Amazing Stories — page 65: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ANCIENT HORROR 63 repealing, over and over, ‘Poor little woman! Poor little woman!’ When I could stand it no longer, I shook him and made him shut up. “When the last of the monster’s shadow had passed, we painfully rose from our cramped posi- tion and crawled back to shore and started for home, around the north end of the lake, hoping to get an- other and, perhaps clearer view of the monster. But we didn’t catch sight of it again. Perhaps it changed its course or, more likely, had sought its hiding place. “IT am not a drinking man but when we reached the house and Wilson poured a stiff peg of liquor for himself, I asked him to give me one too. And we needed that drink if ever any drink was needed, for we were pretty badly shaken up. “Tt was long past our usual bed hour, but we didn't feel very sleepy, although probably from force of habit, I suggested turning in. Wilson, however, much to my secret delight, refused to take any chances of dreaming about that thing. ‘No, sir! he said, ‘’m going to keep my clothes on and stay awake.’ So, after another drink, we filled our pipes and prepared to wait for daylight. “What kind of a fish was that?’ Wilson’s ques- tion aroused me from the train of thought into which I had wandered and, my mind engaged, I replied, an aquatic antique. This did not, of course, make things any clearer for him so I asked if he knew anything about the history of the earth, and the strange crea- tures that had lived upon it, in ages long past. His knowledge was very limited so, drawing on my mem- ory of lessons learned years before, I tried to answer his query in such a manner as to enable him to under- stand the probable meaning of what we had seen. “So far as repeating what I had read was con- cerned, my task was simple. But any proper answer, that is, one that would cover what we had dimly glimpsed out there on the lake, required something more and I was obliged to resort to deductive rea- soning in order to supply it. “Briefly I told him that the age of the earth was estimated to be between 860,000,000-and 1,000,000,- 000 years and that, according to the age of the rocks, this great span of years was divided into ages, such as the Azoic, followed by the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic. I told him that, accepting the idea that roughly 1,000,000,000 years represented the earth’s age, the Mesozoic era lay back of us some 500,000,- 000 of years. Then I told him, as well as I could, what sort of monsters and giant reptiles inhabited the earth and its water at the time; then, in an effort to account for the monster in the lake, I drew upon my imagination. Perhaps I guessed wrongly, but I know of no other way. For there is no record, so far as I know, of any creature, except some of the land species possibly, that could equal, in size, the thing whose shadow we had seen. “T am inclined to believe I was not far wrong be: cause it is common geological knowledge that vast continental changes were taking place at that remote time, and basing my conjecture upon that fact, I told him that during some of those tremendous upheavals, certain ones of the reptile family had probably been caught in some of the great caverns that were formed and, unable to escape, had adapted themselves to their changed environment. “True it was, that this thing was different from any species known, but is it certain that all the rep- tiles that lived away back in those ages had been ' _—_—<. , men classified? 1 wasn't at all certain that they had been, so this creature might be a direct descendant of some distinct and unknown class. Or, I thought it might be possible that reptile might be some sort of hybrid, bearing a composite resemblance to its an- cient forebears. Why not? If you can crossbreed asses and horses and get offspring which, though unmistakably different from either of its parents, in all essential features, resembles both, why could not some similar sort of crossbreeding have occurred with members of the reptile family ? “All sorts of fossil remains of pre-historic reptiles have been discovered in North America, and those creatures, when alive, lived here. Moreover, Amer- ica, it is known, is fairly honeycombed with caverns, some of enormous extent. Many have water in them; although not sufficient, perhaps, to accommodate a lizard as large as this particular one. Is it certain that all the caverns have been discovered? “Take this particular case for an example. When the bed of the reservoir caved in, where did the water go if,not into some vast cavern, or caverns? And, had there not been such a cavern or caverns under the bed of the creek, would there have been any cave-in? Of course not. . - “Following this line of deduction, I came to the conclusion that, in the subterranean depths, this rep- tile, with perhaps many others, had been born and, since even a lizard cannot live in water that is en- tirely stagnant, inlets and outlets must have existed, to keep the water, at least comparatively fresh. 66CPACE alone, is limitless, so there must have been a limit to this cavern or caverns and, when the water broke through from above, it was filled to the point where the rock walls were burst and the earth, having lost its support, fell, forcing the water upward and forming the lake. When the water reached a certain level, or was on a plane with the bed of the creek, the reservoir filled up again, under- ground, the outlet having been too small to carry away the flow of the stream If my premise was cor- rect, then the presence of the lizard in our lake was easily accounted for. It simply came up through the same hole through which the water came. “That was the explanation I gave Wilson and I thought, and still think, that it was correct. “After breakfast I went to the north end of the lake. I believed I had hit upon the real solution of the reptile’s presence in the lake and wanted to verify it if possible. I had an idea that the lizard might take it into its head to come up from below, and give me a chance to see it. I wanted Wilson to accompany me but»he said he had too much work to do about the place. “T waited near the hole until about noon, but seeing no sign of it, I concluded that it had either come up early or, what was more likely, was. hiding down there in the darkness, until nightfall. Instead of turning homeward, however, I decided to settle another question. For some time now, we had seen no trout jumping and I thought they might have been frightened out of the lake and returned to the reservoir. Wilson and I, although we did not know until the night before, just what had caused the ac- cidents, thought it better to go without fish than to take any risks out on the lake. But if they were in the reservoir again I meant to catch a few. itn, es ee ier SP ge ety ae . “The knoll, or mound, abort whith 1 te}dayou in