The Watchman Watches in Vain

Hare feels reassured by Clancy’s professional air, so relates his experience.

Last night, he explains, he saw an airplane circling over the Merchant District, in full view of his living room windows. The pilot seemed interested in the city block right at the edge of the cemetery. Then made a couple of passes over the old cemetery itself. On the last pass it was very quiet, as though the pilot had switched off his engine. It stalled above the cemetery, tried to pull out, but then turned over and dropped slowly into the river. He guesses few city folk saw the crash as their view was blocked by Hangman’s Hill. Or heard anything since the plane was without power.

He called the police, then drove his tractor to the turnpike to spot the crashed plane. By the time he arrived it had sunk or drifted downriver into the city proper. He saw a couple of motor boats come out from the Docks, the warehouse area just east of the Merchant District, as though they may have been picking up something from the river. They were far away, but he noticed the boats were painted rusty red.

Hare nervously pauses for a while, before relating a further detail.

"Just as the pilot was trying to pull out of its final stall I saw the aircraft engulfed in a pale green light. A ghostly light. It caused the pilot to lose control…"

He looks around timidly to see how the guests respond to the strange detail. Seeing that Melody is still shaken by her encounter with the farm’s giant hog, he brings her a blanket.

Emma finds an interesting but unnerving passage in one of Hare’s books. Superstitious locals believe that the old cemetery teems with ghouls, who appear at dusk and roam the place after dark. While everyone gives the unpredictable creatures a wide berth, some Arkham families seem to identify certain ghouls as their beloved ancestors. And expect that those born into certain old Arkham bloodlines might become ghouls after or close to their deaths. Families in the Merchant District in particular hold to this macabre idea.

Alex, having a background in photography and physics, guesses that the pilot stalled his plane to take an aerial photograph. Older aerial cameras still require very slow airspeeds to reduce photographic blur. However, as to why the pilot switched off his engines for the final pass, he can’t guess.

In response to Clancy’s question about the origin of the green light, Hare screws up his face as he attempts to recall the event.

"The whole plane was lit up. You know like you hear the sailors talking about St Elmo’s Fire playing’ on the ships masts? Like it was touched up with….fairy fire!"The two automobiles make their way back down Hare’s farm track. As the machines make the turn onto the main road, the Miskatonic is lightly filmed in mist. Although it is still only mid-afternoon, the Fall sky has turned dreary grey. Across the river, the old cemetery is also hidden in misty gloom. The drivers and their passengers glimpse a figure under the trees, amidst the graves and tombs, ambling in a strange, oddly inhuman manner. The wretched thing turns its head. Though distant, its face seems more bestial than human.