"The Faceless God"

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.

"The Faceless God"

 

by Robert Bloch

originally published Weird Tales, May, 1936

Dr. Stutgache is a scumbag and crook who's been cutting throats to line his pockets for years in the mideast.  Word gets back to him of a potentially priceless statue half-buried in the Egyptian desert that none of the locals will touch due to its taboo nature.  Having no such scruples, Stutgache tortures the location out of a poor schlob and gets himself an expedition together to go git it.

They find it, but bad news.  The local bearers and guides recognize it as an idol of Nyarlathotep, and won't have anything to do with it.  They run off in the night, leaving Stutgache to find his own way home.

He tries to make his way out, pursued in his increasingly-addled mind - and possibly physically as well - by Nyarlathotep...

Bloch was getting his sea legs here.  This is approaching a mature story, even though its more mood piece than plot, its effective and at times unsettling.