by Robert Bloch
originally published Weird Tales May 1936
Dr. Stugatche (which I assume you pronounce "stew-gatch-ee") is an ugly little turd who deals in black market archaeological antiquities, and nasty little son of a bitch. When we first meet him, he's torturing an old desert nomad in order to find out the location of an extra-rare find - a statue buried in the sand of the desert in the middle of nowhere.
Stuggy puts together an expedition and heads out to the spot, where they find the statue sticking mostly buried in the sand - a perfectly preserved, like-new ancient Egyptian statue of a god - with no facial features. Unfortunately, Stuggy's gang sez hell no, they're not touching that thing! Mainly cuz its a statue of Nyarlathotep, whose back story is elaborated forthwith. Stuggy persuades them - at gunpoint. But in the morning finds they've re-buried the statue and taken off - with all the supplies and everything. Stuggy's left with his gun, his statue, and whatever water is left in his canteen. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, right?
Well, Stuggy sets off on his own in search of the nearest oasis and forcing himself to be optimistic. Things don't work out. As he makes his way, he finds himself going in circles. What's more, he feels like an evil presence is stalking him. He begins to hallucinate (or does he?) visions of Nyarlathotep and of cyclopean shapes in the sand. The sands engulf and he dies whispering the name "Nyarlathotep".
This early bit of Bloch shows him starting to move a little out of the Lovecraft imitation territory. It's almost EC-like ... except EC comics wouldn't exist for another 16 or 17 years ... and probably owed influence to Bloch.
Like a typical EC, it gives us a hateful central character who comes to a bad end. The buildup is routine but turns suspenseful after the history lesson on Ny-baby, and Stuggy's nightmarish visions of a Nyarlathotep-ian apocalypse are 100% effective "cosmic" horror. Slightly on the minor side, but with some very effective moments.
One of my favourite early Bloch tales, the revised Arkham House version is better than the original, the not-so-good doctor is renamed Carnoti in the revision if I remember correctly, thanks for the review!
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