The Thing in the Marsh

by Ray Cummings

THERE were five of us on the dim moonlit verandah.“If the Thing in the marsh is going to show itself at all,” John Blaine said, “well, this is the time of night they claim they’ve been seeing it.”I had not seen the marsh before, by moonlight. From the verandah at the old Raleigh homestead, the ground went down a slight declivity to a fetid, ghastly marsh. It certainly was weird to look at.Pools of stagnant, scum-laden water were slimy green in the moonlight. Between them the swamp was almost solid — islands of green-black caked mud. Drooping trees stood at the edge of the swamp. Out in its center there were patches of ooze, soft as quicksand — ooze where rotting vegetation, far down, had opened nostrils breathing out a fetid breath...

17 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 5, 2011

About the author

Raymond King Cummings. His career resulted in some 750 novels and short stories, using also the pen names Ray King, Gabrielle Cummings, and Gabriel Wilson.

See Wikipedia

Reviews

[Bobby Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in Exciting Detective Magazine in the winter of 1947, The Thing in the Marsh is a fabulous little swamp pulp story from writer Ray Cummings. It is short in length but long in enjoyment. Cummings has it so dripping with swamp atmosphere you might need to wipe some goo off your Kindle before you’re finished reading. He throws in a bit of creepiness, a dose of murder, and before it’s all wrapped up in exciting fashion in a mere seventeen pages there is even a romance!

Twenty-eight-year-old Dr. Chet Abbott has come to investigate whether the dreaded Anopheles mosquito has been causing the sickness near the swamp. He knows every swamp has its legends; the vapors exuded by gasses beneath the surface often give birth to strange sightings that frighten nearby residents. But this marsh is different. Strange events have definitely been occurring. Dark-haired and pretty Grace Raleigh is frightened, even if the male members of her family are not. Watching from the veranda with the others one evening, Dr. Abbott witnesses something that he can’t explain. He is certain, however, that the silvery thing the size of a large man is no Anopheles carrying malaria! But something unnatural in the swamp might be carrying death, all the same.

There is an unexplained murder, and then a second, before Cummings brings this atmospheric weird-menace swamp mystery to an exciting conclusion. This one moves quickly in all the right directions, and the ending has a nice touch. A splendid little short story I highly recommend to fans of '30s and '40s pulp!

[Still · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and funny pulp terror tale.
Reminded me of a few of the better Old Time Radio episodes from SUSPENSE, INNER SANCTUM, MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER, or LIGHTS OUT.
Recommended!

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite an entertaining short story, with some surprisingly violent moments considering its age. Like an adult version of a Scooby Doo episode, if you like that sort of thing...which I do!