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Pegasus, v. 2, issue 1, Summer 1943
Page 4
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The Well of Durm It came to pass one nigth that I slept: and sleeping, dresmed. And it seemed to me that I stood near ths broad smmit of a low hill, whereof the gradual slopes spread away with singular symmetry and melted into the dusk and shadows of a moonlit night. And on the summit above me a tall tower stood back against the faint-glowing sky, rising toward the moon which floated bright and cold above it. About the tower as I walked around it that I might diacover where led the steps, I saw that the blotched with monstrous masses of dank moss like a growth of mold on the dead carcass of a beast; and I fslt a chillness seeping out of the stone and pouring over ma. I stepped hastily past the base of mold on the dead carcass of a beast; and I felt a chillness seeping out of the stone and pouring over me. I stepped hastily past the base of the tower, for I liked it not; and walking some distance beyond it I turned and looked toward the top. And I saw that somewhat below the top stepe ended; yet could I discern no opening or door. Long I stood gazing at the cryptic tower and steps, but could not guess thair purpose; wherefore, conceiving that haply the steps led to some closed door which I could not see in the deceptive moonlight at such a distance, I walked to the base of the tower and began to climb the winding narrow way. And the exceeding dampness of the tower and clumps of thick and clammy moss displeased me, and time chill which clung about the crumbling stone made me ill at ease. Coming at length to a narrow ledge which clung to the tower at the end of the steps, I looked for an entrance. And I beheld the outline of a doorway, but no morw than the outlone; for the opening, choked with bloocke of stone, was made onde with the wall of the tower. As I stood on the precarious ledge outside the obliterated doorway pondering the meaning of this thing, I heard a aound inside the tower. I listened fearfully, for I had not thought to find movement where change and life seemed long departed: and I heard a gurgling and lapping as of water, growing anon fainter as if receding like the seatide. And I thought that there was that within which sought egress; and I feared because the stone of the tower was so crumbling and decayed. Evil in the waning light of the declining moon did the tower seem to me, and horrible the dampness and growth of moss. And I hastened in dread down the slippsry steps. When I came to the bottom I could hear no more the lapping as of wast and it came to me that the presence was gone from the tower. Almost gone, likewise, was the light of the moon sinking in the west: and in the gloom I went in hast from the ancient and haunted tower down the smooth ragular slope of the hill whereon it stood. And as I entsred the shadow and darkness at the base of the hill, so passed I into the oblivion of sleep. In the morning I wakened marvelling at my dream of the ancient tower
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The Well of Durm It came to pass one nigth that I slept: and sleeping, dresmed. And it seemed to me that I stood near ths broad smmit of a low hill, whereof the gradual slopes spread away with singular symmetry and melted into the dusk and shadows of a moonlit night. And on the summit above me a tall tower stood back against the faint-glowing sky, rising toward the moon which floated bright and cold above it. About the tower as I walked around it that I might diacover where led the steps, I saw that the blotched with monstrous masses of dank moss like a growth of mold on the dead carcass of a beast; and I fslt a chillness seeping out of the stone and pouring over ma. I stepped hastily past the base of mold on the dead carcass of a beast; and I felt a chillness seeping out of the stone and pouring over me. I stepped hastily past the base of the tower, for I liked it not; and walking some distance beyond it I turned and looked toward the top. And I saw that somewhat below the top stepe ended; yet could I discern no opening or door. Long I stood gazing at the cryptic tower and steps, but could not guess thair purpose; wherefore, conceiving that haply the steps led to some closed door which I could not see in the deceptive moonlight at such a distance, I walked to the base of the tower and began to climb the winding narrow way. And the exceeding dampness of the tower and clumps of thick and clammy moss displeased me, and time chill which clung about the crumbling stone made me ill at ease. Coming at length to a narrow ledge which clung to the tower at the end of the steps, I looked for an entrance. And I beheld the outline of a doorway, but no morw than the outlone; for the opening, choked with bloocke of stone, was made onde with the wall of the tower. As I stood on the precarious ledge outside the obliterated doorway pondering the meaning of this thing, I heard a aound inside the tower. I listened fearfully, for I had not thought to find movement where change and life seemed long departed: and I heard a gurgling and lapping as of water, growing anon fainter as if receding like the seatide. And I thought that there was that within which sought egress; and I feared because the stone of the tower was so crumbling and decayed. Evil in the waning light of the declining moon did the tower seem to me, and horrible the dampness and growth of moss. And I hastened in dread down the slippsry steps. When I came to the bottom I could hear no more the lapping as of wast and it came to me that the presence was gone from the tower. Almost gone, likewise, was the light of the moon sinking in the west: and in the gloom I went in hast from the ancient and haunted tower down the smooth ragular slope of the hill whereon it stood. And as I entsred the shadow and darkness at the base of the hill, so passed I into the oblivion of sleep. In the morning I wakened marvelling at my dream of the ancient tower
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