No. 3--THE WHISTLING ROOM
Carnacki shook a friendly fist at me as I entered, late. Then he openedthe door into the dining room, and ushered the four of us--Jessop,Arkright, Taylor and myself--in to dinner.
We dined well, as usual, and, equally as usual, Carnacki was prettysilent during the meal. At the end, we took our wine and cigars to ourusual positions, and Carnacki--having got himself comfortable in his bigchair--began without any preliminary:--
"I have just got back from Ireland, again," he said. "And I thought youchaps would be interested to hear my news. Besides, I fancy I shall seethe thing clearer, after I have told it all out straight. I must tell youthis, though, at the beginning--up to the present moment, I have beenutterly and completely 'stumped.' I have tumbled upon one of the mostpeculiar cases of 'haunting'--or devilment of some sort--that I have comeagainst. Now listen.
"I have been spending the last few weeks at Iastrae Castle, about twentymiles northeast of Galway. I got a letter about a month ago from a Mr.Sid K. Tassoc, who it seemed had bought the place lately, and moved in,only to find that he had bought a very peculiar piece of property.
"When I got there, he met me at the station, driving a jaunting car, anddrove me up to the castle, which, by the way, he called a 'house shanty.'I found that he was 'pigging it' there with his boy brother and anotherAmerican, who seemed to be half-servant and half-companion. It seems thatall the servants had left the place, in a body, as you might say, and nowthey were managing among themselves, assisted by some day-help.
"The three of them got together a scratch feed, and Tassoc told me allabout the trouble whilst we were at table. It is most extraordinary, anddifferent from anything that I have had to do with; though that BuzzingCase was very queer, too.
"Tassoc began right in the middle of his story. 'We've got a room in thisshanty,' he said, 'which has got a most infernal whistling in it; sort ofhaunting it. The thing starts any time; you never know when, and it goeson until it frightens you. All the servants have gone, as you know. It'snot ordinary whistling, and it isn't the wind. Wait till you hear it.'
"'We're all carrying guns,' said the boy; and slapped his coat pocket.
"'As bad as that?' I said; and the older boy nodded. 'It may be soft,' hereplied; 'but wait till you've heard it. Sometimes I think it's someinfernal thing, and the next moment, I'm just as sure that someone'splaying a trick on me.'
"'Why?' I asked. 'What is to be gained?'
"'You mean,' he said, 'that people usually have some good reason forplaying tricks as elaborate as this. Well, I'll tell you. There's a ladyin this province, by the name of Miss Donnehue, who's going to be mywife, this day two months. She's more beautiful than they make them, andso far as I can see, I've just stuck my head into an Irish hornet's nest.There's about a score of hot young Irishmen been courting her these twoyears gone, and now that I'm come along and cut them out, they feel rawagainst me. Do you begin to understand the possibilities?'
"'Yes,' I said. 'Perhaps I do in a vague sort of way; but I don't see howall this affects the room?'
"'Like this,' he said. 'When I'd fixed it up with Miss Donnehue, I lookedout for a place, and bought this little house shanty. Afterward, I toldher--one evening during dinner, that I'd decided to tie up here. And thenshe asked me whether I wasn't afraid of the whistling room. I told her itmust have been thrown in gratis, as I'd heard nothing about it. Therewere some of her men friends present, and I saw a smile go 'round. Ifound out, after a bit of questioning, that several people have boughtthis place during the last twenty-odd years. And it was always on themarket again, after a trial.
"'Well, the chaps started to bait me a bit, and offered to take betsafter dinner that I'd not stay six months in the place. I looked once ortwice to Miss Donnehue, so as to be sure I was "getting the note" of thetalkee-talkee; but I could see that she didn't take it as a joke, at all.Partly, I think, because there was a bit of a sneer in the way the menwere tackling me, and partly because she really believes there issomething in this yarn of the Whistling Room.
"'However, after dinner, I did what I could to even things up with theothers. I nailed all their bets, and screwed them down hard and safe. Iguess some of them are going to be hard hit, unless I lose; which I don'tmean to. Well, there you have practically the whole yarn.'
"'Not quite,' I told him. 'All that I know, is that you have bought acastle with a room in it that is in some way "queer," and that you'vebeen doing some betting. Also, I know that your servants have gotfrightened and run away. Tell me something about the whistling?'
"'Oh, that!' said Tassoc; 'that started the second night we were in. I'dhad a good look 'round the room, in the daytime, as you can understand;for the talk up at Arlestrae--Miss Donnehue's place--had made me wonder abit. But it seems just as usual as some of the other rooms in the oldwing, only perhaps a bit more lonesome. But that may be only because ofthe talk about it, you know.
"'The whistling started about ten o'clock, on the second night, as Isaid. Tom and I were in the library, when we heard an awfully queerwhistling, coming along the East Corridor--The room is in the EastWing, you know.
"'That's that blessed ghost!' I said to Tom, and we collared the lampsoff the table, and went up to have a look. I tell you, even as we dugalong the corridor, it took me a bit in the throat, it was so beastlyqueer. It was a sort of tune, in a way; but more as if a devil or somerotten thing were laughing at you, and going to get 'round at your back.That's how it makes you feel.
"'When we got to the door, we didn't wait; but rushed it open; andthen I tell you the sound of the thing fairly hit me in the face. Tomsaid he got it the same way--sort of felt stunned and bewildered. Welooked all 'round, and soon got so nervous, we just cleared out, and Ilocked the door.
"'We came down here, and had a stiff peg each. Then we got fit again, andbegan to think we'd been nicely had. So we took sticks, and went out intothe grounds, thinking after all it must be some of these confoundedIrishmen working the ghost-trick on us. But there was not a leg stirring.
"'We went back into the house, and walked over it, and then paid anothervisit to the room. But we simply couldn't stand it. We fairly ran out,and locked the door again. I don't know how to put it into words; but Ihad a feeling of being up against something that was rottenly dangerous.You know! We've carried our guns ever since.
"'Of course, we had a real turn out of the room next day, and the wholehouse place; and we even hunted 'round the grounds; but there was nothingqueer. And now I don't know what to think; except that the sensible partof me tells me that it's some plan of these Wild Irishmen to try to takea rise out of me.'
"'Done anything since?' I asked him.
"'Yes,' he said--'watched outside of the door of the room at nights, andchased 'round the grounds, and sounded the walls and floor of the room.We've done everything we could think of; and it's beginning to get on ournerves; so we sent for you.'
"By this, we had finished eating. As we rose from the table, Tassocsuddenly called out:--'Ssh! Hark!'
"We were instantly silent, listening. Then I heard it, an extraordinaryhooning whistle, monstrous and inhuman, coming from far away throughcorridors to my right.
"'By G--d!' said Tassoc; 'and it's scarcely dark yet! Collar thosecandles, both of you, and come along.'
"In a few moments, we were all out of the door and racing up the stairs.Tassoc turned into a long corridor, and we followed, shielding ourcandles as we ran. The sound seemed to fill all the passage as we drewnear, until I had the feeling that the whole air throbbed under the powerof some wanton Immense Force--a sense of an actual taint, as you mightsay, of monstrosity all about us.
"Tassoc unlocked the door; then, giving it a push with his foot, jumpedback, and drew his revolver. As the door flew open, the sound beat out atus, with an effect impossible to explain to one who has not heardit--with a certain, horrible personal note in it; as if in there in thedarkness you could picture the room rocking and creaking in a mad, vileglee to its own f
ilthy piping and whistling and hooning. To stand thereand listen, was to be stunned by Realization. It was as if someone showedyou the mouth of a vast pit suddenly, and said:--That's Hell. And youknew that they had spoken the truth. Do you get it, even a little bit?
"I stepped back a pace into the room, and held the candle over my head,and looked quickly 'round. Tassoc and his brother joined me, and the mancame up at the back, and we all held our candles high. I was deafenedwith the shrill, piping hoon of the whistling; and then, clear in myear, something seemed to be saying to me:--'Get out of here--quick!Quick! Quick!'
"As you chaps know, I never neglect that sort of thing. Sometimes it maybe nothing but nerves; but as you will remember, it was just such awarning that saved me in the 'Grey Dog' Case, and in the 'Yellow Finger'Experiments; as well as other times. Well, I turned sharp 'round to theothers: 'Out!' I said. 'For God's sake, _out_ quick.' And in an instant Ihad them into the passage.
"There came an extraordinary yelling scream into the hideous whistling,and then, like a clap of thunder, an utter silence. I slammed the door,and locked it. Then, taking the key, I looked 'round at the others. Theywere pretty white, and I imagine I must have looked that way too. Andthere we stood a moment, silent.
"'Come down out of this, and have some whisky,' said Tassoc, at last, ina voice he tried to make ordinary; and he led the way. I was the backman, and I know we all kept looking over our shoulders. When we gotdownstairs, Tassoc passed the bottle 'round. He took a drink, himself,and slapped his glass down on to the table. Then sat down with a thud.
"'That's a lovely thing to have in the house with you, isn't it!' hesaid. And directly afterward:--'What on earth made you hustle us all outlike that, Carnacki?'
"'Something seemed to be telling me to get out, quick,' I said. 'Sounds abit silly, superstitious, I know; but when you are meddling with thissort of thing, you've got to take notice of queer fancies, and risk beinglaughed at.'
"I told him then about the 'Grey Dog' business, and he nodded a lot tothat. 'Of course,' I said, 'this may be nothing more than those would-berivals of yours playing some funny game; but, personally, though I'mgoing to keep an open mind, I feel that there is something beastly anddangerous about this thing.'
"We talked for a while longer, and then Tassoc suggested billiards, whichwe played in a pretty half-hearted fashion, and all the time cocking anear to the door, as you might say, for sounds; but none came, and later,after coffee, he suggested early bed, and a thorough overhaul of the roomon the morrow.
"My bedroom was in the newer part of the castle, and the door opened intothe picture gallery. At the East end of the gallery was the entrance tothe corridor of the East Wing; this was shut off from the gallery by twoold and heavy oak doors, which looked rather odd and quaint beside themore modern doors of the various rooms.
"When I reached my room, I did not go to bed; but began to unpack myinstrument trunk, of which I had retained the key. I intended to take oneor two preliminary steps at once, in my investigation of theextraordinary whistling.
"Presently, when the castle had settled into quietness, I slipped out ofmy room, and across to the entrance of the great corridor. I opened oneof the low, squat doors, and threw the beam of my pocket searchlightdown the passage. It was empty, and I went through the doorway, andpushed-to the oak behind me. Then along the great passageway, throwing mylight before and behind, and keeping my revolver handy.
"I had hung a 'protection belt' of garlic 'round my neck, and the smellof it seemed to fill the corridor and give me assurance; for, as you allknow, it is a wonderful 'protection' against the more usual Aeiirii formsof semi-materialization, by which I supposed the whistling might beproduced; though, at that period of my investigation, I was quiteprepared to find it due to some perfectly natural cause; for it isastonishing the enormous number of cases that prove to have nothingabnormal in them.
"In addition to wearing the necklet, I had plugged my ears loosely withgarlic, and as I did not intend to stay more than a few minutes in theroom, I hoped to be safe.
"When I reached the door, and put my hand into my pocket for the key, Ihad a sudden feeling of sickening funk. But I was not going to back out,if I could help it. I unlocked the door and turned the handle. Then Igave the door a sharp push with my foot, as Tassoc had done, and drew myrevolver, though I did not expect to have any use for it, really.
"I shone the searchlight all 'round the room, and then stepped inside,with a disgustingly horrible feeling of walking slap into a waitingDanger. I stood a few seconds, waiting, and nothing happened, and theempty room showed bare from corner to corner. And then, you know, Irealized that the room was full of an abominable silence; can youunderstand that? A sort of purposeful silence, just as sickening as anyof the filthy noises the Things have power to make. Do you remember whatI told you about that 'Silent Garden' business? Well, this room had justthat same _malevolent_ silence--the beastly quietness of a thing that islooking at you and not seeable itself, and thinks that it has got you.Oh, I recognized it instantly, and I whipped the top off my lantern, soas to have light over the _whole_ room.
"Then I set-to, working like fury, and keeping my glance all about me. Isealed the two windows with lengths of human hair, right across, andsealed them at every frame. As I worked, a queer, scarcely perceptibletenseness stole into the air of the place, and the silence seemed, if youcan understand me, to grow more solid. I knew then that I had no businessthere without 'full protection'; for I was practically certain that thiswas no mere Aeiirii development; but one of the worst forms, as theSaiitii; like that 'Grunting Man' case--you know.
"I finished the window, and hurried over to the great fireplace. This isa huge affair, and has a queer gallows-iron, I think they are called,projecting from the back of the arch. I sealed the opening with sevenhuman hairs--the seventh crossing the six others.
"Then, just as I was making an end, a low, mocking whistle grew in theroom. A cold, nervous pricking went up my spine, and 'round my foreheadfrom the back. The hideous sound filled all the room with anextraordinary, grotesque parody of human whistling, too gigantic to behuman--as if something gargantuan and monstrous made the sounds softly.As I stood there a last moment, pressing down the final seal, I had nodoubt but that I had come across one of those rare and horrible cases ofthe _Inanimate_ reproducing the functions of the _Animate_, I made agrab for my lamp, and went quickly to the door, looking over myshoulder, and listening for the thing that I expected. It came, just asI got my hand upon the handle--a squeal of incredible, malevolent anger,piercing through the low hooning of the whistling. I dashed out,slamming the door and locking it. I leant a little against the oppositewall of the corridor, feeling rather funny; for it had been a narrowsqueak.... 'Theyr be noe sayfetie to be gained bye gayrds of holienesswhen the monyster hath pow'r to speak throe woode and stoene.' So runsthe passage in the Sigsand MS., and I proved it in that 'Nodding Door'business. There is no protection against this particular form ofmonster, except, possibly, for a fractional period of time; for it canreproduce itself in, or take to its purpose, the very protectivematerial which you may use, and has the power to '_forme_ wythine thepentycle'; though not immediately. There is, of course, the possibilityof the Unknown Last Line of the Saaamaaa Ritual being uttered; but it istoo uncertain to count upon, and the danger is too hideous; and eventhen it has no power to protect for more than 'maybee fyve beats of theharte,' as the Sigsand has it.
"Inside of the room, there was now a constant, meditative, hooningwhistling; but presently this ceased, and the silence seemed worse; forthere is such a sense of hidden mischief in a silence.
"After a little, I sealed the door with crossed hairs, and then clearedoff down the great passage, and so to bed.
"For a long time I lay awake; but managed eventually to get some sleep.Yet, about two o'clock I was waked by the hooning whistling of the roomcoming to me, even through the closed doors. The sound was tremendous,and seemed to beat through the whole house with a presiding sense o
fterror. As if (I remember thinking) some monstrous giant had been holdingmad carnival with itself at the end of that great passage.
"I got up and sat on the edge of the bed, wondering whether to go alongand have a look at the seal; and suddenly there came a thump on my door,and Tassoc walked in, with his dressing gown over his pajamas.
"'I thought it would have waked you, so I came along to have a talk,' hesaid. '_I_ can't sleep. Beautiful! Isn't it!'
"'Extraordinary!' I said, and tossed him my case.
"He lit a cigarette, and we sat and talked for about an hour; and all thetime that noise went on, down at the end of the big corridor.
"Suddenly, Tassoc stood up:--
"'Let's take our guns, and go and examine the brute,' he said, and turnedtoward the door.
"'No!' I said. 'By Jove--_no!_ I can't say anything definite, yet; but Ibelieve that room is about as dangerous as it well can be.'
"'Haunted--_really_ haunted?' he asked, keenly and without any of hisfrequent banter.
"I told him, of course, that I could not say a definite _yes_ or _no_ tosuch a question; but that I hoped to be able to make a statement, soon.Then I gave him a little lecture on the False Re-Materialization of theAnimate-Force through the Inanimate-Inert. He began then to see theparticular way in the room might be dangerous, if it were really thesubject of a manifestation.
"About an hour later, the whistling ceased quite suddenly, and Tassocwent off again to bed. I went back to mine, also, and eventually gotanother spell of sleep.
"In the morning, I went along to the room. I found the seals on the doorintact. Then I went in. The window seals and the hair were all right; butthe seventh hair across the great fireplace was broken. This set methinking. I knew that it might, very possibly, have snapped, through myhaving tensioned it too highly; but then, again, it might have beenbroken by something else. Yet, it was scarcely possible that a man, forinstance, could have passed between the six unbroken hairs; for no onewould ever have noticed them, entering the room that way, you see; butjust walked through them, ignorant of their very existence.
"I removed the other hairs, and the seals. Then I looked up the chimney.It went up straight, and I could see blue sky at the top. It was a big,open flue, and free from any suggestion of hiding places, or corners.Yet, of course, I did not trust to any such casual examination, and afterbreakfast, I put on my overalls, and climbed to the very top, soundingall the way; but I found nothing.
"Then I came down, and went over the whole of the room--floor, ceiling,and walls, mapping them out in six-inch squares, and sounding with bothhammer and probe. But there was nothing abnormal.
"Afterward, I made a three-weeks search of the whole castle, in the samethorough way; but found nothing. I went even further, then; for at night,when the whistling commenced, I made a microphone test. You see, if thewhistling were mechanically produced, this test would have made evidentto me the working of the machinery, if there were any such concealedwithin the walls. It certainly was an up-to-date method of examination,as you must allow.
"Of course, I did not think that any of Tassoc's rivals had fixed up anymechanical contrivance; but I thought it just possible that there hadbeen some such thing for producing the whistling, made away back in theyears, perhaps with the intention of giving the room a reputation thatwould ensure its being free of inquisitive folk. You see what I mean?Well, of course, it was just possible, if this were the case, thatsomeone knew the secret of the machinery, and was utilizing the knowledgeto play this devil of a prank on Tassoc. The microphone test of the wallswould certainly have made this known to me, as I have said; but there wasnothing of the sort in the castle; so that I had practically no doubt atall now, but that it was a genuine case of what is popularly termed'haunting.'
"All this time, every night, and sometimes most of each night, thehooning whistling of the Room was intolerable. It was as if anintelligence there knew that steps were being taken against it, and pipedand hooned in a sort of mad, mocking contempt. I tell you, it was asextraordinary as it was horrible. Time after time, I wentalong--tiptoeing noiselessly on stockinged feet--to the sealed door (forI always kept the Room sealed). I went at all hours of the night, andoften the whistling, inside, would seem to change to a brutally malignantnote, as though the half-animate monster saw me plainly through the shutdoor. And all the time the shrieking, hooning whistling would fill thewhole corridor, so that I used to feel a precious lonely chap, messingabout there with one of Hell's mysteries.
"And every morning, I would enter the room, and examine the differenthairs and seals. You see, after the first week, I had stretched parallelhairs all along the walls of the room, and along the ceiling; but overthe floor, which was of polished stone, I had set out little, colorlesswafers, tacky-side uppermost. Each wafer was numbered, and they werearranged after a definite plan, so that I should be able to trace theexact movements of any living thing that went across the floor.
"You will see that no material being or creature could possibly haveentered that room, without leaving many signs to tell me about it. Butnothing was ever disturbed, and I began to think that I should have torisk an attempt to stay the night in the room, in the Electric Pentacle.Yet, mind you, I knew that it would be a crazy thing to do; but I wasgetting stumped, and ready to do anything.
"Once, about midnight, I did break the seal on the door, and have a quicklook in; but, I tell you, the whole Room gave one mad yell, and seemed tocome toward me in a great belly of shadows, as if the walls had belliedin toward me. Of course, that must have been fancy. Anyway, the yell wassufficient, and I slammed the door, and locked it, feeling a bit weakdown my spine. You know the feeling.
"And then, when I had got to that state of readiness for anything, I madesomething of a discovery. It was about one in the morning, and I waswalking slowly 'round the castle, keeping in the soft grass. I had comeunder the shadow of the East Front, and far above me, I could hear thevile, hooning whistle of the Room, up in the darkness of the unlit wing.Then, suddenly, a little in front of me, I heard a man's voice, speakinglow, but evidently in glee:--
"'By George! You Chaps; but I wouldn't care to bring a wife home inthat!' it said, in the tone of the cultured Irish.
"Someone started to reply; but there came a sharp exclamation, and then arush, and I heard footsteps running in all directions. Evidently, the menhad spotted me.
"For a few seconds, I stood there, feeling an awful ass. After all,_they_ were at the bottom of the haunting! Do you see what a big fool itmade me seem? I had no doubt but that they were some of Tassoc's rivals;and here I had been feeling in every bone that I had hit a real, bad,genuine Case! And then, you know, there came the memory of hundreds ofdetails, that made me just as much in doubt again. Anyway, whether it wasnatural, or ab-natural, there was a great deal yet to be cleared up.
"I told Tassoc, next morning, what I had discovered, and through thewhole of every night, for five nights, we kept a close watch 'round theEast Wing; but there was never a sign of anyone prowling about; and allthe time, almost from evening to dawn, that grotesque whistling wouldhoon incredibly, far above us in the darkness.
"On the morning after the fifth night, I received a wire from here,which brought me home by the next boat. I explained to Tassoc that I wassimply bound to come away for a few days; but told him to keep up thewatch 'round the castle. One thing I was very careful to do, and thatwas to make him absolutely promise never to go into the Room, betweensunset and sunrise. I made it clear to him that we knew nothing definiteyet, one way or the other; and if the room were what I had first thoughtit to be, it might be a lot better for him to die first, than enter itafter dark.
"When I got here, and had finished my business, I thought you chaps wouldbe interested; and also I wanted to get it all spread out clear in mymind; so I rung you up. I am going over again to-morrow, and when I getback, I ought to have something pretty extraordinary to tell you. By theway, there is a curious thing I forgot to tell you. I tried to get aphonographi
c record of the whistling; but it simply produced noimpression on the wax at all. That is one of the things that has made mefeel queer, I can tell you. Another extraordinary thing is that themicrophone will not magnify the sound--will not even transmit it; seemsto take no account of it, and acts as if it were nonexistent. I amabsolutely and utterly stumped, up to the present. I am a wee bit curiousto see whether any of your dear clever heads can make daylight of it. _I_cannot--not yet."
He rose to his feet.
"Good night, all," he said, and began to usher us out abruptly, butwithout offence, into the night.
A fortnight later, he dropped each of us a card, and you can imagine thatI was not late this time. When we arrived, Carnacki took us straight intodinner, and when we had finished, and all made ourselves comfortable, hebegan again, where he had left off:--
"Now just listen quietly; for I have got something pretty queer to tellyou. I got back late at night, and I had to walk up to the castle, as Ihad not warned them that I was coming. It was bright moonlight; so thatthe walk was rather a pleasure, than otherwise. When I got there, thewhole place was in darkness, and I thought I would take a walk 'roundoutside, to see whether Tassoc or his brother was keeping watch. But Icould not find them anywhere, and concluded that they had got tired ofit, and gone off to bed.
"As I returned across the front of the East Wing, I caught the hooningwhistling of the Room, coming down strangely through the stillness of thenight. It had a queer note in it, I remember--low and constant, queerlymeditative. I looked up at the window, bright in the moonlight, and got asudden thought to bring a ladder from the stable yard, and try to get alook into the Room, through the window.
"With this notion, I hunted 'round at the back of the castle, among thestraggle of offices, and presently found a long, fairly light ladder;though it was heavy enough for one, goodness knows! And I thought atfirst that I should never get it reared. I managed at last, and let theends rest very quietly against the wall, a little below the sill of thelarger window. Then, going silently, I went up the ladder. Presently, Ihad my face above the sill and was looking in alone with the moonlight.
"Of course, the queer whistling sounded louder up there; but it stillconveyed that peculiar sense of something whistling quietly toitself--can you understand? Though, for all the meditative lowness of thenote, the horrible, gargantuan quality was distinct--a mighty parody ofthe human, as if I stood there and listened to the whistling from thelips of a monster with a man's soul.
"And then, you know, I saw something. The floor in the middle of thehuge, empty room, was puckered upward in the center into a strangesoft-looking mound, parted at the top into an ever changing hole, thatpulsated to that great, gentle hooning. At times, as I watched, I saw theheaving of the indented mound, gap across with a queer, inward suction,as with the drawing of an enormous breath; then the thing would dilateand pout once more to the incredible melody. And suddenly, as I stared,dumb, it came to me that the thing was living. I was looking at twoenormous, blackened lips, blistered and brutal, there in the palemoonlight....
"Abruptly, they bulged out to a vast, pouting mound of force and sound,stiffened and swollen, and hugely massive and clean-cut in themoon-beams. And a great sweat lay heavy on the vast upper-lip. In thesame moment of time, the whistling had burst into a mad screaming note,that seemed to stun me, even where I stood, outside of the window. Andthen, the following moment, I was staring blankly at the solid,undisturbed floor of the room--smooth, polished stone flooring, from wallto wall; and there was an absolute silence.
"You can picture me staring into the quiet Room, and knowing what I knew.I felt like a sick, frightened kid, and wanted to slide _quietly_ downthe ladder, and run away. But in that very instant, I heard Tassoc'svoice calling to me from within the Room, for help, _help_. My God! but Igot such an awful dazed feeling; and I had a vague, bewildered notionthat, after all, it was the Irishmen who had got him in there, and weretaking it out of him. And then the call came again, and I burst thewindow, and jumped in to help him. I had a confused idea that the callhad come from within the shadow of the great fireplace, and I racedacross to it; but there was no one there.
"'Tassoc!' I shouted, and my voice went empty-sounding 'round the greatapartment; and then, in a flash, _I knew that Tassoc had never called_. Iwhirled 'round, sick with fear, toward the window, and as I did so, afrightful, exultant whistling scream burst through the Room. On my left,the end wall had bellied-in toward me, in a pair of gargantuan lips,black and utterly monstrous, to within a yard of my face. I fumbled for amad instant at my revolver; not for _it_, but myself; for the danger wasa thousand times worse than death. And then, suddenly, the Unknown LastLine of the Saaamaaa Ritual was whispered quite audibly in the room.Instantly, the thing happened that I have known once before. There came asense as of dust falling continually and monotonously, and I knew that mylife hung uncertain and suspended for a flash, in a brief, reelingvertigo of unseeable things. Then _that_ ended, and I knew that I mightlive. My soul and body blended again, and life and power came to me. Idashed furiously at the window, and hurled myself out head-foremost; forI can tell you that I had stopped being afraid of death. I crashed downon to the ladder, and slithered, grabbing and grabbing; and so came someway or other alive to the bottom. And there I sat in the soft, wet grass,with the moonlight all about me; and far above, through the broken windowof the Room, there was a low whistling.
"That is the chief of it. I was not hurt, and I went 'round to the front,and knocked Tassoc up. When they let me in, we had a long yarn, over somegood whisky--for I was shaken to pieces--and I explained things as muchas I could, I told Tassoc that the room would have to come down, andevery fragment of it burned in a blast-furnace, erected within apentacle. He nodded. There was nothing to say. Then I went to bed.
"We turned a small army on to the work, and within ten days, that lovelything had gone up in smoke, and what was left was calcined, and clean.
"It was when the workmen were stripping the paneling, that I got hold ofa sound notion of the beginnings of that beastly development. Over thegreat fireplace, after the great oak panels had been torn down, I foundthat there was let into the masonry a scrollwork of stone, with on it anold inscription, in ancient Celtic, that here in this room was burnedDian Tiansay, Jester of King Alzof, who made the Song of Foolishness uponKing Ernore of the Seventh Castle.
"When I got the translation clear, I gave it to Tassoc. He wastremendously excited; for he knew the old tale, and took me down to thelibrary to look at an old parchment that gave the story in detail.Afterward, I found that the incident was well-known about thecountryside; but always regarded more as a legend than as history. And noone seemed ever to have dreamt that the old East Wing of Iastrae Castlewas the remains of the ancient Seventh Castle.
"From the old parchment, I gathered that there had been a pretty dirtyjob done, away back in the years. It seems that King Alzof and KingErnore had been enemies by birthright, as you might say truly; but thatnothing more than a little raiding had occurred on either side for years,until Dian Tiansay made the Song of Foolishness upon King Ernore, andsang it before King Alzof; and so greatly was it appreciated that KingAlzof gave the jester one of his ladies, to wife.
"Presently, all the people of the land had come to know the song, and soit came at last to King Ernore, who was so angered that he made war uponhis old enemy, and took and burned him and his castle; but Dian Tiansay,the jester, he brought with him to his own place, and having torn histongue out because of the song which he had made and sung, he imprisonedhim in the Room in the East Wing (which was evidently used for unpleasantpurposes), and the jester's wife, he kept for himself, having a fancy forher prettiness.
"But one night, Dian Tiansay's wife was not to be found, and in themorning they discovered her lying dead in her husband's arms, and hesitting, whistling the Song of Foolishness, for he had no longer thepower to sing it.
"Then they roasted Dian Tiansay, in the great fireplace--probably fromthat selfsa
me 'galley-iron' which I have already mentioned. And until hedied, Dian Tiansay ceased not to whistle the Song of Foolishness, whichhe could no longer sing. But afterward, 'in that room' there was oftenheard at night the sound of something whistling; and there 'grew a powerin that room,' so that none dared to sleep in it. And presently, it wouldseem, the King went to another castle; for the whistling troubled him.
"There you have it all. Of course, that is only a rough rendering of thetranslation of the parchment. But it sounds extraordinarily quaint. Don'tyou think so?"
"Yes," I said, answering for the lot. "But how did the thing grow to sucha tremendous manifestation?"
"One of those cases of continuity of thought producing a positive actionupon the immediate surrounding material," replied Carnacki. "Thedevelopment must have been going forward through centuries, to haveproduced such a monstrosity. It was a true instance of Saiitiimanifestation, which I can best explain by likening it to a livingspiritual fungus, which involves the very structure of the aether-fiberitself, and, of course, in so doing, acquires an essential control overthe 'material substance' involved in it. It is impossible to make itplainer in a few words."
"What broke the seventh hair?" asked Taylor.
But Carnacki did not know. He thought it was probably nothing but beingtoo severely tensioned. He also explained that they found out that themen who had run away, had not been up to mischief; but had come oversecretly, merely to hear the whistling, which, indeed, had suddenlybecome the talk of the whole countryside.
"One other thing," said Arkright, "have you any idea what governs theuse of the Unknown Last Line of the Saaamaaa Ritual? I know, of course,that it was used by the Ab-human Priests in the Incantation of Raaaee;but what used it on your behalf, and what made it?"
"You had better read Harzan's Monograph, and my Addenda to it, on Astraland Astral Co-ordination and Interference," said Carnacki. "It is anextraordinary subject, and I can only say here that the human vibrationmay not be insulated from the astral (as is always believed to be thecase, in interferences by the Ab-human), without immediate action beingtaken by those Forces which govern the spinning of the outer circle. Inother words, it is being proved, time after time, that there is someinscrutable Protective Force constantly intervening between the humansoul (not the body, mind you,) and the Outer Monstrosities. Am I clear?"
"Yes, I think so," I replied. "And you believe that the Room had becomethe material expression of the ancient Jester--that his soul, rotten withhatred, had bred into a monster--eh?" I asked.
"Yes," said Carnacki, nodding, "I think you've put my thought ratherneatly. It is a queer coincidence that Miss Donnehue is supposed to bedescended (so I have heard since) from the same King Ernore. It makes onethink some curious thoughts, doesn't it? The marriage coming on, and theRoom waking to fresh life. If she had gone into that room, ever ... eh?_It_ had waited a long time. Sins of the fathers. Yes, I've thought ofthat. They're to be married next week, and I am to be best man, which isa thing I hate. And he won his bets, rather! Just think, _if_ ever shehad gone into that room. Pretty horrible, eh?"
He nodded his head, grimly, and we four nodded back. Then he rose andtook us collectively to the door, and presently thrust us forth infriendly fashion on the Embankment and into the fresh night air.
"Good night," we all called back, and went to our various homes. If shehad, eh? If she had? That is what I kept thinking.
Carnacki, the Ghost Finder Page 3