The Weird Company Read Free

redistributing materials amongst the planes.
    If Captain Douglas has followed the proper protocols, if Pabodie or Dyer, or any of the expedition has returned to civilization, then the basic facts of what occurred next should be known. However, as our expedition was already committed to a certain level of deception, it should not surprise the reader that certain details reported by our team to the others via the wireless, and then onto the world, were less than accurate. I should also say that the events of that day January 23 rd , 1931, are in my mind not entirely clear. The rapid pace of events, my physical and mental exhaustion, coupled with a significant trauma to my head makes recalling the events of the day and their order extremely difficult. It is my full intent that the account I lay down here is as accurate as I can remember it.
    Early in the morning Lake reported that our rouse was in jeopardy. A talk with Douglas and Dyer had led to the conclusion that Pabodie, Danforth and the rest of the staff would be joining us at our new camp as soon as possible, and that any future transportation to and from Ross Island would be over Lake’s newly discovered mountain range. Sensing that his ability to direct his own research was about to cease, he, Atwood and Carroll quickly prepared one of the aircraft and took off in a desperate search for another, perhaps more productive, site and the strange magnetic anomaly. In doing so Lake made it clear to me that if the next three hours of test borings did not produce I should be prepared to move to another site.
    Given such a short timeframe I quickly reset the drill team to an area about a quarter of a mile away from the camp in an outcropping of soft sandstone. The drilling was easy, and much progress was made with little supplemental blasting. Approximately one hour after we had begun, the rock being brought up suddenly changed. We had apparently run into a vein of Comanchian limestone and almost instantly we were rewarded with the most magnificent of specimens including minute fossils of cephalopods, corals, and other marine invertebrates as well as the occasional suggestion of bones which I recognized as being from sharks, teliosts and ganoid fish. As I marveled at such finds, for these were the first vertebrate fossils we had found during the entire expedition, my attention wavered from the drill and was only brought back when Mills and Orrendorf suddenly began yelling. The drill mechanism had begun oscillating wildly back and forth, kicking up large chunks of rock which were being launched at terrific speeds in all directions. A rock the size of a golf ball flew past and imbedded itself in the ice beside me. Other pieces ricocheted off the drill itself leaving dents and gashes in the casing. Orrendorf had taken refuge behind a case of drill bits, while Mills had taken to cowering behind the spoil mound. Knowing that I was responsible for not only the drill but what also appeared to be an extraordinary fossil bed, I foolishly ran headlong for the motor engine all the time being pelted by a torrent of rock and ice. I flinched once as something hard caught me in the fleshy part of my cheek, but carried through with my resolve, reached the gas engine and quickly turned it off.
    Without power, the drill slowed down and there arose the most horrendous of sounds. It was a cracking noise, a great cacophony of something ancient shattering, fragmenting into shards and dust as we stood beside it unable to act. A great cloud arose and the drill, suddenly denied of support, tilted forward, swung wildly and then settled slowly onto its side. When the dust and ice had cleared we emerged from our various shelters and beheld the most spectacular of sights. A portion of the limestone vein had caved in, creating an opening about five feet across that opened into a shallow hollow. Fearing another cave-in, the three of us cautiously crawled across the ice to the edge of the newly opened cavern and