"Alan Dean Foster - With friends like these." - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

The reference to a "Lvcrft" puzzled me utterly, until I chanced to mention it to a fellow student.
He informed .me that my "Lvcrft" was possibly H. P. Lovecraft, a writer of the 20's and 30's who
wrote weird-fantastic stories. Searching out an index of the man's work,- I was both surprised and
pleased to encounter a tale containing mention of the odd word "Cthulhu," entitled The Call of
Cthulhu. Procuring a book containing the indicated story, I read it with what was at first avid
interest. My interest quickly flagged. I was disappointed! Here I had thought I had unearthed some
potentially great scientific discovery which for some unknown reason certain parties were trying
to suppress, when in actuality all I was doing was wasting my time with the childish fantasies of
two grown scholars who presumably should know better!
Still...
Further along in the story I found references not only to that same Sydney Bulletin, but also to a
certain mythical island or coastline that supposedly was found at "latitude 47 d, 9', and
longitude 126 d, 43' "! If only as a source of some little humor, these coincidences piqued my
lagging interest considerably. I subsequently wrote to a newspaper friend of mine in Melbourne,
who promised to locate for me a copy of the Bulletin for the date indicated in the story (April
18, 1925). Several weeks later I received a letter from my friend apologizing, in which he
informed me that the only known complete file of the Sydney Bulletin had perished in the Sydney
University fire of 1929. I found this an especial curiosity since Lovecraft's story had been
written in 1928.
Additional research turned up more disturbing facts. I must add that I continued to pursue these
tiresome researches because I have to date been unable to uncover any information whatsoever
regarding the whereabouts of Professor Turner or Professor Nolan, who apparently dropped out of
sight after departing Valparaiso on May 21 of '67. I would greatly appreciate any information
concerning same. As a last resort I attempted to get in contact with the only surviving relative
of either man, but Professor Nolan's father retired from his law practice last year and moved to
Europe.
A recent chat with the Chilean consul in Los Angeles produced as a by-product a kind and gracious
letter from one Carlos Malpelo, the Valparaiso Chief of Police. He writes that after the date
mentioned, 21 May '67, there is no additional information on the two American professors, but that
there are two items of related interest which he thought I might find interesting. The first is
that the professors spent much time at the Santiago University, and in particular with an old
friend of Professor Turner's, the renowned Chilean linguist P. C. Fernandez. It is also noted that
the professor was much pleased upon receiving from the two Americans a gift consisting of a sealed
box containing a peculiarly formed statuette of unusually repugnant design.
Unfortunately there appears to be no way to confirm any of this, because Professor Fernandez was
one of the many casualties of the recent great Chilean earthquake. The few Indian porters in his
party who survived the quake were too shaken to do more than report the death of the professor and
of their fellows. These men were found in the mountains the night after the quake, shivering and
frightened. They were given food and clothing by the government rescue team and permitted to
return to their families, except for one oldster who adamantly maintained in spite of the most


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determined expostulations that the professor was responsible for the quake. According to this
patriarch, the professor had been performing some incomprehensible ritual with burning herbs and
an odd little idol when the tremors had begun. At this point the old man's testimony lapses into
insane drivel, as when he claims that the mountain across the valley from them got upon gigantic
stone feet and stepped on the professor, killing most of the party with him. The poor man was