this was as smooth, as even surfaced as though it had
just left the hands of the polisher.
"'It's a
door!' exclaimed Stanton. 'It swings around in that little cup. That's what
makes the hollow so smooth.'
"'Maybe
you're right,' I replied. 'But how the devil can we open it?'
"We went
over the slab again - pressing upon its edges, thrusting against its sides.
During one of those efforts I happened to look up - and cried out. A foot above
and on each side of the corner of the grey rock's lintel was a slight
convexity, visible only from the angle at which my gaze struck it.
"We carried
with us a small scaling-ladder and up this I went. The bosses were apparently
nothing more than chiseled curvatures in the stone. I laid my hand on the one I
was examining, and drew it back sharply. In my palm, at the base of my thumb, I
had felt the same shock that I had in touching the slab below. I put my hand
back. The impression came from a spot not more than an inch wide. I went
carefully over the entire convexity, and six times more the chill ran through
my arm. There were seven circles an inch wide in the curved place, each of
which communicated the precise sensation I have described. The convexity on the
opposite side of the slab gave exactly the same results. But no amount of
touching or of pressing these spots singly or in any combination gave the
slightest promise of motion to the slab itself.
"'And yet - they're
what open it,' said Stanton positively.
"'Why do you
say that?' I asked.
"'I - don't
know,' he answered hesitatingly. 'But something tells me so. Throck,' he went
on half earnestly, half laughingly, 'the purely scientific part of me is
fighting the purely human part of me. The scientific part is urging me to find
some way to get that slab either down or open. The human part is just as
strongly urging me to do nothing of the sort and get away while I can!'
"He laughed
again - shamefacedly.
"'Which
shall it be?' he asked - and I thought that in his tone the human side of him
was ascendant.
"'It will
probably stay as it is - unless we blow it to bits,' I said.
"'I thought
of that,' he answered, 'and I wouldn't dare,' he added soberly enough. And even
as I had spoken there came to me the same feeling that he had expressed. It was
as though something passed out of the grey rock that struck my heart as a hand
strikes an impious lip. We turned away - uneasily, and faced Thora coming
through a breach on the terrace.
"'Miss Edith
wants you quick,' she began - and stopped. Her eyes went past me to the grey
rock. Her body grew rigid; she took a few stiff steps forward and then ran
straight to it. She cast herself upon its breast, hands and face pressed
against it; we heard her scream as though her very soul were being drawn from
her - and watched her fall at its foot. As we picked her up I saw steal from
her face the look I had observed when first we heard the crystal music of
Nan-Tauach - that unhuman mingling of opposites!"
