thither was the duty of the night-gaunts that guard Ngranek; and this

done, they flapped away silently. When Carter tried to trace their flight

he found he could not, since even the Peaks of Throk had faded out of

sight. There was nothing anywhere but blackness and horror and silence and

bones.

Now Carter knew from a certain source that he was in the vale of Pnoth,

where crawl and burrow the enormous Dholes; but he did not know what to

expect, because no one has ever seen a Dhole or even guessed what such a

thing may be like. Dholes are known only by dim rumour, from the rustling

they make amongst mountains of bones and the slimy touch they have when

they wriggle past one. They cannot be seen because they creep only in the

dark. Carter did not wish to meet a Dhole, so listened intently for any

sound in the unknown depths of bones about him. Even in this fearsome

place he had a plan and an objective, for whispers of Pnoth were not

unknown to one with whom he had talked much in the old days. In brief, it

seemed fairly likely that this was the spot into which all the ghouls of

the waking world cast the refuse of their feastings; and that if he but

had good luck he might stumble upon that mighty crag taller even than

Throk's peaks which marks the edge of their domain. Showers of bones would

tell him where to look, and once found he could call to a ghoul to let

down a ladder; for strange to say, he had a very singular link with these

terrible creatures.

A man he had known in Boston - a painter of strange pictures with a secret