The Moon Rock
"I do not to tell you now," Throckmartin continued, "the results of the next two weeks, of what we found. Later—if I am allowed, I will all that you. It is to say that at the end of those two I had for many of my theories.
"The place, for all its and desolation, had not us with any touch of morbidity—that is not Edith, Stanton, or myself. But Thora was very unhappy. She was a Swede, as you know, and in her blood ran the and of the Northland—some of them so to those of this southern land; of of and and water and beings malign. From the she a to what, I suppose, may be called the 'influences' of the place. She said it 'smelled' of and warlocks.
"I laughed at her then—
"Two by, and at their end the for our came to us. The next night was the full of the moon, he said. He me of my promise. They would go to their village in the morning; they would return after the third night, when the moon had to wane. They left us for our 'protection,' and us to keep as away as possible from Nan-Tauach their absence. Half-exasperated, half-amused I them go.
"No work be done without them, of course, so we to the days of their about the southern of the group. We marked for exploration, and on the of the third day set along the east of the for our on Uschen-Tau, to have in for the return of our men the next day.
"We just dusk, and for our cots. It was only a little after ten o'clock that Edith me.
"'Listen!' she said. 'Lean over with your ear close to the ground!'
"I did so, and to hear, far, below, as though up from great distances, a chanting. It strength, died down, ended; began, volume, away into silence.
"'It's the on somewhere,' I said. 'We're over some of that the sound.'
"'It's the time I've it,' my wife doubtfully. We again. Then through the rhythms, us, another came. It across the that us and Nan-Tauach in little waves. It was music—of a sort; I won't the it had upon me. You've it—"
"You on the deck?" I asked. Throckmartin nodded.
"I to the of the tent," he continued, "and out. As I did so Stanton his and walked out into the moonlight, looking over to the other and listening. I called to him.
"'That's the sound!' he said. He again. 'Crystalline! Like little notes of glass. Like the of on the of Isis at Dendarah Temple,' he added half-dreamily. We at the island. Suddenly, on the sea-wall, moving slowly, rhythmically, we saw a little group of lights. Stanton laughed.
"'The beggars!' he exclaimed. 'That's why they wanted to away, is it? Don't you see, Dave, it's some of a festival—rites of some that they the full moon! That's why they were so to have us keep away, too.'
"The good. I a of relief, although I had not been of any oppression.
"'Let's over,' Stanton—but I would not.
"'They're a difficult as it is,' I said. 'If we into one of their religious they'll us. Let's keep out of any family party where we haven't been invited.'
"'That's so,' Stanton.
"The rose and fell, rose and fell—
"'There's something—something very about it,' said Edith at last soberly. 'I wonder what they make those with. They me to death, and, at the same time, they make me as though some were just around the corner.'
"'It's uncanny!' in Stanton.
"And as he spoke the of Thora's was and out into the moonlight the old Swede. She was the great Norse type—tall, deep-breasted, on the old Viking lines. Her sixty years had from her. She looked like some of Odin.
"She there, her wide, brilliant, staring. She her toward Nan-Tauach, the moving lights; she listened. Suddenly she her arms and a to the moon. It was—an archaic—movement; she to it from antiquity—yet in it was a of power, Twice she this and—the died away! She to us.
"'Go!' she said, and her voice to come from distances. 'Go from here—and quickly! Go while you may. It has called—' She pointed to the islet. 'It you are here. It waits!' she wailed. 'It beckons—the—the—"
"She at Edith's feet, and over the came again the tinklings, now with a note of jubilance—almost of triumph.
"We her the night. The from Nan-Tauach until about an hour moon-set. In the Thora awoke, none the worse, apparently. She had had dreams, she said. She not what they were—except that they had her of danger. She was sullen, and the her returned again and again half-fascinatedly, half-wonderingly to the isle.
"That the returned. And that night on Nan-Tauach the was were there lights of life.
"You will understand, Goodwin, how the I have related would the scientific curiosity. We rejected immediately, of course, any the supernatural.
"Our—symptoms let me call them—could all very easily be for. It is that the by have and sometimes upon the system. We this as the of the we had experienced, the sounds. Thora's nervousness, her apprehensions, had her up to a condition of semi-somnambulistic hysteria. Science her part in the night's scene.
"We came to the that there must be a passage-way Ponape and Nan-Tauach to the natives—and used by them their rites. We that on the next of our we would set to Nan-Tauach. We would the day, and at my wife and Thora would go to camp, Stanton and me to the night on the island, from some safe hiding-place what might occur.
"The moon waned; appeared in the west; slowly toward the full. Before the men left us they prayed us to them. Their only us more to see what it was that, we were now convinced, they wanted to from us. At least that was true of Stanton and myself. It was not true of Edith. She was thoughtful, abstracted—reluctant.
"When the men were out of around the turn of the harbour, we took our and for Nan-Tauach. Soon its sea-wall above us. We passed through the water-gate with its of and a half-submerged pier. In of us a series of steps leading into a with of pillars. In the centre of the court, the pillars, rose another of blocks, concealing, I knew, still another enclosure.
"And now, Walter, for the of what follows—and—and—" he hesitated. "Should you decide later to return with me or, if I am taken, to—to—follow us—listen to my of this place: Nan-Tauach is three rectangles. The is the sea-wall, up of monoliths—hewn and squared, twenty wide at the top. To to the in the sea-wall you pass along the marked on the map Nan-Tauach and the named Tau. The entrance to the is by of mangroves; once through these the way is clear. The steps lead up from the landing of the sea-gate through the entrance to the courtyard.
"This is by another wall, rectangular, with mathematical the of the barricades. The sea-wall is from thirty to high—originally it must have been much higher, but there has been in parts. The of the is fifteen across the top and its from twenty to fifty feet—here, too, the of the land has of it to fall.
"Within this is the second enclosure. Its terrace, of the same as the walls, is about twenty high. Entrance is to it by many which time has in its stonework. This is the court, the of Nan-Tauach! There the great with which is the one name of being that has come to us out of the of the past. The say it was the treasure-house of Chau-te-leur, a king who long 'before their fathers.' As Chan is the Ponapean word for sun and king, the name means, without doubt, 'place of the sun king.' It is a memory of a name of the that the Pacific continent, now vanished—just as the of Crete took the name of Minos and the of Egypt the name of Pharaoh.
"And opposite this place of the sun king is the moon that the Moon Pool.
"It was Stanton who the moon rock. We had been the courtyard; Edith and Thora were together our lunch. I came out of the of Chau-te-leur to Stanton a part of the studying it wonderingly.
"'What do you make of this?' he asked me as I came up. He pointed to the wall. I his and saw a of about fifteen high and ten wide. At all I noticed was the with which its joined the about it. Then I that its colour was different—tinged with and of a smooth, peculiar—deadness.
"'Looks more like than basalt,' I said. I touched it and my hand for at the every nerve in my arm as though a of electricity had passed through it. It was not cold as we know cold. It was a force—the phrase I have used—frozen electricity—describes it than anything else. Stanton looked at me oddly.
"'So you it too,' he said. 'I was I was like Thora. Notice, by the way, that the it are warm the sun.'
"We the eagerly. Its were cut as though by an of jewels. They against the in almost a hair-line. Its was curved, and as closely as top and upon the on which it rested. And then we noted that these had been to the line of the stone's foot. There was a from one of the to the other. It was as though the in the centre of a cup—revealing half, half. Something about this me. I and it. Goodwin, although the of the that it, like all the of the courtyard, were and age-worn—this was as smooth, as as though it had just left the hands of the polisher.
"'It's a door!' Stanton. 'It around in that little cup. That's what makes the so smooth.'
"'Maybe you're right,' I replied. 'But how the can we open it?'
"We over the again—pressing upon its edges, against its sides. During one of those I to look up—and out. A above and on each of the of the rock's was a convexity, visible only from the at which my it.
"We with us a small scaling-ladder and up this I went. The were nothing more than in the stone. I my hand on the one I was examining, and it sharply. In my palm, at the of my thumb, I had the same that I had in the below. I put my hand back. The came from a spot not more than an wide. I over the entire convexity, and six times more the ran through my arm. There were seven circles an wide in the place, each of which the I have described. The on the opposite of the gave the same results. But no amount of or of pressing these or in any gave the promise of motion to the itself.
"'And yet—they're what open it,' said Stanton positively.
"'Why do you say that?' I asked.
"'I—don't know,' he answered hesitatingly. 'But something tells me so. Throck,' he on earnestly, laughingly, 'the purely scientific part of me is the purely part of me. The scientific part is me to some way to that either or open. The part is just as me to do nothing of the and away while I can!'
"He laughed again—shamefacedly.
"'Which shall it be?' he asked—and I that in his the of him was ascendant.
"'It will as it is—unless we it to bits,' I said.
"'I of that,' he answered, 'and I wouldn't dare,' he added enough. And as I had spoken there came to me the same that he had expressed. It was as though something passed out of the that my as a hand an lip. We away—uneasily, and Thora through a on the terrace.
"'Miss Edith wants you quick,' she began—and stopped. Her past me to the rock. Her rigid; she took a steps and then ran to it. She herself upon its breast, hands and pressed against it; we her as though her very were being from her—and her at its foot. As we her up I saw from her the look I had when we the music of Nan-Tauach—that of opposites!"
