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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dig me no grave, by Robert E. Howard

-

-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and

-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions

-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms

-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at

-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you

-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before

-using this eBook.

-

-Title: Dig me no grave

-

-Author: Robert E. Howard

-

-Release Date: June 28, 2023 [eBook #71066]

-

-Language: English

-

-Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading

-         Team at http://www.pgdp.net

-

-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIG ME NO GRAVE ***

-

-

-

-

-

-                            Dig Me No Grave

-

-                          By ROBERT E. HOWARD

-

-               _A shuddery tale of dark horror and evil

-                 things, and the uncanny funeral rites

-                 over the corpse of old John Grimlan._

-

-           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

-                      Weird Tales February 1937.

-         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that

-         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

-

-

-The thunder of my old-fashioned door-knocker, reverberating eerily

-through the house, roused me from a restless and nightmare-haunted

-sleep. I looked out the window. In the last light of the sinking moon,

-the white face of my friend John Conrad looked up at me.

-

-"May I come up, Kirowan?" His voice was shaky and strained.

-

-"Certainly!" I sprang out of bed and pulled on a bath-robe as I heard

-him enter the front door and ascend the stairs.

-

-A moment later he stood before me, and in the light which I had turned

-on I saw his hands tremble and noticed the unnatural pallor of his face.

-

-"Old John Grimlan died an hour ago," he said abruptly.

-

-"Indeed? I had not known that he was ill."

-

-"It was a sudden, virulent attack of peculiar nature, a sort of seizure

-somewhat akin to epilepsy. He has been subject to such spells of late

-years, you know."

-

-I nodded. I knew something of the old hermit-like man who had lived

-in his great dark house on the hill; indeed, I had once witnessed one

-of his strange seizures, and I had been appalled at the writhings,

-howlings and yammerings of the wretch, who had groveled on the earth

-like a wounded snake, gibbering terrible curses and black blasphemies

-until his voice broke in a wordless screaming which spattered his lips

-with foam. Seeing this, I understood why people in old times looked on

-such victims as men possessed by demons.

-

-"----some hereditary taint," Conrad was saying. "Old John doubtless

-fell heir to some ingrown weakness brought on by some loathsome

-disease, which was his heritage from perhaps a remote ancestor--such

-things occasionally happen. Or else--well, you know old John himself

-pried about in the mysterious parts of the earth, and wandered all over

-the East in his younger days. It is quite possible that he was infected

-with some obscure malady in his wanderings. There are still many

-unclassified diseases in Africa and the Orient."

-

-"But," said I, "you have not told me the reason for this sudden visit

-at this unearthly hour--for I notice that it is past midnight."

-

-My friend seemed rather confused.

-

-"Well, the fact is that John Grimlan died alone, except for myself. He

-refused to receive any medical aid of any sort, and in the last few

-moments when it was evident that he was dying, and I was prepared to

-go for some sort of help in spite of him, he set up such a howling and

-screaming that I could not refuse his passionate pleas--which were that

-he should not be left to die alone.

-

-"I have seen men die," added Conrad, wiping the perspiration from his

-pale brow, "but the death of John Grimlan was the most fearful I have

-ever seen."

-

-"He suffered a great deal?"

-

-"He appeared to be in much physical agony, but this was mostly

-submerged by some monstrous mental or psychic suffering. The fear in

-his distended eyes and his screams transcended any conceivable earthly

-terror. I tell you, Kirowan, Grimlan's fright was greater and deeper

-than the ordinary fear of the Beyond shown by a man of ordinarily evil

-life."

-

-I shifted restlessly. The dark implications of this statement sent a

-chill of nameless apprehension trickling down my spine.

-

-"I know the country people always claimed that in his youth he sold

-his soul to the Devil, and that his sudden epileptic attacks were

-merely a visible sign of the Fiend's power over him; but such talk is

-foolish, of course, and belongs in the Dark Ages. We all know that John

-Grimlan's life was a peculiarly evil and vicious one, even toward his

-last days. With good reason he was universally detested and feared, for

-I never heard of his doing a single good act. You were his only friend."

-

-"And that was a strange friendship," said Conrad. "I was attracted to

-him by his unusual powers, for despite his bestial nature, John Grimlan

-was a highly educated man, a deeply cultured man. He had dipped deep

-into occult studies, and I first met him in this manner; for as you

-know, I have always been strongly interested in these lines of research

-myself.

-

-"But, in this as in all other things, Grimlan was evil and perverse. He

-had ignored the white side of the occult and delved into the darker,

-grimmer phases of it--into devil-worship, and voodoo and Shintoism. His

-knowledge of these foul arts and sciences was immense and unholy. And

-to hear him tell of his researches and experiments was to know such

-horror and repulsion as a venomous reptile might inspire. For there had

-been no depths to which he had not sunk, and some things he only hinted

-at, even to me. I tell you, Kirowan, it is easy to laugh at tales of

-the black world of the unknown, when one is in pleasant company under

-the bright sunlight, but had you sat at ungodly hours in the silent

-bizarre library of John Grimlan and looked on the ancient musty volumes

-and listened to his grisly talk as I did, your tongue would have cloven

-to your palate with sheer horror as mine did, and the supernatural

-would have seemed very real and near to you--as it seemed to me!"

-

-"But in God's name, man!" I cried, for the tension was growing

-unbearable; "come to the point and tell me what you want of me."

-

-"I want you to come with me to John Grimlan's house and help carry out

-his outlandish instructions in regard to his body."

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-I had no liking for the adventure, but I dressed hurriedly, an

-occasional shudder of premonition shaking me. Once fully clad, I

-followed Conrad out of the house and up the silent road which led to

-the house of John Grimlan. The road wound uphill, and all the way,

-looking upward and forward, I could see that great grim house perched

-like a bird of evil on the crest of the hill, bulking black and stark

-against the stars. In the west pulsed a single dull red smear where

-the young moon had just sunk from view behind the low black hills. The

-whole night seemed full of brooding evil, and the persistent swishing

-of a bat's wings somewhere overhead caused my taut nerves to jerk and

-thrum. To drown the quick pounding of my own heart, I said:

-

-"Do you share the belief so many hold, that John Grimlan was mad?"

-

-We strode on several paces before Conrad answered, seemingly with a

-strange reluctance, "But for one incident, I would say no man was ever

-saner. But one night in his study, he seemed suddenly to break all

-bonds of reason.

-

-"He had discoursed for hours on his favorite subject--black magic--when

-suddenly he cried, as his face lit with a weird unholy glow: 'Why

-should I sit here babbling such child's prattle to you? These voodoo

-rituals--these Shinto sacrifices--feathered snakes--goats without

-horns--black leopard cults--bah! Filth and dust that the wind blows

-away! Dregs of the real Unknown--the deep mysteries! Mere echoes from

-the Abyss!

-

-"'I could tell you things that would shatter your paltry brain! I could

-breathe into your ear names that would wither you like a burnt weed!

-What do you know of Yog-Sothoth, of Kathulos and the sunken cities?

-None of these names is even included in your mythologies. Not even in

-your dreams have you glimpsed the black cyclopean walls of Koth, or

-shriveled before the noxious winds that blow from Yuggoth!

-

-"'But I will not blast you lifeless with my black wisdom! I cannot

-expect your infantile brain to bear what mine holds. Were you as old

-as I--had you seen, as I have seen, kingdoms crumble and generations

-pass away--had you gathered as ripe grain the dark secrets of the

-centuries----'

-

-"He was raving away, his wildly lit face scarcely human in appearance,

-and suddenly, noting my evident bewilderment, he burst into a horrible

-cackling laugh.

-

-"'Gad!' he cried in a voice and accent strange to me, 'methinks I've

-frighted ye, and certes, it is not to be marveled at, sith ye be but

-a naked savage in the arts of life, after all. Ye think I be old, eh?

-Why, ye gaping lout, ye'd drop dead were I to divulge the generations

-of men I've known----'

-

-"But at this point such horror overcame me that I fled from him as from

-an adder, and his high-pitched, diabolical laughter followed me out of

-the shadowy house. Some days later I received a letter apologizing for

-his manner and ascribing it candidly--too candidly--to drugs. I did not

-believe it, but I renewed our relations, after some hesitation."

-

-"It sounds like utter madness," I muttered.

-

-"Yes," admitted Conrad, hesitantly. "But--Kirowan, have you ever seen

-anyone who knew John Grimlan in his youth?"

-

-I shook my head.

-

-"I have been at pains to inquire about him discreetly," said Conrad.

-"He has lived here--with the exception of mysterious absences often

-for months at a time--for twenty years. The older villagers remember

-distinctly when he first came and took over that old house on the hill,

-and they all say that in the intervening years he seems not to have

-aged perceptibly. When he came here he looked just as he does now--or

-did, up to the moment of his death--of the appearance of a man about

-fifty.

-

-"I met old Von Boehnk in Vienna, who said he knew Grimlan when a

-very young man studying in Berlin, fifty years ago, and he expressed

-astonishment that the old man was still living; for he said at that

-time Grimlan seemed to be about fifty years of age."

-

-I gave an incredulous exclamation, seeing the implication toward which

-the conversation was trending.

-

-"Nonsense! Professor Von Boehnk is past eighty himself, and liable to

-the errors of extreme age. He confused this man with another." Yet as I

-spoke, my flesh crawled unpleasantly and the hairs on my neck prickled.

-

-"Well," shrugged Conrad, "here we are at the house."

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-The huge pile reared up menacingly before us, and as we reached the

-front door a vagrant wind moaned through the near-by trees and I

-started foolishly as I again heard the ghostly beat of the bat's wings.

-Conrad turned a large key in the antique lock, and as we entered, a

-cold draft swept across us like a breath from the grave--moldy and

-cold. I shuddered.

-

-We groped our way through a black hallway and into a study, and here

-Conrad lighted a candle, for no gas lights or electric lights were to

-be found in the house. I looked about me, dreading what the light might

-disclose, but the room, heavily tapestried and bizarrely furnished, was

-empty save for us two.

-

-"Where--where is--_It_?" I asked in a husky whisper, from a throat gone

-dry.

-

-"Upstairs," answered Conrad in a low voice, showing that the silence

-and mystery of the house had laid a spell on him also. "Upstairs, in

-the library where he died."

-

-I glanced up involuntarily. Somewhere above our head, the lone master

-of this grim house was stretched out in his last sleep--silent, his

-white face set in a grinning mask of death. Panic swept over me and

-I fought for control. After all, it was merely the corpse of a wicked

-old man, who was past harming anyone--this argument rang hollowly in my

-brain like the words of a frightened child who is trying to reassure

-himself.

-

-I turned to Conrad. He had taken a time-yellowed envelope from an

-inside pocket.

-

-"This," he said, removing from the envelope several pages of closely

-written, time-yellowed parchment, "is, in effect, the last word of John

-Grimlan, though God alone knows how many years ago it was written.

-He gave it to me ten years ago, immediately after his return from

-Mongolia. It was shortly after this that he had his first seizure.

-

-"This envelope he gave me, sealed, and he made me swear that I would

-hide it carefully, and that I would not open it until he was dead, when

-I was to read the contents and follow their directions exactly. More,

-he made me swear that no matter what he said or did after giving me the

-envelope, I would go ahead as first directed. 'For,' he said with a

-fearful smile, 'the flesh is weak but I am a man of my word, and though

-I might, in a moment of weakness, wish to retract, it is far, far too

-late now. You may never understand the matter, but you are to do as I

-have said.'"

-

-"Well?"

-

-"Well," again Conrad wiped his brow, "tonight as he lay writhing in his

-death-agonies, his wordless howls were mingled with frantic admonitions

-to me to bring him the envelope and destroy it before his eyes! As

-he yammered this, he forced himself up on his elbows and with eyes

-starting and hair standing straight up on his head, he screamed at me

-in a manner to chill the blood. And he was shrieking for me to destroy

-the envelope, not to open it; and once he howled in his delirium for

-me to hew his body into pieces and scatter the bits to the four winds

-of heaven!"

-

-An uncontrollable exclamation of horror escaped my dry lips.

-

-"At last," went on Conrad, "I gave in. Remembering his commands ten

-years ago, I at first stood firm, but at last, as his screeches grew

-unbearably desperate, I turned to go for the envelope, even though

-that meant leaving him alone. But as I turned, with one last fearful

-convulsion in which blood-flecked foam flew from his writhing lips, the

-life went from his twisted body in a single great wrench."

-

-He fumbled at the parchment.

-

-"I am going to carry out my promise. The directions herein seem

-fantastic and may be the whims of a disordered mind, but I gave my

-word. They are, briefly, that I place his corpse on the great black

-ebony table in his library, with seven black candles burning about

-him. The doors and windows are to be firmly closed and fastened. Then,

-in the darkness which precedes dawn, I am to read the formula, charm

-or spell which is contained in a smaller, sealed envelope inside the

-first, and which I have not yet opened."

-

-"But is that all?" I cried. "No provisions as to the disposition of his

-fortune his estate--or his corpse?"

-

-"Nothing. In his will, which I have seen elsewhere, he leaves estate

-and fortune to a certain oriental gentleman named in the document

-as--Malik Tous!"

-

-"What!" I cried, shaken to my soul. "Conrad, this is madness heaped on

-madness! Malik Tous--good God! No mortal man was ever so named! That is

-the title of the foul god worshipped by the mysterious Yezidees--they

-of Mount Alamout the Accursed--whose Eight Brazen Towers rise in the

-mysterious wastes of deep Asia. His idolatrous symbol is the brazen

-peacock. And the Muhammadans, who hate his demon-worshipping devotees,

-say he is the essence of the evil of all the universes--the Prince of

-Darkness--Ahriman--the old Serpent--the veritable Satan! And you say

-Grimlan names this mythical demon in his will?"

-

-"It is the truth," Conrad's throat was dry. "And look--he has scribbled

-a strange line at the corner of this parchment: 'Dig me no grave; I

-shall not need one.'"

-

-Again a chill wandered down my spine.

-

-"In God's name," I cried in a kind of frenzy, "let us get this

-incredible business over with!"

-

-"I think a drink might help," answered Conrad, moistening his lips. "It

-seems to me I've seen Grimlan go into this cabinet for wine----" He

-bent to the door of an ornately carved mahogany cabinet, and after some

-difficulty opened it.

-

-"No wine here," he said disappointedly, "and if ever I felt the need of

-stimulants--what's this?"

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-He drew out a roll of parchment, dusty, yellowed and half covered with

-spiderwebs. Everything in that grim house seemed, to my nervously

-excited senses, fraught with mysterious meaning and import, and I

-leaned over his shoulder as he unrolled it.

-

-"It's a record of peerage," he said, "such a chronicle of births,

-deaths and so forth, as the old families used to keep, in the Sixteenth

-Century and earlier."

-

-"What's the name?" I asked.

-

-He scowled over the dim scrawls, striving to master the faded, archaic

-script.

-

-"G-r-y-m--I've got it--Grymlann, of course. It's the records of old

-John's family--the Grymlanns of Toad's-heath Manor, Suffolk--what an

-outlandish name for an estate! Look at the last entry."

-

-Together we read, "John Grymlann, borne, March 10, 1630." And then we

-both cried out. Under this entry was freshly written, in a strange

-scrawling hand, "Died, March 10, 1930." Below this there was a seal of

-black wax, stamped with a strange design, something like a peacock with

-a spreading tail.

-

-Conrad stared at me speechless, all the color ebbed from his face. I

-shook myself with the rage engendered by fear.

-

-"It's the hoax of a madman!" I shouted. "The stage has been set with

-such great care that the actors have overstepped themselves. Whoever

-they are, they have heaped up so many incredible effects as to nullify

-them. It's all a very stupid, very dull drama of illusion."

-

-And even as I spoke, icy sweat stood out on my body and I shook as with

-an ague. With a wordless motion Conrad turned toward the stairs, taking

-up a large candle from a mahogany table.

-

-"It was understood, I suppose," he whispered, "that I should go through

-with this ghastly matter alone; but I had not the moral courage, and

-now I'm glad I had not."

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-A still horror brooded over the silent house as we went up the stairs.

-A faint breeze stole in from somewhere and set the heavy velvet

-hangings rustling, and I visualized stealthy taloned fingers drawing

-aside the tapestries, to fix red gloating eyes upon us. Once I thought

-I heard the indistinct clumping of monstrous feet somewhere above us,

-but it must have been the heavy pounding of my own heart.

-

-The stairs debouched into a wide dark corridor, in which our feeble

-candle cast a faint gleam which but illuminated our pale faces and

-made the shadows seem darker by comparison. We stopped at a heavy door,

-and I heard Conrad's breath draw in sharply as a man's will when he

-braces himself physically or mentally. I involuntarily clenched my

-fists until the nails bit into the palms; then Conrad thrust the door

-open.

-

-A sharp cry escaped his lips. The candle dropped from his nerveless

-fingers and went out. The library of John Grimlan was ablaze with

-light, though the whole house had been in darkness when we entered it.

-

-This light came from seven black candles placed at regular intervals

-about the great ebony table. On this table, between the candles--I had

-braced myself against the sight. Now in the face of the mysterious

-illumination and the sight of the thing on the table, my resolution

-nearly gave way. John Grimlan had been unlovely in life; in death he

-was hideous. Yes, he was hideous even though his face was mercifully

-covered with the same curious silken robe, which, worked in fantastic

-bird-like designs, covered his whole body except the crooked claw-like

-hands and the bare withered feet.

-

-A strangling sound came from Conrad. "My God!" he whispered; "what is

-this? I laid his body out on the table and placed the candles about it,

-but I did not light them, nor did I place that robe over the body! And

-there were bedroom slippers on his feet when I left----"

-

-He halted suddenly. We were not alone in the deathroom.

-

-At first we had not seen him, as he sat in the great armchair in a

-farther nook of a corner, so still that he seemed a part of the shadows

-cast by the heavy tapestries. As my eyes fell upon him, a violent

-shuddering shook me and a feeling akin to nausea racked the pit of my

-stomach. My first impression was of vivid, oblique yellow eyes which

-gazed unwinkingly at us. Then the man rose and made a deep salaam, and

-we saw that he was an oriental. Now when I strive to etch him clearly

-in my mind, I can resurrect no plain image of him. I only remember

-those piercing eyes and the yellow, fantastic robe he wore.

-

-We returned his salute mechanically and he spoke in a low, refined

-voice, "Gentlemen, I crave your pardon! I have made so free as to light

-the candles--shall we not proceed with the business pertaining to our

-mutual friend?"

-

-He made a slight gesture toward the silent bulk on the table. Conrad

-nodded, evidently unable to speak. The thought flashed through our

-minds at the same time, that this man had also been given a sealed

-envelope--but how had he come to the Grimlan house so quickly? John

-Grimlan had been dead scarcely two hours and to the best of our

-knowledge no one knew of his demise but ourselves. And how had he got

-into the locked and bolted house?

-

-The whole affair was grotesque and unreal in the extreme. We did not

-even introduce ourselves or ask the stranger his name. He took charge

-in a matter-of-fact way, and so under the spell of horror and illusion

-were we that we moved dazedly, involuntarily obeying his suggestions,

-given us in a low, respectful tone.

-

-I found myself standing on the left side of the table, looking across

-its grisly burden at Conrad. The oriental stood with arms folded and

-head bowed at the head of the table, nor did it then strike me as being

-strange that he should stand there, instead of Conrad who was to read

-what Grimlan had written. I found my gaze drawn to the figure worked

-on the breast of the stranger's robe, in black silk--a curious figure,

-somewhat resembling a peacock and somewhat resembling a bat, or a

-flying dragon. I noted with a start that the same design was worked on

-the robe covering the corpse.

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-The doors had been locked, the windows fastened down. Conrad, with a

-shaky hand, opened the inner envelope and fluttered open the parchment

-sheets contained therein. These sheets seemed much older than those

-containing the instructions to Conrad, in the larger envelope. Conrad

-began to read in a monotonous drone which had the effect of hypnosis on

-the hearer; so at times the candles grew dim in my gaze and the room

-and its occupants swam strange and monstrous, veiled and distorted like

-an hallucination. Most of what he read was gibberish; it meant nothing;

-yet the sound of it and the archaic style of it filled me with an

-intolerable horror.

-

-"To ye contract elsewhere recorded, I, John Grymlann, herebye sweare

-by ye Name of ye Nameless One to keep goode faithe. Wherefore do I now

-write in blood these wordes spoken to me in thys grim & silent chamber

-in ye dedde citie of Koth, whereto no mortal manne hath attained but

-mee. These same wordes now writ down by mee to be rede over my bodie

-at ye appointed tyme to fulfill my parte of ye bargain which I entered

-intoe of mine own free will & knowledge beinge of rite mynd & fiftie

-years of age this yeare of 1680, A.D. Here begynneth ye incantation:

-

-"Before manne was, ye Elder ones were, & even yet their lord dwelleth

-amonge ye shadows to which if a manne sette his foote he maye not turn

-vpon his track."

-

-The words merged into a barbaric gibberish as Conrad stumbled through

-an unfamiliar language--a language faintly suggesting the Phenician,

-but shuddery with the touch of a hideous antiquity beyond any

-remembered earthly tongue. One of the candles flickered and went out.

-I made a move to relight it, but a motion from the silent oriental

-stayed me. His eyes burned into mine, then shifted back to the still

-form on the table.

-

-The manuscript had shifted back into its archaic English.

-

-"----And ye mortal which gaineth to ye black citadels of Koth & speaks

-with ye Darke Lord whose face is hidden, for a price maye he gain hys

-heartes desire, ryches & knowledge beyond countinge & lyffe beyond

-mortal span even two hundred & fiftie yeares."

-

-Again Conrad's voice trailed off into unfamiliar gutturals. Another

-candle went out.

-

-"----Let not ye mortal flynche as ye tyme draweth nigh for payement &

-ye fires of Hell laye hold vpon ye vytals as the sign of reckoninge.

-For ye Prince of Darkness taketh hys due in ye endde & he is not to bee

-cozened. What ye have promised, that shall ye deliver. _Augantha na

-shuba_----"

-

-At the first sound of those barbaric accents, a cold hand of terror

-locked about my throat. My frantic eyes shot to the candles and I was

-not surprized to see another flicker out. Yet there was no hint of any

-draft to stir the heavy black hangings. Conrad's voice wavered; he

-drew his hand across his throat, gagging momentarily. The eyes of the

-oriental never altered.

-

-"----Amonge ye sonnes of men glide strange shadows for ever. Men see

-ye tracks of ye talones but not ye feete that make them. Over ye souls

-of men spread great black wingges. There is but one Black Master

-though men calle hym Sathanas & Beelzebub & Apolleon & Ahriman & Malik

-Tous----"

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-Mists of horror engulfed me. I was dimly aware of Conrad's voice

-droning on and on, both in English and in that other fearsome tongue

-whose horrific import I scarcely dared try to guess. And with stark

-fear clutching at my heart, I saw the candles go out, one by one. And

-with each flicker, as the gathering gloom darkened about us, my horror

-mounted. I could not speak, I could not move; my distended eyes were

-fixed with agonized intensity on the remaining candle. The silent

-oriental at the head of that ghastly table was included in my fear. He

-had not moved nor spoken, but under his drooping lids, his eyes burned

-with devilish triumph; I knew that beneath his inscrutable exterior he

-was gloating fiendishly--but why--_why?_

-

-[Illustration: "With stark fear clutching at his heart he saw the

-candles go out, one by one."]

-

-But I _knew_ that the moment the extinguishing of the last candle

-plunged the room into utter darkness, some nameless, abominable thing

-would take place. Conrad was approaching the end. His voice rose to the

-climax in gathering crescendo.

-

-"Approacheth now ye moment of payement. Ye ravens are flying. Ye bats

-winge against ye skye. There are skulls in ye starres. Ye soul & ye

-bodie are promised and shall bee delivered uppe. Not to ye dust agayne

-nor ye elements from which springe lyfe----"

-

-The candle flickered slightly. I tried to scream, but my mouth gaped to

-a soundless yammering. I tried to flee, but I stood frozen, unable even

-to close my eyes.

-

-"----Ye abysse yawns & ye debt is to paye. Ye light fayles, ye shadows

-gather. There is no god but evil; no lite but darkness; no hope but

-doom----"

-

-A hollow groan resounded through the room. _It seemed to come from the

-robe-covered thing on the table!_ That robe twitched fitfully.

-

-"Oh winges in ye black darke!"

-

-I started violently; a faint swish sounded in the gathering shadows.

-The stir of the dark hangings? It sounded like the rustle of gigantic

-wings.

-

-"Oh redde eyes in ye shadows! What is promised, what is writ in bloode

-is fulfilled! Ye lite is gulfed in blackness! Ya--Koth!"

-

-The last candle went out suddenly and a ghastly unhuman cry that came

-not from my lips or from Conrad's burst unbearably forth. Horror

-swept over me like a black icy wave; in the blind dark I heard myself

-screaming terribly. Then with a swirl and a great rush of wind

-something swept the room, flinging the hangings aloft and dashing

-chairs and tables crashing to the floor. For an instant an intolerable

-odor burned our nostrils, a low hideous tittering mocked us in the

-blackness; then silence fell like a shroud.

-

-Somehow, Conrad found a candle and lighted it. The faint glow showed us

-the room in fearful disarray--showed us each other's ghastly faces--and

-showed us the black ebony table--empty! The doors and windows were

-locked as they had been, but the oriental was gone--and so was the

-corpse of John Grimlan.

-

-Shrieking like damned men we broke down the door and fled frenziedly

-down the well-like staircase where the darkness seemed to clutch at us

-with clammy black fingers. As we tumbled down into the lower hallway,

-a lurid glow cut the darkness and the scent of burning wood filled our

-nostrils.

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-The outer doorway held momentarily against our frantic assault, then

-gave way and we hurtled into the outer starlight. Behind us the flames

-leaped up with a crackling roar as we fled down the hill. Conrad,

-glancing over his shoulder, halted suddenly, wheeled and flung up his

-arms like a madman, and screamed, "Soul and body he sold to Malik Tous,

-who is Satan, two hundred and fifty years ago! This was the night of

-payment--and my God--look! _Look!_ The Fiend has claimed his own!"

-

-I looked, frozen with horror. Flames had enveloped the whole house

-with appalling swiftness, and now the great mass was etched against

-the shadowed sky, a crimson inferno. And above the holocaust hovered a

-gigantic black shadow like a monstrous bat, and from its dark clutch

-dangled a small white thing, like the body of a man, dangling limply.

-Then, even as we cried out in horror, it was gone and our dazed gaze

-met only the shuddering walls and blazing roof which crumpled into the

-flames with an earth-shaking roar.

-

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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dig me no grave, by Robert E. Howard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Dig me no grave
+
+Author: Robert E. Howard
+
+Release Date: June 28, 2023 [eBook #71066]
+
+Language: English
+
+Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+         Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIG ME NO GRAVE ***
+
+
+
+
+
+                            Dig Me No Grave
+
+                          By ROBERT E. HOWARD
+
+               _A shuddery tale of dark horror and evil
+                 things, and the uncanny funeral rites
+                 over the corpse of old John Grimlan._
+
+           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
+                      Weird Tales February 1937.
+         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
+         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
+
+
+The thunder of my old-fashioned door-knocker, reverberating eerily
+through the house, roused me from a restless and nightmare-haunted
+sleep. I looked out the window. In the last light of the sinking moon,
+the white face of my friend John Conrad looked up at me.
+
+"May I come up, Kirowan?" His voice was shaky and strained.
+
+"Certainly!" I sprang out of bed and pulled on a bath-robe as I heard
+him enter the front door and ascend the stairs.
+
+A moment later he stood before me, and in the light which I had turned
+on I saw his hands tremble and noticed the unnatural pallor of his face.
+
+"Old John Grimlan died an hour ago," he said abruptly.
+
+"Indeed? I had not known that he was ill."
+
+"It was a sudden, virulent attack of peculiar nature, a sort of seizure
+somewhat akin to epilepsy. He has been subject to such spells of late
+years, you know."
+
+I nodded. I knew something of the old hermit-like man who had lived
+in his great dark house on the hill; indeed, I had once witnessed one
+of his strange seizures, and I had been appalled at the writhings,
+howlings and yammerings of the wretch, who had groveled on the earth
+like a wounded snake, gibbering terrible curses and black blasphemies
+until his voice broke in a wordless screaming which spattered his lips
+with foam. Seeing this, I understood why people in old times looked on
+such victims as men possessed by demons.
+
+"----some hereditary taint," Conrad was saying. "Old John doubtless
+fell heir to some ingrown weakness brought on by some loathsome
+disease, which was his heritage from perhaps a remote ancestor--such
+things occasionally happen. Or else--well, you know old John himself
+pried about in the mysterious parts of the earth, and wandered all over
+the East in his younger days. It is quite possible that he was infected
+with some obscure malady in his wanderings. There are still many
+unclassified diseases in Africa and the Orient."
+
+"But," said I, "you have not told me the reason for this sudden visit
+at this unearthly hour--for I notice that it is past midnight."
+
+My friend seemed rather confused.
+
+"Well, the fact is that John Grimlan died alone, except for myself. He
+refused to receive any medical aid of any sort, and in the last few
+moments when it was evident that he was dying, and I was prepared to
+go for some sort of help in spite of him, he set up such a howling and
+screaming that I could not refuse his passionate pleas--which were that
+he should not be left to die alone.
+
+"I have seen men die," added Conrad, wiping the perspiration from his
+pale brow, "but the death of John Grimlan was the most fearful I have
+ever seen."
+
+"He suffered a great deal?"
+
+"He appeared to be in much physical agony, but this was mostly
+submerged by some monstrous mental or psychic suffering. The fear in
+his distended eyes and his screams transcended any conceivable earthly
+terror. I tell you, Kirowan, Grimlan's fright was greater and deeper
+than the ordinary fear of the Beyond shown by a man of ordinarily evil
+life."
+
+I shifted restlessly. The dark implications of this statement sent a
+chill of nameless apprehension trickling down my spine.
+
+"I know the country people always claimed that in his youth he sold
+his soul to the Devil, and that his sudden epileptic attacks were
+merely a visible sign of the Fiend's power over him; but such talk is
+foolish, of course, and belongs in the Dark Ages. We all know that John
+Grimlan's life was a peculiarly evil and vicious one, even toward his
+last days. With good reason he was universally detested and feared, for
+I never heard of his doing a single good act. You were his only friend."
+
+"And that was a strange friendship," said Conrad. "I was attracted to
+him by his unusual powers, for despite his bestial nature, John Grimlan
+was a highly educated man, a deeply cultured man. He had dipped deep
+into occult studies, and I first met him in this manner; for as you
+know, I have always been strongly interested in these lines of research
+myself.
+
+"But, in this as in all other things, Grimlan was evil and perverse. He
+had ignored the white side of the occult and delved into the darker,
+grimmer phases of it--into devil-worship, and voodoo and Shintoism. His
+knowledge of these foul arts and sciences was immense and unholy. And
+to hear him tell of his researches and experiments was to know such
+horror and repulsion as a venomous reptile might inspire. For there had
+been no depths to which he had not sunk, and some things he only hinted
+at, even to me. I tell you, Kirowan, it is easy to laugh at tales of
+the black world of the unknown, when one is in pleasant company under
+the bright sunlight, but had you sat at ungodly hours in the silent
+bizarre library of John Grimlan and looked on the ancient musty volumes
+and listened to his grisly talk as I did, your tongue would have cloven
+to your palate with sheer horror as mine did, and the supernatural
+would have seemed very real and near to you--as it seemed to me!"
+
+"But in God's name, man!" I cried, for the tension was growing
+unbearable; "come to the point and tell me what you want of me."
+
+"I want you to come with me to John Grimlan's house and help carry out
+his outlandish instructions in regard to his body."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I had no liking for the adventure, but I dressed hurriedly, an
+occasional shudder of premonition shaking me. Once fully clad, I
+followed Conrad out of the house and up the silent road which led to
+the house of John Grimlan. The road wound uphill, and all the way,
+looking upward and forward, I could see that great grim house perched
+like a bird of evil on the crest of the hill, bulking black and stark
+against the stars. In the west pulsed a single dull red smear where
+the young moon had just sunk from view behind the low black hills. The
+whole night seemed full of brooding evil, and the persistent swishing
+of a bat's wings somewhere overhead caused my taut nerves to jerk and
+thrum. To drown the quick pounding of my own heart, I said:
+
+"Do you share the belief so many hold, that John Grimlan was mad?"
+
+We strode on several paces before Conrad answered, seemingly with a
+strange reluctance, "But for one incident, I would say no man was ever
+saner. But one night in his study, he seemed suddenly to break all
+bonds of reason.
+
+"He had discoursed for hours on his favorite subject--black magic--when
+suddenly he cried, as his face lit with a weird unholy glow: 'Why
+should I sit here babbling such child's prattle to you? These voodoo
+rituals--these Shinto sacrifices--feathered snakes--goats without
+horns--black leopard cults--bah! Filth and dust that the wind blows
+away! Dregs of the real Unknown--the deep mysteries! Mere echoes from
+the Abyss!
+
+"'I could tell you things that would shatter your paltry brain! I could
+breathe into your ear names that would wither you like a burnt weed!
+What do you know of Yog-Sothoth, of Kathulos and the sunken cities?
+None of these names is even included in your mythologies. Not even in
+your dreams have you glimpsed the black cyclopean walls of Koth, or
+shriveled before the noxious winds that blow from Yuggoth!
+
+"'But I will not blast you lifeless with my black wisdom! I cannot
+expect your infantile brain to bear what mine holds. Were you as old
+as I--had you seen, as I have seen, kingdoms crumble and generations
+pass away--had you gathered as ripe grain the dark secrets of the
+centuries----'
+
+"He was raving away, his wildly lit face scarcely human in appearance,
+and suddenly, noting my evident bewilderment, he burst into a horrible
+cackling laugh.
+
+"'Gad!' he cried in a voice and accent strange to me, 'methinks I've
+frighted ye, and certes, it is not to be marveled at, sith ye be but
+a naked savage in the arts of life, after all. Ye think I be old, eh?
+Why, ye gaping lout, ye'd drop dead were I to divulge the generations
+of men I've known----'
+
+"But at this point such horror overcame me that I fled from him as from
+an adder, and his high-pitched, diabolical laughter followed me out of
+the shadowy house. Some days later I received a letter apologizing for
+his manner and ascribing it candidly--too candidly--to drugs. I did not
+believe it, but I renewed our relations, after some hesitation."
+
+"It sounds like utter madness," I muttered.
+
+"Yes," admitted Conrad, hesitantly. "But--Kirowan, have you ever seen
+anyone who knew John Grimlan in his youth?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"I have been at pains to inquire about him discreetly," said Conrad.
+"He has lived here--with the exception of mysterious absences often
+for months at a time--for twenty years. The older villagers remember
+distinctly when he first came and took over that old house on the hill,
+and they all say that in the intervening years he seems not to have
+aged perceptibly. When he came here he looked just as he does now--or
+did, up to the moment of his death--of the appearance of a man about
+fifty.
+
+"I met old Von Boehnk in Vienna, who said he knew Grimlan when a
+very young man studying in Berlin, fifty years ago, and he expressed
+astonishment that the old man was still living; for he said at that
+time Grimlan seemed to be about fifty years of age."
+
+I gave an incredulous exclamation, seeing the implication toward which
+the conversation was trending.
+
+"Nonsense! Professor Von Boehnk is past eighty himself, and liable to
+the errors of extreme age. He confused this man with another." Yet as I
+spoke, my flesh crawled unpleasantly and the hairs on my neck prickled.
+
+"Well," shrugged Conrad, "here we are at the house."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The huge pile reared up menacingly before us, and as we reached the
+front door a vagrant wind moaned through the near-by trees and I
+started foolishly as I again heard the ghostly beat of the bat's wings.
+Conrad turned a large key in the antique lock, and as we entered, a
+cold draft swept across us like a breath from the grave--moldy and
+cold. I shuddered.
+
+We groped our way through a black hallway and into a study, and here
+Conrad lighted a candle, for no gas lights or electric lights were to
+be found in the house. I looked about me, dreading what the light might
+disclose, but the room, heavily tapestried and bizarrely furnished, was
+empty save for us two.
+
+"Where--where is--_It_?" I asked in a husky whisper, from a throat gone
+dry.
+
+"Upstairs," answered Conrad in a low voice, showing that the silence
+and mystery of the house had laid a spell on him also. "Upstairs, in
+the library where he died."
+
+I glanced up involuntarily. Somewhere above our head, the lone master
+of this grim house was stretched out in his last sleep--silent, his
+white face set in a grinning mask of death. Panic swept over me and
+I fought for control. After all, it was merely the corpse of a wicked
+old man, who was past harming anyone--this argument rang hollowly in my
+brain like the words of a frightened child who is trying to reassure
+himself.
+
+I turned to Conrad. He had taken a time-yellowed envelope from an
+inside pocket.
+
+"This," he said, removing from the envelope several pages of closely
+written, time-yellowed parchment, "is, in effect, the last word of John
+Grimlan, though God alone knows how many years ago it was written.
+He gave it to me ten years ago, immediately after his return from
+Mongolia. It was shortly after this that he had his first seizure.
+
+"This envelope he gave me, sealed, and he made me swear that I would
+hide it carefully, and that I would not open it until he was dead, when
+I was to read the contents and follow their directions exactly. More,
+he made me swear that no matter what he said or did after giving me the
+envelope, I would go ahead as first directed. 'For,' he said with a
+fearful smile, 'the flesh is weak but I am a man of my word, and though
+I might, in a moment of weakness, wish to retract, it is far, far too
+late now. You may never understand the matter, but you are to do as I
+have said.'"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well," again Conrad wiped his brow, "tonight as he lay writhing in his
+death-agonies, his wordless howls were mingled with frantic admonitions
+to me to bring him the envelope and destroy it before his eyes! As
+he yammered this, he forced himself up on his elbows and with eyes
+starting and hair standing straight up on his head, he screamed at me
+in a manner to chill the blood. And he was shrieking for me to destroy
+the envelope, not to open it; and once he howled in his delirium for
+me to hew his body into pieces and scatter the bits to the four winds
+of heaven!"
+
+An uncontrollable exclamation of horror escaped my dry lips.
+
+"At last," went on Conrad, "I gave in. Remembering his commands ten
+years ago, I at first stood firm, but at last, as his screeches grew
+unbearably desperate, I turned to go for the envelope, even though
+that meant leaving him alone. But as I turned, with one last fearful
+convulsion in which blood-flecked foam flew from his writhing lips, the
+life went from his twisted body in a single great wrench."
+
+He fumbled at the parchment.
+
+"I am going to carry out my promise. The directions herein seem
+fantastic and may be the whims of a disordered mind, but I gave my
+word. They are, briefly, that I place his corpse on the great black
+ebony table in his library, with seven black candles burning about
+him. The doors and windows are to be firmly closed and fastened. Then,
+in the darkness which precedes dawn, I am to read the formula, charm
+or spell which is contained in a smaller, sealed envelope inside the
+first, and which I have not yet opened."
+
+"But is that all?" I cried. "No provisions as to the disposition of his
+fortune his estate--or his corpse?"
+
+"Nothing. In his will, which I have seen elsewhere, he leaves estate
+and fortune to a certain oriental gentleman named in the document
+as--Malik Tous!"
+
+"What!" I cried, shaken to my soul. "Conrad, this is madness heaped on
+madness! Malik Tous--good God! No mortal man was ever so named! That is
+the title of the foul god worshipped by the mysterious Yezidees--they
+of Mount Alamout the Accursed--whose Eight Brazen Towers rise in the
+mysterious wastes of deep Asia. His idolatrous symbol is the brazen
+peacock. And the Muhammadans, who hate his demon-worshipping devotees,
+say he is the essence of the evil of all the universes--the Prince of
+Darkness--Ahriman--the old Serpent--the veritable Satan! And you say
+Grimlan names this mythical demon in his will?"
+
+"It is the truth," Conrad's throat was dry. "And look--he has scribbled
+a strange line at the corner of this parchment: 'Dig me no grave; I
+shall not need one.'"
+
+Again a chill wandered down my spine.
+
+"In God's name," I cried in a kind of frenzy, "let us get this
+incredible business over with!"
+
+"I think a drink might help," answered Conrad, moistening his lips. "It
+seems to me I've seen Grimlan go into this cabinet for wine----" He
+bent to the door of an ornately carved mahogany cabinet, and after some
+difficulty opened it.
+
+"No wine here," he said disappointedly, "and if ever I felt the need of
+stimulants--what's this?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He drew out a roll of parchment, dusty, yellowed and half covered with
+spiderwebs. Everything in that grim house seemed, to my nervously
+excited senses, fraught with mysterious meaning and import, and I
+leaned over his shoulder as he unrolled it.
+
+"It's a record of peerage," he said, "such a chronicle of births,
+deaths and so forth, as the old families used to keep, in the Sixteenth
+Century and earlier."
+
+"What's the name?" I asked.
+
+He scowled over the dim scrawls, striving to master the faded, archaic
+script.
+
+"G-r-y-m--I've got it--Grymlann, of course. It's the records of old
+John's family--the Grymlanns of Toad's-heath Manor, Suffolk--what an
+outlandish name for an estate! Look at the last entry."
+
+Together we read, "John Grymlann, borne, March 10, 1630." And then we
+both cried out. Under this entry was freshly written, in a strange
+scrawling hand, "Died, March 10, 1930." Below this there was a seal of
+black wax, stamped with a strange design, something like a peacock with
+a spreading tail.
+
+Conrad stared at me speechless, all the color ebbed from his face. I
+shook myself with the rage engendered by fear.
+
+"It's the hoax of a madman!" I shouted. "The stage has been set with
+such great care that the actors have overstepped themselves. Whoever
+they are, they have heaped up so many incredible effects as to nullify
+them. It's all a very stupid, very dull drama of illusion."
+
+And even as I spoke, icy sweat stood out on my body and I shook as with
+an ague. With a wordless motion Conrad turned toward the stairs, taking
+up a large candle from a mahogany table.
+
+"It was understood, I suppose," he whispered, "that I should go through
+with this ghastly matter alone; but I had not the moral courage, and
+now I'm glad I had not."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A still horror brooded over the silent house as we went up the stairs.
+A faint breeze stole in from somewhere and set the heavy velvet
+hangings rustling, and I visualized stealthy taloned fingers drawing
+aside the tapestries, to fix red gloating eyes upon us. Once I thought
+I heard the indistinct clumping of monstrous feet somewhere above us,
+but it must have been the heavy pounding of my own heart.
+
+The stairs debouched into a wide dark corridor, in which our feeble
+candle cast a faint gleam which but illuminated our pale faces and
+made the shadows seem darker by comparison. We stopped at a heavy door,
+and I heard Conrad's breath draw in sharply as a man's will when he
+braces himself physically or mentally. I involuntarily clenched my
+fists until the nails bit into the palms; then Conrad thrust the door
+open.
+
+A sharp cry escaped his lips. The candle dropped from his nerveless
+fingers and went out. The library of John Grimlan was ablaze with
+light, though the whole house had been in darkness when we entered it.
+
+This light came from seven black candles placed at regular intervals
+about the great ebony table. On this table, between the candles--I had
+braced myself against the sight. Now in the face of the mysterious
+illumination and the sight of the thing on the table, my resolution
+nearly gave way. John Grimlan had been unlovely in life; in death he
+was hideous. Yes, he was hideous even though his face was mercifully
+covered with the same curious silken robe, which, worked in fantastic
+bird-like designs, covered his whole body except the crooked claw-like
+hands and the bare withered feet.
+
+A strangling sound came from Conrad. "My God!" he whispered; "what is
+this? I laid his body out on the table and placed the candles about it,
+but I did not light them, nor did I place that robe over the body! And
+there were bedroom slippers on his feet when I left----"
+
+He halted suddenly. We were not alone in the deathroom.
+
+At first we had not seen him, as he sat in the great armchair in a
+farther nook of a corner, so still that he seemed a part of the shadows
+cast by the heavy tapestries. As my eyes fell upon him, a violent
+shuddering shook me and a feeling akin to nausea racked the pit of my
+stomach. My first impression was of vivid, oblique yellow eyes which
+gazed unwinkingly at us. Then the man rose and made a deep salaam, and
+we saw that he was an oriental. Now when I strive to etch him clearly
+in my mind, I can resurrect no plain image of him. I only remember
+those piercing eyes and the yellow, fantastic robe he wore.
+
+We returned his salute mechanically and he spoke in a low, refined
+voice, "Gentlemen, I crave your pardon! I have made so free as to light
+the candles--shall we not proceed with the business pertaining to our
+mutual friend?"
+
+He made a slight gesture toward the silent bulk on the table. Conrad
+nodded, evidently unable to speak. The thought flashed through our
+minds at the same time, that this man had also been given a sealed
+envelope--but how had he come to the Grimlan house so quickly? John
+Grimlan had been dead scarcely two hours and to the best of our
+knowledge no one knew of his demise but ourselves. And how had he got
+into the locked and bolted house?
+
+The whole affair was grotesque and unreal in the extreme. We did not
+even introduce ourselves or ask the stranger his name. He took charge
+in a matter-of-fact way, and so under the spell of horror and illusion
+were we that we moved dazedly, involuntarily obeying his suggestions,
+given us in a low, respectful tone.
+
+I found myself standing on the left side of the table, looking across
+its grisly burden at Conrad. The oriental stood with arms folded and
+head bowed at the head of the table, nor did it then strike me as being
+strange that he should stand there, instead of Conrad who was to read
+what Grimlan had written. I found my gaze drawn to the figure worked
+on the breast of the stranger's robe, in black silk--a curious figure,
+somewhat resembling a peacock and somewhat resembling a bat, or a
+flying dragon. I noted with a start that the same design was worked on
+the robe covering the corpse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The doors had been locked, the windows fastened down. Conrad, with a
+shaky hand, opened the inner envelope and fluttered open the parchment
+sheets contained therein. These sheets seemed much older than those
+containing the instructions to Conrad, in the larger envelope. Conrad
+began to read in a monotonous drone which had the effect of hypnosis on
+the hearer; so at times the candles grew dim in my gaze and the room
+and its occupants swam strange and monstrous, veiled and distorted like
+an hallucination. Most of what he read was gibberish; it meant nothing;
+yet the sound of it and the archaic style of it filled me with an
+intolerable horror.
+
+"To ye contract elsewhere recorded, I, John Grymlann, herebye sweare
+by ye Name of ye Nameless One to keep goode faithe. Wherefore do I now
+write in blood these wordes spoken to me in thys grim & silent chamber
+in ye dedde citie of Koth, whereto no mortal manne hath attained but
+mee. These same wordes now writ down by mee to be rede over my bodie
+at ye appointed tyme to fulfill my parte of ye bargain which I entered
+intoe of mine own free will & knowledge beinge of rite mynd & fiftie
+years of age this yeare of 1680, A.D. Here begynneth ye incantation:
+
+"Before manne was, ye Elder ones were, & even yet their lord dwelleth
+amonge ye shadows to which if a manne sette his foote he maye not turn
+vpon his track."
+
+The words merged into a barbaric gibberish as Conrad stumbled through
+an unfamiliar language--a language faintly suggesting the Phenician,
+but shuddery with the touch of a hideous antiquity beyond any
+remembered earthly tongue. One of the candles flickered and went out.
+I made a move to relight it, but a motion from the silent oriental
+stayed me. His eyes burned into mine, then shifted back to the still
+form on the table.
+
+The manuscript had shifted back into its archaic English.
+
+"----And ye mortal which gaineth to ye black citadels of Koth & speaks
+with ye Darke Lord whose face is hidden, for a price maye he gain hys
+heartes desire, ryches & knowledge beyond countinge & lyffe beyond
+mortal span even two hundred & fiftie yeares."
+
+Again Conrad's voice trailed off into unfamiliar gutturals. Another
+candle went out.
+
+"----Let not ye mortal flynche as ye tyme draweth nigh for payement &
+ye fires of Hell laye hold vpon ye vytals as the sign of reckoninge.
+For ye Prince of Darkness taketh hys due in ye endde & he is not to bee
+cozened. What ye have promised, that shall ye deliver. _Augantha na
+shuba_----"
+
+At the first sound of those barbaric accents, a cold hand of terror
+locked about my throat. My frantic eyes shot to the candles and I was
+not surprized to see another flicker out. Yet there was no hint of any
+draft to stir the heavy black hangings. Conrad's voice wavered; he
+drew his hand across his throat, gagging momentarily. The eyes of the
+oriental never altered.
+
+"----Amonge ye sonnes of men glide strange shadows for ever. Men see
+ye tracks of ye talones but not ye feete that make them. Over ye souls
+of men spread great black wingges. There is but one Black Master
+though men calle hym Sathanas & Beelzebub & Apolleon & Ahriman & Malik
+Tous----"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mists of horror engulfed me. I was dimly aware of Conrad's voice
+droning on and on, both in English and in that other fearsome tongue
+whose horrific import I scarcely dared try to guess. And with stark
+fear clutching at my heart, I saw the candles go out, one by one. And
+with each flicker, as the gathering gloom darkened about us, my horror
+mounted. I could not speak, I could not move; my distended eyes were
+fixed with agonized intensity on the remaining candle. The silent
+oriental at the head of that ghastly table was included in my fear. He
+had not moved nor spoken, but under his drooping lids, his eyes burned
+with devilish triumph; I knew that beneath his inscrutable exterior he
+was gloating fiendishly--but why--_why?_
+
+[Illustration: "With stark fear clutching at his heart he saw the
+candles go out, one by one."]
+
+But I _knew_ that the moment the extinguishing of the last candle
+plunged the room into utter darkness, some nameless, abominable thing
+would take place. Conrad was approaching the end. His voice rose to the
+climax in gathering crescendo.
+
+"Approacheth now ye moment of payement. Ye ravens are flying. Ye bats
+winge against ye skye. There are skulls in ye starres. Ye soul & ye
+bodie are promised and shall bee delivered uppe. Not to ye dust agayne
+nor ye elements from which springe lyfe----"
+
+The candle flickered slightly. I tried to scream, but my mouth gaped to
+a soundless yammering. I tried to flee, but I stood frozen, unable even
+to close my eyes.
+
+"----Ye abysse yawns & ye debt is to paye. Ye light fayles, ye shadows
+gather. There is no god but evil; no lite but darkness; no hope but
+doom----"
+
+A hollow groan resounded through the room. _It seemed to come from the
+robe-covered thing on the table!_ That robe twitched fitfully.
+
+"Oh winges in ye black darke!"
+
+I started violently; a faint swish sounded in the gathering shadows.
+The stir of the dark hangings? It sounded like the rustle of gigantic
+wings.
+
+"Oh redde eyes in ye shadows! What is promised, what is writ in bloode
+is fulfilled! Ye lite is gulfed in blackness! Ya--Koth!"
+
+The last candle went out suddenly and a ghastly unhuman cry that came
+not from my lips or from Conrad's burst unbearably forth. Horror
+swept over me like a black icy wave; in the blind dark I heard myself
+screaming terribly. Then with a swirl and a great rush of wind
+something swept the room, flinging the hangings aloft and dashing
+chairs and tables crashing to the floor. For an instant an intolerable
+odor burned our nostrils, a low hideous tittering mocked us in the
+blackness; then silence fell like a shroud.
+
+Somehow, Conrad found a candle and lighted it. The faint glow showed us
+the room in fearful disarray--showed us each other's ghastly faces--and
+showed us the black ebony table--empty! The doors and windows were
+locked as they had been, but the oriental was gone--and so was the
+corpse of John Grimlan.
+
+Shrieking like damned men we broke down the door and fled frenziedly
+down the well-like staircase where the darkness seemed to clutch at us
+with clammy black fingers. As we tumbled down into the lower hallway,
+a lurid glow cut the darkness and the scent of burning wood filled our
+nostrils.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The outer doorway held momentarily against our frantic assault, then
+gave way and we hurtled into the outer starlight. Behind us the flames
+leaped up with a crackling roar as we fled down the hill. Conrad,
+glancing over his shoulder, halted suddenly, wheeled and flung up his
+arms like a madman, and screamed, "Soul and body he sold to Malik Tous,
+who is Satan, two hundred and fifty years ago! This was the night of
+payment--and my God--look! _Look!_ The Fiend has claimed his own!"
+
+I looked, frozen with horror. Flames had enveloped the whole house
+with appalling swiftness, and now the great mass was etched against
+the shadowed sky, a crimson inferno. And above the holocaust hovered a
+gigantic black shadow like a monstrous bat, and from its dark clutch
+dangled a small white thing, like the body of a man, dangling limply.
+Then, even as we cried out in horror, it was gone and our dazed gaze
+met only the shuddering walls and blazing roof which crumpled into the
+flames with an earth-shaking roar.
+
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-<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dig me no grave, by Robert E. Howard</p>

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-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Dig me no grave</p>

-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Robert E. Howard</p>

-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 28, 2023 [eBook #71066]</p>

-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>

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-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIG ME NO GRAVE ***</div>

-

-<div class="titlepage">

-

-

-<h1>Dig Me No Grave</h1>

-

-<p class="ph1">By ROBERT E. HOWARD</p>

-

-<p><i>A shuddery tale of dark horror and evil<br>

-things, and the uncanny funeral rites<br>

-over the corpse of old John Grimlan.</i></p>

-

-<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br>

-Weird Tales February 1937.<br>

-Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br>

-the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p>

-

-</div>

-

-<hr class="chap">

-

-<p>The thunder of my old-fashioned door-knocker, reverberating eerily

-through the house, roused me from a restless and nightmare-haunted

-sleep. I looked out the window. In the last light of the sinking moon,

-the white face of my friend John Conrad looked up at me.</p>

-

-<p>"May I come up, Kirowan?" His voice was shaky and strained.</p>

-

-<p>"Certainly!" I sprang out of bed and pulled on a bath-robe as I heard

-him enter the front door and ascend the stairs.</p>

-

-<p>A moment later he stood before me, and in the light which I had turned

-on I saw his hands tremble and noticed the unnatural pallor of his face.</p>

-

-<p>"Old John Grimlan died an hour ago," he said abruptly.</p>

-

-<p>"Indeed? I had not known that he was ill."</p>

-

-<p>"It was a sudden, virulent attack of peculiar nature, a sort of seizure

-somewhat akin to epilepsy. He has been subject to such spells of late

-years, you know."</p>

-

-<p>I nodded. I knew something of the old hermit-like man who had lived

-in his great dark house on the hill; indeed, I had once witnessed one

-of his strange seizures, and I had been appalled at the writhings,

-howlings and yammerings of the wretch, who had groveled on the earth

-like a wounded snake, gibbering terrible curses and black blasphemies

-until his voice broke in a wordless screaming which spattered his lips

-with foam. Seeing this, I understood why people in old times looked on

-such victims as men possessed by demons.</p>

-

-<p>"——some hereditary taint," Conrad was saying. "Old John doubtless

-fell heir to some ingrown weakness brought on by some loathsome

-disease, which was his heritage from perhaps a remote ancestor—such

-things occasionally happen. Or else—well, you know old John himself

-pried about in the mysterious parts of the earth, and wandered all over

-the East in his younger days. It is quite possible that he was infected

-with some obscure malady in his wanderings. There are still many

-unclassified diseases in Africa and the Orient."</p>

-

-<p>"But," said I, "you have not told me the reason for this sudden visit

-at this unearthly hour—for I notice that it is past midnight."</p>

-

-<p>My friend seemed rather confused.</p>

-

-<p>"Well, the fact is that John Grimlan died alone, except for myself. He

-refused to receive any medical aid of any sort, and in the last few

-moments when it was evident that he was dying, and I was prepared to

-go for some sort of help in spite of him, he set up such a howling and

-screaming that I could not refuse his passionate pleas—which were that

-he should not be left to die alone.</p>

-

-<p>"I have seen men die," added Conrad, wiping the perspiration from his

-pale brow, "but the death of John Grimlan was the most fearful I have

-ever seen."</p>

-

-<p>"He suffered a great deal?"</p>

-

-<p>"He appeared to be in much physical agony, but this was mostly

-submerged by some monstrous mental or psychic suffering. The fear in

-his distended eyes and his screams transcended any conceivable earthly

-terror. I tell you, Kirowan, Grimlan's fright was greater and deeper

-than the ordinary fear of the Beyond shown by a man of ordinarily evil

-life."</p>

-

-<p>I shifted restlessly. The dark implications of this statement sent a

-chill of nameless apprehension trickling down my spine.</p>

-

-<p>"I know the country people always claimed that in his youth he sold

-his soul to the Devil, and that his sudden epileptic attacks were

-merely a visible sign of the Fiend's power over him; but such talk is

-foolish, of course, and belongs in the Dark Ages. We all know that John

-Grimlan's life was a peculiarly evil and vicious one, even toward his

-last days. With good reason he was universally detested and feared, for

-I never heard of his doing a single good act. You were his only friend."</p>

-

-<p>"And that was a strange friendship," said Conrad. "I was attracted to

-him by his unusual powers, for despite his bestial nature, John Grimlan

-was a highly educated man, a deeply cultured man. He had dipped deep

-into occult studies, and I first met him in this manner; for as you

-know, I have always been strongly interested in these lines of research

-myself.</p>

-

-<p>"But, in this as in all other things, Grimlan was evil and perverse. He

-had ignored the white side of the occult and delved into the darker,

-grimmer phases of it—into devil-worship, and voodoo and Shintoism. His

-knowledge of these foul arts and sciences was immense and unholy. And

-to hear him tell of his researches and experiments was to know such

-horror and repulsion as a venomous reptile might inspire. For there had

-been no depths to which he had not sunk, and some things he only hinted

-at, even to me. I tell you, Kirowan, it is easy to laugh at tales of

-the black world of the unknown, when one is in pleasant company under

-the bright sunlight, but had you sat at ungodly hours in the silent

-bizarre library of John Grimlan and looked on the ancient musty volumes

-and listened to his grisly talk as I did, your tongue would have cloven

-to your palate with sheer horror as mine did, and the supernatural

-would have seemed very real and near to you—as it seemed to me!"</p>

-

-<p>"But in God's name, man!" I cried, for the tension was growing

-unbearable; "come to the point and tell me what you want of me."</p>

-

-<p>"I want you to come with me to John Grimlan's house and help carry out

-his outlandish instructions in regard to his body."</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>I had no liking for the adventure, but I dressed hurriedly, an

-occasional shudder of premonition shaking me. Once fully clad, I

-followed Conrad out of the house and up the silent road which led to

-the house of John Grimlan. The road wound uphill, and all the way,

-looking upward and forward, I could see that great grim house perched

-like a bird of evil on the crest of the hill, bulking black and stark

-against the stars. In the west pulsed a single dull red smear where

-the young moon had just sunk from view behind the low black hills. The

-whole night seemed full of brooding evil, and the persistent swishing

-of a bat's wings somewhere overhead caused my taut nerves to jerk and

-thrum. To drown the quick pounding of my own heart, I said:</p>

-

-<p>"Do you share the belief so many hold, that John Grimlan was mad?"</p>

-

-<p>We strode on several paces before Conrad answered, seemingly with a

-strange reluctance, "But for one incident, I would say no man was ever

-saner. But one night in his study, he seemed suddenly to break all

-bonds of reason.</p>

-

-<p>"He had discoursed for hours on his favorite subject—black magic—when

-suddenly he cried, as his face lit with a weird unholy glow: 'Why

-should I sit here babbling such child's prattle to you? These voodoo

-rituals—these Shinto sacrifices—feathered snakes—goats without

-horns—black leopard cults—bah! Filth and dust that the wind blows

-away! Dregs of the real Unknown—the deep mysteries! Mere echoes from

-the Abyss!</p>

-

-<p>"'I could tell you things that would shatter your paltry brain! I could

-breathe into your ear names that would wither you like a burnt weed!

-What do you know of Yog-Sothoth, of Kathulos and the sunken cities?

-None of these names is even included in your mythologies. Not even in

-your dreams have you glimpsed the black cyclopean walls of Koth, or

-shriveled before the noxious winds that blow from Yuggoth!</p>

-

-<p>"'But I will not blast you lifeless with my black wisdom! I cannot

-expect your infantile brain to bear what mine holds. Were you as old

-as I—had you seen, as I have seen, kingdoms crumble and generations

-pass away—had you gathered as ripe grain the dark secrets of the

-centuries——'</p>

-

-<p>"He was raving away, his wildly lit face scarcely human in appearance,

-and suddenly, noting my evident bewilderment, he burst into a horrible

-cackling laugh.</p>

-

-<p>"'Gad!' he cried in a voice and accent strange to me, 'methinks I've

-frighted ye, and certes, it is not to be marveled at, sith ye be but

-a naked savage in the arts of life, after all. Ye think I be old, eh?

-Why, ye gaping lout, ye'd drop dead were I to divulge the generations

-of men I've known——'</p>

-

-<p>"But at this point such horror overcame me that I fled from him as from

-an adder, and his high-pitched, diabolical laughter followed me out of

-the shadowy house. Some days later I received a letter apologizing for

-his manner and ascribing it candidly—too candidly—to drugs. I did not

-believe it, but I renewed our relations, after some hesitation."</p>

-

-<p>"It sounds like utter madness," I muttered.</p>

-

-<p>"Yes," admitted Conrad, hesitantly. "But—Kirowan, have you ever seen

-anyone who knew John Grimlan in his youth?"</p>

-

-<p>I shook my head.</p>

-

-<p>"I have been at pains to inquire about him discreetly," said Conrad.

-"He has lived here—with the exception of mysterious absences often

-for months at a time—for twenty years. The older villagers remember

-distinctly when he first came and took over that old house on the hill,

-and they all say that in the intervening years he seems not to have

-aged perceptibly. When he came here he looked just as he does now—or

-did, up to the moment of his death—of the appearance of a man about

-fifty.</p>

-

-<p>"I met old Von Boehnk in Vienna, who said he knew Grimlan when a

-very young man studying in Berlin, fifty years ago, and he expressed

-astonishment that the old man was still living; for he said at that

-time Grimlan seemed to be about fifty years of age."</p>

-

-<p>I gave an incredulous exclamation, seeing the implication toward which

-the conversation was trending.</p>

-

-<p>"Nonsense! Professor Von Boehnk is past eighty himself, and liable to

-the errors of extreme age. He confused this man with another." Yet as I

-spoke, my flesh crawled unpleasantly and the hairs on my neck prickled.</p>

-

-<p>"Well," shrugged Conrad, "here we are at the house."</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>The huge pile reared up menacingly before us, and as we reached the

-front door a vagrant wind moaned through the near-by trees and I

-started foolishly as I again heard the ghostly beat of the bat's wings.

-Conrad turned a large key in the antique lock, and as we entered, a

-cold draft swept across us like a breath from the grave—moldy and

-cold. I shuddered.</p>

-

-<p>We groped our way through a black hallway and into a study, and here

-Conrad lighted a candle, for no gas lights or electric lights were to

-be found in the house. I looked about me, dreading what the light might

-disclose, but the room, heavily tapestried and bizarrely furnished, was

-empty save for us two.</p>

-

-<p>"Where—where is—<i>It</i>?" I asked in a husky whisper, from a throat gone

-dry.</p>

-

-<p>"Upstairs," answered Conrad in a low voice, showing that the silence

-and mystery of the house had laid a spell on him also. "Upstairs, in

-the library where he died."</p>

-

-<p>I glanced up involuntarily. Somewhere above our head, the lone master

-of this grim house was stretched out in his last sleep—silent, his

-white face set in a grinning mask of death. Panic swept over me and

-I fought for control. After all, it was merely the corpse of a wicked

-old man, who was past harming anyone—this argument rang hollowly in my

-brain like the words of a frightened child who is trying to reassure

-himself.</p>

-

-<p>I turned to Conrad. He had taken a time-yellowed envelope from an

-inside pocket.</p>

-

-<p>"This," he said, removing from the envelope several pages of closely

-written, time-yellowed parchment, "is, in effect, the last word of John

-Grimlan, though God alone knows how many years ago it was written.

-He gave it to me ten years ago, immediately after his return from

-Mongolia. It was shortly after this that he had his first seizure.</p>

-

-<p>"This envelope he gave me, sealed, and he made me swear that I would

-hide it carefully, and that I would not open it until he was dead, when

-I was to read the contents and follow their directions exactly. More,

-he made me swear that no matter what he said or did after giving me the

-envelope, I would go ahead as first directed. 'For,' he said with a

-fearful smile, 'the flesh is weak but I am a man of my word, and though

-I might, in a moment of weakness, wish to retract, it is far, far too

-late now. You may never understand the matter, but you are to do as I

-have said.'"</p>

-

-<p>"Well?"</p>

-

-<p>"Well," again Conrad wiped his brow, "tonight as he lay writhing in his

-death-agonies, his wordless howls were mingled with frantic admonitions

-to me to bring him the envelope and destroy it before his eyes! As

-he yammered this, he forced himself up on his elbows and with eyes

-starting and hair standing straight up on his head, he screamed at me

-in a manner to chill the blood. And he was shrieking for me to destroy

-the envelope, not to open it; and once he howled in his delirium for

-me to hew his body into pieces and scatter the bits to the four winds

-of heaven!"</p>

-

-<p>An uncontrollable exclamation of horror escaped my dry lips.</p>

-

-<p>"At last," went on Conrad, "I gave in. Remembering his commands ten

-years ago, I at first stood firm, but at last, as his screeches grew

-unbearably desperate, I turned to go for the envelope, even though

-that meant leaving him alone. But as I turned, with one last fearful

-convulsion in which blood-flecked foam flew from his writhing lips, the

-life went from his twisted body in a single great wrench."</p>

-

-<p>He fumbled at the parchment.</p>

-

-<p>"I am going to carry out my promise. The directions herein seem

-fantastic and may be the whims of a disordered mind, but I gave my

-word. They are, briefly, that I place his corpse on the great black

-ebony table in his library, with seven black candles burning about

-him. The doors and windows are to be firmly closed and fastened. Then,

-in the darkness which precedes dawn, I am to read the formula, charm

-or spell which is contained in a smaller, sealed envelope inside the

-first, and which I have not yet opened."</p>

-

-<p>"But is that all?" I cried. "No provisions as to the disposition of his

-fortune his estate—or his corpse?"</p>

-

-<p>"Nothing. In his will, which I have seen elsewhere, he leaves estate

-and fortune to a certain oriental gentleman named in the document

-as—Malik Tous!"</p>

-

-<p>"What!" I cried, shaken to my soul. "Conrad, this is madness heaped on

-madness! Malik Tous—good God! No mortal man was ever so named! That is

-the title of the foul god worshipped by the mysterious Yezidees—they

-of Mount Alamout the Accursed—whose Eight Brazen Towers rise in the

-mysterious wastes of deep Asia. His idolatrous symbol is the brazen

-peacock. And the Muhammadans, who hate his demon-worshipping devotees,

-say he is the essence of the evil of all the universes—the Prince of

-Darkness—Ahriman—the old Serpent—the veritable Satan! And you say

-Grimlan names this mythical demon in his will?"</p>

-

-<p>"It is the truth," Conrad's throat was dry. "And look—he has scribbled

-a strange line at the corner of this parchment: 'Dig me no grave; I

-shall not need one.'"</p>

-

-<p>Again a chill wandered down my spine.</p>

-

-<p>"In God's name," I cried in a kind of frenzy, "let us get this

-incredible business over with!"</p>

-

-<p>"I think a drink might help," answered Conrad, moistening his lips. "It

-seems to me I've seen Grimlan go into this cabinet for wine——" He

-bent to the door of an ornately carved mahogany cabinet, and after some

-difficulty opened it.</p>

-

-<p>"No wine here," he said disappointedly, "and if ever I felt the need of

-stimulants—what's this?"</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>He drew out a roll of parchment, dusty, yellowed and half covered with

-spiderwebs. Everything in that grim house seemed, to my nervously

-excited senses, fraught with mysterious meaning and import, and I

-leaned over his shoulder as he unrolled it.</p>

-

-<p>"It's a record of peerage," he said, "such a chronicle of births,

-deaths and so forth, as the old families used to keep, in the Sixteenth

-Century and earlier."</p>

-

-<p>"What's the name?" I asked.</p>

-

-<p>He scowled over the dim scrawls, striving to master the faded, archaic

-script.</p>

-

-<p>"G-r-y-m—I've got it—Grymlann, of course. It's the records of old

-John's family—the Grymlanns of Toad's-heath Manor, Suffolk—what an

-outlandish name for an estate! Look at the last entry."</p>

-

-<p>Together we read, "John Grymlann, borne, March 10, 1630." And then we

-both cried out. Under this entry was freshly written, in a strange

-scrawling hand, "Died, March 10, 1930." Below this there was a seal of

-black wax, stamped with a strange design, something like a peacock with

-a spreading tail.</p>

-

-<p>Conrad stared at me speechless, all the color ebbed from his face. I

-shook myself with the rage engendered by fear.</p>

-

-<p>"It's the hoax of a madman!" I shouted. "The stage has been set with

-such great care that the actors have overstepped themselves. Whoever

-they are, they have heaped up so many incredible effects as to nullify

-them. It's all a very stupid, very dull drama of illusion."</p>

-

-<p>And even as I spoke, icy sweat stood out on my body and I shook as with

-an ague. With a wordless motion Conrad turned toward the stairs, taking

-up a large candle from a mahogany table.</p>

-

-<p>"It was understood, I suppose," he whispered, "that I should go through

-with this ghastly matter alone; but I had not the moral courage, and

-now I'm glad I had not."</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>A still horror brooded over the silent house as we went up the stairs.

-A faint breeze stole in from somewhere and set the heavy velvet

-hangings rustling, and I visualized stealthy taloned fingers drawing

-aside the tapestries, to fix red gloating eyes upon us. Once I thought

-I heard the indistinct clumping of monstrous feet somewhere above us,

-but it must have been the heavy pounding of my own heart.</p>

-

-<p>The stairs debouched into a wide dark corridor, in which our feeble

-candle cast a faint gleam which but illuminated our pale faces and

-made the shadows seem darker by comparison. We stopped at a heavy door,

-and I heard Conrad's breath draw in sharply as a man's will when he

-braces himself physically or mentally. I involuntarily clenched my

-fists until the nails bit into the palms; then Conrad thrust the door

-open.</p>

-

-<p>A sharp cry escaped his lips. The candle dropped from his nerveless

-fingers and went out. The library of John Grimlan was ablaze with

-light, though the whole house had been in darkness when we entered it.</p>

-

-<p>This light came from seven black candles placed at regular intervals

-about the great ebony table. On this table, between the candles—I had

-braced myself against the sight. Now in the face of the mysterious

-illumination and the sight of the thing on the table, my resolution

-nearly gave way. John Grimlan had been unlovely in life; in death he

-was hideous. Yes, he was hideous even though his face was mercifully

-covered with the same curious silken robe, which, worked in fantastic

-bird-like designs, covered his whole body except the crooked claw-like

-hands and the bare withered feet.</p>

-

-<p>A strangling sound came from Conrad. "My God!" he whispered; "what is

-this? I laid his body out on the table and placed the candles about it,

-but I did not light them, nor did I place that robe over the body! And

-there were bedroom slippers on his feet when I left——"</p>

-

-<p>He halted suddenly. We were not alone in the deathroom.</p>

-

-<p>At first we had not seen him, as he sat in the great armchair in a

-farther nook of a corner, so still that he seemed a part of the shadows

-cast by the heavy tapestries. As my eyes fell upon him, a violent

-shuddering shook me and a feeling akin to nausea racked the pit of my

-stomach. My first impression was of vivid, oblique yellow eyes which

-gazed unwinkingly at us. Then the man rose and made a deep salaam, and

-we saw that he was an oriental. Now when I strive to etch him clearly

-in my mind, I can resurrect no plain image of him. I only remember

-those piercing eyes and the yellow, fantastic robe he wore.</p>

-

-<p>We returned his salute mechanically and he spoke in a low, refined

-voice, "Gentlemen, I crave your pardon! I have made so free as to light

-the candles—shall we not proceed with the business pertaining to our

-mutual friend?"</p>

-

-<p>He made a slight gesture toward the silent bulk on the table. Conrad

-nodded, evidently unable to speak. The thought flashed through our

-minds at the same time, that this man had also been given a sealed

-envelope—but how had he come to the Grimlan house so quickly? John

-Grimlan had been dead scarcely two hours and to the best of our

-knowledge no one knew of his demise but ourselves. And how had he got

-into the locked and bolted house?</p>

-

-<p>The whole affair was grotesque and unreal in the extreme. We did not

-even introduce ourselves or ask the stranger his name. He took charge

-in a matter-of-fact way, and so under the spell of horror and illusion

-were we that we moved dazedly, involuntarily obeying his suggestions,

-given us in a low, respectful tone.</p>

-

-<p>I found myself standing on the left side of the table, looking across

-its grisly burden at Conrad. The oriental stood with arms folded and

-head bowed at the head of the table, nor did it then strike me as being

-strange that he should stand there, instead of Conrad who was to read

-what Grimlan had written. I found my gaze drawn to the figure worked

-on the breast of the stranger's robe, in black silk—a curious figure,

-somewhat resembling a peacock and somewhat resembling a bat, or a

-flying dragon. I noted with a start that the same design was worked on

-the robe covering the corpse.</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>The doors had been locked, the windows fastened down. Conrad, with a

-shaky hand, opened the inner envelope and fluttered open the parchment

-sheets contained therein. These sheets seemed much older than those

-containing the instructions to Conrad, in the larger envelope. Conrad

-began to read in a monotonous drone which had the effect of hypnosis on

-the hearer; so at times the candles grew dim in my gaze and the room

-and its occupants swam strange and monstrous, veiled and distorted like

-an hallucination. Most of what he read was gibberish; it meant nothing;

-yet the sound of it and the archaic style of it filled me with an

-intolerable horror.</p>

-

-<p>"To ye contract elsewhere recorded, I, John Grymlann, herebye sweare

-by ye Name of ye Nameless One to keep goode faithe. Wherefore do I now

-write in blood these wordes spoken to me in thys grim &amp; silent chamber

-in ye dedde citie of Koth, whereto no mortal manne hath attained but

-mee. These same wordes now writ down by mee to be rede over my bodie

-at ye appointed tyme to fulfill my parte of ye bargain which I entered

-intoe of mine own free will &amp; knowledge beinge of rite mynd &amp; fiftie

-years of age this yeare of 1680, A.D. Here begynneth ye incantation:</p>

-

-<p>"Before manne was, ye Elder ones were, &amp; even yet their lord dwelleth

-amonge ye shadows to which if a manne sette his foote he maye not turn

-vpon his track."</p>

-

-<p>The words merged into a barbaric gibberish as Conrad stumbled through

-an unfamiliar language—a language faintly suggesting the Phenician,

-but shuddery with the touch of a hideous antiquity beyond any

-remembered earthly tongue. One of the candles flickered and went out.

-I made a move to relight it, but a motion from the silent oriental

-stayed me. His eyes burned into mine, then shifted back to the still

-form on the table.</p>

-

-<p>The manuscript had shifted back into its archaic English.</p>

-

-<p>"——And ye mortal which gaineth to ye black citadels of Koth &amp; speaks

-with ye Darke Lord whose face is hidden, for a price maye he gain hys

-heartes desire, ryches &amp; knowledge beyond countinge &amp; lyffe beyond

-mortal span even two hundred &amp; fiftie yeares."</p>

-

-<p>Again Conrad's voice trailed off into unfamiliar gutturals. Another

-candle went out.</p>

-

-<p>"——Let not ye mortal flynche as ye tyme draweth nigh for payement &amp;

-ye fires of Hell laye hold vpon ye vytals as the sign of reckoninge.

-For ye Prince of Darkness taketh hys due in ye endde &amp; he is not to bee

-cozened. What ye have promised, that shall ye deliver. <i>Augantha na

-shuba</i>——"</p>

-

-<p>At the first sound of those barbaric accents, a cold hand of terror

-locked about my throat. My frantic eyes shot to the candles and I was

-not surprized to see another flicker out. Yet there was no hint of any

-draft to stir the heavy black hangings. Conrad's voice wavered; he

-drew his hand across his throat, gagging momentarily. The eyes of the

-oriental never altered.</p>

-

-<p>"——Amonge ye sonnes of men glide strange shadows for ever. Men see

-ye tracks of ye talones but not ye feete that make them. Over ye souls

-of men spread great black wingges. There is but one Black Master

-though men calle hym Sathanas &amp; Beelzebub &amp; Apolleon &amp; Ahriman &amp; Malik

-Tous——"</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>Mists of horror engulfed me. I was dimly aware of Conrad's voice

-droning on and on, both in English and in that other fearsome tongue

-whose horrific import I scarcely dared try to guess. And with stark

-fear clutching at my heart, I saw the candles go out, one by one. And

-with each flicker, as the gathering gloom darkened about us, my horror

-mounted. I could not speak, I could not move; my distended eyes were

-fixed with agonized intensity on the remaining candle. The silent

-oriental at the head of that ghastly table was included in my fear. He

-had not moved nor spoken, but under his drooping lids, his eyes burned

-with devilish triumph; I knew that beneath his inscrutable exterior he

-was gloating fiendishly—but why—<i>why?</i></p>

-

-<hr class="chap">

-

-<div class="figcenter">

-  <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt="">

-  <div class="caption">

-    <p>"With stark fear clutching at his heart he saw the candles go out, one by one."</p>

-  </div>

-</div>

-

-<hr class="chap">

-

-<p>But I <i>knew</i> that the moment the extinguishing of the last candle

-plunged the room into utter darkness, some nameless, abominable thing

-would take place. Conrad was approaching the end. His voice rose to the

-climax in gathering crescendo.</p>

-

-<p>"Approacheth now ye moment of payement. Ye ravens are flying. Ye bats

-winge against ye skye. There are skulls in ye starres. Ye soul &amp; ye

-bodie are promised and shall bee delivered uppe. Not to ye dust agayne

-nor ye elements from which springe lyfe——"</p>

-

-<p>The candle flickered slightly. I tried to scream, but my mouth gaped to

-a soundless yammering. I tried to flee, but I stood frozen, unable even

-to close my eyes.</p>

-

-<p>"——Ye abysse yawns &amp; ye debt is to paye. Ye light fayles, ye shadows

-gather. There is no god but evil; no lite but darkness; no hope but

-doom——"</p>

-

-<p>A hollow groan resounded through the room. <i>It seemed to come from the

-robe-covered thing on the table!</i> That robe twitched fitfully.</p>

-

-<p>"Oh winges in ye black darke!"</p>

-

-<p>I started violently; a faint swish sounded in the gathering shadows.

-The stir of the dark hangings? It sounded like the rustle of gigantic

-wings.</p>

-

-<p>"Oh redde eyes in ye shadows! What is promised, what is writ in bloode

-is fulfilled! Ye lite is gulfed in blackness! Ya—Koth!"</p>

-

-<p>The last candle went out suddenly and a ghastly unhuman cry that came

-not from my lips or from Conrad's burst unbearably forth. Horror

-swept over me like a black icy wave; in the blind dark I heard myself

-screaming terribly. Then with a swirl and a great rush of wind

-something swept the room, flinging the hangings aloft and dashing

-chairs and tables crashing to the floor. For an instant an intolerable

-odor burned our nostrils, a low hideous tittering mocked us in the

-blackness; then silence fell like a shroud.</p>

-

-<p>Somehow, Conrad found a candle and lighted it. The faint glow showed us

-the room in fearful disarray—showed us each other's ghastly faces—and

-showed us the black ebony table—empty! The doors and windows were

-locked as they had been, but the oriental was gone—and so was the

-corpse of John Grimlan.</p>

-

-<p>Shrieking like damned men we broke down the door and fled frenziedly

-down the well-like staircase where the darkness seemed to clutch at us

-with clammy black fingers. As we tumbled down into the lower hallway,

-a lurid glow cut the darkness and the scent of burning wood filled our

-nostrils.</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>The outer doorway held momentarily against our frantic assault, then

-gave way and we hurtled into the outer starlight. Behind us the flames

-leaped up with a crackling roar as we fled down the hill. Conrad,

-glancing over his shoulder, halted suddenly, wheeled and flung up his

-arms like a madman, and screamed, "Soul and body he sold to Malik Tous,

-who is Satan, two hundred and fifty years ago! This was the night of

-payment—and my God—look! <i>Look!</i> The Fiend has claimed his own!"</p>

-

-<p>I looked, frozen with horror. Flames had enveloped the whole house

-with appalling swiftness, and now the great mass was etched against

-the shadowed sky, a crimson inferno. And above the holocaust hovered a

-gigantic black shadow like a monstrous bat, and from its dark clutch

-dangled a small white thing, like the body of a man, dangling limply.

-Then, even as we cried out in horror, it was gone and our dazed gaze

-met only the shuddering walls and blazing roof which crumpled into the

-flames with an earth-shaking roar.

-</p>

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+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+    <meta charset="UTF-8">
+    <title>
+      Dig Me No Grave | Project Gutenberg
+    </title>
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+<body>
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dig me no grave, by Robert E. Howard</p>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
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+</div>
+
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Dig me no grave</p>
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Robert E. Howard</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 28, 2023 [eBook #71066]</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
+  <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</p>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIG ME NO GRAVE ***</div>
+
+<div class="titlepage">
+
+
+<h1>Dig Me No Grave</h1>
+
+<p class="ph1">By ROBERT E. HOWARD</p>
+
+<p><i>A shuddery tale of dark horror and evil<br>
+things, and the uncanny funeral rites<br>
+over the corpse of old John Grimlan.</i></p>
+
+<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br>
+Weird Tales February 1937.<br>
+Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br>
+the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap">
+
+<p>The thunder of my old-fashioned door-knocker, reverberating eerily
+through the house, roused me from a restless and nightmare-haunted
+sleep. I looked out the window. In the last light of the sinking moon,
+the white face of my friend John Conrad looked up at me.</p>
+
+<p>"May I come up, Kirowan?" His voice was shaky and strained.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly!" I sprang out of bed and pulled on a bath-robe as I heard
+him enter the front door and ascend the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later he stood before me, and in the light which I had turned
+on I saw his hands tremble and noticed the unnatural pallor of his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Old John Grimlan died an hour ago," he said abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed? I had not known that he was ill."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a sudden, virulent attack of peculiar nature, a sort of seizure
+somewhat akin to epilepsy. He has been subject to such spells of late
+years, you know."</p>
+
+<p>I nodded. I knew something of the old hermit-like man who had lived
+in his great dark house on the hill; indeed, I had once witnessed one
+of his strange seizures, and I had been appalled at the writhings,
+howlings and yammerings of the wretch, who had groveled on the earth
+like a wounded snake, gibbering terrible curses and black blasphemies
+until his voice broke in a wordless screaming which spattered his lips
+with foam. Seeing this, I understood why people in old times looked on
+such victims as men possessed by demons.</p>
+
+<p>"——some hereditary taint," Conrad was saying. "Old John doubtless
+fell heir to some ingrown weakness brought on by some loathsome
+disease, which was his heritage from perhaps a remote ancestor—such
+things occasionally happen. Or else—well, you know old John himself
+pried about in the mysterious parts of the earth, and wandered all over
+the East in his younger days. It is quite possible that he was infected
+with some obscure malady in his wanderings. There are still many
+unclassified diseases in Africa and the Orient."</p>
+
+<p>"But," said I, "you have not told me the reason for this sudden visit
+at this unearthly hour—for I notice that it is past midnight."</p>
+
+<p>My friend seemed rather confused.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the fact is that John Grimlan died alone, except for myself. He
+refused to receive any medical aid of any sort, and in the last few
+moments when it was evident that he was dying, and I was prepared to
+go for some sort of help in spite of him, he set up such a howling and
+screaming that I could not refuse his passionate pleas—which were that
+he should not be left to die alone.</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen men die," added Conrad, wiping the perspiration from his
+pale brow, "but the death of John Grimlan was the most fearful I have
+ever seen."</p>
+
+<p>"He suffered a great deal?"</p>
+
+<p>"He appeared to be in much physical agony, but this was mostly
+submerged by some monstrous mental or psychic suffering. The fear in
+his distended eyes and his screams transcended any conceivable earthly
+terror. I tell you, Kirowan, Grimlan's fright was greater and deeper
+than the ordinary fear of the Beyond shown by a man of ordinarily evil
+life."</p>
+
+<p>I shifted restlessly. The dark implications of this statement sent a
+chill of nameless apprehension trickling down my spine.</p>
+
+<p>"I know the country people always claimed that in his youth he sold
+his soul to the Devil, and that his sudden epileptic attacks were
+merely a visible sign of the Fiend's power over him; but such talk is
+foolish, of course, and belongs in the Dark Ages. We all know that John
+Grimlan's life was a peculiarly evil and vicious one, even toward his
+last days. With good reason he was universally detested and feared, for
+I never heard of his doing a single good act. You were his only friend."</p>
+
+<p>"And that was a strange friendship," said Conrad. "I was attracted to
+him by his unusual powers, for despite his bestial nature, John Grimlan
+was a highly educated man, a deeply cultured man. He had dipped deep
+into occult studies, and I first met him in this manner; for as you
+know, I have always been strongly interested in these lines of research
+myself.</p>
+
+<p>"But, in this as in all other things, Grimlan was evil and perverse. He
+had ignored the white side of the occult and delved into the darker,
+grimmer phases of it—into devil-worship, and voodoo and Shintoism. His
+knowledge of these foul arts and sciences was immense and unholy. And
+to hear him tell of his researches and experiments was to know such
+horror and repulsion as a venomous reptile might inspire. For there had
+been no depths to which he had not sunk, and some things he only hinted
+at, even to me. I tell you, Kirowan, it is easy to laugh at tales of
+the black world of the unknown, when one is in pleasant company under
+the bright sunlight, but had you sat at ungodly hours in the silent
+bizarre library of John Grimlan and looked on the ancient musty volumes
+and listened to his grisly talk as I did, your tongue would have cloven
+to your palate with sheer horror as mine did, and the supernatural
+would have seemed very real and near to you—as it seemed to me!"</p>
+
+<p>"But in God's name, man!" I cried, for the tension was growing
+unbearable; "come to the point and tell me what you want of me."</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to come with me to John Grimlan's house and help carry out
+his outlandish instructions in regard to his body."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>I had no liking for the adventure, but I dressed hurriedly, an
+occasional shudder of premonition shaking me. Once fully clad, I
+followed Conrad out of the house and up the silent road which led to
+the house of John Grimlan. The road wound uphill, and all the way,
+looking upward and forward, I could see that great grim house perched
+like a bird of evil on the crest of the hill, bulking black and stark
+against the stars. In the west pulsed a single dull red smear where
+the young moon had just sunk from view behind the low black hills. The
+whole night seemed full of brooding evil, and the persistent swishing
+of a bat's wings somewhere overhead caused my taut nerves to jerk and
+thrum. To drown the quick pounding of my own heart, I said:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you share the belief so many hold, that John Grimlan was mad?"</p>
+
+<p>We strode on several paces before Conrad answered, seemingly with a
+strange reluctance, "But for one incident, I would say no man was ever
+saner. But one night in his study, he seemed suddenly to break all
+bonds of reason.</p>
+
+<p>"He had discoursed for hours on his favorite subject—black magic—when
+suddenly he cried, as his face lit with a weird unholy glow: 'Why
+should I sit here babbling such child's prattle to you? These voodoo
+rituals—these Shinto sacrifices—feathered snakes—goats without
+horns—black leopard cults—bah! Filth and dust that the wind blows
+away! Dregs of the real Unknown—the deep mysteries! Mere echoes from
+the Abyss!</p>
+
+<p>"'I could tell you things that would shatter your paltry brain! I could
+breathe into your ear names that would wither you like a burnt weed!
+What do you know of Yog-Sothoth, of Kathulos and the sunken cities?
+None of these names is even included in your mythologies. Not even in
+your dreams have you glimpsed the black cyclopean walls of Koth, or
+shriveled before the noxious winds that blow from Yuggoth!</p>
+
+<p>"'But I will not blast you lifeless with my black wisdom! I cannot
+expect your infantile brain to bear what mine holds. Were you as old
+as I—had you seen, as I have seen, kingdoms crumble and generations
+pass away—had you gathered as ripe grain the dark secrets of the
+centuries——'</p>
+
+<p>"He was raving away, his wildly lit face scarcely human in appearance,
+and suddenly, noting my evident bewilderment, he burst into a horrible
+cackling laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"'Gad!' he cried in a voice and accent strange to me, 'methinks I've
+frighted ye, and certes, it is not to be marveled at, sith ye be but
+a naked savage in the arts of life, after all. Ye think I be old, eh?
+Why, ye gaping lout, ye'd drop dead were I to divulge the generations
+of men I've known——'</p>
+
+<p>"But at this point such horror overcame me that I fled from him as from
+an adder, and his high-pitched, diabolical laughter followed me out of
+the shadowy house. Some days later I received a letter apologizing for
+his manner and ascribing it candidly—too candidly—to drugs. I did not
+believe it, but I renewed our relations, after some hesitation."</p>
+
+<p>"It sounds like utter madness," I muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," admitted Conrad, hesitantly. "But—Kirowan, have you ever seen
+anyone who knew John Grimlan in his youth?"</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been at pains to inquire about him discreetly," said Conrad.
+"He has lived here—with the exception of mysterious absences often
+for months at a time—for twenty years. The older villagers remember
+distinctly when he first came and took over that old house on the hill,
+and they all say that in the intervening years he seems not to have
+aged perceptibly. When he came here he looked just as he does now—or
+did, up to the moment of his death—of the appearance of a man about
+fifty.</p>
+
+<p>"I met old Von Boehnk in Vienna, who said he knew Grimlan when a
+very young man studying in Berlin, fifty years ago, and he expressed
+astonishment that the old man was still living; for he said at that
+time Grimlan seemed to be about fifty years of age."</p>
+
+<p>I gave an incredulous exclamation, seeing the implication toward which
+the conversation was trending.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense! Professor Von Boehnk is past eighty himself, and liable to
+the errors of extreme age. He confused this man with another." Yet as I
+spoke, my flesh crawled unpleasantly and the hairs on my neck prickled.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," shrugged Conrad, "here we are at the house."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>The huge pile reared up menacingly before us, and as we reached the
+front door a vagrant wind moaned through the near-by trees and I
+started foolishly as I again heard the ghostly beat of the bat's wings.
+Conrad turned a large key in the antique lock, and as we entered, a
+cold draft swept across us like a breath from the grave—moldy and
+cold. I shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>We groped our way through a black hallway and into a study, and here
+Conrad lighted a candle, for no gas lights or electric lights were to
+be found in the house. I looked about me, dreading what the light might
+disclose, but the room, heavily tapestried and bizarrely furnished, was
+empty save for us two.</p>
+
+<p>"Where—where is—<i>It</i>?" I asked in a husky whisper, from a throat gone
+dry.</p>
+
+<p>"Upstairs," answered Conrad in a low voice, showing that the silence
+and mystery of the house had laid a spell on him also. "Upstairs, in
+the library where he died."</p>
+
+<p>I glanced up involuntarily. Somewhere above our head, the lone master
+of this grim house was stretched out in his last sleep—silent, his
+white face set in a grinning mask of death. Panic swept over me and
+I fought for control. After all, it was merely the corpse of a wicked
+old man, who was past harming anyone—this argument rang hollowly in my
+brain like the words of a frightened child who is trying to reassure
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>I turned to Conrad. He had taken a time-yellowed envelope from an
+inside pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"This," he said, removing from the envelope several pages of closely
+written, time-yellowed parchment, "is, in effect, the last word of John
+Grimlan, though God alone knows how many years ago it was written.
+He gave it to me ten years ago, immediately after his return from
+Mongolia. It was shortly after this that he had his first seizure.</p>
+
+<p>"This envelope he gave me, sealed, and he made me swear that I would
+hide it carefully, and that I would not open it until he was dead, when
+I was to read the contents and follow their directions exactly. More,
+he made me swear that no matter what he said or did after giving me the
+envelope, I would go ahead as first directed. 'For,' he said with a
+fearful smile, 'the flesh is weak but I am a man of my word, and though
+I might, in a moment of weakness, wish to retract, it is far, far too
+late now. You may never understand the matter, but you are to do as I
+have said.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," again Conrad wiped his brow, "tonight as he lay writhing in his
+death-agonies, his wordless howls were mingled with frantic admonitions
+to me to bring him the envelope and destroy it before his eyes! As
+he yammered this, he forced himself up on his elbows and with eyes
+starting and hair standing straight up on his head, he screamed at me
+in a manner to chill the blood. And he was shrieking for me to destroy
+the envelope, not to open it; and once he howled in his delirium for
+me to hew his body into pieces and scatter the bits to the four winds
+of heaven!"</p>
+
+<p>An uncontrollable exclamation of horror escaped my dry lips.</p>
+
+<p>"At last," went on Conrad, "I gave in. Remembering his commands ten
+years ago, I at first stood firm, but at last, as his screeches grew
+unbearably desperate, I turned to go for the envelope, even though
+that meant leaving him alone. But as I turned, with one last fearful
+convulsion in which blood-flecked foam flew from his writhing lips, the
+life went from his twisted body in a single great wrench."</p>
+
+<p>He fumbled at the parchment.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to carry out my promise. The directions herein seem
+fantastic and may be the whims of a disordered mind, but I gave my
+word. They are, briefly, that I place his corpse on the great black
+ebony table in his library, with seven black candles burning about
+him. The doors and windows are to be firmly closed and fastened. Then,
+in the darkness which precedes dawn, I am to read the formula, charm
+or spell which is contained in a smaller, sealed envelope inside the
+first, and which I have not yet opened."</p>
+
+<p>"But is that all?" I cried. "No provisions as to the disposition of his
+fortune his estate—or his corpse?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing. In his will, which I have seen elsewhere, he leaves estate
+and fortune to a certain oriental gentleman named in the document
+as—Malik Tous!"</p>
+
+<p>"What!" I cried, shaken to my soul. "Conrad, this is madness heaped on
+madness! Malik Tous—good God! No mortal man was ever so named! That is
+the title of the foul god worshipped by the mysterious Yezidees—they
+of Mount Alamout the Accursed—whose Eight Brazen Towers rise in the
+mysterious wastes of deep Asia. His idolatrous symbol is the brazen
+peacock. And the Muhammadans, who hate his demon-worshipping devotees,
+say he is the essence of the evil of all the universes—the Prince of
+Darkness—Ahriman—the old Serpent—the veritable Satan! And you say
+Grimlan names this mythical demon in his will?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is the truth," Conrad's throat was dry. "And look—he has scribbled
+a strange line at the corner of this parchment: 'Dig me no grave; I
+shall not need one.'"</p>
+
+<p>Again a chill wandered down my spine.</p>
+
+<p>"In God's name," I cried in a kind of frenzy, "let us get this
+incredible business over with!"</p>
+
+<p>"I think a drink might help," answered Conrad, moistening his lips. "It
+seems to me I've seen Grimlan go into this cabinet for wine——" He
+bent to the door of an ornately carved mahogany cabinet, and after some
+difficulty opened it.</p>
+
+<p>"No wine here," he said disappointedly, "and if ever I felt the need of
+stimulants—what's this?"</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>He drew out a roll of parchment, dusty, yellowed and half covered with
+spiderwebs. Everything in that grim house seemed, to my nervously
+excited senses, fraught with mysterious meaning and import, and I
+leaned over his shoulder as he unrolled it.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a record of peerage," he said, "such a chronicle of births,
+deaths and so forth, as the old families used to keep, in the Sixteenth
+Century and earlier."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the name?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>He scowled over the dim scrawls, striving to master the faded, archaic
+script.</p>
+
+<p>"G-r-y-m—I've got it—Grymlann, of course. It's the records of old
+John's family—the Grymlanns of Toad's-heath Manor, Suffolk—what an
+outlandish name for an estate! Look at the last entry."</p>
+
+<p>Together we read, "John Grymlann, borne, March 10, 1630." And then we
+both cried out. Under this entry was freshly written, in a strange
+scrawling hand, "Died, March 10, 1930." Below this there was a seal of
+black wax, stamped with a strange design, something like a peacock with
+a spreading tail.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad stared at me speechless, all the color ebbed from his face. I
+shook myself with the rage engendered by fear.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the hoax of a madman!" I shouted. "The stage has been set with
+such great care that the actors have overstepped themselves. Whoever
+they are, they have heaped up so many incredible effects as to nullify
+them. It's all a very stupid, very dull drama of illusion."</p>
+
+<p>And even as I spoke, icy sweat stood out on my body and I shook as with
+an ague. With a wordless motion Conrad turned toward the stairs, taking
+up a large candle from a mahogany table.</p>
+
+<p>"It was understood, I suppose," he whispered, "that I should go through
+with this ghastly matter alone; but I had not the moral courage, and
+now I'm glad I had not."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>A still horror brooded over the silent house as we went up the stairs.
+A faint breeze stole in from somewhere and set the heavy velvet
+hangings rustling, and I visualized stealthy taloned fingers drawing
+aside the tapestries, to fix red gloating eyes upon us. Once I thought
+I heard the indistinct clumping of monstrous feet somewhere above us,
+but it must have been the heavy pounding of my own heart.</p>
+
+<p>The stairs debouched into a wide dark corridor, in which our feeble
+candle cast a faint gleam which but illuminated our pale faces and
+made the shadows seem darker by comparison. We stopped at a heavy door,
+and I heard Conrad's breath draw in sharply as a man's will when he
+braces himself physically or mentally. I involuntarily clenched my
+fists until the nails bit into the palms; then Conrad thrust the door
+open.</p>
+
+<p>A sharp cry escaped his lips. The candle dropped from his nerveless
+fingers and went out. The library of John Grimlan was ablaze with
+light, though the whole house had been in darkness when we entered it.</p>
+
+<p>This light came from seven black candles placed at regular intervals
+about the great ebony table. On this table, between the candles—I had
+braced myself against the sight. Now in the face of the mysterious
+illumination and the sight of the thing on the table, my resolution
+nearly gave way. John Grimlan had been unlovely in life; in death he
+was hideous. Yes, he was hideous even though his face was mercifully
+covered with the same curious silken robe, which, worked in fantastic
+bird-like designs, covered his whole body except the crooked claw-like
+hands and the bare withered feet.</p>
+
+<p>A strangling sound came from Conrad. "My God!" he whispered; "what is
+this? I laid his body out on the table and placed the candles about it,
+but I did not light them, nor did I place that robe over the body! And
+there were bedroom slippers on his feet when I left——"</p>
+
+<p>He halted suddenly. We were not alone in the deathroom.</p>
+
+<p>At first we had not seen him, as he sat in the great armchair in a
+farther nook of a corner, so still that he seemed a part of the shadows
+cast by the heavy tapestries. As my eyes fell upon him, a violent
+shuddering shook me and a feeling akin to nausea racked the pit of my
+stomach. My first impression was of vivid, oblique yellow eyes which
+gazed unwinkingly at us. Then the man rose and made a deep salaam, and
+we saw that he was an oriental. Now when I strive to etch him clearly
+in my mind, I can resurrect no plain image of him. I only remember
+those piercing eyes and the yellow, fantastic robe he wore.</p>
+
+<p>We returned his salute mechanically and he spoke in a low, refined
+voice, "Gentlemen, I crave your pardon! I have made so free as to light
+the candles—shall we not proceed with the business pertaining to our
+mutual friend?"</p>
+
+<p>He made a slight gesture toward the silent bulk on the table. Conrad
+nodded, evidently unable to speak. The thought flashed through our
+minds at the same time, that this man had also been given a sealed
+envelope—but how had he come to the Grimlan house so quickly? John
+Grimlan had been dead scarcely two hours and to the best of our
+knowledge no one knew of his demise but ourselves. And how had he got
+into the locked and bolted house?</p>
+
+<p>The whole affair was grotesque and unreal in the extreme. We did not
+even introduce ourselves or ask the stranger his name. He took charge
+in a matter-of-fact way, and so under the spell of horror and illusion
+were we that we moved dazedly, involuntarily obeying his suggestions,
+given us in a low, respectful tone.</p>
+
+<p>I found myself standing on the left side of the table, looking across
+its grisly burden at Conrad. The oriental stood with arms folded and
+head bowed at the head of the table, nor did it then strike me as being
+strange that he should stand there, instead of Conrad who was to read
+what Grimlan had written. I found my gaze drawn to the figure worked
+on the breast of the stranger's robe, in black silk—a curious figure,
+somewhat resembling a peacock and somewhat resembling a bat, or a
+flying dragon. I noted with a start that the same design was worked on
+the robe covering the corpse.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>The doors had been locked, the windows fastened down. Conrad, with a
+shaky hand, opened the inner envelope and fluttered open the parchment
+sheets contained therein. These sheets seemed much older than those
+containing the instructions to Conrad, in the larger envelope. Conrad
+began to read in a monotonous drone which had the effect of hypnosis on
+the hearer; so at times the candles grew dim in my gaze and the room
+and its occupants swam strange and monstrous, veiled and distorted like
+an hallucination. Most of what he read was gibberish; it meant nothing;
+yet the sound of it and the archaic style of it filled me with an
+intolerable horror.</p>
+
+<p>"To ye contract elsewhere recorded, I, John Grymlann, herebye sweare
+by ye Name of ye Nameless One to keep goode faithe. Wherefore do I now
+write in blood these wordes spoken to me in thys grim &amp; silent chamber
+in ye dedde citie of Koth, whereto no mortal manne hath attained but
+mee. These same wordes now writ down by mee to be rede over my bodie
+at ye appointed tyme to fulfill my parte of ye bargain which I entered
+intoe of mine own free will &amp; knowledge beinge of rite mynd &amp; fiftie
+years of age this yeare of 1680, A.D. Here begynneth ye incantation:</p>
+
+<p>"Before manne was, ye Elder ones were, &amp; even yet their lord dwelleth
+amonge ye shadows to which if a manne sette his foote he maye not turn
+vpon his track."</p>
+
+<p>The words merged into a barbaric gibberish as Conrad stumbled through
+an unfamiliar language—a language faintly suggesting the Phenician,
+but shuddery with the touch of a hideous antiquity beyond any
+remembered earthly tongue. One of the candles flickered and went out.
+I made a move to relight it, but a motion from the silent oriental
+stayed me. His eyes burned into mine, then shifted back to the still
+form on the table.</p>
+
+<p>The manuscript had shifted back into its archaic English.</p>
+
+<p>"——And ye mortal which gaineth to ye black citadels of Koth &amp; speaks
+with ye Darke Lord whose face is hidden, for a price maye he gain hys
+heartes desire, ryches &amp; knowledge beyond countinge &amp; lyffe beyond
+mortal span even two hundred &amp; fiftie yeares."</p>
+
+<p>Again Conrad's voice trailed off into unfamiliar gutturals. Another
+candle went out.</p>
+
+<p>"——Let not ye mortal flynche as ye tyme draweth nigh for payement &amp;
+ye fires of Hell laye hold vpon ye vytals as the sign of reckoninge.
+For ye Prince of Darkness taketh hys due in ye endde &amp; he is not to bee
+cozened. What ye have promised, that shall ye deliver. <i>Augantha na
+shuba</i>——"</p>
+
+<p>At the first sound of those barbaric accents, a cold hand of terror
+locked about my throat. My frantic eyes shot to the candles and I was
+not surprized to see another flicker out. Yet there was no hint of any
+draft to stir the heavy black hangings. Conrad's voice wavered; he
+drew his hand across his throat, gagging momentarily. The eyes of the
+oriental never altered.</p>
+
+<p>"——Amonge ye sonnes of men glide strange shadows for ever. Men see
+ye tracks of ye talones but not ye feete that make them. Over ye souls
+of men spread great black wingges. There is but one Black Master
+though men calle hym Sathanas &amp; Beelzebub &amp; Apolleon &amp; Ahriman &amp; Malik
+Tous——"</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Mists of horror engulfed me. I was dimly aware of Conrad's voice
+droning on and on, both in English and in that other fearsome tongue
+whose horrific import I scarcely dared try to guess. And with stark
+fear clutching at my heart, I saw the candles go out, one by one. And
+with each flicker, as the gathering gloom darkened about us, my horror
+mounted. I could not speak, I could not move; my distended eyes were
+fixed with agonized intensity on the remaining candle. The silent
+oriental at the head of that ghastly table was included in my fear. He
+had not moved nor spoken, but under his drooping lids, his eyes burned
+with devilish triumph; I knew that beneath his inscrutable exterior he
+was gloating fiendishly—but why—<i>why?</i></p>
+
+<hr class="chap">
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt="">
+  <div class="caption">
+    <p>"With stark fear clutching at his heart he saw the candles go out, one by one."</p>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap">
+
+<p>But I <i>knew</i> that the moment the extinguishing of the last candle
+plunged the room into utter darkness, some nameless, abominable thing
+would take place. Conrad was approaching the end. His voice rose to the
+climax in gathering crescendo.</p>
+
+<p>"Approacheth now ye moment of payement. Ye ravens are flying. Ye bats
+winge against ye skye. There are skulls in ye starres. Ye soul &amp; ye
+bodie are promised and shall bee delivered uppe. Not to ye dust agayne
+nor ye elements from which springe lyfe——"</p>
+
+<p>The candle flickered slightly. I tried to scream, but my mouth gaped to
+a soundless yammering. I tried to flee, but I stood frozen, unable even
+to close my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"——Ye abysse yawns &amp; ye debt is to paye. Ye light fayles, ye shadows
+gather. There is no god but evil; no lite but darkness; no hope but
+doom——"</p>
+
+<p>A hollow groan resounded through the room. <i>It seemed to come from the
+robe-covered thing on the table!</i> That robe twitched fitfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh winges in ye black darke!"</p>
+
+<p>I started violently; a faint swish sounded in the gathering shadows.
+The stir of the dark hangings? It sounded like the rustle of gigantic
+wings.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh redde eyes in ye shadows! What is promised, what is writ in bloode
+is fulfilled! Ye lite is gulfed in blackness! Ya—Koth!"</p>
+
+<p>The last candle went out suddenly and a ghastly unhuman cry that came
+not from my lips or from Conrad's burst unbearably forth. Horror
+swept over me like a black icy wave; in the blind dark I heard myself
+screaming terribly. Then with a swirl and a great rush of wind
+something swept the room, flinging the hangings aloft and dashing
+chairs and tables crashing to the floor. For an instant an intolerable
+odor burned our nostrils, a low hideous tittering mocked us in the
+blackness; then silence fell like a shroud.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow, Conrad found a candle and lighted it. The faint glow showed us
+the room in fearful disarray—showed us each other's ghastly faces—and
+showed us the black ebony table—empty! The doors and windows were
+locked as they had been, but the oriental was gone—and so was the
+corpse of John Grimlan.</p>
+
+<p>Shrieking like damned men we broke down the door and fled frenziedly
+down the well-like staircase where the darkness seemed to clutch at us
+with clammy black fingers. As we tumbled down into the lower hallway,
+a lurid glow cut the darkness and the scent of burning wood filled our
+nostrils.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>The outer doorway held momentarily against our frantic assault, then
+gave way and we hurtled into the outer starlight. Behind us the flames
+leaped up with a crackling roar as we fled down the hill. Conrad,
+glancing over his shoulder, halted suddenly, wheeled and flung up his
+arms like a madman, and screamed, "Soul and body he sold to Malik Tous,
+who is Satan, two hundred and fifty years ago! This was the night of
+payment—and my God—look! <i>Look!</i> The Fiend has claimed his own!"</p>
+
+<p>I looked, frozen with horror. Flames had enveloped the whole house
+with appalling swiftness, and now the great mass was etched against
+the shadowed sky, a crimson inferno. And above the holocaust hovered a
+gigantic black shadow like a monstrous bat, and from its dark clutch
+dangled a small white thing, like the body of a man, dangling limply.
+Then, even as we cried out in horror, it was gone and our dazed gaze
+met only the shuddering walls and blazing roof which crumpled into the
+flames with an earth-shaking roar.
+</p>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIG ME NO GRAVE ***</div>
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