Delphi Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft(724)
When he did look away, it was to notice a somewhat singular mound of dust in the far corner near the ladder to the steeple. Just why it took his attention he could not tell, but something in its contours carried a message to his unconscious mind. Ploughing toward it, and brushing aside the hanging cobwebs as he went, he began to discern something grim about it. Hand and handkerchief soon revealed the truth, and Blake gasped with a baffling mixture of emotions. It was a human skeleton, and it must have been there for a very long time. The clothing was in shreds, but some buttons and fragments of cloth bespoke a man’s grey suit. There were other bits of evidence — shoes, metal clasps, huge buttons for round cuffs, a stickpin of bygone pattern, a reporter’s badge with the name of the old Providence Telegram, and a crumbling leather pocketbook. Blake examined the latter with care, finding within it several bills of antiquated issue, a celluloid advertising calendar for 1893, some cards with the name “Edwin M. Lillibridge”, and a paper covered with pencilled memoranda.
This paper held much of a puzzling nature, and Blake read it carefully at the dim westward window. Its disjointed text included such phrases as the following:
“Prof. Enoch Bowen home from Egypt May 1844 — buys old Free-Will Church in July — his archaeological work & studies in occult well known.”
“Dr. Drowne of 4th Baptist warns against Starry Wisdom in sermon Dec. 29, 1844.”
“Congregation 97 by end of ‘45.”
“1846 — 3 disappearances — first mention of Shining Trapezohedron.”
“7 disappearances 1848 — stories of blood sacrifice begin.”
“Investigation 1853 comes to nothing — stories of sounds.”
“Fr. O’Malley tells of devil-worship with box found in great Egyptian ruins — says they call up something that can’t exist in light. Flees a little light, and banished by strong light. Then has to be summoned again. Probably got this from deathbed confession of Francis X. Feeney, who had joined Starry Wisdom in ‘49. These people say the Shining Trapezohedron shews them heaven & other worlds, & that the Haunter of the Dark tells them secrets in some way.”
“Story of Orrin B. Eddy 1857. They call it up by gazing at the crystal, & have a secret language of their own.”
“200 or more in cong. 1863, exclusive of men at front.”
“Irish boys mob church in 1869 after Patrick Regan’s disappearance.”
“Veiled article in J. March 14, ‘72, but people don’t talk about it.”
“6 disappearances 1876 — secret committee calls on Mayor Doyle.”
“Action promised Feb. 1877 — church closes in April.”
“Gang — Federal Hill Boys — threaten Dr. —— and vestrymen in May.”
“181 persons leave city before end of ‘77 — mention no names.”
“Ghost stories begin around 1880 — try to ascertain truth of report that no human being has entered church since 1877.”
“Ask Lanigan for photograph of place taken 1851.” . . .
Restoring the paper to the pocketbook and placing the latter in his coat, Blake turned to look down at the skeleton in the dust. The implications of the notes were clear, and there could be no doubt but that this man had come to the deserted edifice forty-two years before in quest of a newspaper sensation which no one else had been bold enough to attempt. Perhaps no one else had known of his plan — who could tell? But he had never returned to his paper. Had some bravely suppressed fear risen to overcome him and bring on sudden heart-failure? Blake stooped over the gleaming bones and noted their peculiar state. Some of them were badly scattered, and a few seemed oddly dissolved at the ends. Others were strangely yellowed, with vague suggestions of charring. This charring extended to some of the fragments of clothing. The skull was in a very peculiar state — stained yellow, and with a charred aperture in the top as if some powerful acid had eaten through the solid bone. What had happened to the skeleton during its four decades of silent entombment here Blake could not imagine.
Before he realised it, he was looking at the stone again, and letting its curious influence call up a nebulous pageantry in his mind. He saw processions of robed, hooded figures whose outlines were not human, and looked on endless leagues of desert lined with carved, sky-reaching monoliths. He saw towers and walls in nighted depths under the sea, and vortices of space where wisps of black mist floated before thin shimmerings of cold purple haze. And beyond all else he glimpsed an infinite gulf of darkness, where solid and semi-solid forms were known only by their windy stirrings, and cloudy patterns of force seemed to superimpose order on chaos and hold forth a key to all the paradoxes and arcana of the worlds we know.