The Mountains Of Madness
Part 3
None of the dogs survived, their snow cages built in haste near the camp were almost completely destroyed. The wind may have done that, although the greater damage beside the camp, which was not the wind, indicated a jump out or a break from the ferocious beasts themselves. All three sleds disappeared, and we have tried to explain that the wind may have blown them into the unknown. The drill and the ice melting machine at the drilling site were too badly damaged to warrant a rescue, so we used them to strangle the gates that were subtly intrusive to the past that Lake had blown up. We also left in camp two of the most shaken aircraft; because our surviving party only had four real pilots — Sherman, Danforth, McTighe, and Ropes — overall, he said, with Danforth in a bad nervous condition to navigate. We brought back all the books, scientific tools, and other unexpected things we could find, though many were rather unpredictable. The spare tent and the fur are gone or the condition is very bad.
It was about 4 P.M., after extensive airplane exploration forced us to hand over Gedney, we sent a guarded message to Arkham to continue; and I think we did well to stay calm and not commit as we managed to do. What we say the most about agitation concerns our dogs, whose frantic agitation near biological specimens is expected from a bad Lake report. We do not mention, I suppose, their appearance of the same unease when sniffing out strange greenish soap stones and certain other objects in a messy region; objects including scientific instruments, he said, airplanes, and machines both in camps and in boring places, parts of which have been loosened, moved, or damaged by the wind are sure to harbor singular curiosity and investigation.
About fourteen biological specimens, we are inexcusable. We said that the only ones we found were damaged, but that was enough of them to prove the Lake description fully accurate and impressive. Is hard work keep our personal emotions from this problem — and we do not mention the numbers or say exactly how we found the ones we found. We at that time agreed not to send anything that showed the madness of the Lake people, he said, and it must have looked like madness finding six imperfect monsters carefully buried in a nine-foot-high snow grave under a five-pointed mound overlapping with a bunch of dots. In a pattern exactly like that of the strange greenish soap stones excavated from the Mesozoic or Tertiary periods. The eight perfect specimens mentioned by Lake seemed to be completely blown away.
We were also careful, about public peace of mind; therefore Danforth and I did not say much about that dreadful trip to the mountains the next day. It was the fact that only very bright aircraft could cross such an altitude range that generously limited the scouting tours to both of us. We're back at 1 A.M. Danforth was close to hysterical, but his upper lip remained stiff. There was no need for persuasion to make him promise not to show us our sketches and other things we carried in our pockets, to say nothing more than the others we have agreed to deliver to the outside, and to hide our camera films for personal development. Then; so that part of my current story will be as new to Pabodie, McTighe, Ropes, Sherman, and the rest as the world in general. Indeed — Danforth is closer to the mouth than I am; because he saw — or thought he saw — one thing he wouldn't tell me.
As is well known, our report includes a difficult climbing story; confirmation of Lake's opinion that the great peak was of an Archaean slate and other tangled strata has been largely unchanged since at least the middle Comanchian period; conventional commentary on the regularity of clinging cubes and fortification formations; the decision that the cavern-mouth denotes a soluble calcareous vein; a conjecture that certain slopes and trails would allow scaling and crossing of the entire range by experienced mountaineers; and a statement that the other mysterious side holds the plateau super high and wide as ancient and unchanging as the mountain itself — height of 20,000 feet, said the, with strange rock formations protruding through thin layers of ice and with gradually low foothills between the surface of the general plateau and the precipitous cliffs of the highest peaks.
We decided to load all the planes the next morning and return to our old base as soon as possible. While indirect, it is the safest way to work towards McMurdo Sound; for a straight-line flight across the most unknown stretch of the aeon-dead continent would involve many additional dangers. Further exploration is hardly feasible given our tragic depletion and destruction of our drilling machines; and the doubts and horrors around us — that we do not reveal — make us wish only to escape from the world of grief and contemplate madness as quickly as possible.
The Elder Things's