‘Dig Me No Grave’ – Robert E. Howard

 

Page Count: Fourteen Pages, eight lines and two words (sorry, it has been one of those weeks)

I was looking for something short and sweet, to end the week on, and came across ‘Dig Me No Grave’ courtesy of Paperback Warrior’s write-up. Having read it, I can attest to it being short (all of fourteen and a bit pages in ‘The Dead Remember’ collection) but sweet? Not at all and that is meant in the best possible way :o)

‘Dig Me No Grave’ was originally published in the February 1937 of ‘Weird Tales’ and while it has appeared in other collections since then, I read it in ‘The Dead Remember (The Dark Man Omnibus: Volume 2) and also found it in my copy of ‘The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard. If you’re an e-reading type, you can grab yourself ‘Dig Me No Grave’ over at Project Gutenberg.

John Kirowan is woken, in the middle of the night, by his friend John Conrad, bearer of bad news and come to beg a favour. The occultist John Grimlan has just died and Conrad asks that Kirowan attends Grimlan’s residence while Conrad carries out the final wishes of the occultist.

Upon their arrival though, it becomes clear that somebody else has come to either lay Grimlan to rest, or to claim that which was promised hundreds of years ago…

Before we talk about anything else, I have to ask… What are the odds that a man named John wakes up another guy called John to help him attend to the last rites of a dead man, also named John…? I couldn’t say exactly but they’re the kind of odds where you know you’d lose your money, but you’re still tempted to wager… ;o)

Enough of that though. ‘Dig Me No Grave’ is a very straightforward affair, as far as the plot goes, but has so much atmosphere that you will quite happily forgive the plot sticking to its straight line. It’s one of those stories where you can see what’s coming but that’s kind of the point; all you’re there for is to watch it play and just enjoy having a seat at the proceedings.

And it’s all done superbly with a villainous enigma being all mysterious, until the cataclysmic finale, against a grim and foreboding backdrop powered by a steady escalation of tension. Like I said, I could see the eventual conclusion but that didn’t stop me from catching my breath, and feeling all on edge, a few times.

Another random choice, of reading, that paid off in all the best ways. I really mustn’t leave it so long until I choose my next ‘Robert E. Howard Read’.