i edged closer , curious to discover what this box , which i , despite spending the majority of the past year in that macabre chamber , had never noticed before tucked away in the shadows beneath the stairs , might contain and how its contents related to the particular puzzle presently perplexing the monstrumologist , a conundrum he considered , by all appearances , more urgent than the pressing problem of the anthropophagi running , heretofore unbeknownst , in our midst .