by Rex Stout
Chapter XVII.
THE EYES IN THE DARK.
The thing was at a considerable distance; we could barely see that itwas there and that it was moving. It was of an immense size; so largethat it appeared as though the very side of the cavern itself had movednoiselessly from its bed in the mountain.
At the same moment I became aware of a penetrating, disagreeable odor,nauseating and horrible. I had risen to my knees and remained so,while Harry and Desiree stood on either side of me.
The thing continued to move toward us, very slowly. There was not asound. The strength of the odor increased until it was almostsuffocating.
Still we did not move. I could not, and Harry and Desiree seemedrooted to the spot with wonder. The thing came closer, and we couldsee the outlines of its huge form looming up indistinctly against theblack background of the cavern.
I saw, or thought I saw, a grotesque and monstrous slimy head stretchedtoward us from about the middle of its bulk.
That doubt became a certainty when suddenly, as though they had beenlit by a fire from within, two luminous, glowing spots appeared aboutthree feet apart. The creature's eyes--if eyes they were--were turnedfull on us, growing more brilliant as the thing came closer. It wasnow less than fifty feet away. The massive form blocked our view ofthe entire cavern.
I pinched my nostrils to exclude the horrible odor which, like thefumes of some deadly poison, choked and smothered me. It came now inpuffs, like a draft of a fetid wind, and I realized that it was thecreature's breath. I could feel it against my body, my neck and face,and knew that if I breathed it full into my lungs I should be overcome.
But still more terrifying were the eyes. There was somethingcompelling, supernaturally compelling, about their steadfast andbrilliant gaze. A mysterious power seemed to emanate from them; apower that hypnotized the mind and deadened the senses. I closed myeyes to avoid it, but was unable to keep them closed. They openeddespite my extreme effort, and again I met that gaze of fire.
There was a movement at my side. I turned and saw that it came fromDesiree. Her hands were raised to her face; she was holding thembefore her as though in a futile attempt to cover her eyes.
The thing came closer and closer; it was but a few feet away, and stillwe did not move, as though rooted to the spot by some power beyond ourcontrol.
Suddenly there came a cry from Desiree's lips--a scream of terror andwild fear. Her entire form trembled violently.
She extended her arms toward the thing, now almost upon us, and took astep forward. Her feet dragged unwilling along the ground, as thoughshe were being drawn forward by some irresistible force.
I tried to put out my hand to pull her back, but was absolutely unableto move. Harry stood like a man of rock, immovable.
She took another step forward, with arms outstretched in front of her.A low moan of terror and piteous appeal came from between her slightlyparted lips.
Suddenly the eyes disappeared. The huge form ceased to advance andstood perfectly still. Then it began to recede, so slowly that I wasbarely conscious of the movement.
I was gasping and choking for air; my chest seemed swelling with thepoisonous breath. Still slowly the thing receded into the dimness ofthe cavern; the eyes were no longer to be seen--merely the huge,formless bulk. Desiree had stopped short with one foot advanced, asthough hesitating and struggling with the desire to go forward.
The thing now could barely be seen at a distance; it would have beenimpossible if we had not known it was there. Finally it disappeared,melting away into the semi-darkness; no slightest movement wasdiscernible. I breathed more freely and stepped forward.
As I did so Desiree threw her hands gropingly above her head and fellfainting to the ground.
Harry sprang forward in time to keep her head from striking on the rockand knelt with his arms round her shoulders. We had nothing, not evenwater, with which to revive her; he called her name aloud appealingly.Soon her eyes opened; she raised her hand and passed it across her browwonderingly.
"God help me!" she murmured in a low voice, eloquent of distress andpain.
Then she pushed Harry aside and rose slowly to her feet, refusing hisassistance.
"In the name of Heaven, what is it?" Harry demanded, turning to me.
"We have found the devil at last," I answered, with an attempt tolaugh, which sounded hollow in my own ears.
Desiree could tell us nothing, except that she had felt herself drawnforward by some strange power that had seemed to come from the baneful,glittering eyes. She was bewildered and stunned and unable to talkcoherently. We assisted her to the wall, and she sat there with herback propped against it, breathing heavily from the exhaustion ofterror.
"We must find water," I said, and Harry nodded, hesitating.
I understood him. Danger could not have stayed him nor fear, but thehorror of the thing which roamed about the cavern, dark as darknessitself and possessed of some strange power that could not be withstood,was enough to make him pause. For myself it was impossible; I wasbarely able to stand. So Harry went off alone in search of water and Istayed with Desiree.
It was perhaps half an hour before he returned, and we were shaken withfear for him long before he appeared. When he did so it was with awhite face and trembling limbs, in spite of his evident effort atsteadiness.
"There is water over there," said he, pointing across the cavern. "Astream runs across the corner and disappears beneath the wall. Thereis nothing to carry it in. You must come with me."
"What has happened?" I asked, for even his voice was unsteady.
"I saw it," he replied simply, but expressing enough in those threewords to cause a shudder to run through me.
Then, speaking in a low tone that Desiree might not hear, he told methat the thing had confronted him suddenly as he was following theopposite wall, and that he, too, had been drawn forward, as it were, bya spell impossible to shake off. He had tried to cry aloud, but hadbeen unable to utter a sound. And suddenly, as before, the eyes haddisappeared, leaving him barely able to stand.
"No wonder the Incas wouldn't follow us in here," he finished. "Wemust get out of this. I'm not a coward, but I wouldn't go through thatagain for my life."
"You take Desiree," said I. "I want that water."
He led us around the wall several hundred feet. The ground was leveland clear of obstruction; but we went slowly, for I could scarcelymove. Harry kept his eyes strained intently on all sides; hisexperience had left him more profoundly impressed even than he had beenwilling to admit to me.
Soon we heard the low music of running water, and a minute later wereached the stream Harry had found.
The fact that there was something to be done seemed to infuse a newspirit into Desiree, and soon her deft fingers were bathing my woundsand bandaging them as well as her poor material would allow.
The cold water took the heat from my pumping veins and left me almostcomfortable. Harry had come off much easier than I, since I had sooften sent him ahead with Desiree, and myself brought up the rear andwithstood the brunt of the attack.
As Harry had said, the stream cut across a corner of the cavern,disappearing beneath the opposite wall, forming a triangle bound by twosides of the cavern and the stream itself. I saw plainly that it wouldbe impossible for me to move any distance for at least a few days, andthat triangle appeared to offer the safest and most comfortable retreat.
I spoke to Harry, and he waded across the stream to try its depth.From the other side he called that the water was at no point more thanwaist-high, and Desiree and I started to cross; but about the middle Ifelt the current about to sweep me off my feet. Harry waded in andhelped me ashore.
On that hard rock we lay for many weary hours. We had no food; but forthat I would soon have been myself again, for, though my wounds werenumerous, they were little more than scratches, with the exception ofthe gash on my shoulder. Weakened as I was by loss of blood, andlacking nourishment, I improved bu
t slowly, and only the cold waterkept the fever from me.
Twice Harry went out in search of food and of an exit from the cavern.The first time he was away for several hours, and returned exhaustedand empty-handed and without having found any exit other than the oneby which we had entered.
He had ventured through that far enough to see a group of Incas onwatch at the other end. They had seen him and sprung after him, but hehad returned without injury, and at the entrance into the cavern wherewe lay they had halted abruptly.
The second time he was gone out more than half an hour, and the instantI saw his face when he returned I knew what had happened.
But I was not in the best of humor; his terror appeared to me to beridiculously childish, and I said so in no uncertain terms.
But he was too profoundly agitated to show any anger.
"You don't know, you don't know," was all he said in answer to me; thenhe added; "I can't stand this any longer. I tell you we've got to getout of here. You don't know how awful--"
"Yes," said Desiree, looking at me.
"But I can scarcely walk," I objected.
"True," said Harry. "I know. But we can help you. There must beanother exit, and we'll start now."
"Very well," I said quite calmly; and I picked up one of the spearswhich we had carried with us, and, rising to my knees, placed the buttof the shaft against the wall near which I lay.
But Harry saw my purpose, and was too quick for me. He sprang acrossand snatched the spear from my hand and threw it on the ground a dozenfeet away.
"Are you crazy?" he shouted angrily.
"No," I answered; "but I am little better, and I doubt if I shall be.Come--why not? I hinder you and become bored with myself."
"You blame me," he said bitterly; "but I tell you you don't know. Verywell--we stay. You must give me your promise not to act the fool."
"In any event, you must go soon," I answered, "or starve to death.Perhaps in another twenty-four hours I shall be stronger. Come,Desiree; will that satisfy you?"
She did not answer; her back was turned to us as she stood gazingacross the stream into the depths of the cavern. There was a curioustenseness in her attitude that made me follow her gaze, and what I sawleft me with no wonder at it--a huge, black, indistinct form that movedslowly toward us through the darkness.
Harry caught sight of it at the same moment as myself, and on theinstant he turned about, covering his face with his hands, and calledto Desiree and me to do likewise.
Desiree obeyed; I had risen to my knees and remained so, gazingstraight ahead, ready for a combat if it were not a physical one. Iwill not say that a certain feeling of dread did not rise in my heart,but I intended to show Desiree and Harry the childishness of theirterror.
Nothing could be seen but the uncertain outline of the immense bulk;but the same penetrating, sickening odor that had before all butsuffocated me came faintly across the surface of the stream, growingstronger with each second that passed. Suddenly the eyes appeared--twoglowing orbs of fire that caught my gaze and held it as with a chain.
I did not attempt to avoid it, but returned the gaze with another assteadfast. I was telling myself: "Let us see this trick and play onestronger." My nerves centered throbbingly back of my eyes, and I gavethem the whole force of my will.
The thing came closer and the eyes seemed to burn into my very brain.With a great effort I brought myself back to control, dropping to myhands and knees and gripping the ground for strength.
"This is nothing, this is nothing," I kept saying to myselfaloud--until I realized suddenly that my voice had risen almost to ascream, and I locked my teeth tight on my lip.
I no longer returned the gaze from my own power; it held me of itself.I felt my brain grow curiously numb and every muscle in my bodycontracted with a pain almost unbearable. Still the thing came closerand closer, and it seemed to me, half dazed as I was, that it advancedmuch faster than before.
Then suddenly I felt a sensation of cold and moisture on my arms andlegs and a pressure against my body, and I realized, as in a dream,that I had entered the stream of water!
I was crawling toward the thing on my hands and knees, without havingeven been conscious that I had moved.
That brought despair and a last supreme struggle to resist whatevermysterious power it was that dragged me forward.
Cold beads of sweat rolled from my forehead. Beneath the surface ofthe water my hands gripped the rocks as in a vise. My teeth had sunkdeep into my lower lip and covered my chin with blood, though I did notknow that till afterward.
But I was pulled loose from my hold, and forward. I bent the wholeforce of my will to the effort not to move, but my hand left the rockand crept forward. I was fully conscious of what I was doing. I knewthat if I could once draw my eyes away from that compelling gaze thespell would be broken, but the power to do so was not in me.
The thing had halted on the farther bank of the stream. Still I movedforward. The water now lapped against my chest; soon it was about myshoulders.
I was fully conscious of the fact that in another ten feet the surfacewould close over my head, and that I had not the strength to swim orfight the current; but still I went forward. I tried to cry out, butcould force no sound through my lips.
Then suddenly the eyes began to disappear. But that at least wascomprehensible, for I could distinctly see the black and heavy lidsclosing over them, like the curtain on a stage. They fell slowly.
The eyes became half moons, then narrowed to a thin slit. I rose,panting like a man exhausted with extreme and prolonged physicalexertion.
The eyes were gone.
A mad impulse rushed into my brain to dash forward and touch themonster, to see if that dim, black form were really a thing of fleshand blood or some contrivance of the devil. I smile at that phrase asI write it now in my study, but I did not smile then. I was standingabove my knees in the water, trembling from head to foot, dividedbetween the impulse to go forward and the inclination to flee in terror.
I did neither; I stood still. I could see the thing with a fair amountof distinctness and forced my brain to take the record of my eyes. ButI could make nothing of it.
I guessed at rather than saw a hideous head rolling from side to sideat the end of a long and sinuous neck, and writhing, reptilian coilslashing the rock at the edge of the water, like the tentacles of anoctopus, only many times larger. The body itself was larger than thatof any animal I had ever seen, and blacker even than the darkness.
Suddenly the huge mass began to move slowly backward. The sharpness ofthe odor had ceased with the opening of the eyes, which did notreappear. I could dimly see its huge legs slowly rise and recede andagain meet the ground. Soon the thing was barely discernible.
I took a step forward as though to follow; but the strength of thecurrent warned me of the danger of proceeding farther, and, besides, Ifeared every moment to see the lids again raised from the terribleeyes. The thought attacked my brain with horror, and I turned and fledin a sudden panic to the rear, calling to Harry and Desiree.
They met me at the edge of the stream, and their eyes told me that theyread in my face what had happened, though they had seen nothing.
"You--you saw it--" Harry stammered.
I nodded, scarcely able to speak.
"Then--perhaps now--"
"Yes," I interposed. "Let's get out of here. It's horrible. And yethow can we go? I can hardly stand."
But Harry was now the one who argued for delay, saying that our retreatwas the safest place we could find, and that we should wait at leastuntil I had had time to recover from the strain of the last half-hour.Realizing that in my weakened condition I would be a hindrance to themrather than a help, I consented. Besides, if the thing reappeared Icould avoid it as Harry and Desiree had done.
"What is it?" Harry asked presently.
We were sitting side by side, well up against the wall. It was anabrupt question, with no apparent pertinence, but I
understood.
"Heaven knows!" I answered shortly. I was none too pleased with myself.
"But it must be something. Is it an animal?"
"Do you remember," I asked by way of answer, "a treatise of Aristotleconcerning which we had a discussion one day? Its subject was thehypnotic power possessed by the eyes of certain reptiles. I laughedthe idea to scorn; you maintained that it was possible. Well, I agreewith you; and I'd like to have about a dozen of our modern skepticalscientists in this cave with me for about five minutes."
"But what is it? A reptile!" Harry exclaimed. "The thing is as big asa house!"
"Well, and why not? I should guess that it is about thirty feet inheight and forty or fifty in length. There have been species, nowextinct, several times as large."
"Then you think it is just--just an animal?" put in Desiree.
"What did you think it was?" I nearly smiled. "An infernal machine?"
"I don't know. Only I have never before known what it was to fear."
A discussion which led us nowhere, but at least gave us the sound ofone another's voices.
We passed many hours in that manner. Utterly blank and wearisome, andall but hopeless. I have often wondered at the strange tenacity withwhich we clung to life in conditions that made of it a burden almostinsupportable; and with what chance of relief?
The instinct of self-preservation, it is called by the learned, but itneeds a stronger name. It is more than an instinct. It is the veryessence of life itself.
But soon we were impelled to action by something besides the desire toescape from the cavern: the pangs of hunger. It had been many hourssince we had eaten; I think we had fasted not less than three or fourdays.
Desiree began to complain of a dizziness in her temples, and to weakenwith every hour that passed. My own strength did not increase, and Isaw that it would not unless I could obtain nourishment. Harry did notcomplain, but only because he would not.
"It is useless to wait longer," I declared finally. "I grow weakerinstead of stronger."
We had little enough with which to burden ourselves. There were threespears, two of which Harry had brought, and myself the other. Harryand I wore only our woolen undergarments, so ragged and torn that theywere but sorry covering.
Desiree's single garment, made from some soft hide, was held about herwaist by a girdle of the same material. The upper half of her body wasbare. Her hair hung in a tangled mass over her shoulders and down herback. None of us had any covering for our feet.
We crossed the stream, using the spears as staffs; but instead ofadvancing across the middle of the cavern we turned to the left,hugging the wall. Harry urged us on, saying that he had alreadysearched carefully for an exit on that side, but we went slowly,feeling for a break in the wall. It was absolutely smooth, which ledme to believe that the cavern had at one time been filled with water.
We reached the farther wall and, turning to the right, were about tofollow it.
"This is senseless," said Harry impatiently. "I tell you I haveexamined this side, too; every inch of it."
"And the one ahead of us, at right angles to this?" I asked.
"That too," he answered.
"And the other--the one to the right of the stream?"
"No. I--I didn't go there."
"Why didn't you say so?" I demanded.
"Because I didn't want to," he returned sullenly. "You can go there ifyou care to; I don't. It was from there that--it came."
I did not answer, but pushed forward, not, however, leaving the wall.Perhaps it was cowardly; you are welcome to the word if you care to useit. Myself, I know.
Another half-hour and we reached the end of the lane by which we hadfirst entered the cavern. We stood gazing at it with eyes of desire,but we knew how little chance there was of the thing being unguarded atthe farther end. We knew then, of course, and only too well, why theIncas had not followed us into the cavern.
"Perhaps they are gone," said Harry. "They can't stay there forever.I'm going to find out."
He sprang on the edge of a boulder at the mouth of the passage anddisappeared on the other side. In fifteen minutes he returned, and Isaw by the expression on his face that there was no chance of escape inthat direction.
"They're at the other end," he said gloomily; "a dozen of 'em. Ilooked from behind a rock; they didn't see me. But we could never getthrough."
We turned then, and proceeded to the third wall and followed it. Butwe really had no hope of finding an exit since Harry had said that hehad previously explored it. We were possessed, I know, by the samethought: should we venture to follow the fourth wall? Alone, none ofus would have dared; but the presence of the others lessened the fearof each.
Finally we reached it. The corner was a sharp right angle, and therewere rifts and crevices in the rock.
"This is limestone," I said, "and if we find an exit anywhere it willbe here."
I turned to the right and proceeded slowly along the wall, feeling itssurface with my hand.
We had advanced in this manner several hundred yards when Desireesuddenly sprang forward to my side.
"See!" she cried, pointing ahead with her spear.
I followed the direction with my eye, and saw what appeared to be asharp break in the wall.
It was some fifty feet away. We reached it in another moment, and Ithink none of us would have been able to express the immeasurablerelief we felt when we saw before us a broad and clear passage leadingdirectly away from the cavern. It was very dark, but we entered italmost at a run.
I think we had not known the extent of our fear of that thing in thecavern until we found the means of escape from it.
We had gone about a hundred feet when we came to a turn to the left.Harry stumbled against the corner, and we halted for an instant to waitfor him.
Then we made the turn, side by side--and then we came to a sudden andabrupt stop, and a simultaneous gasp of terror burst from our lips.
Not three feet in front of us, blocking the passage completely, stoodthe thing we thought we had escaped!
The terrible, fiery eyes rolled from side to side as they staredstraight into our own.