Lost Canyon [Chapters four and Five of Six]Chapter Four “Can this creature fly?” asked Deppit. “No,” Patten commented, adding”…not to my knowledge; although I do believe it was, or is human perhaps or at least partly. Conceivably this thing has a ting of animal and ghost in him, or demon, who knows, he is as strange a form of life, as strange as anything else we’ve seen thus far in this lost canyon, on this lost and hidden island. I kind of wish Fitzgerald was still around; he made things a bit more worthwhile. “No,” said, Deppit, “it wasn’t any kind of animal; it had a human face on it. It looked at me as if …it just creped on by me: a deplorable looking creature with dark eyes, and long fingernails: naked as a jaybird. It had sunken in looking cheeks, yellow teeth, big lips, and white skin,” he added. “What does it want,” asked Patten (a rhetorical question for he looked about, not looking for an answer from Deppit). “Let’s get moving,” said Patten—a bit taken out of his wits. “No,” said Deppit, “lets park here for the night, the monster knows were we are, and we know he’s around, maybe that’s good, we all need a rest, even him.” Forward Aground In the morning the two men simply picked up their stuff and went for forward, down the canyon, following the stream, that is river stream, but it was narrowing as they walked, and then at times it picked up, when other tributaries pushed water into the river from cliffs above, or waters below, that had outlets to the sea. At this point, it seemed the fresh water was mixing with the salt water, or water from the sea, thus, perchance, they deemed they were close to the ocean. For the following three days they both marched down river, or east bound. There was no indication there was an end to the canyon, only educated guesses, deductions, and hope. And Deppit knew the island was but one hundred miles long, so it had to end some place ahead; unless they ended up going in circles somehow, but this was too far fetched to deliberate on, so they both thought. Deppit was determined to continue farther east, here they came upon more water, more animals, larger insects, huge and appalling as they were, the professor was never without a spark of lie when he cast eyes on a new species for here were creatures, forms of life never once had a human come across before. —on the 8th night, the shadows of the creature showed up. Chapter Five An eerie night it was—shadows crept past the misty moon, the fire prickled a gloomy high pitch, as if someone was playing in it, and pushed out a little substance here and there, or perhaps it was everyone’s imagination. The long eared creature was in the shadow of the moon, which was similar to—at twilight—crossing a lake: it extended somehow across the camp: from the edge of the rim by the woods, where the creature was making his shadow and sounds, then across the camp, and right to the river: then across that also; a beam of light that hooked onto the moon somehow; yes, across their complete camp. You could hear those long ears flapping. After a few hours passed all was peaceful, perhaps the creature went to sleep, thought Patten. Patten really wanted to shoot the shadow, but as Deppit had said: they were really the invaders, and the creature was just as curious as they, and had more right to be there than they. Thus, why misuse the little ammunition they had on something that had not really threatened them yet, only pass them by, and throw a little scare in them. And as far as Fitzgerald went, who was the killer? It could not be proven beyond a doubt it was a creature like this one, it sure didn’t look the same from the quick view they both had; this creature in any case, had more humanness to it. Ah! It was indeed a long, long night. —The following night, things seemed to repeat themselves, kind of. The two men sat back by the fire to relax, smoking some tobacco, had an insignificant evening meal, a shot of whiskey: everything comforting, for the most part…Patten started singing, hoping the professor would follow, but he didn’t, he was too piratical. The fire seemed to be more smoke than fire, but there seemed to be enough heat for both; they made their beds next to the fire, and hoped the carnivorous night would pass quickly. It was Patten’s night for first shift on guard duty, four houses on, four off; just in case the long eared creature decided to pay them a visit.  |
