It was fully a week before the villagers noticed that no lights were
appearing at dusk in the windows of the cottage under the trees. Then the
lean Nith remarked that no one had seen the old man or his wife since the
night the cats were away
In another week the burgomaster decided to overcome his fears and call at
the strangely silent dwelling as a matter of duty, though in doing so he was
careful to take with him Shang the blacksmith and Thul the cutter of stone
as witnesses. And when they had broken down the frail door they found only
this: two cleanly picked human skeletons on the earthen floor, and a number
of singular beetles crawling in the shadowy corners
There was subsequently much talk among the burgesses of Ulthar. Zath, the
coroner, disputed at length with Nith, the lean notary; and with Kranon and
Shang and Thul were overwhelmed with questions.
Even little Atal, the innkeeper's son, was closely questioned and given a
sweetmeat as reward. They talked of the old cotter and his wife, of the
caravan of dark wanderers, of small Menes and his black kitten, of the
prayer of Menes and of the sky during that prayer, of the doings of the cats
on the night the caravan left, and of what was later found in the cottage
under the dark trees in the repellant yard.
And in the end the burgesses passed that remarkable law which is told of by
traders in Hatheg and discussed by travellers in Nir; namely,
that in Ulthar no man may kill a cat.