originally published Weird Tales, December 1937
Captain Cartaret is a retired military old boy don't you know who got bitten by the archaeology bug ... and the occult bug ... during his military years in Mesopotamia. Said bug led him to Egypt, and the Necronomicon, and De Vermis Mysteriis.
Of particular interest, the "black pharoah" Nephren-Ka, a worshipper of Nyarlathotep who ended up getting himself deposed and struck from the history books. The reputable ones, anyway.
It seems on top of being in general a Nyarlathotep-worshipping scumbag, Neph had the gift of prophecy and is said to have painted a mural depicting centuries into (his) future on the walls of the tomb where he was buried alive. Also there are said to be surviving cultists carrying on his legacy, even to modern times.
Well sir, some Egyptian fellow has shown up at Carteret's door tonight, offering to lead him to Neph's hidden tomb. For free. His reason: that Carteret's viewing the tomb is prophesied. Cartertet thinks the whole thing's as fishy as the delivery dock of a Red Lobster restaurant but hell, he can't pass this up. So he follows his visitor to the tomb, which is plenty creepy. The mural is there, just as predicted. And indeed it depicts a figure in Carteret's likeness viewing the tomb. And it depicts the priest who led him there knifing him as a human sacrifice. And lo and behold, that comes true, too.
No doubt Bloch had come a long way as a writer in a few short years when this one appeared. Nevertheless, its ultimately and EC-type ironic shock ending tale with a touch of Lovecraftiness for seasoning.
I’d personally rank this a bit higher, there are some genuinely creepy moments such as the blind apes and the captain trying not to look at the paintings. It definitely seems like a good blend of Blochs style with Lovecrafts
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