The Red Leer | Horror Story | Podcast - Nightshade Diary

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you feel a shier up your spine from fear. Yes,
it's another story from the Night's Shade Diary. You know
what that means. Check under the bed and make sure
no one or nothing is there. Is the closet door
securely shut. Then leave your disbelief behind, amp up your
imagination and hang on tight for another ride into terror

(00:22):
and mystery. And like all good horror stories, just imagine
it's a dark and stormy night, and remember screaming like
a little girl is permitted. The Red Leer by David Drake.
As he swung the tractor back for a final pass

(00:45):
across Sackridge Field, de Halter saw that dirt had been
turned on the side of the Indian mount The big
man threw in the hand clutch of the Alice Chalmers
and throttled the diesel back to idle as he glared
at the new trench through the barbed wire. That goddamn curns,
he whispered. If I've got to work with him much longer,
He rebbd the engine and slammed the tractor back in gear.

(01:07):
The farmer scowled as black as the hair curling up
his arms from the backs of his hand to the
shirt sleeves rolled at his biceps. At the south end
of the field, d Halter raised a cultivator and drove
the alice down the long looping trail back to the
farm buildings. There was a wave of swords straight west
from the top of the ridge, but it was too
steep for the tractor. The more gradual slope to d

(01:29):
Halter through half a dozen gates, and eventually back to
the buildings. From the southwest to the left loomed the
barn and the three concrete silos peering over its roof
at him. The milking parlor was the one story addition
to the barn's east side, facing the equipment shed and
the gas pump, and at the pump was Tom Kerns
with his ten year old son, d Halter's nephew, putting

(01:52):
gas into jeep. D Halter pulled up beside them and
let the diesel clatter for a moment before he shut
it off. A short, ginger headed man looked up. His
arms were not tan, but a deep red with brighter
slashes with the straps of his undershirt had interrupted part
of the sunlight. Kernes was thirty five, five years younger

(02:13):
than his brother in law, but his quickly sunburned face
would have passed for any age finished Sackridge already d
he ysked in his pleasant, throaty voice. The tension and
his muscles showed that he had correctly read dee Halter's anger. Kerns,
what have you been doing with the Indian mound, the
bigger man demanded from the tractor seat. You know to

(02:34):
lieve that the hell alone. A pick and shovel lay
in the back of the jeep. De Halter noticed them,
and a black flush moved across his face. Kern's skin
was too red to show the blood, but his voice
rose to the challenge. When Old John owned a farm,
he could say what he pleased, but he's dead now.
I'm damn if I'm not going to get Nindian's skull

(02:56):
like yours. Gesturing eastward at the ridge, the little man added,
I own half Did's goddamn place, and I'm going to
get a skull. The curio cabinet in de Halter's parlor
had been assembled by his grandfather before the First World War.
Among its agates and arrowheads, sword cane and ostrich plumes
was a brown human skull. The family had always assumed

(03:18):
the skull came from a mound somewhere, but not even
Old John had been sure. It fascinated Kerns, perhaps only
because dee Halter had refused to give it to him.
The main house and its furnishings, including the cabinet, had
gone to d Halter under his father's will, just as
the new house in which his sister Alice lived with
Kerns and their children, had gone to her. The rest

(03:40):
of the six hundred acre farm was willed to d
Halter and Alice jointly, with a provision that if either
of them tried to partition the property, the whole of
it went to the other. De Halter had talked to
a lawyer, and he was sure Curns had done the same.
The worst news either of the men had heard in
a long time was that the will would probably stand
up in court. There's a law aguns digging up mounds,

(04:03):
de Halter muttered, there's a law guns keeping an Indian
skull on display. This shorter man blazed back, you're going
to bring the line here, d well, dee Halter said, lamely.
You don't get everything in the mound. You've no right
to that Kernes stood, arms of Cumbo's sweat from the
June sun glittering on his face. If I do all

(04:24):
the goddamn digging I do, he said, and anyhow I
get the skull out first, d Halter wiped his face
with his huge, callous palm. He didn't like to fool
around with a mound. Old John had wailed him within
an inch of his life thirty years ago when he
had caught his son poking into the smooth slope with

(04:44):
a post hole digger. But d Halter remembered also the
nightmare that I wakened him for months after that afternoon,
and that dream was of nothing so common as a
beating by his father. Still, to let Kerns take everything,
all right, dee Halter said, I'll help you dig, but
I might pick of anything besides the skull. Wouldn't be

(05:04):
surprised if there was gold in with the chief. Actually,
de Halter knew enough about mounds to doubt there was
anything that would interest a non archaeologist. Often the mounds
hadn't even been built over body. But that wasn't anything
the big farmer was going to say to his brother
in law. Dad said the kerran boy unexpectedly. If Uncle

(05:24):
Dee helps you, you don't need me, do you. Karnes
looked at the child as though he wanted to hit him.
Go on, Then he snapped, but I want that goddamn
toolshed painted when I get back all of it. The
boy took off, running for the house. Wiener the farm's park.
Collige chased after him, barking, kid's been listening to his mother.

(05:45):
Currents rumbled from the way Alice has been carrying on.
You'd think old John was going to come out of
his grave. If I dug up that mound. He must
have knocked that into her head with a maul. He
was strong on it. De you, Halter agreed absently. I
know when he was a there was still a couple
of sack Indians on the farm. Maybe they talked to him,
but he was strong about a lot of things. Well

(06:08):
you're ready to go, Curnes demanded. He had hung up
the pomp nuzzle and now remembered to cap the jeep's tank.
De Halder, Grimace, I'll put the cultivator into Sheddy said,
then we'll go. Kerns drove, taking the direct trail through
the east pasture. There was a rivulet to ford and
a pair of gullies that had to be skirted, but
the hard going didn't start until they reached the foot

(06:29):
of the ridge. They had bought the jeep ten years
before from army surplus, and the sharp grades of the
ridge slope made the motor wheeze. Even in the granny years.
Cedars studded the slope, interspersed with both thistles whose purple
bracts were ready to burst open. There was a final
switch back just before the trail reached the summit. As

(06:50):
Kerns hauled the wheel hard to the left. The motor
sputtered and died. The halters swung out of the jeep
and walked the last thirty yards, while the smaller man
cursed and trod on the starter. The mound was built
on the north end of the ridge. That part had
never been opened as a field because the soil was
too thinly spread above the bed rock. The mound was

(07:12):
over about fifteen feet long on the east west axis
and three or four feet high. Though small, it was
clearly artificial, a welt of earth on the smooth table
of the ridge. Kerrn's trench was in the center of
the south side halfway in and down to the level
of surrounding soil. De Halter was examining the digging when
the jeep heaped itself up behind him and was cut

(07:34):
off again. We just kept hitting rocks, the smaller man explained.
We didn't get near as far as i'd figure before
we started. The Halter squatted on his haunches and poked
into the excavation with a finger like a corn cob.
You didn't hit rocks, he said, You hit a rock
one goddamn slap. There's no way we're going to clear

(07:55):
that dirt off it. Rather the week of work or
renting a bulldozer. I mean, even if we cleared down
to the rock, that slab's a foot thick and must
wait tons. We're just going to waste our time here,
or we would be if we didn't go back right now.
Kurn swore we could hook a chain to the alice.
He began. The Halter cut him off. We'd have to

(08:18):
get the dirt off the top first, and that'll take
all goddamn summer. This was a bad idea to start,
and it got worse quick. Come on, let's go back,
he straightened. What about dynamite blurted Kerns. The Halter stared
at his brother in law. The smaller man would not
meet his gaze, but continued, there's still a stick under
the seat when you blow up the beaver dem we

(08:39):
could use it. Kerns. De Halter said, you're so afraid
of that dynamite that you'd rather leave it in the
jeep than touch it to get it out. Besides, it'll
blow the shit out of anything under that slab, if
there is anything, and the slab's not flat on bedrock
all the way across what you're trying to prove. Kerns

(08:59):
red Fish grew even brighter with embarrassment oranger. Look, he said,
I'm gonna get into this goddamn thing. I've got to
hire a contractor. I said I would, and I will.
You don't want to help, that's your goddamn business, de
Halter it him a moment longer, Oh, although my party said.

(09:21):
He gestured to the pick and added, you see, if
you can cut a slot an inch deep and maybe
eight inches long in the scene between the top slab
and the bedrock, I'll get the dynamite ready. Grin, unless
you want to do that instead. Kerns's only response was
to have to tool with the choke grip and began
chopping at the stone. De Halter flipped the jeep seat

(09:42):
forward and lifted out the corrugated cardboard box beneath it.
There was, as Kurns had said, still one stick of
dynamite left, along with a roll of wire and a
smaller box of blasting caps. The explosive terrified Curns in
the way snakes or spiders do other men. De Halter
had deliberately refus used to take the stick out of
the jeep, despite his brother in law's frequent request. Finally,

(10:05):
Kernes had ceased to mention it until now. Kernes was
so stubbornly determined to have an Indian skull that he
had overridden his fear of the explosive. It occurred to
d Halter that he was doing the same thing himself
with his fear of the mound. The big farmer leaned
against the jeep as he dug a fused pocket and
the dynamite with a pencil stump. Kernes was chipping the

(10:28):
soft rock effectively, even in the confined space not too wide.
De Halter warned as he twisted the lads from the
blasting cap on to the extension wire. He didn't like
what they were doing. Shapes from long ago nightmares were
hovering over his mind, unclear, but no less pleasant for that.
He had never heard of Indians using stone in their mounds,

(10:48):
and that bothered him too. Still, why not? The Mississippi
Basin was rich in soft yellow limestone, already layered by
its flooding and strandings in the shallow seas of its deposition.
So it wasn't the stone or anything else rational which
was eating at de Halter. It was just that something
felt cold and very wrong inside him. That enough, d

(11:10):
Kerns asked, panting. His sleeveless undershirt was gray with sweat.
Dee Halter leaned forward. It'll do, he acknowledged. Kerns was
shrinking back from the explosive in d Halter's hand. Run
the jeep over the crest of the ridge and get
the hood open. There's enough wire to reach to there.
While his brother in law scrambled to obey, d Halter

(11:32):
knelt in the trench and made his own preparations. First,
he set the blasting cap in the hole in the
end of the dynamite. Then he carefully kneaded the explosive
into the slot Kerns had cut in the rock. The
heavy waxed paper and its feelings of sawdust, ammonium, nitrate,
and nitroglycerine were hot and deformed easily. A lot of
people didn't know how to use dynamite. They wasted the

(11:54):
force of the blast. De Halter didn't want to blow
the mound open, but he'd be damned if he wouldn't
do it right, if he did it at all. When
the dynamite had been molded into the rock, the big
man shoveled dirt down on top of it and used
his boots to firmly tamp the pile. The thin wire
looped out of the earth like the shadow of a
grass blade. De Halter hung the coil on the pick handle,

(12:17):
using it as a loose spindle from which to unwind
the wire. As he walked to the jeep. This far
enough away, Kernes asked, eyeing the mount apprehensively, unless a
really big chunk comes straight down, de Halter said, silently,
pleased at the other man's nervousness, Christ is just one stick,
even if it is sixty percent equivalent. Kurns went down

(12:40):
behind the jeep, dee Halter squatted at the front, protected
from the blast by the brow of the hill. He
held the bar under one wire to the negative post
of the battery, then touched the other lead to the
positive side. Nothing happened. God damn it, he said, prodding
the wire to cut through the white corrosion on the post.
The dynamite exploded with a loud thump. Jesus Curnes shouted

(13:03):
as he bounced to his feet. Dee Halter, more experienced,
hunched under his baseball cap while dirt and tiny rock
fragments reined over him in the jeep. Then at last
he stood and followed his brother in law. The smaller
man was now cursing and trying to brush dirt from
his head and shoulders. With his left hand and his
right he carried a battery spotlight. Acrid black smoke curled

(13:25):
in the pit like a knot of snakes. The sound
walls of the trench looked as they had been before
the explosion, but the earth compacted over the charge was gone,
and the exposed edge of the rock slab had shattered.
Because the limestone could neither move nor compress, the shock
had broken it as thoroughly as a twenty foot fall
could have. Curns bent down over the opening and grasped

(13:47):
a chunk of stone to toss out of the way.
The dynamite fumes looped a tendil over his face. Curns
coughed and quivered, and for an instant Dee Halter thought
the other man lost focus. Then Curns was on feet again,
fanning the shovel blade to clear the smoke fast, and crying,
by Godded, there's something in there. By God, the Halter waited,

(14:10):
frowning as Kernes shoveled at the rubble. A little prime
with the blade was enough to crumble the edges of
the slab and to fisticize pieces like a three dimensional
jigsaw puzzle. More dirt fell in, but that was easily
scooped away. The actual opening stayed small because the only
cabin in the bedwalk was a shallow water cut basin.

(14:30):
It slopes so gradually that it, even after a two
foot scallop had been nibbled from the overlying slab, there
was barely enough room to reach an arm into the hollow.
The fumes had dissipated, Kerrn scattered a last shovel full
of dirt and graveled, and tossed a tool aside as well,
Kneeling down with his faces close to the opening as
he could get it, and still he roomed for the spotlight.

(14:52):
He began to search the cavity. Goddamn, kern said, suddenly,
God damn. He tried to reach and left handed, found
there was too little room, and shoved the light back
out of the way, since he had already located the
object in his head. The spotlight beam touched grass blades
shaded from the sun, a color rather than an illumination.

(15:13):
Look at this, de Halter, cried Kernes, as he scrabbled backward.
By God, I've seen skulls before, the blackheaded man said, sourly,
eyeing the discolored bone which his brother in law hauled
hook through the eye socket. The lower jaw was missing,
but the explosion seemed to have done little damage unless
the front teeth. There's other stuff in there. Two currents bubbled.

(15:37):
Then it's mine, said d Halter sharply. Then I s
goddamn say it wasn't, Kernes demanded. And you can get
it out for yourself, too, he added, looking down at
his shirt, muddied by dirt and perspiration. D Halter said
nothing further. He lay down carefully in the fresh earth
and directed the spotlight passed his head. He could see

(15:57):
other bones in the shallow cavity. They explosion had shaken them,
but their order was true, precise for any large animals
to have stripped away a flesh. Indeed, the bundles of
skin and tendons still clinging to the thighs indicated that
not even mice had entered the tomb. The stone to
stone seal must have been surprisingly close. Metal glittered beyond

(16:18):
the bones. The Halter marked its place, and reaching in,
edging himself forward so that his shoulder pressed hard against
the ragged lip of the slab. He expected to feel revulsion,
with a sudden fear of his childhood, but the cavity
was dry and even empty of death. His wrists brushed
over rib bones, and he thought the object beyond them

(16:39):
was too far. Then his finger tips touched it, touched them,
and he lifted them carefully out. Kerne stopped studying the
skull in the sunlight from different angles. What the hell
you got there, d he asked warily. De Halter was
insure himself, so he said nothing. He held two halves
of a hollow metal tear drop six inches long. On

(17:00):
the outside, it was black and bubbled. Looking within, the
spherical's cavity was no larger than a hickory nut. The
mating surface and the cavity itself for a rich silver color,
untarnished and as smooth as the lenses of a camera.
One of them's mine, said Curnes abruptly, the skull and
half the rest. He reached for one of the pieces,

(17:20):
Like hell, said de Halter mildly. As he was concentrating
on the chunks of metal, His big shoulder blocked Curns
away without effort. Besides, it's all one thing, he added,
holding the section so that the polished surfaces made it.
Then when he tried to part them, the halves did
not reseparate. Ah, Curnes said in disbelief, and again put

(17:42):
a hand out for the object. This time dee Halter
let him take it. Despite all the ginger heird man's
tugging and pushing, the tear drop held together. It was
only after Curns, sweating and angry, had handed back the
object that die Halter found the trick of it had
to rotate the halves along the plane of the separation, which,
since there was no visible line, was purely a matter

(18:03):
of luck. The first time it worked. Let's get on home,
dee Halter said. He nodded westward toward the sun. Sunset
was still an hour away, but it would take them
a while to drive back. The ridge was already casting
its broad shadows across the high ground to the east. Besides,
thee Halter added, almost under his breath, I don't like
the feeling I get up here sometimes. But it was

(18:25):
almost two weeks before Dee Halter had any reason for
his uneasiness. Despite the full moon low in the west,
in the light of the big mercury vapor lamp above
the cow yard to the north of the barn, the
plump blonde stumbled twice on the graveled path to the car.
The second time she caught Dee Halter's arm and clung
their giggling, more to be shut of her than for chivalry.

(18:48):
The farmer opened the passenger door of the chrysler and
handed her in. Naturally, she flopped across his lap. When
he got on the driver's side, he pushed her upright
in disgust. It was three a m. And there was
no lights yet in Alice and her husband's house. De
Halter knew they had seen him bring Wendy home in
the evening. Knew also that Weiener would awaken them as

(19:09):
he chased the cars. Kernes had once complained to d Halter,
red faced about the example he set for his nephew
and nieces by bringing horrors home to their grandfather's house.
Dee Halter had told them that under the will, it
was his house, and that when Kernes and Alice could
fucking in their house, he'd consider quitting it in his.

(19:30):
The smaller man hadn't quite taken a swing at de
Halter had hoped he might. When the car began to
scrunch down the drive past the new house, Weiener came
loping toward them from the barn. He barked once every
other time his fore feet touched the ground. The noise
was more irritating than even a quick staccato would have been.

(19:51):
The car windows were closed against the knight's damp chill.
D Halter's finger was poised on the switch to roll
the glass down and shout at the mongrel when Wendy's
snapped his head around. The bank to the left sloped
up from the drive, so the things standing there was
only in the edge of the lights. It was wire
thin and tall, twice the height of a man. At

(20:13):
a fleeting glance, the part of the halter knew that
was the effect of the bank and the angle. A
flat lizard snout of teeth glittered sharply. Then the beast
turned and the big car leaped forward down the driver's
de halter floored the accelerator. Wendy was still screaming, her
face buried in her hands when the car banked over
the slotted cattle guard and fish tailed onto the Gravel

(20:35):
County road. The halter kept his peedometer dangerously above sixty
for the first three miles until they reached the tavern
and gas station at five points. There, he braked to
a stop and turned on the dome light. The girl whimpered.
The halter's big hands gripped his shoulders and halder upright.
Shut up, He said, tightly, what was it? She blubbered,

(20:57):
Shut up, for Christ's sake, the halter shot it. It
wasn't a goddamn thing. He brought his face close to Wendy's.
The girl's eyes were as fearful as they had been
minutes before at the sight of the creature. He saw
a cat in the headlights. That's all You're not gonna
get everybody and his brother tramping over my farm shooting
my milking herd. You're going to keep your goddamn mouse shut,

(21:18):
do you hear? The blonde was nodding to the rhythm
of de Halter's words. Tears streamed from her eyes, and
when she tried to wipe them, she smeared the remains
of her eyeshadow across her cheeks. Dee Halter released her
suddenly and put the car in gear. Neither of them
spoke during the rest of the ride to town. When
the big farmer stopped in front of the girl's apartment,

(21:39):
she stumbled out and ran up the steps without bothering
to close the car door. Dee Halter locked it after
he slammed his shut. He drove back to the farm
at a moderate pace that slowed appreciably as he came nearer.
The night had only its usual motions and noises. Now
Dee Halter was waiting in his lock car an hour later,
alone with nothing but a memory to disturb him when

(22:01):
Cerns came out of his house to start milking. After
lunch a full meal of fried steak and potatoes Dee
Halter had cooked for himself and his father as well
before Old John died. The big Man walked down the
drive and began searching the grassy bank to the left
of it. Once. When he looked up, he saw his
sister watching him intently from the Kern's kitchen window. He waved,

(22:22):
but she ducked away. Toward three o'clock, Curns himself came
back in the jeep from inspecting the fences around the
northwest pasture. Dee Halter hailed them. After a moment's hesitation,
the ginger haired man swung the vehicle up the bank
and stopped. Come look at this, Dee Halter said. The
turf was marked fuzzily where he pointed. Doesn't it look

(22:43):
like three claw prints? He asked. Kernes looked at him strangely.
Claw Prince, what do you mean, Dee? What's oh? Christ?
I don't know, said the big man, straightening and lifting
his cap to run his hand through his hair. He
looked glumly back past the bar into the long bowl
of Sackridge having seen weener Diday, have you, Curnes asked, unexpectedly,

(23:06):
not since I took Wendy home this morning, replied d Halter,
his own expression odd. Barked at the car as usual.
You must have heard him learn to sleep through it,
I guess, said Kurnes, and the words did not quite
ring true, though that might have been the blurred print
on the ground in d Halter's blurred memory of what
had made the print. Curns got into the jeep. Usually

(23:29):
he chases a rabbit he gets back for breakfast. Kids
have worried about me to death about that damned dog.
I'll write to the barn with you, d Halter set.
They did not speak about the dog or the print
for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening, after
d Halter had finished his turn up milking, Alice came
out to the barn to help wash down the equipment.

(23:49):
Alice Curns was ten years younger than her brother. Though
they had never been closed, there was a thread of
mutual affection. Despite d Halter's reciprocated hatred for his brother
in law. Alice hummed as she polished the glass tubing
and stainless steel. She was a short woman with black
hair tied back by a kerchief and a man's shirt
flapping over the waistband of a gray skirt. We never

(24:12):
been back yet, the Halter asked, with feign disinterest. No
have you seen him, Alice said, pausing to catch the
shake of Tea Halter's head. SUSY's been crying all day.
Tom went out to quiet the dog down this morning
and night. Think he scared him off, but he'll be
back to night, I figure. Dee Halter flipped the switch
that would drain the water now being cycled through the

(24:33):
transfer piping. Kernes got up to chase him. Uh huh,
did you take the big tank? Yeah, we can call
it a night, the Halter said. Bludstains are hard to
identify in heavy grass, harder even than footprints in the
sod beneath, so he made no mention of the splotches
he had found thirty yards from the drive that afternoon.

(24:54):
There had been nobody, not even a swatch of dog
ford torn off in a struggle. But despite that, Dee
Halter guests that the mongrel would not be coming home
that night. A cowwakened d Halter with a blat like
a cut off clockson horn. His Reminten thirty six leaned
against the window frame, bathed moonlight. D Halter stripped a

(25:15):
shell into the olive loader's chamber from the full magazine
before he pulled on his dungarees and boots. Shirtless, his
baggy trousers weighed down by the rest of the box
of ammunition. De Halter unlocked the front door and began
running across the yard. There was one hundred and sixty
cattle in the barn, and from the noise they had
all gone wild. Over Their bellows came clatters and splintering

(25:38):
as a frantic tons of beef smashed the feedings of
the barn. Normally, in the summer, the cows were free
to wander in and out of the yard and to
the pasture beyond, but tonight d Halter had penned them
for safety. He was one hundred feet from the electric
fence of the yard, cursing a mistake and having concentrated
the herd and then left it unprotected, when one of
the black and white holstings smashed from the bar into

(26:00):
the cowyard. Through both halves of the Dutch doors. There
was something behind it. The thing's tongue and the blood
on its jaws were black in the mercury floodlight erect
against the side of the barn, was almost eight feet tall,
though only the shadow gave mast to its spinly limbs.
It saw the Halter and skidded on the slippery concrete,

(26:21):
as its glass rasping through the slime. The Halter threw
his rifle to his shoulder. It was as if he
were aiming at a skeleton made of coat hangers. The
thing was so thin the Halter's hands shook. The creature
bent forward, cocking its hips back for balance, and it
opens its sjaws so wide that every needle tooth seemed
pointed at the farmer. Then its cream like a plunging shell.

(26:44):
As d Halter fired his bullet punchingly through the side
of the barn, ten feet above the ground. With a
single stride, the creature disappeared back within the building. The
Halter slammed another shot through the empty doorway. Panting, The
big man knelt and fumbled out the box of ammunition,
without letting go of the rifle his shoulder. Ache the

(27:05):
empty cases shone sailver pale on the grass to his right.
When dee Halter had reloaded, he shuffled forward again. He
held his rifle out as if he were thrusting it
through fluid. The yard was filled with milling cows. De
Halter moved past them to the low milking parlor and
tried in vain to peer through the dusty windows. Then,
holding the rifle awkwardly like a huge pistol, he unlatched

(27:27):
the door and flipped on the light. There was nothing
in the parlor, and its metal gates to the barn
were still closed. D Halter turned on the lights in
the main building. There was only a score of frightened
cows still within the half loft eight feet above. The
bare floor had only a little stroke in it. The

(27:48):
loft door in the south wall hung askew. There were
deep scratches around its broken latch. From the left, the
Halter grimly surveyed the barn. The interior walls were splattered
with blood. A heifer was dead, and her stall long
gouges reddened the hides of several others of the herd.
It was almost dawn. The black haired farmer stood at
the loft door, cursing and staring out into the red sunrise,

(28:11):
which pulled the shadows of the ridge like a long
curtain over the pasture. The door to the milking parlor banged.
The Halter swung around and raised the muscle of his rifle.
It was Kurrn's, barefooted and in torn pajamas, with Alice
white eye behind him. Seeing the blood and the dead
halt for she shout at her husband, My God, Tom,

(28:31):
have you and George been shooting cows? Kerns gaped. Dee
Halter couldn't understand why the question was directed at his
brother in law. No, it was a uh de Halter
began and stuttered to a halt, uncertain both of the
truth and what he should say about it. To change
the subject, he said, we got to phone Doc Jepson.

(28:53):
Some of the cows cut phoned the vet blazed. Alice
Kerns still had not spoken. She reached back into the
parlor for the extension, which hung on the wall higher
than a cow carries its head. We'll call the sheriff,
We'll call put down that goddamn phone, Dee Halter said,
not loudly, but too loudly to be ignored by any

(29:13):
one who knew him well. Alice was in a rage herself,
but she stepped back from the phone and watched her
brother descend carefully from the loft. What did it, George,
she asked, I didn't get a good look. God damn it, George,
Alice said, letting go of her anger, now that de
Halter had cooled enough not to shoot her dead in
a fury, why won't you let me get help? Because

(29:37):
when the milk business, the big man said, sang against
the ladder in mental exhaustion. Curns wasn't really listening. Alice's
face was blank. Because if we go tell people there's
an eight foot lizard on our farm, Hearnes swore. Dee
Halter shouted, all right, I saw it. What the hell's
the difference? Something killed the cow, didn't it. He glared

(29:59):
at the others and went on, First they'll think we're crazy.
Then when they learn it, chiw they'll say strauntium ninety
or what they're spraying their fields will do that there's
something in their water, and we'll never sell another pint
of milk from here as long as we live. You
know what the dairy business is like. Alice nodded, sharply.

(30:19):
Then we'll just raise hogs, she said, her corn, or
we'll sell the farm and I'll get jobs with Pirena.
For God's sake, spring Hill Dairy's isn't the whole, Alice.
Kern's eyes were flicking from one sibling to the other,
a spectator rather than a referee. Alice glared at him,
then said to her brother, all right, George, but I'm

(30:41):
taking the kids into town to stay with Iris until
you come to your senses. Then to her husband, she added, Tom,
are you coming to if you live here? Kerns, said
the Halter quietly. You'll never come back. I don't give
a ship what the law says. The men stared at
each other. I'll stay, Kernes said. Alice banged through the

(31:03):
gate into the milking parlor without a look behind her.
I'd have stayed anyway, Alice. The smaller man shouted. Call
Doc Jepson. De Halter repeated wearily, we can tell what's
dogs or something. The tooth marks were too high and
broad for that to be other than a transparent lie.
And hope we can scotch this thing before worse happens. Numbly,

(31:25):
Curns made the call as the little man hung up
to heard the rasping start of the old station wagon.
A moment later, gravel spattered as Alice rocketed down the drive,
almost as fast as he himself had driven the night before.
De Halter thought, it's because of what we took out
of that mound, Kernes said in a small voice. De

(31:45):
Halter shook his head in irritation. This thing didn't come
from a skull or a little bit of iron, he snapped.
It's big, big enough to kill a holsting. It was
there just the same. Currns replied, We've got to close
that grave up with everything in it again, then maybe
we'll be Okay, you're nuts, the Halter said, but he

(32:06):
remembered the thing's eyes on the gape of its jaws,
and he knew that sometime that day he would help
Curns bury the objects again. The Halter walked to the
mound and the park jeep without speaking, and the field
behind him. The crows settled noisily on the carrion again.
Curnes had lifted out a pair of shovels and the
gunny sack holding the objects. Well. He asked, yeah, said

(32:30):
Halter with a shrug. It was weener. Curns began to
undo the knot which closed the sack's throat. Without looking up,
he said, I think it's the moon. That's why it
didn't come out when we opened the mound. It needed
the full moon to bring it out. Bullshit, said d Halter.
I saw the thing, and it's not moonlight. It's as
solid as you or me, damn sight solider than old

(32:53):
weener there, he added, with a grim twist of his head.
Moonlight's just light anyway, FLORESSA light that's just like two,
Curnes retorted, But it makes plants grow like they don't
with a regular light bulb. Christ D, don't you feel
the moon on you at night? The Halter did, but
he wasn't about to admit that weakness even in the

(33:13):
noon sun. Cernes had paused after opening the bag, unwilling
either to dump the contents back into the hole without
ceremony or to touch them again bare handed. The big
man hesitated also. Then he glanced at the guns and
easy reach between the front seats of the jeep and
lifted out the skull. The bone felt warmer because the

(33:34):
Halter had not really taken a look at it. Before
he did so, Now, at his last opportunity, the teeth
were damaged in a way that at first he could
not explained. Then the farmer cursed set the skull down
the ground and stretched out in the open trench. The
angle was too flat for de Halter to have been
able to see anything, even if he had brought a
flash like this trip, but his finger tips fell the

(33:56):
shallow grooves he expected in the undersurface of the slab.
Christ He muttered, standing up again, that poor sucker was
alive when they covered him up, and there he didn't
have a goddamn thing to dig with, so he tried
to scrape through the stone with his teeth. Kern stared
at the skull. It looked a little sicker than he

(34:16):
had before. His finger traced but did not touch the
front teeth. All four the incisors were worn down across
the flats, as if by a file. They had been
ground down well into the nerve canals. One other front
pair had cracked about halfway from the root. Yeah, I'd
seen that, but I didn't think, he said, Jesus, what
a way to go. He surely must have known he

(34:39):
couldn't chew his way through a foot of rock. Maybe
he didn't know there was a foot of it, the
Halter said. Besides, he didn't have a lot of choice. Carefully,
the big man set the skull as far back into
the mound as his arm could reach. The litter of
bones and rock chips within scrunched under his shirt sleeve.

(34:59):
The rippled eye and teardrop was still closed. Dee Halter
looked at it for a moment, then twisted it to
split the halves because they had been separate when he
found them. The metal divided with a soft gasp, like
a cold jar being opened. Dee Halter set the halls
under the slab as he carefully as he had the
discolored skull. Almost before he rolled out of the way,
his brother in law was tossing a shovelful of earth

(35:21):
into the hole. Curns worked feverishly at the soil pile.
He and his son had thrown up digging the pit.
By the time dee Halter had brushed himself off and
picked up a shovel, the blast crumbled edge of the
slab and been buried again. They finished their work before noon,
leaving on the mound side a black scar that sealed
off the greater blackness. Within the barn windows were green fiberglass,

(35:44):
which the western moonlight outlined sharply against the walls. The
diffused illumination was weak and without distinct shadows, and made
the loft floor an overlay of grays on graze, which
wabbled softly as the halter paced along it. The cattle
pen below murmured, occasionally blinding loudly at their unfamiliar restraint.
At each outburst, the halter would pause and lean over

(36:06):
the lott rail with his rifle forward, but the bellowing
was never for any reason that had to do with
why two armed men were watching the barn tonight. At
the north end of the loft, the halter stopped and
looked out the open loading door. The cowyard below was
scraped and hosed off daily, but animal waists had stained
the concrete an indelible brown, which became purple in the

(36:28):
mercury light. To the left, then the fence of the cowyard,
and in the corner it formed with the barn. Hunched
cerns with a shot unloaded with deer slugs from the
halter's angle. The smaller man was foreshortened in to a
stump growing from the concrete. Nothing moved in the night,
though the automatic feeder and the hog pens flapped several times.
As the Halter watched silently. Curns looked up at the moon.

(36:51):
Despite the coolness of the night and the breeze from
the west. Curns pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead.
Dee Halter turned and began pacing back to the south
and to the barn. He had finished his thermos of
coffee hours ago, and it was only by staying in
motion that he was able to keep awake. He could
understand how Cerns could huddle in the same corner since

(37:13):
ten o'clock and still be alert. But then Kurnes wasn't
a person the Halter wanted to understand. The Halter peered
out the south door. Nothing nothing, of course, nothing. A
fox barked in the invisible distance, and the big Man's
grip tightened on his rifle's stop. He caught himself before
he threw a bullet out into the night. In frustration.

(37:35):
Then he began to pace back. But each time the
creature had come, it was in the near dawn, as
if it was striding to the farm from far away,
or because it got a late start. The Nachian Kerns
had blasted in the Indian mound faced southwest. Moonlight would
not have entered it until nearly morning. But there was

(37:55):
no living thing in that narrow rock basin, only a
litter of bones and what was probably a meteorite. Why
had that Indian been sealed up alive? Nothing but bones
and iron in the mound. Briefly, de Halter's mind turned
over a memory of awakening to seize his rifle in
the pattern of moonlight etched across his room by the
Venetian blinds now. He held the weapon close and bent

(38:17):
forward to look at his brother in law. Cernes had
moved slightly out along the electric fence. The yard light
colored his shirt blue, but could not throw a shadow
forward into the glare of the full moon. Curns was
staring west at that model doorb His shotgun barrel traced
nervous arcs, rising and slipping back to a high port.
It was almost as if the smaller man were wishing

(38:39):
he could fire at the moon, but catching himself a
moment before he did anything, that crazy Kerne's body slithered.
Cernes de Halter screamed. The man below turned and was
a man again. His shotgun had fallen to the concrete.
Kerne's clothing was arrived from having something mistressly thin start

(38:59):
to climb out of it. Part of de Halter's mind
wondered what Kerns had thought in the mornings when he
found himself naked in the pasture his tangled pajamas outside
his house. Now the small farmer was looking up at
de Halter, his face as dead and horrified as that
of the statue of l'ocun. Then he changed again, and

(39:20):
the long jaws spread to hiss at the man above.
De Halter laid his open sights in the middle of
the thing's breastbone and squeezed off the shot. The bullet
flew high because of the angle, but the big man
was hunter enough to have allowed for that. The soft
note spiked through the lower mandible and into the throat,
exiting at last of the creature's back. The jacketed head

(39:42):
partly expanded, but with only a fraction of its energy gone,
slapped the concrete beyond, and splashed away in a shadow's
sparks and a riven howl. The thing that had been
curns hurtled backwards and slid until it struck the fence.
Its stick thin limbs thrash, shredding remnants of its clothing.
With claws and the strength of a grizzly his child snapped.

(40:03):
The hole in its throat was small, but dee Halter
knew that the supersonic bullet would have left the wound
cavity like a pie tin in the back. The entrance's
wound had closed, the beast was scrambling to its feet.
Dee Halter screamed and shouted through the chest, an off
center impact that spun the creature again to the concrete.
This time, dee Halter could see the plastic flush closing

(40:25):
on the scale dusted torso he remembered Weener and the
gullied throat of the Holstein with only that instant's hesitation.
The big Man braced his rifle in front of him
and leaded through the window. To his right. The fiberglass
panel sprang out on a piece as the frame tore.
Dee Halter stumbled headlong on to the low roof of
the milking parlor, rolled and jumped to the ground. The

(40:46):
jeep was only twenty feet away. And he ran for it.
There was no ignition. Lock Dee. Halter flipped the power
on and stabbed at the starter button under the clutch pedal.
The engine ground but did not catch. There was a
tearing noise behind him, and spied himself. The big Man
turned to look. The creature was in the cowyard fence.
The top strand was electrified. Loose sparks crackled about the

(41:09):
thing's foreclaws. Its shape was in a state of flux,
so swift as to be almost subliminal. It was as
if superimposed holograms of Kerns and the creature he had
become were being projected onto the fence. Then the hot
wire snapped and the thing's legs cut the remaining strands
like sickles through fog. The Halter fired one handed and missed.

(41:30):
He steadied the rifle, locking his left elbow on the
tubular seat frame, and knocked the creature back into the
cowyard with no top to its skull. Then the engine
chugged and the big Farmer threw the jeep into second
gear at higher revs than the worn clutch were used
to spewing gravel, but without the power to side slip,
the vehicle turned forward. For choice, de Halter would have

(41:51):
run west for the county roads, as he had two
nights before in his Chrysler. That would have meant turning
and trying to race past the cowyard, where the creature
was already on its feet again and striding toward him.
D Halter had small need of his imagination to picture
that scene, the long clawed arms hooking over the steering
wheel and plucking him out like the meat from a
wal Not half leaving the empty jeep to kreene into

(42:15):
a ditch, he was headed instead towards Sackridge and the
mount from which the horror must have come. D Halter
had the headlights on, but they were mounted too low
to show up potholes and in time. Even at moderate speed,
and his present speed was anything but moderate, the jeep
jown so badly that only the big man scrip on
the steering wheel kept him in the vehicle. The shovels

(42:36):
in the back did spin out into the night. It
occurred to d Halt at the rifle, which he had
wedged butt downward beneath the back seat, might fire and
end them permanently, as it had been unable to do
the thing pursuing. He did not care. He only knew
that he had looked down the creature's gaping jaws. It
would rather anything than die between them. Despite his panic,

(42:56):
d Halter shifted into compound load to across the street,
knowing that any attempt to mount the slippery bank and
a higher gear would have meant sliding back into certain death.
On the rutted pasture beyond. He rebbed and slam shifted.
He was proud of his skill only for the instant
before the low moon flicked a leaping shadow across the
corner of his eye. Fear washed away, pride and everything else.

(43:20):
Despite the ruts, the d jeep make good time in
the pasture, but as the old vehicle began to climb
the side of the ridge, the Halter neither creature must
be gaining. There was no choice nowhere else to run it.
He turned either north or south of things, long shanks
would cut it across the slant of his right angle.
Where had the creature come from? Originally perhaps the Indians

(43:41):
had known, but even if the teardrop was the source,
it could as easily have fallen a million years before
and a thousand miles away, carried south on a glacier.
The Halter could picture a nervous band of sacks dragging
one of their number to the rock basin, bound or unconscious,
or would it had been a tribe from the pre
Columbian past, there was nothing in the mount to date it.

(44:05):
Something had come from the cocoon of iron and been
trapped again between layers of rock, trapped until he and
Kerns had feeded in a vapor which merged with the
black tendrils of the dynamite. As d Halter near the
top of the ridge, he glanced sideways. The creature was
a foot behind him and a foot to the left,
its right leg poised to stride its yard long right

(44:26):
arm poisoned to rip the farmer's throat open. The Halter
slammed on the brakes, acting by reflex. It was the
proper reflex, even though the jeep stalled. The beats, claws
swept or de Halter's head should have been, and its
body belled and rebounded from the unyielding fender. For a moment,
the things sprawled backwards on the hillside. Then it twisted

(44:47):
upright lizard quick and lunged. The Halter touched the muzzle
of his remington to the scaly ribs and blew the
creature a dozen yards down the hill. The cartridge case
sailed away in a high arc, the mouth of its
by excessive pressure from the blocked muzzle, and though the
Halter still had the part box in his pocket that
had been the last round in the weapon, and stalling

(45:09):
de Halter had flooded the jeep's engine. He leaped out,
winded already with fear, and topped the ridge with two
long strides. The headlights were waning yellow behind him, where
he could already hear the creature moving. The sky to
the east was the color of blood. The Halter ran
for the mound, as if its gentle counters could protect him.
He tried to jump to its top, but his foot

(45:30):
sank in the soft earth of the digging. The big
man wind milled forward on to his face in the
grass beyond. His grip on the empty rifle had flayed
its right knuckles against the ground. His twisted ankle gave
a twinch. It might or might not bear his weight again.
Dee Halter turned tried to fumble another cartridge into the
breach of the rifle. It was too late hissing like

(45:51):
a cat in a lethal rage. The creature leaped delicately
to the top of the mound. It was even thinner
than it had looked when flickering shadows had bulked its limbs,
and had to be thin, of course, with only curns
one hundred and thirty pounds to clothe its frame. The
curve of the mound made the creature's height monstrous, even
though its legs were poised to lunch, and it carried

(46:12):
its flat skull forward like that of a near sighted mantis.
The narrow lip drew apart in a momentary grin gray
white and then crimson, as the first rays of the
sun touched the creature over the rim of the next hill.
For a moment, the leer hung there, de Halter on
its back, stared at it like a rabbit spitted by
the gaze of a hunting serpent. Then the thing was gone,

(46:33):
and the fear was gone, and de Halter's practiced fingers
lid a live round into the chamber of the odd six.
What's the matter? D Curnes whimpered. He was pitiful in
its nakedness, more pitiful in his stunt. Surprised at where
he found himself. Curns really hadn't known what was happening.
De Halter realized. Perhaps Alice had begun to guess where

(46:56):
her husband had been going in the night. That may
have been wide she had been so quick to run
before suspicion could become certainty. D why are you looking
at me like that? Kernes begged. D Halter stood, his
ankle only throbbed. If his first bullet had killed the
creature as it should have, he would have buried the
body and claimed that something had dragged Curnes away. Perhaps

(47:19):
he would have buried it here in the mound from
which the creature had escaped. To begin with, Alice and
doctor Jebson could testify to the cattle's previous injuries, whatever
they might surmids had caused them, the same story would
be sufficient. Now, good bye, you, son of a bitch,
d Halter said, and he raised his rifle. He fired
point blank into the smaller man's chest. Cernes waffed backwards

(47:41):
as if a giant had kicked him. There was a
look of amazement on his face, and nothing more. But momentarily,
something hung in the air between the dead man and
the living, something as impalpable as the muzzle blast that
rocked the hillside, and as real d Halter's flush gave him.
For a startled moment, it knew why the Indians had

(48:03):
buried their possessed brother alive, to trap the contagion with
him in the rock, instead of merely passing it on
to Raven and slay again. Then the sun was bright
Untie Halter's back, casting his shadows across the body of
the man he had murdered. He recalled nothing of the
moment just past, except that when he remembered the creature's
last red leer, he seemed to be seeing the image

(48:26):
in a mirror.

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