The Call of Cthulhu / Зов Ктулху

Inside this circle the ring of worshippers jumped and roared, from left to right in endless bacchanal[57 - endless bacchanal – нескончаемая вакханалия] between the ring of bodies and the ring of fire.

It may be only imagination, but a Spanish man heard antiphonal responses to the ritual from some far and unillumined spot within the wood. This man, Joseph D. Galvez[58 - Joseph D. Galvez – Джозеф Д. Гальвес], I later met and questioned. He said that he heard beating of great wings, and saw a glimpse of shining eyes and a mountainous white bulk beyond the remotest trees but I suppose he was a little superstitious.

But duty came first; and the police relied on their firearms and went determinedly into the nauseous rout. For five minutes the chaos was beyond description. Shots were fired, and escapes were made; but in the end Legrasse was able to count forty-seven sullen prisoners, to whom he ordered to dress and fall into line between two rows of policemen.

Five of the worshippers lay dead, and two were severely wounded. Of course, Legrasse took the statuette from the monolith.

After a trip, the prisoners were examined. They were men of a very low, mixed-blooded, and mentally aberrant type[59 - mentally aberrant type – низкое умственное развитие]. Most were seamen, some negroes and mulattoes, largely West Indians or Portuguese from the Cape Verde Islands[60 - Cape Verde Islands – Острова Зеленого Мыса].

But before many questions were asked, it became clear that something far deeper and older than negro fetishism was involved.

They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones[61 - Great Old Ones – Великие Древние] who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died.

This was that cult, and the prisoners said it had always existed and always would exist, hidden in distant and dark places all over the world until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R’lyeh under the waters, would rise and rule the Earth. Some day he will call, when the stars are ready, and the secret cult will always be waiting to liberate him.

Meanwhile no more can be told.