Black hound of deathHoward, Robert E. (Robert Ervin)
Science
Black hound of death
Howard, Robert E. (Robert Ervin)
Fantasy fiction; Horror tales; Revenge -- Fiction; Werewolves -- Fiction
But the change was deeper than superficial appearance. In his eyes,
which blazed like coals of hell's fire, was a glare that never shone
from any human's eyes, sane or mad. When the black devil-monks of
Yahlgan altered Adam Grimm's face, they wrought a corresponding change
in his soul. He was no longer a human being; he was a veritable
werewolf, as terrible as any in medieval legend.
The thing that had been Adam Grimm rushed toward the girl, a curved
skinning-knife gleaming in his hand, and I shook myself out of my
daze of horror, and fired through the hole in the shutter. My aim was
unerring; I saw the cape jerk to the impact of the slug, and at the
crash of the shot the monster staggered and the knife fell from his
hand. Then, instantly, he whirled and dashed back across the room
toward Richard Brent. With lightning comprehension he realized what had
happened, knew he could take only one victim with him, and made his
choice instantly.
[Illustration: "The thing that had been Adam Grimm rushed toward the
girl, a skinning-knife in his hand."]
I do not believe that I can logically be blamed for what happened. I
might have smashed that shutter, leaped into the room and grappled with
the thing that the monks of Inner Mongolia had made of Adam Grimm. But
so swiftly did the monster move that Richard Brent would have died
anyway before I could have burst into the room. I did what seemed the
only obvious thing--I poured lead through the window into that loping
horror as it crossed the room.
That should have halted it, should have crashed it down dead on the
floor. But Adam Grimm plunged on, heedless of the slugs ripping into
him. His vitality was more than human, more than bestial; there was
something demoniac about him, invoked by the black arts that made him
what he was. No natural creature could have crossed that room under
that raking hail of close-range lead. At that distance I could not
miss. He reeled at each impact, but he did not fall until I had smashed
home the sixth bullet. Then he crawled on, beast-like, on hands and
knees, froth and blood dripping from his grinning jaws. Panic swept me.
Frantically I snatched the second gun and emptied it into that body
that writhed painfully onward, spattering blood at every movement. But
all hell could not keep Adam Grimm from his prey, and death itself
shrank from the ghastly determination in that once-human soul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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