Project Gutenberg's Tales of Terror and Mystery, by Arthur Conan Doyle

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Title: Tales of Terror and Mystery

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

Posting Date: October 10, 2008 [EBook #537]
Release Date: May, 1996
[Last updated: December 8, 2011]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Charles Keller.  HTML version by Al Haines.









Tales of Terror and Mystery


By

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle



Contents

Tales of Terror

  The Horror of the Heights
  The Leather Funnel
  The New Catacomb
  The Case of Lady Sannox
  The Terror of Blue John Gap
  The Brazilian Cat


Tales of Mystery

  The Lost Special
  The Beetle-Hunter
  The Man with the Watches
  The Japanned Box
  The Black Doctor
  The Jew's Breastplate





Tales of Terror



The Horror of the Heights

The idea that the extraordinary narrative which has been called the
Joyce-Armstrong Fragment is an elaborate practical joke evolved by some
unknown person, cursed by a perverted and sinister sense of humour, has
now been abandoned by all who have examined the matter. The most
macabre and imaginative of plotters would hesitate before linking his
morbid fancies with the unquestioned and tragic facts which reinforce
the statement.  Though the assertions contained in it are amazing and
even monstrous, it is none the less forcing itself upon the general
intelligence that they are true, and that we must readjust our ideas to
the new situation.  This world of ours appears to be separated by a
slight and precarious margin of safety from a most singular and
unexpected danger.  I will endeavour in this narrative, which
reproduces the original document in its necessarily somewhat
fragmentary form, to lay before the reader the whole of the facts up to
date, prefacing my statement by saying that, if there be any who doubt
the narrative of Joyce-Armstrong, there can be no question at all as to
the facts concerning Lieutenant Myrtle, R. N., and Mr. Hay Connor, who
undoubtedly met their end in the manner described.

The Joyce-Armstrong Fragment was found in the field which is called
Lower Haycock, lying one mile to the westward of the village of
Withyham, upon the Kent and Sussex border.  It was on the 15th
September last that an agricultural labourer, James Flynn, in the
employment of Mathew Dodd, farmer, of the Chauntry Farm, Withyham,
perceived a briar pipe lying near the footpath which skirts the hedge
in Lower Haycock.  A few paces farther on he picked up a pair of broken
binocular glasses.  Finally, among some nettles in the ditch, he caught
sight of a flat, canvas-backed book, which proved to be a note-book
with detachable leaves, some of which had come loose and were
fluttering along the base of the hedge.  These he collected, but some,
including the first, were never recovered, and leave a deplorable
hiatus in this all-important statement.  The note-book was taken by the
labourer to his master, who in turn showed it to Dr. J. H. Atherton, of
Hartfield.  This gentleman at once recognized the need for an expert
examination, and the manuscript was forwarded to the Aero Club in
London, where it now lies.

The first two pages of the manuscript are missing.  There is also one
torn away at the end of the narrative, though none of these affect the
general coherence of the story.  It is conjectured that the missing
opening is concerned with the record of Mr. Joyce-Armstrong's
qualifications as an aeronaut, which can be gathered from other sources
and are admitted to be unsurpassed among the air-pilots of England.
For many years he has been looked upon as among the most daring and the
most intellectual of flying men, a combination which has enabled him to
both invent and test several new devices, including the common
gyroscopic attachment which is known by his name.  The main body of the
manuscript is written neatly in ink, but the last few lines are in
pencil and are so ragged as to be hardly legible--exactly, in fact, as
they might be expected to appear if they were scribbled off hurriedly
from the seat of a moving aeroplane.  There are, it may be added,
several stains, both on the last page and on the outside cover which
have been pronounced by the Home Office experts to be blood--probably
human and certainly mammalian.  The fact that something closely
resembling the organism of malaria was discovered in this blood, and
that Joyce-Armstrong is known to have suffered from intermittent fever,
is a remarkable example of the new weapons which modern science has
placed in the hands of our detectives.

And now a word as to the personality of the author of this epoch-making
statement.  Joyce-Armstrong, according to the few friends who really
knew something of the man, was a poet and a dreamer, as well as a
mechanic and an inventor.  He was a man of considerable wealth, much of
which he had spent in the pursuit of his aeronautical hobby.  He had
four private aeroplanes in his hangars near Devizes, and is said to
have made no fewer than one hundred and seventy ascents in the course
of last year.  He was a retiring man with dark moods, in which he would
avoid the society of his fellows.  Captain Dangerfield, who knew him
better than anyone, says that there were times when his eccentricity
threatened to develop into something more serious.  His habit of
carrying a shot-gun with him in his aeroplane was one manifestation of
it.

Another was the morbid effect which the fall of Lieutenant Myrtle had
upon his mind.  Myrtle, who was attempting the height record, fell from
an altitude of something over thirty thousand feet.  Horrible to
narrate, his head was entirely obliterated, though his body and limbs
preserved their configuration.  At every gathering of airmen,
Joyce-Armstrong, according to Dangerfield, would ask, with an enigmatic
smile:  "And where, pray, is Myrtle's head?"

On another occasion after dinner, at the mess of the Flying School on
Salisbury Plain, he started a debate as to what will be the most
permanent danger which airmen will have to encounter. Having listened
to successive opinions as to air-pockets, faulty construction, and
over-banking, he ended by shrugging his shoulders and refusing to put
forward his own views, though he gave the impression that they differed
from any advanced by his companions.

It is worth remarking that after his own complete disappearance it was
found that his private affairs were arranged with a precision which may
show that he had a strong premonition of disaster.  With these
essential explanations I will now give the narrative exactly as it
stands, beginning at page three of the blood-soaked note-book:

"Nevertheless, when I dined at Rheims with Coselli and Gustav Raymond I
found that neither of them was aware of any particular danger in the
higher layers of the atmosphere.  I did not actually say what was in my
thoughts, but I got so near to it that if they had any corresponding
idea they could not have failed to express it.  But then they are two
empty, vainglorious fellows with no thought beyond seeing their silly
names in the newspaper.  It is interesting to note that neither of them
had ever been much beyond the twenty-thousand-foot level.  Of course,
men have been higher than this both in balloons and in the ascent of
mountains.  It must be well above that point that the aeroplane enters
the danger zone--always presuming that my premonitions are correct.

"Aeroplaning has been with us now for more than twenty years, and one
might well ask:  Why should this peril be only revealing itself in our
day?  The answer is obvious.  In the old days of weak engines, when a
hundred horse-power Gnome or Green was considered ample for every need,
the flights were very restricted.  Now that three hundred horse-power
is the rule rather than the exception, visits to the upper layers have
become easier and more common. Some of us can remember how, in our
youth, Garros made a world-wide reputation by attaining nineteen
thousand feet, and it was considered a remarkable achievement to fly
over the Alps.  Our standard now has been immeasurably raised, and
there are twenty high flights for one in former years.  Many of them
have been undertaken with impunity. The thirty-thousand-foot level has
been reached time after time with no discomfort beyond cold and asthma.
What does this prove?  A visitor might descend upon this planet a
thousand times and never see a tiger.  Yet tigers exist, and if he
chanced to come down into a jungle he might be devoured.  There are
jungles of the upper air, and there are worse things than tigers which
inhabit them.  I believe in time they will map these jungles accurately
out.  Even at the present moment I could name two of them.  One of them
lies over the Pau-Biarritz district of France. Another is just over my
head as I write here in my house in Wiltshire.  I rather think there is
a third in the Homburg-Wiesbaden district.

"It was the disappearance of the airmen that first set me thinking.  Of
course, everyone said that they had fallen into the sea, but that did
not satisfy me at all.  First, there was Verrier in France; his machine
was found near Bayonne, but they never got his body.  There was the
case of Baxter also, who vanished, though his engine and some of the
iron fixings were found in a wood in Leicestershire.  In that case, Dr.
Middleton, of Amesbury, who was watching the flight with a telescope,
declares that just before the clouds obscured the view he saw the
machine, which was at an enormous height, suddenly rise perpendicularly
upwards in a succession of jerks in a manner that he would have thought
to be impossible.  That was the last seen of Baxter.  There was a
correspondence in the papers, but it never led to anything.  There were
several other similar cases, and then there was the death of Hay
Connor.  What a cackle there was about an unsolved mystery of the air,
and what columns in the halfpenny papers, and yet how little was ever
done to get to the bottom of the business!  He came down in a
tremendous vol-plane from an unknown height.  He never got off his
machine and died in his pilot's seat.  Died of what? 'Heart disease,'
said the doctors.  Rubbish!  Hay Connor's heart was as sound as mine
is.  What did Venables say?  Venables was the only man who was at his
side when he died.  He said that he was shivering and looked like a man
who had been badly scared.  'Died of fright,' said Venables, but could
not imagine what he was frightened about.  Only said one word to
Venables, which sounded like 'Monstrous.'  They could make nothing of
that at the inquest. But I could make something of it.  Monsters!  That
was the last word of poor Harry Hay Connor.  And he DID die of fright,
just as Venables thought.

"And then there was Myrtle's head.  Do you really believe--does anybody
really believe--that a man's head could be driven clean into his body
by the force of a fall?  Well, perhaps it may be possible, but I, for
one, have never believed that it was so with Myrtle.  And the grease
upon his clothes--'all slimy with grease,' said somebody at the
inquest.  Queer that nobody got thinking after that!  I did--but, then,
I had been thinking for a good long time. I've made three ascents--how
Dangerfield used to chaff me about my shot-gun--but I've never been
high enough.  Now, with this new, light Paul Veroner machine and its
one hundred and seventy-five Robur, I should easily touch the thirty
thousand tomorrow.  I'll have a shot at the record.  Maybe I shall have
a shot at something else as well.  Of course, it's dangerous.  If a
fellow wants to avoid danger he had best keep out of flying altogether
and subside finally into flannel slippers and a dressing-gown.  But
I'll visit the air-jungle tomorrow--and if there's anything there I
shall know it.  If I return, I'll find myself a bit of a celebrity.  If
I don't this note-book may explain what I am trying to do, and how I
lost my life in doing it.  But no drivel about accidents or mysteries,
if YOU please.

"I chose my Paul Veroner monoplane for the job.  There's nothing like a
monoplane when real work is to be done. Beaumont found that out in very
early days.  For one thing it doesn't mind damp, and the weather looks
as if we should be in the clouds all the time.  It's a bonny little
model and answers my hand like a tender-mouthed horse.  The engine is a
ten-cylinder rotary Robur working up to one hundred and seventy-five.
It has all the modern improvements--enclosed fuselage, high-curved
landing skids, brakes, gyroscopic steadiers, and three speeds, worked
by an alteration of the angle of the planes upon the Venetian-blind
principle.  I took a shot-gun with me and a dozen cartridges filled
with buck-shot.  You should have seen the face of Perkins, my old
mechanic, when I directed him to put them in.  I was dressed like an
Arctic explorer, with two jerseys under my overalls, thick socks inside
my padded boots, a storm-cap with flaps, and my talc goggles.  It was
stifling outside the hangars, but I was going for the summit of the
Himalayas, and had to dress for the part. Perkins knew there was
something on and implored me to take him with me.  Perhaps I should if
I were using the biplane, but a monoplane is a one-man show--if you
want to get the last foot of life out of it.  Of course, I took an
oxygen bag; the man who goes for the altitude record without one will
either be frozen or smothered--or both.

"I had a good look at the planes, the rudder-bar, and the elevating
lever before I got in.  Everything was in order so far as I could see.
Then I switched on my engine and found that she was running sweetly.
When they let her go she rose almost at once upon the lowest speed.  I
circled my home field once or twice just to warm her up, and then with
a wave to Perkins and the others, I flattened out my planes and put her
on her highest.  She skimmed like a swallow down wind for eight or ten
miles until I turned her nose up a little and she began to climb in a
great spiral for the cloud-bank above me.  It's all-important to rise
slowly and adapt yourself to the pressure as you go.

"It was a close, warm day for an English September, and there was the
hush and heaviness of impending rain.  Now and then there came sudden
puffs of wind from the south-west--one of them so gusty and unexpected
that it caught me napping and turned me half-round for an instant.  I
remember the time when gusts and whirls and air-pockets used to be
things of danger--before we learned to put an overmastering power into
our engines.  Just as I reached the cloud-banks, with the altimeter
marking three thousand, down came the rain.  My word, how it poured!
It drummed upon my wings and lashed against my face, blurring my
glasses so that I could hardly see.  I got down on to a low speed, for
it was painful to travel against it.  As I got higher it became hail,
and I had to turn tail to it.  One of my cylinders was out of action--a
dirty plug, I should imagine, but still I was rising steadily with
plenty of power.  After a bit the trouble passed, whatever it was, and
I heard the full, deep-throated purr--the ten singing as one.  That's
where the beauty of our modern silencers comes in.  We can at last
control our engines by ear.  How they squeal and squeak and sob when
they are in trouble!  All those cries for help were wasted in the old
days, when every sound was swallowed up by the monstrous racket of the
machine.  If only the early aviators could come back to see the beauty
and perfection of the mechanism which have been bought at the cost of
their lives!

"About nine-thirty I was nearing the clouds.  Down below me, all
blurred and shadowed with rain, lay the vast expanse of Salisbury
Plain.  Half a dozen flying machines were doing hackwork at the
thousand-foot level, looking like little black swallows against the
green background.  I dare say they were wondering what I was doing up
in cloud-land.  Suddenly a grey curtain drew across beneath me and the
wet folds of vapours were swirling round my face.  It was clammily cold
and miserable.  But I was above the hail-storm, and that was something
gained.  The cloud was as dark and thick as a London fog.  In my
anxiety to get clear, I cocked her nose up until the automatic
alarm-bell rang, and I actually began to slide backwards.  My sopped
and dripping wings had made me heavier than I thought, but presently I
was in lighter cloud, and soon had cleared the first layer.  There was
a second--opal-coloured and fleecy--at a great height above my head, a
white, unbroken ceiling above, and a dark, unbroken floor below, with
the monoplane labouring upwards upon a vast spiral between them.  It is
deadly lonely in these cloud-spaces.  Once a great flight of some small
water-birds went past me, flying very fast to the westwards. The quick
whir of their wings and their musical cry were cheery to my ear.  I
fancy that they were teal, but I am a wretched zoologist.  Now that we
humans have become birds we must really learn to know our brethren by
sight.

"The wind down beneath me whirled and swayed the broad cloud-plain.
Once a great eddy formed in it, a whirlpool of vapour, and through it,
as down a funnel, I caught sight of the distant world. A large white
biplane was passing at a vast depth beneath me.  I fancy it was the
morning mail service betwixt Bristol and London. Then the drift swirled
inwards again and the great solitude was unbroken.

"Just after ten I touched the lower edge of the upper cloud-stratum. It
consisted of fine diaphanous vapour drifting swiftly from the
westwards.  The wind had been steadily rising all this time and it was
now blowing a sharp breeze--twenty-eight an hour by my gauge.  Already
it was very cold, though my altimeter only marked nine thousand.  The
engines were working beautifully, and we went droning steadily upwards.
The cloud-bank was thicker than I had expected, but at last it thinned
out into a golden mist before me, and then in an instant I had shot out
from it, and there was an unclouded sky and a brilliant sun above my
head--all blue and gold above, all shining silver below, one vast,
glimmering plain as far as my eyes could reach.  It was a quarter past
ten o'clock, and the barograph needle pointed to twelve thousand eight
hundred.  Up I went and up, my ears concentrated upon the deep purring
of my motor, my eyes busy always with the watch, the revolution
indicator, the petrol lever, and the oil pump.  No wonder aviators are
said to be a fearless race.  With so many things to think of there is
no time to trouble about oneself.  About this time I noted how
unreliable is the compass when above a certain height from earth.  At
fifteen thousand feet mine was pointing east and a point south.  The
sun and the wind gave me my true bearings.

"I had hoped to reach an eternal stillness in these high altitudes, but
with every thousand feet of ascent the gale grew stronger.  My machine
groaned and trembled in every joint and rivet as she faced it, and
swept away like a sheet of paper when I banked her on the turn,
skimming down wind at a greater pace, perhaps, than ever mortal man has
moved.  Yet I had always to turn again and tack up in the wind's eye,
for it was not merely a height record that I was after.  By all my
calculations it was above little Wiltshire that my air-jungle lay, and
all my labour might be lost if I struck the outer layers at some
farther point.

"When I reached the nineteen-thousand-foot level, which was about
midday, the wind was so severe that I looked with some anxiety to the
stays of my wings, expecting momentarily to see them snap or slacken.
I even cast loose the parachute behind me, and fastened its hook into
the ring of my leathern belt, so as to be ready for the worst.  Now was
the time when a bit of scamped work by the mechanic is paid for by the
life of the aeronaut.  But she held together bravely.  Every cord and
strut was humming and vibrating like so many harp-strings, but it was
glorious to see how, for all the beating and the buffeting, she was
still the conqueror of Nature and the mistress of the sky.  There is
surely something divine in man himself that he should rise so superior
to the limitations which Creation seemed to impose--rise, too, by such
unselfish, heroic devotion as this air-conquest has shown.  Talk of
human degeneration!  When has such a story as this been written in the
annals of our race?

"These were the thoughts in my head as I climbed that monstrous,
inclined plane with the wind sometimes beating in my face and sometimes
whistling behind my ears, while the cloud-land beneath me fell away to
such a distance that the folds and hummocks of silver had all smoothed
out into one flat, shining plain.  But suddenly I had a horrible and
unprecedented experience.  I have known before what it is to be in what
our neighbours have called a tourbillon, but never on such a scale as
this.  That huge, sweeping river of wind of which I have spoken had, as
it appears, whirlpools within it which were as monstrous as itself.
Without a moment's warning I was dragged suddenly into the heart of
one.  I spun round for a minute or two with such velocity that I almost
lost my senses, and then fell suddenly, left wing foremost, down the
vacuum funnel in the centre.  I dropped like a stone, and lost nearly a
thousand feet.  It was only my belt that kept me in my seat, and the
shock and breathlessness left me hanging half-insensible over the side
of the fuselage.  But I am always capable of a supreme effort--it is my
one great merit as an aviator.  I was conscious that the descent was
slower.  The whirlpool was a cone rather than a funnel, and I had come
to the apex.  With a terrific wrench, throwing my weight all to one
side, I levelled my planes and brought her head away from the wind.  In
an instant I had shot out of the eddies and was skimming down the sky.
Then, shaken but victorious, I turned her nose up and began once more
my steady grind on the upward spiral.  I took a large sweep to avoid
the danger-spot of the whirlpool, and soon I was safely above it. Just
after one o'clock I was twenty-one thousand feet above the sea-level.
To my great joy I had topped the gale, and with every hundred feet of
ascent the air grew stiller.  On the other hand, it was very cold, and
I was conscious of that peculiar nausea which goes with rarefaction of
the air.  For the first time I unscrewed the mouth of my oxygen bag and
took an occasional whiff of the glorious gas.  I could feel it running
like a cordial through my veins, and I was exhilarated almost to the
point of drunkenness. I shouted and sang as I soared upwards into the
cold, still outer world.

"It is very clear to me that the insensibility which came upon
Glaisher, and in a lesser degree upon Coxwell, when, in 1862, they
ascended in a balloon to the height of thirty thousand feet, was due to
the extreme speed with which a perpendicular ascent is made. Doing it
at an easy gradient and accustoming oneself to the lessened barometric
pressure by slow degrees, there are no such dreadful symptoms.  At the
same great height I found that even without my oxygen inhaler I could
breathe without undue distress. It was bitterly cold, however, and my
thermometer was at zero, Fahrenheit.  At one-thirty I was nearly seven
miles above the surface of the earth, and still ascending steadily.  I
found, however, that the rarefied air was giving markedly less support
to my planes, and that my angle of ascent had to be considerably
lowered in consequence.  It was already clear that even with my light
weight and strong engine-power there was a point in front of me where I
should be held.  To make matters worse, one of my sparking-plugs was in
trouble again and there was intermittent misfiring in the engine.  My
heart was heavy with the fear of failure.

"It was about that time that I had a most extraordinary experience.
Something whizzed past me in a trail of smoke and exploded with a loud,
hissing sound, sending forth a cloud of steam.  For the instant I could
not imagine what had happened. Then I remembered that the earth is for
ever being bombarded by meteor stones, and would be hardly inhabitable
were they not in nearly every case turned to vapour in the outer layers
of the atmosphere.  Here is a new danger for the high-altitude man, for
two others passed me when I was nearing the forty-thousand-foot mark.
I cannot doubt that at the edge of the earth's envelope the risk would
be a very real one.

"My barograph needle marked forty-one thousand three hundred when I
became aware that I could go no farther.  Physically, the strain was
not as yet greater than I could bear but my machine had reached its
limit.  The attenuated air gave no firm support to the wings, and the
least tilt developed into side-slip, while she seemed sluggish on her
controls.  Possibly, had the engine been at its best, another thousand
feet might have been within our capacity, but it was still misfiring,
and two out of the ten cylinders appeared to be out of action.  If I
had not already reached the zone for which I was searching then I
should never see it upon this journey.  But was it not possible that I
had attained it?  Soaring in circles like a monstrous hawk upon the
forty-thousand-foot level I let the monoplane guide herself, and with
my Mannheim glass I made a careful observation of my surroundings. The
heavens were perfectly clear; there was no indication of those dangers
which I had imagined.

"I have said that I was soaring in circles.  It struck me suddenly that
I would do well to take a wider sweep and open up a new airtract.  If
the hunter entered an earth-jungle he would drive through it if he
wished to find his game.  My reasoning had led me to believe that the
air-jungle which I had imagined lay somewhere over Wiltshire.  This
should be to the south and west of me.  I took my bearings from the
sun, for the compass was hopeless and no trace of earth was to be
seen--nothing but the distant, silver cloud-plain.  However, I got my
direction as best I might and kept her head straight to the mark.  I
reckoned that my petrol supply would not last for more than another
hour or so, but I could afford to use it to the last drop, since a
single magnificent vol-plane could at any time take me to the earth.

"Suddenly I was aware of something new.  The air in front of me had
lost its crystal clearness.  It was full of long, ragged wisps of
something which I can only compare to very fine cigarette smoke.  It
hung about in wreaths and coils, turning and twisting slowly in the
sunlight.  As the monoplane shot through it, I was aware of a faint
taste of oil upon my lips, and there was a greasy scum upon the
woodwork of the machine.  Some infinitely fine organic matter appeared
to be suspended in the atmosphere.  There was no life there.  It was
inchoate and diffuse, extending for many square acres and then fringing
off into the void.  No, it was not life.  But might it not be the
remains of life?  Above all, might it not be the food of life, of
monstrous life, even as the humble grease of the ocean is the food for
the mighty whale?  The thought was in my mind when my eyes looked
upwards and I saw the most wonderful vision that ever man has seen.
Can I hope to convey it to you even as I saw it myself last Thursday?

"Conceive a jelly-fish such as sails in our summer seas, bell-shaped
and of enormous size--far larger, I should judge, than the dome of St.
Paul's.  It was of a light pink colour veined with a delicate green,
but the whole huge fabric so tenuous that it was but a fairy outline
against the dark blue sky.  It pulsated with a delicate and regular
rhythm.  From it there depended two long, drooping, green tentacles,
which swayed slowly backwards and forwards.  This gorgeous vision
passed gently with noiseless dignity over my head, as light and fragile
as a soap-bubble, and drifted upon its stately way.

"I had half-turned my monoplane, that I might look after this beautiful
creature, when, in a moment, I found myself amidst a perfect fleet of
them, of all sizes, but none so large as the first.  Some were quite
small, but the majority about as big as an average balloon, and with
much the same curvature at the top. There was in them a delicacy of
texture and colouring which reminded me of the finest Venetian glass.
Pale shades of pink and green were the prevailing tints, but all had a
lovely iridescence where the sun shimmered through their dainty forms.
Some hundreds of them drifted past me, a wonderful fairy squadron of
strange unknown argosies of the sky--creatures whose forms and
substance were so attuned to these pure heights that one could not
conceive anything so delicate within actual sight or sound of earth.

"But soon my attention was drawn to a new phenomenon--the serpents of
the outer air.  These were long, thin, fantastic coils of vapour-like
material, which turned and twisted with great speed, flying round and
round at such a pace that the eyes could hardly follow them.  Some of
these ghost-like creatures were twenty or thirty feet long, but it was
difficult to tell their girth, for their outline was so hazy that it
seemed to fade away into the air around them.  These air-snakes were of
a very light grey or smoke colour, with some darker lines within, which
gave the impression of a definite organism.  One of them whisked past
my very face, and I was conscious of a cold, clammy contact, but their
composition was so unsubstantial that I could not connect them with any
thought of physical danger, any more than the beautiful bell-like
creatures which had preceded them.  There was no more solidity in their
frames than in the floating spume from a broken wave.

"But a more terrible experience was in store for me.  Floating
downwards from a great height there came a purplish patch of vapour,
small as I saw it first, but rapidly enlarging as it approached me,
until it appeared to be hundreds of square feet in size.  Though
fashioned of some transparent, jelly-like substance, it was none the
less of much more definite outline and solid consistence than anything
which I had seen before.  There were more traces, too, of a physical
organization, especially two vast, shadowy, circular plates upon either
side, which may have been eyes, and a perfectly solid white projection
between them which was as curved and cruel as the beak of a vulture.

"The whole aspect of this monster was formidable and threatening, and
it kept changing its colour from a very light mauve to a dark, angry
purple so thick that it cast a shadow as it drifted between my
monoplane and the sun.  On the upper curve of its huge body there were
three great projections which I can only describe as enormous bubbles,
and I was convinced as I looked at them that they were charged with
some extremely light gas which served to buoy up the misshapen and
semi-solid mass in the rarefied air.  The creature moved swiftly along,
keeping pace easily with the monoplane, and for twenty miles or more it
formed my horrible escort, hovering over me like a bird of prey which
is waiting to pounce.  Its method of progression--done so swiftly that
it was not easy to follow--was to throw out a long, glutinous streamer
in front of it, which in turn seemed to draw forward the rest of the
writhing body.  So elastic and gelatinous was it that never for two
successive minutes was it the same shape, and yet each change made it
more threatening and loathsome than the last.

"I knew that it meant mischief.  Every purple flush of its hideous body
told me so.  The vague, goggling eyes which were turned always upon me
were cold and merciless in their viscid hatred.  I dipped the nose of
my monoplane downwards to escape it. As I did so, as quick as a flash
there shot out a long tentacle from this mass of floating blubber, and
it fell as light and sinuous as a whip-lash across the front of my
machine.  There was a loud hiss as it lay for a moment across the hot
engine, and it whisked itself into the air again, while the huge, flat
body drew itself together as if in sudden pain.  I dipped to a
vol-pique, but again a tentacle fell over the monoplane and was shorn
off by the propeller as easily as it might have cut through a smoke
wreath. A long, gliding, sticky, serpent-like coil came from behind and
caught me round the waist, dragging me out of the fuselage.  I tore at
it, my fingers sinking into the smooth, glue-like surface, and for an
instant I disengaged myself, but only to be caught round the boot by
another coil, which gave me a jerk that tilted me almost on to my back.

"As I fell over I blazed off both barrels of my gun, though, indeed, it
was like attacking an elephant with a pea-shooter to imagine that any
human weapon could cripple that mighty bulk.  And yet I aimed better
than I knew, for, with a loud report, one of the great blisters upon
the creature's back exploded with the puncture of the buck-shot.  It
was very clear that my conjecture was right, and that these vast, clear
bladders were distended with some lifting gas, for in an instant the
huge, cloud-like body turned sideways, writhing desperately to find its
balance, while the white beak snapped and gaped in horrible fury.  But
already I had shot away on the steepest glide that I dared to attempt,
my engine still full on, the flying propeller and the force of gravity
shooting me downwards like an aerolite.  Far behind me I saw a dull,
purplish smudge growing swiftly smaller and merging into the blue sky
behind it.  I was safe out of the deadly jungle of the outer air.

"Once out of danger I throttled my engine, for nothing tears a machine
to pieces quicker than running on full power from a height. It was a
glorious, spiral vol-plane from nearly eight miles of altitude--first,
to the level of the silver cloud-bank, then to that of the storm-cloud
beneath it, and finally, in beating rain, to the surface of the earth.
I saw the Bristol Channel beneath me as I broke from the clouds, but,
having still some petrol in my tank, I got twenty miles inland before I
found myself stranded in a field half a mile from the village of
Ashcombe.  There I got three tins of petrol from a passing motor-car,
and at ten minutes past six that evening I alighted gently in my own
home meadow at Devizes, after such a journey as no mortal upon earth
has ever yet taken and lived to tell the tale.  I have seen the beauty
and I have seen the horror of the heights--and greater beauty or
greater horror than that is not within the ken of man.

"And now it is my plan to go once again before I give my results to the
world.  My reason for this is that I must surely have something to show
by way of proof before I lay such a tale before my fellow-men.  It is
true that others will soon follow and will confirm what I have said,
and yet I should wish to carry conviction from the first.  Those lovely
iridescent bubbles of the air should not be hard to capture.  They
drift slowly upon their way, and the swift monoplane could intercept
their leisurely course.  It is likely enough that they would dissolve
in the heavier layers of the atmosphere, and that some small heap of
amorphous jelly might be all that I should bring to earth with me. And
yet something there would surely be by which I could substantiate my
story.  Yes, I will go, even if I run a risk by doing so.  These purple
horrors would not seem to be numerous.  It is probable that I shall not
see one.  If I do I shall dive at once.  At the worst there is always
the shot-gun and my knowledge of ..."


Here a page of the manuscript is unfortunately missing.  On the next
page is written, in large, straggling writing:


"Forty-three thousand feet.  I shall never see earth again. They are
beneath me, three of them.  God help me; it is a dreadful death to die!"


Such in its entirety is the Joyce-Armstrong Statement.  Of the man
nothing has since been seen.  Pieces of his shattered monoplane have
been picked up in the preserves of Mr. Budd-Lushington upon the borders
of Kent and Sussex, within a few miles of the spot where the note-book
was discovered.  If the unfortunate aviator's theory is correct that
this air-jungle, as he called it, existed only over the south-west of
England, then it would seem that he had fled from it at the full speed
of his monoplane, but had been overtaken and devoured by these horrible
creatures at some spot in the outer atmosphere above the place where
the grim relics were found.  The picture of that monoplane skimming
down the sky, with the nameless terrors flying as swiftly beneath it
and cutting it off always from the earth while they gradually closed in
upon their victim, is one upon which a man who valued his sanity would
prefer not to dwell.  There are many, as I am aware, who still jeer at
the facts which I have here set down, but even they must admit that
Joyce-Armstrong has disappeared, and I would commend to them his own
words:  "This note-book may explain what I am trying to do, and how I
lost my life in doing it.  But no drivel about accidents or mysteries,
if YOU please."



The Leather Funnel

My friend, Lionel Dacre, lived in the Avenue de Wagram, Paris. His
house was that small one, with the iron railings and grass plot in
front of it, on the left-hand side as you pass down from the Arc de
Triomphe.  I fancy that it had been there long before the avenue was
constructed, for the grey tiles were stained with lichens, and the
walls were mildewed and discoloured with age.  It looked a small house
from the street, five windows in front, if I remember right, but it
deepened into a single long chamber at the back.  It was here that
Dacre had that singular library of occult literature, and the fantastic
curiosities which served as a hobby for himself, and an amusement for
his friends.  A wealthy man of refined and eccentric tastes, he had
spent much of his life and fortune in gathering together what was said
to be a unique private collection of Talmudic, cabalistic, and magical
works, many of them of great rarity and value.  His tastes leaned
toward the marvellous and the monstrous, and I have heard that his
experiments in the direction of the unknown have passed all the bounds
of civilization and of decorum.  To his English friends he never
alluded to such matters, and took the tone of the student and virtuoso;
but a Frenchman whose tastes were of the same nature has assured me
that the worst excesses of the black mass have been perpetrated in that
large and lofty hall, which is lined with the shelves of his books, and
the cases of his museum.

Dacre's appearance was enough to show that his deep interest in these
psychic matters was intellectual rather than spiritual. There was no
trace of asceticism upon his heavy face, but there was much mental
force in his huge, dome-like skull, which curved upward from amongst
his thinning locks, like a snowpeak above its fringe of fir trees.  His
knowledge was greater than his wisdom, and his powers were far superior
to his character.  The small bright eyes, buried deeply in his fleshy
face, twinkled with intelligence and an unabated curiosity of life, but
they were the eyes of a sensualist and an egotist.  Enough of the man,
for he is dead now, poor devil, dead at the very time that he had made
sure that he had at last discovered the elixir of life.  It is not with
his complex character that I have to deal, but with the very strange
and inexplicable incident which had its rise in my visit to him in the
early spring of the year '82.

I had known Dacre in England, for my researches in the Assyrian Room of
the British Museum had been conducted at the time when he was
endeavouring to establish a mystic and esoteric meaning in the
Babylonian tablets, and this community of interests had brought us
together.  Chance remarks had led to daily conversation, and that to
something verging upon friendship.  I had promised him that on my next
visit to Paris I would call upon him.  At the time when I was able to
fulfil my compact I was living in a cottage at Fontainebleau, and as
the evening trains were inconvenient, he asked me to spend the night in
his house.

"I have only that one spare couch," said he, pointing to a broad sofa
in his large salon; "I hope that you will manage to be comfortable
there."

It was a singular bedroom, with its high walls of brown volumes, but
there could be no more agreeable furniture to a bookworm like myself,
and there is no scent so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint, subtle
reek which comes from an ancient book.  I assured him that I could
desire no more charming chamber, and no more congenial surroundings.

"If the fittings are neither convenient nor conventional, they are at
least costly," said he, looking round at his shelves.  "I have expended
nearly a quarter of a million of money upon these objects which
surround you.  Books, weapons, gems, carvings, tapestries,
images--there is hardly a thing here which has not its history, and it
is generally one worth telling."

He was seated as he spoke at one side of the open fire-place, and I at
the other.  His reading-table was on his right, and the strong lamp
above it ringed it with a very vivid circle of golden light.  A
half-rolled palimpsest lay in the centre, and around it were many
quaint articles of bric-a-brac.  One of these was a large funnel, such
as is used for filling wine casks.  It appeared to be made of black
wood, and to be rimmed with discoloured brass.

"That is a curious thing," I remarked.  "What is the history of that?"

"Ah!" said he, "it is the very question which I have had occasion to
ask myself.  I would give a good deal to know.  Take it in your hands
and examine it."

I did so, and found that what I had imagined to be wood was in reality
leather, though age had dried it into an extreme hardness. It was a
large funnel, and might hold a quart when full.  The brass rim
encircled the wide end, but the narrow was also tipped with metal.

"What do you make of it?" asked Dacre.

"I should imagine that it belonged to some vintner or maltster in the
Middle Ages," said I.  "I have seen in England leathern drinking
flagons of the seventeenth century--'black jacks' as they were
called--which were of the same colour and hardness as this filler."

"I dare say the date would be about the same," said Dacre, "and, no
doubt, also, it was used for filling a vessel with liquid. If my
suspicions are correct, however, it was a queer vintner who used it,
and a very singular cask which was filled.  Do you observe nothing
strange at the spout end of the funnel."

As I held it to the light I observed that at a spot some five inches
above the brass tip the narrow neck of the leather funnel was all
haggled and scored, as if someone had notched it round with a blunt
knife.  Only at that point was there any roughening of the dead black
surface.

"Someone has tried to cut off the neck."

"Would you call it a cut?"

"It is torn and lacerated.  It must have taken some strength to leave
these marks on such tough material, whatever the instrument may have
been.  But what do you think of it?  I can tell that you know more than
you say."

Dacre smiled, and his little eyes twinkled with knowledge.

"Have you included the psychology of dreams among your learned
studies?" he asked.

"I did not even know that there was such a psychology."

"My dear sir, that shelf above the gem case is filled with volumes,
from Albertus Magnus onward, which deal with no other subject.  It is a
science in itself."

"A science of charlatans!"

"The charlatan is always the pioneer.  From the astrologer came the
astronomer, from the alchemist the chemist, from the mesmerist the
experimental psychologist.  The quack of yesterday is the professor of
tomorrow.  Even such subtle and elusive things as dreams will in time
be reduced to system and order.  When that time comes the researches of
our friends on the bookshelf yonder will no longer be the amusement of
the mystic, but the foundations of a science."

"Supposing that is so, what has the science of dreams to do with a
large, black, brass-rimmed funnel?"

"I will tell you.  You know that I have an agent who is always on the
look-out for rarities and curiosities for my collection. Some days ago
he heard of a dealer upon one of the Quais who had acquired some old
rubbish found in a cupboard in an ancient house at the back of the Rue
Mathurin, in the Quartier Latin.  The dining-room of this old house is
decorated with a coat of arms, chevrons, and bars rouge upon a field
argent, which prove, upon inquiry, to be the shield of Nicholas de la
Reynie, a high official of King Louis XIV.  There can be no doubt that
the other articles in the cupboard date back to the early days of that
king.  The inference is, therefore, that they were all the property of
this Nicholas de la Reynie, who was, as I understand, the gentleman
specially concerned with the maintenance and execution of the Draconic
laws of that epoch."

"What then?"

"I would ask you now to take the funnel into your hands once more and
to examine the upper brass rim.  Can you make out any lettering upon
it?"

There were certainly some scratches upon it, almost obliterated by
time.  The general effect was of several letters, the last of which
bore some resemblance to a B.

"You make it a B?"

"Yes, I do."

"So do I.  In fact, I have no doubt whatever that it is a B."

"But the nobleman you mentioned would have had R for his initial."

"Exactly!  That's the beauty of it.  He owned this curious object, and
yet he had someone else's initials upon it.  Why did he do this?"

"I can't imagine; can you?"

"Well, I might, perhaps, guess.  Do you observe something drawn a
little farther along the rim?"

"I should say it was a crown."

"It is undoubtedly a crown; but if you examine it in a good light, you
will convince yourself that it is not an ordinary crown. It is a
heraldic crown--a badge of rank, and it consists of an alternation of
four pearls and strawberry leaves, the proper badge of a marquis.  We
may infer, therefore, that the person whose initials end in B was
entitled to wear that coronet."

"Then this common leather filler belonged to a marquis?"

Dacre gave a peculiar smile.

"Or to some member of the family of a marquis," said he.  "So much we
have clearly gathered from this engraved rim."

"But what has all this to do with dreams?"  I do not know whether it
was from a look upon Dacre's face, or from some subtle suggestion in
his manner, but a feeling of repulsion, of unreasoning horror, came
upon me as I looked at the gnarled old lump of leather.

"I have more than once received important information through my
dreams," said my companion in the didactic manner which he loved to
affect.  "I make it a rule now when I am in doubt upon any material
point to place the article in question beside me as I sleep, and to
hope for some enlightenment.  The process does not appear to me to be
very obscure, though it has not yet received the blessing of orthodox
science.  According to my theory, any object which has been intimately
associated with any supreme paroxysm of human emotion, whether it be
joy or pain, will retain a certain atmosphere or association which it
is capable of communicating to a sensitive mind.  By a sensitive mind I
do not mean an abnormal one, but such a trained and educated mind as
you or I possess."

"You mean, for example, that if I slept beside that old sword upon the
wall, I might dream of some bloody incident in which that very sword
took part?"

"An excellent example, for, as a matter of fact, that sword was used in
that fashion by me, and I saw in my sleep the death of its owner, who
perished in a brisk skirmish, which I have been unable to identify, but
which occurred at the time of the wars of the Frondists.  If you think
of it, some of our popular observances show that the fact has already
been recognized by our ancestors, although we, in our wisdom, have
classed it among superstitions."

"For example?"

"Well, the placing of the bride's cake beneath the pillow in order that
the sleeper may have pleasant dreams.  That is one of several instances
which you will find set forth in a small brochure which I am myself
writing upon the subject.  But to come back to the point, I slept one
night with this funnel beside me, and I had a dream which certainly
throws a curious light upon its use and origin."

"What did you dream?"

"I dreamed----" He paused, and an intent look of interest came over his
massive face.  "By Jove, that's well thought of," said he. "This really
will be an exceedingly interesting experiment.  You are yourself a
psychic subject--with nerves which respond readily to any impression."

"I have never tested myself in that direction."

"Then we shall test you tonight.  Might I ask you as a very great
favour, when you occupy that couch tonight, to sleep with this old
funnel placed by the side of your pillow?"

The request seemed to me a grotesque one; but I have myself, in my
complex nature, a hunger after all which is bizarre and fantastic.  I
had not the faintest belief in Dacre's theory, nor any hopes for
success in such an experiment; yet it amused me that the experiment
should be made.  Dacre, with great gravity, drew a small stand to the
head of my settee, and placed the funnel upon it.  Then, after a short
conversation, he wished me good night and left me.


I sat for some little time smoking by the smouldering fire, and turning
over in my mind the curious incident which had occurred, and the
strange experience which might lie before me. Sceptical as I was, there
was something impressive in the assurance of Dacre's manner, and my
extraordinary surroundings, the huge room with the strange and often
sinister objects which were hung round it, struck solemnity into my
soul.  Finally I undressed, and turning out the lamp, I lay down.
After long tossing I fell asleep.  Let me try to describe as accurately
as I can the scene which came to me in my dreams.  It stands out now in
my memory more clearly than anything which I have seen with my waking
eyes.  There was a room which bore the appearance of a vault.  Four
spandrels from the corners ran up to join a sharp, cup-shaped roof.
The architecture was rough, but very strong.  It was evidently part of
a great building.

Three men in black, with curious, top-heavy, black velvet hats, sat in
a line upon a red-carpeted dais.  Their faces were very solemn and sad.
On the left stood two long-gowned men with port-folios in their hands,
which seemed to be stuffed with papers. Upon the right, looking toward
me, was a small woman with blonde hair and singular, light-blue
eyes--the eyes of a child. She was past her first youth, but could not
yet be called middle-aged. Her figure was inclined to stoutness and her
bearing was proud and confident.  Her face was pale, but serene.  It
was a curious face, comely and yet feline, with a subtle suggestion of
cruelty about the straight, strong little mouth and chubby jaw. She was
draped in some sort of loose, white gown.  Beside her stood a thin,
eager priest, who whispered in her ear, and continually raised a
crucifix before her eyes.  She turned her head and looked fixedly past
the crucifix at the three men in black, who were, I felt, her judges.

As I gazed the three men stood up and said something, but I could
distinguish no words, though I was aware that it was the central one
who was speaking.  They then swept out of the room, followed by the two
men with the papers.  At the same instant several rough-looking fellows
in stout jerkins came bustling in and removed first the red carpet, and
then the boards which formed the dais, so as to entirely clear the
room.  When this screen was removed I saw some singular articles of
furniture behind it.  One looked like a bed with wooden rollers at each
end, and a winch handle to regulate its length.  Another was a wooden
horse.  There were several other curious objects, and a number of
swinging cords which played over pulleys.  It was not unlike a modern
gymnasium.

When the room had been cleared there appeared a new figure upon the
scene.  This was a tall, thin person clad in black, with a gaunt and
austere face.  The aspect of the man made me shudder. His clothes were
all shining with grease and mottled with stains. He bore himself with a
slow and impressive dignity, as if he took command of all things from
the instant of his entrance.  In spite of his rude appearance and
sordid dress, it was now his business, his room, his to command.  He
carried a coil of light ropes over his left forearm.  The lady looked
him up and down with a searching glance, but her expression was
unchanged.  It was confident--even defiant.  But it was very different
with the priest.  His face was ghastly white, and I saw the moisture
glisten and run on his high, sloping forehead.  He threw up his hands
in prayer and he stooped continually to mutter frantic words in the
lady's ear.

The man in black now advanced, and taking one of the cords from his
left arm, he bound the woman's hands together.  She held them meekly
toward him as he did so.  Then he took her arm with a rough grip and
led her toward the wooden horse, which was little higher than her
waist.  On to this she was lifted and laid, with her back upon it, and
her face to the ceiling, while the priest, quivering with horror, had
rushed out of the room.  The woman's lips were moving rapidly, and
though I could hear nothing I knew that she was praying.  Her feet hung
down on either side of the horse, and I saw that the rough varlets in
attendance had fastened cords to her ankles and secured the other ends
to iron rings in the stone floor.

My heart sank within me as I saw these ominous preparations, and yet I
was held by the fascination of horror, and I could not take my eyes
from the strange spectacle.  A man had entered the room with a bucket
of water in either hand.  Another followed with a third bucket.  They
were laid beside the wooden horse.  The second man had a wooden
dipper--a bowl with a straight handle--in his other hand.  This he gave
to the man in black.  At the same moment one of the varlets approached
with a dark object in his hand, which even in my dream filled me with a
vague feeling of familiarity.  It was a leathern filler.  With horrible
energy he thrust it--but I could stand no more.  My hair stood on end
with horror.  I writhed, I struggled, I broke through the bonds of
sleep, and I burst with a shriek into my own life, and found myself
lying shivering with terror in the huge library, with the moonlight
flooding through the window and throwing strange silver and black
traceries upon the opposite wall.  Oh, what a blessed relief to feel
that I was back in the nineteenth century--back out of that mediaeval
vault into a world where men had human hearts within their bosoms.  I
sat up on my couch, trembling in every limb, my mind divided between
thankfulness and horror.  To think that such things were ever
done--that they could be done without God striking the villains dead.
Was it all a fantasy, or did it really stand for something which had
happened in the black, cruel days of the world's history?  I sank my
throbbing head upon my shaking hands.  And then, suddenly, my heart
seemed to stand still in my bosom, and I could not even scream, so
great was my terror. Something was advancing toward me through the
darkness of the room.

It is a horror coming upon a horror which breaks a man's spirit.  I
could not reason, I could not pray; I could only sit like a frozen
image, and glare at the dark figure which was coming down the great
room.  And then it moved out into the white lane of moonlight, and I
breathed once more.  It was Dacre, and his face showed that he was as
frightened as myself.

"Was that you?  For God's sake what's the matter?" he asked in a husky
voice.

"Oh, Dacre, I am glad to see you!  I have been down into hell. It was
dreadful."

"Then it was you who screamed?"

"I dare say it was."

"It rang through the house.  The servants are all terrified." He struck
a match and lit the lamp.  "I think we may get the fire to burn up
again," he added, throwing some logs upon the embers. "Good God, my
dear chap, how white you are!  You look as if you had seen a ghost."

"So I have--several ghosts."

"The leather funnel has acted, then?"

"I wouldn't sleep near the infernal thing again for all the money you
could offer me."

Dacre chuckled.

"I expected that you would have a lively night of it," said he. "You
took it out of me in return, for that scream of yours wasn't a very
pleasant sound at two in the morning.  I suppose from what you say that
you have seen the whole dreadful business."

"What dreadful business?"

"The torture of the water--the 'Extraordinary Question,' as it was
called in the genial days of 'Le Roi Soleil.'  Did you stand it out to
the end?"

"No, thank God, I awoke before it really began."

"Ah!  it is just as well for you.  I held out till the third bucket.
Well, it is an old story, and they are all in their graves now, anyhow,
so what does it matter how they got there?  I suppose that you have no
idea what it was that you have seen?"

"The torture of some criminal.  She must have been a terrible
malefactor indeed if her crimes are in proportion to her penalty."

"Well, we have that small consolation," said Dacre, wrapping his
dressing-gown round him and crouching closer to the fire. "They WERE in
proportion to her penalty.  That is to say, if I am correct in the
lady's identity."

"How could you possibly know her identity?"

For answer Dacre took down an old vellum-covered volume from the shelf.

"Just listen to this," said he; "it is in the French of the seventeenth
century, but I will give a rough translation as I go. You will judge
for yourself whether I have solved the riddle or not.

"'The prisoner was brought before the Grand Chambers and Tournelles of
Parliament, sitting as a court of justice, charged with the murder of
Master Dreux d'Aubray, her father, and of her two brothers, MM.
d'Aubray, one being civil lieutenant, and the other a counsellor of
Parliament.  In person it seemed hard to believe that she had really
done such wicked deeds, for she was of a mild appearance, and of short
stature, with a fair skin and blue eyes.  Yet the Court, having found
her guilty, condemned her to the ordinary and to the extraordinary
question in order that she might be forced to name her accomplices,
after which she should be carried in a cart to the Place de Greve,
there to have her head cut off, her body being afterwards burned and
her ashes scattered to the winds.'

"The date of this entry is July 16, 1676."

"It is interesting," said I, "but not convincing.  How do you prove the
two women to be the same?"

"I am coming to that.  The narrative goes on to tell of the woman's
behaviour when questioned.  'When the executioner approached her she
recognized him by the cords which he held in his hands, and she at once
held out her own hands to him, looking at him from head to foot without
uttering a word.'  How's that?"

"Yes, it was so."

"'She gazed without wincing upon the wooden horse and rings which had
twisted so many limbs and caused so many shrieks of agony.  When her
eyes fell upon the three pails of water, which were all ready for her,
she said with a smile, "All that water must have been brought here for
the purpose of drowning me, Monsieur.  You have no idea, I trust, of
making a person of my small stature swallow it all."'  Shall I read the
details of the torture?"

"No, for Heaven's sake, don't."

"Here is a sentence which must surely show you that what is here
recorded is the very scene which you have gazed upon tonight: 'The good
Abbe Pirot, unable to contemplate the agonies which were suffered by
his penitent, had hurried from the room.'  Does that convince you?"

"It does entirely.  There can be no question that it is indeed the same
event.  But who, then, is this lady whose appearance was so attractive
and whose end was so horrible?"

For answer Dacre came across to me, and placed the small lamp upon the
table which stood by my bed.  Lifting up the ill-omened filler, he
turned the brass rim so that the light fell full upon it.  Seen in this
way the engraving seemed clearer than on the night before.

"We have already agreed that this is the badge of a marquis or of a
marquise," said he.  "We have also settled that the last letter is B."

"It is undoubtedly so."

"I now suggest to you that the other letters from left to right are, M,
M, a small d, A, a small d, and then the final B."

"Yes, I am sure that you are right.  I can make out the two small d's
quite plainly."

"What I have read to you tonight," said Dacre, "is the official record
of the trial of Marie Madeleine d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, one
of the most famous poisoners and murderers of all time."

I sat in silence, overwhelmed at the extraordinary nature of the
incident, and at the completeness of the proof with which Dacre had
exposed its real meaning.  In a vague way I remembered some details of
the woman's career, her unbridled debauchery, the cold-blooded and
protracted torture of her sick father, the murder of her brothers for
motives of petty gain.  I recollected also that the bravery of her end
had done something to atone for the horror of her life, and that all
Paris had sympathized with her last moments, and blessed her as a
martyr within a few days of the time when they had cursed her as a
murderess.  One objection, and one only, occurred to my mind.

"How came her initials and her badge of rank upon the filler? Surely
they did not carry their mediaeval homage to the nobility to the point
of decorating instruments of torture with their titles?"

"I was puzzled with the same point," said Dacre, "but it admits of a
simple explanation.  The case excited extraordinary interest at the
time, and nothing could be more natural than that La Reynie, the head
of the police, should retain this filler as a grim souvenir.  It was
not often that a marchioness of France underwent the extraordinary
question.  That he should engrave her initials upon it for the
information of others was surely a very ordinary proceeding upon his
part."

"And this?" I asked, pointing to the marks upon the leathern neck.

"She was a cruel tigress," said Dacre, as he turned away.  "I think it
is evident that like other tigresses her teeth were both strong and
sharp."



The New Catacomb

"Look here, Burger," said Kennedy, "I do wish that you would confide in
me."

The two famous students of Roman remains sat together in Kennedy's
comfortable room overlooking the Corso.  The night was cold, and they
had both pulled up their chairs to the unsatisfactory Italian stove
which threw out a zone of stuffiness rather than of warmth.  Outside
under the bright winter stars lay the modern Rome, the long, double
chain of the electric lamps, the brilliantly lighted cafes, the rushing
carriages, and the dense throng upon the footpaths.  But inside, in the
sumptuous chamber of the rich young English archaeologist, there was
only old Rome to be seen.  Cracked and timeworn friezes hung upon the
walls, grey old busts of senators and soldiers with their fighting
heads and their hard, cruel faces peered out from the corners.  On the
centre table, amidst a litter of inscriptions, fragments, and
ornaments, there stood the famous reconstruction by Kennedy of the
Baths of Caracalla, which excited such interest and admiration when it
was exhibited in Berlin.  Amphorae hung from the ceiling, and a litter
of curiosities strewed the rich red Turkey carpet.  And of them all
there was not one which was not of the most unimpeachable authenticity,
and of the utmost rarity and value; for Kennedy, though little more
than thirty, had a European reputation in this particular branch of
research, and was, moreover, provided with that long purse which either
proves to be a fatal handicap to the student's energies, or, if his
mind is still true to its purpose, gives him an enormous advantage in
the race for fame.  Kennedy had often been seduced by whim and pleasure
from his studies, but his mind was an incisive one, capable of long and
concentrated efforts which ended in sharp reactions of sensuous
languor.  His handsome face, with its high, white forehead, its
aggressive nose, and its somewhat loose and sensual mouth, was a fair
index of the compromise between strength and weakness in his nature.

Of a very different type was his companion, Julius Burger.  He came of
a curious blend, a German father and an Italian mother, with the robust
qualities of the North mingling strangely with the softer graces of the
South.  Blue Teutonic eyes lightened his sun-browned face, and above
them rose a square, massive forehead, with a fringe of close yellow
curls lying round it.  His strong, firm jaw was clean-shaven, and his
companion had frequently remarked how much it suggested those old Roman
busts which peered out from the shadows in the corners of his chamber.
Under its bluff German strength there lay always a suggestion of
Italian subtlety, but the smile was so honest, and the eyes so frank,
that one understood that this was only an indication of his ancestry,
with no actual bearing upon his character.  In age and in reputation,
he was on the same level as his English companion, but his life and his
work had both been far more arduous.  Twelve years before, he had come
as a poor student to Rome, and had lived ever since upon some small
endowment for research which had been awarded to him by the University
of Bonn.  Painfully, slowly, and doggedly, with extraordinary tenacity
and single-mindedness, he had climbed from rung to rung of the ladder
of fame, until now he was a member of the Berlin Academy, and there was
every reason to believe that he would shortly be promoted to the Chair
of the greatest of German Universities.  But the singleness of purpose
which had brought him to the same high level as the rich and brilliant
Englishman, had caused him in everything outside their work to stand
infinitely below him.  He had never found a pause in his studies in
which to cultivate the social graces.  It was only when he spoke of his
own subject that his face was filled with life and soul.  At other
times he was silent and embarrassed, too conscious of his own
limitations in larger subjects, and impatient of that small talk which
is the conventional refuge of those who have no thoughts to express.

And yet for some years there had been an acquaintanceship which
appeared to be slowly ripening into a friendship between these two very
different rivals.  The base and origin of this lay in the fact that in
their own studies each was the only one of the younger men who had
knowledge and enthusiasm enough to properly appreciate the other.
Their common interests and pursuits had brought them together, and each
had been attracted by the other's knowledge. And then gradually
something had been added to this.  Kennedy had been amused by the
frankness and simplicity of his rival, while Burger in turn had been
fascinated by the brilliancy and vivacity which had made Kennedy such a
favourite in Roman society.  I say "had," because just at the moment
the young Englishman was somewhat under a cloud.  A love-affair, the
details of which had never quite come out, had indicated a
heartlessness and callousness upon his part which shocked many of his
friends.  But in the bachelor circles of students and artists in which
he preferred to move there is no very rigid code of honour in such
matters, and though a head might be shaken or a pair of shoulders
shrugged over the flight of two and the return of one, the general
sentiment was probably one of curiosity and perhaps of envy rather than
of reprobation.

"Look here, Burger," said Kennedy, looking hard at the placid face of
his companion, "I do wish that you would confide in me."

As he spoke he waved his hand in the direction of a rug which lay upon
the floor.  On the rug stood a long, shallow fruit-basket of the light
wicker-work which is used in the Campagna, and this was heaped with a
litter of objects, inscribed tiles, broken inscriptions, cracked
mosaics, torn papyri, rusty metal ornaments, which to the uninitiated
might have seemed to have come straight from a dustman's bin, but which
a specialist would have speedily recognized as unique of their kind.
The pile of odds and ends in the flat wicker-work basket supplied
exactly one of those missing links of social development which are of
such interest to the student.  It was the German who had brought them
in, and the Englishman's eyes were hungry as he looked at them.

"I won't interfere with your treasure-trove, but I should very much
like to hear about it," he continued, while Burger very deliberately
lit a cigar.  "It is evidently a discovery of the first importance.
These inscriptions will make a sensation throughout Europe."

"For every one here there are a million there!" said the German.
"There are so many that a dozen savants might spend a lifetime over
them, and build up a reputation as solid as the Castle of St. Angelo."

Kennedy sat thinking with his fine forehead wrinkled and his fingers
playing with his long, fair moustache.

"You have given yourself away, Burger!" said he at last.  "Your words
can only apply to one thing.  You have discovered a new catacomb."

"I had no doubt that you had already come to that conclusion from an
examination of these objects."

"Well, they certainly appeared to indicate it, but your last remarks
make it certain.  There is no place except a catacomb which could
contain so vast a store of relics as you describe."

"Quite so.  There is no mystery about that.  I HAVE discovered a new
catacomb."

"Where?"

"Ah, that is my secret, my dear Kennedy.  Suffice it that it is so
situated that there is not one chance in a million of anyone else
coming upon it.  Its date is different from that of any known catacomb,
and it has been reserved for the burial of the highest Christians, so
that the remains and the relics are quite different from anything which
has ever been seen before.  If I was not aware of your knowledge and of
your energy, my friend, I would not hesitate, under the pledge of
secrecy, to tell you everything about it.  But as it is I think that I
must certainly prepare my own report of the matter before I expose
myself to such formidable competition."

Kennedy loved his subject with a love which was almost a mania--a love
which held him true to it, amidst all the distractions which come to a
wealthy and dissipated young man.  He had ambition, but his ambition
was secondary to his mere abstract joy and interest in everything which
concerned the old life and history of the city.  He yearned to see this
new underworld which his companion had discovered.

"Look here, Burger," said he, earnestly, "I assure you that you can
trust me most implicitly in the matter.  Nothing would induce me to put
pen to paper about anything which I see until I have your express
permission.  I quite understand your feeling and I think it is most
natural, but you have really nothing whatever to fear from me.  On the
other hand, if you don't tell me I shall make a systematic search, and
I shall most certainly discover it.  In that case, of course, I should
make what use I liked of it, since I should be under no obligation to
you."

Burger smiled thoughtfully over his cigar.

"I have noticed, friend Kennedy," said he, "that when I want
information over any point you are not always so ready to supply it."

"When did you ever ask me anything that I did not tell you? You
remember, for example, my giving you the material for your paper about
the temple of the Vestals."

"Ah, well, that was not a matter of much importance.  If I were to
question you upon some intimate thing would you give me an answer, I
wonder!  This new catacomb is a very intimate thing to me, and I should
certainly expect some sign of confidence in return."

"What you are driving at I cannot imagine," said the Englishman, "but
if you mean that you will answer my question about the catacomb if I
answer any question which you may put to me I can assure you that I
will certainly do so."

"Well, then," said Burger, leaning luxuriously back in his settee, and
puffing a blue tree of cigar-smoke into the air, "tell me all about
your relations with Miss Mary Saunderson."

Kennedy sprang up in his chair and glared angrily at his impassive
companion.

"What the devil do you mean?" he cried.  "What sort of a question is
this?  You may mean it as a joke, but you never made a worse one."

"No, I don't mean it as a joke," said Burger, simply.  "I am really
rather interested in the details of the matter.  I don't know much
about the world and women and social life and that sort of thing, and
such an incident has the fascination of the unknown for me.  I know
you, and I knew her by sight--I had even spoken to her once or twice.
I should very much like to hear from your own lips exactly what it was
which occurred between you."

"I won't tell you a word."

"That's all right.  It was only my whim to see if you would give up a
secret as easily as you expected me to give up my secret of the new
catacomb.  You wouldn't, and I didn't expect you to. But why should you
expect otherwise of me?  There's Saint John's clock striking ten.  It
is quite time that I was going home."

"No; wait a bit, Burger," said Kennedy; "this is really a ridiculous
caprice of yours to wish to know about an old love-affair which has
burned out months ago.  You know we look upon a man who kisses and
tells as the greatest coward and villain possible."

"Certainly," said the German, gathering up his basket of curiosities,
"when he tells anything about a girl which is previously unknown he
must be so.  But in this case, as you must be aware, it was a public
matter which was the common talk of Rome, so that you are not really
doing Miss Mary Saunderson any injury by discussing her case with me.
But still, I respect your scruples; and so good night!"

"Wait a bit, Burger," said Kennedy, laying his hand upon the other's
arm; "I am very keen upon this catacomb business, and I can't let it
drop quite so easily.  Would you mind asking me something else in
return--something not quite so eccentric this time?"

"No, no; you have refused, and there is an end of it," said Burger,
with his basket on his arm.  "No doubt you are quite right not to
answer, and no doubt I am quite right also--and so again, my dear
Kennedy, good night!"

The Englishman watched Burger cross the room, and he had his hand on
the handle of the door before his host sprang up with the air of a man
who is making the best of that which cannot be helped.

"Hold on, old fellow," said he; "I think you are behaving in a most
ridiculous fashion; but still; if this is your condition, I suppose
that I must submit to it.  I hate saying anything about a girl, but, as
you say, it is all over Rome, and I don't suppose I can tell you
anything which you do not know already.  What was it you wanted to
know?"

The German came back to the stove, and, laying down his basket, he sank
into his chair once more.

"May I have another cigar?" said he.  "Thank you very much!  I never
smoke when I work, but I enjoy a chat much more when I am under the
influence of tobacco.  Now, as regards this young lady, with whom you
had this little adventure.  What in the world has become of her?"

"She is at home with her own people."

"Oh, really--in England?"

"Yes."

"What part of England--London?"

"No, Twickenham."

"You must excuse my curiosity, my dear Kennedy, and you must put it
down to my ignorance of the world.  No doubt it is quite a simple thing
to persuade a young lady to go off with you for three weeks or so, and
then to hand her over to her own family at--what did you call the
place?"

"Twickenham."

"Quite so--at Twickenham.  But it is something so entirely outside my
own experience that I cannot even imagine how you set about it.  For
example, if you had loved this girl your love could hardly disappear in
three weeks, so I presume that you could not have loved her at all.
But if you did not love her why should you make this great scandal
which has damaged you and ruined her?"

Kennedy looked moodily into the red eye of the stove.

"That's a logical way of looking at it, certainly," said he. "Love is a
big word, and it represents a good many different shades of feeling.  I
liked her, and--well, you say you've seen her--you know how charming
she could look.  But still I am willing to admit, looking back, that I
could never have really loved her."

"Then, my dear Kennedy, why did you do it?"

"The adventure of the thing had a great deal to do with it."

"What!  You are so fond of adventures!"

"Where would the variety of life be without them?  It was for an
adventure that I first began to pay my attentions to her.  I've chased
a good deal of game in my time, but there's no chase like that of a
pretty woman.  There was the piquant difficulty of it also, for, as she
was the companion of Lady Emily Rood, it was almost impossible to see
her alone.  On the top of all the other obstacles which attracted me, I
learned from her own lips very early in the proceedings that she was
engaged."

"Mein Gott!  To whom?"

"She mentioned no names."

"I do not think that anyone knows that.  So that made the adventure
more alluring, did it?"

"Well, it did certainly give a spice to it.  Don't you think so?"

"I tell you that I am very ignorant about these things."

"My dear fellow, you can remember that the apple you stole from your
neighbour's tree was always sweeter than that which fell from your own.
And then I found that she cared for me."

"What--at once?"

"Oh, no, it took about three months of sapping and mining.  But at last
I won her over.  She understood that my judicial separation from my
wife made it impossible for me to do the right thing by her--but she
came all the same, and we had a delightful time, as long as it lasted."

"But how about the other man?"

Kennedy shrugged his shoulders.

"I suppose it is the survival of the fittest," said he.  "If he had
been the better man she would not have deserted him.  Let's drop the
subject, for I have had enough of it!"

"Only one other thing.  How did you get rid of her in three weeks?"

"Well, we had both cooled down a bit, you understand.  She absolutely
refused, under any circumstances, to come back to face the people she
had known in Rome.  Now, of course, Rome is necessary to me, and I was
already pining to be back at my work--so there was one obvious cause of
separation.  Then, again, her old father turned up at the hotel in
London, and there was a scene, and the whole thing became so unpleasant
that really--though I missed her dreadfully at first--I was very glad
to slip out of it.  Now, I rely upon you not to repeat anything of what
I have said."

"My dear Kennedy, I should not dream of repeating it.  But all that you
say interests me very much, for it gives me an insight into your way of
looking at things, which is entirely different from mine, for I have
seen so little of life.  And now you want to know about my new
catacomb.  There's no use my trying to describe it, for you would never
find it by that.  There is only one thing, and that is for me to take
you there."

"That would be splendid."

"When would you like to come?"

"The sooner the better.  I am all impatience to see it."

"Well, it is a beautiful night--though a trifle cold.  Suppose we start
in an hour.  We must be very careful to keep the matter to ourselves.
If anyone saw us hunting in couples they would suspect that there was
something going on."

"We can't be too cautious," said Kennedy.  "Is it far?"

"Some miles."

"Not too far to walk?"

"Oh, no, we could walk there easily."

"We had better do so, then.  A cabman's suspicions would be aroused if
he dropped us both at some lonely spot in the dead of the night."

"Quite so.  I think it would be best for us to meet at the Gate of the
Appian Way at midnight.  I must go back to my lodgings for the matches
and candles and things."

"All right, Burger!  I think it is very kind of you to let me into this
secret, and I promise you that I will write nothing about it until you
have published your report.  Good-bye for the present! You will find me
at the Gate at twelve."

The cold, clear air was filled with the musical chimes from that city
of clocks as Burger, wrapped in an Italian overcoat, with a lantern
hanging from his hand, walked up to the rendezvous. Kennedy stepped out
of the shadow to meet him.

"You are ardent in work as well as in love!" said the German, laughing.

"Yes; I have been waiting here for nearly half an hour."

"I hope you left no clue as to where we were going."

"Not such a fool!  By Jove, I am chilled to the bone!  Come on, Burger,
let us warm ourselves by a spurt of hard walking."

Their footsteps sounded loud and crisp upon the rough stone paving of
the disappointing road which is all that is left of the most famous
highway of the world.  A peasant or two going home from the wine-shop,
and a few carts of country produce coming up to Rome, were the only
things which they met.  They swung along, with the huge tombs looming
up through the darkness upon each side of them, until they had come as
far as the Catacombs of St. Calistus, and saw against a rising moon the
great circular bastion of Cecilia Metella in front of them.  Then
Burger stopped with his hand to his side.

"Your legs are longer than mine, and you are more accustomed to
walking," said he, laughing.  "I think that the place where we turn off
is somewhere here.  Yes, this is it, round the corner of the trattoria.
Now, it is a very narrow path, so perhaps I had better go in front and
you can follow."

He had lit his lantern, and by its light they were enabled to follow a
narrow and devious track which wound across the marshes of the
Campagna.  The great Aqueduct of old Rome lay like a monstrous
caterpillar across the moonlit landscape, and their road led them under
one of its huge arches, and past the circle of crumbling bricks which
marks the old arena.  At last Burger stopped at a solitary wooden
cow-house, and he drew a key from his pocket. "Surely your catacomb is
not inside a house!" cried Kennedy.

"The entrance to it is.  That is just the safeguard which we have
against anyone else discovering it."

"Does the proprietor know of it?"

"Not he.  He had found one or two objects which made me almost certain
that his house was built on the entrance to such a place. So I rented
it from him, and did my excavations for myself.  Come in, and shut the
door behind you."

It was a long, empty building, with the mangers of the cows along one
wall.  Burger put his lantern down on the ground, and shaded its light
in all directions save one by draping his overcoat round it.

"It might excite remark if anyone saw a light in this lonely place,"
said he.  "Just help me to move this boarding."

The flooring was loose in the corner, and plank by plank the two
savants raised it and leaned it against the wall.  Below there was a
square aperture and a stair of old stone steps which led away down into
the bowels of the earth.

"Be careful!" cried Burger, as Kennedy, in his impatience, hurried down
them.  "It is a perfect rabbits'-warren below, and if you were once to
lose your way there the chances would be a hundred to one against your
ever coming out again.  Wait until I bring the light."

"How do you find your own way if it is so complicated?"

"I had some very narrow escapes at first, but I have gradually learned
to go about.  There is a certain system to it, but it is one which a
lost man, if he were in the dark, could not possibly find out.  Even
now I always spin out a ball of string behind me when I am going far
into the catacomb.  You can see for yourself that it is difficult, but
every one of these passages divides and subdivides a dozen times before
you go a hundred yards."

They had descended some twenty feet from the level of the byre, and
they were standing now in a square chamber cut out of the soft tufa.
The lantern cast a flickering light, bright below and dim above, over
the cracked brown walls.  In every direction were the black openings of
passages which radiated from this common centre.

"I want you to follow me closely, my friend," said Burger.  "Do not
loiter to look at anything upon the way, for the place to which I will
take you contains all that you can see, and more.  It will save time
for us to go there direct."

He led the way down one of the corridors, and the Englishman followed
closely at his heels.  Every now and then the passage bifurcated, but
Burger was evidently following some secret marks of his own, for he
neither stopped nor hesitated.  Everywhere along the walls, packed like
the berths upon an emigrant ship, lay the Christians of old Rome.  The
yellow light flickered over the shrivelled features of the mummies, and
gleamed upon rounded skulls and long, white armbones crossed over
fleshless chests.  And everywhere as he passed Kennedy looked with
wistful eyes upon inscriptions, funeral vessels, pictures, vestments,
utensils, all lying as pious hands had placed them so many centuries
ago.  It was apparent to him, even in those hurried, passing glances,
that this was the earliest and finest of the catacombs, containing such
a storehouse of Roman remains as had never before come at one time
under the observation of the student.

"What would happen if the light went out?" he asked, as they hurried
onwards.

"I have a spare candle and a box of matches in my pocket.  By the way,
Kennedy, have you any matches?"

"No; you had better give me some."

"Oh, that is all right.  There is no chance of our separating."

"How far are we going?  It seems to me that we have walked at least a
quarter of a mile."

"More than that, I think.  There is really no limit to the tombs--at
least, I have never been able to find any.  This is a very difficult
place, so I think that I will use our ball of string."

He fastened one end of it to a projecting stone and he carried the coil
in the breast of his coat, paying it out as he advanced. Kennedy saw
that it was no unnecessary precaution, for the passages had become more
complex and tortuous than ever, with a perfect network of intersecting
corridors.  But these all ended in one large circular hall with a
square pedestal of tufa topped with a slab of marble at one end of it.

"By Jove!" cried Kennedy in an ecstasy, as Burger swung his lantern
over the marble.  "It is a Christian altar--probably the first one in
existence.  Here is the little consecration cross cut upon the corner
of it.  No doubt this circular space was used as a church."

"Precisely," said Burger.  "If I had more time I should like to show
you all the bodies which are buried in these niches upon the walls, for
they are the early popes and bishops of the Church, with their mitres,
their croziers, and full canonicals.  Go over to that one and look at
it!"

Kennedy went across, and stared at the ghastly head which lay loosely
on the shredded and mouldering mitre.

"This is most interesting," said he, and his voice seemed to boom
against the concave vault.  "As far as my experience goes, it is
unique.  Bring the lantern over, Burger, for I want to see them all."

But the German had strolled away, and was standing in the middle of a
yellow circle of light at the other side of the hall.

"Do you know how many wrong turnings there are between this and the
stairs?" he asked.  "There are over two thousand.  No doubt it was one
of the means of protection which the Christians adopted. The odds are
two thousand to one against a man getting out, even if he had a light;
but if he were in the dark it would, of course, be far more difficult."

"So I should think."

"And the darkness is something dreadful.  I tried it once for an
experiment.  Let us try it again!"  He stooped to the lantern, and in
an instant it was as if an invisible hand was squeezed tightly over
each of Kennedy's eyes.  Never had he known what such darkness was.  It
seemed to press upon him and to smother him.  It was a solid obstacle
against which the body shrank from advancing. He put his hands out to
push it back from him.

"That will do, Burger," said he, "let's have the light again."

But his companion began to laugh, and in that circular room the sound
seemed to come from every side at once.

"You seem uneasy, friend Kennedy," said he.

"Go on, man, light the candle!" said Kennedy impatiently.

"It's very strange, Kennedy, but I could not in the least tell by the
sound in which direction you stand.  Could you tell where I am?"

"No; you seem to be on every side of me."

"If it were not for this string which I hold in my hand I should not
have a notion which way to go."

"I dare say not.  Strike a light, man, and have an end of this
nonsense."

"Well, Kennedy, there are two things which I understand that you are
very fond of.  The one is an adventure, and the other is an obstacle to
surmount.  The adventure must be the finding of your way out of this
catacomb.  The obstacle will be the darkness and the two thousand wrong
turns which make the way a little difficult to find.  But you need not
hurry, for you have plenty of time, and when you halt for a rest now
and then, I should like you just to think of Miss Mary Saunderson, and
whether you treated her quite fairly."

"You devil, what do you mean?" roared Kennedy.  He was running about in
little circles and clasping at the solid blackness with both hands.

"Good-bye," said the mocking voice, and it was already at some
distance.  "I really do not think, Kennedy, even by your own showing
that you did the right thing by that girl.  There was only one little
thing which you appeared not to know, and I can supply it.  Miss
Saunderson was engaged to a poor ungainly devil of a student, and his
name was Julius Burger."

There was a rustle somewhere, the vague sound of a foot striking a
stone, and then there fell silence upon that old Christian church--a
stagnant, heavy silence which closed round Kennedy and shut him in like
water round a drowning man.


Some two months afterwards the following paragraph made the round of
the European Press:


"One of the most interesting discoveries of recent years is that of the
new catacomb in Rome, which lies some distance to the east of the
well-known vaults of St. Calixtus.  The finding of this important
burial-place, which is exceeding rich in most interesting early
Christian remains, is due to the energy and sagacity of Dr. Julius
Burger, the young German specialist, who is rapidly taking the first
place as an authority upon ancient Rome. Although the first to publish
his discovery, it appears that a less fortunate adventurer had
anticipated Dr. Burger.  Some months ago Mr. Kennedy, the well-known
English student, disappeared suddenly from his rooms in the Corso, and
it was conjectured that his association with a recent scandal had
driven him to leave Rome.  It appears now that he had in reality fallen
a victim to that fervid love of archaeology which had raised him to a
distinguished place among living scholars.  His body was discovered in
the heart of the new catacomb, and it was evident from the condition of
his feet and boots that he had tramped for days through the tortuous
corridors which make these subterranean tombs so dangerous to
explorers.  The deceased gentleman had, with inexplicable rashness,
made his way into this labyrinth without, as far as can be discovered,
taking with him either candles or matches, so that his sad fate was the
natural result of his own temerity.  What makes the matter more painful
is that Dr. Julius Burger was an intimate friend of the deceased.  His
joy at the extraordinary find which he has been so fortunate as to make
has been greatly marred by the terrible fate of his comrade and
fellow-worker."



The Case of Lady Sannox

The relations between Douglas Stone and the notorious Lady Sannox were
very well known both among the fashionable circles of which she was a
brilliant member, and the scientific bodies which numbered him among
their most illustrious confreres.  There was naturally, therefore, a
very widespread interest when it was announced one morning that the
lady had absolutely and for ever taken the veil, and that the world
would see her no more.  When, at the very tail of this rumour, there
came the assurance that the celebrated operating surgeon, the man of
steel nerves, had been found in the morning by his valet, seated on one
side of his bed, smiling pleasantly upon the universe, with both legs
jammed into one side of his breeches and his great brain about as
valuable as a cap full of porridge, the matter was strong enough to
give quite a little thrill of interest to folk who had never hoped that
their jaded nerves were capable of such a sensation.

Douglas Stone in his prime was one of the most remarkable men in
England.  Indeed, he could hardly be said to have ever reached his
prime, for he was but nine-and-thirty at the time of this little
incident.  Those who knew him best were aware that famous as he was as
a surgeon, he might have succeeded with even greater rapidity in any of
a dozen lines of life.  He could have cut his way to fame as a soldier,
struggled to it as an explorer, bullied for it in the courts, or built
it out of stone and iron as an engineer.  He was born to be great, for
he could plan what another man dare not do, and he could do what
another man dare not plan. In surgery none could follow him.  His
nerve, his judgement, his intuition, were things apart.  Again and
again his knife cut away death, but grazed the very springs of life in
doing it, until his assistants were as white as the patient.  His
energy, his audacity, his full-blooded self-confidence--does not the
memory of them still linger to the south of Marylebone Road and the
north of Oxford Street?

His vices were as magnificent as his virtues, and infinitely more
picturesque.  Large as was his income, and it was the third largest of
all professional men in London, it was far beneath the luxury of his
living.  Deep in his complex nature lay a rich vein of sensualism, at
the sport of which he placed all the prizes of his life.  The eye, the
ear, the touch, the palate, all were his masters.  The bouquet of old
vintages, the scent of rare exotics, the curves and tints of the
daintiest potteries of Europe, it was to these that the quick-running
stream of gold was transformed. And then there came his sudden mad
passion for Lady Sannox, when a single interview with two challenging
glances and a whispered word set him ablaze.  She was the loveliest
woman in London and the only one to him.  He was one of the handsomest
men in London, but not the only one to her.  She had a liking for new
experiences, and was gracious to most men who wooed her.  It may have
been cause or it may have been effect that Lord Sannox looked fifty,
though he was but six-and-thirty.

He was a quiet, silent, neutral-tinted man, this lord, with thin lips
and heavy eyelids, much given to gardening, and full of home-like
habits.  He had at one time been fond of acting, had even rented a
theatre in London, and on its boards had first seen Miss Marion Dawson,
to whom he had offered his hand, his title, and the third of a county.
Since his marriage his early hobby had become distasteful to him.  Even
in private theatricals it was no longer possible to persuade him to
exercise the talent which he had often showed that he possessed.  He
was happier with a spud and a watering-can among his orchids and
chrysanthemums.

It was quite an interesting problem whether he was absolutely devoid of
sense, or miserably wanting in spirit.  Did he know his lady's ways and
condone them, or was he a mere blind, doting fool? It was a point to be
discussed over the teacups in snug little drawing-rooms, or with the
aid of a cigar in the bow windows of clubs.  Bitter and plain were the
comments among men upon his conduct.  There was but one who had a good
word to say for him, and he was the most silent member in the
smoking-room.  He had seen him break in a horse at the University, and
it seemed to have left an impression upon his mind.

But when Douglas Stone became the favourite all doubts as to Lord
Sannox's knowledge or ignorance were set for ever at rest. There was no
subterfuge about Stone.  In his high-handed, impetuous fashion, he set
all caution and discretion at defiance.  The scandal became notorious.
A learned body intimated that his name had been struck from the list of
its vice-presidents.  Two friends implored him to consider his
professional credit.  He cursed them all three, and spent forty guineas
on a bangle to take with him to the lady.  He was at her house every
evening, and she drove in his carriage in the afternoons.  There was
not an attempt on either side to conceal their relations; but there
came at last a little incident to interrupt them.

It was a dismal winter's night, very cold and gusty, with the wind
whooping in the chimneys and blustering against the window-panes. A
thin spatter of rain tinkled on the glass with each fresh sough of the
gale, drowning for the instant the dull gurgle and drip from the eaves.
Douglas Stone had finished his dinner, and sat by his fire in the
study, a glass of rich port upon the malachite table at his elbow.  As
he raised it to his lips, he held it up against the lamplight, and
watched with the eye of a connoisseur the tiny scales of beeswing which
floated in its rich ruby depths.  The fire, as it spurted up, threw
fitful lights upon his bald, clear-cut face, with its widely-opened
grey eyes, its thick and yet firm lips, and the deep, square jaw, which
had something Roman in its strength and its animalism.  He smiled from
time to time as he nestled back in his luxurious chair.  Indeed, he had
a right to feel well pleased, for, against the advice of six
colleagues, he had performed an operation that day of which only two
cases were on record, and the result had been brilliant beyond all
expectation.  No other man in London would have had the daring to plan,
or the skill to execute, such a heroic measure.

But he had promised Lady Sannox to see her that evening and it was
already half-past eight.  His hand was outstretched to the bell to
order the carriage when he heard the dull thud of the knocker. An
instant later there was the shuffling of feet in the hall, and the
sharp closing of a door.

"A patient to see you, sir, in the consulting room," said the butler.

"About himself?"

"No, sir; I think he wants you to go out."

"It is too late," cried Douglas Stone peevishly.  "I won't go."

"This is his card, sir."

The butler presented it upon the gold salver which had been given to
his master by the wife of a Prime Minister.

"'Hamil Ali, Smyrna.'  Hum!  The fellow is a Turk, I suppose."

"Yes, sir.  He seems as if he came from abroad, sir.  And he's in a
terrible way."

"Tut, tut!  I have an engagement.  I must go somewhere else. But I'll
see him.  Show him in here, Pim."

A few moments later the butler swung open the door and ushered in a
small and decrepit man, who walked with a bent back and with the
forward push of the face and blink of the eyes which goes with extreme
short sight.  His face was swarthy, and his hair and beard of the
deepest black.  In one hand he held a turban of white muslin striped
with red, in the other a small chamois-leather bag.

"Good evening," said Douglas Stone, when the butler had closed the
door.  "You speak English, I presume?"

"Yes, sir.  I am from Asia Minor, but I speak English when I speak
slow."

"You wanted me to go out, I understand?"

"Yes, sir.  I wanted very much that you should see my wife."

"I could come in the morning, but I have an engagement which prevents
me from seeing your wife tonight."

The Turk's answer was a singular one.  He pulled the string which
closed the mouth of the chamois-leather bag, and poured a flood of gold
on to the table.

"There are one hundred pounds there," said he, "and I promise you that
it will not take you an hour.  I have a cab ready at the door."

Douglas Stone glanced at his watch.  An hour would not make it too late
to visit Lady Sannox.  He had been there later.  And the fee was an
extraordinarily high one.  He had been pressed by his creditors lately,
and he could not afford to let such a chance pass.  He would go.

"What is the case?" he asked.

"Oh, it is so sad a one!  So sad a one!  You have not, perhaps heard of
the daggers of the Almohades?"

"Never."

"Ah, they are Eastern daggers of a great age and of a singular shape,
with the hilt like what you call a stirrup.  I am a curiosity dealer,
you understand, and that is why I have come to England from Smyrna, but
next week I go back once more.  Many things I brought with me, and I
have a few things left, but among them, to my sorrow, is one of these
daggers."

"You will remember that I have an appointment, sir," said the surgeon,
with some irritation; "pray confine yourself to the necessary details."

"You will see that it is necessary.  Today my wife fell down in a faint
in the room in which I keep my wares, and she cut her lower lip upon
this cursed dagger of Almohades."

"I see," said Douglas Stone, rising.  "And you wish me to dress the
wound?"

"No, no, it is worse than that."

"What then?"

"These daggers are poisoned."

"Poisoned!"

"Yes, and there is no man, East or West, who can tell now what is the
poison or what the cure.  But all that is known I know, for my father
was in this trade before me, and we have had much to do with these
poisoned weapons."

"What are the symptoms?"

"Deep sleep, and death in thirty hours."

"And you say there is no cure.  Why then should you pay me this
considerable fee?"

"No drug can cure, but the knife may."

"And how?"

"The poison is slow of absorption.  It remains for hours in the wound."

"Washing, then, might cleanse it?"

"No more than in a snake bite.  It is too subtle and too deadly."

"Excision of the wound, then?"

"That is it.  If it be on the finger, take the finger off.  So said my
father always.  But think of where this wound is, and that it is my
wife.  It is dreadful!"

But familiarity with such grim matters may take the finer edge from a
man's sympathy.  To Douglas Stone this was already an interesting case,
and he brushed aside as irrelevant the feeble objections of the husband.

"It appears to be that or nothing," said he brusquely.  "It is better
to lose a lip than a life."

"Ah, yes, I know that you are right.  Well, well, it is kismet, and it
must be faced.  I have the cab, and you will come with me and do this
thing."

Douglas Stone took his case of bistouries from a drawer, and placed it
with a roll of bandage and a compress of lint in his pocket.  He must
waste no more time if he were to see Lady Sannox.

"I am ready," said he, pulling on his overcoat.  "Will you take a glass
of wine before you go out into this cold air?"

His visitor shrank away, with a protesting hand upraised.

"You forget that I am a Mussulman, and a true follower of the Prophet,"
said he.  "But tell me what is the bottle of green glass which you have
placed in your pocket?"

"It is chloroform."

"Ah, that also is forbidden to us.  It is a spirit, and we make no use
of such things."

"What!  You would allow your wife to go through an operation without an
anaesthetic?"

"Ah!  she will feel nothing, poor soul.  The deep sleep has already
come on, which is the first working of the poison.  And then I have
given her of our Smyrna opium.  Come, sir, for already an hour has
passed."

As they stepped out into the darkness, a sheet of rain was driven in
upon their faces, and the hall lamp, which dangled from the arm of a
marble Caryatid, went out with a fluff.  Pim, the butler, pushed the
heavy door to, straining hard with his shoulder against the wind, while
the two men groped their way towards the yellow glare which showed
where the cab was waiting.  An instant later they were rattling upon
their journey.

"Is it far?" asked Douglas Stone.

"Oh, no.  We have a very little quiet place off the Euston Road."

The surgeon pressed the spring of his repeater and listened to the
little tings which told him the hour.  It was a quarter past nine.  He
calculated the distances, and the short time which it would take him to
perform so trivial an operation.  He ought to reach Lady Sannox by ten
o'clock.  Through the fogged windows he saw the blurred gas lamps
dancing past, with occasionally the broader glare of a shop front.  The
rain was pelting and rattling upon the leathern top of the carriage,
and the wheels swashed as they rolled through puddle and mud.  Opposite
to him the white headgear of his companion gleamed faintly through the
obscurity. The surgeon felt in his pockets and arranged his needles,
his ligatures and his safety-pins, that no time might be wasted when
they arrived.  He chafed with impatience and drummed his foot upon the
floor.

But the cab slowed down at last and pulled up.  In an instant Douglas
Stone was out, and the Smyrna merchant's toe was at his very heel.

"You can wait," said he to the driver.

It was a mean-looking house in a narrow and sordid street.  The
surgeon, who knew his London well, cast a swift glance into the
shadows, but there was nothing distinctive--no shop, no movement,
nothing but a double line of dull, flat-faced houses, a double stretch
of wet flagstones which gleamed in the lamplight, and a double rush of
water in the gutters which swirled and gurgled towards the sewer
gratings.  The door which faced them was blotched and discoloured, and
a faint light in the fan pane above, it served to show the dust and the
grime which covered it.  Above in one of the bedroom windows, there was
a dull yellow glimmer.  The merchant knocked loudly, and, as he turned
his dark face towards the light, Douglas Stone could see that it was
contracted with anxiety.  A bolt was drawn, and an elderly woman with a
taper stood in the doorway, shielding the thin flame with her gnarled
hand.

"Is all well?" gasped the merchant.

"She is as you left her, sir."

"She has not spoken?"

"No, she is in a deep sleep."

The merchant closed the door, and Douglas Stone walked down the narrow
passage, glancing about him in some surprise as he did so. There was no
oil-cloth, no mat, no hat-rack.  Deep grey dust and heavy festoons of
cobwebs met his eyes everywhere.  Following the old woman up the
winding stair, his firm footfall echoed harshly through the silent
house.  There was no carpet.

The bedroom was on the second landing.  Douglas Stone followed the old
nurse into it, with the merchant at his heels.  Here, at least, there
was furniture and to spare.  The floor was littered and the corners
piled with Turkish cabinets, inlaid tables, coats of chain mail,
strange pipes, and grotesque weapons.  A single small lamp stood upon a
bracket on the wall.  Douglas Stone took it down, and picking his way
among the lumber, walked over to a couch in the corner, on which lay a
woman dressed in the Turkish fashion, with yashmak and veil.  The lower
part of the face was exposed, and the surgeon saw a jagged cut which
zigzagged along the border of the under lip.

"You will forgive the yashmak," said the Turk.  "You know our views
about women in the East."

But the surgeon was not thinking about the yashmak.  This was no longer
a woman to him.  It was a case.  He stooped and examined the wound
carefully.

"There are no signs of irritation," said he.  "We might delay the
operation until local symptoms develop."

The husband wrung his hands in uncontrollable agitation.

"Oh!  sir, sir," he cried.  "Do not trifle.  You do not know. It is
deadly.  I know, and I give you my assurance that an operation is
absolutely necessary.  Only the knife can save her."

"And yet I am inclined to wait," said Douglas Stone.

"That is enough," the Turk cried, angrily.  "Every minute is of
importance, and I cannot stand here and see my wife allowed to sink.
It only remains for me to give you my thanks for having come, and to
call in some other surgeon before it is too late."

Douglas Stone hesitated.  To refund that hundred pounds was no pleasant
matter.  But of course if he left the case he must return the money.
And if the Turk were right and the woman died, his position before a
coroner might be an embarrassing one.

"You have had personal experience of this poison?" he asked.

"I have."

"And you assure me that an operation is needful."

"I swear it by all that I hold sacred."

"The disfigurement will be frightful."

"I can understand that the mouth will not be a pretty one to kiss."

Douglas Stone turned fiercely upon the man.  The speech was a brutal
one.  But the Turk has his own fashion of talk and of thought, and
there was no time for wrangling.  Douglas Stone drew a bistoury from
his case, opened it and felt the keen straight edge with his
forefinger.  Then he held the lamp closer to the bed.  Two dark eyes
were gazing up at him through the slit in the yashmak. They were all
iris, and the pupil was hardly to be seen.

"You have given her a very heavy dose of opium."

"Yes, she has had a good dose."

He glanced again at the dark eyes which looked straight at his own.
They were dull and lustreless, but, even as he gazed, a little shifting
sparkle came into them, and the lips quivered.

"She is not absolutely unconscious," said he.

"Would it not be well to use the knife while it will be painless?"

The same thought had crossed the surgeon's mind.  He grasped the
wounded lip with his forceps, and with two swift cuts he took out a
broad V-shaped piece.  The woman sprang up on the couch with a dreadful
gurgling scream.  Her covering was torn from her face. It was a face
that he knew.  In spite of that protruding upper lip and that slobber
of blood, it was a face that he knew, She kept on putting her hand up
to the gap and screaming.  Douglas Stone sat down at the foot of the
couch with his knife and his forceps.  The room was whirling round, and
he had felt something go like a ripping seam behind his ear.  A
bystander would have said that his face was the more ghastly of the
two.  As in a dream, or as if he had been looking at something at the
play, he was conscious that the Turk's hair and beard lay upon the
table, and that Lord Sannox was leaning against the wall with his hand
to his side, laughing silently.  The screams had died away now, and the
dreadful head had dropped back again upon the pillow, but Douglas Stone
still sat motionless, and Lord Sannox still chuckled quietly to himself.

"It was really very necessary for Marion, this operation," said he,
"not physically, but morally, you know, morally."

Douglas Stone stooped for yards and began to play with the fringe of
the coverlet.  His knife tinkled down upon the ground, but he still
held the forceps and something more.

"I had long intended to make a little example," said Lord Sannox,
suavely.  "Your note of Wednesday miscarried, and I have it here in my
pocket-book.  I took some pains in carrying out my idea. The wound, by
the way, was from nothing more dangerous than my signet ring."

He glanced keenly at his silent companion, and cocked the small
revolver which he held in his coat pocket.  But Douglas Stone was still
picking at the coverlet.

"You see you have kept your appointment after all," said Lord Sannox.

And at that Douglas Stone began to laugh.  He laughed long and loudly.
But Lord Sannox did not laugh now.  Something like fear sharpened and
hardened his features.  He walked from the room, and he walked on
tiptoe.  The old woman was waiting outside.

"Attend to your mistress when she awakes," said Lord Sannox.

Then he went down to the street.  The cab was at the door, and the
driver raised his hand to his hat.

"John," said Lord Sannox, "you will take the doctor home first. He will
want leading downstairs, I think.  Tell his butler that he has been
taken ill at a case."

"Very good, sir."

"Then you can take Lady Sannox home."

"And how about yourself, sir?"

"Oh, my address for the next few months will be Hotel di Roma, Venice.
Just see that the letters are sent on.  And tell Stevens to exhibit all
the purple chrysanthemums next Monday, and to wire me the result."



The Terror of Blue John Gap

The following narrative was found among the papers of Dr. James
Hardcastle, who died of phthisis on February 4th, 1908, at 36, Upper
Coventry Flats, South Kensington.  Those who knew him best, while
refusing to express an opinion upon this particular statement, are
unanimous in asserting that he was a man of a sober and scientific turn
of mind, absolutely devoid of imagination, and most unlikely to invent
any abnormal series of events.  The paper was contained in an envelope,
which was docketed, "A Short Account of the Circumstances which
occurred near Miss Allerton's Farm in North-West Derbyshire in the
Spring of Last Year."  The envelope was sealed, and on the other side
was written in pencil--


DEAR SEATON,--

"It may interest, and perhaps pain you, to know that the incredulity
with which you met my story has prevented me from ever opening my mouth
upon the subject again.  I leave this record after my death, and
perhaps strangers may be found to have more confidence in me than my
friend."


Inquiry has failed to elicit who this Seaton may have been.  I may add
that the visit of the deceased to Allerton's Farm, and the general
nature of the alarm there, apart from his particular explanation, have
been absolutely established.  With this foreword I append his account
exactly as he left it.  It is in the form of a diary, some entries in
which have been expanded, while a few have been erased.


April 17.--Already I feel the benefit of this wonderful upland air.
The farm of the Allertons lies fourteen hundred and twenty feet above
sea-level, so it may well be a bracing climate. Beyond the usual
morning cough I have very little discomfort, and, what with the fresh
milk and the home-grown mutton, I have every chance of putting on
weight.  I think Saunderson will be pleased.

The two Miss Allertons are charmingly quaint and kind, two dear little
hard-working old maids, who are ready to lavish all the heart which
might have gone out to husband and to children upon an invalid
stranger.  Truly, the old maid is a most useful person, one of the
reserve forces of the community.  They talk of the superfluous woman,
but what would the poor superfluous man do without her kindly presence?
By the way, in their simplicity they very quickly let out the reason
why Saunderson recommended their farm.  The Professor rose from the
ranks himself, and I believe that in his youth he was not above scaring
crows in these very fields.

It is a most lonely spot, and the walks are picturesque in the extreme.
The farm consists of grazing land lying at the bottom of an irregular
valley.  On each side are the fantastic limestone hills, formed of rock
so soft that you can break it away with your hands.  All this country
is hollow.  Could you strike it with some gigantic hammer it would boom
like a drum, or possibly cave in altogether and expose some huge
subterranean sea.  A great sea there must surely be, for on all sides
the streams run into the mountain itself, never to reappear.  There are
gaps everywhere amid the rocks, and when you pass through them you find
yourself in great caverns, which wind down into the bowels of the
earth.  I have a small bicycle lamp, and it is a perpetual joy to me to
carry it into these weird solitudes, and to see the wonderful silver
and black effect when I throw its light upon the stalactites which
drape the lofty roofs.  Shut off the lamp, and you are in the blackest
darkness.  Turn it on, and it is a scene from the Arabian Nights.

But there is one of these strange openings in the earth which has a
special interest, for it is the handiwork, not of nature, but of man.
I had never heard of Blue John when I came to these parts. It is the
name given to a peculiar mineral of a beautiful purple shade, which is
only found at one or two places in the world.  It is so rare that an
ordinary vase of Blue John would be valued at a great price.  The
Romans, with that extraordinary instinct of theirs, discovered that it
was to be found in this valley, and sank a horizontal shaft deep into
the mountain side.  The opening of their mine has been called Blue John
Gap, a clean-cut arch in the rock, the mouth all overgrown with bushes.
It is a goodly passage which the Roman miners have cut, and it
intersects some of the great water-worn caves, so that if you enter
Blue John Gap you would do well to mark your steps and to have a good
store of candles, or you may never make your way back to the daylight
again. I have not yet gone deeply into it, but this very day I stood at
the mouth of the arched tunnel, and peering down into the black
recesses beyond, I vowed that when my health returned I would devote
some holiday to exploring those mysterious depths and finding out for
myself how far the Roman had penetrated into the Derbyshire hills.

Strange how superstitious these countrymen are!  I should have thought
better of young Armitage, for he is a man of some education and
character, and a very fine fellow for his station in life.  I was
standing at the Blue John Gap when he came across the field to me.

"Well, doctor," said he, "you're not afraid, anyhow."

"Afraid!" I answered.  "Afraid of what?"

"Of it," said he, with a jerk of his thumb towards the black vault, "of
the Terror that lives in the Blue John Cave."

How absurdly easy it is for a legend to arise in a lonely countryside!
I examined him as to the reasons for his weird belief.  It seems that
from time to time sheep have been missing from the fields, carried
bodily away, according to Armitage.  That they could have wandered away
of their own accord and disappeared among the mountains was an
explanation to which he would not listen.  On one occasion a pool of
blood had been found, and some tufts of wool.  That also, I pointed
out, could be explained in a perfectly natural way.  Further, the
nights upon which sheep disappeared were invariably very dark, cloudy
nights with no moon. This I met with the obvious retort that those were
the nights which a commonplace sheep-stealer would naturally choose for
his work. On one occasion a gap had been made in a wall, and some of
the stones scattered for a considerable distance.  Human agency again,
in my opinion.  Finally, Armitage clinched all his arguments by telling
me that he had actually heard the Creature--indeed, that anyone could
hear it who remained long enough at the Gap.  It was a distant roaring
of an immense volume.  I could not but smile at this, knowing, as I do,
the strange reverberations which come out of an underground water
system running amid the chasms of a limestone formation.  My
incredulity annoyed Armitage so that he turned and left me with some
abruptness.

And now comes the queer point about the whole business.  I was still
standing near the mouth of the cave turning over in my mind the various
statements of Armitage, and reflecting how readily they could be
explained away, when suddenly, from the depth of the tunnel beside me,
there issued a most extraordinary sound.  How shall I describe it?
First of all, it seemed to be a great distance away, far down in the
bowels of the earth.  Secondly, in spite of this suggestion of
distance, it was very loud.  Lastly, it was not a boom, nor a crash,
such as one would associate with falling water or tumbling rock, but it
was a high whine, tremulous and vibrating, almost like the whinnying of
a horse.  It was certainly a most remarkable experience, and one which
for a moment, I must admit, gave a new significance to Armitage's
words.  I waited by the Blue John Gap for half an hour or more, but
there was no return of the sound, so at last I wandered back to the
farmhouse, rather mystified by what had occurred.  Decidedly I shall
explore that cavern when my strength is restored.  Of course,
Armitage's explanation is too absurd for discussion, and yet that sound
was certainly very strange.  It still rings in my ears as I write.

April 20.--In the last three days I have made several expeditions to
the Blue John Gap, and have even penetrated some short distance, but my
bicycle lantern is so small and weak that I dare not trust myself very
far.  I shall do the thing more systematically.  I have heard no sound
at all, and could almost believe that I had been the victim of some
hallucination suggested, perhaps, by Armitage's conversation.  Of
course, the whole idea is absurd, and yet I must confess that those
bushes at the entrance of the cave do present an appearance as if some
heavy creature had forced its way through them.  I begin to be keenly
interested.  I have said nothing to the Miss Allertons, for they are
quite superstitious enough already, but I have bought some candles, and
mean to investigate for myself.

I observed this morning that among the numerous tufts of sheep's wool
which lay among the bushes near the cavern there was one which was
smeared with blood.  Of course, my reason tells me that if sheep wander
into such rocky places they are likely to injure themselves, and yet
somehow that splash of crimson gave me a sudden shock, and for a moment
I found myself shrinking back in horror from the old Roman arch.  A
fetid breath seemed to ooze from the black depths into which I peered.
Could it indeed be possible that some nameless thing, some dreadful
presence, was lurking down yonder?  I should have been incapable of
such feelings in the days of my strength, but one grows more nervous
and fanciful when one's health is shaken.

For the moment I weakened in my resolution, and was ready to leave the
secret of the old mine, if one exists, for ever unsolved. But tonight
my interest has returned and my nerves grown more steady.  Tomorrow I
trust that I shall have gone more deeply into this matter.

April 22.--Let me try and set down as accurately as I can my
extraordinary experience of yesterday.  I started in the afternoon, and
made my way to the Blue John Gap.  I confess that my misgivings
returned as I gazed into its depths, and I wished that I had brought a
companion to share my exploration.  Finally, with a return of
resolution, I lit my candle, pushed my way through the briars, and
descended into the rocky shaft.

It went down at an acute angle for some fifty feet, the floor being
covered with broken stone.  Thence there extended a long, straight
passage cut in the solid rock.  I am no geologist, but the lining of
this corridor was certainly of some harder material than limestone, for
there were points where I could actually see the tool-marks which the
old miners had left in their excavation, as fresh as if they had been
done yesterday.  Down this strange, old-world corridor I stumbled, my
feeble flame throwing a dim circle of light around me, which made the
shadows beyond the more threatening and obscure.  Finally, I came to a
spot where the Roman tunnel opened into a water-worn cavern--a huge
hall, hung with long white icicles of lime deposit.  From this central
chamber I could dimly perceive that a number of passages worn by the
subterranean streams wound away into the depths of the earth.  I was
standing there wondering whether I had better return, or whether I dare
venture farther into this dangerous labyrinth, when my eyes fell upon
something at my feet which strongly arrested my attention.

The greater part of the floor of the cavern was covered with boulders
of rock or with hard incrustations of lime, but at this particular
point there had been a drip from the distant roof, which had left a
patch of soft mud.  In the very centre of this there was a huge
mark--an ill-defined blotch, deep, broad and irregular, as if a great
boulder had fallen upon it.  No loose stone lay near, however, nor was
there anything to account for the impression.  It was far too large to
be caused by any possible animal, and besides, there was only the one,
and the patch of mud was of such a size that no reasonable stride could
have covered it.  As I rose from the examination of that singular mark
and then looked round into the black shadows which hemmed me in, I must
confess that I felt for a moment a most unpleasant sinking of my heart,
and that, do what I could, the candle trembled in my outstretched hand.

I soon recovered my nerve, however, when I reflected how absurd it was
to associate so huge and shapeless a mark with the track of any known
animal.  Even an elephant could not have produced it.  I determined,
therefore, that I would not be scared by vague and senseless fears from
carrying out my exploration.  Before proceeding, I took good note of a
curious rock formation in the wall by which I could recognize the
entrance of the Roman tunnel. The precaution was very necessary, for
the great cave, so far as I could see it, was intersected by passages.
Having made sure of my position, and reassured myself by examining my
spare candles and my matches, I advanced slowly over the rocky and
uneven surface of the cavern.

And now I come to the point where I met with such sudden and desperate
disaster.  A stream, some twenty feet broad, ran across my path, and I
walked for some little distance along the bank to find a spot where I
could cross dry-shod.  Finally, I came to a place where a single flat
boulder lay near the centre, which I could reach in a stride.  As it
chanced, however, the rock had been cut away and made top-heavy by the
rush of the stream, so that it tilted over as I landed on it and shot
me into the ice-cold water.  My candle went out, and I found myself
floundering about in utter and absolute darkness.

I staggered to my feet again, more amused than alarmed by my adventure.
The candle had fallen from my hand, and was lost in the stream, but I
had two others in my pocket, so that it was of no importance.  I got
one of them ready, and drew out my box of matches to light it.  Only
then did I realize my position.  The box had been soaked in my fall
into the river.  It was impossible to strike the matches.

A cold hand seemed to close round my heart as I realized my position.
The darkness was opaque and horrible.  It was so utter one put one's
hand up to one's face as if to press off something solid.  I stood
still, and by an effort I steadied myself.  I tried to reconstruct in
my mind a map of the floor of the cavern as I had last seen it.  Alas!
the bearings which had impressed themselves upon my mind were high on
the wall, and not to be found by touch. Still, I remembered in a
general way how the sides were situated, and I hoped that by groping my
way along them I should at last come to the opening of the Roman
tunnel.  Moving very slowly, and continually striking against the
rocks, I set out on this desperate quest.

But I very soon realized how impossible it was.  In that black, velvety
darkness one lost all one's bearings in an instant.  Before I had made
a dozen paces, I was utterly bewildered as to my whereabouts.  The
rippling of the stream, which was the one sound audible, showed me
where it lay, but the moment that I left its bank I was utterly lost.
The idea of finding my way back in absolute darkness through that
limestone labyrinth was clearly an impossible one.

I sat down upon a boulder and reflected upon my unfortunate plight.  I
had not told anyone that I proposed to come to the Blue John mine, and
it was unlikely that a search party would come after me.  Therefore I
must trust to my own resources to get clear of the danger.  There was
only one hope, and that was that the matches might dry.  When I fell
into the river, only half of me had got thoroughly wet.  My left
shoulder had remained above the water.  I took the box of matches,
therefore, and put it into my left armpit. The moist air of the cavern
might possibly be counteracted by the heat of my body, but even so, I
knew that I could not hope to get a light for many hours.  Meanwhile
there was nothing for it but to wait.

By good luck I had slipped several biscuits into my pocket before I
left the farm-house.  These I now devoured, and washed them down with a
draught from that wretched stream which had been the cause of all my
misfortunes.  Then I felt about for a comfortable seat among the rocks,
and, having discovered a place where I could get a support for my back,
I stretched out my legs and settled myself down to wait.  I was
wretchedly damp and cold, but I tried to cheer myself with the
reflection that modern science prescribed open windows and walks in all
weather for my disease. Gradually, lulled by the monotonous gurgle of
the stream, and by the absolute darkness, I sank into an uneasy slumber.

How long this lasted I cannot say.  It may have been for an hour, it
may have been for several.  Suddenly I sat up on my rock couch, with
every nerve thrilling and every sense acutely on the alert.  Beyond all
doubt I had heard a sound--some sound very distinct from the gurgling
of the waters.  It had passed, but the reverberation of it still
lingered in my ear.  Was it a search party?  They would most certainly
have shouted, and vague as this sound was which had wakened me, it was
very distinct from the human voice.  I sat palpitating and hardly
daring to breathe.  There it was again!  And again!  Now it had become
continuous.  It was a tread--yes, surely it was the tread of some
living creature. But what a tread it was!  It gave one the impression
of enormous weight carried upon sponge-like feet, which gave forth a
muffled but ear-filling sound.  The darkness was as complete as ever,
but the tread was regular and decisive.  And it was coming beyond all
question in my direction.

My skin grew cold, and my hair stood on end as I listened to that
steady and ponderous footfall.  There was some creature there, and
surely by the speed of its advance, it was one which could see in the
dark.  I crouched low on my rock and tried to blend myself into it.
The steps grew nearer still, then stopped, and presently I was aware of
a loud lapping and gurgling.  The creature was drinking at the stream.
Then again there was silence, broken by a succession of long sniffs and
snorts of tremendous volume and energy.  Had it caught the scent of me?
My own nostrils were filled by a low fetid odour, mephitic and
abominable.  Then I heard the steps again.  They were on my side of the
stream now.  The stones rattled within a few yards of where I lay.
Hardly daring to breathe, I crouched upon my rock.  Then the steps drew
away.  I heard the splash as it returned across the river, and the
sound died away into the distance in the direction from which it had
come.

For a long time I lay upon the rock, too much horrified to move.  I
thought of the sound which I had heard coming from the depths of the
cave, of Armitage's fears, of the strange impression in the mud, and
now came this final and absolute proof that there was indeed some
inconceivable monster, something utterly unearthly and dreadful, which
lurked in the hollow of the mountain.  Of its nature or form I could
frame no conception, save that it was both light-footed and gigantic.
The combat between my reason, which told me that such things could not
be, and my senses, which told me that they were, raged within me as I
lay.  Finally, I was almost ready to persuade myself that this
experience had been part of some evil dream, and that my abnormal
condition might have conjured up an hallucination.  But there remained
one final experience which removed the last possibility of doubt from
my mind.

I had taken my matches from my armpit and felt them.  They seemed
perfectly hard and dry.  Stooping down into a crevice of the rocks, I
tried one of them.  To my delight it took fire at once. I lit the
candle, and, with a terrified backward glance into the obscure depths
of the cavern, I hurried in the direction of the Roman passage.  As I
did so I passed the patch of mud on which I had seen the huge imprint.
Now I stood astonished before it, for there were three similar imprints
upon its surface, enormous in size, irregular in outline, of a depth
which indicated the ponderous weight which had left them.  Then a great
terror surged over me.  Stooping and shading my candle with my hand, I
ran in a frenzy of fear to the rocky archway, hastened up it, and never
stopped until, with weary feet and panting lungs, I rushed up the final
slope of stones, broke through the tangle of briars, and flung myself
exhausted upon the soft grass under the peaceful light of the stars.
It was three in the morning when I reached the farm-house, and today I
am all unstrung and quivering after my terrific adventure.  As yet I
have told no one.  I must move warily in the matter.  What would the
poor lonely women, or the uneducated yokels here think of it if I were
to tell them my experience?  Let me go to someone who can understand
and advise.

April 25.--I was laid up in bed for two days after my incredible
adventure in the cavern.  I use the adjective with a very definite
meaning, for I have had an experience since which has shocked me almost
as much as the other.  I have said that I was looking round for someone
who could advise me.  There is a Dr. Mark Johnson who practices some
few miles away, to whom I had a note of recommendation from Professor
Saunderson.  To him I drove, when I was strong enough to get about, and
I recounted to him my whole strange experience.  He listened intently,
and then carefully examined me, paying special attention to my reflexes
and to the pupils of my eyes.  When he had finished, he refused to
discuss my adventure, saying that it was entirely beyond him, but he
gave me the card of a Mr. Picton at Castleton, with the advice that I
should instantly go to him and tell him the story exactly as I had done
to himself.  He was, according to my adviser, the very man who was
pre-eminently suited to help me.  I went on to the station, therefore,
and made my way to the little town, which is some ten miles away.  Mr.
Picton appeared to be a man of importance, as his brass plate was
displayed upon the door of a considerable building on the outskirts of
the town.  I was about to ring his bell, when some misgiving came into
my mind, and, crossing to a neighbouring shop, I asked the man behind
the counter if he could tell me anything of Mr. Picton.  "Why," said
he, "he is the best mad doctor in Derbyshire, and yonder is his
asylum."  You can imagine that it was not long before I had shaken the
dust of Castleton from my feet and returned to the farm, cursing all
unimaginative pedants who cannot conceive that there may be things in
creation which have never yet chanced to come across their mole's
vision.  After all, now that I am cooler, I can afford to admit that I
have been no more sympathetic to Armitage than Dr. Johnson has been to
me.

April 27.  When I was a student I had the reputation of being a man of
courage and enterprise.  I remember that when there was a ghost-hunt at
Coltbridge it was I who sat up in the haunted house.  Is it advancing
years (after all, I am only thirty-five), or is it this physical malady
which has caused degeneration? Certainly my heart quails when I think
of that horrible cavern in the hill, and the certainty that it has some
monstrous occupant. What shall I do?  There is not an hour in the day
that I do not debate the question.  If I say nothing, then the mystery
remains unsolved.  If I do say anything, then I have the alternative of
mad alarm over the whole countryside, or of absolute incredulity which
may end in consigning me to an asylum.  On the whole, I think that my
best course is to wait, and to prepare for some expedition which shall
be more deliberate and better thought out than the last.  As a first
step I have been to Castleton and obtained a few essentials--a large
acetylene lantern for one thing, and a good double-barrelled sporting
rifle for another.  The latter I have hired, but I have bought a dozen
heavy game cartridges, which would bring down a rhinoceros.  Now I am
ready for my troglodyte friend. Give me better health and a little
spate of energy, and I shall try conclusions with him yet.  But who and
what is he?  Ah!  there is the question which stands between me and my
sleep.  How many theories do I form, only to discard each in turn!  It
is all so utterly unthinkable.  And yet the cry, the footmark, the
tread in the cavern--no reasoning can get past these I think of the
old-world legends of dragons and of other monsters.  Were they,
perhaps, not such fairy-tales as we have thought?  Can it be that there
is some fact which underlies them, and am I, of all mortals, the one
who is chosen to expose it?

May 3.--For several days I have been laid up by the vagaries of an
English spring, and during those days there have been developments, the
true and sinister meaning of which no one can appreciate save myself.
I may say that we have had cloudy and moonless nights of late, which
according to my information were the seasons upon which sheep
disappeared.  Well, sheep have disappeared.  Two of Miss Allerton's,
one of old Pearson's of the Cat Walk, and one of Mrs. Moulton's.  Four
in all during three nights.  No trace is left of them at all, and the
countryside is buzzing with rumours of gipsies and of sheep-stealers.

But there is something more serious than that.  Young Armitage has
disappeared also.  He left his moorland cottage early on Wednesday
night and has never been heard of since.  He was an unattached man, so
there is less sensation than would otherwise be the case.  The popular
explanation is that he owes money, and has found a situation in some
other part of the country, whence he will presently write for his
belongings.  But I have grave misgivings. Is it not much more likely
that the recent tragedy of the sheep has caused him to take some steps
which may have ended in his own destruction?  He may, for example, have
lain in wait for the creature and been carried off by it into the
recesses of the mountains.  What an inconceivable fate for a civilized
Englishman of the twentieth century!  And yet I feel that it is
possible and even probable.  But in that case, how far am I answerable
both for his death and for any other mishap which may occur?  Surely
with the knowledge I already possess it must be my duty to see that
something is done, or if necessary to do it myself.  It must be the
latter, for this morning I went down to the local police-station and
told my story.  The inspector entered it all in a large book and bowed
me out with commendable gravity, but I heard a burst of laughter before
I had got down his garden path.  No doubt he was recounting my
adventure to his family.

June 10.--I am writing this, propped up in bed, six weeks after my last
entry in this journal.  I have gone through a terrible shock both to
mind and body, arising from such an experience as has seldom befallen a
human being before.  But I have attained my end.  The danger from the
Terror which dwells in the Blue John Gap has passed never to return.
Thus much at least I, a broken invalid, have done for the common good.
Let me now recount what occurred as clearly as I may.

The night of Friday, May 3rd, was dark and cloudy--the very night for
the monster to walk.  About eleven o'clock I went from the farm-house
with my lantern and my rifle, having first left a note upon the table
of my bedroom in which I said that, if I were missing, search should be
made for me in the direction of the Gap. I made my way to the mouth of
the Roman shaft, and, having perched myself among the rocks close to
the opening, I shut off my lantern and waited patiently with my loaded
rifle ready to my hand.

It was a melancholy vigil.  All down the winding valley I could see the
scattered lights of the farm-houses, and the church clock of
Chapel-le-Dale tolling the hours came faintly to my ears. These tokens
of my fellow-men served only to make my own position seem the more
lonely, and to call for a greater effort to overcome the terror which
tempted me continually to get back to the farm, and abandon for ever
this dangerous quest.  And yet there lies deep in every man a rooted
self-respect which makes it hard for him to turn back from that which
he has once undertaken.  This feeling of personal pride was my
salvation now, and it was that alone which held me fast when every
instinct of my nature was dragging me away. I am glad now that I had
the strength.  In spite of all that is has cost me, my manhood is at
least above reproach.

Twelve o'clock struck in the distant church, then one, then two.  It
was the darkest hour of the night.  The clouds were drifting low, and
there was not a star in the sky.  An owl was hooting somewhere among
the rocks, but no other sound, save the gentle sough of the wind, came
to my ears.  And then suddenly I heard it!  From far away down the
tunnel came those muffled steps, so soft and yet so ponderous.  I heard
also the rattle of stones as they gave way under that giant tread.
They drew nearer.  They were close upon me.  I heard the crashing of
the bushes round the entrance, and then dimly through the darkness I
was conscious of the loom of some enormous shape, some monstrous
inchoate creature, passing swiftly and very silently out from the
tunnel.  I was paralysed with fear and amazement.  Long as I had
waited, now that it had actually come I was unprepared for the shock.
I lay motionless and breathless, whilst the great dark mass whisked by
me and was swallowed up in the night.

But now I nerved myself for its return.  No sound came from the
sleeping countryside to tell of the horror which was loose.  In no way
could I judge how far off it was, what it was doing, or when it might
be back.  But not a second time should my nerve fail me, not a second
time should it pass unchallenged.  I swore it between my clenched teeth
as I laid my cocked rifle across the rock.

And yet it nearly happened.  There was no warning of approach now as
the creature passed over the grass.  Suddenly, like a dark, drifting
shadow, the huge bulk loomed up once more before me, making for the
entrance of the cave.  Again came that paralysis of volition which held
my crooked forefinger impotent upon the trigger.  But with a desperate
effort I shook it off.  Even as the brushwood rustled, and the
monstrous beast blended with the shadow of the Gap, I fired at the
retreating form.  In the blaze of the gun I caught a glimpse of a great
shaggy mass, something with rough and bristling hair of a withered grey
colour, fading away to white in its lower parts, the huge body
supported upon short, thick, curving legs.  I had just that glance, and
then I heard the rattle of the stones as the creature tore down into
its burrow.  In an instant, with a triumphant revulsion of feeling, I
had cast my fears to the wind, and uncovering my powerful lantern, with
my rifle in my hand, I sprang down from my rock and rushed after the
monster down the old Roman shaft.

My splendid lamp cast a brilliant flood of vivid light in front of me,
very different from the yellow glimmer which had aided me down the same
passage only twelve days before.  As I ran, I saw the great beast
lurching along before me, its huge bulk filling up the whole space from
wall to wall.  Its hair looked like coarse faded oakum, and hung down
in long, dense masses which swayed as it moved.  It was like an
enormous unclipped sheep in its fleece, but in size it was far larger
than the largest elephant, and its breadth seemed to be nearly as great
as its height.  It fills me with amazement now to think that I should
have dared to follow such a horror into the bowels of the earth, but
when one's blood is up, and when one's quarry seems to be flying, the
old primeval hunting-spirit awakes and prudence is cast to the wind.
Rifle in hand, I ran at the top of my speed upon the trail of the
monster.

I had seen that the creature was swift.  Now I was to find out to my
cost that it was also very cunning.  I had imagined that it was in
panic flight, and that I had only to pursue it.  The idea that it might
turn upon me never entered my excited brain.  I have already explained
that the passage down which I was racing opened into a great central
cave.  Into this I rushed, fearful lest I should lose all trace of the
beast.  But he had turned upon his own traces, and in a moment we were
face to face.

That picture, seen in the brilliant white light of the lantern, is
etched for ever upon my brain.  He had reared up on his hind legs as a
bear would do, and stood above me, enormous, menacing--such a creature
as no nightmare had ever brought to my imagination. I have said that he
reared like a bear, and there was something bear-like--if one could
conceive a bear which was ten-fold the bulk of any bear seen upon
earth--in his whole pose and attitude, in his great crooked forelegs
with their ivory-white claws, in his rugged skin, and in his red,
gaping mouth, fringed with monstrous fangs. Only in one point did he
differ from the bear, or from any other creature which walks the earth,
and even at that supreme moment a shudder of horror passed over me as I
observed that the eyes which glistened in the glow of my lantern were
huge, projecting bulbs, white and sightless.  For a moment his great
paws swung over my head.  The next he fell forward upon me, I and my
broken lantern crashed to the earth, and I remember no more.


When I came to myself I was back in the farm-house of the Allertons.
Two days had passed since my terrible adventure in the Blue John Gap.
It seems that I had lain all night in the cave insensible from
concussion of the brain, with my left arm and two ribs badly fractured.
In the morning my note had been found, a search party of a dozen
farmers assembled, and I had been tracked down and carried back to my
bedroom, where I had lain in high delirium ever since.  There was, it
seems, no sign of the creature, and no bloodstain which would show that
my bullet had found him as he passed.  Save for my own plight and the
marks upon the mud, there was nothing to prove that what I said was
true.

Six weeks have now elapsed, and I am able to sit out once more in the
sunshine.  Just opposite me is the steep hillside, grey with shaly
rock, and yonder on its flank is the dark cleft which marks the opening
of the Blue John Gap.  But it is no longer a source of terror.  Never
again through that ill-omened tunnel shall any strange shape flit out
into the world of men.  The educated and the scientific, the Dr.
Johnsons and the like, may smile at my narrative, but the poorer folk
of the countryside had never a doubt as to its truth.  On the day after
my recovering consciousness they assembled in their hundreds round the
Blue John Gap.  As the Castleton Courier said:


"It was useless for our correspondent, or for any of the adventurous
gentlemen who had come from Matlock, Buxton, and other parts, to offer
to descend, to explore the cave to the end, and to finally test the
extraordinary narrative of Dr. James Hardcastle. The country people had
taken the matter into their own hands, and from an early hour of the
morning they had worked hard in stopping up the entrance of the tunnel.
There is a sharp slope where the shaft begins, and great boulders,
rolled along by many willing hands, were thrust down it until the Gap
was absolutely sealed.  So ends the episode which has caused such
excitement throughout the country.  Local opinion is fiercely divided
upon the subject.  On the one hand are those who point to Dr.
Hardcastle's impaired health, and to the possibility of cerebral
lesions of tubercular origin giving rise to strange hallucinations.
Some idee fixe, according to these gentlemen, caused the doctor to
wander down the tunnel, and a fall among the rocks was sufficient to
account for his injuries.  On the other hand, a legend of a strange
creature in the Gap has existed for some months back, and the farmers
look upon Dr. Hardcastle's narrative and his personal injuries as a
final corroboration.  So the matter stands, and so the matter will
continue to stand, for no definite solution seems to us to be now
possible.  It transcends human wit to give any scientific explanation
which could cover the alleged facts."


Perhaps before the Courier published these words they would have been
wise to send their representative to me.  I have thought the matter
out, as no one else has occasion to do, and it is possible that I might
have removed some of the more obvious difficulties of the narrative and
brought it one degree nearer to scientific acceptance.  Let me then
write down the only explanation which seems to me to elucidate what I
know to my cost to have been a series of facts.  My theory may seem to
be wildly improbable, but at least no one can venture to say that it is
impossible.

My view is--and it was formed, as is shown by my diary, before my
personal adventure--that in this part of England there is a vast
subterranean lake or sea, which is fed by the great number of streams
which pass down through the limestone.  Where there is a large
collection of water there must also be some evaporation, mists or rain,
and a possibility of vegetation.  This in turn suggests that there may
be animal life, arising, as the vegetable life would also do, from
those seeds and types which had been introduced at an early period of
the world's history, when communication with the outer air was more
easy.  This place had then developed a fauna and flora of its own,
including such monsters as the one which I had seen, which may well
have been the old cave-bear, enormously enlarged and modified by its
new environment.  For countless aeons the internal and the external
creation had kept apart, growing steadily away from each other. Then
there had come some rift in the depths of the mountain which had
enabled one creature to wander up and, by means of the Roman tunnel, to
reach the open air.  Like all subterranean life, it had lost the power
of sight, but this had no doubt been compensated for by nature in other
directions.  Certainly it had some means of finding its way about, and
of hunting down the sheep upon the hillside.  As to its choice of dark
nights, it is part of my theory that light was painful to those great
white eyeballs, and that it was only a pitch-black world which it could
tolerate.  Perhaps, indeed, it was the glare of my lantern which saved
my life at that awful moment when we were face to face.  So I read the
riddle.  I leave these facts behind me, and if you can explain them, do
so; or if you choose to doubt them, do so.  Neither your belief nor
your incredulity can alter them, nor affect one whose task is nearly
over.


So ended the strange narrative of Dr. James Hardcastle.



The Brazilian Cat

It is hard luck on a young fellow to have expensive tastes, great
expectations, aristocratic connections, but no actual money in his
pocket, and no profession by which he may earn any.  The fact was that
my father, a good, sanguine, easy-going man, had such confidence in the
wealth and benevolence of his bachelor elder brother, Lord Southerton,
that he took it for granted that I, his only son, would never be called
upon to earn a living for myself. He imagined that if there were not a
vacancy for me on the great Southerton Estates, at least there would be
found some post in that diplomatic service which still remains the
special preserve of our privileged classes.  He died too early to
realize how false his calculations had been.  Neither my uncle nor the
State took the slightest notice of me, or showed any interest in my
career.  An occasional brace of pheasants, or basket of hares, was all
that ever reached me to remind me that I was heir to Otwell House and
one of the richest estates in the country.  In the meantime, I found
myself a bachelor and man about town, living in a suite of apartments
in Grosvenor Mansions, with no occupation save that of pigeon-shooting
and polo-playing at Hurlingham.  Month by month I realized that it was
more and more difficult to get the brokers to renew my bills, or to
cash any further post-obits upon an unentailed property.  Ruin lay
right across my path, and every day I saw it clearer, nearer, and more
absolutely unavoidable.

What made me feel my own poverty the more was that, apart from the
great wealth of Lord Southerton, all my other relations were fairly
well-to-do.  The nearest of these was Everard King, my father's nephew
and my own first cousin, who had spent an adventurous life in Brazil,
and had now returned to this country to settle down on his fortune.  We
never knew how he made his money, but he appeared to have plenty of it,
for he bought the estate of Greylands, near Clipton-on-the-Marsh, in
Suffolk.  For the first year of his residence in England he took no
more notice of me than my miserly uncle; but at last one summer
morning, to my very great relief and joy, I received a letter asking me
to come down that very day and spend a short visit at Greylands Court.
I was expecting a rather long visit to Bankruptcy Court at the time,
and this interruption seemed almost providential.  If I could only get
on terms with this unknown relative of mine, I might pull through yet.
For the family credit he could not let me go entirely to the wall.  I
ordered my valet to pack my valise, and I set off the same evening for
Clipton-on-the-Marsh.

After changing at Ipswich, a little local train deposited me at a
small, deserted station lying amidst a rolling grassy country, with a
sluggish and winding river curving in and out amidst the valleys,
between high, silted banks, which showed that we were within reach of
the tide.  No carriage was awaiting me (I found afterwards that my
telegram had been delayed), so I hired a dogcart at the local inn.  The
driver, an excellent fellow, was full of my relative's praises, and I
learned from him that Mr. Everard King was already a name to conjure
with in that part of the county.  He had entertained the
school-children, he had thrown his grounds open to visitors, he had
subscribed to charities--in short, his benevolence had been so
universal that my driver could only account for it on the supposition
that he had parliamentary ambitions.

My attention was drawn away from my driver's panegyric by the
appearance of a very beautiful bird which settled on a telegraph-post
beside the road.  At first I thought that it was a jay, but it was
larger, with a brighter plumage.  The driver accounted for its presence
at once by saying that it belonged to the very man whom we were about
to visit.  It seems that the acclimatization of foreign creatures was
one of his hobbies, and that he had brought with him from Brazil a
number of birds and beasts which he was endeavouring to rear in
England.  When once we had passed the gates of Greylands Park we had
ample evidence of this taste of his.  Some small spotted deer, a
curious wild pig known, I believe, as a peccary, a gorgeously feathered
oriole, some sort of armadillo, and a singular lumbering in-toed beast
like a very fat badger, were among the creatures which I observed as we
drove along the winding avenue.

Mr. Everard King, my unknown cousin, was standing in person upon the
steps of his house, for he had seen us in the distance, and guessed
that it was I.  His appearance was very homely and benevolent, short
and stout, forty-five years old, perhaps, with a round, good-humoured
face, burned brown with the tropical sun, and shot with a thousand
wrinkles.  He wore white linen clothes, in true planter style, with a
cigar between his lips, and a large Panama hat upon the back of his
head.  It was such a figure as one associates with a verandahed
bungalow, and it looked curiously out of place in front of this broad,
stone English mansion, with its solid wings and its Palladio pillars
before the doorway.

"My dear!" he cried, glancing over his shoulder; "my dear, here is our
guest!  Welcome, welcome to Greylands!  I am delighted to make your
acquaintance, Cousin Marshall, and I take it as a great compliment that
you should honour this sleepy little country place with your presence."

Nothing could be more hearty than his manner, and he set me at my ease
in an instant.  But it needed all his cordiality to atone for the
frigidity and even rudeness of his wife, a tall, haggard woman, who
came forward at his summons.  She was, I believe, of Brazilian
extraction, though she spoke excellent English, and I excused her
manners on the score of her ignorance of our customs. She did not
attempt to conceal, however, either then or afterwards, that I was no
very welcome visitor at Greylands Court.  Her actual words were, as a
rule, courteous, but she was the possessor of a pair of particularly
expressive dark eyes, and I read in them very clearly from the first
that she heartily wished me back in London once more.

However, my debts were too pressing and my designs upon my wealthy
relative were too vital for me to allow them to be upset by the
ill-temper of his wife, so I disregarded her coldness and reciprocated
the extreme cordiality of his welcome.  No pains had been spared by him
to make me comfortable.  My room was a charming one.  He implored me to
tell him anything which could add to my happiness.  It was on the tip
of my tongue to inform him that a blank cheque would materially help
towards that end, but I felt that it might be premature in the present
state of our acquaintance.  The dinner was excellent, and as we sat
together afterwards over his Havanas and coffee, which later he told me
was specially prepared upon his own plantation, it seemed to me that
all my driver's eulogies were justified, and that I had never met a
more large-hearted and hospitable man.

But, in spite of his cheery good nature, he was a man with a strong
will and a fiery temper of his own.  Of this I had an example upon the
following morning.  The curious aversion which Mrs. Everard King had
conceived towards me was so strong, that her manner at breakfast was
almost offensive.  But her meaning became unmistakable when her husband
had quitted the room.

"The best train in the day is at twelve-fifteen," said she.

"But I was not thinking of going today," I answered, frankly--perhaps
even defiantly, for I was determined not to be driven out by this woman.

"Oh, if it rests with you--" said she, and stopped with a most insolent
expression in her eyes.

"I am sure," I answered, "that Mr. Everard King would tell me if I were
outstaying my welcome."

"What's this?  What's this?" said a voice, and there he was in the
room.  He had overheard my last words, and a glance at our faces had
told him the rest.  In an instant his chubby, cheery face set into an
expression of absolute ferocity.

"Might I trouble you to walk outside, Marshall?" said he.  (I may
mention that my own name is Marshall King.)

He closed the door behind me, and then, for an instant, I heard him
talking in a low voice of concentrated passion to his wife. This gross
breach of hospitality had evidently hit upon his tenderest point.  I am
no eavesdropper, so I walked out on to the lawn.  Presently I heard a
hurried step behind me, and there was the lady, her face pale with
excitement, and her eyes red with tears.

"My husband has asked me to apologize to you, Mr. Marshall King," said
she, standing with downcast eyes before me.

"Please do not say another word, Mrs. King."

Her dark eyes suddenly blazed out at me.

"You fool!" she hissed, with frantic vehemence, and turning on her heel
swept back to the house.

The insult was so outrageous, so insufferable, that I could only stand
staring after her in bewilderment.  I was still there when my host
joined me.  He was his cheery, chubby self once more.

"I hope that my wife has apologized for her foolish remarks," said he.

"Oh, yes--yes, certainly!"

He put his hand through my arm and walked with me up and down the lawn.

"You must not take it seriously," said he.  "It would grieve me
inexpressibly if you curtailed your visit by one hour.  The fact
is--there is no reason why there should be any concealment between
relatives--that my poor dear wife is incredibly jealous.  She hates
that anyone--male or female--should for an instant come between us. Her
ideal is a desert island and an eternal tete-a-tete.  That gives you
the clue to her actions, which are, I confess, upon this particular
point, not very far removed from mania.  Tell me that you will think no
more of it."

"No, no; certainly not."

"Then light this cigar and come round with me and see my little
menagerie."

The whole afternoon was occupied by this inspection, which included all
the birds, beasts, and even reptiles which he had imported.  Some were
free, some in cages, a few actually in the house.  He spoke with
enthusiasm of his successes and his failures, his births and his
deaths, and he would cry out in his delight, like a schoolboy, when, as
we walked, some gaudy bird would flutter up from the grass, or some
curious beast slink into the cover. Finally he led me down a corridor
which extended from one wing of the house.  At the end of this there
was a heavy door with a sliding shutter in it, and beside it there
projected from the wall an iron handle attached to a wheel and a drum.
A line of stout bars extended across the passage.

"I am about to show you the jewel of my collection," said he. "There is
only one other specimen in Europe, now that the Rotterdam cub is dead.
It is a Brazilian cat."

"But how does that differ from any other cat?"

"You will soon see that," said he, laughing.  "Will you kindly draw
that shutter and look through?"

I did so, and found that I was gazing into a large, empty room, with
stone flags, and small, barred windows upon the farther wall. In the
centre of this room, lying in the middle of a golden patch of sunlight,
there was stretched a huge creature, as large as a tiger, but as black
and sleek as ebony.  It was simply a very enormous and very well-kept
black cat, and it cuddled up and basked in that yellow pool of light
exactly as a cat would do.  It was so graceful, so sinewy, and so
gently and smoothly diabolical, that I could not take my eyes from the
opening.

"Isn't he splendid?" said my host, enthusiastically.

"Glorious!  I never saw such a noble creature."

"Some people call it a black puma, but really it is not a puma at all.
That fellow is nearly eleven feet from tail to tip.  Four years ago he
was a little ball of black fluff, with two yellow eyes staring out of
it.  He was sold me as a new-born cub up in the wild country at the
head-waters of the Rio Negro.  They speared his mother to death after
she had killed a dozen of them."

"They are ferocious, then?"

"The most absolutely treacherous and bloodthirsty creatures upon earth.
You talk about a Brazilian cat to an up-country Indian, and see him get
the jumps.  They prefer humans to game. This fellow has never tasted
living blood yet, but when he does he will be a terror.  At present he
won't stand anyone but me in his den.  Even Baldwin, the groom, dare
not go near him.  As to me, I am his mother and father in one."

As he spoke he suddenly, to my astonishment, opened the door and
slipped in, closing it instantly behind him.  At the sound of his voice
the huge, lithe creature rose, yawned and rubbed its round, black head
affectionately against his side, while he patted and fondled it.

"Now, Tommy, into your cage!" said he.

The monstrous cat walked over to one side of the room and coiled itself
up under a grating.  Everard King came out, and taking the iron handle
which I have mentioned, he began to turn it. As he did so the line of
bars in the corridor began to pass through a slot in the wall and
closed up the front of this grating, so as to make an effective cage.
When it was in position he opened the door once more and invited me
into the room, which was heavy with the pungent, musty smell peculiar
to the great carnivora.

"That's how we work it," said he.  "We give him the run of the room for
exercise, and then at night we put him in his cage.  You can let him
out by turning the handle from the passage, or you can, as you have
seen, coop him up in the same way.  No, no, you should not do that!"

I had put my hand between the bars to pat the glossy, heaving flank.
He pulled it back, with a serious face.

"I assure you that he is not safe.  Don't imagine that because I can
take liberties with him anyone else can.  He is very exclusive in his
friends--aren't you, Tommy?  Ah, he hears his lunch coming to him!
Don't you, boy?"

A step sounded in the stone-flagged passage, and the creature had
sprung to his feet, and was pacing up and down the narrow cage, his
yellow eyes gleaming, and his scarlet tongue rippling and quivering
over the white line of his jagged teeth.  A groom entered with a coarse
joint upon a tray, and thrust it through the bars to him.  He pounced
lightly upon it, carried it off to the corner, and there, holding it
between his paws, tore and wrenched at it, raising his bloody muzzle
every now and then to look at us.  It was a malignant and yet
fascinating sight.

"You can't wonder that I am fond of him, can you?" said my host, as we
left the room, "especially when you consider that I have had the
rearing of him.  It was no joke bringing him over from the centre of
South America; but here he is safe and sound--and, as I have said, far
the most perfect specimen in Europe.  The people at the Zoo are dying
to have him, but I really can't part with him. Now, I think that I have
inflicted my hobby upon you long enough, so we cannot do better than
follow Tommy's example, and go to our lunch."

My South American relative was so engrossed by his grounds and their
curious occupants, that I hardly gave him credit at first for having
any interests outside them.  That he had some, and pressing ones, was
soon borne in upon me by the number of telegrams which he received.
They arrived at all hours, and were always opened by him with the
utmost eagerness and anxiety upon his face.  Sometimes I imagined that
it must be the Turf, and sometimes the Stock Exchange, but certainly he
had some very urgent business going forwards which was not transacted
upon the Downs of Suffolk. During the six days of my visit he had never
fewer than three or four telegrams a day, and sometimes as many as
seven or eight.

I had occupied these six days so well, that by the end of them I had
succeeded in getting upon the most cordial terms with my cousin.  Every
night we had sat up late in the billiard-room, he telling me the most
extraordinary stories of his adventures in America--stories so
desperate and reckless, that I could hardly associate them with the
brown little, chubby man before me.  In return, I ventured upon some of
my own reminiscences of London life, which interested him so much, that
he vowed he would come up to Grosvenor Mansions and stay with me.  He
was anxious to see the faster side of city life, and certainly, though
I say it, he could not have chosen a more competent guide.  It was not
until the last day of my visit that I ventured to approach that which
was on my mind.  I told him frankly about my pecuniary difficulties and
my impending ruin, and I asked his advice--though I hoped for something
more solid.  He listened attentively, puffing hard at his cigar.

"But surely," said he, "you are the heir of our relative, Lord
Southerton?"

"I have every reason to believe so, but he would never make me any
allowance."

"No, no, I have heard of his miserly ways.  My poor Marshall, your
position has been a very hard one.  By the way, have you heard any news
of Lord Southerton's health lately?"

"He has always been in a critical condition ever since my childhood."

"Exactly--a creaking hinge, if ever there was one.  Your inheritance
may be a long way off.  Dear me, how awkwardly situated you are!"

"I had some hopes, sir, that you, knowing all the facts, might be
inclined to advance----"

"Don't say another word, my dear boy," he cried, with the utmost
cordiality; "we shall talk it over tonight, and I give you my word that
whatever is in my power shall be done."

I was not sorry that my visit was drawing to a close, for it is
unpleasant to feel that there is one person in the house who eagerly
desires your departure.  Mrs. King's sallow face and forbidding eyes
had become more and more hateful to me.  She was no longer actively
rude--her fear of her husband prevented her--but she pushed her insane
jealousy to the extent of ignoring me, never addressing me, and in
every way making my stay at Greylands as uncomfortable as she could.
So offensive was her manner during that last day, that I should
certainly have left had it not been for that interview with my host in
the evening which would, I hoped, retrieve my broken fortunes.

It was very late when it occurred, for my relative, who had been
receiving even more telegrams than usual during the day, went off to
his study after dinner, and only emerged when the household had retired
to bed.  I heard him go round locking the doors, as custom was of a
night, and finally he joined me in the billiard-room. His stout figure
was wrapped in a dressing-gown, and he wore a pair of red Turkish
slippers without any heels.  Settling down into an arm-chair, he brewed
himself a glass of grog, in which I could not help noticing that the
whisky considerably predominated over the water.

"My word!" said he, "what a night!"

It was, indeed.  The wind was howling and screaming round the house,
and the latticed windows rattled and shook as if they were coming in.
The glow of the yellow lamps and the flavour of our cigars seemed the
brighter and more fragrant for the contrast.

"Now, my boy," said my host, "we have the house and the night to
ourselves.  Let me have an idea of how your affairs stand, and I will
see what can be done to set them in order.  I wish to hear every
detail."

Thus encouraged, I entered into a long exposition, in which all my
tradesmen and creditors from my landlord to my valet, figured in turn.
I had notes in my pocket-book, and I marshalled my facts, and gave, I
flatter myself, a very businesslike statement of my own unbusinesslike
ways and lamentable position.  I was depressed, however, to notice that
my companion's eyes were vacant and his attention elsewhere.  When he
did occasionally throw out a remark it was so entirely perfunctory and
pointless, that I was sure he had not in the least followed my remarks.
Every now and then he roused himself and put on some show of interest,
asking me to repeat or to explain more fully, but it was always to sink
once more into the same brown study.  At last he rose and threw the end
of his cigar into the grate.

"I'll tell you what, my boy," said he.  "I never had a head for
figures, so you will excuse me.  You must jot it all down upon paper,
and let me have a note of the amount.  I'll understand it when I see it
in black and white."

The proposal was encouraging.  I promised to do so.

"And now it's time we were in bed.  By Jove, there's one o'clock
striking in the hall."

The tingling of the chiming clock broke through the deep roar of the
gale.  The wind was sweeping past with the rush of a great river.

"I must see my cat before I go to bed," said my host.  "A high wind
excites him.  Will you come?"

"Certainly," said I.

"Then tread softly and don't speak, for everyone is asleep."

We passed quietly down the lamp-lit Persian-rugged hall, and through
the door at the farther end.  All was dark in the stone corridor, but a
stable lantern hung on a hook, and my host took it down and lit it.
There was no grating visible in the passage, so I knew that the beast
was in its cage.

"Come in!" said my relative, and opened the door.

A deep growling as we entered showed that the storm had really excited
the creature.  In the flickering light of the lantern, we saw it, a
huge black mass coiled in the corner of its den and throwing a squat,
uncouth shadow upon the whitewashed wall.  Its tail switched angrily
among the straw.

"Poor Tommy is not in the best of tempers," said Everard King, holding
up the lantern and looking in at him.  "What a black devil he looks,
doesn't he?  I must give him a little supper to put him in a better
humour.  Would you mind holding the lantern for a moment?"

I took it from his hand and he stepped to the door.

"His larder is just outside here," said he.  "You will excuse me for an
instant won't you?"  He passed out, and the door shut with a sharp
metallic click behind him.

That hard crisp sound made my heart stand still.  A sudden wave of
terror passed over me.  A vague perception of some monstrous treachery
turned me cold.  I sprang to the door, but there was no handle upon the
inner side.

"Here!" I cried.  "Let me out!"

"All right!  Don't make a row!" said my host from the passage. "You've
got the light all right."

"Yes, but I don't care about being locked in alone like this."

"Don't you?" I heard his hearty, chuckling laugh.  "You won't be alone
long."

"Let me out, sir!" I repeated angrily.  "I tell you I don't allow
practical jokes of this sort."

"Practical is the word," said he, with another hateful chuckle. And
then suddenly I heard, amidst the roar of the storm, the creak and
whine of the winch-handle turning and the rattle of the grating as it
passed through the slot.  Great God, he was letting loose the Brazilian
cat!

In the light of the lantern I saw the bars sliding slowly before me.
Already there was an opening a foot wide at the farther end.  With a
scream I seized the last bar with my hands and pulled with the strength
of a madman.  I WAS a madman with rage and horror.  For a minute or
more I held the thing motionless.  I knew that he was straining with
all his force upon the handle, and that the leverage was sure to
overcome me.  I gave inch by inch, my feet sliding along the stones,
and all the time I begged and prayed this inhuman monster to save me
from this horrible death.  I conjured him by his kinship.  I reminded
him that I was his guest; I begged to know what harm I had ever done
him.  His only answers were the tugs and jerks upon the handle, each of
which, in spite of all my struggles, pulled another bar through the
opening.  Clinging and clutching, I was dragged across the whole front
of the cage, until at last, with aching wrists and lacerated fingers, I
gave up the hopeless struggle.  The grating clanged back as I released
it, and an instant later I heard the shuffle of the Turkish slippers in
the passage, and the slam of the distant door.  Then everything was
silent.

The creature had never moved during this time.  He lay still in the
corner, and his tail had ceased switching.  This apparition of a man
adhering to his bars and dragged screaming across him had apparently
filled him with amazement.  I saw his great eyes staring steadily at
me.  I had dropped the lantern when I seized the bars, but it still
burned upon the floor, and I made a movement to grasp it, with some
idea that its light might protect me.  But the instant I moved, the
beast gave a deep and menacing growl.  I stopped and stood still,
quivering with fear in every limb.  The cat (if one may call so fearful
a creature by so homely a name) was not more than ten feet from me.
The eyes glimmered like two disks of phosphorus in the darkness.  They
appalled and yet fascinated me.  I could not take my own eyes from
them.  Nature plays strange tricks with us at such moments of
intensity, and those glimmering lights waxed and waned with a steady
rise and fall.  Sometimes they seemed to be tiny points of extreme
brilliancy--little electric sparks in the black obscurity--then they
would widen and widen until all that corner of the room was filled with
their shifting and sinister light.  And then suddenly they went out
altogether.

The beast had closed its eyes.  I do not know whether there may be any
truth in the old idea of the dominance of the human gaze, or whether
the huge cat was simply drowsy, but the fact remains that, far from
showing any symptom of attacking me, it simply rested its sleek, black
head upon its huge forepaws and seemed to sleep.  I stood, fearing to
move lest I should rouse it into malignant life once more.  But at
least I was able to think clearly now that the baleful eyes were off
me.  Here I was shut up for the night with the ferocious beast.  My own
instincts, to say nothing of the words of the plausible villain who
laid this trap for me, warned me that the animal was as savage as its
master.  How could I stave it off until morning?  The door was
hopeless, and so were the narrow, barred windows.  There was no shelter
anywhere in the bare, stone-flagged room.  To cry for assistance was
absurd.  I knew that this den was an outhouse, and that the corridor
which connected it with the house was at least a hundred feet long.
Besides, with the gale thundering outside, my cries were not likely to
be heard.  I had only my own courage and my own wits to trust to.

And then, with a fresh wave of horror, my eyes fell upon the lantern.
The candle had burned low, and was already beginning to gutter.  In ten
minutes it would be out.  I had only ten minutes then in which to do
something, for I felt that if I were once left in the dark with that
fearful beast I should be incapable of action.  The very thought of it
paralysed me.  I cast my despairing eyes round this chamber of death,
and they rested upon one spot which seemed to promise I will not say
safety, but less immediate and imminent danger than the open floor.

I have said that the cage had a top as well as a front, and this top
was left standing when the front was wound through the slot in the
wall.  It consisted of bars at a few inches' interval, with stout wire
netting between, and it rested upon a strong stanchion at each end.  It
stood now as a great barred canopy over the crouching figure in the
corner.  The space between this iron shelf and the roof may have been
from two or three feet.  If I could only get up there, squeezed in
between bars and ceiling, I should have only one vulnerable side.  I
should be safe from below, from behind, and from each side.  Only on
the open face of it could I be attacked.  There, it is true, I had no
protection whatever; but at least, I should be out of the brute's path
when he began to pace about his den.  He would have to come out of his
way to reach me.  It was now or never, for if once the light were out
it would be impossible.  With a gulp in my throat I sprang up, seized
the iron edge of the top, and swung myself panting on to it.  I writhed
in face downwards, and found myself looking straight into the terrible
eyes and yawning jaws of the cat.  Its fetid breath came up into my
face like the steam from some foul pot.

It appeared, however, to be rather curious than angry.  With a sleek
ripple of its long, black back it rose, stretched itself, and then
rearing itself on its hind legs, with one forepaw against the wall, it
raised the other, and drew its claws across the wire meshes beneath me.
One sharp, white hook tore through my trousers--for I may mention that
I was still in evening dress--and dug a furrow in my knee.  It was not
meant as an attack, but rather as an experiment, for upon my giving a
sharp cry of pain he dropped down again, and springing lightly into the
room, he began walking swiftly round it, looking up every now and again
in my direction. For my part I shuffled backwards until I lay with my
back against the wall, screwing myself into the smallest space
possible.  The farther I got the more difficult it was for him to
attack me.

He seemed more excited now that he had begun to move about, and he ran
swiftly and noiselessly round and round the den, passing continually
underneath the iron couch upon which I lay.  It was wonderful to see so
great a bulk passing like a shadow, with hardly the softest thudding of
velvety pads.  The candle was burning low--so low that I could hardly
see the creature.  And then, with a last flare and splutter it went out
altogether.  I was alone with the cat in the dark!

It helps one to face a danger when one knows that one has done all that
possibly can be done.  There is nothing for it then but to quietly
await the result.  In this case, there was no chance of safety anywhere
except the precise spot where I was.  I stretched myself out,
therefore, and lay silently, almost breathlessly, hoping that the beast
might forget my presence if I did nothing to remind him.  I reckoned
that it must already be two o'clock.  At four it would be full dawn.  I
had not more than two hours to wait for daylight.

Outside, the storm was still raging, and the rain lashed continually
against the little windows.  Inside, the poisonous and fetid air was
overpowering.  I could neither hear nor see the cat. I tried to think
about other things--but only one had power enough to draw my mind from
my terrible position.  That was the contemplation of my cousin's
villainy, his unparalleled hypocrisy, his malignant hatred of me.
Beneath that cheerful face there lurked the spirit of a mediaeval
assassin.  And as I thought of it I saw more clearly how cunningly the
thing had been arranged.  He had apparently gone to bed with the
others.  No doubt he had his witness to prove it.  Then, unknown to
them, he had slipped down, had lured me into his den and abandoned me.
His story would be so simple.  He had left me to finish my cigar in the
billiard-room. I had gone down on my own account to have a last look at
the cat. I had entered the room without observing that the cage was
opened, and I had been caught.  How could such a crime be brought home
to him?  Suspicion, perhaps--but proof, never!

How slowly those dreadful two hours went by!  Once I heard a low,
rasping sound, which I took to be the creature licking its own fur.
Several times those greenish eyes gleamed at me through the darkness,
but never in a fixed stare, and my hopes grew stronger that my presence
had been forgotten or ignored.  At last the least faint glimmer of
light came through the windows--I first dimly saw them as two grey
squares upon the black wall, then grey turned to white, and I could see
my terrible companion once more.  And he, alas, could see me!

It was evident to me at once that he was in a much more dangerous and
aggressive mood than when I had seen him last.  The cold of the morning
had irritated him, and he was hungry as well. With a continual growl he
paced swiftly up and down the side of the room which was farthest from
my refuge, his whiskers bristling angrily, and his tail switching and
lashing.  As he turned at the corners his savage eyes always looked
upwards at me with a dreadful menace.  I knew then that he meant to
kill me.  Yet I found myself even at that moment admiring the sinuous
grace of the devilish thing, its long, undulating, rippling movements,
the gloss of its beautiful flanks, the vivid, palpitating scarlet of
the glistening tongue which hung from the jet-black muzzle.  And all
the time that deep, threatening growl was rising and rising in an
unbroken crescendo.  I knew that the crisis was at hand.

It was a miserable hour to meet such a death--so cold, so comfortless,
shivering in my light dress clothes upon this gridiron of torment upon
which I was stretched.  I tried to brace myself to it, to raise my soul
above it, and at the same time, with the lucidity which comes to a
perfectly desperate man, I cast round for some possible means of
escape.  One thing was clear to me.  If that front of the cage was only
back in its position once more, I could find a sure refuge behind it.
Could I possibly pull it back?  I hardly dared to move for fear of
bringing the creature upon me. Slowly, very slowly, I put my hand
forward until it grasped the edge of the front, the final bar which
protruded through the wall. To my surprise it came quite easily to my
jerk.  Of course the difficulty of drawing it out arose from the fact
that I was clinging to it.  I pulled again, and three inches of it came
through.  It ran apparently on wheels.  I pulled again ... and then
the cat sprang!

It was so quick, so sudden, that I never saw it happen.  I simply heard
the savage snarl, and in an instant afterwards the blazing yellow eyes,
the flattened black head with its red tongue and flashing teeth, were
within reach of me.  The impact of the creature shook the bars upon
which I lay, until I thought (as far as I could think of anything at
such a moment) that they were coming down.  The cat swayed there for an
instant, the head and front paws quite close to me, the hind paws
clawing to find a grip upon the edge of the grating.  I heard the claws
rasping as they clung to the wire-netting, and the breath of the beast
made me sick.  But its bound had been miscalculated.  It could not
retain its position.  Slowly, grinning with rage, and scratching madly
at the bars, it swung backwards and dropped heavily upon the floor.
With a growl it instantly faced round to me and crouched for another
spring.

I knew that the next few moments would decide my fate.  The creature
had learned by experience.  It would not miscalculate again.  I must
act promptly, fearlessly, if I were to have a chance for life.  In an
instant I had formed my plan.  Pulling off my dress-coat, I threw it
down over the head of the beast.  At the same moment I dropped over the
edge, seized the end of the front grating, and pulled it frantically
out of the wall.

It came more easily than I could have expected.  I rushed across the
room, bearing it with me; but, as I rushed, the accident of my position
put me upon the outer side.  Had it been the other way, I might have
come off scathless.  As it was, there was a moment's pause as I stopped
it and tried to pass in through the opening which I had left.  That
moment was enough to give time to the creature to toss off the coat
with which I had blinded him and to spring upon me.  I hurled myself
through the gap and pulled the rails to behind me, but he seized my leg
before I could entirely withdraw it.  One stroke of that huge paw tore
off my calf as a shaving of wood curls off before a plane.  The next
moment, bleeding and fainting, I was lying among the foul straw with a
line of friendly bars between me and the creature which ramped so
frantically against them.

Too wounded to move, and too faint to be conscious of fear, I could
only lie, more dead than alive, and watch it.  It pressed its broad,
black chest against the bars and angled for me with its crooked paws as
I have seen a kitten do before a mouse-trap.  It ripped my clothes,
but, stretch as it would, it could not quite reach me.  I have heard of
the curious numbing effect produced by wounds from the great carnivora,
and now I was destined to experience it, for I had lost all sense of
personality, and was as interested in the cat's failure or success as
if it were some game which I was watching.  And then gradually my mind
drifted away into strange vague dreams, always with that black face and
red tongue coming back into them, and so I lost myself in the nirvana
of delirium, the blessed relief of those who are too sorely tried.

Tracing the course of events afterwards, I conclude that I must have
been insensible for about two hours.  What roused me to consciousness
once more was that sharp metallic click which had been the precursor of
my terrible experience.  It was the shooting back of the spring lock.
Then, before my senses were clear enough to entirely apprehend what
they saw, I was aware of the round, benevolent face of my cousin
peering in through the open door. What he saw evidently amazed him.
There was the cat crouching on the floor.  I was stretched upon my back
in my shirt-sleeves within the cage, my trousers torn to ribbons and a
great pool of blood all round me.  I can see his amazed face now, with
the morning sunlight upon it.  He peered at me, and peered again.  Then
he closed the door behind him, and advanced to the cage to see if I
were really dead.

I cannot undertake to say what happened.  I was not in a fit state to
witness or to chronicle such events.  I can only say that I was
suddenly conscious that his face was away from me--that he was looking
towards the animal.

"Good old Tommy!" he cried.  "Good old Tommy!"

Then he came near the bars, with his back still towards me.

"Down, you stupid beast!" he roared.  "Down, sir!  Don't you know your
master?"

Suddenly even in my bemuddled brain a remembrance came of those words
of his when he had said that the taste of blood would turn the cat into
a fiend.  My blood had done it, but he was to pay the price.

"Get away!" he screamed.  "Get away, you devil!  Baldwin! Baldwin!  Oh,
my God!"

And then I heard him fall, and rise, and fall again, with a sound like
the ripping of sacking.  His screams grew fainter until they were lost
in the worrying snarl.  And then, after I thought that he was dead, I
saw, as in a nightmare, a blinded, tattered, blood-soaked figure
running wildly round the room--and that was the last glimpse which I
had of him before I fainted once again.


I was many months in my recovery--in fact, I cannot say that I have
ever recovered, for to the end of my days I shall carry a stick as a
sign of my night with the Brazilian cat.  Baldwin, the groom, and the
other servants could not tell what had occurred, when, drawn by the
death-cries of their master, they found me behind the bars, and his
remains--or what they afterwards discovered to be his remains--in the
clutch of the creature which he had reared.  They stalled him off with
hot irons, and afterwards shot him through the loophole of the door
before they could finally extricate me.  I was carried to my bedroom,
and there, under the roof of my would-be murderer, I remained between
life and death for several weeks.  They had sent for a surgeon from
Clipton and a nurse from London, and in a month I was able to be
carried to the station, and so conveyed back once more to Grosvenor
Mansions.

I have one remembrance of that illness, which might have been part of
the ever-changing panorama conjured up by a delirious brain were it not
so definitely fixed in my memory.  One night, when the nurse was
absent, the door of my chamber opened, and a tall woman in blackest
mourning slipped into the room.  She came across to me, and as she bent
her sallow face I saw by the faint gleam of the night-light that it was
the Brazilian woman whom my cousin had married.  She stared intently
into my face, and her expression was more kindly than I had ever seen
it.

"Are you conscious?" she asked.

I feebly nodded--for I was still very weak.

"Well; then, I only wished to say to you that you have yourself to
blame.  Did I not do all I could for you?  From the beginning I tried
to drive you from the house.  By every means, short of betraying my
husband, I tried to save you from him.  I knew that he had a reason for
bringing you here.  I knew that he would never let you get away again.
No one knew him as I knew him, who had suffered from him so often.  I
did not dare to tell you all this. He would have killed me.  But I did
my best for you.  As things have turned out, you have been the best
friend that I have ever had.  You have set me free, and I fancied that
nothing but death would do that.  I am sorry if you are hurt, but I
cannot reproach myself.  I told you that you were a fool--and a fool
you have been."  She crept out of the room, the bitter, singular woman,
and I was never destined to see her again.  With what remained from her
husband's property she went back to her native land, and I have heard
that she afterwards took the veil at Pernambuco.

It was not until I had been back in London for some time that the
doctors pronounced me to be well enough to do business.  It was not a
very welcome permission to me, for I feared that it would be the signal
for an inrush of creditors; but it was Summers, my lawyer, who first
took advantage of it.

"I am very glad to see that your lordship is so much better," said he.
"I have been waiting a long time to offer my congratulations."

"What do you mean, Summers?  This is no time for joking."

"I mean what I say," he answered.  "You have been Lord Southerton for
the last six weeks, but we feared that it would retard your recovery if
you were to learn it."

Lord Southerton!  One of the richest peers in England!  I could not
believe my ears.  And then suddenly I thought of the time which had
elapsed, and how it coincided with my injuries.

"Then Lord Southerton must have died about the same time that I was
hurt?"

"His death occurred upon that very day."  Summers looked hard at me as
I spoke, and I am convinced--for he was a very shrewd fellow--that he
had guessed the true state of the case.  He paused for a moment as if
awaiting a confidence from me, but I could not see what was to be
gained by exposing such a family scandal.

"Yes, a very curious coincidence," he continued, with the same knowing
look.  "Of course, you are aware that your cousin Everard King was the
next heir to the estates.  Now, if it had been you instead of him who
had been torn to pieces by this tiger, or whatever it was, then of
course he would have been Lord Southerton at the present moment."

"No doubt," said I.

"And he took such an interest in it," said Summers.  "I happen to know
that the late Lord Southerton's valet was in his pay, and that he used
to have telegrams from him every few hours to tell him how he was
getting on.  That would be about the time when you were down there.
Was it not strange that he should wish to be so well informed, since he
knew that he was not the direct heir?"

"Very strange," said I.  "And now, Summers, if you will bring me my
bills and a new cheque-book, we will begin to get things into order."




Tales of Mystery



The Lost Special

The confession of Herbert de Lernac, now lying under sentence of death
at Marseilles, has thrown a light upon one of the most inexplicable
crimes of the century--an incident which is, I believe, absolutely
unprecedented in the criminal annals of any country: Although there is
a reluctance to discuss the matter in official circles, and little
information has been given to the Press, there are still indications
that the statement of this arch-criminal is corroborated by the facts,
and that we have at last found a solution for a most astounding
business.  As the matter is eight years old, and as its importance was
somewhat obscured by a political crisis which was engaging the public
attention at the time, it may be as well to state the facts as far as
we have been able to ascertain them.  They are collated from the
Liverpool papers of that date, from the proceedings at the inquest upon
John Slater, the engine-driver, and from the records of the London and
West Coast Railway Company, which have been courteously put at my
disposal.  Briefly, they are as follows:

On the 3rd of June, 1890, a gentleman, who gave his name as Monsieur
Louis Caratal, desired an interview with Mr. James Bland, the
superintendent of the London and West Coast Central Station in
Liverpool.  He was a small man, middle-aged and dark, with a stoop
which was so marked that it suggested some deformity of the spine. He
was accompanied by a friend, a man of imposing physique, whose
deferential manner and constant attention showed that his position was
one of dependence.  This friend or companion, whose name did not
transpire, was certainly a foreigner, and probably from his swarthy
complexion, either a Spaniard or a South American.  One peculiarity was
observed in him.  He carried in his left hand a small black, leather
dispatch box, and it was noticed by a sharp-eyed clerk in the Central
office that this box was fastened to his wrist by a strap.  No
importance was attached to the fact at the time, but subsequent events
endowed it with some significance. Monsieur Caratal was shown up to Mr.
Bland's office, while his companion remained outside.

Monsieur Caratal's business was quickly dispatched.  He had arrived
that afternoon from Central America.  Affairs of the utmost importance
demanded that he should be in Paris without the loss of an unnecessary
hour.  He had missed the London express.  A special must be provided.
Money was of no importance.  Time was everything.  If the company would
speed him on his way, they might make their own terms.

Mr. Bland struck the electric bell, summoned Mr. Potter Hood, the
traffic manager, and had the matter arranged in five minutes. The train
would start in three-quarters of an hour.  It would take that time to
insure that the line should be clear.  The powerful engine called
Rochdale (No. 247 on the company's register) was attached to two
carriages, with a guard's van behind.  The first carriage was solely
for the purpose of decreasing the inconvenience arising from the
oscillation.  The second was divided, as usual, into four compartments,
a first-class, a first-class smoking, a second-class, and a
second-class smoking.  The first compartment, which was nearest to the
engine, was the one allotted to the travellers.  The other three were
empty.  The guard of the special train was James McPherson, who had
been some years in the service of the company.  The stoker, William
Smith, was a new hand.

Monsieur Caratal, upon leaving the superintendent's office, rejoined
his companion, and both of them manifested extreme impatience to be
off.  Having paid the money asked, which amounted to fifty pounds five
shillings, at the usual special rate of five shillings a mile, they
demanded to be shown the carriage, and at once took their seats in it,
although they were assured that the better part of an hour must elapse
before the line could be cleared.  In the meantime a singular
coincidence had occurred in the office which Monsieur Caratal had just
quitted.

A request for a special is not a very uncommon circumstance in a rich
commercial centre, but that two should be required upon the same
afternoon was most unusual.  It so happened, however, that Mr. Bland
had hardly dismissed the first traveller before a second entered with a
similar request.  This was a Mr. Horace Moore, a gentlemanly man of
military appearance, who alleged that the sudden serious illness of his
wife in London made it absolutely imperative that he should not lose an
instant in starting upon the journey.  His distress and anxiety were so
evident that Mr. Bland did all that was possible to meet his wishes.  A
second special was out of the question, as the ordinary local service
was already somewhat deranged by the first.  There was the alternative,
however, that Mr. Moore should share the expense of Monsieur Caratal's
train, and should travel in the other empty first-class compartment, if
Monsieur Caratal objected to having him in the one which he occupied.
It was difficult to see any objection to such an arrangement, and yet
Monsieur Caratal, upon the suggestion being made to him by Mr. Potter
Hood, absolutely refused to consider it for an instant.  The train was
his, he said, and he would insist upon the exclusive use of it.  All
argument failed to overcome his ungracious objections, and finally the
plan had to be abandoned. Mr. Horace Moore left the station in great
distress, after learning that his only course was to take the ordinary
slow train which leaves Liverpool at six o'clock.  At four thirty-one
exactly by the station clock the special train, containing the crippled
Monsieur Caratal and his gigantic companion, steamed out of the
Liverpool station.  The line was at that time clear, and there should
have been no stoppage before Manchester.

The trains of the London and West Coast Railway run over the lines of
another company as far as this town, which should have been reached by
the special rather before six o'clock.  At a quarter after six
considerable surprise and some consternation were caused amongst the
officials at Liverpool by the receipt of a telegram from Manchester to
say that it had not yet arrived.  An inquiry directed to St. Helens,
which is a third of the way between the two cities, elicited the
following reply--


"To James Bland, Superintendent, Central L. & W. C.,
Liverpool.--Special passed here at 4:52, well up to time.--Dowster, St.
Helens."


This telegram was received at six-forty.  At six-fifty a second message
was received from Manchester--


"No sign of special as advised by you."


And then ten minutes later a third, more bewildering--


"Presume some mistake as to proposed running of special.  Local train
from St. Helens timed to follow it has just arrived and has seen
nothing of it.  Kindly wire advices.--Manchester."


The matter was assuming a most amazing aspect, although in some
respects the last telegram was a relief to the authorities at
Liverpool.  If an accident had occurred to the special, it seemed
hardly possible that the local train could have passed down the same
line without observing it.  And yet, what was the alternative? Where
could the train be?  Had it possibly been sidetracked for some reason
in order to allow the slower train to go past?  Such an explanation was
possible if some small repair had to be effected. A telegram was
dispatched to each of the stations between St. Helens and Manchester,
and the superintendent and traffic manager waited in the utmost
suspense at the instrument for the series of replies which would enable
them to say for certain what had become of the missing train.  The
answers came back in the order of questions, which was the order of the
stations beginning at the St. Helens end--

"Special passed here five o'clock.--Collins Green."

"Special passed here six past five.--Earlstown."

"Special passed here 5:10.--Newton."

"Special passed here 5:20.--Kenyon Junction."

"No special train has passed here.--Barton Moss."

The two officials stared at each other in amazement.

"This is unique in my thirty years of experience," said Mr. Bland.

"Absolutely unprecedented and inexplicable, sir.  The special has gone
wrong between Kenyon Junction and Barton Moss."

"And yet there is no siding, so far as my memory serves me, between the
two stations.  The special must have run off the metals."

"But how could the four-fifty parliamentary pass over the same line
without observing it?"

"There's no alternative, Mr. Hood.  It must be so. Possibly the local
train may have observed something which may throw some light upon the
matter.  We will wire to Manchester for more information, and to Kenyon
Junction with instructions that the line be examined instantly as far
as Barton Moss." The answer from Manchester came within a few minutes.

"No news of missing special.  Driver and guard of slow train positive
no accident between Kenyon Junction and Barton Moss. Line quite clear,
and no sign of anything unusual.--Manchester."

"That driver and guard will have to go," said Mr. Bland, grimly.
"There has been a wreck and they have missed it.  The special has
obviously run off the metals without disturbing the line--how it could
have done so passes my comprehension--but so it must be, and we shall
have a wire from Kenyon or Barton Moss presently to say that they have
found her at the bottom of an embankment."

But Mr. Bland's prophecy was not destined to be fulfilled. Half an hour
passed, and then there arrived the following message from the
station-master of Kenyon Junction--


"There are no traces of the missing special.  It is quite certain that
she passed here, and that she did not arrive at Barton Moss.  We have
detached engine from goods train, and I have myself ridden down the
line, but all is clear, and there is no sign of any accident."


Mr. Bland tore his hair in his perplexity.

"This is rank lunacy, Hood!" he cried.  "Does a train vanish into thin
air in England in broad daylight?  The thing is preposterous.  An
engine, a tender, two carriages, a van, five human beings--and all lost
on a straight line of railway!  Unless we get something positive within
the next hour I'll take Inspector Collins, and go down myself."

And then at last something positive did occur.  It took the shape of
another telegram from Kenyon Junction.

"Regret to report that the dead body of John Slater, driver of the
special train, has just been found among the gorse bushes at a point
two and a quarter miles from the Junction.  Had fallen from his engine,
pitched down the embankment, and rolled among the bushes.  Injuries to
his head, from the fall, appear to be cause of death.  Ground has now
been carefully examined, and there is no trace of the missing train."

The country was, as has already been stated, in the throes of a
political crisis, and the attention of the public was further
distracted by the important and sensational developments in Paris,
where a huge scandal threatened to destroy the Government and to wreck
the reputations of many of the leading men in France. The papers were
full of these events, and the singular disappearance of the special
train attracted less attention than would have been the case in more
peaceful times.  The grotesque nature of the event helped to detract
from its importance, for the papers were disinclined to believe the
facts as reported to them. More than one of the London journals treated
the matter as an ingenious hoax, until the coroner's inquest upon the
unfortunate driver (an inquest which elicited nothing of importance)
convinced them of the tragedy of the incident.

Mr. Bland, accompanied by Inspector Collins, the senior detective
officer in the service of the company, went down to Kenyon Junction the
same evening, and their research lasted throughout the following day,
but was attended with purely negative results.  Not only was no trace
found of the missing train, but no conjecture could be put forward
which could possibly explain the facts.  At the same time, Inspector
Collins's official report (which lies before me as I write) served to
show that the possibilities were more numerous than might have been
expected.

"In the stretch of railway between these two points," said he, "the
country is dotted with ironworks and collieries.  Of these, some are
being worked and some have been abandoned.  There are no fewer than
twelve which have small-gauge lines which run trolly-cars down to the
main line.  These can, of course, be disregarded. Besides these,
however, there are seven which have, or have had, proper lines running
down and connecting with points to the main line, so as to convey their
produce from the mouth of the mine to the great centres of
distribution.  In every case these lines are only a few miles in
length.  Out of the seven, four belong to collieries which are worked
out, or at least to shafts which are no longer used.  These are the
Redgauntlet, Hero, Slough of Despond, and Heartsease mines, the latter
having ten years ago been one of the principal mines in Lancashire.
These four side lines may be eliminated from our inquiry, for, to
prevent possible accidents, the rails nearest to the main line have
been taken up, and there is no longer any connection.  There remain
three other side lines leading--

  (a) To the Carnstock Iron Works;
  (b) To the Big Ben Colliery;
  (c) To the Perseverance Colliery.


"Of these the Big Ben line is not more than a quarter of a mile long,
and ends at a dead wall of coal waiting removal from the mouth of the
mine.  Nothing had been seen or heard there of any special.  The
Carnstock Iron Works line was blocked all day upon the 3rd of June by
sixteen truckloads of hematite.  It is a single line, and nothing could
have passed.  As to the Perseverance line, it is a large double line,
which does a considerable traffic, for the output of the mine is very
large.  On the 3rd of June this traffic proceeded as usual; hundreds of
men including a gang of railway platelayers were working along the two
miles and a quarter which constitute the total length of the line, and
it is inconceivable that an unexpected train could have come down there
without attracting universal attention.  It may be remarked in
conclusion that this branch line is nearer to St. Helens than the point
at which the engine-driver was discovered, so that we have every reason
to believe that the train was past that point before misfortune
overtook her.

"As to John Slater, there is no clue to be gathered from his appearance
or injuries.  We can only say that, so far as we can see, he met his
end by falling off his engine, though why he fell, or what became of
the engine after his fall, is a question upon which I do not feel
qualified to offer an opinion."  In conclusion, the inspector offered
his resignation to the Board, being much nettled by an accusation of
incompetence in the London papers.

A month elapsed, during which both the police and the company
prosecuted their inquiries without the slightest success.  A reward was
offered and a pardon promised in case of crime, but they were both
unclaimed.  Every day the public opened their papers with the
conviction that so grotesque a mystery would at last be solved, but
week after week passed by, and a solution remained as far off as ever.
In broad daylight, upon a June afternoon in the most thickly inhabited
portion of England, a train with its occupants had disappeared as
completely as if some master of subtle chemistry had volatilized it
into gas.  Indeed, among the various conjectures which were put forward
in the public Press, there were some which seriously asserted that
supernatural, or, at least, preternatural, agencies had been at work,
and that the deformed Monsieur Caratal was probably a person who was
better known under a less polite name.  Others fixed upon his swarthy
companion as being the author of the mischief, but what it was exactly
which he had done could never be clearly formulated in words.

Amongst the many suggestions put forward by various newspapers or
private individuals, there were one or two which were feasible enough
to attract the attention of the public.  One which appeared in The
Times, over the signature of an amateur reasoner of some celebrity at
that date, attempted to deal with the matter in a critical and
semi-scientific manner.  An extract must suffice, although the curious
can see the whole letter in the issue of the 3rd of July.

"It is one of the elementary principles of practical reasoning," he
remarked, "that when the impossible has been eliminated the residuum,
HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, must contain the truth.  It is certain that the
train left Kenyon Junction.  It is certain that it did not reach Barton
Moss.  It is in the highest degree unlikely, but still possible, that
it may have taken one of the seven available side lines.  It is
obviously impossible for a train to run where there are no rails, and,
therefore, we may reduce our improbables to the three open lines,
namely the Carnstock Iron Works, the Big Ben, and the Perseverance.  Is
there a secret society of colliers, an English Camorra, which is
capable of destroying both train and passengers?  It is improbable, but
it is not impossible.  I confess that I am unable to suggest any other
solution.  I should certainly advise the company to direct all their
energies towards the observation of those three lines, and of the
workmen at the end of them.  A careful supervision of the pawnbrokers'
shops of the district might possibly bring some suggestive facts to
light."

The suggestion coming from a recognized authority upon such matters
created considerable interest, and a fierce opposition from those who
considered such a statement to be a preposterous libel upon an honest
and deserving set of men.  The only answer to this criticism was a
challenge to the objectors to lay any more feasible explanations before
the public.  In reply to this two others were forthcoming (Times, July
7th and 9th).  The first suggested that the train might have run off
the metals and be lying submerged in the Lancashire and Staffordshire
Canal, which runs parallel to the railway for some hundred of yards.
This suggestion was thrown out of court by the published depth of the
canal, which was entirely insufficient to conceal so large an object.
The second correspondent wrote calling attention to the bag which
appeared to be the sole luggage which the travellers had brought with
them, and suggesting that some novel explosive of immense and
pulverizing power might have been concealed in it.  The obvious
absurdity, however, of supposing that the whole train might be blown to
dust while the metals remained uninjured reduced any such explanation
to a farce.  The investigation had drifted into this hopeless position
when a new and most unexpected incident occurred.

This was nothing less than the receipt by Mrs. McPherson of a letter
from her husband, James McPherson, who had been the guard on the
missing train.  The letter, which was dated July 5th, 1890, was posted
from New York and came to hand upon July 14th.  Some doubts were
expressed as to its genuine character but Mrs. McPherson was positive
as to the writing, and the fact that it contained a remittance of a
hundred dollars in five-dollar notes was enough in itself to discount
the idea of a hoax.  No address was given in the letter, which ran in
this way:


MY DEAR WIFE,--

"I have been thinking a great deal, and I find it very hard to give you
up.  The same with Lizzie.  I try to fight against it, but it will
always come back to me.  I send you some money which will change into
twenty English pounds.  This should be enough to bring both Lizzie and
you across the Atlantic, and you will find the Hamburg boats which stop
at Southampton very good boats, and cheaper than Liverpool.  If you
could come here and stop at the Johnston House I would try and send you
word how to meet, but things are very difficult with me at present, and
I am not very happy, finding it hard to give you both up.  So no more
at present, from your loving husband,

"James McPherson."


For a time it was confidently anticipated that this letter would lead
to the clearing up of the whole matter, the more so as it was
ascertained that a passenger who bore a close resemblance to the
missing guard had travelled from Southampton under the name of Summers
in the Hamburg and New York liner Vistula, which started upon the 7th
of June.  Mrs. McPherson and her sister Lizzie Dolton went across to
New York as directed and stayed for three weeks at the Johnston House,
without hearing anything from the missing man.  It is probable that
some injudicious comments in the Press may have warned him that the
police were using them as a bait.  However, this may be, it is certain
that he neither wrote nor came, and the women were eventually compelled
to return to Liverpool.

And so the matter stood, and has continued to stand up to the present
year of 1898.  Incredible as it may seem, nothing has transpired during
these eight years which has shed the least light upon the extraordinary
disappearance of the special train which contained Monsieur Caratal and
his companion.  Careful inquiries into the antecedents of the two
travellers have only established the fact that Monsieur Caratal was
well known as a financier and political agent in Central America, and
that during his voyage to Europe he had betrayed extraordinary anxiety
to reach Paris.  His companion, whose name was entered upon the
passenger lists as Eduardo Gomez, was a man whose record was a violent
one, and whose reputation was that of a bravo and a bully.  There was
evidence to show, however, that he was honestly devoted to the
interests of Monsieur Caratal, and that the latter, being a man of puny
physique, employed the other as a guard and protector.  It may be added
that no information came from Paris as to what the objects of Monsieur
Caratal's hurried journey may have been.  This comprises all the facts
of the case up to the publication in the Marseilles papers of the
recent confession of Herbert de Lernac, now under sentence of death for
the murder of a merchant named Bonvalot. This statement may be
literally translated as follows:


"It is not out of mere pride or boasting that I give this information,
for, if that were my object, I could tell a dozen actions of mine which
are quite as splendid; but I do it in order that certain gentlemen in
Paris may understand that I, who am able here to tell about the fate of
Monsieur Caratal, can also tell in whose interest and at whose request
the deed was done, unless the reprieve which I am awaiting comes to me
very quickly.  Take warning, messieurs, before it is too late!  You
know Herbert de Lernac, and you are aware that his deeds are as ready
as his words. Hasten then, or you are lost!

"At present I shall mention no names--if you only heard the names, what
would you not think!--but I shall merely tell you how cleverly I did
it.  I was true to my employers then, and no doubt they will be true to
me now.  I hope so, and until I am convinced that they have betrayed
me, these names, which would convulse Europe, shall not be divulged.
But on that day ... well, I say no more!

"In a word, then, there was a famous trial in Paris, in the year 1890,
in connection with a monstrous scandal in politics and finance.  How
monstrous that scandal was can never be known save by such confidential
agents as myself.  The honour and careers of many of the chief men in
France were at stake.  You have seen a group of ninepins standing, all
so rigid, and prim, and unbending.  Then there comes the ball from far
away and pop, pop, pop--there are your ninepins on the floor.  Well,
imagine some of the greatest men in France as these ninepins and then
this Monsieur Caratal was the ball which could be seen coming from far
away.  If he arrived, then it was pop, pop, pop for all of them.  It
was determined that he should not arrive.

"I do not accuse them all of being conscious of what was to happen.
There were, as I have said, great financial as well as political
interests at stake, and a syndicate was formed to manage the business.
Some subscribed to the syndicate who hardly understood what were its
objects.  But others understood very well, and they can rely upon it
that I have not forgotten their names. They had ample warning that
Monsieur Caratal was coming long before he left South America, and they
knew that the evidence which he held would certainly mean ruin to all
of them.  The syndicate had the command of an unlimited amount of
money--absolutely unlimited, you understand.  They looked round for an
agent who was capable of wielding this gigantic power.  The man chosen
must be inventive, resolute, adaptive--a man in a million.  They chose
Herbert de Lernac, and I admit that they were right.

"My duties were to choose my subordinates, to use freely the power
which money gives, and to make certain that Monsieur Caratal should
never arrive in Paris.  With characteristic energy I set about my
commission within an hour of receiving my instructions, and the steps
which I took were the very best for the purpose which could possibly be
devised.

"A man whom I could trust was dispatched instantly to South America to
travel home with Monsieur Caratal.  Had he arrived in time the ship
would never have reached Liverpool; but alas! it had already started
before my agent could reach it.  I fitted out a small armed brig to
intercept it, but again I was unfortunate. Like all great organizers I
was, however, prepared for failure, and had a series of alternatives
prepared, one or the other of which must succeed.  You must not
underrate the difficulties of my undertaking, or imagine that a mere
commonplace assassination would meet the case.  We must destroy not
only Monsieur Caratal, but Monsieur Caratal's documents, and Monsieur
Caratal's companions also, if we had reason to believe that he had
communicated his secrets to them.  And you must remember that they were
on the alert, and keenly suspicious of any such attempt.  It was a task
which was in every way worthy of me, for I am always most masterful
where another would be appalled.

"I was all ready for Monsieur Caratal's reception in Liverpool, and I
was the more eager because I had reason to believe that he had made
arrangements by which he would have a considerable guard from the
moment that he arrived in London.  Anything which was to be done must
be done between the moment of his setting foot upon the Liverpool quay
and that of his arrival at the London and West Coast terminus in
London.  We prepared six plans, each more elaborate than the last;
which plan would be used would depend upon his own movements.  Do what
he would, we were ready for him.  If he had stayed in Liverpool, we
were ready.  If he took an ordinary train, an express, or a special,
all was ready.  Everything had been foreseen and provided for.

"You may imagine that I could not do all this myself.  What could I
know of the English railway lines?  But money can procure willing
agents all the world over, and I soon had one of the acutest brains in
England to assist me.  I will mention no names, but it would be unjust
to claim all the credit for myself. My English ally was worthy of such
an alliance.  He knew the London and West Coast line thoroughly, and he
had the command of a band of workers who were trustworthy and
intelligent.  The idea was his, and my own judgement was only required
in the details.  We bought over several officials, amongst whom the
most important was James McPherson, whom we had ascertained to be the
guard most likely to be employed upon a special train.  Smith, the
stoker, was also in our employ.  John Slater, the engine-driver, had
been approached, but had been found to be obstinate and dangerous, so
we desisted. We had no certainty that Monsieur Caratal would take a
special, but we thought it very probable, for it was of the utmost
importance to him that he should reach Paris without delay.  It was for
this contingency, therefore, that we made special
preparations--preparations which were complete down to the last detail
long before his steamer had sighted the shores of England.  You will be
amused to learn that there was one of my agents in the pilot-boat which
brought that steamer to its moorings.

"The moment that Caratal arrived in Liverpool we knew that he suspected
danger and was on his guard.  He had brought with him as an escort a
dangerous fellow, named Gomez, a man who carried weapons, and was
prepared to use them.  This fellow carried Caratal's confidential
papers for him, and was ready to protect either them or his master.
The probability was that Caratal had taken him into his counsel, and
that to remove Caratal without removing Gomez would be a mere waste of
energy.  It was necessary that they should be involved in a common
fate, and our plans to that end were much facilitated by their request
for a special train.  On that special train you will understand that
two out of the three servants of the company were really in our employ,
at a price which would make them independent for a lifetime.  I do not
go so far as to say that the English are more honest than any other
nation, but I have found them more expensive to buy.

"I have already spoken of my English agent--who is a man with a
considerable future before him, unless some complaint of the throat
carries him off before his time.  He had charge of all arrangements at
Liverpool, whilst I was stationed at the inn at Kenyon, where I awaited
a cipher signal to act.  When the special was arranged for, my agent
instantly telegraphed to me and warned me how soon I should have
everything ready.  He himself under the name of Horace Moore applied
immediately for a special also, in the hope that he would be sent down
with Monsieur Caratal, which might under certain circumstances have
been helpful to us.  If, for example, our great coup had failed, it
would then have become the duty of my agent to have shot them both and
destroyed their papers. Caratal was on his guard, however, and refused
to admit any other traveller.  My agent then left the station, returned
by another entrance, entered the guard's van on the side farthest from
the platform, and travelled down with McPherson the guard.

"In the meantime you will be interested to know what my movements were.
Everything had been prepared for days before, and only the finishing
touches were needed.  The side line which we had chosen had once joined
the main line, but it had been disconnected. We had only to replace a
few rails to connect it once more.  These rails had been laid down as
far as could be done without danger of attracting attention, and now it
was merely a case of completing a juncture with the line, and arranging
the points as they had been before.  The sleepers had never been
removed, and the rails, fish-plates and rivets were all ready, for we
had taken them from a siding on the abandoned portion of the line.
With my small but competent band of workers, we had everything ready
long before the special arrived.  When it did arrive, it ran off upon
the small side line so easily that the jolting of the points appears to
have been entirely unnoticed by the two travellers.

"Our plan had been that Smith, the stoker, should chloroform John
Slater, the driver, so that he should vanish with the others. In this
respect, and in this respect only, our plans miscarried--I except the
criminal folly of McPherson in writing home to his wife. Our stoker did
his business so clumsily that Slater in his struggles fell off the
engine, and though fortune was with us so far that he broke his neck in
the fall, still he remained as a blot upon that which would otherwise
have been one of those complete masterpieces which are only to be
contemplated in silent admiration.  The criminal expert will find in
John Slater the one flaw in all our admirable combinations.  A man who
has had as many triumphs as I can afford to be frank, and I therefore
lay my finger upon John Slater, and I proclaim him to be a flaw.

"But now I have got our special train upon the small line two
kilometres, or rather more than one mile, in length, which leads, or
rather used to lead, to the abandoned Heartsease mine, once one of the
largest coal mines in England.  You will ask how it is that no one saw
the train upon this unused line.  I answer that along its entire length
it runs through a deep cutting, and that, unless someone had been on
the edge of that cutting, he could not have seen it.  There WAS someone
on the edge of that cutting.  I was there.  And now I will tell you
what I saw.

"My assistant had remained at the points in order that he might
superintend the switching off of the train.  He had four armed men with
him, so that if the train ran off the line--we thought it probable,
because the points were very rusty--we might still have resources to
fall back upon.  Having once seen it safely on the side line, he handed
over the responsibility to me.  I was waiting at a point which
overlooks the mouth of the mine, and I was also armed, as were my two
companions.  Come what might, you see, I was always ready.

"The moment that the train was fairly on the side line, Smith, the
stoker, slowed-down the engine, and then, having turned it on to the
fullest speed again, he and McPherson, with my English lieutenant,
sprang off before it was too late.  It may be that it was this
slowing-down which first attracted the attention of the travellers, but
the train was running at full speed again before their heads appeared
at the open window.  It makes me smile to think how bewildered they
must have been.  Picture to yourself your own feelings if, on looking
out of your luxurious carriage, you suddenly perceived that the lines
upon which you ran were rusted and corroded, red and yellow with disuse
and decay!  What a catch must have come in their breath as in a second
it flashed upon them that it was not Manchester but Death which was
waiting for them at the end of that sinister line.  But the train was
running with frantic speed, rolling and rocking over the rotten line,
while the wheels made a frightful screaming sound upon the rusted
surface.  I was close to them, and could see their faces.  Caratal was
praying, I think--there was something like a rosary dangling out of his
hand.  The other roared like a bull who smells the blood of the
slaughter-house.  He saw us standing on the bank, and he beckoned to us
like a madman.  Then he tore at his wrist and threw his dispatch-box
out of the window in our direction.  Of course, his meaning was
obvious.  Here was the evidence, and they would promise to be silent if
their lives were spared.  It would have been very agreeable if we could
have done so, but business is business.  Besides, the train was now as
much beyond our controls as theirs.

"He ceased howling when the train rattled round the curve and they saw
the black mouth of the mine yawning before them.  We had removed the
boards which had covered it, and we had cleared the square entrance.
The rails had formerly run very close to the shaft for the convenience
of loading the coal, and we had only to add two or three lengths of
rail in order to lead to the very brink of the shaft.  In fact, as the
lengths would not quite fit, our line projected about three feet over
the edge.  We saw the two heads at the window: Caratal below, Gomez
above; but they had both been struck silent by what they saw.  And yet
they could not withdraw their heads.  The sight seemed to have
paralysed them.

"I had wondered how the train running at a great speed would take the
pit into which I had guided it, and I was much interested in watching
it.  One of my colleagues thought that it would actually jump it, and
indeed it was not very far from doing so. Fortunately, however, it fell
short, and the buffers of the engine struck the other lip of the shaft
with a tremendous crash.  The funnel flew off into the air.  The
tender, carriages, and van were all smashed up into one jumble, which,
with the remains of the engine, choked for a minute or so the mouth of
the pit.  Then something gave way in the middle, and the whole mass of
green iron, smoking coals, brass fittings, wheels, wood-work, and
cushions all crumbled together and crashed down into the mine.  We
heard the rattle, rattle, rattle, as the debris struck against the
walls, and then, quite a long time afterwards, there came a deep roar
as the remains of the train struck the bottom.  The boiler may have
burst, for a sharp crash came after the roar, and then a dense cloud of
steam and smoke swirled up out of the black depths, falling in a spray
as thick as rain all round us.  Then the vapour shredded off into thin
wisps, which floated away in the summer sunshine, and all was quiet
again in the Heartsease mine.

"And now, having carried out our plans so successfully, it only
remained to leave no trace behind us.  Our little band of workers at
the other end had already ripped up the rails and disconnected the side
line, replacing everything as it had been before.  We were equally busy
at the mine.  The funnel and other fragments were thrown in, the shaft
was planked over as it used to be, and the lines which led to it were
torn up and taken away.  Then, without flurry, but without delay, we
all made our way out of the country, most of us to Paris, my English
colleague to Manchester, and McPherson to Southampton, whence he
emigrated to America.  Let the English papers of that date tell how
throughly we had done our work, and how completely we had thrown the
cleverest of their detectives off our track.

"You will remember that Gomez threw his bag of papers out of the
window, and I need not say that I secured that bag and brought them to
my employers.  It may interest my employers now, however, to learn that
out of that bag I took one or two little papers as a souvenir of the
occasion.  I have no wish to publish these papers; but, still, it is
every man for himself in this world, and what else can I do if my
friends will not come to my aid when I want them?  Messieurs, you may
believe that Herbert de Lernac is quite as formidable when he is
against you as when he is with you, and that he is not a man to go to
the guillotine until he has seen that every one of you is en route for
New Caledonia.  For your own sake, if not for mine, make haste,
Monsieur de ----, and General ----, and Baron ---- (you can fill up the
blanks for yourselves as you read this).  I promise you that in the
next edition there will be no blanks to fill.

"P.S.--As I look over my statement there is only one omission which I
can see.  It concerns the unfortunate man McPherson, who was foolish
enough to write to his wife and to make an appointment with her in New
York.  It can be imagined that when interests like ours were at stake,
we could not leave them to the chance of whether a man in that class of
life would or would not give away his secrets to a woman.  Having once
broken his oath by writing to his wife, we could not trust him any
more.  We took steps therefore to insure that he should not see his
wife.  I have sometimes thought that it would be a kindness to write to
her and to assure her that there is no impediment to her marrying
again."



The Beetle-Hunter

A curious experience? said the Doctor.  Yes, my friends, I have had one
very curious experience.  I never expect to have another, for it is
against all doctrines of chances that two such events would befall any
one man in a single lifetime.  You may believe me or not, but the thing
happened exactly as I tell it.

I had just become a medical man, but I had not started in practice, and
I lived in rooms in Gower Street.  The street has been renumbered since
then, but it was in the only house which has a bow-window, upon the
left-hand side as you go down from the Metropolitan Station.  A widow
named Murchison kept the house at that time, and she had three medical
students and one engineer as lodgers.  I occupied the top room, which
was the cheapest, but cheap as it was it was more than I could afford.
My small resources were dwindling away, and every week it became more
necessary that I should find something to do.  Yet I was very unwilling
to go into general practice, for my tastes were all in the direction of
science, and especially of zoology, towards which I had always a strong
leaning.  I had almost given the fight up and resigned myself to being
a medical drudge for life, when the turning-point of my struggles came
in a very extraordinary way.

One morning I had picked up the Standard and was glancing over its
contents.  There was a complete absence of news, and I was about to
toss the paper down again, when my eyes were caught by an advertisement
at the head of the personal column.  It was worded in this way:


"Wanted for one or more days the services of a medical man.  It is
essential that he should be a man of strong physique, of steady nerves,
and of a resolute nature.  Must be an entomologist--coleopterist
preferred.  Apply, in person, at 77B, Brook Street. Application must be
made before twelve o'clock today."


Now, I have already said that I was devoted to zoology.  Of all
branches of zoology, the study of insects was the most attractive to
me, and of all insects beetles were the species with which I was most
familiar.  Butterfly collectors are numerous, but beetles are far more
varied, and more accessible in these islands than are butterflies.  It
was this fact which had attracted my attention to them, and I had
myself made a collection which numbered some hundred varieties.  As to
the other requisites of the advertisement, I knew that my nerves could
be depended upon, and I had won the weight-throwing competition at the
inter-hospital sports.  Clearly, I was the very man for the vacancy.
Within five minutes of my having read the advertisement I was in a cab
and on my was to Brook Street.

As I drove, I kept turning the matter over in my head and trying to
make a guess as to what sort of employment it could be which needed
such curious qualifications.  A strong physique, a resolute nature, a
medical training, and a knowledge of beetles--what connection could
there be between these various requisites? And then there was the
disheartening fact that the situation was not a permanent one, but
terminable from day to day, according to the terms of the
advertisement.  The more I pondered over it the more unintelligible did
it become; but at the end of my meditations I always came back to the
ground fact that, come what might, I had nothing to lose, that I was
completely at the end of my resources, and that I was ready for any
adventure, however desperate, which would put a few honest sovereigns
into my pocket.  The man fears to fail who has to pay for his failure,
but there was no penalty which Fortune could exact from me.  I was like
the gambler with empty pockets, who is still allowed to try his luck
with the others.

No. 77B, Brook Street, was one of those dingy and yet imposing houses,
dun-coloured and flat-faced, with the intensely respectable and solid
air which marks the Georgian builder.  As I alighted from the cab, a
young man came out of the door and walked swiftly down the street.  In
passing me, I noticed that he cast an inquisitive and somewhat
malevolent glance at me, and I took the incident as a good omen, for
his appearance was that of a rejected candidate, and if he resented my
application it meant that the vacancy was not yet filled up.  Full of
hope, I ascended the broad steps and rapped with the heavy knocker.

A footman in powder and livery opened the door.  Clearly I was in touch
with the people of wealth and fashion.


"Yes, sir?" said the footman.

"I came in answer to----"

"Quite so, sir," said the footman.  "Lord Linchmere will see you at
once in the library."

Lord Linchmere!  I had vaguely heard the name, but could not for the
instant recall anything about him.  Following the footman, I was shown
into a large, book-lined room in which there was seated behind a
writing-desk a small man with a pleasant, clean-shaven, mobile face,
and long hair shot with grey, brushed back from his forehead.  He
looked me up and down with a very shrewd, penetrating glance, holding
the card which the footman had given him in his right hand.  Then he
smiled pleasantly, and I felt that externally at any rate I possessed
the qualifications which he desired.

"You have come in answer to my advertisement, Dr. Hamilton?" he asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Do you fulfil the conditions which are there laid down?"

"I believe that I do."

"You are a powerful man, or so I should judge from your appearance.

"I think that I am fairly strong."

"And resolute?"

"I believe so."

"Have you ever known what it was to be exposed to imminent danger?"

"No, I don't know that I ever have."

"But you think you would be prompt and cool at such a time?"

"I hope so."

"Well, I believe that you would.  I have the more confidence in you
because you do not pretend to be certain as to what you would do in a
position that was new to you.  My impression is that, so far as
personal qualities go, you are the very man of whom I am in search.
That being settled, we may pass on to the next point."

"Which is?"

"To talk to me about beetles."

I looked across to see if he was joking, but, on the contrary, he was
leaning eagerly forward across his desk, and there was an expression of
something like anxiety in his eyes.

"I am afraid that you do not know about beetles," he cried.

"On the contrary, sir, it is the one scientific subject about which I
feel that I really do know something."

"I am overjoyed to hear it.  Please talk to me about beetles."

I talked.  I do not profess to have said anything original upon the
subject, but I gave a short sketch of the characteristics of the
beetle, and ran over the more common species, with some allusions to
the specimens in my own little collection and to the article upon
"Burying Beetles" which I had contributed to the Journal of
Entomological Science.

"What! not a collector?" cried Lord Linchmere.  "You don't mean that
you are yourself a collector?"  His eyes danced with pleasure at the
thought.

"You are certainly the very man in London for my purpose.  I thought
that among five millions of people there must be such a man, but the
difficulty is to lay one's hands upon him.  I have been extraordinarily
fortunate in finding you."

He rang a gong upon the table, and the footman entered.

"Ask Lady Rossiter to have the goodness to step this way," said his
lordship, and a few moments later the lady was ushered into the room.
She was a small, middle-aged woman, very like Lord Linchmere in
appearance, with the same quick, alert features and grey-black hair.
The expression of anxiety, however, which I had observed upon his face
was very much more marked upon hers.  Some great grief seemed to have
cast its shadow over her features.  As Lord Linchmere presented me she
turned her face full upon me, and I was shocked to observe a
half-healed scar extending for two inches over her right eyebrow.  It
was partly concealed by plaster, but none the less I could see that it
had been a serious wound and not long inflicted.

"Dr. Hamilton is the very man for our purpose, Evelyn," said Lord
Linchmere.  "He is actually a collector of beetles, and he has written
articles upon the subject."

"Really!" said Lady Rossiter.  "Then you must have heard of my husband.
Everyone who knows anything about beetles must have heard of Sir Thomas
Rossiter."

For the first time a thin little ray of light began to break into the
obscure business.  Here, at last, was a connection between these people
and beetles.  Sir Thomas Rossiter--he was the greatest authority upon
the subject in the world.  He had made it his lifelong study, and had
written a most exhaustive work upon it.  I hastened to assure her that
I had read and appreciated it.

"Have you met my husband?" she asked.

"No, I have not."

"But you shall," said Lord Linchmere, with decision.

The lady was standing beside the desk, and she put her hand upon his
shoulder.  It was obvious to me as I saw their faces together that they
were brother and sister.

"Are you really prepared for this, Charles?  It is noble of you, but
you fill me with fears."  Her voice quavered with apprehension, and he
appeared to me to be equally moved, though he was making strong efforts
to conceal his agitation.

"Yes, yes, dear; it is all settled, it is all decided; in fact, there
is no other possible way, that I can see."

"There is one obvious way."

"No, no, Evelyn, I shall never abandon you--never.  It will come
right--depend upon it; it will come right, and surely it looks like the
interference of Providence that so perfect an instrument should be put
into our hands."

My position was embarrassing, for I felt that for the instant they had
forgotten my presence.  But Lord Linchmere came back suddenly to me and
to my engagement.

"The business for which I want you, Dr. Hamilton, is that you should
put yourself absolutely at my disposal.  I wish you to come for a short
journey with me, to remain always at my side, and to promise to do
without question whatever I may ask you, however unreasonable it may
appear to you to be."

"That is a good deal to ask," said I.

"Unfortunately I cannot put it more plainly, for I do not myself know
what turn matters may take.  You may be sure, however, that you will
not be asked to do anything which your conscience does not approve; and
I promise you that, when all is over, you will be proud to have been
concerned in so good a work."

"If it ends happily," said the lady.

"Exactly; if it ends happily," his lordship repeated.

"And terms?" I asked.

"Twenty pounds a day."

I was amazed at the sum, and must have showed my surprise upon my
features.

"It is a rare combination of qualities, as must have struck you when
you first read the advertisement," said Lord Linchmere; "such varied
gifts may well command a high return, and I do not conceal from you
that your duties might be arduous or even dangerous. Besides, it is
possible that one or two days may bring the matter to an end."

"Please God!" sighed his sister.

"So now, Dr. Hamilton, may I rely upon your aid?"

"Most undoubtedly," said I.  "You have only to tell me what my duties
are."

"Your first duty will be to return to your home.  You will pack up
whatever you may need for a short visit to the country.  We start
together from Paddington Station at 3:40 this afternoon."

"Do we go far?"

"As far as Pangbourne.  Meet me at the bookstall at 3:30.  I shall have
the tickets.  Goodbye, Dr. Hamilton!  And, by the way, there are two
things which I should be very glad if you would bring with you, in case
you have them.  One is your case for collecting beetles, and the other
is a stick, and the thicker and heavier the better."


You may imagine that I had plenty to think of from the time that I left
Brook Street until I set out to meet Lord Linchmere at Paddington.  The
whole fantastic business kept arranging and rearranging itself in
kaleidoscopic forms inside my brain, until I had thought out a dozen
explanations, each of them more grotesquely improbable than the last.
And yet I felt that the truth must be something grotesquely improbable
also.  At last I gave up all attempts at finding a solution, and
contented myself with exactly carrying out the instructions which I had
received.  With a hand valise, specimen-case, and a loaded cane, I was
waiting at the Paddington bookstall when Lord Linchmere arrived.  He
was an even smaller man than I had thought--frail and peaky, with a
manner which was more nervous than it had been in the morning.  He wore
a long, thick travelling ulster, and I observed that he carried a heavy
blackthorn cudgel in his hand.

"I have the tickets," said he, leading the way up the platform.

"This is our train.  I have engaged a carriage, for I am particularly
anxious to impress one or two things upon you while we travel down."

And yet all that he had to impress upon me might have been said in a
sentence, for it was that I was to remember that I was there as a
protection to himself, and that I was not on any consideration to leave
him for an instant.  This he repeated again and again as our journey
drew to a close, with an insistence which showed that his nerves were
thoroughly shaken.

"Yes," he said at last, in answer to my looks rather than to my words,
"I AM nervous, Dr. Hamilton.  I have always been a timid man, and my
timidity depends upon my frail physical health.  But my soul is firm,
and I can bring myself up to face a danger which a less-nervous man
might shrink from.  What I am doing now is done from no compulsion, but
entirely from a sense of duty, and yet it is, beyond doubt, a desperate
risk.  If things should go wrong, I will have some claims to the title
of martyr."

This eternal reading of riddles was too much for me.  I felt that I
must put a term to it.

"I think it would very much better, sir, if you were to trust me
entirely," said I.  "It is impossible for me to act effectively, when I
do not know what are the objects which we have in view, or even where
we are going."

"Oh, as to where we are going, there need be no mystery about that,"
said he; "we are going to Delamere Court, the residence of Sir Thomas
Rossiter, with whose work you are so conversant.  As to the exact
object of our visit, I do not know that at this stage of the
proceedings anything would be gained, Dr. Hamilton, by taking you into
my complete confidence.  I may tell you that we are acting--I say 'we,'
because my sister, Lady Rossiter, takes the same view as myself--with
the one object of preventing anything in the nature of a family
scandal.  That being so, you can understand that I am loath to give any
explanations which are not absolutely necessary.  It would be a
different matter, Dr. Hamilton, if I were asking your advice.  As
matters stand, it is only your active help which I need, and I will
indicate to you from time to time how you can best give it."

There was nothing more to be said, and a poor man can put up with a
good deal for twenty pounds a day, but I felt none the less that Lord
Linchmere was acting rather scurvily towards me.  He wished to convert
me into a passive tool, like the blackthorn in his hand.  With his
sensitive disposition I could imagine, however, that scandal would be
abhorrent to him, and I realized that he would not take me into his
confidence until no other course was open to him.  I must trust to my
own eyes and ears to solve the mystery, but I had every confidence that
I should not trust to them in vain.

Delamere Court lies a good five miles from Pangbourne Station, and we
drove for that distance in an open fly.  Lord Linchmere sat in deep
thought during the time, and he never opened his mouth until we were
close to our destination.  When he did speak it was to give me a piece
of information which surprised me.

"Perhaps you are not aware," said he, "that I am a medical man like
yourself?"

"No, sir, I did not know it."

"Yes, I qualified in my younger days, when there were several lives
between me and the peerage.  I have not had occasion to practise, but I
have found it a useful education, all the same.  I never regretted the
years which I devoted to medical study.  These are the gates of
Delamere Court."

We had come to two high pillars crowned with heraldic monsters which
flanked the opening of a winding avenue.  Over the laurel bushes and
rhododendrons, I could see a long, many-gabled mansion, girdled with
ivy, and toned to the warm, cheery, mellow glow of old brick-work.  My
eyes were still fixed in admiration upon this delightful house when my
companion plucked nervously at my sleeve.

"Here's Sir Thomas," he whispered.  "Please talk beetle all you can."

A tall, thin figure, curiously angular and bony, had emerged through a
gap in the hedge of laurels.  In his hand he held a spud, and he wore
gauntleted gardener's gloves.  A broad-brimmed, grey hat cast his face
into shadow, but it struck me as exceedingly austere, with an
ill-nourished beard and harsh, irregular features. The fly pulled up
and Lord Linchmere sprang out.

"My dear Thomas, how are you?" said he, heartily.

But the heartiness was by no means reciprocal.  The owner of the
grounds glared at me over his brother-in-law's shoulder, and I caught
broken scraps of sentences--"well-known wishes ... hatred of
strangers ... unjustifiable intrusion ... perfectly inexcusable."
Then there was a muttered explanation, and the two of them came over
together to the side of the fly.

"Let me present you to Sir Thomas Rossiter, Dr. Hamilton," said Lord
Linchmere.  "You will find that you have a strong community of tastes."

I bowed.  Sir Thomas stood very stiffly, looking at me severely from
under the broad brim of his hat.

"Lord Linchmere tells me that you know something about beetles," said
he.  "What do you know about beetles?"

"I know what I have learned from your work upon the coleoptera, Sir
Thomas," I answered.

"Give me the names of the better-known species of the British
scarabaei," said he.

I had not expected an examination, but fortunately I was ready for one.
My answers seemed to please him, for his stern features relaxed.

"You appear to have read my book with some profit, sir," said he.  "It
is a rare thing for me to meet anyone who takes an intelligent interest
in such matters.  People can find time for such trivialities as sport
or society, and yet the beetles are overlooked.  I can assure you that
the greater part of the idiots in this part of the country are unaware
that I have ever written a book at all--I, the first man who ever
described the true function of the elytra.  I am glad to see you, sir,
and I have no doubt that I can show you some specimens which will
interest you."  He stepped into the fly and drove up with us to the
house, expounding to me as we went some recent researches which he had
made into the anatomy of the lady-bird.

I have said that Sir Thomas Rossiter wore a large hat drawn down over
his brows.  As he entered the hall he uncovered himself, and I was at
once aware of a singular characteristic which the hat had concealed.
His forehead, which was naturally high, and higher still on account of
receding hair, was in a continual state of movement.  Some nervous
weakness kept the muscles in a constant spasm, which sometimes produced
a mere twitching and sometimes a curious rotary movement unlike
anything which I had ever seen before.  It was strikingly visible as he
turned towards us after entering the study, and seemed the more
singular from the contrast with the hard, steady, grey eyes which
looked out from underneath those palpitating brows.

"I am sorry," said he, "that Lady Rossiter is not here to help me to
welcome you.  By the way, Charles, did Evelyn say anything about the
date of her return?"

"She wished to stay in town for a few more days," said Lord Linchmere.
"You know how ladies' social duties accumulate if they have been for
some time in the country.  My sister has many old friends in London at
present."

"Well, she is her own mistress, and I should not wish to alter her
plans, but I shall be glad when I see her again.  It is very lonely
here without her company."

"I was afraid that you might find it so, and that was partly why I ran
down.  My young friend, Dr. Hamilton, is so much interested in the
subject which you have made your own, that I thought you would not mind
his accompanying me."

"I lead a retired life, Dr. Hamilton, and my aversion to strangers
grows upon me," said our host.  "I have sometimes thought that my
nerves are not so good as they were.  My travels in search of beetles
in my younger days took me into many malarious and unhealthy places.
But a brother coleopterist like yourself is always a welcome guest, and
I shall be delighted if you will look over my collection, which I think
that I may without exaggeration describe as the best in Europe."

And so no doubt it was.  He had a huge, oaken cabinet arranged in
shallow drawers, and here, neatly ticketed and classified, were beetles
from every corner of the earth, black, brown, blue, green, and mottled.
Every now and then as he swept his hand over the lines and lines of
impaled insects he would catch up some rare specimen, and, handling it
with as much delicacy and reverence as if it were a precious relic, he
would hold forth upon its peculiarities and the circumstances under
which it came into his possession.  It was evidently an unusual thing
for him to meet with a sympathetic listener, and he talked and talked
until the spring evening had deepened into night, and the gong
announced that it was time to dress for dinner.  All the time Lord
Linchmere said nothing, but he stood at his brother-in-law's elbow, and
I caught him continually shooting curious little, questioning glances
into his face.  And his own features expressed some strong emotion,
apprehension, sympathy, expectation:  I seemed to read them all. I was
sure that Lord Linchmere was fearing something and awaiting something,
but what that something might be I could not imagine.

The evening passed quietly but pleasantly, and I should have been
entirely at my ease if it had not been for that continual sense of
tension upon the part of Lord Linchmere.  As to our host, I found that
he improved upon acquaintance.  He spoke constantly with affection of
his absent wife, and also of his little son, who had recently been sent
to school.  The house, he said, was not the same without them.  If it
were not for his scientific studies, he did not know how he could get
through the days.  After dinner we smoked for some time in the
billiard-room, and finally went early to bed.

And then it was that, for the first time, the suspicion that Lord
Linchmere was a lunatic crossed my mind.  He followed me into my
bedroom, when our host had retired.

"Doctor," said he, speaking in a low, hurried voice, "you must come
with me.  You must spend the night in my bedroom."

"What do you mean?"

"I prefer not to explain.  But this is part of your duties.  My room is
close by, and you can return to your own before the servant calls you
in the morning."

"But why?" I asked.

"Because I am nervous of being alone," said he.  "That's the reason,
since you must have a reason."

It seemed rank lunacy, but the argument of those twenty pounds would
overcome many objections.  I followed him to his room.

"Well," said I, "there's only room for one in that bed."

"Only one shall occupy it," said he.

"And the other?"

"Must remain on watch."

"Why?" said I.  "One would think you expected to be attacked."

"Perhaps I do."

"In that case, why not lock your door?"

"Perhaps I WANT to be attacked."

It looked more and more like lunacy.  However, there was nothing for it
but to submit.  I shrugged my shoulders and sat down in the arm-chair
beside the empty fireplace.

"I am to remain on watch, then?" said I, ruefully.

"We will divide the night.  If you will watch until two, I will watch
the remainder."

"Very good."

"Call me at two o'clock, then."

"I will do so."

"Keep your ears open, and if you hear any sounds wake me
instantly--instantly, you hear?"

"You can rely upon it."  I tried to look as solemn as he did.

"And for God's sake don't go to sleep," said he, and so, taking off
only his coat, he threw the coverlet over him and settled down for the
night.

It was a melancholy vigil, and made more so by my own sense of its
folly.  Supposing that by any chance Lord Linchmere had cause to
suspect that he was subject to danger in the house of Sir Thomas
Rossiter, why on earth could he not lock his door and so protect
himself?  His own answer that he might wish to be attacked was absurd.
Why should he possibly wish to be attacked?  And who would wish to
attack him?  Clearly, Lord Linchmere was suffering from some singular
delusion, and the result was that on an imbecile pretext I was to be
deprived of my night's rest.  Still, however absurd, I was determined
to carry out his injunctions to the letter as long as I was in his
employment.  I sat, therefore, beside the empty fireplace, and listened
to a sonorous chiming clock somewhere down the passage which gurgled
and struck every quarter of an hour. It was an endless vigil.  Save for
that single clock, an absolute silence reigned throughout the great
house.  A small lamp stood on the table at my elbow, throwing a circle
of light round my chair, but leaving the corners of the room draped in
shadow.  On the bed Lord Linchmere was breathing peacefully.  I envied
him his quiet sleep, and again and again my own eyelids drooped, but
every time my sense of duty came to my help, and I sat up, rubbing my
eyes and pinching myself with a determination to see my irrational
watch to an end.

And I did so.  From down the passage came the chimes of two o'clock,
and I laid my hand upon the shoulder of the sleeper. Instantly he was
sitting up, with an expression of the keenest interest upon his face.

"You have heard something?"

"No, sir.  It is two o'clock."

"Very good.  I will watch.  You can go to sleep."

I lay down under the coverlet as he had done and was soon unconscious.
My last recollection was of that circle of lamplight, and of the small,
hunched-up figure and strained, anxious face of Lord Linchmere in the
centre of it.

How long I slept I do not know; but I was suddenly aroused by a sharp
tug at my sleeve.  The room was in darkness, but a hot smell of oil
told me that the lamp had only that instant been extinguished.

"Quick!  Quick!" said Lord Linchmere's voice in my ear.

I sprang out of bed, he still dragging at my arm.

"Over here!" he whispered, and pulled me into a corner of the room.
"Hush!  Listen!"

In the silence of the night I could distinctly hear that someone was
coming down the corridor.  It was a stealthy step, faint and
intermittent, as of a man who paused cautiously after every stride.
Sometimes for half a minute there was no sound, and then came the
shuffle and creak which told of a fresh advance.  My companion was
trembling with excitement.  His hand, which still held my sleeve,
twitched like a branch in the wind.

"What is it?" I whispered.

"It's he!"

"Sir Thomas?"

"Yes."

"What does he want?"

"Hush!  Do nothing until I tell you."

I was conscious now that someone was trying the door.  There was the
faintest little rattle from the handle, and then I dimly saw a thin
slit of subdued light.  There was a lamp burning somewhere far down the
passage, and it just sufficed to make the outside visible from the
darkness of our room.  The greyish slit grew broader and broader, very
gradually, very gently, and then outlined against it I saw the dark
figure of a man.  He was squat and crouching, with the silhouette of a
bulky and misshapen dwarf. Slowly the door swung open with this ominous
shape framed in the centre of it.  And then, in an instant, the
crouching figure shot up, there was a tiger spring across the room and
thud, thud, thud, came three tremendous blows from some heavy object
upon the bed.

I was so paralysed with amazement that I stood motionless and staring
until I was aroused by a yell for help from my companion. The open door
shed enough light for me to see the outline of things, and there was
little Lord Linchmere with his arms round the neck of his
brother-in-law, holding bravely on to him like a game bull-terrier with
its teeth into a gaunt deerhound.  The tall, bony man dashed himself
about, writhing round and round to get a grip upon his assailant; but
the other, clutching on from behind, still kept his hold, though his
shrill, frightened cries showed how unequal he felt the contest to be.
I sprang to the rescue, and the two of us managed to throw Sir Thomas
to the ground, though he made his teeth meet in my shoulder.  With all
my youth and weight and strength, it was a desperate struggle before we
could master his frenzied struggles; but at last we secured his arms
with the waist-cord of the dressing-gown which he was wearing.  I was
holding his legs while Lord Linchmere was endeavouring to relight the
lamp, when there came the pattering of many feet in the passage, and
the butler and two footmen, who had been alarmed by the cries, rushed
into the room.  With their aid we had no further difficulty in securing
our prisoner, who lay foaming and glaring upon the ground. One glance
at his face was enough to prove that he was a dangerous maniac, while
the short, heavy hammer which lay beside the bed showed how murderous
had been his intentions.

"Do not use any violence!" said Lord Linchmere, as we raised the
struggling man to his feet.  "He will have a period of stupor after
this excitement.  I believe that it is coming on already." As he spoke
the convulsions became less violent, and the madman's head fell forward
upon his breast, as if he were overcome by sleep.  We led him down the
passage and stretched him upon his own bed, where he lay unconscious,
breathing heavily.

"Two of you will watch him," said Lord Linchmere.  "And now, Dr.
Hamilton, if you will return with me to my room, I will give you the
explanation which my horror of scandal has perhaps caused me to delay
too long.  Come what may, you will never have cause to regret your
share in this night's work.

"The case may be made clear in a very few words," he continued, when we
were alone.  "My poor brother-in-law is one of the best fellows upon
earth, a loving husband and an estimable father, but he comes from a
stock which is deeply tainted with insanity.  He has more than once had
homicidal outbreaks, which are the more painful because his inclination
is always to attack the very person to whom he is most attached.  His
son was sent away to school to avoid this danger, and then came an
attempt upon my sister, his wife, from which she escaped with injuries
that you may have observed when you met her in London.  You understand
that he knows nothing of the matter when he is in his sound senses, and
would ridicule the suggestion that he could under any circumstances
injure those whom he loves so dearly.  It is often, as you know, a
characteristic of such maladies that it is absolutely impossible to
convince the man who suffers from them of their existence.

"Our great object was, of course, to get him under restraint before he
could stain his hands with blood, but the matter was full of
difficulty.  He is a recluse in his habits, and would not see any
medical man.  Besides, it was necessary for our purpose that the
medical man should convince himself of his insanity; and he is sane as
you or I, save on these very rare occasions.  But, fortunately, before
he has these attacks he always shows certain premonitory symptoms,
which are providential danger-signals, warning us to be upon our guard.
The chief of these is that nervous contortion of the forehead which you
must have observed. This is a phenomenon which always appears from
three to four days before his attacks of frenzy.  The moment it showed
itself his wife came into town on some pretext, and took refuge in my
house in Brook Street.

"It remained for me to convince a medical man of Sir Thomas's insanity,
without which it was impossible to put him where he could do no harm.
The first problem was how to get a medical man into his house.  I
bethought me of his interest in beetles, and his love for anyone who
shared his tastes.  I advertised, therefore, and was fortunate enough
to find in you the very man I wanted.  A stout companion was necessary,
for I knew that the lunacy could only be proved by a murderous assault,
and I had every reason to believe that that assault would be made upon
myself, since he had the warmest regard for me in his moments of
sanity.  I think your intelligence will supply all the rest.  I did not
know that the attack would come by night, but I thought it very
probable, for the crises of such cases usually do occur in the early
hours of the morning.  I am a very nervous man myself, but I saw no
other way in which I could remove this terrible danger from my sister's
life. I need not ask you whether you are willing to sign the lunacy
papers."

"Undoubtedly.  But TWO signatures are necessary."

"You forget that I am myself a holder of a medical degree.  I have the
papers on a side-table here, so if you will be good enough to sign them
now, we can have the patient removed in the morning."


So that was my visit to Sir Thomas Rossiter, the famous beetle-hunter,
and that was also my first step upon the ladder of success, for Lady
Rossiter and Lord Linchmere have proved to be staunch friends, and they
have never forgotten my association with them in the time of their
need.  Sir Thomas is out and said to be cured, but I still think that
if I spent another night at Delamere Court, I should be inclined to
lock my door upon the inside.



The Man with the Watches

There are many who will still bear in mind the singular circumstances
which, under the heading of the Rugby Mystery, filled many columns of
the daily Press in the spring of the year 1892.  Coming as it did at a
period of exceptional dullness, it attracted perhaps rather more
attention than it deserved, but it offered to the public that mixture
of the whimsical and the tragic which is most stimulating to the
popular imagination. Interest drooped, however, when, after weeks of
fruitless investigation, it was found that no final explanation of the
facts was forthcoming, and the tragedy seemed from that time to the
present to have finally taken its place in the dark catalogue of
inexplicable and unexpiated crimes.  A recent communication (the
authenticity of which appears to be above question) has, however,
thrown some new and clear light upon the matter.  Before laying it
before the public it would be as well, perhaps, that I should refresh
their memories as to the singular facts upon which this commentary is
founded.  These facts were briefly as follows:

At five o'clock on the evening of the 18th of March in the year already
mentioned a train left Euston Station for Manchester.  It was a rainy,
squally day, which grew wilder as it progressed, so it was by no means
the weather in which anyone would travel who was not driven to do so by
necessity.  The train, however, is a favourite one among Manchester
business men who are returning from town, for it does the journey in
four hours and twenty minutes, with only three stoppages upon the way.
In spite of the inclement evening it was, therefore, fairly well filled
upon the occasion of which I speak.  The guard of the train was a tried
servant of the company--a man who had worked for twenty-two years
without a blemish or complaint.  His name was John Palmer.

The station clock was upon the stroke of five, and the guard was about
to give the customary signal to the engine-driver when he observed two
belated passengers hurrying down the platform.  The one was an
exceptionally tall man, dressed in a long black overcoat with astrakhan
collar and cuffs.  I have already said that the evening was an
inclement one, and the tall traveller had the high, warm collar turned
up to protect his throat against the bitter March wind.  He appeared,
as far as the guard could judge by so hurried an inspection, to be a
man between fifty and sixty years of age, who had retained a good deal
of the vigour and activity of his youth.  In one hand he carried a
brown leather Gladstone bag.  His companion was a lady, tall and erect,
walking with a vigorous step which outpaced the gentleman beside her.
She wore a long, fawn-coloured dust-cloak, a black, close-fitting
toque, and a dark veil which concealed the greater part of her face.
The two might very well have passed as father and daughter.  They
walked swiftly down the line of carriages, glancing in at the windows,
until the guard, John Palmer, overtook them.

"Now then, sir, look sharp, the train is going," said he.

"First-class," the man answered.

The guard turned the handle of the nearest door.  In the carriage which
he had opened, there sat a small man with a cigar in his mouth.  His
appearance seems to have impressed itself upon the guard's memory, for
he was prepared, afterwards, to describe or to identify him.  He was a
man of thirty-four or thirty-five years of age, dressed in some grey
material, sharp-nosed, alert, with a ruddy, weather-beaten face, and a
small, closely cropped, black beard.  He glanced up as the door was
opened.  The tall man paused with his foot upon the step.

"This is a smoking compartment.  The lady dislikes smoke," said he,
looking round at the guard.

"All right!  Here you are, sir!" said John Palmer.  He slammed the door
of the smoking carriage, opened that of the next one, which was empty,
and thrust the two travellers in.  At the same moment he sounded his
whistle and the wheels of the train began to move.  The man with the
cigar was at the window of his carriage, and said something to the
guard as he rolled past him, but the words were lost in the bustle of
the departure.  Palmer stepped into the guard's van, as it came up to
him, and thought no more of the incident.

Twelve minutes after its departure the train reached Willesden
Junction, where it stopped for a very short interval.  An examination
of the tickets has made it certain that no one either joined or left it
at this time, and no passenger was seen to alight upon the platform.
At 5:14 the journey to Manchester was resumed, and Rugby was reached at
6:50, the express being five minutes late.

At Rugby the attention of the station officials was drawn to the fact
that the door of one of the first-class carriages was open.  An
examination of that compartment, and of its neighbour, disclosed a
remarkable state of affairs.

The smoking carriage in which the short, red-faced man with the black
beard had been seen was now empty.  Save for a half-smoked cigar, there
was no trace whatever of its recent occupant.  The door of this
carriage was fastened.  In the next compartment, to which attention had
been originally drawn, there was no sign either of the gentleman with
the astrakhan collar or of the young lady who accompanied him.  All
three passengers had disappeared.  On the other hand, there was found
upon the floor of this carriage--the one in which the tall traveller
and the lady had been--a young man fashionably dressed and of elegant
appearance.  He lay with his knees drawn up, and his head resting
against the farther door, an elbow upon either seat.  A bullet had
penetrated his heart and his death must have been instantaneous.  No
one had seen such a man enter the train, and no railway ticket was
found in his pocket, neither were there any markings upon his linen,
nor papers nor personal property which might help to identify him.  Who
he was, whence he had come, and how he had met his end were each as
great a mystery as what had occurred to the three people who had
started an hour and a half before from Willesden in those two
compartments.

I have said that there was no personal property which might help to
identify him, but it is true that there was one peculiarity about this
unknown young man which was much commented upon at the time.  In his
pockets were found no fewer than six valuable gold watches, three in
the various pockets of his waist-coat, one in his ticket-pocket, one in
his breast-pocket, and one small one set in a leather strap and
fastened round his left wrist.  The obvious explanation that the man
was a pickpocket, and that this was his plunder, was discounted by the
fact that all six were of American make and of a type which is rare in
England.  Three of them bore the mark of the Rochester Watchmaking
Company; one was by Mason, of Elmira; one was unmarked; and the small
one, which was highly jewelled and ornamented, was from Tiffany, of New
York.  The other contents of his pocket consisted of an ivory knife
with a corkscrew by Rodgers, of Sheffield; a small, circular mirror,
one inch in diameter; a readmission slip to the Lyceum Theatre; a
silver box full of vesta matches, and a brown leather cigar-case
containing two cheroots--also two pounds fourteen shillings in money.
It was clear, then, that whatever motives may have led to his death,
robbery was not among them.  As already mentioned, there were no
markings upon the man's linen, which appeared to be new, and no
tailor's name upon his coat.  In appearance he was young, short,
smooth-cheeked, and delicately featured.  One of his front teeth was
conspicuously stopped with gold.

On the discovery of the tragedy an examination was instantly made of
the tickets of all passengers, and the number of the passengers
themselves was counted.  It was found that only three tickets were
unaccounted for, corresponding to the three travellers who were
missing.  The express was then allowed to proceed, but a new guard was
sent with it, and John Palmer was detained as a witness at Rugby.  The
carriage which included the two compartments in question was uncoupled
and side-tracked.  Then, on the arrival of Inspector Vane, of Scotland
Yard, and of Mr. Henderson, a detective in the service of the railway
company, an exhaustive inquiry was made into all the circumstances.

That crime had been committed was certain.  The bullet, which appeared
to have come from a small pistol or revolver, had been fired from some
little distance, as there was no scorching of the clothes.  No weapon
was found in the compartment (which finally disposed of the theory of
suicide), nor was there any sign of the brown leather bag which the
guard had seen in the hand of the tall gentleman.  A lady's parasol was
found upon the rack, but no other trace was to be seen of the
travellers in either of the sections. Apart from the crime, the
question of how or why three passengers (one of them a lady) could get
out of the train, and one other get in during the unbroken run between
Willesden and Rugby, was one which excited the utmost curiosity among
the general public, and gave rise to much speculation in the London
Press.

John Palmer, the guard was able at the inquest to give some evidence
which threw a little light upon the matter.  There was a spot between
Tring and Cheddington, according to his statement, where, on account of
some repairs to the line, the train had for a few minutes slowed down
to a pace not exceeding eight or ten miles an hour.  At that place it
might be possible for a man, or even for an exceptionally active woman,
to have left the train without serious injury.  It was true that a gang
of platelayers was there, and that they had seen nothing, but it was
their custom to stand in the middle between the metals, and the open
carriage door was upon the far side, so that it was conceivable that
someone might have alighted unseen, as the darkness would by that time
be drawing in. A steep embankment would instantly screen anyone who
sprang out from the observation of the navvies.

The guard also deposed that there was a good deal of movement upon the
platform at Willesden Junction, and that though it was certain that no
one had either joined or left the train there, it was still quite
possible that some of the passengers might have changed unseen from one
compartment to another.  It was by no means uncommon for a gentleman to
finish his cigar in a smoking carriage and then to change to a clearer
atmosphere.  Supposing that the man with the black beard had done so at
Willesden (and the half-smoked cigar upon the floor seemed to favour
the supposition), he would naturally go into the nearest section, which
would bring him into the company of the two other actors in this drama.
Thus the first stage of the affair might be surmised without any great
breach of probability.  But what the second stage had been, or how the
final one had been arrived at, neither the guard nor the experienced
detective officers could suggest.

A careful examination of the line between Willesden and Rugby resulted
in one discovery which might or might not have a bearing upon the
tragedy.  Near Tring, at the very place where the train slowed down,
there was found at the bottom of the embankment a small pocket
Testament, very shabby and worn.  It was printed by the Bible Society
of London, and bore an inscription:  "From John to Alice.  Jan. 13th,
1856," upon the fly-leaf.  Underneath was written:  "James.  July 4th,
1859," and beneath that again: "Edward.  Nov. 1st, 1869," all the
entries being in the same handwriting.  This was the only clue, if it
could be called a clue, which the police obtained, and the coroner's
verdict of "Murder by a person or persons unknown" was the
unsatisfactory ending of a singular case.  Advertisement, rewards, and
inquiries proved equally fruitless, and nothing could be found which
was solid enough to form the basis for a profitable investigation.

It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that no theories were formed
to account for the facts.  On the contrary, the Press, both in England
and in America, teemed with suggestions and suppositions, most of which
were obviously absurd.  The fact that the watches were of American
make, and some peculiarities in connection with the gold stopping of
his front tooth, appeared to indicate that the deceased was a citizen
of the United States, though his linen, clothes and boots were
undoubtedly of British manufacture.  It was surmised, by some, that he
was concealed under the seat, and that, being discovered, he was for
some reason, possibly because he had overheard their guilty secrets,
put to death by his fellow-passengers.  When coupled with generalities
as to the ferocity and cunning of anarchical and other secret
societies, this theory sounded as plausible as any.

The fact that he should be without a ticket would be consistent with
the idea of concealment, and it was well known that women played a
prominent part in the Nihilistic propaganda.  On the other hand, it was
clear, from the guard's statement, that the man must have been hidden
there BEFORE the others arrived, and how unlikely the coincidence that
conspirators should stray exactly into the very compartment in which a
spy was already concealed! Besides, this explanation ignored the man in
the smoking carriage, and gave no reason at all for his simultaneous
disappearance.  The police had little difficulty in showing that such a
theory would not cover the facts, but they were unprepared in the
absence of evidence to advance any alternative explanation.

There was a letter in the Daily Gazette, over the signature of a
well-known criminal investigator, which gave rise to considerable
discussion at the time.  He had formed a hypothesis which had at least
ingenuity to recommend it, and I cannot do better than append it in his
own words.

"Whatever may be the truth," said he, "it must depend upon some bizarre
and rare combination of events, so we need have no hesitation in
postulating such events in our explanation.  In the absence of data we
must abandon the analytic or scientific method of investigation, and
must approach it in the synthetic fashion. In a word, instead of taking
known events and deducing from them what has occurred, we must build up
a fanciful explanation if it will only be consistent with known events.
We can then test this explanation by any fresh facts which may arise.
If they all fit into their places, the probability is that we are upon
the right track, and with each fresh fact this probability increases in
a geometrical progression until the evidence becomes final and
convincing.

"Now, there is one most remarkable and suggestive fact which has not
met with the attention which it deserves.  There is a local train
running through Harrow and King's Langley, which is timed in such a way
that the express must have overtaken it at or about the period when it
eased down its speed to eight miles an hour on account of the repairs
of the line.  The two trains would at that time be travelling in the
same direction at a similar rate of speed and upon parallel lines.  It
is within every one's experience how, under such circumstances, the
occupant of each carriage can see very plainly the passengers in the
other carriages opposite to him. The lamps of the express had been lit
at Willesden, so that each compartment was brightly illuminated, and
most visible to an observer from outside.

"Now, the sequence of events as I reconstruct them would be after this
fashion.  This young man with the abnormal number of watches was alone
in the carriage of the slow train.  His ticket, with his papers and
gloves and other things, was, we will suppose, on the seat beside him.
He was probably an American, and also probably a man of weak intellect.
The excessive wearing of jewellery is an early symptom in some forms of
mania.

"As he sat watching the carriages of the express which were (on account
of the state of the line) going at the same pace as himself, he
suddenly saw some people in it whom he knew.  We will suppose for the
sake of our theory that these people were a woman whom he loved and a
man whom he hated--and who in return hated him.  The young man was
excitable and impulsive.  He opened the door of his carriage, stepped
from the footboard of the local train to the footboard of the express,
opened the other door, and made his way into the presence of these two
people.  The feat (on the supposition that the trains were going at the
same pace) is by no means so perilous as it might appear.

"Having now got our young man, without his ticket, into the carriage in
which the elder man and the young woman are travelling, it is not
difficult to imagine that a violent scene ensued.  It is possible that
the pair were also Americans, which is the more probable as the man
carried a weapon--an unusual thing in England. If our supposition of
incipient mania is correct, the young man is likely to have assaulted
the other.  As the upshot of the quarrel the elder man shot the
intruder, and then made his escape from the carriage, taking the young
lady with him.  We will suppose that all this happened very rapidly,
and that the train was still going at so slow a pace that it was not
difficult for them to leave it.  A woman might leave a train going at
eight miles an hour.  As a matter of fact, we know that this woman DID
do so.

"And now we have to fit in the man in the smoking carriage. Presuming
that we have, up to this point, reconstructed the tragedy correctly, we
shall find nothing in this other man to cause us to reconsider our
conclusions.  According to my theory, this man saw the young fellow
cross from one train to the other, saw him open the door, heard the
pistol-shot, saw the two fugitives spring out on to the line, realized
that murder had been done, and sprang out himself in pursuit.  Why he
has never been heard of since--whether he met his own death in the
pursuit, or whether, as is more likely, he was made to realize that it
was not a case for his interference--is a detail which we have at
present no means of explaining.  I acknowledge that there are some
difficulties in the way.  At first sight, it might seem improbable that
at such a moment a murderer would burden himself in his flight with a
brown leather bag.  My answer is that he was well aware that if the bag
were found his identity would be established.  It was absolutely
necessary for him to take it with him.  My theory stands or falls upon
one point, and I call upon the railway company to make strict inquiry
as to whether a ticket was found unclaimed in the local train through
Harrow and King's Langley upon the 18th of March.  If such a ticket
were found my case is proved.  If not, my theory may still be the
correct one, for it is conceivable either that he travelled without a
ticket or that his ticket was lost."

To this elaborate and plausible hypothesis the answer of the police and
of the company was, first, that no such ticket was found; secondly,
that the slow train would never run parallel to the express; and,
thirdly, that the local train had been stationary in King's Langley
Station when the express, going at fifty miles an hour, had flashed
past it.  So perished the only satisfying explanation, and five years
have elapsed without supplying a new one.  Now, at last, there comes a
statement which covers all the facts, and which must be regarded as
authentic.  It took the shape of a letter dated from New York, and
addressed to the same criminal investigator whose theory I have quoted.
It is given here in extenso, with the exception of the two opening
paragraphs, which are personal in their nature:

"You'll excuse me if I'm not very free with names.  There's less reason
now than there was five years ago when mother was still living.  But
for all that, I had rather cover up our tracks all I can.  But I owe
you an explanation, for if your idea of it was wrong, it was a mighty
ingenious one all the same.  I'll have to go back a little so as you
may understand all about it.

"My people came from Bucks, England, and emigrated to the States in the
early fifties.  They settled in Rochester, in the State of New York,
where my father ran a large dry goods store. There were only two sons:
myself, James, and my brother, Edward. I was ten years older than my
brother, and after my father died I sort of took the place of a father
to him, as an elder brother would.  He was a bright, spirited boy, and
just one of the most beautiful creatures that ever lived.  But there
was always a soft spot in him, and it was like mould in cheese, for it
spread and spread, and nothing that you could do would stop it.  Mother
saw it just as clearly as I did, but she went on spoiling him all the
same, for he had such a way with him that you could refuse him nothing.
I did all I could to hold him in, and he hated me for my pains.

"At last he fairly got his head, and nothing that we could do would
stop him.  He got off into New York, and went rapidly from bad to
worse.  At first he was only fast, and then he was criminal; and then,
at the end of a year or two, he was one of the most notorious young
crooks in the city.  He had formed a friendship with Sparrow MacCoy,
who was at the head of his profession as a bunco-steerer, green
goodsman and general rascal. They took to card-sharping, and frequented
some of the best hotels in New York.  My brother was an excellent actor
(he might have made an honest name for himself if he had chosen), and
he would take the parts of a young Englishman of title, of a simple lad
from the West, or of a college undergraduate, whichever suited Sparrow
MacCoy's purpose.  And then one day he dressed himself as a girl, and
he carried it off so well, and made himself such a valuable decoy, that
it was their favourite game afterwards.  They had made it right with
Tammany and with the police, so it seemed as if nothing could ever stop
them, for those were in the days before the Lexow Commission, and if
you only had a pull, you could do pretty nearly everything you wanted.

"And nothing would have stopped them if they had only stuck to cards
and New York, but they must needs come up Rochester way, and forge a
name upon a cheque.  It was my brother that did it, though everyone
knew that it was under the influence of Sparrow MacCoy. I bought up
that cheque, and a pretty sum it cost me.  Then I went to my brother,
laid it before him on the table, and swore to him that I would
prosecute if he did not clear out of the country.  At first he simply
laughed.  I could not prosecute, he said, without breaking our mother's
heart, and he knew that I would not do that. I made him understand,
however, that our mother's heart was being broken in any case, and that
I had set firm on the point that I would rather see him in Rochester
gaol than in a New York hotel. So at last he gave in, and he made me a
solemn promise that he would see Sparrow MacCoy no more, that he would
go to Europe, and that he would turn his hand to any honest trade that
I helped him to get.  I took him down right away to an old family
friend, Joe Willson, who is an exporter of American watches and clocks,
and I got him to give Edward an agency in London, with a small salary
and a 15 per cent commission on all business.  His manner and
appearance were so good that he won the old man over at once, and
within a week he was sent off to London with a case full of samples.

"It seemed to me that this business of the cheque had really given my
brother a fright, and that there was some chance of his settling down
into an honest line of life.  My mother had spoken with him, and what
she said had touched him, for she had always been the best of mothers
to him and he had been the great sorrow of her life.  But I knew that
this man Sparrow MacCoy had a great influence over Edward and my chance
of keeping the lad straight lay in breaking the connection between
them.  I had a friend in the New York detective force, and through him
I kept a watch upon MacCoy. When, within a fortnight of my brother's
sailing, I heard that MacCoy had taken a berth in the Etruria, I was as
certain as if he had told me that he was going over to England for the
purpose of coaxing Edward back again into the ways that he had left.
In an instant I had resolved to go also, and to pit my influence
against MacCoy's.  I knew it was a losing fight, but I thought, and my
mother thought, that it was my duty.  We passed the last night together
in prayer for my success, and she gave me her own Testament that my
father had given her on the day of their marriage in the Old Country,
so that I might always wear it next my heart.

"I was a fellow-traveller, on the steamship, with Sparrow MacCoy, and
at least I had the satisfaction of spoiling his little game for the
voyage.  The very first night I went into the smoking-room, and found
him at the head of a card-table, with a half a dozen young fellows who
were carrying their full purses and their empty skulls over to Europe.
He was settling down for his harvest, and a rich one it would have
been.  But I soon changed all that.

"'Gentlemen,' said I, 'are you aware whom you are playing with?'

"'What's that to you?  You mind your own business!' said he, with an
oath.

"'Who is it, anyway?' asked one of the dudes.

"'He's Sparrow MacCoy, the most notorious card-sharper in the States.'

"Up he jumped with a bottle in his hand, but he remembered that he was
under the flag of the effete Old Country, where law and order run, and
Tammany has no pull.  Gaol and the gallows wait for violence and
murder, and there's no slipping out by the back door on board an ocean
liner.

"'Prove your words, you----!' said he.

"'I will!' said I.  'If you will turn up your right shirt-sleeve to the
shoulder, I will either prove my words or I will eat them.'

"He turned white and said not a word.  You see, I knew something of his
ways, and I was aware of that part of the mechanism which he and all
such sharpers use consists of an elastic down the arm with a clip just
above the wrist.  It is by means of this clip that they withdraw from
their hands the cards which they do not want, while they substitute
other cards from another hiding place.  I reckoned on it being there,
and it was.  He cursed me, slunk out of the saloon, and was hardly seen
again during the voyage.  For once, at any rate, I got level with
Mister Sparrow MacCoy.

"But he soon had his revenge upon me, for when it came to influencing
my brother he outweighed me every time.  Edward had kept himself
straight in London for the first few weeks, and had done some business
with his American watches, until this villain came across his path once
more.  I did my best, but the best was little enough.  The next thing I
heard there had been a scandal at one of the Northumberland Avenue
hotels: a traveller had been fleeced of a large sum by two confederate
card-sharpers, and the matter was in the hands of Scotland Yard.  The
first I learned of it was in the evening paper, and I was at once
certain that my brother and MacCoy were back at their old games.  I
hurried at once to Edward's lodgings.  They told me that he and a tall
gentleman (whom I recognized as MacCoy) had gone off together, and that
he had left the lodgings and taken his things with him.  The landlady
had heard them give several directions to the cabman, ending with
Euston Station, and she had accidentally overheard the tall gentleman
saying something about Manchester.  She believed that that was their
destination.

"A glance at the time-table showed me that the most likely train was at
five, though there was another at 4:35 which they might have caught.  I
had only time to get the later one, but found no sign of them either at
the depot or in the train.  They must have gone on by the earlier one,
so I determined to follow them to Manchester and search for them in the
hotels there. One last appeal to my brother by all that he owed to my
mother might even now be the salvation of him.  My nerves were
overstrung, and I lit a cigar to steady them.  At that moment, just as
the train was moving off, the door of my compartment was flung open,
and there were MacCoy and my brother on the platform.

"They were both disguised, and with good reason, for they knew that the
London police were after them.  MacCoy had a great astrakhan collar
drawn up, so that only his eyes and nose were showing.  My brother was
dressed like a woman, with a black veil half down his face, but of
course it did not deceive me for an instant, nor would it have done so
even if I had not known that he had often used such a dress before.  I
started up, and as I did so MacCoy recognized me.  He said something,
the conductor slammed the door, and they were shown into the next
compartment.  I tried to stop the train so as to follow them, but the
wheels were already moving, and it was too late.

"When we stopped at Willesden, I instantly changed my carriage. It
appears that I was not seen to do so, which is not surprising, as the
station was crowded with people.  MacCoy, of course, was expecting me,
and he had spent the time between Euston and Willesden in saying all he
could to harden my brother's heart and set him against me.  That is
what I fancy, for I had never found him so impossible to soften or to
move.  I tried this way and I tried that; I pictured his future in an
English gaol; I described the sorrow of his mother when I came back
with the news; I said everything to touch his heart, but all to no
purpose.  He sat there with a fixed sneer upon his handsome face, while
every now and then Sparrow MacCoy would throw in a taunt at me, or some
word of encouragement to hold my brother to his resolutions.

"'Why don't you run a Sunday-school?' he would say to me, and then, in
the same breath:  'He thinks you have no will of your own. He thinks
you are just the baby brother and that he can lead you where he likes.
He's only just finding out that you are a man as well as he.'

"It was those words of his which set me talking bitterly.  We had left
Willesden, you understand, for all this took some time. My temper got
the better of me, and for the first time in my life I let my brother
see the rough side of me.  Perhaps it would have been better had I done
so earlier and more often.

"'A man!' said I.  'Well, I'm glad to have your friend's assurance of
it, for no one would suspect it to see you like a boarding-school
missy.  I don't suppose in all this country there is a more
contemptible-looking creature than you are as you sit there with that
Dolly pinafore upon you.'  He coloured up at that, for he was a vain
man, and he winced from ridicule.

"'It's only a dust-cloak,' said he, and he slipped it off. 'One has to
throw the coppers off one's scent, and I had no other way to do it.'
He took his toque off with the veil attached, and he put both it and
the cloak into his brown bag.  'Anyway, I don't need to wear it until
the conductor comes round,' said he.

"'Nor then, either,' said I, and taking the bag I slung it with all my
force out of the window.  'Now,' said I, 'you'll never make a Mary Jane
of yourself while I can help it.  If nothing but that disguise stands
between you and a gaol, then to gaol you shall go.'

"That was the way to manage him.  I felt my advantage at once. His
supple nature was one which yielded to roughness far more readily than
to entreaty.  He flushed with shame, and his eyes filled with tears.
But MacCoy saw my advantage also, and was determined that I should not
pursue it.

"'He's my pard, and you shall not bully him,' he cried.

"'He's my brother, and you shall not ruin him,' said I.  'I believe a
spell of prison is the very best way of keeping you apart, and you
shall have it, or it will be no fault of mine.'

"'Oh, you would squeal, would you?' he cried, and in an instant he
whipped out his revolver.  I sprang for his hand, but saw that I was
too late, and jumped aside.  At the same instant he fired, and the
bullet which would have struck me passed through the heart of my
unfortunate brother.

"He dropped without a groan upon the floor of the compartment, and
MacCoy and I, equally horrified, knelt at each side of him, trying to
bring back some signs of life.  MacCoy still held the loaded revolver
in his hand, but his anger against me and my resentment towards him had
both for the moment been swallowed up in this sudden tragedy.  It was
he who first realized the situation. The train was for some reason
going very slowly at the moment, and he saw his opportunity for escape.
In an instant he had the door open, but I was as quick as he, and
jumping upon him the two of us fell off the footboard and rolled in
each other's arms down a steep embankment.  At the bottom I struck my
head against a stone, and I remembered nothing more.  When I came to
myself I was lying among some low bushes, not far from the railroad
track, and somebody was bathing my head with a wet handkerchief.  It
was Sparrow MacCoy.

"'I guess I couldn't leave you,' said he.  'I didn't want to have the
blood of two of you on my hands in one day.  You loved your brother,
I've no doubt; but you didn't love him a cent more than I loved him,
though you'll say that I took a queer way to show it.  Anyhow, it seems
a mighty empty world now that he is gone, and I don't care a
continental whether you give me over to the hangman or not.'

"He had turned his ankle in the fall, and there we sat, he with his
useless foot, and I with my throbbing head, and we talked and talked
until gradually my bitterness began to soften and to turn into
something like sympathy.  What was the use of revenging his death upon
a man who was as much stricken by that death as I was? And then, as my
wits gradually returned, I began to realize also that I could do
nothing against MacCoy which would not recoil upon my mother and
myself.  How could we convict him without a full account of my
brother's career being made public--the very thing which of all others
we wished to avoid?  It was really as much our interest as his to cover
the matter up, and from being an avenger of crime I found myself
changed to a conspirator against Justice. The place in which we found
ourselves was one of those pheasant preserves which are so common in
the Old Country, and as we groped our way through it I found myself
consulting the slayer of my brother as to how far it would be possible
to hush it up.

"I soon realized from what he said that unless there were some papers
of which we knew nothing in my brother's pockets, there was really no
possible means by which the police could identify him or learn how he
had got there.  His ticket was in MacCoy's pocket, and so was the
ticket for some baggage which they had left at the depot.  Like most
Americans, he had found it cheaper and easier to buy an outfit in
London than to bring one from New York, so that all his linen and
clothes were new and unmarked.  The bag, containing the dust-cloak,
which I had thrown out of the window, may have fallen among some
bramble patch where it is still concealed, or may have been carried off
by some tramp, or may have come into the possession of the police, who
kept the incident to themselves.  Anyhow, I have seen nothing about it
in the London papers.  As to the watches, they were a selection from
those which had been intrusted to him for business purposes.  It may
have been for the same business purposes that he was taking them to
Manchester, but--well, it's too late to enter into that.

"I don't blame the police for being at fault.  I don't see how it could
have been otherwise.  There was just one little clue that they might
have followed up, but it was a small one.  I mean that small, circular
mirror which was found in my brother's pocket.  It isn't a very common
thing for a young man to carry about with him, is it?  But a gambler
might have told you what such a mirror may mean to a card-sharper.  If
you sit back a little from the table, and lay the mirror, face upwards,
upon your lap, you can see, as you deal, every card that you give to
your adversary.  It is not hard to say whether you see a man or raise
him when you know his cards as well as your own.  It was as much a part
of a sharper's outfit as the elastic clip upon Sparrow MacCoy's arm.
Taking that, in connection with the recent frauds at the hotels, the
police might have got hold of one end of the string.

"I don't think there is much more for me to explain.  We got to a
village called Amersham that night in the character of two gentlemen
upon a walking tour, and afterwards we made our way quietly to London,
whence MacCoy went on to Cairo and I returned to New York.  My mother
died six months afterwards, and I am glad to say that to the day of her
death she never knew what happened.  She was always under the delusion
that Edward was earning an honest living in London, and I never had the
heart to tell her the truth. He never wrote; but, then, he never did
write at any time, so that made no difference.  His name was the last
upon her lips.

"There's just one other thing that I have to ask you, sir, and I should
take it as a kind return for all this explanation, if you could do it
for me.  You remember that Testament that was picked up.  I always
carried it in my inside pocket, and it must have come out in my fall.
I value it very highly, for it was the family book with my birth and my
brother's marked by my father in the beginning of it.  I wish you would
apply at the proper place and have it sent to me.  It can be of no
possible value to anyone else.  If you address it to X, Bassano's
Library, Broadway, New York, it is sure to come to hand."



The Japanned Box

It WAS a curious thing, said the private tutor; one of those grotesque
and whimsical incidents which occur to one as one goes through life.  I
lost the best situation which I am ever likely to have through it.  But
I am glad that I went to Thorpe Place, for I gained--well, as I tell
you the story you will learn what I gained.

I don't know whether you are familiar with that part of the Midlands
which is drained by the Avon.  It is the most English part of England.
Shakespeare, the flower of the whole race, was born right in the middle
of it.  It is a land of rolling pastures, rising in higher folds to the
westwards, until they swell into the Malvern Hills.  There are no
towns, but numerous villages, each with its grey Norman church.  You
have left the brick of the southern and eastern counties behind you,
and everything is stone--stone for the walls, and lichened slabs of
stone for the roofs.  It is all grim and solid and massive, as befits
the heart of a great nation.

It was in the middle of this country, not very far from Evesham, that
Sir John Bollamore lived in the old ancestral home of Thorpe Place, and
thither it was that I came to teach his two little sons.  Sir John was
a widower--his wife had died three years before--and he had been left
with these two lads aged eight and ten, and one dear little girl of
seven.  Miss Witherton, who is now my wife, was governess to this
little girl.  I was tutor to the two boys.  Could there be a more
obvious prelude to an engagement?  She governs me now, and I tutor two
little boys of our own.  But, there--I have already revealed what it
was which I gained in Thorpe Place!

It was a very, very old house, incredibly old--pre-Norman, some of
it--and the Bollamores claimed to have lived in that situation since
long before the Conquest.  It struck a chill to my heart when first I
came there, those enormously thick grey walls, the rude crumbling
stones, the smell as from a sick animal which exhaled from the rotting
plaster of the aged building.  But the modern wing was bright and the
garden was well kept.  No house could be dismal which had a pretty girl
inside it and such a show of roses in front.

Apart from a very complete staff of servants there were only four of us
in the household.  These were Miss Witherton, who was at that time
four-and-twenty and as pretty--well, as pretty as Mrs. Colmore is
now--myself, Frank Colmore, aged thirty, Mrs. Stevens, the housekeeper,
a dry, silent woman, and Mr. Richards, a tall military-looking man, who
acted as steward to the Bollamore estates.  We four always had our
meals together, but Sir John had his usually alone in the library.
Sometimes he joined us at dinner, but on the whole we were just as glad
when he did not.

For he was a very formidable person.  Imagine a man six feet three
inches in height, majestically built, with a high-nosed, aristocratic
face, brindled hair, shaggy eyebrows, a small, pointed Mephistophelian
beard, and lines upon his brow and round his eyes as deep as if they
had been carved with a penknife.  He had grey eyes, weary,
hopeless-looking eyes, proud and yet pathetic, eyes which claimed your
pity and yet dared you to show it.  His back was rounded with study,
but otherwise he was as fine a looking man of his age--five-and-fifty
perhaps--as any woman would wish to look upon.

But his presence was not a cheerful one.  He was always courteous,
always refined, but singularly silent and retiring.  I have never lived
so long with any man and known so little of him. If he were indoors he
spent his time either in his own small study in the Eastern Tower, or
in the library in the modern wing.  So regular was his routine that one
could always say at any hour exactly where he would be.  Twice in the
day he would visit his study, once after breakfast, and once about ten
at night.  You might set your watch by the slam of the heavy door.  For
the rest of the day he would be in his library--save that for an hour
or two in the afternoon he would take a walk or a ride, which was
solitary like the rest of his existence.  He loved his children, and
was keenly interested in the progress of their studies, but they were a
little awed by the silent, shaggy-browed figure, and they avoided him
as much as they could.  Indeed, we all did that.

It was some time before I came to know anything about the circumstances
of Sir John Bollamore's life, for Mrs. Stevens, the housekeeper, and
Mr. Richards, the land-steward, were too loyal to talk easily of their
employer's affairs.  As to the governess, she knew no more than I did,
and our common interest was one of the causes which drew us together.
At last, however, an incident occurred which led to a closer
acquaintance with Mr. Richards and a fuller knowledge of the life of
the man whom I served.

The immediate cause of this was no less than the falling of Master
Percy, the youngest of my pupils, into the mill-race, with imminent
danger both to his life and to mine, since I had to risk myself in
order to save him.  Dripping and exhausted--for I was far more spent
than the child--I was making for my room when Sir John, who had heard
the hubbub, opened the door of his little study and asked me what was
the matter.  I told him of the accident, but assured him that his child
was in no danger, while he listened with a rugged, immobile face, which
expressed in its intense eyes and tightened lips all the emotion which
he tried to conceal.

"One moment!  Step in here!  Let me have the details!" said he, turning
back through the open door.

And so I found myself within that little sanctum, inside which, as I
afterwards learned, no other foot had for three years been set save
that of the old servant who cleaned it out.  It was a round room,
conforming to the shape of the tower in which it was situated, with a
low ceiling, a single narrow, ivy-wreathed window, and the simplest of
furniture.  An old carpet, a single chair, a deal table, and a small
shelf of books made up the whole contents. On the table stood a
full-length photograph of a woman--I took no particular notice of the
features, but I remember, that a certain gracious gentleness was the
prevailing impression.  Beside it were a large black japanned box and
one or two bundles of letters or papers fastened together with elastic
bands.

Our interview was a short one, for Sir John Bollamore perceived that I
was soaked, and that I should change without delay.  The incident led,
however, to an instructive talk with Richards, the agent, who had never
penetrated into the chamber which chance had opened to me.  That very
afternoon he came to me, all curiosity, and walked up and down the
garden path with me, while my two charges played tennis upon the lawn
beside us.

"You hardly realize the exception which has been made in your favour,"
said he.  "That room has been kept such a mystery, and Sir John's
visits to it have been so regular and consistent, that an almost
superstitious feeling has arisen about it in the household. I assure
you that if I were to repeat to you the tales which are flying about,
tales of mysterious visitors there, and of voices overheard by the
servants, you might suspect that Sir John had relapsed into his old
ways."

"Why do you say relapsed?" I asked.

He looked at me in surprise.

"Is it possible," said he, "that Sir John Bollamore's previous history
is unknown to you?"

"Absolutely."

"You astound me.  I thought that every man in England knew something of
his antecedents.  I should not mention the matter if it were not that
you are now one of ourselves, and that the facts might come to your
ears in some harsher form if I were silent upon them.  I always took it
for granted that you knew that you were in the service of 'Devil'
Bollamore."

"But why 'Devil'?" I asked.

"Ah, you are young and the world moves fast, but twenty years ago the
name of 'Devil' Bollamore was one of the best known in London.  He was
the leader of the fastest set, bruiser, driver, gambler, drunkard--a
survival of the old type, and as bad as the worst of them."

I stared at him in amazement.

"What!" I cried, "that quiet, studious, sad-faced man?"

"The greatest rip and debauchee in England!  All between ourselves,
Colmore.  But you understand now what I mean when I say that a woman's
voice in his room might even now give rise to suspicions."

"But what can have changed him so?"

"Little Beryl Clare, when she took the risk of becoming his wife.  That
was the turning point.  He had got so far that his own fast set had
thrown him over.  There is a world of difference, you know, between a
man who drinks and a drunkard.  They all drink, but they taboo a
drunkard.  He had become a slave to it--hopeless and helpless.  Then
she stepped in, saw the possibilities of a fine man in the wreck, took
her chance in marrying him though she might have had the pick of a
dozen, and, by devoting her life to it, brought him back to manhood and
decency.  You have observed that no liquor is ever kept in the house.
There never has been any since her foot crossed its threshold.  A drop
of it would be like blood to a tiger even now."

"Then her influence still holds him?"

"That is the wonder of it.  When she died three years ago, we all
expected and feared that he would fall back into his old ways. She
feared it herself, and the thought gave a terror to death, for she was
like a guardian angel to that man, and lived only for the one purpose.
By the way, did you see a black japanned box in his room?"

"Yes."

"I fancy it contains her letters.  If ever he has occasion to be away,
if only for a single night, he invariably takes his black japanned box
with him.  Well, well, Colmore, perhaps I have told you rather more
than I should, but I shall expect you to reciprocate if anything of
interest should come to your knowledge."

I could see that the worthy man was consumed with curiosity and just a
little piqued that I, the newcomer, should have been the first to
penetrate into the untrodden chamber.  But the fact raised me in his
esteem, and from that time onwards I found myself upon more
confidential terms with him.

And now the silent and majestic figure of my employer became an object
of greater interest to me.  I began to understand that strangely human
look in his eyes, those deep lines upon his care-worn face.  He was a
man who was fighting a ceaseless battle, holding at arm's length, from
morning till night, a horrible adversary who was forever trying to
close with him--an adversary which would destroy him body and soul
could it but fix its claws once more upon him.  As I watched the grim,
round-backed figure pacing the corridor or walking in the garden, this
imminent danger seemed to take bodily shape, and I could almost fancy
that I saw this most loathsome and dangerous of all the fiends
crouching closely in his very shadow, like a half-cowed beast which
slinks beside its keeper, ready at any unguarded moment to spring at
his throat.  And the dead woman, the woman who had spent her life in
warding off this danger, took shape also to my imagination, and I saw
her as a shadowy but beautiful presence which intervened for ever with
arms uplifted to screen the man whom she loved.

In some subtle way he divined the sympathy which I had for him, and he
showed in his own silent fashion that he appreciated it.  He even
invited me once to share his afternoon walk, and although no word
passed between us on this occasion, it was a mark of confidence which
he had never shown to anyone before.  He asked me also to index his
library (it was one of the best private libraries in England), and I
spent many hours in the evening in his presence, if not in his society,
he reading at his desk and I sitting in a recess by the window reducing
to order the chaos which existed among his books.  In spite of these
close relations I was never again asked to enter the chamber in the
turret.

And then came my revulsion of feeling.  A single incident changed all
my sympathy to loathing, and made me realize that my employer still
remained all that he had ever been, with the additional vice of
hypocrisy.  What happened was as follows.

One evening Miss Witherton had gone down to Broadway, the neighbouring
village, to sing at a concert for some charity, and I, according to my
promise, had walked over to escort her back.  The drive sweeps round
under the eastern turret, and I observed as I passed that the light was
lit in the circular room.  It was a summer evening, and the window,
which was a little higher than our heads, was open.  We were, as it
happened, engrossed in our own conversation at the moment and we had
paused upon the lawn which skirts the old turret, when suddenly
something broke in upon our talk and turned our thoughts away from our
own affairs.

It was a voice--the voice undoubtedly of a woman.  It was low--so low
that it was only in that still night air that we could have heard it,
but, hushed as it was, there was no mistaking its feminine timbre.  It
spoke hurriedly, gaspingly for a few sentences, and then was silent--a
piteous, breathless, imploring sort of voice.  Miss Witherton and I
stood for an instant staring at each other.  Then we walked quickly in
the direction of the hall-door.

"It came through the window," I said.

"We must not play the part of eavesdroppers," she answered. "We must
forget that we have ever heard it."

There was an absence of surprise in her manner which suggested a new
idea to me.

"You have heard it before," I cried.

"I could not help it.  My own room is higher up on the same turret.  It
has happened frequently."

"Who can the woman be?"

"I have no idea.  I had rather not discuss it."

Her voice was enough to show me what she thought.  But granting that
our employer led a double and dubious life, who could she be, this
mysterious woman who kept him company in the old tower? I knew from my
own inspection how bleak and bare a room it was. She certainly did not
live there.  But in that case where did she come from?  It could not be
anyone of the household.  They were all under the vigilant eyes of Mrs.
Stevens.  The visitor must come from without.  But how?

And then suddenly I remembered how ancient this building was, and how
probable that some mediaeval passage existed in it.  There is hardly an
old castle without one.  The mysterious room was the basement of the
turret, so that if there were anything of the sort it would open
through the floor.  There were numerous cottages in the immediate
vicinity.  The other end of the secret passage might lie among some
tangle of bramble in the neighbouring copse.  I said nothing to anyone,
but I felt that the secret of my employer lay within my power.

And the more convinced I was of this the more I marvelled at the manner
in which he concealed his true nature.  Often as I watched his austere
figure, I asked myself if it were indeed possible that such a man
should be living this double life, and I tried to persuade myself that
my suspicions might after all prove to be ill-founded.  But there was
the female voice, there was the secret nightly rendezvous in the
turret-chamber--how could such facts admit of an innocent
interpretation.  I conceived a horror of the man.  I was filled with
loathing at his deep, consistent hypocrisy.

Only once during all those months did I ever see him without that sad
but impassive mask which he usually presented towards his fellow-man.
For an instant I caught a glimpse of those volcanic fires which he had
damped down so long.  The occasion was an unworthy one, for the object
of his wrath was none other than the aged charwoman whom I have already
mentioned as being the one person who was allowed within his mysterious
chamber.  I was passing the corridor which led to the turret--for my
own room lay in that direction--when I heard a sudden, startled scream,
and merged in it the husky, growling note of a man who is inarticulate
with passion.  It was the snarl of a furious wild beast.  Then I heard
his voice thrilling with anger.  "You would dare!" he cried. "You would
dare to disobey my directions!"  An instant later the charwoman passed
me, flying down the passage, white-faced and tremulous, while the
terrible voice thundered behind her.  "Go to Mrs. Stevens for your
money!  Never set foot in Thorpe Place again!"  Consumed with
curiosity, I could not help following the woman, and found her round
the corner leaning against the wall and palpitating like a frightened
rabbit.

"What is the matter, Mrs. Brown?" I asked.

"It's master!" she gasped.  "Oh, 'ow 'e frightened me!  If you had seen
'is eyes, Mr. Colmore, sir.  I thought 'e would 'ave been the death of
me."

"But what had you done?"

"Done, sir!  Nothing.  At least nothing to make so much of. Just laid
my 'and on that black box of 'is--'adn't even opened it, when in 'e
came and you 'eard the way 'e went on.  I've lost my place, and glad I
am of it, for I would never trust myself within reach of 'im again."

So it was the japanned box which was the cause of this outburst--the
box from which he would never permit himself to be separated.  What was
the connection, or was there any connection between this and the secret
visits of the lady whose voice I had overheard?  Sir John Bollamore's
wrath was enduring as well as fiery, for from that day Mrs. Brown, the
charwoman, vanished from our ken, and Thorpe Place knew her no more.

And now I wish to tell you the singular chance which solved all these
strange questions and put my employer's secret in my possession.  The
story may leave you with some lingering doubts as to whether my
curiosity did not get the better of my honour, and whether I did not
condescend to play the spy.  If you choose to think so I cannot help
it, but can only assure you that, improbable as it may appear, the
matter came about exactly as I describe it.

The first stage in this denouement was that the small room in the
turret became uninhabitable.  This occurred through the fall of the
worm-eaten oaken beam which supported the ceiling.  Rotten with age, it
snapped in the middle one morning, and brought down a quantity of
plaster with it.  Fortunately Sir John was not in the room at the time.
His precious box was rescued from amongst the debris and brought into
the library, where, henceforward, it was locked within his bureau.  Sir
John took no steps to repair the damage, and I never had an opportunity
of searching for that secret passage, the existence of which I had
surmised.  As to the lady, I had thought that this would have brought
her visits to an end, had I not one evening heard Mr. Richards asking
Mrs. Stevens who the woman was whom he had overheard talking to Sir
John in the library. I could not catch her reply, but I saw from her
manner that it was not the first time that she had had to answer or
avoid the same question.

"You've heard the voice, Colmore?" said the agent.

I confessed that I had.

"And what do YOU think of it?"

I shrugged my shoulders, and remarked that it was no business of mine.

"Come, come, you are just as curious as any of us.  Is it a woman or
not?"

"It is certainly a woman."

"Which room did you hear it from?"

"From the turret-room, before the ceiling fell."

"But I heard it from the library only last night.  I passed the doors
as I was going to bed, and I heard something wailing and praying just
as plainly as I hear you.  It may be a woman----"

"Why, what else COULD it be?"

He looked at me hard.

"There are more things in heaven and earth," said he.  "If it is a
woman, how does she get there?"

"I don't know."

"No, nor I.  But if it is the other thing--but there, for a practical
business man at the end of the nineteenth century this is rather a
ridiculous line of conversation."  He turned away, but I saw that he
felt even more than he had said.  To all the old ghost stories of
Thorpe Place a new one was being added before our very eyes.  It may by
this time have taken its permanent place, for though an explanation
came to me, it never reached the others.

And my explanation came in this way.  I had suffered a sleepless night
from neuralgia, and about midday I had taken a heavy dose of chlorodyne
to alleviate the pain.  At that time I was finishing the indexing of
Sir John Bollamore's library, and it was my custom to work there from
five till seven.  On this particular day I struggled against the double
effect of my bad night and the narcotic.  I have already mentioned that
there was a recess in the library, and in this it was my habit to work.
I settled down steadily to my task, but my weariness overcame me and,
falling back upon the settee, I dropped into a heavy sleep.

How long I slept I do not know, but it was quite dark when I awoke.
Confused by the chlorodyne which I had taken, I lay motionless in a
semi-conscious state.  The great room with its high walls covered with
books loomed darkly all round me.  A dim radiance from the moonlight
came through the farther window, and against this lighter background I
saw that Sir John Bollamore was sitting at his study table.  His
well-set head and clearly cut profile were sharply outlined against the
glimmering square behind him.  He bent as I watched him, and I heard
the sharp turning of a key and the rasping of metal upon metal.  As if
in a dream I was vaguely conscious that this was the japanned box which
stood in front of him, and that he had drawn something out of it,
something squat and uncouth, which now lay before him upon the table.
I never realized--it never occurred to my bemuddled and torpid brain
that I was intruding upon his privacy, that he imagined himself to be
alone in the room.  And then, just as it rushed upon my horrified
perceptions, and I had half risen to announce my presence, I heard a
strange, crisp, metallic clicking, and then the voice.

Yes, it was a woman's voice; there could not be a doubt of it. But a
voice so charged with entreaty and with yearning love, that it will
ring for ever in my ears.  It came with a curious faraway tinkle, but
every word was clear, though faint--very faint, for they were the last
words of a dying woman.

"I am not really gone, John," said the thin, gasping voice.  "I am here
at your very elbow, and shall be until we meet once more. I die happy
to think that morning and night you will hear my voice. Oh, John, be
strong, be strong, until we meet again."

I say that I had risen in order to announce my presence, but I could
not do so while the voice was sounding.  I could only remain half
lying, half sitting, paralysed, astounded, listening to those yearning
distant musical words.  And he--he was so absorbed that even if I had
spoken he might not have heard me.  But with the silence of the voice
came my half articulated apologies and explanations.  He sprang across
the room, switched on the electric light, and in its white glare I saw
him, his eyes gleaming with anger, his face twisted with passion, as
the hapless charwoman may have seen him weeks before.

"Mr. Colmore!" he cried.  "You here!  What is the meaning of this, sir?"

With halting words I explained it all, my neuralgia, the narcotic, my
luckless sleep and singular awakening.  As he listened the glow of
anger faded from his face, and the sad, impassive mask closed once more
over his features.

"My secret is yours, Mr. Colmore," said he.  "I have only myself to
blame for relaxing my precautions.  Half confidences are worse than no
confidences, and so you may know all since you know so much.  The story
may go where you will when I have passed away, but until then I rely
upon your sense of honour that no human soul shall hear it from your
lips.  I am proud still--God help me!--or, at least, I am proud enough
to resent that pity which this story would draw upon me.  I have smiled
at envy, and disregarded hatred, but pity is more than I can tolerate.

"You have heard the source from which the voice comes--that voice which
has, as I understand, excited so much curiosity in my household.  I am
aware of the rumours to which it has given rise. These speculations,
whether scandalous or superstitious, are such as I can disregard and
forgive.  What I should never forgive would be a disloyal spying and
eavesdropping in order to satisfy an illicit curiosity.  But of that,
Mr. Colmore, I acquit you.

"When I was a young man, sir, many years younger than you are now, I
was launched upon town without a friend or adviser, and with a purse
which brought only too many false friends and false advisers to my
side.  I drank deeply of the wine of life--if there is a man living who
has drunk more deeply he is not a man whom I envy.  My purse suffered,
my character suffered, my constitution suffered, stimulants became a
necessity to me, I was a creature from whom my memory recoils.  And it
was at that time, the time of my blackest degradation, that God sent
into my life the gentlest, sweetest spirit that ever descended as a
ministering angel from above.  She loved me, broken as I was, loved me,
and spent her life in making a man once more of that which had degraded
itself to the level of the beasts.

"But a fell disease struck her, and she withered away before my eyes.
In the hour of her agony it was never of herself, of her own sufferings
and her own death that she thought.  It was all of me.  The one pang
which her fate brought to her was the fear that when her influence was
removed I should revert to that which I had been.  It was in vain that
I made oath to her that no drop of wine would ever cross my lips.  She
knew only too well the hold that the devil had upon me--she who had
striven so to loosen it--and it haunted her night and day the thought
that my soul might again be within his grip.

"It was from some friend's gossip of the sick room that she heard of
this invention--this phonograph--and with the quick insight of a loving
woman she saw how she might use it for her ends.  She sent me to London
to procure the best which money could buy.  With her dying breath she
gasped into it the words which have held me straight ever since.
Lonely and broken, what else have I in all the world to uphold me?  But
it is enough.  Please God, I shall face her without shame when He is
pleased to reunite us! That is my secret, Mr. Colmore, and whilst I
live I leave it in your keeping."



The Black Doctor

Bishop's Crossing is a small village lying ten miles in a
south-westerly direction from Liverpool.  Here in the early seventies
there settled a doctor named Aloysius Lana.  Nothing was known locally
either of his antecedents or of the reasons which had prompted him to
come to this Lancashire hamlet.  Two facts only were certain about him;
the one that he had gained his medical qualification with some
distinction at Glasgow; the other that he came undoubtedly of a
tropical race, and was so dark that he might almost have had a strain
of the Indian in his composition. His predominant features were,
however, European, and he possessed a stately courtesy and carriage
which suggested a Spanish extraction.  A swarthy skin, raven-black
hair, and dark, sparkling eyes under a pair of heavily-tufted brows
made a strange contrast to the flaxen or chestnut rustics of England,
and the newcomer was soon known as "The Black Doctor of Bishop's
Crossing."  At first it was a term of ridicule and reproach; as the
years went on it became a title of honour which was familiar to the
whole countryside, and extended far beyond the narrow confines of the
village.

For the newcomer proved himself to be a capable surgeon and an
accomplished physician.  The practice of that district had been in the
hands of Edward Rowe, the son of Sir William Rowe, the Liverpool
consultant, but he had not inherited the talents of his father, and Dr.
Lana, with his advantages of presence and of manner, soon beat him out
of the field.  Dr. Lana's social success was as rapid as his
professional.  A remarkable surgical cure in the case of the Hon. James
Lowry, the second son of Lord Belton, was the means of introducing him
to county society, where he became a favourite through the charm of his
conversation and the elegance of his manners.  An absence of
antecedents and of relatives is sometimes an aid rather than an
impediment to social advancement, and the distinguished individuality
of the handsome doctor was its own recommendation.

His patients had one fault--and one fault only--to find with him.  He
appeared to be a confirmed bachelor.  This was the more remarkable
since the house which he occupied was a large one, and it was known
that his success in practice had enabled him to save considerable sums.
At first the local matchmakers were continually coupling his name with
one or other of the eligible ladies, but as years passed and Dr. Lana
remained unmarried, it came to be generally understood that for some
reason he must remain a bachelor.  Some even went so far as to assert
that he was already married, and that it was in order to escape the
consequence of an early misalliance that he had buried himself at
Bishop's Crossing. And, then, just as the matchmakers had finally given
him up in despair, his engagement was suddenly announced to Miss
Frances Morton, of Leigh Hall.

Miss Morton was a young lady who was well known upon the country-side,
her father, James Haldane Morton, having been the Squire of Bishop's
Crossing.  Both her parents were, however, dead, and she lived with her
only brother, Arthur Morton, who had inherited the family estate.  In
person Miss Morton was tall and stately, and she was famous for her
quick, impetuous nature and for her strength of character.  She met Dr.
Lana at a garden-party, and a friendship, which quickly ripened into
love, sprang up between them.  Nothing could exceed their devotion to
each other.  There was some discrepancy in age, he being thirty-seven,
and she twenty-four; but, save in that one respect, there was no
possible objection to be found with the match.  The engagement was in
February, and it was arranged that the marriage should take place in
August.

Upon the 3rd of June Dr. Lana received a letter from abroad. In a small
village the postmaster is also in a position to be the gossip-master,
and Mr. Bankley, of Bishop's Crossing, had many of the secrets of his
neighbours in his possession.  Of this particular letter he remarked
only that it was in a curious envelope, that it was in a man's
handwriting, that the postscript was Buenos Ayres, and the stamp of the
Argentine Republic.  It was the first letter which he had ever known
Dr. Lana to have from abroad and this was the reason why his attention
was particularly called to it before he handed it to the local postman.
It was delivered by the evening delivery of that date.

Next morning--that is, upon the 4th of June--Dr. Lana called upon Miss
Morton, and a long interview followed, from which he was observed to
return in a state of great agitation.  Miss Morton remained in her room
all that day, and her maid found her several times in tears.  In the
course of a week it was an open secret to the whole village that the
engagement was at an end, that Dr. Lana had behaved shamefully to the
young lady, and that Arthur Morton, her brother, was talking of
horse-whipping him.  In what particular respect the doctor had behaved
badly was unknown--some surmised one thing and some another; but it was
observed, and taken as the obvious sign of a guilty conscience, that he
would go for miles round rather than pass the windows of Leigh Hall,
and that he gave up attending morning service upon Sundays where he
might have met the young lady.  There was an advertisement also in the
Lancet as to the sale of a practice which mentioned no names, but which
was thought by some to refer to Bishop's Crossing, and to mean that Dr.
Lana was thinking of abandoning the scene of his success.  Such was the
position of affairs when, upon the evening of Monday, June 21st, there
came a fresh development which changed what had been a mere village
scandal into a tragedy which arrested the attention of the whole
nation.  Some detail is necessary to cause the facts of that evening to
present their full significance.

The sole occupants of the doctor's house were his housekeeper, an
elderly and most respectable woman, named Martha Woods, and a young
servant--Mary Pilling.  The coachman and the surgery-boy slept out.  It
was the custom of the doctor to sit at night in his study, which was
next the surgery in the wing of the house which was farthest from the
servants' quarters.  This side of the house had a door of its own for
the convenience of patients, so that it was possible for the doctor to
admit and receive a visitor there without the knowledge of anyone.  As
a matter of fact, when patients came late it was quite usual for him to
let them in and out by the surgery entrance, for the maid and the
housekeeper were in the habit of retiring early.

On this particular night Martha Woods went into the doctor's study at
half-past nine, and found him writing at his desk.  She bade him good
night, sent the maid to bed, and then occupied herself until a quarter
to eleven in household matters.  It was striking eleven upon the hall
clock when she went to her own room. She had been there about a quarter
of an hour or twenty minutes when she heard a cry or call, which
appeared to come from within the house.  She waited some time, but it
was not repeated.  Much alarmed, for the sound was loud and urgent, she
put on a dressing-gown, and ran at the top of her speed to the doctor's
study.

"Who's there?" cried a voice, as she tapped at the door.

"I am here, sir--Mrs. Woods."

"I beg that you will leave me in peace.  Go back to your room this
instant!" cried the voice, which was, to the best of her belief, that
of her master.  The tone was so harsh and so unlike her master's usual
manner, that she was surprised and hurt.

"I thought I heard you calling, sir," she explained, but no answer was
given to her.  Mrs. Woods looked at the clock as she returned to her
room, and it was then half-past eleven.

At some period between eleven and twelve (she could not be positive as
to the exact hour) a patient called upon the doctor and was unable to
get any reply from him.  This late visitor was Mrs. Madding, the wife
of the village grocer, who was dangerously ill of typhoid fever.  Dr.
Lana had asked her to look in the last thing and let him know how her
husband was progressing.  She observed that the light was burning in
the study, but having knocked several times at the surgery door without
response, she concluded that the doctor had been called out, and so
returned home.

There is a short, winding drive with a lamp at the end of it leading
down from the house to the road.  As Mrs. Madding emerged from the gate
a man was coming along the footpath.  Thinking that it might be Dr.
Lana returning from some professional visit, she waited for him, and
was surprised to see that it was Mr. Arthur Morton, the young squire.
In the light of the lamp she observed that his manner was excited, and
that he carried in his hand a heavy hunting-crop.  He was turning in at
the gate when she addressed him.

"The doctor is not in, sir," said she.

"How do you know that?" he asked harshly.

"I have been to the surgery door, sir."

"I see a light," said the young squire, looking up the drive. "That is
in his study, is it not?"

"Yes, sir; but I am sure that he is out."

"Well, he must come in again," said young Morton, and passed through
the gate while Mrs. Madding went upon her homeward way.

At three o'clock that morning her husband suffered a sharp relapse, and
she was so alarmed by his symptoms that she determined to call the
doctor without delay.  As she passed through the gate she was surprised
to see someone lurking among the laurel bushes. It was certainly a man,
and to the best of her belief Mr. Arthur Morton.  Preoccupied with her
own troubles, she gave no particular attention to the incident, but
hurried on upon her errand.

When she reached the house she perceived to her surprise that the light
was still burning in the study.  She therefore tapped at the surgery
door.  There was no answer.  She repeated the knocking several times
without effect.  It appeared to her to be unlikely that the doctor
would either go to bed or go out leaving so brilliant a light behind
him, and it struck Mrs. Madding that it was possible that he might have
dropped asleep in his chair.  She tapped at the study window,
therefore, but without result.  Then, finding that there was an opening
between the curtain and the woodwork, she looked through.

The small room was brilliantly lighted from a large lamp on the central
table, which was littered with the doctor's books and instruments.  No
one was visible, nor did she see anything unusual, except that in the
farther shadow thrown by the table a dingy white glove was lying upon
the carpet.  And then suddenly, as her eyes became more accustomed to
the light, a boot emerged from the other end of the shadow, and she
realized, with a thrill of horror, that what she had taken to be a
glove was the hand of a man, who was prostrate upon the floor.
Understanding that something terrible had occurred, she rang at the
front door, roused Mrs. Woods, the housekeeper, and the two women made
their way into the study, having first dispatched the maidservant to
the police-station.

At the side of the table, away from the window, Dr. Lana was discovered
stretched upon his back and quite dead.  It was evident that he had
been subjected to violence, for one of his eyes was blackened and there
were marks of bruises about his face and neck.  A slight thickening and
swelling of his features appeared to suggest that the cause of his
death had been strangulation.  He was dressed in his usual professional
clothes, but wore cloth slippers, the soles of which were perfectly
clean.  The carpet was marked all over, especially on the side of the
door, with traces of dirty boots, which were presumably left by the
murderer.  It was evident that someone had entered by the surgery door,
had killed the doctor, and had then made his escape unseen.  That the
assailant was a man was certain, from the size of the footprints and
from the nature of the injuries.  But beyond that point the police
found it very difficult to go.

There were no signs of robbery, and the doctor's gold watch was safe in
his pocket.  He kept a heavy cash-box in the room, and this was
discovered to be locked but empty.  Mrs. Woods had an impression that a
large sum was usually kept there, but the doctor had paid a heavy corn
bill in cash only that very day, and it was conjectured that it was to
this and not to a robber that the emptiness of the box was due.  One
thing in the room was missing--but that one thing was suggestive.  The
portrait of Miss Morton, which had always stood upon the side-table,
had been taken from its frame, and carried off.  Mrs. Woods had
observed it there when she waited upon her employer that evening, and
now it was gone.  On the other hand, there was picked up from the floor
a green eye-patch, which the housekeeper could not remember to have
seen before.  Such a patch might, however, be in the possession of a
doctor, and there was nothing to indicate that it was in any way
connected with the crime.

Suspicion could only turn in one direction, and Arthur Morton, the
young squire, was immediately arrested.  The evidence against him was
circumstantial, but damning.  He was devoted to his sister, and it was
shown that since the rupture between her and Dr. Lana he had been heard
again and again to express himself in the most vindictive terms towards
her former lover.  He had, as stated, been seen somewhere about eleven
o'clock entering the doctor's drive with a hunting-crop in his hand.
He had then, according to the theory of the police, broken in upon the
doctor, whose exclamation of fear or of anger had been loud enough to
attract the attention of Mrs. Woods.  When Mrs. Woods descended, Dr.
Lana had made up his mind to talk it over with his visitor, and had,
therefore, sent his housekeeper back to her room.  This conversation
had lasted a long time, had become more and more fiery, and had ended
by a personal struggle, in which the doctor lost his life.  The fact,
revealed by a post-mortem, that his heart was much diseased--an ailment
quite unsuspected during his life--would make it possible that death
might in his case ensue from injuries which would not be fatal to a
healthy man.  Arthur Morton had then removed his sister's photograph,
and had made his way homeward, stepping aside into the laurel bushes to
avoid Mrs. Madding at the gate.  This was the theory of the
prosecution, and the case which they presented was a formidable one.

On the other hand, there were some strong points for the defence.
Morton was high-spirited and impetuous, like his sister, but he was
respected and liked by everyone, and his frank and honest nature seemed
to be incapable of such a crime.  His own explanation was that he was
anxious to have a conversation with Dr. Lana about some urgent family
matters (from first to last he refused even to mention the name of his
sister).  He did not attempt to deny that this conversation would
probably have been of an unpleasant nature.  He had heard from a
patient that the doctor was out, and he therefore waited until about
three in the morning for his return, but as he had seen nothing of him
up to that hour, he had given it up and had returned home.  As to his
death, he knew no more about it than the constable who arrested him.
He had formerly been an intimate friend of the deceased man; but
circumstances, which he would prefer not to mention, had brought about
a change in his sentiments.

There were several facts which supported his innocence.  It was certain
that Dr. Lana was alive and in his study at half-past eleven o'clock.
Mrs. Woods was prepared to swear that it was at that hour that she had
heard his voice.  The friends of the prisoner contended that it was
probable that at that time Dr. Lana was not alone.  The sound which had
originally attracted the attention of the housekeeper, and her master's
unusual impatience that she should leave him in peace, seemed to point
to that.  If this were so then it appeared to be probable that he had
met his end between the moment when the housekeeper heard his voice and
the time when Mrs. Madding made her first call and found it impossible
to attract his attention.  But if this were the time of his death, then
it was certain that Mr. Arthur Morton could not be guilty, as it was
AFTER this that she had met the young squire at the gate.

If this hypothesis were correct, and someone was with Dr. Lana before
Mrs. Madding met Mr. Arthur Morton, then who was this someone, and what
motives had he for wishing evil to the doctor? It was universally
admitted that if the friends of the accused could throw light upon
this, they would have gone a long way towards establishing his
innocence.  But in the meanwhile it was open to the public to say--as
they did say--that there was no proof that anyone had been there at all
except the young squire; while, on the other hand, there was ample
proof that his motives in going were of a sinister kind.  When Mrs.
Madding called, the doctor might have retired to his room, or he might,
as she thought at the time, have gone out and returned afterwards to
find Mr. Arthur Morton waiting for him.  Some of the supporters of the
accused laid stress upon the fact that the photograph of his sister
Frances, which had been removed from the doctor's room, had not been
found in her brother's possession.  This argument, however, did not
count for much, as he had ample time before his arrest to burn it or to
destroy it.  As to the only positive evidence in the case--the muddy
footmarks upon the floor--they were so blurred by the softness of the
carpet that it was impossible to make any trustworthy deduction from
them.  The most that could be said was that their appearance was not
inconsistent with the theory that they were made by the accused, and it
was further shown that his boots were very muddy upon that night.
There had been a heavy shower in the afternoon, and all boots were
probably in the same condition.

Such is a bald statement of the singular and romantic series of events
which centred public attention upon this Lancashire tragedy. The
unknown origin of the doctor, his curious and distinguished
personality, the position of the man who was accused of the murder, and
the love affair which had preceded the crimes all combined to make the
affair one of those dramas which absorb the whole interest of a nation.
Throughout the three kingdoms men discussed the case of the Black
Doctor of Bishop's Crossing, and many were the theories put forward to
explain the facts; but it may safely be said that among them all there
was not one which prepared the minds of the public for the
extraordinary sequel, which caused so much excitement upon the first
day of the trial, and came to a climax upon the second.  The long files
of the Lancaster Weekly with their report of the case lie before me as
I write, but I must content myself with a synopsis of the case up to
the point when, upon the evening of the first day, the evidence of Miss
Frances Morton threw a singular light upon the case.

Mr. Porlock Carr, the counsel for the prosecution, had marshalled his
facts with his usual skill, and as the day wore on, it became more and
more evident how difficult was the task which Mr. Humphrey, who had
been retained for the defence, had before him.  Several witnesses were
put up to swear to the intemperate expressions which the young squire
had been heard to utter about the doctor, and the fiery manner in which
he resented the alleged ill-treatment of his sister.  Mrs. Madding
repeated her evidence as to the visit which had been paid late at night
by the prisoner to the deceased, and it was shown by another witness
that the prisoner was aware that the doctor was in the habit of sitting
up alone in this isolated wing of the house, and that he had chosen
this very late hour to call because he knew that his victim would then
be at his mercy.  A servant at the squire's house was compelled to
admit that he had heard his master return about three that morning,
which corroborated Mrs. Madding's statement that she had seen him among
the laurel bushes near the gate upon the occasion of her second visit.
The muddy boots and an alleged similarity in the footprints were duly
dwelt upon, and it was felt when the case for the prosecution had been
presented that, however circumstantial it might be, it was none the
less so complete and so convincing, that the fate of the prisoner was
sealed, unless something quite unexpected should be disclosed by the
defence.  It was three o'clock when the prosecution closed.  At
half-past four, when the court rose, a new and unlooked-for development
had occurred.  I extract the incident, or part of it, from the journal
which I have already mentioned, omitting the preliminary observations
of the counsel.


Considerable sensation was caused in the crowded court when the first
witness called for the defence proved to be Miss Frances Morton, the
sister of the prisoner.  Our readers will remember that the young lady
had been engaged to Dr. Lana, and that it was his anger over the sudden
termination of this engagement which was thought to have driven her
brother to the perpetration of this crime.  Miss Morton had not,
however, been directly implicated in the case in any way, either at the
inquest or at the police-court proceedings, and her appearance as the
leading witness for the defence came as a surprise upon the public.

Miss Frances Morton, who was a tall and handsome brunette, gave her
evidence in a low but clear voice, though it was evident throughout
that she was suffering from extreme emotion.  She alluded to her
engagement to the doctor, touched briefly upon its termination, which
was due, she said, to personal matters connected with his family, and
surprised the court by asserting that she had always considered her
brother's resentment to be unreasonable and intemperate.  In answer to
a direct question from her counsel, she replied that she did not feel
that she had any grievance whatever against Dr. Lana, and that in her
opinion he had acted in a perfectly honourable manner.  Her brother, on
an insufficient knowledge of the facts, had taken another view, and she
was compelled to acknowledge that, in spite of her entreaties, he had
uttered threats of personal violence against the doctor, and had, upon
the evening of the tragedy, announced his intention of "having it out
with him."  She had done her best to bring him to a more reasonable
frame of mind, but he was very headstrong where his emotions or
prejudices were concerned.

Up to this point the young lady's evidence had appeared to make against
the prisoner rather than in his favour.  The questions of her counsel,
however, soon put a very different light upon the matter, and disclosed
an unexpected line of defence.

Mr. Humphrey:  Do you believe your brother to be guilty of this crime?

The Judge:  I cannot permit that question, Mr. Humphrey.  We are here
to decide upon questions of fact--not of belief.

Mr. Humphrey:  Do you know that your brother is not guilty of the death
of Doctor Lana?

Miss Morton:  Yes.

Mr. Humphrey:  How do you know it?

Miss Morton:  Because Dr. Lana is not dead.

There followed a prolonged sensation in court, which interrupted the
examination of the witness.

Mr. Humphrey:  And how do you know, Miss Morton, that Dr. Lana is not
dead?

Miss Morton:  Because I have received a letter from him since the date
of his supposed death.

Mr. Humphrey:  Have you this letter?

Miss Morton:  Yes, but I should prefer not to show it.

Mr. Humphrey:  Have you the envelope?

Miss Morton:  Yes, it is here.

Mr. Humphrey:  What is the post-mark?

Miss Morton:  Liverpool.

Mr. Humphrey:  And the date?

Miss Morton:  June the 22nd.

Mr. Humphrey:  That being the day after his alleged death.  Are you
prepared to swear to this handwriting, Miss Morton?

Miss Morton:  Certainly.

Mr. Humphrey:  I am prepared to call six other witnesses, my lord, to
testify that this letter is in the writing of Doctor Lana.

The Judge:  Then you must call them tomorrow.

Mr. Porlock Carr (counsel for the prosecution): In the meantime, my
lord, we claim possession of this document, so that we may obtain
expert evidence as to how far it is an imitation of the handwriting of
the gentleman whom we still confidently assert to be deceased.  I need
not point out that the theory so unexpectedly sprung upon us may prove
to be a very obvious device adopted by the friends of the prisoner in
order to divert this inquiry.  I would draw attention to the fact that
the young lady must, according to her own account, have possessed this
letter during the proceedings at the inquest and at the police-court.
She desires us to believe that she permitted these to proceed, although
she held in her pocket evidence which would at any moment have brought
them to an end.

Mr. Humphrey.  Can you explain this, Miss Morton?

Miss Morton:  Dr. Lana desired his secret to be preserved.

Mr. Porlock Carr:  Then why have you made this public?

Miss Morton:  To save my brother.

A murmur of sympathy broke out in court, which was instantly suppressed
by the Judge.

The Judge:  Admitting this line of defence, it lies with you, Mr.
Humphrey, to throw a light upon who this man is whose body has been
recognized by so many friends and patients of Dr. Lana as being that of
the doctor himself.

A Juryman:  Has anyone up to now expressed any doubt about the matter?

Mr. Porlock Carr:  Not to my knowledge.

Mr. Humphrey:  We hope to make the matter clear.

The Judge:  Then the court adjourns until tomorrow.


This new development of the case excited the utmost interest among the
general public.  Press comment was prevented by the fact that the trial
was still undecided, but the question was everywhere argued as to how
far there could be truth in Miss Morton's declaration, and how far it
might be a daring ruse for the purpose of saving her brother.  The
obvious dilemma in which the missing doctor stood was that if by any
extraordinary chance he was not dead, then he must be held responsible
for the death of this unknown man, who resembled him so exactly, and
who was found in his study.  This letter which Miss Morton refused to
produce was possibly a confession of guilt, and she might find herself
in the terrible position of only being able to save her brother from
the gallows by the sacrifice of her former lover.  The court next
morning was crammed to overflowing, and a murmur of excitement passed
over it when Mr. Humphrey was observed to enter in a state of emotion,
which even his trained nerves could not conceal, and to confer with the
opposing counsel.  A few hurried words--words which left a look of
amazement upon Mr. Porlock Carr's face--passed between them, and then
the counsel for the defence, addressing the Judge, announced that, with
the consent of the prosecution, the young lady who had given evidence
upon the sitting before would not be recalled.


The Judge: But you appear, Mr. Humphrey, to have left matters in a very
unsatisfactory state.

Mr. Humphrey:  Perhaps, my lord, my next witness may help to clear them
up.

The Judge:  Then call your next witness.

Mr. Humphrey:  I call Dr. Aloysius Lana.

The learned counsel has made many telling remarks in his day, but he
has certainly never produced such a sensation with so short a sentence.
The court was simply stunned with amazement as the very man whose fate
had been the subject of so much contention appeared bodily before them
in the witness-box.  Those among the spectators who had known him at
Bishop's Crossing saw him now, gaunt and thin, with deep lines of care
upon his face.  But in spite of his melancholy bearing and despondent
expression, there were few who could say that they had ever seen a man
of more distinguished presence.  Bowing to the judge, he asked if he
might be allowed to make a statement, and having been duly informed
that whatever he said might be used against him, he bowed once more,
and proceeded:

"My wish," said he, "is to hold nothing back, but to tell with perfect
frankness all that occurred upon the night of the 21st of June.  Had I
known that the innocent had suffered, and that so much trouble had been
brought upon those whom I love best in the world, I should have come
forward long ago; but there were reasons which prevented these things
from coming to my ears.  It was my desire that an unhappy man should
vanish from the world which had known him, but I had not foreseen that
others would be affected by my actions.  Let me to the best of my
ability repair the evil which I have done.

"To anyone who is acquainted with the history of the Argentine Republic
the name of Lana is well known.  My father, who came of the best blood
of old Spain, filled all the highest offices of the State, and would
have been President but for his death in the riots of San Juan.  A
brilliant career might have been open to my twin brother Ernest and
myself had it not been for financial losses which made it necessary
that we should earn our own living.  I apologize, sir, if these details
appear to be irrelevant, but they are a necessary introduction to that
which is to follow.

"I had, as I have said, a twin brother named Ernest, whose resemblance
to me was so great that even when we were together people could see no
difference between us.  Down to the smallest detail we were exactly the
same.  As we grew older this likeness became less marked because our
expression was not the same, but with our features in repose the points
of difference were very slight.

"It does not become me to say too much of one who is dead, the more so
as he is my only brother, but I leave his character to those who knew
him best.  I will only say--for I HAVE to say it--that in my early
manhood I conceived a horror of him, and that I had good reason for the
aversion which filled me.  My own reputation suffered from his actions,
for our close resemblance caused me to be credited with many of them.
Eventually, in a peculiarly disgraceful business, he contrived to throw
the whole odium upon me in such a way that I was forced to leave the
Argentine for ever, and to seek a career in Europe.  The freedom from
his hated presence more than compensated me for the loss of my native
land.  I had enough money to defray my medical studies at Glasgow, and
I finally settled in practice at Bishop's Crossing, in the firm
conviction that in that remote Lancashire hamlet I should never hear of
him again.

"For years my hopes were fulfilled, and then at last he discovered me.
Some Liverpool man who visited Buenos Ayres put him upon my track.  He
had lost all his money, and he thought that he would come over and
share mine.  Knowing my horror of him, he rightly thought that I would
be willing to buy him off.  I received a letter from him saying that he
was coming.  It was at a crisis in my own affairs, and his arrival
might conceivably bring trouble, and even disgrace, upon some whom I
was especially bound to shield from anything of the kind.  I took steps
to insure that any evil which might come should fall on me only, and
that"--here he turned and looked at the prisoner--"was the cause of
conduct upon my part which has been too harshly judged.  My only motive
was to screen those who were dear to me from any possible connection
with scandal or disgrace.  That scandal and disgrace would come with my
brother was only to say that what had been would be again.

"My brother arrived himself one night not very long after my receipt of
the letter.  I was sitting in my study after the servants had gone to
bed, when I heard a footstep upon the gravel outside, and an instant
later I saw his face looking in at me through the window.  He was a
clean-shaven man like myself, and the resemblance between us was still
so great that, for an instant, I thought it was my own reflection in
the glass.  He had a dark patch over his eye, but our features were
absolutely the same.  Then he smiled in a sardonic way which had been a
trick of his from his boyhood, and I knew that he was the same brother
who had driven me from my native land, and brought disgrace upon what
had been an honourable name.  I went to the door and I admitted him.
That would be about ten o'clock that night.

"When he came into the glare of the lamp, I saw at once that he had
fallen upon very evil days.  He had walked from Liverpool, and he was
tired and ill.  I was quite shocked by the expression upon his face.
My medical knowledge told me that there was some serious internal
malady.  He had been drinking also, and his face was bruised as the
result of a scuffle which he had had with some sailors.  It was to
cover his injured eye that he wore this patch, which he removed when he
entered the room.  He was himself dressed in a pea-jacket and flannel
shirt, and his feet were bursting through his boots.  But his poverty
had only made him more savagely vindictive towards me.  His hatred rose
to the height of a mania. I had been rolling in money in England,
according to his account, while he had been starving in South America.
I cannot describe to you the threats which he uttered or the insults
which he poured upon me.  My impression is, that hardships and
debauchery had unhinged his reason.  He paced about the room like a
wild beast, demanding drink, demanding money, and all in the foulest
language. I am a hot-tempered man, but I thank God that I am able to
say that I remained master of myself, and that I never raised a hand
against him.  My coolness only irritated him the more.  He raved, he
cursed, he shook his fists in my face, and then suddenly a horrible
spasm passed over his features, he clapped his hand to his side, and
with a loud cry he fell in a heap at my feet.  I raised him up and
stretched him upon the sofa, but no answer came to my exclamations, and
the hand which I held in mine was cold and clammy.  His diseased heart
had broken down.  His own violence had killed him.

"For a long time I sat as if I were in some dreadful dream, staring at
the body of my brother.  I was aroused by the knocking of Mrs. Woods,
who had been disturbed by that dying cry.  I sent her away to bed.
Shortly afterwards a patient tapped at the surgery door, but as I took
no notice, he or she went off again. Slowly and gradually as I sat
there a plan was forming itself in my head in the curious automatic way
in which plans do form.  When I rose from my chair my future movements
were finally decided upon without my having been conscious of any
process of thought.  It was an instinct which irresistibly inclined me
towards one course.

"Ever since that change in my affairs to which I have alluded, Bishop's
Crossing had become hateful to me.  My plans of life had been ruined,
and I had met with hasty judgments and unkind treatment where I had
expected sympathy.  It is true that any danger of scandal from my
brother had passed away with his life; but still, I was sore about the
past, and felt that things could never be as they had been.  It may be
that I was unduly sensitive, and that I had not made sufficient
allowance for others, but my feelings were as I describe.  Any chance
of getting away from Bishop's Crossing and of everyone in it would be
most welcome to me.  And here was such a chance as I could never have
dared to hope for, a chance which would enable me to make a clean break
with the past.

"There was this dead man lying upon the sofa, so like me that save for
some little thickness and coarseness of the features there was no
difference at all.  No one had seen him come and no one would miss him.
We were both clean-shaven, and his hair was about the same length as my
own.  If I changed clothes with him, then Dr. Aloysius Lana would be
found lying dead in his study, and there would be an end of an
unfortunate fellow, and of a blighted career. There was plenty of ready
money in the room, and this I could carry away with me to help me to
start once more in some other land.  In my brother's clothes I could
walk by night unobserved as far as Liverpool, and in that great seaport
I would soon find some means of leaving the country.  After my lost
hopes, the humblest existence where I was unknown was far preferable,
in my estimation, to a practice, however successful, in Bishop's
Crossing, where at any moment I might come face to face with those whom
I should wish, if it were possible, to forget.  I determined to effect
the change.

"And I did so.  I will not go into particulars, for the recollection is
as painful as the experience; but in an hour my brother lay, dressed
down to the smallest detail in my clothes, while I slunk out by the
surgery door, and taking the back path which led across some fields, I
started off to make the best of my way to Liverpool, where I arrived
the same night.  My bag of money and a certain portrait were all I
carried out of the house, and I left behind me in my hurry the shade
which my brother had been wearing over his eye.  Everything else of his
I took with me.

"I give you my word, sir, that never for one instant did the idea occur
to me that people might think that I had been murdered, nor did I
imagine that anyone might be caused serious danger through this
stratagem by which I endeavoured to gain a fresh start in the world.
On the contrary, it was the thought of relieving others from the burden
of my presence which was always uppermost in my mind.  A sailing vessel
was leaving Liverpool that very day for Corunna, and in this I took my
passage, thinking that the voyage would give me time to recover my
balance, and to consider the future.  But before I left my resolution
softened.  I bethought me that there was one person in the world to
whom I would not cause an hour of sadness.  She would mourn me in her
heart, however harsh and unsympathetic her relatives might be.  She
understood and appreciated the motives upon which I had acted, and if
the rest of her family condemned me, she, at least, would not forget.
And so I sent her a note under the seal of secrecy to save her from a
baseless grief.  If under the pressure of events she broke that seal,
she has my entire sympathy and forgiveness.

"It was only last night that I returned to England, and during all this
time I have heard nothing of the sensation which my supposed death had
caused, nor of the accusation that Mr. Arthur Morton had been concerned
in it.  It was in a late evening paper that I read an account of the
proceedings of yesterday, and I have come this morning as fast as an
express train could bring me to testify to the truth."

Such was the remarkable statement of Dr. Aloysius Lana which brought
the trial to a sudden termination.  A subsequent investigation
corroborated it to the extent of finding out the vessel in which his
brother Ernest Lana had come over from South America.  The ship's
doctor was able to testify that he had complained of a weak heart
during the voyage, and that his symptoms were consistent with such a
death as was described.

As to Dr. Aloysius Lana, he returned to the village from which he had
made so dramatic a disappearance, and a complete reconciliation was
effected between him and the young squire, the latter having
acknowledged that he had entirely misunderstood the other's motives in
withdrawing from his engagement.  That another reconciliation followed
may be judged from a notice extracted from a prominent column in the
Morning Post:


"A marriage was solemnized upon September 19th, by the Rev. Stephen
Johnson, at the parish church of Bishop's Crossing, between Aloysius
Xavier Lana, son of Don Alfredo Lana, formerly Foreign Minister of the
Argentine Republic, and Frances Morton, only daughter of the late James
Morton, J.P., of Leigh Hall, Bishop's Crossing, Lancashire."



The Jew's Breastplate

My particular friend, Ward Mortimer, was one of the best men of his day
at everything connected with Oriental archaeology.  He had written
largely upon the subject, he had lived two years in a tomb at Thebes,
while he excavated in the Valley of the Kings, and finally he had
created a considerable sensation by his exhumation of the alleged mummy
of Cleopatra in the inner room of the Temple of Horus, at Philae.  With
such a record at the age of thirty-one, it was felt that a considerable
career lay before him, and no one was surprised when he was elected to
the curatorship of the Belmore Street Museum, which carries with it the
lectureship at the Oriental College, and an income which has sunk with
the fall in land, but which still remains at that ideal sum which is
large enough to encourage an investigator, but not so large as to
enervate him.

There was only one reason which made Ward Mortimer's position a little
difficult at the Belmore Street Museum, and that was the extreme
eminence of the man whom he had to succeed.  Professor Andreas was a
profound scholar and a man of European reputation. His lectures were
frequented by students from every part of the world, and his admirable
management of the collection intrusted to his care was a commonplace in
all learned societies.  There was, therefore, considerable surprise
when, at the age of fifty-five, he suddenly resigned his position and
retired from those duties which had been both his livelihood and his
pleasure.  He and his daughter left the comfortable suite of rooms
which had formed his official residence in connection with the museum,
and my friend, Mortimer, who was a bachelor, took up his quarters there.

On hearing of Mortimer's appointment Professor Andreas had written him
a very kindly and flattering congratulatory letter.  I was actually
present at their first meeting, and I went with Mortimer round the
museum when the Professor showed us the admirable collection which he
had cherished so long.  The Professor's beautiful daughter and a young
man, Captain Wilson, who was, as I understood, soon to be her husband,
accompanied us in our inspection.  There were fifteen rooms, but the
Babylonian, the Syrian, and the central hall, which contained the
Jewish and Egyptian collection, were the finest of all.  Professor
Andreas was a quiet, dry, elderly man, with a clean-shaven face and an
impassive manner, but his dark eyes sparkled and his features quickened
into enthusiastic life as he pointed out to us the rarity and the
beauty of some of his specimens.  His hand lingered so fondly over
them, that one could read his pride in them and the grief in his heart
now that they were passing from his care into that of another.

He had shown us in turn his mummies, his papyri, his rare scarabs, his
inscriptions, his Jewish relics, and his duplication of the famous
seven-branched candlestick of the Temple, which was brought to Rome by
Titus, and which is supposed by some to be lying at this instant in the
bed of the Tiber.  Then he approached a case which stood in the very
centre of the hall, and he looked down through the glass with reverence
in his attitude and manner.

"This is no novelty to an expert like yourself, Mr. Mortimer," said he;
"but I daresay that your friend, Mr. Jackson, will be interested to see
it."

Leaning over the case I saw an object, some five inches square, which
consisted of twelve precious stones in a framework of gold, with golden
hooks at two of the corners.  The stones were all varying in sort and
colour, but they were of the same size.  Their shapes, arrangement, and
gradation of tint made me think of a box of water-colour paints.  Each
stone had some hieroglyphic scratched upon its surface.

"You have heard, Mr. Jackson, of the urim and thummim?"

I had heard the term, but my idea of its meaning was exceedingly vague.

"The urim and thummim was a name given to the jewelled plate which lay
upon the breast of the high priest of the Jews.  They had a very
special feeling of reverence for it--something of the feeling which an
ancient Roman might have for the Sibylline books in the Capitol.  There
are, as you see, twelve magnificent stones, inscribed with mystical
characters.  Counting from the left-hand top corner, the stones are
carnelian, peridot, emerald, ruby, lapis lazuli, onyx, sapphire, agate,
amethyst, topaz, beryl, and jasper."

I was amazed at the variety and beauty of the stones.

"Has the breastplate any particular history?" I asked.

"It is of great age and of immense value," said Professor Andreas.
"Without being able to make an absolute assertion, we have many reasons
to think that it is possible that it may be the original urim and
thummim of Solomon's Temple.  There is certainly nothing so fine in any
collection in Europe.  My friend, Captain Wilson, here, is a practical
authority upon precious stones, and he would tell you how pure these
are."

Captain Wilson, a man with a dark, hard, incisive face, was standing
beside his fiancee at the other side of the case.

"Yes," said he, curtly, "I have never seen finer stones."

"And the gold-work is also worthy of attention.  The ancients excelled
in----"--he was apparently about to indicate the setting of the stones,
when Captain Wilson interrupted him.

"You will see a finer example of their gold-work in this candlestick,"
said he, turning to another table, and we all joined him in his
admiration of its embossed stem and delicately ornamented branches.
Altogether it was an interesting and a novel experience to have objects
of such rarity explained by so great an expert; and when, finally,
Professor Andreas finished our inspection by formally handing over the
precious collection to the care of my friend, I could not help pitying
him and envying his successor whose life was to pass in so pleasant a
duty.  Within a week, Ward Mortimer was duly installed in his new set
of rooms, and had become the autocrat of the Belmore Street Museum.

About a fortnight afterwards my friend gave a small dinner to half a
dozen bachelor friends to celebrate his promotion.  When his guests
were departing he pulled my sleeve and signalled to me that he wished
me to remain.

"You have only a few hundred yards to go," said he--I was living in
chambers in the Albany.  "You may as well stay and have a quiet cigar
with me.  I very much want your advice."

I relapsed into an arm-chair and lit one of his excellent Matronas.
When he had returned from seeing the last of his guests out, he drew a
letter from his dress-jacket and sat down opposite to me.

"This is an anonymous letter which I received this morning," said he.
"I want to read it to you and to have your advice."

"You are very welcome to it for what it is worth."

"This is how the note runs:  'Sir,--I should strongly advise you to
keep a very careful watch over the many valuable things which are
committed to your charge.  I do not think that the present system of a
single watchman is sufficient.  Be upon your guard, or an irreparable
misfortune may occur.'"

"Is that all?"

"Yes, that is all."

"Well," said I, "it is at least obvious that it was written by one of
the limited number of people who are aware that you have only one
watchman at night."

Ward Mortimer handed me the note, with a curious smile.  "Have you an
eye for handwriting?" said he.  "Now, look at this!"  He put another
letter in front of me.  "Look at the c in 'congratulate' and the c in
'committed.'  Look at the capital I.  Look at the trick of putting in a
dash instead of a stop!"

"They are undoubtedly from the same hand--with some attempt at disguise
in the case of this first one."

"The second," said Ward Mortimer, "is the letter of congratulation
which was written to me by Professor Andreas upon my obtaining my
appointment."

I stared at him in amazement.  Then I turned over the letter in my
hand, and there, sure enough, was "Martin Andreas" signed upon the
other side.  There could be no doubt, in the mind of anyone who had the
slightest knowledge of the science of graphology, that the Professor
had written an anonymous letter, warning his successor against thieves.
It was inexplicable, but it was certain.

"Why should he do it?" I asked.

"Precisely what I should wish to ask you.  If he had any such
misgivings, why could he not come and tell me direct?"

"Will you speak to him about it?"

"There again I am in doubt.  He might choose to deny that he wrote it."

"At any rate," said I, "this warning is meant in a friendly spirit, and
I should certainly act upon it.  Are the present precautions enough to
insure you against robbery?"

"I should have thought so.  The public are only admitted from ten till
five, and there is a guardian to every two rooms.  He stands at the
door between them, and so commands them both."

"But at night?"

"When the public are gone, we at once put up the great iron shutters,
which are absolutely burglar-proof.  The watchman is a capable fellow.
He sits in the lodge, but he walks round every three hours.  We keep
one electric light burning in each room all night."

"It is difficult to suggest anything more--short of keeping your day
watches all night."

"We could not afford that."

"At least, I should communicate with the police, and have a special
constable put on outside in Belmore Street," said I.  "As to the
letter, if the writer wishes to be anonymous, I think he has a right to
remain so.  We must trust to the future to show some reason for the
curious course which he has adopted."

So we dismissed the subject, but all that night after my return to my
chambers I was puzzling my brain as to what possible motive Professor
Andreas could have for writing an anonymous warning letter to his
successor--for that the writing was his was as certain to me as if I
had seen him actually doing it.  He foresaw some danger to the
collection.  Was it because he foresaw it that he abandoned his charge
of it?  But if so, why should he hesitate to warn Mortimer in his own
name?  I puzzled and puzzled until at last I fell into a troubled
sleep, which carried me beyond my usual hour of rising.

I was aroused in a singular and effective method, for about nine
o'clock my friend Mortimer rushed into my room with an expression of
consternation upon his face.  He was usually one of the most tidy men
of my acquaintance, but now his collar was undone at one end, his tie
was flying, and his hat at the back of his head.  I read his whole
story in his frantic eyes.

"The museum has been robbed!" I cried, springing up in bed.

"I fear so!  Those jewels!  The jewels of the urim and thummim!" he
gasped, for he was out of breath with running.  "I'm going on to the
police-station.  Come to the museum as soon as you can, Jackson!
Good-bye!"  He rushed distractedly out of the room, and I heard him
clatter down the stairs.

I was not long in following his directions, but I found when I arrived
that he had already returned with a police inspector, and another
elderly gentleman, who proved to be Mr. Purvis, one of the partners of
Morson and Company, the well-known diamond merchants. As an expert in
stones he was always prepared to advise the police. They were grouped
round the case in which the breastplate of the Jewish priest had been
exposed.  The plate had been taken out and laid upon the glass top of
the case, and the three heads were bent over it.

"It is obvious that it has been tampered with," said Mortimer. "It
caught my eye the moment that I passed through the room this morning.
I examined it yesterday evening, so that it is certain that this has
happened during the night."

It was, as he had said, obvious that someone had been at work upon it.
The settings of the uppermost row of four stones--the carnelian,
peridot, emerald, and ruby--were rough and jagged as if someone had
scraped all round them.  The stones were in their places, but the
beautiful gold-work which we had admired only a few days before had
been very clumsily pulled about.

"It looks to me," said the police inspector, "as if someone had been
trying to take out the stones."

"My fear is," said Mortimer, "that he not only tried, but succeeded.  I
believe these four stones to be skilful imitations which have been put
in the place of the originals."

The same suspicion had evidently been in the mind of the expert, for he
had been carefully examining the four stones with the aid of a lens.
He now submitted them to several tests, and finally turned cheerfully
to Mortimer.

"I congratulate you, sir," said he, heartily.  "I will pledge my
reputation that all four of these stones are genuine, and of a most
unusual degree of purity."

The colour began to come back to my poor friend's frightened face, and
he drew a long breath of relief.

"Thank God!" he cried.  "Then what in the world did the thief want?"

"Probably he meant to take the stones, but was interrupted."

"In that case one would expect him to take them out one at a time, but
the setting of each of these has been loosened, and yet the stones are
all here."

"It is certainly most extraordinary," said the inspector.  "I never
remember a case like it.  Let us see the watchman."

The commissionaire was called--a soldierly, honest-faced man, who
seemed as concerned as Ward Mortimer at the incident.

"No, sir, I never heard a sound," he answered, in reply to the
questions of the inspector.  "I made my rounds four times, as usual,
but I saw nothing suspicious.  I've been in my position ten years, but
nothing of the kind has ever occurred before."

"No thief could have come through the windows?"

"Impossible, sir."

"Or passed you at the door?"

"No, sir; I never left my post except when I walked my rounds."

"What other openings are there in the museum?"

"There is the door into Mr. Ward Mortimer's private rooms."

"That is locked at night," my friend explained, "and in order to reach
it anyone from the street would have to open the outside door as well."

"Your servants?"

"Their quarters are entirely separate."

"Well, well," said the inspector, "this is certainly very obscure.
However, there has been no harm done, according to Mr. Purvis."

"I will swear that those stones are genuine."

"So that the case appears to be merely one of malicious damage. But
none the less, I should be very glad to go carefully round the
premises, and to see if we can find any trace to show us who your
visitor may have been."

His investigation, which lasted all the morning, was careful and
intelligent, but it led in the end to nothing.  He pointed out to us
that there were two possible entrances to the museum which we had not
considered.  The one was from the cellars by a trap-door opening in the
passage.  The other through a skylight from the lumber-room,
overlooking that very chamber to which the intruder had penetrated.  As
neither the cellar nor the lumber-room could be entered unless the
thief was already within the locked doors, the matter was not of any
practical importance, and the dust of cellar and attic assured us that
no one had used either one or the other.  Finally, we ended as we
began, without the slightest clue as to how, why, or by whom the
setting of these four jewels had been tampered with.

There remained one course for Mortimer to take, and he took it. Leaving
the police to continue their fruitless researches, he asked me to
accompany him that afternoon in a visit to Professor Andreas. He took
with him the two letters, and it was his intention to openly tax his
predecessor with having written the anonymous warning, and to ask him
to explain the fact that he should have anticipated so exactly that
which had actually occurred.  The Professor was living in a small villa
in Upper Norwood, but we were informed by the servant that he was away
from home.  Seeing our disappointment, she asked us if we should like
to see Miss Andreas, and showed us into the modest drawing-room.

I have mentioned incidentally that the Professor's daughter was a very
beautiful girl.  She was a blonde, tall and graceful, with a skin of
that delicate tint which the French call "mat," the colour of old
ivory, or of the lighter petals of the sulphur rose. I was shocked,
however, as she entered the room to see how much she had changed in the
last fortnight.  Her young face was haggard and her bright eyes heavy
with trouble.

"Father has gone to Scotland," she said.  "He seems to be tired, and
has had a good deal to worry him.  He only left us yesterday."

"You look a little tired yourself, Miss Andreas," said my friend.

"I have been so anxious about father."

"Can you give me his Scotch address?"

"Yes, he is with his brother, the Rev. David Andreas, 1, Arran Villas,
Ardrossan."

Ward Mortimer made a note of the address, and we left without saying
anything as to the object of our visit.  We found ourselves in Belmore
Street in the evening in exactly the same position in which we had been
in the morning.  Our only clue was the Professor's letter, and my
friend had made up his mind to start for Ardrossan next day, and to get
to the bottom of the anonymous letter, when a new development came to
alter our plans.

Very early on the following morning I was aroused from my sleep by a
tap upon my bedroom door.  It was a messenger with a note from Mortimer.

"Do come round," it said; "the matter is becoming more and more
extraordinary."

When I obeyed his summons I found him pacing excitedly up and down the
central room, while the old soldier who guarded the premises stood with
military stiffness in a corner.

"My dear Jackson," he cried, "I am so delighted that you have come, for
this is a most inexplicable business."

"What has happened, then?"

He waved his hand towards the case which contained the breastplate.

"Look at it," said he.

I did so, and could not restrain a cry of surprise.  The setting of the
middle row of precious stones had been profaned in the same manner as
the upper ones.  Of the twelve jewels eight had been now tampered with
in this singular fashion.  The setting of the lower four was neat and
smooth.  The others jagged and irregular.

"Have the stones been altered?" I asked.

"No, I am certain that these upper four are the same which the expert
pronounced to be genuine, for I observed yesterday that little
discoloration on the edge of the emerald.  Since they have not
extracted the upper stones, there is no reason to think the lower have
been transposed.  You say that you heard nothing, Simpson?"

"No, sir," the commissionaire answered.  "But when I made my round
after daylight I had a special look at these stones, and I saw at once
that someone had been meddling with them.  Then I called you, sir, and
told you.  I was backwards and forwards all night, and I never saw a
soul or heard a sound."

"Come up and have some breakfast with me," said Mortimer, and he took
me into his own chambers.--"Now, what DO you think of this, Jackson?"
he asked.

"It is the most objectless, futile, idiotic business that ever I heard
of.  It can only be the work of a monomaniac."

"Can you put forward any theory?"

A curious idea came into my head.  "This object is a Jewish relic of
great antiquity and sanctity," said I.  "How about the anti-Semitic
movement?  Could one conceive that a fanatic of that way of thinking
might desecrate----"

"No, no, no!" cried Mortimer.  "That will never do!  Such a man might
push his lunacy to the length of destroying a Jewish relic, but why on
earth should he nibble round every stone so carefully that he can only
do four stones in a night?  We must have a better solution than that,
and we must find it for ourselves, for I do not think that our
inspector is likely to help us.  First of all, what do you think of
Simpson, the porter?"

"Have you any reason to suspect him?"

"Only that he is the one person on the premises."

"But why should he indulge in such wanton destruction?  Nothing has
been taken away.  He has no motive."

"Mania?"

"No, I will swear to his sanity."

"Have you any other theory?"

"Well, yourself, for example.  You are not a somnambulist, by any
chance?"

"Nothing of the sort, I assure you."

"Then I give it up."

"But I don't--and I have a plan by which we will make it all clear."

"To visit Professor Andreas?"

"No, we shall find our solution nearer than Scotland.  I will tell you
what we shall do.  You know that skylight which overlooks the central
hall?  We will leave the electric lights in the hall, and we will keep
watch in the lumber-room, you and I, and solve the mystery for
ourselves.  If our mysterious visitor is doing four stones at a time,
he has four still to do, and there is every reason to think that he
will return tonight and complete the job."

"Excellent!" I cried.

"We will keep our own secret, and say nothing either to the police or
to Simpson.  Will you join me?"

"With the utmost pleasure," said I; and so it was agreed.

It was ten o'clock that night when I returned to the Belmore Street
Museum.  Mortimer was, as I could see, in a state of suppressed nervous
excitement, but it was still too early to begin our vigil, so we
remained for an hour or so in his chambers, discussing all the
possibilities of the singular business which we had met to solve.  At
last the roaring stream of hansom cabs and the rush of hurrying feet
became lower and more intermittent as the pleasure-seekers passed on
their way to their stations or their homes.  It was nearly twelve when
Mortimer led the way to the lumber-room which overlooked the central
hall of the museum.

He had visited it during the day, and had spread some sacking so that
we could lie at our ease, and look straight down into the museum.  The
skylight was of unfrosted glass, but was so covered with dust that it
would be impossible for anyone looking up from below to detect that he
was overlooked.  We cleared a small piece at each corner, which gave us
a complete view of the room beneath us.  In the cold white light of the
electric lamps everything stood out hard and clear, and I could see the
smallest detail of the contents of the various cases.

Such a vigil is an excellent lesson, since one has no choice but to
look hard at those objects which we usually pass with such half-hearted
interest.  Through my little peep hole I employed the hours in studying
every specimen, from the huge mummy-case which leaned against the wall
to those very jewels which had brought us there, gleaming and sparkling
in their glass case immediately beneath us.  There was much precious
gold-work and many valuable stones scattered through the numerous
cases, but those wonderful twelve which made up the urim and thummim
glowed and burned with a radiance which far eclipsed the others.  I
studied in turn the tomb-pictures of Sicara, the friezes from Karnak,
the statues of Memphis, and the inscriptions of Thebes, but my eyes
would always come back to that wonderful Jewish relic, and my mind to
the singular mystery which surrounded it.  I was lost in the thought of
it when my companion suddenly drew his breath sharply in, and seized my
arm in a convulsive grip.  At the same instant I saw what it was which
had excited him.

I have said that against the wall--on the right-hand side of the
doorway (the right-hand side as we looked at it, but the left as one
entered)--there stood a large mummy-case.  To our unutterable amazement
it was slowly opening.  Gradually, gradually the lid was swinging back,
and the black slit which marked the opening was becoming wider and
wider.  So gently and carefully was it done that the movement was
almost imperceptible.  Then, as we breathlessly watched it, a white
thin hand appeared at the opening, pushing back the painted lid, then
another hand, and finally a face--a face which was familiar to us both,
that of Professor Andreas.  Stealthily he slunk out of the mummy-case,
like a fox stealing from its burrow, his head turning incessantly to
left and to right, stepping, then pausing, then stepping again, the
very image of craft and of caution.  Once some sound in the street
struck him motionless, and he stood listening, with his ear turned,
ready to dart back to the shelter behind him.  Then he crept onwards
again upon tiptoe, very, very softly and slowly, until he had reached
the case in the centre of the room.  There he took a bunch of keys from
his pocket, unlocked the case, took out the Jewish breastplate, and,
laying it upon the glass in front of him, began to work upon it with
some sort of small, glistening tool.  He was so directly underneath us
that his bent head covered his work, but we could guess from the
movement of his hand that he was engaged in finishing the strange
disfigurement which he had begun.

I could realize from the heavy breathing of my companion, and the
twitchings of the hand which still clutched my wrist, the furious
indignation which filled his heart as he saw this vandalism in the
quarter of all others where he could least have expected it. He, the
very man who a fortnight before had reverently bent over this unique
relic, and who had impressed its antiquity and its sanctity upon us,
was now engaged in this outrageous profanation. It was impossible,
unthinkable--and yet there, in the white glare of the electric light
beneath us, was that dark figure with the bent grey head, and the
twitching elbow.  What inhuman hypocrisy, what hateful depth of malice
against his successor must underlie these sinister nocturnal labours.
It was painful to think of and dreadful to watch.  Even I, who had none
of the acute feelings of a virtuoso, could not bear to look on and see
this deliberate mutilation of so ancient a relic.  It was a relief to
me when my companion tugged at my sleeve as a signal that I was to
follow him as he softly crept out of the room.  It was not until we
were within his own quarters that he opened his lips, and then I saw by
his agitated face how deep was his consternation.

"The abominable Goth!" he cried.  "Could you have believed it?"

"It is amazing."

"He is a villain or a lunatic--one or the other.  We shall very soon
see which.  Come with me, Jackson, and we shall get to the bottom of
this black business."

A door opened out of the passage which was the private entrance from
his rooms into the museum.  This he opened softly with his key, having
first kicked off his shoes, an example which I followed.  We crept
together through room after room, until the large hall lay before us,
with that dark figure still stooping and working at the central case.
With an advance as cautious as his own we closed in upon him, but
softly as we went we could not take him entirely unawares.  We were
still a dozen yards from him when he looked round with a start, and
uttering a husky cry of terror, ran frantically down the museum.

"Simpson!  Simpson!" roared Mortimer, and far away down the vista of
electric lighted doors we saw the stiff figure of the old soldier
suddenly appear.  Professor Andreas saw him also, and stopped running,
with a gesture of despair.  At the same instant we each laid a hand
upon his shoulder.

"Yes, yes, gentlemen," he panted, "I will come with you.  To your room,
Mr. Ward Mortimer, if you please!  I feel that I owe you an
explanation."

My companion's indignation was so great that I could see that he dared
not trust himself to reply.  We walked on each side of the old
Professor, the astonished commissionaire bringing up the rear. When we
reached the violated case, Mortimer stopped and examined the
breastplate.  Already one of the stones of the lower row had had its
setting turned back in the same manner as the others.  My friend held
it up and glanced furiously at his prisoner.

"How could you!" he cried.  "How could you!"

"It is horrible--horrible!" said the Professor.  "I don't wonder at
your feelings.  Take me to your room."

"But this shall not be left exposed!" cried Mortimer.  He picked the
breastplate up and carried it tenderly in his hand, while I walked
beside the Professor, like a policeman with a malefactor.  We passed
into Mortimer's chambers, leaving the amazed old soldier to understand
matters as best he could.  The Professor sat down in Mortimer's
arm-chair, and turned so ghastly a colour that for the instant all our
resentment was changed to concern.  A stiff glass of brandy brought the
life back to him once more.

"There, I am better now!" said he.  "These last few days have been too
much for me.  I am convinced that I could not stand it any longer.  It
is a nightmare--a horrible nightmare--that I should be arrested as a
burglar in what has been for so long my own museum. And yet I cannot
blame you.  You could not have done otherwise.  My hope always was that
I should get it all over before I was detected.  This would have been
my last night's work."

"How did you get in?" asked Mortimer.

"By taking a very great liberty with your private door.  But the object
justified it.  The object justified everything.  You will not be angry
when you know everything--at least, you will not be angry with me.  I
had a key to your side door and also to the museum door.  I did not
give them up when I left.  And so you see it was not difficult for me
to let myself into the museum.  I used to come in early before the
crowd had cleared from the street. Then I hid myself in the mummy-case,
and took refuge there whenever Simpson came round.  I could always hear
him coming.  I used to leave in the same way as I came."

"You ran a risk."

"I had to."

"But why?  What on earth was your object--YOU to do a thing like that!"
Mortimer pointed reproachfully at the plate which lay before him on the
table.

"I could devise no other means.  I thought and thought, but there was
no alternate except a hideous public scandal, and a private sorrow
which would have clouded our lives.  I acted for the best, incredible
as it may seem to you, and I only ask your attention to enable me to
prove it."

"I will hear what you have to say before I take any further steps,"
said Mortimer, grimly.

"I am determined to hold back nothing, and to take you both completely
into my confidence.  I will leave it to your own generosity how far you
will use the facts with which I supply you."

"We have the essential facts already."

"And yet you understand nothing.  Let me go back to what passed a few
weeks ago, and I will make it all clear to you.  Believe me that what I
say is the absolute and exact truth.

"You have met the person who calls himself Captain Wilson.  I say
'calls himself' because I have reason now to believe that it is not his
correct name.  It would take me too long if I were to describe all the
means by which he obtained an introduction to me and ingratiated
himself into my friendship and the affection of my daughter.  He
brought letters from foreign colleagues which compelled me to show him
some attention.  And then, by his own attainments, which are
considerable, he succeeded in making himself a very welcome visitor at
my rooms.  When I learned that my daughter's affections had been gained
by him, I may have thought it premature, but I certainly was not
surprised, for he had a charm of manner and of conversation which would
have made him conspicuous in any society.

"He was much interested in Oriental antiquities, and his knowledge of
the subject justified his interest.  Often when he spent the evening
with us he would ask permission to go down into the museum and have an
opportunity of privately inspecting the various specimens.  You can
imagine that I, as an enthusiast, was in sympathy with such a request,
and that I felt no surprise at the constancy of his visits.  After his
actual engagement to Elise, there was hardly an evening which he did
not pass with us, and an hour or two were generally devoted to the
museum.  He had the free run of the place, and when I have been away
for the evening I had no objection to his doing whatever he wished
here.  This state of things was only terminated by the fact of my
resignation of my official duties and my retirement to Norwood, where I
hoped to have the leisure to write a considerable work which I had
planned.

"It was immediately after this--within a week or so--that I first
realized the true nature and character of the man whom I had so
imprudently introduced into my family.  The discovery came to me
through letters from my friends abroad, which showed me that his
introductions to me had been forgeries.  Aghast at the revelation, I
asked myself what motive this man could originally have had in
practising this elaborate deception upon me.  I was too poor a man for
any fortune-hunter to have marked me down.  Why, then, had he come?  I
remembered that some of the most precious gems in Europe had been under
my charge, and I remembered also the ingenious excuses by which this
man had made himself familiar with the cases in which they were kept.
He was a rascal who was planning some gigantic robbery.  How could I,
without striking my own daughter, who was infatuated about him, prevent
him from carrying out any plan which he might have formed?  My device
was a clumsy one, and yet I could think of nothing more effective.  If
I had written a letter under my own name, you would naturally have
turned to me for details which I did not wish to give.  I resorted to
an anonymous letter, begging you to be upon your guard.

"I may tell you that my change from Belmore Street to Norwood had not
affected the visits of this man, who had, I believe, a real and
overpowering affection for my daughter.  As to her, I could not have
believed that any woman could be so completely under the influence of a
man as she was.  His stronger nature seemed to entirely dominate her.
I had not realized how far this was the case, or the extent of the
confidence which existed between them, until that very evening when his
true character for the first time was made clear to me.  I had given
orders that when he called he should be shown into my study instead of
to the drawing-room. There I told him bluntly that I knew all about
him, that I had taken steps to defeat his designs, and that neither I
nor my daughter desired ever to see him again.  I added that I thanked
God that I had found him out before he had time to harm those precious
objects which it had been the work of my life-time to protect.

"He was certainly a man of iron nerve.  He took my remarks without a
sign either of surprise or of defiance, but listened gravely and
attentively until I had finished.  Then he walked across the room
without a word and struck the bell.

"'Ask Miss Andreas to be so kind as to step this way,' said he to the
servant.

"My daughter entered, and the man closed the door behind her. Then he
took her hand in his.

"'Elise,' said he, 'your father has just discovered that I am a
villain.  He knows now what you knew before.'

"She stood in silence, listening.

"'He says that we are to part for ever,' said he.

"She did not withdraw her hand.

"'Will you be true to me, or will you remove the last good influence
which is ever likely to come into my life?'

"'John,' she cried, passionately.  'I will never abandon you! Never,
never, not if the whole world were against you.'

"In vain I argued and pleaded with her.  It was absolutely useless.
Her whole life was bound up in this man before me.  My daughter,
gentlemen, is all that I have left to love, and it filled me with agony
when I saw how powerless I was to save her from her ruin.  My
helplessness seemed to touch this man who was the cause of my trouble.

"'It may not be as bad as you think, sir,' said he, in his quiet,
inflexible way.  'I love Elise with a love which is strong enough to
rescue even one who has such a record as I have.  It was but yesterday
that I promised her that never again in my whole life would I do a
thing of which she should be ashamed.  I have made up my mind to it,
and never yet did I make up my mind to a thing which I did not do.'

"He spoke with an air which carried conviction with it.  As he
concluded he put his hand into his pocket and he drew out a small
cardboard box.

"'I am about to give you a proof of my determination,' said he. 'This,
Elise, shall be the first-fruits of your redeeming influence over me.
You are right, sir, in thinking that I had designs upon the jewels in
your possession.  Such ventures have had a charm for me, which depended
as much upon the risk run as upon the value of the prize.  Those famous
and antique stones of the Jewish priest were a challenge to my daring
and my ingenuity.  I determined to get them.'

"'I guessed as much.'

"'There was only one thing that you did not guess.'

"'And what is that?'

"'That I got them.  They are in this box.'

"He opened the box, and tilted out the contents upon the corner of my
desk.  My hair rose and my flesh grew cold as I looked. There were
twelve magnificent square stones engraved with mystical characters.
There could be no doubt that they were the jewels of the urim and
thummim.

"'Good God!' I cried.  'How have you escaped discovery?'

"'By the substitution of twelve others, made especially to my order, in
which the originals are so carefully imitated that I defy the eye to
detect the difference.'

"'Then the present stones are false?' I cried.

"'They have been for some weeks.'

"We all stood in silence, my daughter white with emotion, but still
holding this man by the hand.

"'You see what I am capable of, Elise,' said he.

"'I see that you are capable of repentance and restitution,' she
answered.

"'Yes, thanks to your influence!  I leave the stones in your hands,
sir.  Do what you like about it.  But remember that whatever you do
against me, is done against the future husband of your only daughter.
You will hear from me soon again, Elise.  It is the last time that I
will ever cause pain to your tender heart,' and with these words he
left both the room and the house.

"My position was a dreadful one.  Here I was with these precious relics
in my possession, and how could I return them without a scandal and an
exposure?  I knew the depth of my daughter's nature too well to suppose
that I would ever be able to detach her from this man now that she had
entirely given him her heart.  I was not even sure how far it was right
to detach her if she had such an ameliorating influence over him.  How
could I expose him without injuring her--and how far was I justified in
exposing him when he had voluntarily put himself into my power?  I
thought and thought until at last I formed a resolution which may seem
to you to be a foolish one, and yet, if I had to do it again, I believe
it would be the best course open to me.

"My idea was to return the stones without anyone being the wiser.  With
my keys I could get into the museum at any time, and I was confident
that I could avoid Simpson, whose hours and methods were familiar to
me.  I determined to take no one into my confidence--not even my
daughter--whom I told that I was about to visit my brother in Scotland.
I wanted a free hand for a few nights, without inquiry as to my comings
and goings.  To this end I took a room in Harding Street that very
night, with an intimation that I was a Pressman, and that I should keep
very late hours.

"That night I made my way into the museum, and I replaced four of the
stones.  It was hard work, and took me all night.  When Simpson came
round I always heard his footsteps, and concealed myself in the
mummy-case.  I had some knowledge of gold-work, but was far less
skilful than the thief had been.  He had replaced the setting so
exactly that I defy anyone to see the difference.  My work was rude and
clumsy.  However, I hoped that the plate might not be carefully
examined, or the roughness of the setting observed, until my task was
done.  Next night I replaced four more stones.  And tonight I should
have finished my task had it not been for the unfortunate circumstance
which has caused me to reveal so much which I should have wished to
keep concealed.  I appeal to you, gentlemen, to your sense of honour
and of compassion, whether what I have told you should go any farther
or not.  My own happiness, my daughter's future, the hopes of this
man's regeneration, all depend upon your decision.

"Which is," said my friend, "that all is well that ends well and that
the whole matter ends here and at once.  Tomorrow the loose settings
shall be tightened by an expert goldsmith, and so passes the greatest
danger to which, since the destruction of the Temple, the urim and
thummim has been exposed.  Here is my hand, Professor Andreas, and I
can only hope that under such difficult circumstances I should have
carried myself as unselfishly and as well."

Just one footnote to this narrative.  Within a month Elise Andreas was
married to a man whose name, had I the indiscretion to mention it,
would appeal to my readers as one who is now widely and deservedly
honoured.  But if the truth were known that honour is due not to him,
but to the gentle girl who plucked him back when he had gone so far
down that dark road along which few return.









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