interesting fact. As I reflected upon it, it seemed a very natural corollary of the proposition. The worship was more prevalent in tropical countries, and among the least advanced of humanity. The reason was obvious: they were nearer the jungle, both physically and mentally. I also suspected that it would be common among the dwellers of such lands near the ocean. The isolated incident of the Devil’s Cauldron substantiated this belief.
With some satisfaction in my heart I left the metaphysical library when I had finished my search for the day. As I crossed the sidewalk to the parking-station where I had left my car, I stood still in my tracks, gazing with horror upon the sight that met my eyes.
A dirty, tousled figure was dashing along the street, pursued by two policemen. He was clad in the lightest of garments that looked more like underwear or sleeping-clothes than anything else. He stumbled occasionally, but some instinct seemed to enable him to keep out of the grasp of his pursuers. He was carrying something which he balanced with great dexterity. I looked closely as he approached me and saw that it was a tank filled with water, and inside the tank was a collection of lizards, water-snakes, etc. And as he approached me, eluding his pursuers by a hair, I saw that this man in pajamas was Dr. Prendergast.
But what a changed Dr. Prendergast! His professional manner had disappeared. His usually benign face was twisted in a snarl of fury, and his teeth gnashed and champed like a jungle animal lusting for blood.
The policeman explained that they had caught him robbing a nearby aquarium, and refused to believe his story that he had been ordered to take the reptiles that he still carried with such a jealous care.
My professional card and reputation, however, satisfied the officers; and, since the doctor refused to part with his treasure, saying he would die first, I finally agreed to pay for the stolen property, and the owner accepting my proposal, my friend was permitted to retain his prize.
Throughout the journey back to the hospital he babbled unceasingly about things I could barely understand. Hundreds of times he repeated the words “Master” and “B’Moth.” He asserted that he had done the Master’s bidding in stealing the reptiles, and called upon the Thing to reward him when the time came.
I questioned him a hundred times as to his reasons for stealing the tank and its contents, but a cunning look came into his eyes, and try as I would, I could not elicit from him any reason for his act. He clung to his statement that he had but done the bidding of the Master and that he was to be rewarded for it.
His look held suspicion and distrust for me. Like that other poor creature, he sensed in me an enemy of his Master. At times I caught him leering at me with a murderous expression in his red-rimmed eyes, and I confess that I felt not wholly comfortable, there alone in a closed car, with this madman who had been my friend.
It was with something approaching a sigh of relief that I drove in at the broad entrance to the hospital where he was still confined. He showed no disposition to resist the attendants who came to take him to his room, and seemed satisfied in the belief that he had accomplished his end.
When he entered his room, he carefully placed the tank and its contents upon a table in the center, and apparently gave it no further attention. I left him, then, and went to the office of the hospital.
The report was the same as usual. Dr. Prendergast had been sleeping well, eating, but his moments of lucidity were fewer and farther apart. Even then, he seemed to brood under the weight of the obsession that was dominating him.
He had developed a mania for collecting insects of all kinds. He had begged the authorities of the hospital to procure for him jams and other sweets, which, instead of eating, he placed in appropriate places about his room, and waited for the vermin that are bound to be attracted by the preserves.
His room was overrun with flies, ants, and mice; but instead of destroying them, he used every effort to encourage them. He had constructed boxes that acted as traps, and which the superintendent of the hospital informed us were filled to overflowing with various sorts of insects. He had one box filled with grasshoppers, another with ants, a third with flies, and so on.
This occupation was something that I could not understand. What was his purpose — for I felt reasonably sure there was a purpose — in making this collection? I could understand the tank of reptiles after my reading of Johannes. They were undoubtedly symbolic of the Master himself. Perhaps he had caught them in the belief that they were kin of that Thing. But the insects and vermin — these I could not explain at all.
I was not to remain in darkness for long, however. On returning to the room, I stood outside for a moment, and peered through the aperture in the door that is frequently used for observation purposes in mental cases. The simulated indifference of the doctor had passed away, and, under the impression that he was now alone, he was working furiously.
At first I could not understand his occupation, but soon it flashed upon me what his object was. In his hand was a box. It was filled with flies; in a semi-stupor the man was slowly sprinkling handfuls of the pests out of the box where they lay too weak to move. He then fed them carefully to the creatures within the tank! I noticed at his hand other empty cages, and supposed that they had been filled with ants and grasshoppers. He fed the last of the flies to a water- snake and with great contentment replaced the boxes in a neat pile upon a shelf.
Grasping the handle of the door firmly, I entered the room.
His face a mask of fury, my friend whirled upon me with a champing of teeth. Like a cornered tiger about to strike, he crouched against the wall, but, with a smile, I seated myself upon a chair. Seeing this, and that I did not intend to interfere with his pets, he relaxed somewhat, and sat upon the bed. His face was cast in a moody pattern. His brow was knit in a frown as if pondering something.
Slowly the tensity of his body relaxed, his face assumed the normal lines of good humor that I had so often seen upon it, and he looked up.
“By heaven, Randall! If what I think has happened, I am better off dead!” he said.
“No matter what has happened, I am pleased to see that you are still fighting,” I answered.
“Yes, but the effort is almost too much. I wanted to kill you when you came in. You had better watch me, for I am liable to do it the next time. A feeling came over me that you were in my way, or rather, in the way of that hideous Thing that has me in its power, and that you ought to be killed and fed to the sharks.”
“Why fed to the sharks?” I asked with much interest.
“Because they are of the sea — devour each other. Every living thing they devour, if it is not of the sea, is another soul added to their power — to the power of B’Moth.”
“Extraordinary!” I ejaculated in amazement.
“That’s the word. But I know — I can’t say how I know, but I feel it just the same — that the object of this business is to place an overwhelming power in the hands of the filthy abominations at the bottom of the sea, and in the depths of the jungle.”
“You’re right there. I’ve discovered that. Is that why you have been feeding those land creatures to the reptiles in that tank?”
He followed my pointing finger, and shrank from his pets in abject terror. “Did I collect those things?” he asked quaveringly.
“Yes. Can’t you remember it?”
“I have some idea of laying out bait for insects, under the impress of a will stronger than my own, but why I have those snakes, I don’t know.”
“You stole them this afternoon,” I said quietly.
“Stole them, eh? I can’t remember that at all. This thing is getting a pretty tight grip upon me. I’m afraid that unless we can do something, I am finished. I can’t remember what I’ve been up to at all for the past few days. I’m losing this fight.”
“We’ll pull you through. My idea is that you obtained the reptiles in order to feed the other things to them, and thus increase the proportion of souls for the deep. I can’t explain it any better, but you can follow, perhaps. You wanted to help this ghastly business by strengthening the mental influence of the Master and his kind.” I shuddered as I found myself using the word “Master” so easily and familiarly.
“No doubt you’re right. I can’t imagine any other reason for such an act. The very sight of these green, slimy things chills me now. I can’t think of it without a shudder.”
“There’s one thing I want to ask you.”
“Go ahead,” said my friend without much enthusiasm.
“Are there any particular times when this thing comes to you?” “No particular times, but on certain occasions. By Jove, I ought to have thought of it before! It’s when there is fog outside that I experience the drowsy feeling that precedes these attacks.”
