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肩書を与える: The Thing on the Roof
Author: Robert E. Howard
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eBook No.: 0608011h.html
Language: English
Date first 地位，任命するd:  Oct 2006
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The Thing on the Roof

by

Robert E. Howard

First published in Weird Tales, February 1932
This e-調書をとる／予約する 版: 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg Australia, 2018

They 板材 through the night
With their elephantine tread;
I shudder in affright
As I cower in my bed.
They 解除する colossal wings
On the high gable roofs
Which tremble to the trample
Of their mastodonic hoofs.
—Justin Geoffrey: Out of the Old Land

LET me begin by 説 that I was surprised when Tussmann called on me. We had never been の近くに friends; the man's mercenary instincts repelled me; and since our bitter 論争 of three years before, when he 試みる／企てるd to discredit my 証拠s of Nahua Culture in Yucatan, which was the result of years of careful 研究, our relations had been anything but cordial. However, I received him and 設立する his manner 迅速な and abrupt, but rather abstracted, as if his dislike for me had been thrust aside in some 運動ing passion that had 持つ／拘留する of him.

His errand was quickly 明言する／公表するd. He wished my 援助（する） in 得るing a 容積／容量 in the first 版 of 出身の Junzt's Nameless 教団s—the 版 known as the 黒人／ボイコット 調書をとる／予約する, not from its color, but because of its dark contents. He might almost 同様に have asked me for the 初めの Greek translation of the Necronomicon. Though since my return from Yucatan I had 充てるd 事実上 all my time to my avocation of 調書をとる／予約する collecting, I had not つまずくd の上に any hint that the 調書をとる／予約する in the Dusseldorf 版 was still in 存在.

A word as to this rare work. Its extreme ambiguity in 位置／汚点／見つけ出すs, coupled with its incredible 支配する 事柄, has 原因（となる）d it long to be regarded as the ravings of a maniac and the author was damned with the brand of insanity. But the fact remains that much of his 主張s are unanswerable, and that he spent the 十分な forty- five years of his life 調査するing into strange places and discovering secret and abysmal things. Not a 広大な／多数の／重要な many 容積／容量s were printed in the first 版 and many of these were 燃やすd by their 脅すd owners when 出身の Junzt was 設立する strangled in a mysterious manner, in his 閉めだした and bolted 議会 one night in 1840, six months after he had returned from a mysterious 旅行 to Mongolia.

Five years later a London printer, one Bridewall, 著作権侵害者d the work, and 問題／発行するd a cheap translation for sensational 影響, 十分な of grotesque woodcuts, and riddled with misspellings, 欠陥のある translations and the usual errors of a cheap and unscholarly printing. This still その上の discredited the 初めの work, and publishers and public forgot about the 調書をとる／予約する until 1909 when the Golden Goblin 圧力（をかける） of New York brought out an 版.

Their 生産／産物 was so carefully expurgated that fully a fourth of the 初めの 事柄 was 削減（する） out; the 調書をとる／予約する was handsomely bound and decorated with the exquisite and weirdly imaginative illustrations of Diego Vasquez. The 版 was ーするつもりであるd for popular 消費 but the artistic instinct of the publishers 敗北・負かすd that end, since the cost of 問題／発行するing the 調書をとる／予約する was so 広大な／多数の／重要な that they were 軍隊d to 特記する／引用する it at a prohibitive price.

I was explaining all this to Tussmann when he interrupted brusquely to say that he was not utterly ignorant in such 事柄s. One of the Golden Goblin 調書をとる／予約するs ornamented his library, he said, and it was in it that he 設立する a 確かな line which 誘発するd his 利益／興味. If I could procure him a copy of the 初めの 1839 版, he would make it 価値（がある） my while; knowing, he 追加するd, that it would be useless to 申し込む／申し出 me money, he would, instead, in return for my trouble on his に代わって, make a 十分な retraction of his former 告訴，告発s in regard to my Yucatan 研究s, and 申し込む／申し出 a 完全にする 陳謝 in The 科学の News.

I will 収容する／認める that I was astounded at this, and realized that if the 事柄 meant so much to Tussmann that he was willing to make such 譲歩s, it must indeed be of the 最大の importance. I answered that I considered that I had 十分に 反駁するd his 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金s in the 注目する，もくろむs of the world and had no 願望（する） to put him in a humiliating position, but that I would make the 最大の 成果／努力s to procure him what he 手配中の，お尋ね者.

He thanked me 突然の and took his leave, 説 rather ばく然と that he hoped to find a 完全にする 解説，博覧会 of something in the 黒人／ボイコット 調書をとる／予約する which had evidently been slighted in the later 版.

I 始める，決める to work, 令状ing letters to friends, 同僚s and 調書をとる／予約する 売買業者s all over the world, and soon discovered that I had assumed a 仕事 of no small magnitude. Three months elapsed before my 成果／努力s were 栄冠を与えるd with success, but at last, through the 援助（する） of Professor James Clement of Richmond, Virginia, I was able to 得る what I wished.

I 通知するd Tussmann and he （機の）カム to London by the next train. His 注目する，もくろむs 燃やすd avidly as he gazed at the 厚い, dusty 容積／容量 with its 激しい leather covers and rusty アイロンをかける hasps, and his fingers quivered with 切望 as he thumbed the time-yellowed pages.

And when he cried out ひどく and 粉砕するd his clenched 握りこぶし 負かす／撃墜する on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する I knew that he had 設立する what he 追跡（する）d.

"Listen!" he 命令（する）d, and he read to me a passage that spoke of an old, old 寺 in a Honduras ジャングル where a strange god was worshipped by an 古代の tribe which became extinct before the coming of the Spaniards. And Tussmann read aloud of the mummy that had been, in life, the last high priest of that 消えるd people, and which now lay in a 議会 hewn in the solid 激しく揺する of the cliff against which the 寺 was built. About that mummy's withered neck was a 巡査 chain, and on that chain a 広大な／多数の／重要な red jewel carved in the form of a toad. This jewel was a 重要な, 出身の Junzt went on to say, to the treasure of the 寺 which lay hidden in a subterranean crypt far below the 寺's altar.

Tussmann's 注目する，もくろむs 炎d.

"I have seen that 寺! I have stood before the altar. I have seen the 調印（する）d-up 入り口 of the 議会 in which, the natives say, lies the mummy of the priest. It is a very curious 寺, no more like the 廃虚s of the 先史の Indians than it is like the buildings of the modern Latin-Americans. The Indians in the 周辺 disclaim any former 関係 with the place; they say that the people who built that 寺 were a different race from themselves, and were there when their own ancestors （機の）カム into the country. I believe it to be a 残余 of some long- 消えるd civilization which began to decay thousands of years before the Spaniards （機の）カム.

"I would have liked to have broken into the 調印（する）d-up 議会, but I had neither the time nor the 道具s for the 仕事. I was hurrying to the coast, having been 負傷させるd by an 偶発の 射撃 in the foot, and I つまずくd の上に the place 純粋に by chance.

"I have been planning to have another look at it, but circumstances have 妨げるd—now I ーするつもりである to let nothing stand in my way! By chance I （機の）カム upon a passage in the Golden Goblin 版 of this 調書をとる／予約する, 述べるing the 寺. But that was all; the mummy was only 簡潔に について言及するd. 利益／興味d, I 得るd one of Bridewall's translations but ran up against a blank 塀で囲む of baffling 失敗s. By some irritating mischance the 翻訳家 had even mistaken the 場所 of the 寺 of the Toad, as 出身の Junzt calls it, and has it in Guatemala instead of Honduras. The general description is 欠陥のある, the jewel is について言及するd and the fact that it is a '重要な'. But a 重要な to what, Bridewall's 調書をとる／予約する does not 明言する／公表する. I now felt that I was on the 跡をつける of a real 発見, unless 出身の Junzt was, as many 持続する, a madman. But that the man was 現実に in Honduras at one time is 井戸／弁護士席 attested, and no one could so vividly 述べる the 寺—as he does in the 黒人／ボイコット 調書をとる／予約する—unless he had seen it himself. How he learned of the jewel is more than I can say. The Indians who told me of the mummy said nothing of any jewel. I can only believe that 出身の Junzt 設立する his way into the 調印（する）d crypt somehow—the man had uncanny ways of learning hidden things.

"To the best of my knowledge only one other white man has seen the 寺 of the Toad besides 出身の Junzt and myself—the Spanish 旅行者 Juan Gonzales, who made a 部分的な／不平等な 探検 of that country in 1793. He について言及するd, 簡潔に, a curious fane that 異なるd from most Indian 廃虚s, and spoke skeptically of a legend 現在の の中で the natives that there was 'something unusual' hidden under the 寺. I feel 確かな that he was referring to the 寺 of the Toad.

"Tomorrow I sail for Central America. Keep the 調書をとる／予約する; I have no more use for it. This time I am going fully 用意が出来ている and I ーするつもりである to find what is hidden in that 寺, if I have to 破壊する it. It can be nothing いっそう少なく than a 広大な／多数の／重要な 蓄える／店 of gold! The Spaniards 行方不明になるd it, somehow; when they arrived in Central America, the 寺 of the Toad was 砂漠d; they were searching for living Indians from whom 拷問 could wring gold; not for mummies of lost peoples. But I mean to have that treasure."

So 説 Tussmann took his 出発. I sat 負かす／撃墜する and opened the 調書をとる／予約する at the place where he had left off reading, and I sat until midnight, wrapt in 出身の Junzt's curious, wild and at times utterly vague expoundings. And I 設立する 付随するing to the 寺 of the Toad 確かな things which disquieted me so much that the next morning I 試みる／企てるd to get in touch with Tussmann, only to find that he had already sailed.

Several months passed and then I received a letter from Tussmann, asking me to come and spend a few days with him at his 広い地所 in Sussex; he also requested me to bring the 黒人／ボイコット 調書をとる／予約する with me.

I arrived at Tussmann's rather 孤立するd 広い地所 just after nightfall. He lived in almost 封建的 明言する／公表する, his 広大な／多数の／重要な ivy-grown house and 幅の広い lawns surrounded by high 石／投石する 塀で囲むs. As I went up the hedge-国境d way from the gate to the house, I 公式文書，認めるd that the place had not been 井戸／弁護士席 kept in its master's absence. 少しのd grew 階級 の中で the trees, almost choking out the grass. の中で some unkempt bushes over against the outer 塀で囲む, I heard what appeared to be a horse or an ox 失敗ing and 板材ing about. I distinctly heard the clink of its hoof on a 石／投石する.

A servant who 注目する，もくろむd me suspiciously 認める me and I 設立する Tussmann pacing to and fro in his 熟考する／考慮する like a caged lion. His 巨大（な） でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる was leaner, harder than when I had last seen him; his 直面する was bronzed by a tropic sun. There were more and harsher lines in his strong 直面する and his 注目する，もくろむs 燃やすd more intensely than ever. A smoldering, baffled 怒り／怒る seemed to underlie his manner.

"井戸／弁護士席, Tussmann," I 迎える／歓迎するd him, "what success? Did you find the gold?"

"I 設立する not an ounce of gold," he growled. "The whole thing was a hoax—井戸／弁護士席, not all of it. I broke into the 調印（する）d 議会 and 設立する the mummy—"

"And the jewel?" I exclaimed.

He drew something from his pocket and 手渡すd it to me.

I gazed curiously at the thing I held. It was a 広大な／多数の／重要な jewel, （疑いを）晴らす and transparent as 水晶, but of a 悪意のある crimson, carved, as 出身の Junzt had 宣言するd, in the 形態／調整 of a toad. I shuddered involuntarily; the image was peculiarly repulsive. I turned my attention to the 激しい and curiously wrought 巡査 chain which supported it.

"What are these characters carved on the chain?" I asked curiously.

"I can not say," Tussmann replied. "I had thought perhaps you might know. I find a faint resemblance between them and 確かな partly defaced hieroglyphics on a monolith known as the 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する in the mountains of Hungary. I have been unable to decipher them."

"Tell me of your trip," I 勧めるd, and over our whiskey-and- sodas he began, as if with a strange 不本意.

"I 設立する the 寺 again with no 広大な／多数の／重要な difficulty, though it lies in a lonely and little-たびたび（訪れる）d 地域. The 寺 is built against a sheer 石／投石する cliff in a 砂漠d valley unknown to 地図／計画するs and explorers. I would not 努力する to make an 見積（る） of its antiquity, but it is built of a sort of 異常に hard basalt, such as I have never seen anywhere else, and its extreme 天候ing 示唆するs incredible age.

"Most of the columns which form its facade are in 廃虚s, thrusting up 粉々にするd stumps from worn bases, like the scattered and broken teeth of some grinning hag. The outer 塀で囲むs are 崩壊するing, but the inner 塀で囲むs and the columns which support such of the roof as remains 損なわれていない, seem good for another thousand years, 同様に as the 塀で囲むs of the inner 議会.

"The main 議会 is a large circular 事件／事情／状勢 with a 床に打ち倒す composed of 広大な／多数の／重要な squares of 石／投石する. In the 中心 stands the altar, 単に a 抱擁する, 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, curiously carved 封鎖する of the same 構成要素. 直接／まっすぐに behind the altar, in the solid 石／投石する cliff which forms the 後部 塀で囲む of the 議会, is the 調印（する）d and hewn- out 議会 wherein lay the mummy of the 寺's last priest.

"I broke into the crypt with not too much difficulty and 設立する the mummy 正確に／まさに as is 明言する／公表するd in the 黒人／ボイコット 調書をとる／予約する. Though it was in a remarkable 明言する／公表する of 保護, I was unable to 分類する it. The withered features and general contour of the skull 示唆するd 確かな degraded and mongrel peoples of Lower Egypt, and I feel 確かな that the priest was a member of a race more akin to the Caucasian than the Indian. Beyond this, I can not make any 肯定的な 声明.

"But the jewel was there, the chain 宙返り飛行d about the 乾燥した，日照りのd-up neck."

From this point Tussmann's narrative became so vague that I had some difficulty in に引き続いて him and wondered if the tropic sun had 影響する／感情d his mind. He had opened a hidden door in the altar somehow with the jewel—just how, he did not plainly say, and it struck me that he did not 明確に understand himself the 活動／戦闘 of the jewel-重要な. But the 開始 of the secret door had had a bad 影響 on the hardy rogues in his 雇う. They had 辞退するd point-blank to follow him through that gaping 黒人／ボイコット 開始 which had appeared so mysteriously when the gem was touched to the altar.

Tussmann entered alone with his ピストル and electric たいまつ, finding a 狭くする 石／投石する stair that 負傷させる 負かす／撃墜する into the bowels of the earth, 明らかに. He followed this and presently （機の）カム into a 幅の広い 回廊（地帯）, in the blackness of which his tiny beam of light was almost （海，煙などが）飲み込むd. As he told this he spoke with strange annoyance of a toad which hopped ahead of him, just beyond the circle of light, all the time he was below ground.

Making his way along dank tunnels and stairways that were 井戸／弁護士席s of solid blackness, he at last （機の）カム to a 激しい door fantastically carved, which he felt must be the crypt wherein was secreted the gold of the 古代の worshippers. He 圧力（をかける）d the toad-jewel against it at several places and finally the door gaped wide.

"And the treasure?" I broke in 熱望して.

He laughed in savage self-mockery.

"There was no gold there, no precious gems—nothing"—he hesitated—"nothing that I could bring away."

Again his tale lapsed into vagueness. I gathered that he had left the 寺 rather hurriedly without searching any その上の for the supposed treasure. He had ーするつもりであるd bringing the mummy away with him, he said, to 現在の to some museum, but when he （機の）カム up out of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席s, it could not be 設立する and he believed that his men, in superstitious aversion to having such a companion on their road to the coast, had thrown it into some 井戸／弁護士席 or cavern.

"And so," he 結論するd, "I am in England again no richer than when I left."

"You have the jewel," I reminded him. "Surely it is 価値のある."

He 注目する，もくろむd it without 好意, but with a sort of 猛烈な／残忍な avidness almost obsessional.

"Would you say that it is a ruby?" he asked.

I shook my 長，率いる. "I am unable to 分類する it."

"And I. But let me see the 調書をとる／予約する."

He slowly turned the 激しい pages, his lips moving as he read. いつかs he shook his 長，率いる as if puzzled, and I noticed him dwell long over a 確かな line.

"This man dipped so 深く，強烈に into forbidden things," said he, "I can not wonder that his 運命／宿命 was so strange and mysterious. He must have had some foreboding of his end—here he 警告するs men not to 乱す sleeping things."

Tussmann seemed lost in thought for some moments.

"Aye, sleeping things," he muttered, "that seem dead, but only 嘘（をつく） waiting for some blind fool to awake them—I should have read その上の in the 黒人／ボイコット 調書をとる／予約する—and I should have shut the door when I left the crypt—but I have the 重要な and I'll keep it in spite of Hell."

He roused himself from his reveries and was about to speak when he stopped short. From somewhere upstairs had come a peculiar sound.

"What was that?" he glared at me. I shook my 長，率いる and he ran to the door and shouted for a servant. The man entered a few moments later and he was rather pale.

"You were upstairs?" growled Tussmann.

"Yes, sir."

"Did you hear anything?" asked Tussmann 厳しく and in a manner almost 脅すing and 告発する／非難するing.

"I did, sir," the man answered with a puzzled look on his 直面する.

"What did you hear?" The question was 公正に／かなり snarled.

"井戸／弁護士席, sir," the man laughed apologetically, "you'll say I'm a bit off, I 恐れる, but to tell you the truth, sir, it sounded like a horse stamping around on the roof!"

A 炎 of 絶対の madness leaped into Tussmann's 注目する，もくろむs.

"You fool!" he 叫び声をあげるd. "Get out of here!" The man shrank 支援する in amazement and Tussmann snatched up the gleaming toad- carved jewel.

"I've been a fool!" he raved. "I didn't read far enough—and I should have shut the door—but by heaven, the 重要な is 地雷 and I'll keep it in spite of man or devil."

And with these strange words he turned and fled upstairs. A moment later his door slammed ひどく and a servant, knocking timidly, brought 前へ／外へ only a blasphemous order to retire and a luridly worded 脅し to shoot anyone who tried to 得る 入り口 into the room.

Had it not been so late I would have left the house, for I was 確かな that Tussmann was stark mad. As it was, I retired to the room a 脅すd servant showed me, but I did not go to bed. I opened the pages of the 黒人／ボイコット 調書をとる／予約する at the place where Tussmann had been reading.

This much was evident, unless the man was utterly insane: he had つまずくd upon something 予期しない in the 寺 of the Toad. Something unnatural about the 開始 of the altar door had 脅すd his men, and in the subterraneous crypt Tussmann had 設立する something that he had not thought to find. And I believed that he had been followed from Central America, and that the 推論する／理由 for his 迫害 was the jewel he called the 重要な.

捜し出すing some 手がかり（を与える） in 出身の Junzt's 容積／容量, I read again of the 寺 of the Toad, of the strange pre-Indian people who worshipped there, and of the 抱擁する, tittering, tentacled, hoofed monstrosity that they worshipped.

Tussmann had said that he had not read far enough when he had first seen the 調書をとる／予約する. Puzzling over this cryptic phrase I （機の）カム upon the line he had pored over—示すd by his thumb nail. It seemed to me to be another of 出身の Junzt's many ambiguities, for it 単に 明言する／公表するd that a 寺's god was the 寺's treasure. Then the dark 関わりあい／含蓄 of the hint struck me and 冷淡な sweat beaded my forehead.

The 重要な to the Treasure! And the 寺's treasure was the 寺's god! And sleeping Things might awaken on the 開始 of their 刑務所，拘置所 door! I sprang up, unnerved by the intolerable suggestion, and at that moment something 衝突，墜落d in the stillness and the death-叫び声をあげる of a human 存在 burst upon my ears.

In an instant I was out of the room, and as I dashed up the stairs I heard sounds that have made me 疑問 my sanity ever since. At Tussmann's door I 停止（させる）d, essaying with shaking 手渡す to turn the knob. The door was locked, and as I hesitated I heard from within a hideous high-pitched tittering and then the disgusting squashy sound as if a 広大な／多数の／重要な, jelly-like 本体，大部分／ばら積みの was 存在 軍隊d through the window. The sound 中止するd and I could have sworn I heard a faint swish of gigantic wings. Then silence.

集会 my 粉々にするd 神経s, I broke 負かす／撃墜する the door. A foul and overpowering stench 大波d out like a yellow もや. Gasping in nausea I entered. The room was in 廃虚s, but nothing was 行方不明の except that crimson toad-carved jewel Tussmann called the 重要な, and that was never 設立する. A foul, unspeakable わずかな／ほっそりした smeared the windowsill, and in the 中心 of the room lay Tussmann, his 長，率いる 鎮圧するd and flattened; and on the red 廃虚 of skull and 直面する, the plain print of an enormous hoof.

THE END

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