The Beast in the Cave | H. P. Lovecraft Horror Story
Channel: Rodríguez
Date: 2016-11-03

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. Virtually unknown and only published in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre. Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life. Among his most celebrated tales are "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Shadow over Innsmouth", both canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos. Never able to support himself from earnings as author and editor, Lovecraft saw commercial success increasingly elude him in this latter period, partly because he lacked the confidence and drive to promote himself. He subsisted in progressively straitened circumstances in his last years; an inheritance was completely spent by the time he died at the age of 46. Sad story.

The first draft of The Beast in the Cave was written in the Spring of 1904, with the final draft finished in April 1905, when Lovecraft was fourteen. It was first published in the June 1918 issue of the amateur press journal The Vagrant.

[ Spoiler Alert ] A man touring Mammoth Cave separates from his guide and becomes lost. His torch expires and he is giving up hope of finding a way out in the pitch dark, when he hears strange non-human footsteps approaching him. Thinking it to be a lost mountain lion or other such beast, he picks up a stone and throws it toward the source of the sound. The beast is hit and crumples to the floor. The guide finds the protagonist, and together they examine the fallen creature with the guide's torchlight. The creature mutters in its last breaths and they see its face, discovering that it is in fact a pale, deformed human, who had also become lost in the cave many years ago.

For more in this subjet reed this from atlas obscura.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-nations-first-tuberculosis-hospital-was-built-inside-a-cave

This lovely narration is from Phil Chenevert. I´m Big fan of him. You can hear more from him here. 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg82GZ8Dap4MDbXpYuF06qA
https://librivox.org/reader/5717?primary_key=5717&search_category=reader&search_page=1&search_form=get_results

Thanks for watching.