“But we could not convince each other, or even ourselves, of anything definite. We had turned off all light as we stood still, and vaguely noticed that a trace of deeply filtered upper day kept the blackness from being absolute. Having automatically begun to move ahead, we guided ourselves by occasional flashes from our torch. The disturbed debris formed an impression we could not shake off, and the smell of gasoline grew stronger.” “The other odor ahead. Paradoxically, it was both a less frightful and more frightful odor.”
In the previous chapter, we found that they saw some evidences about the old ones, who lived there millions of years ago, and Dyer mentioned that he actually liked their cultures. Now we can see they are finding more stuff. They were smelling an odor but they didn’t know what was it. So, we can connect that with the previous topic that they will find something that was belong to the old ones. He mentioned it was less and more frightful, so I think they are little scared about what will happen next.
The odor they smell was that of modern gasoline. They linked this discovery inside the ruins to the idea that there was something lurking in the shadows. The explores continued on their quest in the dark in order to avoid being spotted, but had the intention of witnessing a supernatural event from a vantage point away from anyone (things) sight. Later into the reading they discover three giant eyeless penguins, who seem to have been living in the dark for many years. But i do agree that they are frightened of their current scenario.
It is very interesting about what happened in the previous chapter. It looks like the story is rising and is close to hitting the climax soon. They are finding more and more things and soon they will find the biggest discovery in history. I am very curious as to what is going to happen next.
I would agree that they were frighten to an extent but yet they were still explorers. They wanted to know more and they even wanted to caught a glimpse of the Old Ones. I say this because as stated in the snapshot, they began to automatically move ahead to see what the odor might pertain to and what it would have in store for them. They were curious even if they were scared of what might occur.
when he said “both a less frightful and more frightful odor.” what he meant by that was both of the odor that they smelled one of them they knew was coming from the Old Ones. but when they say ” more frightful odor” they mean that they knew where the first odor was coming from, but what scared them the most was what was the other odor that they were smelling. since one was coming from the Old Ones dead body dyer’s fear was that the oder was coming from the sogoths.
I agree with the aspect of them encountering something revealing more about the Old Ones such as their cause of death which we learn to find out was due to the shoggoths. The fact they the smell is possibly more “pleasurable” compared to what they have been smelling sets a red flag since it is a new smell, one that that comes from a different intermediate source which backs up the idea as you said which clues in the reader that the characters will be scared about what will happen next based on what transpired of them picking up the two odors.