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X. THE PIGEON-FLYERS
They took me slumming, where gaunt walls of brickBulge outward with a viscous stored-up evil,And twisted faces, thronging foul and thick,Wick messages to alien god and devil.A million flares were blazing in the streets,And from flat roofs, a furtive few would flyBedraggled birds into the yawning sky,While hidden drums droned on with measured beats.
I knew those fires were brewing monstrous things,And that those birds had been Outside—I guessed to what dark planet's crypts they plied,And what they brought from Thog beneath their wings.The others laughed—till struck too mute to speakBy what they glimpsed in one bird's evil beak.
XI. THE WELL
Farmer Seth Atwood was past eighty whenHe tried to sink that deep well by his door,With only Eb to help him bore and bore.We laughed, and hoped he'd soon be sane again.And yet, instead, young Eb went crazy too,So that they shipped him up to the county farm.Seth bricked the well up as tight as glue—Then hacked an artery in his gnarled left arm.
After the funeral we felt bound to getOut to that well and rip the bricks away.But all we saw were iron hand-holds setDown a black hole deeper than we could say.And yet we put the bricks back—for we foundThe hole too deep for any line to sound.
XII. THE HOWLER
They told me not to take the Briggs' Hill pathThat used to be the highroad through to Zoar,For Goody Watkins, hanged in seventeen-four,Had left a certain monstrous aftermath.Yet when I disobeyed, and had in viewThe vine-hung cottage by the great rock slope,I could not think of elms or hempen rope,But wondered why the house still seemed so new.
Stopping a while to watch the fading day,I heard faint howls, as from a room upstairs,When through the ivied panes one sunset rayStruck in, and caught the howler unawares.I glimpsed—and ran in frenzy from the place,And from a four-pawed thing with human face.
