I need not say that I was deeply interested in this
story, and I made my friend write to me at intervals with all the
particulars of the case. I heard then that in the course of six weeks
the woman gradually recovered the use of her faculties and some months
later she gave birth to a son, christened Jervase, who unhappily proved
to be of weak intellect. Such were the facts known to the village; but
to me while I whitened at the suggested thought of the hideous
enormities that had doubtless been committed, all this was nothing short
of conviction, and I incautiously hazarded a hint of something like the
truth to some scientific friends. The moment the words had left my lips
I bitterly regretted having spoken, and thus given away the great secret
of my life, but with a good deal of relief mixed with indignation, I
found my fears altogether misplaced, for my friends ridiculed me to my
face, and I was regarded as a madman; and beneath a natural anger I
chuckled to myself, feeling as secure amidst these blockheads, as if I
had confided what I knew to the desert sands. But now, knowing so much, I resolved I would know all, and I
concentrated my efforts on the task of deciphering the inscription on
the Black Seal. For many years I made this puzzle the sole object of my
leisure moments; for the greater portion of my time was, of course,
devoted to other duties, and it was only now and then that I could
snatch a week of clear research. If I were to tell the full history of
this curious investigation, this statement would be wearisome in the
extreme, for it would contain simply the account of long and tedious
failure. By what I knew already of ancient scripts I was well-equipped
for the chase, as I always termed it to myself. I had correspondents
amongst all the scientific men in Europe, and, indeed, in the world, and
I could not believe that in these days any character, however ancient
and however perplexed, could long resist the search-light I should bring
to bear upon it. Yet, in point of fact, it was fully fourteen years
before I succeeded. With every year my professional duties increased,
and my leisure became smaller. This no doubt retarded me a good deal;
and yet, when I look back on those years I am astonished at the vast
scope of my investigation of the Black Seal. I made my bureau a centre,
and from all the world and from all the ages I gathered transcripts of
ancient writing. Nothing, I resolved, should pass me unawares, and the
faintest hint should be welcomed and followed up. But as one covert
after another was tried and proved empty of result, I began in the
course of years to despair, and to wonder whether the Black Seal were
the sole relic of some race that had vanished from the world and left no
other trace of its existence,--had perished, in fine, as Atlantis is
said to have done, in some great cataclysm, its secrets perhaps drowned
beneath the ocean or moulded into the heart of the hills. The thought
chilled my warmth a little, and though I still persevered, it was no
longer with the same certainty of faith. A chance came to the rescue. I
was staying in a considerable town in the north of England, and took the
opportunity of going over the very creditable museum that had for some
time been established in the place. The curator was one of my
correspondents; and, as we were looking through one of the mineral
cases, my attention was struck by a specimen, a piece of black stone
some four inches square, the appearance of which reminded me in a
measure of the Black Seal. I took it up carelessly, and was turning it
over in my hand, when I saw, to my astonishment, that the under side was
inscribed. I said, quietly enough, to my friend the curator that the
specimen interested me, and that I should be much obliged if he would
allow me to take it with me to my hotel for a couple of days. He, of
course, made no objection, and I hurried to my rooms, and found that my
first glance had not deceived me. There were two inscriptions; one in
the regular cuneiform character, another in the character of the Black
Seal, and I realized that my task was accomplished. I made an exact copy
of the two inscriptions; and when I got to my London study, and had the
Seal before me, I was able seriously to grapple with the great problem. The interpreting inscription on the museum specimen, though in itself
curious enough, did not bear on my quest, but the transliteration made
me master of the secret of the Black Seal. Conjecture, of course, had to
enter into my calculations; there was here and there uncertainty about a
particular ideograph, and one sign recurring again and again on the Seal
baffled me for many successive nights. But at last the secret stood open
before me in plain English, and I read the key of the awful
transmutation of the hills. The last word was hardly written, when with
fingers all trembling and unsteady I tore the scrap of paper into the
minutest fragments, and saw them flame and blacken in the red hollow of
the fire, and then I crushed the gray films that remained into finest
powder. Never since then have I written those words; never will I write
the phrases which tell me how man can be reduced to the slime from which
he came, and be forced to put on the flesh of the reptile and the snake. There was now but one thing remaining. I knew; but I desired to see, and
I was after some time able to take a house in the neighborhood of the
Gray Hills, and not far from the cottage where Mrs. Cradock and her son
Jervase resided. I need not go into a full and detailed account of the
apparently inexplicable events which have occurred here, where I am
writing this. I knew that I should find in Jervase Cradock something of
the blood of the "Little People," and I found later that he had more
than once encountered his kinsmen in lonely places in that lonely land. When I was summoned one day to the garden, and found him in a seizure
speaking or hissing the ghastly jargon of the Black Seal, I am afraid
that exultation prevailed over pity. I heard bursting from his lips the
secrets of the underworld, and the word of dread, "Ishakshar," the
signification of which I must be excused from giving. But there is one incident I cannot pass over unnoticed. In the waste
hollow of the night I awoke at the sound of those hissing syllables I
knew so well; and on going to the wretched boy's room, I found him
convulsed and foaming at the mouth, struggling on the bed as if he
strove to escape the grasp of writhing demons. I took him down to my
room and lit the lamp, while he lay twisting on the floor, calling on
the power within his flesh to leave him. I saw his body swell and become
distended as a bladder, while the face blackened before my eyes; and
then at the crisis I did what was necessary according to the directions
on the Seal, and putting all scruple on one side, I became a man of
science, observant of what was passing.