Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1918-07-04


alive. Then they went toward the OBJ,
ject ut the end.
Sam Clouts, who had preceded
them, fell back with an exclamation
Of horror.
''Yes, Clouts7' said Donald.
VI beg your pardon, SIR, but don't
you see that it's meant to be per-
son. sirT'
He spoke the truth. The figure was
rough pile Of bones, but high above
them grinning human face. made Of
the same plastered mud. looked down.
It was the first sign Of conscious
process among the monsters, and
some devil craftsman had c0ntrived
to catch, not SO much the form as the
humanness ~ II.
1t was upon larger scale, precisely
such figure as a child or q savage
might have made in its first efforts to
reproduce the human figure. There
were even the dawnings Of art in the
shape Of whales ear.bones, strung,
braceletwise, across the breast.
The mound beneath the figure con-
sisted of innumerable bones, sort.,o of
kitchen hidden such as Neolithic man
left behind him as testimony to his
oyster feasts.
Davies picked up one Of the bones
and looked ut 1t intently.
"Donald!" he said softly, not to at-
tract the attention of Ida, who, seated
on the floor against the mound, seemed
on the point of falling asleep from
WEAKNESS. He held out the bone.
Both looked at 1t. It was the bone
Of flipper heel. The monsters were
cannibal, beyond any doubt.
"Davies!" cried Donald, moment
later. "Don't you see what that figure
Isl It's I'm idol. And the bones are
those Of creatures of their own spe-
cies, and others, sacrificed to 1t by the
monsters In their abominable feasts.
It's the first dawnings Of self.con.
seriousness. the awakening of the re.
ligious perceptions!"
There could be no other interpre-
tntion. They looked Mt each other in
horror and something Of awe.
The thing had been fashioned. per.
haps, after IN ideal never seen, or per.
chance some forgotten ancestor, cast
up on an inhabited shore, had seen
man and returned to embody him in
his remembered guise.
So these hnlf-blind and voiceless
devils of the sea were, cropping slowly
upward, as our ancestors had done
many hundred thousand years ago,
toward hope and endeavor. The Spirit
of God stirred In the dull souls of
these cannibal monsters, as every.
where.
Donald felt somehow Immensely
elated ut the thought. Even here they
were not cut Off from the sheltering
hand Of Providence.
Look, sir!" Clouts exclaimed sud.
denly.
He pointed behind the mound, and,
following his gaze, Donald and Davies
saw something like sun-dial, made Of
large bone whetted to razor fineness,
and somewhat resembling grind
stone.
1t rested behind the mound, on fat
rock about the size of large table,
and 1t tapered in thickness from that
of sharp razor, mt the curving edge.
to that Of jackknife blade ut the
base. 1t was perhaps two feet in d.
ameter.
whats the matter, Clouts7" asked
Donald, seeing the expression upon the
sailors face.
Don't you know what that is. sir?"
volunteered Clouts huskily. "It's a
sacrificial stone, sir. saw one Of
them in the museum at Acatalpec, in
British Honduras. once. sir. They said
the Mayas used them, and that they
learned about them from the priests
that had them in Atlantis, the CONT
nent what sunk beneath the waves,
SIR"
do you see how 1t works, Donald?"
asked Davies. "These beasts can't
lift things. OF course they can't lift
under the pressure of miles of sea, and
so they have 20 lifting muscles. And
so they push instead. They push their
victims down upon the stone."
That was as far rs he had explained
when Donald touched the edge of tile
blade with his thumbnail. The flexible
bone twanged, sending forth sound
Of immense volume. Travelling four
times as fast through the water .vapor
MS through the mir, 1t seemed to re-
vertebrate under the cloudy roof for an
unreasonable time, sending forth reso-
nant echoes. 1t was totally unlike the
sound that they had heard before, and
yet equally clear and beautiful.
The response was astonishing. In
simultaneously, rs it seemed, the inte-
rior of the temple was filled with the
devil men. Donald had just time to
catch Ida to him when they were
pushed backward behind the mound,
and ringed with phosphorescent fire.
The atmosphere seemed to have be-
come filed with tense and resilient
rubber.
The hall was crammed with the glob-
ular shapes Of the monsters, that Gid.
ed over the well-trodden ooze. And