Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) was an American writer of weird fiction and horror stories.
The Thing on the Roof is a gruesome tale of Tussman, a scholar and explorer who becomes obsessed with finding a hidden treasure which he believes to be buried beneath the altar of the ruined Temple of the Toad in the jungles of Honduras. He only needs to obtain an original edition of 'The Black Book' - a mysterious volume by an eccentric 18th century explorer - to obtain the clues he will need to access the crypt.
'The Black Book' is obtained, and Tussman sets off to Central America...but the adventure takes a very different turn than he could ever have imagined.
