Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth

Most of the warehouses, Corey said, had once been Marsh property; so much he had learned at Ferrand’s Drug Store. Indeed, the remaining members of the Waite and Gilman and Eliot families had suffered very little loss; almost the entire force of the Federal raid had fallen upon the Marshes and their holdings in Innsmouth, though the Marsh Refining Company, engaged in manufacturing gold ingots, had not been touched, and still afforded employment to some of the villagers who were not engaged in fishing, though the Refining Company was no longer directly controlled by members of the Marsh clan.

The saloon, which we finally reached, was plainly of nineteenth-century origin; and it was equally clear that nothing in the way of improvement had been done to the building or its interior since it had gone up, for the place was unbelievably rundown and shabby. A slovenly middle-aged man sat behind the bar reading a copy of the Arkham Advertiser, and two old men, one of them asleep, sat at it, far apart.

Corey ordered a glass of brandy, and I did likewise.

The bartender did not disguise a cautious interest in us.

“Seth Akins?” asked Corey presently.

The bartender nodded toward the customer who slept at the bar.

“What’ll he drink?” asked Corey.

“Anything.”

“Let’s have a brandy for him.”

The bartender poured a shot of brandy into an ill-washed glass and put it down on the bar. Corey took it down to where the old man slept, sat down beside him, and nudged him awake.

“Have one on me,” he invited.

The old fellow looked up, revealing a grizzled face and bleary eyes under tousled grey hair. He saw the brandy, grabbed it, grinning uncertainly, and drank it down.

Corey began to question him, at first only establishing his identity as an old resident of Innsmouth, and talking in a general fashion about the village and the surrounding country to Arkham and Newburyport. Akins talked freely enough; Corey bought him another drink, and then another.

But Akins’ ease of speech faded as soon as Corey mentioned the old families, particularly the Marshes. The old man grew markedly more cautious, his eyes darting longingly toward the door, as if he would have liked to escape. Corey, however, pressed him hard, and Akins yielded.

“Guess thar ain’t no harm sayin’ things naow,” he said finally. “Most o’ them Marshes is gone since the guv’mint come in last month. And no one knows whar to, but they ain’t come back.” He rambled quite a bit, but, after circling the subject for some time, he came at last to the “East Injy trade” and “Cap’n Obed Marsh—who begun it all. He had some kind a truck with them East Injuns—brung back some o’ thar women an’ kep’ ’em in that big haouse he’d built—an’ after that, the young Marshes got that queer look an’ took to swimmin’ aout to Devil Reef an’ they’d be gone fer a long time—haours—an’ it wan’t natural bein’ underwater so long. Cap’n Obed married one o’ them women—an’ some o’ the younger Marshes went aout to the East Injys an’ brung back more. The Marsh trade never fell off like the others’. All three o’ Cap’n Obed’s ships—the brig Columby, an’ the barque Sumatry Queen an’ another brig, Hetty—sailed the oceans for the East Injy an’ the Pacific trade withaout ever a accident. An’ them people—them East Injuns an’ the Marshes—they begun a new kind a religion—they called it the Order o’ Dagon—an’ there was a lot o’ talk, whisperin’ whar nobuddy heerd it, abaout what went on at their meetin’s, an’ young folk—well, maybe they got lost, but nobuddy ever saw ’em again, an’ thar was all that talk about sacreefices—human sacreefices—abaout the same time the young folks dropped aout o’ sight—none o’ them Marshes or Gilmans or Waites or Eliots, though, none o’ thar young folk ever got lost. An’ thar was all them whispers abaout some place called ‘Ryeh’ an’ somethin’ named ‘Thooloo’—some kin’t Dagon, seems like…”

At this Corey broke in with a question, seeking to clarify Akins’ reference; but the old man knew nothing, and I did not understand until later the reason for Corey’s sudden interest.

Akins went on. “People kep’ away from them Marshes—an’ the others, too. But it was the Marshes that had that queer look mostly. It got so bad some o’ them never went aout o’ the house, unless it was at night, an’ then it was most o’ the time to go swimmin’ in the ocean. They cud swim like fish, people said—I never saw ’em myself, and nobuddy talked much cuz we noticed whenever anybuddy talked a lot he sort o’ dropped aout o’ sight—like the young people—and were never heerd from again.

“Cap’n Obed larnt a lot o’ things in Ponape an’ from the Kanakys—all abaout people they called the ‘Deep Ones’ that lived under the water—an’ he brought back all kinds o’ carved things, queer fish things and things from under the water that wan’t fish-things—Gawd knows what them things wuz!”

“What did he do with those carvings?” put in Corey.