The Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Dark, by Ronal Kayser

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Title: In the Dark

Author: Ronal Kayser

Release Date: June 1, 2010 [EBook #32638]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Weird Tales August-September 1936.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

In the Dark

By RONAL KAYSER

_It was a tale of sheer horror that old Asa Gregg poured
into the dictaphone_

* * * * *

The watchman's flashlight printed a white circle on the frosted-glass,
black-lettered door:

GREGG CHEMICAL CO., MFRS.
ASA GREGG, PRES.
PRIVATE

The watchman's hand closed on the knob, rattled the door in its frame.
Queer, but tonight the sound had seemed to come from in there.... But
that couldn't be. He knew that Mr. Gregg and Miss Carruthers carried
the only keys to the office, so any intruder would have been forced to
smash the lock.

Maybe the sound came from the storage room. The watchman clumped along
the rubber-matted corridor, flung his weight against that door. It
opened hard, being of ponderous metal fitted into a cork casing. The
room was an air-tight, fire-proof vault, really. His shoes gritted on
the concrete floor as he prowled among the big porcelain vats. The
flashlight bored through bluish haze to the concrete walls. Acid fumes
escaping under the vat lids made the haze and seared the man's throat.

He hurried out, coughing and wiping his eyes. It was damn funny. Every
night lately he heard the same peculiar noise somewhere in this wing
of the building.... Like a body groaning and turning in restless
sleep, it was. It scared him. He didn't mention the mystery to anyone,
though. He was an old man, and he didn't want Mr. Gregg to think he
was getting t