The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard (83 page)

“Impossible?”

“Well,” he amended, “the doors and windows are heavily barred and bolted, and either the keys are in possession of someone who does not care to divulge the secret, or else they have been lost. I have thought that possibly someone was using The House for a bootleg den and had a reason for keeping the curious out but no light has ever been seen there, and no one is ever seen slinking about the place.”

We had passed through the circling ring of sullen oaks and stood before the building.

Untitled Fragment

Beneath the glare of the sun, etched in the hot blue sky, native laborers sweated and toiled. The scene was a cameo of desolation–blue sky, amber sand stretching to the skyline in all directions, barely relieved by a fringe of palm trees that marked an oasis in the near distance. The men were like brown ants in that empty sun-washed immensity, pecking away at a queer grey dome half hidden in the sands. Their employers aided with directions and ready hands.

Allison was square-built and black bearded; Brill was tall, wiry, with a ginger-hued moustache and cold blue eyes. Both had the hard bronzed look of men who had spent most of their lives in the outlands.

Allison knocked out the ashes from his pipe on his boot heel.

“Well, how about it?”

“You mean that fool bet?” Brill looked at him in surprise. “Do you mean it?”

“I do. I’ll lay you my best six-shooter against your saddle that we don’t find an Egyptian in this tomb.”

“What do you expect to find?” asked Brill quizzically, “a local shaykh? Or maybe a Hyksos king? I’ll admit it’s different from anything of the sort I’ve ever seen before, but we know from its appearance of age that it antedates Turkish or Semitic control of Egypt–it’s bound to go back further than the Hyksos, even. And before them, who was in Egypt?”

“I reckon we’ll know after we’ve looted this tomb,” answered Allison, with a certain grimness in his manner.

Brill laughed. “You mean to tell me you think there was a race here before the Egyptians, civilized enough to build such a tomb as this? I suppose you think they built the pyramids!”

“They did,” was the imperturbable reply.

Brill laughed. “Now you’re trying to pull my leg.”

Allison looked at him curiously. “Did you ever read the ‘Unausprechlichen Kulten’?”

“What the devil’s that?”

“A book called ‘Nameless Cults,’ by a crazy German named Von Junzt–at least they said he was crazy.

Among other things he wrote of an age which he swore he had discovered–a sort of historical blind spot.

He called it the Hyborian Age. We have guessed what came before, and we know what came after, but that age itself has been a blank space–no legends, no chronicles, just a few scattered names that came to be applied in other senses.

“It’s our lack of knowledge about this age that upsets our calculations and makes us put down Atlantis as a myth. This is what Von Junzt says: That when Atlantis, Lemuria and other nations of that age were destroyed by a violent cataclysm–except for scattered remnants here and there–the continent now known as Africa was untouched, though connected with the other continent. A tribe of savages fled to the arctic circle to escape the volcanoes, and eventually evolved into a race known as Hyborians. These reached a high stage of civilization and dominated the western part of the world, all except this particular part. A pre-Cataclysmic race lived here, known as Stygians. It was from them that the Grecian legend of Stygia arose; the Nile was the Styx of the fables. The Hyborians were never able to invade Stygia, and last they themselves were destroyed by waves of barbarians from the north–our own ancestors. In Stygia the ruling classes were pure-blooded, but the lower classes were mixed–Stygian, Semitic and Hyborian blood.

“In the southward drift of the barbarians, a tribe of red-haired Nordics fought their way south and overthrew the ancient Stygian regime. They destroyed or drove out the pure-blooded Stygians, and set themselves up as a ruling caste, eventually being absorbed by their subjects; from these adventurers and the mixed up mongrel lower classes came the Egyptians. It was the Stygians who built the pyramids and the Sphinx. And if I’m not mistaken, one of them lies in this pile of masonry.”

Brill laughed incredulously.

Appendix

NOTES ON THE ORIGINAL HOWARD TEXTS

The texts for this edition of
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
were prepared by Rusty Burke and Rob Roehm, with the assistance of Paul Herman. The stories have been checked either against Howard’s original manuscripts and typescripts, copies of which were provided by the Robert E. Howard Foundation and Glenn Lord; Lord’s transcriptions of Howard’s originals; or the first published appearance if a manuscript, typescript, or transcription was unavailable. Every effort has been made to present the work of Robert E. Howard as faithfully as possible.

Deviations from the original sources are detailed in these textual notes. In the following notes, page, line, and word numbers are given as follows: 11.20.2, indicating page 11, twentieth line, second word. Story titles, chapter numbers and titles, and breaks before and after chapter headings, titles, and illustrations are not counted; in poems, only text lines are counted. The page/line number will be followed by the reading in the original source, or a statement indicating the type of change made.

We have standardized chapter numbering and titling: Howard’s own practices varied, as did those of the publications in which these stories appeared. We have not noted those changes here.

In the Forest of Villefère

Text taken from
Weird Tales
, August 1925. No changes have been made for this edition.

A Song of the Werewolf Folk

Text taken from Glenn Lord’s transcription of Howard’s original typescript. No changes have been made for this edition.

Wolfshead

Text taken from
Weird Tales
, April 1926. 6.1.2: your; 7.15.8: semicolon after “age” 9.33.4: comma after “myself” 12.35.4: single quote after “von Schiller?” 14.29.6-14: no quotation marks; 15.40.16: no comma after “floor” 22.28.7-8: “as” not in original, “if” repeated
Up, John Kane!

Text taken from Glenn Lord’s transcription of Howard’s original typescript. No changes have been made for this edition.

Remembrance

Text taken from
Weird Tales
, April 1928. No changes have been made for this edition.

The Dream Snake

Text taken from
Weird Tales
, February 1928. 32.14.8: the
Sea Curse

Text taken from
Weird Tales
, May 1928. 39.40.14: “of” not in original
The Moor Ghost

Text taken from
Weird Tales
, September 1929. No changes have been made for this edition.

Moon Mockery

Text taken from
Weird Tales
, April 1929. No changes have been made for this edition.

The Little People

Text taken from a copy of Howard’s original typescript, provided by Glenn Lord. The story was originally untitled. The typescript is unusual in having holographic additions and corrections, in addition to Howard’s more frequent practice of typing such insertions. Because Howard’s handwriting can be exceptionally difficult, some of the readings are conjectural, as is the placement of some inserted material.

At least one page is missing from the typescript. [A facsimile of the original typescript is included in
Bran
Mak Morn: The Last King
(Del Rey, 2005).] 43.3.3: she,; 43.8.6: This; 43.9.6: answered,; 43.10.6-9:

“as an exponent” is hand-written above the original “to expound”, “of” not in manuscript; 43.12.3: fetched.; 43.12.8: “finallity” hand-written above original “positiveness” 43.12.10: seventeen,; 43.15.7: fact.; 43.15.9: said,; 43.16.11: exclaimed,; 43.18.9: nettled,; 43.19.7: were; 43.21.2: “brotherly”

hand-written above “frown” 44.5.3-8: “A race of small, dark people.” hand-written above “Traces of their type may be” with no indication of intended insertion point; 44.5.9: Traces; 44.7.7: “Lapps”

hand-written next to typed “Laps” 44.11.10: “by” not in manuscript; 44.21.6: ago.; 44.21.11: interest,; 44.23.7: havent; 44.25.3: original had “dolmens”, crossed out in pencil, “menhirs” written above; 44.27.1: Maybe.; 44.27.11: “villager” hand-written above original “fellow” 44.28.1-2: “the warning”

handwritten in margin after “said”, no dash; 44.28.14: Youre; 44.29.1: no comma after “sophisticated”

44.29.8: wouldnt; 44.31.11-12: “and combat” hand-written after “interest.” 44.32.5: exclaimed,; 44.33.7: didnt; 44.36.3: wont; 44.36.4: either.; 44.36.6: vetoed,; 44.37.12-14: original had “true”, crossed out in pencil, “up to date” hand-written above; 44.38.2-3: original had “New Age”, crossed out in pencil, “Younger Generation” hand-written above; 44.39.2: havent; 44.39.10: night.; 44.39.12: answered,; 45.1.4: wouldnt; 45.2.5: you.; 45.2.6-9: “to be out unprotected.”” handwritten following

“you.”” 45.4.1: No quotation mark before “I” 45.4.3: youre; 45.4.5: foolish.; 45.5.14: no comma after

“I” 45.9.7: framing,; 45.14.1: wouldnt; 45.17.7: willfull; 45.19.2: cant; 45.19.5: around.; 45.19.7: flamed,; 45.19.12: original had “restrain”, “bully” hand-written above; 45.21.3: necessary.; 45.21.5: sighed,; 45.25.3: didnt; 45.25.8: anyhow.; 45.28.1: original had “bully”, crossed out and “cajole”

hand-written above; 45.31.1: no period after “corridor” 45.34.8: gristly; 45.35.6-10: “and the air was warm” is typed in above “yet the whole landscape” without indication of the intended insertion point; 45.36.1: LOOKED; 45.36.6-11: original had “Across the I rise,” “fen” and “saw” are hand-written above; 45.37.9: original had “ruined Cromlech”, “ed” of “ruined” crossed out, “s” inserted after “ruin”, and “Cromlech” crossed out; 46.2.3-6: original had “She disliked compulsory obeidience extremely.”,

“Compulsory obeidence was repugnant” hand-written above; 46.4.12: “I” hand-written above “lay”

46.5.2-3: “brooding and” typed in above “staring at the” with no indication of intended insertion point; 46.9.8: original had “lurking”, crossed out and “impending” hand-written above; 46.10.9: conciousness; 46.11.12: “through” is typed above “into the window” 46.13.7: arrouse; 46.15.3-4: originally “strange thoughts”, “strange” is crossed out in pencil, “partly formed” typed above “thoughts”, then “formed” is crossed out and a word that may be “remembered” is written above, but the reading is conjectural; 46.15.11: awke; 46.25.7: original had “cromlech”, crossed out and “ruins” hand-written above; 46.25.13: no comma after “moon” 46.26.5: comma rather than dash after “length” 46.28.10: original had

“in”, “within” hand-written above; 46.29.11: original had “hastened”, “quickened” typed above; 46.31.9: eveil; 46.32.1: no comma after “Then” 46.33.4-8: original had “limned the scene clearly”, crossed out and “flung a veil of illusion” hand-written above; 46.39.6: SAW; 46.40.17-41.1: original read “I saw that on three sides she was surrounded–they…”, “on” through “surrounded” is crossed out in pencil; 46.41.8: After “me.”, the following sentence originally began “Only on the side next the ruins was the way clear and suddenly”, everything through “and” is crossed out; 46.41.10-12: “instinctively” is hand-written above “she”, extending into right margin, “I believe” is hand-written below it in margin, no indication of intended insertion point; 47.3.16: no comma after “youth” 47.7.1-10: “I did not fear I only wished to close with them” hand-written above “I recognized these–I knew them of old and all”, no indication of intended insertion point; 47.9.5-11.7: “Hate leaped in me as in the old days” is hand-written after “soul.”, appears to continue on next line with “when when men of my blood came from the North” (the “N” in

“North” may or may not be capitalized), slopes up slightly, followed by “Ay though the whole spawn of Hell rise up from those caverns which honey comb the moors”, but the insertion and some of the readings are conjectural; 47.14.9: features.; 47.14.10-15.11: “the shimmer of flint daggers in their crooked hands”

is typed above “square faces with their unhuman features. Then with a”, no indication of intended insertion point; 47.16.3: them,; 47.17.8: They; 47.19.6-20.4: “a flint dagger sank hilt deep in my thigh” is typed above “darkened the moon-silvered stones. Then the ghastly”, no indication of intended insertion point; 47.21.4: semicolon rather than comma after “mine” 47.23.1: original had “Mindless”, crossed out and “Heedless” handwritten above; 47.23.12: “anew” hand-written above semicolon; 47.25.2: “blindly”

is handwritten above “seeking”, no indication of intended insertion point; 47.25.4-26.12: “there the protection some vague instinct in obedience to some dim instinct just as women of her blood had done in by gone ages” is hand-written after “seeking” in the bottom margin of the page, “the” and “some vague instinct” are crossed out in pencil, some of the readings are conjectural; 47.26.12: at top of new page,

“there the protection, following some instinct.” appears to continue sentence from “seeking” at bottom of previous page, before handwritten material was inserted; 47.29.9: dreams; 47.34.8: They; 47.35.10: original had “eonic”, “ancient” hand-written above, obscured, reading conjectural; 47.41.2: semicolon rather than dash after “explain” 48.2.3-4.12: “Aye, such a shriek as could echo down the dusty corridors of lost ages and bring” hand-written above the line beginning “but I think that…”, “back from the whispering abyss of Eternity the ghost of the only one who could save” hand-written above the line beginning “Time to the Beings…”, “a girl of Celtic blood” hand-written above line beginning with new paragraph, “The foremost…” 48.6.12: original had “appeared”, crossed out, “stood” typed above; 48.7.4: original had “appearing”, “materializing” hand-written above; 48.9.9-10.7: “A druid, answering once more the desperate need of people” hand-written above “His brow was high and noble, his eyes mystic and”, “of his race” hand-written above beginning of next line, “far-seeing”, no indication of intended insertion point; 48.13.6: no comma after “suddenly” 48.15.1-16.5: “sword and shield against the” hand-written above “who raised his hand above”, “powers of darkness, protecting helpless tribes as in the world’s youth” hand-written above the line beginning “us as if in benediction…”, no indication of intended insertion point, some readings conjectural