 Part 1 of BAT-WING by SACS-ROMER, read by Mark Nelson. BAT-WING CHAPTER I. PAULE HARLEY OF CHANCERY LANE Toward the hour of six on a hot summer's evening, Mr. Paul Harley was seated in his private office in Chancey Lane, reading through a number of letters which Innis, his secretary, had placed before him for signature. Only one more remained to be passed, but it was a long, confidential report upon a certain matter, which Harley had prepared for his Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department. He glanced with a sigh of weariness at the little clock upon his table before commencing to read. Shall detain you only a few minutes now, Knox, he said. I nodded, smiling. I was quite content to sit and watch my friend at work. Paul Harley occupied a unique place in the maelstrom of vice and ambition which is sometimes called London Life. Whilst at present he held no official post, some of the most momentous problems of British policy during the past five years, problems imperiling interstate relationships and not infrequently threatening a renewal of the World War, had owed their solution to the peculiar genius of this man. No clue to his profession appeared upon the plain brass plate attached to his door, and little did those who regarded Paul Harley merely as a successful private detective suspected that he was in the confidence of some who guided the destinies of the Empire. Paul Harley's work in Constantinople during the feverish months preceding hostilities with Turkey, although unknown to the general public, had been of a most extraordinary nature. His recommendations were never adopted, unfortunately, otherwise the tragedy of the Dardanelles might have been averted. His surroundings as he sat there, gaze bent upon the typewritten pages, were those of any other professional man. So it would have seemed to the casual observer. But perhaps there was a quality in the atmosphere of the office which had told a more sensitive visitor that it was the apartment of no ordinary man of business. Whilst there were filing cabinets and bookshelves laden with works of reference, many of them legal, a large and handsome Burmese cabinet struck an unexpected note. On closer inspection, other splashes of significant color must have been detected in the scheme, notably a very fine engraving of Edgar Allen Poe from the Degura type of 1848, and upon the man himself lay the indelible mark of the tropics. His clean-cut features had that hint of underlying bronze which tells of years spent beneath a merciless sun, and the touch of gray at his temples only added to the eager, almost fierce vitality of the dark face. Paul Harley was notable because of that intellectual strength which does not strike one immediately, since it is purely temperamental, but which nevertheless invests its possessor with an aura of distinction. Writing his name at the bottom of the report, Paul Harley enclosed the pages in a long envelope and dropped the envelope into a basket which contained a number of other letters. His work for the day was ended, and glancing at me with a triumphant smile, he stood up. His office was a part of his residential suite, but although like some old-time burger of the city he lived on the premises, the shutting of a door which led to his private rooms marked the close of the business day. Pressing a bell which connected with the public office occupied by a secretary, Paul Harley stood up as Innis entered. There's nothing further is there, Innis, he asked. Nothing, Mr. Harley, if you have passed the home office report." Paul Harley laughed shortly. There it is, he replied, pointing to the basket. A tedious and thankless job, Innis. It is the fifth draft you have prepared, and it will have to do. He took up a letter which lay unsealed upon the table. This is the Rokeby affair, he said. I have decided to hold it over after all until my return. Ah! said Innis, quietly glancing at each envelope as he took it from the basket. I see you have turned down the little job offered by the Marquis. I have, replied Harley, smiling grimly, and a fee of five hundred guineas with it. I have also intimated to that distressed nobleman that this is a business office and that a laundry is the proper place to take his dirty linen. No, there's nothing further to-night, Innis. You can get along now. Has Miss Smith gone? But as if in answer to his inquiry the typist who, with Innis made up the entire staff of the office, came in at that moment, a card in her hand. Harley glanced across in my direction and then at the card with a rye expression. Colonel Juan Menendez, he read aloud, Cavendish Club, and glanced reflectively at Innis. Do we know the Colonel? I think not, answered Innis. The name is unfamiliar to me. I wonder, murmured Harley, he glanced across at me. It's an awful nuisance, Knox, but just as I thought the decks were clear, is it something really interesting or does he want a woman watched? However, his name sounds pickent, so perhaps I had better see him. Ask him to come in, Miss Smith. Innis and Miss Smith retiring, there presently entered a man of most striking and unusual presence. In the first place, Colonel Menendez must have stood fully six feet in his boots and he carried himself like a grandee of the golden days of Spain. His complexion was extraordinarily dusky, whilst his hair, which was closely cropped, was iron gray. His heavy eyebrows and curling mustache, with its little points, were equally black, so that his large teeth gleamed very fiercely when he smiled. His eyes were large, dark, and brilliant, and although he wore an admirably cut tweed suit, for some reason I pictured him as habitually wearing riding-kit. Indeed, I almost seemed to hear the jingle of his spurs. He carried an ebony cane for which I mentally substituted a crop, and his black derby hat I thought hardly as suitable as a sombrero. His age might have been anything between fifty and fifty-five. Standing in the doorway, he bowed, and if his smile was Mephistophelian, there was much about Colonel Juan Menendez which commanded respect. Mr. Harley, he began, and his high, thin voice afforded yet another surprise. I feel somewhat illedeeze to, how do you say it, appropriate your time, as I am by no means sure that what I have to say justifies my doing so. He spoke most fluent, indeed florid, English, but his sentences at times were oddly constructed, yet say for a faint accent and his frequent interpolation of such expressions as, how do you say, a sort of nervous mannerism, one might have supposed him to be a Britisher who had lived much abroad. I formed the opinion that he had read extensively, and this, as I learned later, was indeed the case. Sit down, Colonel Menendez, said Harley, with quiet geniality. Officially my working day is ended, I admit, but if you have no objection to the presence of my friend Mr. Knox I shall be most happy to chat with you. He smiled in a way all his own. If your business is of a painfully professional nature, he added, I must beg you to excuse me for fourteen days, as I am taking a badly needed holiday with my friend. Ah, is it so? replied the Colonel, placing his hat and cane upon the table and sitting down rather wearily in a big leather arm chair which Harley had pushed forward. If I enthroned I am sorry, but indeed my business is urgent, and I come to you on the recommendation of my friend, Sr. Don Merideval, the Spanish Ambassador. He raised his eyes to Harley's face with an expression of peculiar appeal. I rose to depart, but— Sit down, Knox, said Harley, and turn back to the visitor. Please proceed, he requested. Mr. Knox has been with me in some of the most delicate cases which I have ever handled, and you may rely upon his discretion as you may rely upon mine. He pushed forward a box of cigars. Will you smoke? Thanks, no, was the answer. You see, I rarely smoke anything but my cigarettes. Colonel Menendez extracted a slip of rice paper from a little packet which he carried. Next, dipping two long yellow fingers into his coat pocket, he brought out a portion of tobacco, laded in the paper, and almost in the twinkling of an eye had made rolled and lighted a very creditable cigarette. His dexterity was astonishing, and seeing my surprise he raised his heavy eyebrows and practice makes perfect, is it not, said, he remarked. He shrugged his shoulders and dropped the extinguished match in an ashtray whilst I studied him with increasing interest. Some dread, real or imaginary, was oppressing the man's mind, I mused. I felt my presence to be unwelcome, but—very well, he began suddenly—I expect, Mr. Harley, that you will be disposed to regard what I have to tell you rather as a symptom of what you call nerves than as evidence of any agency directed against me. Paul Harley stared curiously at the speaker. Do I understand you to suspect that someone is desirous of harming you, he inquired? Colonel Menendez slowly nodded his head. Such is my meaning, he replied. You refer to bodily harm. But yes, emphatically. Hmm, said Harley, and taking out a tin of tobacco from a cabinet beside him he began in a leisurely manner to load a briar. No doubt you have good reasons for this suspicion. If I had not good reasons, Mr. Harley, nothing could have induced me to trouble you. Yet even now that I have compelled myself to come here I find it difficult, almost impossible, to explain those reasons to you. An expression of embarrassment appeared upon the brown face, and now Colonel Menendez paused and was plainly at a loss for words with which to continue. Harley placed the tin in the cupboard and struck a match. Lighting his pipe he nodded good humbly as if to say, I quite understand. As a matter of fact he probably thought, as I did, that this was a familiar case of a man of possibly blameless life who had become subject to that delusion which leads people to believe themselves threatened by mysterious and unnameable danger. Our visitor inhaled deeply. You, of course, are waiting for the facts, he presently resumed, speaking with a slowness which told of a mind laboring for the right mode of expression. These are so scanty, I fear, of so, shall I say, phantom a kind, that even when they are in your possession you will consider me to be merely a victim of a delusion. In the first place, then, I have reason to believe that someone followed me from my home to your office. Indeed, said Paul Harley sympathetically, for this I perceived was exactly what he had anticipated and merely tended to confirm his suspicion. Some member of your household? Certainly not. Did you actually see this follower? My dear sir, cried Colonel Menendez, excitement emphasizing his accent. If I had seen him so much would have been made clear, so much! I have never seen him, but I have heard him and felt him, felt his presence, I mean. In what way? asked Harley, leaning back in his chair and studying the fierce face. On several occasions, on turning out the light in my bedroom and looking across the lawn from my window, I've observed the shadow of someone, how do you say, lurking in the garden. The shadow? Precisely. The person himself was concealed beneath a tree. When he moved, his shadow was visible on the ground. You were not deceived by a waving branch? Certainly not. I speak of a still moonlight night. Possibly then it was the shadow of a tramp, suggested Harley. I gather that you refer to a house in the country. It was not, declared Colonel Menendez emphatically. It was not. I wished to God I could believe it had been. Then there was, a month ago, an attempt to enter my house. Paul Harley exhibited evidence of a quickening curiosity. He had perceived, as I had perceived, that the manner of the speaker differed from that of an ordinary victim of delusion, with whom he had become professionally familiar. You had actual evidence of this, he suggested? It was due to insomnia, sleeplessness, brought about, yes, I will admit it, by apprehension, that I heard the footsteps of this intruder. But you did not see him. Only his shadow. What? You can obtain the evidence of all my household that someone had actually entered, declared Colonel Menendez eagerly. Of this, at least, I can give you the certain facts. Whoever it was had obtained access through a kitchen window, had forced two locks, and was coming stealthily along the hallway when the sound of his footsteps attracted my attention. What did you do? I came out onto the landing and looked down the stairs. But even the slight sound which I made had been sufficient to alarm the midnight visitor, for I had never a glimpse of him. Only, as he went swiftly back in the direction from which he had come, the moonlight shining in through a window in the hall cast his shadow on the carpet. Strange, murmured Harley. Very strange indeed. The shadow told you nothing? Nothing at all. Colonel Menendez hesitated momentarily and glanced swiftly across at Harley. It was just a vague, do you say, blur, and then it was gone. But... Yes, said Harley, but... Ah, Colonel Menendez blew a cloud of smoke into the air. I come now to the matter which I find so hard to explain. He inhaled again deeply and was silent for a while. Nothing was stolen, asked Harley. Nothing whatever. And no clue was left behind. No clue except the filed fastening of a window and two open doors which had been locked as usual when the household retired. Hmm, mused Harley again. This incident, of course, may have been an isolated one and in no way connected with the surveillance of which you complain. I mean that this person, who undoubtedly entered your house, might prove to be an ordinary burglar. On the table in the hallway of Craze Folly, replied Colonel Menendez impressively, so my house is named, stands a case containing presentation gold plate, the moonlight of which I have spoken was shining fully upon this case and does the burglar live who will pass such a prize and leave it untouched? I quite agree, said Harley quietly, that this is a very big point. You are beginning at last, suggested the Colonel, to believe that my suspicions are not quite groundless. There is a distinct possibility that they are more than suspicions, agreed Harley. But may I suggest that there is something else? Have you an enemy? Who that has ever held public office is without enemies. Ah, quite so. Then I suggest again that there is something else. He gazed keenly at his visitor and the latter whilst meeting the look unflinchingly with his large dark eyes was unable to conceal the fact that he had received a home thrust. There are two points, Mr. Harley, he finally confessed, almost certainly associated one with the other, if you understand, but both these so, shall I say, remote from my life that I hesitate to mention them. It seems fantastic to suppose that they contain a clue. I beg of you, said Harley, to keep nothing back, however remote it may appear to be. It is sometimes the seemingly remote things which prove upon investigation to be the most intimate. Very well, resumed Colonel Menendez, beginning to roll a second cigarette whilst continuing to smoke the first. I know that you are right, of course, but it is nevertheless very difficult for me to explain. I mentioned the attempted burglary, if so I may term it, in order to clear your mind of the idea that my fears were a myth. The next point which I have concerns a man, a neighbor of mine in Surrey. Before I proceed I should like to make it clear that I do not believe for a moment that he is responsible for this unpleasant business. Harley stared at him curiously. Nevertheless, he said, there must be some data in your possession which suggests to your mind that he has some connection with it. There are, Mr. Harley, but they belong to things so mystic and far away from ordinary crime that I fear you will think me, he shrugged his great shoulders, a man haunted by strange superstitions. Do you say haunted? Good, you understand. I shall tell you then that although a pure Spanish blood I was born in Cuba, the greater part of my life has been spent in the West Indies, where prior to 1998 I held an appointment under the Spanish government. I have property, not only in Cuba, but in some of the smaller islands which formerly were Spanish, and I shall not conceal from you that during the latter years of my administration I incurred the enmity of a section of the population. Do I make myself clear? Paul Harley nodded and exchanged a swift glance with me. I formed a rapid mental picture of native life under the governorship of Colonel Juan Menendez, and I began to consider his story from a new viewpoint. Seemingly rendered restless by his reflections, he stood up and began to pace the floor, a tall but curiously graceful figure. I noticed the bulldog tenacity of his chin, the intense pride in his bearing, and I wondered what kind of menace had induced him to seek the aid of Paul Harley. For whatever his failings might be, and I could guess at the nature of several of them, that this thin-lipped Spanish soldier knew the meaning of fear I was not prepared to believe. Before you proceed further, Colonel Menendez, said Harley, might I ask why you left Cuba? Some three years ago, was his reply, because—he hesitated curiously—of health motives, I leased a property in England, believing that here I should find peace. In other words, you were afraid of something or someone in Cuba? Colonel Menendez turned in a flash, glaring down at the speaker. I have never feared any man in my life, Mr. Harley, he said coldly. Then why are you here? The Colonel placed the stump of his first cigarette in an ashtray and lighted that which he had newly made. It is true, he admitted, forgive me. Yet what I said was that I never feared any man. He stood squarely in front of the Burmese cabinet, resting one hand upon his hip. Then he added a remark which surprised me. Do you know anything of Voodoo, he asked? Paul Harley took his pipe from between his teeth and stared at the speaker silently for a moment. Voodoo, he echoed. You mean Negro magic? Exactly. My studies have certainly not embraced it, replied Harley, quietly. Nor has it hitherto come within my experience. But since I have lived much in the East, I am prepared to learn that Voodoo may not be a negligible quantity. There are forces at work in India which we in England improperly understand. The same may be true of Cuba. The same is true of Cuba. Colonel Menendez glared almost fiercely across the room at Paul Harley. And do I understand, asked the latter, that the danger which you believe to threaten you is associated with Cuba? That, Mr. Harley, is for you to decide when all the facts shall be in your possession. Do you wish that I proceed? By all means, I must confess that I am intensely interested. Very well, Mr. Harley, I have something to show you. From an inside breast pocket Colonel Menendez drew out a gold-mounted case, and from the case took some flat, irregularly-shaped object wrapped in a piece of tissue paper. Unfolding the paper he strode across and laid the object which it had contained upon the blotting-pad in front of my friend. Impelled by curiosity I stood up and advanced to inspect it. It was of a dirty brown color, some five or six inches long, and appeared to consist of a kind of membrane. Harley, his elbow on the table, was staring down at it questioningly. What is it, I said, some kind of leaf? No, replied Harley, looking up into the dark face of the Spanish Colonel. I think I know what it is. I also know what it is, declared Colonel Menendez grimly, but tell me what to you it seems like, Mr. Harley. Paul Harley's expression was compounded of incredulity, wonder, and something else, as continuing to stare at the speaker, he replied, It is the wing of a bat. Chapter 2 The Voodoo Swamp Often enough my memory has recaptured that moment in Paul Harley's office, when Harley, myself, and the tall Spaniard, stood, looking down at the bat-wing, lying upon the blotting pad. My brilliant friend at times displayed a sort of prescience, of which I may have occasion to speak later, but I, together with the rest of per-blind humanity, am commonly immune from the prophetic instinct. Therefore I chronicle the fact, for what it may be worth, that, as I gazed with a sort of disgust at the exhibit lying upon the table, I became possessed of a conviction, which had no logical basis, that a door had been opened through which I should step into a new avenue of being. I felt myself to stand upon the threshold of things strange and terrible, but with all alluring. Perhaps it is true that in the great crisis of life the inner eye becomes momentarily opened. With intense curiosity I awaited the Colonel's next words. But a cigarette held nervously between his fingers, he stood staring at Harley, and it was the latter who broke that peculiar silence which had fallen upon us. The wing of a bat, he murmured, and touched it gingerly. Of what kind of bat, Colonel Menendez, surely not a British species? But, emphatically not a British species, replied the Spaniard, yet even so the matter would be strange. I am all anxiety to learn the remainder of your story, Colonel Menendez. Good! Your interest comforts me greatly, Mr. Harley. But when first I came, you led me to suppose that you were departing from London. Such, at the time, was my intention, sir, Paul Harley smiled slightly. Accompanied by my friend, Mr. Knox, I had proposed to indulge in a fortnight's fishing upon the Norfolk broads. Fishing? Yes. A peaceful occupation, Mr. Harley, and a great rest cure for one who, like yourself, moves much amid the fiercer passions of life. You were about to make holiday. Paul Harley nodded. It is cruel of me to intrude upon such plans, continued Colonel Menendez dexterously rolling his cigarette around between his fingers. Yet because of my urgent need I dared to do so. Would you yourself and your friend honor me with your company at craze folly for a few days? I can promise you good entertainment, although I regret that there is no fishing. But it may chance that there will be other more exciting sport. Harley glanced at me significantly. Do I understand you to mean, Colonel Menendez, he asked, that you have reason to believe that this conspiracy directed against you is about to come to a head? Colonel Menendez nodded, at the same time bringing his hand down sharply upon the table. Mr. Harley, he replied, his high, thin voice, sunken almost to a whisper. Wednesday night is the night of the full moon. The full moon? It is at the full moon that the danger comes. Paul Harley stood up and, watched by the Spanish Colonel, paced slowly across the office. At the outer door he paused and turned. Colonel Menendez, he said, that you would willingly waste the time of a busy man I do not for a moment believe. Therefore I shall ask you as briefly as possible to state your case in detail. When I have heard it, if it appears to me that any good purpose can be served by my friend and myself coming to craze folly, I feel sure that he will be happy to accept your proffered hospitality. If I am likely to be of the slightest use I shall be delighted, said I, which indeed was perfectly true. Whilst I had willingly agreed to accompany Harley to Norfolk, I had none of his passion for the piscitorial art, and the promise of novel excitement held out by Colonel Menendez appealed to me more keenly than the lazy days upon the roads which Harley loved. Gentlemen, the Colonel bowed profoundly. I am honored and delighted. When you shall have heard my story, I know what your decision will be. He resumed his seat and began. It seemed almost automatically to roll a fresh cigarette. I am all attention, declared Harley, and his glance straight again in a wondering fashion to the bat-wing lying on his table. I will speak briefly, resumed our visitor, and any details which may seem to you to be important can be discussed later when you are my guests. You must know then that I first became acquainted with the significance belonging to the term bat-wing and to the object itself some twenty years ago. But surely, interrupted Harley incredulously, you are not going to tell me that the menace of which you complain is of twenty years standing. At your express request, Mr. Harley, returned the Colonel a trifle brusquely, I am dealing with possibilities which are remote, because in your own words it is sometimes the remote which proves to be the intimate. It was then rather more than twenty years ago at a time when great political changes were taking place in the West Indies that my business interests which are mainly concerned with sugar carry me to one of the smaller islands which had formerly been under my jurisdiction, do you say? Here I had a house and estate, and here in the past I had experienced much trouble with the natives. I do not disguise from you that I was unpopular, and on my return I met with unmistakable signs of hostility. My native workmen were insubordinate. In fact, it was the reports from my overseers which had led me to visit the island. I made a tour of the place, believing it to be necessary to my interests that I shall get once more in touch with the negro feeling, since I had returned to my home in Cuba after the upheavals in ninety-eight. Very well. The manager of my estate, a capable man, was of opinion that there existed a secret organization amongst the native laborers, operating, you understand, against my interests. He produced certain evidences of these. They were not convincing, and all my inquiries and examinations of certain inhabitants led to no definite results. Yet I grew more and more to feel that enemy surrounded me. He paused to light his third cigarette, and whilst he did so, I conjured up a mental picture of his examinations of certain inhabitants. I recalled hazily those stories of Spanish mismanagement and cruelty which had directly led to United States interferences in the islands. But whilst I could well believe that this man's life had not been safe in those bad old days in the West Indies, I found it difficult to suppose that a native plot against his safety could have survived for more than twenty years and have come to a climax in England. However, I realized that there was more to follow, and presently having lighted his cigarette, the Colonel resumed. In the neighborhood of the Hacienda, which had once been my official residence, there was a belt of low-lying pest country. You understand pest country? Which was a hotbed of poisonous diseases. It followed the winding course of a nearly stagnant creek. From the earliest times the black belt, it was so-called, had been avoided by European inhabitants, and indeed by the colored population as well. Apart from the malaria of the swampy ground, it was infested with reptiles and with poisonous insects of a greater variety and of a more venomous character than I have ever known in any part of the world. I must explain that what I regarded as a weak point in my manager's theory was this. Whilst he held that the native laborers to a man were linked together under some head or guiding influence, he had never succeeded in surprising anything in the nature of a negro meeting. Indeed, he had prohibited all gatherings of this kind. His answer to my criticism was a curious one. He declared that the members of this mysterious society met and received their instructions at some place within the poison area to which I have referred, believing themselves there to be safe from European interference. For a long time I disputed these with poor Valera, for such was my manager's name. When one night I was dismounting from my horse before the veranda, having returned from a long ride around the estate, a shot was fired from the border of the black belt which at one point crept up dangerously close to the Hacienda. The shot was a good one. I had caught my spur in the stirrup in dismounting and stumbled. Otherwise I must have been a dead man. The bullet pierced the crown of my hat, only missing my skull by an inch or less. The alarm was given, but no search party could be mustered, do you say, which was prepared to explore the poison swamp, or so declared my native servants. Valera, however, seized upon this incident to illustrate his theory that there were those in the island who did not hesitate to enter the black belt, popularly supposed to cast up noxious vapours at dusk of a sort fatal to any traveller. That night, over our wine, we discussed the situation, and he pointed out to me that now was the hour to test his theory. Orders had evidently been given for my assassination and the attempt had failed. There will be a meeting, said Valera, to discuss the next move, and it will take place tomorrow night. I challenged him with a glance and I replied, Tomorrow night is a full moon, and if you are agreeable we will make a secret expedition into the swamp and endeavour to find the clearing which you say is there, and which you believe to be the rendezvous of the conspirators. Even in the light of the lamp I saw Valera turn pale, but he was a Spaniard and a man of courage. I agree, Senor, he replied, if my information is correct we shall find a way. I must explain that the information to which he referred had been supplied by a native girl who loved him, that this clearing was a meeting place she had denied, but she had admitted that it was possible to obtain access to it and had even described the path. He paused. She died of a lingering sickness. Colonel Menendez spoke these last words with great deliberation and treated each of us to a long and significant stare. Presently, he added, I will tell you what was nailed to the wall of her hut on the night that she fell ill, or to continue my narrative. On the following evening, suitably equipped, Valera and myself set out, leaving by a side door and striking into the woods at a point east of the Hacienda, where, according to his information, a food path existed, which would lead us to the clearing we desired to visit. Of that journey, gentlemen, I have most terrible memories. Imagine a dense and poisonous jungle, carpeted by rotten vegetation in which one's feet sank deeply and from which arose a visible and stenching vapor. Imagine living things, slimy things, moving beneath the tread, sometimes coiling about our riding boots, sometimes making hissing sounds. Imagine places where the path was overgrown and we must thrust our way through bushes where great bloated spiders weaved their webs, where clammy night things touched us as we passed, where unfamiliar and venomous insects clung to our garments. We proceeded onward for more than half an hour guided by the moonlight, but this, although tropically brilliant, at some places scarcely penetrated the thick vapor which arose from the jungle. In those days I was a young and vigorous man, my companion was several years my senior, and his sufferings were far greater than my own. But if the jungle was horrible, worse was yet to come. Presently we stumbled upon an open space almost quite bare of vegetation, a poisonous green carpet spread in the heart of the woods. Here the vapor was more dense than ever, and I welcomed the sight of open ground after the reptile infested ticket. Alas, it was a snare, a death trap, a sort of morass in which we sank up to our knees. Bah, it was filthy, vile, and I became aware of great lassitude, do you say, whilst Valera's panting breath told me he had almost reached the end of his resources. A faint breeze moved through the clearing, and for a few moments we were unable to perceive one another distinctly. I uttered an exclamation of horror. My companion's garments were a mass of strange-looking patches. Even as I noticed them I glanced rapidly down, and found myself in similar condition. As I did so, one of these patches upon the sleeve of my tunic intruded coldly upon my bare wrist. At that I cried out aloud in fear. Valera and I commenced what was literally a fight for life. Gentlemen, we were attacked by some kind of blurred red leeches, which came out of the slime. In detaching them one detached patches of skin, and they swarmed over our bodies like ants upon carrion. They penetrated beneath our garments these swollen lusts for unclean things, and it was whilst we staggered on through the swamp in agony of mind and body that we saw the light of many torches amid the trees ahead of us, and in their smoky glare witnessed the flight of hundreds of bats. The moonlight creeping dimly through the mist, and the torchlight, how do you say, inflaming the vegetation, created a scene like that of inferno, in which naked figures danced wildly, ottering animal cries. Above the shrieking and howling, which rose and fell in our sort of unholy chorus, I heard one long wailing sound, repeated and repeated. It was an African word, but I knew its meaning. It was Batwing. My doubts were dispersed. This was a meeting place of devil-worshipers or devotees of the cult of Voodoo. One man only could I see clearly so as to remember him, a big negro employed upon one of my estates. He seemed to be a sort of high priest or president of the orgies, attached to his arms with giant imitations of batwings which he moved grotesquely as if in flight. There were many women in the throng which I numbered fully, I should think, a hundred people. But the final collapse of my brave unhappy valera at this point brought home to me the nature of the peril in which I stood. He lay at my feet, moving convulsively and sinking ever deeper in the swamp, red leeches moving slowly, slowly over his fast-disappearing body. Colonel Menendez paused in his appalling narrative and wiped his moist forehead with a silk handkerchief. Neither Harley nor I spoke. I knew not if my friend believed the Spaniard's story. For my own part I found it difficult to do so. But that the narrator was deeply moved was a fact beyond dispute. He suddenly commenced again. My next recollection is of awakening in my own bed at the Hacienda. I had staggered back as far as the veranda in raving delirium and in the grip of a strange fever which prostrated me for many months and which defied the knowledge of all the specialists who could be procured from Cuba and the United States. My survivor was due to an iron constitution, but I have never been the same man. I was ordered to leave the West Indies directly if became possible for me to be moved. I ranged from my affairs accordingly and did not return for many years. Finally, however, I again took up my residence in Cuba and for a time all went well and might have continued to do so, but for the following incident. One night, being troubled by insomnia, sleeplessness, and the heat, I walked out onto the balcony in front of my bedroom window. As I did so, a figure which had been, you say, lurking somewhere under the veranda ran swiftly off, but not so swiftly that I failed to obtain a glimpse of the uplifted face. It was the big negro, although many years have elapsed since I had seen him wearing the bat wings on those unholy rites I knew him instantly. On a little table close behind me where I stood lay a loaded revolver. I snatched it in a flash and fired shot after shot at the retreating figure. Colonel Menendez shrugged his shoulders and selected a fresh cigarette paper. Gentlemen, he continued, from that moment on to this I have gone in hourly peril of my life. Whether I hit my man or missed him I have never known to this day. If he lives or is dead I cannot say. But, he paused impressively, I have told you of something that was nil to the heart of a certain native girl. Before she died I knew that it was a death token. On the morning after the episode which I have just related attached to the main door of the Hacienda was found that same token. And it was, said Harley eagerly, it was the wing of a bat. I am perhaps a hasty man. It is my blood. I tore the unclean thing from the panel and stamped it under my feet. No one of the servants who had drawn my attention to its presence would consent to touch it. Indeed, they all shrank for me as though I too were unclean. I endeavored to forget it. Who was I to be influenced by the threats of natives? That night just at the hour of sunset a shot was fired at me from a neighboring clump of trees, only missing me I think by the fraction of an inch. I realized that the peril was real and was one against which I could not fight. Permit me to be brief, gentlemen. Seek's attempts of various kinds were made upon my life in Cuba. I crossed to the United States. In Washington, the political capital of the country, an assassin gained access to my hotel apartment, and but for the fact that a friend chanced to call me up on the telephone at that late hour of the night, thereby awakening me, I should have received a knife in my heart. I saw the knife in the dim light. I saw the shadowy figure. I leapt out on the opposite side of the bed, seized a table lamp which stood there, and hurled it at my assailant. There was a crash, a stifled exclamation, shuffling, the door opened, and my would-be assassin was gone. But I had learned something, and to my old fears a new one was added. What had you learned? asked Harley, whose interest in the narrative was displayed by the fact that his pipe had long since gone out. Vaguely, vaguely you understand, for there was little light, I had seen the face of the man. He wore some kind of black cloak doubtless to conceal his movements. His silhouette resembled that of a bat. But, gentlemen, he was neither a negro nor even a half-caste. He was of the white races. To that I could swear. Colonel Menendez lighted the cigarette which he had been busily rolling, and fixed his dark eyes upon Harley. You puzzle me, sir, said the latter. Do you wish me to believe that this cult of voodoo claims European or American devotees? I wish you to believe, returned the Colonel, that, although as the result of the alarm which I gave, the hotel was searched and the Washington police exerted themselves to the utmost, no trace was ever found of the man who had tried to murder me. Except, he extended a long yellow forefinger and pointed to the wing of the bat lying upon Harley's table. A bat wing was found peen to my bedroom door. Silence fell for a while, an impressive silence. Truly this was the strangest story to which I had ever listened. How long ago was that? asked Harley. Only two years ago. At about the time that the Great War terminated. I came to Europe and believed that at last I had found security. I lived for a time in London, amidst a refreshing peace that was new to me. Then, chanceing to hear of a property in Surrey which was available, I leased it for a period of years. Installing, is it correct, my cousin, Madame de Stemmer, as housekeeper. Madame, alas, is an invalid. But, he kissed his fingers, a genius. She has with her, as companion, a very charming English girl, Miss Val Beverly, the orphaned daughter of a distinguished surgeon of Edinburgh. Miss Beverly was with my cousin in the hospital which she established in France during the war. If you will honour me with your presence at craze, folly, to-morrow, gentlemen, you will not lack congenial company, I can assure you. He raised his heavy eyebrows, looking interrogatively from Harley to myself. For my own part, said my friend slowly, I shall be delighted. What do you say, Knox? I also. But, continued Harley, your presence here today, Colonel Menendez, suggests to my mind that England has not proved so safe a haven as you had anticipated. Colonel Menendez crossed the room and stood once more before the Burmese cabinet, one hand resting upon his hip, a massive, yet graceful figure. Mr. Harley, he replied, four days ago my butler, who is a Spaniard, brought me, he pointed to the bat-wing lying upon the blotting pad. He had found it peen to an oaken panel of the main entrance door. Was it prior to this discovery, or after it, asked Harley, that you detected the presence of someone lurking in the neighbourhood of the house? Before it. And the burglarius entrance? That took place rather less than a month ago, on the eve of the full moon. Paul Harley stood up and relighted his pipe. There are quite a number of other details, Colonel, he said, which I shall require you to place in my possession. Since I have determined to visit Craves Folly, these can wait until my arrival. I particularly refer to a remark concerning a neighbour of yours in Surrey. Colonel Menendez nodded, twirling his cigarette between his long yellow fingers. It is a delicate matter, gentlemen, he confessed. I must take time to consider how I shall place it before you. But I may count upon your arrival to-morrow. Certainly, I am looking forward to the visit with keen interest. It is important, declared our visitor, for on Wednesday is the full moon, and the full moon is in some way associated with the sacrificial rites of Voodoo. Chapter 3 The Vampire Bat An hour had elapsed since the departure of our visitor, and Paul Harley and I sat in the cozy, book-line study discussing the strange story which had been related to us. Harley, who had a friend attached to the Spanish Embassy, had succeeded in getting in touch with him at his chambers, and had obtained some few particulars of interest concerning Colonel Don Juan Sarmiento Menendez, for such were the full names and titles of our late caller. He was apparently the last representative of a once great Spanish family, established for many generations in Cuba. His wealth was incalculable, although the value of his numerous estates had depreciated in recent years. His family had produced many men of subtle intellect and powerful administrative qualities, but allied to this they had all possessed traits of cruelty and debauchery, which at one time had made the name of Menendez a byword in the West Indies. That there were many people in that part of the world who would gladly have assassinated the Colonel, Paul Harley's informant did not deny. But, although this information somewhat enlarged our knowledge of my friend's newest client, it threw no fresh light upon that side of his story which related to Voodoo and the extraordinary Batwing episodes. Of course, said Harley after a long silence, there is one possibility of which we must not lose sight. What possibility is that, I asked? That Menendez may be mad. Remorse for crimes of cruelty committed in his youth, and beyond doubt he has been guilty of many, may have led to a sort of obsession. I have known such cases. That was my first impression, I confessed, but it faded somewhat as the Colonel's story proceeded. I don't think any such explanation would cover the facts. Neither do I, agreed my friend, but it is distinctly possible that such an obsession exists and that someone is deliberately playing upon it for his own ends. You mean that someone who knows of these episodes in the earlier life of Menendez is employing them now for a secret purpose of his own? Exactly. It renders the case nonetheless interesting. I quite agree, Knox. With you, I believe, that even if the Colonel is not quite sane, at the same time his fears are by no means imaginary. He gingerly took up the Batwing from the arm of his chair where he had placed it after a detailed examination. It seems to be pretty certain, he said, that this thing is the wing of a dysmodus or vampire bat. Now, according to our authority, he touched a work which lay open on the other arm of his chair, these are natives of tropical America, therefore the presence of a living vampire bat in Surrey is not to be anticipated. I am personally satisfied, however, that this unpleasant fragment has been preserved in some way. You mean that it is a part of a specimen from someone's collection? Quite possibly, but even a collection of such bats would be quite a novelty. I don't know that I can collect one outside the museums. To follow this Batwing business further, there was one very curious point in the Colonel's narrative. You recollect his reference to a native girl who had betrayed certain information to the manager of the estate? I nodded rapidly. A Batwing was affixed to the wall of her hut and she died, according to our informant, of a lingering sickness. Now, this lingering sickness might have been anemia, and anemia may be induced, either in man or beast, by frequent but unsuspected visits of a vampire bat. Good heavens, Harley! I exclaimed, what a horrible idea! It is a horrible idea, but in countries infested by these creatures such things happen occasionally. I distinctly recollect a story which I once heard of a little girl in some district of tropical America falling into such a decline, from which she was only rescued in the nick of time by the discovery that one of these vampire bats, a particularly large one, had formed the habit of flying into her room at night and attaching itself to her bare arm which lay outside the coverlet. How did it penetrate the mosquito-curtains, I inquired incredulously? The very point knocks which led to the discovery of the truth. The thing, exhibiting a sort of uncanny intelligence, used to work its way up under the edge of the netting. This disturbance of the curtains was noticed on several occasions by the nurse who occupied an adjoining room and finally led to the detection of the bat. But surely, I said, such a visitation would awaken any sleeper. On the contrary, it induces deeper sleep, but I have not yet come to my point, knocks. The vengeance of the High Priest of Voodoo, who figured in the Colonel's narrative, was characteristic in the case of the native woman, since her symptoms at least simulated those which would result from the visits of a vampire bat, although of course they may have been due to a slow poison. But you will not have failed to note that the several attacks upon the Colonel personally were made with more ordinary weapons. On two occasions at least a rifle was employed. Yes, I replied slowly. You are wondering why the lingering sickness did not visit him. I am, knocks. I can only suppose that he proved to be immune. You recall his statement that he made an almost miraculous recovery from the fever which attacked him after his visit to the Black Belt? This would seem to point to the fact that he possesses that rare type of constitution which almost defies organisms deadly to ordinary men. I see, hence the dagger and the rifle, so it would appear. But Harley, I cried, what appalling crime can the man have committed to call down upon his head of vengeance which has survived for so many years? Paul Harley shrugged his shoulders in a whimsical limitation of the Spaniard. I doubt if the few dates any earlier, he replied, than the time of Menendez's last return to Cuba. On that occasion he evidently killed the High Priest of Voodoo. I uttered an exclaim of scorn. My dear Harley, I said, the whole thing is too utterly fantastic. I begin to believe again that we are dealing with a madman. Harley glanced down at the wing of the bat. We shall see, he murmured, even if the only result of our visit is to make the acquaintance of the Colonel's household our time will not have been wasted. No, said I, that is true enough. I am looking forward to meeting Madame de Stemmer, the Colonel's invalid cousin, added Harley tonelessly, and her companion, Miss Beverly. Quite so. Nor must we forget the Spanish butler and the Colonel himself, whose acquaintance I am extremely anxious to renew. The whole thing is wildly bizarre, Harley. My dear Knox, he replied, stretching himself luxuriously in the long lounge chair. The most commonplace life hovers on the edge of the bizarre, but those of us who overstep the border become preposterous in the eyes of those who have never done so. This is not because the unusual is necessarily the untrue, but because writers of fiction have claimed the unusual as their particular province, and in doing so have divorced it from fact in the public eye. Thus I, myself, am a myth, and so are you, Knox. He raised his hand and pointed to the doorway communicating with the office. We owe our mythological existence to that American genius whose portrait hangs beside the Burmese cabinet and who indiscreetly created the character of C. Auguste Dupin. The doings of this amateur investigator were chronicled by an admirer, you may remember, since when no private detective has been allowed to exist outside the pages of fiction, my most trivial habits confirm my unreality. For instance, I have a friend who is good enough sometimes to record my movements, so had Dupin. I smoke a pipe, so did Dupin. I investigate crime, and I am sometimes successful. Here I differ from Dupin. Dupin was always successful. But my argument is this. You complain that the life of Colonel Don Juan Sarmiento Menendez, on his own showing, has been at least as romantic as his name. It would not be accounted romantic by the adventurous Knox. It is only romantic to the prosaic mind. In the same way his name is only unusual to our English ears. In Spain it would pass unnoticed. I see your point, I said grudgingly. But think of Voodoo in the Surrey Hills. I am thinking of it, Knox, and it affords me much delight to think of it. You have placed your finger upon the very point I was endeavouring to make. Voodoo in the Surrey Hills. Quite so. Voodoo in some island of the Caribbean seas, yes, but Voodoo in the Surrey Hills, no. Yet, my dear fellow, there is a regular steamer service between South America and England, or one may embark at Liverpool and disembark in the Spanish Maine. Why, then, may not one embark in the West Indies and disembark at Liverpool? This granted, and you also grant that from Liverpool to Surrey is a feasible journey. Why, then, should you exclaim, But Voodoo in the Surrey Hills, you would be surprised to meet an Eskimo in the Strand, but there is no reason why an Eskimo should not visit the Strand. In short, the most annoying thing about fact is its resemblance to fiction. I am looking forward to the day, Knox, when I can retire from my present fictitious profession and become a recognised member of the community, such as a press agent, a theatrical manager, or some other dealer, in fact. He burst out laughing and, reaching over to a side-table, refilled my glass and his own. There lies the wing of a vampire bat, he said, pointing, in Chancery Lane. It is impossible, yet, he raised his glass. Pussyfoot Johnson has visited Scotland, the home of Whiskey. We were silent for a while whilst I considered his remarks. The conclusion to which I have come, declared Harley, is that nothing is so strange as the commonplace. A rod in line, a boat, a luncheon hamper, a jar of good ale, and the peculiar peace of a Norfolk River. These joys I willingly curtail in favour of the unknown things which await us at Craze Folly. Remember, Knox, he stared at me queerly. Wednesday is the night of the full moon. End of part one. Part two of Batwing, by Sax Romer, read by Mark Nelson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Batwing, Chapter Four, Craze Folly. Paul Harley lay back upon the cushions and glanced at me with a quizzical smile. The big, up-to-date car which Colonel Menendez had placed at our disposal was surmounting a steep, surrey lane as though no gradient had existed. Some engine, he said approvingly. I nodded in agreement but felt disinclined for conversation, being absorbed in watching the characteristically English scenery. This indeed was very beautiful. The lane along which we were speeding was narrow, winding, and overarched by trees. Here and there sunlight penetrated to spread a golden carpet before us, but for the most part the way lay in cool and grateful shadow. On one side a wooded slope hemmed us in blackly, on the other lay dell after dell down into the cradle of the valley. It was a poetic corner of England, and I thought it almost unbelievable that London was only some twenty miles behind. A fit place this for elves and fairies to survive, a spot in which the presence of a modern automobile seemed a desecration. Higher we mounted and higher, the engine running strongly and smoothly. Then presently we were out upon a narrow open road with a crescent of the hills sweeping away on the right and dense woods dipping valleyward to the left and behind us. The chauffeur turned and, meeting my glance, crazed folly, sir, he said. He jerked his hand in the direction of a square, gray stone tower, somewhat resembling a campanile, which uproads from a distant clump of woods cresting a greater eminence. Ah, murmured Harley, the famous tower! Following the departure of the Colonel on the previous evening he had looked up crazed folly and had found it to be one of a series of houses erected by the eccentric and wealthy man whose name it bore. He had had a mania for building houses with towers, in which his rival, and contemporary, had been William Beckford, the author of Vathic, a work which for some obscure reason has survived as well as two of the three towers erected by its rider. I became conscious of a keen sense of anticipation. In this, I think, the figure of Miss Val Berkeley played a leading part. There was something pathetic in the presence of this lonely English girl in so singular a household, for if the manage at crazed folly should prove half so strange as Colonel Menendez had led us to believe, then truly we were about to find ourselves amid unusual people. Presently the road inclined southward somewhat and we entered the fringe of the trees. I noticed one or two very ancient cottages, but no trace of the modern builder. This was a fragment of real old England, and I was not sorry when presently we'd lost sight of the square tower, for amid such scenery it was an anomaly and a rebuke. What Paul Harley's thoughts may have been, I cannot say, but he preserved an unbroken silence up to the very moment that we came to the gate lodge. The gates were monstrosities of elaborate iron scrollwork, craftsmanship clever enough in its way, but of an ornate kind more in keeping with the orange trees of the south than with this wooded Surrey countryside. A very surly-looking girl, quite obviously un-English, a daughter of Pedro the butler I learned later, opened the gates and we entered upon a winding drive literally tunneled through the trees. Of the house we had never a glimpse until we were right under its walls, nor should I have known that we were come to the main entrance if the car had not stopped. Looks like a monastery, muttered Harley. Indeed, that part of the building, the North Front, which was visible from this point, had a strangely monastic appearance, being built of solid gray blocks and boasting only a few small heavily barred windows. The eccentricity of the Victorian gentleman who had expended thousands of pounds upon erecting this house was only equalled, I thought, by that of Colonel Menendez, who had chosen it for a home. An out-judding wing shut us in on the west, and to the east the prospect was closed by the tallest and most densely grown box-edge I had ever seen, trimmed most perfectly and having an arched opening in the center. Thus the entrance to Craze Folly lay in a sort of bay. But even as we stepped from the car the great church-like oaken doors were thrown open. There, framed in the monk's porch, stood the tall, elegant figure of the Colonel. Gentlemen, he cried, Welcome to Craze Folly! He advanced, smiling, and in the bright sunlight seemed even more Mephistophelian than he had seemed in Harley's office. Pedro, he called, and a strange-looking Spanish butler who wore his side-whiskers like a bullfighter, appeared behind his master, a sallow, furtive fellow with whom I determined I should never feel at ease. However the Colonel greeted us heartily enough and conducted us through a kind of paved, covered courtyard into a great lofty hall. Indeed, it more closely resembled a studio, being partly lighted by a most curious dome. It was furnished in a manner quite un-English, but very luxuriously. A magnificent oaken staircase communicated with a gallery on the left and at the foot of this staircase in a mechanical chair which he managed with astonishing dexterity sat Madame Distammer. She had snow-white hair crowning the face of a comparatively young woman, and large, dark brown eyes which reminded me strangely of the eyes of some animal, although in the first moment of meeting I could not identify the resemblance. Her hands were very slender and beautiful, and when, as the Colonel presented us, she extended her fingers, I was not surprised to see Harley stoop and kiss them in continental fashion, for this Madame evidently expected. I followed suit, but truth to tell, after that first glance at the masterful figure in the invalid chair, I had had no eyes for Madame Distammer, being fully employed in gazing at someone who stood beside her. This was an evasively pretty girl, or such was my first impression. That is to say, that whilst her attractiveness was beyond dispute, analysis of her small features failed to detect from which particular quality this charm was derived. The contour of her face certainly formed a delightful oval, and there was a wistful look in her eyes which was half appealing and half impish. Her demure expression was not convincing, and there rested a vague smile, or promise of a smile, upon lips which were perfectly molded, and indeed the only strictly regular feature of a nevertheless bewitching face. She had slightly curling hair and the line of her neck and shoulder was most graceful and charming. Of one thing I was sure. She was glad to see visitors at Craze Folly. And now, gentlemen, said Colonel Menendez, having presented you to Madame, my cousin, permit me to present to you Miss Val Beverly, my cousin's companion, and our very dear friend. The girl bowed in a formal English fashion which contrasted sharply with the continental manner of Madame. Her face flushed slightly, and as I met her glance she lowered her eyes. Now, Mr. Harley and Monsieur Knox, said Madame vivaciously, you are quite at home. Pedro will show you to your rooms, and Longch will be ready in half an hour. She waved her white hand coquettishly, and, ignoring the proffered aid of Miss Beverly, wheeled her chair away at a great rate under a sort of arch on the right of the hall, which communicated with the domestic offices of the establishment. Is she not wonderful? exclaimed Colonel Menendez, taking Harley's left arm in my right, and guiding us upstairs, followed by Pedro and the chauffeur, the latter carrying our grips. Many women would be prostrated by such an affliction, but she—he shrugged his shoulders. Harley and I had been placed in adjoining rooms. I had never seen such rooms as those in Craze Folly. The place contained enough oak to have driven a modern builder crazy. Oak had simply been lavished upon it. My own room, which was almost directly above the box hedge to which I have referred, had a beautiful carved ceiling and a floor as highly polished as that of a ballroom. It was tastefully furnished, but the foreign note was perceptible everywhere. We have here some grand prospects, said the Colonel, and truly enough the view from the great high wide window was a very fine one. I perceived that the grounds of Craze Folly were extensive and carefully cultivated. I had a glimpse of a Tudor sunken garden, but the best view of this was from the window of Harley's room, which, because it was the end room on the north front, overlooked another part of the grounds, and offered a prospect of the east lawns and distant parkland. When presently Colonel Menendez and I accompanied my friend, there I was, charmed by the picturesque scene below. There was a real old herbal garden, gay with flowers and intersected by tiled moss-grown paths. There were bushes exhibiting fantastic examples of the topiary art, and here too was a sundial. My first impression of this beautiful spot was one of delight. Later I was to regard that enchanted domain with something akin to horror. But as we stood there watching a gardener clipping the bushes, I thought that, although Craze Folly might be a judged ugly, its grounds were delightful. Suddenly Harley turned to our host. Where is the famous tower, he inquired? It is not visible from the front of the house nor from the drive. No, no! replied the Colonel. It is right out at the end of the east wing, which is disused. I keep it locked up. There are four rooms in the tower, and a staircase, of course, but it is inconvenient. I cannot imagine why it was built. The architect may have had some definite object in view, said Harley, or it may have been merely a freak of his client. Is there anything characteristic about the topmost room, for instance? Colonel Menendez shrugged his massive shoulders. Nothing, he replied. It is the same as the others below, except there is a stair leading to a gallery on the roof. Presently I will take you up, if you wish. I should be interested, murmured Harley, and tactfully changed the subject, which evidently was not altogether pleasing to our host. I concluded that he had found the east wing of the house something of a white elephant, and was accordingly sensitive upon the point. Presently then he left us, and I returned to my own room, but before long I rejoined Harley. I did not knock but entered unceremoniously. Hello! I exclaimed. What have you seen? He was standing, staring out of the window, nor did he turn as I entered. What is it, I said, joining him? He glanced at me oddly. An impression, he replied. But it has gone now. I understand, I said quietly. Familiarity with crime in many guises and under many skies had developed in Paul Harley a sort of sixth sense. It was a fugitive fickle thing, as are all the powers which belong to the realm of genius or inspiration. Often enough it failed him entirely, he had assured me, that odd, sudden chill, as of an abrupt lowering of the temperature, which I understood often advised him of the nearness of enmity actively malignant. Now standing at the window, looking down at that old world garden, he was sensing the atmosphere keenly, seeking for the note of danger. It was sheer intuition, perhaps, but whilst he could never rely upon it answering his summons, once active, it never misled him. You think some real menace overhangs, Colonel Menendez? I am sure of it, he stared into my face. There is something very, very strange about this bat-wing business. Do you still incline to the idea that he has been followed to England? Paul Harley reflected for a moment, then... That explanation would be almost too simple, he said. There is something bizarre, something unclean, I had almost said unholy at work in this house, Knox. He has foreign servants. Harley shook his head. I shall make it my business to become acquainted with all of them, he replied. But the danger does not come from there. Let's go down to lunch. Chapter 5 Val Beverly The luncheon was so good as to be almost ostentatious. One could not have lunched better at the Carlton, yet, since this luxurious living was evidently customary in the Colonel's household, a charge of ostentation would not have been deserved. The sinister-looking Pedro proved to be an excellent servant, and because of the excitement of feeling myself to stand upon the edge of unusual things, the enjoyment of a perfectly served repast, and the sheer delight which I experienced in watching the play of expression upon the face of Miss Beverly, I count that luncheon at Craze Folly a memorable hour of my life. Frankly, Val Beverly puzzled me. It may or may not have been curious that amidst such singular company I selected for my a special study a girl so freshly and typically English. I had thought, at the moment of meeting her, that she was provokingly pretty. I determined, as the lunch proceeded, that she was beautiful. Once I caught Harley smining at me in his quizzical fashion, and I wondered, guiltily, if I were displaying an undue interest in the companion of Madame. Many topics were discussed, I remember, and beyond doubt the Colonel's cousin housekeeper dominated the debate. She possessed extraordinary force of personality. Her English was not nearly so fluent as that spoken by the Colonel, but this handicap only served to emphasize the masculine strength of her intellect. Truly she was a remarkable woman. With her blanched hair and her young face and those fine, velvety eyes which possessed a quality almost hypnotic, she might have posed for the figure of a sorceress. She had unfamiliar gestures and employed her long white hands in a manner that was new to me and utterly strange. I could detect no family resemblance between the cousins, and I wondered if their kinship were very distant. One thing was evident enough, Madame de Stemmer was devoted to the Colonel. Her expression when she looked at him changed entirely. For a woman of such intense vitality her eyes were uncannily still. This is to say that while she frequently moved her head she rarely moved her eyes. Again and again I found myself wondering where I had seen such eyes before. I lived to identify that memory as I shall presently relate. In vain I endeavored to define the relationship between these three people, so incongruously set beneath one roof. Of the fact that Miss Beverly was not happy I became assured, but respecting her exact position in the household I was reduced to surmises. The Colonel improved on acquaintance. I decided that he belonged to an order of Spanish grandees now almost extinct. I believed he would have made a very staunch friend. I felt sure he would have proved a most implacable enemy. All together it was a memorable meal, and one notable result of that brief companionship was a kind of link of understanding between myself and Miss Beverly. Once, when I had been studying Madame de Stemmer, and again as I removed my glance from the dark face of Colonel Menendez I detected the girl watching me, and her eyes said, You understand, so do I. Some things perhaps I did understand, but how few the near future was to show. The signal for our departure from table was given by Madame de Stemmer. She whisked her chair back with extraordinary rapidity, the contrast between her swift, nervous movements and those still, baseless guys being almost uncanny. Off you go, Juan, she said. Your visitors would like to see the garden, no doubt. I must be away for my afternoon siesta. Come, my dear, to the girl. Smoke one ditto cigarette with me, then I will let you go. She retired, wheeling herself rapidly out of the room, and my glance lingered upon the graceful figure of Val Beverly until both she and Madame were out of sight. Now, gentlemen, said the Colonel, resuming his seat and pushing the decanter toward Paul Harley, I hem at your service, either for business or amusement. To think, to Harley, you expressed a desire to see the tower. I did, my friend replied, lighting his cigar, but only if it would amuse you to show me. Decidedly, Mr. Knox, will you join us? Harley, unseen by the Colonel, glanced at me in a way which I knew. Thanks all the same, I said, smiling, but, following a perfect luncheon, I should much prefer to lull upon the lawn, if you don't mind. But, certainly, I do not mind, cried the Colonel, I wish you to be happy. Join you in a few minutes, Knox, said Harley, as he went out with our host. All right, I replied, I should like to take a stroll around the gardens. You will join me there later, no doubt? As I walked out into the bright sunshine, I wondered why Paul Harley had wished to be left alone with Colonel Menendez, but knowing that I should learn his motive later, I strolled on through the gardens, my mind filled with speculations respecting these unusual people with whom fate had brought me in contact. I felt that Miss Beverly needed protection of some kind, and I was conscious of a keen desire to afford her that protection. In her glance I had read, or thought I had read, an appeal for sympathy. Not the least mystery of craze, Folly, was the presence of this girl, only toward the end of luncheon had I made up my mind upon a point which had been puzzling me. Val Beverly's gaity was a cloak. Once I had detected her watching Madame de Stemmer with a look strangely like that of fear. Puffing contentedly at my cigar, I proceeded to make a tour of the house. It was constructed irregularly. Practically the entire building was of gray stone, which created a depressing effect even in the blazing sunlight, lending craze Folly something of an austere aspect. They were fine lofty windows, however, to most of the ground floor rooms overlooking the lawns, and some of those above had balconies of the same gray stone. Quite an extensive kitchen garden and a line of glass houses adjoined the west wing, and here were outbuildings, coachhouses, and a garage, all connected by a covered passage with the servants' quarters. Pursuing my inquiries I proceeded to the north front of the building, which was closely hemmed in by trees, and which, as we had observed on our arrival, resembled the entrance to a monastery. Passing the massive oaken door by which we had entered and which was now closed again, I walked on through the opening in the box hedge into a part of the grounds which was not so sprucely groomed as the rest. On one side were the ewes flanking the Tudor garden, and before me uproads the famous tower. As I stared up at the square structure with its uncurtained windows, I wondered, as others had wondered before me, what could have ever possessed any man to build it. Visible at points for many miles around, it undoubtedly disfigured an otherwise beautiful landscape. I pressed on, noting that the windows of the rooms in the east wing were shuttered, and the apartments evidently disused. I came to the base of the tower. To the south the country rose up to the highest point in the crescent of hills, and peeping above the trees at no great distance away I detected the red brick chimneys of some old house in the woods. North and east Velvet Swartz wept down to the park. As I stood there admiring the prospect and telling myself that no voodoo devoury could find a home in this peaceful English countryside, I detected a faint sound of voices far above. Someone had evidently come out upon the gallery of the tower. I looked upward, but I could not see the speakers. I pursued my stroll until near the eastern base of the tower I encountered a perfect thicket of rotodendrons. Finding no path through this shrubbery I retraced my steps, presently entering the Tudor Garden, and there strolling toward me a book in her hand was Miss Beverly. Hello, Mr. Knox, she called. I thought you had gone up the tower. No, I replied, laughing, I lacked the energy. Do you, she said softly, then sit down and talk to me. She dropped down upon a grassy bank looking up at me invitingly, and I accepted the invitation without demure. I love this old garden, she declared, although, of course, it is really no older than the rest of the place. I always think there should be Peacocks, though. Yes, I agreed, Peacocks would be appropriate. And little pages dressed in yellow velvet. She met my glance soberly for a moment and then burst into a peel of merry laughter. Do you know, Miss Beverly, I said, watching her, I find it hard to place you in the household of the Colonel. Yes, she said simply, you must. Oh, then you realize that you are out of place here? Quite. Of course I am. She smiled, shook her head, and changed the subject. I'm so glad Mr. Paul Harley has come down, she confessed. You know my friend by name, then? Yes, she replied. Someone I met in niece spoke of him, and I know he is very clever. In niece, did you live in niece before you came here? Val Beverly nodded slowly, and her glance grew oddly retrospective. I lived for over a year with Madame Distemmer in a little villa on the promenade des Anglais, she replied. That was after Madame was injured. She sustained her injuries during the war, I understand. Yes, poor Madame. The hospital of which she was in charge was bombed and the shock left her as you see her. I was there too, but I luckily escaped without injury. What, you were there? Yes, that was where I first met Madame Distemmer. She used to be very wealthy, you see, and she established this hospital in France at her own expense, and I was one of her assistants for a time. She lost both her husband and her fortune in the war, and as if that were not bad enough, lost the use of her limbs too. Poor woman, I said. I had no idea her life had been so tragic. She has wonderful courage. Courage, exclaimed the girl, if you knew all that I know about her. Her face grew sweetly animated as she bent toward me excitedly and confidentially. Really, she is simply wonderful. I learned to respect her in those days as I have never respected any other woman in the world, and when, after all her splendid work, she, so vital and active, was stricken down like that, I felt that I simply could not leave her, especially as she asked me to stay. So you went with her to Nice? Yes, then the Colonel took this house and we came here. But... she hesitated and glanced at me curiously. Perhaps you are not quite happy? No, she said. I am not. You see, it was different in France. I knew so many people. But here at Craze Folly it is so lonely, and Madame is... again she hesitated. Yes. Well, she laughed in an embarrassed fashion. I'm afraid of her at times. In what way? Oh, in a silly, womanish sort of way. Of course she is a wonderful manager. She rules the house with a rod of iron. But really, I haven't anything to do here, and I feel frightly out of place sometimes. Then the Colonel... oh, but what am I talking about? Won't you tell me what it is that the Colonel fears? You know that he fears something, then. Of course, that is why Paul Harley is here. A change came over the girl's face, a look almost of dread. I wish I knew what it all meant. You are aware, then, that there is something wrong? Naturally I am. Sometimes I have been so frightened that I have made up my mind to leave the very next day. You mean that you have been frightened at night, I asked with curiosity. Dreadfully frightened. Won't you tell me in what way? She looked up at me swiftly, then turned her head aside and bit her lip. No, not now, she replied. I can't very well. Then at least tell me why you stayed. Well, she smiled rather pathetically. For one thing, I haven't anywhere else to go. Have you no friends in England? She shook her head. No, there was only poor daddy, and he died over two years ago. That was when I went to Nice. Poor little girl, I said, and the words were spoken before I realized their undue familiarity. An apology was on the tip of my tongue, but Miss Beverly did not seem to have noticed the indiscretion. Indeed, my sympathy was sincere, and I think she had appreciated the fact. She looked up again with a bright smile. Why are we talking about such depressing things on this simply heavenly day?" she exclaimed. "'Goodness knows,' said I. "'Will you show me round these lovely gardens?' "'Delighted, sir,' replied the girl, rising and sweeping me a mocking curtsy. Thereupon we set out, and at every step I found a new delight in some wayward curl, in a gesture, in the sweet voice of my companion. Her merry laugh was music, but in wistful mood I think she was even more alluring. The menace, if menace there were, which overhung craze folly, ceased to exist, for me at least, and I blessed the lucky chance which had led me to my presence there.' We were presently rejoined by Colonel Menendez and Paul Harley, and I gathered that my surmise that it had been their voices which I had heard proceeding from the top of the tower to have been only partly accurate. "'I know you will excuse me, Mr. Harley,' said the Colonel, for detailing the duty to Pedro, but my wind is not good enough for the stairs. He used idiomatic English at times with that facility which some foreigners acquire, but all we smiled in a self-satisfied way when he had employed a slang term. "'I quite understand, Colonel,' replied Harley. The view from the top was very fine. "'And now, gentlemen,' continued the Colonel, if Miss Beverly will excuse us, we were retired to the library and discuss business. "'As you wish,' said Harley, but I have an idea that it is your custom to rest in the afternoon.' Colonel Menendez shrugged his shoulders. "'It used to be,' he admitted, but I have too much to think about in these days. "'I can see that you have much to tell me,' admitted Harley, "'and therefore I am entirely at your service.' Val Beverly smiled and walked away swinging her book, at the same time treating me to a glance which puzzled me considerably. I wondered if I had mistaken its significance, for it had seemed to imply that she had accepted me as an ally. Certainly it served to awaken me to the fact that I had discovered a keen personal interest in the mystery, which hung over this queerly assorted household. I glanced at my friend as the Colonel led the way into the house. I saw him staring upward with a peculiar expression upon his face, and following the direction of his glance I could see an awning spread over one of the gray stone balconies, beneath it reclining in a long cane chair lay Madame de Stemmer. I think she was asleep. At any rate she gave no sign, but lay there motionless, as Harley and I walked in through the open French windows, followed by Colonel Menendez. Odd and unimportant details sometimes linger long in the memory. And I remember noticing that a needle of sunlight, piercing a crack in the gaily striped awning, rested upon a ring which Madame wore, so that the diamonds glittered like sparks of white hot fire. Chapter 6 The Barrier Colonel Menendez conducted us to a long lofty library, in which might be detected the same note of un-English luxury manifested in the other appointments of the house. The room, in common with every other room which I had visited in Craze Folly, was carried out in oak, doors, window frames, mantelpiece, and ceiling representing fine examples of this massive woodwork. Indeed, if the eccentricity of the designer of Craze Folly were not sufficiently demonstrated by the peculiar plan of the building, its construction, holy of granite and oak, must have remarked him a man of unusual, if substantial, ideas. There were four long windows opening onto a veranda, which commanded a view of part of the Rose Garden and of three terraced lawns descending to a lake upon which I perceived a number of swans. Beyond, in the valley, lay verdant pastures, where cattle grazed. A lark hung caroling blithely far above and the sky was almost cloudless. I could hear a steam-reaper at work somewhere in the distance. This, along with the more intimate rattle of a lawnmower wielded by a gardener who was not visible from where I stood, alone disturbed the serene silence, except that presently I detected the droning of many bees among the roses. Sunlight flooded the prospect, but the veranda lay in shadow, and that long, oaken room was refreshingly cool and laden with the heavy perfume of the flowers. From the windows then one beheld a typical English summerscape, but the library itself struck an altogether more exotic note. There were many glazed bookcases of garish design in ebony and gilt, and these were laden with a vast collection of works in almost every European language, reflecting perhaps the cosmopolitan character of the Colonel's household. There was strange Spanish furniture upholstered in perforated leather and again displaying much gilt. There were suits of black armor and a great number of Moorish ornaments. The pictures were fine, but somber, and all of the Spanish school. In Velázquez in particular I noted with surprise, reflecting that, assuming it to be an authentic work of the master, my entire worldly possessions could not have enabled me to buy it. It was the portrait of a typical Spanish cavalier, and beyond doubt, a Menendez. In fact, the resemblance between the haughty Spanish grandee, who seemed about to step out of the canvas and pick a quarrel with the spectator, and Colonel Don Juan himself was almost startling. Evidently, our host had imported most of his belongings from Cuba. "'Gentlemen,' he said, as we entered, make yourselves quite at home, my big. All my poor establishment contains is for your entertainment and service.' He drew up two long, low-lounge chairs, the arms provided with receptacles to contain cooling drinks, and the mere sight of these chairs mentally translated me to the Spanish Main, where I pictured them set upon the veranda of that hacienda which had formerly been our host's residence. Harley and I became seated, and Colonel Menendez disposed himself upon a leather-covered couch, nodding apologetically as he did so. "'My health requires that I should recline for a certain number of hours every day,' he explained, "'so you are pleased forgive me.'" "'My dear Colonel Menendez,' said Harley, "'I feel sure that you are interrupting your siesta in order to discuss the unpleasant business which finds us in such pleasant surroundings. Allow me once again to suggest that we postpone this matter until, shall we say, after dinner.'" "'No, no, no, no,' protested the Colonel, waving his hand deprecatingly. "'Here is Pedro with coffee and some curacao of a kind which I can really recommend, although you may be unfamiliar with it.' "'I was certainly unfamiliar with the liqueur which he insisted we must taste, and which was contained in a sort of square, opaque bottle, unknown, I think, to English wine merchants. Beyond doubt it was potent stuff. And some cigars which the Spaniard produced on this occasion, and which were enclosed in little glass cylinders resembling test-tubes and elaborately sealed, I recognized to be priceless. They convinced me, if conviction had not visited me already, that Colonel Don, once our Miento Menendez, belonged to that old school of West Indian planters by whom their tradition of the Golden Americas had been for long preserved in the Spanish Maine. We discussed, in different matters for a while, sipping this wonderful curacao of our hosts. The effect created by the Colonel's story faded entirely, and when, the latter being unable to conceal his drowsiness, Harley stood up, I took the hint with gratitude, for at that moment I did not feel in the mood to discuss serious business, or indeed business of any kind. "'Gentlemen,' said the Colonel, also rising, in spite of our protests, "'I will observe your wishes. My guest wishes are mine. We will meet the ladies for tea on the terrace.'" Harley and I walked out into the garden together. Our courteous host standing in the open window, and bowing in that exaggerated fashion which, in another, might have been ridiculous, but which was possible in Colonel Menendez because of the peculiar grace of deportment which was his. As we descended the steps I turned and glanced back, I know not why, but the impression which I derived of the Colonel's face as he stood there in the shadow of the veranda was one I can never forget. His expression had changed utterly, or so it seemed to me. He no longer resembled Velasquez's haughty cavalier. Gone, too, was the debonair bearing. I turned my head aside swiftly, hoping that he had not detected my backward glance. I felt that I had violated hospitality. I felt that I had seen what I should not have seen. And the result was to bring about that which no story of West Indian magic could ever have wrought in my mind. A dreadful, cold premonition claimed me, a premonition that this was a doomed man. The look which I had detected upon his face was an undefinable and indescribable look, but I had seen it in the eyes of one who had been bitten by a poisonous reptile and knew his hours to be numbered. It was uncanny, unnerving, and whereas at first the atmosphere of Colonel Menendez's home had seemed to be laden with prosperous security, now that sense of ease and restfulness was gone, and gone for ever. Harley, I said, speaking almost at random, this promises to be the strangest case you have ever handled. Promises, Paul Harley laughed shortly. It is the strangest case, Knox. It is a case of wheels within wheels, of mystery crowning tree. Have you studied our host? Closely. And what conclusion have you formed? Not at the moment, but I think one is slowly crystallizing. Hmm, muttered Harley, as we paced slowly on amid the rose-trees. Of one thing I am satisfied. What is that? That Colonel Menendez is not afraid of Batwing, whoever or whatever Batwing may be. Not afraid? Certainly he is not afraid, Knox. He has possibly been afraid in the past, but now he is resigned. Resigned to what? Resigned to death. Good God, Harley! You are right, I cried. You are right! I saw it in his eyes as we left the library. Harley stopped and turned to me sharply. You saw this in the Colonel's eyes, he challenged. I did! Which corroborates my theory, he said softly, for I had seen it elsewhere. Where do you mean, Harley? In the face of Madame de Stemmer. What? Knox! Harley rested his hand upon my arm and looked about him cautiously. She knows. Knows what? That is the question which we are here to answer, but I am as sure as it is humanly possible to be sure of anything that whatever Colonel Menendez may tell us tonight, one point at least, he will withhold. What do you expect him to withhold? The meaning of the sign of the Batwing. Then you think he knows its meaning? He has told us that it is the death token of Voodoo. I stared at Harley in perplexity. Then you believe his explanation to be false? Not necessarily, Knox. It may be what he claims for it, but he is keeping something back. He speaks all the time from behind a barrier which he himself has deliberately erected against me. I cannot understand why he should do so, I declared, as he looked at me steadily. Within the last few moments I have become definitely convinced that his appeal to you was no idle one. Therefore why should he not offer you every aid in his power? Why indeed, muttered Harley. The same thing, I continued, applies to Madame de Stemmer. If ever I have seen love-light in a woman's eyes I have seen it in hers, to-day, whenever her glance has rested upon Colonel Menendez. Harley, I believe she literally worships the ground he walks upon. She does, she does, cried my companion, and emphasized the words with beats of his clenched fist. It is utterly, damnably mystifying. But I tell you, she knows, Knox, she knows. You mean she knows that he is a doomed man? Harley nodded rapidly. They both know, he replied, but there is something which they dare not divulge. He glanced at me swiftly, and his bronzed face wore a peculiar expression. Have you had an opportunity of any private conversation with Miss Val Beverly, he inquired? Yes, I said. Surely you remembered that you found me chatting with her when you returned from your inspection of the tower. I remember perfectly well, but I thought you might have just met. Now it appears to me, Knox, that you have quickly established yourself in the good books of a very charming girl. My only reason for visiting the tower was to afford you just this opportunity. Don't frown. Beyond reminding you of the fact that she has been on intimate terms with Madame de Stemmer for some years, I will not intrude in any way upon your private plans in that direction. I stared at him, and I suppose my expression was an angry one. Surely you don't misunderstand me, he said. A cultured English girl of that type cannot possibly have lived with these people without learning something of the matters which are puzzling us so badly. Am I asking too much? I see what you mean, I said slowly. No, I suppose you are right, Harley. Good, he muttered. I will leave that side of the inquiry in your very capable hands, Knox. He paused and began to stare about him. From this point, he said, we have an unobstructed view of the tower. He turned and stood looking up at the unsightly gray structure with its geometrical rows of windows and the minaret-like gallery at the top. Of course I broke a silence of some moment's duration. The entire scheme of craze, Folly, is peculiar. But the rooms, except for a uniformity which is monotonous and an unimaginative scheme of decoration which makes them all seem alike, are airy and well lighted, eminently sane and substantial. The tower, however, is quite inexcusable, unless the idea was to enable the occupant to look over the tops of the trees in all directions. Yes, agreed Harley, it is an ugly landmark. But yonder up the slope I can see the corner of what seems to be a very picturesque house of some kind. I caught a glimpse of it earlier to-day, I replied. Yes, from this point a little more of it is visible. Apparently, quite an old place. I paused, staring up the hillside. But Harley, hands locked behind him and chin lowered reflectively, was pacing on. I joined him and we proceeded for some little distance in silence, passing a gardener who touched his cap respectfully and to whom I thought at my first companion was about to address some remark. Harley passed on, however, still occupied, it seemed, with his reflections, and coming to a gravel path which, bordering on one side of the lawns, led down from terrace to terrace into the valley, turned and began to descend. Let us go and interview the swans, he murmured absently.