August Derleth has been praised or reviled as an editor and posthumous collaborator of H. P. Lovecraft but I think Mythos fans often forget he was also a collaborator on the Mythos, creating his share of new books, monsters and ideas. One of these ideas was the Walker on the Winds, Ithaqua. Like HPL before him, he looked to the stories of yesteryear for inspiration and found it in “The Wendigo” by Algernon Blackwood. This tale appeared in his collection The Lost Valley and Other Stories (1910). It was reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, June 1944. Twenty-three years later, Derleth would write a sequel to Blackwood’s story, mentioning the author.
“The Wendigo” follows Simpson, a neophyte to the Bush, on a moose hunt with Dr. Cathcart and their hired guides. Simpson is paired with Defago, a French Canadian who blanches when Cathcart decides he should take Simpson to Fifty Mile Lake. Once the two men arrive at the lake, the guide becomes even more nervous. The reason becomes clear to Simpson when he finds the man sleeping with his feet sticking out of the tent and whimpering in his sleep. A great wind rises, calling the man, who plunges off into the wilderness, leaving Simpson alone. The hunter tries to find his guide but only finds impossible tracks that get wider and wider apart. He also hears Defago’s voice on the wind cry in ecstasy about his burning feet.
If you’d like to read the rest, please check out Monster 2: From the Pages of Dark Worlds Quarterly.