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The Moon Pool

A >> A. Merritt >> The Moon Pool




"I laughed at her then--

"Two weeks slipped by, and at their end the spokesman for
our natives came to us. The next night was the full of the
moon, he said. He reminded me of my promise. They would
go back to their village in the morning; they would return
after the third night, when the moon had begun to wane.
They left us sundry charms for our 'protection,' and solemnly
cautioned us to keep as far away as possible from Nan-
Tauach during their absence. Half-exasperated, half-amused
I watched them go.

"No work could be done without them, of course, so we
decided to spend the days of their absence junketing about
the southern islets of the group. We marked down several
spots for subsequent exploration, and on the morning of the
third day set forth along the east face of the breakwater for
our camp on Uschen-Tau, planning to have everything in
readiness for the return of our men the next day.

"We landed just before dusk, tired and ready for our cots.
It was only a little after ten o'clock that Edith awakened me.

"'Listen!' she said. 'Lean over with your ear close to the
ground!'

"I did so, and seemed to hear, far, far below, as though
coming up from great distances, a faint chanting. It gathered
strength, died down, ended; began, gathered volume, faded
away into silence.

"'It's the waves rolling on rocks somewhere,' I said. 'We're
probably over some ledge of rock that carries the sound.'

"'It's the first time I've heard it,' replied my wife doubt-
fully. We listened again. Then through the dim rhythms,
deep beneath us, another sound came. It drifted across the
lagoon that lay between us and Nan-Tauach in little tinkling
waves. It was music--of a sort; I won't describe the strange
effect it had upon me. You've felt it--"

"You mean on the deck?" I asked. Throckmartin nodded.

"I went to the flap of the tent," he continued, "and peered
out. As I did so Stanton lifted his flap and walked out into the
moonlight, looking over to the other islet and listening. I
called to him.

"'That's the queerest sound!' he said. He listened again.
'Crystalline! Like little notes of translucent glass. Like the
bells of crystal on the sistrums of Isis at Dendarah Temple,'
he added half-dreamily. We gazed intently at the island.
Suddenly, on the sea-wall, moving slowly, rhythmically, we
saw a little group of lights. Stanton laughed.

"'The beggars!' he exclaimed. 'That's why they wanted to
get away, is it? Don't you see, Dave, it's some sort of a fes-
tival--rites of some kind that they hold during the full moon!
That's why they were so eager to have us KEEP away, too.'

"The explanation seemed good. I felt a curious sense of re-
lief, although I had not been sensible of any oppression.

"'Let's slip over,' suggested Stanton--but I would not.

"'They're a difficult lot as it is,' I said. 'If we break into one
of their religious ceremonies they'll probably never forgive
us. Let's keep out of any family party where we haven't been
invited.'

"'That's so,' agreed Stanton.

"The strange tinkling rose and fell, rose and fell--

"'There's something--something very unsettling about it,'
said Edith at last soberly. 'I wonder what they make those
sounds with. They frighten me half to death, and, at the same
time. they make me feel as though some enormous rapture
were just around the corner.'

"'It's devilish uncanny!' broke in Stanton.

"And as he spoke the flap of Thora's tent was raised and
out into the moonlight strode the old Swede. She was the
great Norse type--tall, deep-breasted, moulded on the old
Viking lines. Her sixty years had slipped from her. She
looked like some ancient priestess of Odin.

"She stood there, her eyes wide, brilliant, staring. She
thrust her head forward toward Nan-Tauach, regarding the
moving lights; she listened. Suddenly she raised her arms
and made a curious gesture to the moon. It was--an archaic
--movement; she seemed to drag it from remote antiquity--
yet in it was a strange suggestion of power, Twice she re-
peated this gesture and--the tinklings died away! She turned
to us.

"'Go!' she said, and her voice seemed to come from far
distances. 'Go from here--and quickly! Go while you may.
It has called--' She pointed to the islet. 'It knows you are
here. It waits!' she wailed. 'It beckons--the--the--"

"She fell at Edith's feet, and over the lagoon came again
the tinklings, now with a quicker note of jubilance--almost
of triumph.

"We watched beside her throughout the night. The sounds
from Nan-Tauach continued until about an hour before
moon-set. In the morning Thora awoke, none the worse, ap-
parently. She had had bad dreams, she said. She could not
remember what they were--except that they had warned her
of danger. She was oddly sullen, and throughout the morning
her gaze returned again and again half-fascinatedly, half-
wonderingly to the neighbouring isle.

"That afternoon the natives returned. And that night on
Nan-Tauach the silence was unbroken nor were there lights
nor sign of life.

"You will understand, Goodwin, how the occurrences I
have related would excite the scientific curiosity. We rejected
immediately, of course, any explanation admitting the super-
natural.

"Our--symptoms let me call them--could all very easily
be accounted for. It is unquestionable that the vibrations
created by certain musical instruments have definite and
sometimes extraordinary effect upon the nervous system. We
accepted this as the explanation of the reactions we had ex-
perienced, hearing the unfamiliar sounds. Thora's nervous-
ness, her superstitious apprehensions, had wrought her up to
a condition of semi-somnambulistic hysteria. Science could
readily explain her part in the night's scene.

"We came to the conclusion that there must be a passage-
way between Ponape and Nan-Tauach known to the natives
--and used by them during their rites. We decided that on
the next departure of our labourers we would set forth im-
mediately to Nan-Tauach. We would investigate during the
day, and at evening my wife and Thora would go back to
camp, leaving Stanton and me to spend the night on the
island, observing from some safe hiding-place what might
occur.

"The moon waned; appeared crescent in the west; waxed
slowly toward the full. Before the men left us they literally
prayed us to accompany them. Their importunities only made
us more eager to see what it was that, we were now con-
vinced, they wanted to conceal from us. At least that was
true of Stanton and myself. It was not true of Edith. She was
thoughtful, abstracted--reluctant.

"When the men were out of sight around the turn of the
harbour, we took our boat and made straight for Nan-
Tauach. Soon its mighty sea-wall towered above us. We
passed through the water-gate with its gigantic hewn prisms
of basalt and landed beside a half-submerged pier. In front
of us stretched a series of giant steps leading into a vast court
strewn with fragments of fallen pillars. In the centre of the
court, beyond the shattered pillars, rose another terrace of
basalt blocks, concealing, I knew, still another enclosure.

"And now, Walter, for the better understanding of what
follows--and--and--" he hesitated. "Should you decide
later to return with me or, if I am taken, to--to--follow us--
listen carefully to my description of this place: Nan-Tauach
is literally three rectangles. The first rectangle is the sea-wall,
built up of monoliths--hewn and squared, twenty feet wide
at the top. To get to the gateway in the sea-wall you pass
along the canal marked on the map between Nan-Tauach
and the islet named Tau. The entrance to the canal is bidden
by dense thickets of mangroves; once through these the way
is clear. The steps lead up from the landing of the sea-gate
through the entrance to the courtyard.

"This courtyard is surrounded by another basalt wall, rec-
tangular, following with mathematical exactness the march
of the outer barricades. The sea-wall is from thirty to forty
feet high--originally it must have been much higher, but
there has been subsidence in parts. The wall of the first en-
closure is fifteen feet across the top and its height varies from
twenty to fifty feet--here, too, the gradual sinking of the land
has caused portions of it to fall.

"Within this courtyard is the second enclosure. Its terrace,
of the same basalt as the outer walls, is about twenty feet
high. Entrance is gained to it by many breaches which time
has made in its stonework. This is the inner court, the heart
of Nan-Tauach! There lies the great central vault with which
is associated the one name of living being that has come to us
out of the mists of the past. The natives say it was the treas-
ure-house of Chau-te-leur, a mighty king who reigned long
'before their fathers.' As Chan is the ancient Ponapean word
both for sun and king, the name means, without doubt, 'place
of the sun king.' It is a memory of a dynastic name of the
race that ruled the Pacific continent, now vanished--just as
the rulers of ancient Crete took the name of Minos and the
rulers of Egypt the name of Pharaoh.

"And opposite this place of the sun king is the moon rock
that hides the Moon Pool.

"It was Stanton who discovered the moon rock. We had
been inspecting the inner courtyard; Edith and Thora were
getting together our lunch. I came out of the vault of Chau-
te-leur to find Stanton before a part of the terrace studying
it wonderingly.

"'What do you make of this?' he asked me as I came up.
He pointed to the wall. I followed his finger and saw a slab of
stone about fifteen feet high and ten wide. At first all I no-
ticed was the exquisite nicety with which its edges joined the
blocks about it. Then I realized that its colour was subtly dif-
ferent--tinged with grey and of a smooth, peculiar--dead-
ness.

"'Looks more like calcite than basalt,' I said. I touched it
and withdrew my hand quickly for at the contact every nerve
in my arm tingled as though a shock of frozen electricity had
passed through it. It was not cold as we know cold. It was a
chill force--the phrase I have used--frozen electricity--de-
scribes it better than anything else. Stanton looked at me
oddly.

"'So you felt it too,' he said. 'I was wondering whether I
was developing hallucinations like Thora. Notice, by the way,
that the blocks beside it are quite warm beneath the sun.'

"We examined the slab eagerly. Its edges were cut as
though by an engraver of jewels. They fitted against the
neighbouring blocks in almost a hair-line. Its base was
slightly curved, and fitted as closely as top and sides upon the
huge stones on which it rested. And then we noted that these
stones had been hollowed to follow the line of the grey stone's
foot. There was a semicircular depression running from one
side of the slab to the other. It was as though the grey rock
stood in the centre of a shallow cup--revealing half, covering
half. Something about this hollow attracted me. I reached
down and felt it. Goodwin, although the balance of the stones
that formed it, like all the stones of the courtyard, were
rough and age-worn--this was as smooth, as even surfaced as
though it had just left the hands of the polisher.

"'It's a door!' exclaimed Stanton. 'It swings around in that
little cup. That's what makes the hollow so smooth.'

"'Maybe you're right,' I replied. 'But how the devil can we
open it?'

"We went over the slab again--pressing upon its edges,
thrusting against its sides. During one of those efforts I hap-
pened to look up--and cried out. A foot above and on each
side of the corner of the grey rock's lintel was a slight con-
vexity, visible only from the angle at which my gaze struck it.

"We carried with us a small scaling-ladder and up this I
went. The bosses were apparently nothing more than chis-
eled curvatures in the stone. I laid my hand on the one I was
examining, and drew it back sharply. In my palm, at the base
of my thumb, I had felt the same shock that I had in touch-
ing the slab below. I put my hand back. The impression came
from a spot not more than an inch wide. I went carefully
over the entire convexity, and six times more the chill ran
through my arm. There were seven circles an inch wide in
the curved place, each of which communicated the precise
sensation I have described. The convexity on the opposite
side of the slab gave exactly the same results. But no amount
of touching or of pressing these spots singly or in any com-
bination gave the slightest promise of motion to the slab
itself.

"'And yet--they're what open it,' said Stanton positively.

"'Why do you say that?' I asked.

"'I--don't know,' he answered hesitatingly. 'But some-
thing tells me so. Throck,' he went on half earnestly, half
laughingly, 'the purely scientific part of me is fighting the
purely human part of me. The scientific part is urging me to
find some way to get that slab either down or open. The hu-
man part is just as strongly urging me to do nothing of the
sort and get away while I can!'

"He laughed again--shamefacedly.

"'Which shall it be?' he asked--and I thought that in his
tone the human side of him was ascendant.

"'It will probably stay as it is--unless we blow it to bits,'
I said.

"'I thought of that,' he answered, 'and I wouldn't dare,'
he added soberly enough. And even as I had spoken there
came to me the same feeling that he had expressed. It was as
though something passed out of the grey rock that struck my
heart as a hand strikes an impious lip. We turned away--un-
easily, and faced Thora coming through a breach on the ter-
race.

'Miss Edith wants you quick,' she began--and stopped.
Her eyes went past me to the grey rock. Her body grew rigid;
she took a few stiff steps forward and then ran straight to it.
She cast herself upon its breast, hands and face pressed
against it; we heard her scream as though her very soul were
being drawn from her--and watched her fall at its foot. As
we picked her up I saw steal from her face the look I had ob-
served when first we heard the crystal music of Nan-Tauach
--that unhuman mingling of opposites!"





CHAPTER IV

The First Vanishings

"WE CARRIED Thora back, down to where Edith was waiting.
We told her what had happened and what we had found.
She listened gravely, and as we finished Thora sighed and
opened her eyes.

"'I would like to see the stone,' she said. 'Charles, you stay
here with Thora.' We passed through the outer court silently
--and stood before the rock. She touched it, drew back her
hand as I had; thrust it forward again resolutely and held it
there. She seemed to be listening. Then she turned to me.

"'David,' said my wife, and the wistfulness in her voice
hurt me--'David, would you be very, very disappointed if we
went from here--without trying to find out any more about
it--would you?'

"Walter, I never wanted anything so much in my life as I
wanted to learn what that rock concealed. Nevertheless, I
tried to master my desire, and I answered--'Edith, not a bit
if you want us to do it.'

"She read my struggle in my eyes. She turned back toward
the grey rock. I saw a shiver pass through her. I felt a tinge
of remorse and pity!

"'Edith,' I exclaimed, 'we'll go!'

"She looked at me again. 'Science is a jealous mistress,' she
quoted. 'No, after all it may be just fancy. At any rate, you
can't run away. No! But, Dave, I'm going to stay too!'

"And there was no changing her decision. As we neared
the others she laid a hand on my arm.

"'Dave,' she said, 'if there should be something--well--
inexplicable tonight--something that seems--too dangerous
--will you promise to go back to our own islet tomorrow, if
we can--and wait until the natives return?'

"I promised eagerly--the desire to stay and see what came
with the night was like a fire within me.

"We picked a place about five hundred feet away from the
steps leading into the outer court.

"The spot we had selected was well hidden. We could not
be seen, and yet we had a clear view of the stairs and the
gateway. We settled down just before dusk to wait for what-
ever might come. I was nearest the giant steps; next me
Edith; then Thora, and last Stanton.

"Night fell. After a time the eastern sky began to lighten,
and we knew that the moon was rising; grew lighter still, and
the orb peeped over the sea; swam into full sight. I glanced
at Edith and then at Thora. My wife was intently listening.
Thora sat, as she had since we had placed ourselves, elbows
on knees, her hands covering her face.

"And then from the moonlight flooding us there dripped
down on me a great drowsiness. Sleep seemed to seep from
the rays and fall upon my eyes, closing them--closing them
inexorably. Edith's hand in mine relaxed. Stanton's head fell
upon his breast and his body swayed drunkenly. I tried to
rise--to fight against the profound desire for slumber that
pressed on me.

"And as I fought, Thora raised her head as though listen-
ing; and turned toward the gateway. There was infinite des-
pair in her face--and expectancy. I tried again to rise--and a
surge of sleep rushed over me. Dimly, as I sank within it, I
heard a crystalline chiming; raised my lids once more with a
supreme effort.

"Thora, bathed in light, was standing at the top of the
stairs.

"Sleep took me for its very own--swept me into the heart
of oblivion!

"Dawn was breaking when I wakened. Recollection rushed
back; I thrust a panic-stricken hand out toward Edith;
touched her and my heart gave a great leap of thankfulness.
She stirred, sat up, rubbing dazed eyes. Stanton lay on his
side, back toward us, head in arms.

"Edith looked at me laughingly. 'Heavens! What sleep!'
she said. Memory came to her.

"'What happened?' she whispered. 'What made us sleep
like that?'

"Stanton awoke.

"'What's the matter!' he exclaimed. 'You look as though
you've been seeing ghosts.'

"Edith caught my hands.

"'Where's Thora?' she cried. Before I could answer she
had run out into the open, calling.

"'Thora was taken,' was all I could say to Stanton, 'to-
gether we went to my wife, now standing beside the great
stone steps, looking up fearfully at the gateway into the ter-
races. There I told them what I had seen before sleep had
drowned me. And together then we ran up the stairs, through
the court and to the grey rock.

"The slab was closed as it had been the day before, nor was
there trace of its having opened. No trace? Even as I thought
this Edith dropped to her knees before it and reached toward
something lying at its foot. It was a little piece of gay silk. I
knew it for part of the kerchief Thora wore about her hair.
She lifted the fragment. It had been cut from the kerchief as
though by a razor-edge; a few threads ran from it--down to-
ward the base of the slab; ran on to the base of the grey rock
and--under it!

"The grey rock was a door! And it had opened and Thora
had passed through it!

"I think that for the next few minutes we all were a little
insane. We beat upon that portal with our hands, with stones
and sticks. At last reason came back to us.

"Goodwin, during the next two hours we tried every way
in our power to force entrance through the slab. The rock re-
sisted our drills. We tried explosions at the base with charges
covered by rock. They made not the slightest impression on
the surface, expending their force, of course, upon the
slighter resistance of their coverings.

"Afternoon found us hopeless. Night was coming on and
we would have to decide our course of action. I wanted to go
to Ponape for help. But Edith objected that this would take
hours and after we had reached there it would be impossible
to persuade our men to return with us that night, if at all.
What then was left? Clearly only one of two choices: to go
back to our camp, wait for our men, and on their return try
to persuade them to go with us to Nan-Tauach. But this
would mean the abandonment of Thora for at least two days.
We could not do it; it would have been too cowardly.

"The other choice was to wait where we were for night to
come; to wait for the rock to open as it had the night before,
and to make a sortie through it for Thora before it could
close again.

"Our path lay clear before us. We had to spend that night
on Nan-Tauach!

"We had, of course, discussed the sleep phenomena very
fully. If our theory that lights, sounds, and Thora's disap-
pearance were linked with secret religious rites of the na-
tives, the logical inference was that the slumber had been
produced by them, perhaps by vapours--you know as well as
I, what extraordinary knowledge these Pacific peoples have
of such things. Or the sleep might have been simply a coin-
cidence and produced by emanations either gaseous or from
plants, natural causes which had happened to coincide in
their effects with the other manifestations. We made some
rough and ready but effective respirators.

"As dusk fell we looked over our weapons. Edith was an
excellent shot with both rifle and pistol. We had decided that
my wife was to remain in the hiding-place. Stanton would
take up a station on the far side of the stairway and I would
place myself opposite him on the side near Edith. The place
I picked out was less than two hundred feet from her, and I
could reassure myself now and then as to her safety as it
looked down upon the hollow wherein she crouched. From
our respective stations Stanton and I could command the
gateway entrance. His position gave him also a glimpse of
the outer courtyard.

"A faint glow in the sky heralded the moon. Stanton and I
took our places. The moon dawn increased rapidly; the disk
swam up, and in a moment it was shining in full radiance
upon ruins and sea.

"As it rose there came a curious little sighing sound from
the inner terrace. Stanton straightened up and stared in-
tently through the gateway, rifle ready.

"'Stanton, what do you see?' I called cautiously. He waved
a silencing hand. I turned my head to look at Edith. A shock
ran through me. She lay upon her side. Her face, grotesque
with its nose and mouth covered by the respirator, was
turned full toward the moon. She was again in deepest sleep!

"As I turned again to call to Stanton, my eyes swept the
head of the steps and stopped, fascinated. For the moon-
light had thickened. It seemed to be--curdled--there; and
through it ran little gleams and veins of shimmering white
fire. A languor passed through me. It was not the ineffable
drowsiness of the preceding night. It was a sapping of all will
to move. I tried to cry out to Stanton. I had not even the will
to move my lips. Goodwin--I could not even move my eyes!

"Stanton was in the range of my fixed vision. I watched
him leap up the steps and move toward the gateway. The
curdled radiance seemed to await him. He stepped into it--
and was lost to my sight.

"For a dozen heart beats there was silence. Then a rain of
tinklings that set the pulses racing with joy and at once
checked them with tiny fingers of ice--and ringing through
them Stanton's voice from the courtyard--a great cry--a
scream--filled with ecstasy insupportable and horror un-
imaginable! And once more there was silence. I strove to
burst the bonds that held me. I could not. Even my eyelids
were fixed. Within them my eyes, dry and aching, burned.

"Then Goodwin--I first saw the--inexplicable! The crys-
talline music swelled. Where I sat I could take in the gate-
way and its basalt portals, rough and broken, rising to the
top of the wall forty feet above, shattered, ruined portals--
unclimbable. From this gateway an intenser light began to
flow. It grew, it gushed, and out of it walked Stanton.

"Stanton! But--God! What a vision!"

A deep tremor shook him. I waited--waited.





CHAPTER V

Into the Moon Pool

"GOODWIN," Throckmartin went on at last, "I can describe
him only as a thing of living light. He radiated light; was
filled with light; overflowed with it. A shining cloud whirled
through and around him in radiant swirls, shimmering ten-
tacles, luminescent, coruscating spirals.

"His face shone with a rapture too great to be borne by
living man, and was shadowed with insuperable misery. It
was as though it had been remoulded by the hand of God and
the hand of Satan, working together and in harmony. You
have seen that seal upon my own. But you have never seen
it in the degree that Stanton bore it. The eyes were wide
open and fixed, as though upon some inward vision of hell
and heaven!

"The light that filled and surrounded him had a nucleus, a
core--something shiftingly human shaped--that dissolved
and changed, gathered itself, whirled through and beyond
him and back again. And as its shining nucleus passed
through him Stanton's whole body pulsed radiance. As the
luminescence moved, there moved above it, still and serene
always, seven tiny globes of seven colors, like seven little
moons.

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