again, making the place echo with the sound as if a thousand swine had started suddenly from an absolute immobility into a mad charge. The whole riot of animal sound

  seemed to heave itself in one wave towards the oddly swaying and circling funnel of black cloud which rose from floor to ceiling around the violet and indigo circles.

  ‘As the sounds ceased I saw something was rising up through the middle of the

  “defense”. It rose with a slow steady movement. I saw it pale and huge through the swaying, whirling funnel of cloud - a monstrous pallid snout rising out of that

  unknowable abyss…. It rose higher like a huge pale mound. Through a thinning of the cloud curtain I saw one small eye…. I shall never see a pig’s eye again without feeling something of what I felt then. A pig’s eye with a sort of hell-light of vile understanding shining at the back of it.’

  Chapter 6

  “AND then suddenly a dreadful terror came over me, for I saw the beginning of the end that I had been dreading all along – I saw through the slow whirl of the cloud curtains that the violet circle had begun to leave the floor. It was being taken up on the spread of the vast snout.

  ‘Straining my eyes to see through the swaying funnel of clouds I saw that the

  violet circle had melted and was running down the pale sides of the snout in streams of violet-coloured fire. And as it melted there came a change in the atmosphere of the room.

  The black funnel shone with a dull gloomy red, and a heavy red glow filled the room.

  ‘The change was such as one might experience if one had been looking through a

  protective glass at some light and the glass had been suddenly removed. But there was a further change that I realised directly through my feelings. It was as if the horrible presence in the room had come closer to my own soul. I wonder if I am making it at all clear to you. Before, it had oppressed me somewhat as a death on a very gloomy and dreary day beats down upon one’s spirit. But now there was a savage menace, and the actual feeling of a foul thing close up against me. It was horrible, simply horrible.

  ‘And then Bains moved. For the first time since he went to sleep the rigidity went out of him, and rolling suddenly over on to his stomach he fumbled up in a curious animallike fashion, on to his hands and feet. Then he charged straight across the blue circle towards the thing in the “defense”.

  ‘With a shriek I jumped to pull him back; but it was not my voice that stopped

  him. It was the blue circle. It made him give back from it as though some invisible hand had jerked him backwards. He threw up his head like a hog, squealing with the voice of a swine, and started off round the inside of the blue circle. Round and round it he went, twice attempting to bolt across it to the horror in that swaying funnel of cloud. Each time he was thrown back, and each time he squealed like a great swine, the sounds echoing round the room in a horrible fashion as though they came from somewhere a long way off.

  ‘By this time I was fairly sure that Bains had indeed passed the “line of

  retraction”, and the knowledge brought a fresh and more hopeless horror and pity to me, and a grimmer fear for myself. I knew that if it were so, it was not Bains I had with me in the circle but a monster, and that for my own last chance of safety I should have to get him outside of the circle.

  ‘He had ceased his tireless running round and round, and now lay on his side

  grunting continually and softly in a dismal kind of way. As the slowly whirling clouds thinned a little I saw again that pallid face with some clearness. It was still rising, but slowly, very slowly, and again a hope grew in me that it might be checked by the

  “defense”. Quite plainly I saw that the horror was looking at Bains, and at that moment I saved my own life and soul by looking down. There, close to me on the floor was the thing that looked like Bains, its hands stretched out to grip my ankles. Another second, and I should have been tripped outwards. Do you realise what that would have meant?

  ‘It was no time to hesitate. I simply jumped and came down crash with my knees

  on top of Bains. He lay quiet enough after a short struggle; but I took off my braces and lashed his hands up behind him. And I shivered with the very touch of him, as though I was touching something monstrous.

  ‘By the time I had finished I noticed that the reddish glow in the room had

  deepened quite considerably, and the whole room was darker. The destruction of the violet circle had reduced the light perceptibly; but the darkness that I am speaking of was something more than that. It seemed as if something now had come into the atmosphere of the room - a sort of gloom, and in spite of the shining of the blue circle and the indigo circle inside the funnel of cloud, there was now more red light than anything else.

  ‘Opposite me the huge, cloud-shrouded monster in the indigo circle appeared to be

  motionless. I could see its outline vaguely all the time, and only when the cloud funnel thinned could I see it plainly _ a vast, snouted mound, faintly and whitely luminous, one gargantuan side turned towards me, and near the base of the slope a minute slit out of which shone one whitish eye.

  ‘Presently through the thin gloomy red vapour I saw something that killed the

  hope in me, and gave me a horrible despair; for the indigo circle, the final barrier of the defense, was being slowly lifted into the air - the Hog had begun to rise higher. I could see its dreadful snout rising upwards out of the cloud. Slowly, very slowly, the snout rose up, and the indigo circle went up with it.

  ‘In the dead stillness of that room I got a strange sense that all eternity was tense and utterly still as if certain powers knew of this horror I had brought into the world….

  And then I had an awareness of something coming… something from far, far away. It was as if some hidden unknown part of my brain knew it. Can you understand? There

  was somewhere in the heights of space a light that was coming near. I seemed to hear it coming. I could just see the body of Bains on the floor, huddled and shapeless and inert.

  Within the swaying veil of cloud the monster showed as a vast pale, faintly luminous mound, hugely snouted – an infernal hillock of monstrosity, pallid and deadly amid the redness that hung in the atmosphere of the room.

  ‘Something told me that it was making a final effort against the help that was

  coming. I saw the indigo circle was now some inches from the floor, and every moment I expected to see it flash into streams of indigo fire running down the pale slopes of the snout. I could see the circle beginning to move upward at a perceptible speed. The monster was triumphing.

  ‘Out in some realm of space a low continuous thunder sounded. The thing in the

  great heights was coming fast, but it could never come in time. The thunder grew from a low, far mutter into a deep steady rolling of sound…. It grew louder and louder, and as it grew I saw the indigo circle, now shining through the red gloom of the room, was a whole foot off the floor. I thought I saw a faint splutter of indigo light…. The final circle of the barrier was beginning to melt.

  ‘That instant the thunder of the thing in flight which my brain heard so plainly,

  rose into a crashing, a world-shaking bellow of speed, making the room rock and vibrate to an immensity of sound. A strange flash of blue flame ripped open the funnel of cloud momentarily from top to base, and I saw for one brief instant the pallid monstrosity of the Hog, stark and pale and dreadful.

  ‘Then the sides of the funnel joined again hiding the thing from me as the funnel

  became submerged quickly into a dome of silent blue light - God’s own colour! All at once it seemed the cloud had gone, and from floor to ceiling of the room, in awful majesty, like a living Presence, there appeared that dome of blue fire banded with three rings of green light at equal distances. There was no sound or movement, not even a flicker, nor could I see anything in the light: for looking into it was like looking into the cold blue of the skies. But I felt sure that there had come to our aid one of those inscrutable forces which govern the spinning of the outer circle, for the dome of blue light, banded with three green bands of silent fire, was the outward or visible sign of an enormous force, undoubtedly of a defensive nature.

  ‘Through ten minutes of absolute silence I stood there in the blue circle watching the phenomenon. Minute by minute I saw the heavy repellent red driven out of the room as the place lightened quite noticeably. And as it lightened, the body of Bains began to resolve out of a shapeless length of shadow, detail by detail, until I could see the braces with which I had lashed his wrists together.

  ‘And as I looked at him his body moved slightly, and in a weak but perfectly sane

  voice he said:

  ‘“I’ve had it again! My God! I’ve had it again!”’

  Chapter 7

  ‘I KNELT down quickly by his side and loosened the braces from his wrists,

  helping him to turn over and sit up. He gripped my arm a little crazily with both hands.

  ‘“I went to sleep after all,” he said. “And I’ve been down there again. My God! It nearly had me. I was down in that awful place and it seemed to be just round a great corner, and I was stopped from coming back. I seemed to have been fighting for ages and ages. I felt I was going mad. Mad! I’ve been nearly down into a hell. I could hear you calling down to me from some awful height. I could hear your voice echoing along

  yellow passages. They were yellow. I know they were. And I tried to come and I couldn’t.”

  ‘“Did you see me?” I asked him when he stopped, gasping.

  ‘“No,” he answered, leaning his head against my shoulder. “I tell you it nearly got me that time. I shall never dare go to sleep again as long as I live. Why didn’t you wake me?”

  ‘“I did,” I told him. “I had you in my arms most of the time. You kept looking up into my eyes as if you knew I was there.”

  ‘“I know,” he said. “I remember now; but you seemed to be up at the top of a frightful hole, miles and miles up from me, and those horrors were grunting and

  squealing and howling, and trying to catch me and keep me down there. But I couldn’t see anything - only the yellow walls of those passages. And all the time there was something round the corner.”

  ‘“Anyway, you’re safe enough now,” I told him. “And I’ll guarantee you shall be safe in the future.”

  ‘The room had grown dark save for the light from the blue circle. The dome had

  disappeared, the whirling funnel of black cloud had gone, the Hog had gone, and the light had died out of the indigo circle. And the atmosphere of the room was safe and

  normal again as I proved by moving the switch, which was near me, so as to lessen the defensive power of the blue circle and enable me to “feel” the outside tension. Then I turned to Bains.

  ‘“Come along,” I said. “We’ll go and get something to eat, and have a rest.”

  ‘But Bains was already sleeping like a tired child, his head pillowed on his hand.

  “Poor little devil!” I said as I picked him up in my arms. “Poor little devil!”

  ‘I walked across to the main switchboard and threw over the current so as to throw the “V” protective pulse out of the four walls and the door; then I carried Bains out into the sweet wholesome normality of everything. It seemed wonderful, coming out of that chamber of horrors, and it seemed wonderful still to see my bedroom door opposite, wide open, with the bed looking so soft and white as usual - so ordinary and human. Can you chaps understand?

  ‘I carried Bains into the room and put him on the couch; and then it was I realised how much I’d been up against, for when I was getting myself a drink I dropped the bottle and had to get another.

  ‘After I had made Bains drink a glass I laid him on the bed. ‘“Now,” I said, “look into my eyes fixedly. Do you hear me? You are going off to sleep safely and soundly, and if anything troubles you, obey me and wake up. Now, sleep - sleep - sleep! “

  ‘I swept my hands down over his eyes half a dozen times, and he fell over like a

  child. I knew that if the danger came again he would obey my will and wake up. I intend to cure him, partly by hypnotic suggestion, partly by a certain electrical treatment which I am getting Doctor Witton to give him.

  ‘That night I slept on the couch, and when I went to look at Bains in the morning I found him still sleeping, so leaving him there I went into the test room to examine results.

  I found them very surprising.

  ‘Inside the room I had a queer feeling, as you can imagine. It was extraordinary to stand there in that curious bluish light from the “treated” windows, and see the blue circle lying, still glowing, where I had left it; and further on, the “defense”, lying circle within circle, all “out”; and in the centre the glass-legged table standing where a few hours before it had been submerged in the horrible monstrosity of the Hog. I tell you, it all seemed like a wild and horrible dream as I stood there and looked. I have carried out some curious tests in there before now, as you know, but I’ve never come nearer to a catastrophe.

  ‘I left the door open so as not to feel shut in, and then I walked over to the

  “defense”. I was intensely curious to see what had happened physically under the action of such a force as the Hog. I found unmistakable signs that proved the thing had been indeed a Saaitii manifestation, for there had been no psychic or physical illusion about the melting of the violet circle. There remained nothing of it except a ring of patches of melted glass. The gutta base had been fused entirely, but the floor and everything was intact. You see, the Saaitii forms can often attack and destroy, or even make use of, the very defensive material used against them.

  ‘Stepping over the outer circle and looking closely at the indigo circle I saw that it was melted clean through in several places. Another fraction of time and the Hog would have been free to expand as an invisible mist of horror and destruction into the

  atmosphere of the world. And then, in that very moment of time, salvation had come. I wonder if you can get my feelings as I stood there staring down at the destroyed barrier.’

  Carnacki began to knock out his pipe which is always a sign that he has ended his

  tale, and is ready to answer any questions we may want to ask.

  Taylor was first in. ‘Why didn’t you use the Electric Pentacle as well as your new spectrum circles?’ he asked.

  ‘Because,’ replied Carnacki, ‘the pentacle is simply “defensive” and I wished to have the power to make a “focus” during the early part of the experiment, and then, at the critical moment, to change the combination of the colours so as to have a “defense”

  against the results of the “focus”. You follow me.

  ‘You see,’ he went on, seeing we hadn’t grasped his meaning, ‘there can be no

  “focus” within a pentacle. It is just of a “defensive” nature. Even if I had switched the current out of the electric pentacle I should still have had to contend with the peculiar and undoubtedly “defensive” power that its form seems to exert, and this would have been sufficient to “blur” the focus.

  ‘In this new research work I’m doing, I’m bound to use a “focus” and so the pentacle is barred. But I’m not sure it matters. I’m convinced this new spectrum “defense”

  of mine will prove absolutely invulnerable when I’ve learnt how to use it; but it will take me some time. This last case has taught me something new. I had never thought of

  combining green with blue; but the three bands of green in the blue of that dome has set me thinking. If only I knew the right combinations! It’s the combinations I’ve got to learn. You’ll understand better the importance of these combinations when I remind you that green by itself is, in a very limited way, more deadly than red itself - and red is the danger colour of all.’

  ‘Tell us, Carnacki,’ I said, ‘what is the Hog? Can you? I mean what kind of

  monstrosity is it? Did you really see it, or was it all some horrible, dangerous kind of dream? How do you know it was one of the outer monsters? And what is the difference between that sort of danger and the sort of thing you saw in the Gateway of the Monster case? And what…. ?’

  ‘Steady! ‘ laughed Carnacki. ‘One at a time! I’ll answer all your questions; but I don’t think I’ll take them quite in your order. For instance, speaking about actually seeing the Hog, I might say that, speaking generally, things seen of a “ghostly” nature are not seen with the eyes; they are seen with the mental eye which has this psychic quality, not always developed to a useable state, in addition to its “normal” duty of revealing to the brain what our physical eyes record.

  ‘You will understand that when we see “ghostly” things it is often the “mental”

  eye performing simultaneously the duty of revealing to the brain what the physical eye sees as well as what it sees itself. The two sights blending their functions in such a fashion gives us the impression that we are actually seeing through our physical eyes the whole of the “sight” that is being revealed to the brain.

  ‘In this way we get an impression of seeing with our physical eyes both the

  material and the immaterial parts of an “abnormal” scene; for each part being received and revealed to the brain by machinery suitable to the particular purpose appears to have equal value of reality that is, it appears to be equally material. Do you follow me?’