The Wells of Hell by Graham Masterton Read Free Book Online Page B

suggested Dan. ‘I don’t believe in ghosts, but
there are several recorded cases of genuine clairvoyance.’
    ‘And what about the insect shell, or
lobster shell, or whatever it is?’ I asked him.
    ‘There’s something about that which
worries me more than anything,’ said Dan. His face was illuminated pale green
by the lights from the station wagon’s instruments. ‘It reminded me too much of
our scaley little mouse. It’s hard to say without having ; the mouse right here to make comparisons, but there seemed to me to be some
similarity between the shell on that mouse’s lower body and that big shell
upstairs.’
    I switched off the Country Squire’s
engine so that we wouldn’t all die of carbon monoxide poisoning. It was warm
enough now to last us until Sheriff Wilkes arrived. Shelley yawned and
stretched and curled himself up into a hairy, tabby ball. It really needed
talent to be as lazy as that.
    I took out a cigarillo. It was my
last. I stuck it between my teeth and said: ‘You think some bigger animal could
have drunk the well water, just like the mouse, and had the same thing happen
to it?’
    ‘If the water a>as to blame, then
the odds are in favour of it, I’d say,’ said Dan. ‘It could have been a dog,
maybe. The Bodines do have a dog, don’t they, and we haven’t seen any sign of
that.’
    ‘We haven’t seen any sign of the
Bodines, either,’ I reminded him.
    He looked away. ‘That’s been on my
mind, too. But until we know if it is the water for sure, and until we know if
those organisms affect humans, then that’s the kind of conjecture I don’t think
I want to make.’
    I took out my matches. ‘At least it
didn’t affect Oliver. I mean, he drowned, but he must have drunk the well water
just as much as Jimmy and Alison, and there weren’t any signs of scales on
him.’
    Dan rubbed his eyes. ‘I don’t
seriously think that Jimmy and Alison are walking around looking like some kind
of advertisement for Schwom’s Sea-food Shanty, do you?’
    -I struck a match, and at that
moment I thought I saw somebody crossing the front lawn of the house. The
flaring orange reflection of the match on the inside of the windshield made it
difficult to make sure, and so I quickly blew out the match and stared into the
darkness again.
    ‘What’s the matter?’ asked Dan.
    ‘I don’t know. It loods like there’s
someone out there. Hold on a minute.’
    I opened the station wagon door and
got out. For a brief split-second, I thought I saw a man walking away from me,
over by the far fence. It was too dark to see very clearly, but he appeared to
be hunched and bulky, and moving with an odd kind of swaying step. I called: ‘Jimmy?
Is that Jimmy?’ and the man appeared to turn towards me, but so quickly that I
couldn’t see who it was before he vanished into the grainy shadows. I called
out: ‘Jimmy!’ once more, and then I started to run across the grass towards the
fence. Behind me, I heard Dan open his door and come loping in hot pursuit. My
breath froze in the cold air, and the sound of my heartbeat and my rustling
clothes seemed to be the loudest noises in the whole world.
    I reached the rail. Beyond it, there
was a thick hedge of thorn bushes, impossible for a man to penetrate without
scratching himself to hamburger meat. I stopped, panting, and Dan came gasping
and wheezing after me, and we both stood there and looked at the hedge in
bewilderment.
    ‘Did you see who it was?’ asked Dan.
    ‘I don’t know. It could have been
anybody. Maybe it was just the shadows. I don’t see how anyone could have
gotten through those bushes.’
    We walked a little way along the
rail in each direction, but there didn’t appear to be any gaps in the hedge at all.
If there had been somebody there, he must have cleared the hedge with one
tremendous bionic leap, or else he’d simply run the length of it under the
cover of the shadows. I didn’t think he could have done that, though, without
my seeing