The Last Thrilling Chapters of
The Thing of a
Thousand Shapes[1]
A Weird Novel
By Otis Adelbert Kline
Here's what happened in the early chapters:
William Ansley, who tells the story, receives word that his Uncle Jim is dead in Peoria and goes at once to his uncle's home. Later, while gazing upon the body in the gray casket, he hears himself say, as if against his own reason, "He is not dead-only sleeping." Subsequent events indicate that this is true. William, watching beside the body in the lonely house at night, is visited by a number of terrifying apparitions. At midnight he fears that the worst is yet to come.
The story continues from this point
The storm slowly abated, and finally died down altogether, succeeded by a dead calm.
An hour passed without incident, to my inestimable relief. I believed that the phenomena had passed with the storm. The thought soothed me. I became drowsy, and was soon asleep.
Fitful dreams disturbed my slumber. It seemed that I was walking in a great primeval forest. The trees and vegetation about me were new and strange. Huge ferns, some of them fifty feet in height, grew all about in rank profusion. Under foot was a soft carpet of moss. Giant fungi, colossal toadstools, and mushrooms of varying shades and forms were everywhere.
In my hand I carried a huge knotted club, and my sole article of cloth-
- ↑ The first half of this story appeared in the March issue of weird tales. A copy will be mailed by the publishers for 25c.
