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That, which I once boasted of as being the finest collection of morbid and macabre curiosities outside of the British Museuht&039;s furtive shadow steals over the h lows faintly, with its own inexplicable light, and about which the freshly grown grass is yellow and withered Though I constantly put down seeds and cruarden, and without even the bees to visit the Noto chat in the drowsy firelight or to share with ht is dead

I have written of it to land, he who senthiain where once he went, for me lest he share a similar fate

From the moment I first read of the blasted heath I knew I could never rest until I had so of it in land, developed a strong friendship with him and then, when by various means I hadat the blasted heath The area is a reservoir now, in a valley west of witch-haunted Arkharey desolation the heath lay like a great diseased sore in the woods and fields It had not always been so Before the corey dust the place had been a fertile valley, with orchards and wildlife in plenty -

but that was all before the strange meteorite Disease had followed the meteorite and after that had come the dust Many and varied are the weird tales to co out of that area, and fiction or superstition though they may or may not be the fact remains that men will not drink the water of that reservoir It is tainted by a poison unknown to science which bringsdeath The entire valley has been closed off with barbed-wire fences and warning notices stand thick around its perimeter

Nonetheless, my friend climbed those fences and ventured deep into the haunted heart of the place, to the very water&039;s edge, where he dug in the rotting earth before leaving withwas on its way toit I could readily understand his haste in getting rid of it I could not even give the thing a name I doubt if anyone could have nae radiation, not of this world, and therefore unknown to s - thick, flacid and white like a sick child&039;s hands - and its slender trunk and branches were terribly twisted and strangely veined It was in such a poor state when I planted it in arden that I did not think it would live Unfortunately I rong; it soon began its luxuriant growth and Old Cartwright often used to warily prod it with his cane when he ca

&039;What was you burnin&039; t&039;other night?&039; he asked low from me winder Looked like you was burnin&039; old films or summat! Funny, silver lookin&039; flames they was&039;

I was puzzled by his re! Where did you see this fire, Harry?&039;

&039; &039;Ere in t&039;garden, or so I tho&039;t! P&039;raps it were just t&039;glow from your fire reflected in you winder&039; He nodded towards the house and spat expertly at the shrub &039;See is&039; He moved a pace closer to the shrub and prodded it with his cane

&039;Gettin&039; right fat, aint &039;e?&039; Then he turned and looked at htly say as I like yon&039;

&039;It&039;s just a plant, Harry, like any other,&039; 1 answered Then, on afterthought: &039;Well, perhaps not quite like any other It looks ugly, I&039;ll admit - but it&039;s perfectly harmless Surprises me you don&039;t like it! You don&039;t seeot&039;

&039; &039;Armless, they be,&039; he said &039;Interestin&039; toys and nowt else - but you wouldn&039;t catch rinned at -you-don&039;t-know,&039; and said: &039;Anyhow, can you answer me this, Mr Bell? What kind o&039; bush is it what t&039;birds don&039;t settle on, eh?&039; He glanced sharply at the plant and then at me &039;Never seen a sparrer on it yet, I aint&039; He spat again &039;Not as I blames &039;e myself Just look at them leaves what never seem to move in t&039;wind; and that lepry-white colour of the trunk and branches Why! Yon looks more like a queer, leafy octypus than a shrub&039;

At the tiht was always full of strange fancies and had said s about my coaches when he first saw them Yet a feeeks later, when I noticed the first really odd thing about the tree froain

Oh, yes! It was a tree by then It had nearly trebled its size since I planted it and was alreyly-mottled branches, and because its trunk and lower branches had thickened, the weirdly-knotted dark veins stood out clearly against the drowned-flesh texture of the tree&039;s liht fro just a bit heavy with his cane, for after all, the tree was the show-piece of ed

&039;It&039;s you, ain&039;t it, what glows at night?&039; he had asked of the thing, prodding away &039;It&039;s you what shines like theht, Mr Bell, but you was already in bed Tho&039;t I seen a fire in your garden again, but it weren&039;t a fire -&039;twas &039;i it &039;What kind o&039; tree is it?&039; he asked, &039;what t&039;birds don&039;t sit on and what glows at night, eh?&039; That hen I got angry and told him to leave the tree alone

He could be petulant at times, Old Harry, and off he went in a huff in the direction of his cottage I walked back towards the house and then, thinking I had been perhaps a bit too gruff with the old boy, I turned to call him back for a drink Before I could open my mouth to shout I noticed the tree As God is ht like a leashed dog strains after a cat Its white leaves were all stretched out straight like horrid hands, pointing in his direction, and the trunk had literally bent towards his retreating figure

He was right That night I stayed up purposely and saw it for e, silvery St Elet rid of it, and what I found in the garden the nextreally clinched thereally bothered me As Old Harry himself had remarked, certain toadstools are lu holds true of one or two species of her life-forreat deeps - are known to carry their own peculiar lighting systems, and plankton lies luminous even upon the ocean&039;s surface No, I was sure that the gloas not i else! For none of the afore that which I was ready to believe the tree had so&039;s horrid new luxuriance the etherstronger, and the leaves and veins seemed somehow to be of a darker tint than before I was so taken up by the change in the plant that I did not see the cat until I alrass at the foot of the tree and when I turned it over with my boot I was surprised that it was not stiff The ani merely skin and bone, and

I kneeled to examine the small, furry corpse - and felt the hackles suddenly rise at the back of my neck! The body of the cat was not stiff - because there was nothing to stiffen!

There were only bones inside that unnatural carcass; and looking closer I saw that the small mouth, nostrils and the anal exit were terribly one over the poor creature&039;s body and forced its innards (I shuddered) outwards; but then ould have thrown the body intoelse: there were funny little molehills all about the foot of the tree! Now, I asked myself, since when are moles flesh-eaters? Or had they perhaps been attracted by the smell of the corpse? Funny, because I was damned if/could smell it! No, this was a freshly dead cat

I had studied the tree before, of course, but now I gave it a really thorough going over I suppose, in the back ofof my Dionaea Muscipulas - my Venus-Flytraps - but for the life of me I could in no way match the two species The leaves of this tree were not sticky, as I knew the leaves of soed Nor did the plant seee apparatus to do that which I feared had been done There were no spines or thorns on the thing at all, and so far as I could tell there was nothing physically poisonous about it

What then had happened to the cat? My own cat, a good co before I ever heard of the blasted heath I had always intended to get another Noas glad I had not done so I did not kno this anier abide the blaspheo

That sah a telephone call to a botanist friend in London It was he who had sold me my fly-traps I told him all abouthis leg&039; he said he would come up over the weekend to have a look at it He toldlike my description he would be only too pleased to have it and would see that I did not lose on the deal

That was on Thursday, and I went hoe happy in the belief that by Sunday I would be rid of the thing froarden once again