 Tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle the horror of the heights This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Igor he4a Tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle 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 Unsinister sense of humor 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 nonetheless 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 endeavor 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 without the narrative of Joyce Armstrong There can be no question at all as to the facts concerning Lieutenant Myrtle R.N And Mr. Hey Connor who undoubtedly met their end in the manner described The Joyce Armstrong fragment was found in the field which is called lower. Hey cock lying one mile to the westward of the village of Whitham upon the Kent and Sussex border It was on the 15th September last that an agricultural laborer James Flynn in the employment of Matthew Dodd Farmer of the Choundree farm Whitham Perceived a briar pipe lying near the footpath which skirts the hedge and lower. Hey cock 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 flat canvas-backed book which proved to be a notebook with detachable leaves Some of which had come loose and were fluttering along the base the hedge These he collected but some including the first were never recovered and leave a deplorable hiatus in this all important statement The notebook was taken by the laborer 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 arrow club in London Where it now lies The first two pages of the manuscript are missing There's 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 qualification 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 there were scribbled off hurriedly from the seat of a moving airplane 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 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 devices and is said to have made no fewer than 170 ascents in the course of last year He was a retiring man with dark moods in which you 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 shotgun 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 was attempting the height record fell from an altitude of something over 30,000 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 mass of the flying school on Southbury 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 notebook Nevertheless when I dined at rhymes with the Cosselian 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 too empty vain glorious 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 Man 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 20 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 horsepower Gnome or green was considered ample for every need the flights were very restricted Now that 300 horsepower 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 Garrus made a worldwide reputation by attaining 19,000 feet and it was considered a remarkable achievement to fly over the Alps Our standard now has been immeasurably raised and there are 20 high flights for one in former years Many of them have been undertaking with impunity The 30,000 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 chance to come down into a jungle he might be devoured There are jungles of the upper air and there were 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 Pier Bourrits district of France Another is just over my head as I right here in my house in Wiltshire. I Rather think there's a third in the Homburg Vispaden 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 Vérir in France His machine was found near beyond 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 arise perpendicularly upwards in a succession of jerks in a manner that he would have thought to be impossible That was the last scene of Baxter That was a correspondence in the paper, but it never led to anything There were several other similar cases and then there was the death of a corner What a cackle that was about an unsolved mystery of the air and what columns and the half penny papers and Yet how little was ever done to get to the bottom of the business He came down in a tremendous wall plane from an unknown height He never got off his machine and died in his pilot seat Died of what? Heart disease, said the doctors Rubbish, hey Connors 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 That 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 Monstrous That was the last word of poor Harry, hey Connors, and he did die of fright just as Venables thought And then That 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 Where 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 danger field used to chaff me about my shotgun But I've never been high enough Now with this new light Paul Barona machine And it's 175 rover I should easily touch the 30 000 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 at best keep out of flying all together and subside finally into flannel slippers and the 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 notebook may explain what I'm 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 Barona monoplane for the job There's nothing like a monoplane when real work is to be done Beaumont found that out in the very early days For one thing it doesn't mind the hump and the weather looks as if we should be in the clouds all the time It's a bunny little model and answers my hand like a tender mouth horse The engine is a 10 cylinder rotary rover working up to 175 It has all the modern improvements in closed fuselage High-curve 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 shotgun with me and a dozen cartridges filled with buckshot 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 torque goggles It was stifling outside the hangers, but I was going for the summit of the Himalayas and I 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 he 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 downwind 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 west One of them so gusty and unexpected that it caught me napping and turned me half around 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 over mastering power into our engines Just as I reached the cloud banks with the altimeter marking 3000 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 onto 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 a full deep-throated purr the ten singing as one That's where the beauty of our modern silencers comes in We cannot 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 costs of their lives About 9 30 I was nearing the clouds Down below me orb word and shadowed with rain laid the vast expanse of saltsbury plane Half a dozen flying machines were doing hack work at the thousand foot level Looking like little black swallows against the green background I daresay they were wondering what I was doing up in cloud land Suddenly a gray curtain drew across beneath me and the wet folds of vapours were swirling around my face It was clamily cold and miserable But I was above the hailstorm 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 soft 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 a monoplane laboring upwards upon a vast spiral between them It is deadly lonely in these cloud spaces Once a great flight of some small border birds went past me flying very fast to the westwards The quick roar of their wings and their musical cry were cheery to my ear I fancy that they were teal but I'm 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 plane Once a great eddy formed in it a whirlpool of vapor and threw 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 drifts whirled inwards again and the great solitude was unbroken Just after 10 I touched the lower edge of the upper cloud's stratum It consisted of fine diphenous vapor drifting swiftly from the westwards The wind had been steadily rising all this time and it was now blowing a sharp breeze 28 an hour by my gauge already it was very cold though my altimeter only marked 9000 The engines were working beautifully and we went browning 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 plane as far as my eyes could reach it was a quarter past 10 o'clock and the barograph needle pointed to 12800 up I went up my ears concentrated upon the deep purring of the motor my eyes busy always with the watch the revolution indicator the petrol liver and the oil pump no wonder aviators are said to be a fearless race with so many things to think of there's no time to trouble about oneself about this time I noted how unreliable is the compass when above a certain height from earth at 15 000 feet mine was pointing east and the 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 banged 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 tech 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 wheelchair that my air jungle lay and all my labor might be lost if I struck the outer layers at some farther point when I reached the 19 000 foot level which was about midday the wind was so severe that I looked with some anxiety to the states 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 leather and belt so as to be ready for the worst now was the time when a bit of scammed work by the mechanic is paid for by the life of the aeronaut but she held together bravely every cordon 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's surely something divine in man himself that he should rise so superior to the limitations which creation seemed to impose rise to by such unselfish heroic devotion as this air conquest has shown talk of human degeneration when such a story as this been written in the annals of our race these were my 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 cloudland beneath me fell away to such distance that the folds and hummocks of silver had all smoothed out into one flat shining plane but suddenly I had a horrible and unprecedented experience I have known before what it is to be in what our neighbors 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 the 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 center 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 leveled 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 dangerous spot of the whirlpool and soon I was safely above it just after one o'clock I was 21 000 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 that 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 steel outer world it was very clear to me that the insensibility which came upon glacier and in a lesser degree upon coxwell when in 1862 they ascended in a balloon to the height of 30 000 feet was due to the extreme speed with which 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 130 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 the angle of ascent had to be considerably lowered in consequence it was already clear that even with my lightweight 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 forever being bombarded by meteor stones and would be hardly inhabitable where they not in nearly every case turned into vapor 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 40 000 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 41 300 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 ten cylinders appear 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 40 000 foot level I let the monoplane guide herself and with my man I'm 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 wire sweep and open up a new air track 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 the world share 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 plane 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 volplane 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 to you even as I saw it myself last thirsty conceive a jellyfish such as sails in our summer seas bell-shaped and of enormous size far larger I should judge than the dome of sandpals it was of a light pink color 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 in its stately way I had half turned my monoplane that I might look after this beautiful creature when in a moment I find 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 much with the same curvature at the top there was in them a delicacy of texture and coloring which reminded me of the finest venetian glass pale shades of pink and green were the prevailing tins 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 argosis of the sky creatures whose forms and substance were so attuned to these pure heights that one could not conceive anything so delicate with an 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 vapor 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 ghostlike creatures were 20 or 30 feet long but it was difficult to tell their growth 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 gray or smoke color 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 a 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 vapor 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 nonetheless of much more definite outline and solid consistency than anything which I had seen before there were more traces too of a physical organization especially too 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 color from a very light morph 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 20 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 in the same shape and yet each change made it more threatening and loathsome than the last I knew it meant mischief every purple flash of its hideous body told me so the vague googling eyes which were turned always upon me were cold and merciless in their visit hatred I dipped the nose of my monoplane downward 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 whiplash 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 vole peak 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 breath a long lighting sticky serpent-like coil came from behind and caught me around my waist dragging me out of the fuselage I tore it my fingers sinking into the smooth glue-like surface and for an instant I disengaged myself but only to be caught around the boot by another coil which gave me a jerk that tilted me almost onto 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 bog and yet I am better than I knew for with a loud report one of the great blisters upon the creature's back exploded with a puncture of the buckshot it was very clear that my conjecture was right and that these vast clear bledders were distended with some lifting gas for in an instant the huge cloud-like body turned sideways rithing 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 arrow light far behind me I saw dull purplish smudge growing swiftly smaller and merging into the blue sky behind me I was safe out of the deadly jungle of the outer air once out of danger I throttle my engine for nothing tears a machine to pieces quicker than running on full power from a height it was a glorious spiral volplane 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 20 miles inland before I found myself stranded in a field half a mile from the village of Ashcomb there I got three tins of petrol from a passing motor car and at 10 minutes past six that evening I alighted gently in my own home meadow at devices 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've seen the horror of the heights and greater beauty or greater horror than that is not within the can 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 the 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's always the shotgun at my knowledge of here a page of the manuscript is unfortunately missing on the next page is written in large straggling writing 43 000 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 joys armstrong statement of the man nothing has since been seen pieces of his shattered monoplane have been picked up in the preserves of mr bud lushington upon the borders of kent and sussex within a few miles of the spot where the notebook was discovered if the unfortunate aviators theory is correct that this air jungle as he called it existed over the southwest of england then it would seem that he had fled from it at 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'm aware who still jeer at the facts which i have here set down but even they must admit that joys armstrong has disappeared and i would commend to them his own words this notebook may explain what i'm trying to do and how i lost my life in doing it but no drivel about accidents or mysteries if you please and of the horror of the heights by arthur conan doil recording by igor t4a in mac de berg germany may 24th 2007 tales of terror and mystery by sir arthur conan doil this is a liber vox recording all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liber vox.org tales of terror and mystery by arthur conan doil the leather funnel my friend lionel dacker lived in the avenue du 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 arctic triumph i fancy that it had been there long before the avenue was constructed for the gray tiles were stained with lichen and the walls were mildewed and it's colored 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 dacker 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'd spent much of his life in fortune and gathering together what was said to be a unique private collection of talmudic cabalistic and magical works many of them great rarity and value his tastes lean toward the marvelous and the monstrous and i have heard that his experiments in that 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 a student and a 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 dacker'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 domed like skull which curved upward from amongst his thinning locks like a snow peak 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 for life but they were the eyes of a sensualist and an egoist enough of the man for he's 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 this complex character that i have to deal but with a very strange and inexplicable incident which had its rise in my visit to him in the early spring of the year 82 i'd known dacker in england for my research is in the assyrian room with the british museum had been conducted at the time when he was endeavoring to establish a mystic and esoteric meaning in the babelonian tablets and this community of interest had brought us together chance remarks had led to a daily conversation and that to something verging upon friendship i had promised him that my next visit to paris i would call upon him at that time when i was able to fill my compact i was living in a cottage at fontaine blue and as the evening trains were inconvenient he asked me to spend the night in his house i've only that one spare couch said he pointing to a broad sofa in his large salon i hopefully 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 sense 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're at least costly said he looking around at his shelves i've expended nearly a quarter of a million of money upon these objects which surround you books weapons gems carvings tapestries images there's hardly a thing here which is not its history and it's generally one worth telling he was seated as he spoke at one side of the open fireplace an eye at the other his reading table was on his right and a strong lamp above it ringed it with a very vivid circle of golden light a half-rolled palimpsus lay in the center and a rounded were many quaint articles of bric-a-brac one of these was a large funnel such as used for filling wine casks it appeared to be made of black wood and to be rimmed with a discolored brass that's a curious thing i remarked what's the history of that ah said he it is the very question which i've 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 court when full the brass rim encircled the wide end but the narrow was also tipped with metal what do you make of it ass stacker i should imagine that it belonged to some vinter or mulster in the middle ages said i i've seen in england leaven drinking flagans of the 17th century black jacks as they were called which were of the same color and hardness as this filler i dare say the date would be about the same said decker and no doubt also that it was used for filling a vessel with liquid if my suspicions are correct however it was a queer vinter who used it in 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 the 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 around 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's torn and lacerated must have taken some strength to leave these marks in 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 decker 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 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 researchers of our friends on that bookshelf yonder will no longer be the amusement of the mystic or the foundations of a science supposing that so what has the science of dreams to do with a large black brass rim funnel i will tell you you know that i have an agent who is always on the lookout for rarities and curiosities for my collection some days ago he heard of a dealer upon one of the quays who had acquired some old rubbish found in a cupboard in an ancient house at the back end of the room a thurian in the quarter latin the dining room of this old house is decorated with the coat of arms chevrons and bars rouge upon a field argent which prove upon inquiry to be the shield of nicholas to the renais a high official of king louis the 14th there can be no doubt that the other articles that covered date back to the early days of that king the inference is therefore that they were all the property of this nicholas to la renais who was as i understand the gentleman of specially concerned with the maintenance and execution of the draconic laws of that ebook what then i would ask you now to take the funnel into your hands once more 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 an 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 further along the rim i should say it was a crown it is undoubtedly a crown but if you examined it in 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 marquee we may infer therefore that the person whose initials in and b was entitled to wear that coronet in this common leather filler belonged to a marquee dacker gave a peculiar smile well or to some member of the family of a marquee said he so much we have clearly gathered from this engraved rim what is all this to do with dreams i do not know whether it was from the look upon dacker'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 that gnarled old lump of leather i 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 that i'm 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 did not appear to be very obscure although 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 sword upon the wall i might dream of some bloody incident in which the 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 frondis 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 bridescape beneath the pillow in order that the sleeper may have pleasant dreams that is one of several instances which you will find said 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 chove 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've never tested myself in that direction then we shall test you tonight might i ask you a very great favor 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 but i have myself in my complex nature a hunger after all which is bizarre and fantastic i'm not the faintest belief in dacker's theory nor any hope for success in any such experiment yet it amuse me that the experiment should be made dacker with a 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 time smoking by the smoldering fire and turning over in my mind the curious incident which had occurred and the strange experience which might lie before me skeptical as i was there was something impressive in the assurance of dacker's manner and my extraordinary surroundings the huge room with the strange and often sinister objects which were hung rounded struck solemnity into my soul finally i undressed and turning out the lamp i lay down after a 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've 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 the red carpeted dais their faces were very solemn and sad on the left to two long-gound men with portfolios 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 be called middle-aged her figure was inclined to stoutness and her bearing was proud and confident her face was pale with 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 of the three men in black who were i felt her judges as i gazed upon the three men stood up and said something but i could not distinguish the words 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 and 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 within the scene this was a tall thin person clad in black with a gaunt and austere face the aspect of a man made me shudder his clothes were all shining with grease and modeled 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 sort of dress it was now his business his room his to command it 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 a 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 a little higher than her waist onto this she was lifted and laid and with her back upon it in 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 violets in attendance had fastened cords to her ankles and secured the other ends to iron rings in a 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 violets approached with a dark object in his hand which even in my dream felt me with a vague feeling of familiarity it was a leavened filler with horrible energy he thrust it but i could stand no more my hair stood on in with horror i writhe 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 19th century back out of that medieval 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 villain's 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 it was dacker 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 dacker i'm glad to see you i've been down into hell it was dreadful then it was you who screamed i dare say it was it rang through the house the sermons were all terrified he struck a match and let 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 in the infernal thing again for all the money you could offer me dacker 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've 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 the roe soli did you stand it out to the end no thank god i woke before it really began it's just as well for you i held out to the third bucket well it's an old story they're 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 mal factor indeed if her crimes are in proportion to her penalty well we have that small consolation said dacker 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'm correct in the lady's identity how could you possibly know her identity for answer dacker took down an old vellum covered volume from the shelf just listen to this said he it is in the french of the 17th century but i will give a rough translation as i go you will judge for yourself whether i've solved the riddle or not the prisoner was brought before the grand chamber and tornado of parliament sitting as a court of justice charged with the murder of master drew dobry her father number two brothers missus dobry one being civil lieutenant and the other council of parliament in person it seemed hard to believe that she had really done such wicked deeds for she was of a mild appearance at a short stature with 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 would be carried in a cart to the plastic we have and there to have her head cut off her body being afterwards burned under ashes scattered to the winds the date of this entry is july 16th 1676 it is interesting so i have been not convincing how do you prove the two women to be the same i'm coming to that the narrative goes on the tale of the woman's behavior 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 has been brought here for the purpose of drowning me once here 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 abbey pyro 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 is indeed the same event but who then is this lady whose appearance was so attractive and whose end is so horrible for answer dacker came across to me and placed the small lamp upon the table which stood by my bed lifting up the ill omen filler he turned the brass rim so that the light fell full upon it seen in this way the engraving seemed clear that on the night before we've already agreed that this is the badge of a marquis or of a marquis 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 a final b yes i'm sure that you're right i can make out the two small d's quite plainly what i've read to you tonight said dacker is the official record of the trial of marie madeline dobry marquise de brunville one of those famous prisoners and murderers of all time i sat in silence overwhelmed by the extraordinary nature of the incident and at the completeness of the proof which dacker 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 time when they equipped her as a murderous one objection and one only occurred to my mind how come her initials in her badge of rank upon the filler surely they did not carry their medieval homage to the nobility to the point of decorating instruments of torture with their titles i was puzzled with the same point said dacker but it admits of a simple explanation the case excited extraordinary interest at the time and nothing could be more natural than that la renais the head of the police should retain his filler as a grim souvenir it was not often that the mochi and s 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 leather neck she was a cruel tigress said dacker as he turned away i think it is evident that like other tigresses her teeth were both strong and sharp end of the leather funnel by arthur conan doyl recording by dominic moor tales of terror and mystery by sir arthur conan doyl the new catechum this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org recording by dominic moor tales of terror and mystery by arthur conan doyl the new catechum 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 torso 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 a warmth outside under the bright winter stars lay the modern room 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 room to be seen cracked and time-worn freezes hung from the walls gray old busts of senators and soldiers with their fighting heads and their hard cruel faces peered out from the corners on the center table amidst a litter of inscriptions fragments and ornaments there stood the famous reconstruction by kennedy of the baths of carcala which excited such interest and admiration when it was exhibited in berlin emphore hung from the ceiling and the 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 30 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 students energies or if his mind is still true to its purpose gives him 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 langer 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 a robust quality of the north mingling strangely with the softer graces of the south blue two tonic eyes lightened his sunbrown face and above them rose a square massive forehead with a fringe of close yellow curls lying around it his strong firm jaw was clean shaven and his companion had frequently remarked how much it suggested those old roman bus which peered out from the shadows in the corner of the 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 12 years before he had come as a poor student to roam and had lived ever since upon some small endowment for research which had been awarded to him by the university of bonne painfully slowly and doggedly with extraordinary tenacity and single-mindedness he'd climbed from rung to rung with a ladder of fame until now he was a member of the berlin academy and there was every reason to believe that he should shortly be promoted to the chair of the greatest of german universities with the singleness of purpose which had brought him to the same high level as the rich and brilliant englishman had caused him and 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 and larger subjects and impatient of the small talk which is the conventional refuge of those who have no thoughts to express and yet for some years there had been an acquaintance which appeared to be slowly ripening into a friendship between these two very different rivals the base and origin of this lay and the fact that in their own studies each was the only one of 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 arrival while burger in turn had been fascinated by the brilliancy and vivacity which had made kennedy such a favorite in roman society i say had because just at that 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 honor in such a matters and though a head might be shaken or a pair of shoulders shrugged over the flight of two in 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 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 campania and this was heaped with the litter of objects inscribed tiles broken inscriptions inscriptions cracked mosaics torn pepper eye 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 that 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 englishmen'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 everyone 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 mustache 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 would 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 would contain so vast a store of relics as you describe quite so there's 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 for my report of the matter before i expose myself to such formidable competition kennedy loved his subject the love which was almost a mania a love which had held him true to it amidst all the distractions which come into a wealthy and dissipated young man he had ambition but his ambition was secondary to his more abstract joy and interest in everything which concerned the old life and the history of the city he yearned to see his new underworld which his companion had discovered look here burger said he earnestly i assure you that you can trust me most implicitly in this 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 whatsoever to fear for me on the other hand if you don't tell me i shall make a systematic search and i shall discover it in that case of course i should make what use i liked of it since i would be under no obligation to you burger smiled thoughtfully over his cigar i've 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 for 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 such importance if i were to question you upon some new 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 are you driving at i cannot imagine so the englishman but if you mean that you will answer my question about the catacomb if i answer any question which you have put to me i can assure you that i will certainly do so well then said burger leading luxuriously back in his seti 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 the 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'm really rather interested in the details of the matter i don't know much about the world of women and social life and that sort of thing in such an incident has the fascination of the unknown for me i know you and i know her by sight i'd 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 st john's clock striking 10 it is quite time that i was going home 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 is burned out months ago you know we look upon a man who kisses and tells is the greatest coward in 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 you are not really doing miss mary saunderson any injury by discussing her case with me but still i respect your scruples so good night wait a bit burger said kennedy laying his hand upon the other's arm i'm 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'm quite right also and so again my dear kennedy good night the englishman watched burger across 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 was making the best of which cannot be helped hold on old fellow city i think you are behaving in the 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 know it's all over rome i don't suppose i can't tell you anything which you do not already know 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 city thank you very much i never smoke when i work but i enjoyed chat much more when i'm 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's 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 then i cannot even imagine how you said about it for example if you'd love this girl your love could not hardly disappear in three weeks so i presume that you could not have loved her at all but if you do not love her why should you make this great scandal which has damaged you and ruined her kennedy looked moodley into the red eye of the stove there'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'm 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 a pecan difficulty of it also for as she was the companion of lady emily rude 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 my god 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'm very ignorant about these things my dear fellow you can remember that the apple you stole from your neighbor's tree was always sweeter than that which fell from your own and then i found that she cared for me what at once no 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 i've had enough of it only one other thing how did you get rid of her in three weeks well we'd both cool down a bit you understand she absolutely refused under any circumstances to come back to face the people she'd known in rome now of course rome is necessary to me and i had already been pining to be back at my work so there was one obvious case 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've 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've seen so little of life and now you want to know about my new catacomb there's no use in my trying to describe it for you would never find it by that there's only one thing and that is for me to take you there that would be splendid then would you like to come the sooner the better i'm all impatient to see it well it's a beautiful night though a trifle cold suppose we start in an hour you must be very careful to keep the matter to ourselves if anyone saw us hunting in couples they would suspect there was something going on we can't be too cautious of kennedy is it far some miles not too far to walk oh no we can walk there easily we had better do so then a cab man'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 apian way at midnight i must go back to my lodgings for the matches and candles and things i'll write 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 goodbye for the present you will find me at the gate at 12 the cold clear air was filled with the musical chimes from the city of clocks as a 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 were ardent and work as well as in love said the german laughing yes i've been waiting here for nearly half an hour i hope you left no clue as to where you were going not such a fool by jove i'm 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 roam with the only things which they met they swung along with the huge tombs looming up to the darkness upon each side of them until they had come as far as the catacomb of st calistus and saw against a rising moon a 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 were more accustomed to walking said he laughing i think that the place where we turn off is somewhere here yes this is it around the corner of the trittoria now it's a very narrow path so perhaps i'd better go in front and you can follow he had lit his lantern and by its light they were unable to follow the narrow and devious track which wound across the marshes of the campania the great aqueduct of old roam lay like a monstrous caterpillar across the moonlit landscape and their road led them under one of its huge arches in the past of the circle of crumbling bricks which marks the old arena at last burger stopped at a solitary wooden cowhouse and he drew a key from his pocket surely your catacomb is not inside a house cried kennedy the entrance to it is that this is just a safeguard which we have against anyone else discovering it as 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 it did my excavations for myself come in and shut the door behind you it was a long empty building with the majors of 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 around it it might excite remark if anyone saw a light in this lonely place said he just helped 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 of a stair of old stone steps which led away down into the bowels of the earth be careful cried burger as kennedy and his impatience hurry down them it is a perfect rabbits worn below and if you were once to lose your way there the chances would be a hundred to one against you ever coming out again wait until i bring the light how did 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 you were in the dark could not possibly find out even now i always spin out a ball of string behind me when i'm going forward to the catacomb you can see for yourself that it is difficult but for every one of these passages divides and subdivides a dozen times before you go a hundred yards they had descended some 20 feet from the level of the buyer and they were standing now in a square chamber cut out of the soft tuffa the lantern cast a flickering light bright below the dim above over the cracked brown walls in every direction were the black openings of passages which radiated from this common center 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 quarters and the Englishman followed closely at his heels every now and then the passage bifurcated the burger was evidently following some secret marks of his own for he neither stopped nor hesitated everywhere along the walls packed like the births upon an immigrant ship lay the Christians of old Rome the yellow light flickered over the shriveled features of the mummies and gleamed upon rounded skulls and long white arm bones 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 these hurried passing glances 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 a student what would happen if the light went out he asked as they hurried onwards i have a spare candle in a box of matches in my pocket by the way kennedy have you any matches no you'd better give me some oh that's all right there's no chance of our separating how far are we going it seems to me we've walked at least a quarter of a mile more than that i think there's really no limit to the tombs at least i've 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 pocket 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 the 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 the circular space was used as a church precisely said burger but 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 moldering mitre this is most interesting city and his voice seemed to boom against the concave vault as far as my experience goes it is unique bring the lantern over burger 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 the 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 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 sounds 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 of which way to go i dare say not strike a light man and have it into 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 terms which make the way very 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 goodbye 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 to not 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 around a drowning man some two months afterward 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 calyxtus the finding of this important burial place which is exceedingly rich and 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 course so 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 trapped for days through the torturous quarters 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 had been so fortunate as to make has been greatly marred by the terrible fate of his comrade and fellow worker end of the new catacomb by arthur conan doil recording by dominick more the case of lady sanix by arthur conan doil this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org tales of terror and mystery by arthur conan doil the case of lady sanix the relations between douglas stone and the notorious lady sanix 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 conferers there was naturally therefore a very widespread interest when it was announced one morning that the lady had absolutely and forever taken the veil and that the world would see her no more when at the very tail of this rumor 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 judgment 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 in the south of moral bone 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 came his sudden mad passion for lady sanix 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 sanix 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 theater 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 tea cups 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 favorite all doubts as to lord sanix's knowledge or ignorance were set forever at rest there was no sub-diffuse 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 windowpains a thin spatter of rain tinkled on the glass with each fresh sow 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 lampshade and watched with the eye of a connoisseur the tiny scales of bee's wing which floated in its rich ruby depths the fire as it spurred it up threw fitful lights upon his bald clear-cut face with its widely opened gray 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 sanix 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 smirna hmm 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 pym 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 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 onto the table there are 300 pounds there said he and i suppose 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 sanix 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 smirna 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 can find 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 the 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 30 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 and 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 bruskly 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 beast stories 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 sanix 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 musselman 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 anesthetic 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 smirna 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 carotid went out with a fluff him 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 senex by ten o'clock through the fogged windows he saw the blurred gas lamps dancing past with occasionally the broader glare of a shopfront the rain was pelting and rattling upon the leather and 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 smirna 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 flagstone which gleamed in the lamp light 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 discolored 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 gray 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 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 Yajmek and veil the lower part of the face was exposed and the surgeon saw a jagged cut which zigzagged along the border of the upper lip you will forgive the Yajmek said the Turk you know our views about women in the east but the surgeon was not thinking about the Yajmek 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 rung 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 mystery 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 yashmech 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 lusterless 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 spraying 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 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 Sanex 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 Sanex 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 Sanex swavly 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 Sanex and at that Douglas Stone began to laugh he laughed long and loudly but Lord Sanex 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 Sanex 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 Sanex 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 Sanex 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 end of a case of Lady Sanex by Arthur Conan Doyle tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle the terror of Blue John Gap this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Igor T4A tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle the terror of Blue John Gap the following narrative was found among the papers of Dr. James Hardcastle who died of diocese 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 Ms. Ellerton's farm in northwest Darbyshire 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 the Seaton may have been I may add that the visit of the deceased to Ellerton's farm and the general nature of the alarm there apart from his particular explanation have been absolutely established with this horde 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 17th already I feel the benefit of this wonderful upland air the farm of the Ellerton size 1420 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 homegrown mutton I have every chance of putting on weight I think Saunderson will be pleased the two Ms. Ellerton's are charmingly quaint and kind two dear little hardworking old mates 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 the most useful person one of the reserve forces of the community they talk of the superfluous woman but what with the poor superfluous men 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 the 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 fantastic limestone hills formed of rock so soft that you can break it away with your hands all these countries hollow could you strike it with some gigantic hammer it would boom like a drum or possibly cave in all together and expose some huge subterranean sea a great sea there surely must be for on all sides the stream 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 went 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 draped the lofty roofs shut off the lamp and you're in the blackest darkness turn it on and it is a scene from the arabian nights but there's 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 glujan 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 glujan 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 glujan 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 glujan 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 arch 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 darbyshire hills strange how superstitious these countrymen are I should have thought better of young armitage for he's a man of some education and character and a fine fellow for his station in life I was standing at the glujan gap when he came across the field to me well doctor he said 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 you 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 very nights which a commonplace sheep's dealer would naturally choose for his work on one occasion a gap had been made on a wall and some of the stones scattered for 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 wine tremulous and vibrating almost like the winning 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 wondered 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 20th 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 allergens 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 fatigued breath seemed to ooze from the black depth 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 forever 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 22nd let me try and sit 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 depth and I wished that I had brought a companion to share my exploration finally with the 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 50 feet the floor being covered with broken stone then they're extended a long straight passage cut in the solid rock I'm 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 the strange old word 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 the number of passages worn by the subterranean streams wound away into the depth 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 center 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 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 20 feet broad run across my path and I walked for some little distance along the bank to find a spot where I could cross dry shot finally I came to a place where a single flat boulder lay near the center 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 and 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 studied 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 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 farmhouse these are now devoured and washed them down with a draft from the 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 a 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 set 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 awakened me it was very distinct from the human voice I said 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 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 an 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 in 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 fatigued odor mephetic 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 depth of the cave of armadages 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 safe 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 LA finally I was almost ready to pursue it myself that this experience had been part of some evil dream and that my abnormal condition might have conjured up and 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 depth 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 the wary 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 farmhouse 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 an advice April 25th I was laid up in bed for two days after my incredible adventure in the cavern I used 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's a doctor mark johnson who practices a 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 advisor the very man who was preeminently suited to help me I went on to the station therefore and made my way to the little town which is some 10 miles away Mr. Picton appeared to be a man of importance as his breastplate 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 neighboring shop I asked the man behind the counter if he could tell me anything of Mr. Picton why said he he's the best met doctor in darbyshire 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 patterns who cannot conceive that there may be things in creation which have never yet chance to come across their moles vision after all now that I'm cooler I can afford to admit that I have been no more sympathetic to armadage than Dr. Johnson has been to me April 27th 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 cold bridge it was I who set up in the haunted house is it advancing years after all I'm only 35 or is it this physical melody which has caused the generation certainly my heart quails when I think of that horrible cavern in the hill and the certainty that it has someone's just occupant what shall I do there's 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 last as a first step I have been to castle and obtained a few essentials a large acetyl and lantern for one thing and a good double barreled sporting rifle for another the letter I have hired but I have bought a dozen heavy game cartridges which would bring down a rhinoceros now I'm 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 or what is he ah there's the question which stands between me and my sleep how many theories do I form only to discard each intern it is also utterly unthinkable and yet the cry the footmark the tread and 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's some fact which unrealized them and am I of all mortals the one who's chosen to expose it may third for several days I've 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 ellertons one of old piercings of the catwalk and one of mrs smoltons four in all during three nights no traces left of them at all and the countryside is buzzing with rumors of gypsies and of sheep stealers but there's something more serious than that young armadage has disappeared also he left his small and cottage early on Wednesday night and has never been heard of since he was an unattached man so there's 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 reason tragedy of the sheep has cost him to take some steps which may have ended in his own destruction he may for example have lain and wait for the creature and had been carried off by it into the recesses of the mountains what an inconceivable fate for a civilized Englishman of the 20th 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 letter for this morning I went down to the local police station and told my story the inspector entered at all in a large book and bowed me out with commendable gravity but I heard a burst of laughter before I had got down the garden path no doubt he was recounting my adventure to his family june 10th I'm 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 I 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 11 o'clock I went from the farmhouse 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 farmhouses and the church clock of chapel the dale tall in the hours came faintly to my ears these tokens of my fellow men served only to make my 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 forever 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 had once undertaken this feeling of personal pride was my salvation now and it was that alone which helped me fast when every instinct of my nature was dragging me away I'm glad now that I had the strength in spite of all that it has cost me my manhood is at least above reproach 12 o'clock struck in a 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 saved the gentle south 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 near they were close upon me I heard the crashing of the bushes around the entrance and then dimly through the darkness I was conscious of the loom of some enormous shape some monstrous and coid creature passing swiftly and very silently out from the tunnel I was paralyzed 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 nerf 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 light 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 looped up once more before me making for the entrance of the cave again came that paralyzes a volition which held my crooked forefinger impotent upon the trigger but with that 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 the glimpse of a great shaggy mass something with rough and bristling hair of a withered great color fading away to white in its lowl 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 its to its borrow 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 12 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 uncliped 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 prudences 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 turned 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 seeing in the brilliant white light of the lantern is etched forever 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 tenfold 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 shutter 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 paw 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 farmhouse of the allergens 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 safe 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'm able to sit out once more in the sunshine just opposite me is the steep hillside gray with shaley 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 omen tunnel shall any strange shape fled out into the world of men the educated and the scientific the dr johnson's and the like may smile at my narrative but the poor folk of the countryside had never a doubt as to its truth on the day after my recovering consciousness they assembled in the hundreds around the blue john gap as the castle and courier said it was useless for our correspondent or for any of the adventurous gentlemen who had come from madlock 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's 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 had 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 idea fix 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 should 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 near to scientific acceptance let me then write down the only explanation which seems to me to elucidate what i know to my cause 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's a vast subterranean lake or sea which is fed by a great number of streams which pass down through the limestone where there's 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 the 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 eons the internal and the external creation had kept apart growing steadily away from each other then there had come some rift in the depth 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 and 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 effect one whose task is nearly over so ended the strange narrative of dr. james hardcastle end of the terror of blue john gap by arthur cone and oil recording by igor t4a in macdenberg germany 18th of june 2007 tales of terror and mystery by arthur cone and oil the brazilian cat this is a leap of ox recording all leap of ox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit leap of ox dot org tales of terror and mystery by arthur cone and oil 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 easygoing 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 southern estates at least there would be fine some post in the 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 shared any interest in my career an occasional brace of pheasants or basket of hairs 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 a man about town living in a suite of apartments in grove no 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 a bit 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 southern all my other relations were fairly well to do the nearest of these was everard king my father's nephew my own first cousin who'd 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 graylands near clinton 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 graylands 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 clinton on the marsh after changing an eep switch a little local train deposited me at a small deserted station lying amidst a railing 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 had a dog cart at the local inn the driver an excellent fellow was full of my relatives praises and i learned from him that mr everard king was already a named conjure with in that part of the county he had entertained the school children he'd thrown his grinds open to visitors he'd subscribed to charities in short his benevolence had been so universal and my driver could only account for it on the supposition he had parliamentary ambitions my attention was drawn away from my driver's panagiric by the appearance of a very beautiful bird which settled on a telegraph post beside the road at first i thought 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 you were about to visit it seems that the acclimatization of foreign creatures was one of his hobbies and that he brought with him from brazil a number of birds and beasts which he was endeavoring to rear in england when once we had passed the gates of grailand's 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-towed 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 had guessed that it was i his appearance was very homely a benevolent short and stout 45 years old perhaps with a round good human face burned brine 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 verandered bungalow and it looked curiously out of place in front of this broad stone english mansion with its solid wings and its paladio pillars before the doorway my dear he cried glancing over his shoulder my dear here is our guest welcome welcome to grailand's i am delighted to make your acquaintance cousin marshal and i take it as a great compliment that you should honor 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 some excellent english and i accused 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 grailand's 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 black check 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 vanners 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 cherry 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 but 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 a 1215 said she but i wasn't thinking of going today i answered frankly perhaps even divantly for i was determined not to be driven out by this woman oh if it rests with you said she and she stopped with the most insolent expression in her eyes i'm sure i answered that mr. everard king would tell me if i were out staying 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'm no eavesdropper so i walked out onto 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 teta-tet that gives you the clue to her actions which are i confess upon this particular point not very far removed from mania tell me you will think no more of it no no certainly not then light the 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 they're projected from the wall an iron handle attached to a wheel and a drum a line of stout bars extended across the passage i'm about to show you the duel of my collection said he there is only one other specimen in europe now that the rotterdam carb 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 find that i was gazing into a large empty room with stone flags and small barred windows upon the further wall in the center of the 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 his 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 11 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 newborn cub up in the wild country at the headwaters of the Rio Negro they speared his mother to death after she'd 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 upcountry 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'll 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'm 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 but the sound of his voice the huge lithe creature rose yawned and rubbed its round blackhead 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've 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 carnivore 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 buy a step sounded in the stone flagged passage and the creature had sprung to his feet and was pacing up and down in the narrow cage his yellow eyes gleaming his scarlet tongue rippling and quivering over the white line of his jagged teeth a groom entered with a course joined 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'm fond of him can you said my host as we left the room especially when you consider that i've had the rearing of him he was no joke bringing him over from the center 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 interest outside them that he had some and pressing ones was soon born in upon you 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 imagine 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 dines of suffolk during the six days of my visit he had never fewer than three or four telegrams a day sometimes as many as seven or eight i had occupied these six days so well 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'd come up to graven mansions and stay with me he was anxious to see the faster side of city life and certainly though i said 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 marshal your position has been a very hard one by the way have you heard any news of lord southerton's health recently 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 hope 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 shallow 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 graylands 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 hope 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 after his study after dinner and only emerged when the house held a retired bed i heard him go around 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-garn and he wore a pair of red turkish slippers without any heels settling down into an armchair he brewed himself a glass of grog in which i could not help noticing that the whiskey considerably predominated over the water my word said he what a night it was indeed the wind was howling and screaming around the house and the lattice 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 my valet figured in turn i had notes in my pocketbook and i marshaled my facts and gave i flatter myself a very business-like statement of my own un-business-like 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 ever least followed my remarks every now and then he roused himself and put on some show of interest asking me to repeat or explain more fully but it was always to sink once more into the same brown study at last he rose through 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 person round 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 twitched angrily among the straw whore 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 humor 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 from 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 yeah 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 for 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 wine 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 further end the 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 on 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 10 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 with the narrow barred windows there was no shelter anywhere in the bare stone flag 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 burned low and was already beginning to gutter in ten minutes it will 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 shall be incapable of action the very thought of it paralyzed me i cast my despairing eyes around 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 should 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 onto it i rised in face downwards and found myself looking straight up 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 a 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 walls screwing myself into the smallest space possible the further 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 the 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 can possibly be done there is nothing for it then but 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 medieval 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 gray squares upon the black wall then gray 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 upward 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 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 that 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 i never saw it happen i simply heard the savage snarl and in an instant afterwards the blazing yellow eyes the flattened the 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 would 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 scatheless 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 too behind me but he seized my leg before i could entirely withdraw it one stroke of that huge pour tore off my calf as a shaving of wood curls off before a plane the next morning 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 mousetrap it ripped my clothes but stretched 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 i must have been insensible for about two hours what rise me to consciousness once more was the 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 wrought down sir don't you know your master suddenly even in my bemuddled brain a remembrance came of those words of his when he'd 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 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 cliepton 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 grove the mansions i have one remembrance of that illness which might have been part of the ever-changing panorama conjured up by a delirious brain where 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 morning slipped into my room she came across to me and as she bent her shallow face i saw by the faint gleam of the nightlight 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 wish 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 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 you were a fool and a fool you have been she crept out of the room a bitter singular woman and i was never destined to see her again with what remained of her husband's property she went back to her native land and i have heard that she afterwards took the veil at Panambuco it was not until i had been back in London for some time that the doctors pronounced me well enough to do business it was not a very welcome permission for me for i feared that it would be the signal for an in rush 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 city 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 couldn't 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 director very strange said i and now summers if you will bring me my bills and a new checkbook we will begin to get things into order end of the brazilian cat by Arthur Conan Doyle tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle the lost special this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the confession of Herbert de Lerneck now lying under sentence of death at Marseille 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 is monsieur louis louis carotel 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 was suggested some deformity of the spine he was accompanied by a friend a man of imposing physique whose differential 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 spaniard or 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 and doubt it was some significance monsieur carotel was shown up to mr. bland's office while his companion remained outside monsieur carotel's business was quickly dispatched he had arrived that afternoon from central america affairs of the utmost importance demanded that he should be in pairs without the loss of an unnecessary 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 ensure that the lines should be clear the powerful engine called rushdale number 247 on the company's register was attached to two carriages with a guards 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 travelers 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 carotel 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 50 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 mansoor carotel had just quitted a request for a specialist not a very uncommon circumstance in a rich commercial center but that too should be required upon the same afternoon was most unusual it so happened however that Mr. Bland had hardly dismissed the first traveler 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 monster carotels train and should travel in the other empty first-class compartment if monster carotel objected to having him in the one which he occupied it was difficult to see any objection to such an arrangement and yet monster carotel 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 431 exactly by the station clock the special train containing the crippled monster carotel 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 superintendents central l and wc Liverpool special passed here at 452 well up to time douser st helens this telegram was received at 640 at 650 a second message was received from Manchester no sign of special is advised by you and then 10 minutes later a third more bewildering presumed some mistake is to propose running a special local train from st helens time 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 relieved at 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 get passed such an explanation was possible of some small repair had to be affected 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 a 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 in special past here five o'clock Collins green special past here six past five Earlstown special past here five ten Newton special past here five twenty Kenyon Junction no special train has passed here Barton Moss the two officials stared at each other in amazement this is unique in my 30 years of experience at 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 430 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 serve some light on the upon the matter we will wire to Manchester for more information and Kenyon Junction with instructions that the line be examined instantly as far as Barton Moss the answer for 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 so Mr. Bland grimly there's been a wreck and they have missed it the special is obviously run off the metals without disturbing the line how could it have done so past as 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 Mr. Bland's prophecy was not destined to be fulfilled half an hour past 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've detached engine from goods train and I have myself written down the line but all is clear and there's no sign of any accident Mr. Bland tore his hair in his perplexity this is rank lunacy hood he cried does a train banished into thin air in england and 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 it lasts 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 appeared to be cause of death grand ground has now been carefully examined and there is no trace of the missing train the country was this has already been stated in the throes of 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 direct 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 is 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 search of railway between these two points said he the country started with ironworks and collars of these some are being worked and some have been abandoned there are no fewer than 12 which have small gauge lines which run trolley 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 centers of distribution in every case these lines are only a few miles in length out of the seven four belong to coloraries which are worked out or at least to shafts which are no longer used these are the red gauntlet hero slaw of despond and a heart sees minds the latter having 10 years ago been one of the principal minds in Lancashire these four sidelines 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 sidelines leading a to the corn stock ironworks b to the big bin collaring and c to the perseverance collaring of these the big bin 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 car and stock ironworks line was blocked all day upon the third of June by 16 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 third of June this traffic proceeded as usual hundreds of men including a gang of railway plate layers 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 near to st. Helen's then 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 see he met his end by falling off his engine though why he fell or it 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 netled 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 in 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 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 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 pertinential agencies had been at work and that the deformed monster carotel 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 third 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 canyon 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 sidelines 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 corn stock ironworks the big bin and the perseverance is there a secret society of colliers in english comorra 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 prawn broker shops of the district might possibly bring some suggestive facts to life the suggestion coming from a recognized authority upon such matters created considerable interest and a fierce opposition from those who consider 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 a Lancashire and Staffordshire canal which runs parallel to the railway for some hundred of yards the 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 travelers have brought with them and suggesting that some novel explosive of immense and pulverizing power might have been concealed in it the obvious absurdity however 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 20 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 traveled 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 Doulton 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 in judicious comments in the press may have warned him that the police were using them as 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 Montsour carotel and his companion careful inquiries into the antecedents of the two travelers have only established the fact that Montsour carotel 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 list is Eduardo Gomez was a man whose record was a violent one and his reputation was that of a bravo and a bully there was evidence to show however that he was honestly devoted to the interests of Montsour carotel 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 Montsour carotel's hurried journey may have been this comprises all the facts of the case up to the publication in the Marseille paper of the recent confession of Herbert de la Neck now under sentence of death for the murder of a merchant named Bonvalat the 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 a 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 Montsour carotel can also tell on whose interest and whose request the deed was done unless the reprieve which I am awaiting comes to me very quickly take warning Mrs. Sears before it is too late you know Herbert de la Neck 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 the monstrous scandal in politics and finance how monstrous that scandal was can never be known saved by such confidential agents as myself the honor and careers of many of the chief men in France were at stake you've seen a group of nine pins standing also rigid and prim and unbending then there comes the ball from far away and pop pop pop there are your nine pins on the floor we'll imagine some of the greatest men in France as the nine nine pins and then this Montsourquet hotel 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 Montsourquet hotel 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 chose it must be inventive resolute adaptive a man in a million they chose Herbert de la Neck 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 Montsourquet hotel 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 Montsourquet hotel 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 I accept the criminal folly of McPherson and writing home to his wife our stoker did his business so clumsily that Slater and 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 master pieces which are only to be contemplated in silent admiration the criminal expert will find in John Slater the one flaw in all our outer mobile 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 small line two kilometers or rather more than one mile in length which leads or rather used to lead to the abandoned Hertzies 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 super intend the switching off of the train he had forearmed 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 sideline 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 sideline Smith the stoker slowed down the engine and then having turned it on to the fullest speed again he had McPherson with my English Lieutenant sprang off before it was too late it may be that it was the slowing down which first attracted the attention of the travelers but the train was running at full speed again before their heads appeared at the open window it makes me smile to think how bewilder they must have been picture to yourself your own feelings if on looking out of your luxurious carriage you suddenly perceive that the lines upon which you ran were rested 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 rested surface I was close to them and could see their faces Catatel 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 there he tore at his wrist and threw his dispatch box out of the window in our direction of course this 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 around 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 formally run very close to the shaft for the convenience of loading the coal and we had only to add two or three links of rail in order to lead to the very brink of the shaft in fact as the links would not quite fit our line projected about three feet over the edge we saw the two heads at the window carotel 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 paralyzed them I had wondered how the train running at a great speed would take the pitch 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 for the 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 woodworking 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 afterward there came a deep war as the remains of the train struck the bottom the boiler may have burst for a sharp crash came after the war 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 around us then the vapor shredded off into thin wisps which floated away in the summer sunshine and all was quiet again in the heart-ceased 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 sideline replacing everything as it had been before we were equally busy at that time the funnel and other fragments were thrown in the shaft was planked over as it was 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 to the country most of us to Paris my English colleague to Manchester and McPherson to Southampton when she immigrated to America let the English papers of that date tell you how thoroughly we had done our work and how completely we'd 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 Mrs. you may believe that Herbert Delannac 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 mon sur du 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 yes 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 trust him no more we took steps therefore to ensure that he should not see his wife I've sometimes thought it would be a kindness to write to her and to assure her that there is no impediment to her marrying again in Dove The Lost Special by Arthur Conan Doyle Tales of Terror and Mystery The Beetle Hunter This is a Librivox recording all Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org recording by Corrie Samuel Tales of Terror and Mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 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 cheapest 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 tolyopterist preferred apply in person at 77 b brook street application must be made before 12 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 for 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 our 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 way 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 was still allowed to try his luck with the others number 77 b Brook Street was one of those dingy and yet imposing houses done colored 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 wrapped with a 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 Lynchmere will see you at once in the library Lord Lynchmere 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 gray brushed back from his forehead he looked me up and down with a very shrewd penetrating glance holding the card which a 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 there are 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 Beatles 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 Beatles 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 Beatles 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 Beatles and ran over the more common species with some allusions to the specimens in my own little collection and to the article upon burying Beatles which I had contributed to the journal of entomological science what not a collector cried Lord Benjamin 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 Rosseter to have the goodness to step this way said his lordship a few moments later the lady was ushered into the room she was a small middle-aged woman very like Lord Lynchmere 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 Lynchmere 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 nonetheless I could see that it had been a serious wound and not long inflected Dr. Hamilton is the very man for our purpose Evelyn said Lord Lynchmere he was actually a collector of Beatles and he has written articles upon the subject really? said Lady Rosseter then you must have heard of my husband everyone who knows anything about Beatles must have heard of Sir Thomas Rosseter 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 Beatles Sir Thomas Rosseter he was the greatest authority upon the subject in the world he had made it his lifelong study and had written the 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 Lynchmere 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 has all settled it has 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 Lynchmere 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'd come for a short journey with me to remain always at my side and 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 word if it ends happily said the lady exactly if it ends happily his lordship repeated and terms I asked 20 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 Lynchmere such varied gifts may well command a high return and I do not conceal from you that your duties may be arduous or even dangerous besides it is possible that one or two days may bring the matter to an end please God said 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 340 this afternoon do we go far as far as Pangorn meet me at the bookstore at 330 I shall have the tickets good bye 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 Lynchmere at Paddington the whole fantastic business kept arranging and rearranging itself in kaleidoscope 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-release specimen case and a loaded cane I was waiting at the Paddington bookstore when Lord Lynchmere arrived he was an even smaller man than I had thought frail and peeky with a manner which was more nervous than it had been in the morning he wore a long thick traveling 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 to 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'm 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 be 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 Rosseter 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 Rosseter 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'm 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 nonetheless that Lord Lynchmere was acting rather scurvy towards me he wished to convert me into a passive tool like the black thorn in his hand with his sensitive disposition I could imagine however that scandal would be abhorrent to him and I realised that he would not take me into his confidence until no other course was open to him I must trust 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 Pangborn station and we drove for that distance in an open fly Lord Lynchmere 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'm 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 practice 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 mini gabled mansion guddled with ivy and toned to the warm cheery mellow glow of old brickwork my eyes were still fixed in admiration upon this delightful house when my companion plucked nervously at my sleeve here's a 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 gauntletted gardener's gloves a broad brimmed gray 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 lynchmere 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 rosseter dr. hamilton said lord lynchmere 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 lynchmere 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 coley-optra sir thomas I answered give me the names of the better known species of the british scarabye 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 the greater part of the idiots in this part of the country are unaware that I've ever written a book at all at all I the first man who ever described the true function of the elitriah I am glad to see you sir and I have no doubt that I can show you some specimens that will interest you he stepped into the fly and drove with us up to the house expounding to me as we went some recent researches which he had made into the anatomy of the ladybird I have said that Sir Thomas Rosseter wore a large hat drawn down over his brows as he ended the haul 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 the count 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 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 gray eyes which looked out from underneath those palpitating brows I am sorry said he that Lady Rosseter is not here to help me welcome you by the way Charles did evidence say anything about the date of her return she wished to stay in town for a few more days said Lord Lynchmear 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 as good as they were my travels in search of beetles in my younger days took me into many malaria and unhealthy places but a brother co-leopterist 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 till the spring evening had deepened into night and the gong announced that it was time to dress for dinner all the time Lord Lynchmere 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 Lynchmere 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 Lynchmere 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 Lynchmere 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'm nervous of being alone said he that's the reason since you must have a reason it seemed rank lunacy with the argument of those 20 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 armchair 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 lynch me had caused a suspect that he was subject to danger in the house of satomas russeter 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 lynch me 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 a table at my elbow throwing a circle of light around my chair but leaving the corners of the room draped in shadow on the bed lord lynch me 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 lamp light and of the small hunched up figure and strained anxious face of lord lynch me in the center 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 lynch me his voice in my ear I sprang out of bed he's 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 the man who paused cautiously after every stride sometimes for half a minute there was no sound and then came the shuffle and creek 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 and what is it I whispered it's he so Thomas yes what does he want hush do nothing 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 suffice to make the outside visible from the darkness of our room the grayish 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 light shed enough light for me to see the outline of things and there was little Lord Lynchmere with his arms around the neck of his brother-in-law holding bravely onto him like a game-bull terrier with its teeth into a gaunt dearhound the tall bony man dashed himself about writhing round and round to get a grip upon his assailant but the other flutching 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 Lynchmere was endeavouring to relight the lamp when there came the pattering of many feet in a 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 Lynchmere as we raised the struggling man to his feet he will have a period of stupa 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 Lynchmere 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 caused 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 esteemable 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 he 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 as sane as you are 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 satomas'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 thought to me of his interest in beetles and his love for anyone who shared his tastes I advertised therefore and was fortunate enough to find a new 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 will 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 do usually occur in the early hours of the morning I'm 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 Rosseter the famous beetle hunter and that was also my first step upon the ladder of success for Lady Rosseter and Lord Lynchmere have proved to be staunch friends and they have never forgotten my association with them in their time of 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 end of the beetle hunter tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle the man with the watches this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Marta Kornowska tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle 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 the 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 catalog of inexplicable and unexperienced crimes a recent communication the authenticity of which appears to be a both question has however thrown some new and clear light upon the matter before laying it 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 Houston 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 favorite one among Manchester businessmen who are returning from town for it does the journey in four hours and 20 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 22 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 a striken collar and caps I have already said that the evening was an inclement one and the tall traveler 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 horrid and inspection to be a man between 50 and 60 years of age who had retained a good deal of the vigor 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 phone colored dust cloak a black clothes fitting talk 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 dancer 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 set a small man with a cigar in his mouth his appearance seemed 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 34 or 35 years of age dressed in some grey material sharp nose alert with a ruddy weather bitten face and a small closely cropped black bird he glanced up as the door was opened the tall man posed with his foot upon the step this is a smoking compartment the lady dislikes smoke said he looked in crowned 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 trust the two travelers 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 guards van as it came up to him and stopped no more of the incident 12 minutes after his departure the train reached wheels din 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 a light upon the platform at 514 the journey to Manchester was resumed and rugby was reached at 650 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 neighbor disclosed a remarkable state of affairs the smoking carriage in which the short red faced man with the black bird had been seen was now empty safe 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 estrogen 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 traveler 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 once 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 wheels then 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 waistcoat one in his ticket pocket and one in his breast pocket and one small one set in a leather strap and fastened around his left to 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 el mira one was unmarked and the small one which was highly jeweled and ornamented was from tiffani of new york the other contents of his pocket consisted of an ivory knife with a corkscrew by rodors of she filled a small circular mirror one inch in diameter a read mission to sleep to the lyceum theater a silver box full of vest matches and a brown leather cigar case containing two cheerleads also two pounds 14 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 taylor's name upon his coat in appearance he was young short smooth chicked 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 travelers who were missing the express was then allowed to proceed but the 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 sidetracked then on the arrival of inspector vane of scotland yard and of master handerson 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 wreck but no other trace was to be seen of the travelers 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 enduring the unbroken run between wilson and rugby was one which excited at most curiosity among the general public and gave rise to much speculations in the london press don 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 trink and chatting tone 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 plate layers 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 a lighted 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 navies the guard also deposed that there was a good deal of movement upon the platform at wilson 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 clear atmosphere supposing that the man with the black bird had done so at wilson and the half-smoked cigar upon the floor seemed to favor this position he would naturally go into the nearest section which would bring him into the company of the two other actors in this drama as 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 wilson and rugby resulted in one discovery which might or might not have a bearing upon the tragedy near trink at the very place where the train slowed down there was found at the bottom of the embankment a small pocket testament very shapey and worn it was printed by the bible society of london and borough and inscription from john to ellies january the 13th 1856 upon the fly live underneath was written james july the 14th 1859 and beneath that again edward november the first 1869 all the entries being in the same handwriting this was the only clue if it could be called the 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 advertisements 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 teamed 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 appears to indicate that the deceased was a citizen of the united states though his lining 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 first city and cunning of unarchical and other secret societies this theory sounded as plausible as any the fact that he should be without the 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 guards statement that the men 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 it express must have overtaken it at or about the period when it is down its speed to eight miles an hour on account of the repairs of the line the two trains would at that time be traveling in the same direction at a similar rate of speed and upon parallel lines it is within everyone'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 Will's Dean 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 jewelry is an early symptom in some forms of mania as he said 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 he was supposed for the sake of our theory that these people were a woman whom he loved and the 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 fit on this position 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 traveling it is not difficult to imagine that the violence seen in suit it is possible that the power also americans which is the more probable as the man carried a weapon and 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 so the two fugitives spring out onto the line realized that murder had been done and spring 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 the 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 and murderer would burden himself in his flight with a brown leather bag my answer is that he was well aware that if the back 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 slangley 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 traveled 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 slangley station when the express going at 50 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's given here in extensive 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 bugs england and immigrated to the states in the early 50s they settled in rochester in the state of new york where my father ran a large right good store there were only two sons myself james and my brother at work i was 10 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 mold in cheese for its bread 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 least 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 banco steerer green goodsman and general rascal they took to cart 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 favorite game afterwards they had made it right with temony and with the police so it seemed as if nothing could ever stop them for those were in the days before the lexical mission 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 carts in new york but they must needs come approached away and for the name upon a check it was my brother that did it though everyone knew that it was under the influence of sparrow maccoy i bought up that check and a pretty summit 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 left 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 said firm on the point that i would rather see him in rochester go than 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 wilson 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 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 his business of the check 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 greatest sorrow of her life but i knew that this man sparrow maccoy had a great influence over edward and my chance of keeping the land 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 bird in the uh truria i was a 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 beat 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 to my heart i was a fellow traveler on this steamship with sparrow maccoy and at last 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 the rich one it would have been but i soon changed all that gentlemen sadai are you aware whom you are playing with what's that to you you mind your own business said he with a note who is it anyway as 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 effort old country where low and order run and temony has no pull gole and gallows wait for the violence and murder and there's no sleeping out by the back door on board an ocean liner prove your words you said him 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 recount on it being there and it was he cursed me slung out of the saloon and was hardly seen again during the voyage for once at any rate i could level with mr 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 north cumberland avenue hotels a traveler had been fleeced of a large sum by two confederate card sharpers and the matter was in the hands of scottland 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 heard at once to edwards lodgings they told me that he and a whole 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 cab men 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 timetable showed me that the most likely train was at five though there was another at four thirty five 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 must appeal to my brother by all that he owed to my mother might even know bit 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 estrecan color 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 at it and it was too late when we stopped at wilzden 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 wilzden 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 go 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 taunted 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 wars of his which set me talking bitterly we had left wales then 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 friends 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 the dolly peanut for upon you he colored up at that for he was a vain man and he wins from ridicule it's only dust cloak he said and he slipped it off one has to throw the coppers off one's hand and i had no other way to do it he took his stock off with the veil attached and he put both in and the cloak into his brown bag anyway i don't need to wear it until the conductor comes round said him northern 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 marriage for yourself while i can help it if nothing but that this guy stands between you and the goal then the goal you shall go that was the way to manage him i felt my advantage at once his simple nature was one which yielded the roughness far more readily than than to entreaty he flashed with shame and his eyes filled with tears but makoi saw my advantage also and was determined that i should not pursue it he's my part 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 in an instant he whipped out his revolver i sprang for his hand but so 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 makoi and i equally horrified knelt at each side of him trying to bring back some signs of life makoi still held their loaded revolver in his hand but his anger against me and my resentment towards him had bowed 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 baiting my head with a wet handkerchief it was sparrow makoi i guess i couldn't leave you said him i didn't want to have the blood of two of you on my hands in one day you loved your brother i have no doubt but you didn't love him ascent more than i loved him though you will say that i took a queer way to show it anyhow it seems a mighty empty word now that he's 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 said 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 revending his debt upon a man who was as much stricken by the debt as i was and then as my wits gradually returned i began to realize also that i could do nothing against makoi which would not recoil upon my mother and myself how could we convict him without the 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 fissioned preserves which are so common in the old country and as we groped our way through it i found myself consulting this layer of my brother as to how far it would be possible to hash 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 makoi'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 linens 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 interested 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 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 young men to carry about with him is it but the gambler might have told you what such a mirror may mean to a card shopper 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 sharpest outfit as the elastic clip upon sparrows maccoys 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 once maccoy went on to cairo and i returned to new york my mother died six months afterwards and i'm 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 and almost living in london and i never had the heart to tell her the truth he never wrote but then he never did write it anytime 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 the 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 birds and my brothers marked by my father in the beginning of it i wish you would apply at the proper place and have its sense to me it can be of no possible value to anyone else if you address it to x besanos library Broadway in new york it is true to come to hand end of the man with the watches by Arthur Conan Doyle recording by Martha Kornowski tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle the japan box this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jeremy Pavier tales of terror and mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle the japan 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'm ever likely to have through it but i am glad that i went to thought 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 avan 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 mulban hills there are no towns but numerous villages each with its gray norman church you've left the brick of the southern and eastern counties behind you and everything is stone stone for the walls and lichen 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 bolemore lived in the old ancestral home of thought place and there it was that i came to teach his two little sons so 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've already revealed what it was which i gained from thought place it was a very very old house incredibly old pre norman some of it and the bolemores 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 gray walls the rude crumbling stones the smellers 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 the 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 20 and as pretty well as pretty as mrs colmore is now myself frank colmore age 30 mrs stevens the housekeeper a dry silent woman and mr richards a tall military-looking man who acted as steward to the bolemore 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 mythic filian beard and lines upon his brow and round his eyes as deep as if they'd been carved with a pen knife he had gray eyes weary hopeless looking eyes proud and yet pathetic eyes which claimed your pity yet dared you to show it his back was rounded with study but otherwise he was a finer looking man of his age five and fifty perhaps as any woman could wish to look upon but his presence was not a cheerful one he was always cautious 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 brown 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 bolamore's life for mrs stevens the housekeeper and mr richards the land steward were too loyal to talk easily to their employers affairs as to the governors 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 to 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 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 japan box and one or two bundles of letters or papers fastened together with elastic bands our interview was a short one for sir john bolemore 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 realized the exception which has been made in your favor said he that room has been kept such a mystery in sir john's visits to 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 bolemore'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 the facts might come to your ears in some harsher form if i was silent upon them i always took it for granted that you knew that you were in the service of devil bolemore but why devil i asked ah you were young and the world moves fast but 20 years ago the name of devil bolemore was one of the best known in london he was the leader of the fastest said 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 studio 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 claire when she took the risk of becoming his wife that was the turning point he had got so far that his own facet 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'd become a slave to it hopeless and helpless then she stepped in saw the possibilities of a fine man in the wreck took a chance in marring 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 the 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 japan 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 japan box with him oh 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 peaked 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 objective greater interest to me i began to understand that strangely human look in his eyes those deep lines upon his careworn 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 back 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 cow'd 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 forever 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 toward 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 realise 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 tomb it spoke hurriedly gaspingly for a few sentences then was silent a pitious 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 whole door 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 in 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 medieval 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 neighboring cots 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 marveled 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 this 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 a 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 thought place again consumed with curiosity i could not help following the woman and found her around 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 are we frightened me if you had seen his eyes mr colmore sir i thought he would have been the death of me but what had you done done sir nothing at least nothing to make some much of just laid my hand on that black box of his hadn't even opened it when in he came and you heard the way he went on i've lost my place and glad i am of it for i would never trust myself within reach of him again so it was the japan 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'd overheard so john bolamore's wrath was enduring as well as fiery for from that day mrs brown the charwoman vanished from our kent and thought 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 curiosity did not get the better of my honor 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 eat an 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 so john was not in the room at the time his precious box was rescued from amongst the debris and brought into the library where hence forward it was locked within his bureau so 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 heard the voice call more 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 door as i was going to bed i heard someone wailing and praying just as plain 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 ah but there for a practical businessman at the end of the 19th century this is rather 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 thought 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 sojohn bolamos 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've 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 city 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 around me a dim radiance from the moonlight came through the father window and against this lighter background i saw that sojohn bolamore 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 japan 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 is 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 within treaty and with yearning love that it will ring forever 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 paralyzed astounded listening to those yearning distant musical words and he he who 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 hear what is the meaning of this sir there 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 honor that no human soul shall hear it from your lips i am proud still god helped 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 rumors to which it has given rise these speculations whether scandalous or superstitious as 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 advisor and with a purse which brought only too many false friends and false advisors to my side i drank deeply of the wine of life if there is a man living who was 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 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 whole but the devil had upon me she who had striven so to loosen it and it haunted her day and night the thought that my soul might again be within his grip it was from some friends 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 gassed into it the words which have held me straight ever since lonely and broken what else have i in 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 end of the japan box by arthur conan doyle recording by jeremy pavier tales of terror and mystery by arthur conan doyle the black doctor this is a livery vox recording all livery vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit livery vox.org recording by reynard bishops crossing is a small village lying 10 miles in a southwesternly direction from liverpool here in the early 70s there settled a doctor named aloezius 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 glasgo 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 bishops 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 practices of that district had been in the hands of edward roe the son of sir william roe 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 honorable james lowery the second son of lord belton was the means of introducing him to country 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 misaligned that he had buried himself at bishops crossing and then just as the matchmakers had finally given him up in despair his engagement was suddenly announced to miss france's morton of lee hall miss morton was a young lady who was well known upon the countryside her father james heldane morton having been the squire of bishops 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 37 and she 24 but saving 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 bishops crossing had many of the secrets of his neighbors 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 buona's aries 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 ms morten and a long interview followed from which he was observed to return in a state of great agitation ms morten 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's arthur morten 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 lee 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 the practice which mentioned no names but which was thought by some to refer to bishops 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 to surgery in the wing of the house which is farthest from the servant's 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 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 paid him good night sent the maid to bed and then occupied herself until a quarter to 11 in household matters it was striking 11 upon the whole clock when she went to her own room she had been there about a quarter of an hour or 20 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 alarm 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 her voice as she tapped at the door i am here sir mrs woods i beg that you'll leave me in peace go back to your room this instance 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 11 at some period between 11 and 12 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 visit linch rosa 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 any 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 artha 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 she said 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 at the drive that is in his study is it not yes sir but i am sure that he is out well he must come 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 the best of her belief mr artha 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 father's 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 across the floor understanding that something terrible had occurred she rang at the front doorbell roused mrs wood's the housekeeper and the two women made their way into the study having first dispatched the maid servant 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 souls 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 11 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 now some strong points for the defense morten 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 know 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 11 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 ather 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 ather 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 ather morton waiting for him some of the supporters of the accused laid stress upon the fact that the photograph of his sister francis 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 footprints 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 bold statement of the singular and romantic series of events which centered 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 absorbed the whole interest of a nation throughout the three kingdoms men discuss the case of the black doctor of bishops 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 francis morton threw a singular light upon the case mr paulott car the counsel for the prosecution had marshaled his facts with unusual skill and as the day wore on it became more and more evident how difficult was the task before mr hump three who had been retained for the defense had before him several witnesses were put up to square 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 mading 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 his 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 mading 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 footprint were duly dwelt upon and it was felt when the case of the prosecution had been presented that however circumstantial it might be it was nonetheless so complete and so convincing that the fate of the prisoner was sealed unless something quite unexpected should be disclosed by the defense 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 council considerable sensation was caused in the crowded court when the first witness called the defense proved to be mrs francis 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 mrs 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 defense came as a surprise to the public mrs francis 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 council she replied that she did not feel that she had any grievances whatever against dr lana and that in her opinion he had acted in a perfectly honorable 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 favor the questions of her council however soon but a very different light upon the matter and disclosed an unexpected line of defense 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 dr lana mr morten yes mr humphrey how do you know it mr morten because dr lana is not dead they followed a prolonged sensation in court which interrupted the examination of the witness mr humphrey and how do you know mr morten that dr lana is not dead mr morten because i have received a letter from him since the date of his supposed death mr humphrey have you this letter mr morten yes but i should prefer not to show it mr humphrey have you the envelope mr morten yes it is here mr humphrey what is the postmark mr morten live a pool mr humphrey and the date mr morten june the 22nd mr humphrey that's being the day after his alleged death are you prepared to swear to this handwriting mr morten mr morten certainly mr humphrey i am prepared to call six other witnesses my lord to testify that this letter is in the writing of dr lana the judge then you must call them tomorrow mr paulott car council 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 who 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 withdraw 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 morten miss morten dr lana desired his secret to be preserved mr paulott car then why have you made this public miss morten 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 defense 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 jury man has anyone up to now expressed any doubt about the matter mr paulott car not to my knowledge mr humphrey we hope to make the matter clear the judge then the court will adjourn 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 morten'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 morten 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 council a few hurried words words which left a look of amazement upon mr paulock car's face passed between them and then the council for the defense 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 you have letters 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 aloisius lana the learned council 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 face 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 bishops 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 urnist 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 urnist 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 can try to throw the whole odium upon me in such a way that i was forced to leave the argentine forever 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 glasgo and i finally settled in practice at bishops crossing in the firm conviction that in that remote lancashy hamlet i should never hear of him again for years my hopes were fulfilled and then at last he discovered me some livable man who visited bonas aries 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 ensure 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 my 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 footsteps 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 bought disgrace upon what had been an honorable name i went to the door and admitted him that would be about 10 o'clock that night when he came into the glare of the lamp i saw at once that he had fallen upon 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 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 unless 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 hands his side and with a loud cry he fell in a heap at my feet i raced 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 wood's who had been disturbed by that dying cry i sent her away to bed shortly afterwards a patient tapped at my 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 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 toward one course ever since that changed in my affairs to which i have alluded bishops crossing had become hateful to me my plans of life had been ruined 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 bishops 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 say 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 change clothes with him then dr aloezias 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 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 bishops 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 affect 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 strategy by which i had endeavored 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 corona 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 thought 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 her 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 ather 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 testify to the truth such was a remarkable statement of dr aloezius 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 earnest 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 aloezius lana he returned to the village from which he had made so dramatic a disappearance and a complete reconciliation was affected between him and the young squire the latter having acknowledged that he had entirely misunderstood the others 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 reverent steven johnson at the parish church of bishops crossing between aloezius zavia lana son of don alfredo lana formerly foreign minister of the argentine republic and francis morton only daughter of the late james morton jp of lee hall bishops crossing lancashire end of the black doctor tales of terror and mystery by arthur conan dole the jew's breastplate this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox dot org recording by jeremy pavier tales of terror and mystery by arthur conan dole the jew's breastplate my particular friend ward mortimer was one of the best men of his day that 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 clear patra in the inner room of the temple of horus at philae with such a record at the age of 31 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 and the oriental college an income which is sunk with the falling land but which still remains that ideal sum which is large enough to encourage an investigator but not so large as to innovate 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 andreus 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 entrusted to his care was a commonplace in all learned societies there was therefore considerable surprise when at the age of 55 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 andreus had written him a very kindly and flattering congratulatory letter i was actually present at their first meeting and i went with mortimer round 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 15 rooms but the babelonian the syrian and the central hall which contained the jewish and egyptian collection were the finest of all professor andreus was a quiet dry elderly man with a clean shave in 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 papiri 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 titers 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 at the very center 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 dare say 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 12 precious stones in a framework of gold with golden hooks at two of the corners the stones were all varying in sort and color but they were of the same size their shapes arrangement and gradation of tint made me think of a box of watercolour paints each stone had some hieroglyphics scratched upon its surface you have heard mr jackson of the orim and thumim i had heard the term but my idea of its meaning was exceedingly vague the orim and thumim 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 had for the sibiline books in the capital they are as you see 12 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 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 orim and thumim 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 fiance at the other side of the case yes said he curtly i have never seen finer stones and the goldwork 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 final example of their goldwork in his candlestick said he turning to another table and we all joined him in his admiration of its embossed stem and a 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 signaled 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 armchair and lit one of his excellent metronas when he 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 to have your advice you're welcome to it for what it's 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 would mortimer handed me the note with a curious smile have you and i for handwriting said he now look at this he put another letter in front of me look at the scene congratulate and the scene 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 to 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 andreus 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 andreus 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 come and tell me direct will you speak to him about it there again i'm in doubt he might choose to deny that he wrote it but 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 ensure you against robbery i should have thought so the public are only admitted from 10 till 5 and there is a guardian to every two rooms he stands at the door between them 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 around every three hours we keep one electric light burning in each room all night it's 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 from 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 if so why should he hesitate to warn mortimer in his own name and 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 oriam and thumin he gasped for he was out of breath running i'm going on to the police station come to the museum as soon as you can jackson goodbye he rushed distractedly out of the room and i heard him platter 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 pervis 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 around 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 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 around them the stones were in their places but the beautiful goldwork which we had admired only a few days before had been very plumsily 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 skillful imitations which have been put in place the originals the same suspicion had haven't 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 utterly i will pledge my reputation that all four of these stones are genuine and of a most unusual degree of purity the caller began to come back to my poor friend's frightened face and to 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 to the inspector i never remember a case like it let us see the watchman the commissioner was called a soldierly honest faced man who seemed as concerned as ward mortimer the instant 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 10 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 purpose i will swear that those stones are genuine so that the case appears to be merely one of malicious damage but nonetheless i should be very glad to go carefully around 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 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 cause 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 the skin of that delicate tint which the French call ma the color 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 that 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 a good deal to worry him he only left us yesterday and 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 reverent David Andreas one Aaron Villa's Androssan Ward Mortena made a note of the address and we left without saying anything else 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 our Drossan next day and to get to the bottom of the anonymous letter and 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 door 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 12 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 commissioner 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 and I called you sir and told you I was backwards and forwards all night and I never saw 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 yes it's 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 around 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 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're not a somnambulist by any chance nothing of the sort I assure you and 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 10 o'clock that night when I returned to the Belmore Street Museum what it 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 handsome 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 12 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 down 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 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 peephole 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 goldwork and many valuable stones scattered through the numerous cases but those wonderful 12 which made up the Urim and Thumin glowed and burned with irradiance which far eclipsed the others I studied in turn the tomb pictures of Sikara the freezes 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 that 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 instance 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 with the left as one entered there stood a large mummy case to our an utterable 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 a 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 dealing 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 emotionless 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 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 realise from the heavy breathing of my companion and the twitching 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 at 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 gray head and the twitching elbow what in human hypocrisy what hateful depth of malice against his successor must underline 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 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 advances cautious as his own he 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 the start and uttering a husky cry of terror ran frantically down museum simpson simpson roared mortimer and far away down the vista of electric lighted doors we saw the stiff figure the old soldier suddenly appear professor andrea 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 commissioner 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 what your feelings take me to your room but this shall not be left exposed craig mortimer he picked the breastplate up and carried it tenderly in his hand while i walked beside the professor like a policeman with a male factor we passed into mortimer's chambers leaving the amazed old soldier to understand methods as best he could the professor sat down in mortimer's armchair and turned so ghastly a color 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 cleared from the street then i hid myself in the mummy case and took refuge there whenever simpson came around 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 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 asked 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 then 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 release 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 what i hope to have the ledger to write a considerable work which i had planned it was immediately after this within a week or so that i first realised the true nature and character of the man whom i had so imprudently introduced into my family this 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 practicing 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 gents 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 on 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 thank god that i had found him out before he had time to harm those precious objects which had been the work of my lifetime 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 asked miss undress 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'm a villain he knows now what you knew before she stood in silence listening he says that we are to part forever 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 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 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 charm for me which depended as much upon the risk run as upon the valley 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 12 magnificent square stones engraved with mystical characters there could be no doubt that they were the jewels of the urim and thumin good god i cried how have you escaped discovery by the substitution of 12 others made especially to my order in which the originals are so carefully mutated 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 hand 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 sooner ganilies it is the last time that i will ever cause pain to your tender heart and with those 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 inquiries to my comings and go ins to this end i took a room in harding street that very night with an intimation that i was a pressman that i should keep very late hours that night i made my way into the museum i replaced four of the stones it was hard work and took me all night when simpson came around i always heard his footsteps and concealed myself in the mommy case i had some knowledge of goldwork but was far less skillful 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 hope 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 honor 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 setting shall be tightened by an expert goldsmith and so passes the greatest danger to which since the destruction of the temple the orim and thulmium has been exposed here is my hand professor andreus and i can only hope that under such difficult circumstances i should have carried myself as unselfishly and as well just one foot now to this narrative within a month elise andreus was married to a man whose name had either discretion to mention it would appeal to my readers as one who is now widely and deservedly honored but if the truth were known that honor 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 end of the jew's breastplate by arthur conan doile recording by jeremy paville