Chapter 7
Yet all this was only the prologue of the actual Dunwich horror.
Formalities were gone through by bewildered officials, abnormal
details were duly kept from press and public, and men were sent to
Dunwich and Aylesbury to look up property and notify any who might
be heirs of the late Wilbur Whateley. They found the countryside in
great agitation, both because of the growing rumblings beneath the
domed hills, and because of the unwonted stench and the surging,
lapping sounds which came increasingly from the great empty shell
formed by Whateley's boarded-up farmhouse. Earl Sawyer, who tended
the horse and cattle during Wilbur's absence, had developed a
woefully acute case of nerves. The officials devised excuses not to
enter the noisome boarded place; and were glad to co
