In the meantime a quieter yet even more spiritually poignant1 phase of the horror had been blackly unwinding itself behind the closed door of a shelf-lined room in Arkham. The curious manuscript record or diary of Wilbur Whateley, delivered to Miskatonic University for translation had caused much worry and bafflement among the experts in language both ancient and modern; its very alphabet, notwithstanding a general resemblance to the heavily-shaded Arabic used in Mesopotamia, being absolutely unknown to any available authority. The final conclusion of the linguists2 was that the text represented an artificial alphabet, giving the effect of a cipher3; though none of the usual methods of cryptographic solution seemed to furnish any clue, even when applied4 on the basis of every tongue the writer might conceivably have used. The ancient books taken from Whateley’s quarters, while absorbingly interesting and in several cases promising5 to open up new and terrible lines of research among philosophers and men of science, were of no assistance whatever in this matter. One of them, a heavy tome with an iron clasp, was in another unknown alphabet — this one of a very different cast, and resembling Sanskrit more than anything else. The old ledger6 was at length given wholly into the charge of Dr Armitage, both because of his peculiar7 interest in the Whateley matter, and because of his wide linguistic8 learning and skill in the mystical formulae of antiquity9 and the middle ages.
Armitage had an idea that the alphabet might be something esoterically used by certain forbidden cults10 which have come down from old times, and which have inherited many forms and traditions from the wizards of the Saracenic world. That question, however, he did not deem vital; since it would be unnecessary to know the origin of the symbols if, as he suspected, they were used as a cipher in a modern language. It was his belief that, considering the great amount of text involved, the writer would scarcely have wished the trouble of using another speech than his own, save perhaps in certain special formulae and incantations. Accordingly he attacked the manuscript with the preliminary assumption that the bulk of it was in English.
Dr Armitage knew, from the repeated failures of his colleagues, that the riddle11 was a deep and complex one; and that no simple mode of solution could merit even a trial. All through late August he fortified12 himself with the mass lore13 of cryptography; drawing upon the fullest resources of his own library, and wading14 night after night amidst the arcana of Trithemius’ Poligraphia, Giambattista Porta’s De Furtivis Literarum Notis, De Vigenere’s Traite des Chiffres, Falconer’s Cryptomenysis Patefacta, Davys’ and Thicknesse’s eighteenth-century treatises15, and such fairly modern authorities as Blair, van Marten and Kluber’s script itself, and in time became convinced that he had to deal with one of those subtlest and most ingenious of cryptograms, in which many separate lists of corresponding letters are arranged like the multiplication16 table, and the message built up with arbitrary key-words known only to the initiated17. The older authorities seemed rather more helpful than the newer ones, and Armitage concluded that the code of the manuscript was one of great antiquity, no doubt handed down through a long line of mystical experimenters. Several times he seemed near daylight, only to be set back by some unforeseen obstacle. Then, as September approached, the clouds began to clear. Certain letters, as used in certain parts of the manuscript, emerged definitely and unmistakably; and it became obvious that the text was indeed in English.
On the evening of September second the last major barrier gave way, and Dr Armitage read for the first time a continuous passage of Wilbur Whateley’s annals. It was in truth a diary, as all had thought; and it was couched in a style clearly showing the mixed occult erudition and general illiteracy18 of the strange being who wrote it. Almost the first long passage that Armitage deciphered, an entry dated November 26, 1916, proved highly startling and disquieting19. It was written, he remembered, by a child of three and a half who looked like a lad of twelve or thirteen.
Today learned the Aklo for the Sabaoth (it ran), which did not like, it being answerable from the hill and not from the air. That upstairs more ahead of me than I had thought it would be, and is not like to have much earth brain. Shot Elam Hutchins’s collie Jack20 when he went to bite me, and Elam says he would kill me if he dast. I guess he won’t. Grandfather kept me saying the Dho formula last night, and I think I saw the inner city at the 2 magnetic poles. I shall go to those poles when the earth is cleared off, if I can’t break through with the Dho–Hna formula when I commit it. They from the air told me at Sabbat that it will be years before I can clear off the earth, and I guess grandfather will be dead then, so I shall have to learn all the angles of the planes and all the formulas between the Yr and the Nhhngr. They from outside will help, but they cannot take body without human blood. That upstairs looks it will have the right cast. I can see it a little when I make the Voorish sign or blow the powder of Ibn Ghazi at it, and it is near like them at May Eve on the Hill. The other face may wear off some. I wonder how I shall look when the earth is cleared and there are no earth beings on it. He that came with the Aklo Sabaoth said I may be transfigured there being much of outside to work on.
Morning found Dr Armitage in a cold sweat of terror and a frenzy21 of wakeful concentration. He had not left the manuscript all night, but sat at his table under the electric light turning page after page with shaking hands as fast as he could decipher the cryptic22 text. He had nervously23 telephoned his wife he would not be home, and when she brought him a breakfast from the house he could scarcely dispose of a mouthful. All that day he read on, now and then halted maddeningly as a reapplication of the complex key became necessary. Lunch and dinner were brought him, but he ate only the smallest fraction of either. Toward the middle of the next night he drowsed off in his chair, but soon woke out of a tangle24 of nightmares almost as hideous25 as the truths and menaces to man’s existence that he had uncovered.
On the morning of September fourth Professor Rice and Dr Morgan insisted on seeing him for a while, and departed trembling and ashen-grey. That evening he went to bed, but slept only fitfully. Wednesday — the next day — he was back at the manuscript, and began to take copious26 notes both from the current sections and from those he had already deciphered. In the small hours of that night he slept a little in a easy chair in his office, but was at the manuscript again before dawn. Some time before noon his physician, Dr Hartwell, called to see him and insisted that he cease work. He refused; intimating that it was of the most vital importance for him to complete the reading of the diary and promising an explanation in due course of time. That evening, just as twilight27 fell, he finished his terrible perusal28 and sank back exhausted29. His wife, bringing his dinner, found him in a half-comatose state; but he was conscious enough to warn her off with a sharp cry when he saw her eyes wander toward the notes he had taken. Weakly rising, he gathered up the scribbled30 papers and sealed them all in a great envelope, which he immediately placed in his inside coat pocket. He had sufficient strength to get home, but was so clearly in need of medical aid that Dr Hartwell was summoned at once. As the doctor put him to bed he could only mutter over and over again, ‘But what, in God’s name, can we do?’
Dr Armitage slept, but was partly delirious31 the next day. He made no explanations to Hartwell, but in his calmer moments spoke32 of the imperative33 need of a long conference with Rice and Morgan. His wilder wanderings were very startling indeed, including frantic34 appeals that something in a boarded-up farmhouse35 be destroyed, and fantastic references to some plan for the extirpation36 of the entire human race and all animal and vegetable life from the earth by some terrible elder race of beings from another dimension. He would shout that the world was in danger, since the Elder Things wished to strip it and drag it away from the solar system and cosmos37 of matter into some other plane or phase of entity38 from which it had once fallen, vigintillions of aeons ago. At other times he would call for the dreaded39 Necronomicon and the Daemonolatreia of Remigius, in which he seemed hopeful of finding some formula to check the peril40 he conjured41 up.
‘Stop them, stop them!’ he would shout. ‘Those Whateleys meant to let them in, and the worst of all is left! Tell Rice and Morgan we must do something — it’s a blind business, but I know how to make the powder . . . It hasn’t been fed since the second of August, when Wilbur came here to his death, and at that rate . . . ’
But Armitage had a sound physique despite his seventy-three years, and slept off his disorder42 that night without developing any real fever. He woke late Friday, clear of head, though sober with a gnawing43 fear and tremendous sense of responsibility. Saturday afternoon he felt able to go over to the library and summon Rice and Morgan for a conference, and the rest of that day and evening the three men tortured their brains in the wildest speculation44 and the most desperate debate. Strange and terrible books were drawn45 voluminously from the stack shelves and from secure places of storage; and diagrams and formulae were copied with feverish46 haste and in bewildering abundance. Of scepticism there was none. All three had seen the body of Wilbur Whateley as it lay on the floor in a room of that very building, and after that not one of them could feel even slightly inclined to treat the diary as a madman’s raving47.
Opinions were divided as to notifying the Massachusetts State Police, and the negative finally won. There were things involved which simply could not be believed by those who had not seen a sample, as indeed was made clear during certain subsequent investigations48. Late at night the conference disbanded without having developed a definite plan, but all day Sunday Armitage was busy comparing formulae and mixing chemicals obtained from the college laboratory. The more he reflected on the hellish diary, the more he was inclined to doubt the efficacy of any material agent in stamping out the entity which Wilbur Whateley had left behind him — the earth threatening entity which, unknown to him, was to burst forth49 in a few hours and become the memorable50 Dunwich horror.
Monday was a repetition of Sunday with Dr Armitage, for the task in hand required an infinity51 of research and experiment. Further consultations52 of the monstrous53 diary brought about various changes of plan, and he knew that even in the end a large amount of uncertainty54 must remain. By Tuesday he had a definite line of action mapped out, and believed he would try a trip to Dunwich within a week. Then, on Wednesday, the great shock came. Tucked obscurely away in a corner of the Arkham Advertiser was a facetious55 little item from the Associated Press, telling what a record-breaking monster the bootleg whisky of Dunwich had raised up. Armitage, half stunned56, could only telephone for Rice and Morgan. Far into the night they discussed, and the next day was a whirlwind of preparation on the part of them all. Armitage knew he would be meddling57 with terrible powers, yet saw that there was no other way to annul58 the deeper and more malign59 meddling which others had done before him.
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1
poignant
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| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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linguists
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| n.通晓数国语言的人( linguist的名词复数 )；语言学家 | |
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cipher
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| n.零；无影响力的人；密码 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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ledger
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| n.总帐，分类帐；帐簿 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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linguistic
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| adj.语言的，语言学的 | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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cults
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| n.迷信( cult的名词复数 )；狂热的崇拜；（有极端宗教信仰的）异教团体 | |
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riddle
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| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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12
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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wading
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 ) | |
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treatises
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| n.专题著作，专题论文，专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
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multiplication
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| n.增加，增多，倍增；增殖，繁殖；乘法 | |
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initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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illiteracy
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| n.文盲 | |
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disquieting
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| adj.令人不安的，令人不平静的v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 ) | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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21
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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cryptic
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| adj.秘密的，神秘的，含义模糊的 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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24
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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perusal
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| n.细读，熟读；目测 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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scribbled
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| v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
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delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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32
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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33
imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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35
farmhouse
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| n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房） | |
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extirpation
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| n.消灭，根除，毁灭；摘除 | |
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cosmos
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| n.宇宙；秩序，和谐 | |
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38
entity
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| n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物 | |
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39
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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40
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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41
conjured
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| 用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现 | |
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42
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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43
gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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44
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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45
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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46
feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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47
raving
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| adj.说胡话的；疯狂的，怒吼的；非常漂亮的；令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话；疯话adv.胡言乱语地；疯狂地 | |
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48
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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49
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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50
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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51
infinity
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| n.无限，无穷，大量 | |
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52
consultations
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| n.磋商（会议）( consultation的名词复数 )；商讨会；协商会；查找 | |
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53
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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54
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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55
facetious
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| adj.轻浮的，好开玩笑的 | |
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56
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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57
meddling
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| v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 ) | |
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58
annul
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| v.宣告…无效，取消，废止 | |
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malign
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| adj.有害的；恶性的；恶意的；v.诽谤，诬蔑 | |
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