The Eerie Adventures of the Lycanthrope Robinson Crusoe

by Peter Clines, Daniel Defoe, H. P. Lovecraft

  These things, and the approach of night, called us off. We had near three leagues to go, and Etienne hastened us down into Languedoc.

  The ground was still covered with snow, tho’ not so deep and dangerous as on the mountains. The ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards, were come down into the forest and plain country to seek for food, and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages. They kill'd a great many sheep and horses, and some people too.

  We had one dangerous place to pass, which Etienne told us, if there were more wolves in the country we should find them there. This was a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and a long narrow defile, or lane, which we were to pass to get through the wood. Then we should come to the village where we were to lodge.

  It was a little after sunset when we came into the plain. We met with nothing in the first wood, except in a little plain within the wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves cross the road, full speed, one after another, as if they had been in chase of some prey. They took no notice of us and were gone out of sight in a few moments. Upon this Etienne bid us keep in a ready posture, for he believed there were more wolves a coming.

  We kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us, but we saw no more wolves till we came through that wood and entered the plain. As soon as we came into the plain, we had occasion enough to look about us. The first object we met with was a dead horse which the wolves had killed, and at least a dozen of them at work. We could not say eating of him, but picking of his bones rather. They had eaten up all the flesh before.

  The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky, which made it worse on our side. The noise increasing, we could perceive it was the howling and yelling of those hellish creatures. On a sudden we observ'd 2 or 3 wolves, one on our left, one behind us, and one in our front, so we seem'd to be surrounded with them. However, as they did not fall upon us, we kept our way forward, as fast as we could make our horses go, which was only a good hard trot. In this manner we came in view of the entrance of a wood at the farther side of the plain.

  On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard the noise of a gun, and looking that way, out rushed a horse with a saddle and a bridle on him, flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeen wolves after him, full speed.

  Here we had a most horrible sight. Riding up to the entrance where the horse came out, we found the carcasses of another horse and of two men, devoured by the ravenous creatures. One of the men was no doubt the same whom we heard fire the gun, for there lay a gun just by him. His head and the upper part of his body were eaten up.

  This fill’d us with horror, and we knew not what course to take. But the creatures resolv’d us soon, for they gathered about us in hopes of prey. I believe there were three hundred of them. It happened very much to our advantage, that at the entrance into the wood, but a little way from it, there lay some large timber-trees, which had been cut down the summer before, and I suppose lay there for carriage. I drew our little company in among those trees, and placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree, I advised them all to alight, and keeping that tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in a triangle, or three fronts, enclosing our horses in the centre. We did so, and it was well we did, for never was a more furious charge than the creatures made upon us in this place. They came on with a growling kind of noise, and mounted the piece of timber, which, as I said, was our breastwork, as if they were only rushing upon their prey.

  O, what a savage battle it was. My man Friday had his great wooden sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, and lay about him as a farmer does swing his scythe, cutting down wolves as the other cuts down grain. Etienne did fight as best he could with his pistols, yet his wounds made him slow and weak and he fell beneath fierce teeth and claws. The Portuguese youth, Dacosta, and his companion were dragg'd down and screamed for several minutes afore growing quiet.

  Amidst all this, tho', I was keenly aware that no wolf would approach me. Even these starv'd creatures would not come near the beast. I bethought myself to turn this to our advantage, and yet even as I consider'd this did things take an e'en darker turn.

  An awful howl rang in the night, as loud as a cannon or a strike of thunder. At this sound all the wolves did fall back, even those feasting upon our fallen company. A path open'd cross the pack and a fearsome animal did lope out from the wood. As it passed the wolves did snarl and cower, and I had no doubt this was the pack leader.

  Truly it was a monster among the wolves, long in the fang and as high as my waist at the shoulder. Its jaw was a handspan and half again across, and each of its claws and fangs were the size of my thumb. A thick grey pelt cover'd it, streaked with white and silver in many places, for this great animal had no doubt ruled its small kingdom for many years.

  It came to a halt a few yards from our breastwork and its eyes did pass back and forth over us as a cook's eyes pass over fresh wares at the market. Of our twelve strong company, there were but seven left, if I were to count Friday and myself, and there was little hope we would survive if the wolves attacked again with this huge animal at their fore.

  On a sudden, the pack leader seem'd to single me out and sent many a snarl my way. One or two wolves began a low howl, and soon all of them fill'd our ears with their cries. The huge wolf growled and snarled at me, and its teeth did gnash at the air in a manner that could only be a threat to us. Or to me.

  "He not want fight you, master," said Friday, who still stood at my side. "He want fight the beast. You here, the beast here, is challenge."

  I look'd up at the night sky and the crescent moon above us, and ask'd Friday if he thought the great wolf would let us come back in two weeks, but my man did not laugh.

  The wolf howled again, and a most frightful thing then happen'd. Deep under my skin, the beast stirr'd and woke. I cast my gaze upon the crescent moon again and tried to calm the dark thing in my soul, but it was to no avail. The wolf somehow saw the beast within my flesh and wish'd to fight, and the beast had look'd out thru my eyes and accept'd the challenge. Once before leaving the island I had set it free on a night not of the moon. Now it forced the change upon me the way one forces a ship against the current.

  I threw off my gloves even as Friday helped me from my cloak and coats, for he saw the mantle of the beast settling upon me. Our companions did question my methods as I stripp'd off my cloathes, but then the beast was near enough they grew silent, except for one merchant's servant who did scream like a child, and was soon joined by the screams of all of them, and a sharp hiss from my man Friday.

  For as I remov'd the cloathes I hated so, the great wolf reared back and stood on its hind legs like a man, and I saw knuckles where it had seem'd to have paws. And as the hood fell across my senses, my last clear thought was that I knew the thing that had call'd out the beast.

  The fight was a brutal thing, and so much of it I saw thru the smok'd lens. The other, the loup garou, to use the French word for it, had years of strength and animal cunning. It hurt the beast as nothing ever had, and the beast grew more and more savage for it. For a moment I saw my man Friday, who lunged in at the loup garou with his wooden sword, but the beast lashed out at him, driving him back. This was its fight, and none other would rob it of victory. It was a deep challenge, a savage challenge, and soon all I could discern was pain and blood, tooth and claw, and flesh and howls.

  I awoke with blood in my mouth which was not my own, and it did taste sharp and warm and sweet all at once. I spat it out as one does foul food.

  The pack was gone. A last few wolves stood to watch me stand, and whimper'd at my stare, and fled to the wood with their tails down.

  The rest of our company was dead or gone, with only three unaccount'd for. I never saw or heard word of them again, nor did I know if they escaped the wood. Nor did I care.

  In the snow across from me was the uncloathed body of an old man, his throat torn away by savage teeth. His face was long and dirty, his beard thick and mat
ted. It was a face that had not been made use of in many, many a long year. Not since long before my first voyage at sea. I look'd upon him and saw the high cheeks and strong nose of my father, while the dull eyes were the round ones I remember always on the face of my mother.

  Friday was dead.

  My man lay in the snow, his eyes wide to the night sky and his great wooden sword by his hand. A mighty cut had lain him open and spillt his innards, and tho' I tried hard to tell myself it was the work of the loup garou, I recalled the beast's great anger at having its challenge interrupted.

  And as I held my man there on the plains of Languedoc and the tears fell from my eyes, I knew how damned and accursed I was, I who all in one night had kill'd the most loyal servant and friend ever known, and his own years-lost brother.

  My lies, my last voyage,

  back to my island

  In about three hours more I dragg'd my cold self to the town where we were to lodge, which I found in a terrible fright and all in arms. It seemed the night before the wolves had broke into the village and put them in such terror they were oblig'd to keep guard night and day, but especially in the night, to preserve their cattle, and, indeed, their people. None questioned my tale of the pack which had kill'd my companions, or asked of the great wooden sword I clutch'd to my bosom.

  I was oblig'd to take a new guide here and go through Thoulouse to Gévaudan, where I found a warm climate, a fruitful pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, nor any thing like them. When I told my story at Gévaudan, with certain restrictions, viz. my own nature and the fate of my friend and my companions, they told us it was nothing but what was ordinary in the great forest at the foot of the mountains when the snow lay on the ground. They inquired much what kind of a guide we had got, who would venture to bring us that way in such a severe season, and told us it was surprising even I escaped not devoured. When I told them how we placed ourselves, and the horses in the middle, they blamed us and told me it was fifty to one but we had been all destroyed. It was the sight of the horses which made the wolves so furious. At other times, they are afraid of a gun, but being excessive hungry, and raging on that account, the eagerness to come at the horses had made them senseless of danger. They told me if we had stood all together and left our horses, the wolves would have been so eager to have devoured the horses we might have come off safe, having our fire-arms in our hands, and being so many in number. I could do naught but agree, and think to myself that very little could have gotten my friend off that mountain.

  I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage through France, nothing but what other travelers have given an account of, with much more advantage than I can. I spent a single moon in that country and then traveled from Gévaudan to Paris, and without any considerable stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover, the 14th of Jan. after having a severe cold season to travel in.

  Having resolv’d to dispose of my plantation in the Brasils, I wrote to Captain Amaral at Lisbon. Having offered it to the two merchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived in the Brasils, they accepted the offer.

  And thus I have given the first part of a life of fortune and adventure. A life of Providence's chequer-work and of a variety which the world will seldom be able to show the like of.

  Any one would think in this state of complicated good fortune and woes I was past running any more hazards, and so indeed I had been, if other circumstances had concur'd. But I was inured to a wandering life, had no family, nor many relations. Nor, however rich, had I contracted much acquaintance. Tho’ I had sold my estate in the Brasils, yet I could not keep that country out of my head and had a great mind to be upon the wing again. Especially I could not resist a strong inclination I had to see my island again, and to know how the villains had fared, and if the poor Spaniards were in being there.

  Dear Amaral dissuaded me from it, and so far prevailed with me, that, for almost seven years, he prevented my running abroad before he went peacefully to meet his maker. During which time I took my two nephews into my care, tho' they had not received our family blood from my widowed sister, e'en though she had a she-beast of her own. The eldest, Richard Marsh, having something of his own, I bred up as a gentleman, and gave him a settlement of some addition to his estate, after my decease. The other, Ezekiel Marsh, I put out to a captain of a ship. After five years finding him a sensible, bold, enterprising young fellow, I put him into a good ship and sent him to sea. This young fellow afterwards drew me in, as old as I was, to farther adventures myself.

  In the mean time, I in part settled myself here. First of all, I married a good woman, Guinevere, and had by her three children, two sons and one daughter, Lawrence, David, and dearest Katherine. All of these three did take on the family blood, and many good nights were spent teaching them as my father had taught me. They became very familiar with the beast, and it treated them as if they were its own pups, which they were, upon a fashion.

  But my wife dying of consumption and my nephew, Ezekiel, coming home with good success from a voyage to Spain, my inclination to go abroad prevailed and engaged me to go in his ship as a private trader to the East Indies. This was in the year 1697.

  In this voyage I visited my former home, the Island of Despair, and was both surprised and pleased to see all the men had survived and a full colony in place. I saw my old friend Olegario and the Spaniards, had the whole story of their lives, and of the mutineers I left there. How at first, influenced by the island, they insulted the poor Spaniards, how they afterwards agreed, disagreed, united, separated, and how at last the Spaniards were oblig'd to use violence with them. It was a history, if it were entered into, as full of variety and wonderful accidents as my own part. Particularly also as to their battles with the savages, who landed several times upon the island to reclaim their dark church, and as to the improvement they made upon the island itself. How five of them made an attempt upon the main land and brought away eleven men and five women prisoners. At my coming, I found about twenty young children on the island, and all of them did have the dusky skin and dark eyes of their mothers.

  Here I stayed about 20 days, and even the beast was pleased to run cross its hills and thru its savannahs again, tho' it staid clear of the dark church, which still stood and was avoided by all, or so I was oft told. I left Olegario and his people supplies of all necessary things and two workmen which I brought from England with me, a carpenter and a smith. And upon the shore of my old creek I did bury the wooden sword I had carried with me all these years, and shed more than a few tears for my dear man Friday, who I miss'd even more being here again.

  Having settled all things with them, and engaged them not to leave the place, I left them there, 'tho the next few years of the island were filled with many adventures of much interest. All these things, with an account how 300 savages came and invaded for their dark church, and how they brought monstrous things with them, and how the dream god did extend his influence to my nephew's youngest child, and with some very surprising new adventures of my own, I shall give a farther account of in another volume.

  END OF VOL.I.