The Black Mask — page 84: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

professor. Parmalee sniffed. mountains does have a peculiar, acrid Don’t you smell anything?” “The air from the odor. It’s reminiscent of something.” “Gunpowder!” “By George! That’s what it is. Somebody must have fired a weapon close at hand. And yet, why didn’t we hear the report?” The scientist gazed-out of the tent door. “It was none of my party. They are all accounted for. Yet I could have sworn that there was not another hu- man being within fifty miles.” Blake smiled again. “I merely called it to your attention, Professor, so that you would give more credence to my story. It is so strange—this story of the living dead—that it will stretch your imagination to the utmost, I am a sick man. I doubt if I survive the day. You, \as a scientific man, may be able to discover the solution of the puzzle. Perhaps you may even be able to do something to help release those poor devils in there from the tie of ha- tred that is binding them to this earth. At any rate, I would like to tell you my yarn if you care to listen. Just give me another sip of that moose broth, will you?” Raising the sick man’s head, Profes- sor Parmalee fed him a small quantity of the warm soup. Then he sat down again beside the cot in an attitude of attention. I “You are going to put me down as the greatest liar since the world began,” Blake said, wearily. “Yet every word that I tell you is the absolute truth. My mind was never clearer than at the present time, so don’t think that what I say to you is the raving of a disor- dered brain, either. “You have heard the theory advanced by believers in spiritualism that some people who die suddenly persist in The Valley Where Dead Men Live mountains. keeping in touch with the earth, while others go directly on to their reward. I have seen enough to prove—but.I di- gress. My time is short. Let me start- at the beginning. ? “When the war broke out, I at- tempted to enlist, but was rejected on account of my _ physical condition. Nerves. But I finally succeeded in hooking up with the Red Cross and got over. I was gassed and later got a dose of shell shock. You know what that means? Nerves, pure and simple. It is needless to tell you that I suffered all of the torments of hell. So we'll pass that up and go on. “I landed in the States a physical wreck. The doctors sent me to the mountains. I am a wealthy man, but it suited my mood to travel light and alone. I wandered here and there un- til I finally reached this north country. I studied geology once and, while I don’t need the money, I decided to do a little prospecting. “A week or so ago I reached the cabin of Sourdough Jamison, having canoed up the river nearly two hundred miles. I remained with the old man three days, resting up, then announced my inten- tion of striking out directly into the Jamison tried his best to dissuade me. He claimed that the In- dians had a legend that there was a val- ley located somewhere in the middle of the range which was the abiding place of spirits—‘The Valley Where Dead Men Live’ they called it—and that no- body who entered it ever came back alive. I’ve been through it and I’m out of it. But I’m no better than a dead man, so the-old legend holds good. But I hope when I do pass out that my soul can rest im peace. God! I don’t want to spend an eternity im that hell hole back yonder. “I will not bore you with the details of my trip up the mountains—for I started early next morning in spite of