The Best of Robert E. Howard: Grim lands by Robert E. Howard

Author:Robert E. Howard [Howard, Robert E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780345490193
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
Published: 2007-11-27T08:00:00+00:00

�� not hurt,�mumbled Griswell. �ou fired just in time �the fiend! Where is it? Where did it go?� �isten!� Somewhere in the house there sounded a sickening flopping and flapping as of something that thrashed and struggled in its death convulsions.

�acob was right,�said Buckner grimly. �ead can kill them. I hit her, all right. Didn� dare use my flashlight, but there was enough light. When that whistlin�started you almost walked over me gettin�out. I knew you were hypnotized, or whatever it is. I followed you up the stairs. I was right behind you, but crouchin�low so she wouldn� see me, and maybe get away again. I almost waited too long before I fired �but the sight of her almost paralyzed me. Look!� He flashed his light down the hall, and now it shone bright and clear. And it shone on an aperture gaping in the wall where no door had showed before.

�he secret panel Miss Elizabeth found!�Buckner snapped. �ome on!� He ran across the hallway and Griswell followed him dazedly. The flopping and thrashing came from beyond that mysterious door, and now the sounds had ceased.

The light revealed a narrow, tunnel-like corridor that evidently led through one of the thick walls. Buckner plunged into it without hesitation.

�aybe it couldn� think like a human,�he muttered, shining his light ahead of him. �ut it had sense enough to erase its tracks last night so we couldn� trail it to that point in the wall and maybe find the secret panel. There� a room ahead �the secret room of the Blassenvilles!� And Griswell cried out: �y God! It� the windowless chamber I saw in my dream, with the three bodies hanging �ahhhhh!� Buckner� light playing about the circular chamber became suddenly motionless. In that wide ring of light three figures appeared, three dried, shriveled, mummy-like shapes, still clad in the moldering garments of the last century. Their slippers were clear of the floor as they hung by their withered necks from chains suspended from the ceiling.

�he three Blassenville sisters!�muttered Buckner. �iss Elizabeth wasn� crazy, after all.� �ook!�Griswell could barely make his voice intelligible. �here �over there in the corner!� The light moved, halted.

�as that thing a woman once?�whispered Griswell. �od, look at that face, even in death. Look at those claw-like hands, with black talons like those of a beast. Yes, it was human, though �even the rags of an old ballroom gown. Why should a mulatto maid wear such a dress, I wonder?� �his has been her lair for over forty years,�muttered Buckner, brooding over the grinning grisly thing sprawling in the corner. �his clears you, Griswell �a crazy woman with a hatchet �that� all the authorities need to know. God, what a revenge! �what a foul revenge! Yet what a bestial nature she must have had, in the beginnin� to delve into voodoo as she must have done �

�he mulatto woman?�whispered Griswell, dimly sensing a horror that overshadowed all the rest of the terror.

Buckner shook his head. �e misunderstood old Jacob�

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