Back Weird Tales
Chapters (21)
  1. Cover
  2. Foreword: Writers Are Weird
  3. The Peacock’s Shadow – E. Hoffman Price
  4. The White Lady of the Orphanage
  5. The Terrible Old Man
  6. The Woman of the Wood
  7. Bat’s Belfry – August W. Derleth
  8. The Curse of Everard Maundy
  9. The Tomb
  10. Saladin’s Throne-Rug – E. Hoffmann Price
  11. The Dog-Eared God – Frank Belknap Long, Jr.
  12. The City of Spiders – H. Warner Munn
  13. The Cats of Ulthar
  14. Back to the Beast – Manley Wade Wellman
  15. A Suitor from the Shades – Greye La Spina
  16. Pickman’s Model – H.P. Lovecraft
  17. The Atomic Conquerors
  18. Original Publication Information
  19. About the Editors
  20. If You Liked…
  21. WordFire Classics

June 15—All is in readiness for my experiment—the final step in my great work that will afford scientists a true glimpse of how man appeared in the dim past. The narrow persons who refuse to believe in evolution will be forced to see the truth, for we will confront them, not with theories, but with proofs.

I have material now that would fill a great book—notes telling how I first discovered the combination of elements that induces deterioration and of my experiments with it, first on the lowest forms of life, then on more complex animals, with surprising and enlightening results. Years have been consumed in this study, but soon they will be paid for when I reveal what I have learned.

The elements for the two serums, products of nearly a lifetime of labor and observation, are at hand. One serum is the deteriorator, which when properly mingled and administered will make vital changes in the organs and tissues of an animal, changes which finally result in giving it the appearance of its ancestors untold ages ago. This change can be arrested by the administration of the counter-agent, which will restore the transformed creature to its former condition.

I do not suppose that any person less determined or less scientific in mind than I would dare perform this experiment upon himself; but after all, it is as safe as such a thing can be. I have studied its effects and powers too much and too long to go wrong now, and I know that I shall not be mentally incapable of handling it. The change is physiological, not psychological. Foretelling the course of the whole process is a mere matter of rationalization.

As I plan it, I will let the deteriorator work in my blood for five days, then the counter-agent for five days, to make sure that the effects of the experiment are completely dissipated. Thus, I expect to see in my mirror what my ancestors were like five thousand centuries ago, and then return to the body and semblance of Dr. Lawlor, all within two weeks at the least.

I have locked my door for ten days. Brock, a sound, sensible fellow who obeys my orders without questioning, will see to it that I am undisturbed. And after this private experiment, I shall present my findings to my fellow-scientists as the proof of their theories. Who can say that my name shall not be numbered with those of the great evolutionists?