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Old Providence! It was this place and the mysterious forces of its long, continuous
history which had brought him into being, and which had drawn him back toward
marvels and secrets whose boundaries no prophet might fix. Here lay the arcana,
wondrous or dreadful as the case may be, for which all his years of travel and application
had been preparing him. A taxicab whirled him through Post Office Square with its
glimpse of the river, the old Market House, and the head of the bay, and up the steep
curved slope of Waterman Street to Prospect, where the vast gleaming dome and sunset-
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
flushed Ionic columns of the Christian Science Church beckoned northward. Then eight
squares past the fine old estates his childish eyes had known, and the quaint brick
sidewalks so often trodden by his youthful feet. And at last the little white overtaken
farmhouse on the right, on the left the classic Adam porch and stately facade of the great
brick house where he was born. It was twilight, and Charles Dexter Ward had come
home.
5
A school of alienists slightly less academic than Dr. Lyman's assign to Ward's European
trip the beginning of his true madness. Admitting that he was sane when he started, they
believe that his conduct upon returning implies a disastrous change. But even to this
claim Dr. Willett refuses to concede. There was, he insists, something later; and the
queerness of the youth at this stage he attributes to the practice of rituals learned abroad -
odd enough things, to be sure, but by no means implying mental aberration on the part of
their celebrant. Ward himself, though visibly aged and hardened, was still normal in his
general reactions; and in several talks with Dr. Willett displayed a balance which no
madman - even an incipient one - could feign continuously for long. What elicited the
notion of insanity at this period were the sounds heard at all hours from Ward's attic
laboratory, in which he kept himself most of the time. There were chantings and
repetitions, and thunderous declamations in uncanny rhythms; and although these sounds
were always in Ward's own voice, there was something in the quality of that voice, and in
the accents of the formulae it pronounced, which could not by chill the blood of every
hearer. It was noticed that Nig, the venerable and beloved black cat of the household,
bristled and arched his back perceptibly when certain of the tones were heard.
The odours occasionally wafted from the laboratory were likewise exceedingly strange.
Sometimes they were very noxious, but more often they were aromatic, with a haunting,
elusive quality which seemed to have the power of inducing fantastic images. People who
smelled them had a tendency to glimpse momentary mirages of enormous vistas, with
strange hills or endless avenues of sphinxes and hippogriffs stretching off into infinite
distance. Ward did not resume his old-time rambles, but applied himself diligently to the
strange books he had brought home, and to equally strange delvings within his quarters;
explaining that European sources had greatly enlarged the possibilities of his work, and
promising great revelations in the years to come. His older aspect increased to a startling
degree his resemblance to the Curwen portrait in his library; and Dr. Willett would often
pause by the latter after a call, marvelling at the virtual identity, and reflecting that only
the small pit above the picture's right eye now remained to differentiate the long-dead
wizard from the living youth. These calls of Willett's, undertaken at the request of teh
senior Wards, were curious affairs. Ward at no time repulsed the doctor, but the latter saw
that he could never reach the young man's inner psychology. Frequently he noted peculiar
things about; little wax images of grotesque design on the shelves or tables, and the half-
erased remnants of circles, triangles, and pentagrams in chalk or charcoal on the cleared
central space of the large room. And always in the night those rhythms and incantations
thundered, till it became very difficult to keep servants or suppress furtive talk of
Charles's madness.
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
In January, 1927, a peculiar incident occurred. One night about midnight, as Charles was
chanting a ritual whose weird cadence echoed unpleasantly through the house below,
there came a sudden gust of chill wind from the bay, and a faint, obscure trembling of the
earth which everyone in the neighbourhood noted. At the same time the cat exhibited
phenomenal traces of fright, while dogs bayed for as much as a mile around. This was the
prelude to a sharp thunderstorm, anomalous for the season, which brought with it such a
crash that Mr. and Mrs. Ward believed the house had been struck. They rushed upstairs to
see what damage had been done, but Charles met them at the door to the attic; pale,
resolute, and portentous, with an almost fearsome combination of triumph and
seriousness on his face. He assured them that the house had not really been struck, and
that the storm would soon be over. They paused, and looking through a window saw that
he was indeed right; for the lightning flashed farther and farther off, whilst the trees
ceased to bend in the strange frigid gust from the water. The thunder sank to a sort of dull
mumbling chuckle and finally died away. Stars came out, and the stamp of triumph on
Charles Ward's face crystallised into a very singular expression.
For two months or more after this incident Ward was less confined than usual to his
laboratory. He exhibited a curious interest in the weather, and made odd inquires about
the date of the spring thawing of the ground. One night late in March he left the house
after midnight, and did not return till almost morning; when his mother, being wakeful,
heard a rumbling motor draw up to the carriage entrance. Muffled oaths could be
distinguished, and Mrs. Ward, rising and going to the window, saw four dark figures
removing a long, heavy box from a truck at Charles's direction and carrying it within by
the side door. She heard laboured breathing and ponderous footfalls on the stairs, and
finally a dull thumping in the attic; after which the footfalls descended again, and the four
reappeared outside and drove off in their truck.
The next day Charles resumed his strict attic seclusion, drawing down the dark shades of
his laboratory windows and appearing to be working on some metal substance. He would
open the door to no one, and steadfastly refused all proffered food. About noon a
wrenching sound followed by a terrible cry and a fall were heard, but when Mrs. Ward
rapped at the door her son at length answered faintly, and told her that nothing had gone
amiss. The hideous and indescribable stench now welling out was absolutely harmless
and unfortunately necessary. Solitude was the one prime essential, and he would appear
later for dinner. That afternoon, after the conclusion of some odd hissing sounds which
came from behind the locked portal, he did finally appear; wearing an extremely haggard
aspect and forbidding anyone to enter the laboratory upon any pretext. This, indeed, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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Old Providence! It was this place and the mysterious forces of its long, continuous
history which had brought him into being, and which had drawn him back toward
marvels and secrets whose boundaries no prophet might fix. Here lay the arcana,
wondrous or dreadful as the case may be, for which all his years of travel and application
had been preparing him. A taxicab whirled him through Post Office Square with its
glimpse of the river, the old Market House, and the head of the bay, and up the steep
curved slope of Waterman Street to Prospect, where the vast gleaming dome and sunset-
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
flushed Ionic columns of the Christian Science Church beckoned northward. Then eight
squares past the fine old estates his childish eyes had known, and the quaint brick
sidewalks so often trodden by his youthful feet. And at last the little white overtaken
farmhouse on the right, on the left the classic Adam porch and stately facade of the great
brick house where he was born. It was twilight, and Charles Dexter Ward had come
home.
5
A school of alienists slightly less academic than Dr. Lyman's assign to Ward's European
trip the beginning of his true madness. Admitting that he was sane when he started, they
believe that his conduct upon returning implies a disastrous change. But even to this
claim Dr. Willett refuses to concede. There was, he insists, something later; and the
queerness of the youth at this stage he attributes to the practice of rituals learned abroad -
odd enough things, to be sure, but by no means implying mental aberration on the part of
their celebrant. Ward himself, though visibly aged and hardened, was still normal in his
general reactions; and in several talks with Dr. Willett displayed a balance which no
madman - even an incipient one - could feign continuously for long. What elicited the
notion of insanity at this period were the sounds heard at all hours from Ward's attic
laboratory, in which he kept himself most of the time. There were chantings and
repetitions, and thunderous declamations in uncanny rhythms; and although these sounds
were always in Ward's own voice, there was something in the quality of that voice, and in
the accents of the formulae it pronounced, which could not by chill the blood of every
hearer. It was noticed that Nig, the venerable and beloved black cat of the household,
bristled and arched his back perceptibly when certain of the tones were heard.
The odours occasionally wafted from the laboratory were likewise exceedingly strange.
Sometimes they were very noxious, but more often they were aromatic, with a haunting,
elusive quality which seemed to have the power of inducing fantastic images. People who
smelled them had a tendency to glimpse momentary mirages of enormous vistas, with
strange hills or endless avenues of sphinxes and hippogriffs stretching off into infinite
distance. Ward did not resume his old-time rambles, but applied himself diligently to the
strange books he had brought home, and to equally strange delvings within his quarters;
explaining that European sources had greatly enlarged the possibilities of his work, and
promising great revelations in the years to come. His older aspect increased to a startling
degree his resemblance to the Curwen portrait in his library; and Dr. Willett would often
pause by the latter after a call, marvelling at the virtual identity, and reflecting that only
the small pit above the picture's right eye now remained to differentiate the long-dead
wizard from the living youth. These calls of Willett's, undertaken at the request of teh
senior Wards, were curious affairs. Ward at no time repulsed the doctor, but the latter saw
that he could never reach the young man's inner psychology. Frequently he noted peculiar
things about; little wax images of grotesque design on the shelves or tables, and the half-
erased remnants of circles, triangles, and pentagrams in chalk or charcoal on the cleared
central space of the large room. And always in the night those rhythms and incantations
thundered, till it became very difficult to keep servants or suppress furtive talk of
Charles's madness.
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
In January, 1927, a peculiar incident occurred. One night about midnight, as Charles was
chanting a ritual whose weird cadence echoed unpleasantly through the house below,
there came a sudden gust of chill wind from the bay, and a faint, obscure trembling of the
earth which everyone in the neighbourhood noted. At the same time the cat exhibited
phenomenal traces of fright, while dogs bayed for as much as a mile around. This was the
prelude to a sharp thunderstorm, anomalous for the season, which brought with it such a
crash that Mr. and Mrs. Ward believed the house had been struck. They rushed upstairs to
see what damage had been done, but Charles met them at the door to the attic; pale,
resolute, and portentous, with an almost fearsome combination of triumph and
seriousness on his face. He assured them that the house had not really been struck, and
that the storm would soon be over. They paused, and looking through a window saw that
he was indeed right; for the lightning flashed farther and farther off, whilst the trees
ceased to bend in the strange frigid gust from the water. The thunder sank to a sort of dull
mumbling chuckle and finally died away. Stars came out, and the stamp of triumph on
Charles Ward's face crystallised into a very singular expression.
For two months or more after this incident Ward was less confined than usual to his
laboratory. He exhibited a curious interest in the weather, and made odd inquires about
the date of the spring thawing of the ground. One night late in March he left the house
after midnight, and did not return till almost morning; when his mother, being wakeful,
heard a rumbling motor draw up to the carriage entrance. Muffled oaths could be
distinguished, and Mrs. Ward, rising and going to the window, saw four dark figures
removing a long, heavy box from a truck at Charles's direction and carrying it within by
the side door. She heard laboured breathing and ponderous footfalls on the stairs, and
finally a dull thumping in the attic; after which the footfalls descended again, and the four
reappeared outside and drove off in their truck.
The next day Charles resumed his strict attic seclusion, drawing down the dark shades of
his laboratory windows and appearing to be working on some metal substance. He would
open the door to no one, and steadfastly refused all proffered food. About noon a
wrenching sound followed by a terrible cry and a fall were heard, but when Mrs. Ward
rapped at the door her son at length answered faintly, and told her that nothing had gone
amiss. The hideous and indescribable stench now welling out was absolutely harmless
and unfortunately necessary. Solitude was the one prime essential, and he would appear
later for dinner. That afternoon, after the conclusion of some odd hissing sounds which
came from behind the locked portal, he did finally appear; wearing an extremely haggard
aspect and forbidding anyone to enter the laboratory upon any pretext. This, indeed, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]