Andre Norton - Here Abide Monsters

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Here Abide Monsters
1
To Nick's left the sun had hardly topped the low trees. It was a ball of red
fire; today was going to be a scorcher. He hoped he could make it into the
woods road before the heat really hit Of course he had wanted to start earli
er, but there was always some good reason why- Behind the faceplate of his h
elmet Nick scowled at the road ahead.
Always some good reason why the things he wanted to do did not fit in with
plans, not his plans, naturally. Did Margo actually sit down and think it
out, arrange somehow ahead of time so that what Nick had counted on was j
ust what was not going to happen? He had suspected that for some time. Yet
her excuses why this or that could not be done were so perfectly logical
and reasonable that Dad always went along with them.
At least she had not ruined this weekend. Maybe because she and Dad had thei
r own plans, or rather her plans. Give Nick another year-just one-and Margo
could talk to the thin air. He would not be there to listen to her. That-he
relished the satisfaction that thought presented-was the day he was going to
start living!
Dad- Nick's thoughts squirmed hurriedly away from that path. Dad-he had ch
osen Margo, he agreed with Margo's sweet reasonableness. All right, let hi
m live with it and her! Nick was not going to a minute longer than he had
to.
The trees along the road were taller now, closer together. But the surface
over" which the motorbike roared was clear and smooth. He could make good t
ime here. Once he turned into the lake road it would be different. But in a
ny event he would reach the cabin by noon.
His thoughts soared away from what lay behind, already seeking the peace a
head. The weekend, and it was a long one from Friday to Monday, was his al
one. Margo did not like the lake cottage. Nick wondered why she had never
talked Dad into selling it. Maybe she just did not care. There was plenty
else for her to own. Just as she owned Dad.
Nick's scowl deepened, his black brows drawing together, his lips thinly st
retched against his teeth. That scowl line now never completely faded, it h
ad had too much use over the past three years. He swayed and adjusted to th
e swing of the machine under him as an earlier generation would have ridden
a horse, the metal framework he bestrode seemingly a part of his own perso
n. The bubble safety helmet covered his head front and back. Below that he
wore a tee shirt, already dust streaked, and faded jeans, his feet thrust i
nto boots.
Saddlebags, tightly strapped against loss, held the rest of his weekend war
drobe and supplies, save for the canned food at the cabin and what he would
buy at the store going in. He had a full tank of gas, he had his freedom f
or four days-he had himself! Nick Shaw as he was, not Douglas Shaw's son, n
ot Margo's stepson (though, of course, that relationship was hardly ever me
ntioned). Nick Shaw, himself, personal, private and alone.
A twisting curve downhill brought him to the store at the foot of the bend
, a straggle of houses beyond. This was Rochester, unincorporated, with no
"Pop." on the sign Nick flashed past. He came to a stop at the store. A C
oke would go good. Ham Hodges always had those on ice.
Bread, cheese, Nick had no list, just had to remember to get things that wo
uld not be affected by the bumpy ride in. His boots thumped on the porch as
he reached for the knob of the screen door. Behind the screening a black s
hape opened its jaws in an almost inaudible but plainly warning hiss.
Nick jerked off his helmet. "I'm no Martian invader, Rufus," he said to the b
ig tomcat.
Unblinking blue eyes stared back but the jaws closed.
"Rufe, you there-move away from the door. How many times am I going to te
ll you if you sit there you're going to be stepped on someday-"
Nick laughed. "By whom, Ham? Some customer pounding in for bargains, o
r one going out because you ran the prices up on him?"
The cat moved disdainfully back a little, allowing him to pass by.
"Nick Shaw!" The youngish man moved out from behind the counter on the l
eft. "Your folks up for the weekend?"
Nick shook his head. "Just me."
"Sorry your Dad couldn't make it. Larry Green sighted some big ones in the
cove. He was just saying to me no more'n an hour ago that Mr. Shaw sure o
ught to come up and cast a line for one of those. He hasn't been here for
a long time now."
- Ham was being tactful, but not tactful enough. Nick shifted his feet. Th
ey never mentioned Margo, but she was always right there, in their minds a
s well as his, when they talked about Dad. Before Margo Dad had loved the
lake, had been here in the summer and the fall every minute he could get a
way. How much longer would he even keep the cabin now?
"No," Nick answered in a voice he kept even with an effort. "He's been pre
tty busy, Ham, you know how it is."
"Don't suppose I can sell you any bait-"
Nick managed a smile. "You know me, Ham. I'm about as much a fisherman as
Rufus is a dog lover. What I do want is some stuff to eat-what I can car
ry on the bike without a smashup. Any of Amy's bread to go?"
"I'll see. No reason why we can't spare some baking-"
Hodges turned to the back of the store and Nick moved around to pick other
items. A package of bacon from the freezer bin, some cheese. From all the y
ears he had been stopping at Ham's he knew where most things were. Rufus wa
s back on guard at the screen door. He was about the biggest cat Nick had e
ver seen, but not fat. Instead, in spite of the plates of cat food he could
and did lick clean each day, he was rather gaunt. His conformation was tha
t of his Siamese father, though his color was the black of the half-breed.
"How's hunting, Rufus?" Nick asked as he returned to the counter.
An ear twitched, but the cat's head did not turn even a fraction. His intere
st in what lay outside was so intent that Nick moved up behind him to look o
ut, too. There must be a bird, even a snake-something in the road. But he co
uld see nothing.
Which did not mean that nothing was there. Cats saw above and below the hu
man range of sight. There could be something there all right, something in
visible-
Nick wondered just how much truth there was in some of the books he had rea
d-those that speculated about different kinds of existence. Such as the one
that had suggested we share this world with other kinds of life as invisib
le to us as we might be to them. Not altogether a comfortable thought. You
had enough trouble with what you could see.
"What's out there, Rufus? Something out of a UFO?"
The cat's attention was manifestly so engaged that it made Nick a little U
neasy. Then suddenly Rufus yawned widely, relaxed. Whatever had intrigued
him so was gone.
He returned to the counter. There was a paperback turned upside down open
, to mark the reader's place. Nick turned it around to read the title-Our
Haunted Planet- by somebody named Keel. And there was another book pushe
d to one side-More "Things" by Sanderson. That one he knew, he had read i
t himself, urged by Ham to do so.
Ham Hodges had a whole library of that type of reading, starting with Cha
rles Fort's collections of unexplainable happenings. They made you wonder
all right. And Ham had a good reason for wondering-his cousin and the Co
mmer Cut-Off.
"Got you a loaf of whole wheat, a raisin one, and a half-dozen rolls," Ham
announced coming into sight again, "Amy says give the rolls a warm-up, they
're a day old."
"They could be two weeks old and still be good if they're hers. I'm lucky s
he can spare so much a day ahead of baking."
"Well, we had some company who was going to come and didn't, so she was ov
erstocked in the bread box this week. Funny about that." Ham thudded the b
read and rolls down in a plastic bag before Nick. "This fellow called up l
ast Friday-just a week ago. He said he was from the Hasentine Institute an
d they were gathering material about the Cut-Off. Wanted to come out here
and ask around about Ted and Ben-" Ham paused. "Hard to think of it being
all this time since they disappeared. At least it scared people off from t
rying that road for a while. Only somebody's taken the Wilson place for th
e summer and, since the new highway to Shockton went in, the Cut-Off's the
only road to reach that side of the lake now. So it's getting traveled again.
"Anyway, this fellow said he was doing research and asked about a place to
stay. We've that cabin, so we said we'd put him up. Only he never showed
up or called again."
"How long has it been, Ham?"
"Since July 24, 1955. Why, you and your Dad and Mom were up here at the lak
e that summer. I remember your Dad was out with the search party. I was jus
t home from Korea, right out of the army. We sure gave that land a going ov
er-Ted was a good guy and he knew the country like it was his own backyard.
Ben was no fool either, he'd buddied with Ted in the Navy and came up for
some fishing. No, they just disappeared like all the others-that Caldwell a
nd his wife and two kids in 1946, and before them there were Latimer and Jo
hnson. I made it my business to look it all up. Got out my notebook and rea
d it through this week so I could answer any questions the fellow from the
Institute might want to ask. You know, going as far back as the newspapers
had any mention of it, there's been about thirty people just up and disappe
ared on the Cut-Off. Even before it was ever a road, they disappeared in th
at section. It's like that Bermuda Triangle thing. Only not so often as to
get people all excited about it. There's always a good long stretch of time
between disappearances so people sort of forget in between. But they shoul
d never have opened up that road again. Jim Samuels tried to talk the new p
eople out of it. Heard they didn't quite laugh in his face, but I guess the
y took it as some superstition us local yokels believe in."
"But if it's the only way to get into the Wilson place-" Nick knew the legend
of the Cut-Off, but he could also understand the frustration of outsiders ne
eding an easy access.
"Yes, I guess it is a case of needs drive. You can't get the county interest
ed in laying out a new road to serve just a few summer cabins because there'
s a queer story about the one already there and waiting to be used. You know
, this writer-" Ham tapped the book with a fingertip-"has some mighty intere
sting things to say. And this one"-he indicated the More "Things" volume-"ma
kes it plain, for instance, that we think we know all about this world, that
it's all been explored. But that isn't the truth, there are whole sections
we know nothing about at all, mountains never climbed, places where nobody c
ivilized has ever been."
" 'Here abide monsters,'" Nick quoted.
"What's that?" Ham looked up sharply.
"Dad's got a real old map he bought in London last year-had it framed and h
ung it down in his office. It shows England and part of Europe, but on our
side of the ocean just some markings and dragons or sea serpents, with lett
ering-'Here abide monsters.' They filled up the unknown then with what they
imagined might be there."
"Well, we don't know a lot, and most people don't want to learn more'n what'
s right before their eyes. You point out things that don't fit into what the
y've always accepted, and they say it's all your imagination and nothing lik
e that is real. Only we know about the Cut-Off and what's happened there."
"What do you think really happened, Ham?" Nick had taken a Coke from the
ice chest, snapped off the cap, and now drank.
"There's this Bermuda Triangle, only this writer Sander-son says it's no 't
riangle,' but much larger, and also they've made some tests and it's only o
ne of ten such places all around the world. Ships and people and planes dis
appear there regularly-nothing ever found to say what happened to them. A w
hole flight of Navy planes once and then the rescue plane that went out aft
er them! It may have something to do with magnetic forces at those points.
He makes a suggestion about breaking into another space-time. Maybe we have
one of these 'triangles' right here. I sure wish that Hasentine guy had sh
own up. About time some of the brains did some serious investigating. And ..."
What he was about to say was drowned out by a wild yapping from without.
Rufus, his back arched, his tail a brush, gave a warning yowl in reply. H
am swung around.
"Now what the heck's all that about?" He headed for the door.
Rufus, ears flattened against his skull, his Siamese blue eyes slitted, was h
issing, giving now and then a throaty growl of threat. The yapping outside wa
s apparently not in the least intimidated.
A car, or rather a jeep, had drawn up, and a girl slid from under the wheel,
but had not yet stepped out. She was too busy trying to restrain a very exc
ited and apparently furious Pekingese that fought against her hold, his popp
ing eyes fixed on Rufus.
She glanced up at Ham behind the screen, Nick looking over his shoulder.
"Please," she was laughing a little. "Can you cope with your warrior? I want
to come in and I certainly can't let go of Lung Hsin!"
"Sorry." Ham stopped to catch up Rufus with practiced ease in avoiding the
claws the big cat had already extended to promise battle. "Sorry, Rufe, you
for the storeroom temporarily." He departed with the kicking and growling
cat, and Nick opened the door for the girl. She still held the Peke who had
fallen silent upon witnessing the unwilling exit of the enemy.
"He's mighty little to think of taking on Rufus," Nick commented. "Rufe wo
uld take one good swipe at him and that would be that."
The girl frowned. "Don't be too sure about that! This breed were once know
n as dragon dogs, lion dogs-they helped guard palaces. For their size they
're about the bravest animals alive. Hush now, Lung, you've made your poin
t. We all know you're a brave, brave Dragon Heart." The Peke shot out a to
ngue and licked her cheek, then stared about him imperiously as if, having
chased the enemy from the field, this was now his domain.
"Now what can I do for you?" Ham came back, licking one finger where Rufu
s had apparently scored before being exiled.
"I need some directions, and a couple of cases of Coke and ..." She had Lun
g Hsin under one arm now as he no longer fought for freedom, and with her o
ther hand she pawed into the depths of her shoulder bag. "Here it is," she
said with relief. "Thought it might have gone down for the third time and I
would have to empty this thing to find it."
She had a list ready now. "If I can just make out Jane's writing. She really
ought to print, at least with that you can make educated guesses. That's ri
ght, two cases of Coke, one of Canada Dry, one of Pepsi. And she said you'd
be holding melons-oh, I should have told you, I'm Linda Durant and I'm picki
ng all this up for Jane Ridgewell-they've taken over the Wilson place. She s
aid she'd call and tell you."
Ham nodded. "She did and I've got it all together. Won't take us long to l
oad it up for you-" He glanced to Nick who obligingly moved away from the
counter again.
He was willing to give Ham a hand. Though they should be in no hurry to sp
eed this one off.
This Linda was almost as tall as Nick. A lot of girls were tall nowadays. Her
hair had been tied back from her face with a twist of bright red wool, but i
t was still long enough to lie on her shoulders in very dark strands. Her ski
n was creamy pale. If she tanned she had not started that process yet this se
ason.
Her jeans were as red as her hair tie and she had a sleeveless blouse of whi
te and blue dolphins leaping up and down on it. Sunglasses swung pendant fro
m another red tie about her neck and she wore thong sandals on her feet. He
was not usually so aware of a girl's clothes, but these fitted her as if to
complete a picture.
Nick shouldered one of the melons Ham pointed out and took a second under
his arm, carrying them out to the waiting jeep. Ham was busy stowing in
Coke.
"Wait 'til I get some sacks," he told Nick. "Shake those melons around and y
ou'll get them stove in."
Linda Durant had followed them out. "That sounds," she commented, "as if I
have a rough road ahead. You'll have to give directions, Jane's are vague."
For the first time Nick realized that she meant to travel the Cut-Off. He g
lanced at Ham who looked sober. After what Ham had just been saying-to send
a stranger, and a girl, down the Cut-Off-But if there was no other way in
now-only Nick had a queer feeling about it.
There was one thing-he could take that way, too. It was really shorter to
his own cabin when you came to think about it. And it had been almost his
whole lifetime since Ted and Ben had disappeared. This was broad daylight
and these Ridgeways must have been up and down there maybe a hundred times
since they moved in. So, why look for monsters that did not exist?
"Look here," Nick suggested as Ham reappeared with sacks and newspapers an
d proceeded to wedge in the cargo. "I'm heading that way. It's rough and w
e'll have to take it slow, but if you'll match your speed to mine"-he moti
oned at the waiting bike-"I'll guide you in. I'm Nick -Nicholas Shaw-Mr. H
odges here knows me. My people have had a cabin on the lake for a long tun
e."
Linda gave him a long, intent survey. Then she nodded and smiled.
"That's fine! From what Jane said the road's pretty rough and I could miss i
t. I'm very glad of your company."
Ham packed the last of the papers in, and Nick gathered up his own purchas
es and bagged them in a bundle he could tie over the saddlebags. Several i
ndignant yowls from the storeroom brought an instant sharp response from t
he Peke.
Linda adjusted her sunglasses and got behind the wheel. But Ham spoke to N
ick in a low voice.
"Take it easy now. I have a funny feeling-"
"Not much else we can do if she's going to get to the Wilson place," Nick po
inted out.
As he gunned the bike to life he wondered what looming danger one could w
atch for along the Cut-Off. No one who had ever met whatever peril lurked
there had ever returned to explain what he or she had faced. No, Nick wa
s not going to let his imagination take over. He'd end up seeing a UFO or
something lurking behind every tree. He waved to Linda and swung out. Sh
e nodded and followed.
They turned off the highway about a half-mile farther on and Nick cut spee
d, concentrating on the rough surface ahead. He had come this road enough
times to memorize every rut and bump, but the heavy rains last week would
have done damage, and he had no intention of being spilled through careles
sness.
A mile and a half to the Cut-Off. In all the years he had been coming up her
e he had always looked for the overgrown entrance to what had become a sinis
ter road to nowhere. Could she get the jeep in there at all? But they had be
en using it, so they must have cleared a passage through. July 24, 1955-he'd
been too little then to realize what had gone on. But he'd heard plenty abo
ut it ever since. All that searching-the neighbors, the sheriff and his depu
ties. And not so much as a track to tell them why two young men in the best
of health had vanished from a half-mile strip of road one sunny morning.
They had been seen entering, had stopped and talked to Jim Anderson about t
he best place to fish. Jim had been going to the store. He had watched them
turn into the Cut-Off. But they never came out at the lake where a couple
of guys were waiting to join them.
Mouth of the Cut-Off-like a snake with jaws wide open to swallow them do
wn.
Nick took firm control of his imagination. If he did not see Linda to the l
ake she would go by herself. And he somehow could not let that happen and b
e able to look at himself in the mirror when shaving tomorrow.
It was only a half-mile, perhaps a little more. They could run it in minute
s, even if it were rough. The sooner they got through the better. He wonder
ed what this Linda would say if she knew his thoughts. She'd probably decid
e he'd been smoking pot. Only when you heard about the Cut-Off all your lif
e-well, you had a different point of view.
He had borrowed a lot of Ham's books, bought some of his own, knew all the th
ings that did happen now and then that nobody seemed able to explain. Maybe F
ort and those other writers who hunted out such stories had the right of it.
The scientists, the brains who might have solved, or at least tried to solve,
such puzzles, refused even to look at evidence before their eyes because it
did not fit in with rational "facts." There could be facts that were neither
rational nor logical at all.
There was the turn-off ahead. And there certainly had been changes since th
e last time he was here. Looked as if someone had run a bulldozer in to bre
ak trail. Nick gave a sigh of relief at the raw opening. There was a health
y difference between wriggling down an almost closed and ill-reputed trail
and this open, scraped side road, which now looked as good as the one leadi
ng to his own cabin. He flagged the jeep as he came to a stop.
"This is it," he called. Something in him still shrank a little from enterin
g that way, but he refused to admit it. Only he continued to feel that odd u
neasiness, which had come to him earlier as he had seen Rufus watch somethin
g invisible that Nick had been convinced against his will was there.
"Take it slow," he cautioned, also against his will. He wanted to take that r
oad at the best speed they could make. "I don't know how good the surface is.
"
"Yes." The dark glasses masked her face. She surely did not need them here i
n the shade of the trees, but she had not let them slide off as she had at t
he store. The Peke was on the seat, his forepaws resting on the dashboard, l
ooking ahead with some of Rufus' intensity. He did not bark, but there was a
n eagerness in every line of his small, silky body, as if he wanted to urge
them on.
Nick gunned his motor, swung into the Cut-Off, his Speed well down. The jee
p snorted along behind him at hardly better than a walking pace. The road c
rew had run the scraper along, but the rain had cut gullies across, here an
d there, and those had not been refilled.
The lane was all rawly new, bushes and even saplings gouged and cut out an
d flung back to wither and die on either side. It looked ugly-wrong, Nick
decided. He supposed it had to be done to open up the road, but it was que
er the road crew had not cleaned up more. Maybe the guys who had worked he
re knew about the sinister history of the Cut-Off and had not wanted to st
ay around any longer than they had to.
That broken stuff walled them in as if it were intended to keep them in the
middle of the road, allow them no chance to reach the woods. Nick felt mor
e and more trapped. Uneasiness was rising in him so that he had to exert ev
en more control. This was plain stupid! He must keep a grip on his imaginat
ion. Just watch the road for those ruts and lumps so he would not hit somet
hing-do that and keep going. They would be there in no time at all.
It was still, not a leaf moved. But the trees arched over well enough to keep
out the sun. Probably it was very quiet, too, if the noise of the bike and t
he jeep had not advertised their coming. Advertised it to what? Nick hoped on
ly to those in the Wilson place.
Right ahead was the turn, a blind one. And this was a narrow road. No pla
ce to meet anyone coming the other way. But surely they were making enoug
h noise-
Noise! The Peke had begun to yap, almost as when he had challenged Rufus.
Nick heard the girl call out:
"Down, Lung! Down!"
He half-turned his head, the bike hit something and wobbled. Nick had to fi
ght to keep it away from a mass of dying brush. But there was something els
e, a cloud- like a fog trapped under the trees. It was thickening, coming d
own like a blanket-fast!
Nick thought he cried out. Behind him he heard an answering scream and a c
rash. Then he hit something, was thrown, and skidded painfully into total
darkness.
2
Nick lay with his feet higher than his head, the whole left side of his fac
e smarting. Groggily he levered himself up on his hands and blinked, then s
hook his head to banish the queer not-here feeling. He could hear a whimper
ing sound from behind, but at first he was so much occupied with his own ac
hes and pains that it had no meaning.
He looked around.
The bike lay entangled in broken brush into which it must have slammed wi
th force. Nick sat up farther. Bike-the jeep! Where was the jeep? Now the
whimpering alerted him to what might be a serious accident. He had no id
ea what had happened-memory seemed at fault. They had just come around th
e turn in the Cut-Off and then...
Nick got shakily to his feet.
There was no road.
He staggered toward the jeep. That was there, yes, slammed against a tree. A
tree that had no business being there at all, for seemingly it had sprung u
p right in the middle of what had been a newly cleared road.
There was no road!
He reached the jeep, supported himself against it. His aching head still se
emed foggy. Fog-mist-cloud-there was something about that he could faintly
remember. But that did not matter now. What did was the girl behind the whe
el of the jeep.
She was supported partly by her seat belt, partly by the wheel itself. Her e
yes were still covered with those sunglasses. With an effort Nick reached ov
er and jerked them off. She was unconscious, he decided.
The whimpering came from the Peke huddled against her, licking at her arm.
Lung growled at Nick but only halfheartedly, as he slid in beside Linda.
As far as Nick could see she had no open wounds, but-broken bones? His hands
were shaking with a tremor he found it hard to control, as he eased her bac
k in the seat so he could get at the fastening of the seat belt.
"What-what-" She opened her eyes but, though they were turned in his direct
ion, they did not seem to focus on him.
"Hold still!" Nick ordered. "Let me get this open-"
A few minutes later he sighed with relief. She had no broken bones. The sid
e of his face, where it had scraped gravel, was raw, but that was minor. Th
ey could have been killed. Looking about him now, with eyes entirely aware,
he wet his lips with the tip of his tongue.
Killed-if they had been going any faster-slammed up against these trees. B
ut where-where did the trees come from?
They were huge, giants, and the underbrush beneath them was thin as if thei
r mighty roofing overhead of leaves and branches kept any weaker growth fro
m developing. The jeep was trapped between the one against which its nose w
as stuck, and a log of a fallen giant behind it, boxed in neatly so there w
as no hope of getting it out. Impossible, but that was the way it was.
Nick moved slowly around the machine, ran his hands across the top of the l
og, dislodging moss and fallen leaves. It was very apparent that this had b
een here, half sunk in the mucky soil, for a long, long time. But-there was
the jeep-and-where was the road?
"Please-" Linda had edged around on the seat and was looking at him, her
eyes very wide and frightened. "Please-where are we-what-happened?" She
cuddled Lung against her. Now and then the small dog whined. He was shi
vering.
摘要：

HereAbideMonsters1ToNick'sleftthesunhadhardlytoppedthelowtrees.Itwasaballofredfire;todaywasgoingtobeascorcher.HehopedhecouldmakeitintothewoodsroadbeforetheheatreallyhitOfcoursehehadwantedtostartearlier,buttherewasalwayssomegoodreasonwhy-BehindthefaceplateofhishelmetNickscowledattheroadahead.Alwaysso...

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