Read Online The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard by Robert E. Howard - Free Book Online

come, John Kane?
    What of the oath that you swore by the river
    Where the black shadows lurk and the sun comes never,
    And a Shape in the shadows wags its grisly head forever?
    You swore by the blood-crust that stained your dagger,
    By the haunted woods where hoofed feet swagger,
    And under grisly burdens misshapen creatures stagger.
    Up, John Kane, and cease your quaking!

    You have made the pact which has no breaking,
    And your brothers are eager their thirst to be slaking.
    Up, John Kane! Why cringe there, and cower?
    The pact was sealed with the dark blood-flower;
    Glut now your fill in the werewolf ’s hour!
    Fear not the night nor the shadows that play there;
    Soundless and sure shall your bare feet stray there;
    Strong shall your teeth be, to rend and to slay there.
    Up, John Kane, the thick night’s falling;
    Up from the valleys the white fog’s crawling;
    Your four-footed brothers from the hills are calling:
    Will ye come, will ye come, John Kane?

    Remembrance
    Eight thousand years ago a man I slew;
    I lay in wait beside a sparkling rill
    There in an upland valley green and still.
    The white stream gurgled where the rushes grew;
    The hills were veiled in dreamy hazes blue.
    He came along the trail; with savage skill
    My spear leaped like a snake to make my kill–
    Leaped like a striking snake and pierced him through.
    And still when blue haze dreams along the sky
    And breezes bring the murmur of the sea,

    A whisper thrills me where at ease I lie
    Beneath the branches of some mountain tree;
    He comes, fog-dim, the ghost that will not die,
    And with accusing finger points at me.

    The Dream Snake
    The night was strangely still. As we sat upon the wide veranda, gazing out over the broad, shadowy lawns, the silence of the hour entered our spirits and for a long while no one spoke.
    Then far across the dim mountains that fringed the eastern skyline, a faint haze began to glow, and presently a great golden moon came up, making a ghostly radiance over the land and etching boldly the dark clumps of shadows that were trees. A light breeze came whispering out of the east, and the unmowed grass swayed before it in long, sinuous waves, dimly visible in the moonlight; and from among the group upon the veranda there came a swift gasp, a sharp intake of breath that caused us all to turn and gaze.
    Faming was leaning forward, clutching the arms of his chair, his face strange and pallid in the spectral light; a thin trickle of blood seeping from the lip in which he had set his teeth. Amazed, we looked at him, and suddenly he jerked about with a short, snarling laugh.
    “There’s no need of gawking at me like a flock of sheep!” he said irritably and stopped short. We sat bewildered, scarcely knowing what sort of reply to make, and suddenly he burst out again.
    “Now I guess I’d better tell the whole thing or you’ll be going off and putting me down as a lunatic. Don’t interrupt me, any of you! I want to get this thing off my mind. You all know that I’m not a very imaginative man; but there’s a thing, purely a figment of imagination, that has haunted me since babyhood.
    A dream!” He fairly cringed back in his chair as he muttered, “A dream! and God, what a dream! The first time–no, I can’t remember the first time I ever dreamed it–I’ve been dreaming the hellish thing ever since I can remember. Now it’s this way: there is a sort of bungalow, set upon a hill in the midst of wide grasslands–not unlike this estate; but this scene is in Africa. And I am living there with a sort of servant, a Hindoo. Just why I am there is never clear to my waking mind, though I am always aware of the reason in my dreams. As a man of a dream, I remember my past life (a life which in no way corresponds with my waking life), but when I am awake my subconscious mind fails to transmit these impressions.
    However, I think that I am a fugitive from justice and the Hindoo is also a fugitive. How the bungalow came to be there I can