Robert Augustine Ward Lowndes

“ He sidled the car to a stop. "Let's rest awhile, anyway. Roust out the maps, and we'll take bearings after a sandwich or two."
They emerged onto the tufty grass, shaking off muscle cramps of various sizes and shapes. No breath of air was stirring. Above them the sky was spotted with motionless clouds, minus birds of any kind. No scurrying animal life showed itself on any side. They masticated assorted sandwiches between yawns and let the sunlight drench them as it saw fit.
Crosby shied a pebble across the well-packed road at the high wall gracing its other side. "Quite a thing, eh?" ”

“ You either get it when you see him or you don't. But you must never turn out a light in his presence, and it is best to speak in reasonably loud, clear tones. He is likely to start screaming if you whisper.
And sometimes he awakes in a cold sweat, gasping about a shaft of light drifting away into utter blackness, drifting away from its source: an extinguished handlamp.
And somewhere in Maine stands a long, high wall, marred only by a single spot where, as can be seen, someone tried to break through. ”

“ Crosby was behind him.
"We've found," summed up Michael, "through careful experimentation, that we cannot go around the wall—you go for a certain distance then you find yourself, abruptly, back where you started; we cannot go over the wall—you jump over, and parachute down, and you find yourself on this same side, even though an observer can clearly see you go over. So, we're going to try to go through the wall." ”

“ With Norden, it was different. He was already beginning to have doubts, he told me. It was not an easy road to travel; there were hideous dangers, hidden all along the way, often so that the wayfarer was not aware of them until too late. Earthmen were not very far along the path of evolution; still very young, their lack of knowledge, as a race, told heavily against such few of their number who sought to traverse unknown roads. ”

“ They were back where they started; their car waited on the other side of the road.
I'm all right now," insisted Bentley. "It just seemed so damned funny when I came out of the hole and saw it."
"So now?" asked Crosby.
"We blast."
"Do you think it will do any good? Suppose we do blow a hole right through the damned wall? Won't we find, when we go through it, that we're right back here?"
"We blast," said Michael quietly.
He nodded to Bentley who picked up a drill and held it firm while Crosby smote it heavily and accurately with the hammer. ”

“ An average person can see a good many miles on a clear day, particularly on an almost-flat terrain like this. Yet, he knew from past experience that their car, for that is what the speck was, was not more than a quarter-mile away.
Thad Wing struck a match on his shoe and applied it to the oversized bowl of his corncob, surveying the two travelers as he did so. "What," he asked, "did ye do when ye found that ye couldn't walk around the wall, Mr.—Mr.—excuse me, I didn't rightly ketch yer last name."
"Michael," he grinned. "I'm Gerry Michael and this is Clyde Crosby." ”

“ But the crowning horror was the eyes, which could not be closed, appearing to stare restlessly outward, beyond the observer, and the strangely-luminous markings on the dead flesh, curious designs which appeared to move and change form before the eyes of the beholder. ”

“ He, Dureen, was a being of incredible power, who was using Colby and the rest of us for a nameless purpose. Norden had succeeded in forcing an agreement upon Dureen, one which he would have to keep; as a result, if the two could reach the plateau before the shadow-beings touched them, all would be well. If not—Norden did not specify, but indicated that they were being hunted, as men hunt game. The polyhedron contained an element repulsive to the things. ”

“ With the others, there has been a growing tendency to treat it all as illusion, but I cannot: I have learned a small part of reality. For it is one thing to read of books like the Necronomicon, Book of Eibon, or Song of Yste, but it is quite different when one's own experience confirms some of the dread things related therein. ”

“ Just leave 'em alone.' And that's the way all of us around here look at that wall. It's there and that's all there is to it. Ain't never hurt anyone yet and it don't look as if it ever will unless some fool goes and bashes his head into it, and then it wouldn't be the wall's fault. ”

“ Crosby ruffled his hair, a faraway look in his eyes. "It may be longer than we think."
"Then say we walk for fifteen minutes, each following it in the opposite direction. At 12:45 we stop, and, if the other isn't in sight, we turn around and come back to the car."
Michael started briskly down the road, whistling thoughtfully between his teeth. There were a lot of things about all this that didn't fit in. First of all it was ten feet in height. Why? Perhaps there was nothing wrong with that—after all, he didn't know what the approved height of a wall might be, yet it did seem overfall. ”

“ Some time after. In fact," added Michael slowly, "I don't believe we came upon it until a moment or so before we stopped. I was looking at both sides of the road, and who could miss that? I didn't notice it until just before I asked you about the turn."
Crosby turned and stared at the wall as if expecting the structure to explain itself. "It's odd," he stated. "A wall like this should be marked on the map; it should have some sort of reputation, too, don't you think? Signs saying 'You are now ten miles from the famous Long Wall' and so on. ”

“ People don't come on it very often, and when they do, most of the time they don't gptice anything wrong with it, except that maybe they'll be sort of curious as to what it's doin' way out here.
"So I ain't tryin to tell you what you ought to do, Mr. Michael and Mr. Crosby, but since ye asked me about it, I say ferget about it and leave it alone. Theys lots of things to fight against that are hurtin' people and ye don't need to find somethin inoffensive like a wall." ”

“ But more dreadful than these are the seekers which they send out into other worlds and dimensions, beings of incredible power which they themselves have created and, guised in the form of those who dwell 'within whatever dimension, or upon whichever worlds where these seekers be sent. ”

“ The reaction, they noted was no more or less than what one would expect from ordinary fence stone. They took turns in holding the drill and swinging the hammers.
"Okay," said Bentley quietly. "We're ready to blast." ”