The Shadow of the Beast

Introduction

“The Shadow of the Beast” is one of Robert E. Howard’s early forays into pure horror, written around 1929. Though never sold, it foreshadows the kind of supernatural dread he would later refine in stories like “Pigeons from Hell” and “Black Canaan.”

Set in the pine woods of the Deep South, the tale blends regional realism with a haunting suggestion of the uncanny. The story’s Gothic overtones — a decaying mansion, spectral shadows, and inherited evil — are paired with Howard’s trademark physicality and sense of peril. It reflects his fascination with the lingering savagery beneath civilization and the blurred line between the human and the beastly.

Summary

The story opens with a grim murder in a southern lumber camp. A violent black worker, Joe Cagle, shoots a white overseer named Harry, brother of Joan, the story’s heroine. Before fleeing into the surrounding pine woods, Cagle threatens to return for Joan — a promise that fills her with dread.

The unnamed narrator, Steve, a Texan rancher who loves Joan, vows to join the posse hunting Cagle. The searchers scour the forest and swamps but find nothing. Steve learns of a nearby “Deserted House,” a decayed mansion avoided by all the locals because of its sinister history — strange deaths and supposed hauntings. Believing Cagle might take refuge there, Steve rides into the black heart of the woods alone.

At midnight, the moon rises as gunshots echo ahead. Steve finds the house and enters cautiously, his horse fleeing in terror. Inside the dusty ruin, he discovers Cagle’s corpse — unmarked by wounds but twisted in an expression of utter horror. The revolver by his hand shows every chamber fired.

Moments later, Steve sees a monstrous shadow move across the wall — a huge, apelike silhouette with no visible source. It stalks him through the moonlit rooms, its unseen body casting only its shadow. In panic, Steve fires wildly until his gun is empty and finally crashes through a locked door and leaps from a window to escape. He falls unconscious outside.

When he awakens, Joan is there — she had followed his trail, fearing for him. Steve tells her Cagle is dead and hints at a horror beyond words. She recalls a forgotten local story: decades earlier, a circus gorilla escaped into the house and had to be killed there. Soon after, the house’s owner fell to his death from an upstairs window, and later a traveler who spent the night also died the same way.

Steve realizes that the haunting “shadow of the beast” is the lingering spectral presence of that gorilla — a savage, bestial spirit haunting the place. To end its reign of terror, he burns the house to the ground as dawn breaks, believing the fire will finally destroy the monstrous ghost and lift the curse from the pine lands forever.

Characters:

  • Steve – The narrator and protagonist. A strong, fearless Texan rancher who has come east to the lumber country because of his love for Joan. He is rational but courageous, willing to face danger to protect her.
  • Joan – Sister of Harry and love interest of Steve. A young southern woman working or living at the lumber camp. Gentle and brave, she defies fear to follow Steve when he vanishes into the haunted woods.
  • Harry – Joan’s brother, a camp foreman or company overseer. Shot and gravely wounded by Joe Cagle while defending his sister.
  • Joe Cagle – The antagonist. A brutish, violent black laborer described as powerful and apelike. His attack on Joan and shooting of her brother set the story in motion. He later dies of sheer terror inside the haunted mansion.
  • Unnamed lumberman / posse member – A local man who sprains his ankle and warns Steve about the “Deserted House.” He relates the local legends and acts as a source of exposition.
  • The Beast (ghost / spirit of the gorilla) – The supernatural force haunting the old mansion. A spectral remnant of a gorilla killed there decades earlier, its invisible body casts a gigantic shadow that drives men to madness and death.

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