"That awful night.... I seed 'em.... I was up in the cupalo ... hordes of 'em ... swarms of 'em ... all over the reef an' swimmin' up the harbor into the Manuxet.... God, what happened in the streets of Innsmouth that night ... they rattled our door, but pa wouldn't open ... then he clumb aout the kitchen winder with his musket to find Selectman Mowry an' see what he cud do.... Maounds o' the dead an' the dyin' ... shots an' screams ... shaoutin' in Ol' Squar an' Taown Squar an' New Church Green ... jail throwed open ... proclamation ... treason ... called it the plague when folks come in an' faound haff our people missin' ... nobody left but them as ud jine in with Obed an' them things or else keep quiet ... never heerd o' my pa no more...." The old man was panting, and perspiring profusely. His grip on my shoulder tightened. "Everything cleaned up in the mornin'--but they was _traces_.... Obed he kinder takes charge an' says things is goin' to be changed ... _others'll_ worship with us at meetin'-time, an' sarten haouses hez got to entertain _guests_ ... _they_ wanted to mix like they done with the Kanakys, an' he fer one didn't feel baound to stop 'em. Far gone, was Obed ... jest like a crazy man on the subjeck. He says they brung us fish an' treasure, an' shud hev what they hankered arter.... "Nothin' was to be diff'runt on the aoutside, only we was to keep shy o' strangers ef we knowed what was good fer us. We all hed to take the Oath o' Dagon, an' later on they was secon' an' third Oaths that some of us took. Them as ud help special, ud git special rewards--gold an' sech. No use balkin', fer they was millions of 'em daown thar. They'd ruther not start risin' an' wipin' aout humankind, but ef they was gave away an' forced to, they cud do a lot toward jest that. "Yield up enough sacrifices an' savage knick-knacks an' harborage in the taown when they wanted it, an' they'd let well enough alone. All in the band of the faithful--Order o' Dagon--an' the children shud never die, but go back to the Mother Hydra an' Father Dagon what we all come from onct--_Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgahnagl fhtagn_--" Old Zadok began to moan now, and tears were coursing down his channelled cheeks into the depths of his beard. "God, what I seen senct I was fifteen year' old--_Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin!_--the folks as was missin', an' them as kilt theirselves--them as told things in Arkham or Ipswich or sech places was all called crazy, like you're a-callin' me right naow--but God, what I seen--they'd a kilt me long ago fer what I know, only I'd took the fust an' secon' Oaths o' Dagon offen Obed, so was pertected unlessen a jury of 'em proved I told things knowin' an' delib'rit ... but I wudn't take the third Oath--I'd a died ruther'n take that--