The Eleventh City

Professor Sam Cooper writes a letter to his department chair, Franklin Abraham, describing his experience uncovering the folkloric traditions of Argentina.  He asks for advice on interpreting a strange encounter.

Sam recounts being accosted by a madwoman at the gates of a local cemetery. He fled and took up for the evening in a cantina, asking the barman whether the woman should be committed.  Shrugging, the bartender admitted that the lunatic cannot be confined.  An American expatriate, Wendell Zane, approached Sam and offered his story.

Wendell, a civil engineer, recalls working on a rail line and hearing an otherworldly sound carry along the tracks. His fellow workers identified the call of the “pig-in-chains,” a horror that rode the rails carrying bad fortune.  A day later, a worksite accident killed three.