Its five-lobed brain was surprisingly advanced, and there were signs of
a sensory equipment, served in part through the wiry cilia of the head,
involving factors alien to any other terrestrial organism. Probably it
had more than five senses, so that its habits could not be predicted
from any existing analogy. It must, Lake thought, have been a creature of keen sensitiveness and
delicately differentiated functions in its primal world--much like the
ants and bees of to-day. It reproduced like the vegetable cryptogams,
especially the pteridophyta; having spore cases at the tips of the
wings and evidently developing from a thallus or prothallus. But to give it a name at this stage was mere folly. It looked like a
radiate, but was clearly something more. It was partly vegetable, but
had three fourths of the essentials of animal structure. That it was
marine in origin, its symmetrical contour and certain other attributes
clearly indicated; yet one could not be exact as to the limit of its
later adaptations. The wings, after all, held a persistent suggestion of the aërial. How it could have undergone its tremendously complex evolution on a
new-born earth in time to leave prints in archæan rocks was so far
beyond conception as to make Lake whimsically recall the primal myths
about Great Old Ones who filtered down from the stars and concocted
earth life as a joke or mistake; and the wild tales of cosmic hill
things from outside told by a folklorist colleague in Miskatonic's
English department. *       *       *       *       *

Naturally, he considered the possibility of the pre-Cambrian prints
having been made by a less evolved ancestor of the present specimens,
but quickly rejected this too-facile theory upon considering the
advanced structural qualities of the older fossils. If anything, the
later contours showed decadence rather than higher evolution. The size of the pseudofeet had decreased, and the whole morphology
seemed coarsened and simplified. Moreover, the nerves and organs,
just examined, held singular suggestions of retrogression from forms
still more complex. Atrophied and vestigial parts were surprisingly
prevalent. Altogether, little could be said to have been solved; and
Lake fell back on mythology for a provisional name--jocosely dubbing
his finds "The Elder Ones." At about two-thirty a.m., having decided to postpone further work and
get a little rest, he covered the dissected organism with a tarpaulin,
emerged from the laboratory tent, and studied the intact specimens with
renewed interest. The ceaseless antarctic sun had begun to limber up their tissues a
trifle, so that the head points and tubes of two or three showed
signs of unfolding; but Lake did not believe there was any danger of
immediate decomposition in the almost subzero air. He did, however,
move all the undissected specimens closer together and throw a spare
tent over them in order to keep off the direct solar rays. That
would also help to keep their possible scent away from the dogs,
whose hostile unrest was really becoming a problem, even at their
substantial distance and behind the higher and higher snow walls, which
an increased quota of the men were hastening to raise around their
quarters. He had to weight down the corners of the tent cloth with heavy blocks
of snow to hold it in place amidst the rising gale, for the titan
mountains seemed about to deliver some gravely severe blasts. Early
apprehensions about sudden antarctic winds were revived, and under
Atwood's supervision precautions were taken to bank the tents, new dog
corral, and crude aëroplane shelters with snow, on the mountainward
side. These latter shelters, begun with hard snow blocks during odd
moments, were by no means as high as they should have been; and Lake
finally detached all hands from other tasks to work on them. It was after four when Lake at last prepared to sign off and advised
us all to share the rest period his outfit would take when the shelter
walls were a little higher. He held some friendly chat with Pabodie
over the ether, and repeated his praise of the really marvelous drills
that had helped him make his discovery. Atwood also sent greetings and
praises. I gave Lake a warm word of congratulation, owning up that he was right
about the western trip, and we all agreed to get in touch by wireless
at ten in the morning. If the gale was then over, Lake would send a
plane for the party at my base. Just before retiring I dispatched a
final message to the _Arkham_, with instructions about toning down the
day's news for the outside world, since the full details seemed radical
enough to rouse a wave of incredulity until further substantiated. III. None of us, I imagine, slept very heavily or continuously that morning. Both the excitement of Lake's discovery and the mounting fury of the
wind were against such a thing. So savage was the blast even where we
were, that we could not help wondering how much worse it was at Lake's
camp, directly under the vast unknown peaks that bred and delivered it. McTighe was awake at ten o'clock and tried to get Lake on the wireless,
as agreed, but some electrical condition in the disturbed air to the
westward seemed to prevent communication. We did, however, get the
_Arkham_, and Douglas told me that he had likewise been vainly trying
to reach Lake. He had not known about the wind, for very little was
blowing at McMurdo Sound, despite its persistent rage where we were. Throughout the day we all listened anxiously and tried to get Lake at
intervals, but invariably without results. About noon a positive frenzy
of wind stampeded out of the west, causing us to fear for the safety of
our camp; but it eventually died down, with only a moderate relapse at
two p.m.

After three o'clock it was very quiet, and we redoubled our efforts to
get Lake. Reflecting that he had four planes, each provided with an
excellent short-wave outfit, we could not imagine any ordinary accident
capable of crippling all his wireless equipment at once. Nevertheless,
the stony silence continued, and when we thought of the delirious force
the wind must have had in his locality we could not help making the
most direful conjectures. By six o'clock our fears had become intense and definite, and after a
wireless consultation with Douglas and Thorfinnssen I resolved to take
steps toward investigation. The fifth aëroplane, which we had left
at the McMurdo Sound supply cache with Sherman and two sailors, was
in good shape and ready for instant use, and it seemed that the very
emergency for which it had been saved was now upon us. I got Sherman by wireless and ordered him to join me with the plane
and the two sailors at the southern base as quickly as possible, the
air conditions being apparently highly favorable. We then talked over
the personnel of the coming investigation party, and decided that we
would include all hands, together with the sledge and dogs which I
had kept with me.