Home From the Sea Page 2

  I was immediately thankful that I had only taken a light lunch, for Carnacki had surpassed even his own high culinary standards, treating us to some perfectly cooked grouse with mashed potatoes and turnips, all washed down with a particularly fine claret.

  As usual talk was confined to inconsequential gossip until we retired to the parlor for after-dinner drinks and the telling of Carnacki's latest adventure. By the time we all got our glasses filled and our smokes lit we were on tenterhooks, most eager for the tale of his latest escapades.

  He did not keep us waiting.

  *

  "As you chaps know," he began. "I have been in Scotland for some days. Indeed, this latest tale starts on the very morning after our last evening together.

  "You will remember that the weather was beastly? It had not stopped raining all night, and I resigned myself to a Saturday spent indoors going over some research on a particularly obtuse passage in the Sigsand mss. I had just finished breakfast and was on my way to the library when there was a knock on the front door.

  "On answering I found a small bedraggled chap standing there, looking most damp and forlorn. I ushered him in to the parlor, made him some tea, and we each got a pipe going before I even got as far as enquiring after either his name or the reason for his visit.

  "He started by handing me his card, which told me little beyond that he was Doctor John Munroe, from Inchlannan in Argyllshire. He offered no further information at that point, and I was starting to worry that I might have to resort to opening the Scotch.

  "It soon turned out he was going to be forthcoming all of his own accord. I quickly found out that Doctor Munroe was one of those voluble Scotsmen who seem to enjoy the sound of their own voice above anything else, and he wasted no time in assuring me of the importance, nay, the necessity, of his visit.

  "‘Let me just start by saying that I am a scientist, Mr. Carnacki,' he said. ‘I do not hold any truck with all that mumbo-jumbo nonsense about haunts and bogles.'

  "He held up a hand before I could question his impertinence.

  "‘There was no offence intended. I have heard nothing but good things about your particular expertise, sir. Indeed, I have come to implore you to accompany me on a trip to Scotland, where I think I have stumbled upon something that will interest you greatly.'

  "As you are aware, I am an inquisitive cove at the best of times, and I was already of half a mind to join him before he went on to explain further.

  "‘You see, Mr. Carnacki, I am something of an inventor, dabbling in one of the more esoteric branches of science, the transmission of signals through the aether. I hope in the near future to perfect a method of wireless transmission of images. Indeed I have already started to have some small success.'

  "‘Very admirable, I am sure," I replied. ‘But I cannot see how that concerns me?"

  "Once again he held up a hand.

  "‘As I said,' he continued. ‘I have been experimenting with sending signals into the aether. What I have neglected to tell you is simple, but I believe may be of the utmost importance.'

  "He took a sheet of paper from his pocket and handed it to me.

  "‘I have started to receive replies,' he said.

  "As I read, I realized I knew exactly what I was looking at. Below a set of three pentagrammic circles was a transcribed inscription.

  "Ri linn dioladh na beatha, Ri linn bruchdadh na falluis, Ri linn iobar na creadha, Ri linn dortadh na fala.

  "It was the very same ancient chant I have used several times to enforce my will on the denizens of the Outer Darkness, and I can tell you it gave me a bally shock to see it on that sheet of paper. I have never before seen it written outside the Sigsand Mss, and indeed I have long thought that I might be the only person to have ever used it for the purpose for which it was written.

  "‘I see you recognise it,' Munroe said with a grim smile. ‘I was hoping you would. Now do you see why I have come to you?'

  "I was starting to understand and, despite my apprehension, was more than a tad curious as to how he, an avowed scientist, came to be in possession of such a piece of arcane wisdom. I agreed there and then to accompany the man, and early the next morning we set out for the West of Scotland."

  *

  "The journey proved to be somewhat tortuous, involving as it did a train journey to Glasgow, a shorter, suburban, journey to Helensburgh, then a lengthy carriage ride through Argyll. At least my companion was amiable enough, if a tad inclined to speak too highly of himself when recounting his many achievements.

  "We spent that night in a hotel in Tighnabruaich, where the venison was good and the Scotch better. I noticed that my companion did not speak to the locals beyond the basic needs of ordering our food, drink and sleeping arrangements. I thought at first it was the reticence you sometimes see in scientific coves when confronted by non-learned members of the public, but I soon came to see that, rather than him shunning the locals, it was in fact the other way round. None of the patrons of the hotel so much as looked in our direction and when one, an elderly gentleman, finally did so, it was to show us, with forked fingers, the old sign against the evil eye.

  "‘Ignore them,' Munroe said when he saw me looking. ‘It's just fear and ignorance at something their tiny brains cannot comprehend.'

  "I was coming to like my travelling companion less and less with each passing hour, but I was too intrigued as to the origin of transcription of the old chant to give up the chase at that point. Would that I had, for it may have saved considerable grief further down the line.

  "As it was, I was relieved to get to my bed, and get some respite from the good Doctor's constant self-praise; an affliction that seemed to me to border on delusion.

  "I was not, however, given much chance to rest, for scarcely had my head hit the pillow than came a soft knock on my room door. When I opened it I was somewhat surprised to see the elderly gentleman I had noticed in the hotel bar. He gave me no time to speak.

  "‘Do not go out onto yon island, sir,' he said without preamble. ‘It were a bad spot afore he came, and ‘tis a dashed sight worse now. ‘Tis your soul I am worried for, so take heed.'

  "And with that cryptic warning he left once more, and I retired to my bedchamber for a smoke and a think.

  "In truth I was starting to regret not bringing my protective devices along on the trip. Munroe had assured me that they would not be needed, that matters were purely scientific. But the elderly chap's warning had not sounded scientific at all, being much more in my normal line of work. Now here I was, stuck on a remote corner of Scotland, and all I had by way of defense was my own wits and my reading copy of the Sigsand mss, the one that is always in my luggage no matter where I travel.

  "A pipe of my own tobacco calmed me somewhat and finally the rigors of the day's travel, combined with the Scotch I had consumed over dinner, sent me into a deep undisturbed sleep."

  *

  "The next day dawned bright and clear. And it was then that I got my first inking that Munroe might, in fact, be justified in his assertions of remarkable invention. After a fine breakfast of herring and oatmeal he led me to a small stone jetty and the boat which was docked there. At first I took it for little more than the standard class of fishing vessel so common along these shorelines. I was, however, in for a rather rude awakening, for no sooner had we left the jetty than there was a most frightful roar and the boat started to travel across the Sound of Bute at a frightening speed, sending a white foaming wake behind us.

  "Munroe laughed at my obvious discomfort.

  "‘Go below, Mr. Carnacki. You will see that it is not magic or superstition that propels this craft, but the proper appliance of science.'

  "I did as requested and descended to what, in a fishing vessel, would be the engine room. In this craft however, there was the most extraordinary contraption. I recognized the small steam engines at either end, but even my untrained eye knew that they were not large enough to drive the boat at its current speed. The rest of the mechanism was
a dizzying labyrinth of copper, cogs and, in particular, massive heavy springs bunched in tight coils that alternately tightened and released in a manner that I guessed was the driving force for our speed.

  "Munroe refused to confirm or deny my supposition, merely smiled.

  "‘This is only the first of many things I have to show you,' was all he would say, and no matter how much I tried, I could coax nothing further from him. I stood beside him at the helm and smoked a pipe as we cruised at speed through the Sound of Bute.

  "Eventually, after nearly an hour, I saw that our heading was straight towards a low-lying island on the horizon. What I took for smoke rose in a tall plume from the center, and the shoreline around the perimeter seemed shrouded in thin mist. As we got closer I saw it was not mist as such, but more like steam. And on approach to land I started to discern, even above the sound of our own vessel, a rhythmic pulse, like a great drum beating. Keeping time with that drumbeat, plumes of steam shot from vents in the surface, adding a whistling cacophony to what was already an almost deafening hubbub.

  "And suddenly I took a blue funk. Now you chaps know that I have stood in many a sticky spot in the course of my activities. But rarely have I felt such a sense of wrongness like that which I encountered on approach to the island of Doctor Munroe. Every fiber of my being wanted to run, and it was all I could do to stand in place. As it was, my jaws clamped so tight on the stem of my pipe that I'm afraid that I have gouged one of my best briars beyond repair.

  "Munroe seemed to guess my discomfort.

  "‘Never fear, Mr. Carnacki. There are no bogles here. I assure you, there are only the products of my invention, and nothing to frighten a sophisticated gentleman such as yourself.'

  "Munroe brought the boat into a small harbor, tied it up expertly, and led me along a short jetty to the island proper. The sound was now almost deafening, and I felt clammy. The air was hot, almost tropically so, and so damp that it felt difficult to breathe.

  "‘Let's get you inside, old boy,' Munroe said. ‘We will be more comfortable there.'

  "I could see no inside, only earth and rock. Munroe smiled and walked forward. He put his hand into a crevice on a rock face and twisted. Suddenly there was more steam, more noise. The rock moved aside with a loud scraping roar, revealing a cave beyond, a passageway leading into darkness.

  "‘Welcome to the future,' Munroe said, and led me inside."

  *

  Carnacki paused to knock out his pipe on the grate. He did not move to rise from his seat, so we all knew this was a momentary delay in his tale rather than a stop for drink replenishment. That did not, however, stop Arkwright who, as usual, was full of questions.

  "I say, old man," he said. "This isn't your usual kind of tale at all. Where are the. . . what did the chap call them? Haunts and bogles? I'm afraid I am finding this whole affair rather dull. Those science chappies just seem to suck all the fun out of everything."

  Carnacki smiled sadly.

  "I assure you, old friend," he said. "There will be more than enough meat in the tale to satisfy you. We are starting to get to the heart of it even now."

  That placated Arkwright just long enough for Carnacki to begin again.

  *

  "There was a low-slung, four-wheeled contraption at the entrance.

  "‘Just put your suitcase in there,' Munroe said. ‘It will get delivered to your room while we do the tour.'

  "I did as I was asked. The carriage whuffed, and puffed and chugged away from us into the tunnel. Munroe grinned hugely and walked after it. I had little choice but to follow.

  "The next hour was one of the strangest I have ever spent. The interior of the island seemed to be a huge, hollowed out, cave system. There were no windows, just a long series of corridors between rough-hewn caverns. Each of the caverns was home to what Munroe called his experiments – most of which looked to be variations on labor-saving devices, from machines to launder clothes to industrial scale tools for cutting wood, welding metal or weaving cloth. And all were powered by variations of the contraption I had seen on board the boat that brought us here; driven by steam, clockwork cogs and tightly wound coils.

  "I still had little conception as to why I had been brought here. But that all changed when we entered the final, and by far the largest, chamber. Light came in from high above, through a large domed glass roof that had been expertly placed over what was obviously cave of some antiquity. The walls were covered in a finely carved script that I did not recognize, but I well knew the sense of the place, for I had stood in several such rooms before.

  "It was no less than a summoning area for the denizens of the Outer Darkness.

  "‘Once again, I see I do not really have to explain,' Munroe said.

  But that could not have been further from the truth -- the contents of that cave had left me in a state of some confusion. The space was dominated by a large example of the spring-engines I had already seen, one which seemed to be hooked up to a massive set of organ pipes, the likes of which I have only previously seen in a church.

  "‘I am sorry to have deceived you, Mr. Carnacki. As you can see, my experiments deal with something rather more esoteric than the transmission of images through space. But I had to bring you here to see this for yourself. I found this place some ten years ago,' Munroe said. ‘And at first I wasn't quite sure what I had. I spent long months trying to unravel the secrets of the script. Then, one weekend when I spent too long here and was forced to spend the night camped out in the cave, the answer came to me in a dream.

  "‘The script you see inscribed on the walls is not a language at all. It is a rhythmic notation, like a musical score. Not only that, but my dream also showed me what was required to unlock the secret.'

  "He waved towards the organ pipes.

  "‘Using the appropriate chords, in the right rhythm, the wonders of this place were finally revealed to me.'

  "I was starting to fear that I knew, only too well, what these wonders might be. But before I could stop him, Munroe moved to stand beside the spring-engine. He flicked a switch. The cave filled with throbbing chords that boomed and echoed all around.

  "An answering pounding arose from below.

  "I felt it first through the soles of my feet, but soon my whole frame shook, vibrating in time with the rhythm. My head swam, and it seemed as if the very walls of the cave melted and ran. The light from above receded into a great distance until it was little more than a pinpoint of light in a blanket of darkness, and I was alone, in a vast cathedral of emptiness where nothing existed save the dark and the pounding beat.

  "Shapes moved in the dark, wispy shadows with no substance, shadows that capered and whirled as the dance grew ever more frenetic.

  "I tasted salt water in my mouth, and was buffeted, as if by a strong, surging tide, but as the beat grew ever stronger I cared little. I gave myself to it, lost in the dance, lost in the dark.

  "Soft voices rose to join the beat, a chant I recognised well.

  "Ri linn dioladh na beatha, Ri linn bruchdadh na falluis, Ri linn iobar na creadha, Ri linn dortadh na fala."

  "I know not how long I wandered, there in the space between. I forgot myself, forgot Munroe, lost in a place where only the rhythm mattered. And I do believe I would be there yet if Munroe had not brought proceedings to a halt. The chords faded, and slowly my senses returned to me.

  "Munroe smiled.

  "‘Welcome to the future,' he said.

  *

  Carnacki stopped and rose from his chair. We all, from long experience, knew that he had reached a natural break in his story, giving us a chance to refill our glasses and light fresh smokes. As ever, Arkwright was keen to press Carnacki with more questions but our host was an old hand at avoiding anything that might give away details of his story before he was ready to tell it.

  When we settled back in our seats it was with a growing sense of anticipation and curiosity as to what manner of thing Carnacki had encountered out there in the remote islands off the
West Coast of Scotland.

  *

  "I was to get a full picture of Munroe's plans later that evening over dinner. But before that I was given a full tour of the cavern system. Certainly, there were mechanical wonders aplenty, and by Jove, some of them would most certainly change the way life is lived in this fascinating modern world of ours. But I could not but feel a rising apprehension as he showed me yet another contraption of steam, clockwork and springs.

  "‘I suppose this one is going to revolutionise agriculture?' I said, with somewhat more than usual sarcasm I am afraid to say, for I was becoming weary by this time.

  "Munroe shook his head.

  "‘No,' he said. ‘But it will bring me enough money to continue my work.'

  He would say no more on the matter. . . not at that point anyway. I was shown to a very well appointed bed-chamber where I was able to wash and change before joining him for dinner in a room that would not look out of place at the Diogenes Club.

  "Over a fine meal of salmon and new potatoes Munroe finally let me in to his secret, one that I had come to suspect during the course of my tour.

  "‘Once again, I have not been entirely honest with you, Mr. Carnacki,' he said as we lit our pipes. ‘I am not so much an inventor, as a discoverer. All the engines and contraptions you have seen, all the wonders of technology I have shown you, have come to me in dreams while standing in the main chamber. I have come to believe that there is an intelligence there, one that seeks to teach us, to mould our future development. Just think of the world we may build if we but only listen to it?'

  "That was exactly what I was thinking, although I am dashed sure that my own thoughts were nowhere near as full of naiveté and delusion as those of Munroe.

  "‘That there is intelligence. . . that is a point on which I have no doubt,' I said, being careful with my words. ‘But I am certain that it does not have a benign interest in our future. There are dark things in the beyond, Doctor Munroe, things that once walked this planet, long before we did, things that wish to once again take control of their former dominion. Tell me. What kind of world would they have us build?'