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肩書を与える: The People of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 Author: Abraham Merritt * A 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0601991h.html Language: English Date first 地位，任命するd: Jun 2006 Most 最近の update: May 2013 This eBook was produced by Colin Choat and Richard Scott, and updated by Roy Glashan. 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed 版s which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is 含むd. We do NOT keep any eBooks in 同意／服従 with a particular paper 版. Copyright 法律s are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright 法律s for your country before downloading or redistributing this とじ込み／提出する. This eBook is made 利用できる at no cost and with almost no 制限s どれでも. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the 条件 of the 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia License which may be 見解（をとる）d online at http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au/licence.html To 接触する 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au
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NORTH of us a 軸 of light 発射 half way to the zenith. It （機の）カム from behind the five 頂点（に達する）s. The beam drove up through a column of blue 煙霧 whose 辛勝する／優位s were 示すd as はっきりと as the rain that streams from the 辛勝する／優位s of a 雷雲. It was like the flash of a サーチライト through an azure もや. It cast no 影をつくる／尾行するs.
As it struck 上向き the 首脳会議s were 輪郭（を描く）d hard and 黒人／ボイコット and I saw that the whole mountain was 形態／調整d like a 手渡す. As the light silhouetted it, the gigantic fingers stretched, the 手渡す seemed to thrust itself 今後. It was 正確に／まさに as though it moved to 押し進める something 支援する. The 向こうずねing beam held 安定した for a moment; then broke into myriads of little luminous globes that swung to and fro and dropped gently. They seemed to be searching.
The forest had become very still. Every 支持を得ようと努めるd noise held its breath. I felt the dogs 圧力（をかける）ing against my 脚s. They too were silent; but every muscle in their 団体／死体s trembled, their hair was stiff along their 支援するs and their 注目する，もくろむs, 直す／買収する，八百長をするd on the 落ちるing lights, were filmed with the terror glaze.
I looked at Anderson. He was 星／主役にするing at the North where once more the beam had pulsed 上向き.
"It can't be the aurora," I spoke without moving my lips. My mouth was as 乾燥した，日照りの as though Lao T'zai had 注ぐd his 恐れる dust 負かす／撃墜する my throat.
"If it is I never saw one like it," he answered in the same トン. "Besides who ever heard of an aurora at this time of the year?"
He 発言する／表明するd the thought that was in my own mind.
"It makes me think something is 存在 追跡（する）d up there," he said, "an unholy sort of 追跡（する）—it's 井戸／弁護士席 for us to be out of 範囲."
"The mountain seems to move each time the 軸 shoots up," I said. "What's it keeping 支援する, Starr? It makes me think of the frozen 手渡す of cloud that Shan Nadour 始める，決める before the Gate of Ghouls to keep them in the lairs that Eblis 削減（する） for them."
He raised a 手渡す—listening.
From the North and high 総計費 there （機の）カム a whispering. It was not the rustling of the aurora, that 急ぐing, crackling sound like the ghosts of 勝利，勝つd that blew at 創造 racing through the 骸骨／概要 leaves of 古代の trees that 避難所d Lilith. It was a whispering that held in it a 需要・要求する. It was eager. It called us to come up where the beam was flashing. It drew. There was in it a 公式文書，認める of inexorable 主張. It touched my heart with a thousand tiny 恐れる-tipped fingers and it filled me with a 広大な longing to race on and 合併する myself in the light. It must have been so that Ulysses felt when he 緊張するd at the mast and strove to obey the 水晶 甘い singing of the サイレン／魅惑的なs.
The whispering grew louder.
"What the hell's the 事柄 with those dogs?" cried Anderson savagely. "Look at them!"
The malemutes, whining, were racing away toward the light. We saw them disappear の中で the trees. There （機の）カム 支援する to us a mournful howling. Then that too died away and left nothing but the insistent murmuring 総計費.
The glade we had （軍の）野営地，陣営d in looked straight to the North. We had reached I suppose three hundred mile above the first 広大な／多数の／重要な bend of the Koskokwim toward the Yukon. Certainly we were in an untrodden part of the wilderness. We had 押し進めるd through from Dawson at the breaking of the Spring, on a fair lead to the lost five 頂点（に達する）s between which, so the Athabascan 薬／医学 man had told us, the gold streams out like putty from a clenched 握りこぶし. Not an Indian were we able to get to go with us. The land of the 手渡す Mountain was accursed they said. We had sighted the 頂点（に達する）s the night before, their 最高の，を越すs faintly 輪郭（を描く）d against a pulsing glow. And now we saw the light that had led us to them.
Anderson 強化するd. Through the whispering had broken a curious pad-pad and a rustling. It sounded as though a small 耐える were moving に向かって us. I threw a pile of 支持を得ようと努めるd on the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 and, as it 炎d up, saw something break through the bushes. It walked on all fours, but it did not walk like a 耐える. All at once it flashed upon me—it was like a baby はうing upstairs. The forepaws 解除するd themselves in grotesquely infantile fashion. It was grotesque but it was—terrible. It grew closer. We reached for our guns—and dropped them. Suddenly we knew that this はうing thing was a man!
It was a man. Still with the high climbing pad-pad he swayed to the 解雇する／砲火／射撃. He stopped.
"安全な," whispered the はうing man, in a 発言する／表明する that was an echo of the murmur 総計費. "やめる 安全な here. They can't get out of the blue, you know. They can't get you—unless you go to them—"
He fell over on his 味方する. We ran to him. Anderson knelt.
"God's love!" he said. "Frank, look at this!" He pointed to the 手渡すs. The wrists were covered with torn rags of a 激しい shirt. The 手渡すs themselves were stumps! The fingers had been bent into the palms and the flesh had been worn to the bone. They looked like the feet of a little 黒人／ボイコット elephant! My 注目する，もくろむs traveled 負かす／撃墜する the 団体／死体. Around the waist was a 激しい 禁止（する）d of yellow metal. From it fell a （犯罪の）一味 and a dozen links of 向こうずねing white chain!
"What is he? Where did he come from?" said Anderson. "Look, he's 急速な／放蕩な asleep—yet even in his sleep his 武器 try to climb and his feet draw themselves up one after the other! And his 膝s—how in God's 指名する was he ever able to move on them?"
It was even as he said. In the 深い sleep that had come upon the crawler 武器 and 脚s kept raising in a 審議する／熟考する, dreadful climbing 動議. It was as though they had a life of their own—they kept their movement 独立して of the motionless 団体／死体. They were semaphoric 動議s. If you have ever stood at the 支援する of a train and had watched the semaphores rise and 落ちる you will know 正確に／まさに what I mean.
突然の the 総計費 whispering 中止するd. The 軸 of light dropped and did not rise again. The はうing man became still. A gentle glow began to grow around us. It was 夜明け, and the short Alaskan summer night was over. Anderson rubbed his 注目する，もくろむs and turned to me a haggard 直面する.
"Man!" he exclaimed. "You look as though you have been through a （一定の）期間 of sickness!"
"No more than you, Starr," I said. "What do you make of it all?"
"I'm thinking our only answer lies there," he answered, pointing to the 人物／姿／数字 that lay so motionless under the 一面に覆う／毛布s we had thrown over him. "Whatever it was—that's what it was after. There was no aurora about that light, Frank. It was like the ゆらめくing up of some queer hell the preacher folk never 脅すd us with."
"We'll go no その上の today," I said. "I wouldn't wake him for all the gold that runs between the fingers of the five 頂点（に達する）s—nor for all the devils that may be behind them."
The はうing man lay in a sleep as 深い as the Styx. We bathed and 包帯d the pads that had been his 手渡すs. 武器 and 脚s were as rigid as though they were crutches. He did not move while we worked over him. He lay as he had fallen, the 武器 a trifle raised, the 膝s bent.
"Why did he はう?" whispered Anderson. "Why didn't he walk?"
I was とじ込み／提出するing the 禁止（する）d about the waist. It was gold, but it was like no gold I had ever 扱うd. Pure gold is soft. This was soft, but it had an unclean, viscid life of its own. It clung to the とじ込み／提出する. I gashed through it, bent it away from the 団体／死体 and 投げつけるd it far off. It was— loathsome!
All that day he slept. 不明瞭 （機の）カム and still he slept That night there was no 軸 of light, no 追求（する），探索（する）ing globe, no whispering. Some （一定の）期間 of horror seemed 解除するd from the land. It was noon when the はうing man awoke. I jumped as the pleasant drawling 発言する／表明する sounded.
"How long have I slept?" he asked. His pale blue 注目する，もくろむs grew quizzical as I 星／主役にするd at him. "A night—and almost two days," I said. "Was there any light up there last night?" He nodded to the North 熱望して. "Any whispering?"
"Neither," I answered. His 長，率いる fell 支援する and he 星／主役にするd up at the sky.
"They've given it up, then?" he said at last.
"Who have given it up?" asked Anderson.
"Why, the people of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席," replied the はうing man 静かに.
We 星／主役にするd at him. "The people of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席," he said. "Things that the Devil made before the Flood and that somehow have escaped God's vengeance. You weren't in any danger from them—unless you had followed their call. They can't get any その上の than the blue 煙霧. I was their 囚人," he 追加するd 簡単に. "They were trying to whisper me 支援する to them!"
Anderson and I looked at each other, the same thought in both our minds.
"You're wrong," said the はうing man. "I'm not insane. Give me a very little to drink. I'm going to die soon, but I want you to take me as far South as you can before I die, and afterwards I want you to build a big 解雇する／砲火／射撃 and 燃やす me. I want to be in such 形態／調整 that no infernal （一定の）期間 of theirs can drag my 団体／死体 支援する to them. You'll do it too, when I've told you about them—" he hesitated. "I think their chain is off me?" he said.
"I 削減（する） it off," I answered すぐに.
"Thank God for that too," whispered the はうing man.
He drank the brandy and water we 解除するd to his lips.
"武器 and 脚s やめる dead," he said. "Dead as I'll be soon. 井戸／弁護士席, they did 井戸／弁護士席 for me. Now I'll tell you what's up there behind that 手渡す. Hell!"
"Now listen. My 指名する is Stanton—Sinclair Stanton. Class 1900, Yale. Explorer. I started away from Dawson last year to 追跡（する） for five 頂点（に達する）s that rise like a 手渡す in a haunted country and run pure gold between them. Same thing you were after? I thought so. Late last 落ちる my comrade sickened. Sent him 支援する with some Indians. Little later all my Indians ran away from me. I decided I'd stick, built a cabin, 在庫／株d myself with food and lay 負かす／撃墜する to winter it. In the Spring I started off again. Little いっそう少なく than two weeks ago I sighted the five 頂点（に達する）s. Not from this 味方する though—the other. Give me some more brandy.
"I'd made too wide a detour," he went on. "I'd gotten too far North. I （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 支援する. From this 味方する you see nothing but forest straight up to the base of the 手渡す Mountain. Over on the other 味方する—"
He was silent for a moment.
"Over there is forest too. But it doesn't reach so far. No! I （機の）カム out of it. Stretching miles in 前線 of me was a level plain. It was as worn and 古代の looking as the 砂漠 around the 廃虚s of Babylon. At its end rose the 頂点（に達する）s. Between me and them—far off—was what looked like a low dike of 激しく揺するs. Then—I ran across the road!
"The road!" cried Anderson incredulously.
"The road," said the はうing man. "A 罰金 smooth 石／投石する road. It ran straight on to the mountain. Oh, it was road all 権利—and worn as though millions and millions of feet had passed over it for thousands of years. On each 味方する of it were sand and heaps of 石／投石するs. After while I began to notice these 石／投石するs. They were 削減（する）, and the 形態／調整 of the heaps somehow gave me the idea that a hundred thousand years ago they might have been houses. I sensed man about them and at the same time they smelled of immemorial antiquity. 井戸／弁護士席—
"The 頂点（に達する）s grew closer. The heaps of 廃虚s 厚い. Something inexpressibly desolate hovered over them; something reached from them that struck my heart like the touch of ghosts so old that they could be only the ghosts of ghosts. I went on.
"And now I saw that what I had thought to be the low 激しく揺する 範囲 at the base of the 頂点（に達する）s was a 厚い litter of 廃虚s. The 手渡す Mountain was really much さらに先に off. The road passed between two high 激しく揺するs that raised themselves like a gateway."
The はうing man paused.
"They were a gateway," he said. "I reached them. I went between them. And then I sprawled and clutched the earth in sheer awe! I was on a 幅の広い 石／投石する 壇・綱領・公約. Before me was—sheer space! Imagine the Grand Canyon five times as wide and with the 底（に届く） dropped out. That is what I was looking into. It was like peeping over the 辛勝する／優位 of a cleft world 負かす／撃墜する into the infinity where the 惑星s roll! On the far 味方する stood the five 頂点（に達する）s. They looked like a gigantic 警告 手渡す stretched up to the sky. The lip of the abyss curved away on each 味方する of me.
"I could see 負かす／撃墜する perhaps a thousand feet. Then a 厚い blue 煙霧 shut out the 注目する，もくろむ. It was like the blue you see gather on the high hills at dusk. And the 炭坑，オーケストラ席—it was awesome; awesome as the Maori 湾 of Ranalak, that 沈むs between the living and the dead and that only the freshly 解放（する）d soul has strength to leap—but never strength to cross again.
"I crept 支援する from the 瀬戸際 and stood up, weak. My 手渡す 残り／休憩（する）d against one of the 中心存在s of the gateway. There was carving upon it. It bore in still sharp 輪郭（を描く）s the heroic 人物／姿／数字 of a man. His 支援する was turned. His 武器 were outstretched. There was an 半端物 頂点（に達する）d headdress upon him. I looked at the opposite 中心存在. It bore a 人物／姿／数字 正確に／まさに 類似の. The 中心存在s were triangular and the carvings were on the 味方する away from the 炭坑，オーケストラ席. The 人物／姿／数字s seemed to be 持つ／拘留するing something 支援する. I looked closer. Behind the outstretched 手渡すs I seemed to see other 形態／調整s.
"I traced them out ばく然と. Suddenly I felt unaccountably sick. There had come to me an impression of enormous upright slugs. Their swollen 団体／死体s were faintly 削減（する）—all except the 長，率いるs which were 井戸／弁護士席 示すd globes. They were—unutterably loathsome. I turned from the gates 支援する to the 無効の. I stretched myself upon the 厚板 and looked over the 辛勝する／優位.
"A stairway led 負かす／撃墜する into the 炭坑，オーケストラ席!"
"A stairway!" we cried.
"A stairway," repeated the はうing man as 根気よく as before, "It seemed not so much carved out of the 激しく揺する as built into it. The 厚板s were about six feet long and three feet wide. It ran 負かす／撃墜する from the 壇・綱領・公約 and 消えるd into the blue 煙霧."
"But who could build such a stairway as that?" I said. "A stairway built into the 塀で囲む of a precipice and 主要な 負かす／撃墜する into a bottomless 炭坑，オーケストラ席!"
"Not bottomless," said the はうing man 静かに. "There was a 底（に届く）. I reached it!"
"Reached it?" we repeated.
"Yes, by the stairway," answered the はうing man. "You see—I went 負かす／撃墜する it!
"Yes," he said. "I went 負かす／撃墜する the stairway. But not that day. I made my （軍の）野営地，陣営 支援する of the gates. At 夜明け I filled my knapsack with food, my two canteens with water from a spring that 井戸／弁護士席s up there by the gateway, walked between the carved monoliths and stepped over the 辛勝する／優位 of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席.
"The steps ran along the 味方する of the 激しく揺する at a forty degree pitch. As I went 負かす／撃墜する and 負かす／撃墜する I 熟考する／考慮するd them. They were of a greenish 激しく揺する やめる different from the granitic porphyry that formed the 塀で囲む of the precipice. At first I thought that the 建設業者s had taken advantage of an outcropping stratum, and had carved from it their gigantic flight. But the regularity of the angle at which it fell made me doubtful of this theory.
"After I had gone perhaps half a mile I stepped out upon a 上陸. From this 上陸 the stairs made a V 形態／調整d turn and ran on downward, 粘着するing to the cliff at the same angle as the first flight; it was a zig-zag, and after I had made three of these turns I knew that the steps dropped straight 負かす／撃墜する in a succession of such angles. No strata could be so 正規の／正選手 as that. No, the stairway was built by 手渡すs! But whose? The answer is in those 廃虚s around the 辛勝する／優位, I think—never to be read.
"By noon I had lost sight of the five 頂点（に達する）s and the lip of the abyss. Above me, below me, was nothing but the blue 煙霧. Beside me, too, was nothingness, for the その上の breast of 激しく揺する had long since 消えるd. I felt no dizziness, and any trace of 恐れる was swallowed in a 広大な curiosity. What was I to discover? Some 古代の and wonderful civilization that had 支配するd when the 政治家s were 熱帯の gardens? Nothing living, I felt sure—all was too old for life. Still, a stairway so wonderful must lead to something やめる as wonderful I knew. What was it? I went on.
"At 正規の／正選手 intervals I had passed the mouths of small 洞穴s. There would be two thousand steps and then an 開始, two thousand more steps and an 開始—and so on and on. Late that afternoon I stopped before one of these clefts. I suppose I had gone then three miles 負かす／撃墜する the 炭坑，オーケストラ席, although the angles were such that I had walked in all fully ten miles. I 診察するd the 入り口. On each 味方する were carved the 人物／姿／数字s of the 広大な／多数の／重要な portal above, only now they were standing 直面する 今後, the 武器 outstretched as though to 持つ／拘留する something 支援する from the outer depths. Their 直面するs were covered with 隠すs. There were no hideous 形態／調整s behind them. I went inside. The fissure ran 支援する for twenty yards like a burrow. It was 乾燥した，日照りの and perfectly light. Outside I could see the blue 煙霧 rising 上向き like a column, its 辛勝する／優位s 明確に 示すd. I felt an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の sense of 安全, although I had not been conscious of any 恐れる. I felt that the 人物／姿／数字s at the 入り口 were 後見人s—but against what?
"The blue 煙霧 thickened and grew faintly luminescent. I fancied that it was dusk above. I ate and drank a little and slept. When I awoke the blue had lightened again, and I fancied it was 夜明け above. I went on. I forgot the 湾 yawning at my 味方する. I felt no 疲労，（軍の）雑役 and little hunger or かわき, although I had drunk and eaten sparingly. That night I spent within another of the 洞穴s, and at 夜明け I descended again.
"It was late that day when I first saw the city—."
He was silent for a time.
"The city," he said at last, "there is a city you know. But not such a city as you have ever seen—nor any other man who has lived to tell of it. The 炭坑，オーケストラ席, I think, is 形態／調整d like a 瓶／封じ込める; the 開始 before the five 頂点（に達する）s is the neck. But how wide the 底（に届く） is I do not know—thousands of miles maybe. I had begun to catch little glints of light far 負かす／撃墜する in the blue. Then I saw the 最高の，を越すs of—trees, I suppose they are. But not our 肉親，親類d of trees—unpleasant, snaky 肉親，親類d of trees. They 後部d themselves on high thin trunks and their 最高の，を越すs were nests of 厚い tendrils with ugly little leaves like arrow 長，率いるs. The trees were red, a vivid angry red. Here and there I glimpsed 位置／汚点／見つけ出すs of 向こうずねing yellow. I knew these were water because I could see things breaking through their surface—or at least I could see the splash and ripple, but what it was that 乱すd them I never saw.
"Straight beneath me was the—city. I looked 負かす／撃墜する upon mile after mile of closely packed cylinders. They lay upon their 味方するs in pyramids of three, of five—of dozens—piled upon each other. It is hard to make you see what that city is like—look, suppose you have water 麻薬を吸うs of a 確かな length and first you lay three of them 味方する by 味方する and on 最高の，を越す of them you place two and on these two one; or suppose you take five for a 創立／基礎 and place on these four and then three, then two and then one. Do you see? That was the way they looked. But they were topped by towers, by minarets, by ゆらめくs, by fans, and 新たな展開d monstrosities. They gleamed as though coated with pale rose 炎上. Beside them the venomous red trees raised themselves like the 長，率いるs of hydras guarding nests of gigantic, jeweled and sleeping worms!
"A few feet beneath me the stairway jutted out into a Titanic arch, unearthly as the （期間が）わたる that 橋（渡しをする）s Hell and leads to Asgard. It curved out and 負かす／撃墜する straight through the 最高の，を越す of the highest pile of carven cylinders and then it 消えるd through it. It was appalling—it was demonic—"
The はうing man stopped. His 注目する，もくろむs rolled up into his 長，率いる. He trembled and his 武器 and 脚s began their horrible はうing movement. From his lips （機の）カム a whispering. It was an echo of the high murmuring we had heard the night he （機の）カム to us. I put my 手渡すs over his 注目する，もくろむs. He 静かなd.
"The Things Accursed!" he said. "The People of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席! Did I whisper. Yes —but they can't get me now—they can't!"
After a time he began as 静かに as before.
"I crossed the （期間が）わたる. I went 負かす／撃墜する through the 最高の，を越す of that—building. Blue 不明瞭 shrouded me for a moment and I felt the steps 新たな展開 into a spiral. I 負傷させる 負かす／撃墜する and then—I was standing high up in—I can't tell you in what, I'll have to call it a room. We have no images for what is in the 炭坑，オーケストラ席. A hundred feet below me was the 床に打ち倒す. The 塀で囲むs sloped 負かす／撃墜する and out from where I stood in a 一連の 広げるing 三日月s. The place was colossal—and it was filled with a curious mottled red light. It was like the light inside a green and gold flecked 解雇する／砲火／射撃 opal. I went 負かす／撃墜する to the last step. Far in 前線 of me rose a high, columned altar. Its 中心存在s were carved in monstrous scrolls—like mad octopuses with a thousand drunken tentacles; they 残り／休憩（する）d on the 支援するs of shapeless monstrosities carved in crimson 石／投石する. The altar 前線 was a gigantic 厚板 of purple covered with carvings.
"I can't 述べる these carvings! No human 存在 could—the human 注目する，もくろむ cannot しっかり掴む them any more than it can しっかり掴む the 形態／調整s that haunt the fourth dimension. Only a subtle sense in the 支援する of the brain sensed them ばく然と. They were formless things that gave no conscious image, yet 圧力（をかける）d into the mind like small hot 調印（する）s—ideas of hate—of 戦闘s between 考えられない monstrous things—victories in a nebulous hell of steaming, obscene ジャングルs—aspirations and ideals immeasurably loathsome—
"And as I stood I grew aware of something that lay behind the lip of the altar fifty feet above me. I knew it was there—I felt it with every hair and every tiny bit of my 肌. Something infinitely malignant, infinitely horrible, infinitely 古代の. It lurked, it brooded, it 脅すd and it—was invisible!
"Behind me was a circle of blue light. I ran for it. Something 勧めるd me to turn 支援する, to climb the stairs and make away. It was impossible. Repulsion for that unseen Thing raced me onward as though a 現在の had my feet. I passed through the circle. I was out on a street that stretched on into 薄暗い distance between 列／漕ぐ／騒動s of the carven cylinders.
"Here and there the red trees arose. Between them rolled the 石／投石する burrows. And now I could take in the amazing ornamentation that 着せる／賦与するd them. They were like the trunks of smooth skinned trees that had fallen and had been 着せる／賦与するd with high reaching noxious orchids. Yes—those cylinders were like that—and more. They should have gone out with the dinosaurs. They were—monstrous. They struck the 注目する，もくろむs like a blow and they passed across the 神経s like a rasp. And nowhere was there sight or sound of living thing.
"There were circular 開始s in the cylinders like the circle in the 寺 of the Stairway. I passed through one of them. I was in a long, 明らかにする 丸天井d room whose curving 味方するs half の近くにd twenty feet over my 長，率いる, leaving a wide slit that opened into another 丸天井d 議会 above. There was 絶対 nothing in the room save the same mottled 赤みを帯びた light that I had seen in the 寺. I つまずくd. I still could see nothing, but there was something on the 床に打ち倒す over which I had tripped. I reached 負かす／撃墜する—and my 手渡す touched a thing 冷淡な and smooth—that moved under it—I turned and ran out of that place—I was filled with a loathing that had in it something of madness—I ran on and on blindly— wringing my 手渡すs—weeping with horror—
"When I （機の）カム to myself I was still の中で the 石／投石する cylinders and red trees. I tried to retrace my steps; to find the 寺. I was more than afraid. I was like a new loosed soul panic-stricken with the first terrors of hell. I could not find the 寺! Then the 煙霧 began to thicken and glow; the cylinders to 向こうずね more brightly. I knew that it was dusk in the world above and I felt that with dusk my time of 危険，危なくする had come; that the thickening of the 煙霧 was the signal for the awakening of whatever things lived in this 炭坑，オーケストラ席.
"I 緊急発進するd up the 味方するs of one of the burrows. I hid behind a 新たな展開d nightmare of 石／投石する. Perhaps, I thought, there was a chance of remaining hidden until the blue lightened and the 危険，危なくする passed. There began to grow around me a murmur. It was everywhere—and it grew and grew into a 広大な／多数の／重要な whispering. I peeped from the 味方する of the 石／投石する 負かす／撃墜する into the street. I saw lights passing and repassing. More and more lights—they swam out of the circular doorways and they thronged the street. The highest were eight feet above the 覆う; the lowest perhaps two. They hurried, they sauntered, they 屈服するd, they stopped and whispered—and there was nothing under them!"
"Nothing under them!" breathed Anderson.
"No," he went on, "that was the terrible part of it—there was nothing under them. Yet certainly the lights were living things. They had consciousness, volition, thought—what else I did not know. They were nearly two feet across—the largest. Their 中心 was a 有望な 核 —red, blue, green. This 核 faded off, 徐々に, into a misty glow that did not end 突然の. It too seemed to fade off into nothingness —but a nothingness that had under it a somethingness. I 緊張するd my 注目する，もくろむs trying to しっかり掴む this 団体／死体 into which the lights 合併するd and which one could only feel was there, but could not see.
"And all at once I grew rigid. Something 冷淡な, and thin like a whip, had touched my 直面する. I turned my 長，率いる. の近くに behind were three of the lights. They were a pale blue. They looked at me—if you can imagine lights that are 注目する，もくろむs. Another whiplash gripped my shoulder. Under the closest light （機の）カム a shrill whispering. I shrieked. 突然の the murmuring in the street 中止するd. I dragged my 注目する，もくろむs from the pale blue globe that held them and looked out—the lights in the streets were rising by myriads to the level of where I stood! There they stopped and peered at me. They （人が）群がるd and jostled as though they were a （人が）群がる of curious people—on Broadway. I felt a 得点する／非難する／２０ of the 攻撃するs touch me—
"When I （機の）カム to myself I was again in the 広大な／多数の／重要な Place of the Stairway, lying at the foot of the altar. All was silent. There were no lights— only the mottled red glow. I jumped to my feet and ran toward the steps. Something jerked me 支援する to my 膝s. And then I saw that around my waist had been fastened a yellow （犯罪の）一味 of metal. From it hung a chain and this chain passed up over the lip of the high ledge. I was chained to the altar!
"I reached into my pockets for my knife to 削減（する） through the （犯罪の）一味. It was not there! I had been stripped of everything except one of the canteens that I had hung around my neck and which I suppose They had thought was— part of me. I tried to break the （犯罪の）一味. It seemed alive. It writhed in my 手渡すs and it drew itself closer around me! I pulled at the chain. It was immovable. There （機の）カム to me the consciousness of the unseen Thing above the altar. I groveled at the foot of the 厚板 and wept. Think—alone in that place of strange light with the brooding 古代の Horror above me— a monstrous Thing, a Thing 考えられない—an unseen Thing that 注ぐd 前へ／外へ horror—
"After awhile I gripped myself. Then I saw beside one of the 中心存在s a yellow bowl filled with a 厚い white liquid. I drank it. If it killed I did not care. But its taste was pleasant and as I drank my strength （機の）カム 支援する to me with a 急ぐ. 明確に I was not to be 餓死するd. The lights, whatever they were, had a conception of human needs.
"And now the 赤みを帯びた mottled gleam began to 深くする. Outside arose the humming and through the circle that was the 入り口 （機の）カム streaming the globes, They 範囲d themselves in 階級s until they filled the 寺. Their whispering grew into a 詠唱する, a cadenced whispering 詠唱する that rose and fell, rose and fell, while to its rhythm the globes 解除するd and sank, 解除するd and sank.
"All that night the lights （機の）カム and went—and all that night the 詠唱する sounded as they rose and fell. At the last I felt myself only an 原子 of consciousness in a sea of cadenced whispering; an 原子 that rose and fell with the 屈服するing globes. I tell you that even my heart pulsed in unison with them! The red glow faded, the lights streamed out; the whispering died. I was again alone and I knew that once again day had broken in my own world."
"I slept. When I awoke I 設立する beside the 中心存在 more of the white liquid. I scrutinized the chain that held me to the altar. I began to rub two of the links together. I did this for hours. When the red began to thicken there was a 山の尾根 worn in the links. Hope 急ぐd up within me. There was, then, a chance to escape."
"With the thickening the lights （機の）カム again. All through that night the whispering 詠唱する sounded, and the globes rose and fell. The 詠唱する 掴むd me. It pulsed through me until every 神経 and muscle quivered to it. My lips began to quiver. They strove like a man trying to cry out on a nightmare. And at last they too were whispering the 詠唱する of the people of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席. My 団体／死体 屈服するd in unison with the lights—I was, in movement and sound, one with the nameless things while my soul sank 支援する sick with horror and 権力のない. While I whispered I—saw Them!"
"Saw the lights?" I asked stupidly.
"Saw the Things under the lights," he answered. "広大な／多数の／重要な transparent snail- like 団体／死体s—dozens of waving tentacles stretching from them— 一連の会議、交渉／完成する gaping mouths under the luminous seeing globes. They were like the ghosts of inconceivably monstrous slugs! I could see through them. And as I 星／主役にするd, still 屈服するing and whispering, the 夜明け （機の）カム and they streamed to and through the 入り口. They did not はう or walk—they floated! They floated and were—gone!
"I did not sleep. I worked all that day at my chain. By the thickening of the red I had worn it a sixth through. And all that night I whispered and 屈服するd with the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 people, joining in their 詠唱する to the Thing that brooded above me!
"Twice again the red thickened and the 詠唱する held me—then on the morning of the fifth day I broke through the worn links of the chain. I was 解放する／自由な! I drank from the bowl of white liquid and 注ぐd what was left in my flask. I ran to the Stairway. I 急ぐd up and past that unseen Horror behind the altar ledge and was out upon the 橋（渡しをする）. I raced across the （期間が）わたる and up the Stairway.
"Can you think what it is to climb straight up the 瀬戸際 of a cleft world —with hell behind you? Hell was behind me and terror 棒 me. The city had long been lost in the blue 煙霧 before I knew that I could climb no more. My heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 upon my ears like a sledge. I fell before one of the little 洞穴s feeling that here at last was 聖域. I crept far 支援する within it and waited for the 煙霧 to thicken. Almost at once it did so. From far below me （機の）カム a 広大な and angry murmur. At the mouth of the 不和 I saw a light pulse up through the blue; die 負かす／撃墜する and as it dimmed I saw myriads of the globes that are the 注目する，もくろむs of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 people swing downward into the abyss. Again and again the light pulsed and the globes fell. They were 追跡（する）ing me. The whispering grew louder, more insistent.
"There grew in me the dreadful 願望（する） to join in the whispering as I had done in the 寺. I bit my lips through and through to still them. All that night the beam 発射 up through the abyss, the globes swung and the whispering sounded—and now I knew the 目的 of the 洞穴s and of the sculptured 人物／姿／数字s that still had 力／強力にする to guard them. But what were the people who had carved them? Why had they built their city around the 瀬戸際 and why had they 始める，決める that Stairway in the 炭坑，オーケストラ席? What had they been to those Things that dwelt at the 底（に届く） and what use had the Things been to them that they should live beside their dwelling place? That there had been some 目的 was 確かな . No work so prodigious as the Stairway would have been undertaken さもなければ. But what was the 目的? And why was it that those who had dwelt about the abyss had passed away ages gone, and the dwellers in the abyss still lived? I could find no answer—nor can I find any now. I have not the shred of a theory.
"夜明け （機の）カム as I wondered and with it silence. I drank what was left of the liquid in my canteen, crept from the 洞穴 and began to climb again. That afternoon my 脚s gave out. I tore off my shirt, made from it pads for my 膝s and coverings for my 手渡すs. I はうd 上向き. I はうd up and up. And again I crept into one of the 洞穴s and waited until again the blue thickened, the 軸 of light 発射 through it and the whispering （機の）カム.
"But now there was a new 公式文書，認める in the whispering. It was no longer 脅すing. It called and 説得するd. It drew."
A new terror gripped me. There had come upon me a mighty 願望（する） to leave the 洞穴 and go out where the lights swung; to let them do with me as they pleased, carry me where they wished. The 願望（する） grew. It 伸び（る）d fresh impulse with every rise of the beam until at last I vibrated with the 願望（する） as I had vibrated to the 詠唱する in the 寺. My 団体／死体 was a pendulum. Up would go the beam and I would swing toward it! Only my soul kept 安定した. It held me 急速な／放蕩な to the 床に打ち倒す of the 洞穴; And all that night it fought with my 団体／死体 against the （一定の）期間 of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 people.
"夜明け （機の）カム. Again I crept from the 洞穴 and 直面するd the Stairway. I could not rise. My 手渡すs were torn and bleeding; my 膝s an agony. I 軍隊d myself 上向き step by step. After a while my 手渡すs became numb, the 苦痛 left my 膝s. They deadened. Step by step my will drove my 団体／死体 上向き upon them."
"And then—a nightmare of はうing up infinite stretches of steps —memories of dull horror while hidden within 洞穴s with the lights pulsing without and whisperings that called and called me—memory of a time when I awoke to find that my 団体／死体 was obeying the call and had carried me half way out between the 後見人s of the portals while thousands of gleaming globes 残り／休憩（する）d in the blue 煙霧 and watched me."
Glimpses of bitter fights against sleep and always, always—a climb up and up along infinite distances of steps that led from Abaddon to a 楽園 of blue sky and open world!
"At last a consciousness of the （疑いを）晴らす sky の近くに above me, the lip of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 before me—memory of passing between the 広大な／多数の／重要な portals of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 and of 安定した 撤退 from it—dreams of 巨大（な） men with strange 頂点（に達する）d 栄冠を与えるs and 隠すd 直面するs who 押し進めるd me onward and onward and held 支援する Roman Candle globules of light that sought to draw me 支援する to a 湾 wherein 惑星s swam between the 支店s of red trees that had snakes for 栄冠を与えるs."
"And then a long, long sleep—how long God alone knows—in a cleft of 激しく揺するs; an awakening to see far in the North the beam still rising and 落ちるing, the lights still 追跡（する）ing, the whispering high above me calling."
"Again はうing on dead 武器 and 脚s that moved—that moved —like the 古代の 水夫's ship—without volition of 地雷, but that carried me from a haunted place. And then—your 解雇する／砲火／射撃—and this—safety!"
The はうing man smiled at us for a moment. Then 速く life faded from his 直面する. He slept.
That afternoon we struck （軍の）野営地，陣営 and carrying the はうing man started 支援する South. For three days we carried him and still he slept. And on the third day, still sleeping, he died. We built a 広大な／多数の／重要な pile of 支持を得ようと努めるd and we 燃やすd his 団体／死体 as he had asked. We scattered his ashes about the forest with the ashes of the trees that had 消費するd him. It must be a 広大な／多数の／重要な 魔法 indeed that could disentangle those ashes and draw him 支援する in a 急ぐing cloud to the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 he called Accursed. I do not think that even the People of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 have such a （一定の）期間. No.
But we did not return to the five 頂点（に達する）s to see.
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